watercolour (traditional+digital); a large spiral with a blue water vein; roots reach downwards in 2 places, fractal distortions can be seen on the outer side, light air bubbles rise. colours are natural browns on grey muted background.
a GIF of red-haired bubble magician Riley lounging inside a rainbow soap bubble; the bubble is bobbing up and down a little and gently wobbling; hopefully the transparency looks OK on Lemmy
"At the heart of the metaverse derangement was the persistent inflation of its definition. McKinsey & Company proclaimed in June 2022 that the metaverse could generate “up to $5 trillion in impact by 2030—equivalent to the size of the world’s third-largest economy today, Japan.” McKinsey also estimated that e-commerce would comprise $2 trillion to $2.6 trillion of that share. Of the 3,400 consumers and executives McKinsey surveyed, 95% of “business leaders” expected positive impact from the metaverse in five to ten years, while 61% expected moderate changes to their industry’s operations.
(...)
Why was this mass hallucination indulged for so long? Part of it was because profit-driven surveillance and enclosure were core ambitions of the metaverse pivot. When it came to labor, the best-case scenario resembled employers’ platonic ideal: bypassing labor laws through remote work, misclassifying full-time workers due protections and benefits as contractors, paying arbitrage wages across borders, all while subjecting workers to cold, algorithmic overseers.
As for consumers, they would be enlisted into digital sharecropping. Take Axie Infinity, the “play-to-earn” game once hailed as a crown jewel of Web3 and the metaverse. “Managers” in wealthy countries bought expensive NFTs, or non-fungible tokens (remember those?), then rented them to “scholars” in the Global South, who grinded for hours and hours in the game for a few pennies an hour, all in hopes of earning enough to one day become a manager with their own scholars. Was this a new economy? The future of the internet? Or the same old bitter taste?
"Some commentators say market and GDP concentration are poor measures of the size of a stock bubble, or its potential to burst. The market was far less concentrated during the dotcom boom, even though it led to a painful three-year bear market.
But it was far more concentrated during Britain’s 19th-century railway mania — a period that some commentators say has parallels with the AI boom — when stock markets were much less developed than today.
Gareth Campbell, an economic historian at Queens University Belfast, said that unlike other asset bubbles, the railway mania was based on “a very tangible technology which would eventually change the entire system of how people travel”.
At its peak in 1845, hundreds of new lines were proposed and railway investment reached 6 per cent of UK GDP. But the sector was hit by an economic downturn and the realisation that new railways connecting smaller towns would fail to ever find enough passengers. By 1850, railway stocks had tumbled to one-third of their peak and projects were abandoned in droves.
Despite the crash, “the railways would go on to dominate the stock market”, Campbell said. Given the technology’s transformational potential, “I think AI is probably similar,” he added."
Bubbles caught in ice resemble the growth of a cellular organism in this photograph of Tatiewa Lake in Japan, taken by Soichiro Moriyama. When water freezes, gases dissolved in it come out of solution, but depending on the speed and direction of freezing, these bubbles do not always escape before ice forms around them, freezing pockets of gas within the ice’s structure. (Image credit: S. Moriyama; via ILPOTY)
シャボン玉と雪ミク by 翠榎: Skeb, Piapro, pixiv, Twitter #bubbles
a drawing of Snow Miku 2023 in a big soap bubble in the sky; she's watching little Rabbit Yukine flying next to her with a large bubble wand out making another bubble
Soap bubbles reflecting yellows, blues, purples, and magentas, some in sharp focus and some blurring into the distance, against a deep black background.
Glycerine bubbles are a beautiful thing. Want to do it yourself? 3 parts water, 1 part glycerine (can be bought at places like walmart, walgreens, etc.), and 1 part dish soap. Mix gently and put in the fridge for 24 hours to allow the solution to thicken. Grab a straw and have fun!
Tip: Use a faster shutter speed and ALOT of light and softbox so you can capture the swirls after you remove the straw.
Different balances of each ingredient will produce all sorts of different colorations. Don't be afraid to tinker to see what makes your favorite colors.
A capture of some floating bubbles or froth in a crystal clear salt water rock pool at the beach. It was pretty the way the sunlight shone through the water creating sunlit patterns on the rocks and sand.
Floating Is Fun's top post of the past year, 🪐🍩💫 Saturn Donuts Delivers by Bryce Kho; a drawing of a Saturn Donuts delivery in a strange vertical mechanical town in space; a girl astronaut, a robot girl, and a dog astronaut are floating in zero gravity; they are distributing their colorful donuts to about a dozen goldfish-looking alien creatures
a drawing of Sea Breeze Dandelion Jean from Genshin Impact relaxing in a soap bubble floating above the sea at night; she's reaching up to touch a smaller soap bubble just above her inside her bubble
**ACHIEVED 2ND PLACE IN FAA CONTEST - "Lace" November 2019
**ACHIEVED EQUAL 3RD PLACE IN FAA CONTEST - "Beach Photography - Photographs Only" June 2017
**ACHIEVED EQUAL 2ND PLACE IN FAA CONTEST - "Seashells and the Seashore January Logo Contest" December 2016
**ACHIEVED EQUAL 2ND PLACE IN FAA JURIED CONTEST - "Seashells and the Seashore December Logo Contest" November 2015
**ACHIEVED EQUAL 3RD PLACE IN FAA CONTEST - "Earth Tones Shower Curtains" July 2015
Seashells on the sand on the seashore, with a tiny wave approaching. The bubbles in the little wave just look like lace.
Image captured at a beach on the mid north coast, NSW, Australia.
Floating by by WildBlueFantasy
pixiv, DeviantArt #bubbles
Soap Bubbles and Snow Miku by suica_m01
シャボン玉と雪ミク by 翠榎: Skeb, Piapro, pixiv, Twitter #bubbles
Dragon Quest X Bubble Prism by Square Enix
YouTube, Dragon Quest X Shop, Hatena Blog #bubbles
The Fourth Year of Floating Is Fun by hitstun
Previous recap posts: ...
Summer Memory by Pombe
夏の思い出 by ぽんべ: pixiv, Twitter #bubbles
Bubble Show: 60s by ShowKsyu ( files.catbox.moe )
Шоу мыльных пузырей: 60-е by Ксении Хорошиловой: Instagram?, Tiktok, VK, Song.Link #bubbles