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reasonsforhope · 8 months

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"As countries around the world begin to either propose or enforce zero-deforestation regulations, companies are coming under growing pressure to prove that their products are free of deforestation. But this is often a far from straightforward process.

Take palm oil, for instance. Its journey from plantations, most likely in Indonesia or Malaysia, to store shelves in the form of shampoo, cookies or a plethora of other goods, is a long and convoluted one. In fact, the cooking oil or cosmetics we use might contain palm oil processed in several different mills, which in turn may have bought the raw palm fruit from several of the many thousands of plantations. For companies that use palm oil in their products, tracing and tracking its origins through these obscure supply chains is a tough task. Often it requires going all the way back to the plot level and checking for deforestation. However, these plots are scattered over vast areas across potentially millions of locations, with data being in various states of digitization and completeness...

Palmoil.io, a web-based monitoring platform that Bottrill launched, is attempting to help palm oil companies get around this hurdle. Its PlotCheck tool allows companies to upload plot boundaries and check for deforestation without any of the data being stored in their system. In the absence of an extensive global map of oil palm plots, the tool was developed to enable companies to prove compliance with regulations without having to publicly disclose detailed data on their plots. PlotCheck now spans 13 countries including Indonesia and Malaysia, and aims to include more in the coming months.

Palm oil production is a major driver of deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia, although deforestation rates linked to it have declined in recent years. While efforts to trace illegally sourced palm oil have ramped up in recent years, tracing it back to the source continues to be a challenge owing to the complex supply chains involved.

Recent regulatory proposals have, however, made it imperative for companies to find a way to prove that their products are free of deforestation. Last June, the European Union passed legislation that prohibits companies from sourcing products, including palm oil, from land deforested after 2020. A similar law putting the onus on businesses to prove that their commodities weren’t produced on deforested land is also under discussion in the U.K. In the U.S., the U.S. Forest Bill aims to work toward a similar goal, while states like New York are also discussing legislation to discourage products produced on deforested land from being circulated in the markets there...

PlotCheck, which is now in its beta testing phase, allows users to input the plot data in the form of a shape file. Companies can get this data from palm oil producers. The plot data is then checked and analyzed with the aid of publicly available deforestation data, such as RADD (Radar for Detecting Deforestation) alerts that are based on data from the Sentinel-1 satellite network and from NASA’s Landsat satellites. The tool also uses data available on annual tree cover loss and greenhouse gas emission from plantations.

Following the analysis, the tool displays an interactive online map that indicates where deforestation has occurred within the plot boundaries. It also shows details on historical deforestation in the plot as well as data on nearby mills. If deforestation is detected, users have the option of requesting the team to cross-check the data and determine if it was indeed caused by oil palm cultivation, and not logging for artisanal mining or growing other crops. “You could then follow up with your supplier and say there is a potential red flag,” Bottrill said.

As he waits to receive feedback from users, Bottrill said he’s trying to determine how to better integrate PlotCheck into the workflow of companies that might use the tool. “How can we take this information, verify it quickly and turn it into a due diligence statement?” he said. “The output is going to be a statement, which companies can submit to authorities to prove that their shipment is deforestation-free.” ...

Will PlotCheck work seamlessly? That’s something Bottrill said he’s cautiously optimistic about. He said he’s aware of the potential challenges with regard to data security and privacy. However, he said, given how zero-deforestation legislation like that in the EU are unprecedented in their scope, companies will need to sit up and take action to monitor deforestation linked to their products.

“My perspective is we should use the great information produced by universities, research institutes, watchdog groups and other entities. Plus, open-source code allows us to do things quickly and pretty inexpensively,” he said. “So I am positive that it can be done.”"

-via Mongabay, January 26, 2024

Note: I know it's not "stop having palm oil plantations." (A plan I'm in support of...monocrop plantations are always bad, and if palm oil production continues, it would be much better to produce it using sustainable agroforestry techniques.)

However, this is seriously a potentially huge step/tool. Since the EU's deforestation regulations passed, along with other whole-supply-chain regulations, people have been really worried about how the heck we're going to enforce them. This is the sort of tool we need/need the industry to have to have a chance of genuinely making those regulations actually work. Which, if it does work, it could be huge.

It's also a great model for how to build supply chain monitoring for other supply chain regulations, like the EU's recent ban on companies destroying unsold clothes.

#deforestation #palm oil #indonesia #malaysia #agriculture #european union #united states #save the forest #open source #technology #mapping #forestry #satellite #good news #hope #climate solutions #environment

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centrally-unplanned · 1 year

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Since I am discussing anime academia today, I was reading another paper that was equally frustrating, along a different axis:

“Do female anime fans exist?” The impact of women-exclusionary discourses on rec.arts.anime

This as a premise is a good concept; someone mining the 90's Usenet anime communities for how the fandom saw female fans back then (the article title is quoting one such thread). So of course, the opening line of this article about the anime fandom in the 90's is....sigh....a reference to Donald Trump:

Commenting on the 2016 American presidential elections, multiple news reporters noted that a relationship could be found between Donald Trump supporters and online anime fans

It of course goes on to discuss Gamergate, 8chan, online right-wing radicalization, references to the "Fascist" themes of Attack on Titan, and on and on. The obvious problem with this is that it is irrelevant; the "methodology" section involves this aside about how they pulled this data from Google Archives but Google is an advertising firm and not a replacement for a real archive and we need to Fight The System and buddy my dude that is not germane to your sample size!!! But more importantly, it is backwards. I don't need to explain the argument here in detail; the article is positing a throughline from 90's anime discourse to modern right-wing internet politics through a sort of 'lock-in' effect of built culture norms around misogyny. Which is fine, you can make that argument - but why is all this future stuff in the first section? You haven't really presented the argument yet! This isn't a book, its not the intro chapter - literally 30% of the text of this article is stating a conclusion upfront, justified not through the text itself but citations to other articles about its truth.

This is something media studies pulled from traditional science - traditional science states "established facts" up front that the paper is building on. But that is because - a thousand caveats aside - in chemistry those facts are....facts. They may be wrong facts, but they can, ostensibly, be objective descriptors. This paper cites "anime is still synonymous with far-right ideologies of white and male supremacy, and events of anti-Blackness" like its citing the covalent bond count of carbon. That is not and never will be a fact one can cite, that is an argument; and its not one that is important for understanding this analysis of Usenet groups. This structure is pulled from other sciences, but it flourishes because it lets you pad the citation count of your peers. Its embarrassing how often you can skip the first 1/3rd of a paper in this field - really the worst possible thing to copy from economics (ding!)

This paper also does the insane thing of jumping between citations from 1992 and events in the 2010's like anime culture is continuous between those time periods. Its an extremely bold claim it just does in the background... but lets set that aside.

This hyper-politicization & hyper-theorizing leads to the second issue of extreme under-analysis. This is the actual value-add of this paper:

From this search, I was able to find the discussion threads “How many females read r.a.a.?” (135 messages; opened on July 13, 1993), “Question: Girls on r.a.a?” (23 messages; opened on February 25, 1994), “Female Otakus” (221 messages; opened on June 25, 1994), “Women watching anime” (72 messages; opened on October 4, 1994), and “Female fans - Do they exist?” (61 messages; opened on October 26, 1995). While these discussions may seem like they were spaces for marginalized users to discuss their experiences, they were often started and overwhelmingly occupied by identified male users. In total, I extracted 252 messages from 1992 to 1996 that were relevant to the gendering of anime fandom, and among those, I classified them as 7 kinds of negative networking discursive practices: (e.g. Table 1. Negative networking practices on rec.arts.anime).

252 messages, five threads - later on it will name other threads, so its more than this, but you get it. It has a bunch of data. And from that data, the article quotes...less than half a dozen examples. There are no quantitative metrics, no threads are presented or discussed in detail from this data set. Some other event is discussed in detail, but again it quotes essentially one person once. The provided "Table 1", the only Table, is a list of the author's categorizations of the data; the data itself is not present. Its file format is a CSV, presumably to mock me for clicking it.

There is, from top to bottom, a complete lack of engagement with the data in question. This would fail an intro anthropology seminar; the conclusion is simply presumed from 1% of the sample size while the rest of the messages are left on read. I just don't think there is any value in that, a handful of messages from 1996 divorced from their context and stapled onto modern politics as a wrap-up. What did the people on this Usenet value? How did they think of women collectively? As anime fans, as outsiders, as romantic partners, as friends? What subfactions existed? Questions like those would presumably be the point of this investigation, but they are treated as distractions.

And this article was, in anime academic circles, a pretty well-trumpeted one. I'm not cherry-picking a bad one here, it was the "hot paper" of the month when it came out. Its just that the standards can be so low, its a field that simply lacks rigor. Which doesn't stop a ton of great work from being done btw, that isn't my point at all. My point is that the great work is not selected for; it goes unrewarded, bogged down by academic standards divorced from discovering real insights.

(I do not think the question "why are they misogynist" ever crossed the author's mind. That should be your literal thesis, and its a ghost. Just ugh.)

#anime academia

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darkskippychan · 8 months

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Temp Work and the Dangers of GMO

By DarkSkippychan

Hello fans of my darkness. I wrote this story for a fan of mine who decided to share herself with me when I was feeling down as a token of appreciation. I hope you are able to afford to go back to university soon and things work out better for you. This story contains Non Con, Sommnophilia/drugging, F/Monster, Tentacles, Forced Orgasms, and Impregnation. Please do not read this story if any of these things may be triggering for you. You have been warned.

Marin Biotech (the 3rd largest biotech firm in the world) had just opened its newest research campus two months ago in her local suburban town. The new work campus provided the nearby community with an influx of much needed capital as well as fueling a new boom in housing, local shops, and (of course) jobs. Their sprawling 43-acre campus was home to many lab facilities, greenhouses, and office buildings all catering to the global companies’ many research projects.

She had been lucky enough to land an afterhours temp job entering data from several of the many research groups and labs. Her normal shift ran from 6pm to 2am, so she seldom saw other employees of the company.

Some people would have found the work conditions lonely, but she actually enjoyed the solitude and freedom to work at her own pace. Not to mention she got full access to the company’s well stocked employee lounge and was pretty much left alone to do her job with little to no supervision as long as she was completing her assigned tasks.

After parking her car in the near empty concrete employee parking garage, she hurried quickly to the main facilities building, her breath fogging out in front of her from the winter cold. Fortunately, snow hadn’t started falling yet, but it always felt right around the corner.

The building was quiet, and she didn’t see another soul as she used her employee pass to enter the building. She crossed the lobby and took the elevator down to basement floor 1 where the buildings main labs and her computer terminal awaited her.

Upon reaching her workstation, she quickly removed her coat, scarf, and gloves before the heat of the heavily climate-controlled basement overwhelmed her. The company always kept it a bit warm down in the lab levels, and she wasn’t sure why. She had learned to drink generous amounts of coffee to offset the urge to doze or sleep while she worked in the comfortable warmth.

The hard copy file ‘In box’ on her desk had several inch thick manila files of printed paper data for her to enter, but she noticed that her workload was about half of its usual size. Thinking it over, she figured some of the researchers had decided to get a head start on the three-day weekend with Monday being a company holiday.

She settled down and woke her computer from sleep mode, as she fell into a rhythm and began to get down to work entering all the collected data.

Lab 3 (of 8) of Marin Biotech main research building was currently devoted to the development of new Genetically Modified Organisms (or GMO for short) mixing plant and animal DNA to create new fast growing and disease resistant strains of plants and animals.

The work was slow and tedious and led to hundreds if not thousands of non-viable products. More recently work had begun to create mutations of promising strains by bombarding them with different forms of hard Alpha, Beta, and Gama radiation, hoping to create organisms with a more favorable outcome.

Among the newest batch in the lab was genetic specimen Beta-317. The Beta series were all different Amazonian Jungle species (picked for their high growth rates and competitive nature) mixed with different ocean animals to try to cultivate their unique properties. Beta-317 or B317 was specifically Cissus Amazonica also known as the Amazon Jungle Vine propagated and enhanced with spliced genes of the Enteroctopus dofleini or Giant Pacific Octopus for its RNA editing abilities and regeneration properties.

Work in Lab 3 had ended early in the day as the staff left early for their vaunted three-day weekend. Multi spectrum bulbs illuminated the far quarter of the lab where the Beta specimens were constantly exposed to full spectrum light as to encourage their rapid growth. Each GMO hybrid had also been placed in a nutrient rich water bath to provide each with the proper nutrients to sustain rapid growth.

Unseen by human eyes, experiment B317 quivered under the constant UV assault, before unfurling several of its thin appendages in its nutrient bath. Roots quested out and dipped into its neighbors fluid baths, draining the fluids and growing in size and length from the additional nutrition.

One appendage discovered the edge of the pool of light and B317 quivered as it began to pull itself out of the damaging brightness still growing from all the rich nutrients it had just absorbed from its neighbors.

A couple of hours had passed in the blink of an eye while she worked when she suddenly let out a big yawn. Stretching, she decided it was time to take a break and get some coffee to help her finish her work shift.

The employee lounge was just down the hall from her workstation, the ecofriendly lights automatically turning on as she entered. She picked up a cup and placed it in the coffee machine, then frowned as nothing happened after she hit the dispense button. Looking at the illuminated control panel she saw the machine was displaying an error code.

She sighed loudly and instead selected some Lavender tea from the tea display beside the coffee machine. A little hot water, milk, and honey later and her second drink of choice was ready.

As she headed back to her workstation, sipping her tea, she didn’t notice the quivering greenish form of B317 clinging to the ceiling down the hall behind her.

B317 had moved through the empty building hallways virtually silently despite its growing size, but not finding anything of interest until it had spotted the woman’s movement as she left the employee lounge.

Attracted to her heat and scent, it slowly began to follow her down the hall moving silently along the ceiling, vine-like tentacles spreading it’s weight evenly as it moved.

She sat down and began working again, taking a sip from her tea now and then. After a while she suppressed another yawn just as she finished up her current folder. She stretched again and leaned back in her chair deciding to close her eyes to rest for just a moment. After all, she thought, her workload was light, and a little nap couldn’t hurt.

B317 found its prey not moving as it slipped past the door frame and into the room. The only sound in the room was the gentle rhythmic breathing from the woman reclined in the chair, and the quiet hum of the lights and office equipment around the room.

Slowly it moved along the wall and down onto the office floor. Moving carefully, it cautiously reached out several tentacle vines towards the sleeping woman. Delicately they brushed across her warm skin, savoring the heat from her body, before stopping as she murmured in her sleep. As she settled back down, they continued to move along her body exploring.

B317 was confused by the cooler non-living clothing around the body of the young woman, but it began to become more excited by the closeness of her warmth and scent. More of its appendages began to move to the body of the woman, wrapping around her very gently as not to wake her.

As B317’s vine tentacles began to move up her body to explore the woman’s face she suddenly shifted and began to blink awake, unconsciously knowing something was wrong.

‘Whaaaa..’ she began, her brain still foggy and dazed from her short nap.

B317 struck out of instinct, jabbing a needle like barb into her neck and injecting her with a potent venom. The woman cried out and her body tensed at the sudden prick of pain. Her eyes shot open, then almost just as suddenly her eyes rolled back into her head, and her body went limp as the creature’s venom coursed through her system.

The newly born mutant vibrated in pleasure as its prey surrendered to its toxin. Hungrily it began to tear through the young woman’s clothing, vine tentacles desperate to expose more of her soft warm flesh.

The woman moaned weakly as the mutant creature stripped her body roughly and she involuntarily shivered at her body’s sudden exposure. Questing tentacles began to explore every inch of her body, causing her body to react of its own accord.

Her nipples began to harden as her body was roughly explored and goose flesh rose as it attempted to fend off the sudden change in temperature. The creature lifted her whole body up off the chair, easily holding her weight aloft. Her head fell back, causing her mouth to open, which B117 took as an invitation to explore. One thick tentacle vine pushed into her mouth, and began to slide down her throat, enjoying her mouth’s warm wetness.

Her heart began to beat faster, her body aware of the danger, even if she herself was not. Warmth flowed over her as her body flushed and reacted to the creature’s touch. Moistness gathered as her juices begain to drip from between her legs.

The creature’s body quivered, and a bulge began to form along its body before bursting forth into a new appendage from its central mass. More of the mutant’s vine tentacles wrapped around the woman’s legs, spreading them wide while it held her in the air before it.

The new appendage moved towards her exposed womanhood drawn there by her musky scent and dripping juices. It slowly began to rub along her slit, collecting her juices along its length and head before nuzzling against the opening of her sex.

A soft moan escaped her lips around the vine tentacle in her mouth that quickly grew to a cry as the creature suddenly forced itself inside her. Her cries just as suddenly turning into soft whimpers as the large appendage slid deeper and deeper inside her, stopping only once reaching the opening to her womb.

Suddenly the creature began to roughly pound its length in and out of her, causing the woman to involuntarily orgasm after just a few thrust of its large phallus like vine tentacle.

B117 greedily absorbed her juicy discharge and the rich nutrients it carried, not stopping for one moment to let the woman rest as it continued to forcefully fuck her. The head of the appendage struck the entrance of her womb like an ancient battering ram trying to forcibly enter a besieged castle.

The woman’s whole-body shook, and her breast bounced with each hard thrust into her limp unresisting body. Orgasm after orgasm ripped through her as the creature continued to have its way with her and absorb her rich juices.

Finally, after several minutes of attempting to force its way inside her, the creature was able to modify its breeding appendage. The tip forming petals that it used to pry and force her cervix open, thus allowing its head to slip deep inside her womb and nestle inside her.

Her stomach began to bulge as it worked more and more of itself inside her, stretching her out birth canal out. She moaned in unconscious protest as the mutant filled her body fuller and more completely than ever before.

B117 pulled the young woman close to it as it felt something deep inside itself grow, then detach, and begin to work itself along the length of its body and down into the appendage connecting them.

Slowly bit by bit, it contracted and moved the hard lump along its length. Reaching the connection between them, the creature was stymied by the tightness of the woman’s body wrapped around its breeding tentacle vine.

Slowly it began to push, harder and harder, increasing the pressure until finally with a loud moan from the woman, her vaginal passage stretched out far enough to allow the hard mass to pass. Using more and more pressure now, the creature continued to push the hard lump of its seed deep inside her.

Centimeter by centimeter the seed moved up her birth canal to be stopped once more as it reached the much smaller opening of her cervix. Twisting and pushing, B117 thrashed the tip of its tentacle inside her womb, causing her to orgasm once more. The sudden tensing and relaxing of her body with each pulse finally allowing the seed to continue millimeter by millimeter up inside her until finally it plopped into the warmth and wetness of her womb.

The woman’s whole body suddenly relaxed as the mutant finished implanting its seed inside her. Sweat dripped from her limp body to be collected greedily by the vine tentacles enveloping her as they sucked at her skin.

Content for now, the creature labeled B117 began to move out of the room, holding its prize in a cocoon of vine tentacles above it.

The woman rose to conscious slowly, her mind still slow and foggy from the mutant venom the plant hybrid had injected her with. Her whole body felt sore, and every muscle abused as if she had run several marathons or had climbed a couple of tall mountains.

She could feel the cool air of the room on her naked skin and her throat felt raw and dry. Her eyes moved around the room, not recognizing where she was.

A very bright group of lights was over a table in one corner of the room. All around her was a green vine type plant mass, covering what she could only assume were tables, chairs, and office equipment. The plant covered the walls, and even parts of the ceiling, and seemed to pulse almost as if it were breathing.

As she looked around, a vine began to move towards her mouth. She tried to turn her head, or to pull back, but she found she didn’t have the strength to even do that much.

As the tip of the vine tentacle opened her mouth and slid inside, it suddenly pulsed and began to disgorge a warm, thick, starchy tasting liquid into her mouth. Disgusted the woman had no choice but to swallow the liquid or risk drowning in it. After a minute or so the vine tentacle stopped and slid back and out of her mouth.

Even as she was disgusted by what had just happened, the woman was surprised to find that she felt better and a little stronger. But before she could even begin to adapt to her situation, she felt something twitch inside her lower belly.

She looked down and her eyes went wide as she saw that her belly had grown and was now stretched out as if she were six months pregnant. Her eyes darted around wildly, looking for something to help steady her mind with.

She saw a clock on the wall displaying the time and date. Only a few hours had passed since she went to the lounge for her tea. It seemed incomprehensible to her.

How could all this have happened in only a couple of hours?

Suddenly she felt a large movement inside her growing belly. She managed to flop from her side onto her back as the first contraction hit her. She cried out loudly and moaned as she felt something moving, fighting its way out of her.

‘Oh god… noOOOOOOOO!’ her hands each wrapping around a vine and squeezing hard as her legs spasmed. The vines felt almost like a kind hard rubber with very little give in them as she panted and struggled with the new life growing inside her trying to be born.

Sweat covered her entire body as she panted and felt the organism inside her moving towards its birth and freedom. She cried out again as another contraction helped to move it along. Two small vine tentacles burst from the slit of her red swollen sex and began to wrap themselves around her thighs, giving the creature additional purchase to pull itself out of its mother.

She came then, hard and long despite everything, the pain and pleasure signals mixed up and scrambled in her brain. The hard rubbery body of the birthing creature pushing hard against her G spot as it pulled itself out of her, raping her from the inside out.

With a final push she collapsed back against the labs floor, totally spent. Her eyes fluttered as she fought to stay conscious despite the struggle of birthing the creature and her ordeal.

The newborn creature began to slide up its mother’s body, two vine tentacles questing for the milk already dripping from her nipples. Attaching themselves to her hard nipples, they began to suck greedily on their mother’s breasts, nourishing itself on her milk and already beginning to grow.

B117 began to stir once more. Vine tentacles quested out for the young woman’s warm sweat covered body once again. After all, her womb was now empty and available, and it had a full three-day weekend to procreate and progenerate…

As the young woman began to slip back into unconsciousness, she felt the touch of B117 along her body once more and wondered if taking the temp job had actually been such a good idea….

I hope you enjoyed my little dark story. Thanks for reading and congratulations for making it this far. If you did in fact enjoy the story, please feel free to buy me a coffee or send me a nude or two. Nudes nourish my soul and fuel my imagination. Till next time friends, stay dark and weird. DarkSkippychan Feb/2024

#cnc somno #breeding toy #somnophilia #monster kink #tentacles #monster fucker #monster fucking #cnc dark #kidnap fantasy

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ghastigiggles · 1 month

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Hi again! :3 I hope you're still open for drawing Pressure prompts cuz I think I got a few in mind now~

https://www.tumblr.com/ghastigiggles/758820297344417792/i-imagine-if-you-tickle-sebastian-by-the-tail-his?source=share

I really wanna see a part 2 to the above. There's about two different scenarios I thought up for this (you can pick either one). Either A) Audie quickly gauges from Fish Boy's reaction that his tail fin is a lot more sensitive than he might've admitted to it being, and they take full risk opportunity to tease him for it, tickling it more purposely. Or B) Do a reverse version where Seb is curiously examining Audie's features (mainly the thick blubbery skin & flesh around their abdomen) which ends up tickling them a lot~ Accidentally at first but then... ;-)

[ conceeeept ]

I ran out of drawing energy tonight but I genuinely did wanna build on this. Like I warned y'all earlier, this ended up just kind of being an exploratory piece than tickles, but they're still there if you squint.

Never ask me for anything again /nsrs /j

ouroboros

“You’re really pushing your luck.”

“2000 data and,” They pressed, “You can check mine out, too.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Liar.”

“... 3000.”

“2500.”

“Fine. But –”

“You call the shots. Wouldn’t have it any other way!”

So that, long and short, was how Audie ended up seated against the wall behind Sebastian’s tail, practically being crushed by the weight but not seeming to mind too much. Anyone else, and he might’ve actually finished the job – but the Assets were different from the Expendables, and he’d been patient enough until now to know they’d respect a firm no when he’d truly had enough.

Too sweet for their own good – but in this case, he couldn’t truly complain. He’d take their hand gently running across the length of his scales over scalpels and vinyl gloves any day.

Not that it stopped him, of course. But still.

There was a mutual curiosity he was interested in exploring, at least passively. They’d both been subject to very similar experiments and changes, though the result was certainly wildly different between them. At least they had their legs, he mused somewhat bitterly, though he knew it still came at a cost.

“Your tail must be crazy strong,” They commented, applying a little pressure with the heel of their palm and just missing a knot in the muscle he hadn’t realized was there. He fought to swallow a groan at that, his fins twitching; “You’re built like a brick house under there.”

“It has its uses. Carries all the stock, after all.”

Sebastian turned his gaze upon the scattered straps and belts and supplies on the ground, silently bemoaning the process of re-attaching them all he’d have to go through once Audie’d had their fill. The asset themself giggled softly, giving his tail a gentle pat as they moved downwards.

“It’s cool! Yours is smoother than I thought it would be, too.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah! The way the light hits your scales, I thought it’d be more bumpy.”

He decided to withhold the fact that his scales would stiffen up underwater for now – had to keep some things a mystery, after all – and simply rolled his eyes, leaning a shoulder against the wall nearest to him and watching them with his arms crossed. Admittedly, it was a little endearing how fascinated they seemed to be.

It was almost enough to distract him from how much he despised his new form.

Almost.

“Are you done yet, or…?”

“Do you want me to be done?”

They met his gaze evenly, and he could only huff in reply, the tip of his tail twitching in their hands. Yes, but no, was the honest answer – and fuck that. Regardless, Audie took his silence as ongoing permission, and continued onwards with their investigation.

More than once, their claws dragged in just such a way to prompt his tail to jerk – more than once, he’d choked on a snort and cast them a withering look that they either ignored or missed. The sensation was more annoying than anything, yet still sent nervous butterflies through his system.

And then their hands were on his fins, and his breath hitched – barely-perceptible, thank God, but still embarrassing. Their thumbs gently pressed down where the flesh of his fins met the scales of his tail, tapering into either texture, and that almost felt nice.

Their claws trailing over the delicate skin, however, was not something he could tolerate for long – and with a stifled snort, his tail jerked. Audie squeaked with annoyance as he smacked them in the face. An unintended attack, granted, but still…

Deserved.

“T-Time’s up, knock it off,” He chimed quickly, pulling his tail off of them entirely and willing his gills to relax where they’d flared up from the nerves. God, that would’ve sucked immensely. Audie pouted, but allowed him the opportunity to call it, standing up and stretching with a groan of their own.

“Alright. My turn, then – how d’you wanna do this?”

It took a little thought and finagling, but the two of them settled for letting them sit on his tail and lean against his body, their back to his front. Their tail curled up between their legs like a pool toy, and they playfully drooped the fins over their own head before allowing him to take the limb in his hands.

Just like his, Sebastian could feel the muscle underneath – powerful and developed, though the joints themselves felt stiff as he manipulated the limb. Audie seemed to wince when he pressed down, and he grunted – concerned, against his better judgement.

“Doesn’t hurt,” They assured without further prompting; “I mean – it does, when the meds wear off, but it’s good for now. It’s just – the bone problem… My tail was grafted on.”

“Mm. That’s right… You mentioned.”

They hadn’t. But they overshared so much that they didn’t remember that. He, meanwhile, remembered reading their file.

“Is it numb right now?”

“No… Soft touches don’t feel like much, with the painkillers n’ all.”

A bitter twinge of mild jealousy sprouted in Sebastian’s chest – at least they wouldn’t be having an embarrassing, dumb reaction – though he was quickly proven wrong when a bit of pressure applied on either side of their tail made it twitch and prompted a strangled noise from them.

“Uh?”

“Uh.”

A beat, and he snorted, tilting his head down at them as he let up on the squeeze.

“... You good?”

“Kinda? It felt like – you know when someone pinches that point at the back between your shoulders and neck?”

Well. It’d been literal decades, but – “Sure.”

“That - hhHAAH, hey!”

Sebastian chuckled to himself as he pressed down again, and Audie whined, pressing back against him as their tail jerked in his hand – woefully helpless, what with their size difference. With a second hand, he experimentally ran a claw of his own over their fin, pressing down just enough to prompt a soft squeal.

Audie’s back arched, and they kicked lightly at the new addition to their torment, shaking their head.

“Nonononono that’s so bad that’ssobadstop!”

“Geeze, you’re gonna break the sound barrier at this rate…”

He longed to push his own luck a little – but courtesy given was courtesy returned, at least, and Audie hadn’t done him wrong. So, begrudgingly, he relented, and Audie slid off him to plop on the ground, curling their tail around their body and holding it close. Sebastian craned his neck to grin down at them, amused.

“So much for not being sensitive, huh?”

“Shut it. As if I didn’t catch your reaction earlier.”

“... Touche. I won’t take advantage if you won’t.”

“Deal.”

That deal would, inevitably, break – but not before they helped him get all the belts and supplies back on. Hopefully.

#mine #pressure tickles #roblox pressure tickles #sebastian solace #my ocs #audie #tiny bitty lore drops abt their version of the universe #teehees

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astral-mariner · 6 months

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so there's shots in the saiyan saga of bulma futzing around with raditz's scouter and i'm like "MISS BRIEFS, I do not BELIEVE that a piece of alien tech can reasonably be taken apart with a FLATHEAD SCREWDRIVER" so it is a firm headcanon of mine that she had to resort to flathead screws to put it back together after she mangled the original ones by not having the correct weirdo alien screwdriver. AND OF COURSE vegeta brings like half a dozen of them back with him because they're like the spaceman equivalent of like a bicycle repair kit but bulma is DELIGHTED with them anyway and vegeta does not understand what this fuzzy warm 'i did a good' feeling is that is happening underneath his ribcage.

Oh my god, I love this! If someone writes a fic of this, I'd be all about it. That's so funny that she'd use an Earth screwdriver.

Everyone knows I already have a million headcanons about Raditz's scouter too. Like, Bulma and her dad were smart enough to figure out a Namekian ship. So she'd definitely be able to hack Raditz's scouter for whatever data might be left on it. I bet she learns a TON about how the Planet Trade works just from the interface and being able to browse some of its "Internet." And my long ass fic is literally her reading through Raditz's private stuff.

It's such a cool plot device to use---Bulma learning about stuff in space and perhaps other things she shouldn't even know about via the technology she's literally seen with in canon.

I really do think that was a big thing that brought her and Vegeta closer---them talking about things out in space. She'd be curious, of course, and it would come up naturally as she's doing tech repairs for Vegeta. How he trained between missions, what tech he used, what might be useful to adapt (as she makes her own version of Vegeta's PTO armor). And Vegeta might be his usual brusque self and give only perfunctory details... But even the way he talks about things, what he avoids talking about, and what little slips of personal details come out would tell Bulma quite a bit about him and would leave her wondering about more. Of course a genius scientist is going to take every opportunity to interview a humanoid alien that could tell her all about life in space.

And Vegeta might act like he merely tolerates her because she provides his training equipment, but you know for a fact that man is lonely, and he'd secretly enjoy when they end up talking for more than a few minutes. Finds excuses for it even. Finds little things wrong with the gravity simulator, finds little reasons to start a fight with her. Because gods know he could never just...go and visit and talk to her because he enjoyed her company or anything.

#bulma #raditz #vegeta #vegebul #ask astral #headcanons

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 3 months

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In late May, 19 Republican attorneys general filed a complaint with the Supreme Court asking it to block climate change lawsuits seeking to recoup damages from fossil fuel companies.

All of the state attorneys general who participated in the legal action are members of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), which runs a cash-for-influence operation that coordinates the official actions of these GOP state AGs and sells its corporate funders access to them and their staff. The majority of all state attorneys general are listed as members of RAGA.

Where does RAGA get most of its funding? From the very same fossil fuel industry interests that its suit seeks to defend. In fact, the industry has pumped nearly $5.8 million into RAGA’s campaign coffers since Biden was elected in 2020.

The recent Supreme Court complaint has been deemed “highly unusual” by legal experts.

The attorneys general claim that Democratic states, which are bringing the climate-related suits at issue in state courts, are effectively trying to regulate interstate emissions or commerce, which are under the sole purview of the federal government. Fossil fuel companies have unsuccessfully made similar arguments in their own defense.

RAGA’s official actions — and those of its member attorneys general — closely align with the goals of its biggest donors.

The group, a registered political nonprofit that can raise unlimited amounts of cash from individuals and corporations, solicits annual membership fees from corporate donors in exchange for allowing those donors to shape legal policy via briefings and other interactions with member attorneys general.

A Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) analysis of IRS filings since November 24, 2020 shows that Koch Industries (which recently rebranded) leads as the largest fossil fuel industry donor to RAGA, having donated $1.3 million between 2021 and June 2024.

Other large donors include:

• American Petroleum Institute (API), the oil and gas industry’s largest trade association

• Southern Company Services, a gas and electric utility holding company

• Valero Services, a petroleum refiner

• NextEra Energy Resources, which runs both renewable and natural gas operations

• Anschutz Corporation, a Denver-based oil and gas company

• American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, a major trade organization

• Exxon Mobil, one of the largest fossil fuel multinationals in the world

• National Mining Association, the leading coal and mineral industry trade organization

• American Chemical Council, which represents major petrochemical producers and refiners

Many of these donors are being sued for deceiving the public about the role fossil fuels play in worsening climate change: many states — including California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Rhode Island — as well as local governments — such as the city of Chicago and counties in Oregon and Pennsylvania — have all filed suits against a mix of fossil fuel companies and their industry groups. In the cases brought by New York and Massachusetts, ExxonMobil found support from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of the corporation.

Paxton has accepted $5.2 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry over the past 10 years, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets and reviewed by CMD.

Fossil Fuel Contributions to the Republican Attorneys General Association Includes aggregate contributions of $10K or more from the period November 2020 to March 2024.

Note: This funding compilation does not include law firms, front groups, or public relations outfits that work on behalf of fossil fuel clients, many of which use legal shells to shield themselves from outright scrutiny. For example, Koch Industries, through its astroturf operation Americans for Prosperity, has deployed a shell legal firm in a major Supreme Court case designed to dismantle the federal government’s regulatory authority.

CARRYING BIG OIL’S WATER

This is far from the first time RAGA members have banded together to try to defeat clean energy and environmental regulations. In 2014, the New York Times initially reported on how RAGA circulates fossil fuel industry propaganda opposing federal regulations.

The Times investigation revealed thousands of documents exposing how oil and gas companies cozied up to Republican attorneys general to push back against President Obama’s regulatory agenda. “Attorneys general in at least a dozen states are working with energy companies and other corporate interests, which in turn are providing them with record amounts of money for their political campaigns,” the investigation found. That effort, which RAGA dubbed the Rule of Law campaign, has since morphed into RAGA’s political action arm, the nonprofit Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF).

Since then, RAGA’s appetite to go to bat for the industry has only grown.

In 2015, less than two weeks after representatives from fossil fuel companies and related trade groups attended a RAGA conference, Republican AGs petitioned federal courts to block the Obama administration’s signature climate proposal, as CMD has previously reported. Additional reporting revealed collusion between Republican AGs and industry lobbyists to defend ExxonMobil and obstruct climate change legislation.

There was also the 2016 secret energy summit that RAGA held in West Virginia with industry leaders, along with private meetings with fossil fuel companies to coordinate how to shield ExxonMobil from legal scrutiny. Later that year, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey — aided by 19 other Republican AGs — successfully brought a case before the court that hobbled Obama’s signature climate plan.

Morrisey is currently leading the Republican effort to take down an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation that targets coal-fired power plants.

Often, the attorneys general bringing these cases share many of the same donors who backed the confirmation of Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices, as pointed out by the New York Times.

And in 2021, Republican attorneys general from 19 states sent a letter to the U.S. Senate committees on Environment and Public Works and on Energy and Natural Resources hoping to persuade senators to vote against additional regulations on highly polluting methane emissions, a leading contributor to global warming.

Since 2022, RLDF’s “ESG Working Group” has been coordinating actions taken by Republican AGs against sustainable investing. Communications from that group obtained by CMD show that it was investigating Morningstar/Sustainalytics and the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. Republican AGs announced investigations into the six largest banks for information on their involvement in the Net-Zero Banking Alliance later that year.

LEGACY OF RIGHT-WING ACTIONS

It’s not only about fossil fuels. Attorneys general who are members of — and financially backed by — RAGA have a long track record of pursuing right-wing agendas. In Mississippi, Attorney General Lynn Fitch helped bring the legal case that ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade. In Texas, Paxton has attempted to overturn the Affordable Care Act and sued the federal government over Title IX civil rights protections, and safeguards for seasonal workers, among other policy irritants to the far Right. With support from fellow Republican AGs, he also led one of many efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In recent years, other pro-corporate major donors have included The Concord Fund, which is controlled by Trump’s “court whisperer” Leonard Leo, Big Tobacco, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform.

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itesservices · 1 year

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youtube

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#data mining services #data mining companies #data mining solutions #data mining firms #web data mining companies #Youtube

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andrewleousa · 2 years

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Looking for Professional Data Mining Firms?

Are you looking for data mining companies with proven track records of project deliveries? If yes, then you should refer to B2B platforms like Clutch and Good Firms or check out search engine results. The ideal data mining firms would help you achieve the desired goals within the stipulated time and budget.

#data mining firms #data mining companies #data mining services

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fountainpenguin · 25 days

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Hi Riddle, I've been following your Pixel Imperfect series for a while now and I am absolutely hooked on it. It's honestly amazing!

I do have one question though, and I realise it's a bit late in the series to ask this, but it has been bothering me: what are the 1s and 0s in the Pixel Imperfect universe?

I understand it is a parallel alcohol, I moreso want to understand how it works and what the differences between drinking the 1s and drinking the 0s are.

Thank you for thanking the time to read this and, again, you are an inspiration as a writer.

Thank you! That's incredibly kind of you to say, and if I've given you or others inspiration, that's very flattering and I'm glad <3 I'm extremely passionate about my Pixels Imperfect works and I'm delighted you find them so engaging.

Here's some background info (and secret bonus lore) about code, and the drink commentary is in the section after.

Minor #ridspoilers for Dog's Life Sessions 1 and 2 - Commentary about how code works using characters and plot points as examples (plus showing the drink scene from Chapter 7).

Background on Code

The Pixels Imperfect characters are made from code strings: in other words, their programming. These strings are tangible sequences of characters that weave through them and give them energy; we've seen anivores (like phantoms) eat these strings to disconnect people from the Between dimension, sending them back to their designated AFK server.

- Data from your code starts out with "Traits your creator envisions you with" (when you're born in your AFK server). This can be personality and early species leaning. These traits don't have to be envisioned consciously and can include things like hoarding items vs. storing them. These traits can adapt across the lifetime of play. - After that first playtime experience, the hybrid and creator are separated, and the hybrid hatches from a dragon egg in the Between dimension. Theoretically, this is determined by early species leanings (and conscious thought), but it may also be random; no one in-universe knows for sure. - The baseline is then layered with default information about mob behavior. In the Pixels Imperfect lore, mob behavior (and mental reasoning) increases as the moon waxes and decreases as it wanes. - A hybrid's code, or programming, is full of default player data (How to walk, run, jump, mine, and craft) alongside mob behavior. Basically, the game fills in their blanks with existing game data (which is WHY hybrids are affected by the full moon like mobs are). -> There's actually a whole thing about Tweenborns - hybrids who are mobs exclusive to Legends or Dungeons as opposed to the base game - having weaker or more flexible data in their systems. Some are based on IRL animals and are extreme stereotypes of their species (Hence Joel having anxiety about his firefly instinct to flirt and opting to mod out of it... and now struggling with being reset back to his firefly body). Others, like illusioners, have very spotty, unstable bits of code. -> We delve into this in the species and culture sections of Herobrine's Guide to the Between Dimension, though it probably won't come up in-story much :) -> In Pixels Imperfect canon, BigB's code is highly unstable, but tamped down by his moth mods, and Joel's firefly instincts can easily get out of control, so he keeps them on a firm leash and stays away from situations that will set him off, like flirting with people under a full moon. Also, Herobrine - who is technically the Cluckshroom Dragon - has extremely unstable code, and lots of it. Probably the most unstable hybrid in the whole dimension, now that I think about it. Yeah, that tracks. Get creepypasta'd, idiot. -> There IS one line in my next Dog's LIfe chapter where Ren mentally describes BigB's nervous code as "frizzy" (because he's mildly glitching out and hasn't cleaned his code or slept in a while) and then instantly remembers "I can't say that; that's a slur for Tweenborns," which is a nod to the lore I wrote for the Guide. Kinda neat that it came up!

In other words, the code strings running through bodies exist in a processed state; they're nice and clean. However, hybrids naturally shed their code as their energy starts to fade, the same way humans shed skin cells and hair.

The data that makes code stick to you is called ecto code. This keeps code stable and inside the body. Hybrids naturally lose ecto code over time, leading to glitches, but they can refresh it with a night of sleep.

- Multiple days of not refreshing your code with sleep is what draws phantoms to you (They can smell and hear the unstable state). Reminder: sleep is the Overworld's blessing alone; you can't sleep in the Between dimension - Secret piece of my lore: Phantoms are fantastic search and rescue teams... but only if someone's been missing long enough to lose their ecto code - Joel and Lizzie, who prefer not to be logged out by anivores, have a special cleaning routine they do with brushes, clippers, and other grooming tools - SnifferMyFeet used to eat ecto code when he was an endermite; I designed my 'mites after cleaner wrasse, who eat mucus when they clean fish. - Ecto code is what "holds up the sky" and separates dimensions, which is why endermites were able to chew through it in my creation story for this world (Herobrine's Guide to the Between Dimension, Chapter 1)… thus connecting The End to the Overworld and uniting the elements that allowed the rise of more advanced lifeforms. - I also designed a Between-specific creature - the mirage - to function like an aquatic phantom. It attacks you if you dive too deep in the darkwater biome without wearing magmamarine armor (i.e. SCUBA equipment), because diving without protection makes your code extremely unstable and they'll just eat you. I think this comes up in our very next Between Dimension Guide chapter, actually- It's the landscape and native creatures one! -> Many of the resources that have lasted through Between's existence to present day are lurking in the depths of the darkwater biome. Very few people are able to get the diamond armor they need AND the magmamarine to upgrade it, so it's a tricky place to explore. -> As a reminder, hybrids can only be canon mobs, so there are no mirage or leviathan hybrids who can dive that far naturally. Lots of fun stuff to play with regarding code and stability lore!

While some characters think anivores are spooky (Because, y'know... they hunt and eat people), I specifically designed the phantoms to be scavengers. Their role in the ecosystem is eating code strings that have lost their energy, preventing them from lying around and making people sick. They eat people's code, though, and not something like stray hairs.

In "Chicken Dinner," I wrote a scene about Secret Life Scar, the bodies of his friends who didn't respawn after losing their final lives, and phantoms playing their scavenger role - No gore, but it's not for everyone. I think it's interesting!

When anivores log people out by eating their code, they're taking that code into themselves and cleaning it before the data is cycled back into the system and the player returns refreshed and anew. Anivores fix things (like chipped fingernails and sore muscles) and soft reset your body.

- This is what we see in the Between scenes of Dog's Life Session 2, where Bdubs has lost his wings, but refuses to be processed by the system because he's proud and stubborn, so he's walking around without them. There's no getting those wings back until he sucks it up and lets someone reset him, but he's dragging his feet about it. - Soft resets let you keep your mods. They differ from dissolve resets, which are hard resets that wipe you off the map and respawn you from scratch (though you keep your memories). -> In Dog's Life, we learn you can use bullet paths - huge rivers of energy - to travel as fast as light from one place to another. New Star Station has a bullet path running beneath it. There's also a moat outside the station that drops you into the Void, which Cleo almost fell into in Chapter 12. -> In Chapter 34, Ren and PiglinMyNose couldn't go any farther when they came across a corrupted bullet path filled with glitchy data. Ren tells the reader that falling into the path would instantly kill them, wipe a ton of their data, and respawn them at their birthplaces (as opposed to their AFK servers). This is because the game would straight-up disconnect them from existence (leaving what's left of their bodies and code to float in the path forever) and it would load a new copy of their minds and bodies from their default data. Pretty creepy. -> Dissolve resets also happen if you fail to reach your server in time when you feel the tingles telling you you're supposed to go online soon (For instance, if you soft-lock yourself or someone imprisons you). In Dog's Life Chapter 35, when Etho finally has time to think about how he didn't get the energy ping to play in Session 2, he has a breakdown wondering if the game already spawned a new Etho and if he's about to die. The game doesn't care about your free time- You WILL be on this server if your player is logging on. -> While it wasn't said by name, One and a Half Birds is a story about a dissolve reset! (A hybrid taking such incredible amounts of damage and corruption that they got wiped out and reset) -> Not to be confused with Scar sometimes glitching out and vaporizing, thus needing new Scars to be downloaded off the system (and we learned in Dog's Life Chapter 8 that Scar really doesn't have issues about this; if Jellie thinks he's Scar, that's good enough for him, even if technically he is a new version). That said, if no one bothered to get a new Scar download, he would get dissolve reset and respawn at the allay hub. Except he can't, because it's gone, but... yeah. -> Unfortunately, pretty much all the aboveground bullet paths are corrupted and no one really knows how to clean them. For better or worse, this has cut their land into pieces and it slows down travel... and pillager patrols. So... balances out?

Fun Dog's Life facts- After Etho returns from SnifferMyFeet cycling him, people keep commenting that he looks like he's cleaner and more refreshed than he's ever been (with Impulse even asking "Who did your strings?")

Usually, Etho is cycled by phantom hybrid Bdubs, who has a high metabolism and processes energy quickly. It's not common for Etho to experience a slow cycle, which is one of the things that draws him towards Sniff as "Huh, this guy is fascinating."

Raw Binary Drinks

We've seen hybrids drink 1s and 0s, also known as raw binary code. This type of code doesn't give you energy in the way that food does. It's a drink, not a meal.

Put simply, 1s are alcoholic and 0s are non-alcoholic (or at least they have very low alcohol levels). 0s (the white-colored drinks) mimic the taste of 1s and give you a light buzz while 1s (blue drinks) affect you much more strongly. They can make your head feel fuzzy.

In other words, 0s mean "off" in binary and don't do anything to your system. 1s mean "on" and flip switches inside you akin to the way alcohol affects humans :)

- In Here's to the Health of Married Men - specifically Chapter 3 - Bdubs became so tipsy that he reached the point he was officially considered drunk. This was symbolized by his wings dissolving into their raw energy state:

Speaking of, Bdubs stands a breath from Jimmy's outstretched hand in the center of the ballroom. He's half hunched over, twisting and untwisting the heel of his hand against his eye. His phantom wings are out - that's par for the course in the Between dimension - but they're no longer midnight blue and leathery in the way Scar's long grown familiar with. They glitter a snappy cyan. Bdubs flaps several times. His wings flex and crack at the air. He mutters so loud, he's half shouting. Bright pixels spark behind him. While Jimmy's mouth twists in sympathy, his own softer wings fluttering, several onlookers playfully jeer at tonight's local lightweight. "Aw, shut up! I'm fine!" (As if his entire form isn't flickering with glitchy patches up and down.) Don't let your soul die on ya, silly…

- Exactly the same principle for his wings is in play here as it was when he lost them in Dog's Life - By drinking too much, he "burned his wings out" (or at least, he's in the precursor stage to the burnout) and can't recover them until he cycles through the system. This is called flaring (or a soul flare).

Important Clarification - Grian, who came from another world, considers flaring a sexual thing [in conversation]; he tends to tell the reader that he wants to flare and he doesn't know how and he's looking forward to it, etc. He forgets that, like... it can just happen if you get too excited, spooked, or drunk. Or just sometimes when the full moon is out. We literally saw him sitting on the Red Velvet Keep roof with his wings flared in "Canadian Idiot," and Scar could sense Grian's wings had flared in "Birdwatcher" (Because they were linked as soulmates and Grian accidentally seized control of Scar's wings by flapping, despite being across the map). Flaring is just a general state of arousal (e.g. alertness). But if you ask Grian, he'll either deny it's ever happened to him or get huffy because "That doesn't count." lol. He IS correct in thinking it can happen if you get turned on, but it can happen for plenty of other reasons, like just getting too wrapped up in your mob mindset. Actually, in my next Dog's Life chapter (41), we talk about flares and learn that Bdubs makes his phantoms take frequent breaks when they're wrestling so they don't tip over the edge. The wrestling isn't sexual, but getting way too into your mob mindset will flare you. Notably, Joel has body dysphoria (Leaning into his "I'm self-conscious of my Minecraft body" line from Double Life). I mentioned above that he's concerned about his firefly instincts getting him into trouble (since his species is known for one thing and it's courtship), but he also just... doesn't like looking at his body. He doesn't like flare-related intimacy and he avoids drinking too much. -> That said, his glowing wings and antennae flared up during his fights with Etho in "Canadian Idiot" [screaming at him to calm down; notably Etho's fox instincts had taken complete control of him in that scene, so his ears and tail were out] -> His second set of arms leaks out in "The Man He Sets His Spawn With" [Fighting to hold back emotions over Etho breaking his trust]. ... Joel does not associate flaring with affection. It's anger, stress, and despair to him :'D

Anyway, I just like talking about this stuff! I think it's interesting.

The short version of what I've said is, drinks let people play with that arousal (alertness) because 1s flip their internal switches into an "on" state. It's hard to flare yourself on purpose because to reach that state, you have to let go and slip into your mob thoughts. If you're overthinking or grounding yourself to the world, you won't be able to disconnect.

It's kind of like a floaty subspace feeling. Not so much if you're angry, though (Then it's your "fight or flight" instinct kicking in).

I think I had an author's note I scrapped instead of posting, but Etho's big secret is that he really likes his mob mindset. Let me see if I have it in my scrap doc....... I don't see it, so I'll recount:

Etho's whole thing is that he struggles with letting go. He desperately wants to take breaks, but we see hints in multiple stories that New Star's official safety protocol is "Get Etho; Etho will fix this" (and we learn in Dog's Life Chapter 38 that Tango - who knows just as much as Etho - resents this). Etho's Dog's Life arc is all about him trying to unravel himself from this persona he's gotten locked up into. He tries to set firmer boundaries (which becomes a struggle due to the sheer amount of drama in this dramedy) and he has some serious internalized issues about thinking people don't respect his time; they "don't allow him" to take breaks. Etho LOVES the full moon because it gives him plausible deniability- He can freely say "Full moon is messing with my head and I can't right now" without feeling guilty (sometimes). He will try not to tell you that, but that's what the moon is to him: an excuse. Freedom. Peace. A break. Of the entire cast, he's the one most likely to give into his instincts by running on all fours or biting people (hence "Canadian Idiot"'s plot about Etho struggling with his fox aggro instincts while linked up with Joel, and biting Joel every time Joel gets hurt). This is WHY Etho is the character whose soul ears prick up when he's nervous and avoiding eye contact... His mob mindset is only one breath below the surface and he doesn't necessarily try to fight it or ground himself in his hybrid body. He tips over the edge VERY easily, and he embraces it. To Etho, SnifferMyFeet - who doesn't know what's going on half the time and hasn't formed solid opinions or expectations about the server hub or its residents - represents the internal peace, confidence, innocence, and freedom that Etho so desperately craves. Ergo, if he hangs out with Sniff, he'll come to understand how Sniff ticks and mimic that in his own life, and finally be happy. So he thinks, anyway. tl;dr - Etho looked at Sniff and said "This is the world's most perfect man; he has never done anything wrong in his life" and he's been weird about that anxious gremlin ever since. He's totally infatuated despite Sniff's many red flags. I mean... I guess he's right- You have technically done nothing wrong if you are newly spawned into this world and the only thing on your resume is "played a death game because I was told to; I have no morals because I am 1 day old." Sniff has zero impulse control and doesn't know stealing and tax fraud are wrong because he's only existed for a few weeks, and Etho thinks it's adorable. I think Etho sees Sniff as like, a baby pillager who just hits you because it has an axe and is learning how to control its body. Fascinating.

Anyway, raw binary can flip your brain into being "on" (bouncy energy, feelings of excitement), which some people find fun, though some hybrids might feel tired when they drink. I like to think the 1s make you more "on" in regards to being a hybrid. You're still doing impulsive things, but you're not going to drift off into your mob state from drinking.

However, after you've already been flared a while, your mind might start to wander and that could lead towards slipping into the mob mindset. But 0s are more likely to lead to a wandering mind while 1s are more about paying attention to things.

- 1s kind of make you go "Ooh, what's this thing?" and then your neighbor who's also been drinking will infodump on you, and then you both might mess around with the thing (Ex: throw it like a ball). You're active! You're playing! - 0s are a low-energy drink for when you want a light buzz, but not to the degree 1s can give you. They're more like "Haha, what? Aaaah... You're crazy, man."

It's worth noting that you can't drink 1s and 0s unless you're on the physical plane, which is why PiglinMyNose (a cam account who's usually in spectator mode) was unfamiliar with them until Dog's Life Chapter 7... hence this scene!

Martyn straightens, poised as though presenting himself before a king, with a glass of sparkling cyan balanced in his hand. "Aww, it's baby's first corporeal night, then? Come get a drink, Pig! It is 'Pig,' right? We've got 1s." "What's 1s?" Pig asks, absently brushing Etho's arm from his shoulder. Etho presses his lips together, but doesn't replace it. He steps to the side, a little closer to Bdubs. "You know! Numbers!" Martyn thrusts his glass in the air. The binary code sloshes around inside. "I guess you don't have this on the spectator plane. It's the blue one. Tastes a bit like sushi and a li'l like chocolate. Give it a sip, if you're up for it. You might like it. Though it's a little flat this time of eve, if I'm honest… It'll perk up once the night gets rolling." Pig reaches for Martyn's glass, which sends Martyn backpedaling and spluttering, telling him to keep his mitts off and go fetch his own. Etho winces. "Pig, you might wanna stick to 0s…" "I want a glass of 1s," he says, pushing forward, and Martyn, beaming, swings an arm around Pig's neck. "Well, you heard the guy! He maxes out experience points tonight. Let's get him his 1s!" Sure. Pig's his own person; he can figure things out for himself. He may be fumbling around, still more familiar with the ethereal world and its pomp and colors than the corporeal one and its gravity, but he's also lived in New Star Station for ages. He's not a baby villager. Etho lifts one brow, but says nothing.

Conclusion - That's what raw binary does to the system, why anivores can't just drink that for energy "instead of people," and why non-anivores can drink it even though they don't have the biology to process "people code." It's just a thing that plays off your internal body code, but it doesn't give you nutrients.

Recently settled on the name cerivores for non-anivores, although that hasn't come up in-story yet (Thanks for bouncing ideas off with me, @bookworm-2692!)

Thanks for asking! I love talking about Pixels Imperfect lore :)

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skippyv20 · 6 months

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"Just the facts ma' am."

Hi Skippy & Friends-Pilgrim remembering the famous line from an early TV show called Dragnet when Joe Friday said this on each episode. I think the Royal Family and Firm are doing the same thing…which seems to be using only absolutely, 100% accurate facts, while they were working for them. That is all any employer can comment about really. The ILBW was an actress and did the Tig. Whatever else was claimed by the Sussex duo cannot be trusted or verified. The royal site referred to her best work on Suits, not mentioning the lessor jobs she did along the way-some of which were very tawdry. As for H, they did the same-just the dignified things he did for his family when employed by them.

As for the invisible children still listed in the line of succession that seems to be a very big gift to the con artist grifters. This is like having two baby elephants running around the room which in the end will make a huge mess. It seems the in-laws don’t feel like it is their right to become involved with that clean up job either. Opps-the word is out now so take them off the website and out of the royal clan. Check!

Sending readers to their website should come with a warning about data mining and identity theft. By the way, on her new site where she plans on selling items, can you imagine buying something and giving her your credit card number and your shipping address? Holy cow…that is stuff for nightmares! I think this whole announcement will be tossed on her compost pile of ideas. There is no way she can handle actual fulfillment.

Finally, my heart goes out to the lone male, Prince William, keeping his chin up this whole time while having to deflect such ugliness for his wife and family. We are all human and the stress since he knew what his lovely wife was facing (possibly changing both their lives forever) has been enormous as he also puts up with his abusive brother…geez. The constant barrage of negativity and exhaustion is showing even on his handsome face. I am sure the Princess of Wales is trying very hard to not burden him as much as she can while recuperating.

As for the slimy Andy Cohen opening his big mouth about the royal shoppers…who should believe one word he says! He is the person creating shows that make women look like drunken, stupid, wasteful, spiteful, sneaky, backstabbing, status clawing frauds. For more than a decade he has demeaned women on his shows to the point some have been seriously compromised. Stay in your own lane Mr. Housewife. Over and out for now from a sunny Cape.

Thank you Pilgrim ….I love this…great points!!!!❤️

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rjzimmerman · 5 months

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Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

New York, Ohio and Indiana have collectively retired 47 coal plants in the past two decades. Of these, only 11 have been successfully redeveloped—converted mostly into gas-fired power plants, but also into data centers and cryptocurrency mining operations.

And the Great Lakes region is far from an outlier. Across the United States, retired coal plants sit vacant and rusting, with little to no chance of revival. They are, in many cases, the picture of neglect: abandoned lots with murky ash ponds and dirt berms, visible to locals only through barbed wire fences. In some cases, the deserted structures have been known to catch fire or unexpectedly collapse.

Yet they also occupy some of the country’s most valuable plots of land—large, contiguous parcels abutting major waterways, often within walking distance of a population center. These qualities make them attractive locations for parks, industrial centers, or, as in the case of Nanticoke, clean energy hubs. Why, then, are they so rarely redeveloped?

The answer to that question involves shadowy companies, secret agreements, and false promises—but it begins 40 feet below the Tanners Creek ash ponds. Before any redevelopment can occur, the site must be purged of the harmful toxins such as arsenic, boron and radium that decades of burning and dumping coal allowed to leach into the soil. All told, decommissioning and remediating a retired coal plant can cost anywhere from $3.5 million to $200 million. What’s more, thanks to a 1980 federal environmental law, a botched remediation job can trigger lawsuits against the original polluter, even if they no longer own the property.

Former coal plant sites, then, are not so much attractive assets as they are a monkey on the back of power plant operators desperate to offload them.

Dave Altman is the president of Cincinnati-based environmental law firm AltmanNewman. In his five decades of litigating remediation cases, he has witnessed the creative tactics companies employ to jettison contaminated sites. Initially, he says, “the dream of any polluting company was to turn over their contaminated property as a gift to the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, or a church.” That way, when the full scope of contamination was discovered, elected officials would opt to clean it up with state funds rather than sue the “mom-and-pop nonprofit” that had unwittingly agreed to assume ownership of the site. Altman says people eventually caught on to this tactic; he himself warned Xavier University against accepting an exploded chemical plant as a gift in 2000.

With few willing recipients and no desire to maintain the properties, power plant operators now pay millions to offload the sites and, in doing so, unburden themselves of the environmental liability. That has spawned what Altman calls “an entire industry for taking the liability off the books.” Around the country, companies purporting to specialize in brownfield redevelopment have sprung into existence. These companies, Altman said, sign “secret deals” with power plant operators to take over their contaminated properties and associated liabilities.

A closer look at these companies raises more questions than answers. Take the example of Tanners Creek. The property’s official owner, Tanners Creek Development LLC, was incorporated only seven months before assuming control of the site and seems to have no other assets. Altman said this structure is by design. “They set up a separate, small limited liability organization to take hundreds of millions in liability,” he said. Under this structure, the parent company can reap the profits of the land transfer while the small pockets of its subsidiary limit the amount it might have to pay out in the event of a lawsuit, effectively shielding the parent company from responsibility. As an added benefit, he said, “it makes it appear that they’re different companies to regulators who are asleep at the switch.”

Land transfers are often followed by vague statements about redevelopment. But the redevelopment companies’ economic incentives point in a different direction. “They get paid millions of dollars to do the minimum they can do to get out,” Altman said. “If you resolve your uncertainty with a phony cleanup, nobody is going to touch the property. Everybody knows it, but the utility has got it off its books.” In other words, having cashed in on the liability transfer, the new owners would prefer to perform “cosmetic cleanup” than to take on the substantial remediation costs involved in developing.

#retired coal plants #industrial redevelopment #brownfield redevelopment

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