#Process hazard analysis
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little-p-eng-engineering · 1 year ago
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Expert Refinery Engineering Solutions by Little P.Eng.
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Engineering Services
Located in Calgary, Alberta; Vancouver, BC; Toronto, Ontario; Edmonton, Alberta; Houston Texas; Torrance, California; El Segundo, CA; Manhattan Beach, CA; Concord, CA; We offer our engineering consultancy services across Canada and United States. Meena Rezkallah.
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strawburry01 · 11 months ago
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Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby
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Ford Pines x Fem! Reader (no Y/N mentions)
Summary: Ford and you are trying to find another cryptid but a thunderstorm causes some emotions.
AN: Thanks for liking the first one all! This is technically a Part 2, but doesn't rely on anything from the first part so don't worry.
Part 1
Word Count: 2k
 You stood in your dark room, humming along to the spinning vinyl as you painstakingly converted your camcorder footage to a VCR tape. Ford always noted that you could just save them to a computer, or just keep it on the camera itself- not understanding your insistence on saving it as physical media. Something in you liked the process though. It was meditative. Being able to uncap your marker and squeakily write the date and contents on the side, and then slide it alongside the rest of them in your growing library. It was rewarding to see the pile growing. Ford still had his growing notebooks, and you now had your growing video library. Between the two of you, both of your research had really been taking off.
As soon as the grant was passed, Ford and you shoved all your collective crap into his car and drove through the night, and then some, to make it to Gravity Falls. From the moment you crossed into town, you could tell he was right with his analysis. Something about the town felt so distinctly, well, weird. It was a quiet, small town, but everyone you met had been kind, although not very outwardly chatty. To be fair, two strangers from the east coast just moved in and were far too excited to be there. It was enough to confuse and freak out anyone.
But the two of you were fine with being the talk of the town. In fact you secretly thought Ford enjoyed the positive attention based on how much he convinced you to go to Greasy’s Diner for brunch. 
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, it’s scientifically proven,” Ford would always say trying to defend the addiction. As long as he paid, you weren’t complaining.
In the background your vinyl began to skip. You grumbled and flipped it over for the next side of songs as Ford entered, head deep in his notebook, not even acknowledging your presence.
“Knocking is considerate,” you commented as you focused on your work, glancing up at him as he sat in the chair nestled in the corner of the room. You had found it on the way into town on some random road with the word FREE spray painted on a sign nearby, so after mild convincing, Ford and you were able to balance it on top of the car.
“The door was open, you relinquished knocking privileges,” he said, without looking up,
“What if I was changing?” you said, “I could’ve been naked you perv,”. You watched as his face reddened and you couldn’t help but smile to yourself as he snapped out of his reading. 
You both liked each other. You felt like it was painfully obvious to everyone, even each other, but something kept you both from ever admitting it. Was it your scientific brains always insisting that it was some stupid imbalance of hormones and forced proximity? Both of your egos trying to constantly one up each other, never wanting to admit you liked the other? Perhaps the fact that if you actually admitted to liking each other, what would that mean for research? Or even worse, liking each other would mean you fell into the cliche.
But god, you had been around each other practically 24/7 for the past months now in Gravity Falls and it was only getting worse each day. Like a growing vine, only getting larger and larger. The only reason you were so confident Ford liked you back was the fact he never attempted to deflect your teasing. He was one to always correct you, or really anyone, if they said something incorrect, but whenever you taunted him, he would just redden and try to change the subject. 
Ford coughed in his chair and shifted as he uncapped his pen to continue an entry in his journal, trying to move past your teasing.
“Sounds like a safety hazard if you were in here without clothes,” he muttered. You threw a marker at him across the room.
“Don’t judge the artist, perhaps I was trying something new,” you said as you slid another tape, labeled “Gobblewonker Part 3” besides Part 1 and 2. 
“Let’s move from this hypothetical,” he said, firmly closing his journal, “there’s a storm coming in tonight according to weather reports. I wanted to try and see if we could catch the Thunderbird at some point,”.
“Pretty elusive fella, no?” you asked, scanning your tapes to see if you had anything on Thunderbirds.
“Yes, and unless you agree to a goat sacrifice this time we’ll just have to be patient and attentive,” he nodded. He really wanted you to agree to a sacrificial goat to draw one out. You crossed your arms and stared at him.
“Stanford Pines I’m not letting you go to hell for animal sacrifice,” you said.
“Fine, but don’t blame me when we can’t see one, because someone has strict morals all of the sudden,” he said as he stood up and left. 
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN ALL OF THE SUDDEN PINES?” you shouted after him.
It was no use. He disappeared into the small cabin you were both calling home for now. It was dark when the rain started. Big drops pelleted the roof, which didn’t enthuse you as Ford insisted on setting up outside. You bundled your rain slicker close, trying to create some warmth, but instead only making your clothes underneath damp. Ford on the other hand couldn’t be bothered it seemed. He was moving around his instruments too much for his hood to actually stay on, causing his hair and glasses to be drenched. 
“Do you need help?” you asked, not being able to watch him struggle for much longer.
“Can you just line up that telescope with the gap in the trees there?” he asked with a point towards the sky. You nodded and risked your fingers in the cold to swivel the telescope until it was centered on the break in foliage. You stood back up and saw Ford staring at you before he quickly looked away. He seemed stressed, so you spared a joke.
He let out a sigh as he stood back, looking over the set up. He dragged over two lawn chairs and held out his arms, gesturing for you to sit in one. Ford was damn lucky you believed in his confidence, you thought to yourself as you sat down. You couldn’t even use your camcorder out here because of the rain. You didn’t want to risk it. 
The two of you sat, listening to the rain fall off the trees for a while until you started dozing off, catching yourself every time and jolting up. Ford scooted his chair closer and put his arm on your chair. 
“Sorry it’s so late,” he said, “sleep on my arm if you need to. You’ll ruin your neck if you keep sleeping like that,” he noted. You smirked to yourself as you took him up on the offer, leaning onto his shoulder, not minding the drops that had accumulated on his coat.Before slipping into sleep you felt him put a hand on your leg, gently running over it with his thumb.
You weren’t sure how long you were out for when a crack of lightning lit up the sky and awoke you. Ford was instantly up and checking all his devices for the elusive Thunderbird, but you were frozen to your chair. The rumble of thunder filled your ears and paralyzed you in place. It was stupid, it was so stupid. You’re from the damn east coast, get over it, your brain chided, but your body couldn’t agree. You’d always been terrified of thunder, despite your knowledge that it was unlikely anything from a lightning storm would ever hurt you, you couldn’t help that loud noises from the sky scared you to death.
“Shit, are you okay?” Ford asked, realizing that you were not by his side. He turned and saw you, sitting down, but looking thousands of miles away. You wanted to nod your head yes, that everything was fine and you were over your dumb overreaction, but you couldn’t. You stared up at him through his dewy glasses and shook your head.
“I hate thunder,” you muttered, embarrassed, flinching as another rumble went overhead, “I thought I’d gotten over it…”. Ford stared at you and then turned back to his devices. 
“Let’s go inside. These will get any data and recordings I need,” he said as he pulled you up out of the chair. 
“I’m sorry-” you started to say before he cut you off.
“Don’t apologize. It’s a very understandable fear. It’s not worth your wellbeing,” he said as he continued leading you inside. 
Inside the house the noise from above only reverberated more it seemed, causing you to jump. You caught Ford almost commenting on it, before he closed his mouth and helped you out of your rain jacket instead. You kicked off your boots at the door and they thunked with mud against the wall. 
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you scared,” Ford quietly remarked as he hung up his own jacket. Before you can reply there’s another rumble of thunder, louder now, causing you to jump into Ford’s arms. You feel him seize up under the sudden touch, but he quickly wraps an arm around your back with the other on the back of your head, pressing you into his red-sweatered chest. You slowly let out a shaky breath as you tried to calm your nerves. Ford slowly started running his hand up and down your back trying to calm you as well. “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he repeated.
You two stood like this for a few minutes as lightning lit up the sky outside.
“I-I’m sorry Ford, I’ll be okay, I’m just going to go to my room,” you said as you stepped back out of his arms, despite your brain screaming at you you were a fool for doing so. 
“Can you actually sleep like this?” Ford asked, watching you walk to your room only to get stopped by another thrum of thunder. You looked over your shoulder.
 Swallow your pride you idiot, you both thought.
“Would you-”
“I could-”
“-keep me company?”
“-stay with you?”
You bit your bottom lip as you laughed, Ford laughed too and rubbed the back of his neck. Both of you could’ve been mistaken for high schoolers in that moment. 
You changed into your flannel pajama pants and oversized t-shirt as Ford dutifully faced the wall before changing into his boxers and one of your other oversized shirts you threw at him. 
“I don’t need this,” he said, holding it up.
“I can’t handle this much skin on you yet,” you replied as you slowly got under the covers. You felt the weight of the bed as he got in behind you. He softly grumbled complaints about wearing a shirt as he snaked his arms around your waist. 
"Is this okay?" he asked into your hair.
“Yes, now hush Pines,” you mumbled back. You shuddered a little as thunder rolled overhead again, causing Ford to tighten his hold on you.
“It’s alright, it’s alright,” he repeated as you calmed down again. You sighed into your pillow as you began to close your eyes.
“So…” Ford said, causing you to open an eye, “does this mean you like me?”.
“Do you like me?” you asked, tilting your head so you could try to face him. Ford took his chance to quickly kiss your cheek before you hid your head back into the pillow.
“Of course I am, are you kidding me? I’ve liked you since the first week of knowing you,” he said, “people aren’t friends with me, let alone people like you. You’re really important to me,”. You could feel your face heating up at his compliments as you tried to hide in the pillow, “Are you blushing? I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you do that…” he said with a chuckle.
“For fucks sake of course I am Ford, I’ve liked you for so long now too,” you admitted. The two of you were silent as rain continued to patter on the roof.
“Damn,” Ford said before nestling his head into the back of your neck, “I guess my brother was right,”.
You smiled as you began to doze off, with Ford holding onto you. Neither of you knew that you wouldn’t sleep alone again as long as you were in this universe.
Part 2.5 up
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blueiscoool · 5 months ago
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1,700-Year-Old Roman Gold Coin Hoard Found in Luxembourg
"Secret" excavations in Luxembourg reveal 141 Roman gold coins from eight Roman emperors and one usurper.
Archaeologists in Luxembourg have discovered a lavish 1,700-year-old hoard of Roman gold coins that had been placed near the foundations of a small, tower-like Roman fort.
The team unearthed 141 gold coins, which were minted between A.D. 364 and 408, in Holzthum, a village in northern Luxembourg. The coins feature portraits of eight emperors, but three coins portrayed an unexpected ruler: Eugenius, an illegitimate emperor of the Western Roman Empire who reigned for only two years (392 to 394).
This usurper, Eugenius, a rhetoric teacher and court official, was proclaimed emperor of the West by a powerful military officer, months after the western emperor Valentinian II was found hanged under mysterious circumstances. However, Theodosius I, the Christian emperor in the East, refused to recognize Eugenius and disapproved of his supposed policy of religious tolerance. This led to armed conflict and culminated in Eugenius' bloody defeat and death at the Battle of Frigidus in September 394. His coins are especially rare because his time in power was so short.
"This is a major archaeological discovery, as it is extremely rare to be able to study an entire ancient monetary deposit in its archaeological context," researchers wrote in a translated statement from the National Institute for Archaeological Research (INRA) in Luxembourg.
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Because of its historical significance, the find was kept secret for almost four years, with excavations under the direction of INRA taking place from 2020 to 2024. The team also faced hazardous conditions, as there were multiple World War II munitions and explosives buried in the area, prompting the Luxembourg Army Mine Action Service (SEDAL) to help with the dig.
The gold coins are solidi, a term that comes from the Latin "solidus," meaning "solid" — a reference to their consistently reliable gold content. The coins, each of which weighs approximately 0.16 ounce (4.5 grams), were introduced at the beginning of the fourth century during the era of the "Later Roman Empire." The solidus remained relatively stable for centuries and spread throughout the entire Mediterranean region.
Following an independent analysis, which considered the "excellent condition" of the coins and "the presence of some rare specimens," the coins were valued at 308,600 euros, or nearly $322,000. In accordance with the legal provisions on cultural heritage, this sum is reserved for those who have legal rights, such as property holders, over the find.
"It will still take some time to process the excavations and finds," Luxembourg Culture Minister Eric Thill said in a translated parliamentary statement, "but it will undoubtedly increase our knowledge and understanding of the last century of the Roman Empire in the West."
The researchers plan to analyze the hoard further and eventually publish the results in a research journal.
By Marjanko Pilekić.
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love-and-deepspace-wiki · 3 months ago
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Hunter's Association: Departments, Sectors, and Sub-groups
Details:
The Hunter's Association is divided into multiple departments, sectors, and sub-groups. All such entities that have been mentioned in-game (thus far) are listed below.
Sectors:
UNICORNS:
The best combat unit under the Hunter's Association. Known for their unmatched power and fast responses, they specialize in tackling extremely dangerous Wanderer incidents that regular hunters can't handle. Their elite sector is small and notoriously unconventional.
DAWN
Departments:
Advanced Tech Labs
Archives
Armory:
The Armory is where a Deepspace Hunter's weapons are stored, serviced, and maintained. Following a mission, the returning hunter relinquishes their equipment to the Armory so that this service can take place.
Data Analysis:
Data Analysis (also referred to as "Data Analytics") serves as the intelligence processing center for individual teams while providing support to other sectors. Their responsibilities include gathering and analyzing data, detecting and identifying Protocores, and monitoring regional energy fluctuations.
Data Center
Hunter's Association Support Center
Intel Department
Linkon Hunter Dispatch Center:
This department responds to urgent Wanderer reports across Linkon City by dispatching hunters, deploying medical teams, raising hazard alarms, and monitoring real-time positioning. Their work area features a holographic control console in the center of the room that displays a 3D map of Linkon City. Blinking red dots represent high-level threats, blue dots represent hunters in the area, and yellow dots represent Wanderers. At the conclusion of each case they resolve, an incident repoer is submitted. This department's positions include multiple dispatchers, a surveillance officer, and a Captain (currently Captain Colin). They have a break room and their own cafeteria, a feature Alpha Team lacks.
Case Numbers: Case numbers follow the incremental naming standard "LK204×01101", "LK204×01102", "LK204×01103", etc.
Emergency Response Protocol: A high-level procedure triggered for threats only equivalent to five or more Wanderers. It requires the coordinated effort of at least five hunters.
Logistics Department
Medical Support Department:
The Medical Support Department, in partnership with the Logistics Department and Operations HQ, recently implemented an updated "Hunter Health Policy" which introduced three new regulations:
Monthly period leave for female hunters increased from 2 to 4 days per calendar month.
A "period subsidy" that will be added to their pay structure
The Medical Support Department and Akso Hospital will offer specialized health consultations and support for menstruation-related diet, exercise, sleep, and mental well-being, helping them maintain a balanced lifestyle during their period.
Operations HQ
Protocore Research Department
Security Department
Sub-groups:
Armament Tech:
Armament Tech is a specialized team dedicated to the development, optimization, and maintenance of Deepspace Hunter combat equipment. The Hunter's Association assigns an Armament Tech team to each squad. This team provides state-of-the-art technological support to hunters and enhances the combat capabilities and efficiency of the entire squad.
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ok so i’ve watched a stream of chapters 3 and 4 and also read a bunch of posts about them and now that i’ve had some time to process i have a variety of Thoughts
said Thoughts are very spoilery and also very long, so i’ll place them under a read more:
note: i missed the first 15 minutes or so of chapter 3 because i was slightly late to the stream, so i’m not going to comment on that until i’ve had a chance to go back and watch a video of it.
alright so starting with tenna: he’s fun! i didn’t really follow All of the theorizing about him so i wasn’t sure what to expect going in, but he’s definitely Completely dissimilar to the little sprite hint we got (the tv face with the big grin and spamton eyes) despite nominally having all of these features on account of being a fucking. 3d model?
i love this. fucking hilarious design choice. no idea how i’m supposed to translate it to fanart without losing the impact but that’s a me problem lmao. his stupid little dances, him growing or shrinking for comedic purposes, the fucking. 3d text? god he’s so good
you can also really see why him and spamton would get along (and have an explosive break-up) - they are very much the same brand of guy. in a lot of ways tenna feels like we’re seeing what spamton would have been if we’d met him before his fall from grace. i’ve seen some people complaining about how similar they are but tbh i like it. they very much feel like foils to one another i think
it’s fun how darkners get knowledge of things that happened around the objects they’re created from. it’s especially fun how this means tenna had a front seat to the dreemurr divorce drama!
i was already on board with the theory that each dark world is designed around a different character, but i’m even more in support of it now. the chapter 3 dark world is very obviously built around kris and their lingering Feelings about the divorce and asriel leaving, which they don’t seem to be handling amazingly well
i get the vibe kris wants their parents to get back together and that part of their character arc will probably be accepting that this is a bad idea - tying into deltarune’s existing themes re: decay and inevitability and accepting loss
if not kris, asgore definitely seems to be on this track, jumping ahead a bit to chapter four: whatever happened with dess and with him leaving the police force, he seems to think that if he Just Solves It then everything will go back to how it was before, and i think accepting that life doesn't work like that is going to necessary for him. especially if he ends up being chapter 5's secret boss which is my current pet theory on account of some sus dialogue during the free-roaming soul section and some of gerson’s battle dialogue
or maybe i'm just projecting. could go either way
back to chapter 3: who the FUCK is mike, seriously. is he gaster? is he not gaster? i am increasingly unsure what the fuck is going on there. i'll wait for the theorycrafters and lore analysis guys to catch up on that one. i don't even know if his door opens. hazard of writing this literally the day after the game came out L
the zelda-esque section of chapter 3 is definitely interesting. the secret version even moreso. it felt very fnaf (in a good way) though that might just be because fnaf was my first exposure to that kind of thing. the fact that kris is alone for the secret portions is Very loaded, albeit not in a new way as it went much the same with both spamton neo and the weird route in chapter 2
the fact that in the last section you do actually have susie and ralsei's game characters with you (though still not the real ones) and you have to kill them to progress is Very Something. that entire section was intensely evocative of the weird route, but that bit is a fully original kind of fucked up!
though it's plausible it was just a stand-in for berdly ig. though the penguin thingy seems to be More that it doesn't really carry the same emotional weight so i could definitely see that bit being there to preserve the "you are straight up killing people" aspect of the original weird route
"it was used up. she was used up. you were used up." i'm going to be insane about these lines forever. what the fuck. also: disconcerting implications for the eventual fates of kris and noelle in the weird route! or perhaps the fates of noelle and the soul? tough to say for sure. narrator uses "you" for kris and for us with about equal frequency iirc
the shadow mantle is. uh. a loaded name for it. already made one "taking up the mantle" pun in an art piece i did but that is very much the vibe i'm getting here. suspect in the weird route we may end up taking the place of the normal route's main villain, whether that villain ends up being the knight or gaster or something else
though i think the mantle itself is a neutral item, since kris is just playing a video game so who cares if we're having them kill people? though then again WE'RE just playing a video game… lot of thematic depth to that entire section, honestly. it's definitely capital I Important
toriel remains ignorant of dark worlds and undyne's been fucking kidnapped?? wild shit. i am So curious about the Implications of how worried tenna was about toriel waking up, though. suspect we'll see followthrough on that with her being brought into another dark world at some point and get to learn why tenna was so freaked out about it
also: HOLY FUCK IT'S THE FUCKING KNIGHT WHAT THE SHIT
toby's definitely firmly jossed the theories that deltarune would be an episodic "dark world of the week" type structure with the end of chapter 3 and all of chapter 4, and he starts that by throwing the fucking roaring knight at us as chapter 3's secret boss!
who isn't even a real secret boss, the secret is just that you can actually beat them because they're so fucking difficult!
but at last we have some solid clues to the knight's identity! i'd say at this point there are 3 main possibilities for who it could be, with some allowance for changing my mind if i see a good theory for someone else
option a: dess
a classic theory. i've never been a dessknight truther myself but i'll admit when i first saw the ending of chapter 3 i was fully convinced it was her for a Solid bit of time. like, the knight has antlers, their weapon looks like a bat, dess is associated with the shelter (the official name for the bunker because guess what! we know that now! god so many reveals in these chapters), etc.
however, my conviction that dess was the knight unfortunately only lasted until the stream i was watching finished the holiday house section in chapter 4 because holy fuck. hollllly fuck
option b: carol holiday
first of all, holy shit her name is actually carol we were right! second of all, oh shit she's definitely an antagonist. i'm not going to say she's evil because we all remember how that went with the spade king in chapter one - toby makes a habit of avoiding "evil" characters, and has been doing so since undertale. i would be Very surprised if he suddenly switched gears and made carol a one dimensional villain
she is, however, DEFINITELY an antagonist. also she knows about the soul and appears to be on friendly terms with it?? i wonder if the soul might actually be another frisk style fakeout where the apparent player character is actually a separate entity all-along… i mean doing that for the soul on top of kris would be a hell of a twist but i wouldn't put it past toby to do something like that
anyway carol apparently has a fucking katana according to noelle, and this combined with her apparent knowledge of the soul and the fact that she seems to be who kris called about the guitar given she came home early (something we know is Very unusual for her, she's been established as a workaholic) makes her by far the most likely candidate for the knight right now.
of course, there could still be a fakeout, we all know toby loves defying expectation, but as far as canon evidence? carol is definitely in the lead.
option c: left field option
while the knight being a holiday definitely seems most likely right now, given the antlers, it's not Completely certain. one thing i noticed is that the knight's design is eerily reminiscent of the titan, especially when they do their big attack, which is weird for a lightner? plus they have holes in their hands which we all know is a classic gaster signifier. i don't think the knight Is a titan, as we've been told titans aren't actually sapient and the knight appears to be, but major lore reveals remain a possibility for future chapters, so i'm keeping this option for "something we currently have no way to anticipate"
the knight is apparently in cahoots with kris, given their Extremely sus interaction post "beating" the knight. kris is also in cahoots with an unknown party they contact over the phone. i think it's probably carol both times but again, toby loves curveballs so there's no way to be sure barring more evidence
THE FUCKING SHELTER/BUNKER HOLY SHIT
ok so kris definitely seems to know the code. the code is almost definitely 1225, aka christmas day. we know this and kris knows this and carol knows this and poor susie knows absolutely fuck all, she still thinks she's having her hero's journey she is completely unaware of all the insane nonsense happening in the background
the fact that the code is in dess' guitar and is also, again, christmas fucking day, is further support for the theory that dess has something to do with the shelter. tbh i don't think that even is a theory anymore. it's just true. the exact details are still mysterious as fuck though, please asgore let me look at your conspiracy board
susie is so main character coded it's insane. she is the hero of this story. she gets a solo segment in every chapter, her character arc is perpetually front and center, she's the one who makes dramatic heroic speeches… she's the hero of this story, not us
i think kris will be an antagonist to susie at some point, given their apparent cahoots with the knight, but will ultimately side with susie after some sort of dramatic confrontation and will end the story solidly a hero. i think this partially because of observable facts about them as a character and partially because i think toby is deliberately playing into archetypes with the main heroes, just not the ones you'd initially assume in chapter one
susie is telegraphed as a zuko but she's actually the main hero, kris is telegraphed as the main hero but they're actually a zuko, and ralsei is almost exactly what he looks like but there's several layers of fakeout in between
…is my current read on it, at least. we'll see how things develop.
i'm not really sure how the soul will play into things. we aren't exactly an "evil" character either, at least outside of snowgrave, but the whole possession thing does remain a thing and barring the soul turning out to be its own character outside of us, it can't stay with kris forever because eventually the game has to end
like there's no happy ending with the cast for the soul. we have to leave eventually. the story can't keep going forever. but the context of how we get to the inevitable split will change a lot about it feels. we might be an antagonist or even a full on villain. we might be an antihero whose existence isn't fair to kris but who still tries to do good where we can. we might be something else entirely
deltarune only has one ending, but how we get there will change the context significantly. the more of the story we see, the more i feel like i understand that.
or maybe i'm completely off base who knows
this is over 2000 words long so i'm going to leave off here, but god i have So Many Thoughts. i didn't even get to the gerson thing or the song lyrics or the other gerson thing or the weird route dialogue or the FUCKING TITAN HOLY FUCK-
but no. i must resist. i have finals this week
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biggiesnails · 3 months ago
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Oh boy! Part two ok here we go!!! How does Sunshine Gal snag herself a Tol Whore of a Wet Rat Man without him getting away? Well…
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The set was over and the little lady had picked up her rainbow blanket, folding it neatly and tucking it under her arm. She didn’t question Eclipse standing around while she took a moment to get her things arranged. In fact, she seemed to take it as a sign that they were now, in fact, Festival Buddies. And once she had her things neatly arranged she beamed up at him expectantly.
“Well… where to next?”
Clip… however… hadn’t quite consciously processed the fact that him standing there seemed to imply that they’d be going to the next venue together *on purpose.*
“… … Next?”
She just laughs at his confused expression and tips her head to one side with an endeared expression while she tugs at the high bun on her head and starts to free a cascade of curls that makes him want to take two large steps away lest he jam his hands immediately into the silky mass.
“Of course, silly. Which band do you recommend next? We could go together, if you’d like some company.”
He scoffs and looks away from temptation, scanning the crowds so he has something else to focus on.
“Pfff. Do I look like I need company?”
That makes her laugh too, though in a muffled way that makes it clear she’s trying very hard not to make it seem like she’s laughing at him while taking a moment to comb through the newly freed locks with her fingers.
“No, I suppose not. But just because you don’t *need it* doesn’t mean a little company isn’t nice sometimes. If you’d rather go your separate way, though, maybe I could at least trouble you for a recommendation before you go? A lot of the bands playing in this next rotation are newer indie bands that I don’t recognize. But you seem to be a man of impeccable taste, so I’d be delighted to hear if you know anything about any of them. Good or bad.”
“Hmm…”
He hazards a peek at her out of one optic. Fans in his chassis whirring loudly, but just barely under the background noise level of all the other people chatting around them as they head toward the next stage to get good seats, even though it’ll be another 30 minutes before they play. And that’s where he manually throttles them at (internal core temperatures be damned) lest his fluster over her sticky sweet smile be discovered.
“Guess I do have pretty good taste. Alright. Well… The Back Stagers* playing on the north stage suck ass. High school noobs with autotune. Not worth your time. West stage wasn’t even worth remembering for this rotation. And if you stick around here you’ll get a bunch of Beatles wanna-be’s.”
((*note: I really hope The Back Stagers isn’t really a band I’m just gonna be making up stuff for the sake of the pretendsies music festival and if every band name I google comes up with a match I’ll be here all week. If the Back Stagers is really a fr band I’m sure they’re lovely!))
Her smile grows, sly and knowing, as he concludes his analysis of the next rotation of bands. “Well fiddle-sticks. Then I guess that means the only stage worth finding a seat at is gonna be the East stage then, huh? You wouldn’t happen to be heading there next, would you?”
“What’s it to ya?” He sniffs, equal parts pleased and panicked that it seems he might have been a little too obvious in which direction he’s headed next. His new friend just gives him a playful smile and reaches up onto her tippy toes to boop the center of his faceplate, even going to far as to *say* ‘boop’ when she does it.
“Then tag! You’re it!”
She giggles while he sputters and flails at being touched unexpectedly on the part of his face plate where the tip of his ‘nose’ is carved, even though that space is really closer to being right beneath his left optic rather than in the middle of his face where a more human nose would be. By the time he’s righted himself, her bouncing curls have disappeared into the crowd and he cannot *believe* he feels half-obligated to follow through on the challenge. He could catch her instantly, of course. He’s all leg after all. But the bristling allergic reaction he has to following through on childish, lame, dumb baby stuff like this (where people can see him) keeps him rooted in place for a few seconds. Dusting off his jacket. Making himself look very busy with getting his hood to lay just right behind him.
And then, and only then. When any soul who may have possibly witnessed him being accosted by such an endearingly cute action has likely moved on… does he finally start walking east. Leisurely pace. Devil-may-care attitude. Hands stuffed in his pockets.
And an eagle eye out for a particular set of bouncing curls headed for the east stage.
He gets there eventually. Not that he was rushing or anything. Because he wasn’t. He just has long legs, and a long stride. And optics that can zoom several times past what any human can. So it makes sense for him to make a beeline for the telltale flash of a rainbow blanket being spread put on the grass a few feet closer to the stage than he might have chosen for himself, but still uncannily close to being in the perfect spot for getting the best audio quality for his mechanical systems to process.
The bastard in him can’t help but saunter up behind her quietly and tap her once on the wrong shoulder, making her turn once to the left before she turns again with a confused expression to the right. But he’s moved, keeping his bean-pole body directly behind her with a cheeky grin. He tap on the left side again, following expertly as she turns a full circle this time with a small noise of confusion. Finally, he taps on her right shoulder, and this time she turns left instead, catching him with a quick jerk of her head in the opposite direction of his tapping. The quick motion *does* allow her to catch him, but he also catches a face full of long curls. And in his sputtering to get the strands out of his mouth, his rays (also caught in the net of silk strands) retract.
“Oh!”
“Pbth! Bleh!”
It’s a chaotic moment that freezes as soon as she hisses in discomfort as his jostling and sputtering yanks a little too hard on her hair, and he instinctively locks his joints. He’d go pale if he could, but he can’t. Instead his rays just retract harder, which ends up tugging her closer as she follows the direction she’s being pulled.
“Ooh! Oh dear! Hang on… I think I’m tangled…”
“S-sorry… uh…” there’s a bit more subtle panicked flailing as their faces are quite close now, and Clip can just barely process the silver lining that her eyes are pinched closed with physical discomfort now that her hair is quite stuck in his rays because if he had to look into her eyes from this close he might just extend his claws and cut the strands right then and there.
“J-just hold still… I’ll… uh…”
He fumbles a bit, kneeling down to avoid pulling more. Then he manually extends his rays one by one, and blindly the two of them work on gently extracting the strands from his internal mechanisms. It’s mortifying, honestly, but once the tugging is down to a careful minimum his new friend just starts giggling.
“Karma sure is quick to act,” she jokes, and Clip rolls his optics.
“Not my fault you have 17 yards of hair, Rapunzel,” he gripes, freeing a few more chunks. She just giggles again and her deft little fingers dip gently and carefully into the open track for his rays to extract the last tangle of hair.
“Maybe the updo should have stayed. My fault for ‘letting my hair down’ for once, eh?”
Clip squeezes his eyes closed at the unfamiliar intrusion feeling quite uncomfortable about the whole affair, and says the first thing that comes to mind to try to deflect around the awkwardness building in the pits of his motherboard.
“You know if you wanted to get up close and personal, you could have just asked.”
… Nailed it.
And ‘Rapunzel’… just laughs again. A pretty blush staining her cheeks as the last of her locks finally pulls free and Eclipse can spring to his feet like he’s been stung by a bee. “To be fair, you started it! You were teasing me!”
Eclipse takes a second to focus on bobbling his rays in and out to make sure no errant strands are stuck in his gears, an automatic scoff on his lips while he tries valiantly (and unsuccessfully) to move the ghost of her delicate hands on his rays and just barely inside his casing into the recycle bin in his programming.
Oh that’s gonna haunt him for a *while…* he begrudgingly acknowledges once it seems clear that there’s a few loose strands caught in the gears. Not anything that’ll cause him harm. Just enough for him to feel it tickling in places he’s not used to feeling things.
He startles at the feeling of a very gentle little touch on his arm, and he looks down at ‘Rapunzel’ with wide eyes while she looks up at him with earnest concern. “Are you alright? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
He grimaces, and it comes out a little more like a sneer than he means for it to. “Me? Pfft. I’m not exactly delicate, you know. I’ve survived a lot worse than you.”
He internally curses himself, as that does come out a little meaner than he meant. But she merely nods in response and looks relieved that he isn’t hurt. “Oh phew. I was getting worried there for a second. If you’re alright… then… is there anything I can do to make up for getting you all tangled up?”
“You could take me home tonight,” he says before he can actually process the words. And it takes everything he has to keep his internal screech as an inside thought as much as his visceral need to go find a metal pole to bang his faceplate against several dozen times.
His new friend blinks in surprise, processing his words, before bursting out laughing. A real blow to his pride. What little he has. But before he can turn heel and bolt for the fenceline she takes his hands and gives him a painfully warm smile. “Do you not have anywhere to sleep for the night tonight? I didn’t exactly bring a tent or anything with me either, so do you need a place to stay?”
“Maybe…” he admits, deciding he can’t physically bear the thought of trying to say anything more than that for a few more moments. Lucky for him, that seems to be all that needs to be said. She squeezes his hands with a warm grin.
“Well… I don’t really make a habit of inviting men back to my place so soon after meeting. But if you don’t have a place to stay tonight then maybe I can make an exception. Couch surfing has to be better than wet grass, yeah?”
“Not always, but whatever,” he deflects, extracting his hands before her body heat soaks into his joints any further than it already has. “It’s just supposed to rain tonight… so…”
She giggles and waves him over to her blanket, bidding him to join her on it this time. “I can imagine. Fellow like you probably needs to be careful of getting too wet, eh?”
“Nah. Waterproof,” Eclipse responds, grabbing the blanket (with her on it) and tugging it backwards four feet. ‘Rapunzel’ squeals and laughs as he does so, delighted to be along for the ride. And when he lets go to plop down on it, she gives him a breathless smile.
“Satisfied with this superior location now?”
He shrugs. “Yeah, I guess.”
She giggles at his assessment and takes a few moments to put her hair back up in it’s smart bun, a whole process of smoothing and gathering and twisting that Clip ignores purposefully, just in case anyone he knows happens to be here and look his way.
Perhaps he can’t really be blamed if he doesn’t actually remember much from the next set of performers to come up on stage. After all, how could he while he’s dealing with the distracting tickle of a few errant, long strands of hair tangling themselves just a little tighter into his gears.
GUH. PART TWO!
ohfhhfishcjsisjbthis is so silly and cute. I love clip getting embarrassed about being goofy in public, I want to punt him into a wall
Got crazy second hand embarrassment from the hair getting caught, still adorable and funny though. Also the hair fully catching and staying in his head, ough..
Himb!!!
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purplealmonds · 1 year ago
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Observations about Mononoke Karakasa characters & relationships based on costuming & color palettes
Let's guess who these girls' parents are and see where this rabbit hole takes us!
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Analysis below the cut! This isn't spoilers as much as it is just going over publicly available information with a fine tooth comb but proceed with caution. Buckle in, this is gonna be a long one!
Based on the color palette of their outfits, these two girls featured in the second trailer at the 0:17 timestamp are the twin daughters of Hokuto Mizorogi (溝呂木北斗) as indicated on his bio on the official website.
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Given Mizorogi's status as priest of the "Omizu-sama" faith, it's entirely possibly he's given special privileges within the ooku to father a child.
According to Japanese geisha culture, their half-painted lips indicate that they are children. They partially shaved their heads is reminiscent of a nun's makes sense given their religious parentage. Two context clues combined, I believe they are priestesses-in-training - a position which is higher than even that of the most favored concubines.
Supporting this theory, these twins have a very high position of power in the Ooku despite their youth, as seen by them being at the front of the procession featured in the teaser trailer at the 0:07 timestamp. They also have uniquely colored umbrellas:
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As an aside – given how most of the spiral-masked women are visually identical, uniquely colored outfits are a visual shorthand for status (or narrative significance) in the ooku.
And I believe they are the gatekeepers for the, uhhhh, how do I put this delicately? The shogun's baby-making room? Take this with a grain of salt though; I could only see a sliver of the room they were opening in the first screenshot. The colors seem fairly similar though!
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But also consider: this babymaking room has a lot of eye motifs, which is reflected in the pit seen in the ceremonial area where I presume Mizorogi presumably performs his religious services:
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The third trailer introduces the theme of discarding essential parts of yourself. There is a shot of the comb falling into a pool of water in an unknown location:
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Paired with the visual of the comb lying amongst discarded valuables in the water in the second trailer, I'm going to hazard a guess this is a common "ritual" of sorts:
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I'm willing to bet Mizorogi enforces this "identity discarding" ceremony on behalf of the shogun. It says in his character bio he's a strong believer of "Omizu-sama". Did he discard his role as a father to step into the role as a the priest?
Their mother may be Kitagawa (北川), a high ranking maid within the Ooku.
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The twins' hair and eye colors look similar enough, but there's more meat to this theory. Kitagawa seems to be a narratively important character based on how heavily she's featured in the trailers in increasingly angsty/mysterious ways:
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Perhaps Kitagawa "gave away" her motherhood to the waters, which has religious baptism connotations. This hypothetical scenario feels rife with mononoke-formation potential.
Furthermore, from costume design standpoint, she also shares the blue and teal colors featured in Mizorogi's outfit.
As for her purple accents, I believe it is a color reserved for the higher-ranking women of the ooku.
I have a theory that the darker a color is, the higher the status is. Consider:
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Asa (Left), who is a new maid but has a lot of potential for upwards mobility.
Tokita Fuki (時田フキ) (Center)), a lowly commoner who caught the attention of the shogun. Because she's a commoner, the purple is faded despite her high status, perhaps representing that it will disappear once she loses the shogun's favor. But because the rose pattern is almost a one-to-one match to that of Mizorogi's, perhaps she is strongly favored by this man as well.
Awashima (Right), the subordinate of Utayama, who is falling out of favor as Asa rises in prominence. There are still pops of dark purple, but a washed out lavendar permeates her palette.
Both Tokita and Awashima also have highly saturated yellow/yellow-greens, which could represent potential danger of their power disappearing due to outside influences.
As for the deeper purple...
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Otomo Botan (大友ボタン) (Right) - a lady in waiting and daughter of a high-ranking senior councilor. Note that she also has pale purple in her palette because her high status was not earned. Because she borrows power from influences outside of the ooku, the black accents are represent that she has more power than even Utayama, the most powerful woman within the ooku.
Utayama (歌山) (Left) - the woman with the highest position of the Ooku,  "Odoshiyoroshi". She is also prominently garbed in red and white, which is a color seen in the shogun and a little bit of Mizorogi's outfit:
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Lighter shades of red (i.e. pink) also seem to indicate men of lower status that still have some position of power, like these guards:
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Note that Kame (カメ) (Left) and Mugiya (麦谷) (Right) also possess these "masculine" colors which may indicate that they have more forceful personalities compared to other women within the ooku:
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Their respective outfits also have analogous shades close to the blues prominent in Mizorogi's outfit. Assuming blue has religious connotations (akin to Virgin Mary), perhaps they are also strongly faithful to whoever this "Omizu-sama" entity is.
Meanwhile, Asa also wears pink, but does not feature any blue in her outfit. I think may represent her lack of faith. She does seem like a more levelheaded individual not easily swept away by more dazzling aspects of mysticism.
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This is the look of a woman who not only has a braincell or two, but has it on her person at all times.
Now let's look at our main protagonists!
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Kusu features red and purple color accents in his outfit, which makese sense for his gender ambiguous presentation. You could say that the other colors featured in his outfit represent how the influences he collects by interacting with humans. Black is also featured heavily as the canvas for these colors. As mentioned earlier, this represents influences outside of the ooku.
In contrast, Shingi while sports both the masculine red/white and feminine purple colors of power, the latter definitely eclipses the former which matches his masculine presentation. His outfit also has black, but because his influence in the world comes in bursts during exorcisms, it is featured less prominently than Kusu. His disheveled look may represent his discarding of these superficial societal norms. His power - symbolized by red - need not be worn. It is already tattooed onto his skin - literally.
The only other characters that have red tattooed onto their skin are the twins from the beginning of this post. Come to think of it, their partially shaved look may also be a nod to the shogun's power - indicating that their very existence is divinely approved by him. So we come full circle!
So, yeah! Although these twins don't have an official bio, there's a lot to learn about them and others from extrapolation and inference alone!
In summary:
Red/White = Masculine/Divine power
Blue = Religious power
Purple = feminine power
Yellow = danger of power loss
Light colors = weak influence
Dark colors = stronger influence
Thank you for coming with me on this long diatribe!
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illmoure · 7 days ago
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"load cell" - akon & mayuri
a prompt i sourced from @aitheria - akon and mayuri in canonverse, disagreement
The smell of burnt hair was strong first thing in the morning, warm bitterness singed keratin. Late night turned early morning in a windowless lab room, running on ethanol fumes and the adrenaline of all-night assessment and analysis. Kurotsuchi had been adamant that such-and-such cause would have this this-or-that effect; Akon had been dubious. 
Of course Mayuri’s science was solid and his protein synthesis was beyond compare, his amalgamations of amino acids an art form in and of themselves, but new horns having gone to his head, Akon had decided to test him. Countered with his own concentrations and ratios, proposing the perfect enzymatic equilibrium. Math theory a little half-baked for sure, but that wasn’t the point. Audaciously disagreeing, he dared to voice his doubts outright at the beginning of the night.
And it was with no small amount of smugness that Akon suggested they move onto the next test subject after the smoke had cleared. The specimen they had been working on was little more than charred flesh briquettes after so many hours and so many attempts. The systems couldn’t handle it; they’d essentially incinerated themselves in the process, helpless against the force of Mayuri’s high-octane entropy. 
Akon carted off their burnt remains and dumped them into the hazards incinerator. Cleaned and sanitized their work station while Mayuri dragged purple fingernails down his notes. Inspired annotations made in the margins in green ink. Akon unlocked the lab and headed into the hallway to retrieve their next cadaver from across the way. 
Nemu was still there waiting outside the door, hands clasped, even after glass had smashed into the wall beside her when she’d dared to ask how Mayuri was doing three hours ago. There were still shards in her braid. Akon pitied the infantilizing concern she was helpless to give him, beaten down at every opportunity. As of this moment, he realized as she watched him, he had become a victim of her scrutiny as she’d automatically deemed him a threat, honed in low on her frequency. His opposing Mayuri had been interpreted as ever so slightly dangerous, his disagreement a challenge, a hindrance to her master’s health.
To be fair, Akon had been at it for a while. 
They were designing a brand-new cadaver lab – sterile steel tables in rows, strategically placed drains in the insulated floors, lines and wires carefully coiffed at each station. Akon had not agreed with the arrangement of utensil cabinets in relation to the sinks and fume hoods. Mayuri had not listened. The secondary computer lab was in need of an overhaul – new motherboards and crystal displays. Mayuri had refused Akon’s proposal of a gridded multi-screen display in favor of something more streamlined. Mundane even – the second floor meeting room needed a new layer of paint, and Akon had preferred a color three shades darker than Mayuri. 
Superficial, and they had argued in light, unserious tones. Measuring the flow of their disagreement by pupil dilation, tool angle, and the pressure of fingertip presses against the plunger of a syringe. It had been gentle needling acupuncture on their beliefs and morals, Mayuri’s ego. It was harmless, essentially. But this experiment, this night, was something that mattered to his captain, a real intellectual passion. It held weight when it felt like a step closer to enlightenment, advancement, stimulation, and doubt from Akon was a shot at his pride and his scientific integrity. The intensity with which his captain worked through the night had been charged and intentional, almost defiant. 
Akon gave Nemu a semi-sympathetic look as he pushed the cart forward towards the large specimen storage unit. He adjusted the inventory with his initials, signed his name on a new materials request and checked out the subject profile before even unloading the cadaver. Meticulous, still, for he valued integrity as much as this game. 
For years, Akon had been a child to Mayuri; an apprentice, a student, a fledgling under his wing. But he was grown now, the undeniably appointed third seat with an intellect and independence that could finally be acknowledged and appreciated by his captain. Akon felt he had earned this right to disagree, to finally give voice to his own opinions and ideas. Arguing for the sake of it, just to see what Mayuri would do. Testing him with his own set of criteria and expectations, a reactionary reagent.  
So far, it had been trivial. Mayuri pulled rank and moved on, scoffing or clicking hollow yellow teeth, enamel rattling. Bristling, but not brandishing anything that would harm. It had been fun to watch him realize Akon’s autonomy, discovering the sort of man he was deciding he wanted to be. Letting him have his refusals and rebuttals and enjoying the way he spoke to him as a comrade, still allowing himself to be berated by choice and station. 
Akon was smug as he locked up the storage unit and moved back across the hall with their new materials, Nemu still watching him like a loyal bird of prey. 
“Here we go, captain,” Akon said once he’d anchored the table back down, locking casters in place and attaching the appropriate sensors and wires. The stimulant was prepped for the central line, set aside so his captain could have the honors. 
“And who do we have here?” Mayuri asked, raking his hands over the corpse in stasis, assessing the skin, the ridge of bone just beneath. Akon read from the file all the facts he knew his captain wanted to hear. 
“Excellent,” Mayuri grinned with renewed vigor. Fresh fingers scooped up the syringe and stuck it into the polyvinyl tubing. While the body reawakened and the systems found their natural rhythms, Mayuri beckoned Akon back over to his desk. 
“We’re using the delta formula this time,” he said with a voice as tight as a tripwire. Akon swallowed and watched as Mayuri titrated the sample, dialing in the next concentration. The delta mix had been Akon’s formulation, scratched out on that piece of paper like a hasty IOU. Akon could see it, trash-can wrinkled but laid out on the page of Mayuri’s notebook and held flat in the corners with a pen and a glass shootie of diluted morphine. 
Victorious self-satisfaction was bittersweet, watching Mayuri kneel to his own weakness of needing to know. Akon hadn’t genuinely doubted him, but it was a pleasant surprise to see things not going Mayuri’s way, which they both knew was part of the allure of their work. Even if it annoyed him, irritated his pride, Mayuri couldn’t help but respect the audacity he had to disagree with him, and he couldn’t risk not knowing the truth just because of his genius. If there was a chance Akon was right, he would have to take it. 
It would be a necessary factor in their future endeavors together. Either Akon would be right, and their knowledge would advance, science would continue marching on, or he would be wrong, and Mayuri could have the satisfaction of berating him for it, and all would be right with the world. With several vials of the new formula prepped, the body on the table began to stir, fingertips fighting the frozen fear of long-term sedation. Mayuri turned towards the table, and Akon took up his place at his side as they began anew.
(available on ao3 if you have an account)
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posttexasstressdisorder · 3 months ago
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CNN 3/25/2025
Chewing gum can shed microplastics into saliva, research finds
By Kristen Rogers, CNN
Updated: 5:13 PM EDT, Tue March 25, 2025
Source: CNN
Are you keeping a mental list of all the sources of microplastics finding their way into your daily life? You may have another culprit to consider: It’s gum, according to a new pilot study that found chewing just one piece can release hundreds to thousands of microplastics into saliva.
The study is currently being peer-reviewed and will be presented at the biannual meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego Tuesday. Once the review is complete, the authors hope the report will be published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters later this year.
“Our goal is not to alarm anybody,” said senior study author Dr. Sanjay Mohanty, associate professor at the Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Scientists don’t know if microplastics are unsafe to us or not. There are no human trials. But we know we are exposed to plastics in everyday life, and that’s what we wanted to examine here.”
Microplastics are fragments of polymers that range in size from less than 0.2 inch (5 millimeters) to 1/25,000th of an inch (1 micrometer). Plastics smaller than that are considered nanoplastics, which are measured in billionths of a meter.
Polymers are chemical compounds with long chains of large and repetitive molecular units called monomers, which are known for durability and flexibility. Most plastics are synthetic polymers, whereas natural polymers include cellulose from plants. Chewing gum typically contains synthetic or natural polymers for better texture, elasticity and flavor retention, the authors said.
Microplastics enter the body via ingestion and inhalation, according to previous research, and scientists have discovered their presence in various body parts or fluids including the blood, lungs, placenta, brain and testicles. That’s why the authors said they wanted to identify other possible sources of microplastic ingestion and their concentrations.
“Chewing gum is one of the foods we chose because it is the only food where plastic polymer is used as an ingredient,” Mohanty told CNN via email. “Other foods are contaminated with microplastics because of how they are processed and packaged.”
To the authors’ knowledge, their study is the first “that examined or compared microplastics in chewing gums available commercially,” Mohanty added.
Isolating microplastics from gum
The team’s findings are based on 10 gums popular in the United States. Half of the samples were synthetic, and the other half were made with natural ingredients.
Most, if not all, gum product labels and websites do not disclose what their gum base includes nor how they are processed. This lack of transparency also leaves researchers “no way to know where and how microplastics came into the gums we tested,” Mohanty said — and no way for consumers to know the full composition of the gums they are buying.
One human participant would chew a gum for four minutes; during that time frame, every 30 seconds a researcher collected the secreted saliva in a centrifuge tube.
The participant then rinsed their mouth three to five times with highly purified water, and the researchers mixed the rinse sample with the saliva sample to ensure all microplastics in the mouth were captured. This entire process was repeated seven times for each gum.
Some gums were chewed for 20 minutes total with saliva collected every two minutes, so the team could determine how the number of microplastics shed depended on the chewing time.
To identify the types and amounts of microplastics in gum, the authors used various methods of filtration and chemical analysis such as microscopy. The research team also subtracted microplastics found in an initial rinse sample from those in the chewing gum saliva samples to accurately estimate the number of microplastics released from chewing gum.
Analysis revealed that just 1 gram of chewing gum released approximately 100 microplastics on average, with 1 gram of some gums releasing as many as 637 microplastics. A typical stick of gum can weigh anywhere from 1 gram to several grams, according to various reports.
Additionally, 94% of microplastics were released within the first eight minutes of chewing.
The authors were surprised to find that chewing natural gums didn’t really make a difference. The average number of microplastics in 1 gram of synthetic gum was 104, and in natural gum it was 96.
Both types also predominantly released four types of synthetic polymers: polyolefins, polyterephthalates (or polyethylene terephthalate), polyacrylamides and polystyrenes. These are some of the same plastics used in everyday plastic consumer products, Dr. Tasha Stoiber, senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental health organization, said via email. Stoiber wasn’t involved in the research.
“That microplastics were released is not unexpected,” said Dr. David Jones, a teaching fellow in the School of the Environment and Life Sciences at the University of Portsmouth in England, via email. Jones wasn’t involved in the study.
“If we subject any type of plastic to stress, be it heat, friction, sunlight, seawater, or in this case vigorous mastication, we know that microplastics will be released from the plastic material,” Jones, also founder and CEO of the marine conservation charity Just One Ocean, added. “We inhale, ingest and drink something like 250,000 plastic particles a year without trying. … But at least we now have some robust data and it is a good starting point for further research.”
“Gum is safe to enjoy as it has been for more than 100 years,” the National Confectioners Association said via email. The trade group has member companies that make and sell gum. “Food safety is the number one priority for U.S. confectionery companies, and our member companies use only FDA-permitted ingredients.”
What’s unknown about gum microplastics
The average size of gum microplastics was 82.6 micrometers — think the thickness of paper, or the diameter of some human hairs. The chemical analysis tools used in the study can’t identify particles smaller than 20 micrometers, Mohanty said.
This constraint means the findings missed any smaller microplastics and nanoplastics and therefore may be underestimates, said Dr. Leonardo Trasande, director of the New York University Center for the Investigation of Environmental Hazards, via email. Trasande wasn’t involved in the study.
Why synthetic polymers were found in the natural gums, too, is also questionable, experts said. But polyolefins are commonly used in the food industry for packaging, so this could be a reason why, the authors said.
The unexpected finding may also occur if manufacturers use polymers when they shouldn’t, if there was a lab contaminant or if there was a measurement error, Dr. Oliver Jones, a professor of chemistry at RMIT University in Australia, said in a statement released by the Science Media Centre. Jones wasn’t involved in the study.
“As producers rarely report the composition of gums, it is difficult to ascertain the source of microplastics found in natural chewing gums,” they added.
Also, some of the polymers — such as polyterephthalates, often found in water bottles — identified in the synthetic gums aren’t known to be present in synthetic gums in general, Dr. David Jones of the University of Portsmouth said.
Some regulatory agencies have taken the stance that there is no need to be concerned about microplastics in food and water since there isn’t evidence that they cause harm, he said.
“This is totally the wrong approach. We should be taking the precautionary approach and assume that they do,” he added. “We need to be investing in research to understand how this will impact on our health now so that we can start to mitigate the consequences.”
Even if any potential effects on the human body are unknown, the study does put into perspective the other ways chewing gum can contribute to environmental pollution when inappropriately discarded, experts said.
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Could we get a more in-depth analysis of "Regenerative Dissonance"? It seems a lot like human DID (dissociative identity disorder). Are the two similar in any aspect(s)?
Regenerative Dissonance vs Disassociative Identity Disorder - what's the difference?
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) in humans is often a protective mechanism as a complex (and criminally under-researched!) psychological response to trauma. In contrast, Regenerative Dissonance (RD) in Time Lords is a biological consequence of regeneration, where past incarnations persist in the psyche, not for protection, but as enduring facets of identity. They're slightly different in origin, purpose, and management, but both conditions essentially come from the same area.
👥 Understanding RD
In RD, previous incarnations don't simply fade away; they remain active within the Time Lord's mind, offering unsolicited advice. Imagine a never-ending debate with all your past selves that looks like a passive-aggressive WhatsApp work group.
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🎭 Notable Cases of RD
The Renegade suffered with previous personalities continuing to exist in their psyche every time they regenerated. For others, the condition can be overwhelming, driving some Time Lords to desperate actions because they're unable to take the mental strain.
🌱 DID vs. RD
Origin: DID is often rooted in psychological trauma, whereas RD stems from the physiological process of regeneration going very weird.
Balance: Both conditions involve a complex balance among identities, and removing one is like taking a block out of a teetering psychological Jenga tower.
Integration of Identities: In DID, alters may appear as unexpected guests, whereas in RD, it's like an ever-expanding family reunion.
Roles of Identities: Many DID alters offer some sort of protective factor, often with roles like gatekeepers and possibly a hierarchy that helps with psychological balance. In RD, there is generally much less of a psychologically protective purpose or hierarchical structure.
🩺 Control and Treatment
DID: Treatment focuses on integration and improving the collective functionality of the alters, often through long-term therapy.
RD: While there’s no cure, techniques like neural inhibitors and meditation can sometimes help manage its effects.
🏫 So ...
RD and DID share some similarities in hosting multiple personalities, While DID in humans is a complex and often misunderstood condition related to trauma, RD in Time Lords is a biological byproduct of their regeneration process.
Related:
What are the four factors of regeneration?: How a regenerating Gallifreyan body might determine its next appearance.
What counts as a safety hazard for regeneration?: Risk factors in regeneration.
Can a Gallifreyan with Regenerative Dissonance lead a healthy, long life?: The potential long-term impact of RD.
Hope that helped! 😃
Edited 13/09 because my dumbass typo'd Disassociative for Disassociated in the title and I never noticed and that's made me mortified, thank you @1pfeli
More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴
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foundationsolution1 · 8 months ago
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Unveiling The Intricacies Of Excavation: Delving Deeper During Construction
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Excavation: the simple term encapsulates a myriad of skills, procedures, and safety measures that contribute significantly to every construction project. Most construction work begins with the careful removal of earth, making a hole or channelling the ground to prepare for the erection of buildings or laying of pipelines. As commonplace as it might seem, excavation is a crucial part of construction that requires extensive planning, expertise and precision.
To begin with, what exactly is excavation? Technically, it’s the process of moving earth, rock or other materials from a site with tools, equipment, or explosives. It includes earthwork, trenching, wall shafts, tunnelling and underground. Yet, in the context of construction, excavation extends beyond mere digging. It modulates the terrain to suit the structural requirement, ensuring the safety and stability of the ensuing structure.
At the heart of every excavation project is the objective to create a stable, safe, and efficient worksite. Basic excavation work typically follows the same series of steps. First, a site assessment is undertaken to determine the composition and stability of the soil, presence of water or rock layers, and any potential hazards. The comprehensive analysis garnered from this assessment then directs the excavation strategy.
Next comes site preparation, which involves clearing the area of any vegetation, debris, or existing structures. This process ensures a clean slate for construction work while minimising the risk of accidents and disturbances during excavation. Benching or sloping techniques could also be implemented on the site to prevent collapse or landslide from happening, thus achieving safety protocol adherence.
The actual excavation work is executed in a carefully measured and precise manner. Whether it’s done manually with shovels and wheelbarrows or mechanically with bulldozers, excavators and backhoes, the work is always carried out meticulously. Technology has indeed become an integral part of excavation, with engineers using software to model excavations prior to deployment, minimising surprises or miscalculations.
Trench excavation is another common practice where a narrow excavation is crafted that is deeper than it is wide. Used mostly for laying pipes, cables and service lines, trench excavation greatly increases the safety of workers by preventing cave-ins and providing easy access to the worksite.
Wet Weather excavation is a challenging scenario frequently encountered on work sites. Here, strategic measures are taken to handle water accumulation. Pumps can be used to remove water, and dewatering methods may be deployed to minimize the water table level.
Post excavation work, structures are erected, pipes are laid, and soil is replaced around the new structure or channel. Again, this is done with extreme care to ensure the stability of the structure and prevent unnecessary exertion of pressure.
In every construction project, the importance of excavation can’t be overstated. It lays the foundation for a safe and successful build. Despite it being a process often overlooked or simplified by laymen, and sometimes perceived as the mundane act of digging, it is, in fact, a scientific procedure replete with precision and tactical stratagems, rivalling the complexity of the structure it prepares ground for.
From the analysis of soil composition to the final touch of replacing the removed dirt, excavation attests to the power of human intervention over nature, moulding the earth to suit the burgeoning demands of urban structures and infrastructures. Understanding its finer details, we may appreciate more deeply the caveats of the construction world and marvel at the impressive structures made possible by these complex and elemental earth movements.
Tagged Construction, Excavation, Foundation Solutions, Intricacies Of Excavation
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absolutebl · 1 year ago
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Hi P'ABL, how are you?
I love to see your analysis and thoughts on different BLs, and you always come off very well educated when it comes to cultural aspects, especially Thailand's culture.
Having this in mind, I think maybe you'll have some answer for my questions. Well, I want to know why Buddism is so heavily portrayed in BLs (like, for example, I Will Knock You). I know Buddism is the biggest religion in Thailand (please correct me if I'm wrong), but it still surprises me how prevalent it is in BLs. Also, I've seen a couple of BLs where the main character gets ordained, and from what I read on the subject, it is a pretty common thing to do, and is a sign of respect both to the religion but also to the family's believes.
Buddism in Thailand
December 2021:
Department of Religious Affairs reported that the population of Thailand identifies as:
92.5% Buddhist
5.% Muslim
1.2% Christian
In other words, a higher percentage of the population of Thailand identifies as Buddhist than the USA identifies as Christian (65% in 2019) or Catholic in Italy (79.2% in 2021).
So Buddism is in Thai BLs because it's in Thailand. It's just very prevalent. One might as well ask why there is so much Christianity in Hollywood's romantic product (oh it's there, language, swearing, modes of address, courting rituals, gendered attire, weddings, etc...).
It's probably unusual and interesting to you, so you noticed it. Also Americans (in particular) - I don't know how you identify but...) tend to be hyperaware of religious/spiritual representation in pop culture because it's so taboo, hyper-politicized, and divisive in the States.
(Appropriate dinner table conversation in different countries is one of the things that fascinates me the most. Like, what's taboo in different countries when you're visiting someone's home for a meal. In larges parts of the US, religion is generally a pretty taboo topic.)
I think it's also prevalent in BL because there's a lot of dead parents, and the death rituals of a culture come into play under those circumstances.
Anything dealing with the spiritual or paranormal, and now weddings and children and blessings and so forth we gonna see religious/spiritual belief rep. As we get more BL delving into different aspects of culture in search of story we will simply see more and more of those aspects of religion that intersect with that aspect of culture, for purely statistical reasons.
Monkhood
I would hazard a guess that the proportion of those in Thailand who chose to be ordained as a Monk is probably the same percent as any other Buddist nation.
Tharn Type 2 takes you through the entire process, if you wanna dive into that franchise.
Also I would highly recommend He's Coming to Me it's got some nifty death stuff going on. Also it's a great BL.
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I have kinda talked about this before - old post:
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spacetimewithstuartgary · 2 months ago
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Satellite Data Show Motion of Burma Earthquakes
At about 12:50 p.m. local time on March 28, 2025, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake started near the city of Mandalay, Burma (Myanmar). Twelve minutes later, the region shook again from a magnitude 6.7 quake with an epicenter about 31 kilometers (19 miles) to the south.
Originating at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) on the Sagaing Fault, the earthquakes triggered intense shaking and building collapse near the epicenters. Infrastructure damage occurred as far away as Bangkok, Thailand, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to the southeast.
Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California used data from radar and optical satellites to visualize how the land moved during these quakes. In the map above, red pixels indicate northward motion, while blue pixels show movement to the south. The data highlights ground displacements of more than 3 meters (10 feet) along portions of the fault, for a total offset of more than 6 meters in some places.
The map is based on data from the Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at JPL and the California Institute of Technology’s Seismological Laboratory, a team that develops state-of-the-art deformation measurements, change detection methods, and physical models for use in hazards science and response.
The ARIA team drew from radar and optical data acquired by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-2B/C satellites. Sentinel-1A employs synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to image the land surface using microwave pulses, while the Sentinel-2 satellites acquire optical data through an onboard multispectral sensor. Using data from the three satellites, the ARIA team computed estimates of horizontal ground motion within the earthquake rupture zone by tracking pixel offsets between pre- and post-earthquake images.
Models produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) indicated the earthquakes likely resulted from strike-slip motion along the north-south-oriented Sagaing Fault, which is at the interface between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. The data in the image confirm right lateral strike-slip motion along the fault and help to constrain modeled estimates of fault rupture extent and surface displacement due to the earthquakes.
This region has a history of significant seismicity, with six earthquakes of greater than 7.0 magnitude occurring within about 250 kilometers (150 miles) of the March 28 quakes since 1900, according to the USGS. The surface rupture generated by the March 28 earthquakes has been estimated, based in part on the data shown, to span 550 kilometers (342 miles) in length. With a rupture extending from north of Mandalay to south of Burma’s capital, Nay Pyi Taw, it is one of the longest documented strike-slip fault-induced surface ruptures on record.
Preliminary analyses of the rupture by other scientists found that, in addition to being especially long, it was also remarkably fast, suggesting it may have been a rare “supershear” earthquake. In these events, the slip along the fault moves faster than the seismic waves it produces, which can concentrate seismic energy ahead of the rupture. The effect may exacerbate a quake’s destructive forces and might be part of the reason why the recent events caused so much damage so far from the epicenters.
NASA Earth Observatory map by Michala Garrison, using data provided by the ARIA team at NASA/JPL-Caltech. The map is based on Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-2B/C data provided by the European Space Agency and processed by ARIA team members Robert Zinke and Cole Speed (JPL). Story by Andrew Wang (JPL) and Lindsey Doermann. Science review by Grace Bato and Eric Fielding (JPL).
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mariacallous · 7 months ago
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On Nov. 14, 2023, Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda declared the start of winter in Gaza as sheets of rain flooded the streets. A month later, Owda told her followers that “we’re drowning” in an Instagram reel that showed displaced civilians bailing out an inundated tent. In January, she turned the camera on her own tent, describing how the rain seeped through the plastic sheeting as she slept.
The conditions that Owda depicted will be far worse when Gaza’s winter rains return this year, after 14 months of unprecedented destruction that has left 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.1 million people displaced. Approximately 86 percent of Gaza’s landmass is under permanent evacuation order. A Sept. 29 United Nations satellite analysis showed that Israeli military operations had damaged or destroyed 66 percent of all structures in the territory, including 227,591 housing units. By June, 67 percent of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure was out of commission.
Each year, from December to February, some parts of Gaza receive one-third of their annual rainfall, and large swaths of the territory flood. A 2020 review in the Journal of Environmental Health Science and Engineering identified 34 factors that increase people’s risk of death in floods, such as cold temperatures and poor quality housing; Gaza currently qualifies for 33 of them.
In addition to casualties in Gaza caused directly by Israeli military action, tens of thousands of people have likely died from indirect causes due to Israel’s blockade of the territory and widespread destruction of infrastructure. Winter floods will exacerbate these issues, leaving the population more vulnerable to life-threatening health and environmental hazards. Without immediate, large-scale humanitarian intervention backed by the United States, Gaza’s water and sanitation crisis could cascade into an unprecedented catastrophe.
Al-Mawasi is a sandy, 9-mile-long strip of seaside land in southwestern Gaza that Israel has designated as the only “humanitarian safe zone” in the territory. Currently, 1.8 million people are thought to be living in al-Mawasi, almost all in makeshift tents. The Norwegian Refugee Council estimated in September that the area had a population density of some 78,000 people per square mile, approximately twice that of Cairo.
The coming winter rains will transform al-Mawasi and the rest of Gaza into a death trap. The combination of poor shelter, lack of drinking water, and abysmal sanitation will cause unknown numbers of preventable deaths. Waterborne diseases, acute diarrhea, and infection often arise in such conditions. Floodwaters are a transmission vector for bacteria such as cholera-causing Vibrio cholerae, viruses such as Hepatitis A, parasites, and fungal infections. The inability to keep dry will also leave Palestinians in Gaza vulnerable to hypothermia and pneumonia.
Israel’s assaults on Gaza have destroyed every sewage processing plant and 70 percent of sewage pumps in the territory. In June, Oxfam reported that al-Mawasi contained only 121 latrines, then serving half a million people; on Nov. 16, Al Jazeera reported that Khan Younis had no fuel for sewage pumps, wells, or water purification.
Infection control and hygiene have long been severely compromised in Gaza. Before Oct. 7, 2023, waterborne illness was already the top killer of children in Gaza. Oxfam reported in 2017 that “Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza severely limits, or prevents altogether, the entry of materials that would allow the water and sanitation sector in Gaza to recover from years of conflict and de-development.”
The widespread destruction of housing, sewage, water, and sanitation infrastructure—as well as prolonged malnutrition and repeated displacement—has severely exacerbated this long-standing problem. During the summer dry season, rates of diarrheal disease in Gaza were 25 times higher than prewar levels. People used makeshift latrines and were forced to dump waste wherever they could. The practice further polluted Gaza’s already contaminated shoreline and groundwater supplies.
Furthermore, Israel’s blockade of commercial goods has caused such scarcity that a 2.6-ounce bar of soap costs $10, while shampoo and laundry detergent are unavailable. Israel has blocked organizations such as Doctors Without Borders from importing hygiene kits. U.S. health care workers who volunteered in Gaza recently reported that since October 2023, basic sanitation items have been unavailable even in hospitals.
Hydration is an acute challenge for Palestinians in Gaza, too. Proper rehydration for those suffering from intestinal diseases is impossible. International humanitarian law requires that civilian infrastructure related to water and civilian access to water be protected. However, since October 2023, people in Gaza have had access to only 6 percent of the water they had prior to the war. Israel has cut or undersupplied water lines that run into Gaza. It has also banned fuel from entering the strip, blocked the transfer of bottled water, compromised local desalination capacity, and destroyed water warehouses. That means that 95 percent of people in Gaza currently have no access to clean water.
Oxfam estimated in July that Palestinians in al-Mawasi could access only 2.5 liters of water per person per day when only 1 million people were sheltering there, far below the international standard of 15 liters per person per day in a humanitarian crisis. Repairing water delivery systems is dangerous in Gaza; the Israeli military recently bombed a car carrying Palestinian water engineers attempting to repair infrastructure, killing four people, despite the fact that they had coordinated their movements with Israel.
Malnutrition and starvation weaken a person’s immune system and ability to heal from injuries. They also permanently impair children’s development. Most people who die of starvation succumb to otherwise trivial infections due to weakened immunity. Widespread malnutrition and starvation have left Gaza’s entire population vulnerable to waterborne disease, especially children under 5. Recent reports place 86 percent of Gaza’s population in phases three to five of acute food insecurity, where mortality increases significantly.
Amid flooding, displaced people are also at grave risk for exposure to environmental hazards such as toxic sludge, as rainwater combines with the rubble of bombed-out buildings. Exposure-related hypothermia and pneumonia will become additional problems, particularly for children. Nighttime temperatures of 50 degrees Fahrenheit, which are typical of winters in Gaza, are not harmful to adequately sheltered people—but young, sick, older, and malnourished people whose clothes are continuously wet will slowly die in such conditions.
The Biden administration has recognized that winter rains and flooding portend a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza—unless Israel significantly eases its stranglehold on the territory. On Oct. 13, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent the Israeli government a letter with clear and specific criteria related to the humanitarian situation in Gaza, to be met within 30 days. “Failure to demonstrate a sustained commitment to implementing and maintaining these measures may have implications for U.S. policy,” they wrote.
The letter listed measures on which Israel was obligated to act to avoid potentially triggering legal provisions that would halt U.S. weapons transfers. Blinken and Austin further specified that proposed legislation in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to ban activities by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) “would devastate the Gaza humanitarian response.”
Those 30 days elapsed on Nov. 12, but Israel has facilitated less than 15 percent of the specified aid delivery goal. Humanitarian aid deliveries are at their lowest levels in 11 months. “Israel’s actions failed to meet any of the specific criteria set out in the U.S. letter,” a coalition of eight international aid organizations wrote in a detailed “Gaza Scorecard.”
Israel not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria but also took action that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in northern Gaza. On Oct. 28, the Knesset banned UNRWA from any activity in Israel, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, or Gaza. Still, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said on Nov. 12 that “we at this time have not made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of U.S. law.”
The Gaza Health Ministry has reported 43,985 Palestinian deaths since Oct. 7, 2023, of which 70 percent are women and children. Though ongoing hostilities and the decimation of Gaza’s medical facilities complicate precise recording, available data indicates that Israeli military action has directly and indirectly killed at least 118,908 people. Drawing on comparisons to other conflicts, one public health scholar estimated that by the end of 2024, a total of 335,500 Palestinians may have died since the beginning of the war.
A growing list of U.N. institutions and experts, governments, rights groups, and scholars have labeled Israel’s actions in Gaza as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
Mitigating the imminent winter catastrophe in Gaza would require at the very least a cease-fire, a surge of aid deliveries, safe access for humanitarian and engineering teams, and the entry of fuel. Israel has staunchly refused to allow such moves in the past, arguing that they would aid Hamas.
Only extreme U.S. pressure on the Israeli government can achieve these ends. Since Israel has not responded to the Biden administration’s calls to protect civilians in Gaza, the United States should take decisive action by halting arms transfers and jet fuel deliveries. In line with recommendations from Human Rights Watch and other international organizations, Washington could also apply targeted sanctions on Israeli officials “credibly implicated in ongoing serious violations.”
For now, the United States is increasingly out of step with international institutions and its own allies in its support for Israel. This week, the U.S. Senate rejected legislation designed to restrict weapons sales to Israel, and Washington vetoed an otherwise unanimous U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolution. On Thursday, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the crime of starvation.
The impending winter rains will place hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza in immediate and entirely avoidable lethal jeopardy. There is a very narrow window for action. A massive humanitarian effort now could save hundreds of thousands of lives. This may be the last opportunity for the Biden administration to make a difference in Gaza.
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nuleafnaturals-in · 2 months ago
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What to Look for in Herbal Extracts Manufacturers in India
Introduction
As the demand for plant-based wellness, cosmetic, and nutraceutical products rises globally, businesses are actively seeking herbal extracts manufacturers in India who offer high-quality, sustainable, and customized solutions. Whether you're sourcing herbal extracts, oil extracts, or partnering with a fragrance manufacturer, the right supplier is key to delivering premium formulations.
India, with its rich biodiversity and Ayurvedic legacy, is home to many natural product manufacturers. But how do you choose the one that meets your quality standards and business goals?
This guide will help you understand what makes a manufacturer reliable — and why leading companies partner with Nuleaf Naturals, one of the top herbal extract and oil extracts manufacturers in India.
Mastery in Botanical Extraction Technologies
A manufacturer’s expertise in extraction techniques directly impacts the purity, efficacy, and safety of the final product. At Nuleaf Naturals, we combine traditional herbal wisdom with modern science using advanced extraction technologies such as:
Supercritical CO₂ Extraction (SCFE): Ideal for solvent-free, potent herbal and oil extracts — widely used in cosmetics and nutraceuticals.
Steam Distillation: Best suited for aromatic compounds and essential oils, preserving delicate fragrance notes.
Short Path Distillation: Useful for high-purity concentrates with minimal heat degradation.
Solvent Extraction: Effective for herbs where other methods may not deliver optimal yields.
By investing in cutting-edge infrastructure, we ensure our extracts meet international quality benchmarks.
Certifications That Guarantee Quality and Compliance
Regulatory compliance is non-negotiable when choosing herbal extracts manufacturers in India. Top-tier suppliers should offer:
GMP Certification (Good Manufacturing Practices)
ISO Certification for quality assurance
FSSAI Registration to ensure food-grade safety
HACCP Certification for hazard analysis and critical control
These certifications demonstrate a manufacturer's commitment to standardized processes and safety protocols. At Nuleaf Naturals, we maintain rigorous quality systems backed by all essential certifications.
Extensive Product Portfolio and Customization Options
A good natural product manufacturer offers not only variety but also customization. At Nuleaf Naturals, our comprehensive product line includes:
Herbal Extracts (e.g., Ashwagandha, Brahmi, Tulsi, Turmeric)
Essential & Oil Extracts (e.g., Lemongrass, Eucalyptus, Lavender)
Oleoresins, Hydrosols, and Fragrance Compounds
Custom Ayurvedic Formulations for wellness and skincare brands
We also offer tailored services including:
Custom potency levels and particle size
Private/white labeling
Third-party testing and documentation
Bulk supply and formulation assistance
This flexibility ensures that our clients get exactly what they need for product development.
Transparent Testing and Full Documentation
Trustworthy manufacturers provide full transparency through lab reports and third-party testing. Nuleaf Naturals guarantees:
Certificates of Analysis (COA) for every batch
Heavy metal and pesticide screening
Microbial testing to ensure safety
Batch-specific traceability
This documentation builds trust with your end customers and helps you stay compliant with global safety standards.
Environmentally Responsible and Ethical Manufacturing
Sustainability is no longer optional — it’s a key value proposition. As an eco-conscious herbal extract manufacturer, Nuleaf Naturals is committed to:
Green extraction techniques with minimal solvent waste
Eco-friendly packaging and waste reduction policies
Ethical sourcing directly from certified organic farms
By choosing a sustainable manufacturing partner, your brand benefits from environmental stewardship and stronger consumer loyalty.
Dependable Supply Chain and Bulk Production Capacity
When scaling your operations, you need a manufacturer that can deliver high volumes without compromising quality. At Nuleaf Naturals, we offer:
Bulk herbal extracts and oil extracts with reliable restocking
Global shipping and export support
Custom contract manufacturing for long-term partnerships
White labeling and B2B collaboration models
With a robust supply chain and on-time delivery, we help your business maintain consistency and meet market demand efficiently.
Proven Industry Experience and Global Clientele
Before finalizing your supplier, evaluate their industry track record. At Nuleaf Naturals, we bring:
Over a decade of experience in herbal extraction
Partnerships with nutraceutical, personal care, and wellness brands globally
Client testimonials that reflect satisfaction, reliability, and professionalism
Our success lies in helping brands around the world create high-performing, natural products that customers love.
Conclusion
Selecting the right herbal extracts manufacturer in India goes beyond product sourcing—it's about building a strategic partnership. From technical expertise and regulatory compliance to customization and sustainability, Nuleaf Naturals offers a complete solution for businesses looking to scale with confidence.
Whether you’re a wellness startup or an established beauty brand, our team is ready to co-create high-quality formulations that align with your values and market goals.
Partner with Nuleaf Naturals — a trusted fragrance manufacturer and supplier of premium herbal and oil extracts — and unlock the full potential of nature-powered innovation.📞 Contact us today for bulk orders and B2B partnerships! +91 9866760001
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leanstooneside · 2 months ago
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Double missile dropkick
- TIMES OF INDIA
- HIS RIGHT OF REENTRY
- DECLARATION OF HIGHER VALUE
- PLAYER OF DUMMY
- PURPOSE OF ESTABLISHING
- DECISION OF HIS
- DISCRETION OF HIS
- EXHAUSTIVE COLLECTION OF CARD
- MERITS OF AUCTION
- ENFORCEMENT OF IT
- VALUE OF CHICANE
- GIFTS OF NATURE
- PRINCIPLES OF BRIDGE
- SON OF WHIST
- CALL OF HIGHER VALUE
- GREATER NUMBER OF CONSECUTIVE RUBBERS
- ACE OF SPADES.THE
- OPTION OF DECLARING
- LAWS OF WHIST
- ORDER OF DEALING
- HIM OF ENTRY
- CALL OF HIS
- VARIETY OF IT
- QUALITIES OF BRAIN
- OPPONENTS OF THEIR
- GAMES OF SCIENCE
- RIGHT NUMBER OF CARDSTHE
- SUBSEQUENT ACT OF PLAY.ED
- SPECIAL FEATURES OF BRIDGE
- PURPOSE OF COMMENCING
- CARDS OF EQUAL VALUE
- SCORING OF HONOURS
- ONUS OF OPENING
- LIMITATION OF LOSS
- STATE OF FLUX
- VALUE OF HONOURS
- DECLARATION OF NO
- NUMBER OF TIMES
- COMBINATION OF BRIDGE
- ADDITIONAL SPICE OF HAZARD
- CREDIT OF C
- SUPERSESSION OF SKILL
- SUIT HAVE NONE OF IT
- PRIOR RIGHT OF ENTRY
- CHOICE OF CARDS
- LIMITS OF DISCRETION
- LAWS OF BRIDGE
- PERMISSION OF HIS
- THEIR RIGHT OF ADMISSION
- PURPOSE OF WATCHING
- PRACTICE OF BRIDGE
- EFFECT OF NOVELTY
- DECLARATION OF SPADES
- FORMATION OF FRESH TABLES
- DECLARATION OF ONE
- OPTION OF ENJOYING
- THING OF SHREDS
- RIGHT OF EXACTING
- CONTENTS OF THEIR
- MAKING OF SAY
- KNAVE OF TRUMPS
- RIGHT OF EITHER
- PROCESS OF REDOUBLING
- NUMBER OF POINTS
- FORMATION OF TABLE
- ACE KING OF SPADES
- MAJORITY OF CASES
- FATHER OF AUCTION
- LAWS OF AUCTION
- NUMBER OF TRICKS
- QUALITIES OF ANALYSIS
- SUIT OF LOWER VALUE
- PURPOSE OF GATHERING
- DUTY OF PLAYING
- CALL OF HIGHER VALUEE.G
- EFFECT OF DOUBLING
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