#Transport Management System 2025

[haruka-vii]

Help request to Rayman and retrogaming fans

Unfortunately, as much as I’m making efforts in solving my long-term unemployment situation there are things out of my control and I reached a point I really, really, need help.

Besides my grandma’s recent passing, there’s been a collection of unlucky events happening to me and my family in a small time interval. Both our dish washing machine and my Nintendo Switch Lite need to be repaired. The console stopped turning on regardless what I do and it’s out of warranty already. The console’s fixing, alone, can be up to 103€ according to the Iberian Nintendo support page).

But the worst case was our car’s “death”. Days after my grandma’s funeral, the car burnt its electronic system to the point of replacing that system being more expensive than the current value of the car of the same model without problems, meaning we were forced to replace the whole vehicle to a different model. The car is essential for our quotidian lives even for simple things such as doing groceries and buying food and cat litter for our seven small felines that we own. The latter unpredictable expense is very costly and adds a bigger layer of problems on my family’s end about financial management given that my mother is also jobless and there’s the bed replacement (done in January 2024) funds I want to also return to her whenever I manage.

2025 is going to be a difficult year for me and I already recently had to shrink down my Crash Bandicoot collection to a single item for a start but it’s still not enough. Now I had to make a very difficult decision of selecting personal items from my private Rayman collection and make them available to anyone in the Rayman and retrogaming fan community to be able to purchase in case they show interest in any particular object.

Please note the following details:

Products that are shown alongside with other product or more in the same photograph square means that those items are only sold as a pack/batch and not separately. I can clarify which ones by DM if you aren’t sure through the photographs.

I ship to most countries in the world, and always with tracking code so we’re both able to know its whereabouts. I won’t accept other types of shipping due to safety reasons.

The shipping address and other sensitive information will be exclusively used to ship the parcel.

Prices will be always discussed by DM, as well shipping costs as these vary depending on the destination country and parcel weight.

PayPal only for payments. While I prefer EUR currency I can also accept GBP and USD.

I’m conscious of how a good portion of the list contains particularly rare and valuable collectibles.

Some items prices are negotiable, especially if someone is interested in acquiring at least 3 different items or more that combined make up a significant total.

All items work 100%, including the Playstation accessories.

The Rayman memory card will be formatted if it gets a new onwer.

MS-DOS era games require emulation techniques to work on modern computers and there are community projects like Rayman Control Panel that help with that.

All games are complete in the box and between very good condition to like new.

The Rayman memory card is in good overall state.

The statues are like new and will be packed carefully to avoid transportation damage.

I can consider including the matching Switch videogame to the pack if I get a fair offer.

I reserve the right to not accept a sale for reasons not mentioned here.

List of items available in the photos:

Rayman Gold [PC/MS-DOS] (Rare, Original Big Boxed United Kingdom Edition)

Rayman For Ever [PC/MS-DOS] (Rare, Original Big Boxed France Edition, it even includes a Ubisoft catalogue with unique Rayman drawings)

Quick CD-ROM Demo Nº2 - Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc [PC/Windows]

Rayman M [PC/Windows] (United Kingdom Edition, still factory sealed!)

Rayman Rush [Sony PlayStation] + DualShock Controller [Sony PlayStation]

Rayman 2: The Great Escape [PC/Windows] (Very rare, Original Big Boxed United States of America Edition; I only saw maybe not more than 2 copies like this for sale online in over 15 years)

Rayman 100 Niveaux Inédits [PC/Windows] (Rare, Original Big Boxed France Edition)

Rayman Designer [PC/Windows] (Rare, Original Big Boxed France Edition)

Rayman 1 [PC/Windows] (Rare, Original Big Boxed European Edition)

Rayman Gold [PC/Windows] (Rare, Original Big Boxed France Edition)

Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc [PC/Windows] (The manual is translated in Portuguese but the games are in multilanguage)

Rayman 2: The Great Escape Sony Playstation Memory Card (Guillemot brand, uncommon item)

Rayman Raving Rabbids [PC/Windows] (Original United Kingdom Edition)

Rayman Raving Rabbids Activity Centre [PC/Windows] (Original United Kingdom Edition)

Rayman 2: The Great Escape [Sony Playstation] (Original France and Germany Edition)

Full collection of 4 medium-sized PVC statues of Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle characters

Other alternative ways to help me that don’t involve buying my Rayman items:

Ko-Fi donations (https://ko-fi.com/haruka_vii)

Currently opened with the goal I’ve referred earlier of collecting enough funds of the bed replacement expenses to return to my mother combined with the needed funds to be able to send my Nintendo Switch Lite for repair.

Art commissions

I can open a limited number of slots and draw single or groups of characters in a single digital or traditional drawing. Details can be discussed through DM!

Reblogging and sharing

If you know anyone who could be potentially interested in getting anything please share them, it’s also a help!

I don’t like to ask help but it’s been a rough timeline for me. Thank you for reading in advance, any help is greatly appreciated while I don’t manage to find a job. 🙏

[talenlee]

My Weirdly Embarrassing Love of Spreadsheets

This is gunna be a post about like, the nuts and bolts of making big projects like ongoing writing projects like this blog, but to get there I need to talk to you about silly stuff like journals and buses and spreadsheets. We get there, please, trust me.

One of the first tools I made for blogging was a table in my bullet journal. If you’re not familiar, a common thing to do with bullet journals (or ‘bujos’ as cooler or more tedious people than I call them), is to write up a calendar at the start of each month, something that lists what you’re doing through the course of the month. When I started doing this, I had a way to look at the month, that I could scribble on, so I did, and it meant I was able to get into the habits of putting an article on a game every friday and an article on a story every monday, resulting in my Story Pile and Game Pile series.

This was back in 2017, and the notebooks are in my bookshelf, each of them a record of a year that… huh, I could go back and reread.

Anyway, one of the problems that came up with this system was the bus.

Not kidding.

I would get a bus home from the uni most days. When I was on that bus, or when I was at the uni, I would have time to write, but I wouldn’t necessarily have access to my notebook. I found myself wanting a copy of the chart that I could manage on two different computers – my laptop at the university, and my computer at home. This is how One Stone got written, too, the trips home on the bus being when I wrote the blog posts that became the first chapters of that book, eyes closed, not looking at the screen, and focusing on the road to avoid being car sick.

It is wild to consider how much of my first book I loved writing I did with my eyes effectively closed.

In 2019, I resolved midway through the year that I needed a better system, and started on a system that would handle the transport between two locations better, for the year coming where I anticipated a lot of travel between two sites.

Ahem.

Yeah, uh, 2020.

Anyway, that it wasn’t necessary didn’t stop it being useful! That led to the creation of this Google Sheets spreadsheet:

I made this in Sheets because Sheets is like Excel, which I like using, and it’s like Calc, which I now use, because the version of Excel I pirated doesn’t have access to IFS functions. Point is, this sheet, as originally conceived, did not need anything as a spreadsheet to work; I wanted a table with 365 cells in it that could show the entire year at a glance and be given a simple, straightforward tick or cross. It became something more, as the years progressed.

I’ve been using this kind of spreadsheet now, for 5 years. In 2025, the spreadsheet looks almost the same:

Being a spreadsheet, it is an array of data. You can manipulate that. You can track data in it. You can use indexes. You can cocatenate things, and that’s the stage this spreadsheet is at now. When I sit down to work on a blog post, the first thing I do is not open up WordPress to pull at my drafts, it’s to instead open up this spreadsheet and look at when I have slots available, where my next upcoming gap is, and what kind of thing that gap wants.

Blue slots are story pile, green are game pile. I have all the video article slots pencilled in already with a ‘V,’ on the working version, so I can look at the line of Xes under each date and then see the point where oh, yeah, I gotta work on one of those spots. But see, also, in that top left? That number? The 0 is a count of how many blog posts have been set in place for the year, how close I am to being finished, or on track for the number of days in the year I’m at.

I try to keep the blog progress (blogress) at around 51 posts. That is not because this is the number I’ve decided I need or anything like that, it’s just a round number that makes me happy. Just being able to look at that number and see it being reasonably high? That’s a progress number. I could make it a progress bar proper, with a pair of graphs, but y’know, not worth it. I could make it a fraction too, like, the formula it’s doing over a “/365” if I wanted.

The thing that I’m most happy with though is the cell next to it.

See that cell looks like this:

='Topics & Ideas'!A2

And oh ho what is that?

Well that leads to this:

Here’s what this is: This is a whole spreadsheet of idea categories. Each category has at the top of it, a cell that looks down in the list for a random entry in that list and just provides it. For some things this is a long list of possibilities, for some things this is a tiny list of possibilities. But that is an index function – it looks randomly up and down the list and finds something. That means any time I want something for a specific theme, I can go to this sheet and I’ll see a random selection from these ideas. If I have an idea for a thing to write about at some point, I can jam that in the list, and know that it will eventually be exposed to me at some random point.

Then, at the head of that list, there’s the cell that also randomises the other cells along that horizontal line. Which means that any time I open this blog arranger up, I get to see a random offering of just… anything I could be writing right now. That list can include really broad things, like hey, write about an OC? and sometimes it could be really narrow and specific, like here’s a real event, you know about that one, you should write about it.

Now let me be clear: This is not a tool I recommend for everyone. This is a lot of elaborate effort I put into what is essentially, a producivity toy. This lets me produce a big pile of input and get a random output, and it lets me collect long lists or short lists of things and also, along with all of that, I can just get a periodic output from that list.

The original purpose for this chart wound up being unnecessary. I didn’t need to write on the bus any more. I don’t need to track the post count like this. I don’t need the randomiser. None of this stuff is in any way necessary.

But making this tool though, and playing with it, I have ways to engage with the project of this blog, with the writing when I can’t do that. When my ability to muster words has left me, I have still a chart, a tool, I have productivity items that I can work on. Sometimes just… fine tuning formulas is still working on it.

There’s this idea, maybe you’ve heard of ‘just do a little every day.’ Well, making it so there is a little you can do is really valuable, as part of that.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[invis-o-william]

Dannymay 2025 - Day 9: Underground

In the seven years since Dan’s emergence, Amity Park had been all but destroyed. There was a settlement in the center of the city still standing, protected by specter deflectors scavenged from Fentonworks. The people inside feared that it was only a matter of time before Dan found a way in. Technology and innovation still moved forward within its bounds, but for how long?

That wasn’t to say there weren’t other groups of survivors though, their survival attributed to living underneath the former city’s streets. There were two of these groups living under opposite sides of the city. Out of the two, the ones living beneath Amity’s main downtown area were larger in number. The wastewater systems there had been denser, creating a maze of tunnels and cisterns underneath the highrise buildings and historic brick foundations. 

They had been well constructed, and with numerous openings to the surface that had allowed many to escape the initial chaos. Most of those entrances were boarded up or destroyed now, fear from the survivors living below motivating them to try and make their location less accessible to Dan. The drawbacks were obvious, the people had less paths to escape if needed, but what was done was done. 

The Downtowners, as they called themselves, rarely ventured to the surface nowadays. There was seemingly no point. Every scout that went reported back the same thing; desolation, a lack of resources, and a sky streaked with smoke from the ghost’s attacks. So they stayed underground, relying on trade with the Borderlands (the other surviving group) via the now-abandoned subway tunnels. 

With their help, power lines had been scavenged from the surface years ago, and connected to Elmerton’s electrical grid. As a result, both groups had a way to light their subterranean home. With these lights and a few cisterns, food could be grown, and populations sustained. Some appliances were still in use as well, having been dragged down open catch basins and transported carefully through treatment facilities. These had mainly been lamps and the like, though there were a few microwaves and hotplates that managed to make it down. These were gathered together in one of the smaller cisterns to become the community’s kitchen.

Even with their few amenities and trade system set up, the Downtowners were still on edge after all these years. Unlike the Borderlands, they dwelled far within the ruined city’s boundaries. They could hear the crashing of buildings as they fell over their heads, could occasionally smell the acrid scent of burning rubble as the destruction raged on. Rarely, and it was always horrifying when it happened, they could hear Dan’s laughter echoing through the pipes. Could hear him cackle as he destroyed buildings, destroyed all remnants of their former lives. 

It was that laughter they now heard emanating from a drainage grate. It was quickly followed by the sound of metal being torn apart. Then came the footsteps. He had found them. Nobody knew how, but he had. Hell, maybe he had always known they were down there, but just waited til now to attack.

The Downtowners nearby began to run, scrambling to gather the others and go for the subway tunnels. If they could make it to the Borderlands, they might be safe. The Borderlands had access to outer city sewer pipes that fed into the river; if they were lucky they could leave through those and make it to Elmerton. No Amity Parker wanted to step foot in Elmerton if they could help it, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Amity Park would cease to exist if her people were dead after all.

The people ran towards the subway entrance; mothers carrying crying babies who had never known the sun’s rays, teenagers who could only barely remember the surface world, and the rest who could remember the initial months of Dan’s wrath all too well. They jumped down into the tunnel, leaving their homes behind once again, and ran. Ran for freedom. For hope. For their lives.

As the group of over two hundred fled, a figure floated down until he touched the floor of the tunnel. He raised one arm, allowing his hand to be coated with energy, and aimed it at the people retreating.

He smiled.

Then, he fired.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Matt Davies

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 3, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Jun 04, 2025

On June 1, Ukrainian forces struck deep inside Russia in “Operation Spider Web.” One hundred and seventeen drones, each operated by its own pilot, hit airfields in five regions. Ukraine says the drones hit 41 strategic bombers that had been attacking Ukrainian cities and destroyed at least 13 of them. Russia does not have the industrial capabilities to replace them.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) head Vasyl Malyuk emphasized that military airfields and the aircraft that are bombing Ukraine are “absolutely legitimate targets…[a]ccording to the laws and customs of war.” The SBU estimates the drones did $7 billion of damage, hitting 34% of the aircraft that delivered cruise missiles.

The operation took more than 18 months of planning. It apparently involved sending trucks loaded with wooden cabins that had detachable roofs that could be opened remotely. Unsuspecting truck drivers hauled the cabins to locations near airbases, where the drones launched.

Once the drones were in the air, the vehicles carrying the cabins exploded. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the people who helped with the operation from within Russia had been withdrawn and “are now safe.”

Russia denied that the damage was that extensive, but there is no doubt that the attack was a significant blow to Russia’s war effort, demonstrating as it does that Ukraine can bring the war home. As Kateryna Bonder of the Washington, D.C., think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies notes, June 1 was Military Transport Aviation Day in Russia, a significant holiday for the armed forces. Russian president Vladimir Putin frequently ties operations to significant dates—as when he hosted a number of American lawmakers in Moscow on July 4, 2018—and the choice of this date for an attack on military aircraft threw that habit back at him.

Analysts recognize the Ukrainian attack as a new moment in warfare. Using apparently unwitting civilians, the Ukrainians managed to get their drones close enough to their targets to avoid Russia’s air defense systems; then, Bonder explains, the drones relied on a system that allowed operators to pilot them to the planes’ strategic weaknesses. The drones themselves cost between $600 and $1,000 apiece—and by using deception, technology, and strategic surprise, the Ukrainians managed to destroy billions of dollars worth of aircraft.

Bonder notes that the attack heralds a change in modern warfare, in which technological agility will trump industrial capacity and advantage will go to those countries that can adapt quickly to changing conditions.

Some observers are calling the attack the Russian Pearl Harbor, a reference to the attack by the Japanese Navy on the U.S. Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, an attack that led to U.S. entry into World War II. But Russia has been attacking Ukraine since 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion in 2022. This attack illustrates extraordinary vulnerability at this point, rather as if Pearl Harbor had happened in early 1945.

A former commander of U.S. Army Europe, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, posted: “For months, some believed that Ukraine didn't 'hold any cards.' Many of us have refuted that claim, saying an inflection point—due to failing Russian war economy and continued lack of Russian leadership adaptation, but especially due to a continued strong Ukrainian government, military and population support and will mixed with their innovative use of Special Operations, un-crewed systems (various drones), and fiber optic capabilities to counter Russian EW—would soon be felt on the battlefield. The coordinated and synchronized attack today, which appears to have decimated much of the Russian air fleet that were based over 4,000 km from the front line, is showing that Ukraine certainly has many aces in the hole.”

Hertling’s comment that some thought Ukraine didn’t hold any cards is a reference to President Donald J. Trump, who ambushed Zelensky in the Oval Office on February 28, warning him that Ukraine must cut a deal with Putin because Zelensky didn’t “have the cards” to win the war. With that meeting, Trump signaled that U.S. policy, which has supported Ukraine since 1994, would change to favor Russia.

In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assistances, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security assurances from the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Russia that they would honor the sovereignty and borders of Ukraine, a promise Russia broke when it invaded Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014.

During the 2024 U.S. presidential election campaign, Trump vowed that he would end the war in Ukraine in a single day, maybe with a single phone call, and as other victories have slipped away from him, he has appeared frustrated that such an achievement has proved more difficult than he thought.

After the Oval Office meeting, the Ukrainians agreed to a 30-day ceasefire on March 11, but Russia has consistently refused to agree unless Ukraine accepts major territorial concessions and permits Russia to dictate that it not join the defensive North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Rather than negotiating, Putin has launched repeated attacks on Ukrainian civil targets. On Sunday, May 25, Russia launched the largest air attack on Ukraine since the war began, and the week before, it launched its largest drone attack.

Those attacks happened even as Trump was talking directly with Putin, allegedly about a ceasefire. The White House policy has skewed heavily toward Russia against Ukraine even to the point that Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff relied on Putin’s own translators during negotiations on February 11, March 13, and April 11. While Putin speaks English, Witkoff does not speak Russian.

Trump claims to be frustrated with Putin, at one point calling him “absolutely crazy,” which prompted Putin’s spokesperson to suggest that Trump was suffering from “emotional overload.” On May 27, Trump appeared to acknowledge his longstanding relationship with Putin when he posted on his social media site: “What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!”

And yet, although more than 80 senators from both parties have co-sponsored a bill to impose stronger sanctions against Russia, Trump has refused to back it, thus stalling it. Meanwhile, Benedict Smith of The Telegraph today covered State Department acting under-secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs Darren Beattie, who dismantled the office that countered disinformation from Russia, China, and Iran. In 2021, Smith notes, Beattie married a Russian national whose uncle has ties to Putin.

Beattie was dismissed from the first Trump administration after attending a white nationalist rally. He has attacked the United States as the “globalist American empire” and said that Putin should infiltrate western institutions to fight “woke” ideology. In 2021, Beattie wrote that the “position [of the U.S.] in the global order [is] rapidly deteriorating” and that he looked forward to its “prestige and power” collapsing. Praising Putin as “brave and strong,” he said that Putin had “done more to advance conservative positions in the US than any Republican” and that “just about every Western institution would improve in quality if it were directly infiltrated and controlled by Putin.”

Beattie also wrote: “NATO is a far worse threat to the health, liberty, freedom, and flourishing of American citizens than Russia and China combined.”

Administration officials said the Ukrainians did not notify them before launching Operation Spider Web.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian forces detonated underwater explosives attached to the Kerch bridge connecting Russia to the occupied Crimean Peninsula. This is Ukraine’s third attack on the bridge since 2022. The SBU said the explosives “severely damaged” bridge supports, but the bridge reopened hours later.

The Ukrainian operations are only the most dramatic developments in ongoing stories today that show the Trump administration is not calling all the shots.

Trump’s vow to negotiate trade deals in place of his tariff walls has not yet produced any of those deals, and the White House today said it’s “likely” that a call will take place this week with China’s leader Xi Jinping. But Lingling Wei of the Wall Street Journal explained yesterday that Xi has made it clear China will play hardball with the U.S.

Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs in the Obama administration, told Phelim Kine, Daniel Desrochers, Megan Messerly, and Ari Hawkins of Politico: “Beijing has a sharp nose for weakness, and for all his bravado, Trump is signaling eagerness—even desperation—to cut a direct deal with Xi. That only stiffens Beijing’s resolve.”

Biden administration National Security Council deputy senior director for China and Taiwan Rush Doshi noted that Chinese officials see Trump as “unpredictable” and that Chinese diplomats don’t usually put the leader “at risk of a potentially embarrassing or unpredictable encounter.”

Jake Lahut of Wired reported yesterday that Trump advisors are themselves tired of right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who has Trump’s ear. Their comments to Lahut appear designed to put pressure on Trump to push her away, a sign that for now, anyway, she is entrenched.

Newark, New Jersey, mayor Ras Baraka, whom Department of Homeland Security agents arrested on May 9, 2025, has sued the acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, and the special agent in charge of the Newark Division of Homeland Security Investigations, Ricky J. Patel, for false arrest and malicious prosecution. He is suing Habba alone for defamation.

The suit outlines Habba’s public statements against Democrats in New Jersey and her vow to “turn…New Jersey red.” It says Habba acted “as a political operative” “in her individual personal capacity” “outside of any function intimately related to the judicial process” when she posted on her social media account that Baraka “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law.” After repeated similar public statements, Habba dropped all charges.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem took down her list of “sanctuary cities” she said weren’t cooperating with federal immigration authorities after the National Sheriffs’ Association demanded an apology.

Trump began today by attacking Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) for his opposition to the extraordinary cost of Republicans’ omnibus bill, insisting that the bill would create “tremendous GROWTH.” But this afternoon, billionaire Elon Musk took a firm stand against Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” posting on X: “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

Meanwhile, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) released a report showing that Musk’s net worth has increased by more than $100 billion since Election Day. The report listed the many ways in which he used his position in the federal government to stop investigations into his companies, undercut regulations, win federal contracts, gain access to data and sensitive information, attack his enemies, meddle in elections, and secure foreign deals, all without informing the American people of his conflicts of interest.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Lipton Matthews

Published: Jun 19, 2025

Nigel Biggar’s Reparations: The Tyranny of Imaginary Guilt is a courageous intervention in the increasingly fraught debate over the West’s historical involvement in slavery and colonialism. It offers an incisive critique of contemporary calls for reparations—which are less about justice than about power, symbolism and false guilt. As its title suggests, the book’s central thesis is that Westerners, especially Britons, are being manipulated into assuming moral responsibility for historical wrongs that happened in numerous civilizations (not just the West) or that weren’t even “wrongs” in the first place.

Biggar begins by discussing the political climate in which the reparations movement has re-emerged over the last few years. The key event, he argues, was the death of George Floyd in 2020, which triggered a wave of Black Lives Matter protests that quickly spread to Britain. Anti-colonial activists seized upon these protests as an opportunity to reframe British society as inherently racist and to paint white Britons as morally culpable for slavery and colonialism.

This movement, Biggar notes, has been actively cultivated by institutions such as the CARICOM Reparations Commission, founded in 2013 by Sir Hilary Beckles. The Commission sees the British Empire as one long project of economic exploitation—encompassing slavery, colonialism and indentured labor. Its reparations campaign, bolstered by documents like the Brattle Report (which claims that Britain owes over $26 trillion to its former colonies), has managed to secure political sympathizers within Britain’s Labour Party.

A key strength of Reparations is its rigorous contextualisation of slavery. Biggar devotes several chapters to showing that slavery was a universal human practice, not a European or British invention. For example, the African kingdoms of Dahomey, Kongo and Asante played an active role in enslaving their neighbors and selling them to Europeans, often getting rich in the process. The narrative of a predatory Europe exploiting a passive Africa is deeply misleading.

Biggar reminds us that the trans-Saharan slave trade, overseen by Muslim traders, lasted longer than the trans-Atlantic one and transported far more people—roughly 17 million Africans (as opposed to 11 million in the trans-Atlantic trade). And the Islamic world’s treatment of slaves was equally, if not more, brutal. The castration of African boys to produce eunuchs for the Ottoman court was a cruelty that rivals any from the West Indies. It involved severing genitalia with razors and sealing the wounds with boiling oil—a procedure that killed many and permanently emasculated the survivors.

What’s more, white Europeans were victims as well as perpetrators of slavery. The Vikings sold white slaves to Muslim traders, and Barbary pirates snatched over a million people from coastal towns in Ireland, Spain and Italy. These facts completely undermine the simplistic anti-white narrative that dominates the reparations discourse.

Biggar does not try to whitewash the horrors of British slavery. He acknowledges the brutality of the Middle Passage and the harsh conditions on West Indian sugar plantations. Yet he also notes that some planters treated their slaves with a degree of humanity, sometimes even arranging for their manumission in their wills. And not all systems of bondage in British territories were rooted in chattel slavery: indentured servitude of both Europeans and Asians was widespread and occasionally more fatal than slavery itself.

Biggar underscores that plantations were not unique to the Americas. The Fulani people of West Africa established massive plantation economies in the Sokoto Caliphate in northern Nigeria, and the Omani Arabs operated similar economies on the East African coast. In fact, the Sokoto Caliphate rivaled America in terms of the total number of slaves. Large-scale, plantation-based slavery was a global institution, not some colonial aberration.

Biggar is particularly critical of the popular claim, put forward by Eric Williams, that the industrial revolution was built on the profits of slavery. Drawing on recent research, he argues that slavery’s contribution to Britain’s industrialisation was modest at best. The historian David Richardson estimated that, by 1790, profits from the slave trade were responsible for less than 1% of domestic investment. Likewise, David Eltis and Stanley Engerman have shown that the economic gains from slavery were small relative to the economy as a whole. They also point out that Portugal transported about two-thirds as many slaves as Britain. So if slavery fuelled Britain’s industrialisation, Portugal should have been richer per head of population—yet its economic performance was far less impressive.

As Biggar explains, the broader industrial economy—driven by coal, iron and textile manufacturing—would have developed regardless of the Atlantic economy. Even Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson’s revisionist work, Slavery, Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution, which attempts to revive Williams’s thesis, ultimately concedes that slavery was not essential for the emergence of industrial capitalism.

A sizeable part of the book is dedicated to the myth of African innocence. Biggar notes that African kingdoms such as the Asante Empire not only sold slaves to Europeans but also practiced human sacrifice. These societies even resisted attempts to abolish slavery, viewing it as essential to their political survival. Remarkably, the Jamaican Maroons—hailed today as symbols of black resistance—owned slaves themselves.

This complicity undermines the moral absolutism of reparations activists. If historic involvement in slavery is the basis for reparations, then African and Muslim states should be held accountable too. Yet this perfectly reasonable claim is typically dismissed or ignored, exposing the selective outrage (and anti-white agenda) of reparations activists.

Arguably the most compelling rebuttal to the case for reparations is Britain’s role in ending slavery. After abolishing the trade in 1807 and slavery itself in 1833, Britain spent vast sums of money and diplomatic capital suppressing slavery across the world. The Royal Navy patrolled the Atlantic for over five decades, intercepting slave ships and liberating their human cargo. So far from profiting from the slave trade, Britain incurred significant costs to end it. Eltis concluded that those costs amounted to about £250,000 year—equivalent to around £1.7 billion in today’s money.

Biggar argues that this legacy calls for pride, rather than shame. Britain's self-imposed abolitionist campaign was unique in history, and forms part of a broader moral revolution in the West that led to international norms and human rights law.

Biggar devotes an entire chapter to dissecting the Brattle Report—which attempted to quantify Britain’s alleged debt to its former colonies. He exposes the report’s flawed assumptions and glaring omissions. Crucially, it treats black descendants of slaves as uniquely entitled to redress, while ignoring all the other groups whose ancestors suffered. It also ignores all the groups whose ancestors were made better off by British policy, such as those who would have been enslaved but not for the actions of the Royal Navy.

The report presents a distorted picture of reality in which colonialism is entirely to blame for the backwardness of former colonies. Biggar points to Barbados as a powerful counterexample. Once a British colony, the Caribbean archipelago has outperformed its peers in terms of economic development. According to World Bank data, its scores on indicators of policy effectiveness and institutional quality place it within the range of OECD countries—in some cases near the top of that range.

By way of contrast, Jamaica’s post-independence experience was marked by exceptionally poor governance, particularly between 1972 and 1984, when living standards crashed. Few nations not embroiled in civil war have done so poorly. Although there has been some recovery since then, the country’s real per capita income today is similar to what it was in 1975.

Such disparate outcomes undermine the narrative that colonialism itself explains persistent underdevelopment. By ignoring this inconvenient fact and attempting to monetise centuries-old wrongs, the Brattle report descends into political theatre. As Biggar points out, turning history into a moral ledger where guilt can be paid off in cash is intellectually unserious.

A civilisation that internalises false guilt becomes susceptible to manipulation and self-destruction. Reparations, in Biggar’s view, are not about justice but about delegitimising Western civilisation. He concludes with a call for honesty and courage in resisting this agenda. Britain abolished slavery nearly two centuries ago and then led the world in stamping it out. That legacy is one of moral progress, not wickedness.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

CNN 5/6/2025

Inside the multi-day meltdown at Newark airport

By Pete Muntean, Rene Marsh, Aaron Cooper and Amanda Musa, CNN

Updated: 7:05 PM EDT, Tue May 6, 2025

Source: CNN

Air traffic controllers in Philadelphia were guiding planes to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey last week when communications suddenly crashed.

“Approach, are you there?” one pilot asked the controller.

The controller stopped responding.

United Airlines Flight 1951, flying from New Orleans to the Newark hub, tried to radio the controller five times before finally getting a response.

“United 1951, how do you hear me?” the controller asks, according to air traffic control conversations recorded by the website LiveATC.net.

“I got you loud and clear, United 1951,” the pilot responds.

For at least 90 seconds, controllers lost the ability to see planes on radar scopes and for a minute they could not communicate with pilots, source with knowledge of the situation tells CNN. (Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday air traffic controllers lost contact for 30 seconds.)

The April 28 outage impacted information coming from radars located at a Federal Aviation Administration facility in Westbury, New York, where the air traffic controllers used to manage flights heading to Newark. Control over the airspace was transferred to Philadelphia in July. The radars are now operated using a remote line the source described as “a long extension cord.”

The outage was the result ofa failure of that copper wiring that transmits information to Newark approach control, a separate source tells CNN. “There was some infrastructure breakdown related to how the information is relayed right now.”

Similar outages happened twice before, the first source notes.

Those earlier incidents were reported to the FAA safety reporting system and “adjustments were made,” which kept the systems stable until the most recent loss, they say.

The technology interruption ultimately cascaded into a weeklong meltdown at Newark, one of the nation’s largest airports. It resulted in delays and cancellations for thousands of customers, controllers taking leave for trauma, and renewed scrutiny on an outdated air traffic control system.

The chaos also highlighted the challenges of an understaffed system, the latest incident in an already turbulent year for aviation that included a deadly collision between a passenger jet and US army helicopter.

‘I don’t know where you are’

Controllers at Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control, which coordinates planes arriving at Newark, temporarily lost access to the systems that help them guide the aircraft, meaning they were unable to see, hear or talk to the planes, officials said. Controllers lost primary communication, and the backup line did not immediately take over, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News Monday. Audio obtained by CNN reveals the tense moments at the Philadelphia control center.

“United (flight) 674, radar contact lost,” a controller tells a pilot flying to Newark from Charleston, South Carolina. “We lost our radar so just stay on the arrival and maintain 6000 (feet).”

The same flight, traveling at hundreds of miles an hour, returns to the radar but does not show up in an accurate position.

The connectivity between Federal Aviation Administration radar and the frequencies that air traffic controllers use to manage planes at the airport “completely failed,” a source with knowledge of the situation said. Without radar, another approach controller told the pilot of a smaller aircraft to rely on towers for clearance.

“Do I have bravo clearance?” the pilot asks. Bravo clearance is permission to enter into the airspace surrounding a larger airport, like Newark Liberty.

“No, you do not have a bravo clearance. We lost our radar and it’s not working correctly. Radar service terminates… If you want a bravo clearance, you can just call the tower when you get closer,” the controller said.

Colin Scoggins, a former air traffic controller and retired military specialist at the FAA, told CNN that losing both radar and communications on the job can be a scary experience.

“If you cannot talk to a pilot, then you’re really in trouble,” he said. “I would find it very traumatic.”

“You’re sitting there watching the situation unfold, kind of like on 911, you see situations unfold that you have no control over. And when you’re a controller, you want to be in control. When you take that away, it can be very traumatic,” Scoggins added.

“Imagine driving down the highway in traffic and someone puts blindfold over eyes and tells you to keep driving and when you come back from driving dark you have to figure out what to do next,” a source told CNN.

About 15 to 20 flights were being controlled by Newark Liberty approach controllers when communication and radar went down on April 28, according to an analysis by flight tracking site Flightradar24.

The number is based on the altitude of aircraft bound for and departing Newark and audio from the approach radio frequency, Ian Petchenik, the director of communications for the site, tells CNN.

No crashes occurred, but at least five FAA employees took 45 days of trauma leave afterward.

Aviation analyst Miles O’Brien told CNN that the controllers did what they could with a potentially dangerous situation.

“I think, as I always say, that the controllers, the individuals who run this system daily, perform quiet heroic acts, in spite of a system that is built to set them up for failure. I believe in those people doing their job, but there’s only so much stress they can take,” O’Brien said.

The incident has compounded existing staffing shortages and equipment failures and contributed to frustrating hourslong delays for passengers, Duffy told Fox News.

A CNN analysis of FAA airspace advisories shows at least 14 straight days of FAA-imposed delays for flights to or from Newark.

Airlines canceled 160 flights to or from Newark Liberty on Monday, with more than 400 flights delayed, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. The airport’s cancelations accounted for more than a quarter of all flight cancelations nationwide on Monday.

And on Tuesday, the FAA announced a ground delay for inbound flights at the airport, causing further delays.

The FAA has indicated it expects delays at the airport to continue due to the staffing shortages. Duffy noted that authorities will have to slow traffic at Newark before restoring full capacity.

A stormy weather pattern stuck in place in the Northeast is further complicating efforts to keep air traffic moving through the airport in northern New Jersey, where low clouds and rain are expected throughout the week.

A traumatic event

The current shortage of air traffic controllers is nearly the worst in 30 years, said the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which represents 10,800 certified air traffic controllers across the country.

The control facility responsible for traffic at Newark has been “chronically understaffed for years,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in a Friday message addressing the delays. He also said the shortage was compounded by over 20% of FAA controllers who “walked off the job” at Newark Airport last week.

The controllers’ union said workers did not “walk off the job.”

“The controllers didn’t just walk off the job, they were traumatized, their equipment failed,” the source with knowledge of the situation said. “It’s written in the regulations if they experience a traumatic event — they can take time off to go see psychiatrist. The people working that day did that.”

But filling those empty positions is not an issue that can be sorted overnight, according to the FAA.

New air traffic control applicants must be younger than 31 years old so they can work the mandatory 20 or 25 years needed to qualify for pensions before their mandatory retirement age of 56, according to the FAA. Physical stamina and mental sharpness are critical to performing the job.

And air traffic controllers can’t simply fill in at a different airport without extensive preparation.

“When you first start at an air traffic control facility, you have to do a lot of memorization,” said Michael McCormick, a professor and air traffic management coordinator at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

“Most air traffic controllers don’t just monitor one airport. Many keep tabs on dozens of other regional airports to make sure planes keep a safe distance from each other.”

The FAA acknowledged a wave of new controllers won’t come overnight.

“While we cannot quickly replace (the controllers) due to this highly specialized profession, we continue to train controllers who will eventually be assigned to this busy airspace,” the FAA said.

A total of 885 Newark flights have been canceled since the April 28 air traffic control meltdown, according to an analysis by FlightRadar24, which notes that not all of the canceled flights were related to air traffic control issues.

United Airlines has preemptively canceled 35 round trip flights to or from Newark – meaning 70 individual flights – per day.

Airline analytics firm Cirium says the Newark delays have been spiking significantly since April 26, days before the control equipment outage at the Philadelphia air control site.

“Since April 26, on-time departures have fallen to 63%, which is far below industry norms,” said Cirium’s Mike Arnot. “Prior to that date, an average of four flights per day were cancelled in April.”

A frail system in place

Flights arriving to Newark were experiencing an average delay of 4 hours as of Tuesday evening, according to the FAA.

One passenger, Geraldine Wallace, told CNN Sunday she was anxious about the staffing shortage after her flight was delayed for almost three hours.

Mark Wallace, her partner, told CNN he was more worried about equipment failures.

“As concerning as the manpower issue is, according to news reports, the equipment that they’re using out of Philadelphia is antiquated,” he said.

Flexibility waivers are now available to impacted United Airlines customers with flights booked on or before May 4 and originally scheduled to fly from May 6 to 17, United said in an announcement Tuesday.

A separate waiver is available to customers with tickets purchased on or before April 29 for trips scheduled between May 1 and 5, the airline said.

The Department of Transportation will announce a plan Thursday to transform the air traffic control system, remodeling an outdated system that contributed to days of delays at Newark, Duffy, the transportation secretary, told Fox News on Monday.

The system used to manage air traffic at Newark is “incredibly old,” Duffy said.

“We use floppy disks. We use copper wires,” he said Friday. “The system that we’re using is not effective to control the traffic that we have in the airspace today.”

Duffy has since pledged to implement a new, “state-of-the-art” system at air traffic control facilities across the country that would be the “envy of the world” – but said it might take three to four years.

“We are going to radically transform the way air traffic control looks,” Duffy told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham.

President Donald Trump has “bought into the plan,” he said.

Peter Goelz, former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board, said he wasn’t sure he’d want to fly out of Newark for the next 10 days.

“We have a very safe system, but anytime it’s stressed like this, where you have controllers who are feeling under maximum pressure, it impacts safety – and people have a right to be concerned,” Goelz told CNN.

“You cannot expect humans to function at their highest level for sustained periods of time with this kind of pressure on them.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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--------

Dontcha feel just...so very safe?

[thearoacespark]

voting (a balanced take? hopefully)

disclaimer: I don’t usually do this. I’m still very young and learning about the world and this is all pretty surface level observation— but I wanted to try and say something anyways—it’s likely imperfect and there is probably nuance I’ve missed. Also, this is mostly geared towards my fellow USAmericans.

I have been guilty of sharing sentiment with “vote blue no matter who, VOTE VOTE” posts, and being gripped with a sense of fear and urgency like no other. I understand. Project 2025, the ideals of Trump’s platform (lots of the immigration ideas eerily close to Proposition 187…) are very scary.

But let’s slow down. Others have said if we’re voting out of fear and as if we have no other choice, then it’s no better than having no choice as all. I have to agree.

In my opinion, while emotion does push people to act and is a good motivator, I feel much better choosing on my own rather than being pressured or guilted by others.

After all, no one can truly force another to do something they don’t want to—but we can discuss, debate, and change minds.

Instead of saying it’s impossible, let’s consider a third party candidate, specifically one that is explicitly pro-Palestine. In my opinion, it’s tough, especially for these reasons:

- No matter how you look at it four months is a short period of time. We might have less than four months, some ballots are printed and solidified early, according to AOC’s Instagram Live Talk. (link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9l41vgOAGj/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link)

- Many people have not heard of these third party candidates— I had not been familiar with Jill Stein or Claudia de la Cruz before today. Do many people know of the members of Congress who have already called for ceasefire? (https://workingfamilies.org/ceasefire-tracker/) Tumblr endorsements help and I appreciate the information on other platforms regardless, but what about people who are mostly offline?

- There’d need to be a robust and wide-spreading social media, news, TV and more campaign to get enough people informed in such a short time, much less get them on board and overcome the substantial opposition already faced by the pro-Palestine movement in general. Campaign managers need to be paid salaries. Transportation, advertising, food, gas… it costs a lot of money. A lot of people are already struggling financially and donating what they can— and donations to Gaza E-SIMs and evacuation funds help people right now. (By the way, plugging Operation Olive Branch: https://linktr.ee/opolivebranch)

- Even if they do get elected, it can’t be just the president— they will face extreme pushback, likely from all sides, and they need House and Congress and Court members on their side to make not only foreign policy shifts but also other systemic changes to society that are dearly needed.

For now, I’m voting blue because I think it’s our best shot at something better… but if someone has a detailed plan on how to turn a third-party candidate from improbable to possible that addresses these issues in concrete ways, then maybe the conversation can change. The time crunch, however, is extremely tough.

What now?

- Vote. Even if nothing about this post changes your opinion on the presidential election, I’d encourage you to vote, just for voter turnout and to exercise that political power! There are still nonpresedential and local elections that will directly impact your community. (https://www.usa.gov/confirm-voter-registration)

- Continue to advocate for causes you believe in and educate others, and learn about issues outside just the US.

- Being confident in the best action to take and trying to convince others to vote blue shouldn’t mean dismissing criticism of our current institutions and the current Democratic candidate, or attacking people who bring up these criticisms (of course, check for sources and records first!) These conversations should be ongoing.

- Try to fact-check everything you hear and dispel misinformation as much as possible!

- Continue to consider pushing alternative voting methods such as Ranked Choice Voting—I haven’t read into it enough to say more concrete details, but something has got to change 😭

- Share resources whenever you can, and take care of yourself and others :)

[dinahmadanni]

open rp yaaay //

Recently, something came up. An odd case.

tw; crime, mentions of death, iykyk

Federal Oversight File 2025-44Q

Subject: Minor Financial Irregularities – Orion Consulting Contracts

Filed by: Department of Defense Inspector General’s Office

Status: Closed / “Insufficient Evidence to Proceed”

Public Summary:

In Q3 of 2024, a preliminary audit suggested “accounting discrepancies” in Orion Consulting’s billing related to tactical equipment logistics. An internal review was triggered under standard federal compliance procedures. The review centered on non-critical expenditures—namely, inflated transport costs, unitemized administrative fees, and ambiguous subcontractor invoices over an 18-month period.

Orion fully cooperated. After a brief investigation, no fraud was formally substantiated. Orion paid a voluntary fine of $4.2 million for “clerical and reporting inconsistencies,” and the matter was closed quietly in early 2025. No further disciplinary action or criminal charges were filed.

Conclusion: Orion Consulting’s internal billing flagged for suspicious overcharges. The red flags were mostly tied to vague categories: "Mental Health Subcontracting," "Behavioral Metrics R&D," and “Personnel Correction Counseling.”

It looked like garden-variety overbilling.

Nothing flashy. Nothing dramatic.

But none of the companies receiving these funds existed—on paper.

One name that appeared once, buried in a corrupted invoice:

“BDI: Adjustment Services.”

Once I dug deeper through Orion Consulting's files, I found BDI again. Then another name, Black Dove Initiative, which I can safely assume the acronym for. Black Dove Initiative's description within the files was vague. A mental health advocacy group for veterans, correction and readjustment.

It didn’t show up on Orion’s org chart.

It didn’t file taxes.

Its employees were contractors under codenames, paid in crypto or indirect foreign accounts.

There’s a legacy file from a scrubbed server. It contains a list of access logs to BDI’s encrypted case files.

Guess who accessed them?

Jasmine Hoyt – looked at "logistical anomaly reports" that were routing to the same five GPS coordinates used for covert Black Dove sites.

Veronica Easton – approved payment to “BDI-ALT-3” under “veteran wellness.” It got kicked back by the bank for being offshore.

Lauren Bellamy – sent an internal email questioning what the hell “behavioral compliance outcome forecasting” even meant.

Which I'm sure we can all agree, are the names of the victims seemingly unlinked to Black Dove and Orion Consulting. Digging even deeper, they all worked for Orion Consulting. Or recently quit.

So, all three women had once worked for a covert government operation, Black Dove.

And all three died.

1. Jasmine Hoyt – Systems Analyst

Death: Hanging.

Note: Only fingerprinted on one side of the rope.

2. Veronica Easton – Procurement Manager

Death: Car crash. Accelerator tampered with, brake line cut.

3. Lauren Bellamy – Communications Director

Death: Drowned. Body showed defensive wounds.

More reasons as to why, I believe all three deaths were staged.

One woman’s son swears his mother came home panicked the night before her death, ranting about a man following her. Said she’d “seen something in the files” and that “they were going to kill her.”

Two months before the first death, I intercepted chatter on a burner phone connected to an ex-CIA asset about a “dove protocol,” a kill order buried under bureaucratic red tape and outsourced to private mercs. The kind of kill list where the deaths don’t even show up in a ledger.

All women.

All “suicides.”

All connected to the same contractors and the same shelved federal case.

Suicidal people don’t coordinate their timelines like a fucking tactical unit.

Each woman had documented reasons to live:

Jasmine had just adopted a rescue dog.

Veronica was planning her son’s graduation trip.

Lauren had purchased a safe deposit box and sent encrypted messages to a friend overseas.

None of them left suicide notes. None deleted their socials. One even paid rent ahead for the next month.

You don’t drown yourself the day after buying Christmas decorations.

I reviewed the files. And they reek of lazy staging.

Jasmine’s death scene: Ligature bruising inconsistent with self-suspension. No signs of dragging a chair. Her neck broke like she’d been snapped, not hanged.

Veronica’s car “accident”: The brake line was cut clean—not corroded or frayed. No attempt to hide it. Insurance flagged the car for “mechanical tampering,” but the report vanished.

Lauren’s body: Wrist bruises and torn nails. Defensive wounds. If she “slipped” in her bathtub, why did she have skin cells under her nails?

Sloppy killers. They’re not scared of cops. They’re scared of time.

The original whistleblower embezzlement case—2025-44Q—was officially closed “due to lack of evidence.”

But I had seen the original filing. It had 84 pages. Now? It’s three, and all redacted.

The DOJ contact who submitted it?

Reassigned.

No press release. No replacement.

When cases vanish, it’s never on accident. It’s because someone powerful wants them forgotten.

@karenpage-journalist @mattmurdockthelawyer @wesley-not-james @dia-sterling-answers @theyneedtobepunished

[eternalsagasword]

5 Reasons to Choose a Local Rubbish Removal Company in Perth

Introduction

When it involves keeping a fresh and muddle-loose surroundings, rubbish removing is paramount. Whether you might be decluttering your private home, renovating your workplace, or coping with waste after an occasion, the importance of effectual rubbish removing should not be overstated. In Perth, the chances are ample, but one desire stands out: hiring a neighborhood garbage removal organization. This article explores five explanations to pick a neighborhood rubbish elimination brand in Perth that will escalate your waste management sense at the same time as supporting the local people.

1. Understanding Rubbish Removal in Perth What Is Rubbish Removal?

Rubbish elimination comprises the gathering, transportation, and disposal of undesirable parts from residential and commercial homes. This service is mandatory for keeping up hygiene and aesthetics in any house.

The Importance of Local Expertise

Choosing a rubbish removal carrier in Perth potential deciding on pros who perceive neighborhood laws and waste disposal equipment. They are widespread with what can and are not able to be disposed of in landfills and recycling facilities.

Environmental Considerations

Local agencies in the main prioritize green practices, ensuring that recyclable supplies are processed competently. Supporting these organizations contributes to sustainable waste control efforts in the group.

2. Benefits of Hiring Local Rubbish Removal Services Cost-Effective Solutions

One of the regular matters whilst in search of less costly garbage removing in Perth is charge. Local corporations aas a rule present competitive pricing as compared to increased country wide chains considering they've lessen operational charges.

Price Comparison Table: Local vs National Companies

| Service Provider | Average Cost (Per Load) | Additional Fees | |-----------------------------|--------------------------|------------------| | Local Rubbish Removal | $100 - $2 hundred | Rarely charged | | National Rubbish Removal | $150 - $300 | Hidden fees |

Quick Response Times

Local organisations pride themselves on their potential to https://gunnerqdlm549.wordpress.com/2025/07/10/rubbish-removal-in-perth-cost-effective-solutions-for-every-budget/ respond impulsively to requests. When you search for "garbage removal close to me," you are likely to locate corporations which could dispatch a crew quick, guaranteeing your junk is gone in the past you know it.

Personalized Customer Service

In contrast to greater enterprises in which you can actually suppose like simply an alternate quantity, regional organizations pretty much furnish personalised service adapted to distinct demands.

3. Supporting the Community Through Local Business Strengthening the Local Economy

By choosing a Perth garbage removing company, you are now not simply clearing out your house; you are also contributing to the nearby financial system. Your business supports jobs and allows preserve livelihoods inside your group.

Community Engagement Initiatives

Many regional rubbish removal providers interact in tasks aimed at cleaning up public areas or sponsoring neighborhood pursuits. By hiring them, you’re circuitously taking part in these efforts.

four. Environmentally Friendly Practices Recycli

[mastergarryblogs]

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles Market in 2025: Predictions, Challenges, and Opportunities

Explosive Growth in the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Market

The global hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market is undergoing a rapid transformation, with projections showing an increase from USD 2 billion in 2023 to a staggering USD 46.98 billion by 2031, driven by an impressive CAGR of 44.8%. This growth is not merely statistical; it is the manifestation of a global industrial shift towards sustainable, emission-free mobility. As governments enforce stricter environmental regulations and private sectors align with net-zero goals, hydrogen-powered vehicles are becoming an integral solution in the decarbonization roadmap.

Request Sample Report PDF (including TOC, Graphs & Tables): https://www.statsandresearch.com/request-sample/40538-global-hydrogen-fuel-cell-vehicles-market

Hydrogen as the Future of Clean Mobility

Hydrogen stands at the forefront of green innovation. Unlike internal combustion engines or even battery electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity by converting hydrogen into water vapor, offering zero tailpipe emissions and rapid refueling capabilities. These characteristics make HFCVs uniquely suited for both urban transport and long-haul applications.

Get up to 30%-40% Discount: https://www.statsandresearch.com/check-discount/40538-global-hydrogen-fuel-cell-vehicles-market

Key Drivers of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Market Expansion:

Government Incentives and Policy Push

National energy transition policies, tax rebates, and zero-emission mandates are heavily incentivizing both automakers and consumers to pivot toward hydrogen mobility. In regions like Europe, South Korea, and California, dedicated hydrogen roadmaps are in place, accelerating infrastructure deployment and technology adoption.

Infrastructure Investments

Hydrogen refueling infrastructure is the linchpin for HFCV scalability. Public-private partnerships are actively establishing networks of hydrogen fueling stations, particularly in urban corridors and highway freight routes. Notable initiatives such as H2 Mobility, HyDeploy, and Hydrogen Council projects are reshaping the refueling landscape across continents.

Power Output Segmentation: Tailoring Performance to Application

hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market’s are categorized by output to align vehicle performance with specific use cases:

Below 100 kW: Optimized for compact passenger vehicles prioritizing energy efficiency and affordability.

100–200 kW: Ideal for mid-sized cars and light-duty commercial vehicles, balancing extended range with urban operability.

Above 200 kW: Essential for buses, freight trucks, and rail locomotives, where payload capacity and range are paramount.

Technology Types: From PEMFC to SOFC

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC)

PEMFCs dominate the current market landscape due to their low operating temperatures, compact size, and quick startup capabilities—ideal for vehicles requiring dynamic load handling. OEMs such as Toyota and Hyundai have refined PEMFCs for commercial-scale deployment in both consumer and fleet markets.

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC)

Though not yet mainstream in automotive, SOFCs are gaining attention for heavy-duty and marine transport, where high efficiency and longer operational stability offset the challenges of elevated temperatures. Ongoing R&D is paving the way for hybrid systems combining SOFCs and batteries for enhanced power management.

End-Use Segmentation: Customizing for Mobility Needs

Public Transport

Municipal bus fleets are transitioning rapidly to HFCVs for their quick refueling, extended route capabilities, and alignment with green city goals. Pioneering cities include Oslo, Los Angeles, and Tokyo, each investing in hydrogen fleets for urban connectivity.

Personal Use

Automakers are targeting environmentally-conscious consumers with models such as the Toyota Mirai and Hyundai NEXO, offering long range, refueling in under 5 minutes, and zero emissions, meeting growing demand for sustainable personal transportation.

Commercial and Industrial Fleets

Logistics providers, last-mile delivery firms, and industrial shippers are adopting hydrogen vehicles for reliable, non-stop operations. Hydrogen’s advantage in payload-to-range ratio makes it a formidable choice over battery-electric alternatives for long-haul freight.

Regional Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Market Analysis: Strategic Global Deployment

North America

Led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Hydrogen Program and California’s ZEV mandates, North America is a powerhouse in hydrogen innovation. Major investments in infrastructure and heavy-duty fleets are cementing its leadership.

Asia-Pacific

Home to industry giants like Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda, the Asia-Pacific region commands a strategic edge in fuel cell innovation, manufacturing, and government-backed deployments, especially in Japan, South Korea, and China.

Europe

The EU Hydrogen Strategy aims to deploy at least 1 million HFCVs by 2030, supported by the Hydrogen Valleys initiative and strong national programs in Germany, France, and Scandinavia. Europe's mature regulatory frameworks ensure high confidence for investors and OEMs alike.

Middle East & Africa

The Middle East, with its abundance of green hydrogen projects, is positioning itself as a global exporter and adopter of hydrogen mobility. Africa, though in earlier stages, is witnessing early pilot programs and feasibility studies.

South America

Countries like Brazil and Chile are exploring hydrogen transport as part of broader renewable energy agendas. With ample solar and wind resources, the region has strong potential for low-cost green hydrogen production.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Market Challenges and Mitigation Strategies

Infrastructure Gaps: Coordinated investment by stakeholders in public refueling stations and private fleet hubs is addressing network scarcity.

Cost Constraints: Declining electrolyzer costs, economies of scale in fuel cell production, and policy subsidies are steadily reducing CAPEX and OPEX.

Hydrogen Storage: Innovations in liquid hydrogen tanks, metal hydride storage, and composite pressure vessels are enhancing vehicle safety and range.

Leading Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Market Participants

Top manufacturers and fuel cell providers are solidifying the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market landscape:

Toyota Motor Corporation – Pioneer in commercial FCEVs with Mirai.

Hyundai Motor Company – Leader in hydrogen SUV technology (NEXO).

Honda Motor Co., Ltd. – Innovator in compact HFCVs.

General Motors Company – Developer of hydrogen propulsion for military and commercial sectors.

Daimler AG (Mercedes-Benz) – Integrated fuel cell systems for commercial vehicles.

Nikola Corporation – Heavy-duty trucks with advanced hydrogen drivetrain.

BMW Group, Ballard Power Systems, Plug Power Inc., and Rivian Automotive continue to shape the ecosystem through innovation and collaboration.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Market Forecast Outlook: 2024–2031

With mass production scaling, policy support intensifying, and refueling infrastructure expanding, HFCVs are on track to become mainstream by 2030. The projected CAGR of 44.8% is supported by:

Widespread adoption in logistics and freight

Urban public transport electrification mandates

Decentralized hydrogen generation systems

OEM investments in cost-effective fuel cell stacks

Purchase Exclusive Report: https://www.statsandresearch.com/enquire-before/40538-global-hydrogen-fuel-cell-vehicles-market

Conclusion

The global hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market is not a distant vision but an accelerating reality. As innovation, infrastructure, and investment align, HFCVs are emerging as a cornerstone of zero-emission transport. The next decade will be defined by those who lead—not follow—in the hydrogen economy. We are at the threshold of a paradigm shift in mobility, and the momentum is unmistakable.

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Website: https://www.statsandresearch.com

[digitaldetoxworld]

The Importance of Cybersecurity in the Digital Age

 In the 21st century, the rapid evolution of technology has transformed the manner people, corporations, and governments perform. From communication and banking to healthcare and country wide defense, almost every element of contemporary lifestyles now relies upon on virtual platforms and related structures. While this advancement has brought immense blessings, it has additionally delivered extreme dangers in the shape of cyber threats. Cybersecurity—the practice of protecting structures, networks, and statistics from virtual attacks—has emerged as a crucial necessity in these days’s interconnected international. The importance of cybersecurity can't be overstated, because it performs a vital function in safeguarding private statistics, preserving commercial enterprise continuity, retaining country wide safety, and selling believe in digital ecosystems.

Importance of cyber security for students

1. Protection of Personal Information

In these days’s digital panorama, people mechanically percentage non-public records on line—via social media, on line buying, mobile apps, and cloud garage. This records often consists of sensitive info which include names, addresses, telephone numbers, passwords, or even financial or medical statistics. Without right cybersecurity measures, this records is vulnerable to cybercriminals who may additionally use it for identification robbery, fraud, or extortion.

A single records breach can motive irreparable damage to someone's reputation and budget. For instance, cyber attackers can benefit unauthorized access to financial institution accounts, devote tax fraud, or impersonate people to conduct illegal activities. Strong cybersecurity protocols—which includes -component authentication, encryption, and steady password practices—are vital to shield individuals from those threats and ensure their privacy inside the virtual realm.

2. Business Continuity and Economic Impact

For groups, cybersecurity isn't always just a technical difficulty—it's far a center factor of operational balance and threat management. Cyberattacks can lead to big financial losses thru information breaches, machine shutdowns, ransomware demands, and lack of customer trust. According to various reviews, cybercrime is anticipated to cost the global economy over $10 trillion yearly by means of 2025.

Small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) are particularly susceptible because they often lack the sources to put money into sturdy cybersecurity infrastructure. However, even huge corporations are common objectives. High-profile incidents, such as the 2017 Equifax data breach or the 2021 Colonial Pipeline ransomware assault, display how cyber threats can disrupt critical services and harm public accept as true with.

Effective cybersecurity measures—which includes normal device audits, worker schooling, firewalls, and intrusion detection structures—assist agencies prevent unauthorized get right of entry to, shield intellectual assets, and make sure uninterrupted service transport.

Three. Safeguarding National Security

Cybersecurity is not only a non-public-region problem—it is also a matter of national security. Governments international face persistent cyber threats from opposed countries, terrorist companies, and hacktivist agencies. These entities often goal important infrastructure sectors like strength, transportation, healthcare, and defense to thieve touchy statistics or disrupt vital services.

Cyberwarfare has emerge as a new frontier in global conflicts, with international locations making an investment heavily in cyber skills each for protection and offense. A a success cyberattack on a energy grid, conversation network, or navy system could purpose chaos, economic damage, or even loss of lifestyles. To mitigate such risks, countries must increase comprehensive cybersecurity regulations, foster public-personal partnerships, and build strong cyber protection mechanisms to shield countrywide interests.

4. Increasing Dependence on Technology

With the upward thrust of the Internet of Things (IoT), synthetic intelligence (AI), and cloud computing, the variety of linked gadgets has exploded. From clever houses and wearable tech to self sustaining vehicles and industrial control structures, technology has emerge as deeply embedded in every day existence. While this connectivity offers comfort and performance, it additionally widens the assault surface for cybercriminals.

Every tool related to the internet can doubtlessly serve as an entry point for hackers. Insecure IoT devices, for example, may be hijacked to shape botnets that launch large-scale Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks. As our reliance on virtual infrastructure grows, ensuring the security of those systems will become more and more essential.

Cybersecurity measures ought to evolve along technological innovation to deal with new vulnerabilities and protect customers from rising threats.

5. Protection of Data Integrity and Intellectual Property

Data is the lifeblood of the virtual economic system. Organizations accumulate and analyze large quantities of facts to inform selections, expand merchandise, and gain aggressive blessings. However, if this facts is corrupted, altered, or stolen, it could have severe consequences for both the organization and its stakeholders.

For industries inclusive of finance, healthcare, and research, keeping information integrity is essential. A cyberattack that manipulates scientific statistics, as an example, can endanger patients’ lives. Similarly, the theft of highbrow belongings, along with change secrets and techniques or proprietary algorithms, can bring about misplaced revenue and reputational harm.

Implementing robust cybersecurity regulations guarantees that data remains accurate, steady, and on hand most effective to authorized users. Techniques consisting of records encryption, get entry to manipulate, and regular backups are vital for shielding digital belongings and maintaining believe.

6. Regulatory Compliance and Legal Responsibilities

Governments and regulatory bodies have added numerous legal guidelines and requirements to compel groups to adopt strong cybersecurity practices. Examples consist of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) within the European Union, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) inside the United States, and India’s Information Technology Act.Failure to comply with these guidelines can lead to extreme penalties, complaints, and loss of business possibilities. Organizations are legally and ethically obligated to protect customer information and respond swiftly to breaches. Cybersecurity performs a primary position in ensuring compliance, dealing with chance, and demonstrating responsibility to stakeholders.

7. Building Trust within the Digital Ecosystem

In an era wherein virtual interactions dominate private, professional, and commercial exchanges, agree with is a essential forex. Users must feel assured that their statistics is safe and that systems will paintings reliably and securely. Cybersecurity is the foundation of that accept as true with.

When users revel in common security breaches, phishing scams, or facts leaks, their self belief in virtual structures diminishes. This no longer most effective affects man or woman conduct however also can have widespread implications for e-trade, on-line banking, far off work, and digital governance.

Investing in cybersecurity facilitates foster a secure and sincere virtual surroundings, encouraging innovation and allowing extra humans to take part inside the virtual economic system.

[theglobalthread]

WS3- internationalization, Globalization, and Philippine Sovereignty

Sovereignty is what we also called as the supreme authority. We can imagine it as the driver of vehicles that has the full control. Which means it has the ultimate power and control over its people, affairs and other resources. It also has the power to make law, to implement them and to keep them. When it comes to globalization it impacted the traditional state of the sovereignty. That makes the state profoundly influenced their economy, political and social landscapes. While internationalization is the action or process of bringing a place under the protection or control of two or more nations. By which our sovereignty takes control of our law within the boundaries of the country and the policies outside the country or internationally. Interstate system in the US reshaped how the nation interact in such a way like facilitating trade, transportation, also communication. One of the historic event is the ASEAN in which 10+ countries are joined together to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development. This organization or event help every country to learn and to know how to properly view the needs of there people. With this way they can mange not only how their country improve but also how they can strengthen their sovereign to have a more organized and helpful law. Whether it is global or international involvement the Philippines sovereignty is strengthened and threatened in such many and different ways. Philippines can navigate these global system by having the opportunity and to make their country meet or exceed on how the other country improve and develop there economy and on how the sovereign handle and control its country. Through these Philippines can manage to step closer each improvement that we can make so we can engage and keep up not only globally but also internationally.

What is Sovereignty | Definition of Sovereignty. (2024). What is Sovereignty | Definition of Sovereignty. Www.google.com. ASEAN. (2025). About ASEAN. Asean.org. https://asean.org/about-asean/

[deolinkbm]

‎UBA BANK  SERVICES WAS NOT ACCEPTED DURING WEEKEND PERIOD.

‎TO WHO ITS MAY CONCERNED SHOULD CORRECT ALL ERRORS OF CLIENTS HANGING CASH NOW.

‎if we are looking and crossing our fingers it's doesn't mean we are fools and we want peace to reign. A closed mouth is a closed destiny. Its time to complained about this UBA bank bad transportation during weekends days.

‎Something is looming at UBA bank that we don't understand expecialy during weekends on Sunday withdrawal.  UBA bank is my mean Bank, but their services was no longer accepted because alots of customers money hanging that was not reversed back to our account.

‎During sometimes last month,i purchased a cards #2000 twice into MTN, you can't believe me, up till today the money was hanging, the credit alert was not received to my MTN, I just kept quiet. I have to credit another money from my opay account, what is happening to UBA transportation.

‎Last weekend on Sunday 29 of June 2025 I did another withdrawal with my ATM cards , you can't believe me that the money was not dropped or reversed up till now. So what is happening to my account.

‎The person in charge of the transaction to check it before it's too late,  so that what happened to other banks will not happened to UBA BANK WE ARE STILL LOVE YOUR BANK.

‎When I was going to my office yesterday I was at Maryland branch to make a complained but I meet alots of customers for the same complained of withdrawal twice without receiving cash. I have to left the bank to office because we have management meeting. I met alots of clients for the same complained. I want the person in charge to do the needfull.

‎This issues was not started today, i have being to Eric Moore branches for the same issues sometimes last few months ago  in which I was able to complained to Clint's services and asked for my statement of account for my personal reconciliation but mind you because I got home my current balance was increased not knowing what they did to my account.

‎The management of UBA BANK has to call system auditor to check all the clients account for reconciliation before it too late.

‎I want the refund of all my hanging cash back to my account. 

‎Secondly, I want to used this opportunity to asked for my shares dividend purchase for years back has not yet paid to me. I want the dividend cash payment to my account too.

‎The money you are using to running your day to day banking activities is pool Clint's services money not your money.

‎Thanks

‎Regards

‎Yours Faithfully.

‎Olayinka Emmanuel Dada

‎Account number 2011 76 9365

‎

[labourcompliance]

Understanding the Factories Act in India: A Comprehensive Overview

The Factories Act, 1948, is a cornerstone of India’s labor legislation, designed to ensure the safety, health, and welfare of workers in industrial settings. Enacted to regulate working conditions in factories, this law applies to establishments employing 10 or more workers with power or 20 or more without power. As of 2025, it remains a critical framework for protecting millions of workers in industries ranging from manufacturing to textiles. This blog delves into the key provisions of the Factories Act, its significance, and its impact on workplaces across India.

The Act begins by defining a factory and its scope. It covers premises where manufacturing processes occur, including activities like processing, packing, or repairing goods. The definition is broad, encompassing diverse workplaces but excluding mines and railway sheds, which fall under separate laws. State governments can extend the Act’s coverage to smaller establishments, ensuring flexibility to address local needs.

A core objective of the Factories Act is to safeguard worker health. Employers must ensure clean and hygienic workplaces, with proper ventilation, adequate lighting, and safe drinking water. Overcrowding is prohibited, with a minimum space requirement of 14.2 cubic meters per worker. Factories must also manage dust, fumes, and other pollutants to prevent occupational diseases, particularly in industries like chemicals or cement.

Safety is another critical focus. The Act mandates safeguards for machinery, requiring secure fencing for moving parts like belts and gears. Workers handling hazardous processes, such as those involving toxic chemicals, must have personal protective equipment (PPE, and regular safety training. Factories with significant risks, like heavy machinery or high-pressure systems, must appoint qualified safety officers to monitor compliance. The law also regulates the use of dangerous substances, requiring clear labeling and emergency plans to mitigate risks like fires or gas leaks.

Welfare provisions form a significant part of the Act. Factories must provide washing facilities, restrooms, and first-aid boxes, with trained staff to handle medical emergencies. Larger factories, employing 250 or more workers, must maintain canteens offering affordable meals. For establishments with 150 or more employees, sheltered rest rooms are mandatory, giving workers a place to relax during breaks. In factories with over 30 female workers, creches are required for children under six, supporting working mothers.

The Act strictly regulates working hours to prevent exploitation. Adult workers cannot exceed 48 hours per week or 9 hours per day, with a daily rest interval of at least 30 minutes after 5 hours of continuous work. Overtime is permitted but requires worker consent and must be paid at twice the regular wage. The law prohibits overlapping shifts and ensures a weekly rest day, typically Sunday, to balance work and personal life.

Child labor is addressed with stringent measures. Children under 14 are banned from factory work, reflecting India’s commitment to child welfare. Adolescents aged 15 to 18 can work only with restrictions, requiring a fitness certificate and limited hours. These rules aim to keep young workers safe while allowing skill development in non-hazardous roles.

The Act also protects women workers, particularly regarding night shifts. Women cannot work between 7 PM and 6 AM unless special exemptions are granted by the state government, and only with adequate safety measures, like transport facilities. This provision balances gender-specific concerns with the need for equal employment opportunities.

Leave entitlements are worker-friendly. Employees who have completed 240 days of work in a year are entitled to one day of paid leave for every 20 days worked, typically around 12–15 days annually. This earned leave can be accumulated up to a limit, ensuring workers have time for rest and family without financial strain.

The Factories Act imposes responsibilities on employers, known as occupiers, to maintain compliance. They must register factories with state authorities and renew licenses periodically. Detailed records, including worker attendance, wage payments, and safety inspections, must be maintained for audits. Employers must also notify authorities of accidents causing serious injury or death within hours, enabling timely investigations to prevent recurrence.

Penalties for non-compliance are stringent to enforce adherence. Violations, such as unsafe working conditions or excessive working hours, can lead to fines up to ₹5 lakh or imprisonment for up to two years. Repeat offenses attract harsher penalties, underscoring the government’s commitment to worker protection.

The Act empowers state governments to appoint factory inspectors to monitor compliance. These officials conduct regular inspections, review records, and investigate complaints. They can issue improvement notices or prosecute non-compliant employers, acting as a check on workplace practices.

Over the years, the Factories Act has evolved through amendments to address modern challenges. For instance, recent updates have strengthened provisions for women’s safety and creche facilities, aligning with gender equality goals. However, enforcement remains a challenge, particularly in small-scale factories or unorganized sectors, where resources for inspections are limited.

The Factories Act’s significance lies in its holistic approach to worker welfare. By addressing health, safety, and working conditions, it creates a framework for humane and productive workplaces. For workers, it provides legal protections against exploitation, ensuring fair treatment and dignity. For employers, compliance fosters a motivated workforce and reduces risks of legal or operational disruptions.

In 2025, as India’s industrial landscape grows, the Factories Act remains relevant, though calls for reform persist. Some advocate for simplifying compliance to ease business operations, while others emphasize stronger enforcement to protect vulnerable workers. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, aims to consolidate the Act with other labor laws, promising streamlined regulations, but its full implementation is still unfolding.

In conclusion, the Factories Act, 1948, is a vital pillar of India’s labor framework, balancing worker rights with industrial needs. Its provisions on safety, health, welfare, and working hours create a foundation for fair workplaces. While challenges like enforcement and modernization persist, the Act’s legacy is its enduring commitment to protecting India’s industrial workforce, ensuring they thrive in safe and dignified conditions.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 1, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Jan 01, 2025

Twenty-five years ago today, Americans—along with the rest of the world—woke up to a new century date…and to the discovery that the years of work computer programmers had put in to stop what was known as the Y2K bug from crashing airplanes, shutting down hospitals, and making payments systems inoperable had worked.

When programmers began their work with the first wave of commercial computers in the 1960s, computer memory was expensive, so they used a two-digit format for dates, using just the years in the century, rather than using the four digits that would be necessary otherwise—78, for example, rather than 1978. This worked fine until the century changed.

As the turn of the twenty-first century approached, computer engineers realized that computers might interpret 00 as 1900 rather than 2000 or fail to recognize it at all, causing programs that, by then, handled routine maintenance, safety checks, transportation, finance, and so on, to fail. According to scholar Olivia Bosch, governments recognized that government services, as well as security and the law, could be disrupted by the glitch. They knew that the public must have confidence that world systems would survive, and the United States and the United Kingdom, where at the time computers were more widespread than they were elsewhere, emphasized transparency about how governments, companies, and programmers were handling the problem. They backed the World Bank and the United Nations in their work to help developing countries fix their own Y2K issues.

Meanwhile, people who were already worried about the coming of a new century began to fear that the end of the world was coming. In late 1996, evangelical Christian believers saw the Virgin Mary in the windows of an office building near Clearwater, Florida, and some thought the image was a sign of the end times. Leaders fed that fear, some appearing to hope that the secular government they hated would fall, some appreciating the profit to be made from their warnings. Popular televangelist Pat Robertson ran headlines like “The Year 2000—A Date with Disaster.”

Fears reached far beyond the evangelical community. Newspaper tabloids ran headlines that convinced some worried people to start stockpiling food and preparing for societal collapse: “JANUARY 1, 2000: THE DAY THE EARTH WILL STAND STILL!” one tabloid read. “ALL BANKS WILL FAIL. FOOD SUPPLIES WILL BE DEPLETED! ELECTRICITY WILL BE CUT OFF! THE STOCK MARKET WILL CRASH! VEHICLES USING COMPUTER CHIPS WILL STOP DEAD! TELEPHONES WILL CEASE TO FUNCTION! DOMINO EFFECT WILL CAUSE A WORLDWIDE DEPRESSION!”

In fact, the fix turned out to be simple—programmers developed updated systems that recognized a four-digit date—but implementing it meant that hardware and software had to be adjusted to become Y2K compliant, and they had to be ready by midnight on December 31, 1999. Technology teams worked for years, racing to meet the deadline at a cost that researchers estimate to have been $300–$600 billion. The head of the Federal Aviation Administration at the time, Jane Garvey, told NPR in 1998 that the air traffic control system had twenty-three million lines of code that had to be fixed.

President Bill Clinton’s 1999 budget had described fixing the Y2K bug as “the single largest technology management challenge in history,” but on December 14 of that year, President Bill Clinton announced that according to the Office of Management and Budget, 99.9% of the government's mission-critical computer systems were ready for 2000. In May 1997, only 21% had been ready. “[W]e have done our job, we have met the deadline, and we have done it well below cost projections,” Clinton said.

Indeed, the fix worked. Despite the dark warnings, the programmers had done their job, and the clocks changed with little disruption. “2000,” the Wilmington, Delaware, News Journal’s headline read. “World rejoices; Y2K bug is quiet.”

Crises get a lot of attention, but the quiet work of fixing them gets less. And if that work ends the crisis that got all the attention, the success itself makes people think there was never a crisis to begin with. In the aftermath of the Y2K problem, people began to treat it as a joke, but as technology forecaster Paul Saffo emphasized, “The Y2K crisis didn’t happen precisely because people started preparing for it over a decade in advance. And the general public who was busy stocking up on supplies and stuff just didn’t have a sense that the programmers were on the job.”

As of midnight last night, a five-year contract ended that had allowed Russia to export natural gas to Europe by way of a pipeline running through Ukraine. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky warned that he would not renew the contract, which permitted more than $6 billion a year to flow to cash-strapped Russia. European governments said they had plenty of time to prepare and that they have found alternative sources to meet the needs of their people.

Today, President Joe Biden issued a statement marking the day that the new, lower cap on seniors’ out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs goes into effect. The Inflation Reduction Act, negotiated over two years and passed with Democratic votes alone, enabled the government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over drug prices and phased in out-of-pocket spending caps for seniors. In 2024 the cap was $3,400; it’s now $2,000.

As we launch ourselves into 2025, one of the key issues of the new year will be whether Americans care that the U.S. government does the hard, slow work of governing and, if it does, who benefits.

Happy New Year, everyone.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON