#I bought it before the Google ban

[amalgamads-aneacc]

Well it seems that my old android phone is dying, I've been with it for like 5, 6 years, I've extended it's life by treating it kindly and with love, but it doesn't want to reproduce videos anymore, all I see on tumblr is a white screen where the video should be. I don't want to buy another, I'm happy with this one, even if it's technologically old, I'm too fond of it. And just thinking about choosing a new one gives me headache.

[babbybones]

i wish all fandom wikis a very migrate to miraheze or go fully independent

edit: i am getting way too many "what's wrong with fandom? 🥺" comments to respond to them all-- presumably mostly from people seeing this post without the reblog comments-- so please read this before asking that.

basically fandom/wikia is a corporation that hosts wikis bloated with intrusive ads, and they are actively hostile to both their users and to independent wikis (to the point of banning wiki admins for attempting to migrate to another platform & buying up specific domains so they can't be used). their use of SEO techniques means their wikis will usually show up as the top result in google searches, even above objectively superior wikis. they recently bought out Gamespot, GameFAQs, Giant Bomb, Metacritic, and others, and they will sometimes attempt to buy out independent wikis (like Bulbapedia)

[itsyourstarboy]

Y'all are gonna love this, cause I love this.

Earlier I mentioned Guy wearing glasses and a mask to protect his identity on stream with Honey.

And @glitchedvariety responded with this ↓

She is absolutely right, Guy would do that.

So, of course, I went on a Google image searching spree to see what glasses I could find that Guy would wear and oh good lord there are more ridiculous glasses in the world than I realized

Below the cut are some silly glasses that Guy wears on stream, each pair rated on how much he likes them, how much fans like them, and how much Honey likes them.

From the pair he wears the least to the pair he wears the most:

Pair #1 - Peppa Pig

He loves them because they were sent to him by a fan. He's worn it on stream a handful of times.

Guy's Rating: 4/10 (they are ridiculously big)

Fans' Rating: 6/10 (always gets a good laugh, but the joke gets old)

Honey's Rating: 2/10 (they hate these glasses with a burning passion, but they don't mind too much when Guy wears them because it does pretty well at hiding his face)

Pair #2 - "unicorn"

This is another pair that was sent by a fan. Guy actually only ever wore this on stream once and then never again because Honey almost got banned. He still wears them off stream.

Guy's Rating: 6/10 (Honey hates them)

Fans' Rating: 8/10 (it was funny while it lasted)

Honey's Rating: 0/10 (the lenses are see through, they had to modify them before Guy ever wore them on stream)

Pair #3 - Googly Eyes

He got these at Party City. He usually wears them when he randomly interrupts Honey's streams, not when he's participating in them.

Guy's Rating: 5/10 (he can't see shit while wearing these, but they're fun)

Fans' Rating: 10/10 (funny every time)

Honey's Rating: 4/10 (these glasses annoy them because Guy will keep shaking his head to hear the pupils rattle and they worry they'll go flying off his face, otherwise they keep his eyes covered pretty well)

Pair 4 - Swirly

Guy feels like Willy Wonka when he wears these, and he loves it

Guy's Rating: 7/10 (he likes these, but they're a little clunky)

Fans' Rating: 9/10 (just some silly glasses)

Honey's Rating: 6/10 (the glasses are a little loose on Guy's face, they worry they'll fall off if he moves too much)

Pair #5 - SWAG

He bought these for himself a long time ago. Who knew they would ever come in handy?

Guy's Rating: 9/10 (not as fun as the others, but they're comfortable and say swag)

Fans' Rating: 8/10 (simple glasses, a bit boring compared to others)

Honey's Rating: 10/10 (they cover his face perfectly, and they're not obnoxious)

Pair #6 - Sexy

Honey bought these for him, because they were out shopping and went "yeah, that's Guy"

Guy's Rating: 10/10 (they're like the swag glasses, but funnier, and it was a gift from his Honey ^^)

Fans' Rating: 9/10 (simple glasses that speak the truth)

Honey's Rating: 10/10 (ditto to the swag glasses)

Pair #7 - Third Eye

These glasses are actually Honey's, but they let Guy wear them on stream.

Guy's Rating: 11/10 (it's his Honey's glasses)

Fans' Rating: 10/10 (them some cool glasses)

Honey's Rating: 9/10 (they like that the glasses are reflective, but sometimes it worries them)

Final Pair #8 - Pizza Guy

This one's self explainable

Guy's Rating: 1000/10 (he's the pizza guy 😎)

Fans' Rating: 9/10 (Guy seems so happy in these glasses, the fans can't help but love it)

Honey's Rating: begrudging 10/10 (they're effective, they're goofy, they're Guy)

[beardedmrbean]

A House Democrat blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday for a "failure of House leadership" by refusing to call up legislation to impose tougher stock trading restrictions on members of Congress.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., said she has been working with members since 2020 to call up a bill that would strengthen the provisions of the STOCK Act, a 2012 law that prohibits lawmakers from using inside information to profit from stock trading. Support for a complete ban on trading by lawmakers grew this year, but Spanberger accused Pelosi, D-Calif., and other Democratic leaders for shutting it down.

"[A]fter first signaling her opposition to these reforms, the Speaker purportedly reversed her position," Spanberger said. "However, our bipartisan reform coalition was then subjected to repeated delay tactics, hand-waving gestures, and blatant instances of Lucy pulling the football."

HOUSE UNLIKELY TO VOTE ON CONGRESSIONAL STOCK TRADE BAN BEFORE MIDTERMS

"This moment marks a failure of House leadership — and it’s yet another example of why I believe that the Democratic Party needs new leaders in the halls of Capitol Hill," she said.

She added that instead of finding consensus, Pelosi and other leaders "chose to ignore these voices, push them aside, and look for new ways they could string the media and the public along."

In the last few weeks, House Administration Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., took charge of the matter and finally provided an outline of a possible bill to House lawmakers. According to that outline, the bill would ban lawmakers, their spouses and dependent children from trading stocks and owning a range of securities. The bill also included Supreme Court and federal judges, the president and vice president, and members of the Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors who oversee monetary policy.

However, that outline created an immediate split within the Democratic Party. House Majority Steny Hoyer, D-Md., was one key Democrat who said the proposal did not go far enough. For example, Hoyer said he wanted to see tougher penalties for members of Congress who violate stock trading bans.

When that split emerged this week, it became clear House Democrats would have no time to call up any STOCK Act reform bill before the midterm elections. September 30 is the last day of voting in the House before lawmakers hit the campaign trail – they are not expected back until mid-November.

Spanberger said the decision to let Lofgren take charge of the bill was one of several "diversionary tactics," and said Democrats knew there would be no support for Lofgren’s proposal.

"It’s apparent that House leadership does not have its heart in this effort, because the package released earlier this week was designed to fail," Spanberger said. "It was written to create confusion surrounding reform efforts and complicate a straightforward reform priority — banning Members of Congress from buying and selling individual stocks — all while creating the appearance that House Leadership wanted to take action."

She said she would keep pushing for STOCK Act reform with both Republicans and Democrats when lawmakers return.

Spanberger stopped short of accusing Pelosi of opposing the bill for personal reasons, but Pelosi’s husband, Paul, has been criticized as someone who is close to a powerful person and who has made lucrative trades in recent years.

Fortune reported that Paul Pelosi profited by selling tech stocks just before a House committee voted to regulate tech giants like Google. He also bought Microsoft stock just before that company won a rich contract with the federal government.

Pelosi has said that Paul has never made stock purchases based on information she gave him. Her office also put the California Democrat at arm's length away from Paul's financial decisions. 

"The Speaker does not own any stocks," Drew Hammill, Pelosi's communications director, told Fox News Digital previously. "The Speaker has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions."

[kobithedragon]

Yet another essay about tumblr (originally intended to be sent as an ask to @cyle but I decided to just post it here instead).

ps: I have a #tumblr tag for more meta-commentary (although if you scroll far down enough there's a very long and annoying essay I wrote that nobody really needs to read)

I did a meta-commentary tumblr meme thing for u and the team I hope u like it ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

There's good n bad of both sides of course, I just had this idea for a meme because there's a clear dichotomy between the different social platforms in our current day and age due to the ageing of the internet, and this'll only get more interesting as the internet ages further. Tumblr seems to be at somewhat of a fork in the road after Yahoo thought they were Facebook and bought x trendy social platform(s) to stay relevant after years of decline. However, unlike Facebook with Instagram, over the years Yahoo failed to adapt the once trendy flickr & tumblr to new trends such as the switch to smartphones (Instagram is a smartphone app before anything else) or the rise of video-based content (IGTV and now reels) and the ever increasing lean on social features rather than blogging features (Instagram's story replies leading to direct conversation rather than more forum-like reblogging to a thread).

Anyway, I'm glad Yahoo left tumblr virtually untouched besides a few tweaks and oversights that shrunk the traffic. A huge userbase at the cost of being like Instagram? Heck, ban whatever you like, but don't close the api. Tumblr is tumblr because I can thoroughly explore without an algorithm (thanks via chain!), I can reshare permanently (thanks reblogs!) and consistently and not sporadically (thanks queue!) to a publicly viewable and paginated archive without breaking any sort of links to the communities I shared from (thanks the via chain again!), I can do all this on whichever 3rd party software I choose with whichever features I want, aaaand I can annoy people in the dashboard by writing huge essays without a read more section. And we can all make a ridiculously long reblog chain together. At least to me, that's what tumblr is. Freedom to explore and express. No matter how tight the guidelines become due to everyone's least favourite fruit, who also claims to be the arbiter of the direct word of God (perhaps you've seen the post floating around where Apple disallows incorrect interpretations of religious scripture even though scholars have been arguing over what it all really means for quite some time now), the core mechanics of the tumblr platform allow for so much expression and diversity to be aggregated by everyone.

While tumblr isn't quite as "specialised" as flickr or "underground" like are.na, it has way more of an identity than Facebook. There's no such thing as a "Facebook user" because everyone is a Facebook user. It's the same with Instagram, and even Pinterest. Everyone uses them because they appeal to everyone. And that's fine of course, because tumblr also wants to appeal to a diverse community. But they don't have their unique charm like tumblr does. Lesser known platforms have a charm. Platforms with niche features that don't exist just for user engagement and profit but instead for the sake of a higher purpose. Older platforms have a charm. Those that are both unknown/declining and relics have survived because they weren't shut down when they stopped being profitable or easy to run like Google+ was for example. They keep going because they're precious and important to their userbase. Tumblr doesn't wake up every morning because it's easy, it does it because it must! You guys have been through a ridiculous amount but you're still going strong. Alternatives need to exist. And they were made because the internet is exciting, not because the internet is profitable. To quote Porcupine Tree's "The Sound of Muzak":

Hear the sound of music

Drifting in the aisles

Elevator Prozac

Stretching on for miles

The music of the future

Will not entertain

It's only meant to repress

And neutralize your brain

Soul gets squeezed out

Edges get blunt

Demographic

Gives what you want

One of the wonders of the world is going down

It's going down I know

It's one of the blunders of the world that no-one cares

No-one cares enough

Now the sound of music

Comes in silver pills

Engineered to suit you

Building cheaper thrills

The music of rebellion

Makes you want to rage

But it's made by millionaires

Who are nearly twice your age

One of the wonders of the world is going down

It's going down I know

It's one of the blunders of the world that no-one cares

No-one cares enough

If we replace "music" with "social media" we get a profoundly accurate description of our current situation - predicted back in 2002 while Geocities was still cool. But I know that whatever tumblr does, whether it adds stories or reels ("takes"?) or whatever the next big thing is, or even if it invents something completely different, it'll still be tumblr. It's a tough world out there with all these social media giants swallowing up the userbases of their still living ancestors and their exciting alternatives. I have a lot of respect to you guys for keeping this ship afloat. I hope you can break even someday. I wish you the best:)

Ps: this is really very long, so you don't have to worry about posting it or anything. It started off as "hey there's an idea for a meme" and sorta just became "oh man. I got so carried away and here I am 4 hours later re reading this for the 50th time". Also I'm too lazy to rewrite the meme now but I kinda want to reword some stuff like "aggressive monetisation" in regards to Instagram and Facebook just means like the whole privacy Ad scandal, which of course tumblr has nothing to do with, and then there's paying for features that have been taken away which is at the opposite end of the spectrum but I guess can also be interpreted as "aggressive monetisation" right? I mean are.na has no commercialisation whatsoever, it's tiny and probably covers it's tiny server costs thanks to subscribers and investors and flickr has a tonne of photos it needs to store (well, less now unfortunately but it's still probably an insane amount, all that internet history) and it's overt about how much money it's losing but then there's the 100 year thing which seems cool, I just hope enough people are subbed to Flickr pro and they're getting enough revenue from those ads💔. Anyway so tumblr has done neither of these things yet, it's not advertiser friendly and it's not paywalling any features that should really be free (are.na isn't usable with a 200 post (aka block) limit. It really isn't. 4 days later and I'm 200 blocks in - not making any new connections. It's very unhealthy for the platform to restrict it's core feature and stunt the growth of archives. It's actually very heartbreaking because there would be so many more connections, so many more channels, so much more to explore. There should never be a limit on that stuff in my opinion, especially on are.na)..Yes there's a store now and the shopping cart skeleton dude (actually seeing that is what inspired me to do this in the first place, it was just interesting and cute) which is something are.na would probably never do but I'm not sure if it can be compared to the Facebook marketplace but I have no idea where any of this is headed but I'm excited because where does tumblr fit in the social media dichotomy as we accelerate into a rapidly changing future of the internet? Only time will tell. Truly fascinating platform.

[elrios-trash]

Visiting Animal Jam

Sooo after the burn ERP event on Elsword, I had nothing to do besides resting and moving away from screen.

Then I decided to visit animal jam XD my used to be very addictive game. I could spend 4-5 hours a day to chat, learning English (that's how I got my English there), playing the quest and minigames.

Yes, that one P2W kids game and spikes gimmick by natgeo.

I found that game around 10 years ago? Almost the same time as I found out Moshi Monsters. At 2012 as far as I can remember on the national geographic kids website, they had a ads like, beta test or new released(?) of Animal Jam. I used to be playing the flash games there, natgeo kids' mascot, Zeus the dog.

I remember they had a bunch of flash games featuring of Zeus(?) and I always check out their newest game. Just checked on the site, they had old flash games but no Zeus' featured game :c

This is my account, beta account but I never bought any membership--I only claim the free membership they given. I remember changed my main animals much times. At first it was a tiger, then a wolf, back to tiger, trying to be a rabbit XD

Then new animals come. If I remember correctly the original animals is only Tiger, Wolf, Rabbit, Panda, Seal, Monkey, and Koala. Around 2013 they add Appondale region. So that's why we had Rhino, Lion, Giraffe, Cheetah, and Elephant. No longer after that there's pet, sea region appears, and they released Penguin, Dolphin, and Shark. That time Penguin is only for membership lol. I am so envious of players out there who can bought an actual membership--since I am not from the USA--I WANT A DOLPHIN AS MY SEA ANIMAL HAHAHA -Eno at 11 y.o. Between those years, they add Horse as new animal.

Around when I am 13 or 14 y.o. (2015) I don't play as intense as before, hiatus? Probably yes. They add more animals oh wow, an Fox, Artic Wolf and Snow Leopard. SO CUTE. Arghh. And now here I am fascinated about how fast time passed. How fast/intense they keep updating a new avatar, regions, quests.

I kinda missed the old ver of AJ Classic. The players ofc, they don't really into trading items and fashion items. More like, "Let's go to my den and have a chat". A healthy chat as expected from kids/pre-teens should be. Every time I tried to have fun with the game, some player wants to trade--and I don't really like their items ;w;

Ah why they also delete Club Geoz and old ver of Crystal Sands (before the sea region updated). Maybe you can google it because that time I knew several AJ Blogger outside tumblr XD

Aight, I have a ridiculous question. Did they notice players' age? Like, when I registered, of course I use my age at that time (around 10 or 11). With my actual age now, I should be banned or dispensed from playing kids/pre teen game.

[astropithecus]

The U.S. has nearly $1 trillion military spending yearly. "That's the big one, with a T" as Carl Sagan once said. To put that in perspective, take Elon Musk's whole net worth before he bought Twitter (no really, take it! :rimshot:), then add Jeff Bezos', Bill Gates', Mark Zuckerberg's, and the guys' that started Google to it, and you'd have just enough money to fund the U.S. military for one year. It's not only the most expensive military in the world, it's nearly more expensive than every other country's military combined. Almost half of the entire world's defense spending is by the U.S.

No surprise, then, our country exists primarily to supply this unfathomably huge trillion-dollar war machine with bodies. The "Status Quo" crowd is never going to give you affordable healthcare or affordable tuition, because the G.I. bill and Tricare are intentionally the only options for young people that aren't born rich. It's designed that way on purpose. They're never going to raise the minimum wage for "unskilled labor" to a living wage, because the war machine needs young people to not have any viable career options that don't require college or trade school. After all, if you could raise a family on just a high school diploma, they'd have no reason to enlist.

We're in the second straight year of declining military enlistment. It is not a coincidence we're suddenly revisiting long-settled topics like abortion and affirmative action - abortion bans today means a wave of impoverished teens eligible for recruitment in 18 years. Putting college out of reach for people that aren't legacy admissions will deny them the opportunity to better themselves without joining the military first. It's a one-two punch designed to boost recruitment in the coming years.

I don't mean to undermine the role that the systemic oppression of women and minorities plays in American politics - sometimes the status quo really is just the bigotry of old white men made manifest. But we also can't ignore the part the military industrial complex plays, and how it benefits from that oppression. So much of the GOP's "culture war" is just drumming up public support for policies designed to bolster military recruitment numbers, by way of barring access to alternatives for all but America's most privileged.

[indiejones]

FURTHER EVIDENCE ON BRITISH DOMINION RAJ IN POST-1947 (SUPPOSEDLY INDEPENDENT) INDIA, VIA ‘MANAGEMENT & ULTIMATE CONTROL’ OVER INDIA’S & THE SUBCONTINENT’S POPULAR COMMUNICATION IE RADIO! ..........................................................................................................................................................THE ‘REAL REASON’ FOR THE RISE TO UNPARALLELED FAME, OF SRI LANKA’S ‘RADIO CEYLON’, OVER INDIA’S ‘ALL INDIA RADIO’!

A strange dichotomy in press or media workings from 50’s India, came to our attention at Indies, making us investigate it’s roots, & the revelations from it & deeper emerging links to the Indian panorama of then, is what’s presented in form of this blog.

Now all regular readers of Indie blogs, would’ve taken notice of the Indie revelation from month back, of the pre-1977 Indian Film Censors rule, of not allowing film shootings within the land, till every 3 reels of each film were made to pass thru & be certified by censors before proceeding ahead. In light of this, emerged another unrelated claim stating how twas the Indian Information & Broadcasting Min of 1950’s India, B.V. Keskar, I & B Minister from 1952-1962, that outright banned the broadcast of all Hindi songs in 1952, for supposedly being too crass & uncultured, thus paving way for the emergence & prosperity of India’s rival business, Sri Lanka’s state radio broadcast service ‘Radio Ceylon’ (most famous to audiences of today, for hosting Ameen Sayani’s ‘Binaca Geetmala’, a weekly Top 10/20 Hindi Film Songs rating & broadcast show) that became immensely popular on account of such ‘folly’ by Mr. Keskar. And this theory was bought by the nation enmasse, for Mr. Keskar being a known proponent of the classical arts, & who In an article in The Hindu (19 July 1953), had argued that “The country’s appreciation for classical music has fallen and was on the point of extinction, particularly in North India, & the onus of making his countrymen intimate with (classical music) that therefore was bestowed on AIR.” “We must make (ourselves) familiar with our traditional music," was what he’d declared. Now further research on the matter gives us no other direct quotes or even second-hand convos from Keskar on the matter of Hindi Film Songs being degenerative or a bad influence on Indian society, ever, anywhere! .. All such talk, attributing such motives to him, only appearing in independent (?) columns of journalists, assuming his self-asserted appreciation for Indian classical music as a direct potential assault on Hindi film Music, in some zero sum game, that being the decided motive for the AIR Film Music ban, no further questions thence to be asked! This theory may even have worked in unknowing & gullible 1950’s India, but to us 75 yrs later, armed with Google baba & other means of info, the knowledge of real facts, that smelt of something far more sinister or atleast shady to begin with- HOW WAS IT EVER POSSIBLE, THAT THE SAME I & B MINISTRY THAT OVERSAW, CERTAINLY SINCE INDEPENDENCE & ALSO BEFORE, WHAT SONGS WERE FIT TO BE TELECAST OR SCREENCAST (IE WITH VISUALS, MOREOVER) IN HINDI MOVIES OF THEN, WITH A METICULOUS MICROSCOPE, WOULD FIND THE SAME SONGS OBJECTIONABLE IN THEIR MERE PODCAST OR TRANSMISSION (W/O VISUALS), OVER A PUBLIC CARRIER ‘ALL INDIA RADIO (AIR)’ ALSO RUN ENTIRELY BY THE I & B MINISTRY??!! Further, we are told that AIR’s situation improved after Keskar was removed & AIR’s new ‘Vividh Bharati service” division was started, now allowing the playing of Hindi songs, thus gaining popularity, & finally beginning to bring in rewards to Indian public entrepreneurship. Only to learn upon some more research that: 1. Mr. B.V. Keskar was the I & B minister continuously for 10 yrs from 1952 – 1962, while ‘Vividh Bharati’ began services in October 1957! Ie. Keskar also oversaw the emergence of Vividh Bharati in AIR during his leadership. 2. It is learnt that parent body AIR still didn’t allow of advertising slots on this new ‘Vividh Bharati’ channel, even then, thus refusing the chance of generating revenue & sprucing up it’s programming & presentation. This infact reportedly continuing into early 1970’s.

All this while rival state broadcaster, Sri Lanka’s ‘Radio Ceylon’, was reportedly earning millions upon millions of rupees, via the biggest & hottest commodity of the nation since independence, in Sri Lanka or India – Radio! Far far more monopolistic in attracting the maximum audience & ad revenue & trade then, as one would imagine, on account of there being no rival modes of entertainment or mass enjoyment then! RADIO WAS UPTO TEN TIMES MORE PROFITABLE AND ATTRACTIVE & PRESTIGIOUS A VENTURE & A DOMINATING (& CONTROLLING) PUBLIC INFLUENCE, THAN EVEN THE TELEVISION OF TODAY!

Which brings one to the obvious question, as to why would the Indian Govt, allow the clearly most potentially impactful & most public interfacing & public controlling Ministry, take a string of the stupidest upon stupidest of decisions, one after the other, for upto years to decades on end, that too, & need it be said, with a rival & unimaginably successful & profitable & national coffer-bourgeoning business model, in just the neighbouring nation, using the Indians’ own intellectual property to increase their own nation’s wealth, all to India’s detriment!???? Ofcourse also to how the same supposedly Hindi Film music-phobic I & B Minister Keskar, had such a change of heart, to first unilaterally declare such a vastly unpopular & need I say, electorally impactful decision in 1952, & then do a 180 degree turn in just 5 yrs, & undo the same decision unilaterally in 1957, unquestioned or un-investigated upon further, forever thereafter! Btw. B. V. Keskar continues to be the longest serving I & B Min in Indian democratic history, having served on this post for a full 10 yrs, that’s 5 times more than the average term duration of 2 yrs for Ministers holding this post in India thereafter! Does anyone even remotely believe that Nehru of all people, SO hands-on in all his affairs, that his own 1950’s Finance Minister of all people, John Matthai, one of Indies Top 136 Greatest Personalities in the Known History of India incidentally, & one of the most important Cabinet posts in the Govt, resigned, writing an open letter of resignation to Nehru in 1950, alleging how Nehru’s Planning Commission headed by Nehru himself, had become a parallel Cabinet that’d turned the entire real Cabinet into mere petty registering authorities…could allow some unheard of & certainly nationally unknown Minister called B. V. Keskar to run riot with the dynamic national sentiment, not once but twice, & continue on with no say in the matter at all!?

https://indiafacts.org/complete-truth-jawaharlal-nehru-forced-john-mathai-resign/

This was not stupidity of the highest order, but certainly something far more sinister.

And a little further deep-dive, made matters far clearer indeed!

THIS WAS NOT ABOUT INDIAN BUSINESS OR SRI LANKAN BUSINESS, BUT BRITISH & AMERICAN BUSINESS ALL ALONG!

You see some research on ‘Radio Ceylon’ will tell you, how it took the shape of it’s most famous avatar, from the erstwhile ‘Colombo Radio’ that began transmission in 1925, only after the nation of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) was officially granted Dominion Status by the British in 1948 just a year after the same as unofficially granted to India in 1947 (read earlier Indie blogs on India’s Dominion Status till atleast the late 1960’s, on Indies sm), that meaning all controlling authority, if not day-to-day operations, & certainly lotsa the decided revenues or rewards, from the nation’s activity, were to stay with the British Crown.

Further, how ‘Radio Ceylon’ acquired it’s operational strength thanks to the short-wave transmitters that were donated to Radio Ceylon, at the time of it’s dominion-independence, by the officers of the then Indian Gov General Louis Mountbatten’s earlier command, namely his position as Supreme Commander of the South- East Asia Command that Mountbatten held till 1946, & one officer in particular, Major Frank Courtney. During WW II, Frank Courtney was posted in India and assigned to the British Garrison at Bombay as the Signals Officer. The Allied Forces were spread far & wide, from the Middle East to the Far East and the Indian Peninsula in the centre, formed a very strategic location. Real time communications with the Allied Forces became paramount and an urgent need was felt to set up a Medium Frequency/High Frequency (MF/HF) transmitting station. FC was tasked with identifying a suitable location and equipment and setting up the same. After a thorough study he concluded that Colombo would be the ideal location and he proceeded with the project as directed. Just as the equipment arrived at Colombo the War ended and the equipment continued to lie in some warehouse in the port premises.

Frank Courtney, who was totally in the picture of the details & position of the MF/HF Transmitters, approached the new Government in Ceylon and proposed the setting up of a powerful radio station for their country. The Ceylon Government accepted his proposal and commissioned him to complete the project on a turn-key basis. That meaning, the Govt of Sri Lanka basically appointed Major Frank Courtney, Signals Officer of Mountbatten’s South-East Asia Command, as a large stakeholder & large part owner of Sri Lanka’s national radio service, that was also soon re-positioned as a full-fledged separate department of the Ceylon (Sri Lankan) Natl Govt.

Now given how Sri Lanka was legally a Dominion of Britain then (& continued to be till 1972 when officially became a Republic), & Mountbatten very much in control of India as Governor General in 1948, fair to say, this was in effect the British Crown acquiring rival legal ownership to the then illegal Indian radio-service ownership! .. In modern biz talk, many would call this, a potential way to convert black into white!

And that is how Radio Ceylon came into being. The most powerful transmitting station in this part of the world!

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Ceylon

2. https://pediahut.com/radio-ceylon/

3. https://www.historyforpeace.pw/post/the-strange-and-amusing-history-of-indian-commercial-radio

4. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1579447/Major-Frank-Courtney.html 5. https://www.mail-archive.com/goanet@lists.goanet.org/msg140357.html 6. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268740/plotsummary/

What happened thereafter, as mentioned in first half of the blog, & why moreover, would now be almost clear to everyone reading! The entire facade of the Hindi Film Song ban by All Indian Radio & Keskar in 1952, would’ve been, as we can almost certainly now say, an exercise in subterfuge, in transferring all Indian listenership & consequent ad revenue from AIR to the Crown‘s near-official Radio Ceylon, under directions of the Crown, dutifully followed & implemented on by the self-confessed last British PM of India. Btw, do you know when ‘Vividh Bharati’ actually started accepting advertising revenue? In early 1970’s, just as Sri Lanka became a Republic!   Another aspect that also comes to mind, as an interesting aside, is how Major Frank Courtney, official part-owner of or substantial stakeholder in ‘Radio Ceylon’, also roped in 2 more people as official partners – First, an enterprising American Daniel Molina, who sensing a great business opportunity in India then, founded (or was made to found) a company called Radio Advertising Services in Bombay in 1951 to recruit sponsors for Radio Ceylon’s programmes.

Molina also established Radio Ceylon’s production arm, Radio Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. (REPL), and hired an AIR broadcaster named Hamid Sayani to head it. Who was also a theatre actor & a executive in 2 big British advertising agencies J. Walter Thompson and Stronachs.

Did you know that 'Radio Ceylon' ran it's outrageously profitable venture, in the name of the Sri Lankan Govt's official department, right from Colaba in South Bombay, from Cecil Court & nearby locations!

Incidentally, the 2 other people that were hired & became famous, in this radio jockey role, were Hamid’s younger brother Ameen Sayani, who was to radio compere inarguably Radio Ceylon’s biggest money-spinner ever (thanks to Indian & British Govt’s calculated Hindi song ban), ‘Binaca Geetmala’, & the other, a guy called Balraj, who first hosted & became famous with a show called ‘Lipton Ki Mehfil’ & subsequently a show by the name ‘Lux Ke Sitaray’, that during course of his 2nd show, would land up at Dilip Kumar’s ‘Shikast’ film set for an interview in 1953, & per online info, impress the Director Ramesh Saigal enough to bag a lead role for his next film, titled ‘Railway Platform’, releasing nationwide in 1955, the man now rechristened as Sunil Dutt!

The Radio service, now having acquired unparalleled & loyal fan base, would, despite being an official Sri Lankan Govt enterprise, also then go on to begin a segment on  ‘unbiased Indian news’ pertaining to India, & begin a Christian missionary ad-purchased Christian religious programming to India, slot, too. Just saying.

Now we mentioned earlier how Major Frank Courtney had roped in 2 partners for his advertising agency arm of Radio Ceylon, the 2nd of them being a guy going as S. Hariharan, that from the only available literature on him, was also the ‘overseer’ of 1972’s Malayalam film ‘Vayanadan Thampan’, the plotline for which, as an amusing aside, we surely hope has no real-life connections whatsoever! For below is what the Imdb plotline as on July 2023 of the film reads (As I said, have a fun read): “Vayanadan Thamban is nearing his death, he starts to worship devils and comes across a devil Karimuthey. Vayanadan Thamban requests him to grant everlasting youth to which Karimuthey agrees on a request that he should sacrifice 10 virgin girls as an offering to him, on specific intervals. Upon offering him a sacrifice of every virgin girl, Karimuthey grants Vayanadan Thamba a boon to become younger on every interval. But warns him that if he fails to offer the sacrifice, his body shall go rotten.”

Sounds very much like few dark occult underground community terms & conditions & rituals, we’ve now heard aplenty from experts & activists alike, isn’t it?! .. But as I said, let’s hope just restricted to cinematic entt (even if at it’s very worst!).

Btw, we’ve blogged on before, using Dr. Samuel Stevens’ expert works, how the British Empire was essentially a Freemasonic Empire. With most people forming a relationship with them as part of their prestigious ring, having to vow to the dark cult’s terms & conditions, in some direct & indirect way (per Dr. Stevens & other experts). That if being the case here at all, or if so to what extent, is as good a guess of your’s as of mine!

Frank Courtney, who incidentally lived all his 1940’s time in Bombay, would continue to live & operate from the same Bombay for the rest of his life, his British wife from before independence incidentally also owning a fashion boutique at Colaba’s Taj Mahal Hotel for many decades, from before him, that being the place of their first meeting too btw. Frank would go on owning a home in London, yet staying in Bombay, till he died in the 2000’s, spending most of the evenings of his retired life as President of the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, winning yacht races well into his 80’s & overseeing the club’s activities, even at one point of time, receiving an official letter from the Queen, for his efforts in resisting the movement to change the name of the Bombay in The Royal Bombay Yacht Club to Mumbai. Frank Courtney was also conferred the OBE (Order of The British Empire) in 1980, ‘for public service outside the (official) civil service’.

[loiswolf]

Day 48 July 18 Thunder Bay - Red Rock 105kms

A few days ago when I was in Ignace I called five motels in Nipigon (the next town) and not one of them had a room for tonight. That’s why I’m in Red Rock, an 8km detour off the highway. It’s a pretty cute place though

With a view of the lake

And in a sweet little town with pretty houses.

So this morning I decided to take the cycle route out of Thunder Bay as the short stretch of highway I rode yesterday was banned to bicycles.

It was a nice quiet road but I didn’t get the view I was hoping for. It was all industrial areas, really bad motels and railway lines. I had covered 20kms before I had even a glimpse of the lake.

As you can see on the map

there was an extra detour before joining back onto the highway. I decided to take it because there was a cake place along the road. Big mistake! The cake place was there but it was just a house with a sign on the garage. There was nobody there and definitely no cake. I sat in one of their chairs and ate a Boston Cream donut I’d bought in a six pack yesterday. Eventually I got sick of listening to the dogs barking and moved on.

There had been a long downhill run down to the cake place so I knew I was going to be in for an extra hill. There still wasn’t even a good view of the lake because there were houses down driveways blocking the view from the road.

I wasn’t wrong about the hill going back up the highway but I didn’t count on it being dirt as well. That’s the last time I take a google maps cycle detour!

Just a few km up the highway was a service station where I could finally get a coffee. This place was called Flying J’s Travel Centre. How was I supposed to know it was just your average service station?

I had my coffee sitting out on the edge of the flower bed. As usual someone lit up a cigarette nearby. I’m so sick of this! I made no secret of moving down the ledge and facing the other way. There seems to be a lot of cigarette smokers here.

For the next 30kms it was non stop roadwork

It wasn’t terribly hard cycling but not very scenic.

At 75kms there was a roadside convenience store. A nice young lady serving suggested a breakfast muffin when I realised the ice-cream I’d chosen cost about the same.

The muffin was pretty good for a change and I enjoyed sitting out in the sun for longer than I meant to.

30kms to go including a long hold up for road work. I hadn’t expected a tail wind today because I was heading north so it was a pleasant change when I turned off for Red Rock. Unfortunately it started raining for the final 5kms which kind of ruined the fun.

It took a long time to check in as Don is very old and technically challenged.

I actually wasn’t able to pay because he doesn’t know how the use the little machine you put your card in. I have to wait until later this evening when someone else will be here.

I thought Don must be really old but he’s only 76. I think he bears more than a passing resemblance to Monty Burns from the Simpsons.

He must have lost his sense of smell because instead of smelling like a lovely old, slightly musty motel ( which it is) it smells like curry, just like all the other places. I’m pretty sure its because the cook is Indian.😔

This is downstairs along with a huge games room.

[ohheinc]

Streaming services - A Rant

I genuinely don't like streaming services at this point. Just the amount out there feels like they made watching a movie/series more difficult than it was when Netflix was the main service.

For reference, i legally have access to multiple services, those being: Netflix, Hulu, HBOMax, Disney+, Peacock (which don't use nor have the premium service), Tubi, Pluto tv, and back home I can use Plex and Amazon Prime.

Thats a lot of services isnt it? (That i dont pay for..)

So seeing how i have all of these, why can i never find the one movie i want. Or its not on the same services.

Take Kung Fu Panda. The first movie is on Hulu or HBO Max but the third is on Netflix. The second can only be rented through some other site like Youtube. Rio is a Blusky animation which Disney bought so you would think its on Disney+. The first is, but you need HBO Max to watch the second.

I should not have to play virtual hop scotch just to watch a series of movies. They even do it with TV shows like how Tuca & Burtie was a Netflix show, got canceled then got revived by Adult Swim so you need Netflix just for the first season and HBO for the rest.

What's worse is that there is no guarantee that the show or movie you want is even going to stay. Back when Netflix was the only big service, if something wasn't there that was that. But now you have to check Google to see which one its on (which can be wrong, I once looked up a movie that was said to be on Hulu and it was gone.) Plus with HBO just banning numerous of its shows to the point where you have to pirate it just to watch it because its no where else digitally (or maybe even physically) you have no safety that your shows will be here forever. (Disney maybe but i think some stuff is still in the vault).

At this point, its easier to pirate than to try and be a good citizen without either breaking your wallets or being disappointed.

I didnt even mention how many good shows just get canceled before it has a chance to truly shine (Netflix looking at you).

Honestly there is probably more I could say.

[whattheabcxyz]

2022-08-05

Science

Why animals are less susceptible to Omicron and its variants

Society

Mont Blanc climbers must now pay US$15+K deposit upfront to cover the cost of their rescue... or funeral - What a friggin’ great idea! I wonder if Nepal also has a similar scheme for Mount Everest? Idiots who want to knowingly put their lives at risk then need rescuing or their corpses retrieved later on need to pay for it!!!

1-legged wheelchair-bound dementia-hit care home resident, 93, died after being Tasered, hit with baton, & pepper-sprayed by police after he “threatened staff with a knife” - officers facing manslaughter probe ...their IQ levels also need to be checked as they probably suffer from extreme idiocy

Alex Jones to pay $5.6m for Sandy Hook hoax claims

Internet

North Korean hackers are using never-before-seen methods to bypass Google's email security measures to read & download messages/attachments, all without Google detecting it

Education

^ Create free flowcharts from text

People

“Prince” Harry files 2nd lawsuit against UK government & Scotland Yard over decision to ban him from paying for police protection in Britain - some people have no shame... then again Harry & his wife can hardly be considered “people”

Entertainment

Batgirl movie canned - not that I care tho’; wouldn’t have watched it anyway

Nature

Singapore: Punggol Settlement shop owners complain about wild macaques wreaking havoc in the area - if the government hadn’t cut down so many of our forests, would this have happened?!

Food

Woman finds staple in bubble tea bought from Playmade @ Tampines

Singapore

Long queues to buy ringgit, as some moneychangers stop selling it as they claim it’s no longer profitable to do so

Internal security critical in guarding Singapore against foreign attempts to divide society - no mention of how China has repeatedly been trying to sway certain easily-influenced yellow-skinned Singaporeans into siding with them & making use of them to disseminate their propaganda???

Travel

Singapore travellers can use DBS & OCBC apps to pay in Thailand

Scoot joins SIA in cancelling Taipei flights amid China military drills around Taiwan

Politics

Missiles in Chinese drills hit seas near Taiwan & Japan... while US condemns missile launches as overreaction

Mahathir leads new “Malay movement” to fight in next Malaysian national polls - he just won’t die it seems

Limited progress in Myanmar peace plan leaves ASEAN ministers “deeply disappointed”

Health

Vaccinated people who were infected this year less likely to develop long COVID

[ink-stained-words]

I don't have enough thoughts at the moment to make a proper post so this is probably more of a "things I'll forget otherwise" list

-The very specific way I fix my necklace now. It's deliberate. I fully pause before fixing it, as if acknowledging 1, how often it gets messed up, & 2 how you kept insisting on fixing it

-I have my own Monster can collection now. It consists of 1 can. Bc I refuse to drink the angry peach ring drink & just have the one I bought for your sleepover

-Legitimately never going to rearrange that shelf. I have no idea how you were color coding it. There're two red books in the middle. But I love you so it's just gonna stay that way

-I moved Heartstopper over by the yellow books. I think its new placement will probably annoy you more than before

-I started tying my curtains back with some of the ribbons I've acquired from you. It's pretty

-Jenga has now been permanently associated with you in my head. That's your legacy. Really good at Jenga. I'm gonna write a poem & rhyme something with Jenga /hj

-Help what rhymes with Jenga

-Google suggested "magenta". This is promising for future poem writing. Even if those words absolutely do not rhyme

-I mentioned wedding shopping in the tags of a post from a few days ago & I'm genuinely quite fixated on how much fun it was for tiny me

-Not tiny tiny me, at my parents' wedding. That was 2005. I don't remember any of it. But my aunt's wedding was in 2010ish & I remember trying on high heels

-It was so cool. Watching the adults try on boring bridesmaid dresses was boring but the shoes were awesome. Quite sad you weren't there. We could've found the best ones

-On the note of "things you absolutely could not have been present for, but I'm sad you weren't anyway", we went on a trip to Leavenworth in 2018 & it snowed so so much

-It was a family reunion so the Airbnb was huge & quite pretty. And the town was so lovely, we would've had a blast exploring it

-We could've had a snowball fight. It would've been great. Why weren't you invited to the family reunion that took place 3 years before we met, this is a tragedy

-I finished rwrb & it was very good

-Oh and also the other book by that author, about the girls on the subway. It's not really a spoiler, plot wise, but there's a part I remember

-At some point one of the girls goes to a party & gets very drunk. Drunk party girl calls the other girl & is sad that she isn't at the party & is like. "I should just carry you around in my pocket on speaker"

-And then she does??? She walks around the party with the other girl talking through her phone, responding to conversations & stuff??

-And I decided that was absolutely something I would do, inevitably sleep deprived

-No way in hell I'd get drunk at a party you weren't attending

-I wouldn't even get drunk at *that* party, bc I'd be worried about you & would assign myself as the designated driver

-Can't believe you're gonna refuse to play Candy Land with my tiny cousins some day

-Next you're gonna tell me you're not gonna play Monopoly Jr, which my aunt bought last time I was there /t

-My dad also banned my brother's friend from sleeping in his room, but they weren't nearly as invested in finding loopholes. Just slept in separate rooms. Quite boring of them

[keywestlou]

THE SHOOTING GALLERY CALLED AMERICA

THE SHOOTING GALLERY CALLED AMERICA - https://keywestlou.com/the-shooting-gallery-called-america-2/Originally posted August 2019   America has become a shooting gallery. Citizens shooting citizens. Who would have believed 50 years ago it could happen. I am motivated to write re the gun issue this morning because of the El Paso and Dayton shootings which occurred in the past 24 hours. Why has the U.S. become a maniacal society when it comes to citizens killing each other? The reasons many. Cause and effect unending. I share my thoughts. Gun manufacturers. The NRA. The Republican Party. Elected and party officials having neither the desire nor guts to stand up to gun manufacturers and the NRA. They have been bought body and soul. Lobbyists. Those hired by gun manufacturers and the NRA. Powerful. Loaded with money. Threaten Republican legislators easily with…..If you don’t cooperate/dance to our tune, you will be primaried in the next election. A conservative Supreme Court for many years. Even worse in coming years. Two bad decisions. The right to bear arms and corporations having the right to give unlimited amounts of money to political campaigns. An NRA that has bought “experts” to tell the American people that the gun problem is primarily caused by persons having mental difficulties. Repeated so much over the years that many believe the lie today. The rise of nationalism. A President who stands with those who want to bear arms in a manner and degree not before seen in any President. All contributing to the carnage. When a person plays with dynamite, such person should be careful. Could blow up in one’s face. I refer now to the tariff wars being experienced. The brain child of Donald Trump. A game that could quickly end in a world war. One of China’s largest companies is Huawei. Employs 320,000 people. Huawei big in i-phones and electronic equipment world wide. Huawei needs Android updates for its phones. Out of business without. One of the tariff war’s fallouts is that Google is prohibited by the U.S. from doing business with China. Trump and China President Xi discussed the matter several months ago while negotiating the tariff situation as a whole. To evidence the cooperative spirit of the U.S., Trump granted a temporary ban on the no Google sales to Huawei. A reprieve. The reprieve expires later this month. Could literally put Huawei out of business. At the very least hurt it dramatically, along with China’s economy. I read this morning a comment by Trump to the effect he does not care. What will China’s next step be? Could very well be the start of World War III. Turn things around. Suppose China took steps to hurt Amazon big time. Place Amazon in a position where it might have to go out of business. Note that Amazon employs 556.000. The U.S. could not, would not, stand for it. So it may be with China. Time is of the essence. The end of the month is around the corner. Going to be interesting how this works out, if it does. Henry David Thoreau. His time at Walden Pond. Most Americans read Walden in high school or college. It was on this day in 1854 that Thoreau published Walden. The book was a recounting of Thoreau’s time at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. He lived there 2 years and 2 months. Simply. In a home 10′ x 15′ which he built himself. He grew his food in his garden. The home was located on a 62 acre pond. Thoreau’s closest neighbor was Ralph Waldo Emerson who lived one mile away. Thoreau’s intent was to explore mentally his views on nature, politics and philosophy. The book’s first publishing was 5,000 volumes. Sold only 300 the first year. Took 5 years to sell the whole 5,000. Today continues as it has for many years as a best seller. One reason being it is required reading in many American class rooms today. We all know the story of Custer and the Sioux Indians when Custer and his 200 plus men were wiped out by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse led Sioux. The time the Indians won. There was a time 3 years earlier when Custer defeated the Sioux, however. At a time when the Sioux were led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. It was August 4, 1873. Custer and the 7th Army were protecting a railroad survey party. A relatively easy task. No one bothered anyone. Neither soldiers nor Indians. Custer was taking an afternoon nap. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse for whatever reason attacked Custer’s camp. Custer woke and mounted an effective defense. The skirmish was brief. The Indians withdrew. Only 1 soldier and 1 Indian killed. Three years later, the Battle of Little Big Horn. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse on one side. Custer on the other. We have learned several variations as to why Custer lost the battle. The true one little known. Custer’s greatest fear was the Indians would turn and run before he could attack and defeat them as had occurred 3 years earlier. Custer wanted a victory over the Indians. So he rushed into the battle without proper reconnaissance. One item knowing the size of the Indian force. Thousands. Custer and his 200 plus men were annihilated. Key West loves dogs! Seems like every other household has a pet dog. Dogs permitted everywhere in Key West. All bars and most restaurants. Even super markets and retail stores. There is a national organization called Better Citizens for Pets. Made up of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Marc Pet Care. Recently, Key West received the group’s “Small City” award. A $10,000 grant. The purpose of the grant “to keep furrys off the streets and out of shelters by offering pet wellness services for free or at a reduced cost for income-qualified pet owners.” Key West dog owners be proud! Enjoy your Sunday!  

[fangirltothefullest]

There are ads when you go see a movie? About 15 minutes straight of them just before the movie starts, and a lot of people enjoy them. There’s also the fact that you pay to see a movie, and YouTube is free. There are too many now, but one 5-15 second ad for a 15-30 minute video isn’t unreasonable.

Nope. NO. You've drank the fucking koolaid.

There used to only be trailers before movies, not ads. Before that they didn't even HAVE ads in movie theatres.

Let me spell this out very clearly: they didn't have ads on YouTube. When it came out there were NO ADS on youtube. AT ALL.

You could watch any videos you liked with no ads at all ever.

It is perfectly reasonable to not want to see ads. They managed just fine before corporations decided they needed you to see their products 24/7.

Tv didn't used to have ads.

Then it had them between each program.

THEN they decided that wasn't good enough and they put it in between every program at specific ibtervals. Now you get maybe 5 minutes of show then 5 minutes of ads or more.

And now you can't skip ads online.

They are paying Moore for ads than people are actually buying things in the hopes of berating you enough that you think this is fine and normal and the worst part is that people like you HAVE bought the koolaid and chugged it so much you forgot that this doesn't have to be this way.

It's NOT "reasonable" to have ads.

A long time ago, people literally banned religious groups from standing in the airports handing out flyers so insistently for their beliefs because it was too invasive. And yet now there are ads everywhere.

Can you tell me it a not insanity to see billboards and commercials and online ads and radio ads and newspaper ads and signs and jingles all for the same things?

It's rediculous.

I don't need an ad on a video when I've seen it already on tv and the radio and the newspaper and online articles and on signs and literally driving by the damned stores with signed AND people spinning fucking signs.

Just because you're used to it doesn't make it right. Complacency and acceptance is what let's them reach this point and push farther. Google already tracks all your search data andbots not because they want to know what your secrets are it's to sell you shit.

Why do they need advertisements if they're already tracking what you're searching to see what you're most likely to buy?

[sagevalleymusings]

Company Town

There was a woman being pulled out of the freelance line. I was trying not to stare. It'd been on the news. Only three out of the two-hundred and seventy-five freelance countries had been represented at the last UC meeting. So the law to revoke un-corporatized passports had gone through. 

If they'd wanted to be able to fly without guest certification from a nearby company town, they should have elected a representative from their country to attend the meeting. After all, they'd been invited. Google had sent gmails to everyone with a gmail on earth. It was an important meeting after all.

The woman was making a scene. Apparently her passport’s authentication had been revoked between flights. That was unfortunate.

I checked my gmap. Chicago was a corporate town for Airbus. They'd be able to go into the city since it was just an extension of the airport. But they wouldn’t be allowed to leave without a guest visa. 

Guest visas weren’t that expensive. Only about 30ccs for one on average. Disney’s guest visa was 75cc, but it came with a lot of perks, after all. 

The problem of course was that an expedited visa couldn’t be bought with company credits. You had to use coin - the stable intermediary. 

What was the exchange rate for coin right now? It didn’t matter. I didn’t know this person. But I frowned thinking about it anyway. Last time I’d had to make a conversion was when my wife’s cancer had been deemed a pre-existing condition, since she’d changed companies to marry me. 

I still had the 10,000 coin I’d traded my retirement fund out for to try and cover the cost. But it hadn’t been enough. 

Since the death has been ruled “refused treatment,” the company had only paid for the barest of services, and my rental on Cindy’s plot was deferred for five years. I would have to start paying on it pretty soon. If I wasn’t already. It was only 5cc; it’s possible it had gone through without my noticing. I couldn’t remember how long it’d been. Was it five years, or four?

“Sir. Your passport.” I snapped back to the here and now. A flight attendant was holding her hand out. I handed the card over. 

We’d already gone through security once. The double-doors would light up green for people who had a corporatized ID. But not all company employees had bothered, when it was still optional.

Red lights for un-corporatized IDs just meant you had to go through the TSA scanners, which was a huge waste of company resources. Company employees were monitored 24/7 anyway, and a corporatized ID provided real time updates on a person’s threat assessment level, so it was far cheaper to just do away with the TSA agent and ban the un-corporatized IDs altogether. 

A little green light appeared above my passport, and I took it back with a tired smile. Apparently, I’d not done anything concerning while in the airport. 

I strode onto the Airbus calmly. But that woman was still on my mind. It wasn’t my problem. It shouldn’t have been my concern. But it just made me think of all the other freelancers who would be in this situation now. How many people’s business trips had just been interrupted? How many families missing their loved ones couldn’t see them now? 

It was their own fault of course. The guest certification program had been in place for years. But would there have been a way to ensure more onboarding before the vote? Was there a way they could have forced the certification through a payroll deduction like they do with rent and car registration?

The person seated ahead of me coughed, and I adjusted my mask slightly, out of nervous habit more than any real sense of concern. The last breakout was six months ago, according to the Times, but I didn’t mask up very often, so the papery fabric felt strange against my skin. Adjusting it, my fingers skated across the slightly raised logo on the right side. It was good of Amazon to provide personal use masks to their workers. Not all companies did. At JP Morgan, they made their employees buy them at the company store, since the work was remote so the town was fully quarantined. That’s what I’d heard from my foreman Greg at least. 

Packing away my carry-on and sitting down, I checked Meta one more time. I didn’t want to be intrusive with a video call in front of all these other people, so I just recorded a gif to send to Penelope. She was sixteen now, old enough to help out at the company store, with parental approval, so she probably wouldn’t get the message until break time. 

I was shocked, then, when Penny responded with her own gif.

She wasn’t at work. I didn’t recognize the location. There were tears on her face. “I love you. I’m sorry.”

Wait… why did this feel like a goodbye? I tried calling, but it didn’t go through. I stared at my screen. There’s no way her batteries could have died.

She was a teenager now, prone to rebellion. Did she… had she figured out a way to turn her phone off?

No, couldn’t be. They could be restarted. But the only time a phone powered down was if the batteries died, and even then, a foreman would provide a docking station for you to recharge at work at the very latest.

I tried calling again, but midway through an announcement came on saying that the plane would be taking off soon. Maybe it was just airplane mode kicking in early, then. I’d never tried making a call right before a flight.

But something about the whole situation felt off. I fidgeted restlessly for the rest of the flight, worrying about my daughter.

Penny had taken a long time to recover after her mother had died. She’d been moody and withdrawn, not even talking in therapy, the company doctor had told me. I'd tried reaching out, but she’d shrugged me off for years before finally talking about it.

Even then, she hadn't been the same. The Penny I remembered as a child had been creative, artistic. We’d debated doing a Disney internship, back before...

But Penny lately had expressed a lot of interest in staying in the company town, even going so far as to request the cashier job.

Had it all just been an illusion, hiding a deep depression? Was my little girl okay?

The traveler beside me had started to attempt to make idle banter, but I couldn't focus. I eventually just pulled up a book on my a-reader. Something to make me look sufficiently distracted.

A four-hour flight was enough to feel like it took forever in the best of circumstances. I finally managed to fall asleep around two hours in, but it was restless and fraught with bad dreams. My nerves were frayed by the time we landed.

I zipped out of the plane as fast as possible, which even on a loosely packed plane wasn’t very fast. I tried calling Penny again once I was in the lobby, but it still wouldn’t go through. At this rate, I would have to call my foreman. I had a bad feeling about this.

I checked my watch multiple times as I waited for my bag to arrive in the carousel. The biometrics informing me that my heart rate was rising were unhelpful. I knew that. What I needed to know was how much longer it was going to take stuck in this airport.

Bag finally in hand, I rushed for the door. I’d call Greg once I got to the hotel, and he could check on Penny for me. The exit of course had someone checking for visas, and I handed my passport and guest visa over, trying not to think too uncharitably about how if I were still in Chicago I’d be halfway to the hotel by now, not waiting for yet another green light to flash my status as an approved company vacationer onto the screen. 

The light flashed red. I was already halfway to reaching to take my passport back before I realized it. 

My hand fell. There was no way. I hadn’t even done anything other than read a book between the last scan and now, and it was a book I’d read before, obtained from the a-reader store. Why on earth?

The teller gestured me to the side. She still hadn’t returned my papers. I watched as other passed through the security checkpoint without issue. 

I wasn’t going to make a scene. I wasn’t going to be like that freelance woman, complaining about a system she’d never been told about and hadn’t bought into. There was no use arguing anyway. I’d talk to security, they’d double check whatever nonsense had raised the false flag in the first place, and then I’d be on my way.

The security officer took my paperwork, then led me to a private office. If I was supposed to feel intimidated, the colorful carpet and bright Airbus logo splashing the wall certainly didn’t express that. But the officer was frowning seriously. 

Moment’s later, another uninformed man walked in, but this wasn’t Airbus security. This was a police officer. 

“Agent Gorman. United Corporations Enforcement Division. Nice to meet you, Mr. McGraff.”

I nodded silently, not scanning the ID card Agent Gorman flashed towards me, waving it off. “What’s going on here? I’d really like to get to a hotel so I can check on my daughter.”

Gorman leaned against the desk in what was probably supposed to be a friendly way, but felt overbearing. 

“Your daughter is who we want to talk to you about, Mr. McGraff. There’s some evidence she’s been involved in some criminal activity. Can I ask you some questions about a video you got earlier today?”

[jjheejz]

Posted on 27.8.21

27.8.21 Update

An advice that this is for the mentally strong.

1. Zhao Wei’s(ZW) fandom ban + Withdrawal from her company

“According to Qichacha app (a Chinese app that provides information about companies and enterprises eg. management personnel, stocks etc), Beijing Prince Culture Communication Co., Ltd., which is 70% controlled by Zhao Wei, withdrew from the ranks of shareholders of many companies: the company that recently withdrew was Shanghai Tongtongxin Culture Communication Co., Ltd. with the head person in-charge, changed from Zhao Wei to Wei Qiying. It is reported that Beijing Prince Culture Communication Co., Ltd is a performance agency under Zhao Wei and has signed Zhang Zhe Han and other artists.” - News

For those who know about the video (cut version about ZW), do move on to part 2.

Background:

ZW’s case actually started from an insider information (for those who understand Chinese and have not/did not watch the famous 观棋有语127 CUT version, the link underlined: start at 18:50). 

For international audience who had not read the CUT translation/did not know about this: it was a famous insider information released on 16 August 2021 (the day ZH closed his Instagram) on Bilibili (Youtube equivalent. The nature of this channel is not Entertainment Industry insider information but International Politics/Military, it just so happens that one of the member has connection in the Entertainment Industry and ZH’s case was huge that period so he added what he know about it). 

It was hinted that ZW was involved with ZH’s accident (negatively)

= As ZH’s management company, the first plan they advised when ZH’s news was out, was to not release an apology statement (to remain silent and use capital to push down this news), certain fans (might be in the industry) demanded an apology letter from ZH (but being the inexperienced-in-this-ZH who was also in a shocked state at point of time, the Management team wrote the apology letter (yet to release draft). ZW was not very happy with this plan, so revisions were made before the final public apology was released.

The consensus is that someone ‘bad’ is within the Management Team, and it could possibly be ZW. (For those who have watched original version, feel free to add on more, if any - there seem to be a part I missed out. For international readers, feel free to come back again for updates - it will be in purple)

Further insider information about ZH in his case (comment section: A_Kooist*孤*勇 Link here - commenter's translation)

2. Current Entertainment Industry Campaign

Major Campaign: #饭圈清浪 (fan quan qing lang = literally translated as ‘rice circle clearance = ‘fandom clearance')

Please read this major campaign’s purpose here first (for international fans, use Google’s page translation, the translation is good enough. This article was released on 15 June 2021) This, is essentially a good campaign.

Trends in the name of the greater campaign have emerged ever since, such as the recent ‘Do not give second chances to immoral celebrities (aka no comebacks)’ - this also includes ZW (her rising flag dress incident - look for rumors and controversy part, other celebrities as well eg. Fan Bing Bing, Jackie Chan’s son etc), ‘Educate all celebrities on political affairs’, ‘Prohibiting 16 years old and below from appearing in livestreams’ etc. Some movements seem debatable, some like settling the IWA is very much loved, however, this is an issue we international fans can only watch and keep silent and think about the 40%.

Reminder again to be silent because remember that trend topics are bought daily, and a wonder in the trend I saw was ‘GZfansaregainstthismovement’. 

Today, 27.8.21, the official authorities released their top 10 agenda in this movement.

*Note: Since Google Translate translates the movement as ‘Clearance and Rectification of Chaos in the 'rice circle'’ - will use this term in the translation below. Also, in brackets are my notes (left swipe reading)

Source here (in Chinese)

For the first part - removing rankings is reported on The Guardian as well, source here.

For further reading into part 4 - using algorithms to create fake user accounts/false impressions etc, source here

Note that although they did not address the IWA issue (except their behaviour), the implementations by the Government is generally realistic. This targets real fan's problematic behaviours and they are real problems among the China-Chinese fandom.

Implications to ZW's case:

ZW's withdrawal means she/the company is drawing a line that ZW is no longer a part of the company = whatever happens to her, will be none of the company's concern.

It might be due to her japan rising flag dress in the past or one of the (unofficially announced) trend 'do not give second chance to immoral celebrities' in place or her ongoing 'bad deeds' behind the scenes.

Implications to ZH

First of all, for ZH's case, despite being an obvious ploy by the Capitals, the nature of his case is still political ignorance (which as a public figure, is still not a right influence). Therefore, looking at the industry's landscape and campaign, it is hard/almost impossible to see ZH back in front of the camera these few years. It is not the right time nor the right choice to have a comeback.

Secondly, with the change in Management, have to admit that right now, I have no idea how this will turn out. This only warrants more observations before any implications can be made for ZH and the whole scene.

The campaign is also at its fresh stage so it is hard to know to what extent this will push all affected celebrities, even celebrities who are still in the entertainment industry. At the moment, they are now getting sent to 'Public Figure' classes - which highlights what they should do/not do. And management personnel are checking all their celebrity's accounts (to avoid cancellation of that scale again).

Even though there aren't any official news about the underlying cause - Capitals, they are currently probably being investigated. Perhaps because they are organisations and with ZW's case, it seems a longer crackdown is required (Capitals side definitely requires more time), so waiting for this side of the story to come out or any other relevant ones.

For now, same advice, stay silent. For those who are affected, take time off. For those who are mentally strong, we'll see.

Bonus

Maybe some of you knew, but I only know it today. 4 days ago was apparently the 100th day Xiao Yu slipped.

We are still the same.