#Vision Processing Unit Market

[misfitwashere]

August 24, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

AUG 25

The raucous roll call of states at the 2024 Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, as everybody danced to DJ Cassidy’s state-themed music, Lil Jon strode down the aisle to cheers for Georgia, and different delegations boasted about their states and good-naturedly teased other delegations, brought home the real-life meaning of E Pluribus Unum, “out of many, one.” From then until Thursday, as a sea of American flags waved and attendees joyfully chanted “USA, USA, USA,” the convention welcomed a new vision for the Democratic Party, deeply rooted in the best of traditional America. 

Under the direction of President Joe Biden, over the past three and a half years the Democrats have returned to the economic ideology of the New Deal coalition of the 1930s. This week’s convention showed that it has now gone further, recentering the vision of government that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s secretary of labor, Frances Perkins, called upon to make it serve the interests of communities.     

When the Biden-Harris administration took office in 2021, the United States was facing a deadly pandemic and the economic crash it had caused. The country also had to deal with the aftermath of the attempt of former president Donald Trump to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election and seize the presidency. It appeared that many people in the United States, as in many other countries around the world, had given up on democracy. 

Biden set out to prove that democracy could work for ordinary people by ditching the neoliberalism that had been in place for forty years. That system, begun in the 1980s, called for the government to allow unfettered markets to organize the economy. Neoliberalism’s proponents promised it would create widespread prosperity, but instead, it transferred more than $50 trillion from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. As the middle class hollowed out, those slipping behind lined up behind an authoritarian figure who promised to restore their former centrality by attacking those he told them were their enemies.

When he took office, Biden vowed to prove that democracy worked. With laws like the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, the Democrats directed investment toward ordinary Americans. The dramatic success of their economic program proved that it worked. On Wednesday, former president Bill Clinton noted that since 1989, the U.S. has created 51 million new jobs. Fifty million of those jobs were created under Democratic presidents, while only 1 million were added under Republicans—a striking statistic that perhaps will put neoliberalism, or at least the tired trope that Democrats are worse for the economy than Republicans, to bed. 

Vice President Kamala Harris’s nomination convention suggested a more thorough reworking of the federal government, one that also recalls the 1930s but suggests a transformation that goes beyond markets and jobs. 

Before Labor Secretary Perkins’s 1935 Social Security Act, the government served largely to manage the economic relationships between labor, capital, and resources. But Perkins recognized that the purpose of government was not to protect property; it was to protect the community. She recognized that children, women, and elderly and disabled Americans were as valuable to the community as young male workers and the wealthy men who employed them.

With a law that established a federal system of old-age benefits; unemployment insurance; aid to homeless, dependent, and neglected children; funds to promote maternal and child welfare; and public health services, Perkins began the process of molding the government to reflect that truth. 

Perkins’s understanding of the United States as a community reflected both her time in a small town in Maine and in her experience as a social worker in inner-city Philadelphia and Chicago before the law provided any protections for the workers, including children, who made the new factories profitable. She understood that while lawmakers focused on male workers, the American economy was, and always has been, utterly dependent on the unrecognized contributions of women and marginalized people in the form of childcare, sharing food and housing, and the many forms of unpaid work that keep communities functioning. 

This reworking of the American government to reflect community rather than economic

relationships changed the entire fabric of the country, and opponents have worked to destroy it ever since FDR began to put it in place. 

Now, in their quest to win the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota governor Tim Walz—the Democratic nominees for president and vice president—have reclaimed the idea of community, with its understanding that everyone matters and the government must serve everyone, as the center of American life. 

Their vision rejects the division of the country into “us” and “them” that has been a staple of Republican politics since President Richard M. Nixon. It also rejects the politics of identity that has become identified with the argument that the United States has been irredeemably warped by racism and sexism. Instead, at the DNC, Democrats acknowledged the many ways in which the country has come up short of its principles in the past, and demanded that Americans do something to put in place a government that will address those inequities and make the American dream accessible to all.

Walz personifies this community vision. On Wednesday he laid it out from the very beginning of his acceptance speech, noting that he grew up in Butte, Nebraska, a town of 400 people, with 24 kids in his high school class. “[G]rowing up in a small town like that,” he said, “you'll learn how to take care of each other that that family down the road, they may not think like you do, they may not pray like you do, they may not love like you do, but they're your neighbors and you look out for them and they look out for you. Everybody belongs and everybody has a responsibility to contribute.” The football players Walz coached to a state championship joined him on stage.

Harris also called out this idea of community when she declined to mention that, if elected, she will be the first female president, and instead remembered growing up in “a beautiful working-class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses, and construction workers, all who tended their lawns with pride.” Her mother, Harris said, “leaned on a trusted circle to help raise us. Mrs. Shelton, who ran the daycare below us and became a second mother. Uncle Sherman. Aunt Mary. Uncle Freddy. And Auntie Chris. None of them, family by blood. And all of them, Family. By love…. Family who…instilled in us the values they personified. Community. Faith. And the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated. With kindness. Respect. And compassion.”

The speakers at the DNC called out the women who make communities function. Speaker after speaker at the DNC thanked their mother. Former first lady Michelle Obama explicitly described her mother, Marian Robinson, as someone who lived out the idea of hope for a better future, working for children and the community. Mrs. Obama described her mother as “glad to do the thankless, unglamorous work that for generations has strengthened the fabric of this nation.” 

Mrs. Obama, Harris, and Walz have emphasized that while they come from different backgrounds, they come from what Mrs. Obama called “the same foundational values”: “the promise of this country,” “the obligation to lift others up,” a “responsibility to give more than we take.”  Harris agreed, saying her mother “taught us to never complain about injustice. But…do something about it. She also taught us—Never do anything half-assed. That’s a direct quote.”

The Democrats worked to make it clear that their vision is not just the Democratic Party’s vision but an American one. They welcomed the union workers and veterans who have in the past gravitated toward Republicans, showing a powerful video contrasting Trump’s photo-ops, in which actors play union workers, with the actual plants being built thanks to money from the Biden-Harris administration. The many Democratic lawmakers who have served in the military stood on stage to back Arizona representative Ruben Gallego, a former Marine, who told the crowd that the veteran unemployment rate under Biden and Harris is the lowest in history. 

The many Republicans who spoke at the convention reinforced that the Democratic vision speaks for the whole country. Former representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) identified this vision as “conservative.” “As a conservative and a veteran,” he said “I believe true strength lies in defending the vulnerable. It’s in protecting your family. It’s in standing up for our Constitution and our democracy. That…is the soul of being a conservative. It used to be the soul of being a Republican,” Kinzinger said. “But Donald Trump has suffocated the soul of the Republican Party.” 

“[A] harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us,” Harris said. And she reminded people of her career as a prosecutor, in which “[e]very day in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge and said five words: ‘Kamala Harris, for the People.’ My entire career, I have only had one client. The People.”

“And so, on behalf of The People. On behalf of every American. Regardless of party. Race. Gender. Or the language your grandmother speaks. On behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey. On behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with. People who work hard. Chase their dreams. And look out for one another. On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth. I accept your nomination for President of the United States of America.”

The 100,000 biodegradable balloons that fell from the rafters when Vice President Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for president were blown up and tied by a team of 55 balloon artists from 18 states and Canada who volunteered to prepare the drop in honor of their colleague, Tommy DeLorenzo, who, along with his husband Scott, runs a balloon business. DeLorenzo is battling cancer. “We’re more colleagues than competitors,” Patty Sorell told Sydney Page of the Washington Post. “We all wanted to do something to help Tommy, to show him how much we love him.” 

“Words cannot express the gratitude I feel for this community,” DeLorenzo said.  

[thatstormygeek]

Legitimizing the right’s vile anti-immigrant views by trying to co-opt their positions enables the far-right vilification of refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants. Failing to present a strong alternative to the right’s violent vision of deportations and destabilization ushers in their perspective as the dominant narrative. And that dehumanizing viewpoint has consequences. We’re seeing it in the UK, and we’re seeing it in America. Fascism has risen and has been legitimized in the eyes of far, far too many people. And the process I’m describing here has been instrumental to that far-right ascendence. This is not limited to the way the right, and center, speak and think and act on immigration. Take homelessness. One month ago the Supreme Court legalized the criminalization of homelessness in their Grants Pass ruling. California’s Governor, Democrat Gavin Newsom, has already signed an executive order using the ruling to enable mass homeless sweeps across the state. San Francisco mayor London Breed says that she plans to launch a “very aggressive” crackdown on homeless encampments in the city this month. “The problem is not going to be solved by building more housing,” she added as she made her announcement, “Thank goodness for the Supreme Court decision.” Here is the problem distilled down to its essence. What would solve the homelessness crisis? Housing, of course. Both a reduction in the cost of housing and simply providing housing for those in need. It’s both the ethical and the cost-effective solution, rather than paying for expensive sweeps accompanied by police, which then happen again and again because the people displaced from homeless encampments don’t, of course, have anywhere to go. So they set up another encampment. And now, in the wake of this Supreme Court ruling, we’re likely to see more legal fees and the sky-high cost of jailing and imprisoning people who cannot pay those fees, and so on and so forth. But instead of solutions we’re seeing the systemic criminalization of, and attack on, homeless people in the United States. This approach would not be possible without rhetoric and logic that supports treating struggling human beings as failures, as less than, as disposable. That logic currently proliferates on the right, but it is also widespread in the center, where far too many people would rather have homeless people removed from their line of sight than have the underlying problem of people living without housing removed from the world. This sort of thinking, this idea that humans can and should be disposed of, enables the fascist movement. It’s the same line of thinking that underpins white supremacy, misogyny, transphobia and supremecist thinking of all forms.

So the profit motive in the housing market can’t be blamed; the person who got fired or had a health emergency must be to blame for losing their housing. The center has ceded all of this to the right, if it was ever contested, and so homeless people are “swept,” meaning violently moved around as their belongings are repeatedly destroyed. Meanwhile, two numbers go up and up: the number of homeless people and the profits of rental companies and developers. Similarly, migrants are to blame for seeking a better life, according to the right and center. The destabilization of their home countries must be ignored, the neoliberal economics that devastate job markets and wreck the ecosystems of entire countries can’t be questioned. International economic policy in this late capitalist period must be taken for granted, and even ignored, because the decisions that individual people make to migrate in search of a better life might start to make sense within context. So here we are, with the price of rent and the cost of buying a home rising and rising. Here we are, with laws that make existing in public more and more difficult. Public space is being eaten up and commodified, and new laws that criminalize homelessness are already being weaponized even against people with homes, because how can cops or mall security tell if you’re unhoused or just engaged in the devious behavior of hanging out in public space? In the UK race riots continue as lynch mobs look for anyone who could be ‘foreign’ to attack, while the people actually driving up the cost of living and ruining communities sit back and relax, and, in fact, fund the scapegoating of oppressed groups.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 24, 2024 (Saturday)

The raucous roll call of states at the 2024 Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, as everybody danced to DJ Cassidy’s state-themed music, Lil Jon strode down the aisle to cheers for Georgia, and different delegations boasted about their states and good-naturedly teased other delegations, brought home the real-life meaning of E Pluribus Unum, “out of many, one.” From then until Thursday, as a sea of American flags waved and attendees joyfully chanted “USA, USA, USA,” the convention welcomed a new vision for the Democratic Party, deeply rooted in the best of traditional America.

Under the direction of President Joe Biden, over the past three and a half years the Democrats have returned to the economic ideology of the New Deal coalition of the 1930s. This week’s convention showed that it has now gone further, recentering the vision of government that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s secretary of labor, Frances Perkins, called upon to make it serve the interests of communities.

When the Biden-Harris administration took office in 2021, the United States was facing a deadly pandemic and the economic crash it had caused. The country also had to deal with the aftermath of the attempt of former president Donald Trump to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election and seize the presidency. It appeared that many people in the United States, as in many other countries around the world, had given up on democracy.

Biden set out to prove that democracy could work for ordinary people by ditching the neoliberalism that had been in place for forty years. That system, begun in the 1980s, called for the government to allow unfettered markets to organize the economy. Neoliberalism’s proponents promised it would create widespread prosperity, but instead, it transferred more than $50 trillion from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. As the middle class hollowed out, those slipping behind lined up behind an authoritarian figure who promised to restore their former centrality by attacking those he told them were their enemies.

When he took office, Biden vowed to prove that democracy worked. With laws like the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, the Democrats directed investment toward ordinary Americans. The dramatic success of their economic program proved that it worked. On Wednesday, former president Bill Clinton noted that since 1989, the U.S. has created 51 million new jobs. Fifty million of those jobs were created under Democratic presidents, while only 1 million were added under Republicans—a striking statistic that perhaps will put neoliberalism, or at least the tired trope that Democrats are worse for the economy than Republicans, to bed.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s nomination convention suggested a more thorough reworking of the federal government, one that also recalls the 1930s but suggests a transformation that goes beyond markets and jobs.

Before Labor Secretary Perkins’s 1935 Social Security Act, the government served largely to manage the economic relationships between labor, capital, and resources. But Perkins recognized that the purpose of government was not to protect property; it was to protect the community. She recognized that children, women, and elderly and disabled Americans were as valuable to the community as young male workers and the wealthy men who employed them.

With a law that established a federal system of old-age benefits; unemployment insurance; aid to homeless, dependent, and neglected children; funds to promote maternal and child welfare; and public health services, Perkins began the process of molding the government to reflect that truth.

Perkins’s understanding of the United States as a community reflected both her time in a small town in Maine and in her experience as a social worker in inner-city Philadelphia and Chicago before the law provided any protections for the workers, including children, who made the new factories profitable. She understood that while lawmakers focused on male workers, the American economy was, and always has been, utterly dependent on the unrecognized contributions of women and marginalized people in the form of childcare, sharing food and housing, and the many forms of unpaid work that keep communities functioning.

This reworking of the American government to reflect community rather than economic relationships changed the entire fabric of the country, and opponents have worked to destroy it ever since FDR began to put it in place.

Now, in their quest to win the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota governor Tim Walz—the Democratic nominees for president and vice president—have reclaimed the idea of community, with its understanding that everyone matters and the government must serve everyone, as the center of American life.

Their vision rejects the division of the country into “us” and “them” that has been a staple of Republican politics since President Richard M. Nixon. It also rejects the politics of identity that has become identified with the argument that the United States has been irredeemably warped by racism and sexism. Instead, at the DNC, Democrats acknowledged the many ways in which the country has come up short of its principles in the past, and demanded that Americans do something to put in place a government that will address those inequities and make the American dream accessible to all.

Walz personifies this community vision. On Wednesday he laid it out from the very beginning of his acceptance speech, noting that he grew up in Butte, Nebraska, a town of 400 people, with 24 kids in his high school class. “[G]rowing up in a small town like that,” he said, “you'll learn how to take care of each other that that family down the road, they may not think like you do, they may not pray like you do, they may not love like you do, but they're your neighbors and you look out for them and they look out for you. Everybody belongs and everybody has a responsibility to contribute.” The football players Walz coached to a state championship joined him on stage.

Harris also called out this idea of community when she declined to mention that, if elected, she will be the first female president, and instead remembered growing up in “a beautiful working-class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses, and construction workers, all who tended their lawns with pride.” Her mother, Harris said, “leaned on a trusted circle to help raise us. Mrs. Shelton, who ran the daycare below us and became a second mother. Uncle Sherman. Aunt Mary. Uncle Freddy. And Auntie Chris. None of them, family by blood. And all of them, Family. By love…. Family who…instilled in us the values they personified. Community. Faith. And the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated. With kindness. Respect. And compassion.”

The speakers at the DNC called out the women who make communities function. Speaker after speaker at the DNC thanked their mother. Former first lady Michelle Obama explicitly described her mother, Marian Robinson, as someone who lived out the idea of hope for a better future, working for children and the community. Mrs. Obama described her mother as “glad to do the thankless, unglamorous work that for generations has strengthened the fabric of this nation.”

Mrs. Obama, Harris, and Walz have emphasized that while they come from different backgrounds, they come from what Mrs. Obama called “the same foundational values”: “the promise of this country,” “the obligation to lift others up,” a “responsibility to give more than we take.” Harris agreed, saying her mother “taught us to never complain about injustice. But…do something about it. She also taught us—Never do anything half-assed. That’s a direct quote.”

The Democrats worked to make it clear that their vision is not just the Democratic Party’s vision but an American one. They welcomed the union workers and veterans who have in the past gravitated toward Republicans, showing a powerful video contrasting Trump’s photo-ops, in which actors play union workers, with the actual plants being built thanks to money from the Biden-Harris administration. The many Democratic lawmakers who have served in the military stood on stage to back Arizona representative Ruben Gallego, a former Marine, who told the crowd that the veteran unemployment rate under Biden and Harris is the lowest in history.

The many Republicans who spoke at the convention reinforced that the Democratic vision speaks for the whole country. Former representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) identified this vision as “conservative.” “As a conservative and a veteran,” he said “I believe true strength lies in defending the vulnerable. It’s in protecting your family. It’s in standing up for our Constitution and our democracy. That…is the soul of being a conservative. It used to be the soul of being a Republican,” Kinzinger said. “But Donald Trump has suffocated the soul of the Republican Party.”

“[A] harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us,” Harris said. And she reminded people of her career as a prosecutor, in which “[e]very day in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge and said five words: ‘Kamala Harris, for the People.’ My entire career, I have only had one client. The People.”

“And so, on behalf of The People. On behalf of every American. Regardless of party. Race. Gender. Or the language your grandmother speaks. On behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey. On behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with. People who work hard. Chase their dreams. And look out for one another. On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth. I accept your nomination for President of the United States of America.”

The 100,000 biodegradable balloons that fell from the rafters when Vice President Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for president were blown up and tied by a team of 55 balloon artists from 18 states and Canada who volunteered to prepare the drop in honor of their colleague, Tommy DeLorenzo, who along with his husband Scott, runs a balloon business. DeLorenzo is battling cancer. “We’re more colleagues than competitors,” Patty Sorell told Sydney Page of the Washington Post. “We all wanted to do something to help Tommy, to show him how much we love him.”

“Words cannot express the gratitude I feel for this community,” DeLorenzo said.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[moistvonlipwig]

the au ask game for your alternate s5 where lena invents the power dampening device instead of non nocere please!!!!

OK YES i have my computer now so here are 5 things that would happen in that AU. keeping in mind that the genesis of this AU is that i was playing around with the question of, essentially, how i would write s5 if i were operating under the same storytelling constraints that i have reason to believe the cwsg writers were operating under [i.e. all of s1-s4 is canon, crisis is coming & will revive lex, james is ✈️ outta here, sc can be implied at most]:

Andrea Rojas is not a tech mogul; rather, she left her rich father to his own business and is the editor-in-chief of an independent paper in Mexico when she gets the call from Lena offering to sell her CatCo. Andrea's vision for the magazine is simple: she wants to transform it into the first pro-alien anti-Super publication on the market, and she wants her employees to dig into the actions of Supergirl & the DEO and see what they can find. With help from Brainy, Kara writes an expose on the DEO's history of disappearing aliens without due process and Supergirl's complicity in the matter. As a result, Supergirl's reputation takes a massive hit.

Former members of the Children of Liberty start showing up dead around National City, with the killer nicknamed "El Muerto" by the press. The killer is eventually revealed to be Pablo Valdez, a member of Kelly's old unit and secretly an alien, who was left adrift after coming home from deployment only to be captured and tortured by the Children of Liberty. He plans to take revenge on the Children of Liberty, one dead member for each alien who died while serving in the military. Kelly manages to catch up with him just as he plans to take revenge in honor of her late fiancee, who had partial alien heritage, and she talks him down. But she also protects him from Alex's attempt to arrest him, which causes friction in their burgeoning relationship.

James and Kelly visit Calvintown, where Mama Olsen shows them how the water in town has been contaminated by runoff from a nearby military base, which James realizes belongs to the DEO. The DEO have been paying off the local press, the Calvintown Chronicle, to suppress the story. James, already disillusioned by Kara's expose and by what Pablo endured at the hands of the Children of Liberty, decides to give up being Guardian. He offers CatCo an exclusive interview, conducted by Kara, where he discusses the good and bad of superheroes, apologizes for his part in legitimizing the Children of Liberty, and announces his plan to start an independent newspaper in Calvintown. At his going-away party, James and Lena talk and Lena admits she was sorely tempted to buy the Calvintown Chronicle, fire everyone on staff, and put James in charge, but she figured he wouldn't appreciate that. He thanks her for not doing that, and tells her not to be a stranger. The Superfriends give him a photo album of pictures of him they've taken over the years, and he heads off to Calvintown.

While Supergirl and Guardian's reputations plummet, Dreamer briefly becomes National City's most popular hero before causing intracommunity drama when her powers get a little out of control in a fight and she accidentally causes structural damage to a gay bar. She gives an interview to attempt to smooth things over, only to anger parts of the trans community who feel that she espoused a simplistic assimilationist narrative, that she is too privileged to be a real spokesperson on trans issues, and/or that she should talk about trans issues more. The Superfriends help Nia repair the damage to the gay bar, whose owners, a pair of older butch lesbian friends, acknowledge that being the first openly trans superhero can't be easy and encourage her to listen to feedback but not bend herself out of shape trying to please everyone.

Lena and Eve (who she has roped into helping her) work on the superpower-dampening device throughout this, while also trying to translate a coded message left by Lex for Lena whose only word they can seem to decipher is "Monitor". Kara's actions in the interim (such as stealing Lex's journals to please Lena even when Lena tells her that's not necessary) convince Lena further that limits should be imposed on superpowers. Eventually Lena and Eve determine that to ensure the device can adapt to any species' physiology, they will need to use a piece of Kryptonian tech which is held in the Fortress of Solitude. Kara invites Lena there to look for a solution to stop Malefic (who this whole time has also been trying to steal J'onn's friends away to the Phantom Zone. classic Malefic amirite), and we get the fortress reveal/uno reverso betrayal scene where Lena steals the Kryptonian tech and restrains Kara with kryptonite before portaling away.

This has all been 5A stuff, which I've worked out in much more detail (along with Crisis, which I've outlined in full at this point), but to tease 5B a little, it involves the original Brainiac, who in this AU is a woman (Meaghan Rath is right there I'm just saying), and who I've decided is the head of Leviathan, because the end of S4 demands that I include Leviathan in S5.

[ohanny]

today the gif of destiny gave me...

marvel movies. pete x kenta x kim where pete is hawkeye, kim is black widow and kenta is their bucky.

it starts with pete and kenta. they grow up together. they’re best friends who do everything together - from every kind of first to joining a special military unit. the latter is mostly due to pete who still has his handy touch telepathy but kenta is far from useless, having trained his entire life to have pete’s back. they become the stuff of legends and then… the unthinkable happens. kenta sacrifices himself to save pete and pete is left alone.

on the other side of the world kim has grown up in the red room and has been steadily working his way up the organisation. his record is impeccable so when a new player - the so called winter soldier controlled by hydra - shows up to mess with it, kim is not happy and neither is the red room who enjoy their the market advantage of brainwashed, conditioned and controlled operatives and would like to keep it that way. since kim is the only one to go against the winter soldier and survive, he's tasked to bring the man in so red room can do their thing.

in hindsight kim’s not sure he manages (a truckload of horse tranquillisers might have been involved) but the red room gets what the red room wants. they improve on the hydra mods taskmaster style and don't hesitate to use kim to aid in their conditioning - after all they have always known sometimes you catch more flies with honey than with extreme electroshock therapy.

what they didn't count on was kim being the one to catch feelings as well. he’s been struggling for a while now, quietly planning on defecting. the one thing holding him back is the winter soldier. he knows it doesn't matter how close they have become - in the end the red room’s control on the soldier isn't something kim can break. in the end the red room learns about his escape plan because the winter soldier learns about his escape plan but in another inherent act of sacrifice, the soldier fights his conditioning long enough for kim to slip away, earning himself a one way ticket to a total wipe and reset program.

kim works tirelessly to find a way to break the neural link and once he thinks he's found a way to at least temporarily shut the red room out, he seeks out the winter soldier on field. but the soldier has no idea who kim is anymore and almost kills him. he probably would have died in a ditch outside budapest had it not been for shield and pete who had been out there with the same target as the soldier and stumbled upon kim in the process.

that's how kim ends up working for shield. they don't trust him - not only does he have a rather colourful history soaked in red but it's obvious he's holding back a lot of information, especially concerning the soldier - so they partner him with pete, hoping a little bit of telepathy would gain them ground. they do make an effective duo and then one night when they’re sparring some extra energy out, kim’s distracted enough for pete slip past his walls.

it's a move pete makes, something that is achingly familiar to kim, and pete gets served a first person vision of the unmasked winter soldier on top of kim. he recoils, staring at kim with wide eyes. “that man… how do you know him?” kim goes on the defensive, demanding to know the same and pete tells him about kenta, about the boy loved and lost and at the end of it, kim laughs wetly, says “yeah, looks like he's made a habit out of that” and brings pete’s hand to his face, showing him everything.

“we’ll get him back” pete promises. “we’ll take down the red room for what they did to him... and to you.”

[nicklloydnow]

“Surreal characters, simple controls and a catchy soundtrack turned the 2004 PlayStation 2 title into a masterpiece. Last month its sequel, We Love Katamari, which arguably perfected those qualities, was rereleased with improved graphics and new levels.

But Takahashi ended his involvement with the franchise and its publisher, Bandai Namco, long ago. He continues to live in the shadow of the katamari, experiencing the strange conditions of an industry where artistic creations become valuable intellectual property for companies. He says he does not receive any royalties from the sales of Katamari games.

“That is the nature of the business,” Takahashi said. “I am not important. The game is important. But myself? Who cares?”

Takahashi, 48, never intended to become a game designer; he originally trained as a sculptor at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. However, the young artist became disillusioned as classmates disposed of their creations after each assignment. “I realized that making art was not exactly useful,” he said.

That is why when a professor asked him to create a goat sculpture, he decided to turn the animal into a flower pot that drained excess water from its udders.

“I cannot forget that moment when everyone started laughing,” Takahashi recalled from his office in the garage of the San Francisco home where he lives with his wife, Asuka Sakai, a composer, and their two children. “That was when I realized what I should do, and I believed video games could provide joy and fun to people.”

(…)

A demo at the 2003 Game Developers Conference in San Jose caught the attention of industry leaders at a time when the market was mostly focused on multiplayer shooters like Medal of Honor and Halo. Here was something new and unusual for American audiences, invariably described as a “dung beetle” game or a “snowball simulator.”

(…)

“It feels like Katamari Damacy escaped Japan by accident,” said Paul Galloway, a collection specialist at the Museum of Modern Art who helped establish its video game program, which includes Takahashi’s debut. He added that “it presages a lot of aesthetics found during the 2010 indie gamer boom.”

(…)

But by 2009, Takahashi announced he was leaving video games, saying he would help design a playground in England.

“He is a very singular creator,” said Laura E. Hall, a game designer based in Portland, Ore., who wrote a book about Katamari Damacy. “And that is often at odds with the need to move units in the video game industry.”

Takahashi was coming off the self-described “beautiful failure” of a project called Noby Noby Boy, the one with the alien caterpillar, which received tepid reviews and had lackluster sales. The playground was also doomed; city commissioners were not too keen on the designer’s circular doughnut slide or the giant climbing frame that seemed to extend five stories in the air.

He returned to the gaming industry, but this time wanted more control over the creative process. He had left Bandai Namco because he did not think its other engineers were passionate enough.

“They were making games for the money,” he said. “And if I wanted to make a new project, I would need to hire staff from the company, which was super limiting.”

(…)

By the time Takahashi released Wattam, featuring the green cube, in 2019, Bandai Namco was already remastering his katamari games without his input.

(…)

Galloway said it was normal in the gaming industry, as in other design fields, that individual creators don’t own their creations. After all, games are a collaborative art form, typically requiring dozens of people to make.

“Someone can take Katamari and do something wildly different,” Galloway said. “But there is something that can be lost. Keita’s unique vision for Katamari was lightning in a bottle, and after a while it becomes a bit diluted when you milk the same formula over and over again.”

Takahashi does not want to repeat himself. “Recently, I realized that I don’t really know what a video game is,” he said, explaining his attempts to shed his preconceptions about what defines a good game.

His new definition is much simpler: Bring joy back into people’s lives.

(…)

“I know our lives are not so fun. They are boring. We do the same things over and over,” Takahashi said. “But we should be celebrating the good things in life. Then we can become better people. That’s my thing right now.””

“Katamari Damacy is a special sort of game. So special in fact, that it sidetracked me from writing this several times, playing the game in an absent-minded daze, marvelling at how 塊,the Kanji for katamari, already looks like a small prince rolling stuff up. It worms itself inside your brain by giving the mundane a unique sort of whimsy.

Whimsy, silliness and fun on first glance seem like something unrestrained and purposefully difficult to capture, but Katamari's game director Keita Takahashi made these feelings into substantial pillars of the design philosophy that informs all of his games. Katamari is meant to convey novelty, ease of understanding, enjoyment, and humour, all in a neat little package.

(…)

Yet most of the motivation comes from how you receive encouragement much more frequently than punishment. You're not told to hurry, all items you pick up are equally valid to build your clump with. The consequences of bumping into something are never catastrophic. The King of all Cosmos often reacts enthusiastically to your efforts and the nature of the things you roll up, which is understandable, given I'm generally just as overjoyed whenever I find a spare pound between the couch cushions. The wrath of your father the king is severe, but easily soothed by success. The knowledge that it was his drunken debauchery that nearly caused the collapse of the entire cosmos in the first place makes it difficult to take him seriously in his anger. This way, the king is a quintessential dad - a stern, occasionally threatening force on one hand, the guy who falls asleep with his mouth open at a rerun of "I'm a celebrity" on the other. (I'm absolutely not drawing on personal experience here.)

Narratively, Katamari could make a dire point about the dangers of consumerism and the fact that there really is quite a lot of stuff on earth, but as with every other aspect, it's lenient and careful not to hamper your enjoyment. There is a joy in collecting, after all, preserved all the way from collecting shells from the beach, shiny buttons or stickers as children. Why not virtual thumbtacks and cucumbers?

Nothing about Katamari Damacy would work quite as well, however, if it weren't for its laid-back visual aesthetic. With his background in art, Keita Takahashi isn't so much interested in games as he is in playfulness. You can immediately see influences like Taro Okamoto or Yayoi Kusama in the way he uses colours and shapes.

(…)

By not taking itself too seriously, Katamari allows you to do something that may not serve a distinct purpose. It invites you to look at something visually pleasing and hum a happy tune, to unite what by all accounts shouldn't be united into a satisfying shape. Takahashi's games are different to us because we already have an idea in our minds of how games work, how fun is facilitated and how you maximise engagement. Takahashi found his own answers to all of these questions and instead drew on ideas that are equally familiar to his players from other aspects of life.

Katamari Damacy is designed to appear mostly unconcerned with design, at least the right kind of design. Instead, it's something that simply feels good, and that feeling never goes out of style.”

“Katamari Damacy achieves all of its emotional weight without any complex story or characters, without surmounting any gameplay challenges. This simple game only occasionally deviates from your goal of making your Katamari as large as possible under a time limit.

(…)

Just like any mythology, this simple plot and characters themselves express a deeper network of meanings and associations. In Steven Reale’s Chaos in the Cosmos: The Play of Contradictions in the Music of Katamari Damacy, he notes that the King often dashes the Prince’s attempts to live up to his approval throughout the game. The King towers over the tiny Prince, and even when a level is successfully completed, the King still asks that next time, “we want a bigger one” (Reale, 2011). At its heart, Reale suggests the story of Katamari is that of the frustrations of childhood.

(…)

Katamari Damacy was often referenced by game content producers on YouTube, and its praise by some of my favourite reviewers is what initially piqued my interest. It was through the nostalgic lens that drives so many classic game enthusiasts that I learned an important lesson: the games that I played during these developmental years will have an unrivaled amount of cultivated memories associated with them. More importantly, this is worth celebrating and sharing with others.

(…)

Katamari Damacy captured everything that made childhood special, and more precisely, why it was so joyous to reclaim “play time” all to the tune of “Cherry Blossom Color Season”, one of the most powerful and serene tracks on the soundtrack. The game’s composer, Yuu Miyake even cited it as his favourite song from the whole series, a simple but powerful showcase of his ability to compose a song only with simple chords and melody (Napolitano, 2009).

The moment was pure bliss. I have never felt so completely and holistically happy playing a game, and I think Katamari Damacy achieves this moment by virtue of its simplicity, which consistently evokes a sense of childhood, imagination and free play. Miyake’s simple song was coupled with straightforward gameplay and tactile controls. Together, these elements created the sense of pure joy and discovery that comes with exploring levels and discovering hundreds of new objects.

(…)

In a 2009 Game Developers Conference talk, Takahashi confirmed that Katamari Damacy was about consumption society. This presented a problem: his goal to make things light-hearted, silly, and fun was wrapped up in work that expressed a cynical stance towards society. He stated, “I wanted to make more objects. If there are few objects, I feel lonely. If there are more objects, they will make things more colourful. But when they’re rolled up, they’re gone. I felt empty” (Welsh, 2009).

Takahashi’s dilemma was that the game presented his signature simple, soft, and colourful aesthetic, but it came from a place that was fundamentally cynical. He wanted to critique our desire to collect, consume, and progress. The gameplay necessitated that we participate in that consumption.

But even before this confirmation, critical commentators were already reading the game as an anti-capitalist, Marxist text. In Ryan Stanci’s Katamari Damacy – A Critique he argues that if the Marxist critique of art links that work to enforce or challenge the values of consumer society, then Katamari specifically comments on a culture obsessed with collecting and archiving (2006).

(…)

Despite Stanci’s conclusion that our desire to collect is what hits the right buttons for consumers, and our innate desire to collect it all, perhaps there is something inherently innocent about that desire, even if it can result in destruction. Stanci quotes Joseph Lewandowski’s Unpacking: Walter Benjamin and His Library, where he says the following about the children and collecting:

“They collect forgotten and ignored phenomena, they name “dead” objects. According to Benjamin, such an alternative world-view accomplishes a kind of renewal and rescue – children retrieve objects and stimulate life in a frozen cultural modernity; they re-enchant, albeit momentarily, a disenchanted world […] It is precisely in collecting as a child-like ‘mode of acquisition’ that a genuine collector emerges” (1999).

I believe that the childlike practice of collecting to re-enchant the disenchanted word is the ultimate achievement of Katamari Damacy.

(…)

While it is clear that Takahashi is critical of his own work, ultimately, I don’t think our experiences with his work are in conflict. Takahashi designs works to make people happy, even if it’s only for a brief moment. Katamari, to me, perfectly encapsulated the joy and the silliness of childhood, however brief that experience may be.”

[jordanianroyals]

30 April 2024: King Abdullah II emphasized the need to develop the exports of the Jordan Phosphate Mines Company to include high economic value products from manufacturing industries; to mitigate the impact of price fluctuations and enhance competitiveness.

His Majesty praised the achievements of “Phosphate” during recent years at a meeting with company representatives, attended by Crown Prince Hussein. He pointed out the importance of an ambitious investment plan for the company that aligns with the goals of the economic modernization vision, to expand investment, increase growth rates, increase employment, and build a modern industrial base.

During the meeting, which was attended by Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh, the company’s chairman, Mohammad Thneibat, spoke about plans to improve production quality, increase quantities, and boost sales.

Thneibat explained that the company has established new partnerships and started implementing projects to increase its revenues and enhance its financial and competitive position.

He anticipated that the new projects, once operational and production begins, would contribute to an overall increase in sales of approximately $1.2 billion and an increase in profits of no less than $500 million, in addition to providing a thousand new job opportunities.

The government owns the majority stake in the company; distributed between the Government Investment Management Company at 25.6%, and the Social Security Corporation at 16.6%.

His Majesty listened to an explanation by the company’s CEO, Abdul Wahab Al-Rawad, about the company’s operations over the past five years; the number of job opportunities increased to 10,000 (direct and indirect), and the volume of mining increased by 3.5 million tons; reaching 11.5 million tons.

According to Al-Rawad, the company’s sales increased by $890 million; exceeding $2 billion during the same period, and it worked on opening new markets in several countries including the United States, Brazil, Australia, and China. It also reduced production costs by 40% annually and employed integrated automation technology in its production processes.

Al-Rawad indicated that the company’s plans for the years (2024-2030) include establishing an industrial complex in Aqaba, in partnership with the Arab Potash Company, and establishing the Jordanian-Turkish Fertilizer Company, and increasing the production capacity of several of its factories.

Jordan owns the fifth-largest phosphate reserve in the world; with 3.7 billion tons, of which 1.25 billion tons are reserves of the Jordan Phosphate Mines Company, which is the world’s leading exporter and fifth-largest producer of phosphate, with a production capacity of over 7 million tons of phosphate annually.

The meeting was attended by the Director of His Majesty’s Office, Jaafar Hassan, and the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Saleh Al-Kharabsheh.

[scopetraining567]

Enhance Your Education Recruitment Strategy with Top Agencies! 🎓🌟

Are you seeking the right talent to elevate your educational institution? 🏫 Look no further than education recruitment agencies! 🌟 Discover how these agencies can revolutionize your hiring process and bring in the best educators to inspire the next generation.

In today's competitive education landscape, finding and retaining exceptional teaching staff is crucial. 🍎 Education recruitment agencies specialize in connecting schools, colleges, and universities with talented professionals who are passionate about shaping young minds. Here’s why you should consider partnering with these agencies:

1. Access to Top Talent

Education recruitment agencies have extensive networks of qualified teachers, lecturers, administrators, and support staff. 🌟 They can match your institution with individuals who possess the right skills, experience, and enthusiasm to excel in your unique educational environment.

2. Streamlined Recruitment Process

Save time and effort with a streamlined recruitment process! 🚀 Education agencies handle everything from candidate sourcing and screening to interviews and onboarding. This frees up your team to focus on what matters most—delivering exceptional education.

3. Specialized Expertise

Education recruiters understand the nuances of the industry. They can provide valuable insights into current market trends, salary expectations, and innovative recruitment strategies tailored to educational institutions.

4. Flexibility and Adaptability

Whether you need short-term cover or permanent placements, education recruitment agencies offer flexible solutions to meet your staffing needs. 💼 They can also assist with special projects, ensuring you have the right expertise on board when you need it most.

5. Enhanced Candidate Experience

Education agencies prioritize candidate experience, ensuring a positive journey for potential hires. This reflects positively on your institution and helps attract top talent in a competitive market.

6. Continuous Support

The relationship doesn’t end after recruitment. Education agencies provide ongoing support to employers and employees, fostering a strong partnership that benefits everyone involved.

Why Choose Scope Training? 🌐

At Scope Training, we're more than just an education recruitment agency—your strategic talent acquisition partner. With a proven track record of success, we understand the unique challenges educational institutions face. 📚

Personalized Approach: We take the time to understand your institution's culture, values, and specific recruitment needs.

Vast Network: Our extensive network includes top-tier educators and educational professionals across various disciplines.

Innovative Solutions: We leverage cutting-edge technology and industry expertise to deliver innovative recruitment solutions tailored to your requirements.

Quality Assurance: We are committed to delivering excellence at every stage of the recruitment process, ensuring that only the best candidates are presented to you.

Ready to Transform Your Education Recruitment Strategy? 🌟

Partner with Scope Training and unlock a world of talent for your institution! 🚀 Contact us today to learn how we can enhance your recruitment efforts and empower your educational vision. Together, let's shape the future of education! 🎓🌍

🌟 Scope Training: Empowering Your Business Growth 🌱

📍 Business Address: Ground floor, Phoenix House, Leicester, LE1 6RN, United Kingdom

📞 Business Phone: +44 1162 967940

🌐 Website: https://scopetraining.co.uk/

🕒 Hours of Operation: Monday-Friday, 9 am–5 pm

Connect with us on social media:

📘 Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/people/Scope-Training/100095115901319/

🔗 LinkedIn:https://uk.linkedin.com/company/scope-early-years

📸 Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/scope.training/

Discover how Scope Training can transform your workforce and drive success! 🚀

[masllp]

Streamline Your Business Journey: Expert Company Formation in UK with MAS LLP

Embarking on a business venture in the United Kingdom is an exciting endeavor, but navigating the complexities of Company formation in UK can be a daunting task. That’s where MAS LLP comes in as your trusted partner, offering expert guidance and support to streamline the process of establishing your company in the UK. Here’s why MAS LLP stands out as the premier choice for Company formation in UK:

Comprehensive Expertise: With years of experience and in-depth knowledge of UK company law and regulations, MAS LLP brings comprehensive expertise to the table. Whether you’re looking to register a private limited company, a limited liability partnership (LLP), or a public limited company (PLC), our team of experts has the knowledge and resources to guide you through the process with ease.

Tailored Solutions: MAS LLP understands that every business is unique, with its own set of goals, requirements, and challenges. That’s why we offer tailored solutions to meet the specific needs of each client. Whether you’re a startup looking to establish a presence in the UK market or an established corporation expanding your operations, we work closely with you to understand your objectives and develop a customized approach to Company formation in UK that aligns with your vision.

Efficient Process: MAS LLP streamlines the Company formation in UK process to ensure a seamless and efficient experience for our clients. From preparing the necessary documentation to liaising with regulatory authorities and completing registration procedures, we handle every aspect of the process with precision and attention to detail, saving you time, effort, and resources.

Compliance Assurance: Compliance with UK company law and regulations is paramount to the success and longevity of your business. MAS LLP provides expert guidance and support to ensure that your Company formation in UK process is fully compliant with all legal requirements. We keep abreast of the latest regulatory developments and ensure that your company structure and documentation meet the necessary standards for approval.

Ongoing Support: Our commitment to your success doesn’t end with Company formation in UK. MAS LLP offers ongoing support and advisory services to help you navigate the complexities of running a business in the UK. Whether you need assistance with corporate governance, regulatory compliance, or strategic planning, our team of experts is here to provide the guidance and support you need to thrive.

Transparent Pricing: At MAS LLP, we believe in transparency and integrity in all our dealings. Our Company formation in UK services are offered at competitive, transparent pricing, with no hidden fees or surprises. We provide clear, upfront pricing information so that you can make informed decisions about your business without worrying about unexpected costs.

Client Satisfaction: At the heart of everything we do is a commitment to client satisfaction. MAS LLP is dedicated to providing exceptional service and support to every client, regardless of size or industry. We prioritize communication, responsiveness, and professionalism, ensuring that our clients receive the highest level of service at every stage of the Company formation in UK process. Whether you’re a budding entrepreneur or an established business looking to expand into the UK market, MAS LLP is your trusted partner for seamless. Contact us today to learn more about our services Company formation in UK and take the first step towards realizing your business goals in the UK.

[unitebusinessnetworks]

Elevating Digital Presence in Kolkata's Web Development Landscape

In the bustling metropolis of Kolkata, where tradition meets technology, Unite Business Networks (UBN) stands out as a leading force in the realm of website development. As businesses increasingly recognize the importance of a strong online presence, finding the right partner for website development becomes pivotal. In this blog, we explore why Unite Business Networks is a standout choice among the best website development agencies in Kolkata, offering unparalleled expertise, innovation, and client-centric solutions.

1. A Legacy of Excellence:

Unite Business Networks boasts a legacy of excellence in the field of website development. With years of experience, our team has successfully crafted digital solutions for a diverse range of clients, from startups to established enterprises. Our track record speaks volumes about our commitment to delivering high-quality websites that not only meet but exceed our clients' expectations.

2. Tailored Solutions for Kolkata's Diverse Market:

Kolkata is a melting pot of cultures, and businesses need websites that resonate with the local audience. At UBN, we understand the unique dynamics of the Kolkata market. Our team of developers, designers, and strategists work collaboratively to create websites that not only showcase your brand but also connect with the cultural nuances of the local audience, ensuring maximum impact.

3. Innovation at the Core:

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, staying ahead of the curve is imperative. UBN prides itself on being at the forefront of technological innovation. We constantly explore and implement the latest trends in website development, be it responsive design, progressive web apps, or immersive user experiences. Our commitment to innovation ensures that your website is not just current but also future-proof.

4. Client-Centric Approach:

At UBN, we believe in a client-centric approach that prioritizes understanding your business goals and tailoring our solutions to meet them. Our team takes the time to engage with clients, comprehend their vision, and collaboratively develop a strategy that aligns with their objectives. This client-focused methodology ensures that every website we create is a unique reflection of the brand it represents.

5. Affordability without Compromise:

Website development should not be a financial burden for businesses, especially in a competitive market like Kolkata. UBN takes pride in offering cost-effective solutions without compromising on quality. Our transparent pricing model ensures that businesses, big or small, can access top-notch website development services that align with their budget constraints.

6. Skilled and Dynamic Team:

The backbone of UBN is its team of skilled and dynamic professionals. From experienced developers and creative designers to strategic thinkers, our team combines expertise with passion to deliver outstanding results. We invest in continuous skill development, ensuring that our team remains at the forefront of industry trends and technologies.

7. Local Insight, Global Vision:

While UBN is deeply rooted in the local fabric of Kolkata, we also bring a global vision to our projects. Our team draws inspiration from international design and development standards, creating websites that not only excel in the local market but also stand out on the global stage. This unique blend of local insight and global vision sets UBN apart from other website development agencies in Kolkata.

8. Robust Project Management:

We understand that effective project management is crucial for the timely delivery of high-quality websites. UBN employs robust project management methodologies that ensure transparency, communication, and accountability throughout the development process. Our clients are kept informed at every stage, fostering a collaborative environment that results in successful project outcomes.

9. Proven Results and Client Testimonials:

The success of UBN is not just measured by our words but by the results we deliver. Our portfolio showcases a diverse range of projects, each a testament to our commitment to excellence. Client testimonials speak volumes about the positive impact our websites have had on their businesses, reinforcing UBN's position as one of the best website development agencies in Kolkata.

Conclusion:

In the dynamic landscape of website development in Kolkata, Unite Business Networks emerges as a beacon of excellence. Our legacy, innovative approach, client-centric philosophy, affordability, skilled team, and proven results collectively position us among the best in the business. As Kolkata continues to evolve as a technological hub, UBN remains steadfast in its commitment to elevating the digital presence of businesses through cutting-edge website development. Choose Unite Business Networks, and let's unite to create a digital presence that leaves a lasting impression.

[rabbitcruiser]

Vancouver Seawall (No. 8)

The False Creek area was the industrial heartland of Vancouver through to the 1950s, and was home to many sawmills and small port operations. As industry shifted to other areas, the vicinity around False Creek started to deteriorate. In 1960, BC Forest Products plant and lumber storage facility on the south side of False Creek caught fire in Vancouver's first-ever five-alarm blaze. Every piece of firefighting equipment and all of Vancouver's firefighters fought the blaze for hours, but the facility was totally destroyed.

Walter Hardwick, a geography professor at UBC, first elected to City Council in 1968, led the City's redevelopment team and helped secure the participation of the Federal Government, which owned Granville Island. A major public involvement and co-design process followed which established public priorities for an accessible waterfront seawall; mixed-tenure housing including market condominiums, co-op and low-income housing and live-aboard marinas; and a vibrant waterfront market. These plans were formalized in a 1972 Official Development Plan. The form and mix of development were revolutionary for Vancouver at the time. A third of the site was set aside for 40 units/acre housing with the balance converted to park, waterfront and community uses.

The North Shore of False Creek (NFC) was further transformed in the 1980s, as it took centre stage during Expo 86. Following Expo, the Province sold the NFC site to Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing whose company Concord Pacific successfully marketed Vancouver in Asia, as a place for investment and migration. With the province enabling strata titles, a high-rise condominium boom soon followed, with Downtown Vancouver's population soaring from around 6,000 throughout the 1970s and 1980s to over 43,000 in 2006.

The 1991 Official Development Plan enabled significant new density commensurate with the provision of significant public amenities including street front shops and services, parks, school sites, community centres, daycares, co-op and low-income housing. Since then, most of the north shore has become a new neighbourhood of dense housing (about 100 units/acre), adding some 50 000 new residents to Vancouver's downtown peninsula.

On December 1, 1998, Vancouver City Council adopted a set of Blue ways policies and guidelines stating the vision of a waterfront city where land and water combine to meet the environmental, cultural and economic needs of the City and its people in a sustainable, equitable, high quality manner.

Southeast False Creek (SEFC) is the neighbourhood designated by Cambie, Main, West 2nd Avenue, and False Creek. The 2010 Olympic Village, for athlete housing and logistics of the Winter Olympics, is found in Southeast False Creek. As of 2021, the population exceeded 3,000.

Source: Wikipedia

[cryptosmall]

Unveiling Payvertise's Presale: A Unique Opportunity for Forward-Thinking Investors

The Payvertise public sale represents a pivotal moment for both the advertising industry and the blockchain community. This article offers an in-depth exploration of the mechanics behind the Payvertise public sale, its unique benefits for investors, and why it stands as a not-to-be-missed opportunity for those looking to be part of a transformative digital advertising solution.

The Mechanics of the Payvertise Public Sale

Understanding the mechanics of the Payvertise public sale is crucial for any potential investor. This section will detail the token allocation, pricing strategy, and the intended use of funds raised. Clarity on these aspects is essential for building investor confidence and ensuring a transparent investment process.

Why Invest in Payvertise?

Investing in Payvertise is more than just buying a token; it's an investment in a visionary approach to digital advertising. This part of the article will highlight the long-term benefits of holding Payvertise tokens, including potential returns, the role of tokens within the Payvertise ecosystem, and the future growth prospects of the platform.

Payvertise Compared: Standing Out in the Blockchain Space

Payvertise isn't just another blockchain project. This section will contrast Payvertise with other blockchain initiatives, emphasizing its unique position in the market, innovative approach to advertising, and the distinct advantages it offers over traditional digital advertising platforms.

Testimonials and Endorsements

Nothing speaks louder than the voices of those already committed to the project. Here, we will include testimonials and endorsements from early adopters, industry experts, and perhaps even a few influencers who have expressed support for Payvertise. Their insights will add credibility and depth to the narrative.

Conclusion

The Payvertise public sale is more than just an event; it's the start of a journey towards reshaping the world of digital advertising. This sale is an open invitation to join a community of innovators and disruptors, united in the vision of transforming the advertising landscape. We encourage readers to seize this opportunity and become part of something truly groundbreaking.

[reallca-blog]

Unwrapping the Wonka Bar Vol. 1 - Where is Charlie’s Town Located? Part 2

If you haven’t read the previous post, click here for Part 1 to make sure you are caught up to speed. If you’re already read the previous post, then welcome back and let’s get back to the show!

Exhibit #1: Tim Burton Didn’t Understand Roald Dahl’s True Work and Vision

Before we start, I need to make it clear that I am not here to trash Tim Burton or his vision, without him we would not even have a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to love and break down. Yet, with that said, it also needs to be said that Burton failed to comprehend the original source material, but I am also here to say that that is not entirely his fault. In the behind-the-scenes material mentioned previously, Burton mentions that he reread the original book by Roald Dahl to better understand the story of the film he was working on, which is something that should be commended. However, something that needs to be stated is that both Tim Burton and screenwriter John August, who it makes sense also read the Dahl book before writing the script, are Americans, which means that there is a good chance they read a copy of the book sold in the United States. It makes sense that one day they each would have sent one of their assistants down to Barnes and Nobles to pick of a copy of Roald Dahl’s most famous work so that they could begin reading it and thus could be best prepared to work on this new film adaptation. But that scenario also implies a certain reality, that Burton and August read American-published versions of the book, meaning that the filmmakers did not truly understand what Roald Dahl’s vision was.

Now, why would it matter if the books Burton and August read from were American-published copies, shouldn’t the material all be the same since Dahl wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in English? You would think so, but to better appeal to the local culture, especially when it comes to material aimed primarily at children, it is quite common for publishers to amend the original works they publish to reflect the dialects spoken in their markets. The result of this practice means that books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory underwent minor, but in some ways major, changes in the form of diction when it came to publishing the book outside the United Kingdom. In order so that Americans, primarily American children, can both better relate to the characters and in some cases simply follow the plot, American publishers have amended Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s British terminology and replaced them with common American phrases.

The most obvious example of this change comes in the form of the term “lift” being changed to “elevator” in American publications of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

As you can see, the term “lift” is used to describe the Great Glass Elevator, with even the name of Willy Wonka’s contraption having originally been the “Great Glass Lift” only to get turned into the “Great Glass Elevator” in the American edition.

This simple process of changing certain words but keeping the rest of the text intact is evidently clear by comparing how literally similar, but culturally different, the two previous images of text are, but it is also far from the last example of such a change. Another significant change made for the American publication was the value and, more importantly, the name of the currency Charlie finds on the street that he then uses to purchase the Wonka Bar with his Golden Ticket inside.

In the original British version, Charlie finds “fifty-pence” while outside.

Whereas in the American edition, our Lucky Boy finds himself a whole “dollar” that he quickly spends at a local store, and the rest is history.

Now, both versions cannot be canonically correct, so when in doubt its best to rely on the oldest version to best grasp the message the author hoped to convey. And since the author was a British man writing to a British audience, the logical answer is to say that the original British edition is what Roald Dahl had in mind when it came to describing the town that Charlie and the rest of the residents inhabit. And so, with all of this said, it is quite clear that Roald Dahl’s vision when it came to Charlie’s town was not that it was a location with “an American sensibility and a British sensibility,” and so we have no choice to say but that Tim Burton did not truly understand the work he was trying to adapt for the big screen, and so this misunderstanding helps explain why Charlie’s town is such a confusing location. But even though we disproved Burton’s thesis for the location of Charlie’s town, that does not mean that we now have a location for the town, and for that we will need to continue our analysis of the film.

That’s it for Part 2, click here for Part 3 where we begin our analysis of the demographics of Charlie’s town and discuss what they tell us about where he is from.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Matt Wuerker

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 2, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

NOV 3, 2023

In a speech yesterday in Northfield, Minnesota, President Joe Biden explained his economic vision to rural Americans. “Over the past 40 years or so, we’ve had a practice in America—an economic practice called trickle-down economics, and it hit rural America especially hard,” he said. “It hollowed out Main Street, telling farmers the only path to success was to get big or get out.” At the same time, he said, “[t]ax cuts for big corporations encouraged companies to grow bigger and bigger, move jobs and production overseas for cheaper labor, and undercut local small businesses. Meat-producing companies and the retail grocery chains consolidated, leaving farmers [and] ranchers with few choices about where to sell their products, reducing their bargaining power. Corporations that sell seed, fertilizer, and even farm equipment used their outsized market power to change farmers and charge them and ranchers unfair prices.”

Biden noted that the U.S. has lost more than 400,000 family farms in the past 40 years, an area of more than 140 million acres of farmland, equivalent to an area the size of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota combined. Family farms have failed, and as they did so, small businesses, hospitals, schools, and communities also suffered. 

Young people feel they have no choice but to leave home “in search of good-paying jobs and a chance at the American Dream.” 

Biden explained that his plan to invest in America would create new and better markets and new income streams to help rural areas thrive. He noted that $20 billion of the Inflation Reduction Act will go to helping farmers and ranchers adjust to climate change by changing cover crops and managing nutrients and grazing, while urging farmers to diversify from single crops and sell in local markets. 

Biden emphasized that the administration is promoting competition in agricultural markets, noting that currently just four big corporations control more than half the market in beef, pork, and poultry. If just one of their processing plants goes offline, it can cause massive supply chain disruptions (as the closing of a baby formula plant did in 2022). “[T]here’s something wrong,” he said, “when just 7% of the American farms get nearly 90% of the farm income.” 

In addition to the existing national investments in power grids and broadband that will help rural communities, Biden announced $1 billion to fix aging rural infrastructure systems like electricity, water, and waste water systems that haven’t been updated in decades; $2 billion to help farmers fight climate change; $145 million for clean energy technologies like solar panels that will help lower electric bills; and $274 million for rural high-speed internet expansion.

The administration’s vision for rural America appears to be part of a larger vision for restoring competition to the U.S. economy and thus is closely tied to the administration’s push to break up monopolies. In July 2021, Biden promised to interpret antitrust laws in the way they had been understood traditionally, not as the U.S. government began to interpret them in the 1980s. Then, following the argument advanced by the solicitor general of the United States at the time, Robert Bork, the government concluded that economic consolidation was fine so long as it promoted economic efficiencies that, at least in the short term, cut costs for consumers. 

Biden vowed to return to the traditional understanding of antitrust principles championed by presidents all the way back to Theodore Roosevelt at the turn of the last century, arguing that protecting economic competition protects workers, promotes innovation, and keeps consumer prices down. To that, the coronavirus pandemic added an awareness of the need to protect supply chains. 

“Bidenomics is just another way of saying ‘the American Dream,’” Biden said. “Forty years ago, trickle-down economics limited the dream to those at the top. But I believe every American willing to work hard should be able to get a job, no matter where they live—in the heartland, in small towns—to raise their kids on a good paycheck and keep their roots where they grew up.” 

In contrast to Biden’s outreach to farmers, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is facing a dilemma over the nation’s next farm bill, which must be passed by the end of the year. According to Clark Merrefield of The Journalist’s Resource, Congress usually debates and renews the farm bill every five years, and the last one passed in 2018. 

Farm bills include price support for farm products, especially corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, dairy, and sugar. It also includes crop insurance, conservation programs, and a wide variety of other agricultural programs, making the farm bill hugely popular in rural areas that focus on farming. 

Also included in the measure are nutritional programs for low-income Americans, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. SNAP serves 41 million low-income Americans, but as a member of the far-right Republican Study Committee, Johnson called for cutting SNAP benefits. Now his far-right colleagues are echoing his position, saying that the need to renew the farm bill is a great opportunity to make significant cuts to SNAP, especially since the farm bill is expected to bear a price tag of more than $1 trillion for the first time in our history. 

“I can’t imagine the Mike Johnson that we know would pass up the opportunity to secure as many conservative wins as possible in this farm bill,” a Republican aide told Meredith Lee Hill of Politico, “[a]nd that means serious SNAP reforms.” 

But even some Republicans—primarily those who hail from agricultural states—object to loading the farm bill up with the poison pill of SNAP cuts, knowing such a tactic would repel Democrats, whose votes will be necessary to pass the measure as far-right Republicans balk. 

It will take a deft hand to get the measure through Congress, and its failure at Johnson’s hands will infuriate hard-hit rural areas. It is one more thing to add to the new speaker’s to-do list, as the deadline for funding the government is looming. The continuing resolution funding the government at 2023 levels, the measure that cost Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) his speakership, expires in just over two weeks, on November 17.

Johnson’s willingness to load bills with poison pills that his conference likes showed today in the House’s passage of Republicans’ aid bill for Israel—Ukraine aid had been cut away—along with dramatic cuts to funding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), a provision that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warned would add to the deficit rather than reducing it. Knowing that the measure will not pass the Senate, a number of Democrats voted for it, likely to avoid attacks from conservative opponents. 

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says the Senate won’t even take up the House bill. Instead, the Senate continues to work on its own strongly bipartisan bill that ties together aid to Israel and Ukraine. 

As Kate Riga of Talking Points Memo put it, if the Senate continues to work in this bipartisan way, we will continue to see the same pattern we’ve seen throughout this Congress: “Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans and House Democrats all supporting more or less the same thing, with a chunk of House Republicans out on a branch alone.”

After an angry fight last night over Senator Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) holds on military promotions, in which Republican senators joined Democrats in confronting him, the Senate today confirmed General David Allvin to be Air Force chief of staff and Admiral Lisa Franchetti as chief of naval operations, by votes of 95 to 1. Franchetti is the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Wednesday’s fight appears to have been prompted by the hospitalization of acting Marines Commandant General Eric Smith after an apparent heart attack. Smith was holding down two high-level positions at once owing to Tuberville’s holds, and he had warned his schedule was “not sustainable.” Although the Pentagon says Tuberville is endangering national security, Tuberville insists that his hold on almost 400 military promotions is not hurting the military. 

The new additions mean there are no vacancies on the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the first time since July. 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[mariacallous]

It’s billed as a summit for democracy. Under U.S. leadership, countries from six continents will gather from March 29 to March 30 to highlight “how democracies deliver for their citizens and are best equipped to address the world’s most pressing challenges,” according to the U.S. State Department.

Although advancing technology for democracy is a key pillar of the summit’s agenda, the United States has been missing in action when it comes to laying out and leading on a vision for democratic tech leadership. And by staying on the sidelines and letting others—most notably the European Union—lead on tech regulation, the United States has the most to lose economically and politically.

One in five private-sector jobs in the United States is linked to the tech sector, making tech a cornerstone of the U.S. economy. When U.S. tech companies are negatively impacted by global economic headwinds, overzealous regulators, or other factors, the consequences are felt across the economy, as the recent tech layoffs impacting tens of thousands of workers have shown.

And “tech” isn’t just about so-called Big Tech companies such as Alphabet (Google’s parent company) or social media platforms such as Meta’s Facebook and Instagram. Almost every company is now a tech company—automakers, for example, can track users’ movements from GPS data, require large numbers of computer chips, and use the cloud for data storage. Rapid developments in artificial intelligence, especially in the field of natural language processing (the ability behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT), have widespread applications across an even larger swath of sectors including media and communications.

This means that tech policy is not just about content moderation or antitrust legislation—two of the main areas of focus for U.S. policymakers. Rather, tech policy is economic policy, trade policy, and—when it comes to U.S. tech spreading across the globe—foreign policy.

As the global leader in technology innovation, the United States has a real competitive edge as well as a political opportunity to advance a vision for technology in the service of democracy. But the window to act is rapidly narrowing as others, including like-minded democracies in Europe but also authoritarian China, are stepping in to fill the leadership void.

The European Union has embarked on an ambitious regulatory agenda, laying out a growing number of laws to govern areas including digital services taxes, data sharing, online advertising, and cloud services. Although the regulatory efforts may be based in democratic values, in practice, they have an economic agenda: France, for example, expects to make 670 million euros in 2023 from digital services taxes, with much of that coming from large U.S. tech companies.

What’s worse is that while other key EU regulations, such as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), target the largest U.S. firms, they leave Chinese-controlled companies such as Alibaba and Tencent less regulated. That’s because the DMA sets out very narrow criteria to define “gatekeepers,” such as company size and market position, to only cover large U.S. firms, thus benefiting both European companies and subsidized Chinese competitors and creating potential security vulnerabilities when it comes to data collection and access.

While Europe rushes to regulate, China has developed an effective model of digital authoritarianism: strangling the internet with censorship, deploying AI technologies such as facial recognition for surveillance, and advocating for cyber “sovereignty,” which is doublespeak for state control of data and information. Beijing has been actively exporting these tools to other countries, primarily in the global south, where the United States is fighting an uphill battle to convince countries to join its global democracy agenda.

And the battle for hearts and minds has implications far beyond tech—it goes to the heart of U.S. global leadership. In last month’s vote at the United Nations to condemn Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, endorsed by the United States, the majority of the countries that voted against or abstained were from Africa, South America, and Asia.

Without a U.S.-led concerted effort to push back against authoritarian states’ desire to define the rules around technology, large democracies such as Turkey and India are also wavering, imposing increasingly authoritarian limits on free speech online. The result is growing digital fragmentation—fragmentation that benefits authoritarian adversaries.

The Biden administration says it wants to see technology harnessed to support democratic freedoms, strengthen our democratic alliances, and beat back the authoritarian vision of a government-run internet.

Here’s how it could help achieve these goals.

First, the administration should map out an affirmative technology strategy, making sure that U.S. workers and consumers benefit from U.S. tech leadership. This means investing in competitiveness and a smarter public-private approach to research and development, an area the United States has underfunded for over a decade.

Tech touches on almost every sector of the U.S. economy as well as international trade, defense, and security, and involves almost every government agency from the State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy to the Federal Trade Commission and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. And while most European countries now have full ministries for digital affairs, the U.S. doesn’t have similarly  politically empowered counterparts tasked with coordinating a whole-of-government effort across all government agencies to produce a national strategy for technology. This needs to change.

Second, the administration should take advantage of the bipartisan consensus in the U.S. Congress on the need to push back against China’s growing domination in tech by putting forward a balanced regulatory agenda that establishes clear rules for responsible innovation. In an op-ed earlier this year, U.S. President Joe Biden called for Republicans and Democrats to hold social media platforms accountable for how they use and collect data, moderate online content, and treat their competition. To be sure, a national privacy law is long overdue, as several states have already passed their own laws, creating a confusing regulatory environment.

But this agenda is too backward-looking: Policymakers today are debating how to regulate technology from 20 years ago, when social media companies first emerged. As ChatGPT has shown, tech advancements far outpace regulatory efforts. A balanced agenda would set out key principles and ethical guardrails, rather than seek to regulate specific companies or apps. Banning TikTok, for example, won’t prevent another Chinese company from taking its place.

Third, the U.S. should reenergize its engagement in multilateral institutions. The United States is taking the right steps in endorsing Japan’s initiative at the next G-7 meeting to establish international standards for trust in data flows, known as the Data Free Flow with Trust. The administration has also appointed an ambassador at large for cyberspace and digital policy to work more closely with allies on tech cooperation.

The U.N.’s International Telecommunication Union, which helps develop standards in telecoms, is now directed by American Doreen Bogdan-Martin, which also presents an opportunity to beat back Russian and Chinese attempts to impose government control over the internet and instead reinforce the present private sector- and civil society-led internet governance model.

Washington has led important defensive efforts to challenge Beijing’s system of sovereignty and surveillance and has brought key allies along in these efforts. But it has not done enough to drive an affirmative agenda on technology innovation and tech-driven economic opportunity. The Biden administration has an opportunity now to prioritize tech. There is no time to waste.