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langdxn · 4 years

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Cody asking for the new girl Y/N in the party that the crew of AHS organized today. One of his cast friends tell to him that she just didn't come. She was a very reserved actress and was a very introvert girl, she prefer be in the comfort of her home. What she doesn't know is that Cody would leave the party only to be with her, in his very glamorous (as always) outfit and just chill out with her.

NAWWW I love this so much! Thank you anon, this was a lot of fun 💖💖💖

(gif by codyfernsource)

“She’s not here?”

Cody’s eyes swooped around the crowded room, the blur of familiar faces as he tried to avoid eye contact in case anybody caught him staring. He fiddled nervously with the zip on his striped top, wracking his brains back to the day he invited her. She knew what day and time it was, right?

“Maybe she had other plans,” Gus shrugged, downing the dwindling contents of his solo cup. “Have a drink, dude.”

“No thanks, man,” he refused calmly. “Need a clear head.”

Billie Lourd made a beeline for the duo, landing an acknowledging tickle on Cody’s waist.

“Hey baby, how are—“

“Have you seen Y/N?” Cody cut her off. “Is she here tonight?”

“Um, I don’t think so,” Billie spun on her heels to check the perimeter. “Maybe she got stuck in traffic?”

“On a Wednesday night? Besides, she doesn’t live far from here, right?”

“Couple blocks,” Gus proffered. “She walks home from set every night.”

Cody’s gaze darted to the front door. He could walk to her house and be back before anybody noticed he was gone.

“You’re not honestly going out there, are you? It’s raining like hell!”

Cody raised his eyebrows.

“Honey, do you even know me? Hell is home to me!”

“You got a crush on her, Cody?” Billie giggled, an expressive hand landing on his chest.

“No, of course not,” an empty dismissal fell from Cody’s lips as he formulated a plan to leave the building without attracting too much attention. Brad Falchuk was pitched at the front door, Kathy Bates covering the patio doors leading to the pool. Luckily, the kitchen door was guarded only by the AHS camera crew. They may be the most observant creatures on set, but tonight they’re off duty and they haven’t yet noticed how many drinks Leslie Grossman has sneaked past them.

“I—I’ve gotta go,” Cody excused himself, blowing an air kiss to Billie and thrusting his half full cup into Gus’s chest. Gleefully accepted, the contents were gone in seconds.

“Tell Y/N we said hi,” Gus called over with a chuckle. Smiling to himself, Cody kept his head down as he weaved skilfully through the numbers.

———

The TV drama mumbled nonchalantly, blissfully unaware it had been reduced to background noise while you stared into the middle distance. Tucking your feet snugly into your fleecy robe, you reached for a supersized candy bar and an incredibly generous bottle of champagne. Flinging a chunk of chocolate in the direction of your wide open mouth, you nearly choked on it as you cheered your own success.

An introvert’s food-throwing Olympics is never won nor lost.

Your phone vibrated on the leather couch with an almost obscene buzz. No doubt another Instagram notification from the party, Emma Roberts looking endlessly stunning in a dress you couldn’t even imagine affording, let alone wearing.

It wasn’t that you didn’t like the cast and crew’s company, quite the contrary. You just needed some me time. The wrap party was the annual ultimatum you dreaded ever since you joined the AHS realm; lighting guys making inane small talk with makeup girls, hair guys battling in vain to find something in common with the runners. You scrunched your lips together, aware of how much you were missing at the party but consoling yourself in the knowledge that the anxiety wouldn’t have paid off. Singing into a hairbrush and watching dramatisations on serial killers was a much more profitable pastime. That is, if you can find your hairbrush.

Checking the luminous screen, Cody Fern’s caller ID glared back at you.

Shit, I forgot he invited me.

The longer you left the call unanswered, the more you panicked. Tapping to answer would only lead to twenty questions about your avoidance, but you couldn’t exactly turn down a call from Cody Fern. Your finger hovered shakily over the screen, wincing in agony. Unfortunately for you, said shaking finger tapped the button for you, making you curse silently and yank the phone to your ear.

“Hey—hey Cody, what’s up?” You answered feigning cluelessness, scratching your neck nervously.

“I thought I’d find you at home! I’m outside your door,” his familiar Australian tang chirped down the line.

“Easy there, Ghostface. What happened to the party?”

“Look, if it rains on my hair I swear I will barge my way in there and soak your damn couch.” His playful tone betrayed his serious message, giving you a handful of seconds to race to the door in fear of ruining The Hair.

Swinging the door open, you both simultaneously eyed each other up and down. You in your fluffy dressing gown, plush slippers and pyjamas, Cody head to toe in some glamorous clothing brand you were far too poor to identify. You shared a nervous, mouth-covering laugh before you stepped aside and ushered him in.

“What the hell happened to your hair, Mr Fern?” He instinctively shot a hand up to touch his blonde curls, all still perfectly fixed in place like some Flavian work of art. Cody snapped around to see you grinning from ear to ear. “Got you, babe.”

“So tell me,” he boomed as he made his way to your kitchen, grabbing a glass and the already half empty champagne bottle. “What is it about this very attractive drink that’s more important than the wrap party?”

“Ooh I don’t know,” you humoured him, swaggering over to the counter mocking the clanking of his ridiculously expensive boots on your linoleum floor. “Maybe I wanted a night in with a mysterious bubbly foreigner.”

Cody’s eyebrows raised so high, they may as well merge with his hairline.

“Okay,” you huffed, “I’ll bite, just this once. I’m not a wrap party kind of girl.”

“That’s all well and good honey,” he sassed on his way to the couch, kicking off his boots en route. “But why couldn’t you tell daddy you were going to abandon him and leave him asking the rest of the cast where your pretty face was?”

“That’s my problem, baby. I’m too new, nobody would really notice I’m not there anyway.”

Sinking into your couch and making himself at home, Cody cocked his head with a smile.

“Well I noticed!”

You sighed warmly, perching beside him and whipping your robe over your legs.

“What about the party? Don’t you wanna go back? You’ve seen I’m alive in here, that’s all you wanted to know, right?”

“Screw it, there’s always next year,” Cody declared, throwing an arm over your shoulder as you dipped into his chest. “So what’re we watching?”

“Something called The Assassination of Gianni Versace.”

“Oh really?” Cody chuckled heartily. “Never seen it.”

#cody fern fanfiction #cody fern #cody fern imagines #cody fern x reader

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calm-shy-social · 4 years

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AHS 1984 Thoughts

Well, I can’t believe this season is over already! It was definitely a fun ride, but there are things to be discussed.

I, for one, liked this season. I give it credit for being somewhat concise with its storytelling and it had some great characters. But, as always, there are plot holes and a few gripes I have.

I’ll start off with the characters. They were good, but not outstanding. I think everyone did a great job acting. It was refreshing to see a brand new cast instead of Sarah and Evan in the lead roles. I missed them, but I liked seeing the other actors shine. Leslie Grossman, Angelica Ross, Zach Villa and John Carol Lynch were amazing! Margaret was an absolute psychopath and Leslie really killed the role. Donna was just an amazing queen and I want Angelica to come back again! John Carol Lynch finally got his chance to shine through Mr. Jingles and it was such a well-written character. I thought Zach Villa really capture Richard Ramirez. But I will say, I wish he was a different character. I don’t like Ramirez being romanticized and I’m so mad that the timeline is now inconsistent. But I’ll get to that later. However, Emma and the rest did well, too. It was nice to see Emma play a ‘good’ girl for once. I think Billie did great with portraying Montana. Xavier was a fun character, but he seemed to be pushed aside. Same with Chet, Ray and Trevor. But, ultimately, this season had some strong and weak characters.

Now, onto the plot! The plot was decent and fairly consistent. It didn’t go too off the rails like most seasons. BUT, there is a couple things I didn’t like. One: the timeline inconsistency. Ramirez confirms that he dies in 2013 in Hotel but now, it’s confirmed that he’s been killed and resurrected at Camp Redwood....in 2019...WHAT. While I like the idea, I dislike that it ruins the Hotel connection. However, this might confirm the multiple timelines. It’s shown that there is two timelines in AHS because of Apocalypse. So, it’s possible that AHS 1984 has a different outcome. Another thing is the time jumps. I like time jumps in the show, but why name the season 1984? It doesn’t make sense to me. It should have been AHS: Summer Camp. Lastly, the use of Richard Ramirez. Again, Zach Villa did great but I’d prefer if he was a different character. Maybe a bad boy serial killer who loves Satan? I think it would have been better and it wouldn’t have messed up the timeline. Plus, I thought it was random that Ramirez was even in this season to begin with. But, overall, decent plot. I did like the finale. I thought it was very sweet. Though, I wish they kept the tenth episode. The ninth could have been the musical festival while the tenth was the finale we just watched.

But, overall, I liked this season. It was better than I expected it to be. I’m going to give this an 8/10. I can’t wait for what’s in store for season 10!

#ahs #ahs 1984

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olko71 · 3 years

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New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on http://yaroreviews.info/2021/09/facebook-to-halt-work-on-instagram-kids-version

Facebook to Halt Work on Instagram Kids Version

Facebook Inc. FB 0.18% said it would suspend plans for a version of its Instagram app tailored to children, a concession after lawmakers and others voiced concerns about the photo-sharing platform’s effects on young people’s mental health.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri said Monday that the social-media service is pausing its work so that it can listen to concerns and do more to demonstrate the value of the kids version, which was to be ad-free and allow parents to monitor children’s activity.

“I still firmly believe that it’s a good thing to build a version of Instagram that’s safe for tweens, but we want to take the time to talk to parents and researchers and safety experts and get to more consensus about how to move forward,” Mr. Mosseri said on NBC’s “Today” show.

Facebook’s move follows an article this month in The Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Files series showing that the company’s internal research found Instagram is harmful for a sizable percentage of young users, particularly teenage girls with body-image concerns. The article prompted a Senate hearing on the subject scheduled for later this week.

“We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls,” said one slide from a 2019 internal presentation, summarizing research about teen girls who experience the issues.

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Separately on Monday, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis directed his secretary of state to investigate Facebook in relation to another article in the Journal’s series. That article exposed a company system known as “cross check” that has exempted high-profile users from some or all of Facebook’s rules for behavior on its platforms. Mr. DeSantis said the probe would examine whether the exemptions violate Florida election laws.

Asked for comment, a Facebook spokesman reiterated that the cross check system was designed to help the company accurately enforce policies on content potentially requiring more understanding. He said Facebook has been working to address the issues with the program to improve how it operates.

The Journal’s Instagram article added to concerns about the platform’s effects on young people. Facebook’s plan for a children’s version of the app, which Mr. Mosseri said was intended for 10-to-12-year-olds, has drawn criticism this year from federal lawmakers and state officials over its impact on young people’s mental health. Instagram bars children younger than 13 from its platform but acknowledges that many join anyway.

In May, attorneys general from 44 states and territories urged Facebook to abandon plans for a children’s Instagram platform, arguing that children aren’t equipped to use social media and that there are better ways for them to connect with friends and family. Members of Congress from both parties have also expressed concerns about the plan.

“Facebook is heeding our calls to stop plowing ahead with plans to launch a version of Instagram for kids,” Sen. Ed Markey (D., Mass.) said on Twitter Monday. “But a ‘pause’ is insufficient. Facebook must completely abandon this project.” Rep. Ken Buck (R., Colo.) also called on Instagram to “abolish the program completely.”

In an interview Monday, two of the state officials who criticized Instagram’s plan in the spring, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, also called on Instagram to fully abandon the project.

Facebook executives say that because children already find ways to skirt the app’s age restrictions, it would be better for them to use a version with stronger safety controls. Mr. Mosseri noted Monday that other big internet platforms such as YouTube, a unit of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance Ltd., have versions designed for children under 13.

The company believes the children’s version “is the right thing to do,” Mr. Mosseri said in a statement. “Critics of ‘Instagram Kids’ will see this as an acknowledgment that the project is a bad idea. That’s not the case.”

Mr. Mosseri and Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg have said that social media can help children form connections.

Instagram also plans to offer more parental controls to families with older children, Mr. Mosseri said. The controls would be optional and would allow parents to monitor and shape their teenagers’ experience with the platform. Instagram had been developing some of those tools for the now-paused kids’ platform, he said.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri has said that social media can help children form connections.

Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images

“Parents of kids of all ages are looking for more ways to supervise and control their kids’ experiences online,” Mr. Mosseri said. The controls could give parents the ability to approve whom their teenage children can message and follow, he added.

The Journal’s Sept. 14 article about Facebook’s internal research on Instagram was part of a series showing that Facebook knows its platforms are riddled with a variety of flaws that cause harm. In addition to the Instagram research, the Facebook Files articles—based on a review of internal documents and interviews with current and former employees—also reported on problems with Facebook’s content-moderation policy for high-profile accounts, its efforts to tame angry content and its programs to bar criminals such as human traffickers and drug cartels.

Josh Golin, executive director of a group called Fairplay that advocates reducing companies’ interactions with children, praised Instagram’s decision and said it was evidence of rising concerns about the platform’s harms.

“What you saw here was a really well-organized outcry from so many different circles: experts, advocates, states’ attorneys general, parents,” Mr. Golin said. “That, combined with the really disturbing revelations in The Wall Street Journal, created so much pressure on Facebook that they understood that they really risked drawing the ire of lawmakers and doing long-term damage to their brand.”

Leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee’s consumer-protection subcommittee said last week they would hold a hearing this Thursday to question a senior Facebook executive about its platforms’ effects on young people’s mental health.

On Monday, Facebook said it would make public the internal Instagram research that was the subject of the Journal’s reporting.

“Of course people should judge for themselves, so we’re just making sure that all the Ts are crossed and the Is are dotted so that we can release it both to Congress and then to the public in the next few days,” Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, said at a conference hosted by the Atlantic magazine.

Facebook’s head of research, Pratiti Raychoudhury, said in a blog post Sunday, 12 days after the Journal’s article ran, that the Journal’s reporting mischaracterized the company’s findings about Instagram and teens. Ms. Raychoudhury said that body image was the only area, out of a dozen, where the company found teen girls who reported struggling with the issue said that Instagram made it worse. Facebook’s research shows many teens “feel that using Instagram helps them when they are struggling with the kinds of hard moments and issues teenagers have always faced,” she said.

A Journal spokesman said, “We stand behind The Facebook Files. None of the company’s defenses have cited a single factual error—and in keeping with our standards, we gave Facebook ample time and space to comment before publication.”

The Journal’s article noted that for most teenagers, Instagram’s effects can be manageable and at times positive but highlighted those areas where the company’s own researchers flagged negative effects on at-risk users.

The Facebook Files

Write to Matt Grossman at [email protected]

#PAID

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orbemnews · 3 years

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Five Tech Commandments to a Safer Digital Life Tech is always changing, and so is the way we use it. That means we are always finding new ways to let our guard down for bad actors to snoop on our data. Remember when you shared your address book with that trendy new app? Or when you posted photos on social networks? Those actions may all pose consequences that weaken security for ourselves and the people we care about. Vijay Balasubramaniyan, the chief executive of Pindrop, a security firm that develops technology to detect fraudulent phone calls, said we should always remember that any piece of our identity we post online could eventually be used by fraudsters to hijack our online accounts. “Your digital identity, which comprises all your pictures, videos and audio, is going to fundamentally allow hackers to create a complete persona of you that looks exactly like you, without you being in the picture,” he said. So here are some of the most important guidelines — like strengthening passwords and minimizing the data shared by your phone camera — to keep you and your loved ones safe for the foreseeable future. I refer to these as the five tech commandments in the hope that you will remember them as if they were gospel. Thou Shalt Not Use Weak Passwords Let’s talk about bad password hygiene. About 45 percent of Americans use weak passwords that are eight characters or fewer, according to a survey by Security.org, a research firm. (Fourteen percent used “Covid” in their passwords last year.) The majority of Americans also acknowledged reusing passwords across different sites. This opens doors to many security issues. Weak passwords can be easily guessed by hijackers trying to gain access to your account. And if you use the same password for multiple sites, like your banking account, Target shopping account and Facebook, then all it takes is for one of those sites to be hacked to make all those accounts vulnerable. For most people, the simplest solution is a password manager, software that helps automatically generate long, complex passwords for accounts. All the passwords are stored in a vault that is accessible with one master password. My favorite tool is 1Password, which costs $36 a year, but there are also free password managers like Bitwarden. The other option is to jot down passwords on a piece of paper that is stored in a safe place. Just make sure the passwords are long and complex, with some letters, numbers and special characters. Use Multifactor Authentication No matter how strong you make a password, hackers can still get it if they breach a company’s servers containing your information. That’s why security experts recommend multifactor authentication, also known as two-step verification. Here’s how two-factor authentication has generally worked: Say, for instance, you enter your user name and password for your online bank account. That’s Step 1. The bank then sends a text message to your phone with a temporary code that must be punched in before the site lets you log in. That’s Step 2. In this way, you prove your identity by having access to your phone and that code. Most mainstream websites and apps, including Facebook and major banks, offer methods of two-step verification involving text messages or so-called authenticator apps that generate temporary codes. Just do a web search for the setup instructions. If a company doesn’t offer multifactor authentication, you should probably find a different product, Mr. Balasubramaniyan said. “If a vendor says, ‘All I’m doing is passwords,’ they’re not good enough,” he said. Thou Shalt Not Overshare Many of us rely on our smartphones for our everyday cameras. But our smartphones collect lots of data about us, and camera software can automatically make a note of our location when we snap a photo. This is more often a potential safety risk than a benefit. Let’s start with the positives. When you allow your camera to tag your location, photo-management apps like Apple’s Photos and Google Photos can automatically sort pictures into albums based on location. That’s helpful when you go on vacation and want to remember where you were when you took a snapshot. But when you aren’t traveling, having your location tagged on photos is not great. Let’s say you just connected with someone on a dating app and texted a photo of your dog. If you had the location feature turned on when you snapped the photo, that person could analyze the data to see where you live. Just to be safe, make sure the photo location feature is off by default: On iPhones, open the Settings app, select Privacy, then Location Services and, finally, Camera. Under “Allow Location Access,” choose “Never.” On Androids, inside the Camera app tap the Settings icon that looks like a gear cog. Scroll to “tag locations” and switch the toggle to the off position. You might choose to turn the location feature on temporarily to document your vacation, but remember to turn it off when your trip is over. Jeremiah Grossman, the chief executive of Bit Discovery, said we should be judicious about the photos we take and send to others. Explicit photographs could eventually be exposed to the public. “People break up, and people are jerks,” he said. “Even if that isn’t the case, you give some photos to someone and they get hacked, all of a sudden it’s out there.” Thou Shalt Not Share Data About Friends This is a lesson we have to learn again and again: It’s generally not a good idea to give away information about your friends when using websites and apps, especially with unknown brands. When you share your address book with an app, for example, you are potentially providing the names, phone numbers, home addresses and email information of all your contacts to that company. When you share your address book with an app to invite others to join, you are giving away others’ information even if they choose not to accept the invite. Typically, when you share your address book with an app, it’s for the purpose of finding other friends who are also using a service. But Clubhouse, the social networking app that became popular during the pandemic, was recently criticized over its aggressive collection of address books. When signing up for Clubhouse, users could decline to share their address book. But even if they did so, others on the app who had uploaded their address books could see that those new users had joined the service. This wasn’t ideal for people trying to avoid contact with abusive exes or stalkers. More than 10,000 users signed a petition complaining about the privacy flaw, according to a French data regulator, which said last week that it had opened an investigation into Clubhouse. Clubhouse updated the app this month, addressing some of the privacy concerns. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment. There are kinder ways than sharing your address book to find out whether your friends are using a new service — like asking them directly. Remember to Stay Skeptical All security experts agreed on one rule of thumb: Trust no one. When you receive an email from someone asking for your personal information, don’t click on any links and contact the sender to ask if the message is legitimate. Fraudsters can easily embed emails with malware and impersonate your bank, said Adam Kujawa, a director of the security firm Malwarebytes. When in doubt, opt out of sharing data. Businesses and banks have experimented with fraud-detection technologies that listen to your voice to verify your identity. At some point, you may even interact with customer service representatives on video calls. The most sophisticated fraudsters could eventually use the media you post online to create a deepfake, or a computer-generated video or audio clip impersonating you, Mr. Balasubramaniyan said. While this could sound alarmist because deepfakes are not an immediate concern, a healthy dose of skepticism will help us survive the future. “Think about all the different ways in which you’re leaving biometric identity in your online world,” he said. Source link Orbem News #Commandments #Digital #life #safer #Tech

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bigyack-com · 4 years

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The Incredible Shrinking Wallet - The New York Times

As co-owner of Billykirk, a leather goods brand based in Jersey City, N.J., Chris Bray has devoted the past 20 years to hand-crafting wallets, among other accessories. He can wax philosophical about how “your oils, your skin, your travels” affect the wallet that you carry around. But when Mr. Bray goes out at night, he takes just his ID, one credit card and a few business cards, tucked into a slim card case.“Simplify your life,” he said. “Nine out of ten times, if you have a bi-fold wallet, you’ve got crap in there you don’t need. You’ve got a ticket stub from three years ago.”This from a man who sells bi-fold wallets in four colors. But in recent years, the physical wallet’s central role in our lives has been greatly reduced, as have the size of wallets themselves. As tech companies have introduced mobile apps like Apple Pay and Google Pay in an effort to make the smartphone into a digital wallet, “real” ones — long a fallback of the holiday gift season — are shrinking, or disappearing altogether. Some are becoming gizmos themselves, as if to seem more current: popping out cards with the press of a button and offering benefits like locating services or radio-frequency identification (RFID) blocking, intended to protect against credit-card or identity theft.For men, the classic multi-pocketed model is losing popularity to card cases like the one Mr. Bray carries. They aren’t much bigger than a credit card, and slip easily into a front pocket.Bernard Capulong, the co-founder and editor in chief of Everyday Carry, a men’s gear website, called them “minimalist wallets,” adding, “What’s popular now is as minimal as you can get.”Shinola, a Detroit-based watch and accessories brand, sells the Slim Bifold and the Slim Bifold 2.0 for “pared-down simplicity.” The Slimwallet and Miniwallet by the Dutch company Secrid are leather-wrapped metal cases that can only comfortably hold around four cards. Brands like Ridge, Dango and Trayvax offer similar styles.Mr. Capulong carries a leather card case by Veilance with only two pockets. “The seams are bonded, not stitched,” he said. “So it’s durable and minimalist. I keep maybe eight cards total and a $20 bill folded twice so it takes no space.”Augusto Gomez, who was behind the Prada counter in the men’s arcade inside Bloomingdale’s Manhattan flagship on a recent afternoon, said wallets still ranked as a popular gift, though there were no customers shopping for them at that moment.“Men tend to get things we need,” Mr. Gomez said. “Small items — key chains, wallets. Things they notice you’ve had too long and it’s falling apart.” He added, “I’d say 65 percent of men don’t carry cash anymore. But some still do.” In women’s fashion, leather and nylon belt bags by brands like Gucci, Balenciaga and Supreme, which leave hands free, are also reducing the need for bulky purses and long wallets.“As bags get smaller, the easiest thing to take space away from is the wallet,” said Megs Mahoney Dusil, the founder of PurseBlog, which reviews bags and other accessories. “The shrinking of the wallet allows for more carrying of day-to-day essential items.”Ms. Mahoney used to carry a continental wallet — the zip-around kind with room for receipts and even a passport — but switched recently to a Gucci card case, which she slips inside a Fendi “Peekaboo” bag.“Micro mini” or “toy” bags make plain the diminished role of cash, at least for celebrities and the rich. Last month, Lizzo showed up to the American Music Awards with a Valentino bag so small the strap fit one finger. The interior was big enough to contain a single mint.The French designer Simon Porte Jacquemus sells a 4.5 inch handbag called Le Chiquito, which might hold a change purse. The absurdly tiny Le Petit Chiquito, introduced during Paris Fashion Week last February and retailing for $258, barely holds a few loose coins.

Stuffing It

For centuries, going all the way back to the introduction of paper currency in America in the late 1600s, the wallet has been a traveling bank vault and all-purpose file cabinet for men and women, a place to keep checks, cash and personal ephemera.“I remember my dad’s wallet,” said Leland Grossman, a strategist for a Manhattan-based creative agency. “He had receipts, cards, pictures and a million things. That was my ethos originally. I kept a folded two-dollar bill. I had a Steve Jobs quote: ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish.’”A 1998 episode of “Seinfeld” known to fans as “George’s Exploding Wallet” satirized this tendency to overstuff. The George Costanza character is carrying a wallet so engorged with random items — Irish currency; a rewards card valid at any participating Orlando-area Exxon station — that he can barely close it.“I need everything in there,” George tells Jerry defensively at their favorite diner, before adding Sweet & Low packets to the jumble.By the end of the episode, George is complaining that his back is killing him.Played today, the scene would look strange, even antiquated. “Before, you used to carry everything in a wallet, from your medical card to store cards and receipts,” said Daniel Caudill, the creative director for Shinola. “Now, all of that lives on our phones.”The wallet has seen its responsibilities slowly taken away. Debit cards have all but eliminated the need to carry cash. No one carries checks anymore. Receipts can be emailed. Photos and rewards cards have gone digital.A lot of millennials and members of Gen Z no longer want to be paid in cash; they prefer payment services like Venmo, leavened by emojis, to pad their digital wallets. The future is not a hunk of cowhide in your back pocket. The future is smartphone apps, contactless cards and, ultimately perhaps, a machine that scans your brain for total frictionless life.As if the physical wallet didn’t have enough problems, there’s now an accessory called the Wallet Slayer ($14.99): a sleeve that fits over your smartphone and holds three cards plus cash. As with phone cases before it, a luxury version cannot be far behind.Might the wallet disappear altogether? Increasingly, businesses are no longer accepting cash. In China, big cities like Beijing and Hangzhou have already gone almost entirely cashless, requiring payment by mobile device, which has flummoxed tourists but also made wallets unnecessary.Recently, Shinola has received requests from young urbanites to make a case to hold just one card — ID, said Mr. Caudill, the creative director. Everything else is arguably extraneous.“It’s an aspirational dream for now,” said Mr. Capulong of Everyday Carry. “We’re not quite there yet.”Many retailers in the United States aren’t yet set up to accept mobile payment methods, especially in areas outside big cities. There are also security concerns about having everything on one device. And old habits have a way of hanging on. “I have Apple Pay on my phone, but I use it shockingly little,” Mr. Grossman said. He still carries the Bottega Veneta bi-fold wallet that he bought in college, though he has streamlined its contents. Mr. Grossman pointed to the way watches have remained a steady, if somewhat marginalized, accessory in the digital era. While wallets aren’t luxury status symbols in the same way, he allowed, “You develop wear and tear that gives it character like clothing. It’s part of your journey. It’s a staple of the wardrobe.”Mr. Bray of Billykirk, who has a vested interest in the wallet sticking around, also argued for its indispensability. He said, quaintly, “You need a place to put your stuff.” Read the full article

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stick-by-me · 6 months

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A celebration is in order!

#Happy two year anniversary to this blog!!!!#To many more years and many more stickers 🥂#Also look at these lads I love them #stickers #sticker collection #cute #animals #bunny's favorites #shiny #Mrs. Grossman's brand #Party #Sentimental stickers #Ish. Because two years yippee!!!!!!#announcements

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kraken-spines · 7 years

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A Random Book Tag

Thanks @symonereads for the tag :)

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

Middlemarch by George Eliot. I’ve never read anything by her but I want to...eventually.

2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next?

I read multiple books at once but... I’ll choose one of each

Currently Reading: Daughter of No Nation by A.M. Dellamonica

Last Read: Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

Book To Read Next: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

3. Which book does everyone like and you hated?

Hmm... Magicians by Lev Grossman. It was undeniably book sexist, it wasn’t just the narrator who was sexist. It was the book. Also the world building was really shoddy and... I should save my complaints about it for a review.

4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?

AAAHH No, I like to be optimistic about these things. If I mean to read something I will, eventually. Otherwise it’ll be abandoned. But it was a slog reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist the third time as a required reading for school. :/

5. Which book are you saving for “retirement?”

Well, I don’t think I’m saving any but there are books I would certainly like to reread as an old lady. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Kindred by Octavia Butler, and Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake are all ones I would love to see my perspective on in 50 years from now.

6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?

If I am annoyed with a book, or bored I will read the ending to see if it gets better.

7. Acknowledgements: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?

The more I like a book, the more interested I will be in the acknowledgements. So a five star book’s acknowledgements will be a lot more important than a two star book’s for example.

8. Which book character would you switch places with?

Going back to A.M. Dellamonica’s Hidden Sea Tales world I wouldn’t mind swapping places with the main character, Sophie Hansa. It’s not that dangerous of a world and the magic is fun.

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?

Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense reminds me of my grandmother :)

10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.

I’ve won a couple books in giveaways, I’ve been given them as gifts, I’ve bought them but um... but I wouldn’t call that ‘interesting’.

11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?

I give away books pretty often. So it’s not really special to me. It’s just a matter of I literally have no room for this book and I’d rather give it to someone who would enjoy it rather than selling it.

12. Which book has been with you to the most places?

That’s interesting. Probably my copy of Franz Kafka’s short stories it went all over with me for a while.

13. Any “required reading” you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?

Well it hasn’t been ten years yet. But I would be willing to give The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne another try. I hated it in school.

14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?

I’ve found a lot of cool stuff, gross stuff, and weird stuff in books. Old photos, reciepts, grocery lists, gum wrappers, a wedding speech, those little funeral cards, a literal banana peel, my favorite is a drawing of a frog on the title page and it has a speech bubble over its’ head revealing a massive spoiler for the book.

15. Used or brand new?

I don’t feel as bad about marking up used books, so used.

16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?

I mean, I’ve only read Salem’s Lot but I do think the movies based on his books are fun - however they don’t particularly inspire me to read the books.

17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?

Jaws, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Casino Royale are three that stick out to me.

18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.

19. Have you ever read a book that’s made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?

Patricia A. McKillip had a lot of food scenes which made my mouth water in her short story collection Dreams of Distant Shores.

20. Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?

Huh, I don’t know. I usually take recommendations from pretty much anyone.

I’ll tag: @c-foley @alwaysbeyondhope and @just0nemorepage

#i got tagged #booklr

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olko71 · 3 years

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New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on http://yaroreviews.info/2021/06/united-plans-to-buy-15-supersonic-planes

United Plans to Buy 15 Supersonic Planes

United Airlines said it hopes to fly passengers on a planned new supersonic jetliner by decade’s end, which would resurrect high-speed flights more than two decades after that method of travel was grounded.

Parent United Airlines Holdings Inc. UAL -4.25% on Thursday said it would acquire small jetliners being developed by Boom Technology Inc. that would cut travel times and appeal to higher-paying fliers.

United said it would buy 15 of Boom’s planned Overture jets if the plane meets safety, operational and sustainability standards. Boom hopes to fly a scaled-down prototype later this year or early in 2022, with the full-size, 88-seat version targeted to carry passengers by 2029.

A trio of companies have vied to develop supersonic business jets and small passenger planes over the past decade to fill a gap left by the Anglo-French Concorde, which was retired in 2003 because of high costs and concerns about the noise it generated.

Doubts about market demand and the challenges of gaining approval for new engine technologies and materials used to make the planned aircraft quieter and more economic than the 100-seat Concorde have plagued firms developing the new jets.

Aerion Corp., with backers including Boeing Co. , folded last month after it said it had been unable to raise enough money to produce a planned supersonic business jet. Boston-based Spike Aerospace continues to develop an 18-seat supersonic jet.

Boom declined to disclose financial terms but said that the agreement includes a nonrefundable industry-standard upfront payment from United, as well as an option for the U.S. carrier to buy 35 additional aircraft for a pre-negotiated price.

Denver-based Boom was launched in 2014 and has raised $270 million from investors. Japan Airlines Co. in 2017 invested $10 million in Boom and signed nonbinding options to purchase 20 planes.

A supersonic passenger jet in development by Boom Technology could slash transcontinental travel times in half. Photo: Boom Technology (Video from 11/15/16)

Boom said its Overture jet would be capable of flying at Mach 1.7, or 1.7 times the speed of sound. That could allow the planned jet to reduce the flight time between London and United’s hub in Newark, N.J., to 3½ hours from over six hours, and cut the journey from San Francisco to Tokyo to six hours from over 10 hours.

Some industry observers are skeptical about the supersonic market. Richard Aboulafia, an aviation consultant at the Teal Group, said there are only a handful of routes with enough traffic to support enough full-fare premium passengers, and not enough to justify the development and production of a supersonic jetliner.

Boeing decided continued investment in supersonic air travel didn’t make sense for its business, Chief Executive David Calhoun said Thursday. “It’s got to really stand on its own, and our decision on supersonic was that––it didn’t,” Mr. Calhoun said at an analyst conference Thursday. “We didn’t believe in it quite as much as we thought we could.”

Still, Mr. Calhoun said United would be on the leading edge if the technology can be developed in a reasonable time frame.

Mike Leskinen, United’s head of investor relations, said the airline believes there will be ample appetite for supersonic trips from business travelers concentrated in United’s coastal hubs “Demand is not the issue here,” he said.

Mr. Leskinen said he is confident Boom will be able to raise the additional funds it will need to develop and certify its supersonic jet. “We spent a lot of time picking the right partner,” he said.

Sitting in front of a brand-new model of Boom’s Overture at the same analyst conference Thursday, United CEO Scott Kirby declined to say how much the airline is spending on its deal with Boom.

Concorde’s launch heralded expectations of the wider adoption of supersonic flying, only for airlines and aircraft makers to opt for planes such as the Boeing 747 that were cheaper to fly.

That left Concorde an economic failure after only two carriers— British Airways and Air France —bought the plane. High costs and concerns about the noise the Concorde produced wound up curtailing its use to pricey luxury trips between Europe and the East Coast. A fatal crash in 2000 and the travel slump after the 9/11 attacks led to the Concorde’s retirement.

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Boom Chief Executive Blake Scholl said there have been significant technological advancements since the Concorde was designed, such as lighter carbon-fiber components and quieter, more efficient engines. Boom last year announced a partnership with Rolls Royce Holdings PLC to develop propulsion systems for the aircraft.

The engines “allow the airplane to fly faster and burn less fuel while being quieter,” he said. Boom has said that its aircraft won’t be noisier than typical jets around airports and that sonic booms will at first only occur over the ocean, though United and Boom hope that policy makers will eventually approve supersonic routes over land.

Citing renewed interest in supersonic travel, the Federal Aviation Administration recently streamlined rules surrounding testing of supersonic aircraft.

Environmental concerns have also weighed on demand for supersonic jets, which would use more fuel than conventional jets.

Boom says the Overture would be capable of using only sustainable aviation fuel. Supplies of the fuel made from plants or waste are limited, however, and it still produces some emissions and currently costs five times more than regular jet fuel.

The deal is United’s latest foray into speculative futuristic aircraft with a potential ecological payoff. The airline earlier this year announced a $20 million investment into Archer Aviation Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif., company developing flying electric taxis.

Like the planned Boom jets, Archer’s air taxis must obtain regulatory approval and meet United’s operating requirements before the airline goes through with plans to purchase 200 of the aircraft.

Write to Matt Grossman at [email protected] and Alison Sider at [email protected]

#PAID

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jobsearchtips02 · 4 years

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Newsletter: ‘Even Worse Before it Improves’

This is the web variation of the WSJ’s newsletter on the economy. You can sign up for daily shipment here

Cut Taxes or Boost Spending?

President Trump desires a payroll-tax cut in the next round of economic relief. The reaction from financial experts and lawmakers in both celebrations: nah. Mr. Trump’s standard argument– lower payroll taxes minimize the expenses of hiring and maintaining workers– is proper, economic experts state. However they add that there are more efficient methods to achieve the very same objectives and caution that the coronavirus pandemic, not tax policy, is the primary barrier to hiring and development. “There’s just no circumstance where the tens of millions who are on unemployment insurance coverage today would have jobs if it were a couple of portion points more affordable to employ them,” stated Jesse Rothstein, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Much of a payroll-tax cut would go to individuals whose tasks and earnings aren’t in jeopardy because of the pandemic, and the policy would not straight help most jobless Americans. Congress is considering other incentives for struggling companies and households such as a tax credit for hard-hit companies and a 2nd round of stimulus checks, Richard Rubin reports.

Podcast: Why a payroll tax cut is unpopular in Congress. Listen here

WHAT TO ENJOY TODAY

U.S. existing-home sales for June are expected to jump to an annual speed of 4.73 million from 3.91 million a month previously. (10 a.m. ET)

LEADING STORIES

Coronavirus Briefings Return

President Trump alerted that the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. is most likely to intensify and urged Americans to use masks. Speaking from the White Home in his first coronavirus briefing in numerous months, Mr. Trump largely kept to scripted remarks, worrying the administration’s actions on screening and respirators, while advising Americans to take preventative measures, including asking youths to stay out of congested bars and wear face coverings, Catherine Lucey and Andrew Restuccia report.

” Some locations of our country are doing really well.– President Trump

Federal Reserve officials next week are set to deliberate how and when to present more support for a battered economy Brand-new policy isn’t expected at the July 28-29 meeting, however considerations could assist settle any plans that get rolled out in September or later on this fall. 3 items for conversation: 1.) Describing how long they prepare to keep rates of interest near no. 2.) Whether to change the composition of their purchases of Treasurys and home loan bonds towards longer-dated securities, as they did after the 2008 monetary crisis. 3.) Concluding a yearlong review of the Fed’s long-run policy-setting strategy. Numerous authorities have stated they’ll be much better able to decide the precise nature of their intend on the first two products once they get a clearer view of the economic outlook, which remains very unsure, Nick Timiraos reports.

Ripple

Simply when numerous owners of hotels in Florida, Texas, Arizona and California believed the worst of the pandemic was behind them, a rise of Covid-19 cases is ruining any near-term recovery hopes. Need in 12 of 13 Florida markets, gauged by the variety of room nights acquired, compromised for the week that ended July 11 compared with the week that ended June 27, according to data company STR. Overall demand was down 7.4%in Florida for the duration. In Arizona, need fell 9.9%and it was down in Texas, too, stated the information firm, which compared the recently in June with the 2nd week in July to omit the result of the July 4 weekend, Peter Grant reports.

Coca-Cola’s second-quarter sales fell 28%from a year previously as out-of-home usage— whatever from dining establishments to bars to theater and sports arenas– plummeted. But the drink giant stated it thinks the most significant difficulties of the pandemic are behind it. China, Southeast Asia and Western Europe have done a “pretty good task in managing the worst phases of the pandemic” and sales there must continue to enhance, Coke’s finance chief, John Murphy, informed the WSJ’s Jennifer Maloney. “Here in the U.S., we’re seeing a spike in a number of places however the degree of lockdown is not nearly what it was.”

United Airlines stated it will trim more flying this quarter in reaction to stalling demand while cost-cutting efforts will reduce just how much cash it burns moving into the fall. The Chicago-based airline on Tuesday reported a quarterly loss of about $1.6 billion and stated it plans to fly 35%of its typical schedule in the three months through September, Doug Cameron reports.

The moms and dad company of Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank menswear shops said it is thinking about closing as numerous as 500 retail areas, or more than a third of its overall, as it grapples with reduced need during the Covid-19 pandemic. Tailored Brands likewise stated it will lay off 20%of its corporate staff and lower its supply-chain footprint, Matt Grossman reports.

Times Like These

China’s president promised to keep reinforcing the country’s domestic market while more opening it to foreign financiers, indicating his willingness to strengthen financial ties at a time of rising international stress. Xi Jinping’s remarks come as conflict has actually been increasing between Beijing and the West, as more nations follow the U.S. lead in restricting Chinese business’ existence in their markets, Trefor Moss reports.

The U.S. purchased the abrupt closure of its consulate in Houston, a remarkable escalation in bilateral tensions that Beijing condemned as outrageous and unmatched.

The U.S. included 11 Chinese companies to a trade blacklist, a move that entangles major brands and will likely further a reordering of supply chains that feed American customers. U.S. authorities said the suppliers are connected to human-rights abuses of the Uighur minority group.

The rivalry in between the U.S. and China is broadening to area Both countries are preparing to send out spacecraft to Mars China’s very first objective to another planet is set to launch this week. The U.S. objective is because of launch July30 The head-to-head Mars objectives are the most recent indication that China is ready to challenge the U.S. in area exploration, in current decades an American maintain.

WHAT ELSE WE’RE READING

One unintended consequence of coronavirus-related lockdowns: an increase in domestic violence A silver lining is the short-lived reduction in rape and sexual harassment, highlighting the heterogeneity of impacts of one policy on different outcomes related to violence against women,” UCLA’s Saravana Ravindran and Manisha Shah compose in a working paper

Actual Time Economics has actually launched a downloadable calendar with concise sneak peeks projections and analysis of significant U.S. data releases. To contribute to your calendar please click on this link

%%.

from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/newsletter-even-worse-before-it-improves/

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deniscollins · 4 years

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Mass Firing on Zoom Is Latest Sign of Weight Watchers Unrest

In late April, Weight Watchers announced plans to cut $100 million in costs because of the coronavirus pandemic, including mass firings and likely permanent closures of some locations. If you were a WW executive, how would you reply to an employee recommending that groups of employees be notified of their layoffs with 3-minute Zoom calls: (1) Implement plan, (2) not implement? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

On the afternoon of May 14, Joanne Patten sat down at her computer in her home in Houston and logged in to a Zoom call with her employer, WW International, the company formerly known as Weight Watchers.

She listened as her boss, reading from a script, said she and the other employees on the Zoom call were being fired, effective when the three-minute session ended. It was one of numerous Zoom calls that occurred simultaneously across the country, resulting in the firing of an undisclosed number of WW employees.

“I was like, what just happened?” said Ms. Patten, 59, who was a part-time employee for nearly 11 years. “I put a call into my territory manager and said: ‘What was that? Are you kidding me? That’s how you’re going to fire me after all of these years?’”

For employees of WW, the mass terminations were especially painful because in recent years the company, under its chief executive, Mindy Grossman, and its high-profile investor and board member Oprah Winfrey, has moved from focusing on weight loss to a more full-on embrace of the broader wellness movement. In 2018, the company changed its five-decade-old moniker from Weight Watchers to WW and introduced the slogan “Wellness That Works.”

“This is supposed to be a caring, wellness corporation,” said Ms. Patten, who said she would have preferred to be let go in a one-on-one conversation with her boss. “The way they did it, it was just heartless.”

Nick Hotchkin, the chief financial officer for WW, declined to say how many employees were fired through the Zoom calls; the company had more than 17,000 employees at the end of last year, most of them part-time workers.

“It wasn’t practical to have all of the conversations be one on one,” Mr. Hotchkin said. He added that employees had been encouraged to reach out to their managers for follow-ups after the Zoom meetings.

In late April, WW announced plans to cut $100 million in costs because of the coronavirus pandemic. The firings and likely permanent closures of some locations are part of those savings, Mr. Hotchkin said.

“Even as we start a phased reopening of some of our locations, we know our business will continue to be impacted by this crisis,” he said. “That was the context in which we decided to restructure our studio business, and make substantial changes to our corporate structure and work force.”

Ms. Patten and other employees said the wellness strategy adopted by the company in recent years had not been embraced by some longtime members who, like millions of people over the years, had signed up to lose weight.

When the pandemic forced in-person member meetings at studios to move to Zoom calls, attendance dropped, several former employees said.

“It was cancellation after cancellation after cancellation,” said Nicolle Nordman, 53, who worked for the company for 18 years in a variety of jobs, before she was fired over Zoom. “Those of us working customer service were joking daily, ‘How could there be anybody left to cancel?’”

The company said it had not seen any spike in cancellations. In the first quarter, which ended in March, subscribers to its higher-cost studio and app plan fell 5 percent while subscribers for its less-expensive app-only plan rose nearly 16 percent.

Before the pandemic hit, about a quarter of the company’s members were paying $44.95 a month for access to workshops in its 800 branded studios or 2,500 locations like community centers, places of worship, hotels and other spaces. The other subscribers pay $20.95 a month for WW’s app. The company had been making its digital platforms a priority, and Mr. Hotchkin said it was accelerating that shift.

Weight Watchers became a global sensation after its founding in 1963 by Jean Nidetch, a housewife from Queens. Millions of people turned to its programs to lose weight.

The program’s system of points — three for a boneless, skinless chicken breast or 10 for a chocolate frosted doughnut — gave them a road map to follow when eating. The group meetings and weigh-ins provided support and accountability.

“I believe in the program because it worked for me,” said Jennifer Remedi, a mother of three from La Grange, Ill., who joined in 2000 and lost 70 pounds in 10 months. She then worked part time for the company for 19 years as a receptionist, or “guide” in WW parlance, at multiple locations, making $25 to $35 per meeting for the two or three meetings she worked on Saturdays. Members she had seen for years had become friends.

“Working for Weight Watchers was about community,” Ms. Remedi, 52, said. “It was a community of support, encouragement and friendship. You helped people achieve their goals and, ultimately, helped them to be healthier and happier. That’s why I stayed there.”

But the company struggled for years as consumers shifted away from diet programs, instead embracing natural foods and health. Competition from free or inexpensive apps, like the Under Armour-owned MyFitnessPal, also pulled customers away.

The company’s fortunes appeared to take a turn for the better in 2015 when Ms. Winfrey, who had frequently talked about her battle with weight on her television show, paid $43 million for a 10 percent stake in the company and joined its board of directors. The day of the announcement, shares of Weight Watchers doubled.

In the spring of 2017, Weight Watchers named Ms. Grossman, the chief executive of the Home Shopping Network, and a friend of Ms. Winfrey’s, its chief executive.

Ms. Grossman moved quickly to reposition the company as more of a lifestyle and wellness brand. In 2018, Weight Watchers rebranded itself WW, saying that while it remained a weight-management company, it would also strive to be the “world’s partner in wellness.”

In June 2018, the stock of WW peaked at more than $101 a share.

Soon, group meetings that had been free form in nature and focused on topics like strategies for eating at Mexican restaurants — take only 14 tortilla chips from the basket, break them into small pieces on a napkin in front of you and do not touch the basket again — were replaced by broader themes like stress or exercise. Employees who had once asked members about their vacations or family had to strictly follow scripts.

“Members no longer had to weigh in, and we went from topics about what to do or how to handle the real world to these touchy-feely, warm-and-fuzzy topics that, at times, made me uncomfortable because I’m not a psychologist or a psychiatrist,” said Lynn Allred, 58, a teacher who worked part time at Weight Watchers meetings in California for 15 years before being fired over Zoom. She said attendance at meetings she worked at had dropped.

By the spring of 2019, WW’s stock had dropped below $20 a share after Ms. Grossman said marketing efforts that January — WW’s biggest subscriber month — had not connected with customers.

“I think it needed to be more weight-loss focus,” Ms. Grossman said in a call with Wall Street analysts in February 2019.

Since then, company executives say, they have been more successful in balancing WW’s wellness push with its weight-loss mission in its marketing, noting that the company hit an all-time high of five million subscribers at the end of last year.

“When this crisis hit, ironically, we had had a strong start to the year,” Mr. Hotchkin said. “We had introduced a new program and done a multicity tour with Oprah Winfrey, which had a great impact on the business.”

#Weight Watchers #Firings

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