#Europe Sporting Goods Market

[myblogscmi]

Europe Sporting Goods Market Is Estimated To Witness High Growth Owing To Increasing Health and Fitness Awareness

The Europe Sporting Goods Market is estimated to be valued at US$ 153.7 Bn in 2022 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 6.8% over the forecast period 2023 to 2030, as highlighted in a new report published by Coherent Market Insights. A) Market Overview: The Europe Sporting Goods Market includes a diverse range of sports equipment and apparel, catering to various sports such as football, basketball, tennis, golf, and others. These goods are designed to enhance performance and provide comfort to athletes and enthusiasts. The market offers a wide range of products, including footwear, clothing, balls, protective gear, and fitness equipment. The growing awareness about health and fitness among individuals is one of the primary driving factors for the market growth. With an increasing number of people participating in sports activities and adopting fitness regimes, the demand for sporting goods has witnessed significant growth. These goods aid in improving athletic performance, protecting against injuries, and providing comfort during physical activities. B) Market Key Trends: One key trend in the Europe Sporting Goods Market is the rising focus on sustainability and eco-friendly products. Consumers are becoming more conscious of the environmental impact of their purchases and are actively seeking products that align with their values. As a result, companies are introducing innovative products made from sustainable materials such as recycled plastics, organic cotton, and bio-based fabrics. For example, Adidas AG launched a collection of running shoes made from recycled ocean plastic in collaboration with Parley for the Oceans. This trend is expected to drive the demand for sustainable sporting goods in the market. C) PEST Analysis: Political: The political stability and favorable regulations in European countries support the growth of the sporting goods market. Governments often promote sports activities, leading to increased participation and demand for sporting goods. D) Key Takeaways: Market Size Related Content: The Europe Sporting Goods Market is expected to witness high growth, exhibiting a CAGR of 6.8% over the forecast period. The increasing health and fitness awareness among individuals is driving the demand for sporting goods. For instance, the popularity of fitness activities such as running, cycling, and gym workouts has surged, leading to higher demand for appropriate footwear, clothing, and equipment. Regional Analysis Related Content: Europe is the fastest-growing and dominating region in the sporting goods market. The region has a strong sports culture and a large population actively participating in various sports activities. Additionally, events such as the UEFA European Championship, Wimbledon, Tour de France, and the Olympics drive the demand for sports equipment and apparel. Key Players Related Content: Key players operating in the Europe Sporting Goods Market include Adidas AG, Nike, Inc., Under Armour, Inc., PUMA SE, Amer Sports, Odlo, Hammer Sports, Polar Electro, KETTLER, and WaterRower. These players focus on innovation, product development, marketing strategies, and collaborations to maintain their market position and cater to the evolving customer preferences. In conclusion, the Europe Sporting Goods Market is expected to witness significant growth due to the increasing health and fitness awareness among individuals. The rising demand for sustainable and eco-friendly products is also driving the market. Europe, with its strong sports culture and active population, dominates the market. Key players in the market are continuously striving to meet consumer demands through innovation and collaborations.

[lilyliveredlittlerichboy]

it's time now. it's time to imagine the brightest future you can, and talk about it.

a future where people only work 8 hours a week and everyone's basic needs are met. a future where we are more connected to nature and eat seasonal, local produce. a future where you look out for your neighbours and they look out for you. a future where you actually know who your neighbours are. a future where everyone is just a lot more relaxed and able to do whatever they want to do - this 8 hour working week has given people their lives back and now they're able to make community events, work in community gardens, sing and dance and spend time with their kids, play whatever sport they want, travel, read, create art and music.

People are interacting with each other in good faith again because money as an ulterior motive has all but disappeared. Cus you see a few decades ago they made profits illegal. All money has to be put back into the company and CEOs can take home a salary only, no bonuses and it can't be more than 3x what the lowest paid employee makes. You can go to jail if your company is found to make profits, advertise on a large scale or pay its high ranking members more than what's allowed.

Jail still exists but mostly people go in for financial crimes (greed still exists); drugs are decriminalised and available to use safely. people are not as desperate now so there's been a massive reduction of violent and petty crime and most of the people who still do this are teenagers who get away with a slap on the wrist. police are not armed anymore and are heavily penalised if they abuse their power or hurt a civilian, and their role is more that of mediator, signposter (to community services, social services, and free and accessible healthcare including for mental health) and security. together with the former military they make up an "emergency task force" which are called upon in times of need and crisis, for floods, fires, other such disasters.

the stock market completely collapsed after profits were made illegal and people had to find other ways to figure out what a company was worth: such as how they treat their staff or how accessible their processes are. as a result of this, as well as more widespread disability thanks to Covid and an ageing population, accessibility is fucking incredible now. most places are accessible to the vast majority of disabled people even without them having to ask for a single thing. If they have to ask, accommodations are made quickly and without fuss and this is completely normal now. disabled people are more visible than ever in public life and this has led to a generally kinder, more tolerant public life.

Everything is slower now. Social media as we know it died decades ago and Internet 4.0 is efficient, will find you accurate answers and the websites you're looking for very easily and fast. there's monopoly laws restricting how large companies operate online. online ads are all but illegal - there's "phone book" esque pages where you can promote your business or service and that's allowed but not anywhere else. Lots of people are still annoying and some of them are still cruel but overall living together as humans has gotten so much more chill. We've tackled climate change and reversed much of it, now it's a global day of mourning whenever a species is found to be extinct through human intervention. these days used to happen much more frequently but it's very rare these days. Most everyone gets the day off and is encouraged to read about the lost species or hold themed funerals. Globally everything has gotten better - there's much more global equality now after a bunch of western/formerly colonising countries almost self destructed and then instead decided to own up for colonialism, pay reparations to a lot of countries in Africa Asia and Latin America, as well as indigenous nations of North America, Oceania, even in Europe. The USA doesn't exist anymore instead its a whole host of separate nations all managed by the native people whose land it is. The UK doesn't exist anymore. England is still sad about it but Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall are called Cymru, Alba, Eire and Kernow again and they've formed a Celtic Union for better collective bargaining power in the EU (which still exists, somehow. Its better now. England may still be out of the EU I'm not sure). Migration is common and foreigners are welcomed into any country with open arms.

I may try to write something about this. I have a vision for a future and it's so lovely. Here, on earth, with the starting point being now. We have a lot to work with and only a few changes could make such a difference. Demilitarisation, UBI and maximum working hours, greedy financial practices made illegal. Conservation and education on local plants and nature and food. Community building on every level. Giving people their lives back.

This is all extremely possible. If it were up to me, very little in society would be left unchanged but it would all be people friendly changes. changes that aim to support the poorest and most marginalised, changes that aim to punish greed and exploitation. It's a work in progress of course. But I have a vision for a better world and dammit if I'm not going to share it with you.

[cowpants147]

I can't sleep so I'm just laid here and I started thinking about the Foxes that go on to play exy professionally and what they'd do after retirement:

Andrew

I know for a fact that this interaction happened during Andrews last press event after his last match.

Reporter: so Andrew, now that you've officially retired, what are you gonna do now?

Andrew: I'm gonna be a stay at home dad.

Obviously the reporters run w it and suddenly everyone's trying to figure out when Andrew had kids and who with all the while he's at home with the cats aka his children all day.

I also think he either starts coaching exy at a school or at a youth centre because he recognises the out that exy gave him and he's great with kids.

Neil

Neil's got too much of a mouth on him to go quietly into retirement so I definitely see him being a commentator and providing some of the highest praise and most iconic insults ever known to the sports channels.

I feel like he'd miss actually playing though so he'd probably become some kind of coach. Maybe even goes back to PSU to help Dan as assistant coach after Wymack retires.

Kevin

That boy was born and bred for his own sports related show. I like the idea of him and Jeremy hosting this exy post show where they go over everything that's happened in the week. Jeremy is ever positive, Kevin is harsher with his commentary but they've both got smiles made for prime time TV.

They have a 3rd on the panel reserved for a different special guest each week. Such special guests at one point include Neil, Wymack, and Andrew who only went on to see if he could get Kevin to crack and break character.

Matt

100% becomes a stay at home dad to his and Dan's actual human kids and their golden retriever. During this retirement press conference he says something about proudly being Dan's trophy husband.

Coach's his kids little league team, even if they're not playing exy. Makes homemade signs with the kids for when they go watch the Foxes play.

Buys Andrew a matching "best dad ever" mug the minute Andrew drops that line in his interview. When Neil teams up with Dan to coach the Foxes these two become random best buds, going out for food and and drinks together, sitting together at games, worldlessly teaming up to make sure Dan and Neil have lunch every day at practise.

+ Jeremy and Jean

The minute Jean retires he's done with exy. Jeremy goes on to do a shit ton of charity work and be on the weekly prime time exy show with Kevin but Jean is more than happy to stay out of the public eye.

They live on a farm or like in a super cute small town where nobody bothers them. Jean spends all day reading books, painting, takes up photography and becomes so good that he's hired by the locals for weddings, newborn pics, etc. He's a regular at the farmers market. Maybe if they live on a farm then he has his own stall selling eggs, jams, and family recipes that Jeremy passed down to him from the Knox family and that Jean has perfected over the years.

And they travel as much as they can! They have a second home in France and use that as their home base while they trav around Europe every chance they can get.

[hirik0]

Catch me if you can part 1

Ghost/Roach | Celebrity AU

Gary 'Roach' Sanderson on Tiktok know simply as 🪳Bugboy 🪳 has one of the biggest fan edit accounts for popular actor Simon Riley best know for his roll as 'the Ghost' in a action movie the first project he worked on after his long child actor career. It was quite a change seeing him going from being the love intressted in teenage movies to a wanted CIA agent that got dropped by the agency. Roach liked both versions what maybe is related to the celebrity crush he has since he is 12. Earlier this year Simon Roley returned to the popular cop show 'The new Sherlock Holmes' he left to film a movie trilogie where he was a Knight fighting in a medieval war. Being the well beloved leader of the SWAT team, Martin Jackson, from new Scotland Yard. It honestly was a hugh suprise he returned but he told in interviews its a fun project while he looks for other interesting projects.

"Stalking Rileys social media again, Gary?", Rodolfo his colleague and best friend asks amused. Having a steaming mug with coffee in on and and an appel in the other. He places the appel on Roaches desk. Roach shakes his head, he is in fact working, staring at the grafic hes making for the past 20 minutes, trying to figure out how to make it that dont causes him to have remake it again in something way worse then what he has.

"As if you dont do the same with Alejandro Vargas", Roach retorts amused, trying to think like the higher-ups, how a social media of a sports team should look like. He knows how to run a successful account, has even a degree in it, but the higer-ups have very diffrent views. So everything has to be done 3 times till they found a compromise, so they are always 3 weeks behind trends, having to prove a trendy audio will give them engagement. God if he finds the person that put such a short leach on the marketing team, he will murder them. They work for a very old and traditional Cricket Club, emphasis on old some of the higher ups probaly where alive when the club was founded.

"Do you rember the teribel joke Mr. Henderson told last week? I need it for a post, asking people to share their own bad jokes for engagement bait." Rudy gives him do you really want to do this look. Nobody laughed about that joke, not even the old men at the top.

"Honestly my brain has a filter for his jokes so no." Roach groans dramatically, throwing his hands in the air, mumbling a I can't work like that. Bitting in the appel in frustration. Now he has to ask the man what will lead to him needing 20 minutes explaining how engagement on social media works and why it's so important. Already hearin Hendersons back in my day peopel listened over radio an we needed no silly dances on the internet, back in his day the steam maschie wasn't invented yet. Taking another bite from the appel, not liking its taste, the free fruits had better quality ones.

"Just tell him it's so good he needs to share is with the fans." Roach gives him a sceptical look, because that won't work right? It can't be that easy. Roach is ready to leave the office, when Rudy is winking him over. Rudy is curently frowning over an e-mail he got. He start reading it crossing his arms in front of his chest a cooperaton with another firm. Rudy is scrolling down to read the rest of the mail. Roach is resting his read on the back rest if Rudys chair looking over his right shoulder. Flying over the opening to were the mouse pointer is.

As i mentioned above I work at a for hire PR-Firm and are mainly know for work at Galas, Award cerominies and other red carpet events, but recently get the chance to work in other areas. We will mangaging the official Tiktok and Instagram for the hit TV show "The New Sherlock Holmes" for the up comming season and for the entiere UK and rest of Europe tour for a K-pop band. We would really love to work with your Tiktok and Instagram team to learn how they are making the short videos. We offer helping your Team for big gala events of the Club to get better resultes.

with warm regards

Valeria Graza

"Did she ask us for help and then insulted or work?", Roach is asking frowning. Finishing up the fruit.

"She sure did", Rudy say while forwarding the E-mail to their boss Kate Laswell, in the end its her choice and not theirs. Roach signs there is no more time to stall to get this stupid joke from Mr. Henderson.

"Better get the joke." He says before leaving the office to go to the elevators.

"Dont get stucked in the 1850s, while you there", Rudy is shouting after him. Rudy reads over the mail again, his eyes falling on to the name of the TV show, the chance for Roach to meet his celebrity crush, sometimes live is unfair.

[diabolus1exmachina]

Hino Contessa 1300 Coupé

The name Hino was taken from the homonymous town in the Tokyo prefecture where the company's headquarters were (and still are). His first steps were to create powerful military vehicles for the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Once the greatest war of all time was over, it dedicated itself to the manufacture of diesel engines, trucks and buses. The post-war Japanese automobile industry underwent a major transformation thanks to the numerous agreements that many manufacturers made with car brands in Europe and the United States. Hino was no different. The operations were going from strength to strength, they had already earned an important place in the industry and even theirs was the first trolleybus in the history of Japan. The brand wanted to expand its business by launching into the world of passenger cars. Already under the name of Hino Motors, it signed a collaboration agreement with Renault in February 1953 and two months later they began to manufacture the Renault 4CV (also called Renault 4/4) under license. In Japan it was marketed as the Hino PA and some 35,000 units were sold in the 10 years it was in production. The French brand ceased production of the Renault 4CV in 1961, so Hino set out to take another step in the automotive world: manufacture its own car. They contacted the prolific Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti, who had worked with brands as relevant as Ferrari, Lancia, Maserati, Alpine or Triumph, to draw the silhouette of the new Japanese car.

The Hino Contessa 900 used the base of the Renault 4CV but at first glance no one could recognize that link due to the charming sedan body designed by the Turin designer. Renault's 35 hp 0.9-litre engine was positioned at the rear and was sufficient to animate the rear axle with the 750 kg that the car weighed. Shortly after, the Hino Contessa 900 Sprint was launched, a coupe version that reduced the weight by 100 kg and had an engine powered by Nardi up to 45 CV. With an attractive design, greater habitability -it offered space for five passengers, one seat more than the 4CV- and the proven reliability of its engine, it was not surprising that the Contessa achieved good sales results. 47,299 units were marketed between 1961 and 1964, a small part of them manufactured beyond the Japanese borders. The great reception in the market of its first car encouraged Hino to develop the second generation. Once again, Michelotti was in charge of its design, who had an overwhelming personality. The front with double optics and no grille was clearly reminiscent of the Chevrolet Corvair while the general lines were similar to other models designed by Michelotti such as the Triumph 2000. The Italian designer had been inspired by the English and American cars for this Japanese model with a French engine. Long live globalization! The Hino Contessa 1300 was bigger and heavier than its predecessor, but also more powerful by using a 1.3-liter 55 hp engine from the Renault 8. It began its commercial journey in 1964 and a few months later the sports version with bodywork arrived. two-door, the Contessa 1300 Coupé with 65 CV. The second generation of the Contessa was exported to several countries around the world, being manufactured in Japan, Israel and New Zealand.

[twopoppies]

Hey Gina, I wanted to throw my analysis brain in the ring regarding the discussion of she who must not be named, mostly cuz I've been seeing a lot of discussion regarding mutually beneficial PR and it's a great example.

So regarding Travis and T*ylor everyone needs to remember that all public figures want to be in the media and mostly they want things that make them look good.

T*ylor tends to have really good PR but she's had a bit of a hit this year in dating PR. The split between long-term beard Joe Alwyn and her, then the quick fling with controversial Matty Healy of the 1975 put her not in the best books dating rumors wise. She also has a pretty massive want for good PR, a massive concert tour that's going to Europe next year and Two re-releases of her former albums,the second of which occurs next month. Dating a "all-American" good boy puts her in a nice spotlight. Someone who just won the Super Bowl and is playing on the best team could also open her to even more audiences.

Well this shows what she has to gain, why would Travis want this amount of attention. First, he is 33, he's been in the NFL for 10 years, his position lasts about 12-14 if they don't get hurt. By being seen with her it puts him in a favorable spot to potentially score a nice gig following his playing career. Second, he has loyalty to the Kansas City Chiefs( yes I too hate this name), he has played his whole career there. With her their the game had over 24 million people watching over 10 million more than the week prior. Huge increase for the game.

My theory is that this is not just PR for Travis Kelce too, it's great PR for the NFL, which is something they constantly need since they get plenty of bad press. The NFL has also been trying to expand markets to Europe. With the first game of that expansion happening in London this weekend. By having such buzz around American Football, they can maybe get more people watching in Europe and not just the US.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is a longer PR relationship since she's probably going to put out her next rerelease in the beginning of next year then tour Europe with Kelce jumping along bringing more discussion of American Football and the NFL with him to Europe potentially helping the market expansion the NFL has been wanting for almost 5 years.

If this mutually beneficial PR works for T*ylor, someone we mostly view as not needing it and has the potential to repair bad press from other PR relationships, it's not far off to think that H wouldn't benefit similarly from Hussell.

P.S. I can't believe I just used my history teacher analysis to discuss a person and sport I don't even like lol, the things I do for Larry. Also sorry for discussing her, I just think she's and unfortunately good example for indepth analysis.

Yeah, it’s completely obvious that the pairing is 100% PR. In fact, it’s so obvious, it’s lit up like a neon sign you can see from Mars. But I didn’t know that about the NFL. That makes it even more clear and I think you’re very, very right.

People who really think someone like T*ylor doesn’t “need” PR don’t seem to use their brains very much. PR isn’t just for getting your name out there and becoming more famous.

[herrlindemann]

Heavy Rock - January 2002

So close and so far at the same time. The capital of Portugal is today without a doubt the best place in all of Europe to see and listen to rock. Good venues for concerts, friendly people, excellent business professionals in a market five times smaller than ours, affordable prices and a most attractive and scoundrel city that keeps that old flavor under a galloping modernity that every day makes it more equal to the Europe of the euro. On top of the brilliant and fatalistic Pessoa in every corner of old Lisbon that he portrayed so well in his books. Good food, a lot to see and it’s next door.

Fool who misses it. I promise to cover many concerts in English, among other things because the films were never subtitled. Some say that if it had not been for those idiot kings that we have been suffering from century after century, the Iberian peninsula would be only one and as powerful as Germany. Can be.

The sports hall of Os Belenense (the third football team in Lisbon after Sporting and Benfica) is a privileged venue for five thousand people, located on top of a hill that has the Jerónimos Monastery under its feet, in whose pantheon is buried Fernando Pessoa and the navigator Vasco de Gama, who set off to discover half the world from the also nearby Torre de Belen, right on the Lisbon pier.

The place is full on the first of the two nights of the Germans, with Clawfinger as opening act, old acquaintances who have had to cancel their concert in Spain, scheduled for the following day, because the first date scheduled in principle, which was sold in a few days, a second had to be added, which caused them to cancel their scheduled show in Madrid. When I find out that they are going to open the concert I am very happy and a few minutes before leaving I chat with the singer and guitarist, the same thing that I had done a little earlier with Rammstein at the hotel. These interviews will be included in the next issue of Kerrang!

In the forty-five minutes that they have been on stage, the Swedes show great professionalism and the new face of their music, more polished, direct, and less 'rapper' with a lineup just like the stars of the night: two guitars, keys, bass, drums and voice. Techno also emerges without losing the gray that put them on the map of the best European rap-metal.

Their latest album 'A Whole Lot of Nothing' is proof that they have brought their message very close to Rammstein, which a few times in the past opened for them when they climbed the charts. They must have treated them very well because now the Germans take them on tour whenever they can, and they are also generous in leaving them all the sound display that they later used. Of course not the pyrotechnic and light display; and therein lies the problem for the Clawfingers.

Because the most Rammstein staging teaches anyone. Good intentions, direct songs and the ordeal is clear is that they do not shrink and continue to make war.

Rammstein is the never seen. With one, if not the best, of the records of the year in their baggage and a lot of imagination, the sextet is a magnificent and impressive show both musically and visually. A lot of money and creativity at the service of a structure that is frightening due to the militaristic connotations of its clothes and postures. Together with the theatricality copied from the Catalans of the Fura del Baus, they create an explosive show where fire, a lot of fire, is also another great protagonist with distressing moments such as when in the first encore, with the theme 'Rammstein', the singer Till Lindemann remains in his burning suit for almost four minutes. The mastery of fire that these people have is incredible, forcing them to demonstrate all the fireworks to the government technicians before each performance. Seen and lived on stage, as I did, it scares a lot. As soon as the minutes allotted to the photographers were up, I ran off the stage as if the devil was chasing me, resembling a scene from 'Apocalypse Now'.

Eighteen songs as checkered as the hackneyed German mentality. It joins infernal industrial machinery that starts with 'Mein Herz brennt' from 'Mutter' to end with the version of Depeche Mode's 'Stripped'. Pure adrenaline that nails you to the ground while from all corners of the stage the fire is projected in a thousand ways (Valencians would have to wear them as stars of the next Fallas festivities) and they look like mutant beings out of a science-fiction movie to make an army of corpses dance. Nightmarish. Wagnerian music, in the classical sense, is like a single score with messianic choruses that tremble in the German language, giving that sinister theatricality that at times brings to mind the 'hail, Hitler' of the most sinister times in history, for course alien to the intentions of the group. The show could not be more heavy. They all form a mass in which no one goes off script and the solos are conspicuous by their absence, inheriting the old legacy of those pioneering German industrial metal bands such as Kraftwerk. Aware that they have made a great record with 'Mutter', they play a lot of it: 'Links 2, 3, 4', 'Feuer frei', 'Mutter', 'Ich will', 'Adios', 'Rein raus', ' Zwitter'… Almost the entire record falls. Moment of maximum intensity that is experienced when they download their great commercial hymn 'Du hast' and the staff bouncing like possessed. They connect with 'Buck dich' which includes the singer's little number hitting the keys from behind for a long time with a giant phallus that generously sprays liquid on those in the front rows. In the end, the drummer's ride in a rubber boat over the heads and arms of grief takes us back to the past because they copy it from what the American David Lee Roth did on his tours with a boat and a surfboard. The six say goodbye toasting with Champagne to the success of a party as brilliant as it is original. For the cretins who preach that rock is dying or that it has no way out, this is heaven open to a great future. The important thing is to squeeze the coconut to stand up to the owners of the circus, the Anglo-Saxons, who with projects like this it is not surprising that they feel threatened.

When a stewardess falls to the ground on a short-haul flight due to the violent shaking of the once imposing and now defenseless iron bird in whose stomach we defy gravity, it is to frown to say the least. They had warned that coinciding with the arrival to the peninsula of the men of the north also came the cruel winter of those of the plane, the snow, or the power cuts in Catalonia.

The storm had its vortex in the Palau Olympic de Badalona, a venue that was filled with, evil eye, nine thousand people eager to see one of the European monsters of metal.

If the capital had enjoyed the privilege of a concert presentation last spring for a limited number of people, this time in Madrid they were left with the desire, perhaps because there are no suitable venues to host this type of event. I know that we get very heavy with this matter, but it is so serious that it requires immediate solutions.

The fact is that Rammstein presented irrefutable arguments about why so different types of audiences like them beyond the gestation of him in the gothic scene. Thousands of people hypnotized by the grotesque, bloody, frightening and at the same time romantic show of the group despite the fact that they sing in German and 99% of the attendees do not even understand, it makes you think.

His repertoire unfolds with the perfection of a recently oiled industrial machine, it is a mechanical tune, reticent, a uniform whole supported by his risky bet on impact theater.

I'm still wondering how the hell do they not get burned by the continuous flames on the stage if I'm fifteen meters away and I feel in my retinas and complexion a burst of that infernal heat that contrasts with the icy outside environment.

By the account that brings you, for your safety and ours, almost everything in your show is perfectly calculated, but that does not prevent that when Oliver Riedel takes a boat ride through a sea of arms, he ends up taking a 'dip' in the masses when losing stability. It takes a second, but it's enough for my head to come up with the phrase: "don't try to do this at home".

[keepthedelta]

i have to ask,,,, why is it that f1 and the us just have the worst history with each other??? like ive read a few things (i.e the many many attempts of f1 to break into the american market) and it seems like historically, f1 and its relationship w the states is just shite,,,,, even amongst fans it just seems like nobody wants to race in the states???? they’re not even trying to hide the fact that they’re actively preventing an american team from joining the sport???? idk i feel like the issues with f1 and the states have been going on for so long its baffling no ones managed to fix it after all these years

(just gonna put it out there that i am not american and have no horse in this race i just found it odd lol…. is this whole thing just classic europe hating the us?? who knows)

okay this one took me a while because i wanted to think it through properly. bear in mind that i am neither american or european, but i think it's a combination of several things.

one of them is absolutely the classic europe hating the usa etc. etc. us culture is very prominent across the world. it doesn't matter where you are, you're probably going to have watched american films, american tv shows, listened to american music. i'm not going to go so far as to say that they have a cultural monopoly, but it definitely drowns out a lot of local cultural experiences. on the internet you are expected to know, understand and be able to contextualise so many different aspects of american culture, and the favour is never returned. i think europe (broadly speaking, and obviously there is nuance within the continent) is also quite "precious" about their cultural legacy. the west in general views itself as the origin of civilisation, and as the birthplace of good music, good food, good art, of science and beauty. and so i think some of it is a petty battle between the cultural dominance of the us, and the perceived cultural heritage of europe.

and when you look at that in specific f1 terms, europe has a lot of very historic, very iconic tracks that fans really love. monaco, imola, silverstone, the nurburgring (although f1 hasn't raced there in a while). the usa has great, iconic tracks, but f1 doesn't race there. the best american track on the calendar is cota, which i've said before i don't consider to be an especially good track. it sometimes gives good racing, but every element of it is taken from another track. yes the senna esses is a great section of a track, but i would rather see it raced in interlagos, where they fit in with the rest of the track naturally. i love the fast sweeping corners of maggotts-becketts-chapel but i like seeing people race those corners in silverstone, where they are a natural part of the track and environment. cota is just a series of corners taken from other tracks and stuck together. with respect to any americans reading, it feels like a very american thing, to take elements of other nations and strip them of personality and feeling.

other than cota, all the american tracks are street circuits, and there's only so much excitement to be had there. yes the walls are narrow and you run the risk of crashing, but i don't believe that carnage is really that entertaining (i support chaos, not carnage). drivers crashing should not be the only "interesting" aspect of a race. and most street circuits fundamentally cannot provide enough interesting corners, elevation changes, structural interest to make them enjoyable. when you add in the danger and destruction that has come from the actual track part of street circuits like vegas and baku, i really don't believe it adds anything to the racing.

there's also one specific difference between american attitudes towards sport and european attitudes that i think is a factor here, and that is the "show" element. europeans love their sport, but the point of it is the sport. if you tried to do a halftime show in a european football match, i'm pretty sure you would be booed off. beyoncé could show up, and the fans would still tell her to step aside so they can watch jude bellingham kick a ball. the show element is much more important to americans, and you see it in the driver introductions at miami and vegas, the celebrity and influencer packed trackwalks etc, and i think that a lot of europeans see it as americans sullying their sport (because f1, and motor racing more broadly, did originate in europe) with their performances, because to them, the important thing is the sport.

america does have a very long history of motorsport, but it has mostly been contained within america, and the sheer size and population of america allows for viewing figures, sponsorship, money, that the rest of the world cannot compete with. nascar is one of the most watched sporting events in the world, solely based on american fans. and the origins of sports like nascar are unique to america. nascar originated in bootleggers smuggling alcohol during prohibition, and the rest of the world didn't have prohibition, so our motorsports are vastly different and cannot connect to american audiences in the same way.

there's also the fact that for much of it's history, the engineering side of motor racing has come from road car manufacturers who then developed cars specifically for racing. for instance, ferrari made road cars to sell to people to drive themselves, but developed a sporting side of the company specifically for racing. this was also the case for america, but because of the us's geographical distance from europe and political isolationism that promoted american made products over imports (this isn't unusual, but i think it's emphasised because the usa is so big and has such a large population) america never had the connection to the big european manufacturers that have historically dominated f1.

having said all that, i will say that f1 did once have a foothold in america. it was never as popular as nascar, but it did genuinely have audiences in the hundreds of thousands. but then the 2005 us grand prix happened. if you don't know, the 2005 us grand prix is an infamous race. at that time there were two tyre suppliers, bridgestone and michelin. ferrari, jordan, and minardi (jordan and minardi being backmarker teams) all used bridgestones while everyone else used michelin tyres. during practice toyota experienced two tyre failures, causing major accidents for ralph schumacher and ricardo zonta. michelin's investigation revealed a flaw in the tyres which meant that they would not be able to withstand more than 10 laps on indianapolis's banked circuit. at the time, teams were not allowed to change tyres during the race. there was a lot of discussion and disagreement about what to do, with suggestions including adding a chicane, running it as a non-championship race, or even making pit-stops every 10 laps, but nothing could be agreed upon, and so after the formation lap all of the teams using michelin tyres withdrew from the race, leaving just six cars (two ferraris and four backmarkers) on the grid.

it was one of the least interesting but most controversial races in f1 history, and the american fans were furious. there were more than 100,000 fans present that day, many of them having travelled for miles and spent a lot of money and they got one of the worst races in f1 history. what f1 fanbase existed in america before that was pretty much killed off right then and there.

[paskariu]

Toyota Yaris Ranking

Because I am definitely not having a Moment about the Yaris I have decided to create a personal ranking from best to worst yaris model. This is just my personal opinion based on my own biases.

For the sake of simplicity, I won't rate the facelifts separately and instead only rank the entire model generation.

1 Yaris P1 1999-2006

The OG. The cuddle bug that graced the world and said "I WILL get you from A to B no matter what you do to me". Change its oil and it's happy.

2 GR Yaris 2020-

The cool little brother. The GR set out to fulfil the question we all wanted to be answered, "What if Yaris but fast as fuck".

Makes the old TR and RS variants sweat, and even people who previously scuffed at the Yaris do a double take.

Kind of looks like it has this dentist push-your-lips-away device on. Angry hamster.

3 Yaris XP9 2005-2011

As a reviewer put it, the second gen is an example of "sophisticated blandness". It's a car. It drives you places. The interior features are good enough for people who just want to have a car.

It takes all of this with a friendly face. Its circular body refined with a few chosen body lines to break up the shape make for a car that got a participation trophy at a sports event.

It's just happy to be included.

Fun fact: I have that model

4 Yaris XP21 2020-

Final evolution (for the time being). Lost some of the no-thoughts-head-empty charm of the older Yari. Manta ray inspired front is somewhat unique in today's angry faced car world. Wants to look like the GR, but not that much.

5 Yaris Verso/FunCargo XP10 1999-2005

What SUVs could have been. Toyota themselves called this an MPV- Multi-Purpose-Vehicle. This micro-van can bring your kid to school and then work on a construction site on the same day.

Get yourself a Yaris that can do it all. Looks like a stretched P1. What it basically is.

6 Yaris Sedan/Vios/Belta XP90 2007-2013

Looks neat. A hatchback-limousine based on the original Yaris, and spiritual successor of the Toyota Echo.

Same charm as the XP9. Looks just happy to be of service. That's a lot of names for one car though. Like the Echo, it's not available in Europe :(

Other generations of the Yaris Belta drop the Yaris part, being sold as "just" Toyota Vios/Belta which is why they're not on this list.

7 Yaris XP13 2010-2020

The awkward middle evolution. The XP21 also has a wild design, but this is just... no. I don't like this. All I see is Steve Harvey's block of a moustache but car.

At least the back looks neat.

-100 Yaris Cross

Why the fuck make a small car an SUV. Kill it with fire. Throw it in a ditch. IDK just make it leave. This is an insult to the original Yaris. I want to buy a ticket to Japan and murder whoever is responsible for this piece of shit.

The Yaris Verso was right there. Why not modernise that and release it. Don't tell me the reason I know why they did this I don't like it though.

Honourable Mention: Daihatsu Charade 2011-2013

Hail Mary by Toyota's struggling daughter in the European market. They called this Charade because it's literally just the XP9F pretending that it's not.

[paddockpr]

I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on the shift in perception on Charles throughout his stint at Ferrari. I got into F1 around the time he joined Ferrari when Seb was still there and saw the shift from very positive (Sauber-early Ferrari days) to quite negative (2019-2020 ish), and now that I'm back into F1 it seems to have gone back to more or less positive. But he seems to be pretty much the same?

Hey anon, thank you for the wait, its finally time to get into Charles Leclerc. One of the easiest ways to understand the nature of his PR image is to consider the term often used to describe him "il predestinato" or the predestined. In sports pr, one of the most powerful things is a good story, a compelling narrative, that positions someone as fated for great heights. We will cover a unique motorsports pr issue for drivers, the implications of that when it comes to narratives in sports around fate, Charles own associated affinity for and with Ferrari and then establish why Charles PR had this transformation.

But the thing about how narratives are crafted around people, being of their own volition or due to other people's interests, one thing remains: when it comes to sports PR, the shift in perceptions and narratives have a lot to do with the ability to walk a tight rope.

In a sport like F1, and actually motorsports as a whole, there is one extra issue that arises that is different from other sports, which is the consequences of your teammate being your biggest competition but belonging to the same team and therefore needing to maximize the team's points for the WCC, but beat your teammate in the WDC. That then crates one very common PR issue for drivers in F1: how do you decide who is entitled to what? And that is what happened and even happens with Charles, There are all of these ideas of fate, and all of the things he is supposed to get, its predestined, it is fate.

Benefits of being a marketable rookie

When Charles first came to Sauber he had a couple of things working in his favor, Number one, people look forward to rookies having their debut, and Charles has the kind of image that appeals to this idea of F1 royalty and I mean that quite literally, but probably not how you may initially think. I want to take you back to the fact that when people think of Charles, they think of this idea of fate and predestiny and a sort of Meant To Be thing. He is from a country with one of the most widely recognized GPs, he is a fast driver for whom many already feel is a future WDC winner, he comes across as relatively mild mannered and playful off of the track, and he seems to have cross appeal regardless of what kind of F1 fan someone is.

The fans who decry a return to "tradition" like the kind of wealth and prestige associated with his country, it is also in Europe, he has the look of drivers before him etc and he is inoffensive to the status quo. Fans that are looking for a personable individual like him because to them he has an ease about him, he doesn't seem to have a particularly antagonistic relationship with any other driver, and he is more accessible than the "tradition" of drivers before him.

He also has a well known love for Ferrari and is all around very malleable. That is not to say that he is bland, but he is unassuming and that also feeds into how some of his behaviors are received compared to other drivers. A perhaps comparable PR example for the 2020s but to a lesser extent is Oscar Piastri, someone who replaces a driver that isn't yet moving to retire, but then having a relatively broad appeal, online presence, and is viewed as competitive without being antagonistic,

It is an appealing position for a rookie in terms of marketing, although it also is a privileged one that isn't afforded to rookies who are marginalized in some capacity (Yuki Tsunoda is a great recent example of this). But it is an PR positioning that is ideal as was the case with Charles, To be seen as having what it takes to be a WDC one day, but not being seen as entitled and also generally having a positive image re other drivers. We will delve into that a liiiittle more before we finally get to Ferrari.

Alfa Romeo and The Rookie of the Year

When he joined Alfa Romeo, he replaced Pascal Wehrlein and it is met relatively positively. However,for newer fans here, it was not as cut and dry as it is now. Paul was injured prior to the 2017 season competing in ROC (Race of champions) leading to him missing 2 rqces and then was replaced in 2018 by Leclerc.

It wasn't so cut and dry because as you probably have seen, motorsports fans often argue about whether or not drivers in various series should do more competing in other motorport events (Daytona 500 and Le Mans are another example of this), so the way that the situation was handled was seen negatively. Often, including in this case, rookies get grace but it is not all sunshine and rainbows, especially since, in Charles' case he was replacing someone outperforming their teammate. Of course when we look back it seems less extreme and nowadays Paul is often used as a cautionary tale for why F1 drivers should not compete in other series whilst still active in F1 but F1 drivers competing in other series was not always unusual. The narrative around all of this re Charles was that he was just that promising. So he joins and its not exactly a WDC or WCC winning car, but it is enough for people to take notice and buy into this sort of destiny branding that began to really solidify.

Charles Leclerc met those expectations for the most part, and was crowned rookie of the year. And all of that romanticism around him being made for F1, and predestined, was in the eyes of many, evidenced by that rookie year, Now it is all coming together, there is just one thing left to really take this romantic destiny/fate idea to really resonate with mainstream audiences: Forza Ferrari.

Ferrari, the Early Days

Now Ferrari is a bit of a peculiar thing when it comes to PR and branding. Like Monaco, Ferrari is glamour, it is wealth, it is prestige and it is history. The race car emoji is red, people recognize Ferrari when race cars are the topic at hand, it has had notable names driving for it in F1, Le Mans etc.

For better or for worse in the eyes of many, Ferrari IS F1 it IS motorsports and it boasts one of the biggest fanbases too. It is red hot, it is passion, it is electric. But Ferrari is also notorious in the eyes of many as being something of an antagonist, and a negative player in more progressive moves in motorsports, and has a very tight leash on its image such as suing people for unauthorized paint jobs or author customizations of their Ferrari like with Daedmau5. There is a very strict approach in Ferrari about how things should be done and that extends to how they expect their drivers to appear. This is relevant to how the promising rookie briefly becomes disliked alongside Vettel.

Okay so he is predestined, he has made his mark as a rookie and replaces 1 time WDC Kimi Raikkonen to be alongside 4 time WDC Sebastian Vettel. You can probably guess what I am about to say, but I will say it anyways: replacing someone with no WDCs is very different from replacing someone with 1 or more. It makes comparisons of performance stricter, it makes expectations higher and it makes people less forgiving. It is also further complicated by pairing alongside someone who has been WDC.

When Charles kined alongside Vettel he was dealing with someone who at the very least had been viewed by the public as trying to push the team culture in a direction that may yield better results, and he had the results to back himself up, But Charles was new and that meant him being assimilated into the team and that impacted his image, He has a 4 time WDC to learn from, in a team that has not won the WCC in a very long time. To audiences, he is not being who they thought he was at his former team.

You see, when people speak of drivers from a PR perspective, there is a lot of emphasis on how they command things, what they are entitled to, and what role they should have.

As the fated one, Charles was expected to be less amicable to Ferrari's team culture especially since a more experienced driver could see clear issues in the team's culture, and audiences did not have the impression that Charles recognized when he needed to be assertive, and when he should back his teammate.

So for a lot of people, he was in the right team, and he had the right talent, but the approach was wrong and he was not taking heed of lessons he could be learning from his more experienced teammate. It is a difficult balancing act PR wise, because of the nature of the PR of the team he is in, and also the way that its branding has made it so personally meaningful to tifosi.

Big fanbase that wants drivers that love the team, and prior to this latest pairing of Leclerc and Sainz, was big on supporting the team not the driver, notoriously so. It would probably have been even more negative of him to seem critical of the team, but it was a Catch 22 because what happened instead was that whilst him and Vettel seemed relatively amicable, only one of them was viewed as trying to win WCC and WDC whilst the other was seen as someone falling short of their potential, in the name of loving a team that had been losing for a long time.

Generally when it comes to Ferrari it is more logical from a PR perspective to be seen as viewing the team the way its fans do. A sort of reverence and pride for its prestige, history and Italian heritage. A sort of serendipitous occurrence in a driver's life.

It is one of the few teams where the team has always come before the driver in terms of priority. It is the expectation at this point. You are not supposed to seem like you think you deserve something when you drive for Ferrari, especially when you are new so it was always going to shake out the way it did from a PR perspective. Either he alienates audiences that feel that Ferrari is stuck in old ways, or he alienates fans for whom ferrari is not just a sports team, but a national institution.

And as long as Vettel and Leclerc were paired up, Leclerc would have negative PR. To replace a WDC to be the teammate of someone with a WDC was never going to shake out well because it made him look like a liability. He did not have the perceived assertiveness or the developed skill to in some people's view, justify what seemed to be a differing perspective from Vettel.

And that will always be a PR nightmare because what is there to defend a driver who is fast but doesn't have the results to show for it? It is one of the recurring issues in this period of time, he and Vettel were amicable but did not seem to have the same sentiments on their team. And just like that the predestined becomes the entitled in the eyes of his detractors. But then, just like that, Vettel is now gone, and in his place is Carlos Sainz. Does not have a WDC or WCC under his belt, and just like that, Leclerc's biggest PR issue seems tp ne a thing of the past.

The Leclerc Sainz Era

People used to want to know why Charles deserved any favor from Ferrari. Sure they liked him well enough, and he was in their view he was a logical choice for the team, Ferrari was in his veins through and through. But you will never be viewed as more deserving of team support than a proven driver with the WDC and/or WCC.

So even as people root for you, they are going to be very questioning about the capacities in which you think you may know better than a teammate, even when the team us Ferrari. But when your new teammate is also considered unproven, it changes the PR dynamic significantly. Whether Leclerc defends the team or not. is seen as assertive or not, it eases suspicions a lot, Now he just wants to win and it is unquestioned when he feels that he deserves something. Now, after all these years, people view him as being back on his fateful path, and it shows.

It is coinciding with the peak of Drive to Survive and a Ferrari that is more open to marketing its individual drivers alongside its rigid team branding and there is a tidal wave of new fans, fans who are unfamiliar with the previous understanding of Ferrari First, who approach it like other teams where you may support a team but it is driver first.

Additionally, the fanbase that IS Ferrari First has a strong association with one driver being Ferrari First in Leclerc, versus driver first in Sainz, thus feeling endeared by Leclerc. You may recall the GQ article last year https://www.gq.com/story/charles-leclerc-carlos-sainz-ferrari which sort of seeks to re-assert Ferrari's position in its branding as the most important part. But you may notice something else, which is how Leclerc is presented as the quintessential Ferrari driver.

At the time of its release, people did note favor towards Leclerc, with the phrase about Maranello "romantically imagining Leclerc a full head taller". But what went over people's heads was that from a PR perspective, Leclerc in a way became Ferrari. He is positioned as the glamour and the luxury and the romance and the European identity that Ferrari has also positioned itself as and you can see it in how people imagine him to be and what they say when they have positive things to say.

Conclusion

When Vettel was around, due to his experience, the romanticism of Ferrari was not the same, and it still is not the same based on that article, and so Charles went from a promising rookie, to a blind admirer of Ferrari and its legacy. But then Vettel was gone and in his place a less experienced driver, and so Leclerc is less irritating as a result to audiences who felt that Ferrari shafted Vettelm and Sainz came in and was viewed as disruptive and entitled but without the results to defend those sentiments. And so it became a matter of Charles is Ferrari and Ferrari is Charles, wouldn't them winning together be so romantic?

That is all for this essay folks. Thank you for patiently waiting for me to make it more coherent without the twitter links, and then waiting for me to make it a little shorter than the so called Director's Cut. As always, questions and comments are welcome.

[manleycollins]

Attending my third and final session, which was an evening session. This is my first Olympics, but this stadium was built to perfection because I was in Row 81 - nose bleed seats or the third level of seating, but I had a view that was perfect to see every person and every activity with the naked eye. Germany was on my left. France on my right. France and Netherlands in front. The award ceremony was beautiful and a theme song that will play in head and memories for a long time. I have seen the Olympic officials and competitors to change from a white organization, now black organization, and now Asian integration. I heard an international music playlist…Thank goodness for saving me from hearing United States playlist. It was exciting to see the international community knowing other artist's song and dances to them. Thanks to the German couple next to me explaining the different songs matching certain events in the European community. The men's high jump was spectacular won in winning a medal had to be done through a tie-breaker. The men's long distance 5000m was funny because Ethiopia utilized its energy on the 2nd lap to finish and did not even medal on the final lap. The women's 1500m was really good for Kenya to break her own record and win gold for a third time…I guess will see you in Los Angeles 2028. The women's 110m hurdles was a spectacular for the USA to win and defending champion coming in 3rd with a photo finish. Yes, I am glad the 4x400m USA men and women team won first for their respective races. MVP for this Olympics for USATF women was Gabrielle "Gabby" Thomas with a 4x100m, 200m, and 4x400m gold medals. MVP for this Olympics for USATF men was Noah Lyles and Quincy Wilson because they did their job to provide opportunities for others and both from the DMV metro area. The very disappointing part is the arrogance of USATF not awarding alternates or Team B medals for creating the opportunity of getting an Olympic Record or Medal. I thought Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. was arrogant. I was so proud of the other country teams showed great pride and sportsmanship for every team member whether they participated or not on the relay teams. Yes, I am upset because Quincy Wilson was absent from the medal podium…I do not know the reason…I do not care. The USATF women 4x100m showed it also with only four members and no alternate. Africa is getting their teams right (Botswana pushed the h*ll out of that last men's 4x400m relay leg), Europe is getting their teams right, and Asia shown the most improvements on establishing presence where American favorites are marketed to win. I never thought I would see an Asian (Japan) claim first place in women's Javelin. Thanks to the international community to make USATF work for those medals. Thanks most to Mother Africa and the number of Africans that represented countries where we had the most horrid treatment including up today. I personally and professionally thank each African, French, and American athlete for representing me and my DNA makeup. Paris, France in the European Union has set the bar in achieving gender parity, promoting sustainability, unexpected sports categories, and getting the viewership up…now Los Angeles 2028 in the United States of America of North America let's see what you got since 1984. I was only eight (8) years old in 1984 so I knew nothing of the Olympics….not until high school I knew of Junior Olympics track and field with Orangeburg Track Club in South Carolina, while attending Cross High School on my high school track and field team.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

Tomorrow (December 5), I'm at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC, with my new solarpunk novel The Lost Cause, which 350.org's Bill McKibben called "The first great YIMBY novel: perceptive, scientifically sound, and extraordinarily hopeful."

#15yrsago Berlin hacker con will use RFID badges to simulate life in a totalitarian panopticon https://events.ccc.de/congress/2008/wiki/OpenBeacon_with_OpenAMD/

#15yrsago RIP, Forrest J Ackerman https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-ackerman6-2008dec06-story.html

#15yrsago Googling Security: book that opens your eyes to how much you disclose to Google https://memex.craphound.com/2008/12/05/googling-security-book-that-opens-your-eyes-to-how-much-you-disclose-to-google/

#10yrsago 75% of American silent feature films lost https://variety.com/2013/film/news/library-of-congress-only-14-of-u-s-silent-films-survive-1200915020/

#10yrsago NSA collecting unimaginable quantities of mobile phone location data for guilt-by-association data-mining https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-tracking-cellphone-locations-worldwide-snowden-documents-show/2013/12/04/5492873a-5cf2-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html

#10yrsago Democratic lawmakers share a squalorous house in DC https://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/04/politics/real-alpha-house/index.html

#10yrsago Rob Ford police document: allegations of heroin use and more https://torontolife.com/category/city/toronto-politics/2013/12/04/new-bombshells-from-police-documents-suggest-rob-ford-may-have-tried-heroin-been-blackmailed/

#10yrsago NYPD shoot at unarmed man, hit bystanders, charge man for making them shoot https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/nyregion/unarmed-man-is-charged-with-wounding-bystanders-shot-by-police-near-times-square.html?smid=pl-share

#10yrsago Orange UK plumbs the depths of insulting, stupid marketing, finds a new low https://memex.craphound.com/2013/12/05/orange-uk-plumbs-the-depths-of-insulting-stupid-marketing-finds-a-new-low/

#5yrsago What it’s like to be a woman reporter on a cryptocurrency cruise where nearly all the other women are sex-workers https://web.archive.org/web/20181205144647/https://breakermag.com/trapped-at-sea-with-cryptos-nouveau-riche/

#5yrsago See you in court: amid protests, shameless Wisconsin GOP neuters the incoming governor in an all-night, lame-duck session https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2018/1205/Wisconsin-GOP-pass-slew-of-measures-during-lameduck-session

#5yrsago British Member of Parliament publishes 250 pages of damning internal Facebook documents that had been sealed by a US court https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/commons-committees/culture-media-and-sport/Note-by-Chair-and-selected-documents-ordered-from-Six4Three.pdf

#5yrsago The longest-serving Congressman in US history proposes a four fixes for American democracy https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/john-dingell-how-restore-faith-government/577222/

#5yrsago RIP, George HW Bush: a mass-murderer and war-criminal https://theintercept.com/2018/12/05/george-h-w-bush-1924-2018-american-war-criminal/

#5yrsago Trump cybersecurity advisor Rudy Giuliani has no idea how the internet works https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/rudy-giuliani-doesnt-seem-to-know-how-the-internet-works.html

#5yrsago Not just breaches: Never, ever use Quora https://waxy.org/2018/12/why-you-should-never-ever-use-quora/

#5yrsago Obamacare study: 25% decline in home delinquencies among newly insured poor people https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-04/how-access-to-obamacare-cuts-late-housing-payments

#5yrsago Poland rejects the EU’s copyright censorship plans, calls it #ACTA2 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/11/poland-saved-europe-acta-can-they-save-us-acta2

#1yrago Monopoly's event-horizon: The true capitalist singularity https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/05/eldritch-physics/#wouldnt-start-from-here Banning surveillance ads and banning drm as good politics

It's EFF's Power Up Your Donation Week: this week, donations to the Electronic Frontier Foundation are matched 1:1, meaning your money goes twice as far. I've worked with EFF for 22 years now and I have always been - and remain - a major donor, because I've seen firsthand how effective, responsible and brilliant this organization is. Please join me in helping EFF continue its work!

[ausetkmt]

Active Clubs: Will2Rise Sells Activewear to Fascist Brawlers – Rolling Stone

This Activewear Brand Wants to Be Lululemon for Fascists

Will2Rise is marketing “militant active wear” to white nationalist Active Clubs, which train members for street combat

Conservatives opposed to shopping at “woke” corporations have launched their own lines of pillows, piss beer, and mobile phone service. Now, unabashed white supremacists are setting up shop in this so-called parallel economy. 

Consider the fascist fashion house Will2Rise.

Will2Rise makes sports gear for white nationalists — including muscle-tees, track jackets, “militant active wear pants,” boxing gloves, and hoodies emblazoned with “Cultured Thug.” Leaving no doubt about its politics, the company’s gear is branded with stylized silhouette of a fasces — the ancient Roman symbol (consisting of a bundle of wood with a protruding ax head) later embraced by far-right Italian militants, spawning the term “fascist.”

The company specifically markets to members of Active Clubs, a global network of white supremacists who “tribe and train.” The members of these tight-knit local chapters pursue street-fighter fitness in advance of an anticipated race war, or other violent confrontation. Rather than the Hawaiian shirts and AK-47s that characterize extremists like the Boogaloo Bois, the Active Club aesthetic is gym-wear and mixed martial arts prowess. Will2Rise sells training hoodies and tight-fitting ringer tees labeled, “ACTIVE CLUB.”

Will2Rise is also playing the role of a corporate sponsor for white supremacy events. The company staged a second-annual MMA tournament this August, in a Huntington Beach warehouse decorated with white-power flags. Hosted by the SoCal Active Club, the contests featured fighter representatives from the Tennessee Active Club, Big Sky Active Club, Great Lakes Active Club, Evergreen Active Club, as well as from Patriot Front, another high-profile, white-nationalist group. Many of the fighters sported Will2Rise boxing gloves and other apparel. 

Think of the brand as Lululemon for white-power bros. The company touts its commitment to “bringing high-quality goods to Our guys.” Its white-power symbols are often coded. Many items for sale carry the Roman numeral XIV, or 14. For the neo-Nazi set, that’s a reference to the “14 words,” a dark oath about securing “the existence of our people and a future for white children.” A video montage on the slick Will2Rise homepage is more explicit. It flashes the words “white youth revolt,” “white unity,” and the slogan “action today, victory tomorrow.”

The company’s whites-only ethos extends to what Will2Rise dubiously labels its “Ethical Supply Chain” — with products exclusively “made in Eastern Europe, so not a single hand touches the production that is not of like mind.” The copy continues: “We keep Our people employed and keep all funds within our ranks.” The company takes Visa, MasterCard, Paypal, and Stripe.

https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Will2Shop-screenshot-shop.jpg?w=1024

Will2Rise represents an attempt to monetize the Active Club movement by the same folks who founded it. Active Clubs are the brainchild of Robert Rundo, a white nationalist from Orange County, California. Rundo previously led a street-fighting group called the Rise Above Movement, whose brawlers made a practice of roughing up antifa at social justice protests. Federal prosecutors have described RAM as “a combat-ready, militant group” that’s part of a “new nationalist white supremacy and identity movement.”

Rundo was indicted on federal charges of “conspiracy to riot” in 2019 stemming from RAM actions in Huntington Beach, Berkeley, and San Bernardino. The charges were dropped for a time but reinstated in 2021 after an appellate process ruled that the charging statute is constitutional. However, Rundo eluded capture, decamping to Eastern Europe where he continued to organize around his violent brand of white supremacy — including morphing RAM into a decentralized network of Active Clubs.

The Active Club movement is growing exponentially. A new report by the nonprofit Counter Extremism Project, reveals that there are at least 46 active clubs across 34 states in the U.S. The “transnational” network also has chapters in 15 countries, including Canada, and across Europe, with 23 chapters in France alone. 

Alexander Ritzmann, who conducted the CEP research, describes the groups as “trying to build a militia” in plain sight. They foreground a broad ideology of “white unity” — both to prevent infighting and to appear less threatening to law enforcement. The exact purpose of the fight-training remains ambiguous, but Ritzmann insists this is on purpose, following the philosophy that a violent white supremist movement needs more “fighters than thinkers.” The endgame, he warns, is for these Active Clubs to be the tip of the fascist spear when the next “Day X” — think: a redux of a Jan. 6 — requires the services of a fighting force: “It’s about building that militia for the day a leader shows up … that needs some sort of army.”

Rundo was also “a driving force in the creation” of the Will2Rise clothing brand, according to the CEP report. The Southern Poverty Law Center recently included Will2Rise among entities it labels “white nationalist hate groups.” The shop serves many purposes: reinforcing the public-facing aesthetics of the Active Club movement, raising money, and aiding in recruitment. According to Ritzmann’s research, the shop gets about 10,000 visits a month, with visits lasting about 15 minutes, “indicating shopping.”

Rundo’s life on the lam in Europe came to a halt this year. The 33-year-old was collared in Romania in March, and his extradition to the United States was announced Aug. 2. He has pleaded not guilty to the conspiracy to riot charges, and is expected to go to trial in December. 

Not surprising, Rundo has become a cause célèbre in extremist circles — especially for Will2Rise. A banner at the top of its website demands “Free Rob Rundo.” The company is also selling Shepard Fairey-esque art posters reading “FREE RUNDO,” and is even raffling off a wood carving of its fasces logo, fashioned by supporters at the “Austrian Art Academy.”

Following his vision, the groups Rundo set in motion are continuing to act without him — including by holding the Huntington Beach MMA fights. Extremism experts insist this is in keeping with the leaderless “open franchise” model promoted by Active Clubs, but note that SoCal Active Club has been effectively stewarding the movement in Rundo’s absence.

Will2Rise has not responded to an email request for information on its business, revenue, and profits. The company lists its address as a P.O. box in Virginia. It also features a non-working telephone number with a Georgia area code and one too many digits — ending in 88. That number is often used by white supremacists as a numerical correspondence to the letters HH, short for Heil Hitler.

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

When MG changed hands to China's SAIC back in the Aughts, eyebrows raised for sure. Back then, tiny hatches that fell into the "aggressively OK" category were the order of the day, as was the old MG TF sports car, of course. But nothing the company produced seemed to justify the endless MG branded swag you could buy on the internet(..)

Then, in 2022, the MG4 arrived. It was based on a new purpose-built EV platform with a look that meant it wouldn’t blend in, respectable ranges from sensibly sized batteries, acceptable performance and, perhaps most importantly, a keen price point. It was something of a breath of fresh air. Its rivals were all more expensive, though more familiar. That wasn’t enough to protect their market share.

If you head to certain bits of the United Kingdom, the MG4 is absolutely everywhere. Stand on a street corner and you’ll likely see at least a handful in no time at all—private cars, fleet drivers and Ubers alike.

Not only do normal people like it, scruffy journalists like it too. It’s won a raft of gongs for being, as the cliché goes, a ‘lil bit Goldilocks. After so much love has been heaped on it by various colleagues, I figured it was time to give it a go(..) 

[justforbooks]

The only thing an A&R man needs, Seymour Stein once said, was a good pair of ears. Stein, who has died aged 80, might have added indefatigable enthusiasm, a streak of opportunism and a shrewd business brain, all of which he deployed in a career that saw him sign the deals that launched the careers of Madonna, the Ramones, Talking Heads, kd lang and many others.

Those artists enjoyed their first hits on Sire Records, the label Stein co-founded in 1966 and with which he remained synonymous even after his company had been absorbed by the Warner Music group. By the time he stood down in 2018, unhappy with corporate politicking, Stein’s achievements had long since earned him a place among the finest “record men” – as they were known – of his generation.

“I have no easily definable skills or talents. I’m a hit man, a record business entrepreneur,” he wrote in the introduction to his autobiography, Siren Song, in 2018. He played no instrument and had no technical knowledge, for which he was ultimately grateful, believing it might have got in the way of an appreciation of artists who could not be judged by conventional musical standards.

The story of how Stein acquired the US rights to the then-unknown British band Depeche Mode for his label typified his modus operandi, based on instinct and energy. One day in 1980 he picked up the latest issue of a British music paper in his New York office and read about a new group signed by a UK contact, Daniel Miller, to his Mute Records label. On a hunch, he grabbed his passport, booked a ticket to London on Concorde, and went straight from the airport to meet the group in Basildon, Essex, their home town, an hour’s drive east of London. “I signed them on the spot,” he remembered.

Their subsequent success made them one of a string of British bands whose records he released in the US. When his rivals called him an anglophile, it was not always, he recalled, meant as a compliment. But it was British musicians, from the Climax Blues Band to the Smiths, who provided a bedrock for his business.

To sign Madonna Ciccone in 1982, he summoned the singer to his bedside at the hospital where he had undergone heart surgery. Having listened to her demo tape, he offered the 24-year-old $45,000 for three singles with the option to release an album. Going on to sell more than 60m albums in the US alone while helping to reshape feminism for a new generation of young women, she was his greatest success.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Dora (nee Weisberg) and David Steinbigle, Orthodox Jews whose own parents had emigrated from Galicia, the region of eastern Europe straddling Poland and Ukraine. His father was employed in Manhattan’s garment industry while his mother worked at her family’s market in Coney Island.

A heart murmur in infancy kept him away from sports at Lafayette high school, where he discovered that he preferred applying his prodigious memory to Billboard magazine’s charts of current bestselling pop records than to his lessons. The love of music was kindled by listening to the records brought home by his older sister.

During a summer holiday he talked his way into an internship at Billboard’s offices on 47th Street and Broadway. It was there that he met Syd Nathan, the myopic, asthmatic, choleric boss of King Records, the label of James Brown, based in Cincinnati. In 1961 Nathan suggested that he shorten his surname and offered him a job, asking, “Do you want to be a spectator or do you want to be in the game?”

It was at King that Stein learned, from the ground up, how the record business really worked. His knowledge would be expanded while working for George Goldner, another old-time record man, at the Red Bird label, where the Shangri-Las and the Dixie Cups were the hit acts.

There he met the songwriter and producer Richard Gottehrer, with whom he founded Sire, each putting in $10,000. The Climax Blues Band, Barclay James Harvest, Matthews Southern Comfort – all from the UK – were among early successes, along with an album by the Dutch band Focus, before the pair began releasing their own self-recorded albums from 1970.

After Gottehrer had left the label in the mid-1970s, Stein and his wife Linda could be seen patrolling the New York clubs, scouting a new generation of local bands. They were quick to pounce on the Ramones, with their two-minute blasts of brattish attitude, and the cooler art-school rock of Talking Heads. From the UK came Echo and the Bunnymen, Soft Cell, and the Pretenders, whose American singer, Chrissie Hynde, was impressed by Stein’s extraordinary recall of lyrics old and new.

As well as continuing to sign emerging acts – many of them from the UK, such as My Bloody Valentine, Aphex Twin and Everything But the Girl – Stein also played a significant role in the later careers of established stars. Brian Wilson’s eponymous first solo LP was released on Sire in 1988; the following year Lou Reed’s artistic momentum was revived by the first of a series of Sire albums, titled New York.

While on a constant search for new music, Stein used his fortune to eat well and to collect art and antiques, including The Siren by the pre-Raphaelite painter John William Waterhouse, which he sold at Sotheby’s in London in 2018 for a reported $5m. In 1983 he helped found the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, into which he was inducted in 2005.

He and Linda Adler were married in 1971, shortly after she had recovered from the shock of his announcement that he was gay. Their formidable and often turbulent partnership, which also produced two daughters, was ended by divorce after seven years. Samantha, their elder daughter, died of cancer in 2013. Stein is survived by their younger daughter, Mandy, and by his sister, Ann.

🔔 Seymour Stein (Seymour Steinbigle), music industry executive, born 18 April 1942; died 2 April 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[bopinion]

2023 / 45

Aperçu of the Week:

"Conflicts come and go. Money stays."

(Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, ex-President of the Russian Federation)

Bad News of the Week:

It was feared for a long time, now it's happening: the Ukraine war may not be losing its horror, but it is losing its attention. As happened with Syria. And with Yemen. How is Iraq actually doing? Or Libya? New times bring new headlines. People's attention span is limited. And people's empathy too. It is not only in the US Congress that voices are getting louder questioning support for Ukraine. It would be a bottomless pit anyway. And you can't take care of everything.

In this country too, people are now taking to the streets for or against Palestine, for or against Israel. The aggression of Hamas or the Netanyahu government is obviously closer to us than the aggression of Putin. At least now. But perhaps also in Europe in general, to which Israel is often counted. France has a not only flattering history in the region and a large Arab population, Germany's special relationship with the Jewish people ("reason of state") need not even to be mentioned.

And now there is growing evidence that Ukraine does not always wear white shirts either. Research by the Washington Post, among others, into the background to the explosives attacks on the North Stream pipelines leads to Ukraine. Former intelligence officer and special forces commander Roman Chervynsky is described in security circles as the "coordinator" of these attacks, responsible for the logistics of the sabotage commando. If Ukraine is now behind the biggest act of sabotage of all time, no German, whose energy prices have tripled as a result, will be pleased. If, at the same time, direct military aid is doubled to 8 billion euros, the purse strings will be tight. In real terms, but above all in terms of feeling.

I very much hope that the solidarity that has united us Europeans up to now will only crumble and not collapse. Because it is still true that European values are being defended in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin must not be allowed to win. But I am increasingly worried that his calculations could work out. Time is clearly working in his favor. Sidenote: the Russian economy is currently doing better than the German.

Good News of the Week:

Jeff Bezoz and Elon Musk are known as negative examples of capitalism. Attacking competitors, exploiting employees and paying as little tax as possible. Virtually all investors and almost every multinational corporation try to structure their balance sheets in such a way that as little as possible goes to the state(s). Even though those depend on tax revenues for their public welfare tasks. Tax evasion is how all our companies work.

The problem is, on the one hand, the well-known tax havens such as Cayman Island and, on the other hand, competition between nations as to where which company with which activity sets up shop. Because of jobs and because of taxes. I have remembered a creative example of tax avoidance in Europe from recent years: the sporting goods manufacturer Nike.

Its German business - the largest market on the continent for Nike despite its domestic competitors Adidas and Puma - generates enormous sales, but strangely enough no profit, which would be relatively highly taxed in this country. The trick: for every pair of sneakers etc., Nike Germany pays a license fee for patents, design, brand use etc. to Nike Ireland, where the tax rates are significantly lower. And strangely enough, always in the exact amount so that nothing is left over. Thank you very much.

My criticism is less directed at the company, whose nature it is to generate as much profit as possible. But rather to Ireland, which allows tax evasion at the expense of its European colleagues. But this will soon come to an end. Because the global minimum tax is just around the corner. The German tax office calls it "one of the biggest reforms in the international taxation of companies".

Until now, the taxation of multinational corporate groups has largely been organized on a national basis. A group only has to pay taxes on its profits in the countries in which it has a physical presence. This is becoming less and less important in the increasingly cross-border movement of goods and in the digital economy in general. And even within Europe, tax rates vary greatly: from 9% to 35% according to the OECD.

Now 138 countries around the world, including all G20 states, have committed to a global minimum tax of 15%. Experts call its introduction a "game changer" in the fight against decades of tax dumping by large corporations. Estimates are based on this. The global minimum tax will generate an additional 200 billion euros a year for the international community. This will finance their commonwealth, from which all citizens will benefit. And not just the investors on the stock markets and the shareholders of companies.

Personal happy moment of the week:

Senta Berger. One of our greatest actresses. As a young woman in the 60s and now, at 82, she still is. I have always admired her. For her artistic work and for her humanity. She fights for the protection of wildlife and against leukemia. And admitted to having an abortion in 1971 (!). She was and is a great woman. I bumped into her in the elevator today. And told her exactly that. She said I made her day. And she made mine.

I couldn't care less...

...for the carnival. On 11.11. at 11h11 on the dot, tens of thousands of "Jecken" celebrated the start of the Rhineland carnival and the foolish season in Cologne. As if the time before had been normal in any way.

As I write this...

...I'm fighting a nascent cold. And a stomach virus. And muscle tension. And tiredness. It's November. But maybe I'm just getting old.

Post Scriptum

Nikki Haley could become a serious challenger to Donald Trump in the Republican primaries. Last you heard from Ron DeSantis? Exactly.