Tumgik
#500 global company
The “enormously powerful Atlas Network, a global network of more than 500 member think tanks advocating for “free market” policies.”
Started by Antony Fisher and his Institute of Economic Affairs in the UK. It went worldwide with assistance from the Koch family and Rupert Murdoch, along with funding from big oil companies.
☝️👏🤯
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afeelgoodblog · 11 months
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The Best News of Last Week
⚡ - Charging Towards a More Electrifying Future
1. The Kissimmee River has been brought back to life—and wildlife is thriving
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The Kissimmee River in Florida was straightened in the 1960s, causing a sharp decline in wildlife and ecological problems. But in the 1990s, a $1 billion restoration project was initiated to restore the river's natural state.
Today, nearly half of the river has been restored, wetlands have been reestablished and rehydrated, and wildlife has returned, including rare and threatened species. Already the biological impact of the project has become clear. As the wetlands have come back, so have the birds.
2. Plastic wrap made from seaweed withstands heat and is compostable
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A cling film made from an invasive seaweed can withstand high temperatures yet is still easily compostable. The material could eventually become a sustainable choice for food packaging.
Scientists started with a brown seaweed called sargassum. Sargassum contains long, chain-like molecules similar to those that make up conventional plastic, which made it a good raw material. The researchers mixed it with some acids and salts to get a solution full of these molecules, then blended in chemicals that thickened it and made it more flexible and pliable.
3. An Eagle Who Adopted a Rock Becomes a Real Dad to Orphaned Eaglet
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Murphy, a bald eagle that had been showing fatherly instincts, has been sharing an enclosure with an eaglet that survived a fall from a tree during a storm in Ste. Genevieve. Murphy, his rock gone by then, took his role as foster parent seriously. He soon began responding to the chick’s peeps, and protecting it.
And when, as a test, the keepers placed two plates of food in front of the birds — one containing food cut into pieces that the chick could eat by itself, and another with a whole fish that only Murphy could handle — the older bird tore up the fish and fed it to the eaglet.
4. World's largest battery maker announces major breakthrough in energy density
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In one of the most significant battery breakthroughs in recent years, the world’s largest battery manufacturer CATL has announced a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg which it says will go into mass production this year.
“The launch of condensed batteries will usher in an era of universal electrification of sea, land and air transportation, open up more possibilities of the development of the industry, and promote the achieving of the global carbon neutrality goals at an earlier date,” the company said in a presentation at Auto Shanghai on Thursday.
This could be huge. Electric jets and cargo ships become very possible at this point.
5. Cat with '100% fatal' feline coronavirus saved by human Covid-19 medicine
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A beloved household cat has made an “astonishing” recovery from a usually fatal illness, thanks to a drug made to treat Covid-19 in humans – and a quick-thinking vet.
Anya​, the 7-year-old birman cat, was suffering from feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a “100% fatal” viral infection caused by feline coronavirus. That was, until Auckland vet Dr Habin Choi​ intervened, giving Anya an antiviral used to treat Covid-19 called molnupiravir.
6. Kelp forests capture nearly 5 million tonnes of CO2 annually
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Kelp forests provide an estimated value of $500 billion to the world and capture 4.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from seawater each year. Most of kelp’s economic benefits come from creating habitat for fish and by sequestering nitrogen and phosphorus.
7. Medical Marijuana Improved Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms in 87% of Patients
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Medical cannabis (MC) has recently garnered interest as a potential treatment for neurologic diseases, including Parkinson's disease (PD). 87% of patients were noted to exhibit an improvement in any PD symptom after starting medical cannabis. Symptoms with the highest incidence of improvement included cramping/dystonia, pain, spasticity, lack of appetite, dyskinesia, and tremor.
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That's it for this week :)
This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation:
Buy me a coffee ❤️
Also don’t forget to reblog
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batfambyval · 5 months
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Okay here’s the thing I’m really annoyed about concerning Tim Drake:
He didn’t remain CEO in more than name. He let Lucius take care of everything he just used the position to create his Neon Knights initiative. He isn’t running WE. He is however running NK. He’s traveling around the world setting up NK locations in cities with lots of at risk youth. He’s not running a Fortune 500 company he’s running a non-profit charity organization dedicated to protecting kids and getting more people on a stable path earlier in life. He isn’t out here dealing with rich, white, assholes so he can make money for himself! He’s doing it to better the world, he’s doing it for education and a safe environment for kids around the world! And he is facing a lot of resistance from the rest of the rich and powerful. He is endearing himself to no one in the business world because his ultimate goal is to dethrone them all by fixing the wage gap. He wants people to have choices so the rich and powerful can’t exploit them as easily.
Tim Drake is not a business man. He has the skills, the ruthlessness and the determination but not the desire. He uses his status and money to help people in need. And it’s a more realistic way of helping the world. You can’t just throw money at problems and expect them to go away. Donating money doesn’t help nearly as much as using money to create systems that help people get the skills and opportunities they need. It takes dedicated work and meticulous oversight and it’s not something that can be done casually. It’s a commitment, not a hobby. The world is to fucked up for any easy fixes. But Neon Knights is a great idea, a long term solution if done correctly. I’ve always thought that fixing education and making sure everyone has equal opportunity from a young age would fix a lot of the issues in the world. More educated people making smarter decisions, more diversity because everyone’s success in entirely merit based. Anyway I’m getting off track. Point is, Tim isn’t some business man with charitable contributions here and there. He’s dedicated his civilian life to the long term benefit of society. He’s not a slacker or a full time vigilante. He’s out there building an entirely new system, a global network of people and locations dedicated solely to helping kids have better futures.
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$100 billion later, autonomous vehicles are still a car-wreck
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Autonomous vehicles were always a shell-game. The last time I wrote about them was a year ago, when Uber declared massive losses. Uber’s profitability story was always, “Sure, we’re losing money now, but once we create self-driving cars, we can fire our drivers and make a bundle.”
https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/30/death-to-all-monopoly/#pogo-stick-problem
But Uber never came close to building an AV. After blowing $2.5b, the company invented a car whose mean-distance-to-fatal-crash was half a mile. Uber had to pay another company — $400 million! — to take the self-driving unit off its hands.
It’s tempting to say that Uber just deluded itself into thinking that AVs were a viable, near-term technology. But $2.5b was a bargain, because it allowed the company’s original investors (notably the Saudi royals) to offload their Uber shares on credulous suckers when the company IPOed.
Likewise Tesla, a company that has promised fully self-driving autonomous vehicles “within two years” for more than a decade. The story that Teslas will someday drive themselves is key to attracting retail investors to the company.
Tesla’s overvaluation isn’t solely a product of the cult of personality around Musk, nor is it just that its investors can’t read a balance-sheet and so miss the fact that the company is reliant upon selling the carbon-credits that allow gas-guzzling SUVs to fill America’s streets.
Key to Tesla’s claims to eventual profitability was that AVs would overcome geometry itself, and end the Red Queen’s Race whereby adding more cars to the road means you need more roads, which means everything gets farther apart, which means you need more cars — lather, rinse, repeat.
Geometry hates cars, but Elon Musk hates public transit (he says you might end up seated next to “a serial killer”). So Musk spun this story where tightly orchestrated AVs would best geometry and create big cities served speedy, individualized private vehicles. You could even make passive income from your Tesla, turning it over to drive strangers (including, presumably, serial killers?) around as a taxicab.
But Teslas are no closer to full self-driving than Ubers. In fact, no one has come close to making an AV. In a characteristically brilliant and scorching article for Bloomberg, Max Chafkin takes stock of the failed AV project:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-10-06/even-after-100-billion-self-driving-cars-are-going-nowhere
Chafkin calculates that the global R&D budget for AVs has now exceeded $100 billion, and demonstrates that we have next to nothing to show for it, and that whatever you think you know about AV success is just spin, hype and bullshit.
Take the much-vaunted terribleness of human drivers, which the AV industry likes to tout. It’s true that the other dumdums on the road cutting you off and changing lanes without their turn-signals are pretty bad drivers, but actual, professional drivers are amazing. The average school-bus driver clocks up 500 million miles without a fatal crash (but of course, bus drivers are part of the public transit system).
Even dopes like you and me are better than you may think — while cars do kill the shit out of Americans, it’s because Americans drive so goddamned much. US traffic deaths are a mere one per 100 million miles driven, and most of those deaths are due to recklessness, not inability. Drunks, speeders, texters and sleepy drivers cause traffic fatalities — they may be skilled drivers, but they are also reckless.
But even the most reckless driver is safer than a driverless car, which “lasts a few seconds before crapping out.” The best robot drivers are Waymos, which mostly operate in the sunbelt, “because they still can’t handle weather patterns trickier than Partly Cloudy.”
Waymo claims to have driven 20m miles — that is, 4% of the distance we’d expect a human school-bus driver to go before having a fatal wreck. Tesla, meanwhile, has stopped even reporting how many miles its autopilot has mananged on public roads. The last time it disclosed, in 2019, the total was zero.
Using “deep learning” to solve the problems of self-driving cars is a dead-end. As NYU psych prof Gary Marcus told Chafkin, “deep learning is something similar to memorization…It only works if the situations are sufficiently akin.”
Which is why self-driving cars are so useless when they come up against something unexpected — human drivers weaving through traffic, cyclists, an eagle, a drone, a low-flying plane, a deer, even some pigeons on the road.
Self-driving car huxters call this “the pogo-stick problem” — as in “you never can tell when someone will try to cross the road on a pogo-stick.” They propose coming up with strict rules for humans to make life easier for robots.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/3/17530232/self-driving-ai-winter-full-autonomy-waymo-tesla-uber
But as stupid as this is, it’s even stupider than it appears at first blush. It’s not that AVs are confused by pogo sticks — they’re confused by shadowsand clouds and squirrels. They’re confused by left turns that are a little different than the last left turn they tried.
If you’ve been thinking that AVs were right around the corner, don’t feel too foolish. The AV companies have certainly acted like they believed their own bullshit. Chafkin reminds us of the high-stakes litigation when AV engineer Anthony Levandowski left Google for Uber and was sued for stealing trade secrets.
The result was millions in fines (Levandowski declared bankruptcy) and even a prison sentence for Levandowski (Trump pardoned him, seemingly at the behest of Peter Thiel and other Trumpist tech cronies). Why would companies go to all that trouble if they weren’t serious about their own claims?
It’s possible that they are, but that doesn’t mean we have to take those claims at face-value ourselves. Companies often get high on their own supplies. The litigation over Levandowski can be thought of as a species of criti-hype, Lee Vinsel’s extraordinarily useful term for criticism that serves to bolster the claims of its target:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/02/euthanize-rentiers/#dont-believe-the-hype
Another example of criti-hype: the claims about the risks of ubiquitous drone delivery — which, like AVs, is half-bullshit, half self-delusion:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/05/comprehensive-sex-ed/#droned
Today, Levandowski has scaled back his plans to build autonomous vehicles. Instead, he’s built autonomous dump-trucks that never leave a literal sandbox, and trundle back and forth on the same road all day, moving rocks from a pit to a crusher.
$100 billion later, that’s what the AV market has produced.
Image:
Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg
CC BY 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
Gartner (modified): https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/gartner-hype-cycle
[Image ID: A chart illustrating the Gartner hype-cycle; racing down the slope from the 'peak of inflated expectations' to the 'trough of disillusionment' is the staring eye of HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, chased by speed-lines.]
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sgiandubh · 6 months
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When clueless, silence is golden
I was just browsing around while looking for something completely different and stumbled upon this quintessential Mordorian POV:
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Disclosing a username is crass and I usually never do this, unless really necessary and relevant. So spare me the ad hominem argument you usually fumble around with, Disgruntled Tumblrettes. Yet, for all its intellectual paucity, this is interesting dissection material, since clearly this person hasn't got the slightest idea of what she is so confidently talking about.
First scenario at play: The Tasting Alliance, 'a company no one has ever heard of', booked and paid for the suite.
Not necessarily booked, nor necessarily paid, madam. In the real business world you are so clueless about, these arrangements are seldom - if ever - monetized. It's rather all about barter.
That company no one ever heard about - except, perhaps, #silly and totally irrelevant Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/joemicallef/2023/04/13/the-tasting-alliance-and-reserve-bar-are-set-to-launch-top-shelf/?sh=b45f7085f6f1) - is the parent company of the San Francisco World Spirits Competition (SFWSC), largely acknowledged as at least one of, if not the world's leading spirits award contest. Google is your friend, you should try it some time:
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The operative info here is that this evaluation comes from the Beverage Trade Network, a professional portal for spirit dealers. Having determined this, Tasting Alliance's IG number of followers is completely irrelevant, since we are talking about two very different targets, here. Its real leverage and weight on the global market does not really need the boost of an aggressive social media presence and the kind of events it hosts are not your favorite junior hockey league or elementary school cake and bake sale.
Let's look a bit further. It takes one click to get on the Tasting Alliance's website (https://thetastingalliance.com/). Granted, not all the information you need to understand its business model is right there and I had to go dig a bit (not without some help - merci encore!) to even get a grip on how these wheels are really turning.
The way they sell themselves is sober and confident. And completely disinterested in social media impact, to be honest:
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So, in lieu of glitz and sequined bras, we have a success story in its own right, which started in Frisco in 1980, then continued in 2000, with the addition of the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Further expansion followed in 2018, with the New York World Wine & Spirits Competition and 2019, when Dias Blue set a firm foot on the emerging Asian market, with the Singapore World Spirits Competition.
I doubt an explanatory drawing is needed as to the why of this expansion choice: it's all about baijiu, the old/new Chinese sorghum spirit and the everlasting love of the Far East for anything fermented. Lao-lao, the unspeakable Laotian homemade rice whisky, comes immediately to the mind of this blogger: the last bottle I saw, somewhere along the unexploded ordnance ridden Route 13, had a plump snake inside, as a naïve Viagra of sorts. Took a mouthful and thought I was going to die - but when spending the night in a longhouse with the Tai Lü people, you can't afford a faux-pas, can you? /end of travel memories intermezzo
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By all my estimations, The Tasting Alliance is very profitable business. Let's unpack ( for current fees, see source: https://callingallcontestants.com/contest/2023-san-francisco-world-spirits-competition/):
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Considering the 500 USD fee /entry (550, in 2023) in the competition and the fact that in 2022 there were approximately 5000 entries in the Frisco spirits' competition, we have a very rough turnover estimation of 500x5000= 2.5 million USD. That figure is just for one of the spirits competitions, mind you, and does not take into account what the winners probably pay for the right to mention their medals on their bottles (I am yet to see them on the SS gin bottles, btw), nor the multiple sidekick profit (e-shop sales, consulting and/or other distribution deals, etc). So, at the end of the day, I would comfortably multiply that base by 4, assuming a similar scale for all the other events they organize, which takes the yearly turnover at around 10 million USD and keeping in mind this is very probably a conservative estimation. I also assume costs are negligible, taking into account the discretion with which major players traditionally operate on that particular niche. Real expenses are probably limited to the activity of a handful of offices, sparingly and intelligently staffed. Advertisement is probably bartered and social media, well... you just saw the effort, haven't you?
But then there's the brand's real power on that market and this is the right time to talk about influence and impact. Perhaps this recent (2021) Men's Journal article will help us see better: https://www.mensjournal.com/food-drink/inside-the-san-francisco-world-spirits-competition
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With a bit of luck, this could happen:
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Sounds familiar? Of course and I bet that was S's strategy. If you imagined him doing the same exhausting booze tour every year (groping on top and seriously cringe on the sides), I think you might want to reconsider. I told you Sassenach Summer was a sandbox for more serious things to come and until now I have no reasons to change my mind. He did it for a reason and, mind you, that reason is not that the booze did or does not sell. It does. Restaurants start to feature it. Podcasts are being produced. The press starts to mention it (that recent New York Times article is evidence enough). This is not Lucky Luciano dealing in bootleg alcohol during the Prohibition and making obscene money over a fortnight. This is a serious business project that was delayed by COVID. That's all. And it takes time and patience and consistence. We know he has all those aplenty.
We also have the totally inane take on production costs for that podcast. It suddenly made me remember again my media expert past. It is with complete and educated confidence that I tell you: a potential 5K USD extra cost for renting that damn suite for the day is peanuts, even for a two-minute clip (let alone, in reality, a podcast interview, and I stand corrected if wrong), if such costs are covered by The Tasting Alliance. But my money is on a barter with The Shutters on the Beach, which would be, again, common business practice.
Second scenario: 'Shutters comped the room for free promo (...) for an actor most people haven't heard of.' You can throw timelines down my throat as many times as you wish and tell me he already stayed there several times and yell and screech, but here is what I think. Shutters didn't comp that suite for S, an actor most people haven't heard of, a decent, hard working start-up entrepreneur. If so (I doubt it), it would be logical to think Shutters comped that suite for The Tasting Alliance, which has a long documented history of partnerships with hotels that host their competitions:
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So Shutters might have comped that room for a major player of the alcohol lobby world, happy that S, a returning client, picked them out of several possible options, because it was convenient. I don't believe for a second he stayed there.
This guy knows what he's doing and C's gin success completely depends and I bet will rely on that relentless networking effort. If anything, the Keepers of the Quaich recent development is only confirmation of all the above. But that's another story - very soon on this page.
IYKYK. The rest is uneducated cackle. But Mordor people were never the brightest bulbs in the fandom's chandelier, were they?
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naturalrights-retard · 5 months
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Tyson Foods Inc. TSN, +1.83% said Tuesday it is planning to acquire a minority stake in Protix, a Dutch company that’s a leader in insect ingredients, as it works on more sustainable protein production. Tyson did not disclose terms, but said it plans to fund Protix’s global expansion. The two have also entered a joint venture that will create and operate an insect ingredient facility in the continental U.S. “Upon completion, it will be the first at-scale facility of its kind to upcycle food manufacturing byproducts into high-quality insect proteins and lipids which will primarily be used in the pet food, aquaculture, and livestock industries,” Tyson said in a statement. Tyson’s stock is down 24% in the year t to date, while the S&P 500 SPX, +1.06% has gained 14%.
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jmdbjk · 1 year
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Man at work.
 Apparently working more than we thought he was...
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Kookie bought a pack of 500 straws so he could exercise his vocal chords because he saw Sam Smith do it. But alas, he didn’t think it was working for him. Nevertheless! they won’t go to waste! because he can slurp down his highball much faster using a straw...
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This cute goofball is the global spokesperson for Calvin Klein jeans... he mentioned that the Calvin Klein video was up and he acted bashful about it. He did say when doing these types of endorsements as a group is one thing, but doing them personally on his own, the product must be something he personally endorses. And he also said he will be embarrassed when people speak to him about his ad images. Perception vs reality. 
He tells us he’s cleaned out his closet recently and only kept all his black clothes, but now he says he will wear Calvins now. One thing to look forward to... Calvin Klein clothing silhouettes are typically cut close to the body. Meaning they are not the oversized baggy things that we normally see on JK. Just sayin’! Bring on the airport fashion! 
He asks to please show Calvin Klein a lot of support. Check! Marked off the list! I believe that company is scrambling to actually have any merchandise in stock this week, right? They weren’t prepared. Mission accomplished, JK. 
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For a few moments he thought he spoiled Jimin’s episode of Suchwita because he couldn’t find it on Youtube. Sus, Youtube. 
Aside from the adorable heart eyes he had and the knowing grins and outright laughter while he watched, Jungkook nodded when Jimin said if he could go to any point in time, past or future, he would choose 2025 when they would all be together again. Kookie nodded vigorously again and let out a deep, wistful sigh while watching that brief segment. Was he getting a little lump in his throat too, just like I was?
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Yoongi then says “we all have an idea of what things will be like when we come back” and Jimin agrees and when Yoongi asks Jimin what he thinks it will be like, Jimin says “we’d all be back together after we’re done.” I am assuming he means military service, and that he is curious to know how it will be and that’s why he wants to go to that point in time. 
Jimin, we all want to fast forward to that time. None of us want you all to have to take this mandatory break and we all want it to be over with as soon as possible. 
When it was over, Kookie fixed himself a fresh drink, took a potty break and then sat wordlessly on the couch for at least 15 minutes listening to music and pondering the universe (it seemed). Songs he queued up: “12:45″ by Etham; “thoughtboutu” by Karencici; “Another Day” by Gervs; “Adrenaline” by Lauv; “Where Does the Love Go” by by María Isabel and Yeek and “Honeymoon” by Johnny Stimson.
He sweetly sang along to “Honeymoon.” That song has a similar vibe to “10,000 Hours” and I wish to god Kookie would create a song with that ambience because it would become one of those all time greatest hits.
JK read a few comments (FINALLY?) he randomly says he was wanting to look up Jimin’s lyrics...? Jungkook and his never-ending fight with his Apple TV commands ensues. And he finally finds what he’s looking for... the BigHit intro.
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He proceeded to fanboi during Set Me Free Pt 2 even being a tad slack-jawed and droolly when the 2nd verse started and Jimin’s cheat sheet tattoos were on full display, JUST LIKE US! 
Done satisfying his need to know the lyric was “maze” and watching the entire video anyway, he quickly found a Jimin compilation video. Are you shitting me? 
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Now, we all know how insidious the Youtube algorithm is. If you watch ONE video of any genre/topic... what happens? YT serves up several more from the same creator or same topic or genre. Watch a reaction video? Then a dozen videos by various Youtube reactors will be summoned. Watch a Korean street food video? Then you will see a dozen videos about Korean street food. FACTS!
Every time you go to Youtube after that it’s like trying to get rid of cockroaches. You spend some time hitting the “not interested/don’t show me this shit ever again” option or else that will be all you ever see forever and ever amen. 
So my point is, that Jimin compilation video was not random. Youtube isn’t a random platform, it is very articulated to deliver cocaine in video form straight to your brain in order to get you addicted so you keep coming back. 
Anyway. Kookie again was like a kid watching cartoons and Army comments were totally forgotten while he watched this fan made video. 
The evening full of Jimin, laughing at a fan made compilation video and a song that was playing called, “up at night”, by Kehlani featuring Justin Bieber, stirred something inside him and the lightning bolt of inspiration hit him and that was it. Game over for the live broadcast.
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I’m glad he’s working. I’m glad he’s doing well. He’s still our Kookie and he still loves his Jiminie and the rest of his hyungs. 
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argumate · 2 months
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Most companies have largely moved on from the metaverse. The word was uttered just twice on earnings calls at S&P 500 businesses last quarter, compared with 63 times in 2022’s first quarter, according to Bloomberg transcript data. That year, eight out of ten CEOs said they were either hiring dedicated talent with expertise in the space or expanding the responsibilities of their leadership teams to cover it, according to Russell Reynolds. All were chasing a piece of a global business opportunity that McKinsey & Co. consultants at the time optimistically estimated could be worth $5 trillion by 2030.
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The future of innovation and efficiency that many governments and private companies dream of runs into ecological and geopolitical limits. But AI does not rely on raw materials only during the construction of its physical infrastructures; it does so throughout its cycle. For instance, data centres and servers need large amounts of water to cool down. According to a study published in Nature in 2021, Google and Microsoft declared using respectively 15.8 billion and 3.6 billion litres of water. We don’t know if these numbers are trustworthy. As a telling example, Microsoft has been involved in a scandal regarding the water expenditure of one of its data centres in the Netherlands. Whereas the technology company declared to the Dutch authorities that the centre consumed between 12 and 20 million litres, it transpired it was actually consuming 84 million. Meanwhile, in August 2022, Thames Water announced reviewing the water expenditure of data centres in London due to the drought scenario the capital faced that summer. While the average annual cooling system consumption of a small data centre in the US is estimated to be 25 500 000 litres, that of a person in Nigeria is 12 410 litres – 2 000 times less. AI is also energy intensive. The more data to be analysed, the higher the energy consumption. More sophisticated algorithms, which need long computational time, consume even more. For example, it is estimated that training an algorithm to automatically produce text uses 190,000 kWh; that is, 120 times more than the average annual consumption of a household in Europe in 2020. To generate this energy, raw materials such as organic matter, uranium, coal or water, among others, are again needed. Although some of the big tech companies claim that their energy is produced sustainably, the data shows another trend. In 2019, Greenpeace published a report about an Amazon Data Centre in Virginia (USA), which is considered to be one of the most important in Amazon’s global infrastructure. Greenpeace warned against the important growth in energy consumption in the region due to this data centre’s activities. Despite Amazon’s pledge to invest in “green” energy for this data centre, the reality is that its investment in fossil fuels has increased shamelessly. In 2021, data centres were estimated to consume 0.9-1.3% of global electricity demand. Given AI’s high energy consumption and the current energy crisis, the techno-optimistic dreams of governments and Silicon Valley’s companies could be dashed by the high price of energy.
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chaifootsteps · 7 months
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"I first met Tokitae (also known as Toki, Lolita and Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut), a female orca who had been captured off the coast of Washington, in 1987. I was a biology graduate student at my first professional conference, and the scientific society hosting this event held the opening reception at the Seaquarium.
Toki was 20 feet long and 7,000 pounds, and should have been in the Salish Sea traveling 40 miles a day and diving 500 feet deep with her mother and siblings. Yet there we were, a few hundred marine mammal scientists who mostly did field research, watching this magnificent being perform silly tricks in a bathtub.
That’s not really an exaggeration in Toki’s case. Toki’s tank was the smallest enclosure in the world for her species. It was only 35 feet at its widest point and 80 feet long. It was 20 feet at its deepest; if Toki hung vertically in the water, her tail flukes touched bottom. Captured in 1970 when she was 4 or 5 years old, she lived in this tiny space for 53 years.
The federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA), administered by the US Department of Agriculture, has a ludicrous requirement for tank width — only twice the length of an average adult orca (or 48 feet). But Toki’s tank didn’t even meet that weak standard. For years, the USDA offered various excuses for not taking steps to revoke the exhibitor’s license. None of them made sense, as the tank was plainly not to code. Activists repeatedly tried to sue the USDA for failing to enforce the law, without success.
Toki’s was a strange, lonely life. Despite many campaigns to repatriate her to her family (the L pod in Puget Sound), years passed. The stadium around her slowly and literally crumbled.
The ‘Blackfish’ Effect,” named after the 2013 documentary that eventually reached tens of millions of people globally, has shifted the captive cetacean paradigm in the past decade. Businesses have severed ties with marine theme parks, and policymakers have passed laws ending the commercial display of orcas and other cetacean species. SeaWorld, the company that built its brand on Shamu, is phasing out orca display — no longer capturing, breeding or trading them.
And still Toki languished in the South Florida heat. The Seaquarium’s two owners during Toki’s first 52 years there were adamant that she would never leave the park and disdainfully dismissed talk of returning her to her family.
In March 2022, however, Toki’s outlook finally seemed brighter. The Seaquarium was sold to a company whose business model relied primarily on swim-with-dolphin encounters. An orca didn’t fit that model, and these owners were willing to let her go. Efforts could finally begin in earnest to return her home. The Lummi Tribe, who gave her the name Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut and considered her a relative, had prepared detailed plans for a seaside sanctuary in the Salish Sea.
Then, last month, Toki died. The hope felt by so many that she would finally go home disappeared in an instant.
Captivity robs orcas of a true life in the deep open sea. It robs them of family, of purpose, of change and challenge. Captivity is tremendous monotony for these socially complex, wide-ranging, intelligent animals. We should not perpetuate that.
Zoos and aquariums long ago relegated dancing bears and tricycle-riding chimps to circuses, but still claim that cetacean shows — loud extravaganzas featuring leaping orcas and cavorting dolphins — are educational (they are not). The industry could and should invest in seaside sanctuaries — it’s a win-win choice, as the industry would be heroes and the animals’ welfare would improve.
Let Toki’s miserable, isolated life and sad death mean something for her fellow captives. These amazing beings should not have to die to finally be free."
Dr. Naomi Rose is senior scientist (marine mammal biology) for the Animal Welfare Institute in Washington, D.C.
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mariacallous · 23 days
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Apple has a Spotify problem—and it just cost the iPhone maker a $2 billion fine from the European Commission.
For years, the two companies have been at war as the streaming service lured users away from Apple’s iTunes and accused the tech giant of exploiting its dominance to stifle innovation. In their long-running conflict, each has made incursions into the other’s territory. When Apple launched its own streaming service, Apple Music, in 2015, Spotify claimed Apple was able to undercut the platform’s prices because Apple didn’t have to pay the same App Store fees as rivals. In 2019, Spotify began an ambitious podcast spending spree, splashing out on high-profile shows, in another direct challenge to Apple.
The feud’s early days were civil, with few barbs traded in public. “We worry about the humanity being drained out of music,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in 2018, a cryptic comment widely interpreted as a jibe at Spotify’s heavy use of algorithmic recommendations. But Spotify became more outspoken as EU politicians started to call for laws to reign in Big Tech. The €1.8 billion ($1.9 billion) fine on Apple announced by the European Commission today shows that its tactics are working. The fine originates in a legal complaint filed with the European Commission by Spotify in 2019, challenging the restrictions and fees Apple places on developers listing their apps in the App Store. Today the European Commission agreed, saying that Apple’s App Store restrictions amount to unfair trading conditions that may have led iOS users to pay significantly higher prices for music streaming subscriptions.
“For a decade, Apple abused its dominant position in the market for the distribution of music streaming apps through the App Store,” said Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief, in a statement. “They did so by restricting developers from informing consumers about alternative, cheaper music services available outside of the Apple ecosystem.”
Apple’s App Store rules restrict music streaming companies and other apps from informing their users on Apple devices about how to upgrade or sign up for subscription offers outside of the app. Instead, app users can only see sign-up options for in-app subscriptions via Apple’s payments system, where prices are likely to be higher because Apple takes a cut. Some app makers, including Spotify, do not offer in-app purchases because they don’t want to pay this commission. "Some consumers may have paid more because they were unaware they could pay less if they subscribed outside the app,” Vestager said. “This is illegal under EU antitrust rules.” Apple, which says the EU has failed to provide credible evidence of consumer harm, has pledged to appeal.
Big Number
The fine is far bigger than expected, prompting Apple’s stock to drop 3 percent on Monday. Media reports based on unnamed sources had predicted a penalty of around €500 million. It’s also one of the biggest fines the EU has ever issued against a tech company, ranking below only two Google fines of $5.1 billion and $2.4 billion. Vestager explained in a press conference that the scale of the fine is intended to prevent the company from breaking rules in the future. She added that the amount includes a “lump sum” to “achieve deterrence.” $1.9 billion amounts to 0.5 percent of Apple’s global turnover, she said.
Although Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has expressed disapproval of Apple’s business tactics, he’s also something of a reluctant figurehead in Europe’s fight against Apple. The self-described introvert has adopted the role of spokesperson for disgruntled European app developers who finally feel their complaints about Big Tech are being heard.
On Monday, Ek posted a video on X in which he described Apple as a threat to the open internet. “Apple has decided that they want to close down the internet and make it theirs, and they view every single person using an iPhone to be their user and that they should be able to dictate what that user experience should be,” he said. Ek also claimed Apple wants to effectively levy a tax on Spotify while exempting its own music service, Apple Music.
Apple hit back at Spotify in a statement posted to its website. The company pushed back on the idea that Spotify had suffered as a result of its policies, instead describing the platform as an App Store success story, pointing out that Spotify’s app has been downloaded, redownloaded, or updated more than 119 billion times onto Apple phones.
“We’ve even flown our engineers to Stockholm to help Spotify’s teams in person,” Apple’s statement said. For all that, Apple says, Spotify pays them nothing. “But free isn’t enough for Spotify,” the statement continues. “They also want to rewrite the rules of the App Store—in a way that advantages them even more.”
Spotify is one of the few European consumer tech companies with a significant global business, so people in the continent’s tech community listen when it speaks out. Spotify’s latest criticisms are spurring more European developers to complain about what they consider to be unfair treatment by the tech giant—putting the European Commission under even more pressure to act. “Apple holds app providers ransom like the Mafia,” Matthias Pfau, CEO and cofounder of Tuta, an encrypted email provider based in Germany, told WIRED last month, echoing frustrations also voiced by US app developers such as Epic Games.
For Apple, Spotify’s success today is potentially an omen of future action from the EU. This week marks the deadline for compliance with Europe’s Digital Markets Act, a new antitrust law designed to prevent the internet from coming under the control of only a handful of big—usually American—platforms. The new law gives Europe the power to fine tech companies up to 20 percent of their global turnover, meaning future fines could make dwarf $2 billion levied on Apple today.
“This is the commission saying, ‘We're going to be tough, particularly on Apple,’” says Max von Thun, Europe director of the Open Markets Institute, of the decision today. “I see this as kind of small compared to what's to come.”
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azspot · 1 year
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We are not here to debate the moral squalor that defines the life of the hedge fund billionaire and chair of the seminary’s trustee board, Michael Fisch. We are not here to denounce him for the personal fortune, reportedly worth at least $10 billion, a fortune he built preying on the poorest among us, those families that went into debt to pay his prison telecommunications company’s exorbitant fees which charge up to $15 for 15-minute calls, fees that see families across the U.S. pay $1.4 billion each year to speak to incarcerated loved ones. We are not here to decry the pain he and his corporation ViaPath, formerly Global Tel Link, caused to hundreds of thousands of children, desperate to speak to an incarcerated mother or father, to tell them about school, or that they miss them, that they need to hear their voice to know everything will be okay, that they are loved. We are not here to contrast the lives of these children, bewildered at the cruelty of this world, living in dilapidated apartments in inner city projects, with the feudal opulence of Michael Fisch’s life, his three mansions worth $100 million lined up on the same ritzy street in East Hampton, his art collection worth over $500 million, his Fifth Avenue apartment worth $21 million and his four-story Upper East Side townhouse. So many luxury dwellings that sit empty much of the time, no doubt, while over half a million Americans are homeless. Greed is not rational. It devours because it can. It knows only one word — more.
Chris Hedges
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spawn-universe · 2 months
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GROUNDBREAKING MCFARLANE TOYS CELEBRATES 30TH YEAR OF INNOVATION IN THE TOY INDUSTRY
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February 7, 2024 - McFarlane Toys, a trailblazer in the realm of action figures and collectibles, proudly marks its 30th anniversary in 2024 – commemorating three decades of innovation by setting new standards for the toy industry and design excellence.
What began as a small, privately owned business in the early 90’s has evolved into an industry leader, defying the odds against Fortune 500 companies, and maintaining its private ownership throughout its impressive journey.
Founded in 1994 by the visionary Todd McFarlane, the company has continually redefined the possibilities within the world of action figures. At the core of McFarlane Toys’ success is Todd McFarlane’s iconic creation, SPAWN, which stands as one of the world’s best-selling comic books, with hundreds of millions of copies sold globally in over 120 countries. The title’s 1992 debut was a massive success with over 1.7 million copies sold, marking a pivotal moment in the future establishment of McFarlane Toys. SPAWN’s aesthetic appealed to toy industry giants, and several wanted to create figures based on it. However, McFarlane’s goal was to create hyper-realistic and articulated action figures that were not yet available on the market. Todd’s forward-thinking led McFarlane Toys to introduce the first ultra-articulated action figure to the market in the early 90s, setting a new standard for the industry. His innovative approach extended to coloring as well, as McFarlane Toys became the first to incorporate a rich and diverse palette, offering fans an impressive array of colors and designs on their figures – a groundbreaking move that preceded industry norms at the time. This distinctive style, marked by revolutionary articulation and vibrant coloring, has since become McFarlane Toys’ signature look, influencing other toy companies to follow suit.
Throughout the years, McFarlane Toys has expanded its influence by partnering with industry giants like DC Comics, Disney, James Cameron’s Avatar, Warner Brothers, HBO’s Game of Thrones, Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty, AMC’s The Walking Dead, and Five Nights at Freddy’s. They’ve also collaborated with iconic and influential figures across various industries, such as Tim Burton, Ozzy Osbourne, KISS, and multiple stars from the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, among others.
To reach audiences worldwide, McFarlane Toys has formed strategic partnerships with consumer giants such as Amazon, Target, Walmart, BestBuy, and GameStop. These collaborations aim to bring their high-quality action figures to fans and collectors everywhere, further solidifying McFarlane Toys’ presence and influence in a competitive market.
This strategic growth underscores the company’s 30-year commitment to resilience and continuous pursuit of excellence in an ever-evolving industry. The company’s continued and unwavering dedication to authenticity and attention to detail has cultivated a dedicated global fan base, positioning McFarlane Toys as a leader in the world of collectible action figures.
In addition to its creative achievements, McFarlane Toys consistently earns recognition at the Toy Industry Foundation’s annual ‘Toy of the Year’ Awards, for its significant industry contributions. The company has also secured the position of the #1 best-selling action figure on Amazon several times and earned the prestigious ‘Top-Selling Action Figure and Accessories for the U.S. and Canada’ at The NPD’s 2021 Toy Industry Performance Awards.
To commemorate this extraordinary milestone, McFarlane Toys will release several limited edition and exclusive Gold Label figures. Noteworthy among them is a compelling two-pack featuring a SPAWN figure based on Todd’s original teenage design and sketches, paired with a figure of Todd himself. Fans can anticipate an array of exciting releases, social media contests, and announcements throughout the anniversary year.
Follow McFarlane Toys on social (@mcfarlane_toys_official on Instagram) and visit the official website at www.mcfarlane.com for exciting updates and announcements. As McFarlane Toys looks back on 30 years of groundbreaking achievements, the company remains committed to pushing boundaries and delivering exceptional collectibles destined to be cherished for years to come.
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dan6085 · 10 months
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India has a rich and complex history that spans thousands of years. Here is a detailed timeline of some of the major events and developments in Indian history:
3300 BCE - 1300 BCE: Indus Valley Civilization
The Indus Valley civilization, also known as the Harappan civilization, was one of the world's earliest urban civilizations. It was located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent and is known for its advanced urban planning, art, and script.
1500 BCE - 500 BCE: Vedic Period
The Vedic period is named after the Vedas, a collection of hymns and religious texts that were composed during this time. It is also known as the early Hindu period and is characterized by the development of Hinduism, the caste system, and the emergence of the Mahajanapadas.
322 BCE - 185 BCE: Mauryan Empire
The Mauryan Empire was the first dynasty to unify most of India under a single ruler, Chandragupta Maurya. Under the rule of the Mauryan dynasty, India saw significant economic, cultural, and religious growth.
320 CE - 550 CE: Gupta Empire
The Gupta Empire was a golden age of Indian civilization. It is known for its advancements in science, mathematics, art, and literature. During this period, the decimal system, the concept of zero, and the Hindu-Arabic numeral system were developed.
711 CE - 1206 CE: Islamic InvasionsIslamic invasions began in the early 8th century, when Arab armies conquered the Sindh region in present-day Pakistan. Over the next few centuries, Muslim rulers established several dynasties in India, including the Delhi Sultanate.
1526 CE - 1707 CE: Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire was the most powerful empire in India during the medieval period. It was founded by Babur and ruled by a succession of Mughal emperors, including Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan. The Mughal era saw significant cultural growth, including the establishment of the Taj Mahal and the development of Mughal art and architecture.
1757 CE - 1858 CE: British East India Company
The British East India Company established itself as a major political and economic force in India during the 18th century. It gradually expanded its control over Indian territories, eventually ruling over the entire country by the mid-19th century.
1857 CE - 1947 CE: British Raj
The British Raj was the period of British colonial rule in India, which lasted from 1858 to 1947. During this time, India underwent significant economic, social, and political changes, including the establishment of railways, telegraphs, and a modern legal system. The Indian independence movement gained momentum during this period, eventually leading to India's independence in 1947.
1947 CE - present: Independent India
India gained independence from Britishrule on August 15, 1947, and became a democratic republic on January 26, 1950. Jawaharlal Nehru became India's first Prime Minister and led the country through a period of modernization and economic growth. India faced several challenges, including partition, communal violence, and poverty. The country also adopted a non-aligned foreign policy and played a prominent role in the Non-Aligned Movement. India also conducted several nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998, which brought the country into the global spotlight.
In recent years, India has emerged as a major economic power, with a rapidly growing economy and a burgeoning tech sector. The country has also faced several challenges, including political and social unrest, environmental degradation, and growing inequality. India's relations with its neighbors, particularly Pakistan and China, have been a source of tension, and the country has also faced security threats from terrorism and insurgency. The country is also grappling with issues of caste discrimination, gender inequality, and religious intolerance.
In conclusion, India's history is a rich tapestry of cultural, religious, and political developments that have shaped the country into what it is today. From the ancient Indus Valley civilization to the modern-day tech hub, India's history is a testament to the resilience and diversity of its people.
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Ireland's privacy regulator is a gamekeeper-turned-poacher
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This Saturday (May 20), I’ll be at the GAITHERSBURG Book Festival with my novel Red Team Blues; then on May 22, I’m keynoting Public Knowledge’s Emerging Tech conference in DC.
On May 23, I’ll be in TORONTO for a book launch that’s part of WEPFest, a benefit for the West End Phoenix, onstage with Dave Bidini (The Rheostatics), Ron Diebert (Citizen Lab) and the whistleblower Dr Nancy Olivieri.
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When the EU passed its landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it seemed like a privacy miracle. Despite the most aggressive lobbying Europe had ever seen, 500 million Europeans were now guaranteed a digital private life. Could this really be?
If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/15/finnegans-snooze/#dirty-old-town
Well, yes…and no. Despite flaws (Right to Be Forgotten), the GDPR has strong, well-crafted, badly needed privacy protections. But to get those protections, Europeans need their privacy regulators to enforce the rules.
That’s where the GDPR miracle founders. Europe includes several tax-havens — Malta, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland — that compete to offer the most favorable terms to international corporations and other criminals. For these havens, paying little to no tax is just table-stakes. As these countries vie to sell themselves out to giant companies, they compete to offer a favorable regulatory environment, insulating companies from lawsuits over corruption, labor abuses and other crimes.
All of this is made possible — and even encouraged — by the design of European federalism, which lets companies easily shift which flag of convenience they fly. Once a company re-homes in a country, it can force Europeans across the union to seek justice in that country’s courts, under the looming threat that the company will up sticks for another haven if the law doesn’t bend over backwards to protect corporate citizens from the grievances of flesh-and-blood humans.
Big Tech’s most aggressive privacy invaders have long flown Irish flags. Ireland is “headquarters” to Google, Meta, Tinder, Apple, Airbnb, Yahoo and many other tech companies. In exchange for locating a handful of jobs to Ireland, these companies are allowed to maintain the pretense that their global earnings are afloat in the Irish Sea, in a state of perfect, untaxable grace.
That cozy relationship meant that the US tech giants were well-situated to sabotage Ireland’s privacy regulator, who would be the first port of call for Europeans whose privacy had been violated by American firms. For many years, it’s been obvious that the Irish Data Protection Commission was a sleeping watchdog, with infinite tolerance for the companies that pretend to make Ireland their homes. 87% of Irish data protection claims involve just eight giant US companies (that pretend to be Irish).
But among for hardened GDPR warriors, the real extent of the Data Protection Commissioner’s uselessness is genuinely shocking. A new report from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties reveals that the DPC isn’t merely tolerant of privacy crimes, they’re gamekeepers turned poachers, active collaborators in privacy abuse:
https://www.iccl.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/5-years-GDPR-crisis.pdf
The report’s headline figure really tells the story: the European Data Protection Board — which oversees Ireland’s DPC — overturns the Irish regulator’s judgments 75% of the time. It’s actually worse than it appears: that figure only includes appeals of the DPC’s enforcement actions, where the DPC bestirred itself to put on trousers and show up for work to investigate a privacy claim, only to find that the corporation was utterly blameless.
But the DPC almost never takes enforcement actions. Instead, the regulator remains in its pajamas, watching cartoons and eating breakfast cereal, and offers an “amicable resolution” (that is, a settlement) to the accused company. 83% of the cases brought before the DPC are settled with an “amicable resolution.”
Corporations can bargain for multiple, consecutive amicable resolutions, allowing them to repeatedly break the law and treat the fines — which they negotiate themselves — as part of the price of doing business.
This is illegal. European law demands that cases that involve repeat offenders, or that are likely to affect many people, must be fully investigated.
Ireland’s government has stonewalled on calls for an independent review of the DPC. The DPC continues to abet lawlessness, allowing corporations to use privacy invasive techniques for surveillance, discrimination and manipulation. In 2022, the DPC concluded 64% of its cases with mere reprimands — not even a slap on the wrist.
Meanwhile, the DPC trails the EU in issuing “compliance orders” — which directly regulate the conduct of privacy-invading companies — only issuing 49 such orders in the past 4.5 years. The DPC has only issues 28 of the GDPR’s “one-stop-shop” fines.
The EU has 26 other national privacy regulators, but under the GDPR, they aren’t allowed to act until the DPC delivers its draft decisions. The DPC is lavishly funded, with a budget in the EU’s top five, but all that money gets pissed up against a wall, with inaction ruling the day.
Despite the collusion between the tech giants and the Irish state, time is running out for America’s surveillance-crazed tech monopolists. The GDPR does allow Europeans to challenge the DPR’s do-nothing rulings in European court, after a long, meandering process. That process is finally bearing fruit: in 2021, Johnny Ryan and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties brought a case in Germany against the ad-tech lobby group IAB:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/16/inside-the-clock-tower/#inference
And the activist Max Schrems and the group NOYB brought a case against Google in Austria:
https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/15/out-here-everything-hurts/#noyb
But Europeans should not have to drag tech giants out of Ireland to get justice. It’s long past time for the EU to force Ireland to clean up its act. The EU Commission is set to publish a proposal on how to reform Ireland’s DPA, but more muscular action is needed. In the new report, the Irish Council For Civil Liberties calls on the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, to treat this issue with the urgency and seriousness that it warrants. As the ICCL says, “the EU can not be a regulatory superpower unless it enforces its own laws.”
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Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/15/finnegans-snooze/#dirty-old-town
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[Image ID: A toddler playing with toy cars. The cars are Irish police cars. The toddler's head has been replaced with the menacing, glowing red eye of HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The toddler's knit cap is decorated with the logos for Apple, Google, Facebook and Tinder.]
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Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg
CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
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cogitoergofun · 9 days
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Starting in May, Dell employees who are fully remote will not be eligible for promotion, Business Insider (BI) reported Saturday. The upcoming policy update represents a dramatic reversal from Dell's prior stance on work from home (WFH), which included CEO Michael Dell saying: "If you are counting on forced hours spent in a traditional office to create collaboration and provide a feeling of belonging within your organization, you’re doing it wrong."
Dell employees will mostly all be considered "remote" or "hybrid" starting in May, BI reported. Hybrid workers have to come into the office at least 39 days per quarter, Dell confirmed to Ars Technica, which equates to approximately three times a week. Those who would prefer to never commute to an office will not "be considered for promotion, or be able to change roles," BI reported.
"For remote team members, it is important to understand the trade-offs: Career advancement, including applying to new roles in the company, will require a team member to reclassify as hybrid onsite," Dell's memo to workers said, per BI.
Dell didn't respond to specific questions Ars Technica sent about the changes but sent a statement saying: "In today’s global technology revolution, we believe in-person connections paired with a flexible approach are critical to drive innovation and value differentiation."
BI said it saw a promotion offer that a remote worker received that said that accepting the position would require coming into an "approved" office, which would mean that the employee would need to move out of their state.
[...]
Meanwhile, the idea of return-to-office mandates helping businesses is being challenged. For example, a study by University of Pittsburgh researchers of some S&P 500 businesses found that return-to-office directives hurt employee morale and do not boost company finances.
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