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#But THIS quality... all free on Youtube... JUST 1.2 Million????
screwpinecaprice · 1 year
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Monkey Wrench - The Ghost Egg
Sharing this because this had been under my radar for 8 months???? and maybe it's the case for anyone who's seeing this post.
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Why You Should Buy SoundCloud Promotions in 2020
Does SoundCloud make a difference?
Eight Tips for promoting music on SoundCloud(REAL SOUNDCLOUD PROMOTION)
1. Match up your web-based life
2. Look at your socioeconomics
3. Work together
4. Remix individual craftsmen
5. Connect with others
6. Fix your SoundCloud settings
7. Fix your SoundCloud and Google SEO
8. Go Pro
How would you know whether it’s functioning?
End
SoundCloud has a notoriety for being a stage for propelling vocations and finding your first crowd. Be that as it may, with 20 million music makers on the stage, slicing through the clamor and getting yourself before the crowd is as yet a huge test.
Simply hurling your music on SoundCloud and seeking after the best won’t cut it. Rather, what you need is a multi-pronged, cross-stage procedure that uses all the logical, conveyance, and showcasing devices available to you to make the best of the stages solid suits.
Be that as it may, what are those apparatuses? What’s more, what are simply the means would you be able to take to make yourself noticeable on SoundCloud? We set up this manual forgive you an extensive methodology for getting things off the ground: become familiar with every one of our tips and deceives of SoundCloud advancement and take your introduction on the stage to the following level
Does SoundCloud make a difference?
Truly! Soundсloud is one of the greatest music promotion stages on the planet. With free music get to and simple direct transfer framework, SoundCloud turned into a harbor for all things DIY and askew — despite the fact that the greater part of the standard demonstrations is available on the stage. A lot of specialists previously picked up reputation and consideration on SoundCloud — particularly with regards to electronic music and rap. You know, similar to XXXTENTATION, Lil Pump, Lil Uzi Vert — a great deal of the specialists beating the Billboard graphs have begun by turning into a web sensation on (or through) SoundCloud. That is to say, SoundCloud rap is a generally perceived classification now — however in the event that you need all the more persuading, here are a few snappy measurements:
Why SoundCloud is significant?
175 million clients and 76 million month to month clients (more than Pandora yet not exactly Spotify)
180 million tracks transferred on the stage, with 12 hours transferred each moment
20 million music makers
1.2 million makers included in playlists,
With such an expansive crowd and built up network, SoundCloud is a key piece of any performer’s promoting system.
8 Tips for advancing music on SoundCloud
1. Synchronize your online networking
The more strong and composed your web-based life procedure, the better your music will perform on SoundCloud. There’s an overflow impact on building a group of people on various stages: you transfer your music on SoundCloud, discharge recordings on YouTube, build up your visual image on Instagram and get individual with your fans on Twitter. Each new audience that tails you on one of the stages is bound to tail you on another.
Youtube
Transferring your music on YouTube can open you to new crowds, and it doesn’t generally require a music video. In any event, transferring music with a despite everything picture is better than not transferring by any means — some got to 45 million perspectives with a few seconds of circled movement. With everything taken into account, the most significant part is ensuring you have a nearness on the stage — in spite of the fact that music video discharges should be a piece of your showcasing blend once you get the things off the ground.
Twitter
Twitter was a huge stage for SoundCloud rappers back in their day (truly, that is the articulations we presently use to state “two years prior”). The stage’s solid suit is that it permits you to set up a two-route correspondence with your fans. Be connecting with, remarkable, and agreeable, and you may get your supporters to retweet in handfuls sooner than you might suspect. For building up an association with your SoundCloud profile, be certain you post 30-second implants with your new tracks.
Instagram
Instagram assumes a vital job in building up your image and getting your fans to see your name. Other than that, Instagram stories and Instagram Live are maybe the best places to impart your new melodies to your following and get some traffic streaming to your SoundCloud page.
2. Look at your socioeconomics
The major DSPs all give itemized first-party investigation about execution on their foundation (counting SoundCloud). This information gives a basic understanding of your crowd that ought to advise your promoting methodology. SoundCloud investigation permits you to get to point by point information on how your music performs on the stage — including the socioeconomics of your listenership. This information can assist you with understanding your crowd better and streamline your publicizing and general advertising efforts.
3. Team up
Joint effort drives the music business — and getting highlights with different specialists is the most seasoned stunt in the book. Highlights permit you to trade crowds and acquaint new individuals with your music. You can team up in several distinct manners. On the off chance that you produce music yourself, it may be a smart thought to sell (or even part with for nothing) a portion of your pounds to dynamic and-coming rappers on Soundcloud — yet ensure that your sound will work with their stream and the other way around.
On the off chance that you’re not a maker, at that point you despite everything have the choice of going for melody highlights. Melody highlights can have an increasingly obvious limited time impact — however, they likewise require an additional hands-on way to deal with the collab, working intimately with the subsequent craftsman.
4. Remix individual craftsmen
Remixing is another type of coordinated effort and connection, both with individual craftsmen and their fanbase. There are two or three distinct approaches to work remixes into your SoundCloud advancement methodology. To start with, you can add you’re interesting energy to an effectively well-known tune is an incredible method to open your style to new crowds and interface with new fans. Be certain that you get a green light from the craftsman you’re remixing first, however.
Besides, you can standard over a beat that you love from another craftsman (in case you’re a rapper, obviously). That is an extraordinary chance to make some captivating substance — individuals are bound to tap on a tune on the off chance that it highlights one of their preferred beats — however don’t hope to adapt it, however. It’s “for limited time utilize as it were”.
5. Collaborate with others
There are more straightforward approaches to organize in the music world than jumping on highlights or doing remixes. Normally connecting with the two fans and different specialists will assist you with setting up your quality on the stage and eventually open you to new audience members. Repost, follow, remark, message, and join gatherings — however, remain specific and just connect with substance and individuals you truly like. There’s no reason for flooding your devotees and other craftsman’s feeds with content only for it.
6. Fix your SoundCloud settings
There are some basic advances that you can take in your SoundCloud record to support listenership or even send traffic away to different stages like Spotify. For one thing, you can set your substance to stream as it were. That will restrain your music’s virality, hindering your audience members from downloading the melodies (and re-transferring them over the web) — however on the top side, your stream checks are probably going to go up.
Furthermore, you can put a portion of your substance behind the paywall — it’s a typical practice to have your singles and b-sides uninhibitedly accessible on SoundCloud while putting your long-structure discharges in see mode. That will push your fans to different stages, however, be cautious: all your SoundCloud supporters won’t make it to Spotify.
7. Fix your SoundCloud and Google SEO
A basic piece of your marking and advertising procedure is to guarantee that crowds can rapidly distinguish your music and discover you on various stages. How would you anticipate that individuals should discover you when you give them no information on your tunes?
Make it Understood in your title and labels what your music is. Try not to title your melody “Dj mustard trap remix by lemonade man”. Name it “DJ Mustard - 100 Bands (Trap Remix) - By LemonadeMan”. Make it look great (and simple to peruse). That will make it either for your fans to locate your substance, and may even get your music positioning on Google for “DJ Mustard Trap Remix”.
On the subject of Google — they’re making a decent attempt to get you in the hunt, yet you have to work with them. Rename yourself on SoundCloud from “lemonademan1997" to Lemonade Man, or something progressively proficient (with spaces, ideally). Follow a similar Song Title model above, and use labels while transferring your music.
8. Go Pro
SoundCloud Pro places a huge amount of valuable devices in your grasp for driving income, improving your promoting system, and dispersing your music. On the off chance that you’re not kidding about the stage, at that point, Pro is the best approach. The Pro membership gives you access to improved examination, permits you to adapt your substance, and even get your music from SoundCloud onto all a large portion of the significant stages by means of an appropriation bargain.
How would you know whether it’s functioning?
SoundCloud is only one of the stages accessible to craftsmen. Without a doubt, its examination will show how you’re doing on the stage itself — yet it won’t yield any knowledge on your technique and profession all in all. To get a total view, you have to follow many stages and mediums.
Sound charts (hello, that is us!) does precisely that. We total information over all foundations of the music business, both worldwide and nearby: from gushing administrations and online networking to radio airplay across thousands of stations. Sound charts give its clients the 360° perspective on a craftsman’s profession, transforming crude information into significant, natural ongoing bits of knowledge. Discover more.
End
A portion of these means is exceptionally basic, such as changing your SoundCloud settings. Others will require outreach and difficult work, such as teaming up with different craftsmen. Be that as it may, with 12 hours of music transferred to SoundCloud every moment, difficult work is actually what it will take to separate yourself from the majority. At long last, it comes down to the nature of your music, however, several hints and deceives above can go far in getting your SoundCloud profile going.
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revieworzo · 3 years
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PrimeStocks Review & Bonuses Should I Get this Software ?
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PrimeStocks Review -What Is ?
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PrimeStocks Review -What Is ?
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donvex · 7 years
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A PLAYLIST OF RICHIE TOZIER APPEARANCES
Fandom: IT (2017)
Pairing: Reddie ( Richie Tozier / Eddie Kaspbrak )
Word Count: 2.3k
Summary: 
Eddie is, by all means, a popular vlogger. He’s worked hard to get himself where he is, and the fans love him for that, appreciate him for that.
But they’re also somewhat obsessed with Richie Tozier, and trying to decide if Eddie is, in fact, dating him.
So sue them.
AO3 Link
For @odeto-tozier, based off of their Vlogger!Eddie post.
Tag List: @killerxqueer @richietozierlitaf @princely-dots
I. 101 WAYS TO DITCH YOUR FRIENDS - 932k VIEWS
One of the most popular videos on Eddie’s entire channel, at least for a while, this is where Eddie introduces them. The Losers Club. He’s mentioned them, sure. Talked about having them on for a video, showed off their makeup or their art and directed his fan base to their social medias, but this is where he finally introduces them.
Big Bill is first. Eddie’s best friend, the sweetest guy there is, always there for Eddie. One of the only people to not have made fun of him in middle school for having asthma, Bill knew stuff to do. Places to go. Things to see. And the thing is, Eddie may not have needed an inhaler anymore, but he still never breathed as well as he did when he was with Bill. They’d run all night and never need to catch their breath, that was the kind of bond they had.
And then there’s Mike, and okay, maybe Bill isn’t the sweetest guy in the world. He’s up there, sure, but he doesn’t compare to Mike Hanlon. From the moment Mike is on screen, he’s smiling. Then he realizes he’s being filmed, and he smiles even more. He wants to show the camera a thousand things, from the soft sheep on his farm, to the flowers he’s pressed in his free time, to the pages of history he has organized on his book shelves. Mike is smiles and safety, strong and soft all at once.
Ben is quiet most of the time he’s on camera. While Eddie promises Ben’s all laughs when they’re hanging out, he’s just too shy to do anything for what could possibly (and definitely would) be thousands of people. He’s better at writing words than saying them, and Eddie shamelessly uses that as an opportunity to plug Ben’s up and coming poetry book that he’s been setting up a kickstarter for.
Beverly, Stan, and Richie come as a tangled group. It’s a whirlwind, really, the four of them pushing through the walmart doors at almost 2am. There’s a lot of swift laughter and fumbling of the phone, unwillingly passing the camera from set of hands to set of hands. At some point Richie refuses to give the phone back, holding it high above his head, camera angled down towards a clearly angry Eddie.
There’s a lot of banter, and even Bev and Stan can be heard “oo-ing” in the background and yelling out to “just kiss already!” It’s clearly a joke (maybe?) between a close group of friends, but all of Eddie’s fans instantly latch onto this. It’s perfect, an equal amount of fond push and shove on each end, and it’s addictive.
The walmart group each get their own sections later, and some more group videos are thrown in towards the end, but all of the gif sets made seem to revolve around Richie. His sections is mostly Richie taking the phone and talking about himself, making bad jokes that Eddie swears he’s going to cut out, but it all stays in the video anyway, gasoline on the fire.
II. FUCK THE CHALLENGE SYSTEM - 458k VIEWS
Eddie hates challenges. All of his fans know this, just as they know that any challenge they want Eddie to do - they send to Richie.
Because Richie gets Eddie to do anything.
And that, right there, is what holds every single fan up. If they weren’t dating, why was Eddie putty in Richie’s hands? Best friends, sure, but none of Eddie’s other friends convinced him to do challenges.
(They don’t mention that maybe, just maybe, it’s because Richie is a little shit that loves pushing Eddie’s buttons, and all of his other friends respect him when he declines.
Yeah, they just don’t mention it.)
Except this time, there is no actual challenge. Eddie is going off about how wrong they make him feel, how perverse it is to not only force an uncomfortable situation onto him, but to then expect him to force another youtuber into doing the same. It’s unfair, and unclean, and while he respects any fellow vloggers who enjoy the challenges, he’s officially cancelling any challenge videos on his page ever again.
Richie, who just seems to always be around when challenges are mentioned (who seems to just always be around) immediately flies into the frame.
“You heard it! Eds spagehds is officially moving all challenge videos to my page, so if you want to catch them, you’re gonna have to follow this mother fucker right here.” Eddie’s protests and profanities go ignored, shouts of, “Rich, no! Fuck no!” and then the video cuts to an unfamiliar room, with Eddie moping dejectedly in his chair.
It’s thirty seconds exactly (00:30) of Eddie looking sadly into the camera, dead silence around him. In the empty space next to him, a chair that presumably expects to host one Richie Tozier, is a hyperlink to Richie’s channel, and their first Challenge Compilation video.
( Eddie Finally Does All the Challenges He’s Been Refusing, All At Once - 212k Views )
And now the subs know that Richie can make Eddie do anything, any fucking thing.
And they know what the inside of Richie’s room looks like, too.
III. WHY GAYS RELY ON PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION - 644k VIEWS
This video is literally the most fucking blurry, conspiracy theory, I-Have-Proof-Of-The-Lochness-Monster shit that Eddie’s fandom has ever seen. It is, by all accounts, a normal ass vlog. Eddie’s there at his counter, bright sunlight from the large windows in his kitchen filtering into the space, a cup of (presumably) black tea immediately to Eddie’s right. Not that he’ll ever drink it in the video, because he never does, but he does use it to keep his hands warm when they aren’t busy flying all over the place while he angrily vents about why public transportation is the worst, but actually driving makes him too fucking anxious to function.
Because, come on, fuck turnpikes.
The video is approximately two minutes and thirteen seconds (2:13) long, and yet this video has triple the amount of views as every past two minute long vlog for the past four months.
(Four months ago Eddie released a two minute vlog that was nothing but Eddie’s friends petting his hair, and Eddie making soft happy faces in return. The fandom continues to keep that video alive, if only by desperately comparing the length of Richie petting Eddie to the length of every other loser doing so in hopes that the numbers will add up and mean something. So far, it doesn’t.)
There’s really nothing about this vlog that stands out, not even the mug Eddie uses or the clothes he wears. The outfit is one that they’ve seen before, between fashion vlogs and #ootd instagram posts.
No, the reason this particular video skyrockets in popularity is not because of anything Eddie does, but because, around 1:43, from a very distant shot, you can see a figure lazily walking into the kitchen, grabbing a bowl and some cereal, and leaving. That figure, almost 100% wearing nothing but boxers, looks a hell of a lot like one Richie Tozier.
You know, disregarding the distance. And the pixelation. And Eddie’s face cutting off the figure most of the time anyway, because it is his vlog.
But that almost-naked figure in the background is definitely an almost-naked Richie Tozier, the fandom swears it.
IV. PRETTY BOY TRANSFORMATION - 722k VIEWS
The entire fan base already knew Eddie was a pretty boy. That was half of the appeal of his channel in the first place, that you knew exactly what you were going to get. A safe place for any identity. Eddie had been sent plenty of soft shirts and flower crowns already, and half of what he opened on his unboxing streams was pastel. The fans didn’t need to make edits or gifs or icons - Eddie was perfectly happy to wear all of it on his own.
But Eddie with make up, that was an entirely new type of pretty boy.
The video starts with Bev and Eddie bickering, and quickly devolves into not-so-subtly shoving each other’s shoulders while trying to get in front of the camera. They’re both laughing, wide smiles and warm eyes, until finally Bev pushes Eddie’s head down and sticks her whole face into the camera to let all 1.2 million subscribers know that she is, in fact, going to do Eddie’s makeup - but only after letting Eddie pick his own outfit, first.
The dusty blue eyeshadow is a safe choice, and matches the large sweater Eddie’s wearing. Then Bev is drawing large wings onto Eddie’s tan skin with white liquid, and lining his bottom lid with decorative dots. Eddie tries to sass Bev the entire time she’s trying to put on white lipstick that she had found from god knows where, but Eddie refuses to stop talking until finally she admits defeat and let’s Eddie put on a soft matte pink instead. The last touch is silver glitter, thickly painted from the corner of Eddie’s eyes and down his cheeks.
The orange light of the sun skips across Eddie, shimmering like dust. Eddie makes a pouty kissy face, lips puckered and eyelashes fluttering, head just barely resting on his hand while his large sleeve slides down his thin wrist. And that’s when it happens.
The first actual conclusive clue.
(So the fans say. Because really, an audio clip that is exactly .02 seconds long is hardly more conclusive than any of their video evidence, but the file still spreads like wildfire.)
“Cute, cute, cute!”
The voice comes from off screen, and Eddie snaps his teeth in the direction of Richie’s voice before the video hard cuts to Eddie posing for the camera.
V. TRANSPORTATION STRIKES AGAIN - 834k VIEWS
It’s another shitty phone video, and this time the quality is even worse because of the trembling car. A quarter of the video is blurred, and again, this is another two minute vlog. Two minutes and thirty one seconds (2:31) to be exact. A quarter of that leaves, well, not much actual time to have actual footage.
Once again, Eddie’s transportation life is crumbling. The buses are all shut down, too many workers on strike, and there’s no other quick way to be mobile. He’s stuck in Richie’s run down truck, and maybe he’s a little fond of it, but he doesn’t have time for Richie to make seven ridiculous pit stops.
The fans are a little disappointed that they don’t get to see Richie and Eddie’s gas station excursions, but they notice when the video cuts from an empty truck to one filled with drinks and snacks, and that only means one thing - Eddie gave in and let Richie get whatever he wanted. Again.
One point for the shippers.
It’s a short glance into Eddie’s life, just something quick to keep his subs satisfied until he can finish editing his full length video, which he promises will be out by the end of the next day.
“Aw, Eds, it’s like you care.” Then Richie’s ruffling Eddie’s wind swept hair, and Eddie is trying to keep his stern expression on despite the laughter that starts bubbling up from his chest. He swats at Richie’s hand, yelling at him to watch where he’s fucking driving, but even behind the wheel Richie manages to be a menace.
Then they’re there, wherever there is, (and yet again the fans wish they knew, because Eddie casually keeps skipping over it, but they can at least realize there’s a line of privacy there somewhere that they shouldn’t overstep). Then Richie is taking the phone from Eddie, mock saluting it, and kissing Eddie’s head before pushing him out the door.
Yeah, the all of the fans double take, too. Rewind the video, and then rewind it again. Throw on captions for good measure. That’s definitely there, they aren’t searching pixels this time.
Richie just kissed Eddie on the forehead. If he isn’t whipped, which he should be, all of Eddie’s fans will be whipped for him.
+I. THE REAL MTV: CRIB TOUR!! - 1.1M VIEWS
Eddie’s not in his normal spot. The lighting is different, and the camera is close to his face - utilizing an above angle that Eddie doesn’t use often.
But Eddie’s smiling, his face expression tired and content. Most of his greeting comes out mumbled, and he tries his best to address his fans, but he can’t. He’s too comfortable, he tells them. He recently invested in a good pillow, and boy, has it made all the difference. He’s not a sell out, he just doesn’t see anything wrong with product placement. If a quality brand is willing to offer him merchandise for free, he’s gonna take it.
Except then he’s pushed, and the feed goes hazy for a moment, until the phone is back up in place - and zoomed out this time, too.
Eddie is on his couch, curled up in between Richie’s legs. “I’m not a pillow, Eds. I’m not sponsoring you.”
“Of course you are, shut the fuck up.”
Then Eddie’s rambling about how comfortable the cushions are, how warm the sunlight is, how he doesn’t think he’ll ever walk again if it means he has to get up. He goes on like this for a long while, and Richie just watches him, his own hair wild with sleep and a smile taking up over half his face. When Eddie realizes he’s talking to himself, he turns in Richie’s arms to look up at his face, and Richie jolts.
“Hey there, princess.”
“Are we going to show them our new apartment or not?”
“Mmmmm…. or not, if that means I get to stay here with you.” Eddie sighs in defeat, but he doesn’t look disappointed in the slightest as he leans back to lay his head against Richie’s chest. Richie dips down to kiss his forehead before taking the phone, leading his own rambling.
Twelve minutes in, (12:46 exactly), Eddie blinks awake. He looks up and wordlessly cuts Richie off, pressing their lips together gently. There’s a few seconds of silence where the two pull back to stare at each other with soft smiles curling their lips, sunlight filtering between them.
The fandom cries.
“Come on, loser, let’s show them our new home already.”
The fandom cries harder.
229 notes · View notes
tricksle · 4 years
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Netflix Account Generator ( 103% Working Website for Netflix ) - Tricksle
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With a high Netflix account, you can watch the latest movies and radio programs without any problems. His premium contracts start at $ 8 per month. But you can enjoy the free service with the following high-quality accounts created by NetFlix Premium Account Builder.
Be careful. Do not change your password. So anyone can use the free Netflix account for free !! We try to update your Netflix account on a daily basis. So I suggest you mark this page by pressing Ctrl + D!
Below is a list of some of the active accounts created by the account builder and some purchased with tokens.
FAQ’S (Frequently answerable questions)
Ques. Does the Netflix Account generators works?
Ans. The Answer is Big No, Account generators do not work nowadays these methods just ask to fulfill the human surveys( non-ending human surveys)
Ques. Can we get Free Netflix Accounts?
Ans. The answer is a big yes the free Netflix account method which we mentioned above works very well and many of our users do use them and enjoy Netflix completely.
Ques. Does these netflix Accounts are secure?
Ans. Of course yes, these are not hacked things these are originally provided by Netflix so these completely safe.
Conclusion
In the whole above tutorial we had discussed about the Netflix account generator and show you truth that they are working or not, and we had also discussed about other ways to get free Netflix Accounts. we hope that you may like our article, if you face any query related to it, you would be happy.
Originally published at https://tricksle.com on March 3, 2021.
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7 Amazing TikTok Stats That Prove Why Brands Should Start Using It
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TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in the world. However, for many people, it might seem like just another form of social media or could even be completely incomprehensible to those unfamiliar with it. So, exactly what is TikTok and why is it something that is worth paying attention to?
Essentially, TikTok allows users to create and post short videos that can include music, filters, and an array of other features. While for many people, it might be viewed as a natural replacement for Vine, it’s not quite that simple.
TikTok provides a platform for users to express themselves in a very creative, unique way, while in contrast to many other social media platforms that present themselves as a lifestyle brand, TikTok’s main focus is entertainment.
Similar to Vine, what makes TikTok so attractive to users is the notion that anyone can become a content provider through the app. While the main focus might have started out as an app for young people to entertain themselves, we are starting to see more and more brands utilize it as a way to market to a particular audience, in this case, with younger people, in particular Generation Z.
To display just how quickly TikTok has grown, Instagram needed six years to reach the same amount of monthly active users that TikTok managed to achieve in just three. This is why it is becoming an increasingly valuable tool for brands and marketers alike.
TikTok Statistics for 2020
Just to assess the scale with which this app is seemingly taking over the world, it would be useful to take in some TikTok statistics that display the mind boggling growth it has seen in no time at all. These TikTok user stats include:
Since its launch in September 2016, TikTok has exploded in popularity. It now has 800 million active users worldwide leaving it 9th in terms of social network sites, ahead of LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and Snapchat.
One of the most prolific TikTok statistics is that it’s the most downloaded app on Apple’s App Store, with 33 million downloads in one quarter alone. This beats out rivals like YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.
This growth also shows no sign of stopping soon as TikTok just passed the one billion mark for app installations on the App Store and Google Play worldwide.
TikTok is known for being popular with younger generations, this is backed up by 41% of TikTok users being listed as aged between 16 and 24.
When it comes to the daily time spent on TikTok, users spend an average of 52 minutes per day on the app as people are either creating and sharing short videos of themselves, or for watching existing content.
90% of all TikTok users access the app on a daily basis. Not only that, they are extremely active on the app as 68% of TikTok users watch someone else’s video while 55% upload their own.
Within just one year of its development, TikTok reached an average of over 1 million videos viewed every day in a year. It is this growth that makes TikTok marketing so intriguing to many businesses.
Tips For Brands Starting Out With TikTok Marketing
When it comes to creating a TikTok marketing strategy, it can be difficult to know where to start. Essentially, for a successful TikTok business strategy, your team needs to strategize and create content for the social site.
Similar to how the likes of Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook can be a useful form of marketing for your business, so too can TikTok, but only if your content is specific and genuine.
As is the case for any social media marketing strategy, you have to be upfront and honest, younger audiences are incredibly good at spotting fake, opportunistic, or disingenuous content. Once they do, you are likely to have lost their trust for good.
Above all though, it is still social media, so brands on TikTok need to remember to first keep it fun and entertaining.
Need help marketing your Tik Tok account ?
Book a free call to learn how our team of marketing experts can help you create a high converting social media campaign today.
How Brands Are Leveraging TikTok
So now it might be useful to know which brands are on TikTok and are utilizing it effectively. Here are some that you can take inspiration from:
Levi’s: The clothing and denim jeans giant Levi’s recently ran an influencer campaign on TikTok with impressive results. Partnering with TikTok as a way to showcase their new “Shop Now” button that allows consumers to make purchases through links on the app, Levi’s illustrated a textbook way to incorporate TikTok marketing into your overall strategy while also working with influencers.
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Gymshark: Gymshark has been successful with their current approach to TikTok marketing. So far they have amassed over 1.2 million fans and have been posting consistent, quality videos for a while now. With a good combination of workout videos, memes, challenges and inspirational content. Gymshark have truly tapped into the TikTok mindset without stepping away from their overall identity.
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ELF Cosmetics: Elf Cosmetics has pretty much set the blueprint for successful TikTok marketing. They commissioned a song specifically for a TikTok campaign, as other brands might do for Facebook or Instagram. ELF worked with several influencers to initially help kickstart the viral campaign and the results display the effectiveness of tailoring content specifically for a platform. Currently the view count sits at around 3.8 billion and we can only expect more brands to take similar approaches in the future.
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Chipotle: Chipotle has always presented themselves as an incredibly savvy brand when it comes to social media and their implementation of TikTok only validates this. They have fully embraced the app with all its quirks and have become consistent with their posting, a factor most other companies overlook. Take their Halloween campaign as a great example of what can be achieved through specific, relevant content as their #boorito campaign garnered over 4 billion views on TikTok.
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Final Thoughts
It can be easy to dismiss any form of new social media app as just a passing fad, but TikTok needs to become an integrated part of your overall approach to social media marketing, as well as your overall approach to marketing itself.
Good marketers know that the world is constantly changing, great marketers are able to seamlessly evolve and adopt new trends that can help benefit their brand or business for the better. The TikTok statistics mentioned in this article are only set to continue to inflate and grow in the future and if you are not willing to change with the times, you risk alienating your audience and falling behind to your competitors.
About the Author David Pittaway is a creative content writer for an NYC based digital agency, Aumcore helps brands and companies improve and optimize their user experience design to improve conversions across all platforms as well as aid with crafting their marketing strategies and approach to branding.
from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8230801 https://ift.tt/2zLXwkQ via IFTTT
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appinsta · 6 years
Text
Google turns 20 today: Fun facts you didnt know about your go-to problem solver
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Google is celebrating its 20th birthday on September 4 and it is fascinating to know that a 20-year-old (or should we say ‘youngster’) has answers to almost all the questions in the world. From its foundation in a Menlo Park garage in 1998, to the gigantic headquarters in Mountain View, Google has evolved a lot through the years. Once just a search engine, the $852 billion company is now a leader in digital advertising, software, as well as hardware. On its 20th anniversary, here are some interesting and fun facts to get you better aquainted with a company that touches millions of human lives every day. Google was basically an academic project that was started by its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The two graduate students at Stanford had no background in entrepreneurship but had to launch the company because investor Andy Bechtolsheim gave them a $100,000 cheque, and they couldn't deposit without creating an incorporated company. The founders’ first workplace was the apartment and garage of a friend called Susan Wojcicki in Menlo Park, California. Wojcicki was Google employee number 16 and is now CEO of YouTube. (From L to R) Google CEO, Sundar Pichai; Union IT Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad;  Telecom Secretary, Aruna Sundararajan and Google's India VP, Rajan Anandan. The founders wanted to name their site “Googol” which is the name of the number consisting of a 1 followed by 100 zeros. The term was picked to signify that the search engine will give users an infinite amount of information on the web. But a misspelling resulted in Google and it stuck. Today, Google processes over 3.5 billion Search queries each day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. When Google was first launched, it entered in an already competitive world where search giants like AltaVista, AskJeeves and Yahoo! were flourishing. Google became a priority because it had a better quality of search and a simple, ads-free home page. Soon Page and Brin tried to sell Google for $1million to Yahoo, Altavista and Excite but they all turned down the offer. Yahoo was offered the company again in 2002 for $5 billion but it wanted the company for $3 billion only to be rejected by the owners. The company went public in 2004 and its shares traded at an opening price of $85 valuing the company at $27 billion. Reportedly, about 900 of its employees became millionaires overnight. Today, Google shares are traded at $1,231 and the company is valued at $852 billion.  According to CNN Money, Google offers many death benefits to its employees. If an employee dies while he or she is still working for the company, then their better half will receive 50 percent of the salary for a decade after the partner has died. Source: Google blog In 2009, Google announced that it rented 200 goats to mow the grass in its current headquarters. The company regularly rents 200 goats for a week at a time from California Grazing to keep the grounds and parks maintained. Google also owns the domain names of common misspellings of its own website's name, including gooogle.com, gogle.com and googlr.com. A supporter of an environment-friendly approach, by 2011 Google had already invested $850 million in clean energy, including $168 million in a solar power plant in Mojave Desert in California and $100 million in the Shepherds Flat Wind Farm in Oregon. The Sundar Pichai-led company also launched Project Loon to provide internet connectivity to people across the Earth by suspending solar-powered radio equipment from networks of helium-filled balloons floating at a height of 20 km above sea level. 9. Google acquired more than one company a week on average in 2010 and 2011. Since 2015, Google and fellow companies come under an umbrella company called Alphabet, which has 80,000 employees. Source: Visual Capitalist 10. Google accounts nearly 90 per cent of all internet search requests which include the ones made from YouTube. It faces tough competition in Russia with Yandex search engine, and in China where Baidu has largest market share. Google’s Android is the largest mobile operating system and market research firm International Data Corporation has claimed that Android OS is expected to clock nearly 85 percent market share by the end of 2018. from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2oEVOsl from Blogger https://ift.tt/2oEJE2u https://ift.tt/2PxcVrp
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toomanysinks · 6 years
Text
Google removed 2.3B bad ads, 1.5M bad apps and 28M bad pages, plans new Policy Manager this year
Google is a tech powerhouse in many categories, including advertising. Today, as part of its efforts to improve how that ad business works, it provided an annual update that details the progress it’s made to shut down some of the more nefarious aspects of it.
Using both manual reviews and machine learning, in 2018, Google said removed 2.3 billion “bad ads” that violated its policies, which at their most general forbid ads that mislead or exploit vulnerable people. Along with that, Google has been tackling the other side of the “bad ads” conundrum: pinpointing and shutting down sites that violate policies and also profit from using its ad network: Google said it removed 1.5 million apps and nearly 28 million pages that violated publisher policies.
On the more proactive side, the company said today that it is introducing a new Ad Policy Manager in April to give tips to publishers to avoid listing non-compliant ads in the first place.
Google’s ad machine makes billions for the company — more than $32 billion in the previous quarter, accounting for 83 percent of all Google’s revenues. Those revenues underpin a variety of wildly popular, free services such as Gmail, YouTube, Android and of course its search engine — but there is undoubtedly a dark side, too: bad ads that slip past the algorithms and mislead or exploit vulnerable people, and sites that exploit Google’s ad network by using it to fund the spread of misleading information.
Notably, Google’s 2.3 billion figure is nearly 1 billion less ads than it removed last year for policy violations. The lower numbers might be attributed to two things. First, while the ad business continues to grow, that growth has been slowing just a little in competition with other players like Facebook and Amazon. Second — and this one gives the benefit of the doubt to Google — you could argue that it has improved its ability to track and stop these ads before they make their way to its network.
The more cynical question might be whether Google removed less to improve its bottom line, but remaining vigilant about all the bad stuff is more than just Google doing the right thing. It’s been shown that some advertisers will walk away rather than be associated with nefarious or misleading content. Recent YouTube ad pulls by huge brands like AT&T, Nestle and Epic Games — after it was found that pedophiles have been lurking in the comments of YouTube videos — shows that there are still more frontiers that Google will need to tackle in the future to keep its house — and business — in order.
Google’s director of sustainable ads, Scott Spencer, highlighted ads removed from several specific categories this year: there were nearly 207,000 ads for ticket resellers, 531,000 ads for bail bonds and 58.8 million phishing ads taken out of the network.
Part of this was based on the company identifying and going after some of these areas, either on its own steam or because of public pressure. In one case, for ads for drug rehab clinics, the company removed all ads for these after an expose, before reintroducing them again a year later. Some 31 new policies were added in the last year to cover more categories of suspicious ads, Spencer said. One of these included cryptocurrencies: it will be interesting to see how and if this one becomes a more prominent part of the mix in the years ahead. 
Because ads are like the proverbial trees falling in the forest — you have to be there to hear the sound — Google is also continuing its efforts to identify bad apps and sites that are hosting ads from its network (both the good and bad).
On the website front, it also created 330 “detection classifiers” to seek out specific pages that are violating policies. Google’s focus on page granularity is part of a bigger effort it has made to add more granular tools overall to its network — it also introduced page-level “auto-ads” last year — so this is about better housekeeping as it works on ways to expand its advertising business. The efforts to use this to ID “badness” at page level led Google to shutting down 734,000 publishers and app developers, removing ads from 1.5 million apps and 28 million pages that violated policies.
Fake news also continues to get a name check in Google’s efforts. The focus for both Google and Facebook in the last year has been around how its networks are used to manipulate democratic processes. No surprise there: this is an area where they have been heavily scrutinised by governments. The risk is that, if they do not demonstrate that they are not lazily allowing dodgy political ads on their network — because after all they still represent ad revenues — they might find themselves in regulatory hot water, with more policies being enforced from the outside to curb their operations.
This past year, Google said that it verified 143,000 election ads in the US — it didn’t note how many it banned — and started to provide new data to people about who is really behind these ads. The same will be launched in the EU and India this year ahead of elections in those regions.
The new policies it’s introducing to improve the range of sites it indexes and helps people find are also taking shape. Some 1.2 million pages, 22,000 apps and 15,000 sites were removed from its ad network for violating policies as misrepresentative, hateful or other low-quality content. These included 74,000 pages and 190,000 ads that violated its “dangerous or derogatory” content policy.
Looking ahead, the tool that Google announced it would be launching next month is a self-help tool for advertisers: using machine learning, Google will scan ads before they are uploaded to the network to determine whether they violate any policies. It will at launch look at ads, keywords and extensions across a publisher’s account (not just the ad itself).
Over time, Google said, it will also give tips to the publishers in real time to help fix them if there are problems, along with a history of appeals and certifications.
This sounds like a great idea for ad publishers who are not in the market for peddling iffy content: more communication and quick responses are what they want so that if they do have issues, they can fix them and get the ads out the door. (And that, of course, will also help Google by ushering in more inventory, faster and with less human involvement.)
More worrying is how this might get misused by bad actors. As malicious hacking has show us, creating screens sometimes also creates a way for malicious people to figure out loopholes for bypassing them.
source https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/13/google-removed-2-3b-bad-ads-1-5m-bad-apps-and-28m-bad-pages-plans-new-policy-manager-this-year/
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fmservers · 6 years
Text
Google removed 2.3B bad ads, 1.5M bad apps and 28M bad pages, plans new Policy Manager this year
Google is a tech powerhouse in many categories, including advertising. Today, as part of its efforts to improve how that ad business works, it provided an annual update that details the progress it’s made to shut down some of the more nefarious aspects of it. Using both manual reviews and machine learning, in 2018, Google said removed 2.3 billion “bad ads” that it said violated its policies, which most generally forbid ads that mislead or exploit vulnerable people. Along with that, Google has increasingly started to tackle the “bad ads” conundrum on the other side: pinpointing and shutting down sites that violate policies that are profiting from using its ad network: it said it removed 1.5 million apps and nearly 28 million pages that violated publisher policies.
On the more proactive side, the company said today that it is introducing a new Ad Policy Manager in April to give tips to publishers to avoid listing non-compliant ads in the first place.
Google’s ad machine makes billions for the company — more than $32 billion in the previous quarter, accounting for 83 percent of all Google’s revenues. Those revenues underpin a variety of wildly popular, free services such as Gmail, YouTube, Android and of course its search engine — but there is undoubtedly a dark side, too: bad ads that slip past the algorithms and mislead or exploit vulnerable people, and sites that exploit Google’s ad network by using it to fund the spread of misleading information.
Notably, Google’s 2.3 billion figure is nearly 1 billion less ads than it removed last year for policy violations. The lower numbers might be attributed to two things. First, while the ad business continues to grow, that growth has been slowing just a little in competition with other players like Facebook and Amazon. Second — and this one gives the benefit of the doubt to Google — you could argue that it has improved its ability to track and stop these ads before they make their way to its network. (The more cynical question is whether Google removed less to improve its bottom line.)
Google’s director of sustainable ads, Scott Spencer, highlighted ads removed from several specific categories this year: there were nearly 207,000 ads for ticket resellers, 531,000 ads for bail bonds and 58.8 million phishing ads taken out of the network.
Part of this was based on the company identifying and going after some of these areas, either on its own steam or because of public pressure. In one case, for ads for drug rehab clinics, the company removed all ads for these after an expose, before reintroducing them again a year later. Some 31 new policies were added in the last year to cover more categories of suspicious ads, Spencer said. One of these included cryptocurrencies: it will be interesting to see how and if this one becomes a more prominent part of the mix in the years ahead. 
Because ads are like the proverbial trees falling in the forest — you have to be there to hear the sound — Google is also continuing its efforts to identify bad apps and sites that are hosting ads from its network (both the good and bad).
On the website front, it also created 330 “detection classifiers” to seek out specific pages that are violating policies. Google’s focus on page granularity is part of a bigger effort it has made to add more granular tools overall to its network — it also introduced page-level “auto-ads” last year — so this is about better housekeeping as it works on ways to expand its advertising business. The efforts to use this to ID “badness” at page level led Google to shutting down 734,000 publishers and app developers, removing ads from 1.5 million apps and 28 million pages that violated policies.
Fake news also continues to get a name check in Google’s efforts. The focus for both Google and Facebook in the last year has been around how its networks are used to manipulate democratic processes. No surprise there: this is an area where they have been heavily scrutinised by governments. The risk is that, if they do not demonstrate that they are not lazily allowing dodgy political ads on their network — because after all they still represent ad revenues — they might find themselves in regulatory hot water, with more policies being enforced from the outside to curb their abuses.
This past year, Google said that it verified 143,000 election ads in the US — it didn’t note how many it banned — and started to provide new data to people about who is really behind these ads. The same will be launched in the EU and India this year ahead of elections in those regions.
The new policies it’s introducing to improve the range of sites it indexes and helps people find are also taking shape. Some 1.2 million pages, 22,000 apps and 15,000 sites were removed from its ad network for violating policies as misrepresentative, hateful or other low-quality content. These included 74,000 pages and 190,000 ads that violated its “dangerous or derogatory” content policy.
Via Ingrid Lunden https://techcrunch.com
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jerrytackettca · 6 years
Text
Latest Updates on Pink Slime
In 2012, ABC News published an exposé that revealed a beef filler product that looked eerily similar to pink slime could be found in upward of 70 percent of ground beef sold in the U.S.1 The moniker quickly took off, and ultimately cost ABC News a reported $177 million in settlement costs, after the pink slime’s maker, South Dakota-based Beef Products Inc. (BPI), sued them for defamation.2
The pink-colored sludge not only can still be found in ground beef but now, according to a ruling by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), can be labeled simply as “ground beef.” Most consumers in the market for ground beef would have a hard time stomaching the idea of creating a hamburger out of this pink beef product, so why has the U.S. government greenlighted its “ground beef” label?
The product apparently “meets the regulatory definition of ground beef under the law,”3 but there’s good reason why this “soft serve” ground beef product is still stirring up controversy more than a decade after the ABC News investigation.
What Is ‘Pink Slime’ Ground Beef?
The meat product that looks like pink slime is technically called "lean, finely textured beef" (LFTB), according to BPI. It’s made from beef trimmings once reserved for pet food, from the scraps of fat that are cut off bones. Those scraps inevitably have a bit of meat left on them, and BPI realized it could heat them up and then use a centrifuge to separate the bits of meat from the fat.
The resulting LFTB, sometimes referred to as “boneless beef trimmings,” is sterilized using an ammonia puff then sold to companies who mix the filler product with their ground beef. LFTB is a sought-after product by meatpackers because it’s 95 percent lean with only 5 percent fat.
In the U.S., ground beef must be no more than 30 percent fat, so adding in LFTB is a simple way to lower the fat content of ground beef products. It’s also a recipe for spreading foodborne illness, as meat and fat trimmings come from multiple animals.
According to Consumer Reports, this contributes to the high bacteria levels often found in ground beef, as “meat from a single contaminated cow can end up in many packages of ground beef.”4
Part of the original controversy centered around the fact that this highly processed beef product could exist in ground beef without being disclosed, and now the USDA will allow it to continue. Further, BFI could even sell LFTB directly to consumers, labeled as ground beef, although it’s unclear if they have plans to do so.
Beef Trimmings Labeled a High-Risk Product
LFTB is used in many commercial ground beef products sold at fast-food chains, grocery stores, hospitals and schools. Prior to 2012, LFTB was widely used in school lunches, with the USDA purchasing it in massive quantities.
Following the 2012 media coverage of pink slime, 47 states dropped out of the USDA’s option to receive LFTB for their school lunch programs. By September 2013, however, four of those states decided to opt back in, with cost being a major factor.
“Lean finely textured beef brings down the cost of ground beef by about 3 percent, which can add up quickly in a program that feeds more than 31 million school children each day,” Politico reported.5
Both BFI and the USDA claim the processed beef trimmings are safe, but microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein, a former USDA scientist who coined the term "pink slime," and food scientist colleague Carl Custer concluded in a study that the pink slime is a "high risk product," as the trimmings come from parts of the cow that are most likely to be contaminated with dangerous bacteria like E. coli.6
Government and industry records obtained by The New York Times found, in fact, that in testing LFTB for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella showed up three and 48 times, respectively, between 2005 and 2012, showing that the ammonia treatment is not foolproof.7
In testimony during the BPI versus ABC News trial, Zirnstein explained why he called it pink slime to begin with: "Because it looks pink and I already said the way to control it, the product is uncontrollable unless it's frozen on a drone or liquid nitrogen … The L[F]BT looked pretty weird, so I have to say yeah I didn't have a very good impression when I first saw it.”8
Zirnstein did not agree that the meat product should have been used in ground beef, especially without labeling, stating that it contains excess collagen, making it a lower quality protein than pure ground beef. He stated:9
“It's lost the functionality of meat. It has a different composition entirely of meat. Just a lot of different things that doesn't really meet the definition … It should not have been included in ground beef or hamburger unless you were going to be fair to the consumer and let them know there was something else in their with lower quality."
No Way of Knowing Which Products Contain Pink Slime
McDonald’s and many major grocery chains vowed to stop using the pink slime in 2012 after all the negative publicity, causing sales to plummet. But by 2014, sales began to creep back up, and BFI even had so much demand that they reopened one of its previously shut down plants.
As of 2014, production of LFTB doubled since its low in 2012, but, as the Los Angeles Times reported, no one was fessing up to using it. “As to who's using it now, that's a mystery. McDonald's said in May [2014] that it still wasn't using pink slime,” business columnist David Lazarus reported. “In fact, I couldn't find a single company that's admitted using it again. But obviously someone is. Otherwise production of pink slime wouldn't be up 100 percent.”10
Now with the USDA’s decision that LFTB can simply be called “ground beef,” despite its appearance as a strange, pink playing dough-like blob, it will be even harder, if not impossible, to know whether the ground beef at your grocery store or favorite restaurant contains it.
In case there was any doubt, it was BFI that asked the USDA to reconsider pink slime’s classification, which led to the USDA conducting a monthslong review and quietly changing its labeling requirements. In December 2018, BFI let its suppliers know of the change that the product formerly known to the public as pink slime could now be called ground beef.11
Prior to the USDA’s reclassification, BFI created a major advertising campaign called “Dude, it’s beef!” aimed at changing pink slime’s image. According to Modern Farmer, the campaign was promoted not only by BFI but also “by politicians in states with large cattle industries, like Texas.”12
Further, when LFTB was originally allowed to be called “meat,” it was courtesy of USDA officials once again, including one in particular who later went on to earn millions while serving on BPI's board of directors. Although the article has since been removed from the ABC website, it’s still “live” on YouTube.13 In it, ABC News reports:14
"The ‘pink slime’ does not have to appear on the label because, over objections of its own scientists, USDA officials with links to the beef industry labeled pink slime meat. ‘The under secretary said, 'it's pink, therefore it's meat,'’ Custer told ABC News.
ABC News has learned the woman who made the decision to OK the mix is a former undersecretary of agriculture, Joann Smith — a call that led to hundred of millions of dollars for Beef Products Inc., the makers of pink slime. When Smith stepped down from the USDA in 1993, BPI's principal major supplier appointed her to its board of directors, where she made at least $1.2 million over 17 years."
After the report was aired, BPI filed a $1.9 billion lawsuit against ABC for defamation, claiming the company had lost business over ABC’s depiction of pink slime as unsafe.
Had a jury returned a verdict in favor of BPI, the news agency could have faced nearly $6 billion in penalties under a South Dakota food libel law, but three weeks into the trial, Disney, which owns the network, disclosed that they had paid $177 million in a settlement with BPI.15
According to Fortune, the details of the settlement were confidential, but it appeared that Disney’s payment was an adjunct to an unspecified amount that insurers paid.16 In a follow-up statement, ABC said that they continue to stand by their reporting and that they had “accurately presented the facts and views of knowledgeable people.”17
More Reasons to Avoid CAFO Meat
Most of the ground beef produced with pink slime fillers comes from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), which themselves come with a litany of problems, not the least of which is the huge quantities of waste produced and how it’s managed.
The trickle-down of toxins from industrial agriculture affects all of us on the planet, from contaminated drinking water and produce to the spread of antibiotic-resistant disease, which is proliferated by the use of low-dose antibiotics in animal feed.
CAFOs are also directly contributing to the growing dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which is a serious and increasing threat to marine life, while pesticide usage and other industrialized farming methods may be killing off insects at an alarming rate.
All of these complex problems have a common thread, and that is that their solution lies in changing agricultural practices from industrial to regenerative. Choosing grass fed products like grass fed beef and bison over that raised in CAFOs is a solution that we can all take part in — and it’s also one of the best ways to avoid pink slime in your beef.
Where to Find Real, Filler-Free Ground Beef
As long as there are people willing to buy cheap, "imitation" meats made from beef trimmings formerly regarded as scraps, the industry will continue to produce it. The average American ate about 800 burgers’ worth of beef in 2018, or about 222 pounds.18 Where you get this beef, how it’s raised and, ultimately, the way it is prepared make all the difference in how it affects your health and the environment.
Source matters — greatly — and part of that includes knowing where your beef was raised. You’ll want to avoid getting your beef from so-called “hamburger central,” or CAFOs, instead opting for organic, grass fed beef that’s raised without antibiotics and produced without fillers like pink slime.
Sourcing your foods from a local farmer is one of the best ways to do so, and you can also look for the American Grassfed Association (AGA) logo,19 which allows for greater transparency and conformity20 and is intended to ensure the humane treatment of animals and to meet consumer expectations about grass fed meat and dairy, while being feasible for small farmers to achieve.
As far back as 2009, Zirnstein said he had doubts about “pink slime,” writing in an email, “I do not consider the stuff to be ground beef, and I consider allowing it in ground beef to be a form of fraudulent labeling.”21
Now, 10 years later, pink slime will be labeled as ground beef with the USDA’s approval. If you want to eat ground beef that’s just that — ground beef without fillers — find a local farmer near you — or at the very least call your supermarket and ask them if their ground beef products contain it.
from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/03/05/pink-slime-ground-beef.aspx
source http://niapurenaturecom.weebly.com/blog/latest-updates-on-pink-slime
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paullassiterca · 6 years
Text
Latest Updates on Pink Slime
In 2012, ABC News published an exposé that revealed a beef filler product that looked eerily similar to pink slime could be found in upward of 70 percent of ground beef sold in the U.S.1 The moniker quickly took off, and ultimately cost ABC News a reported $177 million in settlement costs, after the pink slime’s maker, South Dakota-based Beef Products Inc. (BPI), sued them for defamation.2
The pink-colored sludge not only can still be found in ground beef but now, according to a ruling by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), can be labeled simply as “ground beef.” Most consumers in the market for ground beef would have a hard time stomaching the idea of creating a hamburger out of this pink beef product, so why has the U.S. government greenlighted its “ground beef” label?
The product apparently “meets the regulatory definition of ground beef under the law,”3 but there’s good reason why this “soft serve” ground beef product is still stirring up controversy more than a decade after the ABC News investigation.
What Is ‘Pink Slime’ Ground Beef?
The meat product that looks like pink slime is technically called “lean, finely textured beef” (LFTB), according to BPI. It’s made from beef trimmings once reserved for pet food, from the scraps of fat that are cut off bones. Those scraps inevitably have a bit of meat left on them, and BPI realized it could heat them up and then use a centrifuge to separate the bits of meat from the fat.
The resulting LFTB, sometimes referred to as “boneless beef trimmings,” is sterilized using an ammonia puff then sold to companies who mix the filler product with their ground beef. LFTB is a sought-after product by meatpackers because it’s 95 percent lean with only 5 percent fat.
In the U.S., ground beef must be no more than 30 percent fat, so adding in LFTB is a simple way to lower the fat content of ground beef products. It’s also a recipe for spreading foodborne illness, as meat and fat trimmings come from multiple animals.
According to Consumer Reports, this contributes to the high bacteria levels often found in ground beef, as “meat from a single contaminated cow can end up in many packages of ground beef.”4
Part of the original controversy centered around the fact that this highly processed beef product could exist in ground beef without being disclosed, and now the USDA will allow it to continue. Further, BFI could even sell LFTB directly to consumers, labeled as ground beef, although it’s unclear if they have plans to do so.
Beef Trimmings Labeled a High-Risk Product
LFTB is used in many commercial ground beef products sold at fast-food chains, grocery stores, hospitals and schools. Prior to 2012, LFTB was widely used in school lunches, with the USDA purchasing it in massive quantities.
Following the 2012 media coverage of pink slime, 47 states dropped out of the USDA’s option to receive LFTB for their school lunch programs. By September 2013, however, four of those states decided to opt back in, with cost being a major factor.
“Lean finely textured beef brings down the cost of ground beef by about 3 percent, which can add up quickly in a program that feeds more than 31 million school children each day,” Politico reported.5
Both BFI and the USDA claim the processed beef trimmings are safe, but microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein, a former USDA scientist who coined the term “pink slime,” and food scientist colleague Carl Custer concluded in a study that the pink slime is a “high risk product,” as the trimmings come from parts of the cow that are most likely to be contaminated with dangerous bacteria like E. coli.6
Government and industry records obtained by The New York Times found, in fact, that in testing LFTB for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella showed up three and 48 times, respectively, between 2005 and 2012, showing that the ammonia treatment is not foolproof.7
In testimony during the BPI versus ABC News trial, Zirnstein explained why he called it pink slime to begin with: “Because it looks pink and I already said the way to control it, the product is uncontrollable unless it’s frozen on a drone or liquid nitrogen … The L[F]BT looked pretty weird, so I have to say yeah I didn’t have a very good impression when I first saw it.”8
Zirnstein did not agree that the meat product should have been used in ground beef, especially without labeling, stating that it contains excess collagen, making it a lower quality protein than pure ground beef. He stated:9
“It’s lost the functionality of meat. It has a different composition entirely of meat. Just a lot of different things that doesn’t really meet the definition … It should not have been included in ground beef or hamburger unless you were going to be fair to the consumer and let them know there was something else in their with lower quality.”
No Way of Knowing Which Products Contain Pink Slime
McDonald’s and many major grocery chains vowed to stop using the pink slime in 2012 after all the negative publicity, causing sales to plummet. But by 2014, sales began to creep back up, and BFI even had so much demand that they reopened one of its previously shut down plants.
As of 2014, production of LFTB doubled since its low in 2012, but, as the Los Angeles Times reported, no one was fessing up to using it. “As to who’s using it now, that’s a mystery. McDonald’s said in May [2014] that it still wasn’t using pink slime,” business columnist David Lazarus reported. “In fact, I couldn’t find a single company that’s admitted using it again. But obviously someone is. Otherwise production of pink slime wouldn’t be up 100 percent.”10
Now with the USDA’s decision that LFTB can simply be called “ground beef,” despite its appearance as a strange, pink playing dough-like blob, it will be even harder, if not impossible, to know whether the ground beef at your grocery store or favorite restaurant contains it.
In case there was any doubt, it was BFI that asked the USDA to reconsider pink slime’s classification, which led to the USDA conducting a monthslong review and quietly changing its labeling requirements. In December 2018, BFI let its suppliers know of the change that the product formerly known to the public as pink slime could now be called ground beef.11
Prior to the USDA’s reclassification, BFI created a major advertising campaign called “Dude, it’s beef!” aimed at changing pink slime’s image. According to Modern Farmer, the campaign was promoted not only by BFI but also “by politicians in states with large cattle industries, like Texas.”12
Further, when LFTB was originally allowed to be called “meat,” it was courtesy of USDA officials once again, including one in particular who later went on to earn millions while serving on BPI’s board of directors. Although the article has since been removed from the ABC website, it’s still “live” on YouTube.13 In it, ABC News reports:14
“The ‘pink slime’ does not have to appear on the label because, over objections of its own scientists, USDA officials with links to the beef industry labeled pink slime meat. ‘The under secretary said, ‘it’s pink, therefore it’s meat,'’ Custer told ABC News.
ABC News has learned the woman who made the decision to OK the mix is a former undersecretary of agriculture, Joann Smith — a call that led to hundred of millions of dollars for Beef Products Inc., the makers of pink slime. When Smith stepped down from the USDA in 1993, BPI’s principal major supplier appointed her to its board of directors, where she made at least $1.2 million over 17 years.”
After the report was aired, BPI filed a $1.9 billion lawsuit against ABC for defamation, claiming the company had lost business over ABC’s depiction of pink slime as unsafe.
Had a jury returned a verdict in favor of BPI, the news agency could have faced nearly $6 billion in penalties under a South Dakota food libel law, but three weeks into the trial, Disney, which owns the network, disclosed that they had paid $177 million in a settlement with BPI.15
According to Fortune, the details of the settlement were confidential, but it appeared that Disney’s payment was an adjunct to an unspecified amount that insurers paid.16 In a follow-up statement, ABC said that they continue to stand by their reporting and that they had “accurately presented the facts and views of knowledgeable people.”17
More Reasons to Avoid CAFO Meat
Most of the ground beef produced with pink slime fillers comes from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), which themselves come with a litany of problems, not the least of which is the huge quantities of waste produced and how it’s managed.
The trickle-down of toxins from industrial agriculture affects all of us on the planet, from contaminated drinking water and produce to the spread of antibiotic-resistant disease, which is proliferated by the use of low-dose antibiotics in animal feed.
CAFOs are also directly contributing to the growing dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which is a serious and increasing threat to marine life, while pesticide usage and other industrialized farming methods may be killing off insects at an alarming rate.
All of these complex problems have a common thread, and that is that their solution lies in changing agricultural practices from industrial to regenerative. Choosing grass fed products like grass fed beef and bison over that raised in CAFOs is a solution that we can all take part in — and it’s also one of the best ways to avoid pink slime in your beef.
Where to Find Real, Filler-Free Ground Beef
As long as there are people willing to buy cheap, “imitation” meats made from beef trimmings formerly regarded as scraps, the industry will continue to produce it. The average American ate about 800 burgers’ worth of beef in 2018, or about 222 pounds.18 Where you get this beef, how it’s raised and, ultimately, the way it is prepared make all the difference in how it affects your health and the environment.
Source matters — greatly — and part of that includes knowing where your beef was raised. You’ll want to avoid getting your beef from so-called “hamburger central,” or CAFOs, instead opting for organic, grass fed beef that’s raised without antibiotics and produced without fillers like pink slime.
Sourcing your foods from a local farmer is one of the best ways to do so, and you can also look for the American Grassfed Association (AGA) logo,19 which allows for greater transparency and conformity20 and is intended to ensure the humane treatment of animals and to meet consumer expectations about grass fed meat and dairy, while being feasible for small farmers to achieve.
As far back as 2009, Zirnstein said he had doubts about “pink slime,” writing in an email, “I do not consider the stuff to be ground beef, and I consider allowing it in ground beef to be a form of fraudulent labeling.”21
Now, 10 years later, pink slime will be labeled as ground beef with the USDA’s approval. If you want to eat ground beef that’s just that — ground beef without fillers — find a local farmer near you — or at the very least call your supermarket and ask them if their ground beef products contain it.
from Articles http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/03/05/pink-slime-ground-beef.aspx source https://niapurenaturecom.tumblr.com/post/183234095856
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thrashermaxey · 6 years
Text
Ramblings: Halak, Markstrom, Gibson, Ferland, Shattenkirk and even more goalie talk (Jan 14)
Ramblings: Halak, Markstrom, Gibson, Ferland, Shattenkirk and even more goalie talk (Jan 14)
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I released the 11th annual Midseason Fantasy Guide on Friday. It has deeper, more-ready prospect info, plus KHL/Euro/NCAA free agents, trade block musings and of course second-half projections. It’s a great way to step back and take a look at your team, take a look at your league, and figure out a strategy for the second half. It also supports the site and damn if it isn’t a great read. It’s also my longest ever at 231 (!) pages. Pick it up here!
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I’m getting a lot of questions on Twitter about goaltending. All season long, to be honest, but it’s really picked up again over the past week as the early-on struggling starters begin to take their jobs back from the red-hot backups. And some of these are just so tough to answer. Drop Casey DeSmith for MacKenzie Blackwood? A proven guy who is losing starts for an unproven guy who may get the starts but is on a weak team? Another tough one – drop Jaroslav Halak, who is losing his grip on starts as Tuukka Rask is on fire and will get most starts down the stretch…to pick up Alexandar Georgiev who is a backup and is terrible but he’s behind a starter who is even worse? Sure, you could take the guy who will get you 0.8 points over the next week instead of the guy who might get you 1.2 points. But maybe it could be vice-versa? Your guys who have really helped you in the first half are no longer helping you. Sorry, but there’s no solution, if he’s your second goalie you’ll just have to take the two starts every three weeks that you’ll be getting from now on. Adding Georgiev is not going to save you. If you’re in this position I am guessing you were lucky to grab Halak (or DeSmith, or Domingue, etc.) in the first place so the time to stabilize your goaltending for when this happens would have been a month ago. But instead, you bet against the contract and hung on.
Mikko Koskinen sits for three out of four games when he’s the superior goalie, what to do with that guy? Same thing as with Halak, except Cam Talbot isn’t exactly stealing his job back just yet – he’s just getting most of the starts again. David Rittich could be in the same boat soon, despite how awesome he’s been. Louis Domingue was helpful too, but his time is over. Ditto for Casey DeSmith – and those of you in keeper leagues hoping he would parlay this great season into a starting gig somewhere else, well, his new contract isn’t a starter’s contract. So he’s doomed to be a backup and that’s that.
Long story short, this is why I follow the contract. Because even though it can be painful owning some of these guys for 10, 20 or even 40 games, eventually they retain the starting gig and generally do okay with it. Chasing backups is something that I don’t do in keeper leagues unless I see a chance at his becoming a starter. I had mild interest in DeSmith, now that interest is gone. I have interest in Collin Delia, I have interest in Rittich, and I like Cal Petersen over Jack Campbell. That’s it.
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Adin Hill coughed up seven goals on Sunday but it really wasn’t his fault, the Coyotes were horrible. But he is 3-5-0, 3.75 and 0.872 since December 6.
Darcy Kuemper has posted four solid games in a row and has six Quality Starts over his last eight.
Calvin Pickard was underwhelming in his AHL conditioning stint, allowing 11 goals on 99 shots for Tucson. Although he did go 3-0-0 so he stopped ‘enough’ pucks to get it done (he’s 4-2-2 in the NHL too, so maybe that’s just how he works?). Pickard was recalled from his stint Sunday, but he’s not looking like the answer for Arizona. But I don’t think they would mind his warming the bench while they give Hill some better starts down in Tucson. I suspect they’ll send Hill down soon.
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Three more points for Mark Giordano and he was also a plus-5. He’s now a ridiculous plus-36 with 47 points in 45 games on the season.
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Arizona line combinations with Jordan Weal in the lineup:
#1
28.6%
COUSINS,NICK – GALCHENYUK,ALEX – GARLAND,CONOR
#2
25.4%
ARCHIBALD,JOSH – CROUSE,LAWSON – KEMPE,MARIO
#3
22.2%
HINOSTROZA,VINNIE – PANIK,RICHARD – STEPAN,DEREK
#4
12.7%
FISCHER,CHRISTIAN – KELLER,CLAYTON – WEAL,JORDAN
Immediately tried out with the big guns. But he did cough up a tough one on the fourth Calgary goal so I’m not sure how long that will last.
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I was worried about Sergei Bobrovsky after this weekend’s mysterious team suspension. And now I’m worried that his focus is blown. He got the win but gave up five goals on 27 shots. It really hasn’t been fun owning Bobrovsky this year.
With two assists Sunday, Ryan Murray is still humming along at a point every two games.
Kevin Stenlund played his first and second career NHL games Saturday and Sunday. He is a solid middle-six prospect who had a great training camp and as an AHL rookie so far appears to be a 20-goal scorer this year. He was plunked on a line with Alexander Wennberg and Anthony Duclair this weekend, but was held without a point. His DobberProspects profile is here.
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Neal Pionk has one point in his last 10 games. Kevin Shattenkirk has four points in that span. The Rangers also gave up their five-forward top power-play-unit experiment and let Shatty back on it. A few games ago he was moved to the second PP while Coach Quinn went with five forwards on the top one. Shattenkirk has seen 10 minutes of PP time over the last three games so it appears things have returned to normal. Other than the ‘scoring points’ thing. Shattenkirk’s last PP point was on November 9. The one before that was October 16. The one before that was last season.
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Loui Eriksson was on nobody’s active roster yesterday as he went out and had himself a three-point game. This after going eight games without a point. He was also plus-4. He was still on a depth line playing with checking-line players, he just happened to have a good game.
After a couple of rough games, Jacob Markstrom bounced back with a Quality Start. Since December 6 he is 10-3-1, 2.13 and 0.925%.
I don’t care how great Thatcher Demko is, I am the lone wolf of the DobberHockey writers – Demko isn’t going to usurp this. Markstrom is posting stellar numbers, he was a highly-touted prospect (more highly-touted than Demko is now, even), and yes he had some rough years and took six years longer to ‘make it’ than we wanted – but he’s getting it done and he’s making $4 million next year. So he’s getting all the starts he wants for the next year and a half. And you know what? If he keeps posting a 0.920 SV% as this team gets better, the best prospect in the world isn’t going to take it from him. I’ve seen it before and I’ll see it again (remember Jonathan Bernier was the next big thing, but couldn’t wrench the job away from a fella named Quick who got there a year earlier).
Sometimes, starting goaltending is about timing. Mid-level, lesser-touted goalie prospects can become great fantasy assets because they arrive in an organization at the perfect time (Corey Crawford, Jimmy Howard, Chris Osgood, and maybe soon Delia?). And sometimes amazing goalie prospects never get rolling because the timing just missed (Bernier a great example of this, Cory Schneider another one). I know the simple, reflexive answer is “well, trade one!” But it never seems to be that simple. Obvious trades never seem to get done in real life. If Markstrom continues to play above average and gets paid $4 million next year, what if they extend him in the summer? You know the Canucks will try to lock him in, so what if he gets extended for even higher salary for three or four more years? Then what happens to Demko then? I’ll tell you what happens – he gets the Schneider treatment. An extra couple of years too long in the AHL, plus far too long as a backup goalie.
So, here I am. The lone wolf. I think highly of Demko and his upside. I would trade him away in my keeper league because I want someone who will actually play a lot in the next couple of years.
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Victor Hedman left the game after taking a ref’s shoulder to the eye. Doesn’t sound like an injury that would cost him future games, but be wary of a possible concussion.
{youtube}xBhz3u8GZgo{/youtube}
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Micheal Ferland is back on a line with the big guns Sebastian Aho/Teuvo Teravainen and he’s racking up the points again. Give him five in the last two games. He added seven PIM on Sunday. He’s back on the power play as well, both of Sunday’s points were with the man advantage.
And with four points on Sunday, Aho now has 22 points in his last 15 games, so playing on a line with him is like striking gold these days.
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Colton Sissons, who is filling in for Kyle Turris, seems to be doing better than Turris was on the Kevin Fiala line. Then again, Calle Jarnkrok was doing great there as well. In fact, it seems like if your name isn’t Turris, you’re going to do great with Fiala. Which begs the question – why does Turris get to play with Fiala? Sissons has a four-game points streak, which was preceded by four pointless games, which was preceded by another four-game points streak. In all, Sissons has 11 points in 12 games.
Pekka Rinne was pulled after giving up five goals on 20 shots. In his last 11 games, Rinne is 3-6-2, 3.18 and 0.896. Meanwhile, Juuse Saros has posted five consecutive Quality Starts.
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Anaheim has lost 11 games in a row. The GM announced that he was going to fire Randy Carlyle by saying “I am not considering a coaching change at this time” which, as we know, is the kiss of death.
The sign of desperation? Playing two of your six defensemen 8:30 or less. That leaves the other four defensemen killing themselves out there. Another sign? Jakob Silfverberg was up playing with Ryan Getzlaf and I almost never see that. It’s happened, I just rarely catch it. Another sign? Pontus Aberg is now getting scratched – three games in a row now. Carlyle is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this problem.
John Gibson is 0-5-4 with a 0.896 SV% during this stretch. He is the goalie I would say has the biggest fan club around these parts – I have probably received the most questions about my perceived low ranking of Gibson over the past several years than any other goaltender. Or maybe the Gibson owners are just more vocal. Anyway, I digress. I noted here a few weeks ago that if the Ducks made the playoffs then Gibson should get the Vezina and the Hart, because I felt that the team was terrible but the goalie was doing amazing. Now he’s not stealing games anymore and their crappiness is catching up with them.
One good thing for the Ducks – Daniel Sprong has five points in his last seven games and has wired 29 shots on goal over his last nine. He seems to settling into his new home okay now.
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When I was putting the Midseason Guide together I was surprised at the kind of season Brandon Tanev was having. And with an assist Sunday he has a five-game points streak going. He also added five SOG and six hits.  Since November 14 here is the line on Tanev:
29-9-5-14, plus-4, 13 PIM, 54 SOG, 100 Hits and 26 BLKs.
Just picked him up, myself.
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I just took a look at the hot/cold tool and there are seven players at the 15-game max window we look at that have 23 points or more. That is to say, seven players have at least 23 points in their last 15 games. How about that. Nikita Kucherov (32), Johnny Gaudreau (28 before Sunday night’s three points), Connor McDavid (26), Steven Stamkos (25), Patrick Kane (24), Sidney Crosby (23) and Brayden Point (23).
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{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">19 points in last 20 games for Erik K̶a̶r̶l̶- I mean Gustafsson</p>— Dobber (@DobberHockey) <a href="https://twitter.com/DobberHockey/status/1084288158043385856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>{/source}
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See you next Monday.
    from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-halak-markstrom-gibson-ferland-shattenkirk-and-even-more-goalie-talk-jan-14/
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markjsousa · 7 years
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Zara Owner Inditex to Pay Factory Workers Who Hid Notes in Clothes
The pressing issue of how garment workers are abused—a hot topic in the fashion industry, particularly since the 2013 Rana Plaza tragedy—is rearing its head again.
Fast fashion giant Zara—#24 on Interbrand’s 2017 Best Global Brands report—has responded to an Associated Press story reporting that garment workers in a Turkish factory had been staging a protest over their mistreatment by hiding the note pictured above in clothing.
The alarming plea for help—which translates in part to: “I made this item you are going to buy, but I didn’t get paid for it”—points to a Change.org petition asking people to email Zara and Inditex executives to help them.
The printed note alleges that the Bravo Tekstil clothing factory in Istanbul owes the workers three months of pay and severance allowance. It closed down overnight, with the owner and management fleeing with funds and no forwarding address.
Videos posted on YouTube feature the stories (with English subtitles) of the desperate Turkish garment workers, many of them parents with no other source of income:
youtube
youtube
youtube
‘A SWIFT SOLUTION’
Inditex addressed the allegations in a response to Fast Company, confirming that the apparel giant has indeed been manufacturing clothing at Bravo Tekstil (Turkish for Bravo Textile), along with other European-based fast fashion labels Mango and Next, with around 155 laborers employed in that factory.
An Inditex spokesperson confirmed to Fast Company the July 2016 “fraudulent disappearance of the Bravo factory’s owner,” who vanished without paying its workers. To compensate the stiffed workers, Inditex says it is setting up a hardship fund to help the unpaid workers with Mango and Next, with project oversight by IndustriALL—the global workers’ union that represents 50 million laborers in 140 countries.
“This hardship fund would cover unpaid wages, notice indemnity, unused vacation, and severance payments of workers that were employed at the time of the sudden shutdown of their factory,” the statement reads. “We are committed to finding a swift solution for all of those impacted.”
Although Bravo Tekstil (Textile)’s owners have disappeared and may face criminal charges, the family-owned company’s website still stands and states in English to its clients—i.e. Western brands—this story and philosophy:
Bravo Textile was founded in 1993 Izmir by Hakan Erguven, and continues to be a family owned and operated turkish manufacturer. As a privately held company, Bravo Textile freely strives to implement its core philosophy of achieving success by being of service to its clients, an asset to its employees and a partner to its vendors. A heritage of hard work, integrity, and gratitude have clearly demonstrated that these character traits are Bravo Textile’s path to long term success. We believe that the best way to ensure profitability is by putting people and principals first and foremost. 
Bravo’s website also lists certificates from global organizations it claims to adhere to, stating (verbatim):
BSCI The Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) is a leading business-driven initiative supporting retailers, importers and brands to improve working conditions in supplying factories and farms worldwide. The is a world of free trade and sustainable global supply chains, in which factories and farms are compliant with national labour legislation as well as with ILO Conventions protecting workers rights.
FEAR WEAR FOUNDATION Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) is an independent, non-profit organisationthat works with companies and factories to improve labour conditions for garment workers.
RIGHT TO WEAR
Inditex is aware it carries a huge responsibility to practice business ethically, both of its direct employees and the workers hired by third-party contractors in its supply chain. It’s the largest fashion retailer in the world by sales, with 7,292 stores around the globe. In 2016, it reported 23.3 billion euros ($27 billion) in revenue and $5 billion euros ($5.8 billion) in profits.
Reinforcing its commitment to sustainable and ethical business practices, Inditex replaced the “sustainability” section of its website with a section called Right to Wear, outlining its commitment and actions to protect people and the environment. Last month, Inditex celebrated the 10th anniversary of its global commitment to IndustriALL standards and subsequently reinforced its ILO agreement to meet standards to protect laborers.
In its 2016 annual report to shareholders, the company wrote that “Inditex makes a commitment to play a conscientious role in promoting Human Rights, working proactively in this area. The Group also undertakes to avoid or mitigate the negative consequences on human rights of its own activities.”
#RPNEVERAGAIN
As for the Rana Plana disaster, IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Jenny Holdcroft this week updated the progress of reparations under the Bangladesh Accord, the agreement between garment companies and trade unions aimed at fire and building safety in the Bangladeshi garment industry. As next year marks the fifth anniversary of Rana Plaza, IndustriALL is planning to transfer oversight of the accord to a Bangladeshi regulatory body.
The @banglaccord is more than just an accord; it is a massive organization with 200+ staff on the ground in Bangladesh, reports AGS @Jenny_Holdcroft to #ExCo #RPNeverAgain http://pic.twitter.com/GafysmHkGS
— IndustriALL (@IndustriALL_GU) November 8, 2017
As well as inspecting 1,800 garment factories in #Bangladesh, the @banglaccord has organized health and safety trainings directly benefitting 1.2 million workers – @Jenny_Holdcroft
— IndustriALL (@IndustriALL_GU) November 8, 2017
Process agreed to prepare for future handover of Bangladesh Accord to a national regulator | IndustriALL https://t.co/CsbncLF4pu
— Jenny Holdcroft (@Jenny_Holdcroft) October 21, 2017
A HUMAN-CENTERED SUPPLY CHAIN
Fashion giants are under scrutiny and pressure to monitor the supply chain, including with contractors and sub-contractors, to make sure garment factories and the manufacturing process is ethical and fair every step of the way. The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) just released a proposal to its members to adopt a “human-centered supply chain.”
Kering, for example, is proud of its sustainability commitment: working directly with suppliers to update practices; hiring engineers and researchers focused on innovation in dedicated labs; and partnering with startups and competitors, to shed light on and support the overall industry’s progress.
“When you are in the luxury sector, you have a responsibility because you set the trends,” said Marie-Claire Daveu, chief sustainability officer and head of international affairs at Kering. “Today, when you’re buying a luxury product, you know it has to have the perfect craftsmanship and quality, but more and more, people are taking into consideration a new criteria — namely, how a brand they’re buying from takes care of people and the planet.”
“If you want your partners to work with you and trust you, you cannot say, ‘Reduce your water consumption by 10 percent tomorrow, or else we leave,’” she added. “Our goal is capacity-building, or bringing them to a place where we are sustainable, no matter the scale. To that end, we’re bringing an added value to these suppliers. Sustainability is going to be a competitive advantage—not only for us, but for them, as well.”
ENGAGING STAKEHOLDERS
In a strategy other brands may want to adopt, Kering has assembled an advisory board of millennials, 15 men and women from different countries, one-third of whom are employed at Kering, to meet regularly with its board and discuss issues such as if the company is walking its talk on sustainability and ethical business practices from a consumer and employee perspective.
“The new generation are completely different to the past,” said  Maria Grazia Chiuri, artistic director of Christian Dior. “They ask for more information, they are more personal in their point of view. My son looks to see if the T-shirt is cotton, where the cotton is from. There is a completely different audience with different values and ideas about what is good and not good.”
It’s not just fashion giants who are stepping up. Millennial-favored brands Everlane, Girlfriend, Naadam and The Reformation all communicate about their supply chains in an effort to be transparent and proactive.
As Daveu said, “It’s smart to push our top management to think outside of the box to identify the weak signals we’re sending out as a company, linked to sustainability, to challenge us. Sustainability today is not at all an option. It’s a necessity.”
The post Zara Owner Inditex to Pay Factory Workers Who Hid Notes in Clothes appeared first on brandchannel:.
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glenmenlow · 7 years
Text
Zara to Pay Factory Workers Who Hid Notes in Clothes
The pressing issue of how garment workers are abused—a hot topic in the fashion industry, particularly since the 2013 Rana Plaza tragedy—is rearing its head again.
Fast fashion giant Zara—#24 on Interbrand’s 2017 Best Global Brands report—has responded to an Associated Press story reporting that garment workers in a Turkish factory had been staging a protest by hiding the note above in clothing. The alarming plea for help—which translates in part to: “I made this item you are going to buy, but I didn’t get paid for it”—point to a Change.org petition to email Zara and Inditex executives to help them.
The tags identify the Bravo Tekstil clothing factory, which owes the workers three months of pay and severance allowance. It closed down overnight, with the owner and management fleeing with funds and no forwarding address.
Inditex addressed the issue in a response to Fast Company, confirming that the apparel giant has indeed been manufacturing clothing at Bravo Tekstil (Turkish for Bravo Textile), along with other European-based fast fashion labels Mango and Next, with around 155 laborers employed in that factory.
Inditex confirmed the July 2016 “fraudulent disappearance of the Bravo factory’s owner,” who vanished without paying its workers. To compensate the stiffed workers, Inditex says it is setting up a hardship fund to help the unpaid workers with Mango and Next, with project oversight by IndustriALL—the global workers’ union that represents 50 million laborers in 140 countries.
“This hardship fund would cover unpaid wages, notice indemnity, unused vacation, and severance payments of workers that were employed at the time of the sudden shutdown of their factory,” the statement reads. “We are committed to finding a swift solution for all of those impacted.”
Videos posted on YouTube features the stories (with English subtitles) of the desperate Turkish garment workers, many of them parents with no other source of income:
youtube
youtube
youtube
Although Bravo Tekstil (Textile)’s owners have disappeared, the family-owned company’s website still stands, and states in English to its clients—i.e. Western brands—its philosophy:
Bravo Textile was founded in 1993 Izmir by Hakan Erguven, and continues to be a family owned and operated turkish manufacturer. As a privately held company, Bravo Textile freely strives to implement its core philosophy of achieving success by being of service to its clients, an asset to its employees and a partner to its vendors. A heritage of hard work, integrity, and gratitude have clearly demonstrated that these character traits are Bravo Textile’s path to long term success. We believe that the best way to ensure profitability is by putting people and principals first and foremost. 
Bravo’s website also lists certificates from global organizations it claims to adhere to, stating (verbatim):
BSCI The Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) is a leading business-driven initiative supporting retailers, importers and brands to improve working conditions in supplying factories and farms worldwide. The is a world of free trade and sustainable global supply chains, in which factories and farms are compliant with national labour legislation as well as with ILO Conventions protecting workers rights.
FEAR WEAR FOUNDATION Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) is an independent, non-profit organisationthat works with companies and factories to improve labour conditions for garment workers.
Inditex is the largest fashion retailer in the world by sales, with 7,292 stores around the globe. In 2016, it reported 23.3 billion euros ($27 billion) in revenue and $5 billion euros ($5.8 billion) in profits. In its 2016 annual report to shareholders, the company wrote that “Inditex makes a commitment to play a conscientious role in promoting Human Rights, working proactively in this area. The Group also undertakes to avoid or mitigate the negative consequences on human rights of its own activities.”
As for the Rana Plana disaster, IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Jenny Holdcroft this week updated the progress of reparations under the Bangladesh Accord, the agreement between garment companies and trade unions aimed at fire and building safety in the Bangladeshi garment industry. As next year marks the fifth anniversary of Rana Plaza, IndustriALL is planning to transfer oversight of the accord to a Bangladeshi regulatory body.
The @banglaccord is more than just an accord; it is a massive organization with 200+ staff on the ground in Bangladesh, reports AGS @Jenny_Holdcroft to #ExCo #RPNeverAgain pic.twitter.com/GafysmHkGS
— IndustriALL (@IndustriALL_GU) November 8, 2017
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
As well as inspecting 1,800 garment factories in #Bangladesh, the @banglaccord has organized health and safety trainings directly benefitting 1.2 million workers – @Jenny_Holdcroft
— IndustriALL (@IndustriALL_GU) November 8, 2017
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Process agreed to prepare for future handover of Bangladesh Accord to a national regulator | IndustriALL https://t.co/CsbncLF4pu
— Jenny Holdcroft (@Jenny_Holdcroft) October 21, 2017
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Fashion giants are under scrutiny and pressure to monitor the supply chain, including with contractors and sub-contractors, to make sure garment factories and the manufacturing process is ethical and fair every step of the way. The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) just released a proposal to its members to adopt a “human-centered supply chain.”
Kering, for example, is proud of its sustainability commitment: working directly with suppliers to update practices; hiring engineers and researchers focused on innovation in dedicated labs; and partnering with startups and competitors, to shed light on and support the overall industry’s progress.
“When you are in the luxury sector, you have a responsibility because you set the trends,” said Marie-Claire Daveu, chief sustainability officer and head of international affairs at Kering. “Today, when you’re buying a luxury product, you know it has to have the perfect craftsmanship and quality, but more and more, people are taking into consideration a new criteria — namely, how a brand they’re buying from takes care of people and the planet.”
“If you want your partners to work with you and trust you, you cannot say, ‘Reduce your water consumption by 10 percent tomorrow, or else we leave,’” she added. “Our goal is capacity-building, or bringing them to a place where we are sustainable, no matter the scale. To that end, we’re bringing an added value to these suppliers. Sustainability is going to be a competitive advantage—not only for us, but for them, as well.”
Kering has assembled an advisory board of millennials, 15 men and women from different countries, one-third of whom are employed at Kering, to meet with their board.
“The new generation are completely different to the past,” said  Maria Grazia Chiuri, artistic director of Christian Dior. “They ask for more information, they are more personal in their point of view. My son looks to see if the T-shirt is cotton, where the cotton is from. There is a completely different audience with different values and ideas about what is good and not good.”
It’s not just fashion giants who are stepping up. Millennial-favored brands Everlane, Girlfriend, Naadam and The Reformation all communicate about their supply chains in an effort to be transparent and proactive.
As Daveu said, “It’s smart to push our top management to think outside of the box to identify the weak signals we’re sending out as a company, linked to sustainability, to challenge us. Sustainability today is not at all an option. It’s a necessity.”
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joejstrickl · 7 years
Text
Zara Owner Inditex to Pay Factory Workers Who Hid Notes in Clothes
The pressing issue of how garment workers are abused—a hot topic in the fashion industry, particularly since the 2013 Rana Plaza tragedy—is rearing its head again.
Fast fashion giant Zara—#24 on Interbrand’s 2017 Best Global Brands report—has responded to an Associated Press story reporting that garment workers in a Turkish factory had been staging a protest over their mistreatment by hiding the note pictured above in clothing.
The alarming plea for help—which translates in part to: “I made this item you are going to buy, but I didn’t get paid for it”—points to a Change.org petition asking people to email Zara and Inditex executives to help them.
The printed note alleges that the Bravo Tekstil clothing factory in Istanbul owes the workers three months of pay and severance allowance. It closed down overnight, with the owner and management fleeing with funds and no forwarding address.
Videos posted on YouTube feature the stories (with English subtitles) of the desperate Turkish garment workers, many of them parents with no other source of income:
youtube
youtube
youtube
‘A SWIFT SOLUTION’
Inditex addressed the allegations in a response to Fast Company, confirming that the apparel giant has indeed been manufacturing clothing at Bravo Tekstil (Turkish for Bravo Textile), along with other European-based fast fashion labels Mango and Next, with around 155 laborers employed in that factory.
An Inditex spokesperson confirmed to Fast Company the July 2016 “fraudulent disappearance of the Bravo factory’s owner,” who vanished without paying its workers. To compensate the stiffed workers, Inditex says it is setting up a hardship fund to help the unpaid workers with Mango and Next, with project oversight by IndustriALL—the global workers’ union that represents 50 million laborers in 140 countries.
“This hardship fund would cover unpaid wages, notice indemnity, unused vacation, and severance payments of workers that were employed at the time of the sudden shutdown of their factory,” the statement reads. “We are committed to finding a swift solution for all of those impacted.”
Although Bravo Tekstil (Textile)’s owners have disappeared and may face criminal charges, the family-owned company’s website still stands and states in English to its clients—i.e. Western brands—this story and philosophy:
Bravo Textile was founded in 1993 Izmir by Hakan Erguven, and continues to be a family owned and operated turkish manufacturer. As a privately held company, Bravo Textile freely strives to implement its core philosophy of achieving success by being of service to its clients, an asset to its employees and a partner to its vendors. A heritage of hard work, integrity, and gratitude have clearly demonstrated that these character traits are Bravo Textile’s path to long term success. We believe that the best way to ensure profitability is by putting people and principals first and foremost. 
Bravo’s website also lists certificates from global organizations it claims to adhere to, stating (verbatim):
BSCI The Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) is a leading business-driven initiative supporting retailers, importers and brands to improve working conditions in supplying factories and farms worldwide. The is a world of free trade and sustainable global supply chains, in which factories and farms are compliant with national labour legislation as well as with ILO Conventions protecting workers rights.
FEAR WEAR FOUNDATION Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) is an independent, non-profit organisationthat works with companies and factories to improve labour conditions for garment workers.
RIGHT TO WEAR
Inditex is aware it carries a huge responsibility to practice business ethically, both of its direct employees and the workers hired by third-party contractors in its supply chain. It’s the largest fashion retailer in the world by sales, with 7,292 stores around the globe. In 2016, it reported 23.3 billion euros ($27 billion) in revenue and $5 billion euros ($5.8 billion) in profits.
Reinforcing its commitment to sustainable and ethical business practices, Inditex replaced the “sustainability” section of its website with a section called Right to Wear, outlining its commitment and actions to protect people and the environment. Last month, Inditex celebrated the 10th anniversary of its global commitment to IndustriALL standards and subsequently reinforced its ILO agreement to meet standards to protect laborers.
In its 2016 annual report to shareholders, the company wrote that “Inditex makes a commitment to play a conscientious role in promoting Human Rights, working proactively in this area. The Group also undertakes to avoid or mitigate the negative consequences on human rights of its own activities.”
#RPNEVERAGAIN
As for the Rana Plana disaster, IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Jenny Holdcroft this week updated the progress of reparations under the Bangladesh Accord, the agreement between garment companies and trade unions aimed at fire and building safety in the Bangladeshi garment industry. As next year marks the fifth anniversary of Rana Plaza, IndustriALL is planning to transfer oversight of the accord to a Bangladeshi regulatory body.
The @banglaccord is more than just an accord; it is a massive organization with 200+ staff on the ground in Bangladesh, reports AGS @Jenny_Holdcroft to #ExCo #RPNeverAgain pic.twitter.com/GafysmHkGS
— IndustriALL (@IndustriALL_GU) November 8, 2017
As well as inspecting 1,800 garment factories in #Bangladesh, the @banglaccord has organized health and safety trainings directly benefitting 1.2 million workers – @Jenny_Holdcroft
— IndustriALL (@IndustriALL_GU) November 8, 2017
Process agreed to prepare for future handover of Bangladesh Accord to a national regulator | IndustriALL https://t.co/CsbncLF4pu
— Jenny Holdcroft (@Jenny_Holdcroft) October 21, 2017
A HUMAN-CENTERED SUPPLY CHAIN
Fashion giants are under scrutiny and pressure to monitor the supply chain, including with contractors and sub-contractors, to make sure garment factories and the manufacturing process is ethical and fair every step of the way. The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) just released a proposal to its members to adopt a “human-centered supply chain.”
Kering, for example, is proud of its sustainability commitment: working directly with suppliers to update practices; hiring engineers and researchers focused on innovation in dedicated labs; and partnering with startups and competitors, to shed light on and support the overall industry’s progress.
“When you are in the luxury sector, you have a responsibility because you set the trends,” said Marie-Claire Daveu, chief sustainability officer and head of international affairs at Kering. “Today, when you’re buying a luxury product, you know it has to have the perfect craftsmanship and quality, but more and more, people are taking into consideration a new criteria — namely, how a brand they’re buying from takes care of people and the planet.”
“If you want your partners to work with you and trust you, you cannot say, ‘Reduce your water consumption by 10 percent tomorrow, or else we leave,’” she added. “Our goal is capacity-building, or bringing them to a place where we are sustainable, no matter the scale. To that end, we’re bringing an added value to these suppliers. Sustainability is going to be a competitive advantage—not only for us, but for them, as well.”
ENGAGING STAKEHOLDERS
In a strategy other brands may want to adopt, Kering has assembled an advisory board of millennials, 15 men and women from different countries, one-third of whom are employed at Kering, to meet regularly with its board and discuss issues such as if the company is walking its talk on sustainability and ethical business practices from a consumer and employee perspective.
“The new generation are completely different to the past,” said  Maria Grazia Chiuri, artistic director of Christian Dior. “They ask for more information, they are more personal in their point of view. My son looks to see if the T-shirt is cotton, where the cotton is from. There is a completely different audience with different values and ideas about what is good and not good.”
It’s not just fashion giants who are stepping up. Millennial-favored brands Everlane, Girlfriend, Naadam and The Reformation all communicate about their supply chains in an effort to be transparent and proactive.
As Daveu said, “It’s smart to push our top management to think outside of the box to identify the weak signals we’re sending out as a company, linked to sustainability, to challenge us. Sustainability today is not at all an option. It’s a necessity.”
The post Zara Owner Inditex to Pay Factory Workers Who Hid Notes in Clothes appeared first on brandchannel:.
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lnwseniorstudio1 · 7 years
Text
Blog Six
Huzzah! I have finally been able to re-organize and take a look at my research!
There are still a few things I would like to check out, including an OnBeing episode that Professor Sigamoney mentioned called “The Good, Bad and Ugly of the Digital Age”. I’d also like to read a book by Michael Bugeja entitled “Interpersonal Divide in the Age of the Machine”. These two may have to wait for Thanksgiving or Christmas break since they are not entirely necessary and would most likely just serve as more inspiration for my project as I go. I know there’s a lot of information below so feel free to skim but please bear with me...I will include my notes/summaries, bold important words and put my own comments in italics. If you are interested in this topic at all or in improving your life by understanding your current environment better, I would definitely read it all and watch all the videos. To understand it is literally life changing. 
The first thing I did was take a look at the textbook for my Media Ethics [Media Ethics: 10th Edition: Routledge] class. We’re through chapter 10 now and as we’ve been going along I’ve been tabbing pages that have had crossover or applicable information for my thesis concept. I won’t include everything I indexed here because it’s quite a lot but some of the important stuff:
p.10 “Values constitute a frame of reference” -- we may value some things too highly and act in accordance with those values which are never pure and need to be checked by our loyalties and principles on how to apply those values. This pertains to my project because my argument after doing research is that our society has valued information/education too much and social interaction not enough, therefore causing the downward spiral in mental illness that we’ve seen amongst progressive generations. 
p. 45 We often live in an “information cocoon” or “echo chamber” in which we click on and view only things that interest us and affirm our ideas/prejudices rather than challenge them. This insulates us and allows us to avoid discordant tones. 
p. 134 Studies have shown that there has been a 47% drop in the “empathy index” over the last decade amongst today’s college students. There is a strong correlation between increased bonding over social media and a sharp decline in emotional concern for others. This could be due to lack of face-to-face contact. Other studies have shown that casual touch, looking into a friend’s eyes and hearing their voice/seeing their body language is what cements a relationship. This can’t even be done through FaceTime or Skype. 
p. 134 Today’s teens and young adults are the most concerned with internet privacy more than ever before, even though they appear to be most transparent. 
p. 165 Ads today create an intensified sense of distrust of and alienation from others, mainly because they are viewed as deceptive. 
p. 175  “Living for likes in the marketplace” -- people have become commodities through Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, etc. 
p. 181 Advertising and “media culture” are pervasive and act as a mirror/shaper of society; reflective but rich with distortion and selective content. 
p. 202 Millennials are defined as born from 1980-2000. They are called “digital natives” and have had instant access to all information since birth. 
p. 212 “Fragmented audiences” and “clutter”; our commercialized culture has seeped into our personal lives. We view other people as things we can buy and get something out of, rather than put something in to and cultivate as a human being. This is intrusive in nature. 
p. 227 We often reflect on the ethics of our new technologies and “progress” AFTER the damage has been done. We MUST correct these problems. 
I also checked out a few web links which I will include as I go in case you are interested in any of these topics and would like to know more. The first one comes from Thoughtful Life Ministries. I don’t normally like to include religious outputs in my research because they tend to be less objective but I really found this explanation of what is happening today helpful; it was very well-informed. I’ll include my notes from it in bullet point format which might be easier to read through more quickly.
http://www.thoughtfullifeministries.org/blog/2015/5/18/wisdom-in-the-digital-age-information 
“We live in an age of much knowledge and little thought.”
We tend to compartmentalize data and have little capacity to implement that data.
Our format for accessing information is fragmented, therefore our thinking is fragmented, therefore our actions are disconnected. 
Experiencing things in fragments has been shown to hamper cognition. One solution might be to read more books that help to develop better concentration skills, rather than reading short articles or blips or tweets from the internet. 
We have a false sense of wisdom due to so much information. However, real wisdom means knowing what to do with that data; how to use it to make decisions and build relationships up rather than knowing quick facts for trivia. This is also true spiritually. It’s one thing to know the Bible and another to have a relationship with God/Jesus.
Background noise is constant. 
We need stillness, silence, meditation and contemplation to maintain mental health--not quick answers from Google that don’t allow us to think and wonder for ourselves. 
We have built up an aversion to quiet and become uneasy when alone for too long. 
Quality of information is no longer a priority. 
Abundance of information calls for developing discernment so that we can learn to trust again. 
The next one comes from GoodTherapy.org and discusses some of the negative ways technology can impact our relationships. 
https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/3-ways-technology-can-negatively-impact-your-relationships-0919167
A PEW study on Intimacy (2014) 
Shows that stress/distraction often comes from cell phone usage.
Tech devices can paradoxically provide a “sense” of closeness but also tension.
Distraction
Devices can turn in to an online addiction.
People who leave their devices for more than 10 minutes often show higher levels of anxiety--a sign of an addiction, similar to smoking. 
Depression
A study done in Pittsburgh shows higher rates of depression amongst those who use social media more (tend to compare themselves to others more, obsess over “likes”, etc.)
Shows a decline in mood, sense of well-being and of life satisfaction. This leads to “Fear of Missing Out”, but ends up causing those with this fear to miss out on what they already have in front of them. This calls for some meditation on gratitude. 
Sync Up by Powering Down.
Connections are forged through voice, body language, facial expression and are essential. Touch is also missing, even friendly touch, and cannot be replicated through FaceTime. There may even be a higher rate of young adults who are now uncomfortable with normal affectionate touch with friends, mentors etc. This may cause erratic behavior, like keeping away from most people and then taking touch too far at other times/sexually/romantically/public indecency or harassment/assault, etc--I have personally been the victim of sexual harassment (multiple times) and attempted assault and I know for a fact the person that did it has anxiety, depression and an anti-social/erratic nature. 
Solutions
Scheduling allotted times for technology usage.
Spending time in nature
A Dutch study has shown that those who live within 0.6 miles of a park or woodland have lower levels of anxiety. 
My last weblink is actually just to a YouTube Channel called “Charisma on Command”. I personally have used Charisma on Command’s videos to help me with my social skills. What I think is important about this is the fact that we even have a YouTube Channel dedicated to teaching young adults how to behave like normal people. This shows us that we are the first generation to not learn these social cues as children, we must develop them later to compensate and we are actually aware that we need this help. Charisma on Command currently has 1.2 Million subscribers...including me. 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU_W0oE_ock8bWKjALiGs8Q
My last section of research comes from some articles shared on Facebook that I saved and are often accompanied by videos. I would HIGHLY recommend reading and watching all of this because it could seriously help you to understand yourself and those around you better, and that simple act of understanding the cause of something and perhaps what you can do about it can alleviate so much of the anxiety that we’ve already caused ourselves. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BauKQDg4j0
This was a video shared by GoalCast called “Us and We” by Wentworth Miller. It’s only a short segment of the full video but I still got a lot out of it:
Being in survival mode leaves no space for community, only worrying about ourselves and getting through the day.
Many kids today struggle with suicide and yet on the outside pretend that everything is fine, even return to school shortly after attempting suicide (I myself am amongst this category). 
Miller suggests this is not a cry for help because most don’t believe there is help to call for, and I’d have to agree--not that there isn’t help out there, just that when in this state you don’t believe there is.
We need to start watching out for, listening to, caring for and loving one another, even those who aren’t in our normal circle but especially those who are. People need to know they are not alone because as we will see in the following articles, it is actually loneliness, play deprivation and intense “schooling” that causes people to lash out through either suicide or homicide. 
The next video I have isn’t quite as pertinent to my topic but is still very important, perhaps as one of the solutions to the problems I am bringing up. I couldn’t get the link for it but on Facebook if you search for the ATTN page and the video “Our schools should teach basic life skills again” you’ll probably find it.
The quality of the information we place the highest value on (school) is lacking. Our education is nearly meaningless and we often hear high school students complain of boredom or being given useless information that will never help them in the real world.
Conversely, we are given 38% less home economics, financial literacy and cooking classes in school leaving students feeling ill-prepared for the real world.
This has led to the hashtag #Adulting: when someone has finally figured out how to do something every adult should know how to do and posts about their success in getting it right or when they can’t figure something out (like how to boil an egg) and resort to an easier means of getting the job done (Ie. going to McDonald’s for dinner too often). 
This is SAD, PATHETIC and a DISSERVICE to our youth: They should have LESS school but BETTER quality education, as we will see below in the final two articles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hER0Qp6QJNU
This video actually came from Delta Protective Services’ Facebook Page and includes Simon Sinek discussing Millennials in the Workplace.
Sinek defines Millennials as born in 1994 and after. 
Corporations describe millennials as tough to work with, self interested, unfocussed, lazy and entitled. 
This is all true, but let’s ask WHY. 
Millennials want a purpose and to make an impact but don’t know how, leaving them extremely unhappy and wrought with mental health disorders.
Missing Pieces according to Sinek:
Failed parenting
Children are told they are special and can have anything they want for no apparent reason since birth. No merit: given participation awards which are shown to actually lower self esteem from embarrassment because children know they didn’t deserve it. 
Find out in adulthood that they can’t have everything they want when they want it and are confused/stressed and constantly worried about their future in a society that values monetary success and titles. 
Technology
Apps like Instagram and Facebook allow young individuals to “filter” their lives. “Life is amazing, even though behind closed doors I’m depressed”. We end up comparing ourselves and our lifestyles to other people’s lives which aren’t even the whole truth of their life and have unrealistic expectations of how life will be.
Social media is also associated with the release of Dopamine in the brain and that is the same chemical released through other addictions. It can be used as an escape from reality like alcohol or drugs and has a numbing effect. 
Like alcoholics who turn to alcohol under stress, social media addicts turn to more social media rather than other people close to them when under stress. 
This does not develop deep meaningful relationships and often most young people admit that they have fun with their friends but cannot count on them or confide in them. They have no practice at normal coping mechanisms. 
Social media provides temporary relief but long term increases rates of depression. The imbalance ignores the root of the problem which is related to instant gratification. 
What doesn’t come instantly is job satisfaction and meaningful relationships: those take years, even a whole lifetime, to develop that sense of joy in hard work and that is simply not present in our age group. 
We need to learn patience:
Worst case scenario: increase in suicide [homicide] rates from drug overdoses, dropping out of school or leaves of absence due to depression/mental health which is unheard of before this and we are already seeing this in America everywhere. 
Best case scenario: an entire generation of individuals never really finding joy; wafting through life with no fulfillment and constantly using the phrase “it’s fine”. 
Environment:
Corporate environments care about short game numbers and gains, not about the lifetime of the youth working for them. 
Corporations and businesses need to pick up the slack and help kids to encourage their confidence and cooperation skills. Kids think it’s their own fault but really they’ve had a lack of good leadership. 
Need to offer help with social skills, small talk and building relationships in general, slow and steady. 
Also need to remove technology and information overload temptations, such as cell phones in and even just before meetings so employees are forced to converse with one another. 
Need to learn to let our minds wander and enjoy the world without constant engagement: that’s how true innovation happens.  
https://byrslf.co/thoughts-on-the-vegas-shooting-14af397cee2c
The last link comes from Charlie Hoehn from BeYourself and he gives his thoughts on the recent Vegas shooting and why men keep doing this. It has a chilling amount to do with my topic and is another highly recommended read (including the attached videos, especially the one on Play Deprivation as a cause of mental and social disorders). 
Increased shootings are related to men’s emotional health, not so much the guns and weapons used in the shootings. 
Men have little social/emotional support.
Much of this is to do with chronic loneliness.
Need touch, caring, warmth, empathy, close relationships.
Can’t admit to these needs because they are not “for men” and cause them to appear weak, or at least society in general tell them so.
This can even be true for females with the new wave of feminism which encourages women to not appear weak as well and may unintentionally encourage the non-desirable traits of masculinity, such as isolation and the “lone wolf” mentality. 
Men need deep friendships and confidants as much as women do but end up posturing in front of other boys instead. 
Unrealistic expectations of masculinity lead to isolation and later violence (in forms of suicide, homicide or rape, etc.)
“The Mask You Live In” Video
Caring, relationships and empathy have been feminized and undervalued as traits for men.
Become homicidal/suicidal out of shame.
Respect is linked to violence: more to do with loneliness than anything else
Soul-deadening and maddening loneliness, feelings of rejection or being an outcast can be seen as emotionally traumatizing and develop a vision of seeing others as threats “people are cruel and not worth the effort”--I’ll admit, I used to think this way. I never would have hurt anyone, but I would isolate myself to cope.
Men [people in general] are also deprived of play.
People function best and are healthier with less stress which can be relieved through play.
Play encourages the formation of deep friendships, life/social skills and the mastery of survival/being able to respond well and not overreact to frightening situations.
This is like socialization for puppies and helps them to grow up to be non-aggressive and non-violent. Puppies grow into dogs that lash out because of abuse, isolation and fear/not knowing how to react to fear. 
Strong correlation between play deprivation and mental illness.
Leads to chronic depression when kids are stripped of their right to experience life on their own terms. Often depression and anxiety stems from feeling as if one has no control over their own life. 
To improve test scores and our children’s “futures” we have taught them not to live in the moment but to always plan for tomorrow and their resumes without giving them ample time to play. “Pills are prescribed for bodies and minds that cry out for play”. 
The result is a generation of the most anxious, depressed and suicidal American children on record. 
I can attest to this, and even when I do finally find time to play, I find it empty and not rewarding somehow. Apathy takes over and I lose the motivation/enthusiasm to have fun, a clear sign of mild chronic depression. 
“The Decline of Play” video by Peter Gray
Over the past half century, the U.S has seen a decline in play and a rise in feeling of helplessness and also narcissism amongst children/psychopathology. 
Without play, children have no emotional support amongst their own age group and it can become easy to feel deadened inside/to have no capacity for feelings (another way of saying, developed sociopathic tendencies). 
These children keep secrets and often feel shame/humiliation/disrespect and ridicule.
In need of friendship and play which develops fit bodies, cooperation and risk-taking. 
Why had play been eroded?
School and the emphasis on valuing information and “progress” over humanity and our condition. 
What good is all that schooling if it leaves us unhappy, unfulfilled and not even able to apply the information we receive? 
The type of play we have is also lesser in quality: it is not free and self-directed, but rather supervised, structured and uber competitive/less creative (dare I say organized little league statues versus story time or scenario based play-time). 
Irrational fears about dangers to children have been spread in the last 50 years as well (due to films like “It” etc.) when we actually live in the safest time for children to be outside in the neighborhood. 
The correlation between play deprivation, increases in amounts of schooling and mental disorders amongst youth are nearly linear over time. The 15-24 age group of suicide has doubled and the 15 and under group has quadrupled. 
Conversely, suicide amongst the elderly and older generations has gone down. 
In essence, we are a worse world for children; “safe” but destructive. 
The decline in our sense of control over our own lives has led to distrust, rise in narcissism, decline of empathy, but also decline in creativity since the 1980′s. 
What we can do:
Recognize the problem.
Examine our priorities.
Develop bonds with neighbors, open gymnasiums, park supervisors (that do not intervene with play, simply safety) and close off streets for certain hours for children to play in.
Stand up against the clamor for MORE school/information, just BETTER school.
So overall, this is what I learned and how I see this project as a progression of figurative sculptures that will likely illustrate each of these points (accompanied by my artist statement which will also include resources to all of this research and steps/ways for people to get help. I take this project seriously/personally and I want to help other young people to not have to suffer what I and my friends have):
The emphasis on more education leads to an obsession with obtaining information, whether useful or not, with little time to “play” and learn to apply that information through developing meaningful relationships. This can cause anti-social behaviors that are not even related to technology, such as a personal one: burying oneself in books and art rather than facing other people and developing friendships in real life--another example of absorbing information over actively pursuing goals/people. 
As children grow they are then suddenly subjected to the internet and constant access to an abundance of information and are unsure of what is necessary to know and what is not or how to sift through it all. 
When presented with social media, these children who are now teens absorb everything they see and develop unrealistic expectations for life that can never be met and often neglect in-person social interactions, hampering their social skills. Over time, this causes anxiety/depression and is further compounded when the addiction to social media takes over and the endless cycle of “bad coping” takes over. Obsessed with knowing more and more and presenting themselves a certain way combined with living in “survival mode” leaves no room for empathizing with others and thus begins the narcissism that can eventually turn in to true sociopathy. 
In the young adult stage, a near existential crisis CAN take place when a person finally becomes aware of what is happening to them. Hopefully, they will change their habits and get help/therapy (for those of you wondering, yes, I have gone and will continue to get therapy/counseling)...at other times, they may not ever figure out what the actual problem is and continue through life anxious, depressed and apathetic, unable to feel the vitality of life. They will have a hard time focussing a train of thought due to fragmented inputs of information and develop discordant relationships/behaviors in response. They will have trouble understanding complex concepts and require narratives and deep thoughts to be broken down and spoon-fed to them, rather than contemplated and dots-connected on their own. 
In the most drastic cases, a person may kill themselves or those around them who they blame for their loneliness and isolation, which would be easy to imagine considering they have already died internally and cannot feel pain for those they are harming.
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