Squi(she)'s Utility Blog

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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
real-live-human
fulminata2

When you pick up a sword for the first time you will be slow and awkward. This is frustrating, but refuse the temptation to try and become a “faster” fencer. Chasing after speed is like trying to catch smoke. If you try and pursue speed, all you will accomplish is haste. Haste is the enemy of 1st class fencing.

Speed is a lie the untrained mind tells itself when it sees an action it cannot follow. The truth is a combination of timing, control, and fluidity. Fluid motion, even done slowly, will always arrive before a hasty strike. Control will allow you to move without wasteful motion that will slow you down. Timing will eliminate the need to move fast almost entirely. There is no need to get somewhere fast so long as you get there at the right time.  

abbleremorse

Tip for mymutuals who engage in bladed armed combat

plasmalogical

signal boost

friends-fam-fiends-hellothere

This is true for plenty of other things too!! When you’re learning anything that involves moving your body, don’t forget that quality of movement is more important than speed!

reading-by-the-pale-moonlight

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast

antiobjecttaskforce

THEYRE LYING JUMP AT YOUR OPPONENT JUMPSCARE JUMPSCARE BACK FOOT FORWARD AND LEAP AT THEM!!

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send them to HELL!!!

princessslea
canagadoodles

An infographic image with Starro from The Suicide Squad (2021) in the background. Starro is a giant alien starfish with a large central eye, destroying a city. Text: "Project Starfish: aka amazon is stealing small business data because it wants to be amazon.com - Earth's only bookstore." Amazon's 1998 logo is referenced, with its tagline "Earth's biggest bookstore".ALT
An infographic image showing two sets of brand listings from Amazon - Friday Afternoon Tea and Sketch Sauce. Products featured from Sketch Sauce (a production partner of 3D artists) features sculptures from Found Family Adventurecrafts, Grumpii and Leylina Figurines. Text: "Small business owners in the US suddenly noticed that their products were listed on Amazon. They were not told that this was happening. They did not opt in. They did not give Amazon permission."ALT
An infographic. Text: "How'd they get our data for this? PROJECT STARFISH. According to internal documents leaked to Business Insider in late 2024: "(Starfish)... uses AI models to scrape and then generate "complete, correct and consistent product information globally." The eventual goal of the multiyear project is to make Amazon the best source of product information for "all products worldwide," the document added." The only online store you'll need." A cartoon face looking stressed is drawn in the corner.ALT
Text: "Starfish has been BUSY: Scraping 200,000 brand websites for product data (in 2025 alone) Auto-rewriting titles, bullets and descriptions using generative AI AI-generating product images, video ads and written information to fill listings A/B testing AI-enhanced vs. standard listings In service of an 'experimental' program that we never consented to and were never told about." An image from Amazon's information page is shown below, detailing the process for the AI shopping agent. It reads, "1. Search brands. Explore a range of brands and discover new selection available directly from merchant websites. 2. Shop on or off Amazon. Stay with Amazon & shop with AI assistance, or navigate directly to the merchant website. 3. Effortless purchase with AI. When you find a product you like, click 'Buy for me' and Amazon's AI handles payment to order management. 4. Manage your merchant orders. Track these orders through Amazon's 'Your orders' page under the "buy for me orders" tab.ALT
Text: "isn't it good that small businesses are getting sales from Amazon? Good question. No." A word cloud has tons of text with the consequences of this program. The various text phrases are: Increased Returns Data and listings entirely out of our hands Inaccurate/false listings Chargebacks Unprofessional display of product No customer relationship Customer confusion Refunds Policy mismatch Poor reviews Loss of brand recognition Removing personalization Rerouting customers back to Amazon Undercutting prices Privacy breaches Intellectual property violations Reduced income from external shopping Loss of insights for analytics Loss of trust Reduced credibility Data surveillance LLM & gen AI ethical issues Stolen labor Ecological impact Creating duplicate products to compete Legitimizes lack of consent in technology and more.ALT
An infographic, showing stick figures interacting. Text: "Here is a simplified visual example. Let's follow Ruth. Ruth is a small business owner who sells hand-printed tees with her original art." A picture of a stick figure (Ruth) gesturing happily to an orange shirt with a cartoon flower on it. The infographic splits into two possibilities, when customers find Ruth through Amazon vs. her online store. In the Amazon scenario, a stick figure wearing Ruth's shirt is talking to another stick figure. Text: "Where did you get your shirt?" "It's from Amazon". A picture of Ruth looks concerned. In the Ruth's Store scenario, the stick figures say: Text: "Where did you get your shirt?" "Ruth's Custom Tees!" A picture of Ruth looks pleased.ALT
An infographic showing stick figures and two scenarios: Amazon's redirect or Buy for Me, or purchasing directly from Ruth's store. Text: "Customers return to where the product was bought..." In the Amazon scenario, the stick figure looks at four shirt options. One is Ruth's, and three others are AI designed shirts (actual listings from Amazon). Text: "So many options! I'll get these." "Ruth gets one more sale. Amazon gets more." Below, a computer representing Amazon AI says: "The data collected says that Ruth's product is selling well!" There is a picture of a similar orange shirt to Ruth's, with a cartoon flower on it. Ruth is looking at the knock-off shirt design tearfully. Text: "Amazon is now offering this design. It's cheaper. Shipping is faster. Refunds are easier. Ruth's brand is pushed out." On the Ruth's Store scenario, the same stick figure is looking at four of Ruth's shirt designs on her site. Text: "So many options! I'll get these." "Ruth gets four sales." On the bottom, two happy stick figures are wearing Ruth's shirts. Ruth looks happy. Text: "Ruth has brand recognition, returning customers, and is supported by sales due to her hard work."ALT
Text: "Amazon has done this before. Multiple times." An article from Reuters by Aditya Kalra and Steve Stecklow reads: "Amazon copied products and rigged search results to promote its own brands, documents show" Text: "Amazon is not supporting small businesses with this program, because Amazon considers small businesses to be competition. Whether it be knock-offs in India or undercutting similar products in the case of Diapers.com versus Amazon Mom." An article from Timothy B. Lee on Ars Technica reads: "Amazon knew it was bleeding Quidsy dry. An internal email later in September discussed the price cuts Quidsi was forced to make to compete with the new Amazon Mom discounts. "They expect to lose lots of money in the next few yrs," wrote executive Peter Krawiec. "This will make it worse."ALT
Text: "If you own a small business and have been affected by this AI-driven program: 1) Document your listings and how they are being displayed on Amazon 2) Email branddirect@amazon.com to get your products removed from the site 3) Consider adding policy to your web shop prohibiting third-party listings 4) Consider providing your information to @bobodesignstudio, who is collecting info on shops affected to bring forward to an IP attorney 5) Consider bringing forth a consumer complaint to your State Attorney General's OfficeALT
Text: "If you are a friend of small businesses and want to help: Get loud. As we put in complaints, join them and raise the volume. Reconsider your relationship with Amazon, and pivot to small business whenever you can. We're easy to support: a kind word, a tip in the jar, a share online, and certainly being angry on our behalf at massive tech behemoths who don't care if we can afford the cost of living as long as it makes their numbers go up. To be continued."ALT


My account is still blocked from searching/tags/etc on my business blog @foundfamilyadventurecrafts so I'm posting this here. There's something very bad happening with Small Business, Tech, and Amazon. What else is new?

Links:
Bobo Design Studio for Updates & Submitting Information

Arrows Aim Greenhouse + Chroma Rex are putting together a complaint with WA State Attorney General's Office + Templates for complaints / opt out

Articles:

Amazon's Buy For Me Information Page

Reuters Article

Ars Technica Article

Business Insider Article

friday-tea

Hey, that's us and a bunch of our friends! This whole thing SUCKS so bad and we're pissed. We've intentionally not listed our products on Amazon for the 15 years we've been in business. We're ready to join a class action lawsuit and kick some ass.

dreamingdormouse

Friday makes really good tea, both just by the flavors and as reflections of fandoms. I absolutely LOVE my Second Breakfast (hobbits) and General's Jasmine (Uncle Iroh).

Go check out the Friday Afternoon Tea website DIRECTLY if you want to support them - and if you, unlike me, are in Seattle, go visit the brick-and-mortar store!

And boycott Amazon.

icrylookingatthestars
daco-showman

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why can rockstar games institutionalise you for life like nikita kruschev for being autistic

transhuman-priestess

He didn't steal 10 million dollars. They made that number up as a loss, they never fucking had it. Rockstar has spent more than a billion fucking dollars on GTA VI and will likely make billions more when it gets released.

Uber is a fucking shell game of a company designed to leech investor capital and output bootleg cabs.

Nvidia posted a profit in 2023 of $4.37 billion. This is like someone stealing less than a penny from me.

And they lock this kid in a prison hospital for LIFE?

Capitalism is disgusting.

fuckblast

Nobody should buy GTA til they free Arion Kurtaj

blasting-the-bee-movie-script-d

he didn't even get to stand *trial*. because he's autistic. he's in an institution for life for hacking while autistic, without trial.

bisexualisopod

hey yall remember this