#commodity Headlines

[loservillegamer]

I made some maps! Based on LOTR for Loser Ville, Welcome and enjoy being Lost

[aticanbeachresort]

[spookyserenades]

Trouvaille Masterlist

Pairing(s); BTS OT7 x Reader

Genre/Themes; Hybrid!AU, themes of the supernatural and the occult, paranormal themes, religious themes, violence, hurt/comfort, horror, romance

Rated; 18+ for swearing, violence/gore, future sexual themes. Reader discretion is advised.

In a world where hybrids are both the hottest commodity and largely exploited, a recent shortage of hybrids nationwide due to the wealthy adopting for sport hunting dominates the news headlines. More than ever, stray hybrids are whisked off the streets and taken into shelters to meet the demand. Mistreated, neglected, forgotten – in a notoriously disreputable hybrid shelter in a pocket of downtown Boston, seven “aggressive” hybrids await their inevitable fate of being sold for sport.

After years of trying to distance herself from her mystical past and upbringing, Y/N finds herself quitting her emotionally-draining job and is forced to face past mistakes. While accompanying her friends looking to adopt a child hybrid into their newly-formed family, Y/N inadvertently finds herself face-to-face with seven hybrids doomed to die. In a spur of the moment epiphany, Y/N decides to change the course of fate for the better; though bringing seven aggressive hybrids into her life and the darkening spiritual energy of her old home is trickier to navigate than she originally thought.

Ko-fi 💜

MAIN STORY;

Find Trouvaille on Ao3 and Wattpad, too!

Chapter One posted 2.7.23; 20.4k words

Chapter Two posted 3.7.23; 20.8k words

Chapter Three posted 3.20.23; 21.5k words

Chapter Four posted 4.7.23; 20.6k words

Chapter Five posted 5.7.23; 20.5k words

Chapter Six posted 6.7.23; 20.9k words

Chapter Seven posted 7.7.23; 22.3k words

Chapter Eight posted 8.7.23; 23.4k words

Chapter Nine posted 9.7.23; 21.8k words

Chapter Ten posted 10.7.23; 21.9k words

Chapter Eleven posted 11.7.23; 20k words

Chapter Twelve posted 12.7.23; 16.6k words

Chapter Thirteen posted 1.9.24; 16.9k words

Chapter Fourteen (M) posted 2.8.24; 22.3k words

Chapter Fifteen (M) posted 3.10.24; 21.3k words

Chapter Sixteen (M) posted 4.8.24; 20.5k words

Chapter Seventeen (M) posted 5.7.24; 25k words

Chapter Eighteen (M) posted 6.8.24; 17.4k words

Chapter Nineteen posted 7.11.24; 16k words

Chapter Twenty posted 8.17.24; 17.2k words

DRABBLES;

WIP REQUESTS PAGE

"My boys" posted 9.1.23; 2.2k words

Valentine's Day special posted 2.13.24; 1.4k words

Male receiving oral (M) posted 8.21.24; 409 words

EXTRAS;

Trouvaille playlist

My Pinterest

Mood boards - Seokjin . Yoongi . Hoseok . Namjoon . Jimin . Taehyung . Jeongguk . Y/N

Style boards

Reference pictures

Individual playlists for each hybrid

Trouvaille Inspirations (coming soon!)

Things readers have created for Trouvaille

Teaser to Chapter One

PREQUELS (coming soon!);

Something Kind of Fantastic Hoseok, coming soon!

Fire, Walk With Me Yoongi, coming soon!

Midnight on a Moonless Night Taehyung, coming soon!

Almost Doesn't Matter Jimin, coming soon!

Same as it Always Was Seokjin, coming soon!

You See Them... They See You Jeongguk, coming soon!

Truth Beyond Our Own Namjoon, coming soon!

[sexymemecoin]

The Expansive World of Altcoins: Exploring the Diversity Beyond Bitcoin

Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency, has long dominated headlines and market discussions. However, the world of digital currencies is vast and diverse, with thousands of alternative coins, or altcoins, each offering unique features and value propositions. Altcoins encompass a broad range of projects, from utility tokens and stablecoins to meme coins and more. This article delves into the rich ecosystem of altcoins, highlighting their significance, various types, and the innovative projects that make up this vibrant space, including a mention of Sexy Meme Coin.

Understanding Altcoins

The term "altcoin" refers to any cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin. These coins were developed to address various limitations of Bitcoin or to introduce new features and use cases. Altcoins have proliferated since the creation of Bitcoin in 2009, each aiming to offer something different, whether it be improved transaction speeds, enhanced privacy features, or specific utility within certain ecosystems.

Categories of Altcoins

Utility Tokens: Utility tokens provide users with access to a specific product or service within a blockchain ecosystem. Examples include Ethereum's Ether (ETH), which is used to power applications on the Ethereum network, and Chainlink's LINK, which is used to pay for services on the Chainlink decentralized oracle network.

Stablecoins: Stablecoins are designed to maintain a stable value by being pegged to a reserve of assets, such as fiat currency or commodities. Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) are popular stablecoins pegged to the US dollar, offering the benefits of cryptocurrency without the volatility.

Security Tokens: Security tokens represent ownership in a real-world asset, such as shares in a company or real estate. They are subject to regulatory oversight and are often seen as a bridge between traditional finance and the blockchain world.

Meme Coins: Meme coins are a playful and often humorous take on cryptocurrency, inspired by internet memes and cultural trends. While they may start as jokes, some have gained significant value and community support. Dogecoin is the most famous example, but many others, like Shiba Inu and Sexy Meme Coin, have also captured the public's imagination.

Privacy Coins: Privacy coins focus on providing enhanced privacy features for transactions. Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC) are notable examples, offering users the ability to transact anonymously and protect their financial privacy.

The Appeal of Altcoins

Altcoins offer several advantages over Bitcoin, including:

Innovation: Many altcoins introduce new technologies and features, driving innovation within the cryptocurrency space. For example, Ethereum introduced smart contracts, enabling decentralized applications (DApps) and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.

Specialization: Altcoins often serve specific niches or industries, providing targeted solutions that Bitcoin cannot. For instance, Ripple (XRP) focuses on facilitating cross-border payments, while Filecoin (FIL) aims to create a decentralized storage network.

Investment Opportunities: The diverse range of altcoins presents numerous investment opportunities. Investors can diversify their portfolios by investing in projects with different use cases and growth potentials.

Notable Altcoins in the Market

Ethereum (ETH): Ethereum is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and has become the backbone of the DeFi and NFT (Non-Fungible Token) ecosystems. Its smart contract functionality allows developers to create decentralized applications, leading to a thriving ecosystem of financial services, games, and more.

Cardano (ADA): Cardano is a blockchain platform focused on sustainability, scalability, and transparency. It uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which is more energy-efficient than Bitcoin's proof-of-work. Cardano aims to provide a more secure and scalable infrastructure for the development of decentralized applications.

Polkadot (DOT): Polkadot is designed to enable different blockchains to interoperate and share information. Its unique architecture allows for the creation of "parachains," which can operate independently while still benefiting from the security and connectivity of the Polkadot network.

Chainlink (LINK): Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network that provides real-world data to smart contracts on the blockchain. This functionality is crucial for the operation of many DeFi applications, making Chainlink a vital component of the blockchain ecosystem.

Sexy Meme Coin: Among the meme coins, Sexy Meme Coin stands out for its combination of humor and innovative tokenomics. It offers a decentralized marketplace where users can buy, sell, and trade memes as NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), rewarding creators for their originality. Learn more about Sexy Meme Coin at Sexy Meme Coin.

The Future of Altcoins

The future of altcoins looks promising, with continuous innovation and increasing adoption across various industries. As blockchain technology evolves, we can expect altcoins to introduce new solutions and disrupt traditional systems. However, the market is also highly competitive, and not all projects will succeed. Investors should conduct thorough research and due diligence before investing in any altcoin.

Conclusion

Altcoins represent a dynamic and diverse segment of the cryptocurrency market. From utility tokens and stablecoins to meme coins and privacy coins, each category offers unique features and potential benefits. Projects like Ethereum, Cardano, Polkadot, and Chainlink are leading the way in innovation, while niche coins like Sexy Meme Coin add a layer of cultural relevance and community engagement. As the cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to grow, altcoins will play a crucial role in shaping the future of digital finance and blockchain technology.

For those interested in the playful and innovative side of the altcoin market, Sexy Meme Coin offers a unique and entertaining platform. Visit Sexy Meme Coin to explore this exciting project and join the community.

[doyouknowthisbook-poll]

Do you know which book this is from?

Please reblog the polls, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people read the excerpt with an open mind 💖📚 Title and author will be revealed after the poll's conclusion.

Note: this excerpt is too long for Tumblr’s alt text character limit, so for this poll, the alt text is below the read more.

Edit: The results are up here!

It's funny how the nature of an object—let's say a strawberry or a pair of socks-is so changed by the way it has come into your hands, as a gift or as a commodity. The pair of wool socks that I buy at the store, red and gray striped, are warm and cozy. I might feel grateful for the sheep that made the wool and the worker who ran the knitting machine. I hope so. But I have no inherent obligation to those socks as a commodity, as private property. There is no bond beyond the politely exchanged "thank yous" with the clerk. I have paid for them and our reciprocity ended the minute I handed her the money. The exchange ends once parity has been established, an equal exchange. They become my property. I don't write a thank-you note to JCPenney.

But what if those very same socks, red and gray striped, were knitted by my grandmother and given to me as a gift? That changes everything. A gift creates ongoing relationship. I will write a thank-you note. I will take good care of them and if I am a very gracious grandchild I'll wear them when she visits even if I don't like them. When it's her birthday, I will surely make her a gift in return. As the scholar and writer Lewis Hyde notes, "It is the cardinal difference between gift and commodity exchange that a gift establishes a feeling-bond between two people."

Wild strawberries fit the definition of gift, but grocery store berries do not. It's the relationship between producer and consumer that changes everything. As a gift-thinker, I would be deeply offended if I saw wild strawberries in the grocery store. I would want to kidnap them all. They were not meant to be sold, only to be given. Hyde reminds us that in a gift economy, one's freely given gifts cannot be made into someone else's capital. I can see the headline now: "Woman Arrested for Shoplifting Produce. Strawberry Liberation Front Claims Responsibility."

This is the same reason we do not sell sweetgrass. Because it is given to us, it should only be given to others. My dear friend Wally “Bear" Meshigaud is a ceremonial firekeeper for our people and uses a lot of sweetgrass on our behalf. There are folks who pick for him in a good way, to keep him supplied, but even so, at a big gathering sometimes he runs out. At powwows and fairs you can see our own people selling sweetgrass for ten bucks a braid. When Wally really needs wiingashk for a ceremony, he may visit one of those booths among the stalls selling frybread or hanks of beads. He introduces himself to the seller, explains his need, just as he would in a meadow, asking permission of the sweetgrass. He cannot pay for it, not because he doesn't have the money, but because it cannot be bought or sold and still retain its essence for ceremony. He expects sellers to graciously give him what he needs, but sometimes they don't. The guy at the booth thinks he's being shaken down by an elder. "Hey, you can't get something for nothin'," he says. But that is exactly the point. A gift is something for nothing, except that certain obligations are attached. For the plant to be sacred, it cannot be sold. Reluctant entrepreneurs will get a teaching from Wally, but they'll never get his money.

Sweetgrass belongs to Mother Earth. Sweetgrass pickers collect properly and respectfully, for their own use and the needs of their community. They return a gift to the earth and tend to the wellbeing of the wiingashk. The braids are given as gifts, to honor, to say thank you, to heal and to strengthen. The sweetgrass is kept in motion. When Wally gives sweetgrass to the fire, it is a gift that has passed from hand to hand, growing richer as it is honored in every exchange.

That is the fundamental nature of gifts: they move, and their value increases with their passage. The fields made a gift of berries to us and we made a gift of them to our father. The more something is shared, the greater its value becomes. This is hard to grasp for societies steeped in notions of private property, where others are, by definition, excluded from sharing. Practices such as posting land against trespass, for example, are expected and accepted in a property economy but are unacceptable in an economy where land is seen as a gift to all.

Lewis Hyde wonderfully illustrates this dissonance in his exploration of the "Indian giver." This expression, used negatively today as a pejorative for someone who gives something and then wants to have it back, actually derives from a fascinating cross-cultural misinterpretation between an indigenous culture operating in a gift economy and a colonial culture predicated on the concept of private property. When gifts were given to the settlers by the Native inhabitants, the recipients understood that they were valuable and were intended to be retained. Giving them away would have been an affront. But the indigenous people understood the value of the gift to be based in reciprocity and would be affronted if the gifts did not circulate back to them. Many of our ancient teachings counsel that whatever we have been given is supposed to be given away again.

From the viewpoint of a private property economy, the "gift" is deemed to be "free" because we obtain it free of charge, at no cost. But in the gift economy, gifts are not free. The essence of the gift is that it creates a set of relationships. The currency of a gift economy is, at its root, reciprocity. In Western thinking, private land is understood to be a "bundle of rights," whereas in a gift economy property has a "bundle of responsibilities" attached.

[mariacallous]

If you’re one of the millions of Americans worried about your pocketbooks and the general cost of living, you might have picked up on some good news recently: Inflation has really been cooling off this summer, as long-sticky (and long-lamented) food and energy prices continue to moderate. Some economic indicators remain stubborn, however—and they aren’t likely to abate anytime in the near future, no matter how long the Federal Reserve keeps interest rates high, what tweaks President Joe Biden makes to his trade policy, whether corporations decide themselves to slash prices on certain products, or whether Covid-battered supply chains finally get some long-needed fixes.

Other, grimmer recent headlines help to explain why. Hard rains from a tropical disruption in the Gulf have been battering Florida’s southern regions for days, leading to a rare flash-flood emergency. Another batch of storms is swirling near Texas at the moment and could form into a tropical depression, according to forecasts from the National Hurricane Center. Even if both states end up missing bigger storms now, it’s likely only a matter of time before they’re threatened again: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that the United States will see its worst hurricane season in decades this summer.

Meanwhile, the heat waves that have enveloped Phoenix are intensifying to the point that some analysts are deeming its latest conditions “a Hurricane Katrina of heat.” Spanning outward, the Midwest and Northeast are projected to get their own extreme heat warnings as early as next week, with energy demand set to skyrocket as people turn on their air conditioners. The country has already seen 11 “billion-dollar disasters” this year, including the tornadoes that slammed Iowa just weeks ago. Meanwhile, the already strapped Federal Emergency Management Agency faces a budgetary crisis, and sales of catastrophe bonds are at an all-time high.

Now, let’s look back at the inflation readings. One of the categories remaining stubbornly high while other indicators shrink? Shelter and housing, natch, as rents and insurance stay hot—and still-elevated interest rates make construction and mortgage costs even more prohibitive. On the energy front, motor fuel may be cheapening, but fuel and electricity for home use are still pricey. Auto insurance remains a driving outlier, as I noted back in April, not least because of insurers hiking premiums for cars in especially disaster-vulnerable regions—like the South, the Southwest, and the coasts.

Look at what else is happening in those very regions when it comes to home insurance: Providers are either retreating from or dramatically heightening their prices in states like California, Texas, Florida, and New Jersey, thanks to their unique susceptibility to climate change. These states have seen supercharged extreme weather events like floods, rain bombs, heat waves, and droughts. National lawmakers fear that the insurance crises there may ultimately wreak havoc on the broader real estate sector—but that’s not the only worst-case scenario they have to worry about.

Agricultural yields for important commodities produced in those states (fruits, nuts, corn, sugar, veggies, wheat) are withering, thanks to punishing heat and soil-nutrition depletion. The supply chains through which these products usually travel are thrown off course at varying points, by storms that disrupt land and sea transportation. Preparation for these varying externalities requires supply-chain middlemen and product sellers to anticipate consequential cost increases down the line—and implement them sooner than later, in order to cover their margins.

You may have noticed some clear standouts among the contributors to May’s inflation: juices and frozen drinks (19.5 percent), along with sugar and related substitutes (6.4 percent). It’s probably not a coincidence that Florida, a significant producer of both oranges and sugar, has seen extensive damage to those exports thanks to extreme weather patterns caused by climate change as well as invasive crop diseases. Economists expect that orange juice prices will stay elevated during this hot, rainy summer.

(Incidentally, climate effects may also be influencing the current trajectory and spread of bird flu across American livestock—and you already know what that means for meat and milk prices.)

It goes beyond groceries, though. It applies to every basic building block of modern life: labor, immigration, travel, and materials for homebuilding, transportation, power generation, and necessary appliances. Climate effects have been disrupting and raising the prices of timber, copper, and rubber; even chocolate prices were skyrocketing not long ago, thanks to climate change impacts on African cocoa bean crops. The outdoor workers supplying such necessities are experiencing adverse health impacts from the brutal weather, and the recent record-breaking influxes of migrants from vulnerable countries—which, overall, have been good for the U.S. economy—are in part a response to climate damages in their home nations.

The climate price hikes show up in other ways as well. There’s a lot of housing near the coasts, in the Gulf regions and Northeast specifically; Americans love their beaches and their big houses. Turns out, even with generous (very generous) monetary backstops from the federal government, it’s expensive to build such elaborate manors and keep having to rebuild them when increasingly intense and frequent storms hit—which is why private insurers don’t want to keep having to deal with that anymore, and the costs are handed off to taxpayers.

When all the economic indicators that take highest priority in Americans’ heads are in such volatile motion thanks to climate change, it may be time to reconsider how traditional economics work and how we perceive their effects. It’s no longer a time when extreme weather was rarer and more predictable; its force and reasoning aren’t beyond our capacity to aptly monitor, but they’re certainly more difficult to track. You can’t stretch out the easiest economic model to fix that. And you can’t keep ignoring the clear links between our current weather hellscape, climate change, and our everyday goods.

Thankfully, some actors are finally, belatedly taking a new approach. The reinsurance company Swiss Re has acknowledged that its industry fails to aptly factor disaster and climate risks into its calculations, and is working to overhaul its equations. Advances in artificial intelligence, energy-intensive though they may be, are helping to improve extreme-weather predictions and risk forecasts. At the state level, insurers are pushing back against local policies that bafflingly forbid them from pricing climate risks into their models, and Florida has new legislation requiring more transparency in the housing market around regional flooding histories. New York legislators are attempting to ban insurers from backstopping the very fossil-fuel industry that’s contributed to so much of their ongoing crisis.

After all, we’re no longer in a world where climate change affects the economy, or where voters prioritizing economic or inflationary concerns are responding to something distinct from climate change—we’re in a world where climate change is the economy.

[st-just]

A huge share of the value proposition of the analog newspaper consisted of stuff that is barely considered journalistic or media content today: the previous night’s sports scores, the weather forecast, yesterday’s Dow Jones movement, movie listings, and other commodity information. There were also, of course, the classified ads. You didn’t need to care very much about the news to want a subscription to the newspaper — it contained lots of useful information. That included meta-information about whether there was even any interesting news in the newspaper. You could scan the front page and see most days there was nothing much happening. Every once in a while there’d be a big headline that said “HEY THIS IS A BIG DEAL,” and you could read that. Or you could read the rest of the paper if you happened to be extremely bored. The world in general was less entertaining with no smartphones and no streaming video, and the newspaper was both portable and disposable, which made it a good way to kill time. “Is the journalism good?” was a sort of secondary or tertiary consideration in terms of the viability of the enterprise.

-Matthew Yglesias, "Objective" journalism was a business model

[gaystan]

Stan Marsh and Kyle Broflovski Relationship Backlash Reveals the Hypocrisy of Political Critique of Celebrities

Why is being seen in public with Kyle Broflovski, of all things, the line in the sand?

When Crimson Dawn embarked upon their long-awaited Daybreak Tour in March 2023, it seemed like Stan Marsh could do no wrong. Their 5th studio album, idk man you name it im tired (2022), was their most successful; fans eagerly awaited the announcement of His Voice, an upcoming single; Marsh had recently come out of the closet and described himself as “Happier than ever.” Fans breathed a collective sigh of relief that the drama of 2018, which saw Marsh publicly “canceled,” was firmly in the past.

But two months later, we fans would be forgiven for feeling like the past four years never happened. Crimson Dawn’s tour of the U.S., wildly successful by any metric, has shared the spotlight with a steady stream of headline-grabbing drama, including social media unfollowings, pap walks, revealing new music, and, above all, a highly controversial new relationship. Marsh’s romance with podcaster Kyle Broflovski, who was recently described by Jia Tolentino as “something of a test case for the digital panopticon and its reaction cycle,” has been dogged by countless rumors of Broflovski’s attention-grabbing antics.

Broflovski is known for his controversy, and the motions of the outrage cycle are, consequently, fairly predictable: receipts documenting Broflovski’s behavior and critiques of Marsh’s “white activism” have spread across social media platforms, impassioned fans have launched a campaign to convince their idol to “engage in genuine self-reflection,” and even group chats I’m tangentially in are filled with disappointed disavowals, Onion headlines, and barf emojis.

It makes sense: Marsh is looked up to by idealistic young women everywhere, many of whom are heartbroken that he would choose to associate with someone heavily tied up in racism, misogyny, and Islamophobia. But this particular outrage cycle misses a few things.

First, Crimson Dawn fans claim their protests are not against Marsh’s dating choices per se, but against who has the privilege of associating with the mighty Stan Marsh brand. Yet the resulting impression is nonetheless that disillusioned fans simply don’t like their idol’s new boyfriend and are therefore appropriating the language of social justice (e.g., encouraging Marsh to commit to “dismantling systems of oppression”) in an attempt to change his mind. But Broflovski is not a public servant; the status of Marsh’s boyfriend is not a public good to be revoked nor a job from which someone can be justly fired for their sheer unpopularity. Conflating the two reveals the extent to which fans view Marsh as a public commodity whose intimate choices ought to be subject to collective vetting. What’s more, though well-intentioned, the positioning of one man’s romantic life as a broad political issue only serves to harm the credibility of progressive causes with a clearly defined political goal.

[darkmaga-retard]

Eric Zuesse

On 28 September 2022, I headlined “How America Is Crushing Europe”, and opened:

America creates, imposes, and enforces the sanctions against Russia, which are forcing up energy-prices in Europe, and are thereby driving Europe’s corporations to move to America, where taxes, safety-and-environmental regulations, and the rights of labor, are far lower, and so profits will be far higher for the investors.

Furthermore, America can supply its own energy.

Therefore, supply-chains are less dicey in the U.S. than in Europe. There is less and less reason now for a firm to be doing anything in Europe except selling to Europeans, who are becoming increasingly desperate to get whatever they can afford to buy, now that Russia, which had been providing the lowest-cost energy and other commodities, is being strangled out of European markets, by the sanctions. Money can move even when its owner can’t.

The European public will now be left farther and farther behind as Europe’s wealth flees — mainly to America (whose Government had created this capital-flight of Europe’s wealth).

Europe’s leaders have cooperated with America’s leaders, to cause this European decline (by joining, instead of rejecting, America’s sanctions against Russia), but Germany’s companies can also enjoy significant benefits from relocating or expanding in America. Germany’s business daily newspaper, Handlelsblatt, reported, on September 25th, “More and more German companies are expanding their locations in North America: Washington attracts German companies with cheap energy and low taxes. This applies above all to the southern states. Berlin is alarmed – and wants to take countermeasures.” …

On 8 May 2024, I headlined “U.S. empire is now falling apart.”, and reported that

[apenitentialprayer]

Top: image from Folio 76r of Walters Ms. W.269, a Catholic Book of the Hours created in the mid-1400s for a woman named Collette. In this image, Collette herself is depicted praying to the Madonna and Child. Bottom: three different piles of identical books.

A growing field of scholarship is examining texts as materials and cultural objects. Scholars are thinking about how recorded texts appear in concrete forms — scrolls on parchment, bound codices on paper, magazines on cheap glossy paper. These scholars emphasize the ways in which technology and knowledge-transmission are intimately connected to one another. […] Broadly speaking, there are three interrelated factors that can explain the material form which the written word takes.

The materials and technology available to produce and distribute texts: People can only record written texts with the materials and technology available to them. For example, the invention of paper decreased the price of the written word and enabled more text to be available to more people, with wide cultural implications. Cheap ball point pens encourage things like jotted down note-to-self.

Economics and the market for knowledge and education: Who will pay for text, how will that money or those goods be moved from place to place, and who stands to earn a profit from creating and circulating those texts? In the middle-ages, for example, written texts were less common than today and much more expensive, but an individual patron had more leeway to individualize the written text, since he (or, occasionally, she) could order what he wanted from a scribe and artist. In contrast, book buyers today have greater and cheaper access to printed works, but the format is hardly individualized at all due to constraints of the mass market.

Cultural assumptions about what one does with words: Some texts are meant for slow study, others for quick reading, and still others for long-term storage or record keeping. The material form that the text takes will depend on cultural expectations about what will be done with words once committed to writing. A receipt from a cash register -generally to be thrown away or at most saved briefly- will appear in a material form different from a university-course textbook, with an expectation (not always fulfilled) that students will read carefully and prepare for papers and exams. A newspaper takes on a material form different from a non-fiction book, even when reporting on the same topic, due to different assumptions about how the reader will treat those printed words.

Mass-market newspapers are a fine example. Cheaper paper in the nineteenth century and advances in print technology that lowered prices enabled mass-market newspapers and made it possible to imagine large quantities of disposable written materials. Technological changes in shipping and distribution of both words and knowledge, such as the telegraph and the railroad, helped knowledge about current events reach further more quickly, so reporters could produce texts and distribute them quickly to a far-flung audience. The spread of literacy helped create a large population of consumers, which made the newspaper a potentially profitable commodity to produce. Shorter articles scattered on a page with large-print headlines, as well as illustrations, and later photographs, enabled consumers to learn about many diverse topics and to take in as much detail as they felt like they had time for.

Yoel Finkelman ("From Bomberg to the Beit Midrash: A Cultural and Material History of the Talmudic Page Layout")

[trader-sg112]

Gold and Precious Metals Update: Prices Rise Amidst Market Volatility

In the ever-fluctuating landscape of global markets, precious metals have been a focal point of attention, with gold leading the charge to a 10-day high. As of the latest updates, spot gold has risen by 0.1% to reach $2,359.56 per ounce, marking a significant uptick from its earlier levels this week. Meanwhile, futures contracts expiring in August have seen a slight decline, resting at $2,367.15 per ounce, showcasing the nuanced movements within the market.

While gold has captured headlines, platinum futures have also displayed resilience, recording a notable increase of 0.7% to $1,019.40 per ounce. In contrast, silver futures have experienced a modest setback, falling by 0.5% to $30.70 per ounce. Despite this recent dip, silver has notably outperformed gold over the past twelve months, underscoring its distinct position in the precious metals arena.

Beyond the precious metals spectrum, copper futures have exhibited their dynamics. Benchmark copper futures on the London Metal Exchange have slightly declined by 0.2% to settle at $9,849.0 per ton, while one-month copper futures have seen a marginal decrease of 0.1% to $4.5255 per pound. These movements reflect the broader trends in industrial commodities amid ongoing market uncertainties and global economic shifts.

The current market environment underscores the importance of staying informed and agile in navigating investments in precious metals. Investors and analysts alike are closely monitoring these developments, assessing how geopolitical events, economic data releases, and monetary policy decisions may impact future price movements.

As we continue to observe these market dynamics, the resilience of precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and copper remains a key focal point. Each metal plays a unique role in investment portfolios, offering diversification benefits and serving as a hedge against inflation and currency fluctuations.

In conclusion, the recent uptick in gold prices amidst varying performances across precious metals underscores the resilience and volatility inherent in global markets. Whether you're an investor, analyst, or simply curious about economic trends, staying updated on these developments is crucial for making informed decisions in an ever-evolving financial landscape.

[bowokshop]

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the source of all discord and unhappiness: the printed book.

Montag never questions the destruction or his own bland life, until he is shown a past where people didn't live in fear and a present where one sees the world through ideas.

Montag starts hiding books in his home. Soon they'll make him run for his life."

I've had this book on my shelf for ages and never got round to reading it. And then I read it entirely in about 3 hours. It was SO good.

Ray Bradbury's writing style really itches my brain. It has this perfect mix of beautiful, complex imagery, dialogue, and narration. The story moved at a reasonable pace and I knew what was happening most of the time.

I wish there was a bit more of an introduction into the world - there were some parts I kept getting quite confused by. Like the parlour? I couldn't really visualise what that was in my head, and it was brought up so frequently, but I never really knew what it was about. Was it like a giant television screen they stepped into? Why was there a family in it? Why were they always yelling? Why did it only have three walls? I felt a lot more comfortable after Beatty came over and explained that whole history, but some parts still didn't sit right in my mind.

There was some points that were so so relevant to today's society. I can't believe this was published in 1953 - were things really that bad then as they are today? That whole monologue about how content kept being cut down further and further from books to magazines to headlines to cartoons, until society just ended up rejecting the book and watching pictures - did Bradbury somehow predict the future??? And then more people meant more minorities who would get offended from the books, so instead of books we just had to stuff them with facts that let them see nothing more than the surface level of the world. I mean, you can see this stuff everyday now, everywhere. His talent for realism in his dystopian science fiction worlds is crazy, and this book should be a poignant warning and wake-up call for society.

But why, WHY, did Clarisse have to die so early??? She was such an awesome character, and had such an impact on the protagonist - I wish she was developed further. Especially since she is introduced at the very beginning, when the reader is not fully aware of how impactful her words really are, because they are still half in the real-world while reading them. Bradbury himself, in the 50th anniversary introduction, said he wished he kept her until the end. But oh well.

Overall, EVERYONE should read this book and remind themselves of the power of knowledge and searching for the deeper meaning in things.

[spookyserenades]

Trouvaille - Coming Soon

Pairing(s); BTS OT7 x Reader

Genre/Themes; Hybrid!AU, themes of the supernatural and the occult, religious themes, violence, hurt/comfort, horror, romance

Rated; 18+ for swearing, violence/gore, future sexual themes. Reader discretion is advised.

Trouvaille playlist

Updates on the 7th of each month

READ THE TEASER HERE!

In a world where hybrids are both the hottest commodity and largely exploited, a recent shortage of hybrids nationwide due to the wealthy adopting for sport hunting dominates the news headlines. More than ever, stray hybrids are whisked off the streets and taken into shelters to meet the demand. Mistreated, neglected, forgotten – in a notoriously disreputable hybrid shelter in a pocket of downtown Boston, seven “aggressive” hybrids await their inevitable fate of being sold for sport.

After years of trying to distance herself from her mystical past and upbringing, Y/N finds herself quitting her emotionally-draining job and is forced to face past mistakes. While accompanying her friends looking to adopt a child hybrid into their newly-formed family, Y/N inadvertently finds herself face-to-face with seven hybrids doomed to die. In a spur of the moment epiphany, Y/N decides to change the course of fate for the better; though bringing seven aggressive hybrids into her life and the darkening spiritual energy of her old home is trickier to navigate than she originally thought.

Teaser for Chapter One will be posted on Tuesday, January 24th 12:00 PM EST!

[georgefairbrother]

On the 22nd of January, 1979, life for the already beleaguered Callaghan government got a whole lot worse as tens of thousands of public sector workers joined crippling national strike action as part of the Winter of Discontent. Four major public service unions were incensed over the government’s policy of attempting to impose a ceiling on pay rises at 5%, as a means of inflation control, while workers at the privately owned Ford plant at Dagenham had recently negotiated a 17% rise. Ford had openly defied the government’s wage-restraint policy, despite the fact that the government was one of Ford’s major clients.

The public service unions represented a total of 1.5 million members, and argued that their members' pay, particularly for manual workers, was falling well behind private enterprise. They called for a minimum wage of 60 pounds and a 35 hour week.

The previous autumn, Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan had made the fateful decision not to call an early election, despite his minority government’s tenuous grip on power, stating, "The government must and will continue to carry out policies that are consistent, determined, that don’t chop or change and that brought about the present recovery in our fortunes…We can see the way ahead."

Opposition leader Margaret Thatcher was not best pleased, referring to the government as ‘chickens’ and stating, “The real reason he isn’t having an election is because he thinks he’ll lose."

Even Liberal leader David Steel, whose party had propped up the minority government through the Lib-Lab Pact, wasn’t happy, stating that the country was due for change and that an election was the only way to breath life into the four-year-old parliament.

As winter closed in, a nationwide transport strike created shortages of many essential commodities. NHS hospitals, ambulance services, rubbish collection, schools and even funeral and burial services were caught up in stoppages that created nationwide chaos. At one point 200 000 workers were temporarily laid off, and rubbish piled high in the streets.

Into this chaotic atmosphere returned Prime Minister Callaghan from a summit with US President Carter, French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing and the West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

The meeting had been held in the sunny Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe. Callaghan, looking 'relaxed and unconcerned' according to reports, said, "I don’t think that other people in the world would share the view that there is mounting chaos.”

He was rewarded by a famous headline in The Sun;

By the end of January, 1979, the strike ended with employers conceding to almost all of the various unions’ demands.

Opposition Leader Margaret Thatcher soon seized a golden opportunity to take command of the agenda. She introduced a motion of no confidence against the Government on March 28th, which passed by one vote, the first such successful motion since 1924. Jim Callaghan had no option but to go the country and an election was finally called, paving the way for 18 years of Tory government.

Following the inevitable election loss, Jim Callaghan stayed on as Opposition Leader until 1980 when he was succeeded by Michael Foot. He subsequently served in the Lords as Baron Callaghan of Cardiff and passed away in 2005, aged 92.