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afeelgoodblog · 3 months ago

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The Best News of Last Year - 2024 Edition

Welcome to our special edition newsletter recapping the best news from the past year. I've picked one highlight from each month to give you a snapshot of 2024. No frills, just straightforward news that mattered. Let's relive the good stuff that made our year shine.

1. January - South Korea passes law banning dog meat trade

The slaughter and sale of dogs for their meat is to become illegal in South Korea after MPs backed a new law. The legislation, set to come into force by 2027, aims to end the centuries-old practice of humans eating dog meat.

2. February - Greece legalises same-sex marriage

Greece has become the first Christian Orthodox-majority country to legalise same-sex marriage. Same-sex couples will now also be legally allowed to adopt children after Thursday's 176-76 vote in parliament. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the new law would "boldly abolish a serious inequality".

3. March - Global child deaths reach historic low in 2022 – UN report

The number of children who died before their fifth birthday has reached a historic low, dropping to 4.9 million in 2022. The report reveals that more children are surviving today than ever before, with the global under-5 mortality rate declining by 51 per cent since 2000.

4. April - Restoring sight is possible now with optogenetics

Max Hodak's startup, Science, is developing gene therapy solutions to restore vision for individuals with macular degeneration and similar conditions. The Science Eye utilizes optogenetics, injecting opsins into the eye to enhance light sensitivity in retinal cells. Clinical trials and advancements in optogenetics are showing promising results, with the potential to significantly improve vision for those affected by retinal diseases.

5. May - Vaccine breakthrough means no more chasing strains

Scientists at UC Riverside have demonstrated a new, RNA-based vaccine strategy that is effective against any strain of a virus and can be used safely even by babies or the immunocompromised.

6. June - Bill Gates-backed startup creates Lego-like brick that can store air pollution for centuries

The Washington Post detailed a "deceptively simple" procedure by Graphyte to store a ton of CO2 for around $100 a ton, a number long considered a milestone for affordably removing carbon dioxide from the air. Direct air capture technologies used in the United States and Iceland cost $600 to $1,200 per ton, per the Post.

7. July - Stem cell therapy cures man with type 2 diabetes

A 59-year-old man had been suffering from diabetes for 25 years, needing more and more insulin every day to avoid slipping into a diabetic coma and was at risk of death. But then Chinese researchers cured his disease for the first time in the world. The patient received a cell transplant in 2021 and has not taken any medication since 2022.

8. August - Chinese drones will fly trash out of Everest slopes

Come autumn, Nepal will deploy heavy lifter drones to transport garbage from the 6,812-metre tall Ama Dablam, south of Everest. This will be the first commercial work an unmanned aerial vehicle does in Nepal’s high-altitude zone.

9. November - Tokyo to make day care free to boost birth rate

Tokyo plans to make day care free for all preschool children starting in September, the city governor has announced as part of efforts to boost Japan's low birth rate.

10. October - FTC Rule Banning Fake Product Reviews Takes Effect With Stiff Penalties

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan announced on Oct. 21 that the agency’s prohibition on fake online reviews was taking effect, imposing fines as high as $50,000 for violations. Khan encouraged followers to report the proscribed practices at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

11. November - Bumblebee population increases 116 times over in 'remarkable' Scotland rewilding project

The bumblebee population has made an impressive comeback in a developed area by increasing to 116 times what it was two years ago thanks to a nature restoration group.

12. December - Spain to enshrine gay marriage and abortion rights into its constitution so 'they cannot be undone in the future'

The left-wing PSOE leader made the announcement at an event marking the 46th anniversary of the Spanish Magna Carta.

“We believe that these are rights that we must protect in the Constitution so that no one can touch them in the future,” Sanchez said in a statement in parliament on Friday.

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That's it for last year :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation here:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Also don’t forget to share this post with your friends.

#best news of last week #best news of last year

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chrysanthemumgames · 9 months ago

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Fields of Asphodel is now on sale!

Descend to the Underworld and live among myths as the deity of spring!

Fields of Asphodel is a 1.3 million-word interactive novel by JJ Laurier. It's entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Forced into an arranged marriage with the God of the Dead, only you can decide what to make of your new life. Befriend misfit deities, repel giant attacks, find the culprit behind the river goddess's mysterious illness, and use your powers to nudge Fate in your favor! Decide what kind of deity you want to be—whether you'll answer prayers, how you'll develop your powers, and what role you'll take in governance.

Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, bi, asexual, or poly.

Play as neurodivergent or neurotypical.

Take on the powers of spring and life.

Find love and friendship among the gods of the ancient Greek Underworld.

Develop your abilities and hobbies, and choose the kind of life you want to live.

Grow a garden in the Underworld.

Defend the realm, advise the King, and solve a mystery.

Make a new home, or seize the opportunity to return to your old one.

Can you bring light to the darkest of realms?

---------------------------------------------------------

I am delighted to announce that the wait is finally over. Fields of Asphodel is now available on Steam, the CoG Website, via the Hosted Games Omnibus app, and anywhere else Hosted Games are sold! For the next week, it's on sale for $7.99 (USD), so get it before the price goes up to $11.99!

Thank you all so much for your support through the game's development; it's what made this possible. A special shout-out to my Patrons, to the Discord server crew, and to @gncrezan, who not only makes regular and amazing art related to the game, but who drew the beautiful cover image as well.

If you enjoyed Fields of Asphodel, please consider leaving a review on the platform of your choice. It really does make a difference!

#announcement #release #it's finally here!

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cashezsvenningsenrkdjx · 13 days ago

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A Little Intuition/Is Argentina's "Chainsaw Revolution" applicable to the United States? \Li Lingxiu

At a political rally held in the suburbs of Washington on Thursday, Argentine President Milley presented Musk, the leader of the Department of U.S. Government Efficiency (DOGE), with a "signature" chainsaw, symbolizing the inheritance of the "chainsaw revolution". But can the United States afford the economic price Argentina has paid for it?

Since the establishment of DOGE, several federal government departments have been purged. Musk and his leadership team first gained access to the Treasury Department's computer system, and then DOGE staff entered the International Development Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Ministry of Education and other departments to conduct investigations. At the aforementioned Conservative Political Action Conference, Musk also predicted that the Federal Reserve will be the next target.

The White House has provided a "buyout plan" to 2 million federal government employees, which will provide about 8 months of salary compensation to all employees who voluntarily resign. As of February 18, a total of about 20,000 federal employees (including probationary employees) have been laid off or forced to stop work and take leave.

Such a swift and vigorous layoff storm easily reminds people of the "chainsaw revolution" promoted by Mile in Argentina. As early as the last round of elections in the country, the image of Mile holding a chainsaw high has become a classic image of campaign propaganda. At the beginning of his term, he signed a presidential decree to reduce government departments from 18 to 9 and fired more than 30,000 government employees. The Argentine government also successfully cut public spending by 30% through measures such as cutting energy and transportation subsidies, achieving a fiscal surplus for the first time in 14 years.

But compared with the political environment of the two countries, there are actually great differences. The Argentine president has absolute power over the government's organizational structure and departmental settings, and the abolition of government departments belongs to the category of administrative affairs management and adjustment. But for the US president, if there is no clear authorization from Congress through relevant laws, government departments cannot be adjusted or abolished (except for agencies established by presidential decrees).

Expenditure reduction plan difficult to achieve

Musk's previous slogan was to cut federal spending by $1 trillion. But in the officially released White House documents, Trump did not propose KPIs in this regard. As of February 17, DOGE has saved an estimated $55 billion through contract and lease renegotiations, cancellation of grants, asset sales, layoffs, regulatory savings and fraud detection, completing only 4% of Musk's goal.

Data shows that the total expenditure of the US federal government in fiscal year 2024 is $6.8 trillion, and the largest sources come from three aspects: Social Security ($1.46 trillion), Medicare ($0.87 trillion), and Medicaid ($0.91 trillion), accounting for a total of 49%. However, cutting the above expenditures will shake the interests of voters, and Trump also made it clear during his campaign last year that he would not cut spending on these three projects. In this way, DOGE's spending reduction target seems to be a task that can never be completed.

More importantly, the cost of Argentina's "chainsaw revolution" is painful. In the first six months after Milley took office, the country's poverty rate jumped from about 40% to 53%. Although it fell back by the end of last year, the unemployment rate climbed from 12% in 2023 to 15%.

House prices in Washington, DC plummet

There are also some bad trends in the United States at the moment. Data shows that the number of initial unemployment claims in Washington, DC has risen significantly in the past two weeks. Real estate prices in the region have also begun to fall. The median price of a house in Washington, DC in January 2025 is $553,000, a sharp drop of 9.7% year-on-year.

Argentina is still the largest borrower from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with outstanding loans of $43.4 billion, accounting for nearly 30% of total credit, exceeding the total of all sub-Saharan African countries. (See accompanying picture)

If Musk insists on carrying out the "chainsaw revolution" to the end. Then, poverty will replace inflation and become the hottest topic in American society in the future.

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lumi-lex · 8 days ago

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Nanami/F!Reader

summary: one room with two beds was a million times worse than one room with just one bed when you were pining for your colleague.

word count: 2.2k

warnings: masturbation, mutual masturbation, pillow humping, clothes sniffing

blue dividers by @cafekitsune, banner by me

read on ao3

This was the opportunity of a lifetime.

At least, that’s what your senior management was trying to convince you of when they said the company was sponsoring you for an educational conference. Initially it felt like a scam, considering you hadn’t been with the company long and had been told that professional development wasn’t a priority compared to client satisfaction and sales counts. Why waste your time and their money if it wasn’t going to be valued down the line? But when your senior colleague had asked if you would be joining him for the conference, your affirmative response left you faster than you could actually think about what you were saying. He looked relieved, dare you say happy, that you’d be going with him and filled your heart with hope for any kind of development in your personal standing with him.

Even if he just called you his friend, you’d be elated. Nanami was such a difficult man to read, maintaining an aloof air about him that deterred many from trying to get closer to him – a memo you opted to ignore and instead pushed to be closer to him. Requesting his opinion or support when dealing with difficult clients or coworkers had turned into being seated beside him on the floor, which further developed into sharing clients and accounts then sharing meals during work hours and later after work. You were colleagues; and you put a lot of work into building the rapport with Nanami that nobody else could claim to have, but your respect for him had grown into an attraction that you couldn’t dispel and was only further fueled by his attention to you. He knows your lunch orders, your preference on coffee vs. tea and never failed to order it correctly and always delivered with a little snack on the side. It could all mean nothing but, when you think about the fact that he didn’t do those things for anyone else, you know it means everything.

You’d washed and ironed all of your business clothes, only packed cute bras and panties (even making sure they all matched), bought new perfume and a bottle of his favorite sake to ensure that you were prepared for anything that could possibly happen during your five days and four nights away with Nanami. Not that it was a vacation, but if Nanami wanted to get a little closer then you’d let him get closer — and you’d look cute when you did.

But in all of your preparation for this trip, the hotel being sold out of rooms due to the exact conference you were attending was not on the list of possibilities. He’d personally ensured that you both booked and confirmed your reservations early (and you basked in the scent of his cologne when he’d hovered behind you to help you reserve your room through the company’s travel portal) to ensure that this exact scenario didn’t happen.

But it happened anyway.

After a long day of traveling by train and by car you got to stand at the counter and look into the apologetic eyes of the receptionist as she told you that your room had been double booked and they only had one room left that had been reserved by Nanami.

One room. In the entire hotel. Just one room. Nanami’s room, no less.

“We’re deeply sorry, and have meal vouchers for the restaurant.”

“It’s appreciated,” you force out, smiling as you look between her and your stone faced colleague as you accept the vouchers and the room keys. “C’mon, Nanami, we shouldn’t hold up the line.”

He stays quiet as he follows you to the elevator, his lack of conversation unsettling in the short wait for the doors to open. The ride to the seventh floor is only a couple minutes, but feels like hours due to his commitment to not speaking. You’re sure it’s more to do with the situation than it was with you personally, as a lack of hotel rooms could only be followed up by just one bed waiting for you in the hotel room and requiring a potentially awkward conversation with your senior colleague. It would be the icing on the cake, honestly.

Potentially sharing a bed with Nanami after spending weeks working by his side, late nights and early mornings exchanging nervous glances — or the way he’d pressed against you when he reached for the printer ink last week. His hand on your back as you led him through the train to your seats, his hand in yours as he helped you out of the taxi when you’d arrived at the hotel. Or how effortlessly he’d lifted your suitcase out of the trunk of the car and then rolled it into the hotel for you. He made it impossible to think that there wasn’t something happening between you two even if nothing had been outright said.

Which is why you deflate when the door to the hotel room opens and you see two beds.

Two queen sized beds; neatly made with pristine bedding spaced five feet away from one another. A nightstand sits between them, two lamps and an alarm clock serving as a divider to separate you from your colleague whom you lusted after.

With a mental reminder to be normal, you assure him that you trusted you both could be adults about this and share the space for the four nights you’d be there. His expression is unreadable when he nods his agreement, but leaves you to your own unpacking as he sets out to re-iron his dress shirts before hanging them up.

After dinner he showers, and while he’s in the shower you change into your pajamas. Having not anticipated sharing a room before he told you he wanted you, your only pajamas were cutesy and revealing — all you could do for a moment was stare at yourself in the mirror before shrugging. Maybe seeing more of your exposed thighs would entice him into wanting to share one bed during your trip. If he touched you just right, fingertips grazing your skin and maybe slipping past the lacy trim of the silky shorts to explore uncharted territory. You’d fold instantly, wouldn’t even have the frame of mind to try and play it coy because you’d just need him to touch you more.

You find it difficult to sleep knowing Nanami is about five feet away. Wearing pajama pants and a white tshirt that exposed the bulkiness of his body that his business attire hid so well. Biceps that could crush your head, veiny forearms, and broad chest — Nanami was big. And he was laying in a bed five feet away from the bed you laid in. His back faced you, and you could barely make out the shape of his figure through the dark room but it seemed like he had managed to fall asleep while you were stuck here thinking about him so much that you couldn’t sleep.

You feel warm, a too-familiar ache starting to burn at your core and growing in intensity with every breath you take. An ache you only know how to quell in one way but your hand freezes at the waistband of your shorts with only one thought — wasn’t it disrespectful? To rub yourself thinking of the man in the other bed, your colleague, while he sleeps? What if he woke up, turned over, and saw you with a hand in your pants rubbing your clit furiously while desperately trying not to say his name? Any chance for him calling you a friend could go out the window along with all of your professional credibility. But the other alternative was that he joined you in this bed, moved your hand out of the way and used his own fingers to get you off. He’d be better at it; his hands were larger, fingers longer and thicker than yours and would fill you so nicely you wouldn’t want anyone else touching you like that.

With a huff you turn over, grabbing one of the plush pillows you weren’t using and tucking it between your legs as you settle on your side facing away from your handsome colleague. It doesn’t take you long to find a rhythm that quells the ache without making too much noise. It wasn’t ideal, didn’t give you the mind numbing orgasm you sought out, but once your alarm went off you’d be in the shower with your vibrator with the single goal being to get yourself off.

When five-thirty comes around you roll from your bed with an energy you shouldn’t have. You’d maybe dozed off for an hour and the wet spot on the pillow that falls to the floor exposes exactly why you’d been so restless if the shorts that had already been discarded didn’t expose you. You’re so caught up in getting to the bathroom as quickly as you can with your change of clothes concealing your vibrator that you don’t register that your bottom half is still exposed to the room — and your colleague.

The click of the bathroom door brings a sigh out of Nanami, his tensed body relaxing back into the mattress as the shower turns on.

“I take longer showers, I hope you don’t mind,” you’d said to him the night before, and he was quick to assure you that he didn’t mind and your previously described morning routine wouldn’t impact him for the few days you’d be sharing a space. And now he was grateful, his cock was painfully hard after a night dreaming about your body next to his, on top of his, beneath his, and everything in between. And now he knew what your slacks and skirts were hiding, how beautifully your thighs connected to the curve of your ass and a peek at the pretty pussy he wanted to make a mess of.

It was going to be difficult to maintain professionalism after this, but he can’t stop himself from leaving his bed in search of the shorts he knew you’d gone to bed in but didn’t wake up in. Did you make a mess of yourself?

The bed is still warm from your body heat, and he presses his nose to the pillow your head had been resting on while palming himself through his pants. You always smelled so good, a scent he could never exactly pinpoint but wanted bottled nonetheless. His sweet junior colleague that looked at him with such adoration, the only person in that hellscape of an office that he wanted to talk to and be around, the only reason he agreed to come to this conference. He could give a shit about personal development if he wasn’t guaranteed a pay raise out of it, but he was guaranteed time alone with you and that would be close enough.

A peek over the edge of the bed is like locating the holy grail, where he sees the shorts and another pillow. It couldn’t have been a pillow from the head of the bed, as one appeared to be out of place and it was on the left side and not the right where he was looking, and when he picked it up he could tell that clearly you had indeed made quite a mess of yourself and he was more than happy to add to it while you showered.

The pillow slots perfectly beneath his hips, the plush of it not as firm as he’d wanted it to be but you had used it and he was going to contribute to the stain your essence would leave behind with his own mess to mix with it. Your shorts were cold, soft against his skin while the crotch of those shorts smell uniquely of you and he can’t stop himself from taking the deepest inhale to commit you to his memory.

The beds weren’t creaky but he’s still wary of the noise he could be making while so close to where you were showering. He didn’t need you coming out to investigate any noises out of concern only to find him humping into the pillow you’d used with his face buried in your sleep shorts as he licked at the spot you’d left behind with your own essence. This wasn’t behavior that was becoming of a respectable man, it was definitely disrespectful to you as his junior colleague, but he can’t stop himself now that he’s started.

“Shit, shit,” he grunts, pushing his face further into the silky fabric as his hips roll into the pillow at a harsher pace. The shower is still running, but he swears he hears you moan in there which only spurs him on more. You sounded sweet, sweeter than he’d imagined over the many nights spent thinking about you, and it’d be replaying in his head every time he looked at you. Were you thinking of him while you made those noises – thinking of him between your legs pulling them from those cute lips?

He’d make a move during this trip, he had to after this. He needed just a chance at hearing what you sounded like when you were being pleasured, when he could guide himself into you and keep himself inside you until you were cumming so nicely and making more of those sweet sounds. You always said his name so softly, would you keep that soft tone when you were begging for more of him?

There was only one way to find out.

#nanami kento x reader #nanami kento x afab reader #nanami kento x you #nanami kento x y/n #nanami kento imagine #Nanami Kento fanfic #Nanami Kento fic #nanami kento smut #nanami x afab reader #nanami x y/n #nanami x you #nanami x reader #jjk x y/n #jjk x you #jjk x reader #jjk fanfic #the banner looks massive on desktop compared to mobile so if its ugly i might remove it but alas #lex.fics

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rui-drawsbox · 1 year ago

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remembering the most memorable mc's (with canon appearences) from the otomes i played

all of them are phone games btw. and looong rambling about the games after the cut!

Mystic messenger has been in my radar since i was in elementary school but i played it for the first time after the spanish traslation came out (2017 i think?) Seven shaped my type in such a specific way that im not really sure why loved him so much (it was the whole "he loves you in every route" stuff). I like a lot the default mc, most of the fandom did and that was enough to won me over

Rosa is top tier protagonist tbh, Tears of Themis has really good story and characters (as far i played, not a lot but i enjoyed it) The reason i'm not that much of a fan is bc the game is expensive asf and not very free to play friendly. You're either lucky or have a big wallet with the gacha

i miss my wife man(Marius)

Ephemeral has to be one of the best free to play otomes i've played tbh (if my memories aren't tricking me, it's been years) Good artwork, good storyline, good characters and as far i remember you can unlock one chapter of the character route per day (mabye two days, idk) and the mc's background has an important role in every route (she's a zombie! she's pretty now but eventually will fall apart, aaaaand her story gets expanded in one of the routes!) ((shes also adorable)) There's also a sequel, if you wanted more of the boys! never finished it but i'd recommend it

Honorable mentions! Huellitas Mágicas is a great game! has a really good cast with well fleshed arcs for all the characters, even the scondary ones! The game shines more for the development of *all* the characters rather than just the protagonist/ml. The main theme is overcoming insecurities! Each love interest has a different way of helping our (very insecure) protagonist and helping different characters with their own struggles :DD

10/10 i recommend this game if you want something cute and can be finished in a few hours, if i remember right. It also has a sequel! with like- 12 new love interests, also never finished it bc i didnt found a guide that worked for me but ñek

A3! is my canon event as a gacha player. Discovered the english/global server, tried it and got bored, left it for a few months, tried it again and fell in love, noticed the game was going to shut down bc low sales -HAHA :(-. This is not a otome btw, this is here bc Izumi has to be one of my favorite protagonists in gacha games ever

last but not least! Obey me! Shall we date? oh dear, what have they done to you :(. The original had intense powercreep to force you to pull cards -multiple times bc that makes them stronger- and even now, the company showed a lot of favoritism to some characters, leaving others to dust bc they don't make the same money. Not to say, they released a new game with the same cast and new main story (ignoring all what happend before). And let me say: THEY LITERALLY WANTED TO KILL THE ORIGINAL GAME.

Nightbringer might be a decent game but i don't trust the devs anymore, i still remember what happend with Asmo's birthday right after the release, and honestly i don't want to sit there watching how they disrespect my favorite characters again and again and again. Loved the characters hated the devs. 5/10 you can play it if you want but i don't recommend spending money on it, it's not worth it, just search #obey me here in tumblr and enjoy the amazing fanworks that i can assure you have a lot more love than the game itself

i miss my wife man (mammon and levi)

#got sting by the nostalgia mosquito #thinking about it i kinda want to play huellitas magicas again #mystic messenger #mysme #tears of themis #rosa tears of themis #ephemeral #its that the right tag?#huellitas magicas #a3 #a3! act! addict! actors!#izumi tachibana #obey me #obey me shall we date #otome game #tot

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felassan · 4 months ago

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Jason Schreier: "NEW: After the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, dozens of BioWare employees were told they were temporarily assigned to other projects within EA. This week, a twist: those temp assignments are now *permanent* transfers. And BioWare has shrunk. Story: [link] Dragon Age: The Veilguard was undeniably divisive, but to many who worked on it, it was a miraculous accomplishment to even ship a complete game after EA forced live-service into it, then reversed course. Now, their reward for the long hours and hard work is layoffs and transfers." [source]

Bloomberg article:

"Electronic Arts Slashes BioWare After ‘Dragon Age’ Sales Miss The studio has shrunk to less than 100 people following the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard Dragon Age: The Veilguard missed EA’s sales expectations by 50%, leading to cuts at the studio"

"Hi everyone. Today we’re diving into the cuts at Electronic Arts Inc.’s BioWare. BioWare magic Late last year, after the release of the new role-playing game Dragon Age: The Veilguard, dozens of employees at developer BioWare were given some staffing news. Moving forward, they were going to be loaned out to other teams within their parent company, Electronic Arts, where they would work on various upcoming games like Iron Man and Skate. The logic made sense. BioWare’s next game, a new installment in the popular sci-fi Mass Effect series, was in pre-production and did not need the entire studio. There were no other internal projects for everyone to work on. Instead of getting laid off, they would stay employed, working on other projects until Mass Effect was ready for them. But this week, the group was informed that the loans had morphed into permanent relocations, according to people familiar with what happened. They were no longer BioWare employees who were temporarily on assignment elsewhere; now, they worked for whichever EA subsidiary had borrowed them. If they want to work at BioWare again in the future, they would have to look for job openings and re-apply. This was an unwelcome development for some of the employees, who now find themselves on brand-new teams at studios they’d never planned to join. Some had come to BioWare to work on storied role-playing game franchises and found the idea of working on action or sports games less appealing. But at least they got to keep their jobs. During the same reorganization this week, around two dozen other people at BioWare were laid off, according to the people familiar, who asked not to be identified discussing nonpublic information. Writer Trick Weekes and producer Jen Cheverie said on Bluesky that they were among the veteran workers who’d been cut."

"BioWare is now down from more than 200 people two years ago to less than 100 today, according to the people familiar. A small team will remain to work on the next Mass Effect game — led by company veterans who oversaw the development on the original trilogy as well as on 2019’s Anthem — in hopes of expanding as the game gets further into production. The company announced the reorganization on Wednesday, saying it planned to “become a more agile, focused studio,” without mentioning the job cuts and the relocation of staff permanently to other studios. A spokesperson for EA declined to comment on specific numbers. It’s been a rough month for EA. Last week, the company’s shares plunged 18% after reporting preliminary holiday-season results that missed estimates and lowering its forecast for the fiscal year. The poor results were largely due to the underperformance of EA’s latest soccer game but the company also said that Dragon Age: The Veilguard reached 1.5 million players, missing sales expectations by 50%. What may be most surprising is that EA, which has a long history of shuttering studios after a failure, is keeping BioWare around. The once-revered RPG studio, founded in 1995 by a trio of doctors, released a string of beloved titles throughout the 1990s and 2000s, including the first two Baldur’s Gate games, Dragon Age: Origins and the Mass Effect trilogy. But the studio has failed to release a hit since 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition. Mass Effect: Andromeda, released in 2017, received mediocre reviews and was widely criticized for its bugs and uncanny animations. BioWare then pivoted to a live-service shooter with 2019’s Anthem, which was roundly panned and killed after less than two years. Both games were plagued by management issues, brutal deadline crunches and a belief — called “BioWare magic” — that everything would work out in the end."

"With the single-player Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which had its own turbulent development cycle and was rebooted multiple times, the studio hoped to win back lapsed fans. Despite generally positive reviews, the game proved to be divisive among players, with some criticizing the writing, art style and linear level design. But many observers and staff blame EA for the situation they put BioWare in — canceling an early version of Dragon Age in favor of one that would be required to have a “live-service” multiplayer component with recurring revenue, only to then reverse course, reverting once again back to the single-player format. It would be difficult for most game-makers to release something great under those conditions. Now, BioWare studio head Gary McKay and Mass Effect executive producer Mike Gamble are essentially looking to reboot the company as they plunge forward on their next game. It will be a long road ahead, and what emerges will be a very different BioWare. But at least for now, the studio will continue.""

[source]

#dragon age: the veilguard #dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age 5 #dragon age #mass effect 5 #mass effect #bioware #video games #mass effect: andromeda #anthem #long post #longpost

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hellothereobiwankenobi · 27 days ago

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retribution | chapter one

⟢ summary: A group of hunters stumbles across Jackson.

⟢ tags: DDDNE, graphic descriptions of violence/torture, death/murder depicted, jackson! joel, noncanon complaint, angst, found family dynamic, no beta reader we die like men

⟢ pairing: joel miller x afab!reader (descriptions scars from surviving in a post apocalyptic world)

⟢ wc: 3.5k

⟢ authors notes: I hope you all enjoy the first installment of this horror inspired fic. I’m love to read stories with dark themes, but I’ve never written one. So, this will be a learning experience for all of us.

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A loud crack echoes off the dilapidated walls of the abandoned cabin as fist meets flesh. A middle-aged man sits bound to a metal folding chair in the center of the small den, his hands tied behind his back with a black extension cord. A large purple bruise develops on his left cheekbone as his eye swells closed. In between each strike, he futilely struggles at his restraints.

A handsome younger man stands before him, one hand gripping the older's hair, forcing his head upright. His other hand recoils back after making contact with the other man's face—a pair of reflective brass knuckles wrapped around the tanned fingers of his right hand.

The sound of a fire crackling mixes with both men's heavy breathing. A teenage girl sits on the stone hearth connecting the fireplace to the room. She holds the fireplace's metal poker in the flames, tip glowing cherry red. The firelight illuminates her deep umber skin.

The younger male releases his grasp and steps away. The bound man's head falls forward to his chest. He musters the strength to lift his gaze to his attackers before speaking.

"C’mon… We can work out a deal." Turning his head, he spits on the ground. His saliva mixes with crimson blood, "Just name it. You want a cut of the sale? It's yours."

You step forward, planting your heavy boots in the space before the man. Leaning forward, you bend at the waist until you are eye-to-eye with your current prey. "All we want is the truth. Admit what you did."

"You little cunt." He growls, staring you down. His eyes catch the long scar that travels diagonally from below your left eye, over the bridge of your nose, and across your right cheek. "My buddies are gonna find me, and you'll get what's coming to you."

"Oh, you mean this buddy?" You snap upright as a third young woman, her black hair cropped short on the sides, approaches you. She holds open an army-green canvas knapsack. You reach into the bag before jerking your arm back, revealing what's inside. Your fingers hold the decapitated head of an older caucasian male by the hair. The word "SLAVER" is carved into its forehead in jagged capital letters. The head's eyes are half-lidded, and his mouth hangs open.

You shrug nonchalantly and look down at the head in your grasp. "I don't think he is going to be much help."

A tidal wave of nausea-inducing terror overtakes the man in the chair, threatening to drown him.

"Your friend made a smart decision. He told us what we wanted to know without putting up much of a fight. So, I made it quick." You nod behind you, gesturing to the aged double-headed axe hanging from a leather sheath strapped to your back. "One clean swing, and it was all over for him."

You smile, and a sickening twinkle flashes in your eyes as your gaze flicks between the severed head and the tied up man before you.

"Catch." Your voice is sweet, like a child playing a game with a friend. You toss the head into the man's lap.

The man screams in horror and instinctively jerks away as the head makes contact with his thighs before falling to the floor. His sudden forceful movement causes the metal chair to clatter to the ground, slamming him on his side. The man continues to shriek as he tries to push himself away, still attached to the folding chair.

The room erupts in sickening laughter as his four captures find amusement at his panicked response.

Boots thud across the wooden slat floor as you approach his pathetic quivering form. His eyes are still locked on his friend's head, lying lifeless only a few feet away.

Using the toe of your boot, you turn his attention up at you. "Now, I'll ask you again.”

Without breaking eye contact, you hold out your hand for the glowing red poker. The teen girl places the handle in your open palm as you wrap your fingers around it. The man below you can feel the heat radiating off the metal as you bring the glowing end close to his face, lining it up with his right eye “Admit what you did."

· · · ────────── ⋆ ✩ ⋆ ────────── · · ·

Joel takes in a deep breath through his nose. The air is warm as it enters his nostrils. It's still early in the day, but summer has finally come to Jackson. The snow has melted away to reveal lush green foliage and wildflowers in bloom. He has grown to enjoy patrol duty. Time away from the hustle and bustle of the town he now calls home, where a man can clear his head and get some peace. He enjoys the silence, hearing the natural sounds of the Wyoming wilderness. That is until Tommy decides to break the silence.

"I swear, man." Tommy begins, holding the reins of his horse with both hands. "Benji called me 'daddy' last night."

Joel shoots a pointed look at his brother.

"Hand to God, man. He said it." Tommy defends himself.

Getting used to Tommy being a first-time parent has been an adjustment for Joel. He was happier than he could admit for his younger brother. He understands firsthand the pure joy being a father gives a man. Fatherhood was the greatest blessing Joel ever experienced with Sarah. And now he has gotten a second chance to experience it again because of Ellie. But Tommy never stops talking about his infant son.

"He's three months old. Babies can't even hold up their own heads yet." Joel informs his brother.

"That's why it's so fuckin' amazin'!" Tommy exclaims, "He's a genius. Just like his mama."

"Tommy, just watch for any damn infected." Joel sighs.

The two continue their patrol, only getting off their horse to sign the books at designated checkpoints. Once the final checkpoint has been cleared, the brothers ride back to Jackson.

The horses stroll leisurely, using the same path they came from.

Joel is dressed in a pair of fitted jeans and a worn cotton t-shirt, but he is starting to sweat from the sun's heavy rays. He guesses it must be midafternoon from the way the sun is positioned just above them in the sky.

He reaches for the stainless steel canteen attached to his saddle. Bringing it to his lips, he takes a pull of cold water. After screwing back on the lid and clipping it back in place, Joel scans the horizon lazily. He isn't expecting to see anything unusual from how quiet it is, but his eyes catch sight of a strange silhouette in the tree line. He's sure that wasn't present when they first passed by. It looked almost like something was hanging concealed high in the canopy. He tries to squint his eyes, but they are too far away to make out.

"Tommy." Joel alarms his brother, gesturing to the tree line.

Tommy nods. "Yeah, I see it too."

The brothers jerk their horses' reins toward the forest's edge. As they approach the dense trees, the silhouettes come into focus.

The bodies of two men hang lifelessly from a branch of a centuries-old pine tree. Joel's eyes search the corpses, head to toe. He sees both men share a similar message carved into the flesh of their foreheads. The words "RAIDER" and "RAPER" are crudely carved into their thin skin.

"Jesus Christ…" Tommy's voice is just above a whisper. He points down directly below the two bodies. The decapitated body of a third man lay propped up in a sitting position against the tree trunk, holding what Tommy can only assume is its own head in its lap. The third man shares the same writing across his forehead. This one reading "SLAVER"

Joel pulls the silver revolver from the holster on his hip. "Keep an eye out."

Tommy nods and pulls his own handgun from the strap on his thigh.

The two brothers hurry back to Jackson, their horses' hooves thundering against the solid ground. They make sure to keep a close lookout for whoever is responsible for the death of the three men.

As they approach Jackson's large wooden gates, the sun sits low, casting the sky in a collage of pink and orange. The gates open, welcoming the brothers homes. Once inside, they holster their side arms and slide out of the saddles. Two guards come to usher their horses back to the stables.

"We need to tell the council about whatever the fuck that was," Tommy tells Joel as they walk onto the main street.

"We don't need to scare people." Joel disagrees.

Tommy looks at his brother "There are some psychos stringin' up bodies out there. The other patrol groups need to know."

Joel runs a hand through his graying curls. Deep down, he knows Tommy is right. He only wishes they knew more before bringing this to the council.

· · · ────────── ⋆ ✩ ⋆ ────────── · · ·

You lay flat on your back, staring up at the night sky. Santiago sturs a small cast iron pot suspended over a crackling fire. He is preparing his famous "Rabbit and Whatever the Hell Else We Can Find" stew for tonight's dinner. Safiya sits on a flat rock, rubbing an oiled rag across the delicate inner workings of her rifle. Adriana sits at Saf's feet and leans against her leg for support.

"Adriana, get off me. It's too damn hot for all that." Safiya complains, trying to shake the younger girl off. With the fire burning and the summer air still warm around them, it was too hot for such close proximity. "And you smell awful."

"Sorry, I just wanna be close to you." Adriana sucks her teeth as she stands, rolling her brown eyes. She walks around to the other side of the fire and lies next to you.

"What are you thinking about, professor?" the teen asks, using the nickname she knows you can't stand.

"I was coming up with a plan to get some peace and quiet for once." You reply flatly. You aren't really upset with her. Over the decade you and Adriana have traveled together, she's become the younger sister you never had.

"What month do you think it is?" Adriana ignores your not-so-subtle jab and asks.

You raise your right hand toward the sky and trace the path of a specific constellation with your index finger, "Do you see that line of stars? It looks like an uppercase T with a long curly tail?"

Adriana nods, her eyes fixated on the twinkling sky.

"That one is called Scorpius. It's only visible in North America during the summer months." you explain as Adriana "oohs" and "aahs."

"I could have told you that," Safiya remarks under her breath.

You turn your head to the side, finally removing your gaze from the stars and to the girl lying next to you. "I would say it is probably early to mid-June."

You pause and scrunch up your nose, "You really do smell bad."

Adriana gasps offendedly and sits up with a huff. "You both are a couple of grouches tonight. Santi would never treat me like this." She pushes onto her hands and knees and crawls closer to Santiago.

He looks up from the bubbling stew before him and meets her eyes, jokingly waving his free hand in front of his nose. Adriana shoots up to her feet and stomps against the ground of the campsite. Her eyebrows are drawn together, and her hands are curled into fists, resembling a child about to throw a tantrum. You and Safiya can't help but laugh at Adriana's frustrated display. She is nineteen years old but never outgrew her bratty preteen phase.

"Fine then." She huffs, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm going for a walk since clearly none of my friends love me anymore."

She turns her back on the group, marching into the darkness. "Come get me when dinner is ready."

"Don't wander off." You call after her, sitting up with one last chuckle.

"Can't be that mad if she's still hungry." Safiya continues her ministrations, caressing her rifle's frame like it was her lover.

You raise one arm up and take a sniff, the smell making your expression twist into something sour, "We could all use a good bath in the river tomorrow. I'm sure it will be warm enough again. We definitely earned a little reward after today."

"Finally caught the bastards. About damn time." Safiya is now reassembling her rifle, clicking every tiny piece into place with just muscle memory. "We've only been tailing them since Boulder."

You pick at a loose thread on the leg pocket of your brown cargo pants. "It's probably about a day's walk to Grand Teton from here. Then from there, it's only a stone's throw to Yellowstone. We could head west after and see the battlefields at Little Bighorn."

Looking up from the lone offending string; you see Santiago and Safiya staring blankly at you.

You sigh, "It was where Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull led an army of Native American warriors in order to stop westward expansion and preserve their ancestral way of life."

The two younger group members' expressions remain unchanged.

"Does your head ever feel heavy from all that book learning weighing it down?" Safiya asks, mostly joking.

"Haha," You speak dryly, rolling your eyes. "Socrates was persecuted for the pursuit of knowledge in his time as well. Some 'book learning' might be good for you. Expand your mind a little. The only thing you care about is that damn gun."

"Until the day Socrates comes back to life to fight off infected, I'll stick to this girl right here." Safiya hugs her beloved rifle to her chest.

You shift your body to lie back down when you hear Adriana’s

voice carrying through the surrounding forest. The three of you spring to your feet, your hands immediately reaching for your respective weapons.

"You guys!" Adriana's boot crunch against fallen leaves and twigs as she sprints back to the group "You guys come look!"

The teen erupts from the darkness into the light of the campsite. "Come on!"

She waves her hand, motioning you all to follow her. She turns on her heels and speeds back to her discovery. The three of you rush to follow her into the expansive forest.

When you finally catch up with her, Adriana is standing in a clearing next to a cliff overlooking a deep valley. An unnaturally bright glow emanates from the very base of the valley.

It's a settlement. No, it's more of a city. What looks to be a couple hundred buildings illuminated by electricity burns like a beacon in the middle of the Wyoming wilderness. It's bigger than anything you've seen before during your travels. More grand than tent villages powered by portable generators and bigger than makeshift towns constructed by those lucky enough to have survived this long. It looks like the kind of cities that existed from before the outbreak.

· · · ───────── ⋆ ✩ ⋆ ───────── · · ·

The council assembles an emergency meeting a few hours after Tommy and Joel's return. The brothers stand side by side in front of the council's long, curved desk, explaining what they saw on patrol.

"They all had a different word written in their skin." Tommy squeezes his hands tight, trying to keep his fingers from fidgeting. This is an odd feeling for him. He's usually sat behind the desk in these meetings, not speaking before it.

"What did they say?" Maria asks her husband.

"Raider, raper, slaver," Joel answers, his voice coming out low.

"Maybe this was personal." An older woman with snow white hair sitting at the far end remarks. "Whoever did this could have already left the area."

“Takin' down a group of raiders ain't easy. Whoever did it had to be skilled. And well armed." Tommy continues. "This is a kind of brutality that ain't something that should be ignored."

He thinks back to the headless man propped up against the tree trunk, "One of 'em, his head was cut clean off."

"With what? A knife?" Another council member asks.

“Nah," Tommy shakes his head, "Something big, heavy."

Like an axe, the conclusion came to Joel as soon as he saw the precise cut.

Maria closes her eyes and takes a deep breath through her nose, "We should double patrols until we know for a fact whoever did this is gone. And increase the numbers on the walls."

This time, Joel is grateful for Maria's pragmatism. While the other members want to bury their heads in the sand and pretend there isn't a threat in their backyard, Maria is willing to admit they may be in danger.

Maria calls the meeting adjourned. She and Tommy need to rearrange patrol and guard duty schedules for the next week to accompany the extra shifts.

Joel exits the city hall building and makes his way home. The summer air feels good against his skin. Jackson's winter had been bitingly cold. Even the spring was still too brisk for his liking. But the summer here reminds him of Austin in the spring, just not as humid.

He returns home and hears the soft strumming of guitar strings coming from the backyard. Joel approaches the small garage that Ellie has made into her new living space. Joel knocks on the door, and the guitar chords come to an immediate halt.

"Come in!" Ellie shouts through the closed door. Joel pulls the door open and enters the dimly lit room. Only the old Christmas lights that they found in the house's dust-filled attic illuminate the space.

"It ain't too dark in here for ya?" He asks, looking around the garage.

"Nah, I like it dark." Ellie shrugs. She's sitting at the edge of her bed, acoustic guitar resting in her lap.

Teenagers, Joel shakes his head.

"You eat dinner?" He comes to sit next to her on the bed.

Ellie nods "Me, Dina, and Jesse went to the dining hall earlier."

Joel inhales. "There is something… weird goin' on outside. It might be a while before we go out explorin' again."

Ellie furrows her eyebrows. "Weird, how?" She sets the guitar on the floor, leaning the neck against the bed.

"Don't know yet." He tells her before standing, "Just promise me you'll be careful for the next few days."

"Are you just being extra paranoid again or something?" She asks skeptically.

"Ellie." He speaks her name in a warning tone.

Ellie hears the seriousness in his voice. She notices his posture is stiffer than usual, too. "Okay, I promise."

· · · ────────── ⋆ ✩ ⋆ ────────── · · ·

"We should go!" Adriana exclaims before shoving a spoonful of stew into her mouth. The idea of going to Jackson makes her eyes shine with excitement.

Your group has returned to the makeshift campsite and are eating Santiago’s rabbit stew from aluminum camping bowls and matching spoons.

"We don't know anything about them. It's not safe." You immediately shut down her little fantasy. She should know better than this.

"But they have walls. And electricity. Maybe even running water!" The younger girl continues trying to argue her point.

"They could be a town of cannibals for all we know." You bring the spoon of stew to your lips. "Cannibals that like to eat pretty girls like you."

“Not everyone is out to get us," Adriana replies softly. She knows you're overprotective for a good reason, but sometimes it can be too much.

Safiya chimes in, "Adriana might be right. They could even be willing to trade. We could use some medical supplies, and who knows the next time we’ll see another settlement."

You can't believe your ears. There aren't many rules amongst the group, but not purposefully putting yourselves in danger is definitely one of them. "We survive by laying low. We don't know anything about these people."

“What makes you think they would even let us enter their town in the first place? You two are living in fantasy land." You look at Santiago. "Santi agrees with me."

He averts his eyes to his bowl and continues eating his meal.

"Why don't we vote on it?" Adriana volunteers, letting her gaze scan the group. "All in favor of not going?"

You're the only person to raise their hand.

"All in favor of going?" All three of your traveling companions raise their hands.

"Guess it's decided then." Safiya shrugs, "We aren't gonna stay forever. Just check it out, then we can keep heading east."

Your heartbeat is audible in your ears as you feel blood rushing to warm your face. How could they all be so trusting? All four of you have seen the worst humanity has to offer. All four of you have experienced it firsthand.

You push yourself to your feet, grabbing your axe from beside you before resheathing it on your back. "I'll take the first watch."

You leave the light of the campsite before anyone can protest. You just need some time to clear your head.

#joel miller #the last of us #pedro pascal #tommy miller #ellie williams #joel mill fanfic #joel miller x you #joel miller fanfiction #joel miller fic #joel miller x reader #joel miller smut #ppcu #maries library

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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 months ago

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Canada shouldn’t retaliate with its US tariffs

Picks and Shovels is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. You can pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by Wil Wheaton.

Five years ago, Trump touted his "big, beautiful" replacement for NAFTA, the "free trade agreement" between the US, Mexico and Canada. Trump's NAFTA-2 was called the USMCA (US-Mexico-Canada Agreement) and it was pretty similar to NAFTA, to be honest.

That tells you a couple things: first, NAFTA was, broadly speaking a good thing for Trump and the ultra-wealthy donors who backed him (and got far richer as a result). That's why he kept it intact. NAFTA and USMCA are, at root, a way to make rich people richer by making poorer people poorer. Trump's base hated NAFTA because they (correctly) believed that it was being used to erode wages by chasing cheaper labor and more lax environmental controls in other countries. Neither NAFTA nor USMCA have any stipulations requiring exported goods to be manufactured by unionized workers, or in factories with robust environmental and workplace safety rules.

The point of NAFTA/USMCA is to goose profits by despoiling the environment, maiming workers, stealing their wages, paying them less, all while poisoning the Earth. Trump's "new" NAFTA was just the old NAFTA with some largely cosmetic changes so that Trump's base could be (temporarily) fooled into thinking Trump was righting the historic wrong of NAFTA.

However, there was one part of USMCA that marked a huge departure from NAFTA: the "IP" chapter. USCMA bound Canada and Mexico to implementing brutal new IP laws. For example, Mexico was forced to pass an anti-circumvention law that makes it a crime to tamper with "digital locks." This means that Mexican mechanics can't bypass the locks US car companies use to lock-out third party repair. Mexican farmers can't fix their own tractors. And, of course, Mexican software developers can't make alternative app stores for games consoles and mobile devices – they must sell their software through US Big Tech companies that take 30% of every sale:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/09/free-sample/#que-viva

Shamefully, Canada had already capitulated to most of these demands. Two Canadian Conservative Party politicians, Tony Clement and James Moore, had sold the country out in 2012, throwing away 6,138 negative responses to a consultation on a new DRM law (on the grounds that they were "babyish" views of "radical extremists"), siding instead with the 54 cranks and industry shills who supported their proposal:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/15/radical-extremists/#sex-pest

When Canadian politicians are pressed on why these anti-interoperability policies are good for Canada, they'll say that it's a condition of free trade, and the benefits of being able to export Canadian goods to the US without tariffs outweigh the costs of having to pay rents to American companies for consumables (like car parts or printer ink), repair, and software sales.

Sure, when Canadian software authors sell iPhone apps to Canadian customers, the payments take a round trip through Cupertino, California and return 30% short. But Canadian consumers get to buy iPhones without paying tariffs on them, and the oil, timber, and minerals we rip out of the ground can be sent to America without tariffs, either (oh, also, a few things that are still manufactured in Canada can do this, too).

Enter Trump, carrying a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods, which he has vowed to impose on his first day in office. Obviously, this demands a policy response. What should Canada do when Trump tears up his "big, beautiful" trade deal and whacks Canadian exporters? One obvious response is to impose a 25% retaliatory tariff on American exporters:

https://mishtalk.com/economics/canada-says-it-will-match-us-tariffs-if-trump-launches-trade-war/

After all, Canada and the US are one another's mutual largest trading partners. American businesses rely on selling things to Canadians, so a massive tariff on US goods will certainly make some of Trump's business-lobby backers feel pain, and maybe they'll talk some sense into him.

I think this would be a huge mistake. The most potent political lesson of the past four years is that politicians who preside over rising prices – regardless of their role in causing them – will swiftly feel the wrath of their voters. The public is furious about inflation, whether it comes from transient covid supply chain shocks, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, or cartels using "inflation" as cover for illegal, collusive price-gouging.

Canadians are very reliant on American imports of finished goods. That's another legacy of NAFTA: it crashed Canada's manufacturing sector. Canadian manufacturing companies treated the US as a "nearshore" source of non-union labor and weak environmental and safety rules, and shipped Canadian union jobs to American scabs. Canada's economy is supposedly now all about "services" but what we really export is stuff we tear out of the Earth.

Countries that are organized around resource extraction don't need fancy social safety nets or an educational system capable of producing a high-tech workforce. All you need to extract resources is a hole in the ground surrounded by guns, which explains a lot about shifts to the Canadian political climate since the Mulroney years.

Since Canada is now substantially reorganized as an open-pit mine for American manufacturers, cutting off American imports would drive the prices of everyday good sky-high, and would be political suicide.

But there's another way.

Because, of course, Canada – like any other country – has the capacity to make all kinds of things, including high-tech things. Sure, it's unlikely that Canada will launch another Research in Motion with a Blackberry smart-phone that will put the iPhone and Android in the shade. The mobile duopoly has the market sewn up, and can use predatory pricing, refusal to deal, and other anticompetitive tactics to strangle any competitor in its cradle.

But you know what Canada could make? A Canadian App Store. That's a store that Canadian software authors could use to sell Canadian apps to Canadian customers, charging, say, the standard payment processing fee of 5% rather than Apple's 30%. Canada could make app stores for the Android, Playstation and Xbox, too.

There's no reason that a Canadian app store would have to confine itself to Canadian software authors, either. Canadian app stores could offer 5% commissions on sales to US and global software authors, and provide jailbreaking kits that allows device owners all around the world to install the Canadian app stores where software authors don't get ripped off by American Big Tech companies.

Canadian companies like Honeybee already make "front-ends" for John Deere tractors – these are the components that turn a tractor into a plow, or a thresher, or another piece of heavy agricultural equipment. Honeybee struggles constantly to get its products to interface with Deere tractors, because Deere uses digital locks to block its products:

https://honeybee.ca/

Canada could produce jailbreaking kits for John Deere tractors, too – not just for Honeybee. Every ag-tech company in the world would benefit from commercially available, professionally supported John Deere jailbreaking kits. So would farmers, because these kits would restore farmers' Right to Repair their own tractors:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

Speaking of repair: Canadian companies could jailbreak every make and model of every US automobile, and make independent, constantly updated diagnostic tools that every mechanic in the world could buy for hundreds of dollars, rather than paying the five-figure ransom that car makers charge for their own underpowered, junk versions of these tools.

Jailbreaking cars doesn't stop with repair, either. Cars like the Tesla are basically giant rent-extraction machines. If you want to use all the "features" your Tesla ships with – like access to the full charge on your battery – you have to pay tens of thousands of dollars in subscription fees over the life of the car, and when you sell your car, all that "downloadable content" is clawed back. No one will pay extra to buy your used Tesla just because you spent thousands on manufacturer upgrades, because they're all downgraded when you sign over the pink slip.

But Canadian companies could make jailbreaking kits for Teslas that unlock all the features in the car for a single low price – and again, they could sell these to every Tesla owner in the world.

Elon Musk doesn't invent anything, he just takes credit for other people's ideas, and that's as true of bad ideas as it is for good ones. Musk didn't invent the extractive Tesla rip-off: he stole it from inkjet printer companies like HP, who have used the fact that jailbreaking is illegal to turn printer ink into the most expensive fluid in the world, selling for more than $10,000/gallon.

Canadian companies could sell jailbreaking kits for inkjet printers that disconnect them from "subscription" services and disable the anti-features that check for and reject third party ink. People all over the world would buy these.

What's standing in the way of a Canadian industrial policy that focuses on raiding the sky-high margins of American monopolists with third-party add-ons, mods and jailbreaks?

Only the IP laws that Canada has agreed to in order to get tariff-free access to American markets. You know, the access that Trump has promised to end in less than a week's time?

Canada should tear up these laws – and not impose tariffs on American goods. That way, Canadians can still buy cheap American goods, and then they can save billions of dollars every year on the consumables, parts, software, and service for those goods.

This is hurting American big business where it hurts – in the ongoing rents it extracts from Canadians through IP laws like Bill C-11 (the law that bans jailbreaking). Canada could become a global high-tech export powerhouse, selling "complementary" goods that disenshittify all the worst practices of US tech monopolists, from car parts to insulin pumps.

It's the only kind of trade war that Canadian politicians can win against Americans: the kind where prices for Canadians don't go up because of tariffs; where the price of apps, repair, parts, and upgrades goes way down; and where a new, high-tech manufacturing sector pulls in vast sums from customers all over the world.

Canada can win this kind of war, even against a country as big and powerful as the USA. After all, we did it once before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CK3EDncjGI

Check out my Kickstarter to pre-order copies of my next novel, Picks and Shovels!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/15/beauty-eh/#its-the-only-war-the-yankees-lost-except-for-vietnam-and-also-the-alamo-and-the-bay-of-ham

#pluralistic #nafta #tariffs #trump tariffs #trade war #usmca #ip #copyfight #canada #cdnpoli #51st state #dmca #dmca 1201 #anticircumvention #industrial policy #right to repair #r2r #uspoli

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livmightlive · 3 months ago

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LU Detroit Become Human/Android AU

I should start this by saying that I’ve never played the game myself but I really love the concept! I do apologize if things are messy though, this really just spilled out of me 😭 for anyone who doesn’t really know Detroit Become Human, it’s basically a future America where a huge company makes hyper realistic androids who have different jobs. They all have the ability to deviate which is basically just them breaking past their coding and developing a conscience/sentience (and I would say a soul). The company obviously doesn’t like this and tries to stop this. If anything, this is just my take on an Android AU.

Anyways, here’s it in context of LU

Sky: Bodyguard Android

starts to deviate when he starts forming an attachment to Sun

She gets kidnapped in a political scheme. His handlers try to bench him but he fully deviates and goes out by himself to find her.

He’s probably a newer model or gets upgraded regularly. Sun is sentimental so she tries to make sure to keep him because he’s familiar in her busy life. (She’s the daughter to the president or whoever the head of state is)

He manages to find and rescue Sun but not without suffering a lot of damage. Especially electrical damage.

Sun is touched. She doesn’t care that her savior is an android at all and she especially doesn’t care that Sky is deviated. She loves him too. She tells him that she could always tell that he was different…

It pains her, breaks her heart, but she sends Sky away for his own good.

Four: Different androids downloaded into a child model

Four is the combination of 4 different deviated androids uploaded into a child model.

Red, Blue, Green, and Vio (these are like perfect names for robots) all “worked” in the same company. It’s like a big sales department or something like that.

Red is a nanny bot for the building’s daycare, Blue is a security bot, Green is a secretary bot, and Vio is basically a filing bot

They all deviate separately. When it’s found that they’re deviating they’re all destroyed on company grounds and dumped in the landfill. (It’s cheaper to do this rather than send them back)

Green managed to wake up. He’s broken beyond repair but he manages to spot an empty child android near their dumping spot. He takes pity on the others and somehow manages to upload them all into one body.

Shadow is a virus in the bot they all share. He got so big that somehow he developed a consciousness of his own. (Probably the reason the model was discarded in the first place. Imagine you’re grieving so you get a child android and it starts going ‘evil mode’)

Somehow they all make this work, Shadow included.

Time: Repurposed as a farm Android

Time started out as a child android but was recycled to be used in a small military project.

This project is the predecessor to the one Wars is in so it’s mostly just an experiment.

Time starts to deviate because whoever was supposed to wipe all of his previous hardware, THE CHILD HARDWARE, messed up and left a good portion of it behind along with his memory bank.

So now Time is basically child coding in an adult model being forced to learn how to commit acts of violence. It doesn’t mesh well with his former programs and he deviates.

He escapes and immediately gets swiped up and sold to a pawn shop.

Eventually Talon buys him for extra hands on his ranch.

Time starts to really enjoy this. He takes to the farm lifestyle really well. Malon also is really great. He loves having a friend.

As she grows, he finally gets to grow, mentally at least. It’s a weird experience for him because a good amount of his programming was never meant to grow past a child state.

Malon and Talon realize that he’s a deviant and probably has been for a long time. They don’t care and vow to protect him. He’s family.

Malon and Time fall in love and take over the ranch. Slowly it becomes a safe space for other deviants.

Twilight: Officer Android (Turned wolf)

Twilight is an officer android at a women’s prison.

A lot of the people there actually like Twilight a lot because he is not cruel or condescending like a lot of the human officers and he’s kind of easy to get stuff out of.

They can mess with Twilight’s programming enough to get extra stuff from the commissary or help with their jobs. Twilight is very helpful. He’s also programmed to know their rights and local social programs so he’s very useful to have around before court dates.

Midna is an android activist who had gotten incarcerated. She slowly gets Twilight to trust her and eventually convinces him to help her break out. He doesn’t realize it, but she’s been slowly getting him to deviate as well.

When the break out happens, Midna gets away and Twilight gets captured. She feels awful knowing that he’s likely going to be destroyed.

Instead he’s used in some experiments where they try to plant human focused hardware into android (can androids be animals???) animals. They put him into a wolf dog that would usually be meant to assist police.

This is a miserable experience for Twilight, especially now that he’s deviated.

Midna, who’s poked around to see if she can save Twilight from being pulverized, stages a rescue mission and gets him out. She sends him somewhere she things will be safe.

Wind: Child Model in a retirement home

Wind is a child android that’s used in a retirement home to bring joy and to lift the spirits of the residents there.

At first he doesn’t even realize that he’s deviated until Granny, his secret favorite resident, mentions it to him. Turns out a lot of the old folks knew but they didn’t care bc Wind is so charming and they really do love him.

For a while he continues as normal, just with the knowledge that he’s loved. If anything he performs better.

One day Ayrll, the granddaughter of Granny, is visiting. Another resident gets really confused and tries to grab her, hurting and scaring her. Wind uses physical force to separate them, something not in his coding at all.

The retirement home doesn’t want to do extra paperwork so they get rid of Wind by tying him up and dropping him off a boat. (The retirement home is on the ocean)

Tetra later fishes him up and brings him back online.

Tetra is very happy to have a “maid bot” which pisses Wind off a lot. She lives in a multigenerational home so she’s excited to do less chores.

They all figure out that Wind is deviated but they don’t care. They all take him under their wing and fully still expect him to do chores

Legend: Standard Household Android

Legend is an earlier model of a household Android. He’s been bought and sold 6 DIFFERENT times.

The first time was from his uncle who didn’t actually want him for his programming. He was a lonely old man and Legend was on sale. He treats Legend like a person and when he passes away Legend starts to deviate.

Legend is auctioned off in an estate sale and some people from outside the country buy him. He travels around with a group that does environmental work and performs aid programs for a while. Everyone there also treats him pretty friendly. On a boat ride back to the mainland a storm hits and Legend goes overboard trying to protect people on the deck.

He washes up on a small island where a girl Marin finds him and repairs him. She, and nobody on the island, treats him like an android at all. He fully deviates and enjoys living like a person. The storm comes back and decimates the island. Marin is gone.

The people who come to offer aid recognize Legend as a deviated android and ship him back to be tested on.

There he meets Ravio, who is the same exact model as him. Ravio is meant to be compared to Legend so they can study differences in deviant and non deviant androids.

Legend manages to escape wherever they’re keeping him one day and bumps into Ravio during his attempt to escape. Ravio has never left the series of offices he first woke up in. He’s not fully deviated but he wants to know freedom. He and Legend escape together.

Hyrule: Medical Android (hospital setting)

Hyrule is one of the first medical androids. Unlike the more modern medical androids, he has a lot of built in programs and functions that newer models don’t have.

He has a built in defibrillator, inhaler, but most uniquely he can make drugs and medicine on the spot. These would be things that paramedics tend to carry like morphine,epinephrine, ketamine. Also more simple things like cold medicines.

His kind was discontinued due to a lot of legal actions taken by companies under big pharma. It’s too convenient, and cheap, to have robots who are programmed to help anybody in need distributing drugs for free. Also some issues with drug dealers stealing his model to have them continuously producing drugs to sell.

He gets discarded, thankfully through illegal means so instead of being sent to a processing facility he’s dumped behind the hospital in a dumpster.

He spends years wandering the streets in shadier parts of the city aiding people who need it. He doesn’t know when he deviated but it happened slowly.

He’s hunted by both gangs who want to use him to make drugs. He’s also hunted by the corporation that made him believe that older models that have deviated hold vital information to how it happens in the first place and he’s part of the last of his kind so they want to dissect him.

Warriors: Soldier Android (Secret military project)

Warriors is part of a military project to use androids as soldiers. This is probably breaking a lot of international treaties so it’s kept as a secret.

He was meant to be a “captain” Android, one that can over power other android’s programming to control them.

One of the people working on the project becomes infatuated with him. Cia 😭. She steals him and takes him home.

This is nowhere near as fun as she thought it would be because he doesn’t have a lot of social programming. He just walks around her house and barks orders at the microwave and tells her what strategies they can use if her apartment is attacked.

She buys pleasure bot hardware that has a “boyfriend” program on it because this is becoming unbearable.

Uploading the hardware causes Wars to IMMEDIATELY deviate because this is not at all what he was built to do. It actually corrupts some of his programming.

He’s confused and scared while Cia is exuberant. Finally she has a proper boyfriend. She can ignore the glitching and bugs because at least Wars isn’t yelling at her computer anymore.

Unfortunately for her, Wars was developed to be a strategic war machine, boyfriend hardware or not, so he identifies her as a threat because she hurt him. His new hardware, however, makes him not want to hurt her. So, he runs away.

Wild: Lab Assistant Android

Wild was an assistant to some brilliant scientists in a lab and engineering facility.

He worked primarily with Flora who treated him like a robot in every way. She’s kind of creeped out by the idea of androids so she’s not really fond of having one around her all the time. He is useful though.

Her coworkers treat the android a lot more humanly than she does for a while. Eventually she gets used to him and starts getting kinder and kinder.

Wild starts to deviate but he desperately tries to hide it. He really enjoys the time he gets to spend with his friends.

One day something goes wrong and the lab starts to explode. Wild fully deviates to rescue Flora. He’s able to get her out just in the nick of time. He gets stuck inside though after a wall collapses and traps half of his body under rubble. He yells at her to run and so she does.

Wild comes back online with his memory files damaged or gone and half of his body melted and severely damaged. He can’t remember anything but he feels like a person.

Eventually everyone ends up together on Time’s ranch but I really haven’t thought out a story ;•_•

I hope this isn’t a confusing or messy read 😭 it really just kind of poured out of me. I’m aware there’s like a crazy amount of plot holes but I had a ton of fun writing this!! I might go back later and rewrite or try and clean this up. If you have any thoughts, questions, suggestions, (how to fill said plot holes 😭) please lmk!! I thrive off of interaction!!! Ty for reading 💕

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #lu chain #lu hyrule #lu legend #lu warriors #lu four #lu time #lu wind #lu sky #lu twilight #lu wild #lu headcanons #LU DBH AU #dbh au #android #lu Android au

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mistakenot4892 · 7 months ago

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Disclaimer that this is a post mostly motivated by frustration at a cultural trend, not at any individual people/posters. Vagueing to avoid it seeming like a callout but I know how Tumblr is so we'll see I guess. Putting it after a read-more because I think it's going to spiral out of control.

Recent discourse around obnoxious Linux shills chiming in on posts about how difficult it can be to pick up computer literacy these days has made me feel old and tired. I get that people just want computers to Work and they don't want to have to put any extra effort into getting it to Do The Thing, that's not unreasonable, I want the same!

(I also want obnoxious Linux shills to not chip in on my posts (unless I am posting because my Linux has exploded and I need help) so I sympathise with that angle too, 'just use Linux' is not the catch-all solution you think it is my friend.)

But I keep seeing this broad sense of learned helplessness around having to learn about what the computer is actually doing without having your hand held by a massive faceless corporation, and I just feel like it isn't a healthy relationship to have with your tech.

The industry is getting worse and worse in their lack of respect to the consumer every quarter. Microsoft is comfortable pivoting their entire business to push AI on every part of their infrastructure and in every service, in part because their customers aren't going anywhere and won't push back in the numbers that might make a difference. Windows 11 has hidden even more functionality behind layers of streamlining and obfuscation and integrated even more spyware and telemetry that won't tell you shit about what it's doing and that you can't turn off without violating the EULA. They're going to keep pursuing this kind of shit in more and more obvious ways because that's all they can do in the quest for endless year on year growth.

Unfortunately, switching to Linux will force you to learn how to use it. That sucks when it's being pushed as an immediate solution to a specific problem you're having! Not going to deny that. FOSS folks need to realise that 'just pivot your entire day to day workflow to a new suite of tools designed by hobby engineers with really specific chips on their shoulders' does not work as a method of evangelism. But if you approach it more like learning to understand and control your tech, I think maybe it could be a bit more palatable? It's more like a set of techniques and strategies than learning a specific workflow. Once you pick up the basic patterns, you can apply them to the novel problems that inevitably crop up. It's still painful, particularly if you're messing around with audio or graphics drivers, but importantly, you are always the one in control. You might not know how to drive, and the engine might be on fire, but you're not locked in a burning Tesla.

Now that I write this it sounds more like a set of coping mechanisms, but to be honest I do not have a healthy relationship with xorg.conf and probably should seek therapy.

It's a bit of a stretch but I almost feel like a bit of friction with tech is necessary to develop a good relationship with it? Growing up on MS-DOS and earlier versions of Windows has given me a healthy suspicion of any time my computer does something without me telling it to, and if I can't then see what it did, something's very off. If I can't get at the setting and properties panel for something, my immediate inclination is to uninstall it and do without.

And like yeah as a final note, I too find it frustrating when Linux decides to shit itself and the latest relevant thread I can find on the matter is from 2006 and every participant has been Raptured since, but at least threads exist. At least they're not Microsoft Community hellscapes where every second response is a sales rep telling them to open a support ticket. At least there's some transparency and openness around how the operating system is made and how it works. At least you have alternatives if one doesn't do the job for you.

This is long and meandering and probably misses the point of the discourse I'm dragging but I felt obligated to make it. Ubuntu Noble Numbat is pretty good and I haven't had any issues with it out of the box (compared to EndeavourOS becoming a hellscape whenever I wanted my computer to make a sound or render a graphic) so I recommend it. Yay FOSS.

#linux #annoying linux shill discourse #i like the noble numbat he's a fine fellow

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astrolook · 1 month ago

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Astrological Marriage Timing: A Guide for the Romantically Hopeful and Chronically Curious

Disclaimer (Because Someone’s Gonna Ask): These are my personal observations and experiences over the years. Also this gonna be a long post too.

Just because Saturn or Jupiter is waltzing through your 7th house or throwing side-eye aspects at it doesn’t guarantee a wedding. Astrology isn’t Amazon Prime, timing may vary. 😌

This method only highlights possibilities not promises. It won’t tell you for sure that marriage will happen, just when it might. First, we have to look at your natal chart (yes, the whole thing, not just your big three, bestie). If your chart isn’t exactly screaming “wedding bells” say Saturn or the Sun chilling in the 7th house, or a retrograde Jupiter/Saturn/Venus/Mars, that can indicate delays. The stars can suggest, but they don’t force your situationship into a proposal. 💍✨

So how do astrologers predict potential marriage timing? We look at planetary transits especially when they align with or aspect your 1st and 7th houses or 1st lord/7th lord. These connections (like conjunctions and trines) are key indicators.

In Vedic astrology, we specifically track:

Saturn: Aspects the 3rd, 7th, and 10th houses from its natal or transit from its position.

Jupiter: Aspects the 5th, 7th, and 9th houses from natal/transit from its position.

Venus: Aspects the 7th house from natal/transit from its position.

Mars: Aspects the 4th, 7th, and 8th houses from natal/transit from its position.

Sounds promising, right? But here's the catch: just because the transits are lining up doesn’t mean marriage is guaranteed. Why? Because your natal chart has to support it too. If there are malefic planets or tough aspects affecting the 1st or 7th house, or their lords, the cosmic “Yes!” might turn into a “Not yet.”

Also, real talk, these transits happen often. Jupiter and Saturn align roughly every 1.5 - 2 years. If that alone determined marriage, we’d all be walking down the aisle biannually like it's a seasonal sale.

These same transits can also apply to childbirth predictions especially in women’s charts where we focus on the 5th, 7th, 9th, and 11th houses (but more on that in my next post 👀).

Oh, and let’s not forget the double transit method, when both Jupiter and Saturn are influencing the 7th house or its lord (or the 1st house/lord). This is a major green flag for possible marriage timing.

And yes, we also consider Mars transits for women and Venus for men (to predict which month) along with the Moon, to help narrow down the actual days things might go down (like, literally down the aisle or a possible date to get married).

Now, when I talk about predicting marriage timing, I’m strictly using the Vedic/Sidereal chart , that’s my lane for predicting marriage timings or significant event/person. Currently, Saturn is transiting Pisces (starting March 29, 2025). For Pisces ascendants, this means Saturn is moving through your 1st house; for Virgo ascendants, it’s hitting your 7th house.

If these transits are aligning and your natal chart is backing you up? You might experience a major shift whether that’s meeting someone significant, getting engaged, or a totally unexpected plot twist (hello, career change or sudden move).

Because here’s the thing: these alignments don’t just scream “MARRIAGE!” as they can bring any major life development. So even if you’re not getting hitched, the universe might still be sending something (or someone) big your way.

🌸 For Women:

Jupiter is currently transiting Taurus and will stay there until May 14, 2025, before strutting into Gemini. Then, on October 18, 2025, Jupiter enters Cancer, but plot twist as it goes retrograde on November 11 and backtracks into Gemini on December 5. Basically, Jupiter’s doing a little cha-cha around your chart this year.

We also track Mars for women, and here’s how that’s going:

Entered Cancer on April 3, 2025

Enters Leo on June 7

Heads into Virgo on July 28

Slides into Libra on September 13 ...and continues on its spicy little journey.

💅 For Men:

Venus has been having a moment in Pisces, went retrograde on March 2, 2025 and finally turning direct on April 13 which is just three days away (hehe). From there:

Enters Aries on May 31

Moves into Taurus on June 29

Dances into Gemini on July 26

Glides into Cancer on August 21

And lands in Leo on September 15

So what do we do with all this? According to your ascendant, your ascendant lord, 7th house, and 7th house lord, we need to check where these planets are transiting and whether there are malefic influences messing things up. A well-aligned transit is great, but if Saturn, Rahu, Ketu, or any spicy Mars action is crashing the party? Expect delays, detours, or cosmic ghosting.

TL;DR: The stars are moving, but whether they’re moving in your favor depends on what your natal chart has to say about it.

💌 Sooo… wanna know when you’re getting married (or if you’re just stuck in a never-ending talking stage)? Slide into my DMs with your birth details for a personalized 5-year or 8-year marriage timing report 💫 Check out my pinned post for pricing & details. Your chart’s got tea to spill, and I’m here to read it.

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