How to have a china proxy
People who have a sensual and erotic attraction to nature and know how to express it
2011.07.04 01:06 darkproteus66 People who have a sensual and erotic attraction to nature and know how to express it
For people who have a sensual and erotic attraction to nature and know how to express it.
2008.11.22 00:38 Netflix
Unofficial Netflix discussion, and all things Netflix related! (Mods are not Netflix employees, but employees occasionally post here).
2008.01.25 07:23 r/中国
A community for discussing China and topics related to it. All viewpoints and opinions are welcome here, but please read the rules in the sidebar before posting.
2024.05.27 18:41 Asatmaya The Harsh Realities of History, Part 2: America at War Edition
Part 1
This is the second part of a series about how history has been either misunderstood or intentionally twisted to give the wrong impression of the facts behind certain events.
Since the founding of the nation, the United States has been involved in war for all but 17 years, despite only having declared war 5 times
The French and Indian War was primarily about the conflict between French traders and British colonists; the French claimed the Mississippi river basin, including the Ohio up to the forks (present-day Pittsburgh, PA), mostly to protect the indigenous tribes they traded with against British expansion, which of course resulted in the expulsion and mass murder of the Native Americans.
Most colonists were indifferent to the American Revolution; "fence-sitters," they were called by the quite radical "patriots," who mostly kept silent due to the violence directed towards "loyalists." The Stamp Act was unpopular, but the entire point was to pay for the French and Indian War... which had been started by the very colonists who were complaining about the tax.
The cause of the War of 1812 remains something of a mystery to this day; there were plenty of reasons, from impressment of American citizens into the British Navy to seizure of neutral shipping to conflict over the Tecumseh Confederacy, but the vote for war was on strictly partisan lines, but sheer opportunism, based on the theory that Britain was distracted by the Napoleonic Wars, is the more popular theory today. The reason for the war was that Madison thought he could win.
The Mexican-American War had even less justification. The Texas Revolution had established it as an independent nation, although Mexico had not recognized it, but annexation into the United States had been delayed by the necessity of maintaining a balance of power between free- and slave-states, which Texas would have upset. James K. Polk won the 1844 election largely on the basis of expanding the country, preserving the balance by adding more states... but that would require a war, so he intentionally made an offer that Mexico could not accept, sent a small body of troops into Mexico, Mexican forces attacked them, and Polk used this as justification for the war.
The Civil War was another contrivance; Abolitionists were not a factor before the war, the conflict was between slave-owners, who wanted to expand the practice in the West, and the Free Soil movement... which didn't want black people in the West, at all (and were actively chasing Indians and Mexicans out). The impetus for Southern secession was not any danger of slavery being abolished (Lincoln made it clear after he was elected that he had no such intentions), but that they would lose political power if it was not allowed to expand with the rest of the country. In addition, it remains a mystery as to exactly why Lincoln felt it necessary to go to war to stop the South from seceding, and no Constitutional justification has ever been presented.
The Spanish-American war is almost the inverse of the Civil War; the US was involved as early as the Ten Years War, on the side of the wealthy elite upset about the abolition of slavery in Cuba (not that there were no legitimate complaints, but those were largely ignored by all sides), which culminated in the Cuban War of Independence, again supported by the US, which they were losing until the USS Maine mysteriously blew up in Havana harbor, blamed on the Spanish (who had no reason to do so), and justified the declaration of war and subsequent seizure of Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam.
Woodrow Wilson won the election of 1916 largely on the basis of his opposition to US participation in World War I; he was inaugurated on March 4, 1917, and on April 6, Congress declared war on Germany. Germany had been sinking US merchant ships supplying Britain and France, but then, Britain had been seizing US merchant ships trading with Germany; the only difference was that Britain had surface ships which could seize merchant vessels, while Germany had U-boats, which could only sink them. American banks had also heavily financed both Britain and France, and stood to lose money if they lost the war.
World War II is often held up as the definitive "Just War." Hitler and the Nazis have become the archetype for ultimate evil, and the Japanese Empire was, if anything, even worse; never mind that the Nazis based their policies on American treatment of Native Americans, or that Japanese actions in China were simply one in a several-thousand-year-long series of mass atrocities, or that evidence of their crimes (and, on the part of the Nazis, most of the actual crimes, themselves) were not known outside of the regions where they were occurring until late in the war. US Marines in China were engaging in military activity prior to American entry into the war, and US business interests were funding both sides, even as late as 1944.
The worst outcome of WW2 was Truman breaking the Yalta Agreement with Stalin; rather than allowing free and open elections in liberated territory, Truman followed George Kennan's advice to engage in a policy of "Containment" of Communism by undermining (e.g. assassinations and false flag attacks) their leaders and parties, which the USSR and China responded to by simply not allowing elections in regions they controlled, at all. In fairness to Truman, the other proposed policy was John Foster Dulles' "Rollback" strategy, of actively going to war with Communist regimes to eliminate them, which became the fundamental goal of the CIA and broader national security apparatus of the US. George Kennan later expressed regret for his policy suggestion, and became a fervent supporter of detente.
This led directly to the Korean War, now in its 74th year, after Truman refused to hold general elections in favor of a regional election in the area under US occupation, and only after Communist groups had been massacred and barred from participation. The result was an effective dictatorship of South Korea which continued until the 1970s, and a perpetual war against North Korea, which held their own (also restricted) election and resulted in Kim Il Sung becoming party chairman of the Worker's Party of Korea. Notably, both elected governments claim control of the entire peninsula, a situation which has yet to be resolved.
Viet Nam had a similar story, but that the French had not been able to hold on to the half of the country they tried to claim, so the US attempted to intervene. Johnson later admitted that there was no "Gulf of Tonkin Incident," that it was nothing but an excuse for a policy decision which had already been made, and which he opposed but felt that he would face opposition for his Great Society initiative if he balked. This created division within the Democratic Party, which Nixon exploited in 1968, going so far as to have one of his aides scuttle the Paris Peace talks by promising the North Viet-Namese a better deal under Nixon.
There are numerous incidents which have been left out of this accounting; dozens of interventions in South America, Africa, and islands in the Pacific and Caribbean which form the tapestry of the American Empire. We have supported brutal dictators, instigated coups against democratically-elected progressive governments, and created proxy wars across the globe. There is not enough time in a life to detail them all.
But this all took on a new tempo after September 11, 2001, the latest evidence suggesting that it was Saudi Arabia directly behind the attacks. Osama bin Laden, who was originally trained by the US in a proxy war against the USSR, had been responsible for attacking the US previously, but emphatically denied involvement in 9/11. Nevertheless, pursuing him was the basis for the invasion of Afghanistan, although the Taliban had offered to turn bin Laden over, and even attempted to surrender to prevent an invasion, but were refused. Invasion was the point.
Iraq had even less justification; after Saddam Hussein was set up for the invasion of Kuwait (George W. Bush told him to do it!), the imposition of sanctions demanded a US military presence in the region to enforce them, and even Madeleine Albright, Bill Clinton's secretary of state, admitted that their administration wanted to invade Iraq, they just didn't have an excuse. Not only was there no connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda, Hussein represented the (relatively) secular, progressive Sunni minority in Iraq, while Al Qaeda was a fundamentalist Shiite group who hated everything the Baath party stood for.
NATO expansion in Europe should be viewed as the victory of Dulles' "Rollback" strategy over both detente and containment. The Western goal in Eastern Europe has been the Balkanization of Russia ever since their revolution; the Promethean movement intended to create an "Intermarium" state between the Baltic and Black seas (including Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia), and supported fascist movements in those countries starting in the 1920s. The latest culmination of this ideology was the Maidan coup of Ukraine in 2014 (led by explicitly Nazi organizations including Right Sektor, Svoboda, and C14, a group named after David Lane's 14 Words: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children"), the incipient Civil War, and the current Russian intervention.
Unconditional US support of Israel has led to their perceived impunity for gross criminal activity; now facing arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity, the prime minister and minister of defense of Israel have repudiated the legal body charged with enforcing international law against the very acts that Israel was allegedly founded to prevent, to the extent of threatening the families of members of the International Criminal Court, a gross crime in-and-of-itself.
Taiwan is the last vestige of the Western-backed plutocracy which controlled China following the collapse of the Imperial government; having been directed by Western powers to focus their efforts more against their fellow countrymen for being Communist than the invading Japanese army, the Kuomintang lost virtually all popular support in the aftermath of World War 2, and yet neither Containment nor Rollback would allow a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Rollback was clearly not an option at the time, though, so they were directed to concentrate in Taiwan in order to bottle up Chinese territorial waters, a goal which defines US policy to this day.
submitted by Asatmaya to antiwar [link] [comments]
This is the second part of a series about how history has been either misunderstood or intentionally twisted to give the wrong impression of the facts behind certain events.
Since the founding of the nation, the United States has been involved in war for all but 17 years, despite only having declared war 5 times
The French and Indian War was primarily about the conflict between French traders and British colonists; the French claimed the Mississippi river basin, including the Ohio up to the forks (present-day Pittsburgh, PA), mostly to protect the indigenous tribes they traded with against British expansion, which of course resulted in the expulsion and mass murder of the Native Americans.
Most colonists were indifferent to the American Revolution; "fence-sitters," they were called by the quite radical "patriots," who mostly kept silent due to the violence directed towards "loyalists." The Stamp Act was unpopular, but the entire point was to pay for the French and Indian War... which had been started by the very colonists who were complaining about the tax.
The cause of the War of 1812 remains something of a mystery to this day; there were plenty of reasons, from impressment of American citizens into the British Navy to seizure of neutral shipping to conflict over the Tecumseh Confederacy, but the vote for war was on strictly partisan lines, but sheer opportunism, based on the theory that Britain was distracted by the Napoleonic Wars, is the more popular theory today. The reason for the war was that Madison thought he could win.
The Mexican-American War had even less justification. The Texas Revolution had established it as an independent nation, although Mexico had not recognized it, but annexation into the United States had been delayed by the necessity of maintaining a balance of power between free- and slave-states, which Texas would have upset. James K. Polk won the 1844 election largely on the basis of expanding the country, preserving the balance by adding more states... but that would require a war, so he intentionally made an offer that Mexico could not accept, sent a small body of troops into Mexico, Mexican forces attacked them, and Polk used this as justification for the war.
The Civil War was another contrivance; Abolitionists were not a factor before the war, the conflict was between slave-owners, who wanted to expand the practice in the West, and the Free Soil movement... which didn't want black people in the West, at all (and were actively chasing Indians and Mexicans out). The impetus for Southern secession was not any danger of slavery being abolished (Lincoln made it clear after he was elected that he had no such intentions), but that they would lose political power if it was not allowed to expand with the rest of the country. In addition, it remains a mystery as to exactly why Lincoln felt it necessary to go to war to stop the South from seceding, and no Constitutional justification has ever been presented.
The Spanish-American war is almost the inverse of the Civil War; the US was involved as early as the Ten Years War, on the side of the wealthy elite upset about the abolition of slavery in Cuba (not that there were no legitimate complaints, but those were largely ignored by all sides), which culminated in the Cuban War of Independence, again supported by the US, which they were losing until the USS Maine mysteriously blew up in Havana harbor, blamed on the Spanish (who had no reason to do so), and justified the declaration of war and subsequent seizure of Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam.
Woodrow Wilson won the election of 1916 largely on the basis of his opposition to US participation in World War I; he was inaugurated on March 4, 1917, and on April 6, Congress declared war on Germany. Germany had been sinking US merchant ships supplying Britain and France, but then, Britain had been seizing US merchant ships trading with Germany; the only difference was that Britain had surface ships which could seize merchant vessels, while Germany had U-boats, which could only sink them. American banks had also heavily financed both Britain and France, and stood to lose money if they lost the war.
World War II is often held up as the definitive "Just War." Hitler and the Nazis have become the archetype for ultimate evil, and the Japanese Empire was, if anything, even worse; never mind that the Nazis based their policies on American treatment of Native Americans, or that Japanese actions in China were simply one in a several-thousand-year-long series of mass atrocities, or that evidence of their crimes (and, on the part of the Nazis, most of the actual crimes, themselves) were not known outside of the regions where they were occurring until late in the war. US Marines in China were engaging in military activity prior to American entry into the war, and US business interests were funding both sides, even as late as 1944.
The worst outcome of WW2 was Truman breaking the Yalta Agreement with Stalin; rather than allowing free and open elections in liberated territory, Truman followed George Kennan's advice to engage in a policy of "Containment" of Communism by undermining (e.g. assassinations and false flag attacks) their leaders and parties, which the USSR and China responded to by simply not allowing elections in regions they controlled, at all. In fairness to Truman, the other proposed policy was John Foster Dulles' "Rollback" strategy, of actively going to war with Communist regimes to eliminate them, which became the fundamental goal of the CIA and broader national security apparatus of the US. George Kennan later expressed regret for his policy suggestion, and became a fervent supporter of detente.
This led directly to the Korean War, now in its 74th year, after Truman refused to hold general elections in favor of a regional election in the area under US occupation, and only after Communist groups had been massacred and barred from participation. The result was an effective dictatorship of South Korea which continued until the 1970s, and a perpetual war against North Korea, which held their own (also restricted) election and resulted in Kim Il Sung becoming party chairman of the Worker's Party of Korea. Notably, both elected governments claim control of the entire peninsula, a situation which has yet to be resolved.
Viet Nam had a similar story, but that the French had not been able to hold on to the half of the country they tried to claim, so the US attempted to intervene. Johnson later admitted that there was no "Gulf of Tonkin Incident," that it was nothing but an excuse for a policy decision which had already been made, and which he opposed but felt that he would face opposition for his Great Society initiative if he balked. This created division within the Democratic Party, which Nixon exploited in 1968, going so far as to have one of his aides scuttle the Paris Peace talks by promising the North Viet-Namese a better deal under Nixon.
There are numerous incidents which have been left out of this accounting; dozens of interventions in South America, Africa, and islands in the Pacific and Caribbean which form the tapestry of the American Empire. We have supported brutal dictators, instigated coups against democratically-elected progressive governments, and created proxy wars across the globe. There is not enough time in a life to detail them all.
But this all took on a new tempo after September 11, 2001, the latest evidence suggesting that it was Saudi Arabia directly behind the attacks. Osama bin Laden, who was originally trained by the US in a proxy war against the USSR, had been responsible for attacking the US previously, but emphatically denied involvement in 9/11. Nevertheless, pursuing him was the basis for the invasion of Afghanistan, although the Taliban had offered to turn bin Laden over, and even attempted to surrender to prevent an invasion, but were refused. Invasion was the point.
Iraq had even less justification; after Saddam Hussein was set up for the invasion of Kuwait (George W. Bush told him to do it!), the imposition of sanctions demanded a US military presence in the region to enforce them, and even Madeleine Albright, Bill Clinton's secretary of state, admitted that their administration wanted to invade Iraq, they just didn't have an excuse. Not only was there no connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda, Hussein represented the (relatively) secular, progressive Sunni minority in Iraq, while Al Qaeda was a fundamentalist Shiite group who hated everything the Baath party stood for.
NATO expansion in Europe should be viewed as the victory of Dulles' "Rollback" strategy over both detente and containment. The Western goal in Eastern Europe has been the Balkanization of Russia ever since their revolution; the Promethean movement intended to create an "Intermarium" state between the Baltic and Black seas (including Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia), and supported fascist movements in those countries starting in the 1920s. The latest culmination of this ideology was the Maidan coup of Ukraine in 2014 (led by explicitly Nazi organizations including Right Sektor, Svoboda, and C14, a group named after David Lane's 14 Words: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children"), the incipient Civil War, and the current Russian intervention.
Unconditional US support of Israel has led to their perceived impunity for gross criminal activity; now facing arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity, the prime minister and minister of defense of Israel have repudiated the legal body charged with enforcing international law against the very acts that Israel was allegedly founded to prevent, to the extent of threatening the families of members of the International Criminal Court, a gross crime in-and-of-itself.
Taiwan is the last vestige of the Western-backed plutocracy which controlled China following the collapse of the Imperial government; having been directed by Western powers to focus their efforts more against their fellow countrymen for being Communist than the invading Japanese army, the Kuomintang lost virtually all popular support in the aftermath of World War 2, and yet neither Containment nor Rollback would allow a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Rollback was clearly not an option at the time, though, so they were directed to concentrate in Taiwan in order to bottle up Chinese territorial waters, a goal which defines US policy to this day.
2024.05.27 15:07 TJPOMGA [GM4A] Story-Based CYOA.
Hello There! If you look at my history, you will see that most of my writing comes from strict, book-like style of Roleplay. In that sense, one area I feel that I fall short in is in more of the ERP. Typically, I try to keep ERP restricted, but I am putting this post out in search of someone on this Subreddit who will have more depth to them as a person; You do not need to have any knowledge of TTRPGs! All I ask for is passion and dedication to the craft. Unlike the typical Long Term posts you see here that last a week, my posts are the type that can reach lengths of over months and years. As such, the mutuality of this exchange comes from my end with the experience of a DM/GM, and your end as the wonderful people of this Subreddit and your broad knowledge of the topics.
~~~
In a Partner, I am looking for a few key things:
In the title of the post, I made mention to a being open to many Genres, which is true! When you message me, we'll head to Discord, in which I will give you a general FAQ and a survey in which will cover a wide variety of interests. Using the surveys, I will tailor a custom plot or choose from a premade list to what I believe would suit your interests best. While I am not making any strict restrictions such as, "Smut is no more than X% of this roleplay!", you do need to understand that it is not the driving factor of the story.
To give you all an idea of what a Plot may look like, here are some Basic Concepts from my rolodex:
Message me if you feel so inclined! Thanks All!
submitted by TJPOMGA to pbp [link] [comments]
~~~
In a Partner, I am looking for a few key things:
- Dedicated, able to keep consistent with the Roleplay and everything included. I do not have required times for when you should be on or how often, but you do obviously need to be active for this to work out.
- Literate, able to write well and maintain a novella style (If you can read through this full post and write similarly to me, you shouldn't have any issues). I do ask for a writing sample, but that will be covered once we make contact.
- Able to play multiple characters at a single time. My primary interest is someone able to play both male and female as well as in third person with no "Main Characters."
- Able to use and navigate Discord. I roleplay exclusively on Discord, which is a major component. I run things through servers as well as use bots for Dice and such for the TTRPG aspect. You are not responsible for knowing how the bot or dice work, so don't worry about that part.
- Able to Maintain a Good Story! I may be opening up, but the story is still a Chief Priority!
In the title of the post, I made mention to a being open to many Genres, which is true! When you message me, we'll head to Discord, in which I will give you a general FAQ and a survey in which will cover a wide variety of interests. Using the surveys, I will tailor a custom plot or choose from a premade list to what I believe would suit your interests best. While I am not making any strict restrictions such as, "Smut is no more than X% of this roleplay!", you do need to understand that it is not the driving factor of the story.
To give you all an idea of what a Plot may look like, here are some Basic Concepts from my rolodex:
- It is the Year 5574. In this timeline, the human race has expanded out well beyond the reaches of earth, to the point in which less than a fraction of a percent of the human population lives on Earth Itself, let alone our home Galaxy. It is a deep-space plot, one filled with aliens, Science Fiction Technology, and the overarching themes of your typical distant colony. As it stands, the original Countries of Earth have generally combined into several Super-Nations (Roughly based on Continents and Modern-Day Alliances). At the start of this plot, two of the most powerful Super-Nations (The US/Canada and Russia/China future equivalents) are plunged into a deep Cold War that has lasted Hundreds of Years. At the beginning of this prompt, you will be responsible for playing the role of a crew of Spacefarers that are sponsored by the neutral EU Equivalent to complete a mission, in which you will find yourself working through this world and the deep intricacies of both sides and the proxies to their ongoing War. Civilization may be advanced, but different planets house different cultures and levels of advancement, while the main base of civilization is plunged into your typical Cyberpunk mess of vices and pleasures.
Message me if you feel so inclined! Thanks All!
2024.05.25 08:13 EyeBusy Kenyan Officials Arrive in Haiti Ahead of 1,000 Troops' Deployment Firstpost America
 | Why are we getting involved in this and can someone explain to be how something like this gets approved? Just no vote just bureaucracy at work? submitted by EyeBusy to Libertarian [link] [comments] "U.S southern command flew contractors to hati to set up a temporary living quarters, for the arrival of the kenyan led peace keeping force" I don't care what Kenya does, but why are we involved..and most of the networks seem to be defending their actions because its to calm gang violence but when Ecuador does it its a human rights violation. I don't agree with mass imprisonment of your citizens but I can confidently say I don't know what the right move would be in Ecuador. Also growing competition with China and Russia in Africa was mentioned..and our president met with the kenyan president while they decided to deploy.. Am I paranoid or does this stink of a proxy war?? Im not too educated on these issues and am young so don't have much knowledge..but wouldn't it be better just to let them find stability on they're own instead of getting involved even if we're not technically involved..but there's still the perception of being involved right? Especially from China and Russia? Who would probably see this as the U.S instigating the situation. Or does the U.S have a vested interest in helping to prevent Russia and China from getting a stronger foothold, thats the kind of argument I'd think they'd use to defend this. |
2024.05.24 15:04 trainwreck001 'Wow:' Elon Musk Reacts As Nvidia's Eye-Popping Market Cap Leaves Entire German Stock Market, GDPs Of 96% World Nations Biting The Dust
'Wow:' Elon Musk Reacts As Nvidia's Eye-Popping Market Cap Leaves Entire German Stock Market, GDPs Of 96% World Nations Biting The Dust
05/24/24 5:40 AM
5:40 AM EDT, May 24, 2024 (Benzinga Newswire)
AI powerhouse Nvidia Corp.’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares had a solid run on Thursday despite the broader market weakness, with the buoyancy coming on the back of solid quarterly performance, strong forward guidance, positive management commentary on the call and the analysts’ doubling up on their bullishness. The value that the company added, thanks to the stellar run in the stock, left none other than Tesla CEO Elon Musk impressed.
What Happened: Nvidia ended Thursday’s session up 9.32% at $1,037.99, according to Benzinga Pro data, giving the company a market cap of $2.55 trillion. The AI chipmaker cemented further its place as the third most-valued global corporation, with only Microsoft and Apple above it.
Source: Y Charts
The mind-boggling value Nvidia has been adding over the past year has left Stanford professor Erik Brynjolfsson awestruck. Sharing a stock chart showing stock gains over the past five years, the economist said, “Nvidia now worth over $2.5 Trillion, more than the market cap of the entire German stock market.”
Musk reacted to the post with a “wow” expression.
Wow
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2024
Brynjolfsson was quick to point out that Musk-led Tesla’s market capitalization topped the value of Mexico’s stock market. See Also: How To Buy Nvidia (NVDA) Stock
Germany’s Ailing: Vailshare Capital Management founder Jeff Ross joined in the Nvidia vs. German stock market comparison and said it says more about Germany's descent than anything about Nvidia’s assent.
The German economy is going through a rut. A report filed by IMF economists in late March delved into the predicament, as the country was the only G7 member nation to go into a recession in 2023. It is set to expand at the weakest pace among these countries this year.
Revised first-quarter GDP released by the German Federal Statistical Office on Friday confirmed the preliminary estimate of an annualized 0.2% quarter-over-quarter growth in real terms. In comparison, the U.S. economy grew by 1.6% for the first three months of the year. The weakness, according to the IMF economists, is due to a combination of temporary factors such as higher interest rates that weighed down on construction and other interest-rate sensitive sectors, slowing consumer spending, and some structural ones.
Germany’s manufacturing-intensive industry took a hit from the post-pandemic global rebalancing of demand away from manufactured goods and toward services, the economists said. Europe’s energy crisis in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine also served as a headwind.
The stock market is a proxy of a country’s economy and Germany’s economic weakness is reflected in the stock market’s valuation, which was valued at 1.973 trillion euro ($2.13 trillion) in 2023.
Incidentally, Nvidia’s market cap is only lower than seven of the world nations, namely the U.S., China, Germany, Japan, India, the U.K. and France.
Bloomberg journalist Jon Erlichman shared statistics in the thread, which also wowed Musk. He noted that personal digital assistant manufacturer Palm, Inc. was valued more than Apple, Nvidia and Amazon combined, in 2000.
Wow
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2024
Palm rode on the dot-com bubble and IPOed in March. After rising to a pre-IPO high of over $95, Palm’s shares came crashing down in a year as it could not survive the competition post the dotcom bubble burst. It was ultimately folded up into the then Hewlett-Packard in 2010.
Why It’s Important: Nvidia has been quick to adapt to the changing tech environment, moving away from being a mere manufacturer of gaming GPUs to being the frontrunner of the AI revolution. Its highly powerful AI accelerators are now a sine-qua-non in all AI applications, training and inference. The Jensen Huang-led company enjoys a near-monopoly position in the market for AI chips.
Analysts have been impressed with its dynamism and execution. Tech venture capitalist Gene Munster believes that Nvidia will grow faster for longer.
Huang and Musk share a cordial relationship. The Nvidia CEO recently said on the company’s earnings call and in interviews thereafter that “Tesla is far ahead in self-driving cars but every single car someday will have to have autonomous capability.” Musk acknowledged the appreciation and said, “Thanks Jensen.”
In premarket trading on Friday, Nvidia rose 0.39% to $1,042.
Write to Benzinga at editorial@benzinga.com
submitted by trainwreck001 to WallStreetBull [link] [comments]
05/24/24 5:40 AM
5:40 AM EDT, May 24, 2024 (Benzinga Newswire)
AI powerhouse Nvidia Corp.’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares had a solid run on Thursday despite the broader market weakness, with the buoyancy coming on the back of solid quarterly performance, strong forward guidance, positive management commentary on the call and the analysts’ doubling up on their bullishness. The value that the company added, thanks to the stellar run in the stock, left none other than Tesla CEO Elon Musk impressed.
What Happened: Nvidia ended Thursday’s session up 9.32% at $1,037.99, according to Benzinga Pro data, giving the company a market cap of $2.55 trillion. The AI chipmaker cemented further its place as the third most-valued global corporation, with only Microsoft and Apple above it.
Source: Y Charts
The mind-boggling value Nvidia has been adding over the past year has left Stanford professor Erik Brynjolfsson awestruck. Sharing a stock chart showing stock gains over the past five years, the economist said, “Nvidia now worth over $2.5 Trillion, more than the market cap of the entire German stock market.”
Musk reacted to the post with a “wow” expression.
Wow
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 23, 2024
Brynjolfsson was quick to point out that Musk-led Tesla’s market capitalization topped the value of Mexico’s stock market. See Also: How To Buy Nvidia (NVDA) Stock
Germany’s Ailing: Vailshare Capital Management founder Jeff Ross joined in the Nvidia vs. German stock market comparison and said it says more about Germany's descent than anything about Nvidia’s assent.
The German economy is going through a rut. A report filed by IMF economists in late March delved into the predicament, as the country was the only G7 member nation to go into a recession in 2023. It is set to expand at the weakest pace among these countries this year.
Revised first-quarter GDP released by the German Federal Statistical Office on Friday confirmed the preliminary estimate of an annualized 0.2% quarter-over-quarter growth in real terms. In comparison, the U.S. economy grew by 1.6% for the first three months of the year. The weakness, according to the IMF economists, is due to a combination of temporary factors such as higher interest rates that weighed down on construction and other interest-rate sensitive sectors, slowing consumer spending, and some structural ones.
Germany’s manufacturing-intensive industry took a hit from the post-pandemic global rebalancing of demand away from manufactured goods and toward services, the economists said. Europe’s energy crisis in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine also served as a headwind.
The stock market is a proxy of a country’s economy and Germany’s economic weakness is reflected in the stock market’s valuation, which was valued at 1.973 trillion euro ($2.13 trillion) in 2023.
Incidentally, Nvidia’s market cap is only lower than seven of the world nations, namely the U.S., China, Germany, Japan, India, the U.K. and France.
Bloomberg journalist Jon Erlichman shared statistics in the thread, which also wowed Musk. He noted that personal digital assistant manufacturer Palm, Inc. was valued more than Apple, Nvidia and Amazon combined, in 2000.
Wow
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 24, 2024
Palm rode on the dot-com bubble and IPOed in March. After rising to a pre-IPO high of over $95, Palm’s shares came crashing down in a year as it could not survive the competition post the dotcom bubble burst. It was ultimately folded up into the then Hewlett-Packard in 2010.
Why It’s Important: Nvidia has been quick to adapt to the changing tech environment, moving away from being a mere manufacturer of gaming GPUs to being the frontrunner of the AI revolution. Its highly powerful AI accelerators are now a sine-qua-non in all AI applications, training and inference. The Jensen Huang-led company enjoys a near-monopoly position in the market for AI chips.
Analysts have been impressed with its dynamism and execution. Tech venture capitalist Gene Munster believes that Nvidia will grow faster for longer.
Huang and Musk share a cordial relationship. The Nvidia CEO recently said on the company’s earnings call and in interviews thereafter that “Tesla is far ahead in self-driving cars but every single car someday will have to have autonomous capability.” Musk acknowledged the appreciation and said, “Thanks Jensen.”
In premarket trading on Friday, Nvidia rose 0.39% to $1,042.
Write to Benzinga at editorial@benzinga.com
2024.05.23 00:30 AutoModerator General Questions Thread, May 22, 2024
A thread for new collectors to ask basic questions of the community.
Frequently Asked Questions below!
A longer version of the subreddit rules is here.
For questions specifically concerning bootlegs or vendor legitimacy, please ask in the Bootleg Megathread.
NSFW & Spoiler Guidelines
Any collection posts containing bootlegs, comments advocating buying bootlegs, or links to sites selling bootlegs, recasts, or unlicensed merchandise will be removed.
People often ask about the legitimacy and/or safety of a number of websites which sell large resin statues. The more commonly-asked of those deal primarily in resins from studios which do not have a license from the Japanese IP holders to produce merchandise. Therefore links to those sites are not permitted here. Another sign is if MyFigureCollection doesn't list the either the statue, its manufacturer, or the shop it's being sold on.
MyFigureCollection
My Figure Collection is like MyAnimeList... but for figures! Their database includes thousands of items which been produced during the last couple of decades, along with reviews of shops and other helpful articles. One can also list their own collection and post gallery photos.
Shops
That’s going to depend a lot on what works for you, but most people around here buy them from Amiami, Big in Japan, Hobby Search, HobbyLink Japan, or Tokyo Otaku Mode. If none of those work for you for whatever reason, there’s a list of reputable retailers in the sidebar that you can check out at any time. Be extra careful when ordering figures from websites like Amazon or ebay, as there are a lot of bootlegs on those sites. Don’t be afraid to ask in our Bootleg Megathread if you’re unsure.
2. What differences are there between the shipping options I get from most Japanese shops?
Below is a rundown of the main shipping choices you’ll get at most retailers. Keep in mind that if an order is large enough you will be forced to use one of the more expensive options, as SAL shipments have lower size and weight restrictions.
Most shops will ask you to pay shipping on a per-order basis, but here are some that will allow combined shipping:
4. When will I get charged for my preorder?
Most Japanese shops charge you once the item is in stock and ready for shipment. When that happens, they will send you an email asking for payment. Some shops (mostly overseas ones), will allow you to pay for the item up front though, if you’d like. A few with that option are:
5. Should I expect to pay customs fees when importing figures?
That depends on where you live. Here’s a quick rundown:
You have three options for this:
A. Big in Japan is known to stock exclusive figures and ship to other countries. Usually the price is higher because they build in their proxy fees, but it’s easier than worrying about using a forwarder or proxy service. If you live in the US, Crunchyroll, Right Stuf, and Tokyo Otaku Mode also get exclusives sometimes, but out of the states the shipping can get expensive.
B. Forwarding Services: A forwarder is someone who you ship an exclusive item to so that they can forward the package on to you, usually for a flat fee + shipping. When using a forwarder you still make the purchase yourself, and enter their address into the shipping field. When the box arrives at the forwarder they will then stick your address onto the package and send it on its way.
Some popular forwarders are:
Be sure to read each sites instructions on forwarding carefully!
C. Proxy Services: With a proxy, you tell them what the item you’re looking for is and they will purchase it in your stead. This is handy for when a company doesn’t accept foreign credit cards, or you’re having trouble navigating a Japanese website.
Some popular proxies are:
7. I see a bunch of really cheap figures that ship from China on ebay. Are those okay to buy?
Generally, no. They’re most likely bootlegs. If you want a second opinion on that, feel free to ask in the Bootleg Megathread that’s always stickied at the top of the sub.
8. What’s a bootleg, and how can I avoid buying them?
A bootleg is a counterfeit figure often made using rejected molds of the official product. They are usually priced significantly lower than the genuine article, and in order to make their profit, bootleggers use lower quality materials and have less attention to detail- resulting in a substandard figure.
The Bootleg Megathread that I mentioned in question 7 is a great tool to avoid buying any bootlegs. It has a few tips and tricks to avoiding them to begin with, and a few more on how to spot them if you’re worried you might already own one.
9. Does anyone know when figure X is going to be released? How do I know if it was delayed?
My Figure Collection (sometimes referred to as MFC) does an excellent job of staying on top of information like release dates and delays. If you’re curious about an upcoming figures release date, check there first. This information can be found directly under the “Releases” section on a figure’s entry. If you only see a month and a year in that section, it means the release date has not yet been announced by the manufacturer, and there is still a chance the figure could be delayed.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.
10. The figure I want is long sold out at normal retailers! What’s the best place to pick it up in the aftermarket?
A list of reputable retailers can be found under the “Shops” section of the /AnimeFigures sidebar. They all sell legitimate products, and many of them also sell figures second hand. However, the most frequently suggested second hand sites are Mandarake and Amiami- who has a preowned section that they update every night save Sundays and Japanese holidays around 1PM JST and again around 6PM JST.
AmiAmi grades their pre-owned items on a letter scale. The general consensus from buyers is that their ratings are conservative, so unless the item and/or packaging is specifically indicated as having significant flaws, pre-owned items from them are usually in at least as good a condition as their rating suggests.
Note: When you search Mandarake, you’ll get the best results by using the Japanese characters for whatever you are searching. If you don’t know them, you can find them on MFC by clicking on any of the “details” in that figure’s listing.
11. Amiami has a figure I’m interested in labeled as “For sale in Japan only”. Does this mean I can’t order it without a proxy or forwarder?
No, you can still order it. Amiami’s English site has that warning on many items, and it’s mostly meant to inform you that this product was made for a Japanese market, and as such, will have Japanese speaking/writing in it- so don’t expect any instructions to be in English. If Amiami doesn’t want foreigners buying a certain product, they won’t even list it on their English site.
If you live near an Ikea try out one of these:
If you don’t live near an Ikea, Amazon has a few display options, though they are more expensive. Also keep an eye on your local Craigslist (or your country’s equivalent) and stores near you that are closing up.
13. What lighting do you guys recommend?
Ikea’s Dioder LED strips were discontinued after a long run. A current version is the Vattensten, if you're inclined to buy your case and lights at the same time.
LED strips have become very commonly available in recent years; most hardware and home furnishing stores carry a selection now. Just make sure that the lights don’t get too hot!
14. What are those clear plastic boxes that I see under everyone’s figures in their collection posts, and where can I get them?
Those are called risers. Most of us use standard acrylic risers like these. Some other, easy to find things that have been suggested are:
Another common suggestion is to visit The Container Store if you have one near you. They have a lot of things to choose from that can suit a variety of needs. Be sure to check out their standard acrylic risers, their Amac boxes, and the various display cases they sell (baseball cases, mini car cases. hockey puck cases, etc).
15. Should I keep my figures sealed?
That is, of course, up to you really, but here are a few things to keep in mind when debating this question:
Those are classifications for figures based on a few factors.
17. There are so many figure companies! Who makes good figures?!
Obviously this is a very subjective question, but as a general starting point, here are a few well renowned figure companies:
My Figure Collection can be your best friend here. Simply do a search on the name of the series or character using the search bar located at the top right of the screen, and all associated figures pop up!
Alternatively, if you’re looking at a figure’s MFC entry, most of the text under the “Details” section can be clicked on and used to run a search.
19. How can I commission a custom figure?
None of the major figure companies (Alter, Kotobukiya, Good Smile Company, etc.) will take a commission for a single figure. This thread has a few websites in it that you can check out, or you can look into garage kits. Some kit painters would be willing to resculpt, frankenstein together, or otherwise modify kits for the right price.
If you're looking for help completing a garage kit, /brushforhire may be useful.
Most people use a MFC combined with any or all of the following news sites:
To use MFC for this I’ll quote question #9.
21. Everyone’s excited about something called Wonfes….. what the heck is that?!
WonFes (short for Wonder Festival) is a biannual figure expo where many figure producers (both large and small) show off new sculpts and updates to figures already under way. Most companies save their most exciting announcements for WonFes, so we all look forward to the expo whenever it rolls around! Winter Wonder Festival is usually held in February, while Summer Wonder Festival is usually in July. The event has also spread to Shanghai, in the late spring.
22. One or two (or 15) figures were announced at WonFes that I’m really excited about! How can I keep track of their progress once the event is over?
MFC is always really quick about getting new WonFes announcements (or any others throughout the year, for that matter) listed in their database, so we suggest using that. To find a figure from the event you can search any number of things, including the name of the character or the name of the show. You can also use the tag search to search “WonderFestival 20xx_[season]” to see all items announced at that event.
submitted by AutoModerator to AnimeFigures [link] [comments]
Frequently Asked Questions below!
A longer version of the subreddit rules is here.
For questions specifically concerning bootlegs or vendor legitimacy, please ask in the Bootleg Megathread.
- For Self Posts: include a bolded NSFW note next to links in that post.
- For Links to sites/images: If the figure is NSFW, or the website has any NSFW content (including ads) be sure to tag your post NSFW and use the appropriate link flair.
Any collection posts containing bootlegs, comments advocating buying bootlegs, or links to sites selling bootlegs, recasts, or unlicensed merchandise will be removed.
People often ask about the legitimacy and/or safety of a number of websites which sell large resin statues. The more commonly-asked of those deal primarily in resins from studios which do not have a license from the Japanese IP holders to produce merchandise. Therefore links to those sites are not permitted here. Another sign is if MyFigureCollection doesn't list the either the statue, its manufacturer, or the shop it's being sold on.
MyFigureCollection
My Figure Collection is like MyAnimeList... but for figures! Their database includes thousands of items which been produced during the last couple of decades, along with reviews of shops and other helpful articles. One can also list their own collection and post gallery photos.
Shops
Retailers:Blogs/News:
AmiAmi HobbySearch Mandarake (sells rare figures) Good Smile Company Online Shop (often has exclusives) Good Smile Company US shop Crunchyroll Store Hobby Link Japan (aka HLJ) Solaris Japan (MFC partner) BigBadToyStore (MFC partner, US retailer) Big in Japan (also has proxy service) Tokyo Otaku Mode FigureHaven Archonia (EU) Yorokonde (EU) Figuya (EU) Gamersheek (UK) Jungle
List of retailers on MFC
/AnimeFigures' List of Retailers
Community Guide to Shopping in Japan
Nekomagic (News/Previews) NyaaFigurines (Reviews/Releases) Kahotan's Blog (News/Reviews) Figma Blog (JP)
Buying & Shipping
1. What’s the best place to buy my anime figures from?That’s going to depend a lot on what works for you, but most people around here buy them from Amiami, Big in Japan, Hobby Search, HobbyLink Japan, or Tokyo Otaku Mode. If none of those work for you for whatever reason, there’s a list of reputable retailers in the sidebar that you can check out at any time. Be extra careful when ordering figures from websites like Amazon or ebay, as there are a lot of bootlegs on those sites. Don’t be afraid to ask in our Bootleg Megathread if you’re unsure.
2. What differences are there between the shipping options I get from most Japanese shops?
Below is a rundown of the main shipping choices you’ll get at most retailers. Keep in mind that if an order is large enough you will be forced to use one of the more expensive options, as SAL shipments have lower size and weight restrictions.
- Unregistered SAL: Sometimes referred to as uSAL, is usually the cheapest method. It does not come with any tracking or insurance. Usually takes up 2-4 weeks for delivery.
- Registered SAL: Sometimes referred to as rSAL, is insured for the declared value up to 6,000 yen. It comes with a tracking number and usually takes 2-4 weeks for delivery.
- EMS: This method of shipping is much faster than either SAL options, usually arriving within a week of shipment. EMS shipments are insured for the declared value up to 2,000,000 yen.
- Airmail
- E-packet
- Surface: Shops don't offer this very often. It's an actual cargo ship and slow as a result.
- DHL: Becoming more available as an alternative to EMS on AmiAmi and other sites. Can be less expensive than EMS and of comparable speed, but may be more reliant on the specific geographical area being shipped to. The price is also determined by the size of the box. Offers their own tracking.
Most shops will ask you to pay shipping on a per-order basis, but here are some that will allow combined shipping:
- Amiami: You can combine orders here, as long as the orders ship in the same month. It doesn’t matter if the item is new or preowned. Any preorders that are set for that month can also be combined with other orders for that month. However, be aware that if the preorder gets delayed, Amiami will remove that item from that month’s shipment and place it on a new order. To combine orders on Amiami, use the “Combine Orders” feature under “My Account”.
- Hobby Search: Hobby Search will let you combine orders that release in the same month, but you cannot combine in stock items with preorders. If you want to combine multiple preorders, or multiple in stock items, you can do so using the “Order Recombination” feature on your account page.
- HobbyLink Japan: At HLJ, you have the option to send paid orders to their “Private Warehouse”, where you can store them for up to 2 months. When you’re ready to ship the items, you simply select which items to ship and HLJ will combine them into one shipment for you. To use this, just select the “Private Warehouse” option as shipping when you order.
4. When will I get charged for my preorder?
Most Japanese shops charge you once the item is in stock and ready for shipment. When that happens, they will send you an email asking for payment. Some shops (mostly overseas ones), will allow you to pay for the item up front though, if you’d like. A few with that option are:
- Big in Japan (Japanese store)
- Tokyo Otaku Mode
- Anime Island
- Crunchyroll
5. Should I expect to pay customs fees when importing figures?
That depends on where you live. Here’s a quick rundown:
- Australia: 10% GST is now assessed up front.
- Canada: Minimum declared value for charges is around CAD$20 for regular shipments, and CAD$60 for gifts (gifting something only seems to lower the declared value by about CAD$40, not deplete it completely). When using Amiami, try their Small Air Packet option. It comes with tracking, gets there in about the same time as EMS, and is better at avoiding customs.
- European Union: As of 1st July 2021, VAT has to be paid on all goods imported from outside of the EU. Retailers are supposed charge VAT for purchases under €150, however many Japanese retailers currently do not, so VAT will be charged when your order arrives in the EU. Orders that are >€150, VAT and duty will be charged by your local customs.
- UK: As of 1st January 2021, VAT is to be charged by retailers for orders <£135. However, customs isn't currently charging VAT on parcels valued at <£135, even if the VAT hasn't been paid. Goods >£135 will have their VAT and duty calculated and charged by customs.
- Mexico: Minimum declared value for customs fees is USD$300 for shipments by post, and USD$50 for shipments by courier.
- United States: A shipment has to have a declared value of USD$2,000 before customs starts hitting you with fees, so you most likely won’t have to worry about them at all.
You have three options for this:
A. Big in Japan is known to stock exclusive figures and ship to other countries. Usually the price is higher because they build in their proxy fees, but it’s easier than worrying about using a forwarder or proxy service. If you live in the US, Crunchyroll, Right Stuf, and Tokyo Otaku Mode also get exclusives sometimes, but out of the states the shipping can get expensive.
B. Forwarding Services: A forwarder is someone who you ship an exclusive item to so that they can forward the package on to you, usually for a flat fee + shipping. When using a forwarder you still make the purchase yourself, and enter their address into the shipping field. When the box arrives at the forwarder they will then stick your address onto the package and send it on its way.
Some popular forwarders are:
Be sure to read each sites instructions on forwarding carefully!
C. Proxy Services: With a proxy, you tell them what the item you’re looking for is and they will purchase it in your stead. This is handy for when a company doesn’t accept foreign credit cards, or you’re having trouble navigating a Japanese website.
Some popular proxies are:
- Big in Japan (Won’t proxy for Yahoo Auctions)
- From Japan
7. I see a bunch of really cheap figures that ship from China on ebay. Are those okay to buy?
Generally, no. They’re most likely bootlegs. If you want a second opinion on that, feel free to ask in the Bootleg Megathread that’s always stickied at the top of the sub.
8. What’s a bootleg, and how can I avoid buying them?
A bootleg is a counterfeit figure often made using rejected molds of the official product. They are usually priced significantly lower than the genuine article, and in order to make their profit, bootleggers use lower quality materials and have less attention to detail- resulting in a substandard figure.
The Bootleg Megathread that I mentioned in question 7 is a great tool to avoid buying any bootlegs. It has a few tips and tricks to avoiding them to begin with, and a few more on how to spot them if you’re worried you might already own one.
9. Does anyone know when figure X is going to be released? How do I know if it was delayed?
My Figure Collection (sometimes referred to as MFC) does an excellent job of staying on top of information like release dates and delays. If you’re curious about an upcoming figures release date, check there first. This information can be found directly under the “Releases” section on a figure’s entry. If you only see a month and a year in that section, it means the release date has not yet been announced by the manufacturer, and there is still a chance the figure could be delayed.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.
10. The figure I want is long sold out at normal retailers! What’s the best place to pick it up in the aftermarket?
A list of reputable retailers can be found under the “Shops” section of the /AnimeFigures sidebar. They all sell legitimate products, and many of them also sell figures second hand. However, the most frequently suggested second hand sites are Mandarake and Amiami- who has a preowned section that they update every night save Sundays and Japanese holidays around 1PM JST and again around 6PM JST.
AmiAmi grades their pre-owned items on a letter scale. The general consensus from buyers is that their ratings are conservative, so unless the item and/or packaging is specifically indicated as having significant flaws, pre-owned items from them are usually in at least as good a condition as their rating suggests.
Note: When you search Mandarake, you’ll get the best results by using the Japanese characters for whatever you are searching. If you don’t know them, you can find them on MFC by clicking on any of the “details” in that figure’s listing.
11. Amiami has a figure I’m interested in labeled as “For sale in Japan only”. Does this mean I can’t order it without a proxy or forwarder?
No, you can still order it. Amiami’s English site has that warning on many items, and it’s mostly meant to inform you that this product was made for a Japanese market, and as such, will have Japanese speaking/writing in it- so don’t expect any instructions to be in English. If Amiami doesn’t want foreigners buying a certain product, they won’t even list it on their English site.
Displaying Your Figures
12. What display cases do you recommend?If you live near an Ikea try out one of these:
- Klingsbo
- Billy (Often used with Morliden doors (now the HÖGBO and glass shelves.)
- Detolf: Formerly the go-to choice for inexpensive display cabinetry, the Detolf was first made flimsier around 2020 and then essentially phased out of the name, to become the BLÅLIDEN. Knockoff versions of widely-varying quality are commonly found on other shopping sites these days, though.
If you don’t live near an Ikea, Amazon has a few display options, though they are more expensive. Also keep an eye on your local Craigslist (or your country’s equivalent) and stores near you that are closing up.
13. What lighting do you guys recommend?
Ikea’s Dioder LED strips were discontinued after a long run. A current version is the Vattensten, if you're inclined to buy your case and lights at the same time.
LED strips have become very commonly available in recent years; most hardware and home furnishing stores carry a selection now. Just make sure that the lights don’t get too hot!
14. What are those clear plastic boxes that I see under everyone’s figures in their collection posts, and where can I get them?
Those are called risers. Most of us use standard acrylic risers like these. Some other, easy to find things that have been suggested are:
- Plastic picture cubes
- Card Deck Boxes
- If you’re feeling adventurous, try making your own!
Another common suggestion is to visit The Container Store if you have one near you. They have a lot of things to choose from that can suit a variety of needs. Be sure to check out their standard acrylic risers, their Amac boxes, and the various display cases they sell (baseball cases, mini car cases. hockey puck cases, etc).
15. Should I keep my figures sealed?
That is, of course, up to you really, but here are a few things to keep in mind when debating this question:
- Keeping it sealed can actually damage your figure. PVC figures usually have something called plasticizer in them, and that plasticizer needs to be able to breath. If a PVC figure isn’t exposed to oxygen, after a period of time the plasticizer starts to break down and form a sticky substance on the surface of the figure. Simply opening your figures and taking them out of the box prevents this from happening. If you happen to find plasticizer goo on one of your figures, Kahotan has a handy guide for dealing with it.
- Unlike some other figure markets, keeping an anime figure sealed won’t raise its value by a whole lot. In fact, because of the plasticizer problem mentioned above, your figure could actually be in better condition if you open it versus keeping it sealed.
Finding the Right Figure(s) for You
16. What are "scales" and "prizes"? What is the difference between them?Those are classifications for figures based on a few factors.
- "Prizes" are generally more simply produced figures which are intended to be given as prizes for playing arcade games. They are inexpensive and lack the detail of scale figures, though some prize figure lines have standouts which may approach lower-end scales in quality. That is uncommon and often depends on the individual figure.
- "Scales" are called such because they are nominally designed to be proportional to the dimensions of the character which they are based on. They are generally of much better manufacture and materials than prize figures, allowing for more detail in painting, accessories, or complex poses.
- "Trading" figures appear in gashapon machines or as blind boxes on shop counters, often as sets which include multiple characters. As suggested by the class name, the randomness encourages trading. They are usually very inexpensively-produced, though as with prizes, some series are better than others.
- "Non-scale" encompasses a variety of other categories. It is often used to describe poseable figure lines such as figma and Nendoroids.
17. There are so many figure companies! Who makes good figures?!
Obviously this is a very subjective question, but as a general starting point, here are a few well renowned figure companies:
- Alter
- Max Factory
- Good Smile Company
- Kotobukiya (usually hit or miss for people. Use your best judgement based off of the prototype)
- Flare
- Stronger
My Figure Collection can be your best friend here. Simply do a search on the name of the series or character using the search bar located at the top right of the screen, and all associated figures pop up!
Alternatively, if you’re looking at a figure’s MFC entry, most of the text under the “Details” section can be clicked on and used to run a search.
19. How can I commission a custom figure?
None of the major figure companies (Alter, Kotobukiya, Good Smile Company, etc.) will take a commission for a single figure. This thread has a few websites in it that you can check out, or you can look into garage kits. Some kit painters would be willing to resculpt, frankenstein together, or otherwise modify kits for the right price.
If you're looking for help completing a garage kit, /brushforhire may be useful.
Keeping Up with New Announcements
20. How can I keep up with figure news (announcements, updates, etc.)?Most people use a MFC combined with any or all of the following news sites:
- Neko Magic
- Alter’s Blog (In Japanese)
- Kahotan’s Blog (Only GSC and their sister companies)
To use MFC for this I’ll quote question #9.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.Most companies have one or more Twitter accounts. Some examples: Good Smile Company sales, Good Smile's USA branch, Max Factory, AmiAmi Hobby News.
21. Everyone’s excited about something called Wonfes….. what the heck is that?!
WonFes (short for Wonder Festival) is a biannual figure expo where many figure producers (both large and small) show off new sculpts and updates to figures already under way. Most companies save their most exciting announcements for WonFes, so we all look forward to the expo whenever it rolls around! Winter Wonder Festival is usually held in February, while Summer Wonder Festival is usually in July. The event has also spread to Shanghai, in the late spring.
22. One or two (or 15) figures were announced at WonFes that I’m really excited about! How can I keep track of their progress once the event is over?
MFC is always really quick about getting new WonFes announcements (or any others throughout the year, for that matter) listed in their database, so we suggest using that. To find a figure from the event you can search any number of things, including the name of the character or the name of the show. You can also use the tag search to search “WonderFestival 20xx_[season]” to see all items announced at that event.
2024.05.22 20:30 Virtual_Tadpole9821 Thai actors with boy band / music reality show backgrounds
 | Those of you following Only Boo! might know that Keen (Moo) and Ashi (Yos) came from GMMTV's idol survival show Project Alpha (2022). And u/_fancy_pants recently mused about how four contestants from Workpoint's duo search show The Two (2022) ended up in OMG! Vampire. I recently did some research and made a timeline of Thai boy groups and reality shows, and it turns out there's actually an interesting amount of cross-over between T-pop idols/trainees and BL actors. Here's some of the stuff I've found... submitted by Virtual_Tadpole9821 to boyslove [link] [comments] The ones in red won the show and became LYKN, the ones in orange didn't win but became GMMTV artists anyway, the ones in yellow have appeared in GMMTV series but are not signed - annotated by u/dangrankeyi In addition to Keen and Ashi, Fluke Nattanon (Wandee Goodday) and Aungpao (Cooking Crush) were also contestants on Project Alpha. LYKN, the group formed from the show, are starring in the upcoming Thame-Po. Sorry I'm too lazy to circle out everyone mentioned, please consider this a photo-spotting game. Aun, also in Only Boo!, was a contestant on LAZ iCON (2021), the show that formed LAZ1, the group that brought Daou and Offroad together. Star Hunter had six trainees on the show, including JJ and Fong (Big Dragon). Also on the show was Copper Phuriwat (DFF). Insight Rookies announcement Daou was previously a trainee under Insight Entertainment. So was Joong, before he joined GMMTV. (You might know that he was previously a member of OXQ (2020), the group formed from the 2 Moons 2 cast. Another OXQ member who joined Insight was Nine, who went on to win Chuang 2021 and debuted in China as INTO1. And speaking of international shows, you might already know that Santa was on the 2023 Korean show Fantasy Boys.) 2020 4nologue trainees Another group formed from contestants in LAZ iCON is DVI, under 4nologue. They recently disbanded and member Por Supakarn is now with DoMunDi and just appeared in the Your Sky pilot, while Tang Chinadis was going to be in Jack and Joker but withdrew. Por and Tang both joined 4nologue as trainees in 2019. Guess who's also a former 4nologue trainee? Ping Krittanun, of MeenPing. The Two contestants The four contestants from The Two in OMG! Vampire are David and Ken (now members of the boy group FESSTA) and Non and Son (members of the band Have a Nice Day). They're under 2FLOW Entertainment, a Workpoint subsidiary. OMG! Vampire is the first BL that Workpoint is co-producing (as opposed to Cutie Pie, which they just aired but didn't produce), so their artists are naturally represented in the series. Other contestants on The Two include Change2561's Topten Supakorn (Pit Babe) and Idol Factory's Heng Asavarid (SCOY, The Sign). Also of Idol Factory, Billy Patchanon was previously a member of the group ZBURSTER (2019-2020). This show was kind enough to label their names Opp Weerapong (SCOY) went on the show Seven Stars (2022) and was one of the winning finalists, becoming a member of the group THE7 for a year. Other contestants included Guitar Sarin (Low Frequency) and Toey Nathapong (2 Moons: The Ambassador). Also starring in 2 Moons Amb was Danny Bandit, who was a member of TWIXT (2020-2021). Superboy Project's 10 finalists Bank, Tora, Junior, Kad, Pon, Bonus, Fergie, Jet and Tung, some of whom starred in The Moment and all of whom appearred in Gen Y, joined Star Hunter from the show Superboy Project (2019). Graphic, also a contestant, left for One31 and appeared in Rak Diao. Cute Chef members You might have heard of Cute Chef, the 2018 group that had Mix and Book and First Chalongrat as members. Other members included Beam (Make It Right), Toru (Y-Destiny, War of Y), Gungun (Love Area, AiLongNhai), and Daniel (My Secret Love, Call It What You Want). Gungun and Daniel were also in the group NKO, whose members Fluk and Jab also acted in My Secret Love. KLIMAXX debut single cover Going back to earlier reality competition shows, Kaownah, Peter Chonpachara (What Zabb Man!) and Lotte (Bad Buddy, My School President) were members of KLIMAXX, the group formed by The Next Boy/Girl Band Thailand (2018). Other contestants included Cooper Patpasit and Markpoom (War of Y). Best, Taro, Pond, and Kongprab are LB4, LB3, LB6 and LB7, respectively Several competitors from La Banda Thailand 2 (2017) were picked to lead two indie BL projects: Best Cholsawas and Taro Shatree in My Dream, and Pond Suriyakun and Kongprab Phakkhaphon in Location. And finally, some who had even earlier careers. Tytan (Water Boyy The Series) joined GMMTV in 2014 as a member of the boy band Mad Monkeys. Best Anavil (now Willi Arawill) was a member of 2013 group Evo Nine. Jeff Satur wasn't in a group, but debuted with Kamikaze in 2013. And Jack Jarupong, who starred in With Love, was a member of Nice 2 Meet U, way back in 2007. I've mainly only mentioned those who went from music into BL. Of course, there are many others who went the other way, including Nice of ATLAS (from Make It Right - spot him among the 4nologue trainees above?), Krittin and Pluggy of PERSES (Love by Chance 2 and Thank God It's Friday respectively), Paul of ZOLAR (Thank God It's Friday), and Ken of PrimeTime (Lovely Writer), to name a few. And then there are the series made as group vehicles... Boyband starring XI, What If starring duo 2PLAYERZ, Friend Forever starring 1Day Project, My Tempo starring PROXIE and Great Men Academy starring 9x9 (the last two only if you want to count them). And I haven't talked about the many groups formed by putting actors together (SBFIVE, TEMPT, Kissboys TH, BOYFRIENDS, 7MOMENT, MANIACT, etc.) but then there's probably not much that's surprising about them. Anyway, here's a copy of the timeline I mentioned, in case you're interested. For the full write-up, look up "A timeline of T-pop boy groups" in the GMMTV sub. A timeline of T-pop boy groups |
2024.05.22 14:43 upbstock Stock Market Prepper --->>> 👂👂👂👂👂👂👂👂👂👂👂
AI superpower The chipmaker at the center of the AI revolution will capture the camera this afternoon, with many making big bets before the release of Nvidia's (NVDA) earnings after the bell. It's one of the most talked-about stocks in the financial world, and for good reason. The company is helping to build out all the infrastructure needed to power generative artificial intelligence, selling advanced processors to all the tech bigwigs that are splashing out on hardware like its the 1990s.
Snapshot: Getting all this infrastructure in place will likely take several years, meaning Nvidia is still primed for exponential growth (at least that is the hope). The potential has excited investors, who have sent the stock soaring since last year. Shares just hit fresh all-time highs on Tuesday at over $950 and have nearly doubled year-to-date. NVDA is also up over 550% since the beginning of 2023 and has become the most popularly traded stock on Wall Street.
Nvidia's consensus EPS estimate for Q1 comes in at $5.58 (+412% Y/Y), with a revenue forecast of $24.6B (+242% Y/Y), up from $7.2B in the prior year. That's a staggering difference, with the AI darling making nearly as much revenue per quarter as it used to do on an annual basis. If there is any guide to how shares will trade after earnings, keep an eye on forward guidance, accompanying commentary, and the outlook for the artificial intelligence boom.
Making moves: The options market is pricing in an 8% move either way after earnings, but it could be way more than that, given that Nvidia (NVDA) soared 24% after its last Q1 report. The firm is also now the third-biggest U.S. company by market cap, with a valuation of $2.3T, meaning its influence extends to broader market indices like the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) (with a weight of 6.5%) and S&P 500 (SP500) (with a weight of over 5%). All of that AI enthusiasm has helped propel the bull run in U.S. stocks, leading the major averages to hit record highs this month. Are more in the making?
Up for sale The U.S. Department of Energy is releasing 1M barrels of gasoline (42M gallons) from the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve to help "lower prices at the pump as Americans hit the road this summer." The reserve was authorized in 2014, two years after Hurricane Sandy damaged refineries, but the cache had never been used and was due to be closed in line with a law Congress passed in March. While gas prices are up about 15% YTD, some say the release will not make a significant difference in the East Coast region, which burned through more than 3M bbl/day of gasoline last June alone. (54 comments)
Time running out The clock is ticking on BHP's (BHP) ambitious bid to acquire rival Anglo American (OTCQX:AAUKF), as the world's biggest miner has until 12 PM ET to make a binding takeover offer. Anglo American already rejected two proposals from BHP and instead revealed a major company overhaul that included plans to sell or demerge its steelmaking coal, nickel, platinum, and diamond businesses. If BHP decides to stop pursuing a deal, it will have to stay away for at least six months, according to U.K. takeover rules. (4 comments)
Tactical nukes The defense sector is on watch after Russia’s military started exercises to simulate the use of tactical nuclear weapons, which include the Kinzhal missile, the first hypersonic weapon to be used in the Ukraine war. The exercises, ordered by President Vladimir Putin, were said to be in response to "provocative statements" by Western Europe officials, including French President Emmanuel Macron. Tactical nuclear weapons are less destructive than what are known as strategic bombs that can level a city, but they still have significant power. Russia's estimated arsenal of the warheads stands at around 1,500. (1 comment)
Today's Markets
In Asia, Japan -0.9%. Hong Kong -0.1%. China flat. India +0.4%. In Europe, at midday, London -0.4%. Paris -0.6%. Frankfurt -0.2%. Futures at 7:00, Dow -0.1%. S&P -0.2%. Nasdaq -0.2%. Crude -0.5% to $78.28. Gold -0.3% to $2,419.30. Bitcoin -1.1% to $70,198. Ten-year Treasury Yield +3 bps to 4.45%.
Today's Economic Calendar
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications 9:40 Fed’s Goolsbee Speech 10:00 Existing Home Sales 10:00 Atlanta Fed's Business Inflation Expectations 10:00 Quarterly Services Report 10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories 1:00 PM Results of $16B, 20-Year Bond Auction 2:00 PM FOMC Minutes
Companies reporting earnings today »
What else is happening...
EU Council approves AI Act: Will it become a world benchmark?
Disney's (DIS) Pixar lays off staff amid ongoing cost cuts.
Lowe's (LOW) backs guidance on solid start to spring.
Macy's (M) lifts outlook even as comparable sales fall.
Tesla (TSLA) highlights electric Semi potential at conference.
Regulatory review: Mastercard (MA), Visa (V) face no competition.
Lululemon sees consumer tastes shift, revamps product teams.
Children's Place (PLCE) plunges after departure of its CEO.
Apple (AAPL) asks New Jersey court to toss DOJ antitrust lawsuit.
Top Novavax (NVAX) investor ends proxy fight after Sanofi (SNY) deal.
submitted by upbstock to Optionmillionaires [link] [comments]
Snapshot: Getting all this infrastructure in place will likely take several years, meaning Nvidia is still primed for exponential growth (at least that is the hope). The potential has excited investors, who have sent the stock soaring since last year. Shares just hit fresh all-time highs on Tuesday at over $950 and have nearly doubled year-to-date. NVDA is also up over 550% since the beginning of 2023 and has become the most popularly traded stock on Wall Street.
Nvidia's consensus EPS estimate for Q1 comes in at $5.58 (+412% Y/Y), with a revenue forecast of $24.6B (+242% Y/Y), up from $7.2B in the prior year. That's a staggering difference, with the AI darling making nearly as much revenue per quarter as it used to do on an annual basis. If there is any guide to how shares will trade after earnings, keep an eye on forward guidance, accompanying commentary, and the outlook for the artificial intelligence boom.
Making moves: The options market is pricing in an 8% move either way after earnings, but it could be way more than that, given that Nvidia (NVDA) soared 24% after its last Q1 report. The firm is also now the third-biggest U.S. company by market cap, with a valuation of $2.3T, meaning its influence extends to broader market indices like the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) (with a weight of 6.5%) and S&P 500 (SP500) (with a weight of over 5%). All of that AI enthusiasm has helped propel the bull run in U.S. stocks, leading the major averages to hit record highs this month. Are more in the making?
Up for sale The U.S. Department of Energy is releasing 1M barrels of gasoline (42M gallons) from the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve to help "lower prices at the pump as Americans hit the road this summer." The reserve was authorized in 2014, two years after Hurricane Sandy damaged refineries, but the cache had never been used and was due to be closed in line with a law Congress passed in March. While gas prices are up about 15% YTD, some say the release will not make a significant difference in the East Coast region, which burned through more than 3M bbl/day of gasoline last June alone. (54 comments)
Time running out The clock is ticking on BHP's (BHP) ambitious bid to acquire rival Anglo American (OTCQX:AAUKF), as the world's biggest miner has until 12 PM ET to make a binding takeover offer. Anglo American already rejected two proposals from BHP and instead revealed a major company overhaul that included plans to sell or demerge its steelmaking coal, nickel, platinum, and diamond businesses. If BHP decides to stop pursuing a deal, it will have to stay away for at least six months, according to U.K. takeover rules. (4 comments)
Tactical nukes The defense sector is on watch after Russia’s military started exercises to simulate the use of tactical nuclear weapons, which include the Kinzhal missile, the first hypersonic weapon to be used in the Ukraine war. The exercises, ordered by President Vladimir Putin, were said to be in response to "provocative statements" by Western Europe officials, including French President Emmanuel Macron. Tactical nuclear weapons are less destructive than what are known as strategic bombs that can level a city, but they still have significant power. Russia's estimated arsenal of the warheads stands at around 1,500. (1 comment)
Today's Markets
In Asia, Japan -0.9%. Hong Kong -0.1%. China flat. India +0.4%. In Europe, at midday, London -0.4%. Paris -0.6%. Frankfurt -0.2%. Futures at 7:00, Dow -0.1%. S&P -0.2%. Nasdaq -0.2%. Crude -0.5% to $78.28. Gold -0.3% to $2,419.30. Bitcoin -1.1% to $70,198. Ten-year Treasury Yield +3 bps to 4.45%.
Today's Economic Calendar
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications 9:40 Fed’s Goolsbee Speech 10:00 Existing Home Sales 10:00 Atlanta Fed's Business Inflation Expectations 10:00 Quarterly Services Report 10:30 EIA Petroleum Inventories 1:00 PM Results of $16B, 20-Year Bond Auction 2:00 PM FOMC Minutes
Companies reporting earnings today »
What else is happening...
EU Council approves AI Act: Will it become a world benchmark?
Disney's (DIS) Pixar lays off staff amid ongoing cost cuts.
Lowe's (LOW) backs guidance on solid start to spring.
Macy's (M) lifts outlook even as comparable sales fall.
Tesla (TSLA) highlights electric Semi potential at conference.
Regulatory review: Mastercard (MA), Visa (V) face no competition.
Lululemon sees consumer tastes shift, revamps product teams.
Children's Place (PLCE) plunges after departure of its CEO.
Apple (AAPL) asks New Jersey court to toss DOJ antitrust lawsuit.
Top Novavax (NVAX) investor ends proxy fight after Sanofi (SNY) deal.
2024.05.22 04:10 thesayke PSA: Palestinian-ism is a fascist ideology. Here's why
Fascism has a number of essential characteristics but the most distinct is palingenetic ultranationalism: The myth that the nation is an organic body composed of a downtrodden but authentic "common people" who have been betrayed, victimized, and derived of land and money by out-groups (especially Jews, LGBT folks, immigrants, and liberals), and the nation must be reborn and grown larger, phoenix-like, from the ashes of its downtrodden state through the cleansing fire of violence against those out-groups and their allies (especially their allies among the "common people") and the seizure of their land and property, regardless of how many "common people" must be sacrificed in this process of violent "purification"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palingenetic_ultranationalism
Palestinian nationalism has all these definitional features. Its central myth is that "the Palestinians" (whose language, Arabic, lacks the letter P) have been betrayed, oppressed, and deprived of their land and money by Jews, and "Palestine" must be reborn and grown larger, phoenix-like, from the ashes of its current corrupt theocracy through the cleansing fire of violence against Jews, LGBT people, and liberals (especially liberal Arabs who believe in co-existence with Jews and LGBT people), and all those who support them, regardless of how many human shields, child soldiers, and hospitals with bunkers underneath them must be sacrificed in this process of purification
This Palestinian ideological mythos entirely reverses victim and perpetrator
In the real world, there is an extensive and well corroborated archeological record (starting with the Merneptah Stele) showing the continuous residence of the indigenous Jewish inhabitants in the land between the river and the sea, but that Stele alone independently establishes their presence for at least the last 3200 years
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merneptah_Stele
In contrast, the Arab-Israeli conflict started relatively recently, with the battle of Tel Hal on March 1st 1920, when an Arab militia attacked the Jewish-owned farms at Tel Hal in an attempt to find French soldiers, eventually burning it to the ground. Prior to that there was no organized violence between Arabs and Israelis in the region:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tel_Hai
The next incident in the Arab-Israel conflict was the Nebi Musa riots a month later, on April 8th 1920, when Amin al-Husayni (who later allied with the Nazis and was a big fan of Hitler) gave an incendiary speech from the balcony of the Arab Club, kicking off what resulted in an Muslim mob of around 60,000 ransacking of the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem:
https://www.palquest.org/en/historictext/6709/palin-commission-report
That's what started the war. It started with Arab people committing mob violence against Jewish people and that has never stopped to this day. Genocide is what Nazi and Communist-inspired Arab mobs and armies have repeatedly tried to do to the indigenous Jewish people of the land between the river and the sea, starting from the 1920 Nebi Musa riots, and continuing on through 1948, 1967, 1973, 1982, 1987, 2000, and most recently on October 7th
They keep trying to eradicate Jewish people off the land their ancestors lived in continuously for thousands of years, they keep getting their asses kicked every time they try it, and they deserve it every time they do
This makes sense when you understand the history of the region, and how Arab-ness was imposed by force (along with Islam) by multiple relatively historically recent waves of conquering Muslim settler-colonists
The Ottoman Empire was the culmination of those waves of Muslim settler-colonists, and after World War I it collapsed and in much of the Middle East was followed by Pan-Arab nationalism, which was a remarkably Nazi project. The founder of modern Palestinian religious nationalism (Amin al Husseini) was a close ally and personal friend of Hitler
https://time.com/4084301/hitler-grand-mufi-1941/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-official-record-what-the-mufti-said-to-hitle
After waging and escalating series of genocidal pogroms against the indigenous Jewish people (culminating in their alliance with the Nazis in World War II) and getting their asses kicked, Palestinian nationalism (as distinct from pan-Arab nationalism) emerged a fundamentally Soviet project
That is not an exaggeration. 100 years ago most people in the region defined themselves as Ottoman, by their village, or by their religion. Arab nationalism is a relatively new socially constructed weapon, made up by unambiguous fascists (like Sati Al-Husri, Abdulrahman Badawi, and Amin al-Husseini) and communists (like Fawaz Taraboulsi or Suhayl Idris) to mobilize hate against and justify the murder of their imperfect but much more reasonable democratic enemies (who also happened by the enemies of the Nazis and Soviets)
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/liberation-arabs-global-left
Palestinian nationalism, as opposed to Arab nationalism, was created by the KGB after the repeated defeats of the USSR's Arab-nationalist proxies in 1948 and 1967. The blueprint for the PLO Charter was drafted in Moscow in 1964 and was approved by 422 Palestinian representatives hand-selected by the KGB. At that time, the USSR was in the business of creating "people’s liberation" fronts. The KGB founded the PLO as well as the National Liberation Army of Bolivia in 1964 led by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and the National Liberation Army of Colombia in 1965
The “Palestinian Liberation Army” was contrived by the KGB, much like the KGB devised the Bolivian National Liberation Army, Greek People's Liberation Army, Malayan National Liberation Army, etc etc. It created this Arab army in the early 1960s following the failure of the troops of various Soviet-puppet-ruled Arab states to destroy Israel. The KGB drafted the Palestinian National Charter and handpicked the 422 members of the PLO council that approved it. As the KGB's director said at the time, "We needed to instill a Nazi-style hatred for the Jews throughout the Islamic world, and to turn this weapon of the emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel". Likewise, both the Palestine National Covenant and Palestinian Constitution were drafted in Moscow
https://stanfordreview.org/deception-palestinian-nationalism/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_involvement_in_regime_change
The most popular Palestinian faction currently, Hamas, pointedly opposes multi-ethnic pluralistic democracy. That's what Israel already is and they hate it. Hamas also explicitly opposes a two-state solution, wants to expel and murder Jews, and impose an Islamic theocracy by force
The founding covenant of Hamas, which they created their terrorist organization around in 1988, opens with a message that precisely encapsulates Hamas’s master plan. Quoting Hassan al-Banna, the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is a constituent member (Article 2), the document proclaims, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
After some general explanatory language about Hamas’s religious foundation and noble intentions, the covenant comes to the Islamic Resistance Movement’s raison d’être: the slaughter of Jews. “The Day of Judgement will not come about,” it proclaims, “until Moslems fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and k-ll him.”
Article 11 spells out why this annihilation of Jews is required. Palestine is described as an “Islamic Waqf”—an endowment predicated on Muslim religious, education, or charitable principles and therefore inviolate to any other peoples or religions. Accordingly, the territory that now encompasses Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank is:
https://web.archive.org/web/20231010215457/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/
And Hamas has the support of somewhere between 65-80% of the Palestinian people
https://www.awrad.org/en/article/10719/Wartime-Poll-Results-of-an-Opinion-Poll-Among-Palestinians-in-the-West-Bank-and-Gaza-Strip
To understand the Palestinian strategy in this latest phase of their forever war, see here:
How Hamas Uses Civilians as a Weapon - The Dark Side of Clausewitzian War
https://deadcarl.substack.com/p/how-hamas-uses-civilians-as-a-weapon
Both Palestinian leadership and street have repeatedly acting as willing pawns, first of the Nazis, then of the Soviets, and now of the contemporary fascist Axis that includes Russia, China, and Iran. The historical Palestinian embrace of Nazi, Soviet, Islamist, and modern Axis fascism (and their rejection of democracy and equal rights) only makes their rationale for doing do so, and the nature of their project, more clear
Palestinian-ism is fascist, and everyone who understands and opposes fascism should oppose it
A contextual note: I am not Jewish or Israeli. My closest relatives in the region are from a bit north of there. None of this should need to be said. The content in this article should be obvious, and generally is obvious to those with relevant experience on the ground. Unfortunately we live in a world where disinformation drowns out accurate historical context so apparently this needs to be said once again
submitted by thesayke to IsraelPalestine [link] [comments]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palingenetic_ultranationalism
Palestinian nationalism has all these definitional features. Its central myth is that "the Palestinians" (whose language, Arabic, lacks the letter P) have been betrayed, oppressed, and deprived of their land and money by Jews, and "Palestine" must be reborn and grown larger, phoenix-like, from the ashes of its current corrupt theocracy through the cleansing fire of violence against Jews, LGBT people, and liberals (especially liberal Arabs who believe in co-existence with Jews and LGBT people), and all those who support them, regardless of how many human shields, child soldiers, and hospitals with bunkers underneath them must be sacrificed in this process of purification
This Palestinian ideological mythos entirely reverses victim and perpetrator
In the real world, there is an extensive and well corroborated archeological record (starting with the Merneptah Stele) showing the continuous residence of the indigenous Jewish inhabitants in the land between the river and the sea, but that Stele alone independently establishes their presence for at least the last 3200 years
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merneptah_Stele
In contrast, the Arab-Israeli conflict started relatively recently, with the battle of Tel Hal on March 1st 1920, when an Arab militia attacked the Jewish-owned farms at Tel Hal in an attempt to find French soldiers, eventually burning it to the ground. Prior to that there was no organized violence between Arabs and Israelis in the region:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tel_Hai
The next incident in the Arab-Israel conflict was the Nebi Musa riots a month later, on April 8th 1920, when Amin al-Husayni (who later allied with the Nazis and was a big fan of Hitler) gave an incendiary speech from the balcony of the Arab Club, kicking off what resulted in an Muslim mob of around 60,000 ransacking of the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem:
https://www.palquest.org/en/historictext/6709/palin-commission-report
That's what started the war. It started with Arab people committing mob violence against Jewish people and that has never stopped to this day. Genocide is what Nazi and Communist-inspired Arab mobs and armies have repeatedly tried to do to the indigenous Jewish people of the land between the river and the sea, starting from the 1920 Nebi Musa riots, and continuing on through 1948, 1967, 1973, 1982, 1987, 2000, and most recently on October 7th
They keep trying to eradicate Jewish people off the land their ancestors lived in continuously for thousands of years, they keep getting their asses kicked every time they try it, and they deserve it every time they do
This makes sense when you understand the history of the region, and how Arab-ness was imposed by force (along with Islam) by multiple relatively historically recent waves of conquering Muslim settler-colonists
The Ottoman Empire was the culmination of those waves of Muslim settler-colonists, and after World War I it collapsed and in much of the Middle East was followed by Pan-Arab nationalism, which was a remarkably Nazi project. The founder of modern Palestinian religious nationalism (Amin al Husseini) was a close ally and personal friend of Hitler
https://time.com/4084301/hitler-grand-mufi-1941/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-official-record-what-the-mufti-said-to-hitle
After waging and escalating series of genocidal pogroms against the indigenous Jewish people (culminating in their alliance with the Nazis in World War II) and getting their asses kicked, Palestinian nationalism (as distinct from pan-Arab nationalism) emerged a fundamentally Soviet project
That is not an exaggeration. 100 years ago most people in the region defined themselves as Ottoman, by their village, or by their religion. Arab nationalism is a relatively new socially constructed weapon, made up by unambiguous fascists (like Sati Al-Husri, Abdulrahman Badawi, and Amin al-Husseini) and communists (like Fawaz Taraboulsi or Suhayl Idris) to mobilize hate against and justify the murder of their imperfect but much more reasonable democratic enemies (who also happened by the enemies of the Nazis and Soviets)
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/liberation-arabs-global-left
Palestinian nationalism, as opposed to Arab nationalism, was created by the KGB after the repeated defeats of the USSR's Arab-nationalist proxies in 1948 and 1967. The blueprint for the PLO Charter was drafted in Moscow in 1964 and was approved by 422 Palestinian representatives hand-selected by the KGB. At that time, the USSR was in the business of creating "people’s liberation" fronts. The KGB founded the PLO as well as the National Liberation Army of Bolivia in 1964 led by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and the National Liberation Army of Colombia in 1965
The “Palestinian Liberation Army” was contrived by the KGB, much like the KGB devised the Bolivian National Liberation Army, Greek People's Liberation Army, Malayan National Liberation Army, etc etc. It created this Arab army in the early 1960s following the failure of the troops of various Soviet-puppet-ruled Arab states to destroy Israel. The KGB drafted the Palestinian National Charter and handpicked the 422 members of the PLO council that approved it. As the KGB's director said at the time, "We needed to instill a Nazi-style hatred for the Jews throughout the Islamic world, and to turn this weapon of the emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel". Likewise, both the Palestine National Covenant and Palestinian Constitution were drafted in Moscow
https://stanfordreview.org/deception-palestinian-nationalism/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_involvement_in_regime_change
The most popular Palestinian faction currently, Hamas, pointedly opposes multi-ethnic pluralistic democracy. That's what Israel already is and they hate it. Hamas also explicitly opposes a two-state solution, wants to expel and murder Jews, and impose an Islamic theocracy by force
The founding covenant of Hamas, which they created their terrorist organization around in 1988, opens with a message that precisely encapsulates Hamas’s master plan. Quoting Hassan al-Banna, the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is a constituent member (Article 2), the document proclaims, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
After some general explanatory language about Hamas’s religious foundation and noble intentions, the covenant comes to the Islamic Resistance Movement’s raison d’être: the slaughter of Jews. “The Day of Judgement will not come about,” it proclaims, “until Moslems fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and k-ll him.”
Article 11 spells out why this annihilation of Jews is required. Palestine is described as an “Islamic Waqf”—an endowment predicated on Muslim religious, education, or charitable principles and therefore inviolate to any other peoples or religions. Accordingly, the territory that now encompasses Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank is:
consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up … This Waqf remains as long as earth and heaven remain. Any procedure in contradiction to Islamic Sharia, where Palestine is concerned, is null and void.In sum, any compromise over this land, including the moribund two-state solution, much less coexistence among faiths and peoples, is forbidden.
https://web.archive.org/web/20231010215457/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/
And Hamas has the support of somewhere between 65-80% of the Palestinian people
https://www.awrad.org/en/article/10719/Wartime-Poll-Results-of-an-Opinion-Poll-Among-Palestinians-in-the-West-Bank-and-Gaza-Strip
To understand the Palestinian strategy in this latest phase of their forever war, see here:
How Hamas Uses Civilians as a Weapon - The Dark Side of Clausewitzian War
https://deadcarl.substack.com/p/how-hamas-uses-civilians-as-a-weapon
Both Palestinian leadership and street have repeatedly acting as willing pawns, first of the Nazis, then of the Soviets, and now of the contemporary fascist Axis that includes Russia, China, and Iran. The historical Palestinian embrace of Nazi, Soviet, Islamist, and modern Axis fascism (and their rejection of democracy and equal rights) only makes their rationale for doing do so, and the nature of their project, more clear
Palestinian-ism is fascist, and everyone who understands and opposes fascism should oppose it
A contextual note: I am not Jewish or Israeli. My closest relatives in the region are from a bit north of there. None of this should need to be said. The content in this article should be obvious, and generally is obvious to those with relevant experience on the ground. Unfortunately we live in a world where disinformation drowns out accurate historical context so apparently this needs to be said once again
2024.05.22 02:46 aver2018 Jobs - Notes
I lurk on Reddit, browsing thru a few subs..
I see lot of candidates expressing concern on finding jobs. Here are some notes. Hope you find it useful.
I work as a Senior Consultant is a fairly large IT Company. We have 50+ job opening at various levels (Technical Service Desk Agents, Developers, DevOps Engineers, Architects, Project Managers). We are unable to fill these, as we don't find qualified candidates. I am on the Interview Panel for some of these positions. In the last 2 months, I have conducted 45 tech Interviews, but rejected most of them "not meeting the minimum job requirement".
Across other positions, my co-workers also have rejected an equal number of candidates.
Mind you - these are not highly specialized skills. Majority of them are a few years' experience in skills like: Service Desk or Cloud or Developer DevOps or PM. Last week, one of our other units added 12 Serice Desk Trainees, for which they scouted for 2 months.
This post is to give an overview of how we do this and also an encouragement to job seekers (young and old), that from your side, you are finding "market is tough", "you are not getting responses to your application" etc., but looking at it from corporate side, we have several openings to be filled immediately, but we are not reaching or getting qualified candidates.
Here are my notes:
Our Interview process - Not extremely long. 1) Recruiter - receives the Resume 2) Recruiter - goes through your resume 3) Recruiter - does an initial HR round 4) Tech shortlist - me or my colleague 5) First round Tech Interview (30 mins to 1 hr.) 6) Final round Tech Interview - me or my colleague (minimum 1 hr.) 7) Final HR round - for the offer letter, comp negotiations etc. Notice - even for such a short process, a candidate is actually going through 7 evaluation rounds.
Each step is detailed below:
1) Recruiter - receives the resume - LinkedIn, Indeed, Dice and through multiple third-party agencies (who get a commission for each candidate). Net Net: we source them from the market. Our recruiters are NOT based in offshore. They are all based in US getting paid to submit a good resume. They have targets for how effective they are in sourcing good resumes that clear the initial review. Our company has hired about 10+ recruiters (head hunters) to get resumes from the approved sources. We also have multiple referral programs for our internal employees. My notes on this point - If your resume is up there in the Job Portals or with any reputed recruitment agency, one of my recruiters will definitely get it. If you have friends or family, a referral will get your resume quickly to a Recruiter
2) Recruiters - goes through your resume - The Recruiter / or the first Tech Eval person, matches the candidates resume with the Job Description / Requirements (we call it JR. Some people call it JD). Job Descriptions are NOT multiple pages. Just about 8-10 bullet points plus some paragraphs. My notes on this point - Read the Job Description, line by line and make sure that each point in the JR is reflected in the resume. It is ok to have on your resume first page, the JR and some annotation as to how you fit the JR perfectly. The recruiter looks at the match of your resume to Job Description and that is how the resume bubbles up, to be considered for shortlisting
2a) Resume Content / Quality / Quantity: We don't worry about resume quality. Even spelling errors are acceptable by our recruiters or our Tech Panel. I am on the Tech Panel and never bother about spelling or grammar. Though it is good to have the discipline. As mentioned above, we first look at the JR match with resume. If the resume directly comes to me or my colleagues (who are billable at client projects), we don't match the resume with LinkedIn, but the recruiters sometimes verify the LinkedIn. So if you are posting a LinkedIn reference, match it as closely to the resume as possible (months, dates, designation, role etc.). We don;' fret if there are slight discrepancies, example you may be Project Lead, but you have mentioned as a Project Manager in LinkedIn. We get lot of AI written resumes. We have subscription for "AI Detectors". I don't reject AI resumes, but some of my coworkers reject all AI resumes. My suggestion, as much as possible avoid AI written resumes. You can go two steps. Get it written by AI. There are tools on the Web that convert AI resume to a human resume. Use those to make your final resume, so that the stricter evaluators don't land up rejecting the resume. What to put in your resume - We get wary with long resumes. We like to see, max a 3-page resume. Maybe half first page is - fitment to the Job description, then a half page highlight. Next 2 pages could be your work experience. Make sure that as much of the wolrk experience listed matches the Job Description. I got a resume today, for a DevOps Engineer. The resume says 2018-2020, they worked as Teaching assistant. and all the duties they have performed. while listing the duration-role is ok, no need to put the teaching highlights into this position. The last page SHOULD have your Certifications. All my colleagues look for Certifications.. I definitely look at Certifications. In fact, for some position - example: ServiceNow Engineer or Google Kubernetes Engineer, I have cleared a few resumes like this, without even looking at the rest of the resume, because of the need for Certification for that position. More on Certifications later down. As far mentioning experience - we are mostly looking for immediate relevant experience. What the candidate has done 10-15 years ago is of minimal interest, unless it is relevant to the Job. For example - I saw for a full-stack developers, someone putting a 5 year Mainframe COBOL experience, done 15 years ago. Should be mentioned, but not in detail. Use that 3 page space effectively highlighting relevance and concurrency to the job Description. Also, what we don't need in the resume and not interested - your hobbies, your references etc. Not at this point. Net Net: a 2- or 3-page resume with relevance and concurrency. As far as resume format - doesn't matter to us. could be Word, could be PDF
3) Recruiter does an initial discussion - called initial HR round - if the resume gets picked up, our recruiter does an initial HR round. This is to filter the candidates, so that the overload does not come to the Tech Shortlist Team. They normally have a video conference (Team or Zoom). Nothing very specific here. Just make sure you impress the recruiter - dress well, groom well, have clear audio-video, emphasize that you are a perfect fit, if there is a self-assessment questionnaire, don't be "too honest". Example "core ServiceNow experience". If you don't have core expertise, but you know the basic, say that you are well versed. The Tech Panel will decide how deep they require that knowledge. No need to get rejected at this stage by being too honest. Try to rate yourself above 4 if they have a 5-point scale in all the tech questions. Remember they are 'Recruiters", Not tech engineers. They are reading off a script to shortlist you. Some of the shortlisting questions I prepare and give to recruiters to score off. Also to note, if there are some facts that make you standout, it is good to mention here - example you have authored a book, no matter what book, good to mention, if you are a Google Scholar, mention that. What happens is that the Recruiters will make all such notes and these may be useful in Tech Shortlist. So any good points mention here
4) Tech Shortlist - Assuming you cleared the HR shortlisting, then the resume come for a Tech shortlisting - If your HR / Recruiter round went well, many candidates are elated. But it may get rejected here. The HR / Recruiter round, as I mentioned, is to reduce the overload on the Tech Shortlist. You HAVE to clear this particular this Tech shortlist before you get called for the Interview. This is the place where I enter. Or one of my colleagues enters. We are billable people working 8-10 hours with clients. We spend not more than 30 min. (sometimes just 10 minutes) to clear the candidate. That is where all my point in item 2a come into play. So, if you resume is in alignment to points mentioned in 2a, I will definitely like it. I or my colleagues just send a 1-line mail to the Recruiter "approved". That means, the Interview should happen. No specific points here, except that follow 2a guidelines. I have seen candidates coming to the interview as "proxy candidates" Meaning they are on video, but a friend is taking the Interview DO NOT DO THIS. We have tools that detect this and it is an instant reject or a reject down the line
5) First Round Tech Interview - by a Tech person, like me a Senior Consultant. Mostly 30 mins- max 1 hr. This is an independent assessment. We sometimes refer the notes from 2). But interviews like to do it their style. This is generally 30mins max to 1 hr. As stated, we all are billable people. We do 1 or max 2 of these kinds of interviews per day. We are looking at the first 15-20 mins. That is your chance. Answer questions to the point. If you don't know something, here too, being honest is not a strategy, unless you have NO CLUE about the question. We all have targets to get the best out of the Interview. Everyone has their style. Some generic notes here - of course you should know the answers to these questions. Based on the type of the Interviewer, they could ask you simple concepts or core concepts. I personally, don't ask very basic concepts. I always assume that is the candidate has come this far, lets exploit for a "possible select". But I have had other colleagues who ask some basic questions. We have a "template" to fill after the Interview scoring the candidates. In our company, we go with the Job Description sequence and rattle off all the bullet points and questions related to the Job Description. Some Tech guys ask "tell me something about yourself". I don't ask those kinds of questions. I go straight to the Tech questions. But whatever you speak here, have a memorized script - especially any question related to the Job Description. Emphasize your work ex / skills related to any question. Be brief. Pause after 30 seconds - 1 minute after answering the question. The Interview may have a follow-up, or they may not have liked your answer. Pausing will give you time to recoup or move to the next question. I have several candidates ramble on and on, on a particular question, that was answered incorrectly. This distracts and derails your chances. Be confident, have a clear voice, dress well. Too well dressed is ok. Being in IT we do not reject anyone based on their dress or grooming at this stage. Your match to the Job Description, your resume, your answers are what determines your success. Also it is a good idea to view the profile of the person Interviewing you - LinkedIn, or other social media. If you have a common connection that resonates it works favorably. If you have highlights like: coming through a company referral mention here, if you have written a book mention here. Not too early in the Interview but midway or at the end probably, you should highlight the non job part. At the end, the Interviewer may ask you - Do you have any questions? Ask just one question. What you ask is not going matter in your eval. Just be courteous and ask 1 simple question - we are rushing to our billable job. We don't have time. So, stay brief. It is also ok if you want to ask an important question "what is your assessment of my performance", "would you be able to connect with me on LinkedIn". Sometimes the last question about LinkedIn helps, because they could give you a status update on your application. I have one colleague who works out of a remote city. That candidate created a sort of connection, having grown up in that city. It helped. So knowing the profile of the Interviewer may help, but not a guarantee. Note: sometimes the Tech Interviewer may be in Europe or offshore like India or we have a few from China. If it is their evening time, they are already tired, so take cognizance of the fact. We have 3 colleagues (peers) who take to load for this particular 50 open vacancies. So mostly it comes to us. One of them is scary. But if that person clears you, you may not even have the next round. That is the reputation of each of us. Even for me, if I clear a candidate in this round, the next round is easy, as I am known to be thorough. Just depends on who you are interviewing with.
6) Final Round Tech Interview -The Interviewer would most likely a peer or a person of higher level that 5). If you have got selected for this round, means there are a few more validations to make. In my current company, if 5) clears you, this 6) is mostly a validation round. Unless of course you lad up with an absolute monster Developer or Architect. There is no specific tips for handling this. If you are able to get a feedback from the Interviewer in 5) above, this round helps better. If you are interviewing for Developer positions, there may be some online coding questions. Do everything that you did right in 5)
7) Final HR round - intimation of your selection or keeping you as a "warm" candidate, pending some budget approvals / customer approvals, then offer letter etc. - I assume this is an area where most will know what to do. Also, at this point the target kicks in for the Organization, so they ensure that the process is standard and quick. Every offered candidate has to go through extensive 7 years BG Check (verifying employment, all the way upto verifying with the SSA records. Any discrepancy found, they may be terminated. And for specific projects, if the customer insists, we do a 7-panel drug test. My notes on this point - You have to be able to clear a BG Verification and a Drug Test.
As a final note - at our company we have "recruitment metrics" (sometimes they are called Demand Metrics). We as a Business Unit work as a team owing these metrics (from Recruiter to the final Tech Interviewer). We have to fill openings quickly or get pulled up by our leadership for slipped Metrics. Our goal from finding a Resume to Final Selection is max 1 week from each Job Opening. I assume every company has these metrics. Keep applying and fine tune your approach again and again. Even if you have been laid off, even if you did not have a job for several months, there is definitely a success ahead. You will definitely get there. Jobs are there. We just need to FIND YOUR RESUME.
submitted by aver2018 to jobs [link] [comments]
I see lot of candidates expressing concern on finding jobs. Here are some notes. Hope you find it useful.
I work as a Senior Consultant is a fairly large IT Company. We have 50+ job opening at various levels (Technical Service Desk Agents, Developers, DevOps Engineers, Architects, Project Managers). We are unable to fill these, as we don't find qualified candidates. I am on the Interview Panel for some of these positions. In the last 2 months, I have conducted 45 tech Interviews, but rejected most of them "not meeting the minimum job requirement".
Across other positions, my co-workers also have rejected an equal number of candidates.
Mind you - these are not highly specialized skills. Majority of them are a few years' experience in skills like: Service Desk or Cloud or Developer DevOps or PM. Last week, one of our other units added 12 Serice Desk Trainees, for which they scouted for 2 months.
This post is to give an overview of how we do this and also an encouragement to job seekers (young and old), that from your side, you are finding "market is tough", "you are not getting responses to your application" etc., but looking at it from corporate side, we have several openings to be filled immediately, but we are not reaching or getting qualified candidates.
Here are my notes:
Our Interview process - Not extremely long. 1) Recruiter - receives the Resume 2) Recruiter - goes through your resume 3) Recruiter - does an initial HR round 4) Tech shortlist - me or my colleague 5) First round Tech Interview (30 mins to 1 hr.) 6) Final round Tech Interview - me or my colleague (minimum 1 hr.) 7) Final HR round - for the offer letter, comp negotiations etc. Notice - even for such a short process, a candidate is actually going through 7 evaluation rounds.
Each step is detailed below:
1) Recruiter - receives the resume - LinkedIn, Indeed, Dice and through multiple third-party agencies (who get a commission for each candidate). Net Net: we source them from the market. Our recruiters are NOT based in offshore. They are all based in US getting paid to submit a good resume. They have targets for how effective they are in sourcing good resumes that clear the initial review. Our company has hired about 10+ recruiters (head hunters) to get resumes from the approved sources. We also have multiple referral programs for our internal employees. My notes on this point - If your resume is up there in the Job Portals or with any reputed recruitment agency, one of my recruiters will definitely get it. If you have friends or family, a referral will get your resume quickly to a Recruiter
2) Recruiters - goes through your resume - The Recruiter / or the first Tech Eval person, matches the candidates resume with the Job Description / Requirements (we call it JR. Some people call it JD). Job Descriptions are NOT multiple pages. Just about 8-10 bullet points plus some paragraphs. My notes on this point - Read the Job Description, line by line and make sure that each point in the JR is reflected in the resume. It is ok to have on your resume first page, the JR and some annotation as to how you fit the JR perfectly. The recruiter looks at the match of your resume to Job Description and that is how the resume bubbles up, to be considered for shortlisting
2a) Resume Content / Quality / Quantity: We don't worry about resume quality. Even spelling errors are acceptable by our recruiters or our Tech Panel. I am on the Tech Panel and never bother about spelling or grammar. Though it is good to have the discipline. As mentioned above, we first look at the JR match with resume. If the resume directly comes to me or my colleagues (who are billable at client projects), we don't match the resume with LinkedIn, but the recruiters sometimes verify the LinkedIn. So if you are posting a LinkedIn reference, match it as closely to the resume as possible (months, dates, designation, role etc.). We don;' fret if there are slight discrepancies, example you may be Project Lead, but you have mentioned as a Project Manager in LinkedIn. We get lot of AI written resumes. We have subscription for "AI Detectors". I don't reject AI resumes, but some of my coworkers reject all AI resumes. My suggestion, as much as possible avoid AI written resumes. You can go two steps. Get it written by AI. There are tools on the Web that convert AI resume to a human resume. Use those to make your final resume, so that the stricter evaluators don't land up rejecting the resume. What to put in your resume - We get wary with long resumes. We like to see, max a 3-page resume. Maybe half first page is - fitment to the Job description, then a half page highlight. Next 2 pages could be your work experience. Make sure that as much of the wolrk experience listed matches the Job Description. I got a resume today, for a DevOps Engineer. The resume says 2018-2020, they worked as Teaching assistant. and all the duties they have performed. while listing the duration-role is ok, no need to put the teaching highlights into this position. The last page SHOULD have your Certifications. All my colleagues look for Certifications.. I definitely look at Certifications. In fact, for some position - example: ServiceNow Engineer or Google Kubernetes Engineer, I have cleared a few resumes like this, without even looking at the rest of the resume, because of the need for Certification for that position. More on Certifications later down. As far mentioning experience - we are mostly looking for immediate relevant experience. What the candidate has done 10-15 years ago is of minimal interest, unless it is relevant to the Job. For example - I saw for a full-stack developers, someone putting a 5 year Mainframe COBOL experience, done 15 years ago. Should be mentioned, but not in detail. Use that 3 page space effectively highlighting relevance and concurrency to the job Description. Also, what we don't need in the resume and not interested - your hobbies, your references etc. Not at this point. Net Net: a 2- or 3-page resume with relevance and concurrency. As far as resume format - doesn't matter to us. could be Word, could be PDF
3) Recruiter does an initial discussion - called initial HR round - if the resume gets picked up, our recruiter does an initial HR round. This is to filter the candidates, so that the overload does not come to the Tech Shortlist Team. They normally have a video conference (Team or Zoom). Nothing very specific here. Just make sure you impress the recruiter - dress well, groom well, have clear audio-video, emphasize that you are a perfect fit, if there is a self-assessment questionnaire, don't be "too honest". Example "core ServiceNow experience". If you don't have core expertise, but you know the basic, say that you are well versed. The Tech Panel will decide how deep they require that knowledge. No need to get rejected at this stage by being too honest. Try to rate yourself above 4 if they have a 5-point scale in all the tech questions. Remember they are 'Recruiters", Not tech engineers. They are reading off a script to shortlist you. Some of the shortlisting questions I prepare and give to recruiters to score off. Also to note, if there are some facts that make you standout, it is good to mention here - example you have authored a book, no matter what book, good to mention, if you are a Google Scholar, mention that. What happens is that the Recruiters will make all such notes and these may be useful in Tech Shortlist. So any good points mention here
4) Tech Shortlist - Assuming you cleared the HR shortlisting, then the resume come for a Tech shortlisting - If your HR / Recruiter round went well, many candidates are elated. But it may get rejected here. The HR / Recruiter round, as I mentioned, is to reduce the overload on the Tech Shortlist. You HAVE to clear this particular this Tech shortlist before you get called for the Interview. This is the place where I enter. Or one of my colleagues enters. We are billable people working 8-10 hours with clients. We spend not more than 30 min. (sometimes just 10 minutes) to clear the candidate. That is where all my point in item 2a come into play. So, if you resume is in alignment to points mentioned in 2a, I will definitely like it. I or my colleagues just send a 1-line mail to the Recruiter "approved". That means, the Interview should happen. No specific points here, except that follow 2a guidelines. I have seen candidates coming to the interview as "proxy candidates" Meaning they are on video, but a friend is taking the Interview DO NOT DO THIS. We have tools that detect this and it is an instant reject or a reject down the line
5) First Round Tech Interview - by a Tech person, like me a Senior Consultant. Mostly 30 mins- max 1 hr. This is an independent assessment. We sometimes refer the notes from 2). But interviews like to do it their style. This is generally 30mins max to 1 hr. As stated, we all are billable people. We do 1 or max 2 of these kinds of interviews per day. We are looking at the first 15-20 mins. That is your chance. Answer questions to the point. If you don't know something, here too, being honest is not a strategy, unless you have NO CLUE about the question. We all have targets to get the best out of the Interview. Everyone has their style. Some generic notes here - of course you should know the answers to these questions. Based on the type of the Interviewer, they could ask you simple concepts or core concepts. I personally, don't ask very basic concepts. I always assume that is the candidate has come this far, lets exploit for a "possible select". But I have had other colleagues who ask some basic questions. We have a "template" to fill after the Interview scoring the candidates. In our company, we go with the Job Description sequence and rattle off all the bullet points and questions related to the Job Description. Some Tech guys ask "tell me something about yourself". I don't ask those kinds of questions. I go straight to the Tech questions. But whatever you speak here, have a memorized script - especially any question related to the Job Description. Emphasize your work ex / skills related to any question. Be brief. Pause after 30 seconds - 1 minute after answering the question. The Interview may have a follow-up, or they may not have liked your answer. Pausing will give you time to recoup or move to the next question. I have several candidates ramble on and on, on a particular question, that was answered incorrectly. This distracts and derails your chances. Be confident, have a clear voice, dress well. Too well dressed is ok. Being in IT we do not reject anyone based on their dress or grooming at this stage. Your match to the Job Description, your resume, your answers are what determines your success. Also it is a good idea to view the profile of the person Interviewing you - LinkedIn, or other social media. If you have a common connection that resonates it works favorably. If you have highlights like: coming through a company referral mention here, if you have written a book mention here. Not too early in the Interview but midway or at the end probably, you should highlight the non job part. At the end, the Interviewer may ask you - Do you have any questions? Ask just one question. What you ask is not going matter in your eval. Just be courteous and ask 1 simple question - we are rushing to our billable job. We don't have time. So, stay brief. It is also ok if you want to ask an important question "what is your assessment of my performance", "would you be able to connect with me on LinkedIn". Sometimes the last question about LinkedIn helps, because they could give you a status update on your application. I have one colleague who works out of a remote city. That candidate created a sort of connection, having grown up in that city. It helped. So knowing the profile of the Interviewer may help, but not a guarantee. Note: sometimes the Tech Interviewer may be in Europe or offshore like India or we have a few from China. If it is their evening time, they are already tired, so take cognizance of the fact. We have 3 colleagues (peers) who take to load for this particular 50 open vacancies. So mostly it comes to us. One of them is scary. But if that person clears you, you may not even have the next round. That is the reputation of each of us. Even for me, if I clear a candidate in this round, the next round is easy, as I am known to be thorough. Just depends on who you are interviewing with.
6) Final Round Tech Interview -The Interviewer would most likely a peer or a person of higher level that 5). If you have got selected for this round, means there are a few more validations to make. In my current company, if 5) clears you, this 6) is mostly a validation round. Unless of course you lad up with an absolute monster Developer or Architect. There is no specific tips for handling this. If you are able to get a feedback from the Interviewer in 5) above, this round helps better. If you are interviewing for Developer positions, there may be some online coding questions. Do everything that you did right in 5)
7) Final HR round - intimation of your selection or keeping you as a "warm" candidate, pending some budget approvals / customer approvals, then offer letter etc. - I assume this is an area where most will know what to do. Also, at this point the target kicks in for the Organization, so they ensure that the process is standard and quick. Every offered candidate has to go through extensive 7 years BG Check (verifying employment, all the way upto verifying with the SSA records. Any discrepancy found, they may be terminated. And for specific projects, if the customer insists, we do a 7-panel drug test. My notes on this point - You have to be able to clear a BG Verification and a Drug Test.
As a final note - at our company we have "recruitment metrics" (sometimes they are called Demand Metrics). We as a Business Unit work as a team owing these metrics (from Recruiter to the final Tech Interviewer). We have to fill openings quickly or get pulled up by our leadership for slipped Metrics. Our goal from finding a Resume to Final Selection is max 1 week from each Job Opening. I assume every company has these metrics. Keep applying and fine tune your approach again and again. Even if you have been laid off, even if you did not have a job for several months, there is definitely a success ahead. You will definitely get there. Jobs are there. We just need to FIND YOUR RESUME.
2024.05.20 14:34 DONT_READ_THIS_OKAY WHAT ARE THE PROSPECTS FOR RUSSIA… AND HER ADVERSARIES?
 | https://preview.redd.it/rino2t49tk1d1.jpg?width=900&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fbac5b0cf18287a19fd7a93251e75893ca325bb8 submitted by DONT_READ_THIS_OKAY to u/DONT_READ_THIS_OKAY [link] [comments] Only those of fixed mindsets can avoid recognizing the trends regarding Russia now occurring. Russia has evaded all attempts to hold her down, weaken & destroy her & will now rise far beyond their reach. Russia is not without problems going forward. She lacks manpower for the great many tasks ahead. This is why her president has been encouraging a higher birth rate among the Russian population for some time now. This will mean inviting a movement of labor and specialist personnel from areas outside the boundaries of the Russian Federation for some time to come. Fortunately the economic success that has been engendered despite all the barriers the western powers have set in its path, has been increasing and shows no sign of ending any time soon. Vladimir Putin has sworn to bring the modernity of Russia’s great cities to the people who live in the outlying territories, the villages and towns across the vast landmass of Russia. This goal will take many years to accomplish and will require the dedication of the willpower to consistently supply the huge energies, massive funds and logistical expertise required. Fortunately again, Russia has expanded the number of close and powerful friends she has in recent years, once again despite the efforts of her adversaries to reduce them. The military campaign in Ukraine could easily have brought disaster to Russia. The plans of the West were laid long before February 24th 2022 when Russian troops crossed the Ukrainian border. The powers there believed they knew Russia in all its aspects, social, financial, political, economic, military and all else. Was the data they held current? Or was it perhaps ossified in databases accumulated decades before which now provided far less than adequate prognoses of how to bring the Russian state to its knees? In any case Russia proved eminently resilient against virtually every attack by sanctions or financial restrictions against it. With Russia winning in Ukraine, as we can easily see now is the case, what could easily have been a disaster for Russia will instead result in many benefits to her. The respect with which nations view Russia (whether admitted publicly or not by them) cannot help but be increased. We already see this outcome across several nations in Africa where both France and the USA are being asked to remove their presence in preference to Russia. In the Middle East too we have seen geopolitical changes that would previously have been deemed extremely unlikely if not entirely impossible. The case of Saudi Arabia ending its long term alliance with the West (primarily with the USA and UK) while drawing closer to Russia by joining the BRICS group. BRICS sees ever more nations queuing up to be allowed membership. Iran is now a member along with Saudi Arabia. Who would have thought a few short years ago that these erstwhile enemies would potentially sit side by side at BRICS conferences? Around forty nations have expressed their interest in joining. Another founding member of BRICS, India has drawn ever closer to Russia and trade between the two is constantly increasing in volume. Nations are increasingly drawing closer to Russia seeking good relations and increasingly too rejecting western narratives and demands by the West to obey its commands. Does this sound like the isolation the western powers wanted for Russia? Russia’s relationship with China is now arguably the strongest it has ever been. Trade between the two is booming and the protection they can give each other now in relation to both the conflict in Ukraine and the hotspot of Taiwan is iron-clad. A long-planned pipeline, ‘The Power of Siberia Two’ to carry natural gas from Russia’s Western Siberia Altai region to North-Eastern China is now being constructed, This will further enhance and deepen a relationship that once again, the western alliance has tried recently to disrupt but which it has actually assisted in deepening over these past few years where its aggression against both has been all too obvious. Russia then, as we have seen, is gathering friends while the western nations who tried to bring her down, remove her president and cut her into pieces, have been losing them. Deep in a fast rising debt crisis the United States sees its infrastructure crumble amid increasing social turmoil, drug deaths and rising crime while at the same time pouring hundreds of billions into a failing plan to defeat Russia. Its allies too are suffering through joining this quest. Germany is de-industrializing, Britain is locked into a vicious cycle of economic decline and the boomerang effect of the loss of inexpensive Russian energy is hitting everyone hard. Prices have risen for all western nations creating massive discontent in nations used to constantly positive economic indicators. This is bound to bring enormous political changes in due course. In the USA there is a rising tide of opposition to the profligate spending of North America’s dwindling resource base, both in terms of money and military assets. Throwing billions into the Ukrainian money pit is becoming a central issue as the emotionally potent, phony idealism button of Ukraine no longer has the same power to motivate such reckless generosity. The facts concerning the illegitimacy of the Ukrainian regime, its non-democratic behavior, its neo-Nazi links and its constant lies are gaining ever greater traction in the USA as in Europe. The recent election of Robert Fico’s party to power in Slovakia is evidence of this as is the long term resistance of Hungary under Viktor Orban. Both refuse to support the fueling of endless war in Ukraine with the supply of weapons and munitions. Russia, as discussed above, is making new friends and allies as well as discovering more trading partners interested in dealing with her. To a great extent Russia no longer needs the economic links she previously had with the West. And, within Russia the niche fields of commerce that western companies vacated at the insistence of western political elites have, in the great majority of cases, been successfully filled by Russian entrepreneurs and enterprises. The profits from these establishments now stay in Russia and no longer exit the country to bolster her enemies. Once again the western nations shot themselves in a foot now presumably resembling a rather raggedly-looking Swiss cheese. Things could hardly have gone better for Russia. Free of the western NGO’s that acted as a constantly subversive force, the agents of western intelligence agencies, Russia now has a much cleaner sheet where the small proportion of west-seeking liberals within Russia can be ever more effectively marginalized. This process will further enhance the determination of Russia to remain a country fully dedicated to its traditions and no longer subject to the vagaries of a woke culture that is currently poisoning traditional ways of life in the West. Each trend within Russia, almost without exception, is now working to enhance Russia’s prospects for the future just as the trends concerning her relations with those around her in Eurasia, Asia, the Middle and Far East are likewise trending positively. Russia will achieve all the goals she set herself in Ukraine. One way or another the danger to Russia from Ukraine and its western sponsors will be neutralized and, in effect, quarantined. Russia will demand and get a new security architecture in Europe that includes herself. The remnants of Ukraine will, as protectorates, be seen to have a new, pro-peace president and government and, slowly but surely cultural relations and exchange, political interchange and trade between Russia and rump Ukraine will recommence. The new regions of the Russian Federation that we now know as the Donbass will be given every assistance in infrastructure renewal and job opportunities as well as the rise of all standards to Russian Federation levels in terms of pay, healthcare, pensions and all aspects of Russian employment benefits, conditions and the Russian social care network. Russia has all to play for as she approaches an open door to friendships across the most populous, prosperous, incentivized and energy-powerful nations of the world. As the disgruntled West licks its wounds and suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (brought upon it by its own hand) Russia will prosper and the prosperity seen, as with China increasingly, will be impossible to conceal, celebrated as it is sure to be worldwide. One of the most important of all Russia’s successes, in 2025 we will see the resurrection of what used to be a generally recognized and accepted fact of a debt the world owes to Russia, that of the defeat of the Nazis in World War II, the Great Patriotic War. By defeating the Nazi resurrectionists in Ukraine it will be seen that Russia has won yet one more world war for all humanity. The western states who instigated the disaster of the last few years in Ukraine will be shamed, their political leadership replaced and will find their power and influence significantly diminished. Ever more nations will abandon their ties to the West in favor of far more trustworthy allies close by. The economic state of western nations will give rise to even greater levels of social and political chaos where seemingly intractable problems beleaguer every attempt to solve them. Russia, having fully reclaimed her place among the great powers and now assured of national security in perpetuity, will move determinedly along with her allies toward the world of peace and international agreement multipolarity then offers us all. The malignant era of western domination, of threat, subversion using overt and covert manipulation and the ever-present insistence on worldwide interference and potential for military attack… will be over for good. Russia, that stood at first virtually alone in opposing the criminal nature of the USA and its proxies, will stand totally vindicated in all aspects of her struggle. Vladimir Putin, of course, will be lionized globally outside the West for his incredible achievement and for all time. https://preview.redd.it/6wunoxwatk1d1.jpg?width=900&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=41f1ab27d7ea0cc5a9a01af5d72e0506edcc52e6 |
2024.05.18 23:34 Tesa_Tesanovic1988 Wellbeing as New Gross Domestic Product
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been the standard measure of economic growth since World War II. It is widely believed that accelerating economic growth as measured by the GDP will translate into improved living standards. However, this view is being challenged with the argument that it is better to focus on measures of wellbeing than GDP because, despite robust economic growth over the past several decades, there are still millions of citizens living in poverty.Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been the standard measure of economic growth since World War II. It is widely believed that accelerating economic growth as measured by the GDP will translate into improved living standards. However, this view is being challenged with the argument that it is better to focus on measures of wellbeing than GDP because, despite robust economic growth over the past several decades, there are still millions of citizens living in poverty.
Besides, GDP measures perpetual growth, which is unattainable. Because GDP is an outdated proxy measure of economic growth, wellbeing, which is a multidimensional approach of measuring the most important aspects of people’s life, is gaining popularity.Perpetual Growth
Stagflation is simultaneous economic stagnation combined with high inflation. In the long run, economic growth is dependent on two drivers; productivity and labor (Dolar). Productivity is affected by multiple factors. Improvements in many facets of productivity growth have decreased or reversed since the global financial crisis. The foremost factor is the demographic crisis of western countries that threatens the growth of GDP. Developed countries have experienced deceleration of working-age population, stabilization of educational attainment, and expansion into various forms of production. Furthermore, labor reallocation from less productive to more productive sectors has decelerated since the global financial crisis. Besides, radical disruptions to education and income losses are likely to affect human capital negatively. The waning demographics of western countries imply that acceleration of productivity growth is needed. The McKinsey Global Institute projected that 80% productivity growth is required to mitigate the effects of changing demographics (49). This projection is unlikely to be achieved given the dwindling working-age population in western countries. On the contrary, productivity growth is likely to continue decreasing because of the significant changes in the demographics unless the working-age population begins to grow again.Perpetual Growth
GDP as a measurement is very outdated because it does not measure wellbeing. It is a statistical tool used to measure how well the economy is performing. However, it neglects important factors that determine the wellbeing, such as inequality and environmental services (Gallup). GDP as a proxy measure of economic growth ignores certain aspects that do not involve monetary transactions, does not assess changes in human capital, does not discriminate activities that enhance welfare from activities that reduce welfare, does not account for cultural difference, and omits the environmental costs and rates of depletion of resources (Giannetti et al. 14). The Measure of Economic Welfare is one of the alternatives for a gross domestic product as it measures consumption in the economy as a proxy for economic welfare. It adds up the benefits of goods and services consumption and subtracts the costs associated with the consumption, such as environmental pollution, providing a picture of economic welfare. Other economic welfare measures were developed after the Measure of Economic Welfare, such as the Index of the Economic Aspects of Welfare which incorporates environmental costs in estimating economic welfare (Giannetti et al. 15). Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare is an index developed to account for the current environmental issues while addressing the long-term ecosystem and natural resource sustainable use. More indices were developed with recent ones such as the State of Global Well-Being, the Better Life Index, and the Global Well-Being Index measuring a myriad of aspects of wellbeing. The Gallup Global Well-Being measures the behavioral economics of gross domestic product growth. It estimates the percentage “thriving,” “struggling,” and “suffering” of individuals in different countries and regions (Gallup). The indexes focus on the percent thriving in at least elements of wellbeing such as purpose (liking what they do), social (supportive relationships), physical (good health), community (liking the surrounding community), and financial (managing economic life well) aspects.One in six adults worldwide are considered thriving – or strong and consistent — in at least three of the five elements of well-being, as measured by the Gallup-Healthways Global Well-Being Index. For example residents of the Singapore score quite low at the 19%, while New Zealand leads in Asia – Pacific with 67%.
The Gallup Global Well-Being measures have opened up new opportunities to study issues that affect people in different communities around the world in ways that GDP would not. For example, life satisfaction aspects of the Gallup World Poll data have been exploited to measure inequality in the distribution of subjective wellbeing (Gluzmann & Gasparini 2). Measuring inequality in subjective wellbeing might be complementary to the various approaches aimed at computing unfairness in a society because it may in some way have benefits over the usual income inequality measurements. Some perceived income inequalities may arise due to personal choices if all constraints are observed thus cannot be considered unfair. A case in point is when two individuals facing similar opportunities make different choices. One choice might lead to a better, healthier lifestyle while the other subjects the individual to poverty. Free choices resulting in socially acceptable income inequality should not be regarded as unfair. The assessment of subjective wellbeing is less likely to be susceptible to such differences. Under evaluation of subjective wellbeing, differences in perceived happiness may better estimate social unfairness rather than income unfairness (Gluzmann & Gasparini 4). Gallup World Poll provides data that can be used to compare wellbeing in different countries. It cures one of the most significant problems associated with compering inequality across countries and regions, namely, the generation of homogenous information. The poll poses the same question across all countries in all areas, which significantly reduces spurious differences in estimating comparisons. This reduces sources of measurement error significantly. It is noteworthy that people may not interpret and answer the standardized questions the same in different countries, leading to additional errors. However, the advantages of estimating subjective wellbeing and its rising popularity imply that improvements in the measurements will yield better results.
Technological Revolution
Usually, information and communication technologies are considered a key driver of economic growth and productivity. Different reviews indicate that technological effects tend to be positive at the organizational level (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development [UNCTAD 34]). However, it has been reported that productivity tends to drop as economies entrench technologies in every sector. In other words, the rapid digitization of economies has not translated into strong productivity. On the contrary, productivity growth appears to have stunted over the past few decades, with the slowdown more pronounced in developed countries and also in developing countries (UNCTAD 34). This is a productivity paradox because as technological advancement and use have increased, productivity growth has decreased, which is contrary to popular expectations (Remes et al.). The digitization of economies into digital economies has thus far not translated into increased productivity. The paradox in the digital economy is attributed to different reasons. A more pessimistic perspective considers the technological effects on productivity as having fewer impacts on productivity growth than the revolutionary technological advances of the past (UNCTAD 34). A more optimistic view links the slow growth of productivity to the time lags between the time the technologies are introduced and the time actual effects are felt (European CEO). As a result, more visible impacts on productivity will occur when technologies are adopted widely within the economy. An additional contributing factor to the productivity paradox is the difficulties associated with measuring the digital economy. The slow growth in productivity might be explained by the lack of proper recording of technological activities in that in overall GDP estimation. Consequently, the proper measurement would be reflected in increased productivity. In developed countries, demographic factors associated with the aging population are also linked to the slow growth in productivity (UNCTAD 34). Therefore, the productivity paradox related to the technological revolution arises from multiple factors.Quality of the GDP
Measuring economic growth in purely quantitative categories diminishes the significance of “high-quality growth.” High-quality growth encompasses increased technological self-reliance, significant production and welfare transformation, the establishment of a comprehensive safety net for the citizens, enhancement of quality healthcare, education, and employment, and reduction of inequality across regions and various demographic characteristics (Wärtsilä). It reflects a policy change that focuses on investment areas that guarantee increased productivity, such as production, consumption, healthcare, and education (Pfeffer). The concept of high-quality growth is being advanced by China to reorganize the economy in a way that focus on increased domestic consumption and investing in productive sectors to drive the overall economic growth. For example, after decades of heavy investments in infrastructural projects and the manufacturing sector, the country realizes that roads and bridges are not productive but rather facilitates productivity. Policy change to shift investment into more productive sectors of the economy might bring sustainable economic growth and wellbeing. At the sectorial level, administrative job control is one of the main factors impacting the health of the employees (Pfeffer). The return of line of sight to the work, workplace flexibility, autonomous fusion teams, fluidity in work practices, and organizational health can elevate the personal wellbeing of the employees. The functional organization provides an environment with less stress caused by micromanagement demands from the employees. Therefore, wellbeing is a product of economic policy at the national level and the contribution of the private sector in nurturing the wellbeing of employees.Conclusion
The failure of GDP as a measurement proxy of economic growth is less effective in contemporary society. It assumes that an economy will experience perpetual growth, which is a difficult achievement. Even where economies have experienced phenomenal growth over the years, the economic expansion failed to transform the lives of millions of citizens. The technological revolution also has been unable to expand the GDP as it was initially believed despite the fact that the significant impacts technology has had on society. It led to the conclusion that GDP has limitations as a measure of economic growth because it does not account for the non-monetary aspects that matter to people. As a result, new indexes such as the Gallup Global Wellbeing have been developed and are experiencing rising popularity due to their ability to compute wellbeing. In particular, the estimation of subjective wellbeing creates opportunities for improved measurement of social inequality. Furthermore, the realization that wellbeing is important to citizens is supporting new ideas of measuring national economic growth. China’s shift to the assessment of the quality of economic growth indicates a paradigm shift where countries focus on national statistics that reflect their economic realities.References
Dolar, Veronika. “Why stagflation is an economic nightmare – and could become a real headache for Biden and the Fed if it emerges in the US.” The Conversation (2022). https://theconversation.com/why-stagflation-is-an-economic-nightmare-and-could-become-a-real-headache-for-biden-and-the-fed-if-it-emerges-in-the-us-179036. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.European CEO. “Giving a voice to the digital revolution’s silent majority.” (2019). https://www.europeanceo.com/industry-outlook/giving-a-voice-to-the-digital-revolutions-silent-majority/. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.
Gallup. “2014 Country Well-Being Rankings.”
Giannetti, Biagio F., et al. “A review of limitations of GDP and alternative indices to monitor human wellbeing and to manage ecosystem functionality.” Journal of cleaner production 87 (2015): 11-25.
Gluzmann, Pablo, and Leonardo Gasparini. “International inequality in subjective well‐being: An exploration with the Gallup World Poll.” Review of Development Economics 22.2 (2018): 610-631.
McKinsey Global Institute – “Global growth: Can productivity save the day in an aging world?” page 49
Pfeffer, Jeffrey. “The overlooked essentials of employee wellbeing.” McKinsey Global Institute (2018). https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-overlooked-essentials-of-employee-well-being. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.
Remes, Jaana et al. “Solving the productivity puzzle.” McKinsey Global Institute (2018). https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/regions-in-focus/solving-the-productivity-puzzle. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.
Wärtsilä. “Going beyond GDP: China targets a new path to growth.” (2021). https://www.wartsila.com/insights/article/going-beyond-gdp-china-targets-a-new-path-to-growth. Accessed 21 Mar. 2022.
Authors
Paul Lalovich
Organizational Effectiveness and Strategy Execution PracticeTesha Teshanovich
Organizational Effectiveness and Strategy Execution Practice2024.05.18 21:24 Rocks_2018 Can't drop items after starting the ship
 | I am playing with one my friends who has been having issues with dropping item. Everything is fine until the ship starts, and as the game goes, he suddenly can't drop items he picked and then he can't interact with anything after that which is strange. Of note, he uses a proxy to help use steam and thunderstore as he is in China. submitted by Rocks_2018 to lethalcompany [link] [comments] We both have the same mods and I don't have any issues myself: https://preview.redd.it/mxs8cb2wj81d1.png?width=384&format=png&auto=webp&s=c7118c80707bc1dfceab104af974919e0d1e5d44 This is the only error message my friend gets https://preview.redd.it/7jck8h7xj81d1.jpg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc83008acdf877045021e17ed0b56cd0ffc429c7 Any idea how to fix this bug for him? Is this a mod issue or a computeproxy issue? If it is a mod issue, which mod is the one causing this? |
2024.05.16 21:46 GODZBALL Thoughts on Series up to current light novel
There isn't a lot of spoilers but there is some but barely any legit spoilers passed the special exam post desert island arc.
Hey!
Finished reading up to the current Volume of the LN and wanted to share my thoughts on the series as a whole and where I think it may go from here.
I became aware of this season when season 1 first aired through social media and decided to watch the show up until the end of the first season. After it ended, I had to know more and so I looked and found out about the light novel. I was hooked ever since.
My thoughts on the first year were pretty good because the mystery of the school, the students and the MC kept me interested and it was very refreshing having a main character not allow himself to be bullied by his friends or act like a stereotypical virgin whenever a women would talk to him.
I found the beginning to do a very good job of keeping people on their toes as even though this is based in Highschool and has a battle royale based premise, it uses different games then your typical battle royal clone and allows you to basically view how it’s played through the eyes of the protag Kiyo.
Another thing that makes Kiyo interesting is that while he does boast internally that he knows everything on a level that would surpass some of the smartest college students in Japan, he does not immediately flaunt or trivialize the games to the point where there isn't any tension with each game.
Another thing I enjoy is that though it’s a team-based Battle royale, the fact that you get to know the leader of each team and they slowly grow to know Kiyo makes it interesting and sets up potential conflicts of interest before the first year is even halfway over. Personally, I like all of the other class leaders a good bit. I enjoy Ryuuen especially because he still remains true to his nature, but he takes advice from the person who beat him using just as morally questionable tactics as him and works to fine tune those morally questionable tactics so that he doesn't get beat because he is sloppy on his approach. I enjoy Ichinose battle with her "horrible" shop lifting past as much as an American can sympathize on something most over here would consider very minor in terms of criminality. While I can't obviously say it's just fine, I also feel at times it's overblown but again I'm American and at some point, we've all pocketed a pack of gum or added an extra item to our shopping cart we didn't ring up. She is a genuinely good person which is enjoyable when the other people portrayed as rivals are just as likely to stab you in the front as well as they would in the back. While the main goal is to graduate from Class A because somehow everything you ever need in life will somehow be given to you, the thought of making sure everyone makes it to the finish line is a good goal on its own knowing how easy it is for people to be expelled. I Don't mind Arisu but truthfully up until the most recent chapters, she was honestly hard to relate to even more than Kiyo because every time she's on screen she always has a smug grin as if everything is already taken care of and no matter what, she will come out on top. while its charismatic it can kinda drive off any sense of connection. I'm happy she starts getting humbled later on, but it takes a long time.
The series threw me for a loop when they focused heavily on Horikita in the beginning only to seemingly drop her to a side character for the rest of the arc until Kiyo dealt with Ryuuen. It honestly felt like she wasn't that important anymore, so I was pleasantly surprised how she slowly made her way back into the sub-protag role throughout the rest of the 2nd year. I don't really like Horikita compared to most of the other characters, but it speaks more highly to the other characters than anything wrong with her. My reasons for disliking her a little more than the other characters maybe stem from the fact we see more of her than anyone else and could have changed if she was more of a side character than one of the main focuses of the series. I do think that she gradually gets better as a character or more dynamic would be the better way to phrase it, I still think she is very flawed or at least she is written flawed, but the story seems to make things conveniently workout in her favor whenever she desperately needs it. I will say that I find that some of my favorite characters are legitimately side characters some of which have just recently showed up or showed up and went away for a long period of time after. Case in point Tsubaki from class 1-c she is basically kiyotaka but not overpowered like he is. We get a lot of Nanase in the beginning of the second-year arc but basically after the deserted Island exam she barely shows up anymore her split personality also just goes away. Kiryuuin Is also one of my favorites and she is sparingly gets in the story but when she does, she is very interesting and I'm sad that in a few more books she'll probably complete disappear from the story. I was never high on some characters like Kei, Nagumo, Matsushita ( mostly because why isn't she revealing this secret hidden talent that she said she had in the first year) and Manabu. I know Manabu might be a hot take, but I personally feel like his whole schtick about not telling Horkitia that he does love her but wants her to do her own thing for an entire year was so stupid because he just needed to call her to the student council office and literally have the conversation at ANY point in the year why wait till the end. I'm glad that he gives Kiyo a goal or maybe project he wants to complete before he meets Monabu again but other than that he was a blander Kiyotaka.
On that note a few things that have bothered me as the story has gone on,
Overall, I'm happy with this series and it has made me look for more LNs to fill in my time while we wait for more to come out.
I'd be happy to hear your thoughts on the series as a whole as well.
Tldr; I like almost everything but the things that I dislike are becoming more prevalent in the story than in the beginning.
submitted by GODZBALL to ClassroomOfTheElite [link] [comments]
Hey!
Finished reading up to the current Volume of the LN and wanted to share my thoughts on the series as a whole and where I think it may go from here.
I became aware of this season when season 1 first aired through social media and decided to watch the show up until the end of the first season. After it ended, I had to know more and so I looked and found out about the light novel. I was hooked ever since.
My thoughts on the first year were pretty good because the mystery of the school, the students and the MC kept me interested and it was very refreshing having a main character not allow himself to be bullied by his friends or act like a stereotypical virgin whenever a women would talk to him.
I found the beginning to do a very good job of keeping people on their toes as even though this is based in Highschool and has a battle royale based premise, it uses different games then your typical battle royal clone and allows you to basically view how it’s played through the eyes of the protag Kiyo.
Another thing that makes Kiyo interesting is that while he does boast internally that he knows everything on a level that would surpass some of the smartest college students in Japan, he does not immediately flaunt or trivialize the games to the point where there isn't any tension with each game.
Another thing I enjoy is that though it’s a team-based Battle royale, the fact that you get to know the leader of each team and they slowly grow to know Kiyo makes it interesting and sets up potential conflicts of interest before the first year is even halfway over. Personally, I like all of the other class leaders a good bit. I enjoy Ryuuen especially because he still remains true to his nature, but he takes advice from the person who beat him using just as morally questionable tactics as him and works to fine tune those morally questionable tactics so that he doesn't get beat because he is sloppy on his approach. I enjoy Ichinose battle with her "horrible" shop lifting past as much as an American can sympathize on something most over here would consider very minor in terms of criminality. While I can't obviously say it's just fine, I also feel at times it's overblown but again I'm American and at some point, we've all pocketed a pack of gum or added an extra item to our shopping cart we didn't ring up. She is a genuinely good person which is enjoyable when the other people portrayed as rivals are just as likely to stab you in the front as well as they would in the back. While the main goal is to graduate from Class A because somehow everything you ever need in life will somehow be given to you, the thought of making sure everyone makes it to the finish line is a good goal on its own knowing how easy it is for people to be expelled. I Don't mind Arisu but truthfully up until the most recent chapters, she was honestly hard to relate to even more than Kiyo because every time she's on screen she always has a smug grin as if everything is already taken care of and no matter what, she will come out on top. while its charismatic it can kinda drive off any sense of connection. I'm happy she starts getting humbled later on, but it takes a long time.
The series threw me for a loop when they focused heavily on Horikita in the beginning only to seemingly drop her to a side character for the rest of the arc until Kiyo dealt with Ryuuen. It honestly felt like she wasn't that important anymore, so I was pleasantly surprised how she slowly made her way back into the sub-protag role throughout the rest of the 2nd year. I don't really like Horikita compared to most of the other characters, but it speaks more highly to the other characters than anything wrong with her. My reasons for disliking her a little more than the other characters maybe stem from the fact we see more of her than anyone else and could have changed if she was more of a side character than one of the main focuses of the series. I do think that she gradually gets better as a character or more dynamic would be the better way to phrase it, I still think she is very flawed or at least she is written flawed, but the story seems to make things conveniently workout in her favor whenever she desperately needs it. I will say that I find that some of my favorite characters are legitimately side characters some of which have just recently showed up or showed up and went away for a long period of time after. Case in point Tsubaki from class 1-c she is basically kiyotaka but not overpowered like he is. We get a lot of Nanase in the beginning of the second-year arc but basically after the deserted Island exam she barely shows up anymore her split personality also just goes away. Kiryuuin Is also one of my favorites and she is sparingly gets in the story but when she does, she is very interesting and I'm sad that in a few more books she'll probably complete disappear from the story. I was never high on some characters like Kei, Nagumo, Matsushita ( mostly because why isn't she revealing this secret hidden talent that she said she had in the first year) and Manabu. I know Manabu might be a hot take, but I personally feel like his whole schtick about not telling Horkitia that he does love her but wants her to do her own thing for an entire year was so stupid because he just needed to call her to the student council office and literally have the conversation at ANY point in the year why wait till the end. I'm glad that he gives Kiyo a goal or maybe project he wants to complete before he meets Monabu again but other than that he was a blander Kiyotaka.
On that note a few things that have bothered me as the story has gone on,
- I’m not going to say anything even though I could because then people would look at me weird. And we can’t have that?
- I won't reveal where you came from even though it would be the most detrimental thing, I could do to you whether people believe it or not, but I won't because I never intended to use it as a tactic no matter what. why not?
- You betrayed us and kicked our friend out of the school so I'm going to dropout so we lose but I will wait for a week or so to do it because I wanted to see the festival first. huh? Why wait for something stupid like that? You're already planning on Jeopardizing your whole class but decide to wait because of a festival that theoretically doesn't matter anymore. Not only that but the fact that you don't leak what happened that caused the friend to be expelled while you waited to expel yourself, further causing an issue for them when you are gone, just doesn't make any sense at all.
- Horikita has lucked into some of the most micky mouse wins I've ever seen. Like I said before the plot sometimes seems to not make sense in a real word aspect but because the other can control how 120 kids always behave you can give bad reasons for something to work out and it always will because the plot needed it to. I really truly feel like that exam where Sakura was expelled was damn good all the way up until her best friend decided not to follow through with her plans to sink the class in retaliation. There was literally nothing anyone could have done to stop her or Kushida from sinking the class once the exam was over. I truly thought it would have been checkmate for the class and maybe you shift away from class 2-D the same way it feels like Kiyo is doing now and consider it a failed experiment. I would have LOVED it if she flunked the class even though Kiyo and Horikita did everything possible to bring them close to being class A. Actions have consequences, you expelled my friend and not the traitor and making excuses that it work out if Kushida complies from that point forward. OK fine I'll screw everyone like they screwed my good friend by dropping out willingly. Could you imagine the fallout knowing you failed even if you made the right decision in that moment. Basically, halfway through the second year 1 class has officially lost the race but just like Nagumo said, it's still possible to transfer out of a class to a different one so it doesn't mean the story ends for Kiyotaka or any of the students, but that class has lost.
- Koenji is literally my least liked character in the series at this point and it's strictly based off what I THINK will happen in the future. The author has done absolutely zero to give backstory to Koenji and why he is so good at everything. Zilch. At least as unreasonable as it sounds, we know why Kiyo and the other white room students are so broken. The most we know about Koenji is that he is a blonde Adonis who studied in China and for some reason just laps everyone at everything. My thoughts on this are that if and when Kiyo decides to leave the class, Horikita and by proxy (Koenji) will be the final boss.
Overall, I'm happy with this series and it has made me look for more LNs to fill in my time while we wait for more to come out.
I'd be happy to hear your thoughts on the series as a whole as well.
Tldr; I like almost everything but the things that I dislike are becoming more prevalent in the story than in the beginning.
2024.05.16 00:30 AutoModerator General Questions Thread, May 15, 2024
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Frequently Asked Questions below!
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MyFigureCollection
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Shops
That’s going to depend a lot on what works for you, but most people around here buy them from Amiami, Big in Japan, Hobby Search, HobbyLink Japan, or Tokyo Otaku Mode. If none of those work for you for whatever reason, there’s a list of reputable retailers in the sidebar that you can check out at any time. Be extra careful when ordering figures from websites like Amazon or ebay, as there are a lot of bootlegs on those sites. Don’t be afraid to ask in our Bootleg Megathread if you’re unsure.
2. What differences are there between the shipping options I get from most Japanese shops?
Below is a rundown of the main shipping choices you’ll get at most retailers. Keep in mind that if an order is large enough you will be forced to use one of the more expensive options, as SAL shipments have lower size and weight restrictions.
Most shops will ask you to pay shipping on a per-order basis, but here are some that will allow combined shipping:
4. When will I get charged for my preorder?
Most Japanese shops charge you once the item is in stock and ready for shipment. When that happens, they will send you an email asking for payment. Some shops (mostly overseas ones), will allow you to pay for the item up front though, if you’d like. A few with that option are:
5. Should I expect to pay customs fees when importing figures?
That depends on where you live. Here’s a quick rundown:
You have three options for this:
A. Big in Japan is known to stock exclusive figures and ship to other countries. Usually the price is higher because they build in their proxy fees, but it’s easier than worrying about using a forwarder or proxy service. If you live in the US, Crunchyroll, Right Stuf, and Tokyo Otaku Mode also get exclusives sometimes, but out of the states the shipping can get expensive.
B. Forwarding Services: A forwarder is someone who you ship an exclusive item to so that they can forward the package on to you, usually for a flat fee + shipping. When using a forwarder you still make the purchase yourself, and enter their address into the shipping field. When the box arrives at the forwarder they will then stick your address onto the package and send it on its way.
Some popular forwarders are:
Be sure to read each sites instructions on forwarding carefully!
C. Proxy Services: With a proxy, you tell them what the item you’re looking for is and they will purchase it in your stead. This is handy for when a company doesn’t accept foreign credit cards, or you’re having trouble navigating a Japanese website.
Some popular proxies are:
7. I see a bunch of really cheap figures that ship from China on ebay. Are those okay to buy?
Generally, no. They’re most likely bootlegs. If you want a second opinion on that, feel free to ask in the Bootleg Megathread that’s always stickied at the top of the sub.
8. What’s a bootleg, and how can I avoid buying them?
A bootleg is a counterfeit figure often made using rejected molds of the official product. They are usually priced significantly lower than the genuine article, and in order to make their profit, bootleggers use lower quality materials and have less attention to detail- resulting in a substandard figure.
The Bootleg Megathread that I mentioned in question 7 is a great tool to avoid buying any bootlegs. It has a few tips and tricks to avoiding them to begin with, and a few more on how to spot them if you’re worried you might already own one.
9. Does anyone know when figure X is going to be released? How do I know if it was delayed?
My Figure Collection (sometimes referred to as MFC) does an excellent job of staying on top of information like release dates and delays. If you’re curious about an upcoming figures release date, check there first. This information can be found directly under the “Releases” section on a figure’s entry. If you only see a month and a year in that section, it means the release date has not yet been announced by the manufacturer, and there is still a chance the figure could be delayed.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.
10. The figure I want is long sold out at normal retailers! What’s the best place to pick it up in the aftermarket?
A list of reputable retailers can be found under the “Shops” section of the /AnimeFigures sidebar. They all sell legitimate products, and many of them also sell figures second hand. However, the most frequently suggested second hand sites are Mandarake and Amiami- who has a preowned section that they update every night save Sundays and Japanese holidays around 1PM JST and again around 6PM JST.
AmiAmi grades their pre-owned items on a letter scale. The general consensus from buyers is that their ratings are conservative, so unless the item and/or packaging is specifically indicated as having significant flaws, pre-owned items from them are usually in at least as good a condition as their rating suggests.
Note: When you search Mandarake, you’ll get the best results by using the Japanese characters for whatever you are searching. If you don’t know them, you can find them on MFC by clicking on any of the “details” in that figure’s listing.
11. Amiami has a figure I’m interested in labeled as “For sale in Japan only”. Does this mean I can’t order it without a proxy or forwarder?
No, you can still order it. Amiami’s English site has that warning on many items, and it’s mostly meant to inform you that this product was made for a Japanese market, and as such, will have Japanese speaking/writing in it- so don’t expect any instructions to be in English. If Amiami doesn’t want foreigners buying a certain product, they won’t even list it on their English site.
If you live near an Ikea try out one of these:
If you don’t live near an Ikea, Amazon has a few display options, though they are more expensive. Also keep an eye on your local Craigslist (or your country’s equivalent) and stores near you that are closing up.
13. What lighting do you guys recommend?
Ikea’s Dioder LED strips were discontinued after a long run. A current version is the Vattensten, if you're inclined to buy your case and lights at the same time.
LED strips have become very commonly available in recent years; most hardware and home furnishing stores carry a selection now. Just make sure that the lights don’t get too hot!
14. What are those clear plastic boxes that I see under everyone’s figures in their collection posts, and where can I get them?
Those are called risers. Most of us use standard acrylic risers like these. Some other, easy to find things that have been suggested are:
Another common suggestion is to visit The Container Store if you have one near you. They have a lot of things to choose from that can suit a variety of needs. Be sure to check out their standard acrylic risers, their Amac boxes, and the various display cases they sell (baseball cases, mini car cases. hockey puck cases, etc).
15. Should I keep my figures sealed?
That is, of course, up to you really, but here are a few things to keep in mind when debating this question:
Those are classifications for figures based on a few factors.
17. There are so many figure companies! Who makes good figures?!
Obviously this is a very subjective question, but as a general starting point, here are a few well renowned figure companies:
My Figure Collection can be your best friend here. Simply do a search on the name of the series or character using the search bar located at the top right of the screen, and all associated figures pop up!
Alternatively, if you’re looking at a figure’s MFC entry, most of the text under the “Details” section can be clicked on and used to run a search.
19. How can I commission a custom figure?
None of the major figure companies (Alter, Kotobukiya, Good Smile Company, etc.) will take a commission for a single figure. This thread has a few websites in it that you can check out, or you can look into garage kits. Some kit painters would be willing to resculpt, frankenstein together, or otherwise modify kits for the right price.
If you're looking for help completing a garage kit, /brushforhire may be useful.
Most people use a MFC combined with any or all of the following news sites:
To use MFC for this I’ll quote question #9.
21. Everyone’s excited about something called Wonfes….. what the heck is that?!
WonFes (short for Wonder Festival) is a biannual figure expo where many figure producers (both large and small) show off new sculpts and updates to figures already under way. Most companies save their most exciting announcements for WonFes, so we all look forward to the expo whenever it rolls around! Winter Wonder Festival is usually held in February, while Summer Wonder Festival is usually in July. The event has also spread to Shanghai, in the late spring.
22. One or two (or 15) figures were announced at WonFes that I’m really excited about! How can I keep track of their progress once the event is over?
MFC is always really quick about getting new WonFes announcements (or any others throughout the year, for that matter) listed in their database, so we suggest using that. To find a figure from the event you can search any number of things, including the name of the character or the name of the show. You can also use the tag search to search “WonderFestival 20xx_[season]” to see all items announced at that event.
submitted by AutoModerator to AnimeFigures [link] [comments]
Frequently Asked Questions below!
A longer version of the subreddit rules is here.
For questions specifically concerning bootlegs or vendor legitimacy, please ask in the Bootleg Megathread.
- For Self Posts: include a bolded NSFW note next to links in that post.
- For Links to sites/images: If the figure is NSFW, or the website has any NSFW content (including ads) be sure to tag your post NSFW and use the appropriate link flair.
Any collection posts containing bootlegs, comments advocating buying bootlegs, or links to sites selling bootlegs, recasts, or unlicensed merchandise will be removed.
People often ask about the legitimacy and/or safety of a number of websites which sell large resin statues. The more commonly-asked of those deal primarily in resins from studios which do not have a license from the Japanese IP holders to produce merchandise. Therefore links to those sites are not permitted here. Another sign is if MyFigureCollection doesn't list the either the statue, its manufacturer, or the shop it's being sold on.
MyFigureCollection
My Figure Collection is like MyAnimeList... but for figures! Their database includes thousands of items which been produced during the last couple of decades, along with reviews of shops and other helpful articles. One can also list their own collection and post gallery photos.
Shops
Retailers:Blogs/News:
AmiAmi HobbySearch Mandarake (sells rare figures) Good Smile Company Online Shop (often has exclusives) Good Smile Company US shop Crunchyroll Store Hobby Link Japan (aka HLJ) Solaris Japan (MFC partner) BigBadToyStore (MFC partner, US retailer) Big in Japan (also has proxy service) Tokyo Otaku Mode FigureHaven Archonia (EU) Yorokonde (EU) Figuya (EU) Gamersheek (UK) Jungle
List of retailers on MFC
/AnimeFigures' List of Retailers
Community Guide to Shopping in Japan
Nekomagic (News/Previews) NyaaFigurines (Reviews/Releases) Kahotan's Blog (News/Reviews) Figma Blog (JP)
Buying & Shipping
1. What’s the best place to buy my anime figures from?That’s going to depend a lot on what works for you, but most people around here buy them from Amiami, Big in Japan, Hobby Search, HobbyLink Japan, or Tokyo Otaku Mode. If none of those work for you for whatever reason, there’s a list of reputable retailers in the sidebar that you can check out at any time. Be extra careful when ordering figures from websites like Amazon or ebay, as there are a lot of bootlegs on those sites. Don’t be afraid to ask in our Bootleg Megathread if you’re unsure.
2. What differences are there between the shipping options I get from most Japanese shops?
Below is a rundown of the main shipping choices you’ll get at most retailers. Keep in mind that if an order is large enough you will be forced to use one of the more expensive options, as SAL shipments have lower size and weight restrictions.
- Unregistered SAL: Sometimes referred to as uSAL, is usually the cheapest method. It does not come with any tracking or insurance. Usually takes up 2-4 weeks for delivery.
- Registered SAL: Sometimes referred to as rSAL, is insured for the declared value up to 6,000 yen. It comes with a tracking number and usually takes 2-4 weeks for delivery.
- EMS: This method of shipping is much faster than either SAL options, usually arriving within a week of shipment. EMS shipments are insured for the declared value up to 2,000,000 yen.
- Airmail
- E-packet
- Surface: Shops don't offer this very often. It's an actual cargo ship and slow as a result.
- DHL: Becoming more available as an alternative to EMS on AmiAmi and other sites. Can be less expensive than EMS and of comparable speed, but may be more reliant on the specific geographical area being shipped to. The price is also determined by the size of the box. Offers their own tracking.
Most shops will ask you to pay shipping on a per-order basis, but here are some that will allow combined shipping:
- Amiami: You can combine orders here, as long as the orders ship in the same month. It doesn’t matter if the item is new or preowned. Any preorders that are set for that month can also be combined with other orders for that month. However, be aware that if the preorder gets delayed, Amiami will remove that item from that month’s shipment and place it on a new order. To combine orders on Amiami, use the “Combine Orders” feature under “My Account”.
- Hobby Search: Hobby Search will let you combine orders that release in the same month, but you cannot combine in stock items with preorders. If you want to combine multiple preorders, or multiple in stock items, you can do so using the “Order Recombination” feature on your account page.
- HobbyLink Japan: At HLJ, you have the option to send paid orders to their “Private Warehouse”, where you can store them for up to 2 months. When you’re ready to ship the items, you simply select which items to ship and HLJ will combine them into one shipment for you. To use this, just select the “Private Warehouse” option as shipping when you order.
4. When will I get charged for my preorder?
Most Japanese shops charge you once the item is in stock and ready for shipment. When that happens, they will send you an email asking for payment. Some shops (mostly overseas ones), will allow you to pay for the item up front though, if you’d like. A few with that option are:
- Big in Japan (Japanese store)
- Tokyo Otaku Mode
- Anime Island
- Crunchyroll
5. Should I expect to pay customs fees when importing figures?
That depends on where you live. Here’s a quick rundown:
- Australia: 10% GST is now assessed up front.
- Canada: Minimum declared value for charges is around CAD$20 for regular shipments, and CAD$60 for gifts (gifting something only seems to lower the declared value by about CAD$40, not deplete it completely). When using Amiami, try their Small Air Packet option. It comes with tracking, gets there in about the same time as EMS, and is better at avoiding customs.
- European Union: As of 1st July 2021, VAT has to be paid on all goods imported from outside of the EU. Retailers are supposed charge VAT for purchases under €150, however many Japanese retailers currently do not, so VAT will be charged when your order arrives in the EU. Orders that are >€150, VAT and duty will be charged by your local customs.
- UK: As of 1st January 2021, VAT is to be charged by retailers for orders <£135. However, customs isn't currently charging VAT on parcels valued at <£135, even if the VAT hasn't been paid. Goods >£135 will have their VAT and duty calculated and charged by customs.
- Mexico: Minimum declared value for customs fees is USD$300 for shipments by post, and USD$50 for shipments by courier.
- United States: A shipment has to have a declared value of USD$2,000 before customs starts hitting you with fees, so you most likely won’t have to worry about them at all.
You have three options for this:
A. Big in Japan is known to stock exclusive figures and ship to other countries. Usually the price is higher because they build in their proxy fees, but it’s easier than worrying about using a forwarder or proxy service. If you live in the US, Crunchyroll, Right Stuf, and Tokyo Otaku Mode also get exclusives sometimes, but out of the states the shipping can get expensive.
B. Forwarding Services: A forwarder is someone who you ship an exclusive item to so that they can forward the package on to you, usually for a flat fee + shipping. When using a forwarder you still make the purchase yourself, and enter their address into the shipping field. When the box arrives at the forwarder they will then stick your address onto the package and send it on its way.
Some popular forwarders are:
Be sure to read each sites instructions on forwarding carefully!
C. Proxy Services: With a proxy, you tell them what the item you’re looking for is and they will purchase it in your stead. This is handy for when a company doesn’t accept foreign credit cards, or you’re having trouble navigating a Japanese website.
Some popular proxies are:
- Big in Japan (Won’t proxy for Yahoo Auctions)
- From Japan
7. I see a bunch of really cheap figures that ship from China on ebay. Are those okay to buy?
Generally, no. They’re most likely bootlegs. If you want a second opinion on that, feel free to ask in the Bootleg Megathread that’s always stickied at the top of the sub.
8. What’s a bootleg, and how can I avoid buying them?
A bootleg is a counterfeit figure often made using rejected molds of the official product. They are usually priced significantly lower than the genuine article, and in order to make their profit, bootleggers use lower quality materials and have less attention to detail- resulting in a substandard figure.
The Bootleg Megathread that I mentioned in question 7 is a great tool to avoid buying any bootlegs. It has a few tips and tricks to avoiding them to begin with, and a few more on how to spot them if you’re worried you might already own one.
9. Does anyone know when figure X is going to be released? How do I know if it was delayed?
My Figure Collection (sometimes referred to as MFC) does an excellent job of staying on top of information like release dates and delays. If you’re curious about an upcoming figures release date, check there first. This information can be found directly under the “Releases” section on a figure’s entry. If you only see a month and a year in that section, it means the release date has not yet been announced by the manufacturer, and there is still a chance the figure could be delayed.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.
10. The figure I want is long sold out at normal retailers! What’s the best place to pick it up in the aftermarket?
A list of reputable retailers can be found under the “Shops” section of the /AnimeFigures sidebar. They all sell legitimate products, and many of them also sell figures second hand. However, the most frequently suggested second hand sites are Mandarake and Amiami- who has a preowned section that they update every night save Sundays and Japanese holidays around 1PM JST and again around 6PM JST.
AmiAmi grades their pre-owned items on a letter scale. The general consensus from buyers is that their ratings are conservative, so unless the item and/or packaging is specifically indicated as having significant flaws, pre-owned items from them are usually in at least as good a condition as their rating suggests.
Note: When you search Mandarake, you’ll get the best results by using the Japanese characters for whatever you are searching. If you don’t know them, you can find them on MFC by clicking on any of the “details” in that figure’s listing.
11. Amiami has a figure I’m interested in labeled as “For sale in Japan only”. Does this mean I can’t order it without a proxy or forwarder?
No, you can still order it. Amiami’s English site has that warning on many items, and it’s mostly meant to inform you that this product was made for a Japanese market, and as such, will have Japanese speaking/writing in it- so don’t expect any instructions to be in English. If Amiami doesn’t want foreigners buying a certain product, they won’t even list it on their English site.
Displaying Your Figures
12. What display cases do you recommend?If you live near an Ikea try out one of these:
- Klingsbo
- Billy (Often used with Morliden doors (now the HÖGBO and glass shelves.)
- Detolf: Formerly the go-to choice for inexpensive display cabinetry, the Detolf was first made flimsier around 2020 and then essentially phased out of the name, to become the BLÅLIDEN. Knockoff versions of widely-varying quality are commonly found on other shopping sites these days, though.
If you don’t live near an Ikea, Amazon has a few display options, though they are more expensive. Also keep an eye on your local Craigslist (or your country’s equivalent) and stores near you that are closing up.
13. What lighting do you guys recommend?
Ikea’s Dioder LED strips were discontinued after a long run. A current version is the Vattensten, if you're inclined to buy your case and lights at the same time.
LED strips have become very commonly available in recent years; most hardware and home furnishing stores carry a selection now. Just make sure that the lights don’t get too hot!
14. What are those clear plastic boxes that I see under everyone’s figures in their collection posts, and where can I get them?
Those are called risers. Most of us use standard acrylic risers like these. Some other, easy to find things that have been suggested are:
- Plastic picture cubes
- Card Deck Boxes
- If you’re feeling adventurous, try making your own!
Another common suggestion is to visit The Container Store if you have one near you. They have a lot of things to choose from that can suit a variety of needs. Be sure to check out their standard acrylic risers, their Amac boxes, and the various display cases they sell (baseball cases, mini car cases. hockey puck cases, etc).
15. Should I keep my figures sealed?
That is, of course, up to you really, but here are a few things to keep in mind when debating this question:
- Keeping it sealed can actually damage your figure. PVC figures usually have something called plasticizer in them, and that plasticizer needs to be able to breath. If a PVC figure isn’t exposed to oxygen, after a period of time the plasticizer starts to break down and form a sticky substance on the surface of the figure. Simply opening your figures and taking them out of the box prevents this from happening. If you happen to find plasticizer goo on one of your figures, Kahotan has a handy guide for dealing with it.
- Unlike some other figure markets, keeping an anime figure sealed won’t raise its value by a whole lot. In fact, because of the plasticizer problem mentioned above, your figure could actually be in better condition if you open it versus keeping it sealed.
Finding the Right Figure(s) for You
16. What are "scales" and "prizes"? What is the difference between them?Those are classifications for figures based on a few factors.
- "Prizes" are generally more simply produced figures which are intended to be given as prizes for playing arcade games. They are inexpensive and lack the detail of scale figures, though some prize figure lines have standouts which may approach lower-end scales in quality. That is uncommon and often depends on the individual figure.
- "Scales" are called such because they are nominally designed to be proportional to the dimensions of the character which they are based on. They are generally of much better manufacture and materials than prize figures, allowing for more detail in painting, accessories, or complex poses.
- "Trading" figures appear in gashapon machines or as blind boxes on shop counters, often as sets which include multiple characters. As suggested by the class name, the randomness encourages trading. They are usually very inexpensively-produced, though as with prizes, some series are better than others.
- "Non-scale" encompasses a variety of other categories. It is often used to describe poseable figure lines such as figma and Nendoroids.
17. There are so many figure companies! Who makes good figures?!
Obviously this is a very subjective question, but as a general starting point, here are a few well renowned figure companies:
- Alter
- Max Factory
- Good Smile Company
- Kotobukiya (usually hit or miss for people. Use your best judgement based off of the prototype)
- Flare
- Stronger
My Figure Collection can be your best friend here. Simply do a search on the name of the series or character using the search bar located at the top right of the screen, and all associated figures pop up!
Alternatively, if you’re looking at a figure’s MFC entry, most of the text under the “Details” section can be clicked on and used to run a search.
19. How can I commission a custom figure?
None of the major figure companies (Alter, Kotobukiya, Good Smile Company, etc.) will take a commission for a single figure. This thread has a few websites in it that you can check out, or you can look into garage kits. Some kit painters would be willing to resculpt, frankenstein together, or otherwise modify kits for the right price.
If you're looking for help completing a garage kit, /brushforhire may be useful.
Keeping Up with New Announcements
20. How can I keep up with figure news (announcements, updates, etc.)?Most people use a MFC combined with any or all of the following news sites:
- Neko Magic
- Alter’s Blog (In Japanese)
- Kahotan’s Blog (Only GSC and their sister companies)
To use MFC for this I’ll quote question #9.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.Most companies have one or more Twitter accounts. Some examples: Good Smile Company sales, Good Smile's USA branch, Max Factory, AmiAmi Hobby News.
21. Everyone’s excited about something called Wonfes….. what the heck is that?!
WonFes (short for Wonder Festival) is a biannual figure expo where many figure producers (both large and small) show off new sculpts and updates to figures already under way. Most companies save their most exciting announcements for WonFes, so we all look forward to the expo whenever it rolls around! Winter Wonder Festival is usually held in February, while Summer Wonder Festival is usually in July. The event has also spread to Shanghai, in the late spring.
22. One or two (or 15) figures were announced at WonFes that I’m really excited about! How can I keep track of their progress once the event is over?
MFC is always really quick about getting new WonFes announcements (or any others throughout the year, for that matter) listed in their database, so we suggest using that. To find a figure from the event you can search any number of things, including the name of the character or the name of the show. You can also use the tag search to search “WonderFestival 20xx_[season]” to see all items announced at that event.
2024.05.14 14:29 Lianzuoshou From Coercion to Capitulation: How China Can Take Taiwan Without a War
The American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for the Study of War jointly released a report，China's Roadmap to Peaceful Reunification.
"From Coercion to Surrender, How China Can Conquer Others Without Fighting."
submitted by Lianzuoshou to LessCredibleDefence [link] [comments]
"From Coercion to Surrender, How China Can Conquer Others Without Fighting."
Mid 2024Countermeasures proposed by think tanks against this roadmap:
After Lai Qingde took office, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council severely condemned him.
Several People's Liberation Army ships passed through Taiwan's contiguous zone in an unannounced exercise.
The Rocket Force regularly conducts missile tests over and around Taiwan.
Planes of the Chinese Air Force enter the air defense identification zone every day and begin to frequently approach the Taiwan contiguous zone.
The first article on the unofficial "peace platform" was published by a Chinese scholar, trying to build on the Fujian-Taiwan economic integration plan.
End of 2024
Xi Jinping said in a speech that "the time has come to solve the Taiwan issue."
High-profile Chinese civilian and People's Liberation Army scholars have commented proposing an unofficial cross-strait "peace framework."
China has stepped up its global information operations and accused the United States of trying to provoke a military conflict over Taiwan.
Early 2025
The National People's Congress revised the 2005 Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China to establish strict but unclear penalties for individuals who engage in separatist behavior.
The People's Liberation Army has begun higher-intensity drills that coincide with regular closures of air and sea areas around Taiwan.
The Coast Guard, with the support of the Navy, began to conduct ship inspections of cargo ships heading to Taiwan
Mid 2025
Chinese customs announced a ban on specific products imported from Taiwan.
The ministries of foreign affairs and commerce met with neighboring governments in Asia to reassure them of the escalating threat across the region and to re-emphasize trade and investment ties.
End of 2025
The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission directed key Chinese state-owned enterprises to stockpile essential goods in anticipation of potential U.S.-led containment efforts.
China has threatened to sanction U.S. companies in Taiwan that may have ties to the defense industry.
Early 2026
China has successfully normalized shipping inspections and stepped up PLA activity in the contiguous zone, with PLAAF bombers now regularly flying around Taiwan.
The People's Liberation Army regularly conducts missile flights over Taiwan's territory, including ballistic missiles that passed through Taiwan's airspace for the first time (in fact, they have already passed through it).
The ministries of foreign affairs and commerce announced trade negotiations with the United States.
Mid 2026
China imposed previously threatened sanctions on U.S. companies selling products with potential defense uses in Taiwan.
Taiwanese authorities have reported a significant increase in the frequency of DDoS and ransomware attacks on their networks.
Chinese customs have imposed broader restrictions on multinational companies doing business in Taiwan.
Taiwan's anti-China hawks and some other politicians have received death threats from Taiwanese organized criminals.
End of 2026
For the first time, Chinese elites have directly commented on the proposed unofficial "peace framework". Some prominent Taiwanese commentators have also begun to raise objections.
The Rocket Force conducts missile firing exercises in waters outside the second island chain and conducts follow-up exercises regularly.
China announced a long-term "rotational deployment" of People's Liberation Army personnel to the Solomon Islands.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Front Work Department led a regional propaganda campaign condemning "Japan's militarization of the Ryukyu Islands".
North Korea claims it has successfully developed technology to miniaturize nuclear warheads that can equip its longest-range missiles. Previously, seismic readings suggested it was an underground nuclear test (old news).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued vague threats to countries around the world, warning governments to avoid alliances with Taiwan and the United States.
Early 2027
The People's Liberation Army has conducted an even more brazen air and sea blockade while targeting radar on some Taiwanese military platforms.
Coast guards sunk and occasionally boarded ships that resisted inspections.
Taiwanese authorities reported a cyber attack on an LNG terminal, and the Chinese government pressured LNG producers to cancel contracts with Taiwanese companies.
Taiwanese companies face growing regulatory hurdles and unannounced restrictions in mainland China, hampering their business.
The Ministry of Commerce announced the suspension of ECFA.
North Korea launched multiple sets of long-range missiles over Japan.
Groups affiliated with the United Front Work Department and the Ministry of National Security have used China's claims that the Ryukyu Islands are militarized to encourage local Japanese residents to protest against Japanese and U.S. troops stationed there.
The Rocket Force now joins the Navy and Air Force in coordinated joint long-range missile exercises to strike simulated targets beyond the second island chain.
Bomb threats disrupt Taipei's MRT system.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a travel warning for Japan following the anti-China violence at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.
The United States and China announced the signing of a major trade deal.
Taiwanese authorities reported that a chemical factory in Tainan was damaged by unknown saboteurs.
Mid 2027
Large-scale ransomware attacks have been reported across major economic sectors in Taiwan.
The People's Liberation Army Air Force forced a Taiwanese cargo plane to land in China and detained the crew.
China and its allies have vetoed a U.N. resolution condemning pressure on Taiwan.
The People's Liberation Army's electronic warfare operations often interfere with high-level Taiwan-U.S. communications.
Rumors circulated on Taiwanese social media about Taiwanese officials formulating a wartime escape plan.
Chinese-influenced Taiwanese media spread rumors that Beijing would introduce a new model of unification.
China-influenced Taiwanese media amplified a Taiwanese business leader and political commentator's proposals on how to prevent further escalation.
Intrusions by Chinese air and maritime military platforms regularly reach Taiwan's 12-nautical-mile border, while Rocket Force missiles frequently intrude into Taiwan's airspace during tests and exercises.
A joint exercise between the Chinese navy and a regional partner entered the Taiwan contiguous zone.
Swarms of drones from China frequently appear over Kinmen and Matsu.
The People's Liberation Army and Coast Guard began a close blockade of Taiping Island in the Nansha Islands and authorized the use of lethal force to implement the blockade.
End of 2027
Several North Korean stray bullets hit a South Korean navy patrol ship near the Northern Limit Line near Seoul.
China sanctions senior Japanese officials who meet directly with Taiwanese officials.
Chinese media across Asia spread rumors that Japan's prime minister had launched a program to develop nuclear weapons.
The United Front Work Department and the Ministry of National Security secretly use violence to attack Taiwanese politicians and others who use proxy organizations.
The People's Liberation Army coordinated a missile attack on Pengjia Island, killing and injuring dozens of Taiwan Coast Patrol officers.
China’s cyberattacks and sabotage on Taiwan have targeted critical infrastructure including water, electricity, sewer and food distribution networks.
Chinese affiliates in Taiwan have spread rumors that Taiwan's president is considering developing nuclear weapons.
The United States' refusal to respond forcefully to China's attack on Peng Jiayu has seriously damaged U.S.-Taiwan relations, while China has stepped up information operations targeting the American public.
A cyberattack led by the Strategic Support Force (which no longer exists) caused Taiwan’s early warning system to broadcast false missile warnings to the Taiwanese public.
China-owned Taiwanese media openly supports a "peace framework" with China.
Read the full report.
- The US does not establish diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but treats Taiwan as a sovereign country and safeguards all Taiwan's sovereignty.
- The U.S. military wears civilian clothes, enters Taiwan as tourists, and then joins the Taiwan military to perform tasks.
- The U.S. military conducts regular sea and air patrols in the Taiwan Strait and conducts joint exercises with the Taiwan military to prevent Taiwan from being blocked.
- Taiwan has strengthened its network security and stockpiled disaster relief and survival supplies and equipment to prevent hacker attacks, water and power outages, network interruptions, and air traffic (road) blockades.
- Taiwan has established its own Merchant Fleet to prevent foreign merchant ships from going to Taiwan for fear of mainland sanctions.
- The US and Taiwan are strengthening cognitive operations globally and on the island to make the world support Taiwan independence and not dare to abandon Taiwan, and to make the island dare not surrender.
2024.05.14 12:40 Specialist_Bake6514 Vapiano P3: Italian Food Made in Germany
 | The kitchen is on fire. Welcome to the final part of the Vapiano story where the tables are turning. In the first two episodes we followed Mark Korzilius' journey from setbacks to founding Vapiano, a groundbreaking restaurant concept, highlighting its fresh ingredients, dynamic atmosphere, and data-driven operations that drove rapid success. While achieving initial profitability and garnering attention from industry giants like McDonald's, Vapiano's global expansion has led to stellar revenue growth. However, it has also resulted in the emergence of numerous side projects (or distractions), operational challenges, increased costs, significant investments, and a notable accumulation of debt. This underscores the prioritization of top-line growth over profitable growth. We will continue on this thread and see how the story ends, but I would encourage you to read part one and two for better context. Vapiano P1: Italian Food Made in Germany (substack.com). Let's dig in. submitted by Specialist_Bake6514 to unpackbusinesses [link] [comments] Before Going Public We are now in 2015 and the year is a disaster for Vapiano's PR department. Employee time stamps are being manipulated, endless overtime for employees and high turnover in managerial roles are reported; mice in the kitchen and even rotten food allegedly found. The company is confronted with allegations of exceeding working hours among trainees in an article published by Welt am Sonntag, while the same outlet accuses Vapiano of manipulating punch times. The auditing firm PwC is commissioned to investigate the allegations and finds that there is no systematic approach but rather misconduct by individual employees, a mistake that’s being corrected. Internal however, investigations into stamp times are carried out regularly now and beyond its obvious reputational impact, this sucks up valuable management time and attention. In the summer of 2015 CEO, co-founder and investor Gregor Gerlach, who has been running the group since 2011 is stepping down and Jochen Halfmann is taking over. A new Vapiano People Program with an App is being developed with the aim to better interact with customers that will incorporate innovate features such as mobile pay. The German website sees a launch of new magazine to further promote the brand and there is now a full inhouse blogger and Instagram team being installed. In October the company buys seven restaurants from original co-founder, former co-investor and ex-president previously responsible for internation expansion Kent Hahne (2x Bonn, 3x Cologne, 1x Koblenz and one in Cologne that’s under construction). This package of Vapiano restaurants is very successful and generates net sales of more than 20 million euros in 2014. Hahne opened his first Vapiano restaurant in Cologne in August 2006 and in 2015 with his company apeiron AG, Hahne operates six L'Osteria franchise restaurants, a direct Vapiano competitor, and two self-owned restaurants GinYuu. Then in November of 2015, the next public relations bomb goes off with allegations regarding the company's quality standards. The company immediately investigates the issue through internal and external specialists but finds no evidence of any quality issues. Nevertheless, knowing that the group is now being closely watched, the company’s already in place hygiene standards are being reinforced. Additional audits and inspections are performed nationally. Further, all Vapianos worldwide are being audited twice by the partners SGS Institut Fresenius and SAI Global. Auditing software is purchased to simplify the implementation of the audits and the resulting measures. Apart from the external examinations, there is a food sampling plan in place being performed continuously. Again, all of this sucks up costs, management time and attention. With all these tumultuous developments the company’s growth engine is undeterred. Revenue grows by a whopping 50 million euros to 202 million euros, an increase of 33%. Impressive. While average spent per customer increases in all countries, the number of customers per day in Germany decreases by 3.3% partially due to the negative press towards the end of the year. Five own, four JV and 19 new franchise restaurants are added that year to the group, the total number of own managed restaurants grows to 51, there are 31 JVs and 84 franchises which bringing the total to 166 Vapiano restaurants. Global restaurant sales are now above 400 million euros. But while revenue grows by an astronomical 50 million euros, operating profits, alarmingly, shrink again. Gross margins are staying perfectly healthy above 75% but operating costs keep growing disproportionately fast. The Company’s outstanding debt jumps by almost 30 million, close to 85 million euros by the end of the year. With operating profits at 9.5 million euros, alarm bells should be going off right now. In Q4 of 2015, new CEO Jochen Halfmann introduces Strategy 2020. The new strategy includes five essential points. One, profitable growth in the newly defined core markets of Germany and Austria as well as in the UK, Netherlands, France and USA. Two, operational excellence through strict “best practice” management. Three, further development and digitalization of the concept considering guest feedback. Four, greater focus on long-term employee retention and five, building a modern and sustainable IT landscape. Sound’s good on paper but let’s see how things pan out. Vapiano's investments (capital expenditures) that year are primarily directed towards new restaurant openings, renovations of existing establishments, and share acquisitions in other Vapiano restaurants from franchisees or JV partners. A significant portion of funds is allocated to the digitalization of the guest experience, including the development of a new app scheduled for market release in 2016 and the implementation of a time recording system across all group restaurants. The world's first standalone Vapiano restaurant with a delivery service that year is built in Fürth, Germany. The company keeps expanding its presence in both inner-city locations and international markets, such as Shanghai, China. To finance all of this, the group has its own operating cash flow which comes in at 18 million while capital expenditures are 26 million euros plus 14 million for acquisitions. The funding gab is filled with 26 million euros of new debt and a seven-million-euro equity raise. At that end of the year and after the equity raise Gregor Gerlach (through his AP Leipzig GmbH & Co. KG entity) holds 30.1%, Hans-Joachim and Gisa Sander through their Exchange Bio GmbH hold 25.5% and the Tchibo heirs, Herz through their Mayfair Beteiligungsfonds II GmbH & Co. KG hold 44,4%. But for the first time the restaurant’s concept that was so successful to date is being questioned. Some customers are starting to mislike the operational flow of the concept itself. If you want pasta, you must queue for pasta. If you want pizza you stand in a different queue. A small side salad, yet another queue. "You spend more time carrying trays than an actress in Berlin-Mitte. The audience in the pasta limbo can only consist of people who have worked for an insurance company for a long time and, like Stockholm syndrome, they can no longer get away from the industrial canteen feeling," writes TV host Beisenherz provocatively. While overly harsh in his assessment he's not entirely wrong judging by customers venting their frustrations in forums and social media channels. It isn’t uncommon for those who ordered pizza to have already finished eating while there is little movement in the pasta queue. Long term that doesn't go down well, QSRs competitors like L’Osteria are handling this process differently, with much success. https://preview.redd.it/6cas01oked0d1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=2da6e0b4bc0e07dbee558de412feb414cd598d4a Tipping PointWhere are now in the year 2016 and things start to deteriorate visibility. Perhaps not for the leman’s eye but any business minded observer can see that there are problems under the hood. Yes, revenue grows yet another whopping 50 million to almost 250 million euros but half of that growth, comes from acquisitions of restaurants that the group didn’t already own 100%, which is now being fully consolidated within the group’s accounts. Here is a concrete example. In the past, Vapiano SE, the group’s top holding company held an indirect 50% stake in a French subgroup via the subsidiary VAP Restaurants SA, based in Luxembourg, and included this as an associated company in the Vapiano SE consolidated financial statements using the equity method. Due to the acquisition of additional shares in September of 2016, Vapiano SE's indirect share in the French subgroup increased to 75%. This means that Vapiano SE takes control of the French subgroup, which is therefore included in the group’s financial statements as part of the full consolidation. The revenue from the acquired subsidiary now recorded in the consolidated income statement amounts to 12.8 million euros. While that’s great for the top line, the loss of the fully consolidated entity equates to 0.2 million euros. Yes, you are buying revenue, but there are losses attached to them, not profits. A similar case is the Swedish entity that runs eight restaurants with revenue of 11.5 million euros but has losses of 235 thousand euros. So much for Strategy 2020 and “profitable” growth.That year the group’s operating profits are absolutely tanking, halving to 3.5 million euros. Operating profits are now a mere 1,4% of revenue. Remember original founder Mark Korzilius who talked about operating margins of 25% to 28% at the restaurant level? Yes, there are overhead costs for the organization that sits above the chain of restaurants, but operating margins that low indicates a course correction is needed. What’s telling is that in the annual report, in the management discussion section, the company starts talking about EBITDA as a proxy measure of profitability, rather than operating profit or net income. This wasn’t the case in the years before. Is this window dressing for an upcoming IPO? EBITDA is short for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization. How can you measure profitability of a restaurant chain that absolutely and unequivocally needs capital investment to maintain its restaurant operations, the very source of cash generation, by simply excluding this maintenance charge (depreciation in the income statement)? Vapiano’s own annual report talks about the fact that existing restaurants must be rejuvenated from time to time and that new interior designs have to be implemented every few years. These things wear and tear, they go out of style, kitchen equipment breaks and needs replacement. This business absolutely needs maintenance capital expenditure, why anyone talks of profits before these maintenance costs is beyond me. Fun fact: in the previous annual report EBITDA is mentioned seven times, mostly around restaurant acquisitions and financing, not however as a profit indication for the group. In the new annual report, EBITDA is mentioned 28 times. Maybe it’s just me but belated Charlie Munger liked to call EBITDA: bullsh*t earnings. When in doubt I stick with Charlie. Interestingly, EBITDA for Vapiano keeps growing while operating and net profits keep falling. Operating cashflow for the group that year is about 21 million euros, but capital expenditure is 30 million and acquisitions for subsidiaries another 20 million. To finance these expenditures another 28 million euros of debt and 16 million of equity is raised. Net debt rises above 130 million euro. The operating cashflow of the group before any capital expenditures is 21 million euros. I am not sure free cash flow would be significantly positive after maintenance capex is paid out; it’s not broken out so we can’t be sure. Granted, I am not on the ground during this time, and I am not in the board room, I am simply reading what’s in front of me, but to me this is starting to look like a distressed situation. Regardless, the following year the company goes public. IPOWhere are now in the year 2017 and its Vapiano’s first year as public company. The company’s annual report reads the following “Sales revenue, like-for-like growth (LfL) and the earnings figures EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA are used as the most important financial performance indicators for controlling operational business activities.” The very same report however also says: “The majority of the group's investments regularly go towards opening new restaurant locations and modernizing existing restaurants. The latter are differentiated into regular replacement investments that occur during ongoing operations (Maintenance CAPEX) and fundamental investments in the renovation of a restaurant (Remodeling CAPEX). On average, a restaurant remodeling takes place nine years after opening.” It says it right there in their own report; every nine years a remodeling is taking place. Remodeling and updating is not cost free, so why exclude depreciation charges which reflect capital expenditures? I understand that perhaps you would want to strip out one-off opening costs, that’s fine and fair, but don’t go overboard.The number of restaurants increases by 26 (previous year: 13) to a total of 205. The increase consists of 27 new openings and one closure. Group revenue grows to an astonishing 325 million euros but here comes the shocker, operating profits turn negative to 25 million. Fine, strip out foreign exchange losses of 3 million, IPO costs of 5.8 million and new opening costs of 6.1 million and you still have 10 million euros of operational losses. All the while the debt load of almost 130 million hasn’t materially changed, so those operating losses are before a six-million-euro interest payment. 184 million euros are raised through the IPO of which 85 million go to the company. This money is earmarked for further expansion as the group has ambitions to almost double the footprint to 330 restaurants by the end of 2020. The company is currently not profitable on an operating basis, and still wants to expand aggressively? I don’t get it. The remaining 100 million euros of the IPO money raised is distributed to co-founder Gregor Gerlach and Wella heirs Hans-Joachim and Gisa Sander. The family office of the former Tchibo owners Günter and Daniela Herz with a 44% stake, don’t sell a single share. After the IPO, 32% of all the company’s shares are now in free float. One year later, in 2018, things get even worse. Revenue grows to 371 million, but operating losses mount to 85 million euros, that’s before interest expenses of 9 million. Even the beloved EBITDA figure turns negative, meaning the operating business before any expansionary or even maintenance capital expenditures is loss making. All regions are experiencing significant deterioration in their earnings profiles. Like for like sales are down 1% across the board. That’s revenue, not profitability. The question naturally arises: is the Group approaching its natural saturation point here or this operational by nature? The operating cash flow is now 9 million while financing cost are close to 7 million. That leaves 2 million for maintenance capital for 74 own restaurants and 76 joint ventures ones. Describing this as financially tight, would be an understatement. Things are not looking good at this point. Yet the company still grows restaurants by 26 new sites. 64 million euros are spent on acquisitions, new openings, and maintenance costs, financed through a 20 million-euro equity raise and 72 million of new debt. The Company now has net debt outstanding of over 160 million euros. After the equity raise and by the end of the year 2018, Mayfair owns 47.4%, VAP Leipzig, Gregor Gerlach’s entity owns 18.9% and the Sander couple own 15.5% of the company. Yes, the Sanders and Gerlach may have taken 100 million euros off the table, but they still have substantial skin in the game. Plus, Mayfair hasn’t sold a single share and instead injects more money into the company through the equity round. The stock has now fallen from its IPO price of 23 euros per share to under 6 euros by the end of 2018. Something must be done here. And indeed, there is pivot in strategy and a hard push for change. At last, the management team abandons its aggressive growth plan and curtails new openings significantly. Additionally, the team wants to run a thorough analysis of weak locations to then either discontinue or sell sites. In Europe, the operating focus will be put on corporate restaurants and joint ventures in major cities to ensure the ideal size and location to match the respective demographic target group. Outside of Europe, the franchising business is being expanded and at the same time a consolidation of the existing corporate and joint venture markets is being sought. All future investments will be reviewed to achieve higher rates of returns on new openings. Investments are also being made in the renovation of older restaurants. The goal in the future is to also open smaller formats, like Mini-Vapianos (less than 400 square meters) or Freestander at prominent transportation hubs outside city centers (currently in Fürth and Toulouse) to cater to individual location requirements, and to enter new partnerships. I am not sure why management hasn’t stopped all expansion altogether, bringing the ship in order first, getting profitable, clean up, all hands-on deck before considering any further expansions whatsoever. But again, it’s easy to comment from the sidelines; maybe they saw white spaces that would be covered by competing concepts if they weren’t moving fast and aggressively enough. Although pushing internationally means competing with local players such as Jamie's Italian, Prezzo, Pizza Express, Wagamama, Nando's and many more which brings in its own dynamic. Management also aims to enhance guest satisfaction. This involves refining operational processes, reorganizing the support center, and refocusing on the core offering: providing fresh and high-quality Italian food at affordable prices for a broad audience. The group also aims to reduce waiting times, especially during lunch, while also improving the evening atmosphere. There is even what I would call an evolution, away from Vapiano’s original concept, reorientating the customer journey. The ordering flow is being changed, offering guests synchronized preparations of all dishes while eliminating wait times at the cooking stations. The open show kitchen remains, staying true to original mantra of freshness and transparency but now guests can choose their preferred method of ordering through a mobile app, using a digital order point (kiosk), or by personally placing an order with a waiter. Guests can still freely choose their table and are then informed about the complete preparation of their order through a pager or their smartphone. This is a substantial deviation from the original concept, but a needed one. The group is also exploring and implementing the expansion of take-away and home delivery services but only at suitable locations, not universally across new openings. I am not sure why home delivery is even a priority here; it adds operational complexity. It’s better to clean up shop first and get back to the basics before adding new complexities. To be fair management does try to simplify. There are 49 different permanent dishes on the menu and additional 10 seasonal ones. Customers can choose from eleven different types of pasta. There is simply too much choice, and it makes orders complicated. The company announced to slim the menu down to its most popular and typical Vapiano dishes. There’s no need for an Asian salad at an Italian restaurant. "We have to go back to the roots, i.e. classic, honest Italian cuisine" says COO Everke. Regardless, in November of 2018, the supervisory board pulls the plug on CEO Jochen Halfmann and replaces him with Cornelius Everke. Everke himself has just become COO five months ago. Since 2017 he was responsible for international expansion. From 2011 to 2017 that role was filled by Mario Bauer – put a pin in that name, he’ll play a key role in the groups fate later. Then nine months later, in the middle of 2019, Cornelius Everke quits. He essentially concludes that his skillset and experience in the areas of internation expansion is no longer needed in the foreseeable future. To put it differently: Vapiano has moved from a growth story and has become a restructuring case, and other skills are required for that job. In June of 2019 Everke says the following “(we’ve) made a bit of a mistake when it came to foreign expansion”. No sh#t. Vapiano postpones the presentation of the 2018 annual financial statements three times in the spring of 2019, citing negotiations over an urgently needed loan of 30 million euros. It’s not until the end of May that a binding loan commitment comes through from the financing banks and major shareholders. We are now in August of 2019 and the corona pandemic is just around the corner. Supervisory board chief Vanessa Hall takes over as interim-CEO and things are unravelling. Visitor numbers are declining; originally, it was planned to sell the US business but halfway through the year the buyer cannot come up with the money. But not all restaurants are performing poorly. The group's poor figures contrast starkly as an example with the experiences of the Swiss-German franchisee, who runs six restaurants. The Sodano family in Switzerland pays Vapiano a royalty of 6% of sales for the use of the brand. Enrico Sodano explains in an interview that they operate largely autonomously from the licensor. If an “accident” were to occur, he could immediately replace the Vapiano sign with Sodano, he says. The family concluded the rents and contracts with employees and suppliers independently. The Sodano family have six locations in Bern, Basel and Zurich, around one million guests every year and 350 employees. Things are going well on the ground. The delivery service they’ve built is offering them a second income stream. Expansion into Winterthur, St. Gallen and Lucerne are being planned; small locations with 150 to 250 square meters and an attached delivery service. Originally, Vapiano restaurants used to be huge but for such a large restaurant to be profitable, 800 to 1,000 guests per day are needed. That’s possible in medium-sized cities, but not in smaller towns which is why the Vapiano group now also supports smaller formats. Back to our corporate drama. The 2019 annual report would be the last report the group files. By the end 2019 the outstanding debt of the company is at an astronomical 450 million euros. Revenue has grown by another 7%, produced by four net new openings through two JVs and two franchise restaurants but operating losses come in at 317 million euros. That sound like an absolute shocker at first but depreciation and amortization charges are 345 million, so that operating cash flow is actually positive but unfortunately capital expenditures and interest payments are so large that they are eating up all of the company’s operating cash flow. Then in the beginning of 2020 Corona hits with full force and the world shuts down. As a result of the measures to prevent further spreading of the virus, the group is forced to cease all global business operations (except in Sweden). While all these shutdowns are happening, the group is the middle of negotiating with its lending banks and main shareholders. There are additional financing needs for restructuring measures, even without a pandemic happening in the background. The situation is so dire that the company starts pleading to the German government to roll out the package of financial help more quickly. Unfortunately, it’s to no end. The rapid closure of restaurants and the resulting lack of operating cash inflows in conjunction with the additional financing requirements, lead to the company’s final knockout punch. In April of 2020, the Vapiano group officially files for insolvency proceedings. The end of an era. New BeginningsBecause of the pandemic, the majority of the group's subsidiaries in Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, the United States, Sweden, and China also file for insolvency or seek liquidation. The US business never gets sold in the end and is wound down. In the summer of 2020, significant group divestments occur, including the sale of 75% shares in the group's French subsidiaries, shares in franchisor companies, Australian subsidiaries, German subsidiaries, associated companies, self-managed restaurants in Germany, and insolvency-related sales in the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Sweden. The buyer of the Vapiano brand and one of these bundles of Vapiano restaurants is company named Love & Food Restaurant Holding, a consortium led by Mario C. Bauer – a name I told you to remember. Bauer was a former Vapiano board member and led the national and international expansion, opening 200 sites in 33 countries from 2011 to 2017 until he was succeeded by Cornelius Everke. Bauer didn’t feel comfortable with the IPO at the time but clearly has a lot of managerial and entrepreneurial talent.The buyer consortium is an absolute A-Team comprised of European QSR top league hitters, including the founder of the Pret A Manger chain Sinclair Beecham; Henry McGovern, the founder and Ex-CEO of the giant international restaurant and foodservice operator AmRest; the Van der Valk Family that runs hotels and Vapiano restaurants in the Netherlands, and co-founder and ex-CEO Gregor Gerlach. The acquisition value is 15 million euros and entails 30 Vapiano restaurants in Germany, albeit that’s just the purchase price which comes on top of any capital investment needed to refresh and return the sites to its former glory. Nevertheless, just as a thought experiment, if you can get each site to 2 million euros of revenue and 400,000 euros in operating profit on average, which wouldn’t be an overly aggressively assumption given the company’s history, you’ve got yourself a package that can deliver restaurant-level operating profits of 12 million euros or more. It’s not disclosed how much capex was needed to refresh the operations, just that fact that the overall investment plus purchase price was a middle double-digit million-euro figure. Stil, it probably was a decent purchase. The same consortium buys Vapiano’s French business for 25 million euros just two weeks prior. After the transaction concludes, the master franchise is given to Delf Neumann and his Gastro & Soul GmbH. Neumann is an experienced operator, and he is ambitious to revitalise the brand with new services and products. For example, instead of pizza, the restaurants will be serving pinsa - a flatbread made from sourdough, wheat and rice flour, topped similarly to a pizza. It targets a more health-oriented customer base looking for a less calory heavy option. The menu overall is expanded by including a variety of vegan and vegetarian dishes. https://preview.redd.it/kpt7ea6red0d1.png?width=1242&format=png&auto=webp&s=c9930ced85ee364e9df414547cae06b47a03fc19 Today Neumann’s Gastro & Soul GmbH operates 18 Vapianos on its own account and has 29 franchise sites, amongst other brands. By the year 2021, Vapiano operates 191 restaurants in 34 countries. This is around 50 fewer sites than before the bankruptcy. The number of branches is particularly thinned out in Germany – from 80 to 55. Nevertheless, Vapiano's home country remains by far the largest market, followed by France with 35 restaurants and Austria with 15 locations. “We have shrunk ourselves to health,” says Bauer in the aftermath and there is no further shrinking planned. Quite the opposite, the smell of expansion is in the air again – pun intended. Not as aggressively as before and with a new menu and ordering process. Overall, the team around Bauer is filled with industry experts with knowledge and networks gained over decades who have a great track record, a long-term view, and the staying power to let Vapiano breath and finds its way back to success. The pressure of being a public company with all the associated quarterly, half-year and yearly disincentives have been removed. The menu is changed and extended with new types of pasta and sauces with significantly more vegetarian and vegan dishes available. Guests can order with restaurant staff, at terminals or on their phones and there are barcodes attached to the tables identify the respective seat. The food is brought to your table, all at the same time if you are in a group, no more annoyances with waiting in line. There is a plan for smaller, 350 square meter locations, with half the number of guests and significantly fewer staff and less set-up costs required to make the economics work. Locations that capitalize on remote work and increased demand for local lunch options, higher population density with shorter delivery routes and therefore cost-effective in house delivery services are targeted. And Bauer is testing the concept of ghost kitchens, which operate without a dining room or service staff, focusing solely on preparing food for delivery services, which for obvious reasons have a very different operational set up and footprint. Original founder Mark Korzilius however is not entirely convinced. He is not a fan of the pinsa for instance and he considers Vapiano's pizza as its cash cow, flagship product and believes that the core Vapiano proposition of Pizza, Pasta, Bar that has given the company its original success is being diluted. He instead admires the competitor L'Osteria, saying they’ve done a better job by focusing on Italian classics, especially the impressively large pizzas that sticks out beyond the plate is leaving every customer in awe. The guys who run L’Osteria are the same guys who have built Vapiano with him in the first place. Bauer on the other hand, like a true business leader, remains undeterred, stating that he is frequently asked whether Vapiano's restart was bold or foolish. He believes in entrepreneurship, franchising, in his experienced fellow partners and importantly the Vapiano concept. By the year 2024 you can find over 140 Vapiano branded restaurant in 27 countries across the globe, including locations far away from its birthplace like Australia, USA, Columbia, Chile, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. And why not? Italian food is, and will remain to be, incredibly popular. Vapiano offers fresh and tasty food at affordable prices in a good atmosphere. This combination of attributes should attract a lot of customers. It certainly has in the past. For more stories: WIP Thomas Weitzendoerfer Substack |
2024.05.12 17:33 SenlanZWH G2 vs PSG Hupu Rating and Comments
I'm going to try to translate those top comment from Hupu for MSI, I might skip some of them as they are Chinese internet memes that I've no idea how to translate, and those comment related to Honor of Kings, a popular league like mobile game made by Tencent.
The rating is user poll generated, you can give a rating between 2 and 10, and average is used. A total of 51k people participated in this series' rating.
Hupu rating is an in APP feature so it doesn't really have a link, but here is the post match thread for the match, and on the top there is an link you can click on that get you to that page. link
PSG Talon
PSG Talon
PSG Talon
submitted by SenlanZWH to leagueoflegends [link] [comments]
The rating is user poll generated, you can give a rating between 2 and 10, and average is used. A total of 51k people participated in this series' rating.
Hupu rating is an in APP feature so it doesn't really have a link, but here is the post match thread for the match, and on the top there is an link you can click on that get you to that page. link
MATCH 1: G2 vs. PSG
G2 Esports| Player Rating | Top Comment | |
|---|---|---|
| BrokenBlade Zac | 9.9 | Best Zac in the world, almost perfect beside a bit to cocky some times. |
| Yike Jarvan IV | 9.0 | Zac hit 2 with his e and Jarvan EQ, and then Zac q them both, happened more than once. |
| Caps Tristana | 9.9 | Kinda racist I think, reveal at your own discretion. I guess Lord Dominik's does counter ni.(This is the first part of the n word, and Dominik is Chinese is 多米尼克 Duo mi ni ke, with the last 克 ke also means counter.). |
| Hans Sama Kalista | 5.9 | Perkz: Kid, do you miss me? |
| Mikyx Poppy | 9.8 | Fragrant and stink boy. (Also used to describe broky, for can sometime be like the genius and some like be like iron 4). |
| Dylan Falco | 9.5 | Hammer form Trist and cannon form poppy initialize! We yordles!(In China people like to name all champions different form of poppy, except poppy is hammer form Trist.) |
| Player Rating | Top Comment | |
|---|---|---|
| Azhi K'Sante | 3.3 | bappé の last dance. |
| JunJia Vi | 9.1 | Please bring Mbappé back. |
| Maple Taliyah | 4.2 | Why are some comments flaming you for not giving penta, this is the first game of the serie and what, you should give a penta to G2 to boost their morale? |
| Betty Varus | 4.3 | I rarely describe a player as 259. (Nickname for advent, Chinese CS player). |
| Woody Nautilus | 2.9 | Felt like I could be better. |
| GorGi | 6.1 | Proxy war, it looks like G2 1:0 PSG, in reality its T1 1:0 BLG. |
MATCH 2: G2 vs. PSG
G2 Esports| Player Rating | Top Comment | |
|---|---|---|
| BrokenBlade Twisted Fate | 9.8 | True victim of Mythic item meta? |
| Yike Jarvan IV | 9.9 | Elo booster. |
| Caps Leblanc | 9.9 | G2 LeBlanc vs all Chinese squad, I've seen this somewhere before. |
| Hans Sama Kalista | 8.3 | The most important thing for you right now is to practice how to split push and how to be a good support, nice support Kalista. |
| Mikyx Poppy | 9.9 | Now you guys know the karat of that BO5 Between G2 and T1. |
| Dylan Falco | 9.7 | I like what BLG fans have been saying: "PSG is better than G2". |
| Player Rating | Top Comment | |
|---|---|---|
| Azhi Jax | 4.5 | I was laning, but announcer voice kept coming up. |
| JunJia Vi | 3.2 | Tell me how did you feel when you clicked tab and saw both mid's items. |
| Maple Taliyah | 2.4 | You are not even good enough for the old guy cup. (Streamer cup in China with mostly retired pros.) |
| Betty Varus | 3.0 | Why only 25, where is my 9. (Another 259 reference.) |
| Woody Nautilus | 2.4 | FYI, Champion Naut club needs a world championship to join, not just inting on Naut. |
| GorGi | 2.6 | So, did you only studied BLG? You guys have nothing besides laneswaps. |
MATCH 3: G2 vs. PSG
G2 Esports| Player Rating | Top Comment | |
|---|---|---|
| BrokenBlade Vayne | 9.9 | Good luck 369. |
| Yike Jax | 9.7 | Wait, I guess you are the true victim of Mythic item meta. |
| Caps Orianna | 9.9 | Where is Rookie! Tell Rookie to come here. |
| Hans Sama Varus | 9.8 | Praise when plays well and flame when plays badly, that makes sense. |
| Mikyx Poppy | 10.0 | Support core Poppy King! |
| Dylan Falco | 9.7 | Congration to the agent of T1 beating BLG in this proxy war. |
| Player Rating | Top Comment | |
|---|---|---|
| Azhi K'Sante | 2.7 | You really have a talent at comedy. |
| JunJia Xin Zhao | 3.0 | Meiko, revenge me! |
| Maple Aurelion Sol | 2.7 | Is is bed time for you? |
| Betty Kalista | 2.6 | Wait, what does BLG do now!? |
| Woody Rumble | 2.4 | Overheated and got killed by red glasses.(Both used to describe UZI in China.) |
| GorGi | 2.7 | Why didn't you ban Magnus! (Dota 2 LGD reference, they didn't ban the pocket pick mangus in last game and lost to Team Spirit in TI 21 final.) |
2024.05.12 00:23 dmreif Wilson Fisk's rise to power, a timeline
 | I feel that that there's a good criticism to be had of Daredevil over the fact that we're not given much on what happened in Fisk's life between when he killed his father and the crime boss he is at the start of season 1. What was his rise to power like to go from this: submitted by dmreif to Defenders [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/7ixux4pk0vzc1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3b810a7e8457663c85fe3bf1ab7a4a894f3af022 ...to this: https://preview.redd.it/h5nmlzes0vzc1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f4f6bc8683dbdf906ec3043b28a88efbc21b550b I'll digress, the reason I created this thread is because I recently got interested in Godfather of Harlem, a semi-fictionalized take on organized crime in 1960s Harlem. And in that show, Vincent D'Onofrio plays a fictionalized version of Vincent "the Chin" Gigante, the Genovese family boss who became known for using front bosses to insulate himself and also pretending to be insane to deter FBI investigations into him. https://preview.redd.it/3h4xb7271vzc1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=632e64374a562441c51229bcd14ba48d1833e207 And D'Onofrio's still carrying a fair amount of Fisk in his performance as Gigante, especially when he's using intimidation or giving orders (hell, he even seems to slip into his Fisk voice on several occasion). Which makes his Gigante come off to a degree as behaving like how I imagine Fisk probably was like in the 1980s and 1990s. So it got me thinking what Fisk would've been doing. And it made me develop a timeline for his criminal empire, based on what we have in Daredevil as well as stuff in Echo and Hawkeye. 1972: Fisk kills his father. After he and his mom dispose of the body, she sends him away to live with her relatives in Tamaha, Oklahoma to protect him from potential retribution from Rigoletto (given that his father was in debt to Rigoletto). The evidence exists in what Fisk says on his first date with Vanessa: Wilson Fisk: When I was a kid, I used to dream what it would be like to... to live somewhere far away from Hell's Kitchen. Somewhere beautiful. Vanessa Marianna: What made you stay? Wilson Fisk: I didn't. When I was 12 years old, my mother, she sent me to stay with relatives. Had a farm, middle of nowhere. Those were good years. Vanessa Marianna: But you came back. Wilson Fisk: Yes. Time and distance, they afford a certain clarity. I realized that this city was a part of me, that it was in my blood. And I would do anything to make it a better place... for people like you.Adding what we see in Echo, and my take is that it was here that Fisk took his first forays into criminal activity. He became friends with William Lopez, and they ran their own little crew. 1979: Around when he is 18 or so, Fisk becomes homesick, and returns to New York City. There's still the matter of his father's debts to Rigoletto. Having developed street cred in Oklahoma, Fisk gets himself a position working for Rigoletto, working out a deal where a cut of whatever money he brings in goes towards repaying his father's debts. 1979-late 1990s: Over this period of time, Fisk gets made and rises through the ranks of the Rigoletto syndicate, going from Rigoletto's driver to being an enforcer and finally his underboss. Mid-1990s: During this time, Fisk as underboss has some dealings with the Kitchen Irish, and is thus acquainted with Roscoe Sweeney and Silke, the gangsters who were responsible for pushing Matt's dad to take a dive to Creel. Late 1990s/early 2000s: It is around this time that two things happen: the first is that Fisk decides he needs Rigoletto gone because he's not content with being number two, plus he wants to get involved in several ventures that Rigoletto isn't interested in. So Fisk sets Rigoletto up to be sent away to prison on RICO violations, something he pulls off thanks to secretly manipulating some FBI agents and corrupt cops in his pocket. While this is going on, Fisk meets James Wesley, and grooms him into becoming his right hand man. So with Rigoletto locked up and removed from power, Fisk is now the de facto boss of the Rigoletto syndicate, with Wesley acting as his combined underboss and consigliere who also serves as the intermediary between Fisk and underlings who carry out his orders. Mid to late 2000s: Fisk travels abroad to China and Japan to forge partnerships with the Yakuza and Triads, and develops a fondness for Chinese and Japanese culture (note that he wears a kimono in 1x08, and he has Chinese tea on hand to serve for Madame Gao when she visits him at his penthouse). He makes deals with Madame Gao to move her product in Hell's Kitchen, and Nobu to act as a local contact for Nobu's employers. So the Hell's Kitchen syndicate now looks like this: Fisk as the man at the top, Wesley as consigliere and emissary between the various partners, Leland Owlsley as the treasurer, Gao, Nobu, and the Kitchen Irish as Fisk's supporting partners. While that's going on, William Lopez arrives in New York and establishes the Tracksuit Mafia, and gets seed money from Fisk to get the gang off the ground. Fisk takes an interest in William's daughter Maya, as he sees potential for her to become a useful soldier to him. Fisk begins grooming her, while also paying her friend Kazi to spy on her for him. This is something he secretly does on the side up until he's arrested (deleted scenes in Hawkeye show Fisk wearing his black Daredevil season 1 suits in his interactions with Maya). Also during this time, Derek Bishop borrows money from Fisk in order to start his private security firm because no bank will offer him collateral for a loan. He still hasn't fully repaid his debts by the time of his death in the Incident. Bishop Security is the firm that employs Francis and the other bodyguards Fisk uses in season 1 of Daredevil, and I think they also ran security for the Presidential Hotel in season 3. 2009-2012: Anatoly and Vladimir Ranskahov arrive in New York, and start a new enterprise in Hell's Kitchen. They do a lot to get themselves noticed by Fisk and his partners, and Fisk eventually acquiesces to let them get a seat at the table. Around this same time, Fisk's partnership with the Kitchen Irish begins to falter because their boss feels like he's nothing more than a proxy for Fisk to run the gang through, and that Fisk doesn't view him as an equal. Similar to how we see him handle problems like the Russians and Nobu during season 1, Fisk decides to take the Kitchen Irish out. He has John Healy assassinate the Kitchen Irish boss, and Nesbitt is subsequently promoted to take his place. Fisk then orchestrates a war between the Ranskahovs and the Kitchen Irish, and runs both sides of the war: he provides manpower and resources to Vladimir and Anatoly, while simultaneously paying off some of Nesbitt's underlings to provide him intel. The war, which racks up a lot of casualties on both sides, ends around the time of the Incident, with the Kitchen Irish being reduced to a second tier gang that is left running a turf below 42nd Street, and which has to pay a tax to Fisk to be allowed to continue operating. (After Fisk is arrested, Nesbitt makes plans for the gang to make a return to power with Finn Cooley's support, but they're massacred by Frank Castle before that can happen.) 2012: Don Rigoletto, Silvio Manfredi (the retired mobster that Ben Urich is introduced meeting with in 1x03) and some other old-school mobsters get released from prison as part of the "Class of 2012". While Silvio would rather enjoy retirement (though keeps his ear to the ground based on what he's saying to Ben), Rigoletto wants to get back in the game and take back control of Hell's Kitchen from Fisk, as he's had time to realize that Fisk had a hand in his getting sent away. Summer 2012: Derek Bishop is killed in the Incident, and his wife Eleanor inherits his debts to Fisk. 2012-2014: Fisk takes advantage of the damage from the one-two punch of the Incident and Hurricane Sandy. Through the shell company of Confederated Global Investments, he asserts control over Union Allied Construction, Westmeyer Holt Contracting, etc. and engages in bid rigging schemes regarding the redevelopment of Hell's Kitchen. April 2013: Fisk begins paying Detectives Christian Blake and Carl Hoffman. Late 2013-Early 2014: I borrow a bit from this thread about how I think Rigoletto's downfall went. Rigoletto begins working with the FBI to try and bring down Fisk, a task force run by SAC Tammy Hattley. Unfortunately for Rigoletto, it turns out that Blake and Hoffman have have loose-lipped friends on this task force who tell them that Rigoletto's trying to lead them to this new secret "kingpin" who runs organized crime in Hell's Kitchen. They tell Wesley about it, he tells Fisk about it, and they decide they need to turn Hattley to their side. John Healy kills Hattley's son in a staged hit-and-run. Fisk then arranges for Hattley to be brought to him, and uses a combination of a big bribe and the threat of having her husband and daughter killed to secure her loyalty. Fisk engages Rigoletto in a protracted war, using his own men to eliminate Rigoletto's supporters and destroy his businesses. In June 2014, his men abduct Rigoletto right out from under the FBI's surveillance, and bring him to the Veles Taxi garage. Here, Fisk takes the opportunity to gloat to Rigoletto about how he's a washed out has-been, and then personally beats him to death. He then has Vladimir and Anatoly's guys cut Rigoletto to pieces and dispose of the remains. Rigoletto's books are subsequently acquired by Fisk, including such things as the $28,957 debt that Farnum owes (the one that Wesley promises him will be forgiven if he successfully hangs Karen in her jail cell). This whole affair also marks the beginning of the end of Fisk's relationship with the Russians, as they begin to feel the same thing that the Kitchen Irish felt: that Fisk sees them as lapdogs and not equals. Such an opinion of theirs only strengthens when Matt Murdock begins targeting them as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. September 2014: Karen Page discovers the evidence of what Fisk is doing at Union Allied, prompting him to have her framed for Daniel Fisher's murder. After the subsequent failed attempts on her life, he decides to settle for buying her off, a decision that indirectly will lead to Karen murdering Wesley down the line. Fisk also buys the loyalty of Caldwell at the Bulletin to tip him off about whatever Ben Urich tries to write about him. October 2014: Fisk having Hattley in his back pocket means that the FBI investigation into the bombings is quickly scuttled and closed. Still, the matter of Detective Blake possibly talking in the wake of being shot leads Fisk to set about his scheme to manipulate Ray Nadeem (a name offered to him by Hattley). He drives Nadeem into debt over the next two years. December 2014: Fisk is arrested. With Wesley and Owlsley dead, he appoints Felix Manning to take their place as street boss and treasurer, with Felix working in coordination with Donovan & Partners. Felix oversees the remaining street operations for the duration of Fisk's stay in prison up through his release at the start of season 3. Spring 2017: The events of Daredevil season 3 (credit to u/AlizeLavasseur for this). 2018-2023: Fisk takes advantage of the post-Snap chaos to get himself out of prison and back into power running things on the street. He also appoints Maya to effectively take over Dex's former job as Fisk's chief assassin, and further secures her loyalty by arranging her father's death at the hands of the Ronin, then writes himself into her life as her new "north star" (much like he did with Dex). December 2024: The events of Hawkeye Summer 2025: The events of Echo |
2024.05.10 18:24 BackgroundSome6798 Honest question from an exmormon
I've been doing some research, and I think there is a strong case for Catholicism historically to be the true Church of Christ (IF Christianity is true). But there are some things that I'm still curious about:
Thanks for listening to my rant. I'm trying to seek the truth sincerely, and it is not an easy journey for me because I don't know what to believe and what not to believe. Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of the information. I am willing to be corrected.
submitted by BackgroundSome6798 to Catholicism [link] [comments]
- In the Didache, it clearly talks about the positions of Apostle and Prophet. Doesn't this affirm what Mormons believe? They believe that the Church used to have a prophet & apostle organization, and that was lost during the Great Apostasy and restored later. Now they have prophets and apostles in their church.
- I've been searching for arguments against Catholicism, and some of the accusations were about how the Church changes its positions about various doctrines. Some of them include:
- Death penalty
- Salvation of non-Catholics ("there is no salvation outside of the Church")
- Infants & Limbo
- Adding new beliefs like the Assumption of Mary (this belief is not found in any historical documents). This just seems random to me.
- Joseph Smith clearly made stuff up/stole ideas from other sects as he went on, and he blended everything and created his own unique theology (such as Jesus being brothers with Satan and God the Father being Elohim with a physical body and blood who was once a man). It seems to me that during the development of Christianity theology/doctrine, someone could make a similar accusation for this, such as solidifying the understanding of the Trinity, Augustine's original sin, and the destiny of unbaptized infants. I read Bart Ehrman's book about how Christology developed over time so that Jesus became eternally God, instead of getting it right the first time. So how is it that in Joseph Smith's case, he was making things up, whereas these theologians are truly identifying correct Christian doctrine?
- Theological problems. I still have a hard time accepting the idea that God will send people to hell just because they didn't believe in the right Christian God. For example, if I lived during Martin Luther's time, I don't think I could choose to believe in Catholicism because of so many corruptions. But would I go to hell because of this? Mormons "solve" this theological problem by saying that there are three kingdoms of heaven (1 Corinthians 15:40–41), and very few people go to actual hell. So if you are a decent human being, you'll still end up in heaven, just not as exalted as in the highest heaven Mormons believe in. And if you didn't have a chance to accept the gospel in this life, you also get a second chance when you die to accept the gospel in the spirit world (1 Peter 3:18-20). Since baptism is necessary for salvation (John 3:5), people on earth will do proxy baptism for the dead (1 Corinthians 15:29). Also, infant baptism is considered unnecessary (actually they call it solemn mockery before God, see BoM Moroni 8:9), and infants will go to heaven when they die. But in Catholicism, this is not the case.
Thanks for listening to my rant. I'm trying to seek the truth sincerely, and it is not an easy journey for me because I don't know what to believe and what not to believe. Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of the information. I am willing to be corrected.
2024.05.09 00:30 AutoModerator General Questions Thread, May 08, 2024
A thread for new collectors to ask basic questions of the community.
Frequently Asked Questions below!
A longer version of the subreddit rules is here.
For questions specifically concerning bootlegs or vendor legitimacy, please ask in the Bootleg Megathread.
NSFW & Spoiler Guidelines
Any collection posts containing bootlegs, comments advocating buying bootlegs, or links to sites selling bootlegs, recasts, or unlicensed merchandise will be removed.
People often ask about the legitimacy and/or safety of a number of websites which sell large resin statues. The more commonly-asked of those deal primarily in resins from studios which do not have a license from the Japanese IP holders to produce merchandise. Therefore links to those sites are not permitted here. Another sign is if MyFigureCollection doesn't list the either the statue, its manufacturer, or the shop it's being sold on.
MyFigureCollection
My Figure Collection is like MyAnimeList... but for figures! Their database includes thousands of items which been produced during the last couple of decades, along with reviews of shops and other helpful articles. One can also list their own collection and post gallery photos.
Shops
That’s going to depend a lot on what works for you, but most people around here buy them from Amiami, Big in Japan, Hobby Search, HobbyLink Japan, or Tokyo Otaku Mode. If none of those work for you for whatever reason, there’s a list of reputable retailers in the sidebar that you can check out at any time. Be extra careful when ordering figures from websites like Amazon or ebay, as there are a lot of bootlegs on those sites. Don’t be afraid to ask in our Bootleg Megathread if you’re unsure.
2. What differences are there between the shipping options I get from most Japanese shops?
Below is a rundown of the main shipping choices you’ll get at most retailers. Keep in mind that if an order is large enough you will be forced to use one of the more expensive options, as SAL shipments have lower size and weight restrictions.
Most shops will ask you to pay shipping on a per-order basis, but here are some that will allow combined shipping:
4. When will I get charged for my preorder?
Most Japanese shops charge you once the item is in stock and ready for shipment. When that happens, they will send you an email asking for payment. Some shops (mostly overseas ones), will allow you to pay for the item up front though, if you’d like. A few with that option are:
5. Should I expect to pay customs fees when importing figures?
That depends on where you live. Here’s a quick rundown:
You have three options for this:
A. Big in Japan is known to stock exclusive figures and ship to other countries. Usually the price is higher because they build in their proxy fees, but it’s easier than worrying about using a forwarder or proxy service. If you live in the US, Crunchyroll, Right Stuf, and Tokyo Otaku Mode also get exclusives sometimes, but out of the states the shipping can get expensive.
B. Forwarding Services: A forwarder is someone who you ship an exclusive item to so that they can forward the package on to you, usually for a flat fee + shipping. When using a forwarder you still make the purchase yourself, and enter their address into the shipping field. When the box arrives at the forwarder they will then stick your address onto the package and send it on its way.
Some popular forwarders are:
Be sure to read each sites instructions on forwarding carefully!
C. Proxy Services: With a proxy, you tell them what the item you’re looking for is and they will purchase it in your stead. This is handy for when a company doesn’t accept foreign credit cards, or you’re having trouble navigating a Japanese website.
Some popular proxies are:
7. I see a bunch of really cheap figures that ship from China on ebay. Are those okay to buy?
Generally, no. They’re most likely bootlegs. If you want a second opinion on that, feel free to ask in the Bootleg Megathread that’s always stickied at the top of the sub.
8. What’s a bootleg, and how can I avoid buying them?
A bootleg is a counterfeit figure often made using rejected molds of the official product. They are usually priced significantly lower than the genuine article, and in order to make their profit, bootleggers use lower quality materials and have less attention to detail- resulting in a substandard figure.
The Bootleg Megathread that I mentioned in question 7 is a great tool to avoid buying any bootlegs. It has a few tips and tricks to avoiding them to begin with, and a few more on how to spot them if you’re worried you might already own one.
9. Does anyone know when figure X is going to be released? How do I know if it was delayed?
My Figure Collection (sometimes referred to as MFC) does an excellent job of staying on top of information like release dates and delays. If you’re curious about an upcoming figures release date, check there first. This information can be found directly under the “Releases” section on a figure’s entry. If you only see a month and a year in that section, it means the release date has not yet been announced by the manufacturer, and there is still a chance the figure could be delayed.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.
10. The figure I want is long sold out at normal retailers! What’s the best place to pick it up in the aftermarket?
A list of reputable retailers can be found under the “Shops” section of the /AnimeFigures sidebar. They all sell legitimate products, and many of them also sell figures second hand. However, the most frequently suggested second hand sites are Mandarake and Amiami- who has a preowned section that they update every night save Sundays and Japanese holidays around 1PM JST and again around 6PM JST.
AmiAmi grades their pre-owned items on a letter scale. The general consensus from buyers is that their ratings are conservative, so unless the item and/or packaging is specifically indicated as having significant flaws, pre-owned items from them are usually in at least as good a condition as their rating suggests.
Note: When you search Mandarake, you’ll get the best results by using the Japanese characters for whatever you are searching. If you don’t know them, you can find them on MFC by clicking on any of the “details” in that figure’s listing.
11. Amiami has a figure I’m interested in labeled as “For sale in Japan only”. Does this mean I can’t order it without a proxy or forwarder?
No, you can still order it. Amiami’s English site has that warning on many items, and it’s mostly meant to inform you that this product was made for a Japanese market, and as such, will have Japanese speaking/writing in it- so don’t expect any instructions to be in English. If Amiami doesn’t want foreigners buying a certain product, they won’t even list it on their English site.
If you live near an Ikea try out one of these:
If you don’t live near an Ikea, Amazon has a few display options, though they are more expensive. Also keep an eye on your local Craigslist (or your country’s equivalent) and stores near you that are closing up.
13. What lighting do you guys recommend?
Ikea’s Dioder LED strips were discontinued after a long run. A current version is the Vattensten, if you're inclined to buy your case and lights at the same time.
LED strips have become very commonly available in recent years; most hardware and home furnishing stores carry a selection now. Just make sure that the lights don’t get too hot!
14. What are those clear plastic boxes that I see under everyone’s figures in their collection posts, and where can I get them?
Those are called risers. Most of us use standard acrylic risers like these. Some other, easy to find things that have been suggested are:
Another common suggestion is to visit The Container Store if you have one near you. They have a lot of things to choose from that can suit a variety of needs. Be sure to check out their standard acrylic risers, their Amac boxes, and the various display cases they sell (baseball cases, mini car cases. hockey puck cases, etc).
15. Should I keep my figures sealed?
That is, of course, up to you really, but here are a few things to keep in mind when debating this question:
Those are classifications for figures based on a few factors.
17. There are so many figure companies! Who makes good figures?!
Obviously this is a very subjective question, but as a general starting point, here are a few well renowned figure companies:
My Figure Collection can be your best friend here. Simply do a search on the name of the series or character using the search bar located at the top right of the screen, and all associated figures pop up!
Alternatively, if you’re looking at a figure’s MFC entry, most of the text under the “Details” section can be clicked on and used to run a search.
19. How can I commission a custom figure?
None of the major figure companies (Alter, Kotobukiya, Good Smile Company, etc.) will take a commission for a single figure. This thread has a few websites in it that you can check out, or you can look into garage kits. Some kit painters would be willing to resculpt, frankenstein together, or otherwise modify kits for the right price.
If you're looking for help completing a garage kit, /brushforhire may be useful.
Most people use a MFC combined with any or all of the following news sites:
To use MFC for this I’ll quote question #9.
21. Everyone’s excited about something called Wonfes….. what the heck is that?!
WonFes (short for Wonder Festival) is a biannual figure expo where many figure producers (both large and small) show off new sculpts and updates to figures already under way. Most companies save their most exciting announcements for WonFes, so we all look forward to the expo whenever it rolls around! Winter Wonder Festival is usually held in February, while Summer Wonder Festival is usually in July. The event has also spread to Shanghai, in the late spring.
22. One or two (or 15) figures were announced at WonFes that I’m really excited about! How can I keep track of their progress once the event is over?
MFC is always really quick about getting new WonFes announcements (or any others throughout the year, for that matter) listed in their database, so we suggest using that. To find a figure from the event you can search any number of things, including the name of the character or the name of the show. You can also use the tag search to search “WonderFestival 20xx_[season]” to see all items announced at that event.
submitted by AutoModerator to AnimeFigures [link] [comments]
Frequently Asked Questions below!
A longer version of the subreddit rules is here.
For questions specifically concerning bootlegs or vendor legitimacy, please ask in the Bootleg Megathread.
- For Self Posts: include a bolded NSFW note next to links in that post.
- For Links to sites/images: If the figure is NSFW, or the website has any NSFW content (including ads) be sure to tag your post NSFW and use the appropriate link flair.
Any collection posts containing bootlegs, comments advocating buying bootlegs, or links to sites selling bootlegs, recasts, or unlicensed merchandise will be removed.
People often ask about the legitimacy and/or safety of a number of websites which sell large resin statues. The more commonly-asked of those deal primarily in resins from studios which do not have a license from the Japanese IP holders to produce merchandise. Therefore links to those sites are not permitted here. Another sign is if MyFigureCollection doesn't list the either the statue, its manufacturer, or the shop it's being sold on.
MyFigureCollection
My Figure Collection is like MyAnimeList... but for figures! Their database includes thousands of items which been produced during the last couple of decades, along with reviews of shops and other helpful articles. One can also list their own collection and post gallery photos.
Shops
Retailers:Blogs/News:
AmiAmi HobbySearch Mandarake (sells rare figures) Good Smile Company Online Shop (often has exclusives) Good Smile Company US shop Crunchyroll Store Hobby Link Japan (aka HLJ) Solaris Japan (MFC partner) BigBadToyStore (MFC partner, US retailer) Big in Japan (also has proxy service) Tokyo Otaku Mode FigureHaven Archonia (EU) Yorokonde (EU) Figuya (EU) Gamersheek (UK) Jungle
List of retailers on MFC
/AnimeFigures' List of Retailers
Community Guide to Shopping in Japan
Nekomagic (News/Previews) NyaaFigurines (Reviews/Releases) Kahotan's Blog (News/Reviews) Figma Blog (JP)
Buying & Shipping
1. What’s the best place to buy my anime figures from?That’s going to depend a lot on what works for you, but most people around here buy them from Amiami, Big in Japan, Hobby Search, HobbyLink Japan, or Tokyo Otaku Mode. If none of those work for you for whatever reason, there’s a list of reputable retailers in the sidebar that you can check out at any time. Be extra careful when ordering figures from websites like Amazon or ebay, as there are a lot of bootlegs on those sites. Don’t be afraid to ask in our Bootleg Megathread if you’re unsure.
2. What differences are there between the shipping options I get from most Japanese shops?
Below is a rundown of the main shipping choices you’ll get at most retailers. Keep in mind that if an order is large enough you will be forced to use one of the more expensive options, as SAL shipments have lower size and weight restrictions.
- Unregistered SAL: Sometimes referred to as uSAL, is usually the cheapest method. It does not come with any tracking or insurance. Usually takes up 2-4 weeks for delivery.
- Registered SAL: Sometimes referred to as rSAL, is insured for the declared value up to 6,000 yen. It comes with a tracking number and usually takes 2-4 weeks for delivery.
- EMS: This method of shipping is much faster than either SAL options, usually arriving within a week of shipment. EMS shipments are insured for the declared value up to 2,000,000 yen.
- Airmail
- E-packet
- Surface: Shops don't offer this very often. It's an actual cargo ship and slow as a result.
- DHL: Becoming more available as an alternative to EMS on AmiAmi and other sites. Can be less expensive than EMS and of comparable speed, but may be more reliant on the specific geographical area being shipped to. The price is also determined by the size of the box. Offers their own tracking.
Most shops will ask you to pay shipping on a per-order basis, but here are some that will allow combined shipping:
- Amiami: You can combine orders here, as long as the orders ship in the same month. It doesn’t matter if the item is new or preowned. Any preorders that are set for that month can also be combined with other orders for that month. However, be aware that if the preorder gets delayed, Amiami will remove that item from that month’s shipment and place it on a new order. To combine orders on Amiami, use the “Combine Orders” feature under “My Account”.
- Hobby Search: Hobby Search will let you combine orders that release in the same month, but you cannot combine in stock items with preorders. If you want to combine multiple preorders, or multiple in stock items, you can do so using the “Order Recombination” feature on your account page.
- HobbyLink Japan: At HLJ, you have the option to send paid orders to their “Private Warehouse”, where you can store them for up to 2 months. When you’re ready to ship the items, you simply select which items to ship and HLJ will combine them into one shipment for you. To use this, just select the “Private Warehouse” option as shipping when you order.
4. When will I get charged for my preorder?
Most Japanese shops charge you once the item is in stock and ready for shipment. When that happens, they will send you an email asking for payment. Some shops (mostly overseas ones), will allow you to pay for the item up front though, if you’d like. A few with that option are:
- Big in Japan (Japanese store)
- Tokyo Otaku Mode
- Anime Island
- Crunchyroll
5. Should I expect to pay customs fees when importing figures?
That depends on where you live. Here’s a quick rundown:
- Australia: 10% GST is now assessed up front.
- Canada: Minimum declared value for charges is around CAD$20 for regular shipments, and CAD$60 for gifts (gifting something only seems to lower the declared value by about CAD$40, not deplete it completely). When using Amiami, try their Small Air Packet option. It comes with tracking, gets there in about the same time as EMS, and is better at avoiding customs.
- European Union: As of 1st July 2021, VAT has to be paid on all goods imported from outside of the EU. Retailers are supposed charge VAT for purchases under €150, however many Japanese retailers currently do not, so VAT will be charged when your order arrives in the EU. Orders that are >€150, VAT and duty will be charged by your local customs.
- UK: As of 1st January 2021, VAT is to be charged by retailers for orders <£135. However, customs isn't currently charging VAT on parcels valued at <£135, even if the VAT hasn't been paid. Goods >£135 will have their VAT and duty calculated and charged by customs.
- Mexico: Minimum declared value for customs fees is USD$300 for shipments by post, and USD$50 for shipments by courier.
- United States: A shipment has to have a declared value of USD$2,000 before customs starts hitting you with fees, so you most likely won’t have to worry about them at all.
You have three options for this:
A. Big in Japan is known to stock exclusive figures and ship to other countries. Usually the price is higher because they build in their proxy fees, but it’s easier than worrying about using a forwarder or proxy service. If you live in the US, Crunchyroll, Right Stuf, and Tokyo Otaku Mode also get exclusives sometimes, but out of the states the shipping can get expensive.
B. Forwarding Services: A forwarder is someone who you ship an exclusive item to so that they can forward the package on to you, usually for a flat fee + shipping. When using a forwarder you still make the purchase yourself, and enter their address into the shipping field. When the box arrives at the forwarder they will then stick your address onto the package and send it on its way.
Some popular forwarders are:
Be sure to read each sites instructions on forwarding carefully!
C. Proxy Services: With a proxy, you tell them what the item you’re looking for is and they will purchase it in your stead. This is handy for when a company doesn’t accept foreign credit cards, or you’re having trouble navigating a Japanese website.
Some popular proxies are:
- Big in Japan (Won’t proxy for Yahoo Auctions)
- From Japan
7. I see a bunch of really cheap figures that ship from China on ebay. Are those okay to buy?
Generally, no. They’re most likely bootlegs. If you want a second opinion on that, feel free to ask in the Bootleg Megathread that’s always stickied at the top of the sub.
8. What’s a bootleg, and how can I avoid buying them?
A bootleg is a counterfeit figure often made using rejected molds of the official product. They are usually priced significantly lower than the genuine article, and in order to make their profit, bootleggers use lower quality materials and have less attention to detail- resulting in a substandard figure.
The Bootleg Megathread that I mentioned in question 7 is a great tool to avoid buying any bootlegs. It has a few tips and tricks to avoiding them to begin with, and a few more on how to spot them if you’re worried you might already own one.
9. Does anyone know when figure X is going to be released? How do I know if it was delayed?
My Figure Collection (sometimes referred to as MFC) does an excellent job of staying on top of information like release dates and delays. If you’re curious about an upcoming figures release date, check there first. This information can be found directly under the “Releases” section on a figure’s entry. If you only see a month and a year in that section, it means the release date has not yet been announced by the manufacturer, and there is still a chance the figure could be delayed.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.
10. The figure I want is long sold out at normal retailers! What’s the best place to pick it up in the aftermarket?
A list of reputable retailers can be found under the “Shops” section of the /AnimeFigures sidebar. They all sell legitimate products, and many of them also sell figures second hand. However, the most frequently suggested second hand sites are Mandarake and Amiami- who has a preowned section that they update every night save Sundays and Japanese holidays around 1PM JST and again around 6PM JST.
AmiAmi grades their pre-owned items on a letter scale. The general consensus from buyers is that their ratings are conservative, so unless the item and/or packaging is specifically indicated as having significant flaws, pre-owned items from them are usually in at least as good a condition as their rating suggests.
Note: When you search Mandarake, you’ll get the best results by using the Japanese characters for whatever you are searching. If you don’t know them, you can find them on MFC by clicking on any of the “details” in that figure’s listing.
11. Amiami has a figure I’m interested in labeled as “For sale in Japan only”. Does this mean I can’t order it without a proxy or forwarder?
No, you can still order it. Amiami’s English site has that warning on many items, and it’s mostly meant to inform you that this product was made for a Japanese market, and as such, will have Japanese speaking/writing in it- so don’t expect any instructions to be in English. If Amiami doesn’t want foreigners buying a certain product, they won’t even list it on their English site.
Displaying Your Figures
12. What display cases do you recommend?If you live near an Ikea try out one of these:
- Klingsbo
- Billy (Often used with Morliden doors (now the HÖGBO and glass shelves.)
- Detolf: Formerly the go-to choice for inexpensive display cabinetry, the Detolf was first made flimsier around 2020 and then essentially phased out of the name, to become the BLÅLIDEN. Knockoff versions of widely-varying quality are commonly found on other shopping sites these days, though.
If you don’t live near an Ikea, Amazon has a few display options, though they are more expensive. Also keep an eye on your local Craigslist (or your country’s equivalent) and stores near you that are closing up.
13. What lighting do you guys recommend?
Ikea’s Dioder LED strips were discontinued after a long run. A current version is the Vattensten, if you're inclined to buy your case and lights at the same time.
LED strips have become very commonly available in recent years; most hardware and home furnishing stores carry a selection now. Just make sure that the lights don’t get too hot!
14. What are those clear plastic boxes that I see under everyone’s figures in their collection posts, and where can I get them?
Those are called risers. Most of us use standard acrylic risers like these. Some other, easy to find things that have been suggested are:
- Plastic picture cubes
- Card Deck Boxes
- If you’re feeling adventurous, try making your own!
Another common suggestion is to visit The Container Store if you have one near you. They have a lot of things to choose from that can suit a variety of needs. Be sure to check out their standard acrylic risers, their Amac boxes, and the various display cases they sell (baseball cases, mini car cases. hockey puck cases, etc).
15. Should I keep my figures sealed?
That is, of course, up to you really, but here are a few things to keep in mind when debating this question:
- Keeping it sealed can actually damage your figure. PVC figures usually have something called plasticizer in them, and that plasticizer needs to be able to breath. If a PVC figure isn’t exposed to oxygen, after a period of time the plasticizer starts to break down and form a sticky substance on the surface of the figure. Simply opening your figures and taking them out of the box prevents this from happening. If you happen to find plasticizer goo on one of your figures, Kahotan has a handy guide for dealing with it.
- Unlike some other figure markets, keeping an anime figure sealed won’t raise its value by a whole lot. In fact, because of the plasticizer problem mentioned above, your figure could actually be in better condition if you open it versus keeping it sealed.
Finding the Right Figure(s) for You
16. What are "scales" and "prizes"? What is the difference between them?Those are classifications for figures based on a few factors.
- "Prizes" are generally more simply produced figures which are intended to be given as prizes for playing arcade games. They are inexpensive and lack the detail of scale figures, though some prize figure lines have standouts which may approach lower-end scales in quality. That is uncommon and often depends on the individual figure.
- "Scales" are called such because they are nominally designed to be proportional to the dimensions of the character which they are based on. They are generally of much better manufacture and materials than prize figures, allowing for more detail in painting, accessories, or complex poses.
- "Trading" figures appear in gashapon machines or as blind boxes on shop counters, often as sets which include multiple characters. As suggested by the class name, the randomness encourages trading. They are usually very inexpensively-produced, though as with prizes, some series are better than others.
- "Non-scale" encompasses a variety of other categories. It is often used to describe poseable figure lines such as figma and Nendoroids.
17. There are so many figure companies! Who makes good figures?!
Obviously this is a very subjective question, but as a general starting point, here are a few well renowned figure companies:
- Alter
- Max Factory
- Good Smile Company
- Kotobukiya (usually hit or miss for people. Use your best judgement based off of the prototype)
- Flare
- Stronger
My Figure Collection can be your best friend here. Simply do a search on the name of the series or character using the search bar located at the top right of the screen, and all associated figures pop up!
Alternatively, if you’re looking at a figure’s MFC entry, most of the text under the “Details” section can be clicked on and used to run a search.
19. How can I commission a custom figure?
None of the major figure companies (Alter, Kotobukiya, Good Smile Company, etc.) will take a commission for a single figure. This thread has a few websites in it that you can check out, or you can look into garage kits. Some kit painters would be willing to resculpt, frankenstein together, or otherwise modify kits for the right price.
If you're looking for help completing a garage kit, /brushforhire may be useful.
Keeping Up with New Announcements
20. How can I keep up with figure news (announcements, updates, etc.)?Most people use a MFC combined with any or all of the following news sites:
- Neko Magic
- Alter’s Blog (In Japanese)
- Kahotan’s Blog (Only GSC and their sister companies)
To use MFC for this I’ll quote question #9.
If you make an account on MFC you can also subscribe to comments, changes, and pictures via a checkbox on the right hand side of a figure’s listing. Subscribing to any of these things will allow MFC to send you an email anytime the subscription in question updates. Subscribing to “changes” is a great way to keep up with release dates and delays, among other things.Most companies have one or more Twitter accounts. Some examples: Good Smile Company sales, Good Smile's USA branch, Max Factory, AmiAmi Hobby News.
21. Everyone’s excited about something called Wonfes….. what the heck is that?!
WonFes (short for Wonder Festival) is a biannual figure expo where many figure producers (both large and small) show off new sculpts and updates to figures already under way. Most companies save their most exciting announcements for WonFes, so we all look forward to the expo whenever it rolls around! Winter Wonder Festival is usually held in February, while Summer Wonder Festival is usually in July. The event has also spread to Shanghai, in the late spring.
22. One or two (or 15) figures were announced at WonFes that I’m really excited about! How can I keep track of their progress once the event is over?
MFC is always really quick about getting new WonFes announcements (or any others throughout the year, for that matter) listed in their database, so we suggest using that. To find a figure from the event you can search any number of things, including the name of the character or the name of the show. You can also use the tag search to search “WonderFestival 20xx_[season]” to see all items announced at that event.
2024.05.08 00:30 frenchbriefs a kinda simplistic (and disjointed) rant of US global policy and geopolitics or (realpolitiks as they called it) in the 20th century.
theres tons of heavy censorship on youtube nowadays, and it seems to me that a overwhelming majority of not just americans but humanity arrived to their conclusions or stance today because they dont really seem to know or understand much about history and what happened to the world over the past 7 decades or so since wwii.......or those that might have an inkling are living in denial.
north korea is a creation of USA, if US wanted,she could easily lift all sanctions and embargo and stop persecuting her and maybe offer a hand of friendship and north korea would slowly open up and normalise with the outside world and end the suffering of north koreans....after all china was under the same sanctions as north korea during the 50s,60s,70s by US....at the very least north korea's economy would start improving slightly from ground zero and her people would have better lives.
but u think USA wants that? USA wants north korea to be the "bogeyman" like so many other countries..just like the former soviet union was the "bogeyman" all the countries in asia and south america that wanted to be communist or socialist after wwii and the fall of the british empire...
just like iraq was the bogey man, cuba was the bogeyman, libya was the bogeyman...laos and cambodia was the bogeyman.....iran is still a bogeyman......chile was the bogeyman....russia definitely bogeyman and all the ex soviet countries that still believe in the motherland......china is now the new bogeyman since the late 2000s.....
notice how all the countries that was the bogeyman,but after usa invaded or bombed them suddenly they are okay in america's eyes after that?vietnam was taken over by the communist....but USA didnt seem to have a problem with vietnam after the vietnam war?????laos and cambodia is now A ok?notice how iraq is now a "victim" and not a country with "wmds",whatever it was, iraq was a piece of the puzzle that stood in between iran and saudi arabia, eliminating her would open up the path to US domination in the middle east....after all she had already neutralised all the other countries with palestine.....eygpt, jordan etc are all now "us friendly" after all those wars....its just a matter of cleaning up the rest.....syria, yemen, lebanon, libya etc etc
japan was a rising economic "bogeyman" back in the 80s and USA fixed her once and for all.now Japan not a problem.
anyone remember the us japan trade wars of the 80s? anti japanese sentiments stoked, vilifying of japanese manufacturing....protests and burning of japanese cars.....accusations of intellectual property theft and copy pasta in the press and papers?.....thrillers and novels made portraying Japanese as these mysterious incipherable culture that was incompatible and undermines western values and was out to sabotage america,my favourite novel was the rising sun by michael chricton.....remember the plaza accord?? usa even threatened to impose tariffs as high as 100% on Japan and forbade her to counter or respond the same in kind
.....it was USA who destroyed Japans economy......and threw her nearest and closest ally under the economic bus....in one fell swoop USA crushed japans exports market.....which forced her to take drastic unorthodox measures.....
USA destroyed one of the worlds most successful war command economies in the history of the modern history....
at the height of Japan's economic prowess, Japan's gdp was nearly 60 percent of USA with only 50 percent of her population, and nearly twice as large as west germany and three times UK.....if u did the math, the average Japanese was 20 percent richer than the average american, and nearly 2 to 3 times richer than the british or west germans.
Japan's gdp per cap was an unfathomable $39,000 usd vs US $28,000 at her peak....we are talking about the 80s and 90s where 90 percent of the world's countries had lower than $10,000 usd gdp per cap.
so much the world didnt know or have forgotten, buried under the propaganda machine and media of the west america needs wars and "enemies" my god if the world wakes up and realise all these wars and geopolitical conflicts were all created and invented by USA and leftover from the 20th century.....from all the wars in asia during the 50s,60s and 70s and the middle east during the 70s and 90s and 00s, to the war in ukraine and all the countries that were sanctioned and embargoed in south america are still under sanctions, tens of millions live in abject poverty and misery and suffering for decades in those countries...
.......and now US wants to make China the new "nemesis" to replace the USSR......the funny thing is China doesnt even care about all of that....all she wants is to make money, to establish economics relations with africa and south america and develop economic ties in eastern europe.......growing and developing alongside each other and the rest of the world but USA obviously doesnt want that......a stronger africa in the 21st century and a stronger south america and stronger eastern europe that are allied with a extremely strong China would weaken her position and hegemony of the 20th century......all of those countries and continents were bullied and oppressed by the USA and the west during the 20th century....countless wars and invasions and bombing campaigns, apartheid regimes.....coup de tats and assasinations and regime changes and instigating civil wars supported by USA......brutal and draconian sanctions.......in asia,south america,middle east and africa.....all to destablise and sow endless discord in this region.....all those countries and continents hate USA and she knows it.....
i mean China has not been to war since 1979,nearly 4 and a half decades, Asia has not seen a major war in 4 decades after the west finally left us all alone....but all of a sudden USA is pounding the wardrums and inciting fear about war in asia?? how shameless is that? and all those people who lap up that nonsense....she wants to reignite all the old flames like in all the other continents? funny how usa seems to want war everywhere but in her own backyard or american soil itself..or u would like some countries Japan,south korea and philipines to sacrifice themselves like all the other proxy wars in the past???..the amount of warmongering the last 5,6 years makes me think America desperately wants war in Asia more than anyone on this earth. until 2022 ukraine war that is, the ukraine war was the first time America messed up big time, a geopolitical faux pas of epic proportion......the ukraine war opened up a pandoras box of geopolitical forces and consequences even USA couldnt predict or imagine!!!!! energy inflation!!!!! crippling and destablising europes economy,usa most important ally.....flow or exit of wealth from the west to the east.....what was once a perfect ecosystem a perfect synchronicity....between russia and western europe!!!!!!! euros for oil and gas and flowing back to europe for croissants and bmws!!!!!now tens of billions flow to russia and then to china like water pouring from a failed dam!!!!!!! trade between china and russia has ballooned to nearly 200 billion usd.....imagine how insane that is for a country whose gdp is a mere 1.4 trillion!!!!brics expansion.....countries beating a path to join the brics,even france!!!......gdp of brics countries membership now represents 36% of global gdp.......dedollarisation and more!!!!! in the words of churchill "lift up your hearts, all will come right, out of the depths of sorrow and of sacrifice, we cannot yet see, our deliverance will come, every trace,every scourge of US scourge and imperialist tyranny and "exceptionalism" footsteps will be expunged and bloutted from the surface of the earth!!" well not so much the ccp or any government but for China and the rest of the world.
submitted by frenchbriefs to China [link] [comments]
north korea is a creation of USA, if US wanted,she could easily lift all sanctions and embargo and stop persecuting her and maybe offer a hand of friendship and north korea would slowly open up and normalise with the outside world and end the suffering of north koreans....after all china was under the same sanctions as north korea during the 50s,60s,70s by US....at the very least north korea's economy would start improving slightly from ground zero and her people would have better lives.
but u think USA wants that? USA wants north korea to be the "bogeyman" like so many other countries..just like the former soviet union was the "bogeyman" all the countries in asia and south america that wanted to be communist or socialist after wwii and the fall of the british empire...
just like iraq was the bogey man, cuba was the bogeyman, libya was the bogeyman...laos and cambodia was the bogeyman.....iran is still a bogeyman......chile was the bogeyman....russia definitely bogeyman and all the ex soviet countries that still believe in the motherland......china is now the new bogeyman since the late 2000s.....
notice how all the countries that was the bogeyman,but after usa invaded or bombed them suddenly they are okay in america's eyes after that?vietnam was taken over by the communist....but USA didnt seem to have a problem with vietnam after the vietnam war?????laos and cambodia is now A ok?notice how iraq is now a "victim" and not a country with "wmds",whatever it was, iraq was a piece of the puzzle that stood in between iran and saudi arabia, eliminating her would open up the path to US domination in the middle east....after all she had already neutralised all the other countries with palestine.....eygpt, jordan etc are all now "us friendly" after all those wars....its just a matter of cleaning up the rest.....syria, yemen, lebanon, libya etc etc
japan was a rising economic "bogeyman" back in the 80s and USA fixed her once and for all.now Japan not a problem.
anyone remember the us japan trade wars of the 80s? anti japanese sentiments stoked, vilifying of japanese manufacturing....protests and burning of japanese cars.....accusations of intellectual property theft and copy pasta in the press and papers?.....thrillers and novels made portraying Japanese as these mysterious incipherable culture that was incompatible and undermines western values and was out to sabotage america,my favourite novel was the rising sun by michael chricton.....remember the plaza accord?? usa even threatened to impose tariffs as high as 100% on Japan and forbade her to counter or respond the same in kind
.....it was USA who destroyed Japans economy......and threw her nearest and closest ally under the economic bus....in one fell swoop USA crushed japans exports market.....which forced her to take drastic unorthodox measures.....
USA destroyed one of the worlds most successful war command economies in the history of the modern history....
at the height of Japan's economic prowess, Japan's gdp was nearly 60 percent of USA with only 50 percent of her population, and nearly twice as large as west germany and three times UK.....if u did the math, the average Japanese was 20 percent richer than the average american, and nearly 2 to 3 times richer than the british or west germans.
Japan's gdp per cap was an unfathomable $39,000 usd vs US $28,000 at her peak....we are talking about the 80s and 90s where 90 percent of the world's countries had lower than $10,000 usd gdp per cap.
so much the world didnt know or have forgotten, buried under the propaganda machine and media of the west america needs wars and "enemies" my god if the world wakes up and realise all these wars and geopolitical conflicts were all created and invented by USA and leftover from the 20th century.....from all the wars in asia during the 50s,60s and 70s and the middle east during the 70s and 90s and 00s, to the war in ukraine and all the countries that were sanctioned and embargoed in south america are still under sanctions, tens of millions live in abject poverty and misery and suffering for decades in those countries...
.......and now US wants to make China the new "nemesis" to replace the USSR......the funny thing is China doesnt even care about all of that....all she wants is to make money, to establish economics relations with africa and south america and develop economic ties in eastern europe.......growing and developing alongside each other and the rest of the world but USA obviously doesnt want that......a stronger africa in the 21st century and a stronger south america and stronger eastern europe that are allied with a extremely strong China would weaken her position and hegemony of the 20th century......all of those countries and continents were bullied and oppressed by the USA and the west during the 20th century....countless wars and invasions and bombing campaigns, apartheid regimes.....coup de tats and assasinations and regime changes and instigating civil wars supported by USA......brutal and draconian sanctions.......in asia,south america,middle east and africa.....all to destablise and sow endless discord in this region.....all those countries and continents hate USA and she knows it.....
i mean China has not been to war since 1979,nearly 4 and a half decades, Asia has not seen a major war in 4 decades after the west finally left us all alone....but all of a sudden USA is pounding the wardrums and inciting fear about war in asia?? how shameless is that? and all those people who lap up that nonsense....she wants to reignite all the old flames like in all the other continents? funny how usa seems to want war everywhere but in her own backyard or american soil itself..or u would like some countries Japan,south korea and philipines to sacrifice themselves like all the other proxy wars in the past???..the amount of warmongering the last 5,6 years makes me think America desperately wants war in Asia more than anyone on this earth. until 2022 ukraine war that is, the ukraine war was the first time America messed up big time, a geopolitical faux pas of epic proportion......the ukraine war opened up a pandoras box of geopolitical forces and consequences even USA couldnt predict or imagine!!!!! energy inflation!!!!! crippling and destablising europes economy,usa most important ally.....flow or exit of wealth from the west to the east.....what was once a perfect ecosystem a perfect synchronicity....between russia and western europe!!!!!!! euros for oil and gas and flowing back to europe for croissants and bmws!!!!!now tens of billions flow to russia and then to china like water pouring from a failed dam!!!!!!! trade between china and russia has ballooned to nearly 200 billion usd.....imagine how insane that is for a country whose gdp is a mere 1.4 trillion!!!!brics expansion.....countries beating a path to join the brics,even france!!!......gdp of brics countries membership now represents 36% of global gdp.......dedollarisation and more!!!!! in the words of churchill "lift up your hearts, all will come right, out of the depths of sorrow and of sacrifice, we cannot yet see, our deliverance will come, every trace,every scourge of US scourge and imperialist tyranny and "exceptionalism" footsteps will be expunged and bloutted from the surface of the earth!!" well not so much the ccp or any government but for China and the rest of the world.
2024.05.07 05:43 usagiparty a scuffed guide on how to get the official dottore merch (or any other genshin merch) if you're outside of china
 | dottore has his first official hoyoverse merch on sale! i had to do some research into proxy buyers for this so i wanted to compile everything i've learned into a small guide on how to buy merch from the official genshin impact taobao store for anyone who wants to grab some while they're on sale. submitted by usagiparty to DottoreMains [link] [comments] hehehoho look at him!!!! mini disclaimer: these items are currently on preorder! last time i checked, the estimated shipping time for the full set is in august so they won't be delivered for a while. guide time! step 1: choose a proxy buyer because this merch is being sold in china, you'll need a proxy to buy it on your behalf and ship it to you elsewhere in the world. the one i've heard the most about from friends is superbuy so it's the one i'm going to use for this example, but they all work the same anyway so it doesn't matter too much. step 2: get the link for the merch you want to buy i will put the link to his merch in the replies because reddit's filters removed my last post for having it 😔 this is sumeru akademiya behaviour. can't have shit in teyvat i guess step 3: paste the link into your proxy buyer (still using superbuy for this example) you can select which merch you want on this page dottore currently has a badge ($2.23), an acrylic shaker ($8.61), and a set (both pieces for $10.83) available. unfortunately you can't buy the polaroid separately :( if you want it you'll need to grab the full set *these prices do not include shipping costs! you will need to pay a fee later on to ship your merch to you from the warehouse no matter which proxy you use, your screen should look something like this step 4: place your order depending on the proxy buyer, they'll charge a small service fee on top of the cost of your order as they're the ones handling it for you. once you've placed your order, they'll buy the merch on your behalf as soon as they're available (think beijing timezone work hours) and you're done! the merch has been ordered! step 5: global shipping check your emails around when the merch is scheduled to ship. you should receive an email when it's arrived in the warehouse once it's arrived, you'll need to go back onto the proxy buyer site and manually schedule and pay for global shipping. depending on where you are in the world, prices will vary. but i think it lets you choose from different shipping companies so you can pick the lowest price (and i don't think it should be too much because the merch is small and light) step 6: you have merch! a lot of the other harbingers' sets have sold out but dottore's is still available! there's still time to pick it up if you want, but i don't know how long you'll still be able to get it for. if you have any questions, i'm not the most familiar with proxy shipping but i will try to answer anyway i hope this helps :) now go out there and get yourself some dottore as a treat |