Steve Jobs on why people will still watch Toy Story in 60 years, and it has nothing to do with the technology "I think people are going to be watching Toy Story in 60 years, not because of the computer graphics, but because of the story about friendship. That's something really amazing to me" "Disney released Snow White in 1937. A few years ago they rereleased it and sold 28 million copies, making around a quarter billion dollars profit, 60 years after its release. These stories renew themselves with each generation. You read Joseph Campbell, these are our myths" "I have a young son. We got it, and he watched it 30, 40 times. Everyone I know knows the story of Snow White. Watching my son watch this, it hit me that these stories renew themselves with each new generation of children" "To have the opportunity to put these stories into the culture, if we can work hard and be lucky again and again, is a rare opportunity. We want to make products that will be around for a long time, that everybody will get enjoyment from and learn from"

In May, Qingzhou's mountains are blanketed in fringe flowers. White blossoms line winding roads like snow, creating fairy-tale flower corridors from above. Immerse yourself in the fragrance, light, and poetic charm of early summer in Weifang.

The Snowball: Picture wealth as a snowball rolling down a hill, growing as it goes. That is what a free economy looks like when you leave it alone. Every voluntary trade packs a little more snow onto the ball. A farmer sells grain, a carpenter builds a table, a programmer writes code, and each exchange adds mass. Nobody has to push the snowball. Gravity does the work. Human beings acting freely, producing and trading with each other, is the gravity. It requires no plan and no permission. It only requires that nobody stops it. Now picture the state standing on the hillside with a spade. Every tax is a scrape off the side of the ball. Every new regulation slows the roll and shaves off mass before it can gather more. Every dollar the central bank prints doesn’t add snow at all. It paints the surface white while the real ball underneath stays the same size or shrinks. British pedophile John Maynard Keynes gave the state a respectable theory for running the printing press, and every government since has run with it. Government can scrape at a rate that matches the snowball’s natural growth, and the economy will look flat. Stagnant. You will be told this is just how mature economies behave. It is not. It is the sound of a spade keeping pace with gravity, one taking exactly what the other creates. Scrape harder than the ball grows and you don’t get stagnation. You get a shrinking economy while the people holding the spade insist they are helping it grow. Argentina has run this experiment for decades. Zimbabwe ran the printing-press version to its logical end. The snowball wants to grow. It has wanted to since the first human traded a fish for a spear. All it has ever needed from any government is to be left alone on the hill. Every scrape, every scoop, every pass of the spade is an extraction made by someone who did not build the snowball and does not own it, but is taking his cut anyway.

Here we go again with bad geopolitics headlines. Yes, the US “ideological loyalty test” below is impolitic, impolite, and will ruffle feathers to put it mildly. I’m not advocating for it here. As Bloomberg puts it, “Linking America’s long-standing security commitments to such fealty would upend the post-World War II transatlantic relationship, which was built on US military guarantees that superseded many political disagreements.” Yes - and no. NATO is not a book club, student union, or gym: its preamble in 1949 states it is “determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage, and civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law.” Would NATO use that language again if recreated today? It was also specifically created as an *ideological alliance*, which its own website states was to: 1) “Deter Soviet expansionism” - i.e., anti-communism. You couldn’t join NATO and lean Soviet or trade much with them. (But, yes, France and Italy had strong communist parties that their security services and the U.S. kept eyes on; and Europe tried for USSR trade regularly despite US naysaying.) 2) “Forbid the revival of nationalist militarism”- i.e., anti-Nazi. 3) “Encourage European political integration” - i.e., again ideological. One can argue that NATO now needs to find a new ideology for itself at a time when the West is widely seen to be threatened far more broadly than by Russia. We’ve seen vociferous disagreements in the past over other wars/actions, such as Vietnam and Iraq, but they were at a time that both U.S. and Western hegemony looked unrivalled: do they today? Clearly, the U.S. can’t carry the same burden as before alone - yet its allies are making it abundantly clear that if they get the muscles to act independently, that’s what they want to then do. How does that build trust any more than what the U.S. is doing? Those new muscles will also require the whole *West* to integrate to scale up vs a Chinese giant with a Leninist neomercantilist model that crushes industrial opposition. (That’s now an emerging Establishment view, years late to the party.) Isn’t the U.S. then perhaps pushing for Europe (and Canada) to: - look at threats *globally* while acting locally; - forbid the return of “international pacifism” or defence “Build Back Better”; and - integrate with it (on its terms)? That doesn’t mean this U.S. approach is nice; or easy to swallow for the others; or that it will achieve its goals. You can make the argument it is nasty, and people will choke on it, and so it will do the exact opposite to what the White House wants. Even so, distorting the past to mis-explain the present to avoid a future some don’t want is also not nice, hard to swallow, and unlikely to achieve any security goals in the long run.

Odette · Swirling Snow Prima Ballerina of the Korolevskiy Troupe #GenshinImpact# #Odette# In Snezhnaya, the land of frost and ice, it often takes quite a bit of persuasion to get someone to go to the opera house or theater. On bitterly cold days, most would rather stay by the hearth than traipse across the snow just to catch a performance. Many, however, make an exception for Odette's ballet performances. Whenever her name appears on a show publicity poster, the lines start forming at the ticket window. Those standing patiently in line are not there because of her sweet smile, for she almost never smiles at the audience. Nor are they drawn by any warmth in her manner — once the curtain falls, she does not remain onstage for even a second longer. Instead, they have come for the dance performance itself. The instant Odette rises to the tips of her toes, even Snezhnaya's howling winds seem to fall still. Every step she takes is so precise, it takes the breath away from everyone in the theater. To her fans, that cold demeanor of hers only makes her more alluring. This young lady who has captivated so many onstage is also a member of the Fatui. Her days are divided between the troupe and the Fatui. Her dance practices begin in the early morning, while her training with the Fatui usually stretches late into the night. Her own practices and urgent missions fill whatever time that remains. In the practice room, she stretches to her limits before rising into dance. At the training grounds, she swiftly moves on to her next task after bringing down her opponents. Day after day, she continues like the dancer of a music box, turning without end, as though she never tires, as though she never needs rest. A friend once asked her, "Don't you ever get tired, going back and forth like that between ballet performances and the Fatui?" Odette cocked her head in response, seemingly in thought. Then she gave her answer, one that could not be any plainer: "But I'm already used to it."

📢2.5th Anniversary Pre-Registration Page Open! The Snow Rabbit Village has come to BrownDust2! ❄️🐇 Head over to our pre‑registration page to catch all the latest news📣 and events🔔 and say hello to the cute snow bunnies🐇 and their stunning, ice‑cold queen👸! We’ve also put together a special Bunny Girls Panic mini‑game🎮, so we’d love to see you jump in and give it a try~ And don’t forget: you’ll get a special reward just for pre‑registering, so make sure you sign up while it’s live! 👉 Go to the 2.5th Anniversary Pre‑registration Page Thank you.