#sort newsfeed by most recent

[reasonsforhope]

No-paywall version.

"You can never really see the future, only imagine it, then try to make sense of the new world when it arrives.

Just a few years ago, climate projections for this century looked quite apocalyptic, with most scientists warning that continuing “business as usual” would bring the world four or even five degrees Celsius of warming — a change disruptive enough to call forth not only predictions of food crises and heat stress, state conflict and economic strife, but, from some corners, warnings of civilizational collapse and even a sort of human endgame. (Perhaps you’ve had nightmares about each of these and seen premonitions of them in your newsfeed.)

Now, with the world already 1.2 degrees hotter, scientists believe that warming this century will most likely fall between two or three degrees. (A United Nations report released this week ahead of the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, confirmed that range.) A little lower is possible, with much more concerted action; a little higher, too, with slower action and bad climate luck. Those numbers may sound abstract, but what they suggest is this: Thanks to astonishing declines in the price of renewables, a truly global political mobilization, a clearer picture of the energy future and serious policy focus from world leaders,

we have cut expected warming almost in half in just five years.

...Conventional wisdom has dictated that meeting the most ambitious goals of the Paris agreement by limiting warming to 1.5 degrees could allow for some continuing normal, but failing to take rapid action on emissions, and allowing warming above three or even four degrees, spelled doom.

Neither of those futures looks all that likely now, with the most terrifying predictions made improbable by decarbonization and the most hopeful ones practically foreclosed by tragic delay. The window of possible climate futures is narrowing, and as a result, we are getting a clearer sense of what’s to come: a new world, full of disruption but also billions of people, well past climate normal and yet mercifully short of true climate apocalypse.

Over the last several months, I’ve had dozens of conversations — with climate scientists and economists and policymakers, advocates and activists and novelists and philosophers — about that new world and the ways we might conceptualize it. Perhaps the most capacious and galvanizing account is one I heard from Kate Marvel of NASA, a lead chapter author on the fifth National Climate Assessment: “The world will be what we make it.” Personally, I find myself returning to three sets of guideposts, which help map the landscape of possibility.

First, worst-case temperature scenarios that recently seemed plausible now look much less so, which is inarguably good news and, in a time of climate panic and despair, a truly underappreciated sign of genuine and world-shaping progress...

[I cut number two for being focused on negatives. This is a reasons for hope blog.]

Third, humanity retains an enormous amount of control — over just how hot it will get and how much we will do to protect one another through those assaults and disruptions. Acknowledging that truly apocalyptic warming now looks considerably less likely than it did just a few years ago pulls the future out of the realm of myth and returns it to the plane of history: contested, combative, combining suffering and flourishing — though not in equal measure for every group...

“We live in a terrible world, and we live in a wonderful world,” Marvel says. “It’s a terrible world that’s more than a degree Celsius warmer. But also a wonderful world in which we have so many ways to generate electricity that are cheaper and more cost-effective and easier to deploy than I would’ve ever imagined. People are writing credible papers in scientific journals making the case that switching rapidly to renewable energy isn’t a net cost; it will be a net financial benefit,” she says with a head-shake of near-disbelief. “If you had told me five years ago that that would be the case, I would’ve thought, wow, that’s a miracle.”"

-via The New York Times Magazine, October 26, 2022

[civicopienso]

Trump Times: A San Francisco-based writer Joseph Sutton expresses his thoughts

With the recent antics of former President Donald Trump at Arlington National Cemetery hitting the newsfeed this past August, San Francisco-based writer, Joseph Sutton expressed his ire at the incident.

“Just yesterday (Sept. 3) it was reported that Trump now claims the incident at Arlington was a made up story,” said Sutton. In 2019 Sutton published a book of essays entitled, "Trump Times."

“From the 2016 primaries to the end of Donald Trump’s first year in office, I wrote a great deal about him in my journal," said Sutton. "I extracted my most pertinent thoughts about the man and presented them in "Trump Times," showing why Donald Trump is truly a menace to America’s institutions and ideals.”

Just recently, Sutton read Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson’s book "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent."

From her book, Sutton was able to gain an insight as to why Trump has maintained a “cult-like” status among his supporters.

“It just came to me after reading Wilkerson’s book,” said Sutton. “He feeds into the white peoples’ fear of being replaced by a non-white, diverse majority.”

This is something that sociologists and others have observed. They foresee that in a short period of time, the predominant white race in America that has persisted for four hundred years will not be the majority anymore. People of color will be the majority.

Author, William H. Fry published his findings in 2018 based upon current statistics. The Brookings Institute posted a commentary by Fry on its website.

As Fry initially stated. “New census population projections confirm the importance of racial minorities as the primary demographic engine of the nation’s future growth, countering an aging, slow-growing and soon to be declining white population. The new statistics project that the nation will become ‘minority white’ in 2045.”

“White people (those made up of primarily a European ethnic background) have historically been the central focus in society,” said Sutton. “I can see that now,” he said.

“Trump and his supporters," added Sutton, "continue to lie and try to persuade the American people to believe all sorts of propaganda, continually fueling fear and insecurity.”

Confusion about the role immigration plays in American democracy and the economy for example, is one issue Sutton sees that Trump uses as a “smoke screen” to distract the country from other important issues.

“That mantra Trump uses of ‘Make America Great Again,’ is a façade," said Sutton. "He uses it to dissuade the American people from trying to understand the world in the context of the actual situation of the 21st Century.”

“If Trump can use sentiment and nostalgia to get people to want to turn back to a previous era, he will,” said Sutton. “Just like he uses the big lie to frighten people into believing that the last election was rigged and stolen.”

Pointing out Trump’s attempts to avoid going to court, Sutton noted. “Trump has been indicted by the courts for criminal misconduct at least four times.”

Sutton is perplexed that the majority of the conservative U.S. Supreme Court this past July ruled that former presidents can never be prosecuted, that they're immune for actions relating to the core powers of their office. "As a result," said Sutton, "if Trump is elected president again, he will no doubt become a dictator.

“Even so," said Sutton, "I believe Trump is using every trick in the book to get back into the White House. The American people who support him, especially the white people, need to realize Trump has will kill Democracy in our country.”

“We wouldn’t have as much division in this country if Trump had conceded the 2020 election and hadn’t instigated the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capital building,” said Sutton.

Sutton who has been writing for over 50 years and has published over two-dozen books, perceives a nation divided and deceived by a megalomaniac billionaire.

“Trump seeks out heavy-handed world-leaders of questionable scruples like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to validate him, while he ignores the proper protocols of diplomacy and U.S. policy and statesmanship.”

Sutton hopes that as the November election draws near, the American people will see through the illusion that Trump and his supporters have created in the last four years and that they vote sensibly and responsibly.

To learn more about writer Joseph Sutton and his book "Trump Times," visit his website.

[digitalmarketing801]

What is Performance Marketing ?

What is Performance Marketing?

Performance Marketing is a Digital Marketing procedure that is driven by results. Ideal for organizations are hoping to contact their crowd at scale, since installment depends on how clients connect with the substance.

Or on the other hand,

Performance Marketing refers to a type of Digital Marketing wherein marks just compensation marketing specialist co-ops after their business goals have been met or when explicit moves have been initiated, like a tick, deal, or lead. As such, it is execution based advertising.

Performance Marketing works when promoters interface with either offices or distributers to plan and put ads for their organization on quite a few execution advertising channels — social media, web search tools, videos, implanted web content, from there, the sky is the limit. Rather than paying for a commercial in the conventional manner, these sponsors pay in view of how well their promotion performs, by estimating number of clicks, impressions, shares, or deals.

How Performance Marketing Functions

Sponsors put their ads on a given channel (see more on top Performance marketing channels below), and afterward pay in light of how that advertisement performs. There are a couple ways of paying with regards to Performance Marketing:

Cost Per Snap (CPC)

Advertisers pay in view of the times their promotion is clicked on. This is an effective method for directing people to your site.

Cost Per Impression (CPM)

Impressions are basically perspectives on your promotion. With CPM, you pay for each thousand perspectives (so assuming 25,000 individuals view your promotion, for instance, you’d pay your base rate times 25).

Cost Per Deals (CPS)

With CPS, you possibly pay when you make a deal that was driven by a promotion. This framework is additionally ordinarily utilized in affiliate Marketing.

Cost Per Leads (CPL)

Similar as cost per deal, with CPL you pay when somebody signs up for  something, similar to an email pamphlet or webinar. CPL creates leads, so you can follow back to clients and drive deals.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Cost per Acquistiion is like CPL and CPS yet is more general. With this design, advertisers pay when buyers complete a particular activity (which could incorporate making a deal, sharing their contact data, visiting your blog, etc.).

Top Performance Marketing Channels

What channels work best with regards to execution showcasing? There are five sorts of execution showcasing that organizations and sponsors use to drive traffic:

Banner (Display) Advertisements

Assuming you’ve been on the web, you’ve most likely seen a lot of show promotions as of late. These advertisements show up on your Facebook newsfeed, or at the top or lower part of that news website page you recently visited. However show promotions are gradually losing their allure because of the rising notoriety of advertisement blockers and what specialists call standard visual impairment, many organizations are as yet making progress with show advertisements that use intuitive substance, recordings, and drawing in visual depiction.

Native Advertising

Native Advertising takes the advantage  of the natural appearance of a page or site to advance sponsored content. For instance, supported recordings could show up in the “Watch Straightaway” part of a YouTube page. Local advertisements are likewise famous on internet business destinations — you might have seen them on Facebook Commercial center, for example. Native advertising works since it permits your supported substance to live consistently adjacent to different sorts of natural substance. Frequently, clients will not separate between these sorts of content, permitting you to advance your image such that feels regular.

Content Advertising

Content advertising is tied in with teaching your crowd. As per OmniVirt, it likewise costs 62% not exactly outbound showcasing, and creates three fold the number of leads. With content showcasing, the emphasis is on giving helpful data to clients and placing your image in setting. For instance, a nutrient organization could compose a progression of instructive blog entries about the advantages of probiotics, with a connection back to the probiotics they sell. Content advertising is a channel that can incorporate blog entries, contextual investigations, digital books, from there, the sky is the limit.

Social Media

For Performance Marketers, Social media is a shelter. It offers not just the amazing chance to arrive at clients and drive them to your site — clients can likewise share your supported substance naturally, broadening your arrive at a long ways past the first post. Facebook has the most broad rundown of administrations for Performance marketing, yet different stages like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter additionally offer numerous potential chances to arrive at new clients.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Most internet based research is done through search engines, and that implies having a website that is upgraded for search engine marketing (SEM) is fundamental. As far as Performance Marketing, the emphasis is essentially on cost-per click (CPC), particularly for paid advertising. For natural SEM, numerous presentation advertisers depend on happy marketers and search engine oriented points of arrival.

Advantages of Performance Marketing

With the eventual fate of Performance Marketing looking seriously encouraging every year, utilizing Performance Marketing channels can assist you with scaling your advertising endeavors to address the issues of your organization without burning through every last cent.

Performance Marketing is an imaginative and compelling method for differentiating your crowd and grow your span, all while catching significant information. Furthermore, the advantages don’t stop there. At the point when you embrace the full usefulness of performance Marketing, from local and subsidiary publicizing to supported online entertainment content, you’ll find it’s more straightforward than any time in recent memory to develop your business.

What is Performance Based Advertising?

Performance based advertising is a strategy for digital advertising where the sponsor pays for explicit moves made by clients, for example, tapping on an advertisement, making a buy, or pursuing a help. This contrasts from conventional publicizing, for example, show promoting, where the sponsor pays for advertisement impressions whether or not the client makes a move. Advertisers frequently use execution based promoting to drive more quantifiable outcomes and improve their advertising spend.

How Performance Advertising Functions?

Characterize Performance Objectives: The publicist decides the particular presentation objectives they need to accomplish through the publicizing effort, for example, expanding site traffic, creating leads, or making deals.

Interest group: The publicist recognizes the main interest group they need to reach with the promotion crusade, including segment data, interests, and area.

Pick Promoting Channels: The promoter chooses the computerized publicizing channels they need to use to arrive at their interest groups, like web search tools, virtual entertainment, or sites.

Create Ad Content: The publicist makes the advertisement content, including text, pictures, or recordings. The promotion ought to be intended to actually impart the message and urge clients to make the ideal move.

Set Bid and Financial plan: The promoter sets a bid for each ideal activity and a spending plan for the whole advertisement crusade. The bid is the sum the promoter will pay for each ideal activity, and the financial plan is the aggregate sum of cash the publicist will spend on the advertisement crusade.

Launch Campaign: The publicist dispatches the promotion mission and presentations the advertisements to the ideal interest group through the picked publicizing channels.

Track Performance: The publicist tracks the promotion mission’s presentation and dissects the outcomes to decide its viability. This might incorporate observing the quantity of snaps, changes, and generally return for money invested.

Track Performance: In light of the outcomes, the sponsor might change the promotion mission to further develop execution, like changing the advertisement content, focusing on, or bid and financial plan.

These means give an overall outline of the presentation publicizing process, and the points of interest might change relying upon the promoting stage or organization utilized. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-performance-marketing-digital-marketing-ajmal/?published=t

[jiessicas]

07.05.23 boredom is a gift / a sufficient amount of emojis

boredom is a gift / thich nhat hanh said true joy is rooted in calm

the love of working & the work of loving

infrastructure bro….. (why has it felt like i’m emerging from something (tabs) (twitter) i didn’t realize i was submerged within to begin with,, ) — a jot from last fall, “the constraint is a disclosure of commitment and possibility” — new constraints, new commitments, new possibilities ✨

breakfast w fwends!

Shared Realities are crazy … was latently anxious; after a lil planning breakfast it felt like i was once again holding shared dreams and schemes with others, not just adrift trying to juggle things by myself <3

with enough emojis any text/word-based app is a sufficient project management document

saw a very Cat cat if you know what i mean.... a real squealy lil guy, in one of those backpack carriers; then saw someone carrying a tiny dachshund in a shoulder bag

reshaping my internet browsing!

arc is LIFECHANGING oh my god — feel freed up from all the failed attempts to shuffle tabs around and feel freed to play online, which i have missed the feeling of :,,) i feel like it has restructured the frame i browse and hold the internet with

scrolled through the tumblr i wrote on for 10+ years, it was very tender, it feels tender to return to this form of writing

following up from yesterday's note on twitter - feeling freed up to recenter friend's writing now that i'm slightly more out of the easy pull of the newsfeed!!

trying to be an rss girly ~ from a quick peruse of this post, trying out feeder (200 feeds free; newsblur and inoreader look great too)

if you'd like to add this to your feed, 'jiessicas.tumblr.com/rss' :-)

small tumblr notes - added a lil statcounter.com & disqus comment thread (it was showing up on the index (?) view because of how this theme is set up, fiddled a lil and moved the disqus block into the permalink block)

misc

bro can’t believe i’m listening to drake again unironically

sometimes i find myself feeling so bored that i check my email ~ it feels like (to keep with the phantom limb feeling) some core of an experience i’ve grown used to has been hallowed out; i’ve been uncentered and hallowed out

tidying just the immense amount of Things in my room (books, letters, notebooks, misc pamphlets from art spaces and museums 😭😭😭😭) and relieved to unscatter things (sort stuff into piles so i can properly discard / reorganize loool)

can’t believe facebook releases a twitter clone the week i try to quit twitter mobile,,,, there was this time i handed a dj my phone to type in a track name and it opened to my most recent notes app at the time …. this is how i imagine posting in a twitter-like setting for a group of people i know outside of twitter will feel like

[fbpurity]

Keep your Facebook Newsfeed sorted by "Most Recent", not "Top Stories" with FB Purity

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The safe, free and top rated F.B. Purity browser extension  gives you an option (titled “News Sort: Most Recent” that lets you keep your Facebook Newsfeed permanently sorted by "Most Recent", and doesn't let Facebook switch you back to "Top Stories" F.B. Purity has over 416,000 users worldwide and has been reviewed and highly recommended in the Washington Post, CNET, MacWorld, PCWorld and many other top tech publications.

Get F.B. Purity here: https://fbpurity.com

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

Pulling on the Strings of Destiny: Act 2 Chapter 1

Summary: Four days pass for Japan, and everyone is on edge. They wonder, and wait. What will happen next for them? Will Midoriya keep rising? What sort of things would she face. They all turned towards the screens, wondering. None more so then the future class 1-A, more so as they get a glimpse into their first sports festival, first internship and their final exams. Watch as Midoriya's future continues to unfold, as she learns more about her family, society and herself.

Warnings: References to underage pregnancy and the assualt of a minor. References to child harm. Toga Himiko to, she is her own warning.

ON AO3

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

 Oddly enough, Japan didn’t truly deviate from the normal day-to-day life after the reveal. People went to work, villains caused havoc, heroes saved people, and kids went to school. It was completely normal.

 However, even with the normality, there still was a new sort of force in the days after the first viewing of the future; Japan began experiencing a sudden change of events. People around Japan were either constantly gossiping, placing bets, dealing with the fallout or struggling with the information revealed. Plans were discussed, plots brewed, and people were all talking.

-0-

 The daycare being created by Spinner and his ‘Crew’ as they called themselves, already seemed to be going well. It would take a few weeks to be able to arrange for any sort of certifications or not, but the labour went well. Mange’s house needed some tender love and repair, but they worked on it.

 “We should have a room for the older kids and one for the younger,” Spinner said to Sota.

 “Makes sense.” Sota agreed with a nod. They looked around the group that was cleaning up the house, a handful of people marking where support beams stood and where the best place to build new walls were.

 All of the people working were either immigrants, people who faced Quirk discrimination, people from low-income families or people who wanted to help. The latter felt much smaller than the former, but as they mostly came together at a seedy bar, Spinner thought it made sense. They were all the people forgotten by society. Yet they were coming together to make something. Something for those overlooked by society and outcasted.

 A loud snort came from one of his crew, drawing Spinner from his thoughts.

 “I’m sending you guys this,” the man said to the others. The article found was sent to the group chat, and everyone looked at it.

MUTATION DISCRIMINATION

 Are mutation Quirks discriminated against? Recent events have shown that it may still be expected for…

 “May?” Spinner asked out loud as everyone else roared in laughter. The article obviously came from someone who had no idea the truth of the whole thing, that discrimination ran rampant in society still. A sort of odd innocence came from the words, making Spinner sigh.

 Poor kid, being torn from it. But better they learn now than later.

-0-

MIDORIYA FOSTERED BY UA

 With the recent reveals, followed by the divest sting cruelty given to Midoriya by her mother, we are pleased to report that UA has taken charge…

QUIRKLESS CHARITY RECEIVES NUMEROUS DONATIONS

 The charity known as ‘Red Shoes and Pink Ties’ has recently received a record-breaking amount of donations…

RAZZLE DAZZLE: WHY MIDORIYA HAD A POINT

 If you look into recent history, you’ll notice that there has been an uprising in villains whenever one gets notoriety…

 “What the hell is this, Chang?” The voice caused the Commission agent to lift her head with a glare. The man, Nara Kyoya or ‘Creepy’ as everyone called him, glared back.

 “What’s what?” She asked, putting her phone down. She’d been scrolling through newsfeeds, looking to see the public reaction to the future so far. Most of it seemed optimistic, with some negative comments only coming from the ‘Might makes Right’ crowd.

 “You pushed through the foster application for Midoriya!” Creepy snapped.

 “And? It’s better than some corrupt social worker managing to get her, leading to some villain getting custody.” Chang told him. “Besides, her father is still alive. He approves of custody being awarded to them.”

 “Her father who hasn’t been around for years, you mean?” Creepy growled. “We could have done so much with her! One of our agents taking charge- “

 “Oh, so you can sweep in with your program? Fat chance of that when her life’s being broadcasted.” Chang said. Creepy glared at her, crossing his arms. “Look, what’s done is done. She’s currently under the care of two heroes, under watch at UA. She’s fine.” Chang reached out to grab some papers in order to give off an ‘I’m busy so scram’ vibes, wholly done with Creepy.

 “We could have built a legacy with her!” Creepy hissed. Chang paused at his words, hand outstretched. She slowly looked Creepy in the eyes, her own narrowing. He frowned at her before realization dawned on what he said. He left as Chang stared after him.

 Building a legacy meant many things. But given Creepy and his connection to the rumours of Hawks, Chang’s stomach turned in fear. What plans did the man have?

-0-

 Kamui Woods winced at the dark look he faced, Best Jeanist standing in front of the tree hero, along with Death Arms and Mt. Lady. The lone female hero looked apologetic though Death Arms looked more annoyed.

 “You three have recently come under fire for your actions a few months ago. Before, it could be brushed off as a random civilian messing with a villain’s capture. Now it becomes apparent you all made grievous mistakes.”

 “Why? Because some brat got important?” Death Arms asked.

 “Yes. And we can see she will have power one day to be able to change things.” Best Jeanist snorted. He raised an eyebrow. “Or did it not occur to you one day that simply punching things wouldn’t make the cut?” His words made the three newer heroes wince, though Death Arms appeared angrier still than anything. A sidekick noted the sight, turning to make a face at an office worker. The other shrugged before their attention became stolen once more.

 “It’s ridiculous! We’re good heroes! Kamui already is being considered to move up in rank!” Death Arms argued. He sounded bitter when he spoke, something caught by Best Jeanist.

 “You may say those words, but you’re certainly not happy.” Best Jeanist sniffed. “I never set out to be number three, you know. Always I wished only to prove that a weak Quirk could be a hero’s Quirk. Yet it seems I made the mistake of not concentrating on this method. I became distracted by fame, by being so good at thread manipulation that I managed to make it to where I am.” He looked between the three heroes. “Why did you wish to be heroes?”

 “I’ve got a mutation Quirk,” Kamui said honestly. “This is one of the few fully accepting job forces of me.”

 “Money, I won’t lie,” Mt. Lady admitted. “Fame, fortune… but… yesterday. Even with the whole future thing happening, I was asked to help with a job. They needed my abilities.” She bit her lip. “A human trafficking ring. I saw so many kids, so many women… one of them told me that I might be a fame whore, but I was her hero. I saved them like actually saved them.” She gave a nervous smile. “I… I want to keep saving people.”

 Death Arms didn’t answer, glaring instead as the others looked eventually though he sighed. “It made sense. I have a Quirk for heroics, as they all said.” He paused then. “Now that I think about it, I might be more like that Bakugou kid than I like.” He lifted a hand to wave it back and forth. “Used to insult a lot of people. I Never laid hands on any classmates, but I wasn’t a nice guy. Hell, I’m still not a nice guy.”

 “Yet you can acknowledge it,” Jeanist said. “We can all acknowledge we need to do better, be better. Seeing a young girl hurt like she was makes us angry.” He looked at them. “I’m known for taking in promising interns who have attitude problems. It’s not the same, but working together, we might be able to make a new message for Japan.”

 “Just don’t dress us up like your interns.” Death Arms said dryly.

 “I do that if they annoy me.” Best Jeanist replied. “Though denim is the easiest fabric to manipulate, everything else is if they’re a pain.” The heroes snorted, and Jeanist chuckled, plans whirling.

 He’d genuinely been disturbed by his realization that he’d forgotten why he wished to be a hero. It never was about money, fame or anything. He only wanted to prove himself, to show any Quirk could be heroic. Yet the sparkle of fame, the sheer amount of money, and the fashion he could have all drove him away from his purpose.

 He’d make sure to change it.

-0-

 The future seemed bright enough, he supposed. Hopefully, all the fake heroes were gone, but Stain felt that he would die first, given his appearance on the screen. Pity, he had so many heroes to choose from. However, if All Might or Midoriya took him out, it would be a good death indeed.

 The villain looked at his trusted website, reading through new articles—all speaking of disgusting heroes who used their fame for their selfish wishes. A recent article wondering on Present Mic and his insistence to appear with Midoriya on the beach was on the site, and he read it. Perhaps he’d been mistaken that the hero could mostly be trusted. The article pointed out all those charities he helped fund, and sure it was good, yet he got a lot of publicity.

 Heroes shouldn’t get publicity! They should instead focus on helping people! Even the money given to them should be discarded! No true hero would be one for cash! Midoriya with her daughter he understood but the rest no. All Might, with his donating his salary back to charities and his kindness. Stain scrolled past an ad for All Might water bottles, eager to learn more of Present Mic and his fake kindness. Perhaps he’d kill him before the false hero Ingenium to free Midoriya of him. Yes, that would be best…

 He would rid the world of glory-hungry heroes who became heroes to promote themselves! People would know his wrath and his creed! His purge would go down in history, as would his defeat at the hands of the true heroes!

-0-

 Chisaki Kai, better known as Overhaul, felt annoyance as he glared at one of his men.

 “So we truly cannot get her from UA?” He asked.

 “No, sir. She’s well protected.” The man replied. Overhaul growled, a hand going out to grab his underling. With a single thought, only gore was left of the man. Overhaul turned away to walk down the hall. Damn it all.

 Upon watching the future, he’d become entirely aware that his hasty refusal of his Boss’s attempts to give him a wife cost him a Quirkless bride. Probably an attempt by the man to make sure he was okay with an arranged marriage, not telling Overhaul that his possible bride was Quirkless. As if he’d sully himself with any Quirked person. But a Quirkless person was different. He would never touch her until she gave permission; he wasn’t worthy of doing so. Instead, he’d keep Midoriya safe, locked in her room so that her purity never tarnished. The child he supposed could stay. She would be one of the first cured by him. Her pure mother made the babe somewhat pure herself, though her disgusting condition would be better banished from his eyes. A half pure child cursed as she was made Overhaul’s stomach roll.

 Midoriya needed to be brought to safety. Away from those heroes who were corrupting her, to cure her of her disease. Her love of Quirks blinded her to the truth, and he would make sure she saw it.

 Overhaul entered the lab, where a girl with a horn flinched from him. She kept her face down while shivering.

 “Sir,” one of the scientists said. “We have been working hard on the ah… Cure.” The scientist said the word like he couldn’t believe he was saying it, wrinkling his nose. Overhaul barely noticed as the girl peaked through her bangs.

 The future show Eri, the girl, had watched seemed so bright. So amazing. A girl who was hurt and made small got back up—got big. She had a baby she loved a lot; it made Eri want that. She wanted a mom like the baby had. But it also inspired Eri.

 She would be a hero too. She would get away from Overhaul; she would put him in jail! She would be like Midoriya, like Limitless! She would!

-0-

 Knowing his master’s daughter currently lived under the hand of heroes made him itch. Shigaraki dragged his fingers down his neck, ignoring sudden pain and the wet warmth signifying blood. Kurogiri sighed upon seeing that the young man had caused himself to bleed once more but did not move. Shigaraki would not be pleased to have his anger remarked upon.

 “Midoriya should be with us! With her father!” Shigaraki snarled to Kurogiri who hummed.

 “Perhaps, but he wishes for her to gain One for All first, to deprive the heroes of a great Quirk.” The mist villain reminded the other. Shigaraki only snarled, glaring at his caretaker as he kept scratching. “The nursery is coming along well,” Kurogiri attempted to distract the other.

 It worked, and Shigaraki’s hand fell from his neck, a slow smile crossing his face. “Good. Tomoe needs a safe place. We didn’t get dolls, right?”

 “No. Only some soft toys and other items.” Kurogiri agreed.

 “Good. Maybe I can have an uncle-niece day with her to destroy some doll factories or something,” mused Shigaraki. It would be nice to build a bond with Midoriya and Tomoe. They were his family, after all. Midoriya was his sister, and Tomoe his niece. They would tear hero society apart to create a new world from the ashes. Tomoe would be raised in a world that loved her while fearing the girl. She would want for nothing. Midoriya would get revenge on those who hurt her; she would be at peace. Shigaraki himself would be there too.

 At first, he thought Midoriya would be his strategist, his NPC who stayed home to make plans. But then he realized too. She would be better ruling over society, dealing with the day-to-day stuff that seeped into their everyday life. He’d much rather go out to murder their enemies, spend time playing games and spoil his niece—the guard for his sister a perfect position.

 Hisashi watched his apprentice through a hidden camera, pleased that his minion seemed to be adjusting well to the personality shift. The injured man had called Shigaraki to his lair in order to make the adjustments the day before. Easy enough, though Hisashi discarded his old plan for the boy. He would enjoy a new body, no doubt, but after consideration, he’d prefer for Shigaraki to function as a bodyguard for his daughter. Izumi would need someone to protect her and her daughter, after all.  The adjustments to make Shigaraki a good bodyguard didn’t take much, a simple twist to his mind to make him consider a lesser role. The young man already obsessed over Izumi as a sister. Four days and the boy latched onto her. Desperate for a sister, a family. Hisashi took pains to make sure Shigaraki never saw him as a father figure, not wanting the guilt of a son becoming a puppet. But…

 Hisashi wondered if he’d arranged for them to meet earlier instead of waiting. The long-term plan revolved around Hisashi possessing Shigaraki when he grew old enough, going back to his family. But if he’d instead decided otherwise… well, perhaps Yamanaka would be dead earlier. Perhaps Inko to, in a freak Quirk accident, with Izumi raised properly. Pity he would never find out. But his daughter would come to them soon, with his granddaughter, while Shigaraki stood as the loyal soldier for their empire. Hisashi would claim some other body for his own, and they would be happy.

 He knew it.

-0-

 The civilians of Japan, those with little to do with the future, gossiped. People traded thoughts on the future, with many expressing horror that discrimination such as Midoriya or Tomoe faced still existed in their country. In contrast, others expressed a simple acceptance of the fact.

 “C’mon, you said some shit yourself a few times,” a woman remarked to her friend. “You that surprised?”

 “I… huh.” The man stopped, thinking back. “I guess I have said nasty stuff about some Quirks. I…” he frowned. “No, wait. I won’t excuse it. I’ll be as bad as the people in the future otherwise.”

 “Exactly. I’ve got what most consider a weak Quirk, and I faced hell for it.” The woman told him. “It’s no surprise that other people get shit too.”

 “No doubt.” Muttered her friend.

 Another conversation occurred between two gang members, the two smoking as they spoke.

 “Looks like maybe in the future people like me will get respect,” one said, lifting a tentacle he had in place elf an arm.

 “Hopefully.” The other muttered, his inhuman face reflecting his Quirk ‘Orc’ after the old movie Lord of the Rings. “Kid’s cute as fuck. Why the hell does the world suck?”

 “Because humans are awful.” The tentacled one said. “… got some bright spots, though.”

 “Yeah. Like Midoriya and her friends. Future’s bright with them.” Orc said. “Makes me think of quitting, trying to go legit.”

 “And do what?”

 “I like cooking.” The man admitted to the first, who paused.

 “… I used to be a barista.” The first offered. The two traded looks before they grinned. “We gone?”

 “We’re gone.” The two walked away, tearing off their gang signs to throw into dumpsters. The two were unaware of a figure watching over them, crouched on the roof.

 “Targets just ditched the gang,” Pause said softly, lifting a hand against her ear where her communicator rested. “I think they’re talking about going legit.”

 “Disengage then. If they do great, they’re small fry,” Blind Spot said, working out of their office. “No big deal if their crimes are brushed under the rug.”

 “Acknowledged.” Pause left the roof to try and find new gang members to stalk as she pondered the change in Japan. People were openly discussing discrimination, and its effects. People talked about bullying, and some schools even made announcements about cracking down. The hero didn’t know how long it would last, but hopefully for a long time.

 At least until the next upheaval of society anyway.

 At the police station, various officers were gathering together cases they knew were connected with little proof. Eraserhead temporarily benched, or permanently benched, who knew, meant they would give him loads of cases. Anything to stave off his boredom. At least the serial arsonist and the serial killer cases would entertain him for a while. The fire cases seemed Quirk-related to, so it would distract him.

 Other than increasing patrols in areas and feeling pride in being praised by All Might, the police didn’t change. A few more vocal Quirkist officers were treated slightly more harshly, but they just kept working in general. Do your job, and everything is alright in the end. They couldn’t be like they used in the past, where the police were above reproach and would instead close ranks around each other. Not with heroes, though privately, many felt heroes now had that added to them. The police needed to be good at their jobs and willing to do the work. The future just showed them that they would keep working.

 As they put the files together, one of the culprits sat inside a bar. Dabi hummed, eyes closed as he leaned his head back as if he tried to look at the ceiling. The bar he sat in discussed the future so far, many more hardened criminals muttering about how they were now going to be doing something about the discrimination many faced when a pretty girl was going through it with her toddler.

 “Kid’s Quirkless, though. Or you know used… I don’t know how to say it, but the kid is basically one of us,” a woman spoke up. “Beaten down by society. Thing is, she chose to hold onto the side of food rather than fall.”

 “We didn’t have a choice!” Another woman argued, her snake-like hair hissing as she glared behind her sunglasses. “We were all forced-“

 “Fuck that.” The first snorted. “We made our choices. It’s on no one but ourselves. Sure we had little chance in some cases to do anything but become what we are, but still. We all know stealing, killing, assault- it’s all wrong. We know that. But we do it anyway.”

 “Hey! It’s not like anyone would hire us!” A man with a bear’s head yelled.

 “Did you try? Or did you simply accept you’re going to be a villain?” The first woman asked. The man paused. After a minute of no answer, the woman continued. “See? You’re here because of your own choices. No one forced you to become a villain, but you still ended up here.”

 “What about kids raised to be villains?” Asked another woman, this one with hair that looked like metal tubes, the tubes clicking. She’d been one of the ones caught at the USJ in the future, leading to her lying low.

 “Did they grow up in a box with no access to anything but their parents? Or were they exposed to laws, to media showing good or bad?” The first woman sniffed. “Everyone has a choice. Only in extreme cases is there no choice at all.”

 “She’s right,” Dabi voiced. He uprighted his head so he could look around the bar. “We all made our choices. We chose our paths, and if you’re complaining about having no choice now, you’re pathetic.”

 “Oh? And what choice did you make?” Sneered the bear-headed man.

 “To take revenge on my father and his oh so precious heir,” Dabi said, voice dripping with disdain. Endeavour cast him aside for Shouto. Shouto with the perfect Quirk. Shouto, who their mother tried to protect when she turned a blind eye to Dabi and his abandonment. Shouto, who Natsuo told Dabi to stop bothering too much. Shouto, who stole everything.

 Both deserved what they got, but Dabi would admit he’d chosen his path. He could have run away, become anyone else. He didn’t.

 “See?” The first woman laughed. “Boy knows what it is.” She moved over to sit at the table with Dabi, a smile on her face. “Call me Z. It’s nice to meet someone honest.” The woman told the other villain. Dabi smirked, nodding at her.

 “A pleasure to meet you, Z. What’s your story?”

 “I’m Quirkless. Father hated it and used to beat me to try and create a force-activated Quirk.” Z shrugged. “Now I’m a hired killer.” She glanced at the still floating screen, the search for the future still going. “I admire the kid. A bit anyway, for staying good.”

 “Wish you did?” Dabi asked.

 “Sometimes. Other times I remember how much money I make killing.” She grinned, and Dabi smirked.

 “Buy you a beer?”

 “Sure.”

 In another part of Japan, the other culprit the police were looking for giggled, cooing over a newspaper article about Izu-chan and Tomoe-chan. Toga Himiko traced the picture, her hand a little bloody from killing the man who’d been holding the newspaper she wanted.

 They were both so cute! Izu-chan was so strong and pretty, and when she broke her body, she looked even better. And Tomoe was so cute when the baby cried and cried, her threads moving. It made Toga giggle so much! They were so cute! The both of them!

 She wondered what they’d both look like bleeding. Toga bet it was even better, blood covering their skin and the fear in their eyes. She couldn’t wait to see it, cause it even! Toga giggled.

 “I’m going to find you, Izu-chan! We’re going to be so cute together with our little Tomoe!” The girl giggled more before she left the alley and the dead body she created behind.

-0-

 As Japan all experienced the changes the future already caused, a particular class of potential heroes were about to be affected as well.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Notes:

-Spinner and the crew are going strong!!! -Chang has become an actual fun OC to write which surprised me given she was a throwaway character. But having a grumpy HPSC agent is fun! -I worried about the Jeanist section only because I didn’t want a ‘take that’ vibe. But like it makes sense that he’d do this. So yay! And yes- Jeanist 100% messed with Bakugou during his internship in my head. You can’t convince me otherwise. -Stain was fun. I really enjoyed getting into his head here, really study the fanatic he is. For those interested- All Might DOES in fact donate his salary to charities but he’s got so much money from merchandise that he’s super well off. A good chunk of that also goes to charity but he keeps the rest. -Overhaul is creepy and gross. In this AU, the boss did reach out to Inko about an arranged marriage but as Overhaul expressed disgust he decided against it. Of course there wasn’t any like talk about Quirks… -Hisashi is creepy as hell, and has way to many plots. Shigaraki is his simple puppet for his own use, yet the poor thing doesn't notice. -Dabi is 1000% my fav villain cause he’s just a fucking bastard and he knows it. I love that way more then any other type of villain not gonna lie. - Toga would 1000% want to kill Tomoe to and no you can’t change my mind. -anyone wondering about MLA: I find the whole plot with them boring and frankly they’re to easily just dealt with for me to care about them.

[bladekindeyewear]

HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2020-09-15

This caught me laaaate at night gosh I’m tired but I’m gonna get it outta the way so it won’t stick in my craw!  Already saw the first page, so it’s time for:

> CHAPTER 13. The Funeral

Church with chess symbols at the peaks and a Prospit/Derse or Hope/Rage split color theme on the stained glass windows.

JANE: Dearly beloved...

> (==>)

Trolls, humans, and papparazzi.  Oh, hm, this church is RATHER carapacian isn’t it?  Between the chess and the continuing Prospit-Derse themes, like how this corresponds to how they align in the incipisphere top-left to bottom-right if I recall:

(Minus the outlying orbs to the left and right for symmetry.)

That twisted pattern is interesting, and not quite a spirograph.  Is that gonna be important later?  If we’re going to get some sort of class chart later in the comic, it’d be easy for them to hint at the chart’s graphical structure subtly by dropping it places like here.

JANE: Ladies... JANE: Gentlemen... JANE: News outlets... JANE: And other valued members of the Human Nation State.

Technically true, but still odd to hear--  ...oh right, I forgot this was asshole dictator-wannabe Jane, too.

I read an interesting twitter thread recently about the intense psychological distinction between wanting to BE the best, and wanting to be TREATED like you’re the best.  Epilogues/HS^2 Jane is kind of written as a case study on the pitfalls of leaning on the latter instead of the former.

> (==>)

They brought Yiffy WITH them-!?  --Oh right.  The hostage exchange was supposed to happen here wasn’t it.

Yiffy definitely looks like a Harley-Lalonde daughter in this shot.

JANE: Gamzee Makara, High Court Jester, exalted saint of the purple veil, has left us to traverse that grand, gay carnival in the sky, where, I am told by various members of the clownly cloth, he will spend the rest of history, honking in grand tribute to the Mirthful Messiah.

SINGULAR???

Weird.  Is it because Alt!Callie “won” here?

Or is Jane just forgetting because she’s culturally used to monotheism (ironically) and is insensitive.

JANE: And my first memory of our Purple Prince, was his robust codpiece--

Wow.

> (==>)

JANE: --As he offered me his friendly support, along with the sacred blood of his brethren, the holy sacrament--

He STILL killed trolls??! (EDIT: No, a friend points out that she's talking about when she met him first in Act 6 and he tried selling bottles of troll blood to her. EDIT2: -which may be another inconsistency, since Vriska supposedly overwrote that post-retcon.)

> (==>)

It takes Jake a few seconds of puzzled eye contact before he catches exactly what it is Yiffany is tossing down. In his defense, he is distracted by his wife’s speech, which is doing the emotional equivalent of wringing him out like a wet towel, before using that towel to slap the sweaty buttocks of a large, odorous man. Even if he knows everything she’s saying is a load of horsefeathers, it does nothing for his composure to hear her heap praise on that smelly, homewrecking clown.

Bad things about Gamzee deserve to be said here, yes.

Jake wonders what she’ll say about him, at his own funeral.

Now those are some uncomfortable thoughts.

He narrows his eyes in Yiffany’s direction. She’s a lovely girl, really. He wishes he could have gotten to know her under better circumstances. He’d known she existed, of course--Jane had complained about her often enough--but they’d never had much chance to get acquainted. He rather believes her and Tavvy would have been fast friends.

Then again, perhaps it’s better that she never had much of a chance to get to know his family.

He lets go of the leash.

Yep, there’s a plan to set in motion that he’s probably already discussed with her privately.  Gotta unite this four-kid team after all.

> (==>)

Wait, are you ATTACKING?!?  --Of course you’re attacking.  You would even if the plan was something different, wouldn’t you.

JANE: And I know that at times like these it is easy to want to give in. JANE: To throw in the towel, and turn our faces away from the light of democracy and moral fortitude that we, the citizens of the human kingdom, are blessed with from birth. JANE: God knows I’ve had my own faith tested in the last few weeks.

Jesus Christ, what has she turned the place into, a fucking theocracy?

She sounds like the leader of some screwed-up, fundamentalist country!  Like the United States!

*rimshot*

JANE: As many of you know, I did not grow up with the same privileges that all of you enjoy.

Jesus.

JANE: I was born on proto-Earth, that half-finished dystopia mangled by the ravages of foolish leadership and endless war.

Jesus, she really IS a self-evident takedown of hypocritical entitled political figures.  With the bonuses having Jasprose explicitly ADDRESS said entitlement to make things even clearer cut.

JANE: And as for Gamzee, well, his upbringing was even worse. JANE: He was born to a violent and uncaring home, a lonely child with few natural gifts.

...Some natural gifts and status.

> (==>)

She’s just, shaking with fury here isn’t she?  And about to perform an impressive corpse-lob.

JANE: It would be simple to let this disgusting, vile, SHAMEFUL act of spiteful revenge turn us away from the blinding light of the sword of justice that hangs over us all--

This sentence seems suspicious so I’m quoting it to refer to later if I need to, but is probably just platitudes.

> (==>)

JANE: Poised

> (==>)

JANE: Trembling

Okay maybe the sword’s a dick, but what exactly is Yiffany doing??  I’m finding it difficult as usual to tell between some of these image transitions.

> (==>)

JANE: Ready to burst forth--

Bad PR to shock-collar a kid mid press junket.  (Very dicks description.)

> (==>)

Click.  (Did they swap the shock function with Jane’s necklace somehow, that’d be fun.)

JANE: I want to give up, at times. I understand your pain.

While shocking a kid?  GREAT PR.

> (==>)

JANE: I sympathize with your pain.

Wow, those horrified audience members.  She REALLY can’t even see herself anymore can she?  Not even hear herself.  And they’re making sure this is pointed out to EVERYONE watching.  They described this as in large part a PR campaign to defeat her, didn’t they?

> (==>)

Great furious businesswoman-villain look, that art.

JANE: But when that pain! Becomes too hard! To endure! JANE: Remember poor, lifeless Gamzee! Who suffered pain far worse than any of us could ever fathom! JANE: THE PAIN OF BETRAYAL!

Click click click.  This is a fun sequence.

> (==>)

DIRK: Dude, didn’t you lower the voltage on that shock collar? DIRK: Little Red isn’t looking so hot. JAKE: Yes of course i did but the damn doohickys got the kick of a donkey! JAKE: I couldnt remove it completely shed know i was the one who did it! DIRK: Well, if that supervillain cuntwaffle doesn’t stop, she’s going to kill her. Not really the best at hostage management, is she.

Decent plan.  (And of course Dirk would pull out the word cunt.)  When’s the cavalry coming?

> (==>)

JANE: But we cannot allow his memory to be in vain! JANE: For Gamzee Makara taught us that even the most loathsome degenerate can take their place in society. JANE: All they need is the right redemption arc - !

Trying to hammer home some of the Epilogue’s trolly-critical themes a little less bleakly, I take it.

I kind of like the violent vibration in ALL of these gifs in a row.  It makes the scene seem small, slow, teeth-clenching but still full of steady action, emphasizing the importance of the relatively small events from panel to panel while giving them the sense with the animation of them being [i]drawn out[/i] and tortuous instead of just “occurring”.  It feels that way to me, anyway.

> (==>)

If he got up alive here, that’d be hilarious.  (Presumably he’s been treated and done-up like a normal funeral body, not “dormant” and undecaying like a dead god-tier.)

> (==>)

CORPSE PUNT w/ CLEATS

> (==>)

That face is just.  I love that face.

> (==>)

SHE MAD

JANE: Young lady, I am just about at the end of my rope with you. JANE: Throw all the dog bowls you want at the walls of my warship. JANE: But don’t you dare act up in front of a JANE: Live JANE: Fucking JANE: Newsfeed! YIFFY: Grrrrrr

What did you expect to happen?  Do you expect to shout her down from this, Jane?

JANE: After everything I’ve done for you--paying for your education, helping your parents cover up your existence from the world! JANE: Just imagine what Rose and Jade would say if they could see you now, even dissidents can have a little decorum! JANE: Get down from there at once! YIFFY: Grrrrrr

But this is GAMZEE.  --I guess it’s seriously disrespectful to his followers, though.  Still.  If you wanted civility from her, a shock collar, leash, and food bowl wasn’t the way to go about it.

JANE: Don’t you threaten me, young lady. Not today! YIFFY: GRRRRRRRRR

What is your PLAN even, Jane?  You’ve completely disregarded her.

JANE: There’s nowhere for you to go. My agents are swarming this church. Be reasonable, Yiffany. JANE: Ugh. JANE: Disgusting name. JANE: But that’s hardly your fault. You were always just a footnote. Your parents’ little prank. JANE: Honestly, that’s why I helped them all those years ago! I do love a good jape. JANE: But let’s be serious. JANE: You don’t matter. If you did, they would have come for you already.

Can all the press hear her being such an asshole?

Okay, stereotypically, their arrival should be the next couple panels:

> (==>)

Jake, do something useful like hoping harder.

> (==>)

And she knocks the remote away.  Excellent.

And she does. Seemingly at the end of her tolerance for insults toward her name, social status, and heritage, Yiffy performs an impressive backflip off the podium and down onto the church floor. One that, if it hadn’t been happening amidst a sea of other newsworthy events, would surely have ended up on someone’s instagram story within thirty seconds. She gives Gamzee’s corpse one last parting kick: a hard, proper kick that proves those cleats aren’t just for fashion. Although they are certainly also for fashion.

Good, good.

He vanishes into the seething crowd, and we are confident that we will never have to deal with this asshole ever again.

God damnit.

> (==>)

Jake watches this from a safe distance, poised on the edge of intervening to pull Yiffy out of there. But in the end he doesn’t have to. Instead he watches in admiration as she tears the place to utter shreds. An echoing sympathy swells inside of him as she rends apart the funeral flowers and punts Gamzee into the shrieking congregation. Here is a girl who felt the cold, indecent hand of fate wrapping around her, and instead of submitting to it and slowly sublimating down into morasse of boiled doormat, she slapped it away from her with a lively oh, no thank you.

All at once, Jake feels immense affection for his granddaughter. He hopes the two of them can make up for lost time.

Lessons belatedly learned, but learned nonetheless.

> (==>)

JANE: Enough of this. JANE: Seize her!

Kind of Red Queen of you.  (Are those stained glass windows in back of the frame about to burst?)

> (==>)

Yep.

The stained glass window shatters inward, obliterated to stardust. The war is knocking.

Even attacking a disgusting faith’s church is pretty bad form, though.

Tired and busy, seeya next upd8.  <3

[iamshubhamsblog]

Ecommerce Consultant

Social media marketing has turned out as a blessing for businesses. The exposure and traffic hike companies are receiving through different social media platforms are truly immense. Every second company has established an online presence these days through social media. However, just being regularly present on social media and checking up is not enough. Social media marketing is full of tricks you can use to get better recognition and increase your sales. Companies can influence users through different techniques like paid promotions, effective advertisements, proper responses to users, and so on. Amidst all this, something as small as the time of a post can change your sales and engagement statistics. All the top social media influencers are well familiar with these small marketing devices of social media. If you want to be amongst the best, you will need to pay attention to the minute aspects of  ecommerce consulting services.

Does time of posting matter in social media?

Yes, and we can’t stress this enough. Time of posting is often overlooked by inspiring social media influencers and businesses. But, it can be a significant catalyst in your social media success. The algorithms of different social platforms decide what kind of timing strategy you should adapt. The sorting order of newsfeed in these platforms is the crucial factor for the right time of posting.

One more important thing is the time of the day when your target audience is most active. Timing matters because if you post during that hour of the day, there will be a natural and organic increase in the number of views. The engagements will rise, and so will the sales.

Knowing the right time to post on social media platforms is also essential to reserve the best content for a suitable moment. Posting at any time of the day can leave your effective content secluded. No matter how good the content is, it will never reach out to the target. So, determine the time when most users are active and roll out the reserved, top quality, creamy content at that time. It is like a double hit factor which is sure to bring more traffic to your page.

Is there a typical best time for all social media platforms?

There are many social media websites in the world. But the four leading social media platforms that take up the top spots for businesses are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. YouTube is also a major contender, but it is more of a video sharing platform. So, can we get a standard posting time for the above four platforms? No, it is not possible. In fact, you can’t even get a generic posting time within a single platform. The reason is that every group of the target audience have their traits and surfing habits. Some may scroll more, so posting time does not matter much. Some target audiences constitute busy people who come online once a day and look at a few posts and leave. In this way, there is immense diversity in a single platform. So, it makes it pretty useless to search for generic time of posting for different platforms together. You need to find out the best time according to the platform you are on, the genre of your post and the active intervals of your target audiences. Let us look at some excellent posting time estimated for each platform.

Facebook

Facebook is among the largest social media platforms and an apple of the eye for social media marketers. It has recently come up as a powerful advertising platform, and social media influencers are going crazy about it for a long time. Facebook gives impressive results to marketing activities owing to over 2.38 billion users of the platform. These results can be optimised and elevated to new heights when the timing of posts is curated. Due to the giant size of Facebook, there is no accurately defined time for posting. However, some well-accepted and general statistics are:

The best days for Facebook posts are late weekdays from Wednesday to Saturday. Thursdays are considered the highest-grossing days, according to Hubspot.

For industrial and business posts, right time of the day is 9 am. It is the time when employees and managers come online for the first time of the day.

Posting before 7 am and after 5 pm is considered very inefficient as users are often busy sleeping or spend time with their families. Posting between 10 pm to 4 am is the worst time to post as your updates will primarily go unnoticed.

For news and industry pages, it is good to post at a time around lunch — the main idea being catching the users during their free time.

Sunday is the least favourable day for making facebook posts about any topic, as most people are enjoying their weekend.

Instagram

Instagram is the next favourite platform of social media influencers all around the world. The sheer creativity of the platform and the modern touch to the interface attracts millennials a lot. Among youth, Instagram has even defeated Facebook in terms of popularity. Knowing the ins and outs of Instagram marketing has become very important to thrive in the social media marketing world. Some post scheduling tips for Instagram are:

The morning hours retake the great part as posting between 10-11 am on Instagram brings a lot of engagement.

Wednesday is a safe day to launch your best updates on this platform as many people move slightly into their leisure mode waiting for the weekend.

Evening time from 4-5 pm and night time of 7 to 9 pm is also considered safe and sound for updating your Instagram profile with some creative posts.

Nighttime is again a big no-no as the posts between 11 pm to 3 am get the least engagement statistics.

While some researchers consider Thursday the best day for Instagram influencers, others show that Friday can be even better with people excited for the upcoming weekend holiday.

The genre of your post will change the ideal time to post on Instagram. For instance, the best choice for media post is late morning hours on Wednesdays, and interesting tech posts can thrive even on Saturday mornings.

Twitter

Twitter is the social media platform of intellectuals. At least that is what the notion is. However, you will find all the range and types of audiences using twitter. Twitter is gaining new users and advancing its algorithms every day. These algorithms can accurately depict the perfect timings for tweeting for promoting your business. With an average of 500 million tweets on the platform every day, you should know some periods when your tweets will gain proper attention and shine bright.

Both mornings and evenings are an excellent time to publish a fresh and exciting tweet. Save your precious witty publications for 8 to 10 am or 6 to 9 pm.

The best day for your marketing campaigns on twitter is Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

For B2C companies, weekends are great to reach out to regular customers on twitter. B2B companies do great during weekdays when other industries are looking out for business partners.

Aiming for more tweets during noon and evening will increase the retweet count. The reason relates to the psychology of people after finishing their jobs.

Avoid tweeting when your target audience is sleeping, i.e. between 11 pm to 5 am.

LinkedIn

Among the four social media platforms, LinkedIn is something most unique and different. It is a focused social media option for business leaders and corporate workers. It combines into a social website and a job-seeking platform. As a recruiter or your business promoter, you will need to stay active and energetic on LinkedIn. The non-diverse audience of LinkedIn does not reduce its marketing potential. To unleash the full capabilities of LinkedIn in your social media strategy, follow these scheduling tips:

Post on LinkedIn for maximum engagement between 10 am to 12 pm. The main aim should be to drop regular updates in the morning and show professionalism.

LinkedIn does not deliver traffic throughout the day, so posting during evenings will not bring much response. People generally check in on this social media platform for a short time during the mornings.

The best day to post on LinkedIn is Wednesday when the workload of corporate users reduces, and they wander to on this platform for career opportunities.

The night time is the least favourable hours for business posting.

Posting during weekdays will help as weekends on LinkedIn are often dry. Sundays are lowest on the engagement graphs of LinkedIn.

Conclusion

Social media platforms are such competitive places these days that every slight detail about your target audience is crucial for marketing campaigns. While the statistics depicted in this article are well researched, you should do some more analysis of your audience. It will provide you with better insight into the user patterns, and you can decide the optimum time yourself. In the end, it all comes down to understanding your audience better. It will help you to create better content and launch it at the right moment.

[digitalmarketinguksblog]

The ABCs of Digital Marketing

As of late, our sharp Content Marketing Manager Rosie thought of the idea of SEO verse basically, composing verse that is explicitly enhanced for SEO purposes. In light of that, we figured it very well may be enjoyable to remove our digital marketing caps for only one second to put them directly back on again and slap our artist caps directly on top.

We've made a digital marketing glossary that we're truly glad for, including regular digital marketing company brighton terms going from beginning to end so we thought why not put our internet marketing glossary along with SEO verse and compose our own digital marketing letters in order book.

A Traditional Digital Marketing Glossary

On the off chance that verse isn't your trip of extravagant, not to stress we're additionally remembering the meanings of the above words for a more conventional way.

Avatar: A picture that addresses a record on informal organizations and gatherings.

Backlink: A backlink is a connection made when one site connects to another. Backlinks are likewise called "inbound links" or "approaching links", and the number and nature of these links are quite possibly the main positioning variables.

Cloaking: Cloaking alludes to the "dark cap" practice of introducing distinctive content  or URLs to human clients and web indexes. Shrouding is viewed as an infringement of Google's Webmaster Guidelines since it gives clients unexpected outcomes in comparison to they anticipated.

Space Name: An area name is a site's location that a client types into the program when they wish to visit the site. Each site is distinguished by its IP address, and the space name is a human-accommodating name for the numbers in the IP address.

Email List: A catalog of email contacts for possible business or effort leads.

Google Ads: The innovation that powers Google's PPC publicizing. It works with focusing on adverts to explicit hunts, and the adverts show up above and to one side of the natural pursuits. To discover more about Google Ads, see our compensation per click data page. Google Ads used to be called AdWords.

Google Analytics: A free, program-based instrument that permits clients to follow various insights concerning a possessed site. This device is indispensable for SEO and all marketing channels to comprehend the presentation of a site. For example, a website admin will actually want to follow which web crawlers’ clients who show up on the webpage are utilizing, the number of guests there are, the place where they are found, which pages they visited, how long they remained for, which activities they performed and the sky is the limit from there.

Instagram: A photograph sharing informal community that varies from others as it runs exclusively as a portable application. The application permits clients to take photos that they would then be able to alter with channels. The client's photographs are naturally shared on Instagram, however with the alternative to share them on other informal communities simultaneously.

Java: A programming language used to make applications that can run on an advanced gadget.

Catchphrase: A term or expression that a client will look for on an internet searcher. It is critical to have your business' site related with significant catchphrases so it will seem when those words are looked for.

Newsfeed: A center point, frequently via social media, that comprises of the posts a client sees from individuals and brands they follow. On Facebook, the newsfeed is comprised of companions' posts. On Twitter, it is known as a timetable and is comprised of tweets of those you follow. The newsfeed is continually revived with new posts.

Natural Listings: These are the aftereffects of a web search that have not been paid for. The places of these outcomes ought to be natural since they mirror the notoriety and dependability of the site without being affected by paid publicizing.

Pay Per Click (PPC): While digital marketing agency brighton improves a site's remaining in the neglected part of an internet searcher, PPC centers around paid outcomes, which are additionally found on web search tools. On Google, they are above and to one side of the primary (neglected) results. The site being promoted possibly needs to pay when these paid connections are clicked, and more well-known catchphrases are more costly. These adverts are focused at explicit hunt terms.

XML Sitemap: A record in XML design that sorts a site's important documents, posts, pages and that's just the beginning. This report can be seen by people, it isn't expected for human use. Its motivation is to help web search tool crawler bots effectively discover the entirety of a site's given pages.

YouTube: A worldwide video local area where clients transfer and offer recordings.

Furthermore, the writing is on the wall! The ABCs (and D through Zs) of digital marketing. We trust this will help you whenever you're attempting to sort out what the hell a digital marketing word or expression implies. Presently go forward and pattern on YouTube and Instagram, share an image on your newsfeed, make up another hashtag and help your fullstack designer companion with their most recent wireframe.

[rw-infotech]

List of Top JavaScript Frameworks 2020 For Front End Development

JavaScript is defining the future of the tech world with its wide genre of competent frameworks, which are capable of accelerating the development of applications in many ways. How to choose a certain framework in JavaScript is based on the company’s goals, project requirements and how certain frameworks can be used in different scenarios.

JavaScript, one of the most surreal and beautiful programming languages, enwrapped by the intriguing fact that even though it is named “Java” Script, it doesn’t have any association with Java. In mid-1995, when JavaScript came into existence it was disguised as the name Mocha and later it was named as “LiveScript” and when Netscape and Sun did a license agreement it was finally renamed to “JavaScript”. Nobody had even imagined in its initial form that it would be such a revolutionary programming language and would be entitled as one of the major languages to learn. The world is pacing fast with the ever-changing technology and programming languages being the pillar of technology. JavaScript is surely defining the future with its compelling and competent frameworks.

What are the Frameworks?

In general, a framework is a prototype or conceptual structure intended to serve as a support or guide for the building of something that expands the structure into something useful. According to Wikipedia ” A software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by additional user-written code, thus providing application-specific software.”

JavaScript web frameworks are cheat codes for quick web application development. They serve as a skeletal frame for single page application development and allows developers to worry less about code structure or maintenance and help them in focusing more on the creation of complex interface elements and expand opportunities of JS and plain HTML.

So, Which frameworks of JavaScript are most popular and why?

Below is the list of a few Javascript frameworks:

1. AngularJS- AngularJS is an open-source framework used in frontend and is maintained by Google. It is mainly used to subside and sort the problems encountered while creating single-page applications usually have, as it simplifies both development and testing of such application by providing a framework for client-side model view controller (MVC) and model view-view model (MVVM) architectures. For now, it is known to be the most used JavaScript framework for single-page applications and have the largest community of developers.

2. ReactJS- ReactJS camouflage itself to be JS framework but it is more of an open-source JS library, which has huge names like Facebook and Instagram behind it. React was built by a software engineer at Facebook. In 2011, it was first deployed on Facebook’s newsfeed and later on Instagram in 2012. React Js emerges in an ecosystem of complete frameworks, but it’s just the view. In MVC(Mobile-View-Controller) pattern, React.js acts as “V” and can be smoothly integrated with any architecture.

A fully functional dynamic application can’t be built with React alone. Recently, On April 18th 2017, Facebook announced a new core algorithm of React framework library for building user interface named React Fiber, which is said to be the foundation for future development and improvement of ReactJS.

3. Ember JS- A few years back, in 2015, EmberJs was considered to be the best framework leaving React and AngularJS behind. It does two-way data binding as same as AngularJS keeping both view and model in sync for all the time. Emberjs is commonly used for complex feature-rich web applications and website. LinkedIn, Netflix, Chipotle, Blue Apron, Nordstrom are one of the few of the top names that have incorporated EmberJS.

What works in its favour is that it is easy to learn and have many tutorials online which helps to learn it with ease.

4. Vue.Js- Vue.js is considered to be one of the best solutions for cross-platform development. The development of Vue.Js is considered by taking the best qualities from Angular, React and Ember such as Vue.js offers two-way data binding (same as in AngularJS), server-side rendering (like in Angular2 and ReactJS), Vue-CLI (backbone tool for quick start) and optional JSX support. and all the altering flaws in prior three.

5. MeteorJS- MeteorJS is a free and open-source framework, which is well-equipped with tons of features for back-end development, front-end rendering, DB(database) management and business logic. Being a full-stack platform, it has the quality that its name suggests which is being fast. If you’re looking to rapidly develop smaller, reactive applications on the Node.js platform, Meteor is definitely an excellent choice.

Due to its modular structure, all the packages and libraries can be used at a high pace. In terms of performance, all the changes in the database are transmitted to the UI in the shortest time possible and in conversely with no evident time losses caused by different languages or server response time.

The consideration of a JavaScript framework is based on the company’s goals, project requirements and how certain frameworks can be used in certain scenarios. JavaScript is portraying the whole new depiction of the future of technology as it backs the prompt development and prototyping.

These frameworks and libraries have already reshaped the way how JS collaborates with HTML and CSS to compile views both in browsers and now even on native platforms.

[oflovetruth]

Sehun’s first love,

A semblance of hope had washed over the otherwise hopeless romantic. The taste of bitter espresso taking over his senses, and his bleary vision had barely made up his surroundings. Blinking out his sleepiness, he forced himself to grab whatever bits of food that he had from last night. Takeout. Ah. Great. No wonder, he cannot seem to achieve the body of his dreams. Hand tapping on the centre of his stomach, and blindly blaming himself for wasting such effort on junk food. He grabbed the folded box, and he had unraveled the cold noodles that lied inside. Groaning, quietly, to himself, he threw the soggy noodles into a microwave safe bowl, and threw it inside to heat. Whilst he would wait for it, he had hurried his way to change out of his sleeping attire; which consisted of a thin shirt and sweats.. topped with Bambi socks. Not the most intimidating person to consider. Rummaging through his closet, eyes staring daggers for something new to wear, and he had hit jackpot. A pair of dress pants topped with a button down? Ah, what else is possible? He took the clothing, and laid it first on the bed. Swiftly yet cautiously as to not ruin the recently ironed shirt, he had changed into it, and he could hear the ringing of his microwave—muffled by the subtle shut of his bedroom door. Jumping up and down, trying to shovel his way into it. Has he gained weight? He does not particularly remember the last he had weighed himself. Hurrying his way to eat his makeshift breakfast, and nearly burning his tongue in the process. He will definitely buy himself on the way back from campus. Ah. Yes. His social life had barely lived up to the expectations of his parents. His stomach had felt sick, and he was certain it was more so his worries than the hours old food. At last, taking a leap onto changing his socks, and switching them with a new pair of plain ones to match his mundane outfit. Eyeing himself in the mirror, he fixed the few unorthodox strands of hair back into place. Grabbing his bag from the floor, he had already fixed his schedule into it, and he smiled upon the start of a new day. Luckily, his apartment had only been a few minutes walk from campus, and never had to worry too much about sleeping in; he had always been an early bird. Smelling the fresh scent of rain mixed with the city fumes—it was quite the odd mixture, although Sehun was quite fond of it. It reminded him of home, and nothing brings him great happiness than home. Seeing familiar faces as he had gotten closer to campus, he could almost pick up on a few gossips, and he was not too fond of that. He hated it when people would speak behind others’ back, and have great pleasure in doing so. Perhaps, it is the mere fact of majoring in Psychology that opened up his eyes to the reality of the human mind, and how crooked it can be—in the search of endorphins. He would hear the cacophony only accumulate as his way towards the university buildings lessened. The incessant gossiping had only irked him, at this point. In the midst of his wavering state, he could pick up a familiar face in the distance, and his former stoic face began to slowly merge up into a warm smile. Jongin. His best friend. What a sight for sore eyes, no? He would often pretend to duck his head down, and scan the newsfeed that clogged up his phone’s screen. His eyes would dilate upon the numerous scholars that piled up, and his excitement to devour all the new information and knowledge; his heart could only handle so much—bump. He had accidentally bumped himself against his friend, instead of actually saying hello. A giggle had erupted out of the gentle and soothing one. “My bad!” He spoke, his hand patting over his friend’s chest, and he locked eyes with him for a brief second. “You need to give your eyes a bit of a break...I’m surprised you don’t need glasses yes, Tokki..” His friend voiced with concern, ushering for him to follow. Sehun nodded his head ever so slowly; humming in response before his excitement piled up before his very eyes. “Well! You see.. I just cannot seem to ignore the new scholars I could use in order to build the perfect research,” He mused, his tongue tapping the roof of his mouth, and it sure was reminiscent of that black coffee from earlier. “You know? I often think you’re too dedicated that you just lost your energy..” His friend voiced with concern, his brows furrowed, and his lip jutted out in a subtle pout. Sehun could see where he had been voicing those concerns, and he heedlessly brushed it off as something trivial. “I am on top of everything, nonetheless,” He said with a bold tone—his eyes squinting into a soft smile. “Anyway, I will see you after class!” He quietly spoke, his hands waving towards him friend—nearly dropping his book, and he squeaked. Sighing at himself; due to his idiosyncratic behaviour. Walking up the stairs, preferably, he enjoyed the architecture that was put into this school. It was quite old, which he liked, and it reminded him of numerous books he had read about this particular university. It feels utterly rewarding to be inside of it. Staring at his phone, he was making his way to his ethics class. He did not particularly believe this class to be hard, albeit the material was a lot to remember. The ninety minutes period had passed quicker than expected. Sehun was quite intrigued by how fixated and attentive, he was. Jotting down notes, inquiring his curiosities and doubts, and thanking his lecturer before leaving the class hall. He was the embodiment of a slacker’s nightmare. He did not bother, though. He was feeling the brink of hunger eat at him; it was not a pleasant feeling. Surely, he would hold his bag over the centre of his stomach—trying to compensate for the pain that lingered a little further than anticipated. Well, that is not precisely the perfect way to phrase it. “Something... easy to digest and quick..” His mind had immediately rushed to the convenience store just outside of campus. Right, right. He could never forget the late nights, whenever he would visit the shop, and the lady would recognise his face. He was a regular, if one had to be precise. That was the initial plan after his class; although he was fast-walking his way down the hall. Making a beeline for the exit of the building—till his eyes had captured a sight he was not expecting. It is almost as if time was still. It stopped. His eyes were once slanted downwards due to his lethargic state, yet now they grew wider—the background had became a blur. She became the centre of his attention; the cynosure. Her beauty is immaculate. She had a smile that stretched across her angelic features, and his heart nearly drummed out his lungs out of his rib cage. He must have looked absolutely insane. No, no, he probably is lost. He could not take his eyes off her. The way she had headed her way towards the exit, and the way her digits held onto the hem of her translucent sleeves; chiffon. The gentle colour of warmth, the clementine perfume—the saccharine sense of it all. Sehun had to make a move, and he had to make it quick.

Little did he know that angel was nothing but the nightmarish devil; awaiting the very purity of men to come forth, and reap them off all their innocence. His perceptions were meddling—they were messy. His eyes felt as if they were being gorged out with a frigid spoon. He could feel his head pounding, his body trembling with tremors ceasing to pause, and his voice had been caught in his throat. There she was. Stood high. A lavish dress that she draped over her curvaceous figure, and a wine-red lipstick encapsulated her very full lips. Sehun could not take his eyes off her. She was his, yet he felt as if she owned him. Sitting upright, he rubbed his eyes, and as he was about to inquire the woman about her sleep—she had placed the tip of her index finger over his lips. “Shh..” Her honeyed voice would speak; his heart shaken with the urge to only obey her. Her hands would traverse over his physique, his eyes following her, and once clothed—now bare. He felt as if it was moving far too quickly for his liking. “No—Aerinnie... not now,” He would say with an apologetic smile spread across his face. “I feel tired, yeah?” He felt as if he had to surge his excuses out. She was a fine lady, there was no denying that. All it took was a scintilla of doubt to wash over their relationship, and cause it to lose its once stable foundation. Once she would stay over, now he could barely catch her phone not busy. It felt odd. It felt wrong. He could not force himself to divulge into her business, although he felt that it is only fair that he knew—he was not asking for much, right? Soon, Sehun’s doubts began to accumulate by the second, and understandably, they were welcomed with facts that broke his heart atom by atom. He had never seen the angel claw at his skin, scream to his face, and eye him with disdain in her heart. It did not feel right. This is not the woman he had fallen for. Something must be wrong.. not till he had been faced with the mere factor; she voiced it. It took all of him to not cry on the spot. Three months into the honeymoon phase, the true colours began to finally appear—display itself before the man. Sehun had an idea of something such as this to happen, yet he did not expect it too soon. She would look at him across the table, boredom risen in her expressions, and Sehun tried his best to build any sort of excitement into the conversation. She felt far away. She would take a sip of her wine before he could finish his sentences. Futile. He almost felt as if he was not supposed to be here, and that tore at his heartstrings. The date felt mundane. Idle. Wrong. He had never eaten as quickly as he did, and neither had he paid as quickly as he did. Watching her stand, and hurry towards the exit. Her heels cracking down the marble floors of the - ridiculously - expensive restaurant that he had reserved for the both of them; a failure. He had to step up his pace in order to keep up with her, and he had to finally confront her. It felt as if he was talking to a wall. Where was the love that she had showed him? Was it all a plan to simply come for him? Sehun had a lot rushing through his mind, his lips momentarily quivering, and he stood before the woman who had taken his heart... and clearly, had the black intent of stomping on it with her stilettos; tearing it apart with a cold smile across her face. “Sehunnie~” She would say, her hands finding solace onto the man’s shoulders, and her eyes—they batted their lashes—lips morphed into a smile that Sehun could not recognise. Her voice felt as if the entire world had stopped, whenever she would speak. Sehun, only gulped, and looked back at the ethereal woman. “You’re a smart man... you know?” She would muse. Hands taking business in playing with his collar—ever the hairs at the back of his head. Sehun reacted to it all. He was ridden with anxiety, and this had only increased it; she knew. “But you’re so credulous,” She would shove at the fabric, nearly ruining the ironed suit. Causing Sehun to gasp in reciprocal—unbeknownst to him, just how much he would resent this holy ground they stood before. “You make me want to hit you—you’re so fuckin lame,” Her tone was not honeyed, anymore. Honey had turned into poison. Sehun could barely keep his breathing in a stable state; labouring. “I don’t fucking love you, did you really for that, petit prince~?” The woman said; eyes full of malice. Sehun, during this, could barely manoeuvre his body. He felt as if he was caught in her web, and there was no escape—to be exact—she gave him no escape. “I only want you for your dick. You’re nothing to me,” She would cackle between her words, causing eavesdropping people to chuckle under their breaths; humiliating the man before her. “You—you’re messing with me,” Sehun managed to crack out. He could feel the heartstrings being pulled at every corner of his body. It cannot be right. She must have drank too much. “Ah~ right, right.. I do love you.” She would press a chaste kiss to his lips. It felt bitter. It felt wrong. Sehun hardly managed to reciprocate the kiss; yet he did. Walking back home with her had felt odd. Unheard of. Raw. Wrong. It all felt too wrong.. almost as if there was truth to that joke. It left him ruminating during that night. He could not sleep properly, and his eyes only bared the tiredness of the sleep deprived state; coffee could not hinder him from nearly collapsing on the hard floors of the classroom hall. What a shame. He had seen her face during class. She looked peaceful, but far too occupied with her phone.. she was... smiling. She had not shown that smile to him in quite awhile—two months—and it was only fair to contemplate, right? Luxurious gifts, her hair tied with high end fashion houses, and her attire had began to completely differ from before. His angel was not his angel, anymore. Sehun felt a bile form in his throat, and it felt as if it was tightening. He knew it was only purely caused by his mental state, but he could not stomach seeing her act so differently—hostile—to him; yet watch others with the same smile that she used to give him. What did he do wrong? He had been with her during her pregnancy scare—before they had dated—he had been there with her, when her parents quarrelled about whom should stay in their place. He had always been that ear that listened, yet he was oscillating with his emotions trying to rationalise the entirety of this situation. Had he been short on something? He had always sent her long messages about how much he appreciates her, and she would only send him a heart. It did hurt—seeing his efforts disappear—and hers nonexistent. Trying to walk his way towards her, nevertheless she had disappeared like a ghost. It slowly had became the typical for him. He had pulled himself away from his excessive emotional messages, his attempts at calling her to ensure that she was okay, and finally, he had stopped looking for her in the crowd of students in the halls—it made no sense. Why search for somebody that could not even bat an eye your direction? Their dates had started to get more boring and fruitless. Their meetings at his place had been nothing but watching a movie—with her texting on her phone—and him just forcing a smile to look at her. When will this nightmare end? When will she stop hiding away from him? What had happened? Despite her cold behaviour, Sehun had still understood. He did not want to hurt her more than she was already hurting.. right? He was too selfless for his own well being. Had he not realised how she had always been disappearing for a few days, and only coming to him to kiss and make out? As far things go, that was as far as Sehun could go. Intimacy was something he considered sacred. Intense. Emotional. He could not perform any act, when she had displayed such detachment from him. It did not feel right, and he most certainly was not going to allow her to do anything. Taking a sip from his mug, he watched as she smiled down on her phone. She was always full of euphoria with that device in her hands, although so sullen and sulky whenever it was away. Was he that boring? He was beginning to question himself; nothing will fancy his thoughts other than a little music. Playing a precise track on his vinyl player; smiling as the music filled the room, and created a less tense atmosphere. He jumped his way beside her, his arms hugging around her waist, and his chin perched over her collarbones. For once, she had laughed due to his actions, and he felt as if he had won the world—at that current moment—till it came tumbling down the very second it had risen. His chest had felt so heavy. He had briefly captured a sight of whom she was texting, and his heart began to tear itself apart. He tried to pretend he did not see it.. he tried.. He could not stomach it. No. His stomach felt far too sick. Getting off the couch, he had to hurry his way to the bathroom, and the sounds of his throat coaxing the bile of his disgust to - at last - leave his body in the form of nothing but vomit. His eyes soaked with tears, his body shuddered with the force, and he had felt absolutely dizzy. Flushing the toilet, he was shrouded with his own countless fears circling around him. As if he was a joke.

As if he was nothing. As if she had won, and broke his heart. He was shocked to see her still on the couch, and did not even lift a muscle to come check on him. He could not bear it, anymore. This had gotten out of control, and Sehun needed to set the record straight. He felt a sense of power yet weakness merged into one as he slammed his hands on the table. He thought the sound was loud, thus jumping himself. The woman had only - barely - turned her eyes his direction. Boredom encasing her features, and he wanted to be swallowed whole by the earth. “Aerin,” He spoke, a hoarse voice, and he surely looked pitiful. Aerin, on the other hand, did not dare to even react with a semblance of sympathy. “What?” She inquired; voice low as if she was irked to be called during her fun hours with whomever she was texting. Sehun could not keep this relationship going, if he had do to all the work to keep it stable. “What are you doing—? Why don’t you ever smile at me, anymore? What have I ever done to cause you so much harm?” Sehun’s words had rued the day they spoke. The lady opposing him had sat upright, and clasped her hands together. Crossing her legs, and staring at him with her sharp eyes. She knew how to flip him under her will, and she was aware of it. “What are you talking about, Sehunnie~?” “When have I ever changed?” “What do you mean like before?” She had cornered him with questions that had him doubting, if he should have ever started this conversation with her. She knew how to play her cards, and she played them right. She would stand up, propel to him, and that prompted that same vicious smile during that date night. He knew what this had meant, and her hands had only reached to his throat. Her long nails grazing over his jugular vein. Words so cold that they left him shivering. “Would you die for me?” She would whisper, beside the shell of his ear. Straddling his thighs, she sat, and she proceeded to reprimand him for ever opening his mouth. “You.. you don’t get it,” Sehun uttered out with lips shut tight by a kiss so violent. He had pushed her off him with an instinctive reaction. His eyes shooting wide—hurrying towards her, and apologising, if he had hurt her. His shove was not violent, yet he was more concerned about her than the well of himself. “I’m fine, fucker,” She cursed out. Her anger had began to increment, and Sehun was growing afraid. He had not known what to do, stepping aside—back—he felt weak. “You’re so fucking pathetic. How do you even live life like this?” Sehun shuddered. He was not weak. He was weak for her. He allowed himself to open his heart for her, but— “in case your stupid eyes didn’t notice, yes, I’m having a fucking affair since you won’t ever fuck me,” There it was. His heart had been stabbed. Penetrated. Protruding blood. Tears trickling down his visage, and the woman had only smiled wider. Walking towards him till he was pressed against the wall. “You’re not a real man. You don’t know how to treat a lady right, either~I bet you’re fucking gay.” Was the last thing before she had left him in his apartment. Hurt. Lost. Confused. Emotional turmoil. The emptied bottles of various alcohols had spread across the coffee table, and Sehun knew better than to cope with substances. He did not know what to do. He could not call his best friend. He felt absolutely useless, and nothing had made sense to him. Was he truly less of a man for not wanting to make love so quickly into a relationship? He was doubting his well state—he had to call Jongin, before he succumb to worse tactics of dealing with the heartbreak. “Hello?” A kind voice came through the speakers of his phone. Sehun could not reply. He could barely see anything, without it doubling in size or silhouette. His head pounded, he stenches of alcohol, and his hair was a mess that could not be tamed. “Hello?!” The voice had grown concern. Jongin had been clearly affected by the silence coming from Sehun’s end, and whatever it is—there was a shuffling sound on Jongin’s end. Sehun could not tell what it was. “I’m coming over, Tokki. Stay still.” The call had ended. Sehun sunk himself against the counter, and his knees grew wobbly. He could barely stand, and he was ruminating over what Aerin said. She is openly saying that she was cheating on him. Openly. She had no heart or care for how he would react about it. He saw that text that mocked his inexperience, and how his kisses must have been like kissing a wall. Those comments have hurt a little more than they should. Every time that he remembers her face when she said that, he would want to down another glass—but he was stopped by the sound of the door unlocking. It must be Jongin. It must be the only person that could understand how he had felt—without peer pressuring him into anything. Almost as if light had cascaded itself down into his rather dark and grim status. Sehun’s eyes were heavy, the doubling of Jongin’s figure had confused him, and he had to lean his body against the counters—trying to balance himself. “Sehun!” A voice called out. It did not feel close. It felt far. Was he perceiving the world a little too late? What was happening to him? “Y..Yes,” He managed to say with tears shuffling down his already damp face—a touch had supported his body. His eyes blinking out the blur, and his breath stenches of alcohol. He hated how pathetic and pitiful he must have looked. “Here, here,” The same voice had said; more clear now with the close proximity. Sehun tried to clear his conscience, yet it only whispered to him about the lost fragments of his love for that woman. The woman who revealed her filthy behaviours, yet had the very same audacity to leave him. He did not understand—but he was drunk. Too drunk to make sense of the world. “Jongin..?” Sehun quietly said. His body now laid down on the couch, his hand reaching to gently caress the man’s face—staring at him—he could not make up his features. His eyes were squinted and puffy—bloodshot—he swallowed thickly. “I.. I feel like.. I died...and..” He could not continue. The pounding headache had completely taken over him. Jongin had frowned. It was not easy to see Sehun like this. Getting off the edge of the couch, he had fished for a glass to pour water into. Perhaps, that could clear the man’s mind a little bit more. “Take your time, love... it will be okay,” Jongin said with a serious tone cowering his usual kind one into the backseat. Sehun’s hand had laid over his temple; feeling the sweat form tremendously. He only felt weaker. Prone to breakage, and slowly accepting that fact; the quicker he would recover from this pain. Jongin did not want to fall victim to his anger. He was aware of how much it does take to break Sehun like this. What had happened? He was growing so insanely worried, and his anger fuelled up his desire to break something—but he resisted. Placing the glass down on the coffee table, he slipped his hand under Sehun’s nape, and slowly eased him to sit up. Smiling briefly, trying to bring some warmth into the man’s stoic expression—hollow eyes—even. “Here. Drink some water, I will keep your pill by your bed, okay? I am staying over,” Jongin said as he handed Sehun the glass of water, and did not let go of it; the tremors that rushed through Sehun’s body were quite violent. Sehun’s eyes would stare back at the man’s, his body reacting to the cold glass in a frenzy—and he was glad that Jongin had kept his grip on the glass. Inhaling through his nose, he slowly began to take a sip—it turned into a gulp—and he was chugging it down in no less than a nanosecond. Feeling that rush of cold liquid rush through his body, and give him a new sense of refreshment—Sehun was certain that he needed that a little more than anything. “Thank you,” He endeavoured a small smile towards his friend, his hand reaching to pat on his shoulders, and he shortly sunk into the couch. How did home feel so suffocating? Why did he feel as if he did not belong, here—? He lived here. It did not feel real to him. Being pulled out of his daze, he did not particularly appreciate it. “Sehun. What happened? You called me, and said absolutely nothing,” Jongin’s voice had broken the unsettling silence between the pair, and Sehun nearly was startled into a flinch—yet he remained still. Almost as if his body could not react, anymore. He felt as if was not here—anymore. “She.. cheated,” The taste of alcohol has enticed the nausea into his body, once more, and he could not handle it. “She ... voluntarily did it, unapologetically... she ..” It became too real. It was not a stupid nightmare, anymore. It was reality, and his friend deserved to know. “She.. left me after patronising me about it..” His throat dried up. He would try to fiddle with the empty glass, and his eyes would wander. He did not want to think about this, yet thinking about it is all that he did. Lost in a paradox, and caught in a dilemma. He loves her. Well, he must learn to unlove her. He cannot love somebody who had strife in their heart. “I.. I cannot—“ Tears sprout out of his ducts, and they felt so painful. He cried so much that his eyes could - languidly - handle the torment it brought to them. “Sehun—take your time, I’m listening,” Jongin had seated himself beside him. Scooting closer, and pulling his body against him. His palms would rub the length of his spine, and his eyes would watch his friend’s reactions. Jongin had so much hate in his heart for Sehun’s girlfriend, yet he was halted in his thoughts by Sehun’s words.

“I cannot hate her,” He uttered. “She was good to me.. for the most of it, I think..” He was perplexed. “She ... she was mine at the wrong time. I wanted her heart.. her deepest secrets... what makes her laugh.. what she liked to eat the most,” He knew it all. He even knew what time of the day is her favourite, yet she remembered nothing about him. “Yet she only loved me for my body—resorting me to nothing. Nothing but flesh and bones. Nothing but a walking reminder that she is dating a decently looking guy, and that breaks me. I loved her for her, but she loved what I could not offer,” Sehun tried to hold back, but Jongin encouraged him to let it all out. “And she can not afford to talk to me, anymore. It’s final.” And with that, Sehun had closed off the windows to his heart. A strong, concrete, thick wall had gathered around his heart in his slumber, and he knew what to do in the morning. Submerged under the thick waters of anxiety and blinded by love, he had forgotten how the pull was drowning him, further. He was magnetised by her. She was a force. She took him. Her effect on him was astronomical. She was the pinnacle of perfection, and immaculate heart—but things do not prove to be what they are. Perfection is not... perfect. Flaws brought him to open his eyes. Catharsis had found its way to him. He had cleansed himself off her pain. No. He was not weak for being more careful. No. He is not weak for closing the doors of love on the potential lovers in the near future—he wanted to be ready. Clawing their way into his reveries, he was lost. Unable to fixate himself during the lectures, and he caught a sight of her. A sickening smile on her face, and her voice absolutely deafening; heedless, he was longing for one more conversation. He noticed her fleeing, he noticed the fleeting glances, and he noticed the notifications on his phone going off. As if she had thought that she could pull onto his heartstrings, and leave with closure. Sehun had been always a compassionate man, and he would not resort to anything that could - possibly - hurt another. There was no footing to be lost. He stood high, before her, his energy utterly different than the night before. “Ms. Go,” The dapper one had said. His voice holding a hefty, potent, and confident flair to it. Understandably, Aerin was taken off guard. Her doe eyes widening, and she chewed on the tips of her acrylic nails—meekly, she answered. “Yes..?” Oh, how the tables have turned. Sehun did not entertain the conversation too much. He wanted it - over - the second it had commenced. “It is over,” He said. Watching as she swiftly responded. “As if that was not obvious, fucker,” Trying to regain her status as the superior in the conversation—but it was in vain. Sehun’s visage remained stoic. Cold. Almost as if all the light that was erupting onto his moonlit skin had dissipated into nothingness. “Keep your filthy language, I will not participate in that low level,” The man riposted. His eyes falling to the necklace that he had bought her, her donned in it, and he grew that bitter taste on his tongue. Not now. “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, virgin—what the fuck do you want from me?” The lady had grew angrier by the second. Sehun’s reactions remained stagnant. “I want you to understand that I loved you for you. I never cared about your social status, your looks, or your actions—I never wanted it to be superficial. I wanted to love every inch of you, yet you tore every inch of me,” Sehun’s words had appeared to have had an effect on her; resulting in her silence. “I thought of our future together—I loved you. I wanted to go on more dates, I wanted to know more about you—yet you suddenly lost all your interest in me the very moment I had rejected you; that night you stayed over,” Sehun stepped a little closer, his towering height had finally inflicted its effect. “And I accepted that. I thought... maybe, she needed more time to adjust to me not being very comfortable with intimacy so quickly—you said how much you loved my mind, but your hands have always been adjacent to my hips—you do not even know what my favourite drink is, you do not even know what my last name is—do you?” Aerin looked puzzled. The Sehun before her was not the same subservient man that she used to stomp on. She had tried numerous tactics to guilt him, yet he had never been this way. She emotionally blackened him. He had completely changed, and she was scared. All it took was infidelity? Her cherubic lips were tucked into her mouth. She chewed, chewed, and chewed. Slowly, blood seeped out, and she could not speak. “Look.. what you made me do..” His former lover had said; rummaging for her tissues, and trying to escape this confrontation. Sehun did not let her. She needed to hear it all. Sehun needed her to know exactly what damages she had caused, and he quickly said. “I made you do nothing,” He quickly responded. His eyes pitying the red that matched her already smudged lipstick. “What about the time you shoved me? What about the time you emotionally blackmailed me in order to bruise your skin..? Thinking that I was too weak to give you hickeys.. thinking I was nothing, if I did not perform any carnal activities with you—does it not count?” She shook her head—she could not accept the fact that she had hurt him. She did it on purpose, yet she could not deal with not being the victim. “You made me bleed! Look at my lips!” Sehun’s eyes, for the first time, they rolled to the back of his skull. “Aerin. Thank you for being the reason of the birth of my resilience. Farewell.” Sehun had turned on his heel, and ignored the grip that tightened onto the sleeve of his suit jacket. Not looking back. He continued forward, and his eyes never scanned that beautiful face with those doe eyes, ever again. Love has been a topic long forgotten since that day. He had dreamt of the idea of love, but the mere mention of succumbing himself into the abyss of being controlled, manipulated, and questioning his worth did not seem appealing. He wanted to ready himself for the one. For the one that will light fire in his heart, and for the one that would hold him tight. Let him see what it truly felt like for his efforts to be reciprocated. Love is blind—and his heart desired for that connection. That experience had taught Sehun a lot. He never resorted to alcohol ever again. He had learnt to keep himself positive, and to reconcile his emotions better. He had wanted to give the world kindness, and offer the world a hand that will hold. An ear that listens, and a heart that understood. Taking the path to become a therapist appeared immaculate, and the insatiable appetite for knowledge had proceeded his studies. Thank you, Go Aerin... I, now, understand myself better.

[mckenzieherman]

Vaccine for Junk News

We have all had our fair share of junk news that pops on our pages from time to time. But what do you really know about it? Personally I hate junk news, until I see I can print my cats face on pair of socks. There are algorithms are ways to see how news and content are being absorbed by the user. They take your search history from Google, Twitter’s trending, and the newsfeed from Facebook and try to prioritize these algorithms the maximize the users’ engagement. They sort, filter, and deliver content in the manner that is designed by your content searched and read. This is personalized content from our interests, past behaviors, and even our geographical location. For example, if you are in Mount Pleasant and you are just scrolling through Facebook, an ad might pop up saying “Come to the Cabin for 50% of cabin sticks!”, this is using geographical location because it knows where you are an can show you the deals in town that might interest you because you may have even searched “The Cabin” in Google. 

When talking about advertising we mostly think about a company advertising a pair of shoes or even shirts. But in this instance we are talking about micro-targeted messages that are crafted and delivered by certain companies. So when looking at a social media app, they are all free. And this is great because you don't have to pay for anything! But in reality you are paying, just not with money. You are paying for this free app with all your personal information. And what they do with this information is figure you out and what you think. By adding in clickbait, this attracts the attention of the consumer and designs it to cause you outrage, curiosity, or both. They use key words to focus your attention on it and then it will result in you clicking on it. Most clickbait is over exaggerated false news. For example, this recent election there were loads of things to click on pertaining to each candidate. They sealed me in by showing my desired candidate and shows how the polls are leaning back and forth. This made me click on the article because I wanted to know the news. These messages can be manipulative in ways that target you strategically. Now looking at exposure, to your filtered content. One thing that uses this a lot is politics. They use your preferred candidate, and they select messages that strengthen your views of that candidate. This means they user never really changes their mind on the choice they made and never gives them the chances to look at other possible options. Most of the time we rely on selective exposure because we are scared to challenge our views and look at new information. 

When people are exposed to new information they are shocked because they weren't expecting new things to show on their page. Businesses should make sue to look out for false advertising of the product or service and make sure the facts are real and not just propaganda. Being able to distinguish what's real and what's fake is the hardest task to do when scrolling through social media. Businesses should be able to filter their information in a way that won't let others spread fake news or ideals. Everyone should always be aware of the possibility of junk news floating around the social media world and know how to react to it.

[powerful-light-powerful-darkness]

I think this is an important debate right now so I'm gonna just drop the whole article in here as well:

By John Hoey, April 13, 2020

"Daisy Ridley has been a part of Star Wars for over five years and has seen the best and worst sides of its fans. Now that the sequel trilogy has ended, concluding Rey’s story (for now), the actress shared her take on the constant negativity coming from fans who didn’t like The Rise of Skywalker and the impact it has on those who create the films, as well as her personal etiquette and social media preferences. Ridley’s thoughts on online fan culture make this as good a time as any for us fans to take a reflective look at ourselves and the impact we have on the Star Wars franchise and its future.

In an appearance on the podcast DragCast, Ridley was asked about her personal social media preferences and spoke clearly about why she doesn’t have social media (it’s not as dramatic as some have made it out to be), and her thoughts on the fans who choose to lash out with backlash toward Star Wars films, most recently The Rise of Skywalker.

First it needs to once again be made clear why Daisy Ridley is not publicly on social media:

“I was asked to go on it, and, at the time, I was like, ‘Okay,’ and then it got to the point where I didn’t want to be on it and I was at my friend’s house in L.A., and I remember being like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to be on Instagram,’ and they were like, ‘Well, why don’t you come off?’ and I was like, ‘Oh.’ And it was really a nice, autonomous decision. Because I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t actually have to be on it. This is nice.’ And I always had a limit to what I shared anyway and, honestly, my life isn’t that exciting. So there were a lot of separate things.”

Ridley talks about how things have changed since 2015’s The Force Awakens, which was universally loved for the most part. If you read between her carefully chosen words, she is basically saying social media has brought negativity much more to the surface than it used to be.

“It’s changed film by film, honestly. Like 98%, it’s so amazing. This last film, it was really tricky. January was not that nice. It was weird, I felt like all of this love that we’d sort of been shown the first time around, I was like ‘Where’s the love gone?’ I watched the documentary, the making-of, this week, and it’s so filled with love, and I think it’s that tricky thing of when you’re part of something that is so filled with love and then people. You know, everyone’s entitled to not like something, but it just, it feels like it’s changed slightly, but I think in general that’s because social media and what have you.”

Ridley takes to the popular lesson parents everywhere try to teach their kids, “If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Well, that doesn’t play in fandoms, of any kind. Daisy admits to finding the backlash to The Rise of Skywalker upsetting, and how she tries to avoid it as much as possible, while acknowledging how easy it is for people to have an outlet, in turn leading to more opinions reaching the public sphere.

“I think in general, people share so much on social media that if I went—I don’t have social media, anyway—but if I went to a film and didn’t like it, I just wouldn’t tweet about it,” she continued. “But it’s such a conversation and it always has been. I guess now conversations are just more public, so there’s stuff I wouldn’t have seen, but honestly trying to scroll through my newsfeed in January and trying not to see Star Wars stuff, I’d see headlines and be like ‘Oh my god this is so upsetting.’ So it’s been tricky, but then it’s having that thing of I feel really proud of it, and I’m so thrilled to be part of it. Yeah, but it’s a funny thing.”

I think a big part of the allure to posting our takes into the endless reaches of social media is people want to be heard and feel relevant. There is an inherent human instinct to want validation, and if your thoughts on something get showered with likes and retweets and comments, that validation is fed. But, if our output is negative it can snowball into a sub-culture that has a significant impact. I have had conversations with plenty of people over the years in the film industry and even inside Lucasfilm who have said they pay attention to what’s going on on social media. Now I say that with hesitation as that could entice people to be more vocal, but the point is, they keep tabs on who says what, especially those who are legitimate influencers in the community. They pay attention more than you realize.

The downside of this is creators and talent are also very aware, and for some it has become unattractive to want to work on Star Wars after seeing the hell and hate George Lucas, J.J. Abrams, Rian Johnson, and other creatives have gone through. Perhaps that’s why we’re scratching our heads lately at some of the unknown names we’re seeing popping up as writers and other significant crew members on important upcoming projects. The editor of Del Rey books Tom Hoeler publicly admitted it is hard finding authors to write Star Wars books, which is under a much, much dimmer spotlight than writers, directors, and actors.

The more Star Wars “fans” poison the well of social media with negativity, backlash, and hate toward the films and those who make them, the harder it will be for Lucasfilm to convince talented people to want to work on projects from a galaxy far, far away, when they can just as easily take their talents to less murky waters.

There are varying degrees as well as extremes of negativity online, and the biggest extreme are those who threaten violence against creators. Now some will say this is just a joke, but I can’t imagine how anyone would find something like this humorous, especially in today’s world.

Now many will rebut by saying that type of behavior is not representative of all who didn’t like the movie, and that is completely true. That goes without saying. But, as with what happened with The Last Jedi, where hate toward the movie and Rian Johnson permeated for years after the movie’s release (continuing to this day), perpetual and constant output of negativity, even if done without hostility, fosters and ferments the culture of hate. As Daisy Ridley said, everyone has a right to not like something, but I am not sure what good it does if you voice that disdain and/or hate non-stop. If you left the theater after seeing The Rise of Skywalker and took to your Twitter account to tell your followers you hated the movie, that’s all well and good. Did you take the next couple of weeks to point out things you didn’t like about it? That makes sense. Your message was likely received. But if you feel a need to constantly beat the same drum of negativity over and over five months later and into the future, perhaps you need to rethink your approach if you believe your thoughts haven’t been clear or resonated with people.

I am personally not a big fan of The Clone Wars or Ahsoka Tano, but instead of bashing Dave Filoni or the animation department on a daily basis, I opt to talk about things I like instead. I catch myself taking a turn to negative town from time to time, we all have our moments, but I think if we care about Star Wars and want it to succeed and attract the best filmmakers and talent possible, perhaps it’s our responsibility as fans to be better and create a better online culture together. Not all fans pay attention to the pulse of fans online, but it’s a growing part of all fandoms, not a shrinking one, so I hope we can all channel our inner Jedi and be more polite, respectful, and kind to creatives and each other on social media and in general.

This culture of negativity is not limited to Star Wars, as other movie and TV franchises, sports, music, and anything with mass followings suffer from similar problems. I still believe Star Wars fans are overall good, and while sometimes we feel smothered by the spread of negative vibes when we try to connect with our fellow fans online, we need to always try to remember one thing about the good people in this fandom…there are more of us."

[antoine-roquentin]

“Recent research suggests that human societies will experience disruptions to their basic functioning within less than ten years due to climate stress. Such disruptions include increased levels of malnutrition, starvation, disease, civil conflict and war – and will not avoid affluent nations.”

– Jem Bendell, professor of sustainability leadership, University of Cumbria, UK

“Perseverance porn goes hand in hand with the rise of a GoFundMe economy that relies on personal narrative over collective policy, emotional appeals over baseline human rights. $930 million out of the $2 billion raised on GoFundMe since its inception in 2010 was for healthcare expenses, while an estimated 45,000 people a year die a year due to a lack of medical treatment. Meanwhile, anchors across cable news insist that single-payer healthcare is “unaffordable,” browbeating guests who support it, while populating their broadcasts with these one-off tales of people heroically scraping by.”

– Adam Johnson, Media’s Grim Addiction to Perseverance Porn, (FAIR)

“The liberal class thus divides into two breakaway clans, those who limit themselves to lip-service monologues with which they publicize their sense of injustice over comfortable meals, wine glasses brandished as weapons to punctuate their outrage. Then there are the true thespians, who take to the streets, wielding placards filled with exclamations and chanting songs of resistance as their throngs progress clumsily down the avenue, thoughtfully cleared of traffic in advance by local authorities. On the one hand, gestural politics; on the other, theater.”

– Jason Hirthler, The Curious Malaise of the Middle Class, (Dissident Voice)

“This present momentism appears, at least on the surface, as a therapeutic solvent for all our problems, making our present situation more bearable. But this bearability of the status quo amounts to a permanent retreat to the psychic bomb shelter of now, a kind of bury-your-head in the sand mindfulness which acts as a sanitized palliative for neoliberal subjects who have lost hope for alternatives to capitalism.”

– Ronald Purser, The Faux Revolution of Mindfulness, Open Democracy, author of McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality

“Empires are death cults, and death cults, on a subliminal basis, long for their own demise. Paradoxically, the collective mindset of imperium, even as it thrusts across the expanse of the world, renders itself insular, cut off from culturally enhancing novelty, as all the while, the homeland descends into a psychical swamp of churning madness.”

– Phil Rochstroh, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Capitalism, Counterpunch

In the waning days of the American Empire a sort of collective madness has seemed to take hold of its ruling class. It is perhaps most clear in the unhinged and incessant decrees of the bloated emperor via tweet. But it is also in the idiotic ramblings of his minions redefining fossil fuels as “freedom gas” or rapidly melting Arctic seas as an economic “opportunity.”  It can also be seen in the reactionary and warmongering responses of the so-called resistance in the corrupt Democratic Party establishment and corporate media regarding Russiagate. Or Bolton and Pompeo inventing evidence to justify more imperial wars just years after the disastrous assault on Iraq and during the longest ongoing US war in Afghanistan. It extends to the incredulous claims of Michele Bachmann that Trump is “godly and biblical” and televangelist Kenneth Copeland, who described his aversion to flying commercial airlines as getting in “a long tube with demons,” calling for a national day of prayer for the orange-tinted tyrant. It is truly staggering to behold.

Amidst all this madness, crimes and atrocities are being committed in broad daylight by that same ruling class both domestically and abroad. In the Middle-East the ruling class, via their corporations General Dynamics, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, is aiding and benefiting from outright genocide in Yemen by the most brutal and criminal of America’s colonies: Saudi Arabia. Similar profits are garnished from backing the apartheid regime in Israel and the military junta in Egypt. In Brazil the ruling class has only just begun to see the dollars roll in from Bolsonaro’s further opening up of the Amazon, the planet’s proverbial lungs. In Modi’s India, they are salivating at the chance to despoil more of the sub-continents riches. And around the world corporations and the fossil fuel industry continues its mad and blind dash toward species extinction.

Back in the US police violence against people of color remains steady and the prison industry is still booming. Along the southern border, migrants from Central America are seeking legal asylum, scores of them young children. Their only “crime” is fleeing their homelands which have been ruthlessly torn up by US foreign policy for at least a century. But they are being rounded up by militias and sent to concentration camps. LGBT and mentally ill migrants are being tortured in solitary confinement. Families are being separated, children caged, violated, dying from preventable diseases.

In the era of social media all of this information is readily available for those interested. Even those uninterested are exposed to what is happening via the ubiquitous social media newsfeed. Indeed, a subdued disquiet among the bourgeoisie has become undeniable. But endless imperialistic wars, rampant corruption, human rights abuses, waning economic advancement, and mass species extinction hasn’t yet prodded most of them from their homes to shut down the machinery of this cult of death, even though it threatens the very futures of their own children. When the bourgeoisie in the US do get out to protest the events are generally scripted, scheduled, sanctioned and televised by the establishment itself. The appropriate permits are obtained. No traffic is stopped. No building is occupied. The status quo remains intact and the necessary steam of middle-class angst is let off until the next event. In the meantime, the war, prison and surveillance industry expand, police militarization continues apace, the environment continues to be raped and pillaged, and fundamental freedoms like speech and reproductive rights are systematically dismantled. By comparison, any actual dissent is met with swift authoritarian violence by the corporate state; Standing Rock Sioux and BLM as stark examples.

Perpetually harried and fearful of losing the tenuous privilege afforded to them by the ruling class, the white middle class in the US has little time to focus on anything outside their prescribed bubble of experience. They inhabit a world constructed by the capricious and cynical designers of the free market. A place devoid of the words “ruling class,” where the mantra of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” reigns supreme in an era of neoliberal barbarism. Where even if one is working fulltime they may still not have access to basic healthcare coverage. Where they are saddled with enormous debt that can never really be paid off in anyone’s lifetime. Peering at the world through the lens of glowing, hand sized screens, connecting algorithmically to the pulse of a commercially constructed world, most essentially exist in a pixelated prison of suspended and unconnected moments, reinforced by procedural programs which have been meticulously written in the posh and sterile board rooms of Madison Avenue and in the Silicon Valley. History is extinguished here, as are agency and imagination. It is a consumerist world that conforms to the dictatorship of money.

Americans have been socially conditioned for decades to accept these contradictions of their economic, social and political arrangement. Meanwhile suicide is rampant, punctuated by mass shootings. Opioid abuse is taking many more lives. Indeed, the pharmaceutical industry has thrived off this angst, convincing millions that their psychic and social maladies are all due to a personal or chemical defect, not the system itself. That working people barely stave off homelessness and middle class families are increasingly separated from their loved ones and communities by having to travel long hours to a job (or jobs) which hardly covers daily expenses, is a struggle not considered telegenic enough, unless it is cast in the heroic light of “personal responsibility.”

Indeed, Hollywood and corporate media reinforce the mythology of American greatness while its populace becomes ever more weighted down by the late stage capitalist nightmare. Whether it be CNN or MSNBC, distraction from issues related to class or economic disenfranchisement rule the day. Russiagate, the “scary” (and non-existent) migrant caravan, or Trump’s latest outlandish or absurd tweet dominate the news cycles. Catastrophic climate change, the staggering loss of biodiversity, burgeoning suicides among youth, the elderly or veterans, the never-ending and expanding war machine of the Pentagon, growing police violence and a bursting prison industrial complex, corporate and banking corruption, increased economic disparity and hardship? Not so much.

Movies and programs about dystopia have been ubiquitous for many years now, but the factors that contribute to these apocalyptic futures have nothing to do with the actual existential threats we are now facing. Zombies and terrorists dominate the themes presented, and this reflects back on the enormous influence of the Pentagon, Department of Defense, CIA, et al. on mass media. Even video games mirror the warped and expansionist aspirations of the American establishment and its bellicose foreign policy. For decades, these agencies have sought to steer the narrative of American angst toward conformity with the capitalist status quo. And they have been largely successful thanks to many attributes of American life itself. Suburbia and automobile culture after WW 2 erased the commons to create a sort of facsimile of community, often devoid of central spaces, character or originality, and connected by ribbons of featureless highway. Vast dead spaces that are simultaneously everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

But even relatively innocuous programs and movies are divorced from lived reality. I was watching one recently at a friend’s house about a group of friends taking a trip to the wine country. With some mild and typically safe humor to garnish a few chuckles, it was rife with convention and contrivance. The most glaring thing of all, though, was the lack of any class reflected in the character’s diverse lives. All were of the American middle-class in one form or another. Some single mothers, others working highly paid jobs. But none of them facing what the majority of Americans actually face. None of them living pay check to pay check, lacking basic healthcare coverage, paying exorbitant rents or mortgages, or saddled with perpetual debt. But as long as their character’s clothing and surroundings were furnished by Zara, Williams-Sonoma and Pier One, the circumstances of reality were easily eclipsed. Forgotten.

Indeed, the Age of Trump, which is the product of decades of capitalist rot, has demonstrated that the American bourgeoisie have been largely inured to their continually degraded status. They cannot see class oppression because those words are not in the lexicon. Corporate capitalism has created an insular world of sterile detachment from the real world in which it inhabits. “Human resource” departments, situated in nearly every workplace, effectively erase class and context by enforcing optimism and encouraging a kind of self-policed dialogue. Outside this world, mass media manages “threats” by externalizing and otherizing. So little has really changed in the narrative. Once upon a time it was the communists, Jews, Khrushchev, the Vietcong, the sexually “deviant,” people of color, Russia. Now it is migrants, Muslims, Julian Assange, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, LGBTQ, people of color, Russia. All scapegoats for the country’s failures and abysmal state. All psychic projections of animus and angst for a bourgeoisie in America that never understood the machinations of its ruling class or shook itself free of the “exceptionalism” of its Calvinist puritanical roots.

But the angst of the American bourgeoisie is demonstrated more by what it doesn’t speak about than what it does. It is a disquiet which is at once terrified of the collapse that looms ahead and horrified at the idea of losing the status quo arrangement, even though that status quo is benefiting fewer and fewer people. It stands simultaneously aghast and paralyzed before the obvious madness of its rulers, and yet continually grasps at failed “lesser evilism” as a solution. And it largely still buys into the noxious mythology of it being the “greatest country on earth.” The corporate elite, having stripped down civic education over decades, robbed them of their political agency and resistance and replaced it with a sanitized history and demoralizing optimism, or “positive thinking,” which places all blame for their collective state and its inadequacies on the individual. That it has been so lauded by Wall Street should cause anyone to wonder why it has been so internalized by the disenfranchised masses.

To be sure, this arrangement is rapidly meeting its end. Banking and corporate corruption, never really having been dealt with in the last “Great Recession” or its notorious state funded “bailout,” has only become more blind and reckless. The membrane of the bubble created after that fiasco, born in avarice, is thinning in plain sight. It is about to burst again, and this time it will be far more catastrophic. The endless imperialistic wars that the US has engaged in for the last decades are also creating a financial strain. Coupled with climate breakdown those expensive bases of aggression around the world will begin to cost more than they bring in profit. In the US itself biblical floods are wiping clean the soil graded for agriculture throughout the Midwest and causing tremendous economic hardship for scores of rural and commercial farmers. Droughts offer a grim alternative to this increasingly chaotic climate pattern. Food prices will undoubtedly rise in the future thanks to a capitalist system which creates artificial shortages and surpluses.

Indeed, around the world the climate is shifting dramatically between drought and deluge affecting huge swaths of habitat. Already countless species have succumbed to this ramification of a warming world. But also to industrial pollution, defilement of the oceans, misuse of land and extraction of minerals and fossil fuels: the excesses of capitalism. According to a recent study, a million more species are being marched down the halls of extinction today. Trash is filling the world’s oceans, with birds, turtles and whales washing up by the thousands with bloated bellies full of plastic detritus. It’s literally raining plastic particles now in many places. And all the while the beneficiaries of this pernicious and omnicidal system are dwindling to a select few who are incapable of grasping the quietus of all life on the planet, let alone their own. But without a doubt, this small segment of society will fight ferociously for their continued privilege no matter how untenable, absurd or suicidal it is.

The concurrent madness of the ruling class and the angst of the bourgeoisie in our age isn’t anything surprising. Like the phenomenon of Trump, it has been an unholy union in the making for a long time. The product of empire itself. Social media and the death throes of capitalism have only made it more visible to the general public as of late. But it should be understood that while the ruling class are moneyed and powerful, they are not omnipotent, nor are they more intelligent than the rest of us. On the contrary, even as it sees the demise of the biosphere on which it depends, this “elite” class can do nothing else but marshal the language in an attempt to save its failing economic trajectory. Thus, it is militarizing our collective existential moment: not to save the planet, but to save capitalism itself. And it will do this by deflection, brutally punishing or even eradicating those who have the least impact: the poor, the working class, and the global south.

Under a darkening, climate changed sky, created by the avarice of a few and their ceaseless wars and atrocities, an imperiled and disappearing biosphere lies before us all. Therefore, remaining silent and accepting the status quo in the face of ruling class folly, cruelty and madness, should only be interpreted as complicity to the crime.

[internetguruhub]

The Only 3 Things You Need To Have A 7-Figure Marketing Business

The Only 3 Things You Need To Have A 7-Figure Marketing Business

Would you believe me if I told you that there were only 3 things that you need in order to have a 7-figure online business?When I first started online, I was a bit skeptical.  I had just recently parted ways with a well-known MLM.  I got a few wins, but it was mostly just a lot of standing in strangers' living rooms polishing up my "story".  Not much money, though. I was acquainted with some of the "Big Leaders" who were making as much in a month as I was after 10 years as a Senior Manager with a Fortune 500 company.  I knew the money was out there, but I had absolutely no idea how to get there from where I was.  I did figure out one thing pretty quickly, though;  this was not my idea of "working smarter, not harder."And did I mention I was spending a lot of time having awkward conversations in strangers' living rooms? via GIPHY Every time I went online, though,  I would see another story about some ordinary guy or gal who figured out how to make enough money to quit their job.Never mind the fast cars or exotic locations. That stuff didn't really turn me on. I just wanted to know how I could make enough money to take care of my family, working from home Can you relate?

It is Possible...

Eventually, I learned that it is possible to create a real online business, and that ordinary people are actually creating them every day. I've spent years studying, learning, and testing basically every possible make-money strategy in existence, trying to create personal freedom through online income. Most of them require a ton of up-front cash, or a lot of technical knowledge, and in some cases, both. I've lost tons of money trying to figure it all out, and no matter how many times it happens to you, it never gets easier.   Spending countless hours with new tech, new strategies, new systems that don't pay off in the end is the ultimate insult to injury. I can make more money, but time I will never get back the time I didn't spend with my wife and kids 

Losing money sucks, but wasting time is worse.

I have 3 young kids and a wife that I adore. I spent most of their lives leaving the house before they were even awake to go to my corporate job, and then racing home to try to spend 15 minutes with them before they go to bed, six days a week.It was a constant reminder to me that even though I wasn't in love with money, I really needed to learn how to be friends with it.  Like it or not, money has a MASSIVE influence on my ability to spend time spend (MY) time with the people I love and doing the things that I want to do.  This was my reason for getting into online business in the first place, my "big why".How about you?  Why are you looking into this?  I would love to hear your comments down below.   Stop Struggling. Get Help

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So What Are the 3 Things That You Need To Have A 7-Figure Online Business? 

After spending thousands of dollars on courses and mentorships, and countless hours of trial & error, I've noticed a formula that keeps coming up, again and again.This is the formula that my own personal mentor was using to make over $3,000 per day.  It is the same formula that his mentors were using to make in excess of $1,000,000 (that's one MILLION) per month.  There are countless well-known marketers that are using this same simple method to make fortunes online, every single day.  Keep reading to the end of this post and I'm going to give you access to an in-depth video training that covers this entire method and much more.   

The 7-Figure Online Business Formula

Start With A Highly Engaging, Attention Grabbing Ad If you want to sell something to someone, you have to get their attention.   Simple as that. You have to cause them to stop scrolling long enough to grab their attention, as well as make them curious enough to click.There are plenty of ways to do this, but the two methods that I have actually seen that work the best are videos and curiosity-based images.VideosVideo is taking over.  It is by far the most engaging form of content on the internet today. People prefer video to text, generally speaking, because our brains can process video 60,000 times faster than text, and for info-junkies like me, that means I can watch more YouTube videos on 2X speed than I could ever hope to consume by reading alone.  Video as a % of total online content is only growing, too.  According to Cisco, Globally, IP video traffic will be 82 percent of all IP traffic (both business and consumer) by 2022, up from 75 percent in 2017  Bottom Line:  If you aren't using video in your marketing, start today.Find or create a video that addresses someone's problem, passion, or interest, preferably in a way that hooks them with a story, or creates an open loop, and you will be well on your way.Sites like Pond5, Envato, Story Blocks, and Shutterstock all have stock video that you can purchase and use for your ads.  Spending a few bucks to get a quality video will also help to ensure that everybody and their brother isn't using the same video in their ads.  Curiosity-Based ImagesOne of the best and easiest ways to stop someone from scrolling is to show them an image that doesn't look like anything else in their feed, something that their brain doesn't immediately recognize.  The term that's commonly used when referring to these images is "pattern-interrupt."  We are wired to be curious, so when we see something that we sort-of recognize, but can't quite figure out what we're looking at, we naturally stop and investigate.  Here are a couple of videos that beautifully explain.......and then illustrate this concept. That is the technique that many of the top super affiliates in the world are using to rake in hundreds-of-thousands and even millions of dollars every month.   Here's an example of an image that I enjoyed some great success with (until Facebook banned my account for using it).

Think about scrolling past this in your Newsfeed.  I looks like a toe, or a knuckle, with a mouth & a moustache and some googly-eyes glued onto it.  You don't have a template in your brain for something that looks like this. But before you can even react or think about what you just saw, your subconscious is already trying to match it up, to figure out what the heck it is. Next thing you know, you're on my quiz lander answering questions about your health.  That is how they work.Here are a few of others I've added to my swipe file along the way.  

Previous Next You get the idea... Presell PagesOkay, mission accomplished.  You stopped the scrolling and you got their attention, but now what?  You do what the most influential people in the world have done since the beginning of time:  you tell them a story that evokes some sort of emotion.The most effective type of story for moving your prospect from a browsing mindset to a buyer's mindset, is a story related to a problem they want to solve  for themselves or for someone they care about.  The idea is to remind (or agitate) them of a problem in their life.  You help them remember the emotions the problem is causing them, and that they are still looking for a solution to that problem.When properly executed, they don't even bother reading the entire page.  After the a few paragraphs, they will be scrolling down to the bottom of the page looking for the button to get the solution.  Solve Their Problem... With A Proven, High-Converting Offer It would't be right to run ads just to try to ruin someone's day.  We want to help people.  We want to provide solutions to the things that are keeping them awake at night.  And we want to be paid for doing it, too.  So, once you stopped their scrolling with an attention grabbing video or a curiosity-based image (creating an open a loop in their mind), you agitated a problem that they have in their life with a proven pre-sell page, the last step is to close the loop by offering them a valuable solution to their problem.  

Sounds Simple, Right?

Actually, it is simple. 3 simple steps. Ad, pre-sell, offer. It really is a method that anybody can learn.  And when you consider the ridiculous, life-changing (we're talking multi-generational here) amounts of money that normal, every-day people are making with this method, you would be crazy to not want to learn more about how it works.  But just because it is simple doesn't necessarily mean it's easy.  Anybody can do this.  I sincerely believe that.  I have made more money with this method than any of the other that I have tried, hands down.  It is simple.  It works. It has been working.  It will continue to work, but there are a few things that you want to work out before you get started.  You can read about them here in my next post. Or,you can skip right to a FREE, in-depth video training taught by a multi-7-figure Super-Affiliate. In this FREE Training, he covers: The 7-Figure Online Business Formula, in detail, step-by-stepThe 3 Critical Keys to Success. (Get any of these wrong and your system will fail.)7 Mistakes That Separate Small and Struggling Affiliates From Super-Affiliates3 Super-Affiliate Secrets That Are Critical To Your Becoming a Super-Affiliate  Watch the FREE TRAINING Now Give Me Instant Access Read the full article

[beenheresinceforever]

Let’s talk.

So I’m scrolling through Facebook one evening when an ad for a new smartphone pops up on my newsfeed. This phone, which is all set to launch in India, has a camera that picks out individual facial features and ‘beautifies them separately’. Watching the video, I am unsure what exactly this means, but thankfully, the Indian presenter goes on to show a clip of a woman taking a selfie using the phone.

Lo and behold, two seconds later, the only discernible difference is that she is even whiter than before! Should I be surprised? No. Snapchat was accused of the same thing a while ago and I’m told other phones feature similar filters. What a godsend to all of us who go through life wishing we were lighter. I’m going out tomorrow and treating myself to a brand new Xiaomi Redmi Y2 and so should you.

Actually, you know what, scratch that. Don’t. Turns out I’m perfectly comfortable and downright proud of my dark skin. You should be too and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Also read: Un-Fair And Not So Lovely: Capitalism And Colourism In India

India’s got problems, but one of the most self-destructive is the casual colourism that pervades every aspect of our cultural consciousness. I was at a family dinner when a (liberal, educated, well travelled) relative nonchalantly announced that her aunt has always liked her better because she’s fairer than her cousin. I’ve lost count of the number of times shop assistants at counters all across our country have had conniptions when I said I would rather buy foundation a shade darker in response to their “Your shade or one shade lighter?” query.

TURNS OUT I’M PERFECTLY COMFORTABLE AND DOWNRIGHT PROUD OF MY DARK SKIN. YOU SHOULD BE TOO AND DON’T LET ANYONE TELL YOU OTHERWISE.

What’s craziest of all is that I’ve lived in Denmark for four years now and it is easier to find my shade of foundation in a country populated by the whitest people on earth than it is to find one in India, a country where, by western makeup standards, everyone is tan or dark but insists on buying shades of foundation with names like Ivory and Vestal Virgin and whatever else they’re calling lighter foundations these days. I mean, seriously, who did a market survey of India and decided we were all porcelain, for god’s sake? (I’m looking at you, Sephora and Colorbar)

I was once getting shade matched at MAC in Bangalore when a woman next to me insisted quite aggressively that they go even lighter with her shade because she didn’t want to look tan, making it sound like an unsavoury skin disease. I’ve come across similar situations before and met women who treat their fairer complexions as some sort of proof of membership to an exclusive, snobby club.

Imagine the look on her face if I’d walked up to her and announced that her preferred shade is dark by global standards. She would take it as an insult, but it wouldn’t be. It would, instead, be a call to arms, a rallying cry, a plea for her to take pride in her brownness. I hope she’d welcome the comment and embrace her melanin. But, sadly, I suspect she’d walk up to the counter and immediately purchase a bottle of “Vanilla” instead.

To be clear. I wouldn’t blame her – or at least, not completely. I understand that it’s hard to ignore hundreds of years of conditioning behind India’s ‘the whiter the better’ mentality. And of course this is a systemic issue that is larger and more ingrained that I could ever explain here. I do blame the system like everyone rightly should.

LOOK IN THAT MIRROR, MARVEL AT THE BRONZE WONDER STARING BACK AT YOU AND MAKE SURE EVERYONE SEES HER/HIM/THEM TOO.

But I also blame us. Why do we continue to buy into the narrative? Why are people in India buying fairness creams and anti-tanning treatments in 2018? Why am I walking into laser hair removal treatments (ouch) to have the technician compliment me on looking fairer? I don’t want that! I told her so and she looked at me in incomprehension. “Most girls love when I say that to them,” she replied. Well, I, for one, refuse to take it as a compliment, to be told I am better because I’ve lost some melanin. And I think it’s about time we start advocating for ourselves and brown people the world over. Loudly.

But the change has got to start at home. I get bored at parties (weird non sequitur, but I’m going somewhere with this, trust me) so I have to come up with ways to amuse myself. My favourite is to go up to women in the room (I haven’t tried this with men, but by all means) and compliment them like this: “Your skin is so tan and beautiful right now. I’m jealous! Have you been on holiday recently?” Then I wait for their reply. Most often, their eyes cloud over while they try to work out if I’ve just insulted them before thanking me uncertainly.

I’m hoping to do this to enough people enough times to flip the narrative, but I’m going to need your help. So the next time you genuinely want to compliment someone, say they’re looking bronzed and gorgeous while smiling the biggest smile you can. And for your own part, look in that mirror, marvel at the bronze wonder staring back at you and make sure everyone sees her/him/them too.

Hopefully, if we really put our mind to it, the estimated 735 million users of fairness creams in India will raid their drawers and throw that junk where it belongs – right in the trash can.