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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years

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California's antitrust case against Amazon

California’s antitrust case against Amazon feels anachronistic, like a witchcraft charge, or some other ancient crime that we no longer prosecute. It’s true, antitrust spent 40 year in a coma! The Amazon case neatly illustrates how it was sedated, and why it finally roused.

Back in the Reagan years, antitrust underwent a profound change. For 90 years, America’s trustbusters had pursued monopolists under the theory of “harmful dominance” — the idea that when companies get big enough, they can inflict harms on workers, communities, customers and the political process. They become “too big to fail” and “too big to jail.”

Senator John Sherman said it well, when campaigning for his landmark 1890 Sherman Act, America’s first comprehensive antitrust law: “If we will not endure a King as a political power we should not endure a King over the production, transportation, and sale of the necessaries of life.”

https://marker.medium.com/we-should-not-endure-a-king-dfef34628153

For American competition regulators, the problem with big companies was that they usurped the power of democratically accountable law. The executives who commanded these firms became “autocrat[s] of trade with power to prevent competition and to fix the price of any commodity.”

But for the business lobby, the ability to be an autocrat — to impose your will on your workers and suppliers and customers without interference by elected lawmakers or the regulators who report to them — was a feature, not a bug. The power of a monopolist to take away others’ freedom to trade, work and live as they choose was essential to “liberty.” That’s why, as self-proclaimed “libertarian” Peter Thiel has it, “Competition is for losers.”

Under Reagan, the business lobby got its way. Their champion was Robert Bork, Richard Nixon’s disgraced solicitor general, whose book, “The Antitrust Paradox,” was a kind of gnostic reading of US antitrust law, insisting that the lawmakers who voted for the Sherman Act and its successors actually liked monopoly:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/post-bork-era/#manne-down

These lawmakers, Bork said, viewed monopolies as beneficial, thanks to the efficiencies they realized by not having to engage in wasteful competition. The FTC, DoJ and the courts had been misapplying antitrust through its history. The only time the state should act against monopolies is when they use their market power to raise prices.

This “consumer welfare” theory of antitrust was the poison dart that plunged trustbusting into a 40-year coma. Bork and his cronies at the University of Chicago School of Economics — the cradle of neoliberalism — set up a sweet side-hustle, building complex mathematical models that only they understood.

These models were used to prove that every monopoly was untouchable under consumer welfare enforcement standards — even if a company bought all its competitors and then increased prices 1,000% (as Luxottica-Essilor did for eyeglasses, after buying nearly every eyeglass brand, retailer, insurer and lens-maker), it was still untouchable.

The Bork models could “prove” that these price-hikes were the result of “exogenous” factors — increasing wage bills, oil shocks, or just because the moon was in Venus. Price-gouging could be blamed on anything except corporate greed.

This highly technical change in antitrust enforcement is one of the most consequential, worst-understood shifts in our society. Today’s headline inflation numbers rarely mention the monopoly CEOs who gleefully notify their shareholders that they’ve been able to raise prices far in excess of their costs, simply because they lack meaningful competition:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/02/its-the-economy-stupid/#overinflated

It was obvious from the start that “consumer welfare” was a scam, a ruse designed to let monopolies flourish and to install “autocrats of trade” on their thrones. Despite its ideological bankruptcy, “consumer welfare” was able to repel its critics for decades, because it had deep-pocketed backers — no different from tobacco-cancer denial or climate denial.

But, as with cancer and climate denial, inaction on antitrust created mounting harms that made it increasingly obvious that the story was a lie. In 2017, we reached a turning point when a third-year law student published “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox” in Yale Law Journal, which demolished Bork’s arguments so comprehensively that today, that former law student is the chair of the FTC: Lina Khan.

Khan’s leadership — and that of her colleagues, Robert Kanter at the DoJ and Tim Wu in the White House — have been nothing short of inspirational, an object lesson in the prospect that “personnel are policy.” But they are not alone — they are part of a raging current sweeping through state governments and legislatures all over the world, from the EU to China.

And state houses, too. Which brings me back to California’s antitrust case against Amazon. Amazon exerts serious harmful dominance, of course — you can’t have missed the way that its conduct erodes local tax bases, immiserates workers, inflicts climate harms, wrecks local businesses and independent firms that rely on its platform.

But none of that is in the California case against Amazon. Rather, the case focuses on a narrow, and ingenious “consumer welfare” theory of how Amazon has raised prices — the one thing that consumer welfare claims to defend us from:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62908412

Amazon is a classic “chokepoint capitalism” business. The company’s “Prime” program and other lock-in tactics were deliberately and explicitly designed to ensure that the majority of customers for the majority of goods turn to Amazon first. It worked:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/01/you-are-here/#prime-facie

That means that any business that wants to sell anything had better offer those goods on Amazon, or forfeit a large portion of its market — perhaps the majority. When large firms like Birkenstocks held out and refused to sell on Amazon, the company tacitly encouraged counterfeiters to sell substitute goods to customers searching on its site:

https://www.geekwire.com/2016/birkenstock-announces-it-will-leave-amazon/

The result is that nearly every firm was corralled into Amazon’s walled garden, and as those firms disappeared behind Amazon’s walls, more customers bought into Prime and found themselves locked into Amazon’s walled garden, too. Amazon is quite explicit about this strategy, which they call “the flywheel”:

https://twitter.com/rgibli/status/1561761732108107777

That meant that instead of competing in the market, these Amazon suppliers competed on Amazon. Amazon created a $31b/year “ad” business mainly made up of payola that Amazon vendors spend to rise to the top of the Amazon listings:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/27/not-an-ad/#shakedowns

Even after spending $31b, independent merchants find themselves unable to make a go of it on Amazon’s platform. Desperate, they sell out to “gators” — aggregators who professionalized the business of navigating Amazon’s Byzantine rules and scams, spawning a multi-billion-dollar, socially useless industry:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/10/monopoly-begets-monopoly/#gator-ade

But no matter how much you spend on Amazon “ads,” and no matter how skilled you are at avoiding Amazon’s other traps, you will struggle to top the listings unless you purchase a slew of Amazon “services” — most notably, “fulfillment by Amazon” and Amazon Prime Fulfillment.

All told, a successful Amazon seller is likely handing over 35–45% of the purchase price to Amazon in fees and commissions. That vastly exceeds the profit margin on many goods, which presents merchants with a stark choice: lose money on every sale, or charge more for everything sold on Amazon.

No business can survive for long if it loses money on every sale (at least, not without the backing of the Saudi royals — looking at you, Uber). So Amazon sellers hike prices, just to cover the vig extracted by Amazon itself.

You might be thinking that this is an opportunity for Amazon’s rivals: if your local retailer (or even Walmart) opted not to charge all those fees, then the same merchants could offer the same products on their shelves at a 35–45% discount and still make the same amount of money. As habituated as we are to Amazon, as much as Prime means we turn to it first, a 45% discount would surely tempt some of us to shop elsewhere.

But Amazon’s thought of that too, which is why they make every merchant that sells through their platform sign a “most favored nation” guarantee that they will not charge less for their products anywhere else — which means that the price is the same everywhere.

And that’s the heart of the California antitrust case against Amazon: Amazon’s market dominance makes it impossible to survive without offering your products on Amazon; to succeed there, you must turn over 35–45% of your gross to Amazon. That leads to higher prices on Amazon, and, thanks to the most favored nation deal, it pushes those same higher prices to every other retailer.

Amazon, in other words, is undermining “consumer welfare” by forcing up prices — not just on Amazon, but everywhere.

This is sleazy as hell of course, but, as noted, it is just one of Amazon’s myriad of sins, and far from the worst one. California AG Rob Bonta has managed to thread the microscopic eye of Robert Bork’s needle — but like busting Capone for tax fraud, the need to pursue this strategy reveals the poverty of our other enforcement regimes.

“Consumer welfare” was always a lie and a sham. The harms inflicted by chokepoint capitalists — to workers, suppliers, and our politics and regulation — are not limited to making us worse off as “consumers.” No one is a mere “consumer” — a kind of ambulatory wallet. We are also workers, citizens, and residents. Even when monopolies make our prices go down, they also make our wages stagnate, lowering our overall purchasing power.

It’s heartening to see California take on one nodule of the Amazon cancer, but that can only be the start. Even if Amazon is forced to stop price-gouging us, it will still inflict innumerable harms. This needs to be seen as the first step in taming monopolies — not as an end in itself.

[Image ID: The flag of California. It has been altered so that the bear is rearing on its hind legs, and its forelegs are crushing an Amazon lower-case 'a' logo. The 'smile' beneath the Amazon logo has been inverted into a frown. Atop the California bear stands a trustbuster-era editorial cartoon illustration of Roosevelt, swinging his 'big stick.' From the star in the California flag emanates a read beam-weapon that is bathing the Amazon 'a' with lethal rays. The 'a' is wreathed in flames.]

#pluralistic

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damnesdelamer · 1 year

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On the picket line the other day, I saw a former lecturer of mine, and we got talking. Part of the whole dispute we in UCU are involved in is around the fact that Higher Education as a sector has over £40 billion in reserves nationwide, and many universities have chosen to dump that into vanity projects like shiny new buildings (many of which are both exorbitantly expensive and also not fit-for-purpose), rather than invest in staff during the biggest cost of living crisis in living memory.

My former lecturer, a staunch liberal, intimated that £40 billion seems like a lot, so who knows if that money even exists. So I told him, here’s what I do know: three years ago, my managers, who were responsible for allocating a £5 million bid of government funding, ignored the advice of me and another expert on practical teaching equipment, and chose instead to spend more on products from existing contracts. This could be seen as corruption, but technically I think it’s just laziness. But it also amounts to a mutual agreement among university management and external contractors and suppliers to continue to profit off government funds, rather than invest in staff.

Over the last ten years, workers across Higher Education are being paid 25% less in real terms, due to stagnating wages, due to inflation, due to increased cost of living. This is to say nothing of the fallout from covid, or the arguably substantial decline in education standards new students receive (in spite of all the money dumped into new buildings and equipment).

Meanwhile, my institution’s student intake has nearly doubled in the past five years, which both means greater workload and, in theory, greater revenue. But who sees that money? Not me, nor even the lecturers who make twice as much as me, but you can bet that money is going somewhere.

Initially we had no offer of increased pay, then we went on strike and got an offer of 3% (again, in the face of a loss of 25% over the last decade in real terms), and then 5%. These ‘offers’ have been overwhelmingly rejected by UCU members, in part because they prove that that money does exist, and is available for our employers to give us our due. But more importantly, this is not just about pay, and the problems of workloads, pensions, mismanagement, and discrimination, which sparked the current strikes, won’t be solved by throwing money at them.

Nevertheless, slowly but surely, we are making advances. Industrial action works. Support the Unions and support the strikes!

Solidarity forever.

#UCUrising #UCU #UK politics #strikes #strike action #industrial action #original #University & College Union #trade union #labour union #up the union!

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uniquetosmbody · 5 months

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i think if you added Doffy into your au he would be in charge of their outfits and stuff, he's just flamboyant like that and he knows what people like, plus it would give him a close relationship with Crocodile

Ohhhhhh I like it, but it seems bit off with his personality for me 🫣 he’s a boss not just in charge of their outfits, what if he’ll be bigger than that?

What if he is the main supplier (weapons, fabrics, products, and so on)

If he wants, he will find any way to have closer relationship with croc 😳 he doesn’t need to have same (or near that) position in this house to have any type of relationship with Croc, if he wants it he’ll have it anyway🫠

But Doffy needs to know that his supplies are in the good hands, so he’ll definitely will come and see by himself what they doing with them, so it’s a regular thing

Idk what that’ll bring to the story plot but anyway it’s a good expansion of the universe 💪

#zosan comic #zosan au #dancer au #one piece #one piece au

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pwlanier · 6 months

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An absolutely wonderful advertising poster for Trau's Thee dating from 1910.

Carl Trau traveled to Europe before starting working as a druggist in Vienna in 1834. In 1850, he founded the first and oldest specialized tea shop in Austria, the "K.u.K. Hof-Thee-Handlung C. Trau", which quickly became an esteemed establishment and an official supplier to the imperial and royal court. Trau first imported tea from London and Hanseatic cities, but quickly began sourcing directly from China, becoming one of the first companies to sell Chinese tea in Europe.

In 1868, his son Franz took over the tea trade and developed it even further. Direct imports of Chinese tea received a new impetus thanks to the 1873 Universal Exhibition held in Vienna.

The amazing advertising poster depicts Chinese from the Qing dynasty enjoying their tea in a luxurious setting, suggesting that it is the best product of this exotic origin. The creator of the poster is the Austrian artist Adolf Karpellus (1869-1919), who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and Paris, where he became a manufacturer of posters, postcards and prints.

Courtesy Alain Truong

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atlanticcanada · 1 year

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Canadian families will pay $1,065 more for groceries in 2023, report says

Canadians won't escape food inflation any time soon.

Food prices in Canada will continue to escalate in the new year, with grocery costs forecast to rise up to seven per cent in 2023, new research predicts.

For a family of four, the total annual grocery bill is expected to be $16,288 -- $1,065 more than it was this year, the 13th edition of Canada's Food Price Report released Monday said.

A single woman in her 40s -- the average age in Canada -- will pay about $3,740 for groceries next year while a single man the same age would pay $4,168, according to the report and Statistics Canada.

Food inflation is set to remain stubbornly high in the first half of 2023 before it starts to ease, said Sylvain Charlebois, lead author of the report and Dalhousie University professor of food distribution and policy.

"When you look at the current food inflation cycle we're in right now, we're probably in the seventh-inning stretch," he said in an interview. "The first part of 2023 will remain challenging ... but we're starting to see the end of this."

Multiple factors could influence food prices next year, including climate change, geopolitical conflicts, rising energy costs and the lingering effects of COVID-19, the report said.

Currency fluctuations could also play a role in food prices. A weaker Canadian dollar could make importing goods like lettuce more expensive, for example.

Earlier this year the loonie was worth more than 80 cents US, but it then dropped to a low of 72.17 cents US in October amid a strengthening U.S. dollar. It has hovered near the 74 cent mark in recent weeks, ending Friday at 74.25 cents US.

"The produce section is going to be the wild card," Charlebois said. "Currency is one of the key things that could throw things off early in the winter and that's why produce is the highest category."

Vegetables could see the biggest price spikes, with estimates pegging cost increases will rise as high as eight per cent, the report said.

In addition to currency risks, much of the produce sold in Canada comes from the United States, which has been struggling with extremely dry conditions.

"The western U.S., particularly California, has seen strong El Nino weather patterns and droughts and bacterial contaminations, and that's impacted our fruit and vegetable suppliers and prices," said Simon Somogyi, campus lead at the University of Guelph and professor at the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics.

"The drought is making the production of lettuce more expensive," he said. "It's reducing the crop size but it's also causing bacterial contamination, which is lessening the supply in the marketplace."

Prices in other key food categories like meat, dairy and bakery are predicted to soar up to seven per cent, the researchers found.

The Canadian Dairy Commission has approved a farm gate milk price increase of about 2.2 per cent, or just under two cents per litre, for Feb. 1, 2023.

"The increase for February is reasonable but it comes after the unprecedented increases in 2022, which are continuing to work their way through the supply chain," Charlebois said of the two price hikes of nearly 11 per cent combined in 2022.

Meanwhile, seafood is expected to increase up to six per cent, while fruit could increase up to five per cent, the report said.

Restaurant costs are expected to increase four to six per cent, less than supermarket prices, the report said.

Rising prices will push food security and affordability even further out of reach of Canadians a year after food bank use reached a record high, the report said.

The increasing reliance on food banks is expected to continue, with 20 per cent of Canadians reporting they will likely turn to community organizations in 2023 for help feeding their families, a survey included in the report found.

Use of weekly flyers, coupons, bulk buying and food rescuing apps also ticked up this year and is expected to continue growing in 2023, the report said.

"We're in the era now of the smart shopper," said Somogyi, also the Arrell Chair in the Business of Food.

"For certain generations, it's the first time that they've had to make a list, not impulse buy, read the weekly flyers, use coupons, buy in volume and freeze what they don't use."

Last year's report predicted food prices would increase five to seven per cent in 2022 -- the biggest jump ever predicted by the annual food price report.

Food costs actually far exceeded that forecast. Grocery prices were up 11 per cent in October compared with a year before while overall food costs were up 10.1 per cent, according to Statistics Canada.

"We were called alarmists," Charlebois said of the prediction that food prices could rise seven per cent in 2022. Critics called the report an "exaggeration," he said.

"You're always one crisis away from throwing everything out the window," Charlebois said. "We didn't predict the war in Ukraine, and that really affected markets."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2022.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/276zLTk

#new brunswick #prince edward island #nova scotia #news #politics #canada #CTVAtlantic

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ohdeedraws · 1 year

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Bit late to the trend but since the Velma show butchered the scooby gang so badly, I've seen people sharing their ideas for a scooby doo rewrite and I wanted to share an idea for a reboot I've been working on for a while now.

The story would take place in Coolsville, a small town famous for the high number of disappearances every year and the rumors of monsters, a witches curse and other paranormal activities. It's also famous for its renowned Personal Dectecives, Mystery Inc.

The gang would be older in this, probably in their 40s. They have grown up in Coolsville and become local celebrities. Aside from Mystery Solving, they have their own lives and families.

Daphne became the writer of an immensly popular series of mystery books detailing the gangs adventures throughout the years (I'd imagine these to be episodes of the past shows, eg. 'What a Night for a Knight' from Where Are You, 'Camp comeoniwannascareya' etc., because yes, they're canon in this reboot). She married a famous fashion designer (but during the events of the story they're going through a divorce because she has finally come to terms that she is a lesbian). She has three kids.

Fred coaches the local highschool football team when he's not inventing new traps or catching monsters. He married a woman who works as the main news presenter on the local channel and he loves her dearly, more than his traps. Together they have two children.

Velma's main focus is Mystery Inc. But on the side she runs the local book shop, the main supplier of Daphne's books. She was married to an English Professor who works at the University a few hours outside of town, but they realised they weren't right for eachother and got divorced. They had one child together.

Shaggy runs a cooking/food review blog where reviews food from all over the world and shares his own recipes and tutorials, all with his trusted dog Scooby by his side of course. He's a single parent of one, and no one talks about his wife because, quite honestly, no one knows who she is.

The Gang are still close, like family, even after all this time. But the show wouldn't focus on them, it would focus on their eldest kids.

Let's meet them!

Grey Matthews-Blake is the richest kid in Coolsville. He's often seen wearing his father's newest line of clothes and his signature designer green sunglasses (that he even wears inside). He's known to be quite dramatic, sarcastic, and generally uninterested in anything to do with his mother and her job.

Wren Dinkley is often told that it's hard to believe they're the Velma Dinkley's child. Whether it's when their preforming their heart out on the stage during whatever production the local theatre group are putting on, or failing science, Wren doesn't let it get them down. They're headstrong, passionate, and totally comfortable with themselves...'totally'.

Cassia Jones is the nicest girl in town. She's captain of Coolsville Field Hocky Team, Head of the debate team and Student Body President. She's bubbly, hard working and determined to live up to the Jones legacy and make her father proud.

Billie Rogers doesn't care what her dad and dog tell her, she knows the supernatural rumors in town are real. And she's going to be the first person to prove it. She's talkative, outgoing, and very knowledgeable in the paranormal - much to her dad's dismay.

Despite their parents relationships, the kids aren't that close. The town's folk expect them to be just like their parents and that couldnt be farther from the truth. But they do have one thing in common with the Original Gang, their mystery solving talent. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason (*wink* plot *wink*) their parents are strongly against them following in their footsteps.

But things come to head one day when Mystery Inc disappear, and the local police turn up useless in the investigation.

Now its up to the kids, Billie, Wren, Grey and Cassia to band together to take up the jobs left in Mystery Inc's absence and find their parents. But in doing so they'll discover that their quaint small town is not all that it's seems and have to unearth a witches spellbook, an old grudge and an ancient evil that many have tried to escape but no one has defeated.

Ft. Side Characters such as The Suspects aka Jinx and Mozz McKnight (daughter and son of Thorn from the Hex Girls!), RJ Herring (Son of Red Herring), and other callbacks from all of scooby doo lore!

This is just the bare bones explanation, I'll go deeper into each character in their own posts and introductions. But this is my own little passion project. I've been obsessed with scooby doo since forever and I've always wanted to make my own iteration :)

#scooby doo #scooby doo reboot #rewrite #shaggy rogers #velma dinkley #daphne blake #fred jones #original characters #writerblr #I'm taking Scooby Doo back from HBO #They're my OCs now

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edensrose · 9 months

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╰₊ 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏'𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒍 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒔◞ ₊˚:

. ˚◞♡ 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔◞ ₊˚﹕how I interpret these characters and write for them in my works. cws for mentions of suicide ( miguel's part ), violence and death.

. ˚◞♡ 𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒆𝒍 𝒐'𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂◞ ₊˚﹕

˚◞❀˳ brown hair, slight curls, crimson eyes, 6'9" in height, age 36

˚◞❀˳ typical spider-mutate powers minus the spider sense. fangs produce paralyzing venom. claws that extend from the pads of his fingers. organic webbing produced from his knuckles and all over his inner forearms. hightened eyesight that are far more sensitive to light than other spider-people.

˚◞❀˳ has a natural instinct and an aggression/rage that came along with the powers. Has to take a stabilizer to suppress this rage or he'll go feral should he get angry enough.

˚◞❀˳ does not have a 'no killing' code. can and will put an end to villains and bad guys if necessary.

˚◞❀˳ becomes the ceo of alchemax after the death of tyler stone ( somewhere along the line he discovers that stone is his biological father. miguel is a product of his mother's affair. )

˚◞❀˳ raised in a household riddled with abuse from his father george o'hara. Was a child prodigy and advanced in biochemistry and physics. went on to work as a geneticist for alchemax in which he quickly became a favourite of tyler stone. however, due to the inhumane experiments conducted, miguel hands in his resignation. stone accepts and throws a farewell office party for miguel, in which his drink is laced with the highly addictive drug: rapture. seeing as alchemax was the only legal supplier of this drug, stone expects miguel to continue working for alchemax, which he does. miguel then conducts an experiment to rid himself of the cell-binding addiction. the process was sabotaged by his supervisor, aaron delgato, in the attempt to kill him (the incident would be covered up as an accident). miguel survived the process; his dna was spliced with the genes of a spider and gained several powers, though he lost his addiction to rapture. this is what granted him his spider powers that would soon lead to him becoming spider-man.

˚◞❀˳ immediately afterwards, aaron discovered miguel's deformities, and started firing at him, despite miguel begging him to stop, since he thought miguel sought to kill him. after their skirmish caused an explosion, aaron almost fell off a ledge, but was caught by miguel. however, he didn't know about his recently acquired talons, cutting into aaron's arm and causing him to fall to his death.

˚◞❀˳ dated a woman named dana d'angelo during his time in alchemax and had a child with her: gabriella. dana and miguel did not work out and thus broke up. ( note, my version of miguel did not cheat on his girlfriend xina nor steal dana away from gabriel. while gabriel was infatuated with dana, she ultimately had a thing for miguel. this explains the jealousy from gabriel in the following point. ) miguel sadly loses dana and gabriella to a public symbiote attack during his early years of being spider-man.

˚◞❀˳ gabriel o'hara discovers miguel's true identity first and aids him in his troubles. however, out of jealousy gabriel devises his own project. the green goblin soon becomes a threat to spider-man, and miguel is horrified to discover that it is his brother. after a public attack, miguel unfortunately ends up killing his brother in battle. a loss he never truly forgave himself for.

˚◞❀˳ miguel's parents meet an end when his mother, conchata o'hara, shoots her husband before shooting herself.

˚◞❀˳ miguel eventually created the spider society to deal with multiversal threats and anomalies. while the spider society was still in its early days, miguel finds a universe with a version of his ex girlfriend dana and his daughter gabriella — a universe in which a version of himself is dead. miguel replaces his other self and stays with this other version of his family. as fate would have it, because miguel was in a universe that was not his own, said universe and all of its inhabitants were destroyed and miguel had to return to his own. heartbroken at the loss of his family yet again, miguel became even more brooding.

. ˚◞♡ 𝒈𝒂𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒍 𝒐'𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂◞ ₊˚﹕

˚◞❀˳ medium-length brown hair, curls, wears a little green ribbon to keep it tied, bright emerald eyes, 6'2" in height, two years younger than miguel.

˚◞❀˳ highly skilled in tech and mechanics. also deeply involved in cyberspace. he became one of the most renowned net-gliders as firelight. once aided miguel in the take down of a notorious hacker.

˚◞❀˳ raised in a household riddled with abuse from his father george o'hara.

˚◞❀˳ was infatuated with dana d'angelo. ( note, my version of miguel did not cheat on his girlfriend xina nor steal dana away from gabriel. while gabriel was infatuated with dana, she ultimately had a thing for miguel. This explains the jealousy from gabriel in the following point. )

˚◞❀˳ gabriel discovers miguel's true identity first and aids him in his troubles. however, out of jealousy gabriel devises his own project. he becomes the next green goblin and succumbs to the mind-altering goblin gas, which ultimately makes him lose his mind.

˚◞❀˳ the green goblin soon becomes a threat to spider-man, and miguel is horrified to discover that it is his brother. after a public attack, miguel unfortunately ends up killing his brother in battle. a loss he never truly forgave himself for.

˚◞❀˳ my writing may also include a version of gabriel from another world who lost miguel to an alchemax accident and did not go on to become the green goblin. when miguel from earth 928b stumbles upon him, he offers him a job at the spider society as the head mechanical engineer.

. ˚◞♡ 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒏𝒐𝒊𝒓◞ ₊˚﹕

˚◞❀˳ black hair, grey eyes, spherical glasses without his mask, little fangs, 6'5" in height, age 38.

˚◞❀˳ typical spider-mutate powers. organic webbing. uses a revolver and other gadgets.

˚◞❀˳ does not have a 'no killing' code. can and will put an end to villains and bad guys if necessary.

˚◞❀˳ is an investigator and has a particularly strong sense of justice.

˚◞❀˳ peter loses his uncle ben to the goblin and his carnie cronies. he then dedicates his time helping others at the houseless shelter that his aunt may runs. while attending a rally where his aunt may speaks out against the corrupt system that runs their city, peter’s passion for justice catches the eye of ben urich, a photographer at the daily bugle. when goblin’s enforcers attack may and peter, ben defends the pair, and ultimately takes peter under his wing at the bugle.

˚◞❀˳ peter confides in ben about finding his uncle ben killed and torn apart with rope marks on his body. he blames the goblin’s cronies and seeks to bring them to justice.

˚◞❀˳ when peter discovers ben is a heroin addict, drugged and unable to answer his phone, he gets a tip meant for the “spider” that leads him to goblin’s goons at the rooney imports warehouse on the pier. it’s here that they’re picking up a shipment of antiques previously headed to the metropolitan museum, and in dropping one of the containers, a bunch of spiders are let loose. one of them bites peter and tells him a bite brings death to those of evil intent, but will bestow the curse of power on him instead. peter receives arachnid-like abilities from the bite and becomes the spider-man.

. ˚◞♡ 𝒉𝒐𝒃𝒊𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏◞ ₊˚﹕

˚◞❀˳ dark hair, wicks, grey eyes, 6'5'' in height, lip piercing, brow piercing, tongue piercing, age 19

˚◞❀˳ typical spider-mutate powers. sometimes uses barbed wire in lieu of regular spider webs.

˚◞❀˳ he is a cat dad

˚◞❀˳ lived as a squatter for some period of his life. was bitten by a spider irradiated by illegal waste dumping which granted him his powers. from that day on he began fighting for freedom alongside his friend captain anarchy.

˚◞❀˳ as leader of the spider army that fought against osborn's oppression, hobie utilized his free spirit as a "radioactive suicide machine" to rally support from the lowest classes that the regime was aiming to stamp out in the name of america's "strength". the thunderbolt department empowered by the use of the v.e.n.o.m., hobie used 15000 volts of punk rock out of an "army of amps" to disable the new symbiotes, then defeated osborn himself by beheading him with his guitar before unmasking himself to the viewing crowd.

#˚◞❀˳ 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒔 ﹕ spiderverse characterisations ꒱ ₊˚⊹#spiderverse #across the spiderverse #into the spiderverse #miguel o'hara #spiderman 2099 #gabriel o'hara #spider noir #hobie brown #spider punk

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consanguinitatum · 9 months

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An in-depth look at David Tennant's 1993 short film, 'SPACES'

I'm back!

Today's David Tennant post will stick with my trend of covering David's roles in his harder-to-find short films. Before 1997's short Bite (covered in my last post) and 2001's One-Eyed Jacques (covered a few posts back), David played the lead role in the 1993 short film SPACES.

SPACES got made because of a Scottish joint short film initiative called First Reels. First Reels - funded by Scottish Screen/Scottish Film Council and STV - was launched in 1991 to provide grants for young and first-time filmmakers to complete their first film or video project.

With a running time of 14:54, SPACES was written and directed by Steve Pang and produced by Pang, Jo Roberts, and Stray Dog Film Company. SPACES starred David as Vinny, Colin Brown as Duncan, Becky Baxter as Jane, Mike Gibbin as the Kilted Drunk, and Daniel Byrne as the Homeless Boy.

When the First Reels project was announced, Pang was studying at Edinburgh's Napier University. He submitted a script - and won the grant. When I spoke with him, Pang told me winning the grant helped provide the funds to make SPACES a reality, in the way he wanted it made. "Had we not won the grant," he said, "I think the film would have still gone ahead in some form, but we would not have been able to pay the cast or equipment suppliers – which would have undoubtedly had a detrimental effect on the film, in my opinion."

In the following years Pang decided to shift gears and move into film and television editing. He began in film as an assistant editor in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies and on television in 1997-1998’s The Vicar of Dibley. Since then he's worked in various editing capacities on a lengthy list of projects including Band of Brothers, The Da Vinci Code, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The 10th Kingdom, and Gravity.

Initiatives like First Reels (and Prime Cuts, which funded six 5-min film dramas annually and helped fund the production of Bite) allowed creators the funds to produce incredible pieces of art that would have otherwise never been made.

And bless them for it! The years these kinds of initiatives were active also happened to be some of the first professional ones of David's career since graduating in 1991 from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). The fact these initiatives were both available and encouraged certainly gave us David Tennant fans more early opportunities to see him on film!

IMDb describes the short as "a young man's night shift in a car park in Edinburgh and the characters he meets over the course of the night: an older colleague with a troubled past, a bright young girl who uses the empty car park for her violin practice, and a young homeless boy." David's character, Vinny, is challenged with a difficult situation and must rise to the occasion to face it.

Pang told me his goal was to "keep things simple", and he came up with an idea to collate all his experiences working part time in a 24-hr car park into a single night. He settled upon an idea that could be shot in one location, and with a small cast.

About David, Pang told me that he was his first choice for the lead role of Vinny in the film. He said DT seemed remarkably in tune with the character he had written, and came across as incredibly natural in the first audition. The role was his immediately. "We contacted a number of local actors’ agencies and as I recall, the actors in the film were all our first choices for each role," Pang told me. "Working with him from rehearsal to shoot was great. We had a tiny budget, a cold dark location, and a night shoot. I remember once our equipment caused a short circuit at the location which required us to completely re-order the schedule. I think our catering consisted of soup and bread for everyone? It was all very basic."

That's it for SPACES. If you want to see it you can- it's available for onsite viewing only at the Moving Image Archive in Glasgow. If you're near there go reserve a viewing. Oh. and here's a screenshot of the film taken from the record for SPACES at the Moving Image Archive website:

And here are all the other screenshots I've gathered up from the film:

#ObscureDavidTennantPerformances #DavidTennant #SPACES #DavidTennantShortFilms

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katjapetersart · 7 months

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Worldbuiltober day 10: Ship.

A Bluebolt warehouse. Seems it's busy as always!

Dclfin Trricti, or the Bluebolt Trading Company, is a huge kottold-ran trading company in Treniskoa. They are fast, efficient and low-profile runners of goods. They are suppliers of pigments, fabrics, secondary production materials, tools and especially buttons and other small crafting neccesities.

They are most well-known for running relay shipments. They can get a fish from the shore to the mountains faster than the local train. Their dog-like size means even rough roads are accessible to their little carts. Their wide-spread network mean they are nearly universally accessible.

Many higher-up Bluebolts also run trading caravans, with other species under their lead.

#art #traditional art #lanjari #worldbuilding #worldbuiltober #d&d #kottold #kobold

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lancshygiene · 10 months

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#Cleaning Materials & Supplies #Clinell #Clinell universal wipes bucket 250 #hygiene and janitorial #Janitorial Hygiene & Medical Supplies #Lancashire Cleaning Supplies #Suppliers of Hygiene Products

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tired-fandom-ndn · 7 months

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I feel like people are so desperate to push blame somewhere, but don't feel able to fight the big corporations and institutions screwing people over, so they always go after the random individuals. We can guilt each other (especially people already shamed by society for living in poverty or not being 'productive' in society), but we can't shame corporations as easily.

Yeah. Like so many of these discussions remind me of shoplifting discourse and the blame that everyone puts on poor people just trying to survive and have a bit of joy instead of on the corporations who outright lie about this shit as an excuse to not pay their artists and suppliers.

I get why people are so passionate, but I have lived so long on the other side of the tracks, neck deep in poverty and the realities of it, that I just cannot bring myself to side with the idea that poor people don't deserve access to art if they can't pay for it right away.

And again, this shit is so much more complicated when we take into account countries outside the US and the ways that book prices are massively hiked and the lack of access to libraries and library apps and the fact that many books are not available to purchase anyway. Like it really just feels audacious to me for all these people on tumblr to be acting like their personal experiences are universal and that everyone has access to the same resources that they do.

#Anonymous

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zvaigzdelasas · 2 years

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The hairpin curves and bumpy roads connecting the mining settlement Goro to the outside world slice through coral-fringed cliffs and forests lined with waterfalls and streams. Yet what makes this picturesque area noteworthy lies deep beneath its red earth: nickel, also known as green gold. Goro is in New Caledonia, a far-flung archipelago 900 miles east of Australia and home to just 272,000 people. But the French territory carries outsize influence, holding about 7.1 million tonnes of nickel – a quarter of the world’s known supply of the mineral. Nickel is vital for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles. [...]

tiny nickel-rich New Caledonia has emerged as a crucial player in a fierce competition for a sorely needed mineral that could ultimately shape global economics.

The stakes for the US run high. It has no domestic nickel-processing capacity and boasts only one active nickel mine, located in Michigan and due for closure in 2025. Energy officials call grade-one nickel a “key vulnerability and key opportunity”.

In contrast, Chinese companies refine nearly 84 per cent of the world’s nickel. Traditionally Indonesia has been a major supplier to the world, accounting for 37 per cent of total output. But its nickel requires additional refining to make batteries, unlike New Caledonia’s higher-grade ore.

Last year the Biden administration’s 100-day review of critical supply chains called on the US government to “invest in nickel-refining capacity in coordination with allied nations”.

The US also put nickel on its critical minerals list. After that designation, the American electric vehicle company Tesla agreed to a multi-year deal with the Goro mine to directly buy 42,000 tonnes of nickel.

The move to secure the world’s largest EV maker’s nickel supply chain dovetails with Biden’s recently announced goal of friend-shoring [sic] EV manufacturing and assembly by 2030.

While Tesla’s involvement has sparked hope of better productivity and an improved environmental record in New Caledonia, the territory’s bloody past and the decades-long struggle of its indigenous Kanak population to reclaim control of land they deem sacred could sink the plan, and, France fears, enhance China’s leverage.

Loyalists to France want the European power to stay “invested in the control over natural resources”, said Matthias Kowasch, an Oceania specialist at the University College of Teacher Education in Graz, Austria. In contrast, “pro independence groups demand New Caledonia, not France, take full control of its natural resources”.

It is unclear how long France can maintain its tight grip on New Caledonia. Kanaks comprise 41 per cent of the population, and most chose not to participate in the last referendum on the territory’s independence. Recent history shows New Caledonia’s decisions in nickel mining also bear political implications felt far beyond its shores.

Perched on the southern edge of New Caledonia’s mainland, Goro is one of three major nickel smelters in the territory. Its open-pit mine, named after a nearby tribe, has for decades been beset by local opposition over ecological disasters and financial losses.

Andre Vama, a Goro clan chief, said tribal elders in 1991 allowed Canadian mining giant Inco to set up a US$4.5 billion nickel refinery on the assumption it would bring jobs and prosperity. He claimed the community was not told beforehand that acid would be used to extract nickel or of the need to clear endemic trees to make way for the mine.

“Most of these trees have medicinal properties,” Vama explained. “If we lose these plants, we can’t pass on this knowledge to our next generations.”

After Inco refused to halt the project in 2006, clashes broke out between Kanak protesters and French troops. Operations changed over the next two years. The new owner Vale, a Brazilian company, introduced high-pressure acid leaching to extract a more refined version of nickel.

Yet other problems surfaced. Since 2010, at least four acid leaks have been reported at the site, resulting in thousands of dead endemic and endangered fish species.

Nickel-mining discord is entwined with the question of the territory’s independence from France, which declared New Caledonia a colony in 1853. Peace has held for the most part, but in 2020, violence erupted in the capital Noumea after Vale announced it was selling the loss-making mine to Australian company New Century Resources.

Five pro-independence members of New Caledonia’s government resigned over the decision. That precipitated the collapse of Thierry Santa’s government in early 2021, making way for Louis Mapou, the first pro-independence ethnic Kanak to serve as president, to lead the territory.

Vale instead cut a deal with Prony Resources, an international consortium, of which Swiss-based commodities trader Trafigura owns a 19 per cent stake. Over half the shares are jointly owned by local communities, including tribal representatives. Members of the Chiefs of the Clan Council, composed of local tribal leaders, regularly attend board meetings and monitor the mine’s environmental impact.

For all its political intrigue, the nickel industry remains the lifeline of New Caledonia’s economy, generating 90 per cent of the territory’s total exports and between 7 and 10 per cent of its GDP.

The Goro mine is in a technical and industrial partnership with Tesla to produce “green nickel”, Kowasch said, as New Caledonia’s other nickel smelters seek to ramp up their production.

Nickel prices have jumped 200 per cent over the last three years. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent prices skyrocketing, forcing the London Metal Exchange to temporarily close nickel trading. [...]

the industry is a major employer in New Caledonia, where unemployment nearly totals 17 per cent. One in four private sector jobs in the territory is related to nickel, according to the Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies of New Caledonia.

And more than half the mines’ employees are Kanak, mostly in blue-collar positions. This fact ties their fortunes to the greater geopolitical rivalry playing out in the region.

France’s effort in 2015 to block nickel exports to China culminated in a month-long blockade by Kanak drivers who feared job cuts. The New Caledonian Congress later approved the exports. China now accounts for 57 per cent of the territory’s nickel exports.

In fact, China in 2018 was the top export destination for New Caledonia, accounting for 31.7 per cent of trade and mostly owing to nickel. China was also the territory’s third-biggest importer.

The Koniambo mine, jointly run by Kanaks and Swiss company Glencore, is reportedly already partnering with China’s Yichuan Nickel Industry and South Korean steelmaker Posco.[...]

French President Emmanuel Macron in 2018 travelled to New Caledonia as well as Australia.

Macron pitched France’s regional role, outlining an axis with India and Australia backed by military sales: Rafale fighter aircraft to India, armaments to southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, and a US$90 billion deal with Australia to build submarines for the Royal Australian Navy.

However, Australia scrapped the deal with France, instead buying nuclear submarines from the US and Britain last year in a security pact dubbed the Aukus alliance.

Cleo Paskal, a senior fellow at the Foundation of Defense of Democracies, said it was evident “none of the Western powers want New Caledonia independent” and that “there’s high awareness of China wanting New Caledonia independent”. “New Caledonia was the base for US operations in that part of the Pacific during the second world war,” Paskal said, noting that many French “military and intelligence assets” are based there.[...]

A 2021 report by the Institute of Strategic Studies of the Military Academy under the French defence ministry [...] described New Caledonia as becoming “the keystone of the Chinese anti-encirclement strategy, while isolating Australia” and said the territory “would also ensure China a supply of raw materials, especially nickel”.

New Caledonia today remains sharply divided, mostly between pro-independence Kanaks of modest socioeconomic standing and relatively affluent pro-France Europeans. [...]

Sonia Backes, leader of the Caledonian Republicans, a pro-France political party, believed France’s exit would let China “take advantage of the situation”.

Most Kanaks count China as a likely future partner. Mickael Forrest, a New Caledonia government official and Kanak representative on the UN Decolonization Committee, said the territory could survive without France.

16 Sep 22

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viratsteelspecial-blog · 1 month

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#ludhiana #india #viratsteels #gurgaon #viratspecialsteels #toolsteelsupplier #gurugram #pune #iso9001 #noida #GreaterNoida #SpecialSteels #ColdWorkSteels #HighSpeedSteels #SteelTrades

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think-and-write · 1 year

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Why Should We Hire You: 7 Best Answers to the Interview Question

A job interview is a stressful situation for all of us. You will be face-to-face with a prospective employer and have to answer various questions about your qualification, skills, and work experience. One of these questions may sound like this: “Why should we hire you?”.

In order not to fail the job interview, let’s look at the mistakes that you need to avoid:

Lack of preparation. To feel confident during an interview, you need to take some time and prepare. Try to find those 3-4 skills that you can tell the employer about, and present them as your advantages over other candidates.

Do not respond with typical, generalized phrases: “I am smart, skilled, and driven, and I want to get this job.” Your goal is to stand out from other job applicants. But everyone can answer with such a template phrase.

Modesty. An interview is not the time or place to be modest. Of course, this does not mean that you need to immediately declare that you are an ideal candidate. Just state the facts: I won this award, I achieved this, I have 10 years of experience, I got a promotion, I broke a sales record, etc. Or you can quote a manager or employer: “The boss said that I…“.

Don’t talk too much about yourself. It is enough to list a few basic skills that meet the requirements for the position. Read post “Tell Me About Yourself”: How to Introduce Yourself in a Job Interview, Sample Answers.”

When comparing yourself to other candidates, it is important not to praise yourself and not to look like a self-conceited boaster.

Example Answers to the Interview Question” Why We Should Hire You?”

Answer #1

“I have all the necessary skills and work experience to cope with the project manager’s responsibilities.

In addition to my successful experience in managing and implementing projects, I also have excellent communication skills: I have always found a common language with customers, developers, and suppliers. Moreover, for me, this area of activity is not just a job, this is exactly what I like to do.”

Answer #2

“After reading the job ad for a programmer, I realized that I meet all your requirements.

I have four years of programming experience. At the same time, I have good communication skills. For a long time, I worked directly with senior executives. That is why I am 100% prepared to work on large interagency projects. I will join the work process on the first day, and will be very glad to have this opportunity."

Answer #3

"That's a good question! You have a slight advantage as you know exactly who you are looking for.

But from the vacancy announcement, I understand that you are looking for someone who can quickly and effectively solve customer problems.

In this case, I want to say that I am a great fit for this position. And in confirmation, I would like to say that I repeatedly faced difficult clients at my last job who were extremely categorical and wanted to immediately terminate the service contract.

But I was able not only to persuade them to stay but also to convince the client that we are the best on the market. Thanks to this, at my previous work, I have received the honorary title of "best employee" for two years in a row."

Answer #4

"Firstly, I have the necessary experience - this is 2 years of work on television. And, secondly, a great desire to try as a producer's assistant.

In the last years of study at University X, I began to undergo training at... Later I was invited to stay there to work. I am familiar with all the processes of TV production and even participated in the editing of several episodes. I have a reputation as an employee who can quickly complete any task, even with a smile.

I like this field of work, this is exactly what I want to do next.”

Why Should We Hire You? Answer #5

"As far as I understand, your company is looking for an experienced marketer to create an effective strategy for distributing and selling products at new market segments.

While working at Company X, I was able to achieve a 25% increase in sales by implementing targeted advertising on social media.

I would like to help your company achieve the same results because I have the necessary knowledge and experience. I can analyze competitors, I can choose the right strategy for development and I can identify free niches for distributing your products.”

Answer #6

"The ad says you are looking for an employee who is patient, organized, and has excellent communication skills.

While volunteering for the National Paralympic Committee, I have learned to be patient, loyal, and kind to athletes and Paralympic participants. I organized and coordinated various events for athletes. It helped me to develop the communication and planning skills that are needed for the work at your company.”

Answer #7

"I think I'm suited for the position of Restaurant Manager. I have five years of experience. During this time I was able to increase profits for the restaurant owner by 27%, as well as optimize the purchase of products and, thus, reduce costs.

In addition, I am familiar with all the stages and processes that are somehow connected with the restaurant business. I went through several stages before becoming a manager: I started my career as a waiter, and after six months I was promoted to shift manager.”

#Job #job interview #interview questions #interview tips #interview preparation

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