#trading standards approved businesses

[uktsa]

Revamping Your Space: The Role of Kitchens Renovation Traders

In the realm of home improvement, kitchens stand as the vibrant heart of every household. From sizzling morning breakfasts to intimate family dinners, the kitchen encapsulates more than just a space for cooking; it embodies the essence of family bonding and culinary creativity. However, as times change and trends evolve, the need for kitchen renovations becomes increasingly apparent. This is where kitchens renovation traders step into the spotlight, wielding their expertise to breathe new life into these essential spaces.

Understanding the Dynamics: Before delving into the realm of kitchen renovations, it's crucial to grasp the dynamics at play. Kitchens renovation traders possess a keen understanding of the intricate balance between functionality and aesthetics. They recognize that a successful renovation goes beyond mere visual appeal, encompassing factors such as layout optimization, storage solutions, and workflow efficiency.

Tailored Solutions: No two kitchens are alike, and thus, no two renovation projects should be identical. Kitchens renovation traders excel in providing tailored solutions that cater to the unique needs and preferences of each client. Whether it's maximizing space in a compact kitchen or creating a luxurious culinary haven, these professionals leverage their expertise to transform visions into reality.

Navigating the Options: The world of kitchen renovations is replete with options, ranging from materials and finishes to appliances and fixtures. Kitchens renovation traders serve as invaluable guides, helping clients navigate this vast landscape with confidence. From selecting durable countertops to choosing energy-efficient appliances, these experts offer insights that streamline the decision-making process.

Project Management Prowess: Renovating a kitchen is no small feat; it requires meticulous planning, coordination, and execution. Kitchens renovation traders bring their project management prowess to the table, overseeing every aspect of the renovation journey. From scheduling subcontractors to adhering to budgetary constraints, these professionals ensure that the project stays on track from start to finish.

Quality Assurance: One of the hallmarks of reputable kitchens renovation traders is their unwavering commitment to quality. They partner with trusted suppliers and artisans, sourcing materials and craftsmanship of the highest caliber. By upholding rigorous standards of quality assurance, these professionals deliver results that stand the test of time.

Innovative Solutions: In an era defined by technological advancements and innovative design solutions, kitchens renovation traders remain at the forefront of industry trends. Whether it's integrating smart home technology or incorporating sustainable materials, these professionals embrace innovation to enhance the functionality and eco-friendliness of modern kitchens.

Attention to Detail: The devil, as they say, is in the details, and kitchens renovation traders leave no stone unturned in their pursuit of perfection. From seamless cabinet installations to flawless tile work, every aspect of the renovation process is executed with meticulous attention to detail. It's this commitment to excellence that sets them apart in a competitive market.

Customer Satisfaction: Ultimately, the measure of success for kitchens renovation traders lies in the satisfaction of their clients. They prioritize open communication, actively listening to client feedback and addressing concerns along the way. By fostering a collaborative partnership, these professionals ensure that the end result not only meets but exceeds expectations.

Transformative Impact: Beyond the realm of aesthetics, kitchen renovations have a transformative impact on daily life. They enhance functionality, elevate comfort, and instill a sense of pride in homeownership. Kitchens renovation traders take pride in their ability to enrich lives through the creation of inviting and functional culinary spaces.

A Lasting Investment: While kitchen renovations require a significant investment of time and resources, they also yield substantial returns in terms of home value and personal enjoyment. With kitchens renovation traders at the helm, homeowners can embark on this transformative journey with confidence, knowing that they're making a lasting investment in the heart of their home.

In conclusion, kitchens renovation traders play a pivotal role in the revitalization of one of the most cherished spaces in any home. Their expertise, attention to detail, and commitment to excellence ensure that every renovation project is a resounding success. As kitchens continue to evolve as the epicenter of family life, these professionals stand ready to turn dreams into reality, one renovation at a time.

[real-elias-hodge]

porter not approving gorgug’s multiclass request is so heartbreaking and so accurate to the way the school system actually works. so much focus is put on academics to the point where students aren’t allowed to participate in extracurricular activities if their academics suffer, even though some of those students have no desire to further their education through the traditional route. classic higher education institutions aren’t the only path available, there’s trade school and becoming an athlete and starting your own business along with countless other possibilities that aren’t being presented to students because schools are granted resources based on standardized testing scores. in gorgug’s case, his advisor isn’t letting him participate in something that he shows genuine interest and aptitude in simply because he doesnt feel as though gorgug is doing well enough in the pathway that he chose when he was likely at the end of middle school. people grow and change and unfortunately, both in real life and in elmville, the public school system is set up to push you towards one path that may not be right for you.

[robertreich]

How to Fix a Broken Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is off the rails — and it’s only going to get worse unless we fight to reform it.

Trust levels and job approval ratings for the Court have hit historic lows due in large part to a growing number of ethics scandals.

Here are THREE key reforms Congress should enact to restore legitimacy to our nation’s highest court:

1) Establish a code of ethics

Every other federal judge has to sign on to a code of ethics — except for Supreme Court justices.

This makes no sense. Judges on the highest Court should be held to the highest ethical standards.

Congress should impose a code of ethics on Supreme Court justices. At the very least, any ethical code should ban justices from receiving personal gifts from political donors and anyone with business before the Court, clarify when justices with conflicts of interest should remove themselves from cases, prohibit justices from trading individual stocks, and establish a formal process for investigating misconduct.

2) Enact term limits

Article III of the Constitution says judges may “hold their office during good behavior,” but it does not explicitly give Supreme Court Justices lifetime tenure on the highest court — even though that’s become the norm.  

Term limits would prevent unelected justices from accumulating too much power over the course of their tenure — and would help defuse what has become an increasingly divisive confirmation process.

Congress should limit Supreme Court terms to 18-years, after which justices move to lower courts.

3) Expand the Court

The Constitution does not limit the Supreme Court to nine justices. In fact, Congress has changed the size of the Court seven times. It should do so again in order to remedy the extreme imbalance of today’s Supreme Court.    

Now some may decry this as “radical court packing.” That’s pure rubbish. The real court-packing occurred when Senate Republicans refused to even consider a Democratic nominee to the Supreme Court on the fake pretext that it was too close to the 2016 election, but then confirmed a Republican nominee just days before the 2020 election.

Rather than allow Republicans to continue exploiting the system, expanding the Supreme Court would actually UN-pack the court. This isn’t radical. It’s essential.

Now, I won’t sugar-coat this. Making these reforms happen won’t be easy. We’re up against big monied interests who will fight to keep their control of our nation’s most important Court.

But these key reforms have significant support from the American people, who have lost trust in the court.

The Supreme Court derives its strength not from the use of force or political power, but from the trust of the people. With neither the sword nor the purse, trust is all it has.

[elentarial]

Miscalculation

Dear Morifinwe,

I recently had the privilege of reading your treatise on Dwarven tariffs and found it fascinating reading indeed. I don’t suppose you hear that often. However, I was wondering if you could perhaps clarify the situation on the 36th page, just under the table of tares of standard shipping containers. I was under the impression when one converted between ounces and gallons (which, why aren’t you using liters as a standard unit of liquid measurement??), the multiplier is 0.0078126, but you have it listed as 0.0078125. Does the Naugrim measure alcoholic liquids differently? As you have only two sentences describing the conversion of Dwarvish mead, I can not determine whether it is a typographical error or if I have been misinformed. If the latter is the case, any more explicit suggestion or direction would be appreciated since (as I have pointed out) your explanation in the paper is relatively brief.

Sincerely yours,

Turukano

Dear Turukano,

I am delighted that you enjoyed my protocols for trade in East Beleriand! In regards to your question about whether dwarves measure alcohol differently than other liquids, no Turno, an ounce is an ounce. You have been misinformed. The conversion factor is indeed 0.0078125.

Thank you,

Carnistir Morifinwe,

Dear Moryo,

Thank you for the quick and brief reply. However, I digress, the conversion multiplier is 0.0078126. It was that in Tirion, and it is that now. Please explain your computations. 

Looking forward to your reply,

Turukano

Dear Turno,

I am the one who devised that conversion. I don’t need to prove my work to you because I came up with it in the first place. Any possible discrepancies are due to rounding errors. The conversion is valid.

Carnistir

Dear Moryo,

I am well aware that you first calculated the conversion between ounces and gallons. I sat on the council that granted you the defense of such a claim, and if you will recall, I questioned your math then. You were wrong in Tirion, and you are wrong now.

Awaiting your reply,

Turgon

Turgon,

How delightful to know you remember our time together at the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences. I have no recollection of your involvement in my defense, but I really try to avoid thinking of you. Were you there? I thought you were too busy being henpecked by the campus gulls to accomplish anything, research or otherwise.

Carnistir

Moryo,

I generally thought you were one of the better brothers; don’t be an ass. Just admit you are wrong. 

Sincerely,

Turgon Turukano,

 Lord of Nevarast,

 High Prince of the Noldor

My dearest Turukano,

What a lovely title that is. Quite fitting for your already overinflated ego, but I genuinely hate to remind you that you are a second son and not, in fact, the High Prince of anything. Unless, of course, condolences are in order, then I also do not care because I find your brother infuriatingly obnoxious. I would feel for Nelyo, though. 

Yours,

Moryo

Dear Carnistir,

Nelyo…remind me, is that your eldest brother or our grandfather? I can never remember who was born first, him or my father. Regardless, he’s ancient and an inappropriate match for my brother. 

But I beseech you, dearest cousin. Please take a look at your defense from Tirion. I believe there is a note regarding the conversion on the final copy. I don’t have a copy with me, but I am sure you must have kept one for yourself. 

Yours,

Turgon

My darling Turno,

At least we agree on one thing. Fingon and my brother are terrible for one another. 

I do happen to have a copy in my archives. I will check for this mythical correction and have my scribe translate a copy for you. I will enclose it in my next reply, as it’s rather embarrassing to doubt the work of scholars. 

With love,

Moryo

Turukano,

Fuck you. There was no correction; the rate has always been 0.0078125. This exchange has been a complete waste of my time, and I will implore Himring to approve an additional one point five percent tax on all limestone coming from and all other goods going to Vinyamar. 

Sincerely,

Morifinwe

Despite all of Caranthir’s immense irritation, the final letter to Nevarast is returned some months later by an exhausted raven. Shortly thereafter, he receives word from Hithlum that Turgon and one-third of the Noldor forces in West Beleriand have disappeared. 

@silmarillionepistolary

For @cilil (who suggested Caranthir and Tax Day as a prompt) and @dalliansss (who originally did the heavy lifting on building Caranthir’s taxation empire).

Miscalculation (on AO3)

[phoenixyfriend]

Ko-Fi prompt from Anonymous Supporter:

For the Econ Topic, an analysis on a society that has magic and fantasy races would be nice. Or maybe how a guild of Thieves or Assassins would work in either real life, fantasy or sci-fi setting.

The former is far too varied and complicated a topic to fit into 500 words, but I can definitely make the latter work... by explaining what the fuck a guild is.

These days, the words guild and union are used more or less interchangeably, and they do admittedly have some overlap in modern capitalist society. In the historic Europe that many of these settings are inspired by, the word guild had a more specific meaning.

Let's unpack some of what the economic structure is in these settings.

Large, overarching companies engaging in multinational work are rare in those historic settings. You have some trading/merchant organizations (e.g. the Dutch East India Company) that fit that bill, work that couldn't be performed without a large, existing structure to back it (e.g. mining), and domestic agricultural lordship (you know, feudalism).

For the rest of the economy, though, you have small businesses. Technology isn't at such a point that something bigger can be done. Factories aren't a thing until the industrial revolution, but we do have division of labor, so there are people who specialize in baking, or weaving, or shoemaking, or pottery.

Many of these professions require years of training, from apprenticeship to journeyperson to mastery. Trade secrets are a big deal, you marry off your daughter to your apprentice to secure the line and prevent competition, and you try not to give up those secrets because if you do, what's to keep your lord and other rich folk from taking advantage of you, and paying you less than your worth?

That's where the guild comes in.

No matter how good you are at keeping secrets, the competition does exist. You cannot be the only baker, dressmaker, shoemaker, bricklayer, carpenter in town, unless your town is very small indeed.

Price competition isn't a great idea when profit margins are already low, and you are a small business that doesn't have the diversification or coffers to take the hit for a few weeks. If your lord tries to force you to sell low, you can't just refuse him! He's the one that pays whoever uses the swords!

If only you and all the other trained professionals in your industry could hold together and tell him, "Yeah, that's as low as the price can go. You are paying for the bare minimum of materials and labor with that. So sorry, can't go lower without taking an actual loss, and everyone else will tell you the same thing."

Joining a guild was often the only way to perform that craft or service in a given city. This prevented untrained, untested individuals from trying to peddle something that wasn't up to standard, but also acted as a form of gatekeeping that could prevent the market from becoming oversaturated with competition. The formation of a guild was often related to, or even reliant on, approval from local government or a monarch.

Guilds did absolutely have negative impacts, by the way, often through market manipulation and rent-seeking behaviors. They stifled innovation, gatekept skills, and were capable of price-gouging and price-fixing beyond the basic "this is how we keep from getting screwed over by the rich guys." While the guilds themselves were arguably intended to ensure minimum standards and protect against wealthy clientele, they were just as prone to stagnation and greed as any organization.

The guild differs from the unions in that the guild is for trained professionals that, by and large, own their business to some degree. The unions, meanwhile, are for laborers who work for someone else, and formalized labor unions only began in the mid-18th century, while trade guilds, or something like them, date back over four thousand years.

Remember how I said that factories as we know them, and that whole Big International Company format, didn't really start being a thing until the Industrial Revolution? You know how the Industrial Revolution started in the mid-18th century?

We now see the connection.

So, what does a guild of thieves or assassins mean, at its core?

Well, they have to be doing this professionally. Someone who's just killing for the fun of it isn't a professional assassin, being paid by other people for it, just like how the baker's guild isn't going to care overly much for the farmer's wife making her own bread for dinner. Thievery is a bit less obvious in terms of 'what counts as professional.' Does the person who picks pockets to pay their rent qualify as professional? Or just the ones who steal on behalf of someone else? What about burglars?

So part of what you'd need to untangle is what qualifies as professional for the thieves themselves.

Then, given that these are generally illegal acts in the first place, what purpose does the guild serve? Is the guild supported by the crown as a form of control over theft and assassination in the first place, like privateering? Does the guild institute rules on who can be stolen from, whether or not it's within guild rules to kill individuals of certain ages or genders or classes? What punishments does the guild implement on those who violate those rules?

If the crown allows the assassin's guild so long as members of the royal family are not targeted, is there a rule that any client who requests the assassination of a monarch must be reported, or killed on the spot? What government fees does the guild have to pay in order to exist? If they exist as an underground, unofficial group that is not affiliated with the government, how do they deal with the government? How do they hide? Do they dictate pricing? Do they pay off cops to stay under the radar? How do they advertise their services without getting found out?

For the thieves guild, it's even more wiggly. Who qualifies as a professional? Is it the pickpockets, the cat burglars, the people who climb into dragon's caves to locate ancient treasure and get out unseen? Is there a minimum yearly income threshold? How is that calculated? What about membership fees? Is membership singular, or can it be done as a couple, a team, a family? Are there groups that are off limits? Maybe there are two thieves guilds, one for those who can be Hired By Adventurers, acknowledged by the crown, and a second for those who work in the seedy underground away from official oversight.

There really is no one way for this to play out, and will probably vary from town to town or planet to planet in-story, but hopefully I've given you the framework to build up the various guilds you need for your story!

(Prompt me on ko-fi!)

[shantalanadevil]

Nicholas Galitzine and his team have definitely decided that going mainstream is the goal and anything that they control will not "remind" people of his most famous queer role. Least he loses the newly acquired wine mom demographic and potentially the possible dude-bro one (that is expected with the new role that was just announced.

For more in- depth thoughts, you can read the below, which goes over why and how you can still enjoy the sequel (I plan to do that), even if you don't like the current events.

At least now people can't hide behind the "social media'' clause because of another production when there were questions why he isn't announcing the sequel on his social media. Even if casting announcements on an actor's own socials are never part of what is considered promotion for a project (trade announcements are, but that is done by the studio), actors WANT to do them as it's announcing they are booked and busy, thus it is part of their professional branding.

Thus when they don't do it, people who are familiar with the industry take notes. 

Does it mean most people online will do a nuanced discussion on why the only white, straight and male actor from the main cast of a queer com-rom has decided not to put the trade announced sequel anywhere on his socials?

No, people will either do the simplifications of "He loves RWRB, why does it matter if he hasn't posted on Instagram on it" (the majority) or "He is homophobic and needs to be recast" (a very small minority) camps. 

The first camp loves the movie and has an emotional attachment to the character, which quite often transfers to actors. But in their wish to spare their own feelings they will try to silence the voices of people who are right to ask the valid questions on how an actor is using his own social media to highlight the work they WANT highlighted. And how they can ignore the work they DON'T want highlighted.

This isn't speculation. This is how Hollywood works and there social media isn't used the same way normal people use it. It is a work tool. 

The second camp will boil the whole situation down to personal homophobia and call it a closed case. Which is as bad as the first camp, as this just makes the first camp and pure NG fans defensive (as NG personally hasn't shown any signs of that) and stops any possible valid discussion.

As I mentioned in a previous post shortly after the sequel was announced, his team's strategy has been obvious for months, but they really f***ed it up in May. 

They could have shared 1-2 stories about the announcement (even if grid is some standard, as shown yesterday) and they could have avoided 90% of the issue by doing the bare minimum. They *decided* to not even do that. Which spells things even more clear out. 

Wine moms and dude-bros are more valuable than queer people. And most likely in terms of possible money they are not wrong. Those demographics aren't also known for being very rainbow friendly. Why do you think it is so hard for out actors to get roles in movies targeted at that demographic? 

So NG and his team did the simplest of maths equation and came up with = don't highlight anything RWRB related on your socials so as not to scare out those two pools. The M&G finale story isn’t queer focused so that was approved (and further showed there is no social media clause for other projects, as that falls under the umbrella of promotion). 

This is the same thought process that keeps *actual* queer actors in the closet. So I'm not surprised that the team of a straight actor is operating under the same assumption in terms of personal branding. 

Does this excuse the handling of RWRB? No, and thus I don't care much about his other projects. Which I have the right to do.

Does it lower my excitement for the sequel? No, as he is a good actor and I care about Henry, not about NG (because of his own actions). I care way more about the RWRB story than I do for an actor who is just doing his job. 

For the people that feel hurt by his actions and this is making it difficult to be excited for the sequel, I am truly sorry and I hope by the time when the sequel comes out and the contractual part of the promotion is here you will be able to find a way to enjoy the project itself. 

For the people that claim to love RWRB and are dismissing any valid criticism towards how NG is using his work tools to treat a project you claim to love, you sound a little like the people in a relationship who claim you are ok with being the secret partner. Some really are. But most? Just use it as an excuse not to have to look the truth in the eyes, as that will hurt them.

For the people who love NG and just look at RWRB as one of his jobs, you actually have no staks in this specific discussion, you are winning. Unless you are one of the few morons who go out of their way to shit on RWRB and its fans and are purposely going into those spaces to be nasty. Then you can jump off a high place. Or the ones who take any, even valid, criticism of their *fave* as a personal attack. You can touch some grass.

Just needed to vent a little bit as I was getting fed up with people on Twitter from the first camp moaning how social media doesn’t matter and all should just look at the good stuff. 

Lastly, for anybody asking, but why did he sign on for the sequel if he and his team think like this? Because most if not all studio films have a possible sequel clause in the contract for any film and as long as the studio wants to do so and fulfils some mentioned in the contract obligation (could be money, could be script), they have a pretty easy way of getting actors back.  

[quirkymarshmallows93]

Gas Station Stream of Consciousness Post

Gas Stations as Liminal Spaces

I've had quite a few hyperfixations in my day - ATMs, laundry detergents, credit cards - so my current one pertaining to gas stations is fitting considering my affinity for liminal spaces and the dedication of this blog to them. Liminal spaces are transitory in nature, hence their portrayal in online circles through photos of carpeted hallways, illuminated stairwells, dark roads, and backrooms, among other transitional points.

Gas stations are posted online as well; images of their fuel pumps or neon signage photographed through a rainy car window communicate their liminality and the universal experiences they provide to all of society. Perhaps they are the ultimate specimen of a liminal space. The machines they are created for, automobiles and tractor trailers alike, themselves are tools for motion, vestibules that enable travel and shipment across long distances at high speeds. Cars and roads are liminal spaces, albeit in different formats, and gas stations serve as their lighthouses. Vehicles at filling stations, therefore, are in a sense liminal spaces within liminal spaces within liminal spaces.

The uniqueness of a gas station as a liminal space, however, is its intersection with the economics and aesthetics of capitalism. Gasoline (and diesel fuel) is a commodity, downstream from crude oil, merely differentiated by octane ratings. Some argue that minute distinctions between agents, detergents, and additives make some brands better than others. Indeed, fuels that are approved by the Top Tier program, sponsored by automakers, have been shown to improve engine cleanliness and performance, but this classification does not prefer specific refiners over others; it is simply a standard. To a consumer, Top Tier fuels are themselves still interchangeable commodities within the wider gasoline commodity market.

The Economics of Gas Stations

The market that gas stations serve is characterized by inelastic demand, with customers who reckon with prices that fluctuate day in and day out. This is not to say that consumer behavior does not change with fuel prices. It has been observed that as prices rise, consumers are more eager to find the cheapest gas, but when prices fall, drivers are less selective with where they pump and are just happy to fill up at a lower price than last week. In response, gas stations lower their prices at a slower rate than when increasing prices, allowing for higher profit margins when wholesale prices fall. This has been dubbed the "rockets and feathers" phenomenon.

When portrayed as liminal spaces, gas stations are most often depicted at night, places of solitude where one may also enter the adjacent convenience store and encounter a fellow individual who isn't asleep, the modern day lightkeeper. The mart that resides at the backcourt of a gas station is known to sell goods at higher prices than a supermarket, simultaneously taking advantage of a captive customer, convenient location, and making up for the inefficiencies of a smaller operation. It may come as no surprise, then, that gas stations barely make any money from fuel sales and earn their bulk through C-store sales. This is a gripe I have with our economic system. Business is gamified, and in many cases the trade of certain goods and services, called loss leaders, is not an independent operation and is subsidized by the success of another division of a business, a strategy inherently more feasible for larger companies that have greater scale to execute it.

Nevertheless, most gas station owners, whether they have just one or hundreds of sites, find this method fruitful. Even though most gas stations in the US sell one of a handful of national brands, they operate on a branded reseller, or dealer, model, with oil companies themselves generally not taking part in the operations of stations that sell their fuels. The giants do still often have the most leverage and margin in the business, with the ability to set the wholesale price for the distributor, which sells at a markup to the station owner, which in turn will normally make the least profit in the chain when selling to the end customer at the pump. This kind of horizontal integration that involves many parties lacks the synergies and efficiencies of vertical integration that are so applauded by capitalists, but ends up being the most profitable for firms like ExxonMobil, who only extract and refine oil, and on the other end of the chain merely license their recognizable brands to the resellers through purchasing agreements. Furthermore, in recent years, independent dealers have sold their businesses to larger branded resellers, in many cases the ones from whom they had been buying their fuel.

A Word on ExxonMobil's Branding Potential

The largest publicly traded oil company in the world is Exxon Mobil Corporation. It is a direct descendent of the Rockefeller monopoly, Standard Oil, which was broken up in 1911 into 34 companies, the largest of which was Jersey Standard, which became Exxon in 1973. This title was generated by a computer as the most appealing replacement name to be used nationwide to unify the Humble, Enco, and Esso brands, decades before AI was spoken of. The latter brand is still used outside of the United States for marketing, arising from the phonetic pronunciation of the initials of Standard Oil. In 1999, Exxon and Mobil merged, and the combined company to this day markets under separate brands. Exxon is more narrowly used, to brand fuel in the United States, while Mobil has remained a motor oil and industrial lubricant brand, as well as a fuel brand in multiple countries.

Mobil originated in 1866 as the Vacuum Oil Company, which first used the current brand name for Mobiloil, and later Mobilgas and Mobilubricant products, with the prefix simply short for "automobile". Over time, Mobil became the corporation's primary identity, with its official name change to Mobil Oil Corporation taking place in 1966. Its updated wordmark with a signature red O was designed by the agency Chermayeff & Geismar, and the company's image for service stations was conceived by architect Eliot Noyes. New gas stations featured distinctive circular canopies over the pumps, and the company's recognizable pegasus logo was prominently on display for motorists.

I take issue with the deyassification of the brand's image over time. As costs were cut and uniformity took over, rectangular canopies were constructed in place of the special ones designed by Noyes that resembled large mushrooms. The pegasus remained a prominent brand icon, but the Mobil wordmark took precedence, which I personally believe to be an error in judgement. This disregard for the pegasus paved the way for its complete erasure in 2016 with the introduction of ExxonMobil's "Synergy" brand for its fuel. The mythical creature is now much smaller and appears only at the top right corner of pumps at Mobil gas stations, if at all.

Even into the 90s and the 21st century the Pegasus had its place in Mobil's marketing. In 1997, the company introduced its Speedpass keytag, which was revolutionary for its time and used RFID technology, akin to mobile payments today, to allow drivers to get gas without entering the store or swiping a card. When a Speedpass would be successfully processed, the pegasus on the gas pump would light up red.

When Exxon and Mobil merged in 1999, the former adopted the payment method too, with Exxon's less iconic tiger in place of the pegasus.

The program was discontinued in 2019 in favor of ExxonMobil's app, which is more secure since it processes payments through the internet rather than at the pump.

What Shell has done with its brand identity is what Mobil should've done for itself. The European company's logo was designed in 1969 by Raymond Loewy, and is a worth contender for the "And Yet a Trace of the True Self Exists in the False Self" meme. In recent years, Shell went all in on its graphic, while Mobil's pegasus flew away. I choose to believe that the company chose to rebrand its stations in order to prevent the malfunction in the above image from happening.

ExxonMobil should have also discontinued the use of the less storied Exxon brand altogether, and simplifying its consumer-facing identity to just the global Mobil mark. Whatever, neither of the names are actual words. As a bonus, here is a Google map I put together of all 62 gas stations in Springfield, MA. This is my idea of fun. Thanks for reading to the end!

[loveroftoomanyfandoms]

Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, Chapter 3

Pairing: Platonic Steven Grant x Reader (for now)

Rating: T

Word count: ~2600

Story Summary: Steven meets a beautiful woman in the Egyptian exhibit at the British Museum...

...Too bad she's his new boss.

Tags/Warnings: Canon Divergent since Steven still works for the British Museum post-canon, No Jake Lockley, developing friendship, boss/employee relationship (of sorts)

A/N: Here's chapter 3! I'm still not quite sure how long this will be, but hopefully I'll have an idea soon since I know where the plot's going.

If you'd like to be added to the taglist for this or any of my stories, please let me know!

Title from the song of the same name by The Police.

“...So, what do you think?”

Steven turned as Christina walked up next to him. He had been in his new position for a few weeks and was attending his very first members-only museum gala. “There's quite a lot of people here, isn’t there?” he replied.

Christina shrugged. “Usually it’s the same bunch of trustees and benefactors wanting to brag about their ‘generous’ donations while simultaneously making sure of where said donations are going, but yeah, there’s definitely more members here than usual.”

“Have you seen Dr. Y/L/N yet?” 

Christna shook her head. “No, but I’m sure she’s around here somewhere.”

She waved at someone. “Oh, if you'll excuse me, I just saw one of my old professors from uni. I'll catch up with you later, okay?”

Steven nodded. “Yeah. Laters, gators.”

Once Christina had left, he continued looking around the room. Maybe I should walk around, see if I spot her.

Good idea, Marc replied in his head.

Steven took a single step before someone moved out of his line of sight, revealing Dr. Y/L/N.

She had traded in her usual business attire for a silky floor-length purple dress with a shimmery beaded bodice and a pair of high-heeled shoes. On her left wrist was a wide, flat, silvery bracelet that reminded Steven of the bangles that Egyptian queens were frequently depicted wearing while a double-layer teardrop diamond necklace rested at her throat.

Steven’s breath caught. Gods, she’s beautiful.

Stunning, Marc agreed.

Dr. Y/L/N was engaged in conversation with an older gentleman that Steven vaguely recognized as one of the museum's trustees -- or from what Steven could tell she was actually being talked at while she discreetly looked around for an escape route.

She smiled as Steven caught her eye, then while the man speaking to her was briefly distracted by a passing waiter she made a face before quickly schooling her features back into a blank mask.

Steven chuckled and shook his head as the man turned back to Dr. Y/L/N and began speaking again while she pretended to be interested.

Go help her, Marc said.

How?

I don't know, make something up. Say you need to talk to her about something important.

Steven downed the glass of champagne he had been holding just to have something in his hands and set the empty glass down on a nearby table. “Right, off I go then.”

He walked over towards Dr. Y/L/N. “Dr. Y/L/N, there you are!”

“Ah, Steven!” Dr. Y/L/N replied, looking relieved. “Cohen, this is Steven Grant, our absolutely brilliant Visitor Engagement Specialist here at the museum. Steven, this is Cohen Robbins, one of the museum's benefactors and member of the board.”

“How do you do,” Cohen said, shaking Steven's hand.

“Pleasure to meet you, sir,” Steven replied. 

“Steven has been instrumental in improving the museum's visitor numbers,” Dr. Y/L/N continued. “Just in the past month that he's been in the position we've more than doubled our guided tour numbers and increased memberships by 20%.”

Steven’s face flushed at the praise. Dr. Y/L/N had loved his revamped tour and had approved it as the new standard as soon as Steven could train the rest of the Programming staff.

“It's all been thanks to Dr. Y/L/N’s incredible leadership,” he replied. “I'm just grateful that she's given me the opportunity to show her what I can do.”

He cleared his throat. “In fact, I actually have important museum business to discuss with her now, so unfortunately I need to steal her away. Quite urgent, you see, can't wait till tomorrow.”

“Apologies, Cohen,” Dr. Y/L/N said. “I'll see you at the next board meeting.”

Steven began to lead Dr. Y/L/N away. “I was thinking about what you said regarding our next special exhibition and I've come up with something that I really think you'll --”

He dropped the act as soon as they were out of earshot. “Everything okay? You looked like you were in need of a bit of a rescue.”

Dr. Y/L/N nodded with a smile. “I was, actually. I knew that events like this require a lot of schmoozing benefactors and listening to them talk about their art and car collections, which totally isn't my scene but unfortunately came with the job description, but I swear if I had to listen to Cohen blather on about his prized Vermeer painting for one more minute I was going to go insane. You're a lifesaver, Steven, thank you.”

Steven huffed out a laugh. “Happy to help, ma'am.”

“Are you enjoying the gala so far?”

Steven nodded. I am now. “Yes, ma'am.”

He had been surprised to see the invitation to the gala in his email inbox a few weeks before and in questioning Christina, he had learned that while the galas were open to all staff (which he never knew since Donna had never bothered to let the gift shop staff know) the Curation and Programming department heads in particular were encouraged to attend in order to show solidarity and support for the museum -- and to be on hand to answer any questions about the exhibits. It's not actually required, she had said, but we get overtime for it so it's worth it.

Dr. Y/L/N smiled. “Good. I'm glad.”

Steven gestured towards the table that was acting as a makeshift bar. “May I get you something to drink?”

Dr. Y/L/N nodded. “Yes, a glass of champagne would be lovely.”

“Be right back.”

Steven walked over to the bar and requested a glass of champagne and a bottle of water, then headed back over to Dr. Y/L/N once he had received them.

He handed her the glass of champagne. “Here you are, ma'am.”

“Thanks so much, Steven.” Dr. Y/L/N grinned. “The one upside to these parties… getting paid to dress up and drink fancy champagne.”

Steven took the opportunity to admire her once again. “You look lovely tonight, by the way. Very reminiscent of an Egyptian goddess.”

“Thank you.” Dr. Y/L/N briefly glanced down at her outfit. “That's actually kind of the look I was going for.”

She paused. “You look really nice as well.”

“Thank you.” Steven had "borrowed" a tux that Marc had stashed in the back of their closet after a mission. It had been a bit wrinkled when Steven had pulled it out but luckily there were no bloodstains, so after a bit of dry cleaning it was as good as new.

Dr. Y/L/N took a sip of her champagne. “Oh, I meant to tell you, that teacher from the school group you gave a tour to on Wednesday emailed me this afternoon and absolutely raved about you, said it was the most engaged she's ever seen some of her students and that they were still talking about it yesterday in class.”

Steven grinned. “Oh, they were a fun group, asked some good questions.”

“She also wanted to know if she went ahead and booked another tour for next term if she could request you as her class's tour guide.”

Steven nodded. “Yeah, that's not a problem. I'll make a note when she sends in her tour reservation to schedule myself for it.”

“Okay, I'll email her back on Monday and let her know.”

“Okay, great.”

“You know, that was actually the fourth message we've gotten about how great your tours in particular are just in the past two weeks alone. I need to watch out -- another museum might get wind of how amazing you are and try to steal you away.”

Steven grinned and shook his head. “No chance of that, ma'am. I plan on staying right where I'm at.”

Dr. Y//N nodded with a smile. “Good to know.”

“--Ah, Dr. Y/L/N, there you are!”

Dr. Y/L/N turned as Helen walked up. “Good evening, Helen.”

“‘Evening, ma’am. ‘Evening, Steven.”

“Good evening,” Steven replied. 

“Sorry to interrupt, but it’s time for your welcome speech, Dr. Y/L/N.” 

“Oh, it is? I'm sorry, I had no idea of the time.” Dr. Y/L/N turned back to Steven. “Would you mind holding my champagne for me, please? I'll be right back.”

Steven nodded and took her glass. “Absolutely, ma'am.”

He watched Dr. Y/L/N head over to a makeshift stage and clear her throat as the music that had been playing softly over the museum's intercom system faded into silence. “Hello, everyone,” she said. “For those of you that don't know me, my name is Y/F/N Y/L/N and I’m the director here at the British Museum. On behalf of myself and the entire museum staff, I'd like to welcome you to this evening's members’ gala.

“For years the museum has been the cornerstone of enlightenment and knowledge and it is only with your continued support that we are able to present such a large and wonderfully diverse collection of artifacts for exhibition. It's an honor and a privilege to be part of the growth and development of the museum and its collection, and from the bottom of my heart I thank you all for being here. Enjoy your evening.”

Steven politely applauded along with the rest of the crowd, then watched as Dr. Y/L/N made her way off the stage back towards him.

He handed her her glass of champagne. “That was a lovely speech.”

Dr. Y/L/N smiled. “Thank you.”

“It really is fascinating, though, innit? I mean, the history of the museum.”

Dr. Y/L/N nodded. “Oh yeah, very. And to think it started with someone's private collection.”

Steven took a sip of water. "So you never did say what brought you to England, if it was strictly for work or..." He trailed off.

Nice segue into finding out if she's single, Marc said in his head.

"Well, the short answer is strictly work," Dr. Y/LN replied. "But the long answer is that I got a dual Master's degree in history and linguistics before getting my doctorate in Archeology and had originally planned on being a real-life Indiana Jones, but then the university museum offered me a position as their director and I almost had to take it. I enjoyed it immensely but I’d always wanted to come to England, and a couple of months ago a museum job board I’m part of had posted that there was an opening for the director of the British Museum, so I figured why not at least apply? Honestly never thought I'd actually get it, although I'm really glad I did."

Steven gave her a small smile. “I am too.”

Dr. Y/L/N shook her head. “Sorry, I’ve been blathering on about myself for too long. Tell me about you.”

“Oh, er, well…” Steven licked his lips nervously. “There’s not much else to know besides what you’ve read on my CV, really.”

“Nothing? You don’t have any family? Friends? Things you do for fun?”

“Well, there was my mum, but she’s…” Steven trailed off. “She’s gone now.”

 Dr. Y/L/N gasped softly. “Oh. Oh, Steven, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright. It was a while ago.” Steven shrugged. “I’ve got a goldfish, at least. Gus. Gus the goldfish.”

“Gus the goldfish…” Dr. Y/L/N nodded with a smile. “I like that.”

Steven took another sip of water. “I don’t suppose you have any pets.”

“No, I considered getting a pet of some sort, but my hours at the university museum were always so long that I would’ve felt bad leaving whatever sort of pet I chose to get home alone for hours on end.”

Steven nodded. He wasn’t exactly sure which iteration of Gus he was on thanks to Marc. “That’s understandable.”

“Maybe one day. We’ll see. So, what do you do when you’re not working?”

“Actually, I’m studying hieroglyphics at the moment.”

“Oh wow, that’s so cool!”

Steven grinned at Dr. Y/L/N's enthusiasm. “Yeah, I’ve been meaning to see if I can translate whatever’s on Akhenaten’s coffin so I can add it to the information on the display placard, although it’s probably just something like ‘here lies Akhenaten, who died from eating spoiled lentils’.”

“Want to go find out?”

Steven blinked at Dr. Y/L/N in surprise. “What, really? Right now?”

“Yeah, why not? I don't think anyone will even notice we're gone.” Dr. Y/L/N gave him a cheeky grin. “Come on, I promise I won't tell the boss.”

Steven chuckled, then nodded. “Okay then. Let's go.”

They quietly made their way upstairs to the 3rd floor and into the Ancient Egyptian hall.

Steven crouched down next to Akhenaten’s sarcophagus so he could read the inscription that had been etched onto the side. “Alright, let's have a look.”

“Well?” Dr. Y/L/N asked. “Does it say he died from eating some bad lentils?”

Steven chuckled. “Actually, no. It says ‘Here lies Akhenaten, beloved of the Aten, great of kingship in Akhetaten, who has elevated the name of the Aten, the perfect one of the manifestations of Re, who is beneficial to the Aten.”

Dr. Y/L/N crouched down next to him. “So he was a sun worshiper.”

Steven nodded. “Specifically the sun disk, Aten. He tried to force monotheism and make Aten the only worshiped god, which backfired spectacularly. He wasn't very well-liked and is sometimes referred to as the ‘heretic pharaoh’.”

Dr. Y/L/N winced. “Ouch. No wonder his sarcophagus isn't as nice as some others.”

“It appears that it wasn't even made for him originally -- it was made for a woman and was either second-hand or retrofitted to him.”

Dr. Y/L/N turned towards him. “So what happened after his death?”

“Polytheism was slowly reintroduced, and he was largely forgotten about until the discovery of his tomb in 1893.”

Dr. Y/L/N shook her head. “Geez. Imagine going from being an all-powerful pharaoh to getting stuffed into a second-hand coffin upon your death and left to the annals of history.”

Steven nodded as he stood. “Yeah.”

Dr. Y/L/N went to stand as well, but wobbled as she straightened.

Steven instinctively grabbed her hand to keep her from falling. “Woah there. Are you alright?”

Dr. Y/L/N looked down at their joined hands then back up to Steven’s eyes, an unreadable expression on her face.

She blinked a few times then nodded. “Yeah, yeah I’m okay. Thank you.”

Steven was filled with relief. The last thing he needed was to have Dr. Y/L/N be hurt, especially while they had snuck off to go look at an exhibit. People would talk. “Oh, good.” 

He let go of her hand and took a step back. “We should um, we should probably get back downstairs, yeah?”

Dr. Y/L/N cleared her throat. “Right, yes. Yes, of course.”

They headed out of the Ancient Egyptian exhibit and back down to the gala on the first floor.

Dr. Y/L/N paused at the foot of the stairs. “I um, I probably should go speak to some of the benefactors since the gala is almost over, but just so you know, I really enjoyed our conversation tonight.”

Steven smiled. “I did too. Enjoy the rest of your evening, ma’am.”

“You too, Steven.”

Steven watched as Dr. Y/L/N walked away. If he got to spend every gala like he did this one… he definitely wouldn't mind having to attend.

[justagingerwithredhair]

Darkest Dungeon X Octopath Traveler 2 crossover fic. AKA Sarmenti witnesses the moments before Wellsgrove disaster.

TW for past suicidal thoughts, violence, some eldritch horror that’s going to happen at the end, Wingdings containing disturbing material such as death baiting (but nothing too explicit), and Sarmenti being incredibly unhinged and having some disturbing thoughts —————————————

Contrary to popular belief, Sarmenti does take things seriously. People thought that his personality was one that takes nothing seriously but really, it’s one who took everything seriously and then broke into a million tiny glass pieces afterwards. He’s already broken enough so why not have fun with it? Why not take those pieces and throw them at his enemies? Why not take those pieces and make a horrid song?

The point is, is that Sarmenti tries to make the most of life. He’s been dealt with the worst hand and maybe he should have given up there but what’s the point in that? He still has songs to play and stories to weave and annoying little eldritch horrors to stab. Perhaps not the best life but considering he wanted to kill himself before he travelled the world he’ll say this is an improvement.

Wellsgrove is a break to him right now, at least in his neck of the woods. From what he’s heard from Barristan and Baldwin, Throné was busy preparing and about to make herself an orphan, while Hikari is about to intercept a an arms trade. Meanwhile he’s here with Partitio, watching as the man essentially revived a town in under a month.

He wouldn’t be very helpful in the world of business, so he was outside singing incomplete songs stuck in his head while people quietly tipped him.

Maybe if he was with the others he would have traded sharp words and love ballads for knives but alas. He was not with their group. No blood shall be spilt today by him.

What was surprising though was the fact that all of them were here. Usually they would all go and debate with themselves on which Travelers needed their help before going off with them. Even then, not all of them truly stayed around to help the Travelers actively. Some people, like Audrey and Boudicca, only really tagged along to see the sights. He knows those types would eventually leave at some point, but he also knows that they’re aware that it’s not a good idea to leave when you have no idea where you are.

They still helped, don’t get them wrong. Some just aren’t exactly as invested as the rest of them. He knows who’s staying for a war if you put Audrey and Barristan side-by-side.

(But then again, Audrey stayed with all of them in the Hamlet and the rickety old Wagon all that time ago. Even gave some of her spoils to those poorer folk so who knows. Maybe they were all a bit kinder than they give themselves credit for.)

The fact that all of them were here was surprising. Something that Kazan even expressed surprised in when they all insisted on traveling together.

Then there’s the fact that Damien, Tardif, and Josephine were here. 

Damien was…well he was a bit of an odd ball, even by Sarmenti’s standards. He knew that flagellation was approved by the Church of the Light but he’s also pretty sure that it is not to the point of their skin peeling off and septic rot. Last he saw him, he said that he was going to travel the world to revel in this new kind of pain. Real fucking weird if you ask Sarmenti but who’s he to judge? He went and killed an entire royal court using a cursed song. At the very least though he’s polite to everyone in town, even if they found him disturbing, and thank fuck Damien has enough sense to avoid Junia lest they start stirring up old memories.

Tardif was a Bounty Hunter and well. Sarmenti supposes he wanted to get back to the business as soon as possible. The man said his farewell in Flamechurch, had a…private conversation with William, told them all that he won’t hunt bounties on them out of respect, and then left. At the very least he tried to keep contact with all of them, mostly in the form of obscure baking recipes he found. Him being here was a coincidence, one that was fueled by the simple fact that Throné’s Mother Dearest has a bounty on her but a lovely coincidence at that.

Josephine was…

She was here, lured by the promises of wealth from Partitio’s little business venture. She said she won’t cause any trouble and that was enough for him right now. Whatever quarrel she has with them doesn’t matter to him right now. The others may disagree but if she says she wants to keep the peace, she’ll keep the peace. Besides, starting a fight with the others is bad for her business.

…Sarmenti does have to admit though, having everyone here was nice. If he closed his eyes long enough, he can pretend it’s the Hamlet. He can pretend it’s the Hamlet and they were all free of the horrors that tormented them in the Darkest Dungeon. That the people tipping him were people he’s seen every day and that the people joining in were the other Bards that wandered into the Hamlet’s horrors.

This of course means that things are going to go to shit soon. He knows this. He knows that pattern.

He hears a melody.

Sarmenti blinks and sits up.

He hears it again.

(D-Low A-D-A-A flat-D-B flat)

“…Who played that.”

Sarmenti stood up and looked around. The bards all freeze and stare at him.

“Who. Played. That tune.”

It plays again.

Sarmenti jerked to the left to see a violinist, bow on strings and a blank look on their face.

(It sung to him and it sung until it was drilled into his head and nothing but that cursed song remained.)

He tackled the musician onto the ground, grabbed their throat and squeezed.

Distantly, he felt someone try to pull him off of the musician. He refuses to let go and kept squeezing.

“-menti!”

He squeezed-

“Sarmenti!”

And squeezed.

“Sarmenti let go!”

And s q u e e z e d.

Someone roughly grabbed him and pulled him off. “Sarmenti what’s gotten into you!?”

Don’t they know? Doesn’t they know that song means death? Snuffing it out is the only way to stop it from driving another mad. He has to snuff it out. He has to silence it. He has to he has to hehastohehastohe-

“How do you know that song?” Someone said. Or was that him? His voice sounds oh so far away now. An echo in the sea of madness. “That song is dead. I killed it. I made sure it was forgotten. How do you know that song?”

The musician only stared at him, keeping the blank look on their face and offering nothing but silence.

“Answer me Light damnit!”

The musician blinks and opens their mouth.

✌☠👎 🕈☟✌❄ ⚐☞ ✡⚐🕆 💧✌☼💣☜☠❄✋

🕈☟✡ 👎⚐ ✡⚐🕆 💧❄✋☹☹ ☹✋✞☜ 🕈☟☜☠ ❄☟☜ ☼☜💧❄ ☟✌✞☜ 👎✋☜👎

✋❄’💧 ☼🕆👎☜ ❄⚐ ☜☝☝ ❄☟☜☠ ⚐☠📬 🕈☟✡ ☠⚐❄ ☹☜❄ ✌ 💧❄☼✌✡ 💧🕈⚐☼👎 💧❄✌👌 ✡⚐🕆 ✌☹☼☜✌👎✡ ⚐☼ 👌☜❄❄☜☼ ✡☜❄📬 👎⚐ ✋❄ ✡⚐🕆☼💧☜☹☞📬

Sarmenti steps back. Several people around him start exclaiming in fear.

🕈☜☹☹ ☺☜💧❄☜☼📬 🕈☟✌❄ 🕈✋☹☹ ✡⚐🕆 👎⚐✍ ✋ ☞✋☠👎 ✡⚐🕆☼ 😐☠✋☞☜ ☹⚐⚐😐✋☠☝ ✋☠👍☼☜👎✋👌☹✡ ✋☠✞✋❄✋☠☝📬

What are they saying?

✡⚐🕆 😐✋☹☹☜👎 👌☜☞⚐☼☜📬 ✡⚐🕆 ☺🕆💧❄ ☠☜☜👎 ❄⚐ 😐✋☹☹ ❄☟☜ ☞✋☠✌☹ 💣✌👎💣✌☠ ✋☠ ❄☟✋💧 👍✋☼👍🕆💧📬

Why can he understand it?

Why does he know what its saying?

The musician grinned and grinned and grinned. Several people are running now and oh? Is that burning? What’s burning? Was it his flesh? Is it theirs? What’s burning?

“The Iron Crown will be revived.”

The musician takes out a knife and cuts themselves open, snapping Sarmenti out of trance. He looks to the left and sees Partitio recoil back and put himself in front of everyone else.

The musician falls onto the ground unceremoniously. Everyone stared, because what the hell are you supposed to do after that.

“…Well shows over for that guy,” he said awkwardly.

Alrond and Misha looked at him in horror while Partitio’s scrivener friend gives an awkward cough. Partitio only gives him a disappointed look.

“Hm. Tough crowd. Now what are we going to do with the body?”

If anything that only makes the group more appalled. “I don’t think this is a time for jokes Sarmenti,” said Partitio.

He knows that, but what else is he going to do? Look dumbly at the body and try to explain what just happened? Yeah right. Everyone is way into shock to do that right now. If he can joke then that means things aren’t as bad as it seems to be and that seems about right for him. Worked well for Dismas and Audrey, and if anyone in their little merry band of adventurers were bothered by it then they would have told the three of them by now.

Oh wait, the rest of them. They probably are freaking out right now.

And on cue, Sarmenti sees the rest of the gang come up and oh. Oh isn’t that some of Ku’s warriors? Weren’t they supposed to be getting weapons and then being stopped from getting weapons? Hm. He supposed this little stunt went and changed some things then. No one wants to do business when the town is in disarray.

“Nothing to see here folks!” He announce, much to everyone’s horror. “Just a dead body in the middle of the street! We’ll clean it up soon!” 

Dismas groans and out his head in his hands.

“What the fuck Hikari? Where did you even find this guy?” Said a Ku soldier with a bandanna tied around his head.

“Oh that’s easy fellow war criminal!” He answered. “You see Prince Hikari found us poor souls after we went and-“

A snap is heard from the ground.

Sarmenti looks down.

The musician started to contort into itself. Its skin turning grey and bones snapping out of place.

Oh.

Oh no.

“Get behind me.”

Partitio blinks. “What?”

Sarmenti took out his knife. “Get. Behind. Me.”

Muscles spasmed and grew. Bones creaked and groaned. Arms growing. Legs growing. Head contorting. Laughter. Laughter. Laughter.

(First the brain, then the lungs, then the eyes, then the hands, and then finally the body.)

(Denial, Resentment, Obsession, Ambition, Cowardice. All fought and defeated but it never is over. It’s never over. It’s never never never never over.

The musician speaks. It somehow speaks despite the distortions and it’s familiar. It’s familiar and that’s what terrifies Sarmenti.

A trumpet is heard. Someone screams in pain. He feels blood from his ears.

(Flesh upon flesh being played together. The body becoming an instrument. The body is an instrument.)

It speaks.

🕈☜ ☞✌✋☹☜👎 👌☜👍✌🕆💧☜ ✡⚐🕆 💣⚐✞☜👎 ⚐☠📬 ❄☟☜💧☜ 🏱☜⚐🏱☹☜ ☟✌✞☜ ☠⚐❄📬 ❄☟☜✋☼ 🕈⚐☜💧 🕈✋☹☹ ☜💣🏱⚐🕈☜☼ ❄☟☜ 👍☼⚐🕈☠📬 ☞⚐☼ 🕈☜ ✌☼☜ ✌☹🕈✌✡💧 ✌☼☜ ✌🏱✌☼❄ ⚐☞ ❄☟☜ 👍☼⚐🕈☠📬 🕈☜ 🕈✋☹☹ ☠☜✞☜☼ 👌☜ 💧☜🏱☜☼✌❄☜👎 ☠☜✞☜☼ ☠☜✞☜☼ ☠☜✞☜☼ ☠☜✞☜☼ ☠☜✞☜☼

He looks around. Several of Ku’s soldiers fall in terror. Hikari pales and starts to shake. Reynauld, Barristan, Boudica, and Missandei all look at the creature what Sarmenti can only describe as pure, utter, terror.

The Scrivener took a step back. “No. Nonononono. I left you.” She took a shuddering breath in. “I left you.”

If Sarmenti closes his eyes, he can hear the Ancestor the Heir the Academic the Scholar someone tell him what it was.

(“Gaze upon the Shackled Resignation. The thing that prolongs wars and drives men to hopelessness.”)

A being of bones and flesh, all contorted and twisted in ways one can only imagine. Restraining itself using their its innards and choking itself in its misery. It could probably fix itself if it really looked and tried to untangle the spilling chain-like innards.

It wails and lunges.

Sarmenti takes a deep breath.

(There is always an encore. And unfortunately for him, the people always crave for more.)

(Well. The cosmic beings that like to end the world crave for more.)

He looks behind him and meets Dismas’ eyes. He holds up three fingers. The man nods.

He nudges Partitio back.

He takes a deep breath.

One.

(The thing about encores is that it really does depend on whether the performer wants to perform a bit more or wants to wrap it up.)

Two.

(And the thing is this.)

Three.

(Sarmenti wants to fucking wrap all of this up.)

He swings his knife.

Dismas fires his gun.

The being screams and stumbles back. Sarmenti does the one thing he can think of.

He grabs Partitio, pulls him forward and gets them to run.

OH THE HORRORS!!!

I love your writing style! You'll have to translate the wingdings for me though.

[piperjistic]

Tear to Shreds: Kenji Kon

Okay so since it’s on my mind, Jurassic Park: Camp Cretaceous, I’m making it everyone’s problem.

Aight so Sammy, Darius, Yasmin, and Ben are the best characters. Fuck Kenji and Brooklyn. Brooklyn gets an excuse because she’s useful on occasion (If we ignore the sequel series but I digress). Kenji? Hell nah. But Kenji is deadass the worst character in the entire show. I want to box this man, I want him to shut the fuck up.

Okay rant part over. Logic now. Kengi comes from a very privileged background, rich (crime) dad with no mom. So daddy issues. I… Personally I’m over characters having daddy issues with how frequent it is but Darius sorta has them (Dad dies directly before the show but he moves forward), so I can let it slide. But Kenji is just the standard privilege lazy rich kid that learns humility, stops being a complete asshole, touch grass, and get actual friends.

However, over the course of the show… He only develops one of those. Can you guess which one it is that’s desperately needed in a survival situation?

If you guessed touch literal grass, you are correct and obtuse. If you guess developed friends, you are correct and no obtuse. Good job superstar- Anyway, through trauma-bonding and stuck on the island for months, they all become BFFs. Yet that doesn’t change him from being an asshole that doesn’t humble himself or touch grass.

He’s meant to be close Darius and be an deuteragonist with Brooklyn but… it just doesn’t work with his character. Fine, your father is a super blackmarket business boss, even having assets on said island or the nearby one. Fine, he left his son to die on that island. Fine, Kenji was probably raised by maids, left with no ambition except for attention starved and approval of his father. Fine. But this isn’t anything new or creative. This is old and literally every scenario of rich kid stereotype getting a reality check.

You know who was this type of character but better? Amity Blight. And yet she’s cute and goofy and loving and develop her own ambitions (winning the tournament like her father). Kenji isn’t and doesn’t. Shit, she doesn’t try to take control or pretend to be a leader when she’s out of her league. Kenji does.

He infuriates me whenever he’s on screen. Yeah, he chills out with the arrogance to an extent as time goes on, but he constantly tries to one up Darius or is portrayed better than him without doing the work. He does rightfully get mad when its either a laptop or his friend (crush), but said laptop contained important info on dinos that should be kept out of the mercenaries grasp. He gets mad at Darius, specifically saying “friends don’t trade friends for things”, as if Darius needed to learn that lesson and everyone else was on board with it. He does this the most with Darius but he acted as if he knew better with Yas when she had her injured foot which keeps her from running and walking. This would be a good way to deepen her character and give us more of her background- nope Kenji is assigned to her to remove rubble to rebuild camp. Oh, he doesn’t do what was asked of him, and forces Yas to rest. Yes, Yas needs to rest but she would feel a lot better if you did your portion of the work or something. But no, you’re lazy and “right” in the scenario.

It doesn’t help that the group is more pro-dino that everyone else and you just go along with it yet act pro-dino. It makes sense why Darius, Sammy, and Ben are super pro dino and actively help them, Yas and Brooklyn just so happen to help out of a indirect reason, while Kenji hangs in the back. Darius loves dinos to begin with and his dad love them to. Sammy is a sweet girl and apart of a family farm with animals. Ben has a pet dino so best way to keep Bumpy safe. Yas? She likes Sammy so cool, but also she’s the one throughout the show that has the least amount of scenes helping dinos I believe, I get it. She’s only there because of a sponsorship for her track career. Brooklyn loves conspiracy theories and discovering the truth, dinos are simply the surface of it and find them cool so will help out. Kenji…. Kenji just goes along with it. Not a single interest and only tie is crime father. You can’t be for dinos while not actually for them. I can excuse Bumpy for being the group pet but outside of that, nothing.

The only progress besides chilling out and the plot with his father coming to the island is Brooklyn becoming his girlfriend. Yet that almost withers away expeditiously because his father is trying to separate him from his friends. Cool manipulation tactic bro but it undermines the relationship building they just got finished with. It’s fine if the relationship doesn’t work in the future, like the sequel series (Kenji tried tho I’ll give him that), but it literally just started at that point. Muhahaha I will sabotage their date so he can hang with me and my investors. Smh. This is why I stick with Sammy & Yas together, only lesbians can get it right.

Oh, and I hate his design, from clothes to body. His shoulders are too broad and look un-proportional to his body. He doesn’t do sports or anything, there’s no reason for them to look pronounced. I think they were trying to go for a jock look yet it wasn’t fitting at all. His clothes are generic for a rich kid and the only “personal touch” are two white lines at where the sleeves start which brings even more attention to how he’s built wrong. Ew.

The more I write, the more I think Kenji was their favorite character that had to have plot relevance about crime dad. It continues in the sequel series as Brooklyn before being presumed dead ended up linking money from his dad to get dino info. They go to the dad to figure out what’s going on, one last manipulation attempt then “oh I cared about you, I’ll sacrifice for you” moment. They get a lead and move on. Kenji then proceeds to get on Darius’ case about how “if you loved her so much why we’re you there”, like what the fuck??? Using that against him when you know he still isn’t over it. Darius sent hundreds of voicemails to her phone after her death as a way to be in denial and connect with her. And you say that shit afterwards, guilt tripping him further???? I, I want him to get fed to those raptors chasing them. Fucking hell.

Sorry if this is incoherent but I need to grip my teeth into paper and tear that shit up into shreds. It gives me the satisfaction that this will be the closest I get to do in real life. 😌 There’s another season to go so please let him get his ass beat and actual humility. 👏🏼

[scbhagat]

Company Incorporation Consultants in Delhi by SC Bhagat & Co.

Starting a new business in Delhi can be a rewarding venture, but it also comes with its own set of legal and administrative challenges. One of the critical steps in building your business is the incorporation process, which requires careful attention to various regulations. This is where professional assistance from SC Bhagat & Co., a leading company incorporation consultant in Delhi, becomes invaluable.

Why Choose Professional Company Incorporation Consultants? Incorporating a company involves several legal procedures, such as:

Selecting the correct business structure Filing the necessary paperwork with regulatory authorities Complying with tax laws Obtaining approvals and licenses The process can be complex and time-consuming for new entrepreneurs. SC Bhagat & Co. helps streamline this procedure, ensuring compliance with all legal requirements while minimizing delays.

Services Offered by SC Bhagat & Co. As one of the top company incorporation consultants in Delhi, SC Bhagat & Co. offers a range of services that cater to startups, small businesses, and large corporations. These include:

Business Structure Advisory Choosing the right business structure is crucial for long-term success. The firm provides guidance on various business entities, including:

Private Limited Company Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) One Person Company (OPC) Public Limited Company SC Bhagat & Co. ensures that you opt for the structure best suited to your business goals and tax advantages.

Registration Services From company name reservation to filing of incorporation documents, SC Bhagat & Co. handles the entire registration process. They assist with:

Drafting Memorandum and Articles of Association (MOA/AOA) Digital signature certificates (DSC) Director Identification Number (DIN) Filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) Their comprehensive approach makes the process seamless and efficient.

Compliance and Taxation Support Once incorporated, companies are required to meet various compliance standards, including:

GST registration and filing Annual financial statements Regulatory audits SC Bhagat & Co. offers ongoing support to ensure your business stays compliant with both state and central laws, thus avoiding penalties and legal hurdles.

Legal Advisory and Licensing Navigating the legal landscape in India can be tricky. SC Bhagat & Co. also provides assistance in obtaining the necessary business licenses and permissions, such as:

Trade license Import-export code (IEC) Professional tax registration Why SC Bhagat & Co. Stands Out With years of experience in the field, SC Bhagat & Co. has become synonymous with trust and expertise in company incorporation consulting in Delhi. Here’s why they stand out:

Expert Team: Their team consists of highly qualified professionals, including chartered accountants and legal experts. Personalized Service: They tailor their services according to the specific needs of your business. Quick Turnaround: Their efficient processes ensure timely incorporation and compliance. Post-Incorporation Support: Even after your company is set up, SC Bhagat & Co. provides continuous support for your legal and financial needs. Conclusion Incorporating a company is a significant step in the journey of entrepreneurship. With the expert guidance of SC Bhagat & Co., you can rest assured that all legal and regulatory requirements will be handled efficiently, allowing you to focus on growing your business. If you're looking for reliable company incorporation consultants in Delhi, SC Bhagat & Co. should be your first choice.

[uktsa]

Elevating Your Bathroom: Expert Guidance from Renovation Traders

Embarking on a bathroom renovation project can be both exhilarating and daunting. Whether you're aiming to amplify your comfort or enhance your home's value, the journey requires meticulous planning and skilled execution. In this endeavor, the guidance of bathroom renovation traders becomes invaluable, offering insights and expertise essential for achieving your desired outcome.

Bathroom renovation traders are seasoned professionals adept at navigating the complexities of transforming mundane spaces into havens of luxury and functionality. Their proficiency spans a spectrum of services, ranging from conceptualization to implementation, ensuring a seamless progression from vision to reality.

At the onset of your renovation journey, engaging with reputable bathroom renovation traders lays the groundwork for success. These experts possess a keen eye for design trends and a deep understanding of spatial dynamics, enabling them to craft bespoke solutions tailored to your preferences and requirements. Collaborating closely with clients, they translate aspirations into actionable plans, integrating innovative concepts with practical considerations.

Central to the expertise of bathroom renovation traders is their proficiency in material selection and procurement. With access to a vast array of high-quality fixtures, fittings, and finishes, they curate elements that harmonize aesthetics with durability, ensuring longevity and visual appeal. Whether it's sourcing eco-friendly alternatives or incorporating cutting-edge technology, their discerning choices contribute to the transformation of ordinary bathrooms into extraordinary sanctuaries.

Execution is where the prowess of bathroom renovation traders truly shines. Armed with technical acumen and meticulous attention to detail, they orchestrate the renovation process with precision and efficiency. From demolition to installation, every phase is meticulously coordinated to minimize disruptions and maximize results. Their skilled craftsmanship and adherence to industry best practices yield outcomes that surpass expectations, elevating the ambiance and functionality of your space.

Beyond their technical expertise, bathroom renovation traders offer invaluable guidance on optimizing spatial layout and functionality. Through strategic planning and innovative solutions, they maximize the utility of available space, overcoming challenges posed by structural constraints or architectural limitations. Whether it involves reconfiguring plumbing or optimizing storage solutions, their ingenuity transforms cramped quarters into spacious retreats, enhancing usability without compromising aesthetics.

In the realm of bathroom renovations, the value of professional guidance cannot be overstated. While DIY endeavors may seem enticing, the intricacies of plumbing, electrical work, and structural modifications necessitate the expertise of seasoned professionals. Bathroom renovation traders bring years of experience and specialized knowledge to the table, mitigating risks and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards.

Moreover, enlisting the services of bathroom renovation traders offers peace of mind, sparing homeowners the stress and uncertainty associated with DIY endeavors. From obtaining necessary permits to overseeing subcontractors, they shoulder the burden of project management, allowing clients to focus on enjoying the transformation unfolding before their eyes.

In conclusion, embarking on a bathroom renovation journey is a significant investment in both lifestyle enhancement and property value. By entrusting the task to seasoned bathroom renovation traders, homeowners gain access to a wealth of expertise and resources essential for achieving their desired outcome. From conceptualization to execution, these professionals orchestrate every aspect of the renovation process with finesse and precision, delivering results that exceed expectations. So, when contemplating your next bathroom renovation project, partner with trusted renovation traders to turn your vision into reality.

[chandandhillon21]

Business Operations Plan

At Chandan House Painting, we are dedicated to delivering high-quality, personalized painting services to both residential and commercial clients in Timmins, Ontario. This operations plan outlines how we manage and grow our business, ensuring excellence at every step.

Business Location and Facilities

Location:

Primary Office: We chose Timmins, Ontario, as our base of operations because it offers a balanced mix of residential neighborhoods and commercial districts. The central accessibility and growing demand for renovation services make it an ideal location for our business.

Facilities:

Office Space: Our office is a small, well-equipped space where we handle administrative tasks, meet with clients, and plan projects.

Storage: We have a secure storage area for our painting materials, supplies, and equipment.

Vehicles: Our company vehicles are essential for transporting materials and equipment to job sites efficiently.

Products and Services

Residential Painting Services:

We offer interior painting (walls, ceilings, trim), exterior painting (siding, fences, decks), and custom finishes and murals.

Commercial Painting Services:

Our services include interior office painting, exterior commercial building painting, and specialized coatings (anti-graffiti, fire-resistant).

Operational Workflow

1. Client Engagement:

Initial Contact: Clients can reach us via phone, email, or our website to inquire about our services.

Consultation: We schedule on-site consultations to assess the project scope, provide recommendations, and offer a detailed estimate.

2. Project Planning:

Quote Preparation: We provide detailed quotes, including project timelines, costs, and materials.

Contract Signing: Once the quote is approved, we prepare and sign a contract outlining the project details and terms.

3. Project Execution:

Preparation: We prepare the site by covering furniture, taping off areas, and performing any necessary surface repairs.

Painting: Our team applies paint using appropriate techniques to ensure quality and consistency.

Inspection: We conduct a thorough inspection with the client to ensure satisfaction with the completed work.

4. Project Completion:

Clean-Up: We clean the job site, removing all equipment and debris.

Final Walkthrough: We perform a final walkthrough with the client to address any concerns and ensure complete satisfaction.

Feedback: We request feedback and reviews from the client to improve our services and build testimonials.

Staffing Plan

Roles and Responsibilities:

Owner/Manager: I oversee overall business operations, manage finances, and ensure customer satisfaction.

Lead Painter: Our lead painter manages painting projects, ensures quality control, and supervises the painting staff.

Painters: Our painters execute painting tasks, maintain equipment, and follow safety protocols.

Administrative Assistant: Handles scheduling, client communication, and office management.

Recruitment and Training:

Hiring: We recruit skilled and experienced painters through job postings, referrals, and local trade schools.

Training: We provide ongoing training on the latest painting techniques, safety procedures, and customer service standards.

Suppliers and Equipment

Suppliers:

We establish relationships with local suppliers for high-quality paints, primers, and materials, such as Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore.

We source our equipment and tools from reputable suppliers to ensure reliability and efficiency.

Equipment:

Our equipment includes brushes, rollers, sprayers, drop cloths, ladders, scaffolding, and safety gear (masks, gloves, goggles).

Marketing and Sales Plan

Marketing Strategies:

Online Presence: We developed a professional website showcasing our services, project portfolio, and customer testimonials. We utilize social media platforms to engage with the community and share project updates.

Local Advertising: We distribute flyers, business cards, and brochures in the local area. We also advertise in local newspapers and community boards.

Referrals and Partnerships: We encourage satisfied clients to refer friends and family. We partner with real estate agents, interior designers, and home improvement stores for mutual referrals.

Sales Strategies:

Promotional Offers: We provide discounts for first-time clients and special offers for referrals.

Customer Loyalty: We implement a loyalty program offering discounts or perks for repeat customers.

Networking: We attend local events, trade shows, and community gatherings to network and promote our business.

Financial Management

Budgeting:

We create a detailed budget outlining projected income and expenses.

We monitor cash flow to ensure sufficient funds for ongoing operations and unexpected costs.

Pricing Strategy:

We set competitive prices based on market research, cost of materials, labor, and desired profit margins.

We offer transparent pricing with detailed quotes to build trust and avoid misunderstandings.

Accounting:

We use accounting software to manage invoices, payments, and financial records.

We hire a professional accountant for tax preparation and financial advice.

Risk Management

Insurance:

We obtain comprehensive business insurance, including liability, property, and workers' compensation.

Regulatory Compliance:

We stay informed about local regulations and ensure all our business practices comply with legal requirements.

We maintain necessary licenses and permits for operating in Timmins, Ontario.

At Chandan House Painting, we are committed to delivering exceptional painting services through careful planning, quality execution, and a strong focus on customer satisfaction. This operations plan provides a roadmap for efficient management and growth, ensuring we meet our goals and exceed client expectations.

[usafphantom2]

Could the United Arab Emirates buy Chinese J-20 fighters?

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 05/27/2024 - 08:48am Military

0

Shares

1.6k

Views

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Although Israeli approval has finally been obtained for the sale of the F-35 to the United Arab Emirates, speculations are arising about a possible Chinese choice by the United Arab Emirates, despite restrictions on the export of the J-20. The head of joint operations of the UAE Armed Forces went to Beijing at the end of April to meet with the commander of the Chinese Air Force, a meeting that symbolizes a rapprochement between the two nations that could suggest a future collaboration in the field of military aviation.

The United Arab Emirates Air Force traditionally has two types of aircraft, so far they are the F-16 sold by the US and the Mirage 2000-9 from Dassault. While the 67 Mirage 2000 jets will be replaced by the 80 standard F4 Rafale of a contract signed in 2021, the issue of the succession of the F-16 remains uncertain.

F-16 Desert Falcon.

In November 2020, the Trump administration approved the sale of 50 F-35 stealth fighters to the Emirates, for an amount of 23 billion dollars. This decision comes after the signing, on August 13, 2020, of a standardization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, followed by the recognition of the Hebrew state by the latter in September. And although the media of the time rejoiced a future regional peace, the desire of the Emirates to acquire the American F-35 stealth fighter will initially compromise the normalization of relations with Israel, which is firmly opposed to the sale of the device to the Emirates, citing the policy of "qualitative military advantage" from which it benefits.

This policy, initiated by the United States in the 1960s, aims to ensure that Israel has the most advanced military means to maintain its regional superiority, so the sale was frozen by the Biden administration in 2021. Several reasons for this: Israel in the first place, but also the conditions imposed by Washington on human rights records and, finally, China, whose approach to the Emirates is viewed unfavorably by Washington. The United States is particularly concerned about the fact that China uses Huawei's 5G technology to spy on the capabilities of the F-35, while the Emirates refused to terminate the contract with the technology giant. Last but not least, the UAE are co-financing the development of the Russian Su-75 Checkmate fighter, derived from Su-57.

Despite the abundance of petrodollars, the Emirates are struggling to reach the F-35 and, in turn, have threatened to cancel the contract. Pushed into the arms of other potential military suppliers, the Emirates' option for the J-20 then seems plausible.

Emirates/China Approach

Economically, the United Arab Emirates is the largest export market of the United States in the Middle East and North Africa. More than 1,000 American companies operate in the country and many others use it as a regional headquarters to conduct business throughout the Middle East, North Africa region and parts of Asia. The fact that the Emirates are approaching China is therefore not anecdotal. As The Hill reported last year, “the fabric of America's strategic ties with the Gulf region is tearing apart,” and it seems that the situation is only getting worse. If China is the largest non-oil trading partner of the United Arab Emirates worldwide, it is in the military domain that relations are evolving the most.

In 2021, American intelligence services discovered the existence of a Chinese military facility in a port in the United Arab Emirates. The Emirates agreed to end the project at the request of the United States, but construction would have resumed at the end of 2022. The Emirates also participated in the joint exercise "Falcon Shield 2023", with its F-16 block 60 and Mirage 2000-9 aircraft, offering several opportunities for China to learn about Western equipment.

The recent meeting between General Saleh Mohammed bin Majren Al Ameri and Lieutenant General Chang Dingqiu of the Chinese Air Force illustrates this rapprochement between the two countries. Interestingly, the photos shared by the Ministry of Defense of the United Arab Emirates after the visit to China show a painting with two J-20 Mighty Dragon fighters, the real stars of this meeting.

J-20: an export candidate?

The recent acquisition by the United Arab Emirates of the Chinese Hongdu L-15A Falcon jet coaches and speculations around the potential interest in the Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter will go in the direction of rapprochement between the Emirates and China, especially since the UAE has renounced any partnership with Russia in the field of aviation after the poor performance of Moscow fighters in Ukraine.

Chinese L-15.

The obstacles encountered in the acquisition of American F-35 fighters, despite the close ties between the two countries, led the Emirates to seriously consider other alternatives, including the Chinese J-20. Ironic when we know that the United States accuses China of having manufactured the J-20 using American technologies, acquired through espionage.

J-20 Mighty Dragon jets.

At the moment, it is still too early to say whether the United Arab Emirates will end up acquiring the J-20 from China, given that this type of aircraft would be difficult to integrate with other means within its military power and that China does not seem to have the ambition to export it (favoring the FC-31). In addition, negotiations with China could also be a way for the Emirates to put pressure on the United States, due to the blocked F-35 agreement. For now, the sale agreement remains viable according to Daniel Mouton, a former employee of the United States National Security Council.

J-35 jet, or FC-31, offered for export by China.

However, considering the regional crisis and other geopolitical reasons, the Arab countries represent a good market opportunity for China, which already maintains friendly relations with many of them and intends to become the main supplier of combat aircraft and drones in the Middle East. Unless the U.S. allows an increase in UAE power as a frontline army in the face of the Iranian regional threat, a threat shared by all states in the region, whether or not they recognize the State of Iran.

Source: Air & Cosmos

Tags: Military AviationChengdu J-20 'Mighty Dragon'F-35 Lightning IIUAEAF - United Arab Emirates Air Force/United Arab Emirates Air Force

Sharing

tweet

Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

Related news

HELICOPTERS

IMAGES: Italian Air Force presents special commemorative painting in helicopter HH-139B

26/05/2024 - 17:03

MILITARY

VIDEO: Swedish Gripens practice landings on highways

26/05/2024 - 13:56

AERONAUTICAL ACCIDENTS

RAF pilot dies after accident with Spitfire of World War II in England

26/05/2024 - 11:43

BRAZILIAN AIR FORCE

Trailer with drones for mapping affected areas in RS is transported by FAB

26/05/2024 - 11:19

MILITARY

VIDEO: Chinese military jets in the crosshairs of Taiwan's F-16

25/05/2024 - 23:30

MILITARY

First Ukrainian pilots complete training in F-16 fighters in the US

25/05/2024 - 17:25

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The President of McDonald's USA threw shade at California lawmakers for passing a fast-food law that he said would make it "all but impossible to run small business restaurants" in the state, Joe Erlinger said in a January 25 open letter.

AB 257, dubbed the FAST Act, signed into law last year, could raise hourly restaurant wages to $22 an hour in the state. The open letter was published after the state approved a referendum backed by fast-food chains that would put the law up for a vote in November 2024. The law was previously set to be enforced on January 1. But until the vote, state officials can't implement the law.

A majority of McDonald's, nearly 14,000 restaurants in the US, are run by franchisees, with hundreds of stores operating in California. The open letter was titled, "California keeps looking for ways to raise prices, drive away more businesses and destroy growth through bad policy and bad politics."

In the letter, Erlanger noted that the company wasn't against increasing the minimum wage. "Let me be clear: we support legislation that leads to meaningful improvements in our communities, including responsible increases to the minimum wage. Our business does well when our employees and our communities do well," he said.

"Whether you're a lawmaker, a business owner or leader, or an everyday voter, one thing is clear: California has become a dramatic case study of putting bad politics over good policy," Erlinger said. According to financial disclosures, Erlinger made about $7.4 million in salary, stock options, and other compensation from McDonald's in 2021, the latest year complete compensation history is available.

A coalition of restaurant industry organizations led by McDonald's, Chipotle, and In-N-Out supported the referendum.

Restaurant analyst John Gordon, a consultant for many McDonald's franchisees, said he's not surprised by Erlinger's remarks, which seem to be setting the stage for a battle leading up to the November 2024 vote, he said. 2024 is a presidential election year, and turnout is expected to be high.

McDonald's taking a public stance on anti-business legislation, he said.

Supporters of the union-backed FAST Act, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on Labor Day, say the law would improve working conditions for thousands of fast-food workers in the state.

AB 257 creates a 10-member council of fast food workers, franchisees, franchisors, advocates for fast food employees, and representatives from the governor's office. The council will establish minimum standards on wages, working hours, and other working conditions related to the health and safety of workers. The law applies to food chains with more than 100 locations, including Starbucks, Wendy's, Burger King, and McDonald's.

The industry's trade organization, National Restaurant Association, said the law would hurt small business owners, including fast food franchisees who own one or two restaurants. The organization said higher wage mandates could raise costs for California fast-food restaurants by $3 billion.

Another main sticking point for the restaurant industry – state officials, including Newsom, would appoint members of the 10-person council.

"The state is teaching us a powerful lesson about what our future could look like if this one-sided style of democracy is mimicked elsewhere or goes unchecked in the Golden State," said Erlinger, a native of California. "There are big, important issues that need the attention of lawmakers. Implementing costly and job-destroying legislation like AB257 is not the answer."

Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, said chains like McDonald's, Chipotle, and Starbucks, who backed the referendum, "think they can buy their way out of anything."

Fast-food workers across California said they plan to strike Thursday and Friday to protest chain support of the referendum to overturn the FAST Act.

"California voters are about to teach them an expensive lesson: no corporation is more powerful than half a million workers joining together to demand a seat at the table," Henry said in response to the referendum. "As California fast-food workers defend this landmark law and assert their voice, SEIU is absolutely committed to standing with them in their fight."

[mariacallous]

Buoyed by a wave of buying from overseas, including the stamp of approval from legendary investor Warren Buffett, Japan’s economic outlook is brightening, deflationary concerns are dissipating, and the stock market is on a climb that could take it above its all-time record highs. It only took 33 years.

On Dec. 30, 1989, Japan’s premier market index, the Nikkei 225, closed at 38,915.87, capping a year that saw a 29 percent rise and an amazing 15-year climb that helped to put Japan at the center of the global economic map. But in 1990, it fell 39 percent, marking what is now known as the end of the so-called bubble economy. The sharp fall that year was far from the end. Despite numerous attempted rallies over the years, the market was on a long and seemingly inexorable fall, hitting just 7,054.98 points in March 2009. Over 20 years, the market had fallen 82 percent.

The latest rally shows how far the market has come back, with valuations now up more than 370 percent from the 2009 nadir. And it may have a long way to go yet. While Tokyo, as of mid-June, remains 13 percent below its 1990 high-water mark, in the same time period the FTSE 100 in London has risen 213 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has soared 1,146 percent. No wonder investors are now seeing opportunity in Japan, since just catching up to the rest of the world would represent potentially large gains.

One of the main drivers in the market’s climb is a surge in inflation that started with the shortages and higher commodity prices of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the higher external costs have been a headache for all major economies, in Japan they quickly produced what a decade of monetary easing had failed to achieve: demand-driven inflation where wages and prices both rise. After nearly three decades of deflationary price pressures, Japan’s inflation rate has quickly climbed from near-zero levels to 4 percent. While that is still subdued by global standards, it is still the highest since September 1981. “A cycle between inflation and wages is finally emerging in Japan. I think this is a structural change in the economy,” said Kentaro Koyama, Japan chief economist for Deutsche Bank.

This is exactly what former Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda vowed to create when he took office in 2013. He quickly undertook a bond and equity buying spree that left the central bank holding 50 percent of all the Japanese government bonds in circulation and becoming a major holder of stocks. The target he set was a consistent 2 percent inflation rate that would be seen in both prices and wages. After 10 years in office, making him the longest-serving Bank of Japan governor in history, but with little sign of numbers moving, his goal finally came into sight just as he stepped down earlier this year.

Even Japan’s stingy employers, which have offered near-guaranteed job security but little extra cash over the years, are now pushing up wages at their highest level in 30 years. Japan’s Trade Union Confederation this spring won a 3.8 percent increase for its nearly 7 million members. Medium- and small-sized businesses are now seeing that they need to keep up to avoid losing people.

Another attraction is the health of Japan’s corporate sector. While the global dominance of companies such as Sony, Panasonic, Japan Steel Works, and Toshiba is long gone, major corporations have remained highly profitable, finding specialist areas that offer strong profit margins. Instead of producing the electronic goods or even the computer chips that drive them, Japanese companies have done well in a globalized economy with specialist products, ranging from the chemicals needed to make the chips to the industry-leading motion sensors needed for a robotic work floor.

But experienced Japan watchers might feel a twinge of disquiet. Ever since the mid-1990s, when it became clear there were serious structural issues in the economy, there have been a series of “Japan is back” declarations, with the fizzling of initial rosy forecasts giving way to declarations that “this time is different.” Stock market rallies in 1996, 2000, and 2007 all gave way to renewed bear markets. Promises that corporate Japan had now changed and was serious about rewarding shareholders instead of hoarding cash also seemed to be more talk than action. Retained earnings have risen steadily, reaching 242 trillion yen ($2.2 trillion) in 2020.

But even some veterans who have seen it all before are much more optimistic today. “Japan is back,” said Tokyo strategist Nicholas Smith of the Asian financial services firm CLSA. In a report to clients in May, he said that strong earnings and attractive valuations have now been kickstarted by a new drive coming from regulators and the Tokyo Stock Exchange to push up share prices through stock buybacks. This cooperation is coming together in a way he has not seen in 35 years of watching the Japan market. “Japan’s market is still very much more than just cheap. It has growth when others haven’t, due to belated reopening; it’s awash with cash, driving some eyepopping buybacks,” he said in the report.

Helping this along, Smith said, is the involvement of once-shunned activist investors. His data shows that Japan is now the No. 2 market for activists in the world, after the United States. When the firms, including major international names, first saw opportunities in Japan in the early 2000s, they were often derided as hagetaka, the Japanese word for vultures. But after some high-profile agreements with corporate titans such as Toshiba and Olympus, the mood has changed. Well-known names such as the Carlyle Group and Bain Capital are active in Japan, along with some home-grown Japanese firms that often work from offshore.

The other big recovery has been in real estate values, which had plunged at the same rate as stocks in the 1990 collapse. Foreign investment is pouring into the sector as investors look at prices little-changed over the past 30 years, made even cheaper by a weaker Japanese yen, which has fallen 20 percent over the past two years. According to the Numbeo international cost-tracking website, apartment purchase prices in Tokyo are around half the price of the equivalent space in New York.

As depressingly often with economic developments, the boom has left one group out of the party: the average Japanese person, especially the estimated 88 percent who do not own shares. And while wages are rising, the gains are being outstripped by inflation.

“The current situation is a very good tailwind for risk assets. Real estate valuations are being helped by low interest rates. But will it help the average Japanese person? To be honest, I don’t think so,” said Deutsche’s Koyama.

He cites government data showing that even as wages are rising, inflation is one step ahead. According to the Labor Ministry, Japan’s inflation-adjusted real wage index fell 3 percent in April from a year earlier, the 13th consecutive month of declines.

Part of the problem, he said, is that wages are raised only annually, in many cases through the spring labor negotiation season, while prices rise continuously.

Unless, of course, people change jobs, an idea that is alien to traditional Japanese workers. But with Japan’s labor force now shrinking and demand for employees rising, the younger generation has taken to job hopping, which can easily add 10-20 percent to salaries.

The demand is clearly there, with 1.3 jobs for every job seeker, according to the Labor Ministry. (For those in construction, there are nearly 12 jobs per person.) The problem is that with one of the world’s fastest-shrinking populations, Japan is starting to face critical labor shortages, and the problem is expected to worsen.

This could undermine another potential area of growth for Japan from the new drive for economic security and the decoupling from China, which is now more politely called de-risking. While investment flows are typically slower to change than trade due to the long lead times involved, foreign investment into China was down 7 percent, at $76.7 billion, in the second half of 2022.

“The simple story of foreign business retreating from China is overdone and often just wrong. But neither is there a stampede back to China now that the mood music has become more positive,” Andrew Cainey, a senior associate fellow with the Royal United Services Institute in London, said in a commentary for Japan’s Nikkei.

With companies now increasingly nervous about their prospects in China, Japan is burnishing its credentials as a rule-of-law country that also offers solid infrastructure, a good lifestyle, and surprisingly low costs. Tokyo, which was for decades was ranked the most expensive place for foreigners, now scrapes in at No. 19, according to the latest Mercer ranking of cities by cost of living.

It’s not that costs have come down significantly; instead, they have gone up everywhere else. Japan’s newfound status as a low-cost destination is the natural result of 30 years of near-zero inflation. The longer-term problem is how to find the people to fill the jobs needed for any new boom period. But for now, foreign investors seem unconcerned. The bargains are just too good to pass up.