The Supreme Court has ruled on a key question in Apple Inc v Pepper,
a class action suit arguing that the App Store violated antitrust law
by driving up prices through the monopolistic tactic of prohibiting
users from buying apps from third parties, and then taking a 30%
commission on every app sold, which led software companies to raise
prices in order to remain profitable after Apple had taken its cut.
Apple had asked the Supreme Court to prevent the case from moving
forward on the grounds that Apple customers were really buying apps from
the software vendors, and not through the App Store (in Apple’s view,
the App Store isn’t a store, just a commission-collecting system). Not
only is this obviously ridiculous, it’s also an area where there’s good
precedent in the form of the 1977 Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois Supreme Court case, which SCOTUS cited in their opinion.
The court split 5-4, with Brett Kavanaugh siding against Apple and
writing the opinion. In some ways, this isn’t surprising, for two
reasons: one, Apple had terrible arguments, as it’s obvious
that the App Store is a store, and two, the one form of antitrust
enforcement conservatives are willing to tolerate is preventing “consumer harm” in the form of higher prices.
The ruling means that the lawsuit can proceed and the plaintiffs can try
to show that Apple did indeed violate antitrust law. If they win, it
will have an enormous impact on all the tech platforms that operate
“two-sided marketplaces” from eBay and Etsy to Uber and Lyft to Amazon
and Google Play.
“Don’t call Trump supporters nazis, it hurts their feelings.”
Yes, this is real (link to tweet). Yes, Tucker Carlson is literally repeating Nazi propaganda that aided the genocide of the Romani during the Holocaust. Yes, I am furious.
(Also, although there is a large population of Romani in Romania, they aren’t indigenous to Romania. They’re a diasporic group originally from northern India.)
Romani and Jewish have been screaming at the top of their lungs for years about neo-fascism in Europe, and Americans were totally aloof.
Then neo-fascism reared its head in America, but Roma and Jews were left out of the conversation in terms of people being impacted, because our oppression was “over.”
Now Tucker Carlson is on live TV using slurs and Nazi propaganda about Romani people, and I’m 90% most people on the left are just going to ignore it.
You know what would be an amazing opening to The Falcon & The Winter Soldier? The two of them sitting in couples therapy, each end of their couch, snorting, scoffing under their breaths until the therapist speaks,
“So, James, you’re saying Samuel shot you?”
“Damn right he did,” Bucky grumbles, shooting Sam a dirty glare. Sam snorts a laugh.
“To be fair, he shot me first.. and broke the wings off my suit then proceeded to kick me off a helicarrier, and for more context, he also jumped on top of the car I was driving, ripped the steering out plunging me in to an imminent death-
“I was brainwashed-
“And I was tired and wanted to go home, your arm was a good spring board for the bullet,” Sam shrugs, the therapist taps her pen against the notepad, increasingly terrified when Bucky clenches his fist.
“Wait til the day I use your fucking face as a spring board”
Me trying to explain to someone that doesn’t have Visual Snow about the static that covers everything I see.
Here’s a gif to demonstrate.
Imagine that, overlayed over your entire field of vision. Even when your eyes are closed. (especially when your eyes are closed.)
*looks up from computer* now wait just one minute
This is a real thing that exists, not intrusive thought. This is the reason I have glasses. I was a little kid, thought it was normal, tried to point them out to my mom, and she freaked out and brought me to an eye doctor. Where we found out I have shit eyesight. And also apparently where she learned what visual snow was.
But. She deicded. Not. To tell me.
(Like she’s also decided not to tell me or my twin that we’re autistic)
So it literally took me more than a decade to find a word for this.
Which is why I made this post.
She mentioned casually last year to her boyfriend that she learned I had visual snow when I was little and I’m jyst sitting there, having already painstakingly figured all of this out on my own like, “and you didn’t think that was worth explaining to me even when I brought it to your atfention?????”
So ueah.
It’s a thing. If you see staticy moving dots everywhere even with your eyes closed, you’ve got Visual Snow.
I HAVE THIS!!~~ I tried asking my teacher in grade 2 what they were, and she just told me to drink water. Never went away. Wasn’t even studied until like 2013 or something. Sorta fun, mostly irritating!
i have this too! no one explained it to me i just found out from a fuckinf sixpenceee post like a fool.
i just thought EVERYONE had static and floaters in their vision. and that afterimages were that bad for everyone.
like even if im not looking into a bright light or my eyes pass over something slightly bright i get afterimages that can be blinding. when i close my eyes i always have after images of anything reflecting even a little light. i didnt realize that was part of visual snow until last year
here’s some more symptoms for anyone curious if they have this:
A cat can jump up to five times its own height in a single bound.
The little tufts of hair in a cat’s ear that help keep out dirt direct sounds into the ear, and insulate the ears are called “ear furnishings.”
The ability of a cat to find its way home is called “psi-traveling.” Experts think cats either use the angle of the sunlight to find their way or that cats have magnetized cells in their brains that act as compasses.
One reason that kittens sleep so much is because a growth hormone is released only during sleep.
A cat has 230 bones in its body. A human has 206. A cat has no collarbone, so it can fit through any opening the size of its head.
A cat’s nose pad is ridged with a unique pattern, just like the fingerprint of a human.
If they have ample water, cats can tolerate temperatures up to 133 °F.
A cat’s heart beats nearly twice as fast as a human heart, at 110 to 140 beats a minute.
Cats don’t have sweat glands over their bodies like humans do. Instead, they sweat only through their paws.
The claws on the cat’s back paws aren’t as sharp as the claws on the front paws because the claws in the back don’t retract and, consequently, become worn.
Cats make about 100 different sounds. Dogs make only about 10.
Researchers are unsure exactly how a cat purrs. Most veterinarians believe that a cat purrs by vibrating vocal folds deep in the throat. To do this, a muscle in the larynx opens and closes the air passage about 25 times per second.
A cat almost never meows at another cat, mostly just humans. Cats typically will spit, purr, and hiss at other cats.
A cat’s back is extremely flexible because it has up to 53 loosely fitting vertebrae. Humans only have 34.
Some cats have survived falls of over 65 feet (20 meters), due largely to their “righting reflex.” The eyes and balance organs in the inner ear tell it where it is in space so the cat can land on its feet. Even cats without a tail have this ability.
A cat can travel at a top speed of approximately 31 mph (49 km) over a short distance.
A cat’s hearing is better than a dog’s. And a cat can hear high-frequency sounds up to two octaves higher than a human.
A cat’s brain is biologically more similar to a human brain than it is to a dog’s. Both humans and cats have identical regions in their brains that are responsible for emotions.
And that’s how cats work.
I learned more about cats in this post than I did in my freshamn biology class in college
