#2017/03/04

[melonramune]

2017-04-03

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

Amazon’s financial shell game let it create an “impossible” monopoly

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then San Francisco (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

For the pro-monopoly crowd that absolutely dominated antitrust law from the Carter administration until 2020, Amazon presents a genuinely puzzling paradox: the company's monopoly power was never supposed to emerge, and if it did, it should have crumbled immediately.

Pro-monopoly economists embody Ely Devons's famous aphorism that "If economists wished to study the horse, they wouldn’t go and look at horses. They’d sit in their studies and say to themselves, ‘What would I do if I were a horse?’":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/27/economism/#what-would-i-do-if-i-were-a-horse

Rather than using the way the world actually works as their starting point for how to think about it, they build elaborate models out of abstract principles like "rational actors." The resulting mathematical models are so abstractly elegant that it's easy to forget that they're just imaginative exercises, disconnected from reality:

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

These models predicted that it would be impossible for Amazon to attain monopoly power. Even if they became a monopoly – in the sense of dominating sales of various kinds of goods – the company still wouldn't get monopoly power.

For example, if Amazon tried to take over a category by selling goods below cost ("predatory pricing"), then rivals could just wait until the company got tired of losing money and put prices back up, and then those rivals could go back to competing. And if Amazon tried to keep the loss-leader going indefinitely by "cross-subsidizing" the losses with high-margin profits from some other part of its business, rivals could sell those high margin goods at a lower margin, which would lure away Amazon customers and cut the supply lines for the price war it was fighting with its discounted products.

That's what the model predicted, but it's not what happened in the real world. In the real world, Amazon was able use its access to the capital markets to embark on scorched-earth predatory pricing campaigns. When diapers.com refused to sell out to Amazon, the company casually committed $100m to selling diapers below cost. Diapers.com went bust, Amazon bought it for pennies on the dollar and shut it down:

https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/13/18563379/amazon-predatory-pricing-antitrust-law

Investors got the message: don't compete with Amazon. They can remain predatory longer than you can remain solvent.

Now, not everyone shared the antitrust establishment's confidence that Amazon couldn't create a durable monopoly with market power. In 2017, Lina Khan – then a third year law student – published "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox," a landmark paper arguing that Amazon had all the tools it needed to amass monopoly power:

https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox

Today, Khan is chair of the FTC, and has brought a case against Amazon that builds on some of the theories from that paper. One outcome of that suit is an unprecedented look at Amazon's internal operations. But, as the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's Stacy Mitchell describes in a piece for The Atlantic, key pieces of information have been totally redacted in the court exhibits:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/amazon-profits-antitrust-ftc/677580/

The most important missing datum: how much money Amazon makes from each of its lines of business. Amazon's own story is that it basically breaks even on its retail operation, and keeps the whole business afloat with profits from its AWS cloud computing division. This is an important narrative, because if it's true, then Amazon can't be forcing up retail prices, which is the crux of the FTC's case against the company.

Here's what we know for sure about Amazon's retail business. First: merchants can't live without Amazon. The majority of US households have Prime, and 90% of Prime households start their ecommerce searches on Amazon; if they find what they're looking for, they buy it and stop. Thus, merchants who don't sell on Amazon just don't sell. This is called "monopsony power" and it's a lot easier to maintain than monopoly power. For most manufacturers, a 10% overnight drop in sales is a catastrophe, so a retailer that commands even a 10% market-share can extract huge concessions from its suppliers. Amazon's share of most categories of goods is a lot higher than 10%!

What kind of monopsony power does Amazon wield? Well, for one thing, it is able to levy a huge tax on its sellers. Add up all the junk-fees Amazon charges its platform sellers and it comes out to 45-51%:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/25/greedflation/#commissar-bezos

Competitive businesses just don't have 45% margins! No one can afford to kick that much back to Amazon. What is a merchant to do? Sell on Amazon and you lose money on every sale. Don't sell on Amazon and you don't get any business.

The only answer: raise prices on Amazon. After all, Prime customers – the majority of Amazon's retail business – don't shop for competitive prices. If Amazon wants a 45% vig, you can raise your Amazon prices by a third and just about break even.

But Amazon is wise to that: they have a "most favored nation" rule that punishes suppliers who sell goods more cheaply in rival stores, or even on their own site. The punishments vary, from banishing your products to page ten million of search-results to simply kicking you off the platform. With publishers, Amazon reserves the right to lower the prices they set when listing their books, to match the lowest price on the web, and paying publishers less for each sale.

That means that suppliers who sell on Amazon (which is anyone who wants to stay in business) have to dramatically hike their prices on Amazon, and when they do, they also have to hike their prices everywhere else (no wonder Prime customers don't bother to search elsewhere for a better deal!).

Now, Amazon says this is all wrong. That 45-51% vig they claim from business customers is barely enough to break even. The company's profits – they insist – come from selling AWS cloud service. The retail operation is just a public service they provide to us with cross-subsidy from those fat AWS margins.

This is a hell of a claim. Last year, Amazon raked in $130 billion in seller fees. In other words: they booked more revenue from junk fees than Bank of America made through its whole operation. Amazon's junk fees add up to more than all of Meta's revenues:

https://s2.q4cdn.com/299287126/files/doc_financials/2023/q4/AMZN-Q4-2023-Earnings-Release.pdf

Amazon claims that none of this is profit – it's just covering their operating expenses. According to Amazon, its non-AWS units combined have a one percent profit margin.

Now, this is an eye-popping claim indeed. Amazon is a public company, which means that it has to make thorough quarterly and annual financial disclosures breaking down its profit and loss. You'd think that somewhere in those disclosures, we'd find some details.

You'd think so, but you'd be wrong. Amazon's disclosures do not break out profits and losses by segment. SEC rules actually require the company to make these per-segment disclosures:

https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3524&context=lawreview#:~:text=If%20a%20company%20has%20more,income%20taxes%20and%20extraordinary%20items.

That rule was enacted in 1966, out of concern that companies could use cross-subsidies to fund predatory pricing and other anticompetitive practices. But over the years, the SEC just…stopped enforcing the rule. Companies have "near total managerial discretion" to lump business units together and group their profits and losses in bloated, undifferentiated balance-sheet items:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2021/dec/crouching-tiger-hidden-dragons

As Mitchell points you, it's not just Amazon that flouts this rule. We don't know how much money Google makes on Youtube, or how much Apple makes from the App Store (Apple told a federal judge that this number doesn't exist). Warren Buffett – with significant interest in hundreds of companies across dozens of markets – only breaks out seven segments of profit-and-loss for Berkshire Hathaway.

Recall that there is one category of data from the FTC's antitrust case against Amazon that has been completely redacted. One guess which category that is! Yup, the profit-and-loss for its retail operation and other lines of business.

These redactions are the judge's fault, but the real fault lies with the SEC. Amazon is a public company. In exchange for access to the capital markets, it owes the public certain disclosures, which are set out in the SEC's rulebook. The SEC lets Amazon – and other gigantic companies – get away with a degree of secrecy that should disqualify it from offering stock to the public. As Mitchell says, SEC chairman Gary Gensler should adopt "new rules that more concretely define what qualifies as a segment and remove the discretion given to executives."

Amazon is the poster-child for monopoly run amok. As Yanis Varoufakis writes in Technofeudalism, Amazon has actually become a post-capitalist enterprise. Amazon doesn't make profits (money derived from selling goods); it makes rents (money charged to people who are seeking to make a profit):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/28/cloudalists/#cloud-capital

Profits are the defining characteristic of a capitalist economy; rents are the defining characteristic of feudalism. Amazon looks like a bazaar where thousands of merchants offer goods for sale to the public, but look harder and you discover that all those stallholders are totally controlled by Amazon. Amazon decides what goods they can sell, how much they cost, and whether a customer ever sees them. And then Amazon takes $0.45-51 out of every dollar. Amazon's "marketplace" isn't like a flea market, it's more like the interconnected shops on Disneyland's Main Street, USA: the sign over the door might say "20th Century Music Company" or "Emporium," but they're all just one store, run by one company.

And because Amazon has so much control over its sellers, it is able to exercise power over its buyers. Amazon's search results push down the best deals on the platform and promote results from more expensive, lower-quality items whose sellers have paid a fortune for an "ad" (not really an ad, but rather the top spot in search listings):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/29/aethelred-the-unready/#not-one-penny-for-tribute

This is "Amazon's pricing paradox." Amazon can claim that it offers low-priced, high-quality goods on the platform, but it makes $38b/year pushing those good deals way, way down in its search results. The top result for your Amazon search averages 29% more expensive than the best deal Amazon offers. Buy something from those first four spots and you'll pay a 25% premium. On average, you need to pick the seventeenth item on the search results page to get the best deal:

https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/3645/

For 40 years, pro-monopoly economists claimed that it would be impossible for Amazon to attain monopoly power over buyers and sellers. Today, Amazon exercises that power so thoroughly that its junk-fee revenues alone exceed the total revenues of Bank of America. Amazon's story – that these fees barely stretch to covering its costs – assumes a nearly inconceivable level of credulity in its audience. Regrettably – for the human race – there is a cohort of senior, highly respected economists who possess this degree of credulity and more.

Of course, there's an easy way to settle the argument: Amazon could just comply with SEC regs and break out its P&L for its e-commerce operation. I assure you, they're not hiding this data because they think you'll be pleasantly surprised when they do and they don't want to spoil the moment.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/01/managerial-discretion/#junk-fees

Image: Doc Searls (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/docsearls/4863121221/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[contemplatingoutlander]

FiveThirtyEight is gone. Its legacy will endure.

Nate Silver’s website suffered because of Trump and changes in political news coverage.

Opinion | Perry Bacon, Jr. | March 7, 2025

FiveThirtyEight became famous for its “forecasts” from founder Nate Silver. But the website (where I worked from 2017 to 2021) was trying to do much more than predict presidential election results. FiveThirtyEight was an attempt to improve and reimagine journalism. I think it succeeded — even though the website is now defunct. ABC News, which owned FiveThirtyEight, this week laid off the site’s 15 remaining staffers. The network had already made drastic cutbacks two years ago, with Silver himself departing back then. We are in the midst of staff reductions throughout the journalism industry. That said, ABC News is not a newspaper in a declining city in the Midwest. If the network wanted to keep the site going, it could have. This decision probably wasn’t just about money. [...] Political journalism has changed in ways that have made FiveThirtyEight less essential. Silver started the website during the 2008 presidential campaign. (There are 538 votes in the electoral college.) He correctly saw a flaw in American political coverage. Journalism professors and many within the news industry had for years argued that political news was too focused on the “horse race” (who was going to win the next election) instead of policy issues. What Silver argued was that horse-race coverage, while extensive, was often quite bad. It was overly fixated on a single poll or arguing that a candidate appeared to be surging after delivering a strong speech, without any other evidence. Averaging polls, scrutinizing demographics and voting histories of states — that all seems obvious now. It wasn’t 17 years ago. [emphasis added]

I will miss FiveThirtyEight. It was always a reliable source of aggregate polling data. It also provided a lot of background information about the potential bias and reliability of individual polls.

R.I.P. FiveThirtyEight March 7, 2008 - March 5, 2025

_________________ Collage sources (before edits, starting in center, then moving top left to right clockwise, ending bottom left): 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07

[See more excerpts from the column under the cut]

In 2010, the New York Times hired Silver and starting hosting FiveThirtyEight on its website. A few years later, ESPN hired him to create a FiveThirtyEight that would cover not only politics but also sports, science and other topics with statisticians and more traditional journalists working in a combined newsroom. The site grew in size and influence. And other news organizations started borrowing its methods, averaging polls and producing statistical models to analyze elections. [...] The site often had political scientists and scholars write pieces. Fact-checking was extensive, adding to the site’s reliability and reputation. But I knew FiveThirtyEight was in trouble when I saw not only stories similar to ours published in the Times and The Washington Post but also those larger organizations poaching our staffers. Another factor that made the website less relevant was Trump. He made politics more about tweets, firings and other drama that the data can’t really capture. [...] But for me, FiveThirtyEight staffers and its devoted fans, the site was about much more than election predictions and even Silver. It was an alternative, higher form of journalism. It was also a lovable community of nerds, wonks and junkies. Our readers were Democratic-leaning, but they weren’t people watching MSNBC just to hear how terrible Republicans are. They wanted us to tell them if a Democratic politician was going to lose. They loved that every article seemed to involve the writer examining election results down to the county level and producing three charts to support their thesis. Silver now has one of the most popular political Substack newsletters; former managing editor Micah Cohen is now politics editor for Apple News; reporter Anna Maria Barry-Jester has moved on to cover public health for ProPublica. But from my vantage point, FiveThirtyEight is everywhere in more subtle ways. The amount of charts and data in stories about politics in particular is much larger than it was two decades ago. The chief political analyst at the New York Times is a data whiz named Nate (Cohn) who joined the paper essentially as Silver’s replacement. If you tell someone about a poll, they will often ask whether other surveys show the same result. There is still too much horse-race coverage. I hate when I see polls of the 2028 Democratic primary. Can we wait a minute? But FiveThirtyEight made that coverage smarter and more rigorous — creating a legacy that will endure.

[mentaltimetraveller]

Joseph Zehrer Lampen 14/01/2017 – 04/03/2017

Galerie Nagel Draxler

[thealieninhiding]

The Katie McGrath Archives (WIP)

A repository of my ongoing digital archeology & archival work please contact me if you have anything to contribute and buy me a coffee if you value my content

Updates

(last updated 2025-01-14)

2025-01-14

Scans:

2008-10 InStyle (LQ)

2009 DRAMA Magazine (LQ)

2009-10 The Sunday Times Style (Ireland)

2010-10 Tatler

2010-12 InStyle

2011-02 Instyle (LQ)

2011-07 Tatler (LQ)

2011-10 Sunday Independent

2012-03-14 Sci-FiNow

2012-03-23 The Lady Magazine

2024-07-03

Scans:

2014-02-07 London Times - Dracula sets

Audio:

(Un)likeminded 2x02 How to Survive The Apocalypse

2024-05-24

Video:

2017 Katie McGrath interview [CW|KMcGsource]

2017 Supergirl Season 3 Sweet dreams (are made of this) Music Video

2017 CW SDCC Promo Supergirl and Arrow

2019-01-01 The CW Promo Open To All

2021-04-25 Supergirl Season 6 Katie McGrath Lena Luthor

2021-09-15 Supergirl Season 6 Katie McGrath Reflecting on Supergirl

2024-05-22

Audio:

Interview - 2009-07-17 Katie McGrath Mr Media interview

Interview - 2009-10-15 Geek Syndicate Merlin BTS special

Video:

BTS - 2008-10-08 Blue Peter Merlin BTS

Events - 2009 TV Choice Awards Digital Spy interview

Events - Getty Videos of 2009 TV Choice Awards, 2010 Merlin Series 3 launch, 2011 W.E. premiere, 2017 King Arthur Premiere

2024-05-17

Archived interviews

2008-12-07 Tribune Magazine - What Katie Did

2011-10-14 What's on TV - Merlin's Katie McGrath- 'Bad girls have more fun!'

2012-12-03 Fanhattan Blog - Colin Morgan, Katie McGrath and Bradley James on Season 5 and The Series Finale

2018-08-01 The TV Junkies - Supergirl SDCC 2018 Interviews- Lena’s Impractical Lab Outfits, the Return of Reporter Kara and a More Grounded Season 4

Audio

HHush samples

Interview - 2009-2011 Sci-fi Talk rewind merlin the series specials episode 1

Interview - 2011? Merlin S4 Sci-fi talk byte katie mcgrath on morgana

Interview - 2013 BBC Radio 1xtra part 1 & part 2

(Un)likeminded 1x02 While You Were Dreaming

Trees a crowd- Irish folklore segment

Magazine scans

2008-09-20 Radio Times

2009-06-08 TV Week (Aus)

2010-09-05 Sunday Express

2010-09-30 Totally Merlin Magazine

2011-12 Total Film

2012-03-14 Sci-Fi Now

2012-10-06 Radio Times

2013-04-06 Irish independent

2013-09-02 Marie-Claire (UK)

2013-12 Instyle

2013-12 Total Film

Video:

Fans - 2012-04-16 Merlin4 [carlospyrrhus]

Fans - 2017-08-30 Supergirl cast together on set [Joyce Law]

Interview - 2009-09-?? Merlin S2 audio interview with Katie McGrath [BJsRealm] part 1

Interview - 2010-09-06 Merlin Series 3 - BBC Radio 1xtra Interview with Angel Coulby & Katie McGrath [BJsrealm]

Interview - 2011-10-14 Merlin S4 Colin Morgan, Eoin Macken Katie McGrath on The Late Late Show

Interview - 2012-07-15 Colin Morgan and Katie McGrath at SDCC 2012 - innerSPACE [merlinnetwork2]

Interview - 2012-07-18 Katie McGrath Talks Merlin At Comic Con 2012 [ThinkHeroTV]

Interview - 2012-10-25 BBC Radio 1 Breakfast - Colin & Katie part 1 & part 2 [BJsRealm]

Interview - 2012-12-03 Merlin S5 Katie McGrath interview international press day [BJsRealm]

Interview - 2012-12-03 Colin, Bradley, Katie phone interview [BJsRealm]

Interview - 2013-11-09 Katie McGrath on BBC One Saturday Kitchen [BJsRealm]

Interview - 2019-07-22 ENTREVISTA SUPERGIRL Elenco fala sobre a nova temporada [Warner Channel Brasil]

Interview - 2019-07-23 Melissa Benoist Teases Directing An Episode Of 'Supergirl' [ET Canada]

Interview - 2020-02-21 ‘Supergirl’ Celebrates 100th Episode [ET Canada]

Panels - 2011-07-28 Merlin Comic Con 2011 Panel [ThinkHeroTV]

[talknerdytome18]

If You Liked A Good Girl's Guide To Murder, Here's What You Should Read Next!

I think it's very obvious that I'm an AGGGTM fan. And ever since finishing the series in 2023, I've been needing books that have a similar vibe to it.

So, if you've just finished AGGGTM and are now looking for the next thing to help with your AGGGTM hangover, here are my recs for you!

The Naturals Series By Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Status: Completed.

The Naturals: 05/11/2013

Killer Instinct: 04/11/2014

All In: 03/11/2015

Bad Blood: 01/11/2016

Twelve (Novella): 07/11/2017

I feel like every AGGGTM fan (me included) reads this series right after reading AGGGTM. And trust me, you will not regret it.

The series follows Cassie Hobbes - a teenage girl who is recruited to join an elite FBI program that specialises in having teenagers with "natural abilities" to solve cold cases. Each book follows a different case that centres on a specific member, though the books are all written in Cassie's perspective.

This series is around the same level of violence as AGGGTM. There's a bit of graphic description in the "You" chapters, but it's not too gory.

This series is unforgettable and you'll binge it in a week. And then when you finish, you'll cry because you'll miss the characters and the world that you've been brought into.

2. Eleanor Jones Is Not A Murderer Series by Amy Doak

Status: Ongoing Series

Eleanor Jones Is Not A Murderer: 05/09/2023.

Eleanor Jones Can't Keep A Secret: 02/07/2024

UNDERRATED.

This series is genuinely amazing. If you've read AGGGTM and haven't read this, WTF ARE YOU DOING??? GET UP RN AND GO READ IT!!!

The first book follows Eleanor Jones - a teenage girl who has just moved to Cooinda - a small Australian country town. She moves around a lot and because of it, she prefers to stay invisible instead of making friends (she's on her ninth high school in less than five years!!!). However, the first person she does talk to on her first day ends up being stabbed later on, so she's suspected for it cause she was the last person he talked to. So now she has to clear her name and find the real suspect.

The second book is my fave. It picks up off where the first book ended off. Eleanor is now solving a new murder case that Nance (a resident at the local care home that she's volunteering at for a school project) admits to witnessing when she was younger.

Seriously, READ THIS SERIES. Eleanor is such a relatable character. It's such a shame it's so underrated cause it's amazing. The characters are fun, the romance between Eleanor and Troy is exquisite, and the mysteries are insane.

It's not too graphic. I'd say it's a little less graphic than AGGGTM. It covers some topics (drugs, murder, etc), but it's not extremely graphic.

Also, it's an ongoing series. The third book will be out in July. Read the first two before the third comes out!

3. One of Us Is Lying Trilogy (The Bayview Trilogy) by Karen M.McManus

Status: Completed

One Of Us Is Lying: 29/05/2017

One Of Us Is Next: 07/01/2020

One Of Us Is Back: 23/07/2023

Again, every AGGGTM fan has probably read this, but I don't care. If you haven't read it, wtf are you doing? GET UP AND READ IT.

This series was perfection to me. Even after a year, I miss it. I wish I could read it for the first time again. Anyone who can is LUCKY AF AND THAT SHOULD BE ME.

The first book follows four students (Bronwyn, Nate, Addy and Cooper) who've witnessed the death of their classmate Simon, who ran a gossip page and planned to expose their secrets after detention. Now because of it, they're all suspects in his murders and now have to figure out who had killed him.

The second book follows a different cast (Maeve, Knox and Phoebe) but is still thrilling nonetheless. A year after Simon's death, there are copycats attempting to replicate him, but none have succeeded... until now. When a truth or dare game takes over their school, the new trio must stop it before it gets deadly.

And the last book IS THE BEST ONE. It has three perspectives (Addy, Nate and Phoebe). It's now been almost two years since Simon's death. Just when things seem to be finally settling down, a mysterious billboard appears, taunting Bayview. Nobody thinks anything of it, until a member of the Bayview crew suddenly goes missing.

This series is so worth it, honestly. I genuinely wish for there to be one more book because I love the world Karen created with these books. I personally think they're her best work and nothing can change my mind on it.

Please read it. It's about as graphic as AGGGTM. There's some description, but nothing triggering.

4. Five Survive by Holly Jackson

Published: 29/11/2022

If you just finished the AGGGTM trilogy and want more by Holly Jackson, then you're very lucky that she has two standalones (a third coming out in July).

Five Survive wasn't my personal fave, but it's still a great read if you're a Holly fan.

This book follows Red Kenny and her friends who are on a road trip in an RV for spring break. Suddenly, the RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere. They quickly realise that this is no accident and that there is someone out there that knows who they all are and wants one of them dead for a secret they are keeping.

I would say this is around the same level of violence as AGGGTM. It isn't too graphic cause it's a YA novel, but it doesn't shy away from tackling heavy topics to a certain extent.

It's a fun read that you can possibly finish in one sitting. I really reccomend this if you are looking for more works by Holly Jackson!

5. The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson

Published: 02/04/2024

MY FAVOURITE HOLLY STANDALONE.

If you ever seen negativity about this book and think it isn't worth it, DON'T LISTEN AND JUST READ IT. IT'S SO WORTH IT.

This book follows Bel Price, whose mother (Rachel Price) had disappeared sixteen years ago and has since lived in the shadow of it. However, as a documentary is being filmed about her disappearance, her mother suddenly reappears and has an unbelievable story about where she has been for the past sixteen years.

However, as inconsistencies appear in her story, Bel becomes suspicious and decides to investigate her mother's case to find the truth.

This book starts off slow, I'll admit. However, after 100 pages, you will not stop turning the pages. It's arguably one of Holly's best works and I really think you'd love it if you loved AGGGTM.

Just like Five Survive and AGGGTM, this is around the same level of violence. There is heavy content, but it's not too graphic.

Amazing book. I wish it wasn't so underrated.

6. How To Survive Your Murder by Danielle Valentine

Published: 30/08/2022

UNDERRATED.

This one is a little different than AGGGTM, but it's still amazing.

This book follows Alice Lawrence, whose life has fallen apart since her sister's murder last Halloween. Her parents divorced, she lives in a small apartment with her mother, and she has to testify against her sister's killer in court, who all doubt what she saw last Halloween.

However, after being knocked out by a Sidney Prescott look-alike on the day of the testimony, she is brought back to the day her sister died. She now must save her sister from being murdered, while also finding the true identity of the killer.

Unlike AGGGTM, this is a slasher/horror book. There is a mystery going on, but unlike AGGGTM, it's not in the past. You'll be seeing people die, so don't get too attached to anyone.

It's a very fun read. I think I'll reread it sometime this year.

7. Nothing More To Tell by Karen M.McManus

Published: 30/08/2022

BEST STANDALONE BY KAREN.

Out of all Karen's standalones, this one has the closest vibes to AGGGTM. Two Can Keep a Secret does as well but I hated that book (no offence).

This book follows Brynn Gallagher, who has recently moved back to her old hometown after four years. She had left shortly after the shocking murder of her favourite teacher Mr. Larkin, whose body was found by three of her classmates - including her former best friend Tripp. She has always suspected that they weren't telling the full truth of what happened that day.

Now four years later, Brynn has been hired as a intern for a new true-crime show and is determined to find out the full truth behind Mr. Larkin's murder.

This book is one of my faves. It's not too graphic (it's a YA book) and is perfect if you are looking for a book like AGGGTM. I really want a sequel, but I don't think I'll ever get one.

Conclusion

That's all! I hope you all enjoyed. I hope this post helped you with picking your next read if you loved AGGGTM, but weren't sure what to read after it.

Em <33

[nwjnsloona]

— only cry in the rain 🌧️

synopsis :: as you look through your childhood home, you find a camcorder.

< pairing ! > liz x fem!reader

< tags ! > ambiguous ending, angst i guess?, childhood friends to nothing, i dont even rmb what i wrote

< wordcount ! > 900 words

< warnings ! > none i think

the old cuckoo clock cries at three in the afternoon as you open another cardboard box in your childhood home.

inside is a camcorder, the one you liked best as a teenager. you take it out of the box gently, quickly fiddling with the settings until you reach the first video.

— 2016/10/21 00:15:76

you are center frame, eyes locked on a subject close to the camcorder. “is this on?” you mouth. the voice behind the camera— jiwon— whispers a quiet, “yes,” and you clear your throat.

“hi! my name is-” your voice immediately cracks, and laughter can be heard as the camera is pointed abruptly towards the floor before the video immediately cuts.

— 2016/10/21 01:04:32

this video is obviously more rehearsed than the one before, as when the video starts you immediately start talking.

“hi! my name is lee yn, and the year is 2016 and my bestest friend in the world kim jiwon is filming!” the camera pans to show a blonde girl smiling, then pans back to show you.

“in 2016, we have really cool stuff, like-”

“why are we doing this?”

“in case someone from the future finds it!”

“aren’t you going to keep it?”

“well, just in case…”

the conversation continues back and forth until the recording eventually ends, neither girl winning.

— 2016/12/31 03:24:97

“it’s almost new years!” you shout excitedly into the camera.

“yeah!” jiwon joins in, showing the camcorder the clock which displays the time 11:59. one minute left. there is no-one else in the room, just you and jiwon.

the sound of other people can be heard in the distance. five! four! three! two! one! happy new year!

“happy new year,” you say to jiwon, the camera facing back to you now.

you press a kiss to jiwon’s cheek and she squeals, running away.

“yn kissed me!” she says to the video.

“come back!” you complain in the background, laughing.

you smile, reminiscing. that was the day when you realised you liked jiwon, her pink cheeks and toothy smile seeming brighter against the dim lights of midnight on new year’s.

 — 2017/01/20 00:12:84

you and jiwon are at a park, still in your school uniforms. you hold two drinks in your hand, one for you and one for jiwon. the camera moves towards you teasingly, and you glare at it, then burst into laughter.

— 2017/03/18

“we took polaroids!” jiwon says, showing the pictures off to the camera.

“don’t you think it’s funny that we’re showing a picture of us to a video camera?”

“i think it’s cute,” jiwon says, and the pout in her voice is evident despite the fact she isn’t in frame.

“wait me too! i just think it’s also funny!”

“okay…” jiwon replies, and turns the camera.

you’re resting your chin on jiwon’s shoulder from behind. you make a peace sign with your hands, and jiwon follows you, smiling.

the video ends.

— 2017/03/28 00:07:12

the scene is blurry, your hands unsteady, before it eventually focuses.

you zoom in on her face. “she’s so pretty,” you mutter under your breath.

— 2017/04/04 01:10:12

you and jiwon are in school. your pencil cases sit side by side on jiwon’s desk.

“look!” jiwon says, reaching with one hand for the keyrings on your pencil cases, “they’re matching!”

“i bought them,” you say proudly.

“yeah, she bought them,” jiwon says. she turns the camera and points at you with her free hand, and you start posing.

the other videos are all similar, slices of you and jiwon’s life interspersed with clips of you filming jiwon’s face— until you get to the last one.

— 2018/11/21 08:21:98

it’s almost a year apart from the rest of the videos, and you know instantly what’s in it.

“it’s jiwon’s birthday,” you start, although you are not in frame, just your desk. your voice trembles slightly.

“so, i just wanted to say some things that- that remind me of her.” some rustling is heard, and you produce something from a drawer.

“first, these polaroids. we took them together, and she took one of them and it was the best one but-” you exhale shakily. “i don’t even know if she has it anymore. second, this keychain. she got it for me to match with her.”

“and third… this camcorder i’m filming on right now. she always used to film us together, but… i don’t think it’s going to happen anymore. i ruined it. jiwon, i’m sorry.” the camcorder is barely filming anymore, and you set it on the desk. 

“please,” your voice sounds raw, pained, “please be my friend again, jiwon. i won’t- i’m not-!”

it all comes back to you. you and jiwon, sitting together watching the sunset. you were young, foolish then. you lean in to whisper, “jiwon, i… like you.”

her eyes go wide. “what?”

suddenly, jiwon is not there anymore. and she won’t talk to you, and you don’t know why, until one day after days of begging she finally says something to you.

“my parents said i can’t be friends with,” she lowers her voice, “a lesbian.”

your eyes well up with tears.

“i swear, i’m not—! i’m not a-”

you sniffle behind the camera, and—

the cuckoo clock cries at four in the afternoon.

you shut off the camcorder, and gently touch your cheek. it’s wet with tears. the rain beats down on the window and you sigh, drying your eyes, and get up to open another box.

the camcorder still lies on the ground.

a/n : idk if this is good i literally wrote it in one sitting…….. anyways STREAM ONLY CRY IN THE RAIN BY CHUU!!!!

[cleoenfaserum]

conquistadores adventum

Conquistadores: Adventum es una miniserie española de 8 episodios de televisión emitida en 2017 dirigida por Israel del Santo. Wikipedia

Aunque el tema especifico de esta ramificación del blog ...

Un VALLISOLETANO en la EPOPEYA de AMERICA: PONCE DE LEON

...que trata sobre el Vallisoletano Juan Ponce de Leon y Alvaro Cabeza de Vaca, ellos aparecen en la serie como indico a continuación, aunque debo confesor, la serie es excelente y debe verse entera.

En la serie española "Conquistadores: Adventum" aparecen Juan Ponce de León y Cabeza de Vaca en los sigueintes episodios:

Juan Ponce de León: Aparece en varios episodios de la serie, destacando su participación en la búsqueda de la fuente de la eterna juventud. En el episodio 8 "El primero en rodearme", se narra la expedición comandada por Pánfilo de Narváez, que busca esta legendaria fuente.

Cabeza de Vaca: También tiene un papel importante en la serie. Su historia se centra en su participación en las expediciones y su supervivencia en el Nuevo Mundo. Cabeza de Vaca aparece en el episodio 4 "Océanos de oro" donde se exploran las relaciones con las tribus indígenas y los desafíos enfrentados por los conquistadores.

Las llaves del Mar: El 2 de enero de 1492, la Reina Isabel de Castilla conquista Granada, el último bastión musulmán de la Península Ibérica. Muchos de los personajes que asisten a los honores de esta victoria son los protagonistas de nuestra historia.

link https://ok.ru/video/7380465289904

El Pequeño Capitán: Este episodio se centra en los eventos posteriores a la conquista de Granada y la preparación para el viaje de Cristóbal Colón.

link https://ok.ru/video/7515573127724

La Caprichosa: La trama sigue los desafíos y las decisiones difíciles que enfrentan los exploradores en su viaje hacia el Nuevo Mundo.

link https://ok.ru/video/7515573324332

Océanos de oro: Alonso de Ojeda establece amistad con el cacique de la tribu que le salva la vida, mientras Núñez de Balboa se pone al mando de las tropas que vienen a ayudar a Pizarro.

link https://ok.ru/video/7515573193260

Huérfanos: Este episodio aborda las dificultades y las pérdidas que enfrentan los conquistadores en su búsqueda de nuevas tierras.

link https://ok.ru/video/7515573258796

Gigantes: Los exploradores se encuentran con nuevas culturas y desafíos en su viaje por el continente americano.

link https://ok.ru/video/7515688733228

Te llamarás Pacífico: La trama se centra en la exploración del Océano Pacífico y los descubrimientos realizados por los conquistadores.

link https://ok.ru/video/7516571372076

El primero en rodearme: Pánfilo de Narváez comanda la expedición más desastrosa: la que busca la fuente de la eterna juventud.

link https://ok.ru/video/7516571306540

[transspeciesculture]

We keep mentioning how transspecies as a term has existed long before the radqueer & transID communities formed, and started claiming it as part of those communities despite it's actual usage within nonhuman/fictional/unusual human species identifying spaces and objections from said spaces.

As a sort of quick thing to back this up, here are some examples before the year of 2020 (estimated beginnings of the radqueer/transID community)!

All of this excludes troll posting/mockery, and is focused on NH/FICT community's discussions. Some additional content warnings are provided for some of the e-mails, however.

This is not extensive, feel free to show us any other finds (excluding alt.horror.werewolves e-mails, we've already scoured trough everything. There is actually more mentions via that, but all from the same person).

Mentions of term:

01 - "Gender-bender" e-mail, 1999. Included in this section due to the unclearness of if the original author of the e-mail identifies as otherkin or transspecies personally.

[Link] [Link 2] [Archive] [Archive 2]

02 - "On cosmic surgery and personal identity" e-mail, 2005

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

03 - "Da Jakkal's work revisited" e-mail, 1999. Warning: has some outdated terminology/beliefs.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

04 - "Re: Introduction" e-mail, 2002

[Link] [Archive]

05 - "Re: Shifters: in need of Help." e-mail, 1999. Warning: thread has mentions of an un-nameable native American creature.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

06 - "Re: Musing of the Week" e-mail, 1999

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

06 - "Re: define were" e-mail, 1997. Warning: thread has mentions of an un-nameable native American creature. (This is the second time we've have to issue this CW. Sucks.)

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

07 - "Re: Fun with Faith" e-mail, 1997. Same warning as above, unfourtunately.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

08 - "Re: Questions on Were's/Shifting/etc" e-mail 1997. Same warning, a lot of early instances of the word being used seem to all be from this one being, sorry.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

09 - "Re: Slithering into AHWW" e-mail, 1997

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

10 - "Re: Odd Dreams" e-mail, 1998

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

11 - "Shifters: WereBreeds" e-mail, 1999. Warning: has some outdated terminology.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

12 - "On the appropriation of trans narratives by therianthropes" article, 2013. Contrary to the title, it is supportive. It does mention the native creature again due to excerpting an AHWW member's ramblings, so thread with caution.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

13 - "An Introduction to Animality" article, 2009

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

Usage of term for clear self identification (flags and symbols are included):

01 - "Re: A question to everyone out there" e-mail, 1997. Warning once again for mentions of an un-nameable native American creature, and questionable identity that may or may not be considered cultural appropriation (we have no place to say as we are not native). Still, it is an clear account of identification with the label and experiences that'd come to be associated with it.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

02 - "Chewing and biting (and intro)" e-mail, 1999. The poster at the time of posting already specifies that they do not identify with the label anymore, but used to.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

03 - "Transspecies Pride stamp" flag/pride graphic, 2017.

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

04 - "Transspecies Flag" flag, 2018

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

05 - "Why I call myself Transspecies" personal article, 2018

[Link] [Archive] [Archive 2]

06 - "Gender: Furry II (Now With More Scales)

[Archive]

07 - "Real Dragons: Transspeciesism" article, 2001

[Archive]

[calderacitylovers]

Zutara SlowBurn FanFiction: Personal Favs, part I

·        I AM STILL HERE by owedbetter Published: 2017-10-09 | 77K words | 7 Chapters

After the Last Agni Kai K heals Z with the help of bloodbending. Very sweet.

 ·        THE SUMMIT by AJLenoire

Chronicles post-war years, as Gaang and other characters gather for annual summits to keep peace and build relationships between the Four Nations. Katara yearns for a bigger purpose than the Avatar’s companion and slowly grows into a shrewd diplomat. Very sweet slow burn ZK story. Has mature scenes.

 ·        CLOTHE ME IN SEASONS, DRESS ME IN SNOW by sadladybug Published: 2015-01-05 | 62K words | 7 Chapters

Follows old Zuko as he reflects on his life and what would have been if he kept Katara closer. Absolutely beautiful, but also a devastatingly heart-breaking story about loss and pain.

 ·        SILENT DECLARATIONS by Megara Pike (Megara_Pike) Published: 2021-01-20 | 2,6K words

A short story based on animation by Hayley Wong. Z finds K asleep in her study and carries her to bed. Very sweet, gentle story.

 ·        COVERED IN YOU by evergreenonthehorizon Published: 2021-04-02 | 55K words | 14 Chapters

Eight years after the war Z convinces K to take on a role of a Southern Water Tribe ambassador in the Caldera city. Both are completely clueless about each other’s feelings. Features political talks, big gestures, and a ball. Very cute, sweet slow-burn story. Has mature scenes.

 ·        TEN STRIDES IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION by evergreenonthehorizon Published: 2021-04-03 | 29K Words | 12 Chapters

A collection of short stories filling in the gaps between some of the events of ATLAS3 and up to the Last Agni Kai. Features accidental cuddling, embracing in the rain, sharing a bed for warmth, post-Ember Island Theater discussions, being discovered, waiting to be kissed, Suki & Katara being good friends, battle plans, Zuko & Sokka getting drunk, slow burn & angst. Very sweet.

 ·        THE SWAY OF THE SUN by TheBlackBriarSparrow Published: Published: 2019-10-14 | 102K Words | 27 Chapters

Two years post-war Gaang reunites in Caldera city for a secret party in honor of the overworked Fire Lord’s birthday. Rebels attack the palace setting a thrilling consequence of events in motion. Adventures, investigations, and fights ensue. Z & K work together and enlist old friends to help find missing people. Beautiful slow-burn story with an exciting plot.

·        A WARM EMBRACE by ewinkie Published: 2020-10-06 | 19K Words | 7 Chapters

An ATLAS3 rewrite from Southern Riders to the Last Agni Kai. Katara and Zuko have to hide in a cave following their encounter with Yon Rha. Comforting turns to cuddling, which turns to waking up on Appa's tail in each other's arms. Katara is shocked at how comfortable she is. Zuko is shocked that Katara doesn't hate him for it. Features sharing a bed, being discovered, slowburn, and lots of teenage silliness.

 ·        FOLLOWING BLUE by Boogum Published: 2018-11-07 | 39K Words | 10 Chapters

ATLA S2 rewrite. After Katara falls from Appa’s saddle during a pursuit, the Blue Spirit becomes her reluctant companion and helps her reunite with her friends. Ba Sing Se scenes are completely rewritten, and Z ends up joining the Gaang much earlier. Thrilling beginning, sweet middle, average ending.

 ·        ANOTHER WORD FOR ALCHEMY by FanPanda13 Published: 2014-08-19 | 108K words | 24 Chapters

Five years post-war Aang summons old friends for a summit and invites them on a trip to investigate mysterious locations where he experiences loss of bending. Features Gaang setting Z & K up, travelling on Appa like in the olden days, lots of sparring, royal courting, magnificent navy ships & war ballons. Thrilling story with fun banter between old friends. Slowburn, mature content.

 ·        CONSUME ME WITH FIRE, FLOOD ME WITH DESIRE by Dacamia Published: 2020-08-14 | 86K words | 24 Chapters

Steamy ATLAS2 and ATLA S3 rewrite. Z & K accidentally meetup on their way to Ba Sing Se and decide to travel together. Features aged-up characters, lots of intimate scenes, staying in a beautiful cave, helping villagers, betrayal in Ba Sing Se, reunion, forgiveness, etc. Explicit mature content.

 ·        ROOTS AND WINGS by zukoscomet Published: 2020-08-14 | 250K words | 25 Chapters

A series of short stories of Z & K as they grow closer, confess their love for one another and start a family.

 ·        THOSE WHO FAVOR FIRE by hiwasseelane Published: 2021-05-02 |29K Words | 13 Chapters

An ATLAS3 rewrite. Sweet, teen-appopriate.

Here’s a link to Part II of my personal favs.

Here’s a link to Wholesome Zutara Short Stories.

[lemoncrushh]

The Entertainer - Story Page

Summary: Set in the 70s, Sky Jones, a young woman from L.A., meets Harry Styles, an up-and-coming musician and frontman for the band Wildfire. Told in first person from Sky's point of view, she shares her journey and what it's like to fall for a rockstar.

Author's Note: This was originally written and posted way back in 2017. An oldie, but I'm finally getting around to finishing the sequel. I figured before I start reposting that, you need the original story. Hopefully there are some newer fans/readers who haven't read this one yet. A ten-part series, each chapter acts as a track from an album. Within each chapter, there will be song lyrics. Be sure to check the bottom of each part to get a list of the songs included. It makes for a great soundtrack, like a movie. This story is very special to me, and I hope you enjoy. Inspired by the song "The Entertainer" by Billy Joel.

I am the entertainer And I know just where I stand Another serenader And another long haired band Today I am your champion I may have won your hearts But I know the game, you’ll forget my name And I won’t be here in another year If I don’t stay on the charts

Reposting daily! Links will be updated as I post.

Track 01 - You Have a Great Collection

Track 02 - Looks Like Rain

Track 03 - Pick a Memory

Track 04 - Pajamas & The Holiday Inn

Track 05 - It's Always Been About the Music

Track 06 - No Concern of Yours

Track 07 - Let's Hit The Road

Track 08 - I Don't Wanna Be Alone

Track 09 - Make Some Beautiful Music

Track 10 - Let's Make the Most of It

The Playlist

Another note: Though this story does include some sex, I would not consider this smutty at all, just in case that's what you're looking for. The sequel, however, will contain a lot so...lol...it's your call.

I do require that you be at least 18 to read my fics though.

MASTERLIST

[mostlysignssomeportents]

An open copyright casebook, featuring AI, Warhol and more

I'm coming to DEFCON! On Aug 9, I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On Aug 10, I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC��- L1 - HW1–11–01).

Few debates invite more uninformed commentary than "IP" – a loosely defined grab bag that regulates an ever-expaning sphere of our daily activities, despite the fact that almost no one, including senior executives in the entertainment industry, understands how it works.

Take reading a book. If the book arrives between two covers in the form of ink sprayed on compressed vegetable pulp, you don't need to understand the first thing about copyright to read it. But if that book arrives as a stream of bits in an app, those bits are just the thinnest scrim of scum atop a terminally polluted ocean of legalese.

At the bottom layer: the license "agreement" for your device itself – thousands of words of nonsense that bind you not to replace its software with another vendor's code, to use the company's own service depots, etc etc. This garbage novella of legalese implicates trademark law, copyright, patent, and "paracopyrights" like the anticircumvention rule defined by Section 1201 of the DMCA:

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-lawsuit-takes-dmca-section-1201-research-and-technology-restrictions-violate

Then there's the store that sold you the ebook: it has its own soporific, cod-legalese nonsense that you must parse; this can be longer than the book itself, and it has been exquisitely designed by the world's best-paid, best-trained lawyer to liquefy the brains of anyone who attempts to read it. Nothing will save you once your brains start leaking out of the corners of your eyes, your nostrils and your ears – not even converting the text to a brilliant graphic novel:

https://memex.craphound.com/2017/03/03/terms-and-conditions-the-bloviating-cruft-of-the-itunes-eula-combined-with-extraordinary-comic-book-mashups/

Even having Bob Dylan sing these terms will not help you grasp them:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/25/musical-chairs/#subterranean-termsick-blues

The copyright nonsense that accompanies an ebook transcends mere Newtonian physics – it exists in a state of quantum superposition. For you, the buyer, the copyright nonsense appears as a license, which allows the seller to add terms and conditions that would be invalidated if the transaction were a conventional sale. But for the author who wrote that book, the copyright nonsense insists that what has taken place is a sale (which pays a 25% royalty) and not a license (a 50% revenue-share). Truly, only a being capable of surviving after being smeared across the multiverse can hope to embody these two states of being simultaneously:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/21/early-adopters/#heads-i-win

But the challenge isn't over yet. Once you have grasped the permissions and restrictions placed upon you by your device and the app that sold you the ebook, you still must brave the publisher's license terms for the ebook – the final boss that you must overcome with your last hit point and after you've burned all your magical items.

This is by no means unique to reading a book. This bites us on the job, too, at every level. The McDonald's employee who uses a third-party tool to diagnose the problems with the McFlurry machine is using a gadget whose mere existence constitutes a jailable felony:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cold-war

Meanwhile, every single biotech researcher is secretly violating the patents that cover the entire suite of basic biotech procedures and techniques. Biotechnicians have a folk-belief in "patent fair use," a thing that doesn't exist, because they can't imagine that patent law would be so obnoxious as to make basic science into a legal minefield.

IP is a perfect storm: it touches everything we do, and no one understands it.

Or rather, almost no one understands it. A small coterie of lawyers have a perfectly fine grasp of IP law, but most of those lawyers are (very well!) paid to figure out how to use IP law to screw you over. But not every skilled IP lawyer is the enemy: a handful of brave freedom fighters, mostly working for nonprofits and universities, constitute a resistance against the creep of IP into every corner of our lives.

Two of my favorite IP freedom fighters are Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle, who run the Duke Center for the Public Domain. They are a dynamic duo, world leading demystifiers of copyright and other esoterica. They are the creators of a pair of stunningly good, belly-achingly funny, and extremely informative graphic novels on the subject, starting with the 2008 Bound By Law, about fair use and film-making:

https://www.dukeupress.edu/Bound-by-Law/

And then the followup, THEFT! A History of Music:

https://web.law.duke.edu/musiccomic/

Both of which are open access – that is to say, free to download and share (you can also get handsome bound print editions made of real ink sprayed on real vegetable pulp!).

Beyond these books, Jenkins and Boyle publish the annual public domain roundups, cataloging the materials entering the public domain each January 1 (during the long interregnum when nothing entered the public domain, thanks to the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, they published annual roundups of all the material that should be entering the public domain):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/20/em-oh-you-ess-ee/#sexytimes

This year saw Mickey Mouse entering the public domain, and Jenkins used that happy occasion as a springboard for a masterclass in copyright and trademark:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/15/mouse-liberation-front/#free-mickey

But for all that Jenkins and Boyle are law explainers, they are also law professors and as such, they are deeply engaged with minting of new lawyers. This is a hard job: it takes a lot of work to become a lawyer.

It also takes a lot of money to become a lawyer. Not only do law-schools charge nosebleed tuition, but the standard texts set by law-schools are eye-wateringly expensive. Boyle and Jenkins have no say over tuitions, but they have made a serious dent in the cost of those textbooks. A decade ago, the pair launched the first open IP law casebook: a free, superior alternative to the $160 standard text used to train every IP lawyer:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140923104648/https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/openip/

But IP law is a moving target: it is devouring the world. Accordingly, the pair have produced new editions every couple of years, guaranteeing that their free IP law casebook isn't just the best text on the subject, it's also the most up-to-date. This week, they published the sixth edition:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/openip/

The sixth edition of Intellectual Property: Law & the Information Society – Cases & Materials; An Open Casebook adds sections on the current legal controversies about AI, and analyzes blockbuster (and batshit) recent Supreme Court rulings like Vidal v Elster, Warhol v Goldsmith, and Jack Daniels v VIP Products. I'm also delighted that they chose to incorporate some of my essays on enshittification (did you know that my Pluralistic.net newsletter is licensed CC Attribution, meaning that you can reprint and even sell it without asking me?).

(On the subject of Creative Commons: Boyle helped found Creative Commons!)

Ten years ago, the Boyle/Jenkins open casebook kicked off a revolution in legal education, inspiring many legals scholars to create their own open legal resources. Today, many of the best legal texts are free (as in speech) and free (as in beer). Whether you want to learn about trademark, copyright, patents, information law or more, there's an open casebook for you:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/14/angels-and-demons/#owning-culture

The open access textbook movement is a stark contrast with the world of traditional textbooks, where a cartel of academic publishers are subjecting students to the scammiest gambits imaginable, like "inclusive access," which has raised the price of textbooks by 1,000%:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/07/markets-in-everything/#textbook-abuses

Meanwhile, Jenkins and Boyle keep working on this essential reference. The next time you're tempted to make a definitive statement about what IP permits – or prohibits – do yourself (and the world) a favor, and look it up. It won't cost you a cent, and I promise you you'll learn something.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/30/open-and-shut-casebook/#stop-confusing-the-issue-with-relevant-facts

Image: Cryteria (modified) Jenkins and Boyle https://web.law.duke.edu/musiccomic/

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

[alex31624]

2024 is almost done. It has been a weird year for me, there was personal stuff that went wrong, but it also was the year of me joining a fandom.

Being in the Ducktales fandom has been a great experience that helped me recover my passion for writing and gave me the chance to draw.

For that, I'm thankful.

Anyway, is time to check the top ten post of this year. Let's see what's on the list.

10. It's PK!

222 notes for PK debut on Ducktales. He needed to be there for real.

09. Dad...

Yeah, in Ducktales, uncle and dad is almost the same. 238 notes confirm it.

08. Happy birthday Ducktales!

With 239 notes, the 7th anniversary post is my most popular piece of art of the year.

07. Angry birds

241 notes for the lamest joke ever.

06. The gang finally together

I love this edit. A 10 kid adventure would have been the best episode on Ducktales season 4. 242 notes think the same.

05. Webby in Lorcana

We all lost our minds when the Webby card was revealed, as the 282 notes said.

04. Webby and Louie, the siblings ever

Webby and Louie are my favorite characters and I love how real their bond feels. They truly are sister and brother, and they got 312 notes.

03. Comics covers!

The collection of IDW Ducktales covers was well received, looking at the 563 notes it got.

02. To the seas!

I think it was a missoportunity to not have HDL showing more of their marine life. 644 notes agree with me.

01. Dipcifica

Is so funny that a Gravity Falls post is the top post from a Ducktales blog. I had just finished watching GF and I was totally into Dipcifica (I'm still in). I think they made a great couple. And with 645 notes, is my top post from 2024.

There you have it, the top ten post of this year. I hope the next year would be even better.

[stickybasementobject]

Johnny Depp Horror Icon

01. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

02. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

03. Ed Wood (1994)

04. Sleepy Hollow (1999)

05. The Astronaut's Wife (1999)

06. The Ninth Gate (1999)

07. Corpse Bride (2005)

08. Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

09. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

10. From Hell (2001)

11. Secret Window (2004)

12. Dark Shadows (2012)

13. Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

14. Transcendence (2014)

15. Marilyn Manson: Kill4Me (2017)

16. London Fields (2018))

17. Tusk (2014)

18. Yoga Hosers (2016)

[aonokongen]

🎉🍰 04.02 - happy birthday to Makoto!

Makoto Nanaya 1/7 scale figure (december 22, 2017), arc system works/bellfine.

sculpted by Zenko, this pvc figure was originally a resin kit by circle Iousen. here’s a list of events she was available for purchase as a resin kit:

02/19/2017, Wonder Festival 2017 (winter)

05/05/2017, Treasure Festa in Ariake 17

05/06/2017, Hobby Round 17

07/30/2017, Wonder Festival 2017 (summer).

she was later produced by bellfine as pvc, and was available for order on their site 12/22/17 & 03/27/19. additionally, this figure was also on sale at storia cafe’s GGXBB collaboration cafe, which took place 05/04/18-05/31/18 & 06/01/18-06/15/18.

collaboration cafe - https://web.archive.org/web/20190111210953/http://www.gg-bb.com/

and here is makoto in her resin kit form, for those curious