#automating volume two

[spilladabalia]

Nurse With Wound - The Dance of Fools

[bmpmp3]

I really love making vocal synth duets and trios and other group songs but there is nothing worse on this earth than attempting to balance the audio levels

[ohgodthevoices]

Meet cute | Akaashi x gn!reader

tags : meet cute, bookworm akaashi, timeskip, fluff, strangers to lovers (?), love at first sight, shy reader.

w.c : 0.7k

Akaashi didn’t have a real plan for his day off, he knew that he wanted to get coffee and then maybe go for a walk ? he wasn’t sure but he knew he’d appreciate a chill evening to relax from the long week of work.

he was sitting inside his favorite coffee shop, waiting for his order, the strong smell of coffee that filled the place already calming his nerves when his phone went off, he was secretly hoping it wasn’t one of his friends asking to go out because as much as he loves them, he wanted the day to himself for once. but it wasn’t, it was an automated message from the library he frequently visited, announcing that they restocked on the 34th volume of his favorite manga.

as soon as he registered the message, he was already on his way to the library, his coffee in his hand, walking too fast for his own comfort. the previous volume was ended on a cliffhanger and the next one was sold out as soon as it was published, before he could get his hands on it. so this time he wasn’t going to waste a second, it was already hard enough avoiding the spoilers at his work place and he wasn’t going to go through it any longer.

when he passed by the check out, he couldn’t help but notice someone was already paying for two copies, so he sprinted to the section he knew oh too well and of course knowing his luck, seeing you, the last copy in hand wasn’t even that surprising.

“oh”

he didn’t mean to get your attention, but now that he did, he didn’t really know what to do with it, his eyes were so focused on the book in your hand that he didn’t even notice how put together you looked, how neatly you presented yourself and how you both had the same order from the same cafe in hand. akaashi couldn’t help but curse himself for looking like a mess, he’s suddenly hyper aware of his messy hair, his glasses slightly falling down and his choice of clothes for the day.

“did you uhm…mean to pick that one up..?” he’s never really been the awkward type, he’d usually present himself as calm and polite to the strangers, but there he was shamelessly staring at you, feeling like a grumpy teen that he couldn’t get his hands on the book, he felt even more like an idiot when you simply nodded, of course you did why else would you pick the 34th volume of a random book…

after quickly analyzing every possible scenario he landed on just nodding and walking past you, too entranced in his own rushing thoughts to even notice your faint blush as you stood in place. it was fine though, he just made a fool of himself infront of you, his drink was cold now and the lil plan he made in his head of reading in the comfort of his couch was thrown away but it’s fineee.

akaashi decided then to simply start a new manga series, waiting for the hype to die down a bit before he could go back to his favorite one, he made his way to the check out and placed the first two volumes of some fantasy manga on the counter, spacing out a bit before the employee pulled another book from under the check out, he recognized the cover obviously, however he didn’t exchange a word with the employee as they put the two books in a paper bag. did they keep extra copies under the counter ? how did they even know that he wanted the book?

once outside the store, he took the manga out of the bag, a mix of pride and excitement visible on his face, only now notice the pink sticky note on the back

“when you’re done with it, give me a call ˙ᵕ˙ no spoilers plz”

he was gonna need more coffee… because he was gonna finish this book tonight and he was determined to do so, akaashi probably looked funny staring at your number before holding the book close to his chest and not letting go of the precious thing, he was gonna keep the note on his desk glancing at it every now and then between a few pages already overthinking how he was gonna text you.

a.n : i am so sorry about the quality of this it is currently 5am and i am very sleep deprived but i fear my new fixation on akaashi is stronger (heavily inspired by cardlinaudio !)

in my head this is what he looked like -> (ó﹏ ò｡)

[badsexbingo]

Bad Sex Bingo Info

Request a board here to participate! A board will be sent to your email in pdf form. The sending email will be “saltyfandomevents” at gmail.

The subject line will be “Your BSB Board.” It may take up to 5 hours to arrive, as long as volume stays low. If you see any issues with your board (like it has someone else’s name on it or something) let us know.

FAQ (below the cut)

What is a bingo event?

You can check out the fanlore article here, but the gist of it is that you get a bingo board with 24 random prompts (we’ve got like, 51 in our list total, but we might add more) and make a fanwork for any prompt you want to cross off to try and create a line of crossed-off squares across your bingo board. The middle is a “free space” so you can do whatever you want for the overarching theme there!

Which board is which?

X-ray is the one with the x-ray of a bulb in the ass on a black background [left]. Fruity is the one with all the rotting fruit on a pink and white background [right].

Can I do one fanwork that hits multiple prompts?

I’m not a cop and there’s no points and no prize, so you can do whatever you want. If you just like rules, and want some though, how about:

Written fanworks may count for multiple prompts, but must be at least 250 words per prompt you’re crossing off.

Drawn fanworks may count for up to two prompts per sketch, three prompts per lined, and four prompts per fully rendered piece with background, but frankly I think an artist would need to be pretty creative to manage it.

Do I need to be 18 plus to participate?

I mean I’d prefer it but I’m not going to be checking your IDs. That’s going to be between you and whatever platform that you upload your work to.

Will you reblog my work related to this bingo?

Maybe! Make sure it meets all of tumblrs TOS though. Use community labels. It’s going to depend on how much work it is :) do @ us, or we definitely won’t see it.

Is there an ao3 collection I can post to?

Sure is! It’s badsexbingo

My bingo board hasn’t arrived and it’s been a whole day!

Did you put your email in correctly? If you’re not sure, try again and pay close attention. Also check your spam folder! Send us an ask or an email if you’ve double checked everything.

I don’t like one of the prompts on my board.

Oh wow, that’s rough, maybe you can work around it. OR you can request another randomly generated board and see if you like that one better.

I don’t want a new board I just want this prompt off my board.

Ugh okay, fine. Reply to the email you received your board in and explain what you want taken off and we’ll swap it with something. This may take a while because the rest of this is all automated and doesn’t require me to look at it. I haven’t even put the email on my phone.

If you have a ton of squicks around suboptimal sex though, this might not be the event for you!

What does this prompt mean?

You can interpret the prompts however you want! I’m not a cop!

I did write the prompts to be funny rather than clear, so have a look here to see what I was thinking, if you want, though. Totally optional. You can do whatever you want forever.

[orangeocelotmartyn]

Compilation of (nearly) every time xB brought up Keralis when talking to Bdubs on stream 6/27/25

xB: (overlapping Bdubs) As long as you're not left handed-- Bdubs: You will hear me talking about it. xB: --then everything's fine. Bdubs: So not left handed. xB: Okay. Cause that guy--(he giggles)--he's just, he's full of excuses. So. Bdubs: (demanding) Who is? xB: That left handed guy. (pause) Keralis. Bdubs: You don't even say his name anymore! (xB giggles) xB: (overlapping Bdubs) That left handed guy. Bdubs: Is that where we are, in Voldemort territory?! (Bdubs joins in on the laughter) xB: He who shall not be named. Bdubs: "He who shall not be named" in the ship above my base. xB: He was like, "oh," he was like, "xB, I'm gonna be your neighbor now," moves like, two hundred blocks away. Bdubs: Yeah. xB: (offended) That's not a neighbor. (he giggles) Bdubs: No. No, that's intrusion.

---

xB: It’s a very pleasing aesthetic. Bdubs: It’s sickening. xB: You love it. (Bdubs begins laughing, and xB joins) Bdubs: There’s a lot of Keralis up there. Yeah. xB: (through laughter) I’m not saying anything, but, uh– Bdubs: (judgemental) Mhm. xB: –I’ve killed Keralis once or twice. Bdubs: Yes. I can see that.

---

Bdubs: Let's see Keralis', uh, or actually, maybe not. Maybe that's spoilers. I know he's working on something. xB: No, everything here, at my base, that is currently here, has been seen. (Bdubs begins laughing, and xB joins) Bdubs: Why was "my base" in caps? xB: Wait, what? Bdubs: Oh yeah. I could t--it sounded like, uh, when you said "my base," its MY BASE. xB: Well, cause I-I own all this. Bdubs: Yeah, this is all yours, so spoilers. xB: You looking for a boat? Bdubs: Yeah, oh, yeah, I would like a boat actually. xB: I mean. I've got a nice one.

---

Bdubs: --in, I said I hate in video games, every video game you load it up and it's cranked, like, to a thousand. xB: Oh, just, yeah, it just blows your eardrums out, yeah. Bdubs: Every game, every gamer lowers the volume-- xB: Mhm. Bdubs: I don't know anybody that plays at one hundred, um... xB: Crazy people? Bdubs: But here I am. Committing the same sin. xB: Keralis probably plays at a hundred. (he giggles) Bdubs: Ohhh, wow. I'm sensing--(automated Bdubs voice: Point. Lime.) I'm sensing-- xB: That guy. Bdubs: --a little bit of resentment there. (xB giggles)

---

xB: I'd be--I'd totally be down to play doubles, on this. Bdubs: Yeah! Yeah, you and Keralis versus, uh...me and Tango or something...or-- xB: I'm down. Bdubs: You and Keralis...you're down for that, okay, I was, I was setting you up there. (xB giggles) xB: I don't like Keralis. But I still like Keralis. Bdubs: I see, I see. (xB giggles) Yeah. That makes-- xB: It's a love-love* situation, you know what I'm saying? Bdubs: Of course. xB: Get it, love-love*, that's a tennis joke. (he giggles, and Bdubs gasps in realization) Bdubs: Very good! *love-love in Tennis refers to a score being zero to zero, likely due to zero being seen as an egg--l'oeuf, in French, which can sound like "love"

---

xB: Somebody broke out a piece of the eye! What is--fricken guy! I blame Keralis.

---

(xB is giggling) Bdubs: You got Beef right here, you got Keralis-- xB: Yeah, Keralis moved away though. Bdubs: --within earshot-- xB: He moved away. He's like way out-- Bdubs: Wait, to where?! xB:--that way now. Bdubs: In the boat?! xB: He's-he's built stuff? That I can't show. So. Bdubs: But it's your base. (xB giggles) xB: I will show you-if you wanna go look at it? Cause you're probably not recording? Bdubs: I'm not, no. xB: I will show you where his, his, um--portal is? Bdubs: Okay. xB: And then you can go in and look at it. Like, I've seen--like, I've seen it, but I'm not gonna go there on stream. Bdubs: Sure, sure sure sure sure sure sure. Yeah, cause I know he's been working on something. xB: Yeah. So it's right over here. Bdubs: Oh, that is off a little ways, okay. xB: Right. Look, see--how close Beef is. Bdubs: Yeah. xB: He's like right there, and then Keralis is way out here like we've got cooties. Bdubs: (snorts laughs) He's so far! xB: And he's like, "I'm right next door!" and I'm like, "you're so far away." (he giggles) Bdubs: I mean, this is, this is both ends of the spectrum, isn't it? He-he was just right in the middle of spawn, just surrounded by everybody. xB: Right.

[sscardinal7]

Adding nuance in Navy and Orchid

Me and a friend had a nerd voyage about Navy and Orchid, and Paw brought up their cameo in AVA11 - Victim, in which I never previously considered—and it generally got me thinking about their relationship in compliment of the Newgrounds Tragedy. It had me contemplating about what if, rather the Newgrounds Tragedy was responsible for their substantial regression. What went wrong? I really would have never even begun to compose my thoughts if it weren't for him, so all credits!

Navy and Orchid's relationship is especially interesting to me as they were written and programmed to persist as these ideal, beautifully in love couple who attend towards their child. It's on the thumbnail of their uploaded file after all. All 3 of them in the frame! Protective and adoring arms wrapped around Purple.

Now, the timeline of this is a bit rough.

Purple in the thumbnail appears as though he's rather young. I can safely conclude that he is roughly around the same height as the first combat sequence in his presented backstory in AVM29 - Note Block Universe. The thumbnail provides some context that their story was perhaps on-going.

Navy being written as this character who gives strict but positive practices on combat towards Purple. Giving encourages. Orchid being a kind, lighthearted and comforting supporter toward this, nothing more and nothing less.

Nothing more because their creator was not given a chance to, that is.

The destruction of their file in the 2011 tragedy forced a sudden halt. An acute awareness that the couple's intervention with each other was nothing but automated; synthetic, leaving a sour taste as one would when your entire reality and purpose is completely shattered. There could be no interference towards their line of written story and code, forcing them to stick with their present (or what is known to them as the present)

No updates, no progression, no development, no further growth. Really, just nothing. Just an uncompleted story that forces the two to endure and carry on where they had been abandoned at. It's not like they have any other choice, just as the thousands of animations beside them.

As mentioned, Navy was loving, but designed with strict authority and boundaries towards training.

Navy's intentions and reasoning towards the sparring is unknown, making me beg the question; does he even know? Was his creator given the time to?

This confusion can host some hostility, oh undoubtedly.

Following with these characteristics in oppose to how he handles the aftermath of the tragedy, Navy engages in being impatient, inconsistent, irrational, eager, pestering, forceful, and downright abusive from the power imbalance in reflex to the instability of not having some designated context or rather purpose. Security.

Orchid, being the timid bystander. Providing comfort and sanctity to Purple every once in a while from a far too rough sparring. She's kind, neutral, observant, and naturally empathetic. But the entire interference leaves this bitter taste as she's nothing more than this role.

And honestly, that is heartbreaking for Orchid, and downright sad. Discomfort of aiding in your child's physical and mental development due to the dreadful profound ability of your unfair positioning does not correlate to not standing up for them at all. She has her priorities of not interfering unless certain that he is being empowered. She does not appreciate power imbalances—and this shows as she rather progresses from present comfort towards near audibility unless firm - and this is where I believe her fatal flaw comes in. Ignorance until positive.

And this shows in Purple, it shows a lot.

She does try her best, yes. She's still very loving, she still really loves Purple. She loves Navy. it's in her code after all. But her noticeable absence speaks volumes that she was attempting to distance herself.

But I find the reasoning to be much more due to Navy than Purple, if I'm being honest.

Navy and Orchid's relationship is surely strange. So in love in contrast to their narrative, then stranded to a rough prevention of their chronology. It doesn't defeat the purpose that they still, very much love each other. But the revulsion that it was nothing but a hoax will leave a agonizing dread in the atmosphere.

But after all, they have nothing else to stick to. Be optimistic with what you're left with, make best out of the worst. They can continue where their unfinished log was unfortunately Interrupted. And it goes as unwell as you would expect.

Hell, Navy's reaction towards these issues definitely encourages a hatred in Orchid and prompt towards distance. She was obviously discouraged from him and his impulses way early on, but the conflict rises when her son is the most vulnerable victim of it, and she does not like this.

Orchid and Navy are a loving bunch but two very different individuals. It wasn't too long until Orchid's comforting, soothing nature began to grow anxious and clash with Navy's raw approaches, outbursts and harsh eagerness. The worst part is that this isn't even Navy's fault.

And this shows. You would think once Navy leaves—she could rest. She could feel secure. She is loose from this lined attire that kept her glued to these strict set bounds; she's ridden of worries, and,

And this is where she proves you wrong. She is guilt-ridden, she's upset. She's left paralyzed, numb, in shock, detached. But why?—Why would she feel this way? Isn't she relieved of the split from the first ever obligated context she was programmed to be with?

Oh.

Ohh,

Ohhh, my poor girl.

And it's such a complexity of being doomed by the (unfinished) narrative. And it's rather the contrasting spectrum of it: the burning hatred of the figure you were made to love vs the boundless affection of how at the end of the day—you were still made to love them. The horrors is inescapable, no matter how much you try to run away from it.

[feminismisstillahatemovement]

I actually find myself increasingly doing this too, and can think of the following possible reasons:

Actors are less likely now to have a long history of theater work and so routinely mumble their words.

The TV, laptop or phone speakers we now have are smaller and worse than previous generations of (non-flatscreen) televisions.

Sound effects, explosions and background music are now mixed higher than the voices. All these loud noises make people reduce the volume setting at home, and hence the volume of dialogue too.

The people working the sound department are less good at their job and rely on the automated machines rather than their ears.

People now watch TV and movies while looking at their phones, so flit back and forth between the two, and feel they can keep up with what's happening onscreen by glancing at the subtitles.

People also now have the option of playing at different speeds, so have grown used to watching at 1.5x speed or above to get through things quicker and be less bored. They can still easily follow the dialogue when doing this by using subtitles.

If watching with other people, there's always someone talking over the movie and making you miss bits.

Films are now routinely mixed in 5.1 and Atmos surround-sound for cinemas and home theaters instead of stereo (or, even better, mono). When this wide soundstage is folded down through a stereo player, it's possible the decisions made for volume levels for each of the elements in the wide soundstage create a murky stereo mix. Just guessing on this one.

The compressing of audio tracks for smaller file sizes for streaming and the internet might potentially worsen the detail of the audio quality, though again, I don't know enough about this to say for sure.

[ydan-lover]

Do Not Buy: The Vampire Dies in No Time Volume 1 (Orange Inc.)

Tl;dr it's bad. Also do not support AI.

Some of you may not know it but The Vampire Dies in No Time actually has an "official English translation" that is being published on emaqi.com (access for North America only).

I'll start with the elephant in the room. Orange Inc., the company behind this "official translation," uses AI-translation technologies.

"To produce one localized volume of manga in another language requires several difficult, time-consuming, and complicated processes. What Orange is doing is using AI technology to try to streamline the more tedious tasks required for manga localization, so humans can spend more time focusing on what they do best." (link)

They claim the translation they're providing is not AI-generated and is done by their translators but let's see these statements.

On the translation side, we sometimes use Japanese-to-English translation that is 100% done by human translators, with no AI assistance. We also have some cases where we start with an AI-generated translation, and human translators will use that as a starting point to review and make edits or adjustments, if needed. But what is really important for us to emphasize is that we NEVER publish anything that is only an AI-generated translation.  <...> For example, the first basic translation could be made by AI, and the human localizer would work on retouching and fixing stuff.  <...> (From the press release) To maintain the integrity of the original works and build trust with the readers, artists and publishers over time, no more than 10 percent of the content on emaqi will be translated using AI support at launch, as the team continues to evaluate and refine its approach for the future (link)

According to them, they use AI-assisted automated tools for things like erasing the Japanese original text from a manga page, but as you'll see later that, if that claim is true, not only is this thing inconsistent in what to erase and what not but there are also moments that made me question if the translation was really done by human hand.

First of all, nobody is credited for the translation.

Translated, Lettered and Edited by Orange Inc.

How can anyone be assured that whatever they're reading was not done by AI? Just believe someone's "plz trust me"?

Second of all, fine. Let me put on a clown wig and assume it was 100% done by human translators and not MTL.

It doesn't save the book much because it's still bad.

Disclaimer: this post is covering only the first chapter and all the problems with it because it's the only one with an open access and could be read for free. Also because one post is not enough to cover all the problems I've found in the book.

Let's start with the contents page.

Call me old-fashioned or whatever, I really dislike the decision just to leave the chapters as 'chapters'.

The chapters in the series are referred to as 第ｘ死 instead of the usual 第ｘ話. This translates as Death X, because our titular main character happens to die in no time, what a shocker. By simply changing these 'deaths' to 'chapters' the translation already loses some charm of the original book.

As for the chapter titles...

(1) The Hunter Arrives, And He Gets Lost - no, that's not what the 空を飛ぶ part means. It is literal, because Ronald flies in the skies for just a moment because that's what happens in the chapter.

(4) Fukuma Attacks! - I'm convinced the title for this one is based on the fan translations of that chapter title because not even in the anime it's translated like that. The word 襲撃 does mean 'to attack', except there's a small nuance: the word is usually used to indicate that the attack is unexpceted. Again, that's what happens in the chapter.

(5) Shin-Yokohama Will Fall With Flowers - I will admit, this title is difficult to be properly translated into English, which is where the machine failed. Bonnoki is using two different meanings of the word 散る: one is applicable to the falling flowers, another one could be roughly translated as 'to die a noble death in the battle'. The second meaning is what happens in the chapter, because Draluc, well, dies during his encounter with Zenranium. 花と散る is basically just a euphemism of someone dying. No idea why it's suddenly Shin-Yokohama the one dying in this title translation. A human with basic knowledge of the Japanese grammar would not translate it like that, that's for sure.

(6) Can You Hit the Wall and Kill It? - like in the case with the anime's translation (Can a Bang on the Wall Kill Him?), I have no idea why they're specifying and making it worse when we all know from the context the one to be killed is Draluc, so it would be totally fine to translate is as just "Can You Kill by Hitting the Wall?" (This one is more of a nitcpick, I admit it myself, but still)

(7) Grumbling Highway to Success - again, if you know the context, the chapter title makes no sense. Hinaichi doesn't win. Her hopes of getting a serious job (出世街道, path to success) turn into getting the lamest job (転落道, path to failure). Could be also translated as "The Highway to Promotion is the Path to Demotion" but that's

(8) Eros Leading to Metamorphosis - ゆえに ('therefore') is translated wrong. I'll let them slide the omitted wordplay in the title with "love/eros" and "pervert/metamorphosis" because it's hard to show that in translation, it doesn't really matter that much here anyway.

(9/10) Some Idiots Cause a Disturbance in the Hunter's Guild... (Again) - バカ騒ぎ is an adjective attached to the guild, not some idiots. The まだ part in the sequel indicated the guild is still fooling around.

And finally, Draluc's iconic 'sand' scream is now something gibberish. Great start.

Page 3

Someone saw him heading toward Draluc's castle...

Again, I'm slightly nitpicking, but for a reason. Draluc's castle is literally called just Draluc Castle. Poor woman is telling Ronald the name of the castle her son was last seen, and then she adds that the castle belongs to the vampire with the same name.

Continuity error (真相にして無敵). For some reason, the 無敵 part is always translated along with some new added words when it's not the case in the original. "Said to be invincible", "supposedly invincible".

Page 8

Font inconsistency. Despite using the same font in the original, Ronald shouts in two different fonts in the translation.

What you see straught ahead is the castle of Draluc...

The word that the tour guide uses here is not 城 (castle) but 屋敷 (residence, mansion).

Page 9

Mischellanous. Some of the written stuff is not translated and left as it is, without any logic behind such decision. On this page, Draluc's buns with his initial D are not translated. Draluc's games referencing the very well-known ones are also left untouched.

Page 10

I was picking out a QSQ software.

Where do I even start with this...

Most of the time the word ソフト in gaming spaces does not mean a short form of ソフトウェア (software program) but a short form of ゲームソフト (console game). Sure, technically speaking a game is a software, but I've never seen any casual gamers call it "software" even once because imho the word software has a slightly different meaning than when you say a video game.

And here we have an elementary school kid calling it a software. When he was literally shown picking a game on the previous page. Dpmo.

I ended up staying late because I was playing until I completed the game.

He did not complete the game. That's part of the reason why he runs away and continues playing later on.

Most of the time, author's notes (aka Bonnoki's additional comments) are usually introduced via a character saying something and the line being marked with this ※ reference mark. For some reason, this reference mark is erased in translation.

Page 11

Don't think you can beat me in my own castle, brat!

No idea why they decided to add the word brat that wasn't in the bubble in the first place. We know already that line is addressed to the kid.

While technically it's the correct transation, Draluc refers to him as 小僧 in the chapter, which is more polite than Ronald's ガキ, usually translated here as "brat". Draluc is yet to go through his polite-to-rude speech change, so of course he's referring to the scooter kid politely, with the only time of him using "brat" as a reply to Ronald's previous speech where he refers to kid as such. However, the translation fails to adapt this nuance in their speeches. (No idea how it is in the dub, but at least in the English subs they do refer to him differently, with Draluc using "boy" and Ronald using "kid" and they were always consistent with this)

Mischellanous. Due to the pics limit I can't post every case of the manga being inconsistent with Draluc's 小僧/Ronald's ガキ so I'll just write them down if there are any in the remaining screencaps. While I can close my eyes on Ronald's inconsistency and sort of excuse it as a PR persona vs. real persona slipping up moments, all the Draluc moments literally have no excuse.

Bratconsistency x1

Page 13

The のに part is missing in the translation. Ronald is technically continuing hiss speech from the previous page, hence のに.

However, if anything happens to the client's kid...

Also... Bratconsistency x0.5 (Like I've mentioned before, I can at least (sort of) excuse Ronald's lines, but still.)

See? Your long-winded speech made us lost track of the brat.

Made us lose track.

Bratconsistency x1

Page 14

...little punk

Doesn't even count as Bratconsistency because it wasn't in the original lines. Ronald doesn't call out to him even once during this scene because he does it in the next one.

Page 15

This is a popularity business. Going viral for the wrong reasons is the scariest thing.

I rather prefer "online backlash" from the anime as the translation for the 炎上 because (imho) "going viral for the wrong reasons" is too vague and could mean anything.

All right! You go give that kid a Wii or something!

It's Vii.

Page 16

Mischellanous: Ronald's book cover is not translated. Again, no idea what's the logic behind translating some things and leaving some of them untranslated.

Damn. That little brat...

That's not what he said.

Page 17 (+ bonus Page 22)

Become minced meat along with the kid, vampire hunter!

Again, that's not what he said. He just says they will become victims of said traps. The anime subs got it right.

Hey, there was some kind of beam-emitting device in there!

I have to admit, this was the moment I gave up and had to laugh out loud, for the completely wrong reason.

Ah yes, I can totally imagine a really pissed off Ronald, after almost getting himself killed, saying "beam-emitting device" in his politest voice ever.

At least on page 22 he says something more in character. Wait a second-

It's the thing that shoots beams from its eyes!!!

Eye. One eye. Also inconsistent with the name from page 17.

Page 18

Font inconsistency. When Draluc is being fried by lazers, his speech becomes pixelated. While the font slightly changes, it's nowhere close to the original line in terms of style.

(Ronald) C'mon, one look and it's obvious the place is full of traps. Don't mess with me. (Draluc) You went in even though you could tell there was a trap at first glance?

Draluc's reply makes no sense. Not to mention that's not what he said. "You could tell that at first glance, and yet you still went in?"

Page 19

Mischellanous. Again, the poisonous gas button is translated on one frame and left untranslated on another.

Page 20

I mean, wouldn't it be harder to actually get fall traps that obvious?

???

???

You either choose "to actually fall for such obvious traps" or "to actually get caught in such obvious traps", not both at the same time.

Page 24

Mischellanous. Again, Draluc is being fried by lasers and his speech is in pixels. No pixels for the translation.

I totally forgot about the poison gas!

Poisonous gas, you mean. Proofreading seems to be nonexistent.

Page 27

The gag of Draluc's sand sfx being reversed when revived is nonexistent in the translation.

Page 28

Gah, sunlight!!!

Font inconistency. Draluc's "gah" should also be enlarged.

Draluc Castle

They finally got the Draluc Castle name right, too bad it's inconsistent with what was introduced before, huh.

***

And lastly, for anyone thinking it gets better later, have some moments from the extras. (No pics since I've reached the limit and I don't want to be hit by a random copyright)

Special Thanks Page. They translated the address but decided to leave out the part mentioning Bonnoki's editor and his assistants.

Character Notes. 兄弟 from Ronald's note is translated as "brothers". While typically it does mean exactly that, we know from context 3兄弟 means "three siblings" because we have Himari, Ronald's sister.

Extra Bonus Story. Oh boy. Firstly, Ronald-Donald joke doesn't land if you have a Ronaldo-Donald combo. (Another win for Ronald truthers) And if you don't know why their names are suddenly spelled as "Ro-na-lu-do" and "Do-ra-lu-ku" to make the joke work, don't worry, they just gave up on adapting the joke. Secondly, they also gave up on the Funamushi-Hinaichi joke adaptation and wrote "Funamushi (Ligia exotica)" and I wish I was kidding.

Uso/Fake Preview. Despite being a two-page spread, the text is placed as if it's two different pages. The fact it was even approved makes me frustrated. The grammar is also messed up at one point.

Back Cover. Again, another proof that this translation lacks proofreading.

The translation of the frame on the cover does not match the one in the actual book. ("That cocky brat… Mocking us with those fancy kickboard moves." (book) vs. "Why you little... Mocking me with those kickboard skills!" (back cover))

The description of Ronald and Fukuma's frame: "Clothes being torn into shreads by editors with his battle axe...?!" Again, zero understanding of the context and zero proofreading. Fukuma is one entity (so far...), where did multiple editors even come from?

Speaking of proofreading, the synopsis also (sort of) lies about the premise. "In order to find the missing children, the vampire hunter Ronaldo came to the castle of the supposedly invincible vampire and true ancestor, Draluc. <...>" One. Missing. Child.

Closing thoughts

Objectively speaking, I can't prove that this translation was done by AI, but I also can't prove that it was done by humans either.

The reason why I'm even making this post is because I'm frustrated and very disappointed. Some of Bonnoki's jokes might be either too niche (I swear I've learned more about the Dragon Quest just from him than my gaming circles) or too clever for the translation that a human hand will always be required, no matter what. If I don't have any guarantees that these jokes will not be butchered by some AI that missed the context or simply doesn't get the joke, then why should anyone bother paying for the lackluster content?

And again, the quality of the volume wouldn't change much even if no AI was used, because then it would mean none of the translators bothered to check if what they've translated before was consistent or matches with what's happening in the book.

And, to top it all, people are asked to pay $5 for this quality on the site.

Unfortunately (?) I don't have access to volumes 2-4, so I can't just check the chapters where AI would be the most obvious or simply check the later content, but I'm afraid it probably doesn't get much better. And if the description on the site matches the one from the back cover like with volume 1, then we have Ronaldo suddenly turning into Ronald three volumes later. Another peak of consistency. (If it's just a typo on the back cover and he's still Ronaldo in the series, it just shows the lack of care again)

I really wanted for The Vampire Dies in No Time to be picked up by some daring publishing company and be properly translated into English with all the nuances. There is a reason why the series is so beloved in Japan among the fans, so I hoped that its chaotic charm would find its way to the public outside Japan.

So far, all I feel right now is sadness. I'm disappointed with how the official English release is being handled right now.

Last thing I will say is this. Do not even dare blaming or insulting Bonnoki for this mess. We don't know the extent of how much he actually knows about it, considering he's been recovering from his injury and not even once acknowledged the release of the English translation.

(P.s. I might make some follow-up posts regarding the butchered translation of the first volume but since I don't live in North America I have no idea if publishing the excerpts from the rest of the volume is even legal and whether they could strike down my post, lol. Honestly, I wouldn't have minded just making a text post and listing all the things butchered, just to be safe, but the fake (or Uso) preview spread is just that bad that it needs to be seen as a whole. Also I've been making this post for ages and it's just one chapter, so I need a small break before I make another post regarding the book's quality check.)

[drabblesandimagines]

Dove (part five)

Leon Kennedy x female reader - the slowest, slow burn I swear Part one. Part two. Part three. Part four.

You try your best to focus on show on the television – watching them take down a non-load bearing wall with sledgehammers in a somewhat poor technique - but you really wish you had your phone. This would be a perfect time for mindless scrolling through various feeds, rather than thinking of the handsome agent you’d just taken a nap on, apparently. You wonder if anyone’s texted you, tried to call only to be met with an automated voicemail message... unless the DSO have managed to get your phone to power on, teasing a few rings before they’re asked to leave a message.

You have friends to make plans with, of course you do, but the majority are spread country-wide now, have been for years since you finished college, so it’s not going to be strange if you haven’t replied to anyone for over 24 hours… No boyfriend to fret over your whereabouts either, your last relationship too long ago for any hurt feelings to remain.

And it’s definitely for the best that you don’t have any parents who will worry when you don’t check in.

Your mind drifts back to Leon. How long could this thing last? Say when they clear you – you can’t bear to think of the alternative of being accused of a BOW crime, you’d never see the light of day again, your name buried in a file never to be released - how long will it take to work out if your life is or remains in danger, and would he stay with you the entire time? Surely he has his own life to get on with, other responsibilities to the DSO than just a babysitter, probably got a partner at home too, though there was no ring that you saw. Probably wouldn’t wear one as an agent though, gives away too much about a personal life.

Besides, there were so many people in your office, would they really know if one person made it out alive? It’s not like you had seen anything of real value, or knew anything about the assailants, besides that they were murderous creatures… or so you thought. You deal with a lot of cases, is it possible that one of them traced the operation back and sought revenge?

If the painkillers hadn’t been wearing off, aches awakening in various parts of your body, you might’ve started pacing around the room for something else to do. This place could do with a bookshelf, you reason, or maybe people aren’t here long enough to read books? There was a pile of books on your night-stand, all in hopes of being read, which just reminds you that Hunnigan said they were going to send people to search your apartment. What for – a to-do list stuck to the fridge with a magnet with a singular bullet point of ‘betray US Government’?

She said there’d been a data breach too, so did someone let loose those things as a deadly distraction to get what they came for? And surely there was a back-up in a cloud or something. You hadn’t been privy to that side of the operation and if you’d started asking questions at any point, it would’ve looked suspicious.

No, you were just a good little intelligence agent, you clocked in and out on time, dutifully noting down observations, connecting the dots all day long, just wanted to make the world a little safer for everyone, but failed miserably at doing so for the people in your office.

And those things…

Are they what you’ve been working against all this time?

You shudder as you swear you can feel the way the its wet tongue wrapped around your arm, warm saliva against the prickly goosebumps on your skin in a firm grip, its teeth, the lack of eyes, how its body looked almost inside out, muscles and sinew…

You increase the volume on the television, praying the noise cancels out your thoughts and that Leon comes back inside soon.

--

Leon finishes his perimeter check once again in an even 25, satisfied there’s been no unwanted guests since his last round and confirming what he’d seen via the camera feeds. It’s coming up to 1700 now - he’ll need to make some sort of dinner for you to take your meds with, so realistically his 2000 self-imposed deadline for submitting his report to Hunnigan is not happening. He can throw them together pretty quickly– experienced agent that he is – but he knows his limits. Doesn’t exactly want to rush this, especially when he hopes it’s going to clear your name. He takes out his phone and types out a text.

Need to revise my report ETA. Midnight do?

He expects Hunnigan’s caller ID to flash up as soon as she’ll have read his text, but there’s nothing. Huh – must be wrapped up in something else. He repeats his whole garage routine, eyeing up the duffel bag he’d dumped on top of the dryer when he’d came out and sighs.

He's been in safe houses before - wasn't lying about that - just not with such pleasant company, nor anyone who really deserved it so far. His track run has always been Umbrella scientists who have suddenly developed a conscience, pleading for protection and a lenient jail sentence in return for information on the corporation, or other people involved in the production of BOWs. He's certainly not made the likes of them oatmeal in the morning, drizzled a smiley face in honey – what was he thinking, again? - lunch and dinner, washed and dried dishes, helped them changed, tucked them up in bed. Hell, one guy he’d made sleep on the floor cos he was such a jerk. They’d been sent to a studio apartment of all things and Leon had happily set himself up in the bed, dumping his duffel bag of weapons across the bedspread and sat there cleaning them all methodically, checking cartridges and glaring at the man he deemed a worthless piece of shit who was sat on the two-seater sofa, sweating buckets.

He picks up the duffel bag and moves to unlock the door. Once he's submitted the report and Hunnigan's searched your place, then he'll be able to drop a couple of the rules and…

And what, Kennedy? He scolds himself. Wishes he’d crossed paths with you at DSO HQ before on a day he was feeling confident enough to shoot his shot with a drinks and dinner invitation. Hunnigan’s right from this morning – he’s grown sweet on you particularly fast, but that’s something he’s managed to retain from his younger years, too easily a lovesick puppy for any woman who will entertain it, even after everything with Ada. But it’s a little different with you, just the way he recognizes that look in your eyes, the very one of guilt, disbelief and horror that he had when he looked in the mirror after getting out of Raccoon City and every mission since. 

He finally heads back inside, locking the door back up securely again. You don’t look to have moved from your position on the sofa, still looking at the television but the volume’s increased - he’s sure if he were to ask about what was happening you wouldn’t have a clue. It’s only the day after, you’ll still be trying to process everything, all whilst being locked up in a safe house with a near enough stranger and away from all your home comforts.

He places down the duffel bag carefully in its usual position before slowing walking over, making sure his steps are a little heavier than usual, aware that you might be too wrapped up in your own thoughts to have heard him re-enter and he really doesn’t wanna make you jump, very aware of how on edge you’re still going to be.

Once he’s sure he’s in your peripheral vision, he waves – smooth, Kennedy – know he’s got a goofy-looking smile on his face as he drops his arm back to his side. “Er… I’m back.”

“Hi,” you can’t help but smile back at his awkward little half-wave. “Everything okay out there?”

“Yeah – all clear, as expected. You hungry? Thought I could whip up some dinner to go alongside your next dose of painkillers.”

“I think I could manage something.” Your appetite is still shy – managed half a sandwich at lunch and that was sitting a little heavy in your stomach, but you know that Leon’s not going to let you take medication again without some sort of food.

“Okay, lemme see what we’ve got.” He claps his hands together, heading back towards the kitchen. You wince a little as you turn in place to watch him rummage through the cupboards, trying to assemble a meal from what the DSO had packed up. About a moment or two later, he pops his head up above the counter. “How about pasta? I think I can put together a somewhat decent tomato sauce for it.”

“Pasta sounds good.” You get to your feet as he ducks his head back down, continues his rummage in the cupboards before placing various items out as he works it all out in his head. “I know I’m one-handed, but… can I do anything?”

He stands up then with a bag of pasta in hand, ready to protest when he takes another good look at you, standing awkwardly at the edge of the kitchen area, sees the tinge of frustration across your face about everything clear as day, obviously sick of the television for now and he can’t blame you - there’s nothing else to do here but sleep, eat and watch that.

“Yeah, actually,” he sweeps his hair out of his face and places down the pasta on the counter. “I think I can find something.”

20 minutes later, you’re stood at the hob, stirring Leon’s off-the-cuff tomato sauce – a can of chopped tomatoes, some peppers and herbs - to stop it from sticking to the bottom of the pot as the pasta bubbles away in another, all whilst he grates some cheese on the counter behind you. It’s the easiest job by far, you’re having to stir it oh so gently, lacking the other hand to hold the pot handle steady and you know it would probably be fine left alone to simmer, but it’s nice to feel like you’re contributing a little at last.

“How we doing over here?” Leon stands behind you, looks over your shoulder at his culinary creations.

“Okay, I think. It smells good.”

“Ah, trying to flatter the chef.” His watch beeps – a timer he’d set for the pasta. “Excuse me.”

You think he’s going to step forward to turn off the hob so you step back at the same time that he places a hand on your waist, thinking you were about to move off to the side. You bump into his chest – a reminder of how solid it had been when you’d taken that involuntarily nap on him earlier and Leon swallows down a nervous chuckle as your backside nestles for a moment against his crotch.

“Sorry, Dove, I-“

“Oh, sorry-“

The two of you apologise over each other, awkwardly, and you finally step to the side, Leon dropping his hand to swiftly turn the heat off the hob for both of the pots. “I… I think I’m good here – do you want to handle drinks?”

“Yeah, sure.” You duck your head down, swearing your face is now as red as the pasta sauce, and retrieve the glasses from the coffee table from earlier, refilling them with water from the kitchen tap and returning them back one by one, as Leon sets about draining the pasta and then combining the two.

You don’t sit yet and hang back, watching him dish up between two bowls before he slides on towards the end of the counter, followed by the plate of grated cheese. “Wanna do your own cheese too?”

“Yeah - thanks.” You walk forward and grab some of the cheese to sprinkle over the pasta. It feels nice to have some autonomy again, to be contributing in any sort of way and you think maybe, just maybe, you could get used to this awkwardness of the situation, even if it’s just through dinner…

Leon crouches down to open a cupboard and you hear him fiddle with the metal lockbox being unlocked as he retrieves your medication.

..maybe not.

---

Masterlist . Requests welcome . Commissions/Ko-Fi

Comments, follows, likes and reblogs make my day! Part six.

[bluejayblueskies]

the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the ambition of the world | phynoma

[ID: Two pictures of two hand-bound books, the first of which shows their front covers and the second of which shows their spines and part of their front covers at an angle. The leftmost book is bound in yellow bookcloth and has a hand-embroidered smiling mouth with bloody teeth on the bottom portion of the front and back cover. The title, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the ambition of the world" is in the top right corner in black as well as the words "volume one" in maroon. The rightmost book is bound in red bookcloth and has a hand-embroidered ribcage on the lefthand side of the front cover and the righthand side of the back cover. The title, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the ambition of the world" is in the top right corner in black as well as the words "volume two" in white. Both volumes have stitching across the spine that joins the embroidery on the front and back covers so that the design stretches across the spine. /End ID]

It's finally time to share the books I made for the 2023 Rusty Quill Big Bang, hosted by @pilesofnonsense! This year, I was paired with the wonderful @phynoma, who wrote a post-circus AU entitled the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the ambition of the world where Jon is marked by an entity known as the Consuming that feeds off hunger and desire and focuses, in Jon's case, around sexual hunger and desire. It's a truly spectacular fic with excellent worldbuilding, spot-on characterization, and a wide variety of sexual encounters of all flavors, and I highly recommend it!

As this fic is written in transcript format, I wanted to go with an open-spine binding style that would have the advantage of both lying extremely flat when opened and giving the fic a more screenplay-like appearance. Also as a consequence of the transcript format, the final page count ended up being large enough that I split the fic into two volumes, the first of which covers season three and the second of which covers seasons four and five.

[ID: Two pictures of the same hand-bound books, the first of which shows volume one and the second of which shows volume two. Both books are fully open to display their front and back covers touching. We can see that the embroidered design, half of which is on the front cover and half of which is on the back, forms a complete picture when the book is fully open. /End ID]

Each volume has hand-embroidered front and back covers, with titles done in black, white, and maroon gel pen. The covers were designed so that when the book is fully open, the front and back cover designs come together to form one single cohesive image. Additionally, when the book is closed, the spine stitching was done so that the design stretches across the spine, thus making the full design complete whether the book is fully open or fully closed. I'm really proud of how these covers turned out, and even though the embroidery took much longer than I anticipated it taking, it's definitely something I would do again!

More description and pictures of the interior of the books are below the cut:

I went with a visually simple yet technically complex design for the typeset of this fic. Microsoft Word's styles were very much my friend, as well as its advanced find-and-replace feature, to automate a lot of the formatting for this fic. The most complex bits were the group chat excerpts and making sure all the profile pictures were positioned correctly, as well as the email chain excerpts in volume one. The text messages were done separately in an HTML workspace and then included via screenshots, and because I had an HTML/CSS text message code already sitting around from a previous project, those were relatively simple to format!

[ID: Eight pictures of the interior of the hand-bound books from previous photos. The first picture shows the title page of volume one, which has the title and author name in black and "volume one" in red, as well as a picture of a ginko tree. The second picture shows the title page of volume two, which has the title and author name in black and "volume two" in red, as well as a picture of a cherry blossom tree. The third picture shows the colophon and table of contents for volume two, highlighting the binder logos--a bluejay and a bookpress--and the faux-label table of contents title. The fourth picture shows the chapter header page for the chapter "voyeurism" in volume one, featuring brackets around the notes, content warnings, and pairings for the chapter as well as a quote from the confessions of augustine, which is separated from the warnings with an open eye graphic. The fifth picture shows the beginning of the chapter "hunger in the garden" in volume two, displaying the transcript formatting of the text as well as the faux-label chapter name on the top left. The sixth picture shows text messages in volume two, which are formatted the same as text messages on an iOS system with blue and gray bubbles and a name header that says "Jonathan Sims." The seventh picture shows some chapter text as well as a faux-office memo, done in a sans serif font, written from Elias Bouchard to the Archives team. The eighth picture shows on the left page faux emails, done in an iOS style with profile pictures for each email, and on the right page a faux-group message with profile pictures for each member and a header that labels the groupchat as the Snarkivists. /End ID]

The fonts used for this typeset were chosen based on those used for the unofficial Magnus Archives transcripts--DejaVu Sans Mono for the chapter intro pages and Libre Baskerville for the body text. I'm not 100% sure that those are the actual fonts used for the unofficial transcripts, but based on the reverse font search I did, those seem to be a close match for it.

This was a big project for me, and I'm so happy to finally see it to completion! Once again, a big thanks to Phynoma for being such a wonderful partner to work with--I'm excited to send you these books so you can see them in person 💜

[centrally-unplanned]

I blogged before about this company, Orange, that is an AI-powered manga translation company. Essentially, their pitch is that most manga is still (officially) untranslated, a ton of manga gets made after all but few become mainstream enough to get ported overseas. They posit the barrier to that is the cost of translation; if they could automate that process, then they can make viable for release what previously was not. That concept rests on two questions - does the tech pan out, and does the economics add up?

Recently they went live, under the name Emaqi, so we can better explore those questions. What I notice on first glance is the pitch seems to have shifted a little bit in post:

You are not the translators of Vinland Saga, Witch Hat Atelier, or Magic Knight Rayearth, very obviously so. They have Sailor Moon in here lol. These are just the official translations being cross-listed into their "manga platform", where you buy it there and it lives, DRM-locked, in their app. Which is fair enough as a model, that is just Kindle, it works. Though Kindle and a dozen others already exist, so their value-add has to be the AI translation stuff right? That is why I would choose this over another app.

Which they do have, though it is kind of buried:

"Only on emaqi" - there is no mention of the translation approach, poor guys! Can't fault the branding decision I guess given the state of the discourse. When it comes to the products themselves, I went through ~6 or so of the sample chapters of different manga, did a few spot checks with the original Japanese, and read the reviews of some others who looked into it. They seem fine! I am cautiously impressed, I think there proofers did a good job smoothing out some edges, it has a "manga tone", and while small issues like the hyphenation the reviewer above mentioned do exist and are legit noticeable, they aren't common and not a huge deal. It has flow issues? Some dialogue should link together in how it is written, but doesn't. But it isn't crazy off or anything. You will not be wowed by these, but certainly if you are someone who reads bootleg scanlations you are gonna have no problems. A lot of manga uses pretty simple vocab and isn't breaking new ground on plot, I can see how a purpose-built tool could handle it well enough.

The economics though...here is where I don't think this case was ever going to pencil out and isn't now. Because I am pretty sure no one here has heard of any of the manga listed above as exclusives. (I saw 90's manga Geobreeders in there, but that was already partially translated in the 2000's, not sure if they did a new one? Setting it aside) Which, of course you haven't, if you had it probably would have been translated! Books are a 90:10 market, most books never get read and some books get read a ton. Anything big enough can justify a professional translation, and the other can't really sell to begin with.

On top of that, their model is mass translation; which means these obscure manga are presented to you with no context, no hype, no build-up. Wtf is The Blood Blooms In the Barrens?? See, if you were like a boutique publisher, selecting "the best of the best" in untranslated manga, you would promote your specific product. Interviews, social media, the value of the brand-itself as a quality seal. Publishing less is more, actually, your value as a publisher is as a quality selector. Or you could be say the porn market, where you max quantity so people can search "foot fetish breeding kink oshi no ko" and get results; they know what they want. But they aren't doing either! And to be blunt a lot of these are not gonna sell on their art alone:

I'm not mocking The Delayed Highschool Life of a Laborer here, that is better than I could do; but if you want to me spend money on a whim the bar is high and these don't reach it. Which of course they don't, they would be professionally translated if they did.

And finally, the price - $5 dollars, for volume 1's, like a 100-200 pages. The cross-listed manga typically sells for ~$10? That isn't much cheaper! If "translation" was this big cost barrier, and all you got is cutting the price of ebooks in half, I don't know if the analysis was so solid. This is a new product, I doubt they are overcharging to make a quick buck right now - this is the "sell at cost to scale" era.

In all of their lead up press they would say things like this:

Orange's process uses AI to read the manga through image analysis and character recognition, then to translate the words into English, Chinese and other languages. The technology is specialized for manga, meaning it is able to handle wordplay and other difficult-to-translate phrases. A human translator then makes corrections and adjustments. The process can deliver a manga translation in as little as two days. Orange will work with multiple Japanese publishers. The company looks initially to complete 500 translations monthly.

But this is missing a lot of context. For one, these manga are simple high school or battle manga that are ~200 pages long, many of those pages have only a few lines of dialogue, etc. Imagine you are a professional translator, and you are given that manga to translate, all the set-up done for you, all you gotta do is write. How long do you think that would take? Not that long! It could probably take like a week if it's actually all you did (calc'd from a 10k word count manga volume, 2k is a typical "good translator" per day count - many manga are shorter than that). And note how they said "as little as two days" - not median two days! Just, you know, aspirationally.

Translation is just not a big bottleneck. You gotta do layouts, lettering, proofs, etc, these can all take just as much time - and are being done by people, they still need wage workers doing all this. But that is small fry in comparison to publishing contracts, author approvals, distribution, all of that. And most importantly, product acquisition - you have to get authors to sign with you! That can be months of work. I am sure they are trying to get bulk agreements with publishers and such, but authors will push back on that, this is not an easy endeavor.

Which is why, in above, they say they hope to have "500 translations monthly". And after a year+ of work, on launch, they have...

...18. As best I can tell at least, their site deliberately obfuscates what they actually translated versus are just hosting for resale after all.

So yeah, as mentioned I don't think the economics pencil out. These aren't worth $5 dollars, they can't actually generate volume that makes "massive economies of scale" actually valuable, and their approach is currently antithetical to the idea of generating traction for any of their individual works. Niche publishing just doesn't work this way.

But it is early days, and hey I respect the experiment! I do think the tech is pretty good, and it is nice to see a company showcase it. It isn't quite good enough yet for prime time, but it could get there. I do want more manga to get exposure and audience; I will give a fair shake to any who try.

[beingharsh]

Assuming the cow with ear tag #1389 had a typical life on a small or industrial scale dairy farm, she, herself, would be the result of a long line of genetic selection of dairy breeding chosen over generations to select for qualities like volume of milk production (10 times the normal amount needed to sustain a calf), milk taste, temperament. In other words, her body, to begin with, would be the result of human interference, breeding, and selection for traits deemed desirable and profitable for commodity production. When she reached 15 months of age, she would be impregnated through artificial insemination for the first time... With a nine-month gestation period, she would give birth for the first time (usually to a single calf) at 24 months. Three weeks before giving birth, she would be moved into a ‘maternity pen’ with other cows nearing their due dates. When the time came, she would be isolated and monitored while she gives birth to her calf. Several hours after the calf is born, it would be taken away from the cow and she would be moved into the milking string. If the calf were female, she would be raised there on the dairy farm, sold to another dairy farm, or raised by a heifer-growing contractor off-site. She would be fed discarded milk or milk replacer and weaned at 6–8 weeks of age after which she would be group housed until she reached a reproductive age. Just before weaning, she would be dehorned, vaccinated, and have any extra teats removed (EPA 2012)... After the calf is removed, even on a small farm, the cow would likely be confined to a barn. From there, she and the other cows would be taken two (or more likely, three) times per day into the milking parlor, attached to machines, and milked. Most dairy farms have shifted to the use of the milking machines, rather than milking cows by hand, in the squeeze for greater efficiency... When the milking is complete, the machine is detached from the cow’s teats and the cows are herded back into their main pen where they await their next milking. Increasingly, this process is becoming more automated with automated milking systems becoming more popular in order to further eliminate human labor (Holloway 2007). About 60–90 days after the cow gives birth, she would be artificially inseminated again and continuously milked through her pregnancy until 60 days before giving birth (the ‘drying off’ period). This cycle of artificial insemination, birth, and milking would be repeated for several years until lameness, mastitis, infertility, and/or declining milk production set in. These conditions are common in cows used for dairy because of the immense physical strain and nutrient depletion (hence their frequent emaciated appearance) caused by the excessive milking and forced impregnation inherent in the industry. At this point, the farmer would make a careful calculation of her profitability as a milk producer weighed against the cost of maintaining her. When she is deemed ‘spent’, she would end up at auction, or she might be sent directly to the slaughterhouse. If the cow with ear tag #1389 had not failed to sell at the auction yard, she would have been purchased for slaughter and her body would have become ground beef. What parts of her body did not end up as ground beef would have gone to a rendering facility and into the production of leather, fertilizer, cosmetics, glue, and pharmaceuticals (EPA 2012). The fetishization of these commodity products enables their use without ever thinking of the bodily suffering of the cow. And yet, the commodification of the cow is so complete in life and again in death that at no point is her life and body her own.

"Sexualized violence and the gendered commodification of the animal body in Pacific Northwest US dairy production", Kathryn Gillespie

[singingcicadas]

Every time I see something along the lines of "Megatron was a slave because he was oppressed and forced to work in the mines, forced labour is slavery and oppression is slavery so what happened to Megatron was obviously slavery" a question mark pops up in my head and it's so fucking funny because. Social studies. History. Basic literary analysis skills.

Like I'm gonna be assuming whoever's in the 'Megatron was a slave' camp is talking about idw1 and tfp b/c those are the only two continuities that have Megatron coming from an oppressed background in depth. If it's idw1 then how could anyone miss the obvious communism reference in Megatron Origin? (Guaranteed it's a loose, twisted, villifying, Western-lensed, not-very-good reference, but point is that it's OBVIOUS and unmistakably RECOGNIZABLE.) Workers' revolt ring a bell? It's the first issue in the collection volumes so even if people run out of patience without finishing anything they should have been able to at least get through that before, y'know, making unfounded claims about canon. And the stuff I'm talking about should've been evident in the first chapter. Were the miners upset because they were forced to work in the mines? No, they were upset because the government was closing the mines and laying them off and replacing them with automation; they were upset because soon there would be no mines left for them to work and then they would starve.

'Slavery is forced labour' yeah but uh that's only one facet of it. Forced labour because of livelihood: 'I have to work here b/c it's the only job that's available to me and I have no means of obtaining the skills/licence/opportunity for a different job or bettering my circumstances, if I quit I'll have no income/food/shelter and starve out on the streets' is fundamentally different from forced labour due to state institution of ownership over people: 'I have to work here because I am the private property of the facility owner and am forbidden by law to leave or quit.'

Does anyone like, not see the difference between the two scenarios? Only the latter would be slavery since it has the defining characteristics of 1. legalization of the ownership of people and 2. restriction of liberty. In concurrence. The first scenario's just describing what every fucking exploited worker/peasant/wage-earning lowclass commoner in the world looks like, it's called proletarianism. It's a completely different class category in a completely different social structure that's in no way interchangeable or confusable with slavery unless you want to say that communist revolutions were done by slaves and every wage worker in the industrial revolution was a slave. why not go back further while at it and serfdom can be slavery feudalism is slavery indentureship corvee conscription are all slavery lmao way to rewrite history.

For the people who's only read MTMTE and nothing else there's even a specific scene in there that says this 🔽

This is talking about Rewind. The text literally gives us what used to be the equivalent in Cybertronian society and it's clearly not Megatron's class. And why was Rewind's class equated to slaves? Because they were considered disposable tools, not sentient people. The Ambus Test helped them get rights by proving their sentience as people, which further proves that they don't keep sentient people as slaves.

If it's TFP then did anyone notice that Megatron started as a miner but met Optimus as a gladiator? If he was so absolutely forced to work in the mines as a slave then how was he allowed to leave?

This is how Covenant of Primus describes Megatron going to work in the mines. It's "the only opening available to him". It doesn't say that he's assigned a master at birth and was legally obligated to go work in that opening on pain of punishment. Just implies that he'd be out of a job and income and would probably starve if he didn't. There's still an illusion of choice, of free will.

The closest thing Aligned had to slavery was the Quintession occupation era but the Covenant also spent a whole section talking about how it started out as a mutually beneficial relationship with the Quintessions presenting themselves as the more advanced race and Cybertronians eagerly accepting them as 'masters' (honourific term, not literal) in a pseudo colonizer-who-civilized-the-indigenous-barbarians-and-used-them-for-cheap-labour dynamic which got more and more exploitational as time went on until the Cybertronians had enough and drove them off. But even during the peak of occupation the Quintessions were still careful to give Cybertron the pretense of sovereignty. It was the Quintessions who introduced them to the electoral system and inaugurated the office of the Prime in the first place. The illusion of free will and equality was always there, despite everyone knowing otherwise.

Exodus is extremely clear in describing Cybertron as a birth-defined caste system with rigid hierarchy and little mobility. So that's exactly what it is. a caste system. Not a slave society. There's a reason they're different words, they're different concepts! I don't get why people would feel the need to replace one with the other, does slavery sound better? edgier? Is the purpose for making Megatron an ex-slave to have his backstory sound more tragic? to induce more sympathy? idc people are free to headcanon what they want but at least have the decency to refrain from framing it as canon and bashing other characters with it? Stuff like 'oh Optimus was so selfish/naive/entitled/stupid/insensitive/traitorous/opportunist/privileged to accept the prime title in front of Megatron the poor ex-slave' nevermind that Megatron had repeatedly expressed a desire for taking power through whatever cruel means necessary and was perfectly eager to become prime when he thought he was the one going to be chosen? Nevermind that the council offered up a chance for implementing all the social changes they wanted through legal means with the least amount of bloodshed and Megatron threw it all away b/c he didn't get to be in charge, by committing murder on the spot? Nevermind that 'Megatron the poor ex-slave' is a massive bigoted racist who looks down on Optimus' job and is disgusted by minicons and combiners and insecticons as well as being a devout believer of 'survival of the fittest and the rest don't deserve to live' -type social darwinism and a domestic terrorist happy to blow up factories full of his own caste members and places full of innocent people? Nevermind that Megatron and Optimus already had a deep rift between them because of Megatron betraying Optimus' trust by lying about his role in the bombings and Optimus already recognizing that their methods were never going to match up b/c of Megatron's disregard of innocent life and Megatron never really trusting Optimus anyway? As if making Megatron a slave somehow excuses all of that and pins all the blame on Optimus.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Preserved in our archive

A research letter from 2022 highlighting the effects of even "mild" covid on the brain.

Dear Editor,

A recent study published in Nature by Douaud and colleagues1 shows that SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with longitudinal effects, particularly on brain structures linked to the olfactory cortex, modestly accelerated reduction in global brain volume, and enhanced cognitive decline. Thus, even mild COVID-19 can be associated with long-lasting deleterious effects on brain structure and function.

Loss of smell and taste are amongst the earliest and most common effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, headaches, memory problems, confusion, or loss of speech and motility occur in some individuals.2 While important progress has been made in understanding SARS-CoV-2-associated neurological manifestations, the underlying mechanisms are under debate and most knowledge stems from analyses of hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19.2 Most infected individuals, however, develop mild to moderate disease and recover without hospitalization. Whether or not mild COVID-19 is associated with long-term neurological manifestations and structural changes indicative of brain damage remained largely unknown.

Douaud and co-workers examined 785 participants of the UK Biobank (www.ukbiobank.ac.uk) who underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) twice with an average inter-scan interval of 3.2 years, and 401 individuals testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection between MRI acquisitions (Fig. 1a). Strengths of the study are the large number of samples, the availability of scans obtained before and after infection, and the multi-parametric quantitative analyses of serial MRI acquisitions.1 These comprehensive and automated analyses with a non-infected control group allowed the authors to dissect consistent brain changes caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection from pre-existing conditions. Altogether, the MRI scan processing pipeline used extracted more than 2,000 features, named imaging-derived phenotypes (IDPs), from each participant’s imaging data. Initially, the authors focused on IDPs involved in the olfactory system. In agreement with the frequent impairment of smell and taste in COVID-19, they found greater atrophy and indicators of increased tissue damage in the anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex and insula, as well as in the ventral striatum, amygdala, hippocampus and para-hippocampal gyrus, which are connected to the primary olfactory cortex (Fig. 1b). Taking advantage of computational models allowing to differentiate changes related to SARS-CoV-2 infection from physiological age-related brain changes (e.g. decreases of brain volume with aging),3 they also explored IDPs covering the entire brain. Although most individuals experienced only mild symptoms of COVID-19, the authors detected an accelerated reduction in whole-brain volume and more pronounced cognitive declines associated with increased atrophy of a cognitive lobule of the cerebellum (crus II) in individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to the control group. These differences remained significant when 15 people who required hospitalization were excluded. Most brain changes for IDPs were moderate (average differences between the two groups of 0.2–2.0%, largest for volume of parahippocampal gyrus and entorhinal cortex) and accelerated brain volume loss was “only” observed in 56–62% of infected participants. Nonetheless, these results strongly suggest that even clinically mild COVID-19 might induce long-term structural alterations of the brain and cognitive impairment.

The study provides unique insights into COVID-19-associated changes in brain structure. The authors took great care in appropriately matching the case and control groups, making it unlikely that observed differences are due to confounding factors, although this possibility can never be entirely excluded. The mechanisms underlying these infection-associated changes, however, remain to be clarified. Viral neurotropism and direct infection of cells of the olfactory system, neuroinflammation and lack of sensory input have been suggested as reasons for the degenerative events in olfactory-related brain structures and neurological complications.4 These mechanisms are not mutually exclusive and may synergize in causing neurodegenerative disorders as consequence of COVID-19.

The study participants became infected between March 2020 and April 2021, before the emergence of the Omicron variant of concern (VOC) that currently dominates the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time period, the Alpha and Beta VOCs dominated in the UK and all results were obtained from individuals between 51 and 81 years of age. It will be of great interest to clarify whether Omicron, that seems to be less pathogenic than other SARS-CoV-2 variants, also causes long-term brain damage. The vaccination status of the participants was not available in the study1 and it will be important to clarify whether long-term changes in brain structure also occur in vaccinated and/or younger individuals. Other important questions are whether these structural changes are reversible or permanent and may even enhance the frequency for neurodegenerative diseases that are usually age-related, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or Huntington’s disease. Previous findings suggest that cognitive disorders improve over time after severe COVID-19;5 yet it remains to be determined whether the described brain changes will translate into symptoms later in life such as dementia. Douaud and colleagues report that none of top 10 IDPs correlated significantly with the time interval between SARS-CoV-2 infection and the 2nd MRI acquisition, suggesting that the observed abnormalities might be very long-lasting.

Currently, many restrictions and protective measures are relaxed because Omicron is highly transmissible but usually causes mild to moderate acute disease. This raises hope that SARS-CoV-2 may evolve towards reduced pathogenicity and become similar to circulating coronaviruses causing mild respiratory infections. More work needs to be done to clarify whether the current Omicron and future variants of SARS-CoV-2 may also cause lasting brain abnormalities and whether these can be prevented by vaccination or therapy. However, the finding by Douaud and colleagues1 that SARS-CoV-2 causes structural changes in the brain that may be permanent and could relate to neurological decline is of concern and illustrates that the pathogenesis of this virus is markedly different from that of circulating human coronaviruses. Further studies, to elucidate the mechanisms underlying COVID-19-associated neurological abnormalities and how to prevent or reverse them are urgently needed.

REFERENCES (Follow link)

[mariacallous]

The price of bitcoin went over $100,000 for a few hours on Dec. 5, peaking at $103,400. The financial press can’t resist constructing a hand-waving story of market forces, so bitcoin going past $100,000 has been attributed to a market reaction to President-elect Donald Trump’s lining up a slate of pro-cryptocurrency cabinet, advisory, and regulatory picks after the crypto industry put more money into funding Republican candidates in this last election cycle than anyone had previously put into an election in history.

But crypto trading is thin and almost entirely unregulated—perfect conditions for commodity market manipulation. The public image of cryptocurrency is still shaped by the 2023 trial of Sam Bankman-Fried of the failed FTX crypto exchange, culminating in his conviction—and not to mention the hangover from the NFT fiasco. Crypto is seen as the domain of cheap scammers. Ordinary people are not flocking into crypto.

Coincident with the bitcoin price news was the collapse of the Hawk Tuah crypto token. Haliey Welch, who told an oral sex joke that went viral on YouTube, leveraged her momentary fame into a career as an influencer and podcaster. This culminated in the meme-coin cryptocurrency $HAWK, marketed entirely on amusement value, which crashed on launch in what looked very like a pump-and-dump—tokens were dumped on ordinary buyers soon after launch, crashing the price.

Welch denied that insiders had dumped her token and blamed automated snipers who bought the token the moment it was released, then dumped immediately. The Hawk Tuah-token fiasco only strengthened crypto’s image as a place where fools lose their money being foolish.

The price of bitcoin has recovered since the November 2021 peak of the last bubble—but actual-dollar retail trading volumes have not. Coinbase’s retail trading volumes are $127 billion so far in 2024—much better than 2023’s $75 billion, but nothing like the 2021 bubble’s $545 billion.

Bitcoin remains a strangely useless asset that doesn’t do anything. All you can do with it is buy, sell, or hold. The only use for cryptocurrency other than pure zero-sum speculation is bitcoin’s original use case: evading regulations, most often for illegal purchases, money laundering, or dodging sanctions. One might be justified in evading some regulations in some cases—but most are there for good reason.

The largest actual-U.S.-dollar crypto exchange is Coinbase. But price discovery takes place at the venue with the largest trading volume: the offshore exchange Binance. This exchange admitted a string of money laundering offenses in 2023, was fined over $4 billion, and was placed under stringent compliance monitoring by the U.S. Department of Justice and FinCEN.

But the Binance trading floor itself remains an unregulated free-for-all as long as U.S. entities are not caught trading there. Every market manipulation that would be illegal in the United States happens at Binance and similar unregulated, offshore floating crypto casinos—wash trading, flash crashes, delayed settlements, spoofing, and the exchange trading against its own customers.

Bitcoin trading volume is substantially against two dubious U.S.-dollar stablecoins: tether and FDUSD. These are minted in round billions at a time. It is frankly not plausible that anyone put billions of U.S. dollars into tethers or FDUSD to buy bitcoins on an offshore exchange with above-board intentions. They could have just used the money to buy bitcoins directly at a U.S.-dollar crypto exchange or, safest of all, to buy bitcoin ETF shares from any securities broker. The purpose of buying billions of tethers is to manipulate the price of bitcoin.

Each stablecoin is supposedly backed by a U.S. dollar held in a bank account—except when it isn’t. Tether Inc. has long created tethers out of thin air as loans, with the listed backing asset being the loan itself. Banks do this, too, but banks are regulated. Eighteen billion tethers have been created just since Trump’s election on Nov. 5, bringing the total issuance to 135 billion. How far could you pump the price of bitcoin with 18 billion instant pseudo-dollars?

The other use case for tethers is crime. Zeke Faux’s Number Go Up details the value of tethers as a dollar substitute for those too crooked to get dollars—it’s the favored currency for “pig-butchering” romance scams run by human traffickers. The U.K. National Crime Authority and the U.S. Treasury recently cracked an international money-laundering ring that used tethers to serve drug dealers, ransomware groups, Russian espionage operations, and sanctioned entities; the NCA called tether, not bitcoin, the “cryptocurrency du jour.” The news of the bust came out just before bitcoin hit $100,000. Tether-fueled bitcoin pumps seem to coincide with bad news mentioning tethers.

Tether Inc. is sensitive to the criminal use case for its coin and frequently freezes tainted tethers on the requests of the Office of Foreign Assets Control and FinCEN—but only after the fact. This requires Tether Inc.’s operations to be much more organized than they have been previously—such as during the years when the reserve was tracked, not in proper accounts but in a shared spreadsheet that was often out of date. Despite its compliance efforts, Tether Inc. is the subject of an ongoing federal criminal investigation by the Manhattan office of the Southern District of New York into possible anti-money-laundering and sanctions failures.

Tether Inc. has worked to mend its reputation in the corridors of power. The company does not operate in the United States, but it does keep much of the cash portion of its reserve in U.S. Treasury bills. These are custodied by Cantor Fitzgerald, whose CEO, Howard Lutnick, wanted to become Trump’s new Treasury secretary and will be brought in for commerce. Cantor Fitzgerald recently bought a share in Tether Inc.

After the crypto industry’s success with directing unheard-of quantities of campaign funding to the cause of electing Trump, we should anticipate further such attempts to curry favor. The Trump family’s own crypto project, World Liberty Financial, was set to fail until crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, proprietor of offshore crypto exchange HTX, dived in and bought $30 million of its WLFI coin—taking World Liberty over the threshold so Trump would get a $15 million payout from the project.

Sun is given to flashy stunts, like purchasing Maurizio Cattelan’s duct-taped banana artwork Comedian (with cryptocurrency) and then eating the banana on stage. These give the media something to talk about other than Sun’s legal and regulatory issues, most recently the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s ongoing suit against Sun for securities violations. Sun looks forward to a more “friendly” U.S. crypto market under the new administration, with the pro-crypto Paul Atkins as Trump’s planned SEC chair.

One of the greatest channels for payback to his crypto allies may be Trump’s proposal at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in June for a U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve, apparently on the basis that the nation needs a store of this speculative commodity largely used for crime. Trump originally proposed that the government hold onto bitcoins that had been seized as proceeds of crime, rather than sell them off.

The current proposal to bolster crypto is Senator Cynthia Lummis’ Bitcoin Act of 2024, in which the Treasury and the Federal Reserve would buy 200,000 bitcoins each year for five years. The U.S. government would become the bitcoin holder of last resort, and the beneficiaries would be the crypto industry—and not ordinary Americans.

The incoming U.S. administration wants to clear “experts” from the bureaucracy. If the incoming executive branch wants crypto to operate freely, it will do its best to force crypto through and remove all possible impediments. Crypto’s perennial issues with fraud and impoverishing retail investors, and regulator’s fears of the risk of contagion from crypto to the wider economy, are likely to be glossed over so as to ensure market opportunities for administration insiders.

But in the end, gravity still works, and a balloon can be inflated only so much. The bitcoin bubble is an artifact of market manipulation and has no more economic substance than the Hawk Tuah coin does. The U.S. government may be ripe for plunder, but other nations need to take steps to shield themselves from the impact of rug-pulling on a global scale.

[maxiemumdamage]

I initially said this in the tags of someone’s fanart, but…

When you watch the RWBY trailers, none of then miss, but Yang’s trailer has a VERY different tone than the others. Partially in how it’s arranged, and partly in how it barely tells you anything about her.

I’m gonna start from the top here — first off, the trailers are clearly a progression. Ruby’s was in some ways just proof of concept for the show, but it also gave us the absolute least information as a result. The Red trailer has Ruby wearing a design that still gets tweaked, the song has four lines and they’re more about the whole team than Ruby herself (and even then more about the allusions than the characters in many ways), the designs for the Beowolves/Grimm aren’t yet crystallized as we know them. The Red trailer told us about RWBY, the show, but not Ruby the character.

Like, Red and White don’t even have speech — the songs are the only dialogue. But Weiss’s obviously tells us more; because the song has more lyrics, because she’s singing it in universe, because of the announcer at the beginning who tells us just a little bit of who she is.

And then things change with Blake’s trailer. It’s got the song and the very informative lyrics, but most of the dialogue is actual dialogue. Blake isn’t the only character present. She’s not fighting faceless monsters, but automated robots that are acting as security, which gives us a much better idea of the technological advances made in-universe. We see a whole cool biome in Forever Fall, and we meet a new character in Adam — even if the relationship is being ended as we watch, we do learn a lot about Blake. Plus, her quote most directly relates to the content of the trailer itself.

In some ways, the amount of info we get per trailer is progressively ramping up, right? So it makes sense that in Yang’s trailer, we get multiple characters with unique names and faces, a cool setting, a good bit of dialogue and even an explicit reason for the conflict.

Except we don’t get the actual reason for conflict fully explained until Volume 2. We know Yang is looking for someone, but we don’t know it’s Raven until far later. And Yang sharing that story wasn’t for her own benefit, but Blake’s! Even when Yang gives information about herself, it’s not for herself.

What do we see Yang do in her trailer? She fakes flirting with a guy, twice, just to beat him up. She orders a drink, demands information, starts a fight when she doesn’t get it, throws down with the DJ and two snotty mean girls. She gets mad about losing her golden hair after fighting the three bears — we get an explicit look at her fairy tale allusion at least. And then, crucially, we learn Yang’s name through Ruby. Her sister. Yang is the main character’s big sister, and that’s the last real bit of information we get. The trailer ends with Yang casually avoiding any meaningful explanations. The song is barely even hers! We get one minute of if I Burn, but the rest of the Yellow trailer is backed by remixes of the other three trailer songs. Yang is being defined by her relationships to other characters, but we don’t actually learn a whole lot about those, either. Because her trailer is Yang against the world, with her sister only there after the battle ends.

Yang is telling us nothing about who she actually is — what motivates her, her friends, her enemies. The conflict behind the fight is opened and shut in five minutes, and we don’t know the greater underlying reason for it at all. Yang only shows us that mask of the dumb party girl that she wears in the early volumes, which some people got fooled into thinking was her real character.

In some ways, though, we learn a lot about her. Because by flirting with Junior just to get him close enough to threaten and hit him — twice — she does tell us that the party girl mask is just that: an illusion. A facade she puts up to trick people dumb enough to underestimate her. Yang embraces her mask of the dumb party girl, then adds on the doting big sister. We see so much, but learn so little.

Yang doesn’t even hold the focus of her trailer at the end. Because the last moments of Yang’s trailer are the first times we hear Ruby speak.