#railway group d

[rudrjobdesk]

RRC Railway Group D Exam: प्रयागराज में 3740 पदों के लिए 17 अगस्त से 7.5 लाख अभ्यर्थी देंगे रेलवे की परीक्षा

RRC Railway Group D Exam: प्रयागराज में 3740 पदों के लिए 17 अगस्त से 7.5 लाख अभ्यर्थी देंगे रेलवे की परीक्षा

RRC Railway Group D Exam 2022 : रेलवे की ग्रुप डी (आरआरसी) भर्ती परीक्षा 17 अगस्त से शुरू हो रही है। यह परीक्षा कई चरणों में दो महीने तक चलेगी। यूपी के अलावा मध्य प्रदेश और उत्तराखंड में भी सेंटर बनाया गया है। इसके लिए सूचना जारी कर दी गई है। आठ अगस्त से अभ्यर्थियों को परीक्षा केंद्र की जानकारी मिलने लगेगी। 13 अगस्त से अभ्यर्थी अपना एडिमट कार्ड डाउनलोड कर सकेंगे। प्रथम चरण पास करने के बाद…

View On WordPress

#17 अगस्त से परीक्षा #exam from 17 august #Government jobs #group d exam #group d exam date #Hindi News #Hindustan #News in Hindi #railway group d #railway group d recruitment #railway recruitment board #rrb ald #rrb group d #rrc group d #rrc prayagraj #rrc recruitment #solver gang #आरआरबी एएलडी #आरआरबी ग्रुप डी #आरआरसी ग्रुप डी #आरआरसी प्रयागराज #आरआरसी भर्ती #ग्रुप डी परीक्षा #ग्रुप डी परीक्षा डेट #रेलवे ग्रुप डी #रेलवे ग्रुप डी भर्ती #रेलवे भर्ती बोर्ड #सरकारी नौकरी #सॉल्वर गैंग #हिन्दुस्तान

[snehasharma9631]

RRB Group D Level 1 Cut off Marks 2022

RRC/RRB Group D Level 1 Cut off Marks 2022- Railway Level 1 Posts Expected Cutoff for all Phases, RRC CEN 01/2019 CBT Cutoff Marks Zone wise for General, OBC, SC, ST Categories 

RRC Level 1 Post CBT Expected Cut off – The Railway Recruitment Board has conducted Computer Based Test for Level 1 Posts under RRC CEN 01/2019. Group D CBT Exam was held in 5 Phases from 17 August to 11 October 2022. Board has released the Question Paper, Answer key and Responses of the Group D Examination zone-wise. Lakhs number of candidates have appeared in this competitive and now they are searching Railway Group D Result & Cutoff category-wise. Here we are providing the expected Group D Cutoff Marks Region wise.

Railway Recruitment Board will release the Official Cutoff List along with Level 1 Posts CBT Result. Till that, stay tuned here and get the latest updates. Now you can calculate probable Exam scores and RRB Group D Cutoff Marks using the Answer key and Solved Question Paper. The Computer Based Test (CBT) is a total of 100 marks. The exam consists of 100 questions from General Science, Mathematics, General Intelligence & Reasoning, General Awareness, and Current Affairs. Minimum percentage of marks for eligibility in various categories: General -40%, EWS -40%, OBC (Non Creamy Layer) -30%, SC -30%, ST -30%.

The Exam authority has fixed the minimum qualifying marks for the Level 1 Posts CBT Exam. Candidates read this full article for category-wise RRB Group D Level 1 Cut off Marks 2022. Examinees who will get minimum passing marks will declare qualify for the next selection round i.e. Physical Fitness Test (PET). Therefore all contenders check RRC Group D CEN 01/2019 Expected Cut-off Marks Region-wise.

For more visit www.latestjobhub.in

#RRB Group D Level 1 Cut off Marks 2022 #Railway Group D Result 2022 #RRB Group D Cutoff Marks 2022 #RRB Group D Level 1 Exam Qualifying Marks 2022

[24cgnews]

​आरआरबी ग्रुप डी फेज 1 परीक्षा के प्रवेश पत्र जारी, यहां से करें डाउनलोड

​आरआरबी ग्रुप डी फेज 1 परीक्षा के प्रवेश पत्र जारी, यहां से करें डाउनलोड

​RRB Group D Phase 1 Admit Card 2022: रेलवे भर्ती बोर्ड (RRB) द्वारा ग्रुप डी फेज 1 एग्जाम (Group D Phase 1 Exam) के लिए प्रवेश पत्र जारी कर दिए गए हैं. जिसे उम्मीदवार आधिकारिक साइट पर जाकर डाउनलोड कर सकते हैं. इच्छुक उम्मीदवार इस परीक्षा के एडमिट कार्ड आधिकारिक साइट rrbcdg.gov.in पर जाकर डाउनलोड कर सकते हैं. आरआरबी द्वारा फेज 1 परीक्षा का आयोजन 17 अगस्त 2022 से लेकर 25 अगस्त 2022 तक कराया जाएगा.…

View On WordPress

#education #Railway Admit card #RRB #RRB Admit Card 2022 #​RRB Group D Admit Card 2022 #आरआरबी #आरआरबी एडमिट कार्ड 2022 #​आरआरबी ग्रुप डी एडमिट कार्ड 2022 #रेलवे एडमिट कार्ड #शिक्षा

[sscchsl1]

Most Important Questions For RRB Group D Exam

https://www.testwale.com/test-series/14/rrb-group-d/

Getting job in the railways is really hard these days and a matter of pride. The exam of RRB Group D is going to be conducted from 17th August 2022. Many candidates are working so hard for the exam to get this prestigious job in the Indian Railways. If you are one of them, you should read these below-mentioned questions which will help you to know the difficulty level of the examination.

1. Which polymer is used in making floor tiles?

Ans. Poly vinyl chloride

2. Where is the headquarters of the Board of Control for Cricket in India?

Ans. Mumbai

3. What is the layer on the magnetic disc?

Ans. Iron oxide

4. Which writ is issued to protect personal liberty?

Ans. Habeas Corpus - It is a command to produce the prisoner in front of the body in a physical court within 24 hours.

5. Bannerghatta Biological Park (Bangalore) is famous for?

Ans. For Butterfly (India's first butterfly garden)

6. What is the chemical name of Vitamin B3?

Ans. Niacin

7. When did the first battle of Panipat take place?

Ans. On 21 April 1526. (Between Babur and Ibrahim Lodi - Babur won).

8. In which region is the ozone layer found?

Ans. In the stratosphere - [the unit of measurement of the ozone layer is the Dobson]

9. Which is the 193rd country of UNO?

Ans. South Sudan

10. On which model was the first five year plan based?

Ans. Harald-Domar model (related to agricultural development)

#rrb group d hindi mock test #rrb group d hindi mock test series #railway group d test series

[apctnews]

#The Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) #RRB Group D Examination Schedule #apctgroup #apctnews #latest news

[kumatajdg]

I was commissioned by the LEGO train group LUKR to design their club logo for the year! Finally my digital art and LEGO building have crossed streams :D It's based on the "cycling lion" emblem used by British Railways in the 50s and 60s.

#LEGO #LEGOtrains #British Railways #Logo design #Commission #Emblem #Rail art #Digital Art #BR #Cycling Lion

[todaysdocument]

Letter from Alexander T. Augusta to Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana Regarding a Street Car Incident

Record Group 94: Records of the Adjutant General's OfficeSeries: Personal Papers of Medical Officers and PhysiciansFile Unit: Augusta, A.T., 1863-66

Washington, D. C., February 8th 1864. Hon. C. A. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War. Sir, I have the honor to report that your request of this date to forward to the Department an account of the outrage committed upon me by the Conductor of Car No. 32, of the City Railway Co., last week, has been received, and the following are the facts connected therewith:- I had been summoned at attend a Court Martial as a witness in the case of Private Geo: Taylor who was charged with causing the death of a colored man last August, the said colored man having died in the hospital of which I was at the time in Charge. I started from my lodging at the corner of 14th and I Streets, on the morning of February 1st for the purpose of proceeding to the hospital in order to obtain some notes relative to the case. As my time was short, and it was raining very hard at the time, I hailed the car which was passing just as I came out of the door, and it was stopped for me; but as I was in the act of entering, the conductor informed me that I would have to ride on the front of the driver. I told him I would not, and asked him why I could not ride inside. He stated that it was against the rules for colored persons to ride inside. I attempted to enter the car, and he pulled me out and ejected me from the platform. The consequence was I had to walk the whole distance through rain and mud, and was considerably detained past the hour for my attendance at Court. On my arrival, I reported the case to the Court. [full transcription at link]

#archivesgov #February 28 #1864 #19th century #us colored infantry #us civil war #segregation #streetcars

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 45 – The Gods Are Bastards Volume One by D. D. Webb

This was the first web fiction I’ve properly archive binged in a long while. I’d quite forgotten the experience of having however many hundred thousand words just waiting to consume your every waking hour for a weekend and change. So thanks to tumblr peer pressure for getting me to finally give this a try, I suppose.

So, this is a web serial set in a world that very much feels like a D&D setting a couple generations after it broke out of medieval stasis – there’s dragons and demigods and thousand year old retired elven adventurers who are all laws unto themselves, and then there’s also a continent spanning hegemonic empire that’s invented magical railways and telegraphs and industrial revolutions. The story specifically follows the freshman class of the Unseen University, a remote institution run by one of the two or three most powerful (former) adventurers alive, educating and connecting the future global elite. The freshman class – including a demigod, the only two paladins in the world, an amnesiac archdemon, and a pirate crown princess – are the protagonists for the better part of the story, bonding and going to classes and sent on absurd field expeditions and generally becoming an incredibly high-powered adventuring party. Each book also has one or two subplots following characters only very tenuously connected to them out in the wider world, more often than not centred around wither Bishop Darling of the Universal Church (former high priest of the god of thieves) or Principia Locke, conwoman and second most annoying elf alive. I will put my cards on the table now and say these plots are what makes the thing worth reading.

The students are – okay, they start off just, bad, but they do improve over the course of the first few books in terms of how grating they are to read (Book 1 is very heavy on the college soap opera). But they do all have the fundamental issue that, where the other plots largely feel like people embedded in a world with agenda to pursue and complex circumstances to navigate, they all feel like high fantasy superheroes being led along a breadcrumb trail in a world devoid of real threats or meaningful ties outside the university and the occasional specific patron. Or put another way, it is not at all subtle that they are the Protagonists or Reality, which instantly makes me dislike them and want them to fail. But going by what makes popular web fiction I’m fairly sure that instinct is mostly just a me thing.

Special shoutout to Tris, the crusading paladin of the group. As of book one she’s a repressed sheltered army brat who has a whole list of species and religions she thinks should be killed on sight and several historical genocides she wholeheartedly endorses. She has a real arc over the volume, but a big part of it is less challenging the fundamental logic of that than just slowly removing lines from her kill on sight list (but nowhere near all of them). I am not entirely sure how self-aware the book is about this.

The remainder of the book, and by far the better part, is mostly dedicated to sideplots centring Bishop Darling’s byzantine intrigues within the universal church, the politics of the empire’s capital city, and his high forays into high risk tutoring and foster-parenting, and Principia Locke, thieves guild resident underachiever, town ne’erdowell and second most obnoxious elf alive. These two characters are objectively the best, and also they’re allowed to be at genuine risk and thrown into tasks where fucking up is a real possibility and the ultimate resolution is very unclear. The best plot of the entire volume is easily Darling and 3 other bishops being deputized as a black ops force by the (arch)pope and sent to illegally poke around a small town, and they’re all the most insufferable people you’ve ever met stuck sharing an airbnb.

The story plays a lot with western tropes and aesthetics transposed onto he magitech high fantasy setting – the ‘Golden Sea’ is an infinite, impossible to navigate expanse in the centre of the continent, home to nomadic plains elf bands and centaur herds, and the imperial frontier has now pushed right up to its edge, full of things like saloons and sheriffs and marshals and magical trains and gun wand-fights and ten gallon hates. This is very fun, but the moving of the reference period from vaguely medieval Europe to the late 19th century USA makes things certain subtext that’s already unfortunate in standard fantasy downright painful – centaurs, clearly and obviously playing the role the savage indian raiders in some mid-century western, are portrayed as a universally evil culture whose main salient trait is that they will literally rape any prisoners to death, and are stated to have been righteous and heroically ethnically cleansed everywhere but this barbaric frontier. It’s, uh, not great.

Now, I came to this serial as someone who has wasted untold days and hours becoming immersed in D&D, like, Lore, which meant that I was incredibly well prepared because there are so many D&D easter eggs in this I think it might technically be a fanwork like Order of the Stick or something. There’s a Drizzt joke that made me audible groan, and more broadly the entire setting is just very incredibly clearly “D&D 3.5 campaign setting plus 50 years and an industrial revolution’. “Adventurers” were a coherent social class, ‘dungeons’ are a thing, there are profoundly uncomfortable attitudes towards ‘monstrous’ races that live in them, the whole shebang. I mostly found this charming, but it’s a thin line, and I can very easily imagine it being utterly insufferable.

Anyway, this is theoretically a complete volume, but it’s also books one-four of, like, seventeen. In the grand tradition of web serials everywhere, it’s three times longer than it really needs to be, and absolutely littered with plot seeds and foreshadowing which might either pay off in five hundred thousand words or never be mentioned again. I’m honestly not particularly sure how well the volume holds up as a coherent work, separate from everything that comes after – Principia got a complete and well done character arc, but that’s about the only part of it I’d say really works here.

As the first fifth or so of a longer work it did get me to keep going onto book five with barely a breath in between though, so on balance I’d say it works.

#book review #web serial #sff #the gods are bastards #d. d. webb

[rudrjobdesk]

RRB Group D : एक सप्ताह में जारी हो सकते हैं रेलवे ग्रुप डी CBT के एडमिट कार्ड, एक लाख पदों पर भर्ती लिए जुलाई के आखिरी सप्ताह में परीक्षा

RRB Group D : एक सप्ताह में जारी हो सकते हैं रेलवे ग्रुप डी CBT के एडमिट कार्ड, एक लाख पदों पर भर्ती लिए जुलाई के आखिरी सप्ताह में परीक्षा

RRB Group D Admit Card 2022: रेलवे ग्रुप डी के 103769 पदों पर भर्ती के लिए लिखित परीक्षा (CBT) का आयोजन जुलाई के दूसरे सप्ताह से किया जाएगा। इस परीक्षा के लिए आरआरबी की आरे से एक सप्ताह में जारी किए जा सकते हैं। आमतौर पर रेवले की ओर से परीक्षा डेट से 15 दिन पहले ही एडमिट कार्ड जारी कर दिए जाते हैं। ऐसे में उम्मीद है कि जून के आखिरी सप्ताह में या फिर जुलाई के पहले सप्ताह में ग्रुप डी सीबीटी के लिए…

View On WordPress

#103769 group d posts #103769 posts vacant #103769 ग्रुप डी पद #103769 पद रिक्त #group d admit card #group d exam #Hindi News #Hindustan #News in Hindi #railway exam date #railway group d #railway group d exam date #railway group d recruitment #railway recruitment exam date #rrb #rrb group d #rrb group d admit card #rrbald.gov.in #rrc group d #rrc group d exam date #आरआरबी #आरआरबी ग्रुप डी #आरआरबी ग्रुप डी एडमिट कार्ड #आरआरसी ग्रुप डी #आरआरसी ग्रुप डी परीक्षा तिथि #ग्रुप डी एडमिट कार्ड #ग्रुप डी परीक्षा #रेलवे ग्रुप डी #रेलवे ग्रुप डी परीक्षा तिथि #रेलवे ग्रुप डी भर्ती

[beardedmrbean]

A House Democrat in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) is breaking from the group to call for "tougher" border security measures after the ongoing migrant crisis forced U.S. officials to suspend railway operations between Texas and Mexico in two cities.

The statement by Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, whose district is anchored in Laredo, stands in stark contrast with the CHC’s position on the current border negotiations between Republicans and the White House. 

Cuellar said rail operations were being stopped in Eagle Pass and El Paso on Monday morning so Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) could "redirect personnel to process migrants."

"The crisis at our border is seriously affecting legitimate trade," Cuellar wrote the evening prior. "This year alone, vehicle and rail operations have been suspended at multiple ports of entry due to an overwhelming number of migrants, worsening delays for truck drivers transporting goods and costing our economy millions."

He finished, "Our border communities desperately need more federal resources, and we need tougher measures at the border. We must secure the border now."

CBP accused smugglers of using freight trains to bring people into the U.S. illegally in a statement on Sunday night announcing the planned closures for Monday at 8 a.m. local time.

"CBP is continuing to surge all available resources to safely process migrants in response to increased levels of migrant encounters at the Southwest Border, fueled by smugglers peddling disinformation to prey on vulnerable individuals," the statement said.

"After observing a recent resurgence of smuggling organizations moving migrants through Mexico via freight trains, CBP is taking additional actions to surge personnel and address this concerning development, including in partnership with Mexican authorities."

It comes amid intense negotiations between Republicans and Democrats in both the White House and Senate over President Biden’s $110 billion supplemental aid package for Israel, Ukraine and other causes. 

Republicans have made clear they would not consider Biden’s request unless it was tied to stricter border security and asylum measures.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which is all-Democrat, released a statement last week urging Biden to show restraint in what he is willing to commit to in managing the border crisis.

"We are deeply concerned that the President would consider advancing Trump-era immigration policies that Democrats fought so hard against – and that he himself campaigned against – in exchange for aid to our allies that Republicans already support," they said. "Caving to demands for these permanent damaging policy changes as a ‘price to be paid’ for an unrelated one-time spending package would send a dangerous precedent."

#nunyas news

[snehasharma9631]

RRB Railway Group D Question Paper

RRB Railway Group D Question Paper, Responses & Answer Keys, Railway Level 1 Posts CBT Exam Solved Question Papers Set wise, Raise Objection if any to Group D Question Paper/Keys under CEN RRC 01/2019  

Railway Recruitment Board has released the Question Paper, Responses & Answer keys for Group D (Level 1 Posts) Examination. Exam Authority has conducted Group D Bharti Exam from 17 August to 11 October 2022 in 5 Phases. Now Group D Answer key and Question Paper with Solution is available. First candidates visit below official link and enter login details like User ID and Password to check Railway Level 1 Posts Answer key and Responses. 

All candidates who appeared in Indian Railway Group D Exam are able to check the Official Answer Sheet and Response Sheet. They calculate probable Exam Scores using Railway Group D Question Paper with Solution. The Answer keys are available set-wise (Set-A, Set-B, Set-C & Set-D). Applicants may take an idea about Group D Cutoff by calculating correct responses with the official Exam Solution. We have provided a direct link to view RRB Railway Group D Question Paper, Responses & Answer Keys.

For more visit www.latestjobhub.in

#RRB Railway Group D Question Paper #RRB Railway Group D Question Paper 2022 #Railway Group D CBT Answer Key 2022

[rw47vr-key]

Duskwood Fic Rec List

As I already mentioned here, I've summed up a few of the many fanfics for you to not miss it! (Fics I've read before joining the fandom)

I don't own any of these below said writings!! .All the credits to the respective authors.

(A note for authors: I'm so sorry that I didn't get to ask you before posting this.And please do notify me in dm/comments/asks if you want me to remove your links!💕)

there is no particular order of the fics here.

And apologies for my poor quality summary, feel free to jump directly to the links😅😂❤

Well then happy reading ,dearies! 💕💫

ps : please make sure to go and like/appreciate/comment the original fics of the writers mentioned here :D ♡

❃ Cosmic Railway by @love-we-write ❤

Jake and MC are soulmates indeed, their dreams and fate beautifully depicted - multichapter of a total 7 parts!

❃ Tempt me by @mysticpetals ❤

Oneshot♡ - A snippet where MC with wings as white as her soul,is a guardian angel who had a connection somehow to the Mwaf who is a demon, in a totally AU!

❃ Play me! by @hacked-by-jake ❤

Oneshot♡ - Find out how MC mesmerised Jake, with their passion in playing piano!!

❃ We are family by @the-flowerwolf ❤

Oneshot♡ - A brother and sister relationship of the Hawkins, a warm feeling (+warm tears?) is guaranteed!

❃ Beautiful dream by @zmayadw ❤

Oneshot♡ - After solving the kidnapping case and slowly turning towards the peaceful path, Jake and MC meet but, how (dare) could Jake try to run away from his love immediately?

❃ The game has just begun by @escapethewonderland ❤

Oneshot♡ - Someone that MC thought of as a caring brother, is actually what they truly feared not to be.

❃ The forest was never still by @lyricsofravensong ❤

Oneshot♡- What if MC was one among the people who own the word 'guilty' craved in their heart because of the you know who's death, 10 years ago?

❃ Where past is forgotten by @booklover-01040 ❤

Starting with the end of episode 6,how about encountering and reading a different, unique ending of this game?(completed before ep10 release) . A multichapter of about 36 parts!

❃ No stay! Please by @non-binaryzombie ❤

Oneshot♡ - Jealousy gone too far between Darkness and MC's relationship.

❃ Written in the stars by @dreamer-writer-fangirl ❤

Oneshot ♡ - Takes place after ep8, Jake and MC who are practically far away from each other, prove that long distance can never reduce the love they hold for each other.

❃ Ciphers inside of me by @ephemeral-sorrow ❤

Oneshot♡ - A past between young MC and Jennifer , that makes you wonder.

❃ Let's dance by @i-desire-jake ❤

A really cute, sweet highschool AU, pairing Jake x MC - has two parts!

❃ Therapy by @digital-corruption ❤

Oneshot♡ - Funny and unimaginable combo of Dr Ulric Barret and the chaotic duskwood group.

❃ Bullet for him by @lois-carroline ❤

Oneshot♡ - MC would go any limit to save their love, Jake. And now, a bullet.. Are they and Jake safe?

❃ Consequences by @jakeismylover ❤

Oneshot♡- You(MC) always imagined of running together with Jake from his persuers, but instead you're running away to save yourself from him(Jake as mwaf)

❃ You're mine by crow-chaos❤

A Phil x MC x Jake x FBI based fic. Yay That's all info I can give, I'll leave it to you to read further - has two parts!

❃ Your Favourite Gone Place by @duskwood-legacies ❤

Oneshot♡ - A heartmelting side of Phil Hawkins! , pairing Phil x MC

On the contrary, I basically held myself from pouring out my overwhelming emotions about these fics rn😂😭, So a huge thank you , dear authors!💝❤ Thank you very much for making our days better with your writings! ✨(this 3000% goes to all fandom writers and other creaters too, of course🥰❤)

I know I've haven't added some other (g)old fics here. Either it is not showing in search or I don't remember properly. It wasn't intentional, I am sorry :( ❤

Seesh I almost rambled.I'll stop before I start again .Take care of yourself and much love! 💝🌸

#kindly let me know if the links don't work #I swear this god forbidden website doesn't allow me to do one thing right 😭 #duskwood #duskwood fandom #duskwood fic rec list #duskwood fanfiction #jake duskwood #mc duskwood #richy duskwood #jessy duskwood #alan duskwood #phil duskwood #dan duskwood #hannah duskwood #cleo duskwood #thomas duskwood #duskwood everbyte #duskwood fanfictions #not mine

[disneyparksattractionstournament]

Favorite Disney Parks Attraction Showdown: Round 2 - Group D

Videos and propaganda under the cut!

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: WDW Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland, Shanghai Disneyland (Tokyo version is its own separate entry on a dif poll)

Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway: WDW Hollywood Studios, Disneyland

#disney parks #disney parks attractions tournament #poll #disney #disney world #tournament poll #disneyland #wdw #hollywood studios #mickey mouse #pooh #winnie the pooh #magic kingdom #hong kong disneyland #round 2 #D

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Maintaining monopolies with the cloud

Correction: An earlier draft of this article incorrectly stated that John D Rockefeller owned the railroads that shipped product for the Standard Oil Company. In reality, Rockefeller controlled those railroads through bribery and coercion, not an equity stake. I regret the error.

“There is no cloud, there is only other people’s computers.” It’s funny because it’s true, and the “other people” in this case are rapacious, vertically integrated monopolies that use their cloud businesses to put their customers in cages.

The Coalition For Fair Software Licensing is a group of businesses that have banded together to resist some of the most worst cloud-based abuses. Their main targets are companies like Oracle and Microsoft who sell software, software as a service, and cloud hosting, and use these three prongs to entrap and gouge their customers.

Writing for Bloomberg, Brody Ford gives a high-level view of the scam: whereby integrated monopolists charge extra to run their rivals’ software on their cloud systems, or block them altogether. That makes it hard — or impossible — to shop around for cloud services:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-27/software-makers-restrictive-license-rules-targeted-by-new-group

The group itself lists nine demands for “cloud fairness,” ranging from no-brainers (“Licensing terms should be clear and intelligible”) to absolute yikes!es like “Freedom from retaliation for cloud choices” (involving “intrusive software audits” and “higher software licensing fees”).

https://www.fairsoftwarelicensing.com/our-principles/

The Coalition’s beefs are familiar ones, echoing the fights that led to the creation of antitrust law in the 19th century. Back then, small businesses were at the mercy of another kind of infrastructure: railways, who operated chokepoints between producers and their customers.

These railways weren’t just operating the playing field — they also owned one of the teams. They would operate their own businesses that competed directly against the freighters whose goods they carried. They would charge the freighters more for carriage than they did their own businesses, making it impossible to compete with them.

This turned out to be an incredibly hard problem to solve with regulation. Even when there were rules ordering railroads to charge the same rates to all comers, there were so many subtle ways to cheat.

For example, Rockefeller's Standard Oil controlled many railroads via bribery and other underhanded tactics, which let them control the delivery of oil from the pumphead to the refineries and thence to market. The railways were ordered to charge everyone the same rate - whether a train was carrying his oil or a rival's.

And they did! All the oil shipped from Ohio to the port shipped at the same price. All the oil that shipped from Chicago to the port also shipped at the same price. But the Ohio price was

much

higher than the Chicago price, and Rockefeller owned all the Chicago refineries, while the Ohio refineries were owned by the independents.

What's more, the price-per-mile for everything that

wasn't

oil (lumber, for example) was the same from Chicago or Ohio - it was only oil that had this steep price differential. The nondiscrimination order for Rockefeller merely stipulated that there couldn't be discrimination on a given route - but left open the door for discrimination

between

routes.

When you control the infrastructure, there are just

so many

ways to cheat against the companies that

use

the infrastructure, and they can be incredibly hard to detect, and even when you do, it can be incredibly hard to write a loophole-free rule to block a given tactic.

That’s why the trustbusters were so big on “structural separation”: the principle that a business can own a platform, or use the platform, but not both. They banned the railroads from running their own freight businesses, and they banned the banks from owning businesses that competed with the firms they loaned money to.

Rather than trying to construct rules that kept the referee honest even when they played on one of the teams, they ordered the companies to choose one role — either you were the ref, or you were a player, but you couldn’t referee a match where you were also in the competition.

Today, with tech antitrust surging around the world, we’re speedrunning the lessons of the rail-barons, trying to impose rules on companies that ban them from abusing their vertical monopolies, rather than ordering them not to form vertical monopolies:

https://locusmag.com/2022/03/cory-doctorow-vertically-challenged/

After all, if Microsoft and Oracle had to choose between running clouds and selling cloud software, they wouldn’t have any reason to screw with businesses to leverage their cloud into software licenses and their software licenses into cloud subscriptions. And for so long as they are in both businesses, they will have infinite tools at their disposal to subtly (and blatantly) cheat on whatever limits we put on them.

One fascinating wrinkle: Senator Gary Peters has proposed legislation that would overhaul federal procurement rules, requiring companies that want to sell cloud services to the US government to play fair.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-09/revamp-of-federal-software-buys-could-force-microsoft-changes

This is a very powerful move. Every government — US and foreign, federal, state and local — should have a rule that says, “If we’re going to spend public money on your products, you have to promise not to lock us in.” That’s just basic prudent governance, and there’s plenty of precedent for it. Lincoln had a policy that he would only buy rifles for the Union Army from companies that used interoperable tooling and bullets. No general wants to have to cancel a battle because the single-source supplier decided not to make any ammo this month.

This policy could and should be extended to cars in government motor-pools (requiring manufacturers not to block third-party parts and to supply diagnostic codes to independent mechanics). Likewise software like Google Classroom (requiring Goog not to block third-party textbooks, assessment tools, etc). It should be universal, all the way down to requiring printer companies that sell to the public sector to stop blocking third-party ink.

Cloud lock-in is incredibly unpopular. Bloomberg’s Ford cites a study that found that 90% of tech executives support the Coalition for Fair Software Licensing’s demands. But we need to do more than order tech monopolies to play fair — we have to take away their incentive to cheat.

I think there’s momentum for this. Before she took over the FTC, chair Lina Khan published “The Separation of Platforms and Commerce,” a banger of a law-review paper from the Columbia Law Review (“the potential hazards of integration by dominant tech platforms invite recovering structural separations”):

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3180174

And businesses are unlikely to be happy with mere rules ordering fairness, given the big companies’ propensity to cheat and the incredible upsides for doing so. They just can’t help themselves, whether that’s Amazon mining its sales data to figure out when to clone its own customers’ products:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/24/slicey-boi/#moral-hazard

Or Apple using its control over the App Store to block companies that directly compete with its own apps:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/17/no-gods-no-masters/#oh-the-irony

We don’t let judges hear cases where they have a stake in the outcome, we don’t let lawyers represent the plaintiffs and the defendants, we don’t let referees call games where they own one of the teams.

[Image ID: A dark sky filled with thunderclouds, split by a jagged lightning bolt. On the left side, a remix of Monopoly's Rich Uncle Pennybags dances atop a cloud; he has removed his face to reveal a grinning skull beneath it. On the left, a trustbuster-era editorial cartoon version of Roosevelt with his 'big stick' perches on another cloud-mass, ready to smite the Monopoly Man. Both are backlit by radiating penumbrae of light.]

#pluralistic

[osrphotography]

The last (unrefurbished) "Ganz" EMU at Thorndon. (2021)

A very lucky spot from my last trip to Wellington. New to New Zealand Railways Corporation in 1982, the EM/ET EMUs were introduced to replace the aging English Electric DM/D Class multiple units on suburban services in Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

Owing to the name of their builder, Ganz-MÁVAG, the EM/ET EMUs were often referred to as "Ganz units."

From 1996-2002, the entire fleet was refurbished by TranzRail, and in 2010, Te Pane Matua Taiao/GWRC refurbished EM 1373/ET 3373 again as part of a proposal to further modernise the Ganz units. This fell through and colloquially EM 1373/ET 3373 is known as the "Super Ganz"

In 2016, the FP/FT EMUs were introduced to replace the aging EM/ET EMUs, and most of the fleet was sold to a South African buyer for conversion to un-powered trailer cars. As of 2024, nothing has been done with them, and they are slowly rusting away in South Africa.

The "Super Ganz" was sold to the Cantebury Railway Society, who have been on/off working to restore it. EM 1505/ET 3505 was sold for $1 to the Wellington Multiple Unit Hertiage Trust (WMUHT). Unfortunately, 1505 was never taken to Maymorn, where the group has a DM/D unit, and it is now at Hutt Workshops with an uncertain future.

#photos #railroad #electric train

[dont-f-with-moogles]

People Will Talk

People Will Talk (AoT High School AU) Characters: Levi x Hange (Mentioned: Isabel, Petra, Miche and others) Word Count: 1309

This one’s loosely based on the AoT Junior High Manga volume where Hange and Isabel make Levi cookies for his birthday. Here, they're older and the ending is pretty different… Song suggestion: Snowman - Sia

Shingeki High’s frost-glazed grounds lay empty following the mass exodus of its students. With the anticipation of the Christmas holidays hanging upon the air, the chattering crowds had departed early from their afternoon lessons. Only a small number of boarders were left on the site, Levi and Hange among them. The pair had quietly retired to Levi’s dormitory; his rooms not quite reflecting the festive cheer which had been so violently enforced on the rest of the student body. Still, Hange had exerted her own efforts despite Levi’s strict No Tinsel Policy (“it shreds everywhere and clogs up the vacuum!”) She had managed to procure a small Christmas tree which sat beneath the window. Its branches stood bare, apart from a few titan baubles and a small string of fairy lights (stolen, of course, from the giant tree in the school’s reception).

The pair sat with their backs against the sofa and legs curled beneath a low table. Two cups of tea stood upon its surface, steam curling upwards. The television showed a sun setting over a wide plain, marked only by a lone railway track. Within a cramped, open-topped carriage, a group of older adolescents were shown seated uncomfortably next to one another. 

“Why are they all blushing?” Hange wondered aloud, “this whole scene is so awkward, I’m tempted to skip it.” She swung round to Levi, who was regarding the screen in solemn silence. With a click of the remote, the picture paused. 

“Hey, you weren’t even watching! Do I have to rewind it?”

“No…” He had lifted his mug tentatively by the rim but instead placed it back upon the table. “Hange… I need to ask you something that’s been on my mind. It’s about those Birthday Cookies you and Isabel made for me.”

Levi was staring down at his knees. The glow from the fairy lights glinted off Hange’s glasses. “Eh… you know, this is a pretty important episode, so maybe we should watch that first, then-”

“Isabel said that you only helped her to bake the cookies so that you could take half of them to sell?”  

Hange uttered a strangled laugh. She pushed her glass further up her nose, feeling her cheeks warm. 

“D-did she? Well… look, it’s a little more complicated than that…” She opened and closed her mouth as Levi watched her patiently. “The truth is… I’m totally broke, okay? I’ve got Sawney and Bean to feed. And I owe you like 2000 yen towards bills and…”

“Try 16,378 yen…”

“Yeah, like I said, 2000 yen… and besides, you don’t even like birthday presents!”

Levi sighed and leaned forward, his elbows upon his knees. His dark fringe fell into his eyes as he moved. “Right, that’s what I told her. Relax, will you?.”

“Oh… so no harm done then, right?” Hange raised the remote brightly, poised to continue the programme. 

“Yeah… she…” Levi glanced at the doorway, as though expecting Isabel herself to come storming through at any given second. “She just made this weird comment about me taking sides, that’s all.”

“Taking sides…?”

“Yeah. Your side. Said that I keep choosing you over her and Farlan.” Levi shook his head. “She’s been like this since I transferred schools. It’s not like she has a reason to be jealous. Does she?”

“No. I mean they’re your oldest friends…” Hange twirled the remote control in her hands. Levi picked up his tea again but did not drink.

“There’s nothing to be jealous of,” Levi repeated firmly. “Everyone needs to stop making things out of nothing. First Petra, then Isabel…”

“Right!” Hange chimed in, flinging the remote down and stretching back against the sofa legs. “The Petra Incident was unfortunate but then again, she did only ask you to the Summer Festival at the last minute.”

“Exactly. You and I had already made plans…” Despite the steadfastness of his tone, Levi seemed unable to meet Hange’s eye.

“It’s not worth worrying about Levi!” Hange cast out an enthusiastic arm which almost sent her own tea flying. “People will say things. Miche calls us an old married couple all the time and it simply isn’t true!”

“Hah… that’s because you’ve got more chance of marrying Bean,” Levi returned darkly.

“Besides, since when do you care about what others think?” Hange shifted around to face him, her legs tucked beneath her. There came a whistle of breath down Levi’s nose; his eyes narrowed in thought as he lowered his cup.

“People say things because you seem to be everywhere I go,” he said finally. “If you want people to stop getting the wrong idea about us then don’t hang out in my room constantly. Look-” Levi jumped up and lifted one of the giant red socks that Hange had taped onto the television cabinet. “His and hers Christmas stockings? Besides which, your stuff is everywhere-” He gestured to the floor space before his front door which was occupied by a set of biology text books and a jar of titan toenails. “And-” Levi gave a slow blink. “... are you wearing my hoodie?”

“It’s mine,” Hange snapped, pulling the material around her. “Well, I found it in the lab so… it’s probably mine.”

“Hange…” Levi pressed his palm to his forehead, his expression glazed with exasperation. “This isn’t healthy… and I don’t just mean that germ-ridden hoodie.”

“Wait… are you really saying that you want me to go?” It was Hange’s turn to stand. Her voice caught a little as she continued. “I thought we had fun hanging out together. Whoever thinks there’s more going on between us is just being crazy! Ignore them, Levi!”

Levi’s eyes were fixed to the spot of carpet before her feet. “I can’t, because… they’re not crazy at all.”

“Huh?” 

Levi’s shoulders were rigid, fists clenched at his sides. He struck himself on the leg in an effort to get the first syllable of speech to topple out.

“What I’m trying to say is… your eyesight is even more shit that I first realised. As soon as you see titans you get a blind spot for everyone else around you.” He dug his heel into the carpet and cursed softly.

Hange frowned and she weighed his words carefully. Her eyes widened with realistion. “Ah… are you talking about Moblit?” Levi ground his teeth. He made towards the two cups on the low table.

“I’m kidding!” Hange grabbed his upper arm. Levi’s body tensed. “Come on, we had a moment there. Don’t let Moblit ruin it.” 

“M-moment?” 

Hange’s hand trailed down Levi’s arm, sending pinpricks of heat through his shirt.

“…I found your hoodie in the lab because you kept coming by, even though you never enrolled in Biology Club.” Hange took Levi’s hand and squeezed his fingers reassuringly. “See? You’re not so invisible after all. Not to me.”

Levi held her cheek, the heat from his skin sending a flood of colour into Hange’s face. Her hand encircled his wrist.

“Levi-”

“Then look at me… and be sure!” Levi’s breath was on her mouth and neck. “Because I’ve seen you. I’ve listened to your non-stop rambling about titan toenails and secret money-making scams. I’ve seen you bait titans four times your size without flinching. I’ve watched you make shitty tea and decorate my dorm with stolen decorations.”

His fingers were entangled in her hair.

“I’ve seen you obsessed with stupid tv shows and caught you wearing my clothes.” His hand tightened upon her head as he brought her closer. “You’re everywhere, all the time. You never give me a moment of peace, Four Eyes. I can hardly breathe. All I can see is your temper and your recklessness. Your kindness and your beauty.”

“Levi-” 

“So, if everyone else is crazy…” He brought his mouth to her own, so that his words were muffled as they fell into the silence. “Perhaps I’m crazy too.” As he pressed his lips against hers, Levi’s racing heart drowned out the rest of the world in a roar of sound. 

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan high #levihan #levi x hange #levi ackerman #hange zoe #levihan fic #levihan fluff #Christmas #why can't I write anything under 1000 words? #I promise the next one will be shorter #drinking wine and listening to Tom Odell is giving me too many angsty ideas #my writing