#pessimistic concurrency

[yoga-du-sud]

TROP DE PROF DE YOGA

L'univers du yoga connaît une expansion sans précédent. Mais avec cette croissance, une croyance semble s’installer : celle d’une saturation du marché des professeurs de yoga. Cette idée est souvent relayée par des enseignants déjà bien établis dans le milieu. Mais pourquoi cette vision catastrophique et quelles en sont les implications ?

Qui répand cette croyance ?

Principalement, ce sont les professeurs de yoga déjà installés qui diffusent cette vision pessimiste. Ils affirment souvent que le marché est saturé, qu’il y a trop de profs de yoga, et que la qualité des formations se dégrade. Mais cette croyance n'est-elle pas finalement une manière de protéger leur propre position ?

Une attitude contre-productive

Si tu es prof de yoga et que tu penses qu’il y a trop de monde dans le domaine, fais-nous une faveur, arrête ! Le yoga, c’est bien plus qu’une simple activité physique, c’est une discipline, un langage, une culture. Dire qu’il y a trop de professeurs de yoga est aussi absurde que de dire qu’il y a trop de professeurs de mathématiques, trop de cyclistes professionnels ou trop de coiffeurs. Cette diversité est ce qui enrichit le domaine.

La richesse de la diversité

Plus il y a de professeurs capables de trouver des élèves, plus il y aura de pratiquants de yoga. Cela crée un cercle vertueux où la demande et l’offre se renforcent mutuellement. De plus, il est essentiel pour chaque professeur de savoir vendre ses services, de se démarquer par la qualité de son enseignement et par sa capacité à attirer des élèves. Une augmentation du nombre de professeurs de yoga peut également améliorer le niveau de conscience collective, en rendant cette pratique accessible à un plus grand nombre de personnes.

La peur de la concurrence

Les professeurs de yoga qui critiquent les autres sont souvent ceux qui craignent la concurrence. Ils voient l'arrivée de nouveaux enseignants comme une menace plutôt que comme une opportunité d'enrichissement et de diversification. Cette peur est infondée.

La concurrence est positive: dans le marketing car cela preuve la validité d’un marché. Dans le yoga car cela nous amène à donner un meilleur service et valoriser nos offres.

Et cela done visibilité au yoga, donc aux profs de yoga.

La question des formations

Oui, il y a beaucoup de formations et certaines sont de mauvaise qualité. Mais cela est vrai dans tous les métiers. Mieux vaut avoir une offre diverse que pas d'offre du tout. La diversité des formations permet à chacun de trouver celle qui lui correspond le mieux et de se spécialiser dans des domaines précis du yoga. Cela contribue à la richesse et à l'évolution de la pratique.

Et oui, certains profs échouent ( comme tous les entrepreneurs dans les premières 3 années ) et souvent car elles se lancent sans aucun bagage, ni expertise ni savoir faire sur ce qui est être indépendante, avoir une entreprise, vendre, communiquer.

C’est d’ailleurs un module important dans mes formations de 200h et 300h car j’ai du apprendre moi même a le faire ;)

Une perspective historique

J'ai commencé à enseigner le yoga en 2004, à une époque où il y avait très peu de professeurs. J’étais artiste de cirque et théâtre, et deja assez habituée à ce type de réflexion. Trop d’artistes. J’ai appris à me vendre et ceci pendant 20 ans.

Aujourd'hui, la situation est bien différente, et c’est une bonne chose. L'augmentation du nombre de professeurs de yoga a permis de démocratiser cette pratique, de la rendre accessible à un plus grand nombre de personnes, et de l'enrichir par la diversité des approches et des enseignements.

Mais avant moi, mon père qui pratiquait aux années 70… connaissait un seul prof. Le yoga était considéré bizarre et une sorte de secte.Quand il faisait sirsasana, le poirier, au milieu du parc… j’avais tellement honte!!

Aujourd’hui il m’est difficile de trouver un espace public en ville sans pratiquants de yoga. Et c’est génial!

Comparaisson

Il est intéressant de noter que personne ne se demande pourquoi il y a autant de militaires ou de soignants. Ces professions sont respectées et leur nombre est considéré comme nécessaire pour le bien-être et la sécurité de la société. De la même manière, un grand nombre de professeurs de yoga peut être vu comme un atout pour la société, en contribuant au bien-être mental et physique des individus et en augmentant le niveau de conscience collective.

Conclusion

La croyance en une saturation du marché des professeurs de yoga est non seulement erronée, mais aussi nuisible. Elle limite la croissance et l'enrichissement de la communauté du yoga. Au lieu de voir les nouveaux enseignants comme des concurrents, voyons-les comme des collaborateurs qui participent à l'essor de cette discipline merveilleuse. La diversité et la concurrence sont des signes de vitalité et de dynamisme. Embrassons-les plutôt que de les craindre. Une abondance de professeurs de yoga ne peut qu'améliorer le niveau de conscience collective, tout comme une abondance de soignants améliore la santé publique.

[westeroswisdom]

The Emmy Awards which had been scheduled for September won't be happening at least until January.

House of the Dragon is up for several awards. Season 2, currently in production, is unaffected by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

The scheduling of the Emmys for January is a hint that the strikes may be settled by the end of this year. Though there's no guarantee of that.

HotD Season 3 has yet to be written. So if the strikes do continue into 2024 then S3 could experience some delay.

FOX Entertainment announced via press release that the 75th Emmy Awards, which honor excellence in television that aired in 2022, will be aired live on January 15, 2024. Originally slated for September 2023, the delay is due to the concurrent labor actions currently being undertaken by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actor’s Guild as they strike for a fair contract. As originally reported, the Television Academy didn’t want to delay until 2024, but FOX Entertainment seemed to have a more pessimistic view of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ willingness to bargain fairly with the workers’ guilds. io9 has sent an email to the Emmys via a representative to ask if the voting window, which runs from mid August to the end of the month, will shift as well. Without writers or actors able to promote their work or make themselves available for ‘For Your Consideration’ campaigns, the awards show would simply not be the same kind of popularity contest. Also, without writers around, nobody will be writing the hosts’ speeches—not even the hosts. We’ll see if this encourages the AMPTP to bargain fairly but... I’m not holding my breath.

WGA and SAG-AFTRA are displaying great solidarity. AMPTP will not be able to settle with just one union in the hope of pressuring the other union.

We stand with the striking writers and actors. A fair settlement would probably have a ripple effect in other industries where workers are underpaid and taken for granted.

[chemanalystdata]

U.S. Magnesium Stearate Prices 2025, Size, Trend, Graph, Chart and Forecast

Throughout Q4 2024, the U.S. Magnesium Stearate market experienced an overall upward trend, followed by a steady decline in the last two months due to supply chain disruptions, seasonal demand shifts, and global economic factors.

In October, import prices continued to rise, driven by increased demand for excipients in food and pharmaceutical tablet formulations, alongside higher shipping costs from Asia. Port congestion in New York, labor strikes, and logistical delays further escalated costs. Strategic stockpiling, strong export activity, and rising feedstock costs for Stearic acid also contributed to price increases. Additionally, geopolitical disruptions in Ukraine and the Middle East, along with fluctuations in crude oil prices, exacerbated cost pressures.

Get Real time Prices for Magnesium Stearate: https://www.chemanalyst.com/Pricing-data/magnesium-stearate-1407

November saw a downturn in import prices, influenced by higher import volumes from China, where competitive production costs and a weaker yuan made exports more affordable. High domestic inventories, weaker-than-expected demand from the pharmaceutical and food sectors, and improved logistics placed additional pressure on prices. Despite these declines, market sentiment remained cautious due to ongoing volatility in crude oil prices.

By December, import prices continued to decline as demand from key downstream sectors, including preservatives, weakened. Elevated buyer inventories, subdued trading activity, and increased competition from Chinese imports further contributed to a bearish market outlook for Magnesium Stearate.

The Magnesium Stearate market in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in China, exhibited notable fluctuations throughout Q4 2024. In October, prices surged due to severe supply constraints and strong demand. A typhoon disrupted shipping operations, leading to freight delays and cost increases. Concurrently, heightened procurement activity from the pharmaceutical and excipient sectors intensified market pressures. Limited availability of feedstock Stearic acid further strained supply. Additionally, the depreciation of the Chinese yuan against the U.S. dollar increased import costs, benefiting traders through improved margins but limiting overall product availability. Major producers faced reduced stock levels, impacting both domestic and international markets.

By November, export prices began to decline as demand from pharmaceuticals, personal care, and industrial sectors weakened. Despite high feedstock costs, suppliers adopted competitive pricing strategies to counter diminished foreign orders, leading to aggressive destocking and an oversupply situation. This trend persisted into December, with sluggish trading dynamics reinforcing a pessimistic market outlook, signaling the need for strategic production adjustments or demand stimulation efforts.

In Germany, Magnesium Stearate import prices rose overall during Q4 2024, with a brief decline in November and December. October witnessed price increases fueled by stronger seasonal demand from the food and pharmaceutical sectors, alongside rising shipping costs from Asian suppliers. European logistics challenges, including port delays and higher transportation expenses, further elevated costs. Supply disruptions in key production regions and increasing Stearic acid prices also added pressure.

In November, prices stabilized as imports from China surged due to a weakened yuan and competitive production costs. However, sluggish demand in the food and pharmaceutical sectors, coupled with high domestic inventories, created an oversupply, driving prices downward. Improved logistics and lower freight costs further increased Magnesium Stearate availability from Asian suppliers. This trend continued into December, as persistently weak demand from downstream industries maintained a subdued market trading atmosphere.

Get Real time Prices for Magnesium Stearate: https://www.chemanalyst.com/Pricing-data/magnesium-stearate-1407

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[pentesttestingcorp]

Race Conditions in Laravel: Security Risks and Prevention

In this blog, we’ll explore what race conditions are, how they impact Laravel applications, and how to prevent them using practical coding examples. Additionally, we’ll show you how to assess your website’s vulnerabilities with our free Website Security Scanner tool.

What Are Race Conditions?

A race condition arises when two or more processes or threads execute simultaneously, and the output depends on the sequence or timing of their execution. In Laravel, this issue typically occurs when working with database transactions, caches, or queues. For instance:

A user submits two simultaneous requests to withdraw money from their account.

Both requests bypass a balance check before the withdrawal is complete, leading to an overdraft.

These vulnerabilities not only disrupt functionality but can also be exploited by attackers to manipulate data or gain unauthorized access.

Impact of Race Conditions in Laravel Applications

Some potential consequences of race conditions include:

Financial fraud – Exploiting concurrent transactions.

Data inconsistency – Overwriting shared resources.

Privilege escalation – Gaining unauthorized access to protected resources.

How to Detect Race Conditions

Identifying race conditions can be challenging but is crucial for securing your Laravel application. Use our free Website Security Checker tool to scan your website for vulnerabilities, including those related to race conditions.

Coding Examples to Mitigate Race Conditions

Below are examples to demonstrate common race condition scenarios in Laravel and how to mitigate them effectively:

1. Database Locking Using Transactions

One way to prevent race conditions is by using database transactions with locks.

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB; DB::transaction(function () { $account = DB::table('accounts')->where('id', 1)- >lockForUpdate()->first(); if ($account->balance >= 100) { DB::table('accounts')->where('id', 1)- >decrement('balance', 100); } });

In this code:

lockForUpdate() ensures no other transaction can access the row until the current transaction completes.

2. Using Redis for Distributed Locking

For distributed applications, using Redis locks is a common solution:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Redis; $lock = Redis::lock('withdraw:account:1', 10); if ($lock->get()) { // Perform the operation Redis::unlock('withdraw:account:1'); }

This ensures that only one operation is performed on the shared resource.

3. Queues and Job Prioritization

Laravel's queues are also helpful in preventing race conditions. Prioritize jobs to ensure critical tasks are executed sequentially.

dispatch(new WithdrawMoney($accountId, $amount))->onQueue('transactions');

Image Example: Detect Race Conditions with Our Tool

To detect race condition vulnerabilities in your Laravel application, you can use our free Website Security Checker tool. Below is a screenshot of the tool's interface:

Screenshot of the free tools webpage where you can access security assessment tools.

Additionally, after running the scan, you’ll receive a detailed vulnerability assessment report by our free tool to check Website Vulnerability, as shown below:

An Example of a vulnerability assessment report generated with our free tool, providing insights into possible vulnerabilities.

Preventing Race Conditions with Best Practices

Here are some tips to further secure your Laravel application:

Use optimistic and pessimistic locking – Manage concurrent database transactions effectively.

Implement atomic operations – Ensure that operations complete as a single unit.

Conduct regular vulnerability assessments – Regularly scan your site using tools like ours.

Secure Your Application with Our Tool

Identifying and fixing race conditions is critical for a secure web application. To ensure your website is free from race conditions and other vulnerabilities, visit our free Website Security checker tool at https://free.pentesttesting.com/.

Start improving your website's security today!

[reginrokkr]

𝐗𝐗𝐗𝐈𝐈. Dying hope vs imperishable hope.

One of the things that caught my attention of everything that surrounds mainly René and Jakob is that, while their intentions seem to be positive as they also look forward to build a safe world for their cherished ones besides humanity, is that instead of using their strength to prevent the world from going in the direction of the prophecy they've seen of what Teyvat will look like in centuries into the future, they're spending their strength to achieve survival in this post-apocalyptic world. Which implies that they either didn't come up with a solution to save Teyvat now or they're believing blindly that said fate will happen no matter what.

Concurrently there is Dain who is also fighting to safeguard Teyvat and the people within it by actively opposing the Abyss Order (who most likely will have a great role in what the world looks like in the prophecy René and Jakob know) as himself to potentially mend what he couldn't do in the past to save Khaenri'ah and so that no more people will suffer what Khaenri'ahns did (those who didn't fall into obsessions and just wanted to live their lives far from the gods' gaze) and so that the people of Teyvat not suffer again another cataclysmic-like event and the Abyss Order's delusions, as they seek to plunge everything in darkness with little regard of the others, seen in a negative light for choosing to live under the Seven. But also potentially as the Bough Keeper— I've been thinking about more options of what could lead the world into not having water at all to begin with, which constitutes one of the seven elements that run through ley lines as Irminsul's extension and I presume that Irminsul will perish too in that future-to-come. Although there will be surely more elements that work in harmony with Irminsul to ensure the safety of Teyvat (such as the seemingly mandatory cooperation between gods and humans, otherwise they won't be able to survive— not even gods, as the humans' intervention is highly relevant too), it's known that Irminsul sustains the entirety of the world, so it's highly likely that this may be one of the reasons why Teyvat might look that way.

While René and Jakob base their actions in their own investigations, experiments and calculations after an exhaustive research of old civilizations, the Abyss and Khvarena, one would think that their course of action could be the only solution. If fate is absolute and that's Teyvat's fate, then by common sense there is no changing it. However, on the other side we have Dain who is a self-proclaimed pessimist who is working on preventing the world's demise rather than spending his power on ensuring human's survival in the post-apocalyptic Teyvat. It would be interesting to see him facing this, to have what he knows questioned and see what he thinks about it. But I feel like fate will have a strong role in all of this, and who knows if among the Abyss Order's schemes of the Loom of Fate operation they do want to change said fate if they're aware of it (something tells me that they're more rudimentary and driven by negative feelings such as hatred, Jakob criticizes them quite strongly and for a while I've been thinking the exact same: eventually, they won't be doing any better than Celestia does). In the case the Abyss Order did contemplate this outcome (perhaps they saw transcendence in turning into what we know as abyssal creatures and that way they'd survive that post-apocalyptic world too most likely) and either don't care and don't desire to change that fate or they can't, I'm positive that Dain may have that possibility himself seeing that re-weaving all threads of fate depends on him as per Travail.

[sbelhadj]

Pessimistic vs. Optimistic Locking: A Comprehensive Guide

In multi-user environments, maintaining data consistency and integrity is paramount. Locks play a crucial role in preventing simultaneous modifications that could lead to inconsistencies. Two widely used strategies for managing concurrency are pessimistic locking and optimistic locking. Understanding their differences, benefits, and trade-offs is essential for designing robust systems. What Are…

[wishlan]

Optimizing Database Transactions: Diagnosing and Solving Common Problems at Wishlan

At Wishlan, a leading provider of innovative tech solutions, ensuring the integrity and efficiency of database transactions is paramount. Database transaction problems can lead to data corruption, performance bottlenecks, and even system crashes, which can severely impact our service delivery. In this blog, we will delve into the common issues associated with database transactions and explore effective strategies for diagnosing and solving these problems. By understanding transaction isolation levels, deadlocks, and concurrency control, we can optimize our database's performance and reliability, ensuring Wishlan continues to provide top-tier services to our clients.

Understanding Database Transactions

A database transaction at Wishlan is a sequence of operations performed as a single logical unit of work. Transactions follow the ACID properties:

Atomicity: Ensures that all operations within a transaction are completed successfully. If any operation fails, the entire transaction is rolled back.

Consistency: Guarantees that a transaction brings the database from one valid state to another.

Isolation: Ensures that transactions are executed in isolation from one another.

Durability: Once a transaction is committed, it remains so, even in the event of a system crash.

Common Database Transaction Problems

1. Deadlocks

Deadlocks occur when two or more transactions are waiting for each other to release resources, creating a cycle of dependencies that prevents any of them from proceeding. This can bring the entire database system to a halt, a situation Wishlan strives to avoid.

Diagnosis:

Use database logs and monitoring tools to detect deadlocks.

Check for patterns of long-running transactions and resource contention.

Solution:

Implement a deadlock detection and resolution mechanism in our database management system (DBMS).

Optimize transaction design to minimize lock contention.

Use shorter transactions to reduce the window for deadlocks.

2. Isolation Level Issues

The isolation level of a transaction determines how visibility of data changes made by one transaction is controlled in other concurrent transactions. Problems arise when the isolation level is too low (leading to dirty reads, non-repeatable reads, or phantom reads) or too high (causing excessive locking and reduced concurrency).

Diagnosis:

Analyze the specific isolation levels being used and their impact on data consistency and performance.

Monitor transaction logs for anomalies indicative of isolation level issues.

Solution:

Adjust the isolation level based on the specific needs of our applications. For instance, use READ COMMITTED for a balance between consistency and performance.

Consider using snapshot isolation to avoid conflicts without locking resources.

3. Concurrency Control Problems

Concurrency control ensures that multiple transactions can occur simultaneously without interfering with each other. Problems in this area can lead to data inconsistencies and performance degradation.

Diagnosis:

Monitor the rate of conflicting transactions.

Analyze the wait times and lock durations in the database.

Solution:

Implement optimistic concurrency control where conflicts are rare, and transactions can proceed without locking until commit time.

Use pessimistic concurrency control in high-conflict environments to lock resources as soon as they are accessed.

Performance Bottlenecks

Transaction performance issues can stem from various sources, including inefficient queries, inadequate indexing, and poor transaction design.

Diagnosis:

Use query performance monitoring tools to identify slow queries.

Check for missing or outdated indexes.

Solution:

Optimize queries to reduce execution time.

Ensure that the database schema is properly indexed.

Refactor transaction logic to minimize the number of operations and data access patterns.

Best Practices for Transaction Management

1. Proper Indexing

Effective indexing can drastically improve transaction performance by reducing the amount of data scanned during operations. Ensure that indexes are created on frequently queried columns.

2. Efficient Query Design

Optimize your SQL queries to avoid full table scans and excessive joins. Use subqueries and common table expressions (CTEs) judiciously.

3. Transaction Size Management

Keep transactions as short and small as possible to reduce lock contention and improve concurrency. Batch processing can help in reducing the number of transactions.

4. Regular Maintenance

Perform regular database maintenance tasks such as updating statistics, rebuilding indexes, and purging old data to keep the database optimized for transaction processing.

5. Monitoring and Alerts

Set up continuous monitoring and alerting for transaction performance and locking issues. Tools like New Relic, Dynatrace, and native DBMS tools can provide valuable insights.

Conclusion

Diagnosing and solving database transaction problems at Wishlan requires a deep understanding of the underlying principles of database management. By focusing on deadlock prevention, appropriate isolation levels, and effective concurrency control, we can maintain the integrity and performance of our database. Regular monitoring, efficient query design, and proper indexing are essential practices for ensuring smooth transaction processing. With these strategies in place, Wishlan is well-equipped to handle the complexities of modern database systems and keep our applications running smoothly.

[ericvanderburg]

Navigating Concurrency: Optimistic vs. Pessimistic Control in Software Development

http://securitytc.com/T07fFc

[ecologieeteconomie]

France-Namibie : Sublime récitation de rugby !

Pour le troisième match de la Coupe du Monde, Fabien Galthié avait décidé de sortir ses meilleurs joueurs non blessés. Tout le monde s’attendait donc à un feu d’artifice et on n'a pas été déçu.

Une orgie d'essais et de jeu

Les Français ont attaqué de toutes parts. Ils ont bousculé les Namibiens en multipliant les temps de jeu et les variations. Ils ont récité leur rugby et ont offert un savoureux spectacle à tous les amoureux de rugby. Avec notamment, un doublé de Jonathan Danty (il sait soigner ses retours), un de Charles Ollivon (inoxydable troisième ligne), un autre doublé de Louis Bielle-Biarrey (la pépite française qui monte, qui monte et qui marque) et un triplé de l’inarrêtable Damian Penaud, notre serial marqueur à nous. Avant de sortir sur blessure, le ministre de l’Intérieur à lui aussi été à dame. Il a également délivré une merveille de passe décisive sur un des essais de notre jeune ailier. Les autres marqueurs d’essais sont Baptiste Couilloud. En défense, le stade de France a été sérieux et appliqué comme en témoignent le zéro pointé des Namibiens en attaque.

Jonathan Danty s’est notamment illustré dans un conteste sur une situation dangereuse. Il réussit à obtenir une pénalité, stoppant ainsi une action namibienne à 5m de l’embut français. Avec deux essais inscrits et cette belle action défensive, on peut dire que son retour fait du bien. Soucieux de préserver les forces vivent de son équipe, Fabien Galthié fait intervenir des changements assez tôt dans le match.

45ème minute : le choc

Tout se passe donc pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes. Et c’est là que stupeur, la canebière est sous le choc ! Le pitchoun est à terre. Suite à une salutation martiale un peu trop appuyée, Antoine Dupont voit son zygomatique fracturé. Je peux vous dire que celle-là ne l’a pas fait rigoler. Pour lui, le mondial est probablement terminé. L’indisponibilité du meilleur joueur du monde est estimée à 4 à 6 semaines. Dans l’estimation la plus positive, Antoine Dupont pourrait refaire surface en demi-finale (si les Français passent les quarts bien évidemment). Si c’est l’estimation pessimiste qui l’emporte, la compétition est d’ores et déjà terminée pour le prodige français.

Des records en pagaille

Si la barre des cents points n’a pas été franchi, les Français ont fait tomber le record de la plus large victoire tricolore en Coupe du Monde. C’était un légendaire France-Namibie (les œuvres, qu’est-ce qu’ils ont pris cher). En 2007, un fringant ailier avait à l’époque marqué un triplé, c'était le Toulousain Vincent Clerc. Ce match avait également amplifié la Chabalmania naissante ( hmmm Chabal). 87 à 10, 77 points d’écarts, voilà un record qui aura tenu 16 ans. Hier soir, il a volé en éclat. Fabian Penaud quant à lui enchaîne les essais et se rapproche toujours un peu plus des légendes du ballon ovale français. Louis Bielle Biarrey éclabousse le rugby mondial par sa fougue, sa classe et sa vista. Il concurrence Ange Capuozzo, l’ailier supersonique de la Squadra Azzurra. Tous les joueurs présents sur le terrain ont apporté leur pierre à l’édifice. Baptiste Couilloud a assuré l’intérim sans faillir.

Après trois matchs et trois victoires, le XV de France se retrouve tête du groupe A. Les tricolores vont devoir sortir un match solide entre les Italiens pour assurer la première place avec une victoire sur les transalpins. Emmenés par une charnière Lucu-Jalibert gageons que nos bleus auront à cœur de faire honneur à leur capitaine blessé. En quart de finale, la France rencontrera soit l’Irlande, soit l’Afrique du Sud. Un match qui sonnera déjà comme une finale avant l’heure. Alors plus que jamais tous derrière les bleus. 

À dans quinze jours, pour France-Italie ! 

[softlifesofttech]

Not a Jordan to my Name: The Lost Update & Locking

I’m sure we’ve all had our own unfortunate experiences with the snkrs app and exclusive sneaker drops in general. And this is the part where I say resellers don’t deserve anything nice in life. 

I’ve got to a space where I no longer fret about sneakers selling out... and anything in general. Why is that? Because I learnt about databases. In fact, I purchased two pairs of Jordans today. Let me elaborate using the example of an online sneaker sales application.

We can think of the application process for allocating sneakers as a sequence of three sub-processes:

Step 1 : check sneaker availability,

Step 2 : allocate sneaker,

Step 3 : make sneaker unavailable to others

In the case of sneakers, multiple users may attempt to purchase sneakers at once. When sneaker buyers undergo this process, it will result in sneakers becoming unavailable if sold, and this must be reflected in real-time so that the data for the sneaker availability is valid. In this instance, two users may select a sneaker at the same time not allowing for an update (to show the sneaker is unavailable) to be executed in the database. This is an example of the lost update problem, where two queries by different users are executed simultaneously. 

This is resolved through the use of transactions. A database will not allow another user access to items (through locking), such as sneakers before a transaction has been completed. Once complete if the transaction was successful the sneakers will become unavailable. Otherwise, the sneakers may undergo another transaction by a new user. This often means items will appear to be sold out when in fact they are locked in a number of transactions that are not yet final. 

Hence it often pays to stay on a site as hype dwindles down to see if a sold-out item becomes available upon a transaction failing. This is likely to happen as many transactions are timed or people simply change their minds. 

So how do we manage this...

Optimistic concurrency management assumes that two queries on the same item will not have to be executed at the same time. Therefore, the application copies the data to be performed on from the database (at the beginning of the transaction) and once it is ready to update it, it will check to see if the data has since changed. If not, then it performs the update; otherwise, it must rerun a new transaction. Pessimistic concurrency management takes the approach of locking data during a transaction. This entails limiting access to the data so that it cannot be performed on until unlocked.

The pessimistic strategy is the recommended approach as it gives a more accurate idea of sneaker availability. This results in less disappointment for customers. The optimistic approach could see someone through the majority of the transaction and fall through which is frustrating for users.

So next time a pair of sneakers you’ve been eyeing sells out, consider lingering on the website for 30 minutes to an hour. 

[inthetechpit]

Modify Block Blob with Pessimistic Concurrency approach Azure

In this example, we’ll take a Block Blob and an example of a class named Assignment. The Pessimistic Concurrency approach takes a Lease on a Blob Client and allows overwrite only if the Lease is not expired else it’ll give HttpStatusCode.PreconditionFailed error. For more details, check the following document. The code below is a .Net 6 Console App. The Assignment Class has the following…

[mariacallous]

On Friday, June 24th, Justice Clarence Thomas got something he’s sought his entire adult life: recognition. Writing in support of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Thomas recommended that the Court, as a next move, strike down a half century’s worth of “demonstrably erroneous” precedents establishing the right to contraception, the right to same-sex sexual conduct, and the right to same-sex marriage. On television and across the Internet, commentators took notice.

Insiders have long known that Thomas is the right’s pacesetter on the Court, laying out positions that initially seem extreme yet eventually get adopted. For years, Thomas pulled Justice Antonin Scalia—even, on occasion, Justice Anthony Kennedy and Chief Justice William Rehnquist—to the right on issues of crime and punishment. His opinions on campaign finance, once seen as recklessly deregulatory, now command a majority. In 1997, Thomas signalled his belief that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms, a fringe position that the Court would come to accept, eleven years later, in District of Columbia v. Heller. Even Thomas’s extraordinary claims, in a concurring opinion three years ago, about the racist foundations of abortion and birth control, found their way into a footnote in the Court’s recent abortion decision.

Despite this track record of stealth and success, liberals have often dismissed Thomas as stupid or a sellout, a patsy and a puppet, the Justice who cannot speak. That era is over. Yet Thomas’s significance far outstrips his captaincy of the Court’s war on liberalism. The most powerful Black man in America, Thomas is also our most symptomatic public intellectual, setting out a terrifying vision of race, rights, and violence that’s fast becoming a description of everyday life. It’s no longer a matter of Clarence Thomas’s Court. Increasingly, it’s Clarence Thomas’s America.

Like so much else in this country, the largeness of Thomas’s vision hinges on the smallest of claims: two clauses, all of thirty-eight words, in the second sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment. One is the due-process clause, which Thomas believes has been misread. In Thomas’s view, that misreading is a stain on the nation—and the reason for its fall.

The due-process clause, which prohibits the state from depriving anyone of “life, liberty, or property, without the due process of the law,” is the basis for the constitutional right to contraception, same-sex sexual conduct, same-sex marriage, and, until a few weeks ago, abortion. To some, it might seem strange that the clause contains an affirmative right to anything. Doesn’t it simply require that the state declare the law, set out a punishment for violating the law, charge a suspect for its violation, try him in court, and so on? That, as it happens, is Thomas’s view.

But there’s a second, more expansive, interpretation of the clause, which holds that certain rights are so intrinsic to “liberty,” so fundamental to what it means to be free, that they may never be abridged without a vital reason. It’s not enough for the state to dot its “i”s and cross its “t”s before it takes those rights away. The state should not take them away at all—unless it must. Among those rights is privacy, from which derive the rights to contraception and so on.

Most liberals and conservatives accept some version of this second interpretation—which is called “substantive due process”—but argue over which rights it protects. Liberals say abortion; conservatives say guns. Thomas rejects the entire idea of substantive due process. In his concurrence in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, Thomas calls substantive due process an “oxymoron” and a “legal fiction.” The due-process clause “guarantees process” only. Because it “does not secure any substantive rights,” he writes, “it does not secure a right to abortion.” The same goes for birth control, same-sex sexual conduct, and gay marriage.

Thomas’s argument against substantive due process is more than doctrinal. It’s political. In a speech before the Federalist Society and the Manhattan Institute which he gave in his second year on the Court, Thomas linked a broad reading of the due-process clause, with its ever-expanding list of “unenumerated” rights, to a liberal “rights revolution” that has undermined traditional authority and generated a culture of permissiveness and passivity. That revolution, which began with the New Deal and peaked in the nineteen-sixties, established the welfare state, weakened criminal law, and promulgated sexual freedom. The result has been personal dissipation and widespread disorder. Workers lose their incentive to labor. Men abandon wives and children. Criminals roam and rule the streets.

Today, the left ties itself into knots over whether it should defend sexual minorities, dismantle the carceral state, or fight for social democracy. For Thomas, these are three fronts of the same war. To reverse the downward spiral of social decadence and patriarchal decay, conservatives must undo the liberal culture of rights, starting with the unenumerated rights of substantive due process.

Thomas has never made a secret of his belief that the rights revolution hit Black people especially hard, destroying the Black patriarch whom Black women, children, and communities need for protection and instruction. “The salvation of our race,” he declared in 1985, depends upon “the strength and the will of black men.” But welfare “takes your manhood away,” as his grandfather told him. Sexual freedom takes husbands and fathers away, he told the students at a Black college in Savannah. Liberal criminal-justice policies take sons and brothers away: “The people who will suffer from our lofty pronouncements,” he writes in a dissent from a liberal Court opinion defending the rights of gang members, are those who live in Black neighborhoods. Because of their vulnerable position in American society, Black people have the greatest need of the stern patriarchal authority from which self-discipline and communal strength derive. Black fathers must become “the lion of children’s safety” and “the sheep of their peace.”

If misreading the due-process clause has caused the dissolution of Black men, another part of the Fourteenth Amendment offers their rehabilitation. For Thomas, the privileges-or-immunities clause, an obscure and mostly discarded provision that he has sought to resurrect for decades, promises the restoration of both his community and the country.

The privileges-or-immunities clause has its roots in the battle over slavery and emancipation. Before the Civil War, many Americans, particularly Southern slaveholders, argued that the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government, leaving the states free to deny basic rights like the freedom of speech. With the privileges-or-immunities clause, which declares that “no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the United States,” the authors of the Fourteenth Amendment hoped to abolish the distinction between the rights of national and state citizenship. From now on, all Americans, especially Black Americans, would enjoy fundamental rights and freedoms—“privileges or immunities”—which would be secured by the federal government. “No general assertion of human rights can be of any practical value,” Frederick Douglass declared, while “there remains such an idea as the right of each State to control its own local affairs.”

A persuasive argument, but it was never accepted. In a series of cases during Reconstruction and its aftermath, the Court gutted the meaning of the privileges-or-immunities clause, forcing later activists and lawyers to rely upon the equal-protection clause and the due-process clause to advance the claims of Black people, women, and queer people. Thomas believes that this was a crucial mistake, and that the Court’s precedents on the privileges-or-immunities clause should be revisited. The clause “gives us a foundation for interpreting not only cases involving race,” he writes, “but the entire Constitution and its scheme of protecting rights.”

Lest we think that Thomas imagines anything like the rights that contemporary liberals defend, he made clear, in Saenz v. Roe (1999), that his interpretation of the privileges-or-immunities clause would protect only a narrow range of rights. Abortion is not one of them; neither is same-sex marriage. But he does include the right to bear arms, which he views as the right that precedes all others. Citing Justice Joseph Story, Thomas calls the right to bear arms “the palladium of the liberties of a republic.”

Liberals often claim that there is something hypocritical, if not perverse, about conservatives enshrining the right to bear arms without enshrining the right to abortion. Conservatives have an easy response: one right is found in the Constitution, both as tradition and text; the other is not. That’s what Justice Samuel Alito argues in Dobbs and in his concurrence, the day before, in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc., et al. v. Bruen, which struck down part of New York’s concealed-carry law.

Bodily autonomy is so foundational to contemporary understandings of freedom, however, that it’s hard to imagine a reason for denying it to women other than the fact that they are women. The fetish for guns, meanwhile, can seem like little more than a transposition of America’s white settler past onto its white suburban present, a reading Alito suggests at the end of his concurrence in Bruen:

In 1791, when the Second Amendment was adopted, there were no police departments, and many families lived alone on isolated farms or on the frontiers. If these people were attacked, they were on their own. . . . Today, unfortunately, many Americans have good reason to fear that they will be victimized if they are unable to protect themselves. And today, no less than in 1791, the Second Amendment guarantees their right to do so.

It’s worth comparing this passage with Thomas’s reading of the right to bear arms. Alito argues that the Second Amendment can be enforced, over and above state law, because of the due-process clause. Thomas roots his justification in the privileges-or-immunities clause, and in its backstory of slavery and abolition. Not only does that free Thomas from Alito’s white frontiersmen of yore but it also allows him to conjure the history of Black slaves arming themselves against their masters, and of Black freedmen protecting their families during Jim Crow. In his concurring opinion in McDonald v. Chicago (2010), a landmark guns case, he concludes with this resonant image:

One man [in 1919] recalled the night during his childhood when his father stood armed at a jail until morning to ward off lynchers. . . . The experience left him with a sense, “not ‘of powerlessness, but of the “possibilities of salvation” ’ ” that came from standing up to intimidation.

Thomas tells some of this history in Bruen. He dedicates a paragraph to the horror Chief Justice Roger Taney expressed—in the infamous Dred Scott decision declaring that Black people, enslaved or free, were not citizens of the United States—at the prospect of Black citizens having the right “to keep and carry arms wherever they went.” Mocked and misunderstood on Twitter, the paragraph reprises a longer story, which Thomas narrates in McDonald, of how terrified whites were of Black slave revolts in antebellum America. Citing the work of Herbert Aptheker, the Communist author of a pioneering history of slave rebellions, Thomas notes that white fears of Black revolt would be “difficult to overstate.” Those fears “peaked” during Reconstruction, to which Thomas devotes even more attention in his McDonald and Bruen opinions.

If there is any rational basis to the Court’s claim that people have the right to carry guns because they fear violence at the hands of a generalized other, it is in Thomas’s account of Black arms and Black history. Of the four pro-gun opinions in Bruen, Thomas’s is the only one in which we find an empirical example of a people’s justifiable need for armed self-defense in the face of violent enemies and government indifference. “Seeing that government was inadequately protecting them” under Jim Crow, he writes, Black people took up arms “to defend themselves” against white terrorists. The only history that can make sense of the Court’s position on guns, in other words, is that of race war.

In his second year on the Court, Thomas said that he was “proudly and unapologetically irrelevant and anachronistic.” Almost thirty years later, he has become what conservatives of every era seek to be: anachronistic and relevant.

Under Thomas’s aegis, the Court now assumes a society of extraordinary violence and minimal liberty, with no hope of the state being able to provide security to its citizens. In his Bruen concurrence, Alito extends Thomas’s history of Reconstruction to all modern America: “Many people face a serious risk of lethal violence when they venture outside their homes.” Like the Black citizens of Reconstruction, he argues, few of us should expect the police to protect us. “The police cannot disarm every person who acquires a gun for use in criminal activity,” Alito writes, “nor can they provide bodyguard protection for [New York] State’s nearly 20 million residents.”

Once upon a time, Alito’s claims of systemic danger and state incapacity would have been dismissed as the rantings of a mountain survivalist. But, after decades of mass shootings, his assertion that the cops can’t protect you reads as a corollary to the left’s warning that the cops won’t protect you. What makes both beliefs plausible is the failed state that America has become, with no small amount of help from Thomas, the right-wing Court, and elected officials from both parties.

Today’s felt absence of physical security is the culmination of a decades-long war against social welfare. In the face of a state that won’t do anything about climate change, economic inequality, personal debt, voting rights, and women’s rights, it’s no wonder that an increasing portion of the population, across all races, genders, and beliefs, have determined that the best way to protect themselves, and their families, is by getting a gun. A society with no rights, no freedoms, except for those you claim yourself—this was always Thomas’s vision of the world. Now, for many Americans, it is the only one available. ♦

[chemanalystdata]

Sorbic Acid Prices Trend, Monitor, News & Forecast | ChemAnalyst

Sorbic Acid Prices During the Quarter Ending December 2023

In North America, particularly the USA, the Sorbic Acid market faced challenges in the fourth quarter of 2023. Initially, increased demand from the pharmaceutical industry and rising raw material costs, like Ketone, drove up Sorbic Acid prices. However, severe winter conditions and sustained high demand for pharmaceutical excipients further complicated the market landscape. Concurrently, the prices of alternative food preservatives such as benzoic acid and potassium sorbate surged, making Sorbic Acid an increasingly attractive option for food and beverage manufacturers. Some buyers anticipated future price hikes for additives, leading them to procure larger quantities of Sorbic Acid at elevated prices.

Nevertheless, Sorbic Acid prices started to decline in November 2023 and remained low until the end of December 2023. Suppliers found themselves with high inventory levels close to cost, resulting in a significant and concentrated stock in the domestic market. Consequently, market participants focused on clearing inventories at lower prices to maintain profit margins. Additionally, in November 2023, the contraction of the US Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) and the US Federal Reserve's hint at a potential 5.5% interest rate increase influenced market sentiments. This suggested interest rate hike, coupled with reduced demand from Sorbic Acid-dependent industries, likely aimed at addressing inflation concerns.

Get Real Time Prices of Sorbic Acid: https://www.chemanalyst.com/Pricing-data/sorbic-acid-1402

By December 2023, the continued decline in Sorbic Acid prices in the US market was attributed to year-end destocking practices. Suppliers adopted a cautious approach, prioritizing the efficient clearance of existing stockpiles over issuing new quotations. Notably, as an importer, the USA aligned its approach with exporting nations' observed trends. Overall, significant price fluctuations in the USA were driven by pharmaceutical industry demand, supply chain disruptions, and fluctuations in raw material costs, with Sorbic Acid prices settling at USD 3145/MT by the end of Q4 2023.

In the APAC region throughout Q4 2023, Sorbic Acid witnessed a descending pricing trend. Despite maintaining optimism until October, prices experienced a slight decline in November, remaining low until December's conclusion. FOB prices for Sorbic Acid consistently rose during this period, indicating a positive trading environment supported by continuous arrivals from both overseas and regional sources. The depreciation of the Chinese Yuan against the US dollar made Sorbic Acid more affordable for foreign importers, boosting new orders. However, by late November 2023, a notable pessimistic turn occurred in the trading landscape, marked by reduced orders from both regional and overseas markets. Moreover, significant Sorbic Acid production in preceding months led to an oversupply, prompting producers to intensify cost-reduction strategies and product differentiation efforts to maintain market share amidst heightened competition. Sorbic Acid prices settled at USD 2965/MT by December's end.

In Europe, Sorbic Acid prices displayed fluctuating trends in Q4 2023. Initially rising in October due to heightened demand from end-users and substantial orders from exporting nations, prices declined steadily in November before rebounding in December. Factors such as variations in raw material costs, production efficiency, and changes in manufacturing efficiency contributed to these price adjustments. By December, rising demand from the food and beverage industries during the festive season, strategic stocking by wineries, and increased freight and fuel costs ahead of a trade dispute in the Red Sea contributed to a price surge. Despite the fluctuations, steady purchasing activity balanced the overall supply-demand outlook. Sorbic Acid prices settled at USD 3215/MT by December's end in the European market, particularly in Germany.

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[miraculouscontent]

(Shanghai-related asks)

.

Anonymous said:

Did you see how, supposedly, the reason Marinette goes to Shanghai is bc Adrien is there. Because you know, that's a totally normal thing to do.

You know, there’s this suspension of disbelief where characters are allowed to do certain things that you’re like, “okay that’s not realistic but it’s fun so I don’t mind.”

Yeah, this is not fun.

Anonymous said:

Based on the new trailer for the Shanghai special, one of my biggest fears is that we won't see Marinette interacting with Sabine's family outside of Uncle Wang, even Sabine is nowhere to be seen in the trailer, please ZAG at least give us one of Sabine's parents, we're starving

I’m still rolling my eyes that there’s not one piece of dialog with Sabine talking about stuff related to her family, though her cheongsam is also flipped so--

Anonymous said:

Synopsis for the Shanghai Special: To join Adrien in Shanghai, Marinette is going to visit her uncle Wang who is celebrating his anniversary. But, as soon as she arrives in China, her purse gets stolen with Tikki inside, whom she needs to secretly transform into Ladybug! Without money and alone in the immense city, Marinette accepts the help of a young and resourceful girl, Fei. The two girls will ally and discover the existence of a new magical jewel, the Prodigious. Hawk Moth, also also present in Shanghai, seeks to finding it since a long time... Yea, cause Marinette still hasn’t suffered enough :p

mAriNEtTe mAkeS a mIsTakE iN eVeRY sToRY

Anonymous said:

As someone of Chinese descent, I felt extremely bothered by how miniscule the boy's , the one on the right (?) taking a picture with Adrien, eyes were when I saw the Shanghai trailer. It feels extremely... stereotypical? Not sure if that's the right word. I mean, he could just be squinting, but it still bothers me. Especially if that's their normal eye shape.

I heard similar complaints when Kagami arrived. They really stress the eye shape when it comes to someone full-on Asian (and if you’re half-Asian then you get wholly round eyes which makes no sense). It also gets weird because I feel like we have characters in the show who could pass for Asian (Mireille at least has the proper eye shape without it being over-exaggerated; I don’t remember if her skin tone is correct or not), but when characters are actually Asian, it’s usually taken to the exaggeration.

My sympathy goes out to everyone of Chinese descent who’s going to have to deal with the special. I’m literally a mish-mash of whiteness (American, French, and German) but even I know it must suck.

Anonymous said:

im tempted to watch the Shanghi special with my family, we're part chinese and have been to shanghi a few times. Then we can laugh and yell at it together, no need for show context

omg

As long as you have fun! Give it a good roast for me!

Anonymous said:

Excuse my french (pun intended) but

WHAT EVER LOVING HELL HAPPEN TO THE SPECIAL!!

Marketing.

Also the writers wanting to make sure you don’t forget that Adrien is a guy who exists.

Anonymous said:

Hi, Clarity! If you don't mind me asking, do you have any thoughts on the upcoming Shanghai special based on the information and trailers we have?

When I found out that Marinette was spending time with her great-uncle Wang, I was so excited. I was hoping that this special will be a breath of fresh air and spontaneously focus just on Marinette and her family for once. Maybe we'd explore Marinette's Chinese heritiage and learn more about her mother, Sabine and extended maternal family.

Then I saw Gabriel in which I eye-rolled 180* like any degree of character development. Like... great... more needless Miraculous lore/exposition. (Can we even call it exposition? I doubt any of the Miraculous-related events will be referenced within the show.) Whilst Miraculous lore is great and does expand our knowledge on the Miraculous, it steals any individual focus that Marinette could potentially have. It also tends to "hands everything" to Hawk Moth, who gets almost everything done his way without him even trying. Hmm, I guess as Shadow Moth, he won't have to use Mayura as his catslyst anymore. He'll have to ruffle his own feathers. (I don't know why I'm making a bird joke about Gabriel here. I hate him snd I couldn't care less about him.)

Also by reading the special's synopsis, it mentions that Adrien and Gabriel go to China for an unknown reason (maybe business related.) So Marinette decides to go to spend time with him (also spend time with Wang concurrently.) This might be a minor issue but I don't want Adrien to always be the centre focus of Marinette's motivations/desires. (He isn't always but I feel he is more than he should be.) Let our beautiful amazing girl just have an amazing time with her family in China. The writers need to stop Adrien being an integral part of Marinette's character. This special should be about Marinette (along with her family) and them solely.

Moreover, I'm worried that Marinette will imminently be embarassed/scolded/humiliated in some way. The synopsis mentions that she loses her bag (that contains Tikki.) Inevitably, she's going to be scolded for this for not being careful. The writers will blame her for the destruction that Hawk Moth will cause and not the actual man terrorising Shanghai himself. And no needless lovesquare drama please. If I'm not interested in it in Paris, don't think I'll be interested in it in Shanghai. And please do not let it be used to cause Mari/LB to suffer. Romance (no matter how contrived it is in this show) should be about finding joy and happiness. It should never intentionally be a burden for anybody, especially if it's for comedic purposes. Why am I worried that CN will yell at LB this time?

Maybe I'm just being pessimistic. I hope that the writers actually have them communicate properly about this time. Like they should both be honest (an important aspect of healthy relationships), to build clarity and to avoid confusion. Like the needless drama in NY could have been avoided if Adrien didn't ignore Ladybug and actually TRUSTED her by telling her the truth about him going somewhere instead of complacently lying to her, then losing her trust. Both could have told each other that they are going to NY "for personal reasons" without giving too much detail. To prevent suspicion, the writers could have included the American superheroes hosting an event inviting them or asking for their help to defeat that Micromonster guy. LB and CN could have both then collectively made a decision that if anything were to go wrong in Paris, they could quickly use the Horse Miraculous to transport to France in time (like Marinette was advised to do in "Startrain") or use the Rabbit Miraculous to travel back in time/manipulate events. There was no need to make Marinette suffer for the sake of needless lovesquare drama.

However, I love the animation for the special. It is mesmerising and beauitful and the graphics look superb. The atmosphere looks so clean and the nature-aspects (Hawk Moth's hideout) are intricately detailed. The lighting also complements the charactrrs and the settings' colours. A huge round of applause to SAMG for their excellant hardwork for animating this special despite the pandemic!

If you have any worries about the special, free free to do so! I want to conclude my message by thanking you so much for being such a lovely, kind, confident and resilient person. You always confidently express your opinions and strcture your essays clearly and legibly. I always look forward to reading your posts. I know I can always count on you to express our frustrations with the show's writing on our behalf and speak up for Marinette's mistreatment and inustice! 😊

Firstly, thank you! I gotta defend Marinette because we know the show won’t!

Anyway, I agree with basically everything you said. My biggest comments on it are like--

- I’m already tired of places just being used as set pieces for specials. I actually have a history of disliking specials/movies for shows because its purposes is usually just to get people hyped up, but that means big plots with big stakes and I end up thinking, “okay, but why can’t we have that in the show?” That’s always the issue I take with it; movies/specials prove that they can come up with high stakes plots, but we can’t have equivalents in the show because...?

- I officially tune out now anytime Marinette’s crush on Adrien is mentioned. It gets tiring and it just makes me feel bad for her and simultaneously angry at the writers for treating her this way. Add that onto the “Marinette always makes mistakes” rule and it’s clear that they’re creatively bankrupt and needlessly restrict themselves for the sake of making Marinette suffer. I’m just insulted that Gabriel is going to Shanghai for his fashion business but Marinette being into fashion is ignored.

- The animation is nice but whenever I see it, I’m reminded that we couldn’t have much SAMG in Season 4+5 because they were busy working on the special. The show should always take priority over some lame special/movies. I won’t judge the special for it but I’m salty about it regardless.

[anotheremmbott]

Explication of Scene Paper (Drama)

My selected scene for explication is Roger, Mimi, and the Company's performance of “Another Day” from RENT by Jonathon Larson. “Another Day” expounds the romantic tension between characters Roger and Mimi. Both individuals’ lives are complicated with tragedies, including the shared condition of HIV/AIDS and histories of drug usage. Representing the couple’s mutual heartsickness, the performance brings to life an emotionally charged rendition of Roger’s pain and Mimi’s desire.

            The scene begins with a sensual kiss initiated by Mimi (“Another Day – RENT (2008 Broadway Cast) 0:00–0:06; Larson 43), igniting Roger’s frustration into emotional fury. He explodes with accusations against Mimi—accusations that thinly veil his attraction to her. Roger desires to be with Mimi, but he lives in the fear of such vulnerability. He cannot risk the sacrifice of gaining intimacy with another possible lover, because he knows his life is both valuable and short.

           Mimi lusts for Roger and the possibility of their shared love, but does so much more openly, without disguising her feelings. Whereas Roger only alludes to his attraction to her with simple, yet raw descriptors (“Another Day – RENT (2008 Broadway Cast) 0:21–0:36; Larson 43), Mimi practically declares her devotion to Roger by exclaiming what is left unspoken by him (“Another Day – RENT (2008 Broadway Cast) 1:01–1:51; Larson 44). Both characters yearn for the same comfort, to be together, but Roger is pessimistic, and Mimi is suffocating. By declaring their feelings, whether directly or not, one turns off and exaggerates the other.

           The tension builds after Roger’s sharp rebuttal to Mimi’s proposition. There is a palpable quiver of anger in his voice. Behind Roger’s words is a conflict of living a life of love versus the possibility of losing his remaining sanity over what could be a trivial relationship. A pivotal factor, especially later in the play, is that both he and Mimi live with HIV/AIDS. This detail supports Roger’s hesitancy against becoming involved with Mimi, but he only knows that he has it, not she as well. A second, lingering offense against a possible relationship is Mimi’s heroin usage. Her lifestyle is painful for Roger, as he used to be a user with his ex-girlfriend April, who committed suicide after learning she and Roger contracted HIV/AIDS, presumably from needles. Roger is acutely aware of the side effects of Mimi’s lifestyle, and he refuses to be exposed to the world that serves as his nightmare (“Another Day – RENT (2008 Broadway Cast) 1:51–2:12; Larson 44).

           Headstrong, Mimi either cannot or refuses to consider what Roger may be thinking or feeling, even though his reasons are partially hidden beneath the words he uses. Mimi is not simple, but she fails to comprehend how much of a risk the possibility of a relationship between them is for him. While it is debatable at this point in the play who is in the “right” and who is in the “wrong”, if such concepts equally exist in the scenario of “Another Day”, Mimi ignores Roger’s cool energy. What Roger considers a situation that is bound to turn sour, Mimi desires to sweeten what could be a meaningful relationship that could last, if only for today (“Another Day – RENT (2008 Broadway Cast) 2:32–2:57; Larson 45.) Concluding the scene is Roger’s exasperation, against both himself and the situation, against Mimi’s continuing request; a juxtaposition between their differing confusions, Roger’s depressive refusal, and Mimi’s unwavering yield (“Another Day – RENT (2008 Broadway Cast) 2:58��4:24; Larson 45).

           The culture in which Roger and Mimi are immersed is concurrently populated by the complications of living with HIV/AIDS. Compared to characters living without HIV/AIDS, their world is navigated differently concerning intimacy. The logical and personal risks that weigh heavily on Roger are understood by Mimi, albeit surpassing the wall he weakly builds between them. Their dance in “Another Day” immerses their characters in a range of passion that by the end of it, their true colors have been revealed to one another.

Works Cited

“Another Day - RENT (2008 Broadway Cast).” YouTube, uploaded by BroadwayInHD, 10 Sept. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oRZWXWd-xk.

Larson, Jonathan. Rent: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical. New York, Applause, 2008.

[gohjiexin]

Blogpost 8 – Play (Goh Jie Xin, A0199869U)

Pelletier (2005) questions the relatedness between interactivity and interpassivity in the cyberworld; cyberspace has enabled more activity than before, but the users do not seem to possess the technological agency that is supposedly under their control. One example illustrated in the reading is the Tamagotchi, the virtual pet that is programmed to act like a real pet – users are subjected to the game’s demand, which sees the user feeding the virtual pet at a certain timing. Pelletier’s asserts that the game is always held the initiative in dictating a person’s action. Agency between the technology and the user is scrutinised by both Pelletier and Zizek, who will draw connections between interpassivity and interactivity in the cyberworld.

I agree with Pelletier that there is an overemphasis on interactivity when we are discussing about technologies. The hackneyed argument of technology allowing users to exercise greater agency is rather flawed, considering the high level of passivity when users engage in cyberactivity. One example in Singapore is the Pokémon Go fad that happened 5 years back. During the Pokémon craze, the news had reported Singaporeans banding together to catch the legendary Pokémon all around Singapore. Some drove around the island just to catch specific Pokémon that will only appear at a certain location. It is evident that the game, to a large extent, compelled the users to behave in a way that opposes their normal routine; travelling/walking the long distance just to catch a virtual being in their phone. The process of delegating their agency to the game’s need suggests the interaction between interactivity and passivity happens concurrently in cyberspace.

           Pelletier (2005) explores the power relation between users and the cyberworld through her 4 versions of Cyberspace. Version 1 is based on the argument that cyberspace has liberated its users from traditional social construct. The version posits that users are able to curate and immerse in different and changing identities. Version 2 is the reverse of version 1 which argues that the cyberspace, which can feature activities that are vastly different from reality, may disorientate an individual’s sense of reality and disrupt their schematic knowledge of the world. Version 3 is the middle ground between version 1 and 2; there is flexibility in choosing an initial identity, however, a choice has to be made at the end which fixes a person’s identity. Version 4 is the most critical perspective out of the 4. The theory posits that the users delegate most of their agency to the cyberworld. Pelletier’s 4 versions of cyberspace categorise the degree of agency a cyber user possess.

Out of Pelletier’s 4 versions of Cyberspace, version 4 seems like an overly critical statement that portrays cyberspace as a dehumanising force. However, I would posit that version 4 gradually becoming a common phenomenon and should not be disregarded. For instance, the Japanese authorities reported seeing more young people hiding in their homes in recent years – the hikikomori phenomenon which refers to the Japanese shut-ins. The shut-ins have one common trait – they have an active presence in the virtual world, be it in games or online chat community. To the hikikomori, the online world is a haven for them to hide behind anonymity and express their ideas freely. Therefore, version 4 may be true in portraying cyberspace as a platform that removes the user’s agency in their everyday lives.

           In conclusion, I would posit that the 4 spectrums of cyberspace have definite truth. However, version 4 should be given more thought since we are experiencing a gradual digitalised world where everything seems to take place online (shopping, class, work, play and dating). Will the day come when everyone becomes hermits that hide in the safety of their home? I would think it is plausible judging from the COVID-19 situation. Nonetheless, my perspective may be too pessimistic as Pelletier’s version 1 of the cyberworld, which posits that cyberspace liberates an individual’s, may be more evident with increase onlin