#vacuum forming equipment

[ridatcompany]

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[sylvialabtronuk]

Ethylene Oxide Sterilizer

Labtron Ethylene Oxide Sterilizer is a vertical, constant temperature heating box type sterilizer cabinet with manual door opening offers 120 L of capacity, 50 ℃ sterilization temperature, -60 kPa work pressure. it has Automatic ventilation with Sealed wear parts an Simple and convenient operation with long service life for more information visit our website https://www.labtron.uk/

[pianokantzart]

Hi Piano! I love your posts and your comics! I loved the idea of ​​making a Luigi's mansion film, I even posted some ideas, do you have ideas for a Luigi mansion film?

Thank you! I have touched upon the idea a bit, with @keakruiser adding some thoughts of their own. But I do have more...

Mario and Luigi start off the movie having money issues despite the booming business. Maybe they accidentally caused some sort of serious damage that they need to pay for? Maybe there's a family emergency? Or maybe they've been too generous with free plumbing repairs to the point that the bills are catching up with them. Either way, I want all the gold and cash that Luigi vacuums up to have some sort of serious significance.

Luigi tries to talk to his father and uncles about the plumbing business at Sunday dinner, but they all speak over him in favor of talking to Mario. Mario tries to nudge the conversation in Luigi's direction, but Luigi eventually gives up and goes to the kitchen to help his mother with dishes. There he has a little heart to heart with his mom, similar to this scrapped scene from the SMB Movie concept art, but with Luigi instead of Mario:

Please please please make The Dark Moon an element! Establish that it isn't just Mario's life on the line, but an entire world at risk of being swarmed by angry ghosts under King Boo's control.

And of course we need to have Polterpup! Let's say that "animals are the among the few spirits who don't need to be soothed by the dark moon," but unfortunately that matters very little to Luigi, who has an established fear of dogs. So we go into why! Maybe he got attacked by a dog as a young child and needed Mario to save him? This would feed into both Luigi's sense of helplessness, and guilt about being so frightened while his brother is so brave and selfless.

As Luigi gets more victories under his belt, and as Polterpup follows him around and helps out, they start to form a bond. Eventually we get a Puss In Boots 2 esque scene where Luigi has an anxiety attack after loosing radio contact with E. Gadd, before Polterpup floats over and helps calm him down enough to keep moving.

Have Luigi's semi-canon mechanical prowess come into play! At some point, midway through a particularly grueling fight, the poltergust gets damaged. Between running for his life, hiding in various locations, and knocking things over to buy himself time, Luigi steadily fixes the damage enough to pull through the fight.

Luigi and Elvin Gadd bond over being two (vaguely autistic-coded) weirdos. Luigi is surprised that Elvin Gadd doesn't mind trusting him with his equipment, that he doesn't get annoyed with his fear, and doesn't mind walking him through every tiny step. Meanwhile Elvin Gadd is like "Patient with you??? I love walking you through things step by step! You're one of the few people who'll actually listen to my ramblings! And yeah, you're clearly scared, but you've stayed! That's way more than most."

I imagine the people trapped in paintings are able to speak and move around, but King Boo can set their painting to a sort of "stagnant mode" if the captive gets too rowdy or mouthy. Mario's picture is mostly kept in stagnant mode for obvious reasons.

King Boo's confidence visibly wavers the further along Luigi gets. King Boo goes from "Why should I be worried? E. Gadd's a decrepit fool and his new 'apprentice' is a sniveling coward!" to "Okay so Luigi can use the poltergust... he's no match for my forces!" to "What is wrong with all of you!? Why can't you catch a simple plumber!?" to "I'm going to tear this man's soul apart with my teeth!"

Bowser was heavy metal, so I want King Boo to be operatic with a Gothic/Baroque ballroom aesthetic. Of course we've got to have orchestral version of the Luigi's Mansion theme, but I also want a cinematic revamp of the SMBW "Night At Boo's Opera" song.

You know how Luigi broke down laughing and sobbing when he finally saved Mario in the original Luigi's Mansion? That. I want that, with an extra dose of Mario hugging Luigi and reassuring him that he's alright.

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

1936 Chevrolet

At General Motors in 1936, vehicle testing was remarkably sophisticated. See all the equipment and methods at work in this original Chevrolet film.

Like many of the Chevrolet films produced back in the day by Jam Handy of Detroit, this one, titled Wind, Weather, and Wheels, was designed to capture the interest of a general audience. So the script writers take a few minutes to get around to the actual subject—we call it the “first, the earth cooled” method of storytelling. But at around three minutes in (feel free to skip ahead) we get to the good stuff: a tour of the General Motors Proving Ground and a detailed look at the testing procedures for the ’36 Chevrolet.

For the mid-thirties, the test hardware is relatively sophisticated. At 4:40 we encounter a vehicle-sized pendulum for locating the center of gravity, and at 5:40 there’s an early chassis dynomometer with full instrumentation. Steering effort is checked with a wheel-mounted torqueometer, while a fifth wheel validates fuel consumption. And at around 9:30, a vacuum pump and smoke machine are used to test the cabin seal. We enjoy seeing this old gear at work, and along the way, there are some excellent views of the Proving Ground in its early, more rustic form. The facility, still a busy place today, is modestly described here as “the greatest outdoor laboratory in the world.”

In 1936, Chevrolet was not the best-selling car in the USA. In fact, Ford beat Chevrolet in total volume in ’34 through ’37, no doubt due in part to the selling power of Ford’s 85 hp V8. But with 79 hp, Chevy’s overhead-valve inline six was at least in the game, and a redesigned six the following year matched the Ford V8 in rated output. At $495 to $655, Chevrolet undercut Ford in pricing by a few bucks in ’36, losing to Ford by a mere 12,000 units. Video follows.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Private equity plunderers want to buy Simon & Schuster

Going to Defcon this weekend? I'm giving a keynote, "An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet's Enshittification and Throw it Into Reverse," on Saturday at 12:30pm, followed by a book signing at the No Starch Press booth at 2:30pm!

https://info.defcon.org/event/?id=50826

Last November, publishing got some excellent news: the planned merger of Penguin Random House (the largest publisher in the history of human civilization) with its immediate competitor Simon & Schuster would not be permitted, thanks to the DOJ's deftly argued case against the deal:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/07/random-penguins/#if-you-wanted-to-get-there-i-wouldnt-start-from-here

When I was a baby writer, there were dozens of large NY publishers. Today, there are five - and it was almost four. A publishing sector with five giant companies is bad news for writers (as Stephen King said at the trial, the idea that PRH and S&S would bid against each other for books was as absurd as the idea that he and his wife would bid against each other for their next family home).

But it's also bad news for publishing workers, a historically exploited and undervalued workforce whose labor conditions have only declined as the number of employers in the sector dwindled, leading to mass resignations:

https://lithub.com/unlivable-and-untenable-molly-mcghee-on-the-punishing-life-of-junior-publishing-employees/

It should go without saying that workers in sectors with few employers get worse deals from their bosses (see, e.g., the writers' strike and actors' strike). And yup, right on time, PRH, a wildly profitable publisher, fired a bunch of its most senior (and therefore hardest to push around) workers:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/18/books/penguin-random-house-layoffs-buyouts.html

But publishing's contraction into a five-company cartel didn't occur in a vacuum. It was a normal response to monopolization elsewhere in its supply chain. First it was bookselling collapsing into two major chains. Then it was distribution going from 300 companies to three. Today, it's Amazon, a monopolist with unlimited access to the capital markets and a track record of treating publishers "the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/31/seize-the-means-of-computation/#the-internet-con

Monopolies are like Pringles (owned by the consumer packaged goods monopolist Procter & Gamble): you can't have just one. As soon as you get a monopoly in one part of the supply chain, every other part of that chain has to monopolize in self-defense.

Think of healthcare. Consolidation in pharma lead to price-gouging, where hospitals were suddenly paying 1,000% more for routine drugs. Hospitals formed regional monopolies and boycotted pharma companies unless they lowered their prices - and then turned around and screwed insurers, jacking up the price of care. Health insurers gobbled each other up in an orgy of mergers and fought the hospitals.

Now the health care system is composed of a series of gigantic, abusive monopolists - pharma, hospitals, medical equipment, pharmacy benefit managers, insurers - and they all conspire to wreck the lives of only two parts of the system who can't fight back: patients and health care workers. Patients pay more for worse care, and medical workers get paid less for worse working conditions.

So while there was no question that a PRH takeover of Simon & Schuster would be bad for writers and readers, it was also clear that S&S - and indeed, all of the Big Five publishers - would be under pressure from the monopolies in their own supply chain. What's more, it was clear that S&S couldn't remain tethered to Paramount, its current owner.

Last week, Paramount announced that it was going to flip S&S to KKR, one of the world's most notorious private equity companies. KKR has a long, long track record of ghastly behavior, and its portfolio currently includes other publishing industry firms, including one rotten monopolist, raising similar concerns to the ones that scuttled the PRH takeover last year:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/07/books/booksupdate/paramount-simon-and-schuster-kkr-sale.html

Let's review a little of KKR's track record, shall we? Most spectacularly, they are known for buying and destroying Toys R Us in a deal that saw them extract $200m from the company, leaving it bankrupt, with lifetime employees getting $0 in severance even as its executives paid themselves tens of millions in "performance bonuses":

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/06/03/private-equity-bosses-took-200m-out-of-toys-r-us-and-crashed-the-company-lifetime-employees-got-0-in-severance/

The pillaging of Toys R Us isn't the worst thing KKR did, but it was the most brazen. KKR lit a beloved national chain on fire and then walked away, hands in pockets, whistling. They didn't even bother to clear their former employees' sensitive personnel records out of the unlocked filing cabinets before they scarpered:

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/09/23/exploring-the-ruins-of-a-toys-r-us-discovering-a-trove-of-sensitive-employee-data/

But as flashy as the Toys R Us caper was, it wasn't the worst. Private equity funds specialize in buying up businesses, loading them with debts, paying themselves, and then leaving them to collapse. They're sometimes called vulture capitalists, but they're really vampire capitalists:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/05/private-equity-buyout-kkr-houdaille/

Given a choice, PE companies don't want to prey on sick businesses - they preferentially drain off value from thriving ones, preferably ones that we must use, which is why PE - and KKR in particular - loves to buy health care companies.

Heard of the "surprise billing epidemic"? That's where you go to a hospital that's covered by your insurer, only to discover - after the fact - that the emergency room is operated by a separate, PE-backed company that charges you thousands for junk fees. KKR and Blackstone invented this scam, then funneled millions into fighting the No Surprises Act, which more-or-less killed it:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/21/all-in-it-together/#doctor-patient-unity

KKR took one of the nation's largest healthcare providers, Envision, hostage to surprise billing, making it dependent on these fraudulent payments. When Congress finally acted to end this scam, KKR was able to take to the nation's editorial pages and damn Congress for recklessly endangering all the patients who relied on it:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/14/unhealthy-finances/#steins-law

Like any smart vampire, KKR doesn't drain its victim in one go. They find all kinds of ways to stretch out the blood supply. During the pandemic, KKR was front of the line to get massive bailouts for its health-care holdings, even as it fired health-care workers, increasing the workload and decreasing the pay of the survivors of its indiscriminate cuts:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/11/socialized-losses/#socialized-losses

It's not just emergency rooms. KKR bought and looted homes for people with disabilities, slashed wages, cut staff, and then feigned surprise at the deaths, abuse and misery that followed:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kendalltaggart/kkr-brightspring-disability-private-equity-abuse

Workers' wages went down to $8/hour, and they were given 36 hour shifts, and then KKR threatened to have any worker who walked off the job criminally charged with patient abandonment:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/02/plunderers/#farben

For KKR, people with disabilities and patients make great victims - disempowered and atomized, unable to fight back. No surprise, then, that so many of KKR's scams target poor people - another group that struggles to get justice when wronged. KKR took over Dollar General in 2007 and embarked on a nationwide expansion campaign, using abusive preferential distributor contracts and targeting community-owned grocers to trap poor people into buying the most heavily processed, least nutritious, most profitable food available:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/27/walmarts-jackals/#cheater-sizes

94.5% of the Paycheck Protection Program - designed to help small businesses keep their workers payrolled during lockdown - went to giant businesses, fraudulently siphoned off by companies like Longview Power, 40% owned by KKR:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/20/great-danes/#ppp

KKR also helped engineer a loophole in the Trump tax cuts, convincing Justin Muzinich to carve out taxes for C-Corporations, which let KKR save billions in taxes:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/02/broken-windows/#Justin-Muzinich

KKR sinks its fangs in every part of the economy, thanks to the vast fortunes it amassed from its investors, ripped off from its customers, and fraudulently obtained from the public purse. After the pandemic, KKR scooped up hundreds of companies at firesale prices:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/30/medtronic-stole-your-ventilator/#blackstone-kkr

Ironically, the investors in KKR funds are also its victims - especially giant public pension funds, whom KKR has systematically defrauded for years:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/22/stimpank/#kentucky

And now KKR has come for Simon & Schuster. The buyout was trumpeted to the press as a done deal, but it's far from a fait accompli. Before the deal can close, the FTC will have to bless it. That blessing is far from a foregone conclusion. KKR also owns Overdrive, the monopoly supplier of e-lending software to libraries.

Overdrive has a host of predatory practices, loathed by both libraries and publishers (indeed, much of the publishing sector's outrage at library e-lending is really displaced anger at Overdrive). There's a plausible case that the merger of one of the Big Five publishers with the e-lending monopoly will present competition issues every bit as deal-breaking as the PRH/S&S merger posed.

(Image: Sefa Tekin/Pexels, modified)

I’m kickstarting the audiobook for “The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation,” a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and bring back the old, good internet. It’s a DRM-free book, which means Audible won’t carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/08/vampire-capitalism/#kkr

[onpointedfeetandbrokendreams]

Day 4 - DBDA Week

Day 4 of Dead Boy Detectives Appreciation Week: 10th-16th June by @dbdcentral

Prompt: Reunion

Relationships: Edwin Payne&Charles Rowland&Crystal Palace&Niko Sasaki

Tags: Post-canon, Paranormal Activities

TW: None

--

“Crystal, we have to tell you something,” Charles started one day out of the blue.

He looked giddy, mischievous, the expression you would find on a kid about to confess that they stole one of your freshly-baked biscuits. And while that in itself wouldn’t be such an unexpected image, what made the entire thing almost unreal - assuming a world like ‘real’ could even be applied to a psychic, living with ghosts, solving supernatural crimes - was that behind him, Edwin was wearing a matching grin.

Crystal raised a questioning brow as a form of reply, she had no idea where the conversation could possibly be going.

“Ok, so, you know we are ghosts, right?” Charles rambled.

Luckily, before Crystal could make a sarcastic remark, or curse at him, Edwin had mercy on them both and took the lead of the conversation:

“We have this little tradition. Every Halloween we go to a Haunted House in the countryside, where people pretend to be detectives of the occult, with useless equipment, and we… Well, there’s no other way to say it, we tease them a little.”

“You- what?” Crystal was having trouble reconciling the image she had of the other two with this new information. It probably struck her for the first time since she met them, that they were just two kids, trying their best in this cruel world they had been ripped out from too soon. Her gaze softened. “Why didn’t I know anything about this?”

“It’s your first Halloween with us, isn’t it?” Charles said, sounding a lot more like his usual, confident self.

“We used to have quite the nice reviews on the newspapers,” Edwin continued. “Then, they stopped writing those, but people still visit the house and they have a lot of fun when something actually happens.”

Crystal fished her phone out of her jacket’s pocket and looked at Maps for a while, searching for ‘haunted houses’ until she found it. 

“Is this the place?” She asked, turning the phone to Edwin so he could watch the screen.

“Yes, it is!” He said. Crystal had never seen him this excited before.

“Wow, this has so many reviews, I wonder why I had never heard about it. They love it.”

Charles preened. “Of course they do, we are professionals.”

Taking the phone back to read some more comments, Crystal had to laugh. It was probably the only self-indulgent thing they had allowed themselves all those years. One well-deserved night of fun without witches, or demons, or Death. She just felt a bit sad that she couldn’t join them.

As if reading her mind, Charles said:

“We were thinking that you could dress up as one of those ‘detectives’, so you could come with us, if you’d like?”

–

The outfit the three of them had put together was absolutely ridiculous. Crystal had a big yellow jacket with a stylized ghost on one arm, thermal goggles perched on top of her head, and a backpack with something similar to a vacuum cleaner attached to its side.

“Am I supposed to, like, capture the ghosts?” She said, while looking at herself in the mirror.

Edwin snickered. Full-on snickers. “Of course you know that it would be impossible, right?”

“But they like to think they can. You will blend in perfectly,” Charles finished for him. They were still doing that thing where they looked like they shared two halves of the same brain, but in that moment it was less like the usual dead married couple on acid, and more like two twelve-year-olds trying to pull a prank on their parents.

“Ok, I’m ready then,” Crystal nodded, unable to hide the fond smile in time before they could see it.

Crystal found out there was an actual tour bus taking people to the Haunted House and she managed to secure herself a ticket. It was painted in black and decorated with neon green and splashes of fake blood, and it was filled with similarly dressed people, carrying all sorts of weird equipment on them. Some people had laptops, others had devices that looked like small radios, and others that didn’t look like anything she had seen before.

Absolutely none of them had any drop of actual arcane energy.

When the bus started its way up the hill where the house stood, everyone went silent, anxiety and anticipation both equally filled the air. It required an extreme amount of self-control for Crystal not to burst out laughing, knowing that the very ghosts who supposedly haunted the house were riding on that same bus, elbowing one another and giggling, while making a list of what to do this time to scare-but-not-too-much the visitors.

It was a very run-of-the-mill paranormal experience, when compared to the much weirder and scarier things Crystal had already seen in her life. But Charles and Edwin were right, people absolutely loved it. Everyone took their time to set up their equipment and the ghosts patiently waited before starting to open some windows, slam doors, make pieces of paper fly. Crystal would lie if she didn’t admit that it was fun.

Until a second bus arrived, and time stopped. She couldn’t focus on anything else, other than the buzzing sound in her mind, her gaze fixed intently on the people entering the house. Or, more accurately, on the person.

“Niko,” she breathed out, running towards the white-haired girl like her life depended on it.

“Crystal! You’re really here!” Niko said, with tears forming in her eyes as she returned the hug and squeezed Crystal tight.

A few seconds later, she felt four other arms wrap around the two of them, followed by a lot of loud complaints from the people that came with the second bus that the haunting had stopped too soon and they wanted a refund.

When they separated, all four of them had matching glistening eyes.

“I came back to the mortal plane thanks to my sprites,” Niko explained. “I didn’t know how to find you, but then I remembered Edwin mentioning this Halloween tradition. So I thought it was my best chance. I am really glad you are actually here.”

“And she forced us to wear these ridiculous outfits too, which, for the record, should be a crime,” someone said from behind her.

“You tell them, Litty.” 

Crystal looked closely, and she recognized the faces of the two people, except in her memory they were a lot smaller.

“I don’t know what happened to them,” said Niko with a shrug, ignoring the former-sprites comments.

“We’ll start researching The Case Of The Grown Sprites first thing tomorrow,” interjected Edwin, taking Niko’s hand and motioning for the door. “For now, let’s go home, tell us everything.”

[4rs0n1stt]

“Experimental” // request

Donnie x GN!Reader

author's note; hello, yes, yes, yes i know. i have forgotten my sweet, sweet darlings, fear not! as i have been done by that devilish of hell (known as school) that has been upheld for the time being.

ok enough of that, this is requested by @/EvilAngelx on ao3(readers gender wasn't mentioned)

btw, will be doing a second pov for the rest of the fic !!

Synopsis: A crazed, infectious scientist and almost sane person swapped.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

You and Donnie were doing experiments as usual and doing ‘ordinary and basic things’ as what he said. Mostly Donnie was the one doing experiments, and you're just being...you. Sometimes, you help, sometimes you don't. There's really no in-between.

Donnie offered last night to you if you could assist him on this body experiment, based off something Henrik Ehrsson made. You didn't have any plans on the following day so you carelessly agreed. Dating the mad scientist does really infect your mental capacity and mental health (ironically). Yes, infect you. Doing experiments with him is fun. You do get teased here and there, mostly from Leo's but hell, you're having fun.

You spent a few minutes in his Laboratory, waiting for him to finish his techy stuff that you wouldn't understand. There are forms of equipment and tools that were made by his Ninpo, illuminating his dark purple tinted lab with bright purple lights. His Lab couldn't be more purple, you thought.

You then hear an ecstatic hum from him, meaning he must've finished his thing. The bright, translucent purple disappeared into the air, a few spectacles of rectangular shapes were visible as it dissipated.

"I apologise for the wait, my oh-so esteemed partner!" He gushed, it was sarcastic...or not? You don't know, he didn't say it in the third person view. But you had to imitate him, it was ‘the way of the two lovebirds’ way of flirting that Leo have said..

"Oh! My oh-so esteemed erudite and complex scientist of a partner! I have been withering in the relentless grasp of the monotony in your precious laboratory.." You hold out your arm in your chest as the other on top of your head like a damsel in distress. That's too much. But hey, he's dramatic as well, you're just imitating your boyfriend after spending time with him for years.

"Ok, primadonna, enough of that." He chuckled at your behaviour, proud indeed. He had a soft blush, he always loved being complimented even if it's sarcasm but both of you know that you mean it.

"Let's start, shall we? Shelldon will help us out as this experimentation does indeed work on two people.." The said robot appeared with confetti, introducing itself proudly and confidently. Donnie stared at his creation, deadpanning.

Shelldon has a proud smile to itself, ignoring the mess it created. It bowed or lowered itself to make a bow to you. Yes it's a thing, it's adorable, but he somehow acts like a human. I guess, that's what AI is. That's what Donnie's supposedly child is.

"Waasssup??" It didn't even look at it's creator, it looked at you. It was trying to impress you.

Before you could respond, Donnie cleared his throat. Trying to take the attention of the robot to himself. He looked at his floor once again and questioned it.

"Shelldon..clean the mess that you had created. Right. Now." He demanded, crossing out his arms like a father. He acts like Draxum and you can't unsee it. The robot grumbled, but looked at the floor. A cleaning bot was on its way. A dark purple metal robot vacuum went and cleaned the mess.

Shelldon hummed, saying a silent ‘Shit's sweet, huh?’ to Donnie. Donnie just lets it go as he remembered that you're in the scene, he knew you'll be upset AND defend Shelldon. Oh how heartbroken he is, seeing his beloved turning agains him.

He looked at you with narrowed and a little dramatic frown from him. You couldn't help but roll and smirk at his attempt to make you feel pity for him. He shakes his head, he tries to refuse his smile sneaking, denying his defeat from his son.

"Ugh, come on... let's start this experiment." He gets up, walking forward to a pair of built placed treatment or patient chairs on both sides with the middle having a monitor attached to it. Despite the other irrelevant technologies littered around it, it's fairly neat and well organised. Donnie does like his lab being organised, or maybe started to organise his technologies again after almost a few months had passed.

He signaled you to come near the closest treatment chair, you followed and knew what he was signaling. You went to the side and sat, you put your leg on the leg rest, not laying. You were anxious as always. It is scary. But you trust him and you would haunt him forever if something happened to you.

He noticed you, ah right.

"It'll be okay, hm?" He smiled, touching your hand genuinely. He means it, he always has, every single time. And you love him for that. You sighed, touched with just a minimum of affection he acts just for you. He's not really good with feelings (ok einstein), let alone being in a relationship, but he still tries.

You lay on the chair, crossing your arms and shuddering from the cold metal hitting your body despite wearing clothes. He flashed another smile and went to grab a goggle looking thing. It was that thing he was working on earlier but it's not that instead it's an extra one where it's already attached to the machinery or monitor next to it.

"Just tell me- tell Shelldon if anything hurts, alright, dear?" He assured you again, he was a littleeeee bit worried but he's confident in his abilities. Shelldon interrupted him, cringing from his father's unusual and unlike behaviour.

"Ewww, just get it on with it already dudes!" It shouts, narrowing it's own digital eye. You couldn't help but be embarrassed or flustered by it. You stare at Donnie once again. Smiling back.

He puts the goggles on your head, letting your sight take over the darkness. It was heavy, it made you stumble a bit but you didn't made it noticeable.

You heard some shuffling and some sounds; assuming it's from Shelldon flying around. You hear some clicks from the machinery, pressing keys in the keyboard.

You wait patiently yet nervously...

Then your vision was ingulfed by the lab's ceiling. You looked to the machinery next to you, wondering what's going on around you. You were only then got surprised, you next to the machinery, you were there laying. Is this the experiment? You feel a light weight on your head, you touched the goggles, confused on why the weight changed. Before you could touch it, you noticed your hands. Anddddd....

"Holy shit-" You heard Donnie's voice echoing from your own ears. It was you who made that. Damn.

"Ah...dudess? Father- there seems to be a problem- uh oh!" Shelldon taps aggressively on the keyboard with his mechanical arms. Your body quickly sits down from the chair but both legs are still on the leg rest. Your body gets closer to Shelldon, you couldn't really make out what expression you're making.

Is your body or Donnie panicking? Wait- Should you too????

There was a warning that popped up, before anything Shelldon pulled out extra pairs of mechanical hands and swept the goggles and threw it, causing an explosion. Good thing it was a bare spot.

You wide eyed now fully sitting upright. You looked at yourself, finding your body fully wide eyed, you were tweaking. Donnie's tweaking. I mean- atleast it was successful? Right?

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

After calming down, which was about an hour. An hour of Donnie's body and your body fighting and defending Shelldon. It was hectic but you two tied, Shelldon didn't help much, he was making it worse by being a teaser to Donnie, throwing a raspberry in his eyes or a pixel emoji in its eye sliding.

But the experiment wasn't supposed to end up like that. It was only just a mere illusion, to see each other's perspective differently and even reacting to touch and whatnot. Instead of ending up on a safer option, you end up on this neural brain networks jibber-jabber swapping thing or what Donnie theorizes. Body swapping in history hasn't been achieved yet so it was still a mystery on how or why it happens. Maybe in the Hidden City perhaps? But you do know that Donnie isn't quite fond of mystic crap.

"Stop worrying! It's uhmm..not a big deal, right?" You tried to lighten the mood, still uncomfortable or unaccustomed to being in Donnie's body. Your body stared at you at disbelief.

"Dearest- we're literally IN another person's body! How can I not be worried-" Your body's hand frantically scattered, he was really freaking out.

"...BUT! IT'S QUITE EXHILARATING TO ACHIVE ON ONE OF THE MOST QUESTIONED AND THEORIZED EXPERIMENTS EVER!!! OHH!!! And- and..."

or not.

But you were damned surprised by his outburst, it was adorable but at least he's not that upset. Though, maybe you were the one who was freaking out. Yeah, this is pretty cool but it was quite terrifying.

He clears his throat, shambling you from your own over-scruntinizing.

"Cough cough. I mean is...that... I'll fix this, don't you worry." Your body nodded encouragingly, your body stands up and went to the explosion that occured and the machinery. Already dragging Shelldon. You would help buuuttt, what's fun in that?

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The rest of the week, you were scattered around the lair. His brothers were surprised, seeing their own brother outside of his lab almost everytime. It was fun pranking them, saying incoherent words or sentences that isn't even makes sense and it was Donnie's mouth and voice.

Of course, there were side affects on your action goofing around. And that is, going and fighting off crime. After being exposed and have been well-known after defeating a whole Alien Invasion can make them be heroes and being heroes mean, fighting off crime every now and then. Mostly, mystic crime, it's a necessity.

Going to battle with no knowledge of Donnie's ninpo is hard, it was later revealed when you, your body went and saved you from Ghost Bear's attack. Summoning a purple, mystic rocket to Ghost Bear's face. Yikes.

Then now, his brothers full know who's the real Donnie and who's not. There were some questions as expected but that means there's no fun anymore. Of course, you got scolded. Though, it's fun.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

author's note; didn't expect it to be this time consuming, i swear im trying to get my ass from the ground and be more productive. sorry for the wait @/EvilAngelx !!

I have yet another thought on making another book (not a request/onshot/headcannon) but with various!rottmnt x reader and set into a more modern or more neutral terms for mutants/yokai/magic and humans (basically, living with one another like it's normal)

[lilkrissmuffet]

Some fun (nsfw) h/c for Cell :3

💚

Technically, Cell is only about six years old so even if he is ‘well-equipped’ for the act of copulation, he lacks the experience and know-how. This makes him extremely curious about the human body, and more than willing to experiment with pushing your limits. He is eager and enthusiastic, a quick learner too. All he needs is a little nudge in the right direction as well as plenty of praise and encouragement ;)

💚

Cell finds that producing small amounts of ki from his fingertips creates a warm, tingling feeling on your skin when he touches you, which he can tell has a very interesting effect on your body. He quickly learns to control his energy for pleasure rather than purely combat, playing around with buzzing or vibrating sensations or even mild electric shocks. Needless to say, he often uses this ability to his (and your) advantage.

💚

As a winged bugman, Cell also enjoys carrying you up into the skies, hundreds, or sometimes thousands of feet above the Earth just to indulge in some intimate quality time with his little human. Even better if you have a fear of heights, because he gets off on the adorable, horrified look on your face as the ground recedes at an alarmingly rapid rate.

💚

Hell, he’d even bring you up to the stars if he could, he knows you would probably love the view! But he’s also well aware that your fragile human form cannot possibly survive in the vacuum of space without the proper equipment, and so he refrains…barely. Don’t worry about Cell dropping you though, he will hold you nice and tight while he has his way with you :)

💚

Which brings me to…telekinesis. Cell can use his ki to levitate your comparatively weak, mortal body anytime he pleases, tossing you around like a rag doll with just a simple twitch of his finger. Unfortunately for you, (or maybe not, I don't judge!) this means it's nearly impossible to escape from him, because if he senses even the most minute hint of your own energy, he *will* find and physically stop you from going anywhere without even touching a hair on your head.

💚

On the lighter side of things, Cell would never admit this in a million years, but he absolutely looooves belly rubs. The violet fleshy bits exposed between the gaps of both his abdominal and pelvic armor is vulnerable and highly sensitive to your touch. So, if you happen to be daring enough to reach out and place your warm hand on his tummy, he will likely blush and/or flutter his wings a bit if he trusts you enough, silently indicating that he wants more.

💚

But if you keep massaging him there, those flutters will escalate to a buzz, making Cell purr like a revved-up motor engine…until he starts to crave some other form of physical contact from you, that is 😘

[pattern-recognition]

In the mass protest decade, street explosions created revolutionary situations, often on accident. But a protest is very poorly equipped to take advantage of a revolutionary situation, and that particular kind of protest is especially bad at it. If you believe that you can forge a better society, if you are willing to run the risk of trying, then you should enter the vacuum yourself. But a diffuse group of individuals who come out to the streets for very different reasons cannot simply take power themselves, at least not as an entire diffuse group of individuals. Once someone goes in there and takes power in the name of the masses, you are talking about a type of vanguard—a particular ideological project, and a minority of people who dare to try to represent the rest of the population. In some of the more utopian strains of anti-authoritarian thought, the riot is supposed to become the new society, but this has not worked out so far.11 Perhaps it might, someday, but it would probably not work very well in the actually existing Global South, which is surrounded by so many foreign actors that might be sucked very quickly into an apparent power vacuum by the possibility of easy profit and plunder.

If some new group boldly steps into the vacuum, manages to stay there, and transforms society, then that’s a revolution. But if you find your political system broadly acceptable, or you don’t think you can replace it with something better, then the thing to do is to negotiate. That is called reform. You can use your power on the streets to extract concessions, if you play it right. But once more, this necessarily entails representation.

It was not just Mayara and Haddad who overlapped in their answers to my question. I heard it very often—it came in different forms, but I heard it more than any other response. I think Hossam Bahgat put it best, or at least, the most directly.

“Organize. Create an organized movement. And don’t be afraid of representation,” he said without hesitation, in his office in Giza, as his world fell apart around him. “We thought representation was elitism, but actually it is the essence of democracy.” I heard answers like this over and over, confirming research compiled by scholars. As early as 1975, William Gamson found that movements succeed more often when they deploy hierarchical forms of organization. In a wide-ranging 2022 study, Mark Beissinger found that loose uprisings of the Maidan type tend to increase inequality and ethnic tensions, while they do not consolidate democracy or end corruption.

“After Maidan, I decided I do not believe in self-organization,” said Artem Tidva, the young leftist who brought a red European Union flag to the square, as we grabbed a bite to eat in central Kyiv in the summer of 2021. “I used to be more anarchist. Back then everyone wanted to do an assembly; whenever there was a protest, always an assembly. But I think any revolution with no organized labor party will just give more power to economic elites, who are already very well-organized.” Unlike some of his former comrades, Artem never gave up on the Ukrainian uprising and stayed active in the post-Maidan political scene, working to push for center-left, anti-racist alternatives in the context of the new political order. But in Ukraine, it seemed clear that the uprising had benefited the groups that had already formed coherent, disciplined organizations before the uprising began, and we had seen more evidence of that earlier in the day.

“I definitely don’t have the same views on these things as I did before 2013,” said Lucas “Vegetable” Monteiro. He still believes that a better society must be born out of this one, not just created after some revolution seizes state power. But he now thinks that the Movimento Passe Livre turned the principles of horizontalism, autonomy, and prefiguration “into a dogma, into a kind of religion, and we could not turn them into real political practice. Instead, they became a kind of identity. And we ended up quickly crashing into barriers that we ourselves had created.” The MPL still exists, but no one who was in the group in 2013 is still a member. Looking back on 2019 in Hong Kong, Theo told me, “[It] was very fun to see the China building defaced, I had a lot of fun on the streets, but the decentralized nature of the movement meant that there was no room for discussion about how it should work, or how a coherent strategy could be developed.”

Not everyone I met came out of the decade adopting positions in favor of formal structures, in support of “verticalism” and hierarchy, insisting that representation matters. Mayara, for example, remains mostly true to the ideals she adopted as a young punk. But everyone moved in the same direction. I spent years doing interviews, and not one person told me that they had become more horizontalist, or more anarchist, or more in favor of spontaneity and structurelessness. Some people stayed in the same place. But everyone that changed their views on the question of organization moved closer to classically “Leninist” ones.

Bevins, Vincent. If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution

[ner0scum]

Magia Record just released new witch forms in the latest Factor of Despair event and I'd like to go through them and give my thoughts!

Do be aware that these are just my opinions :3 (also don't expect an in depth analysis this is just me gushing incoherently over designs)

Spoilers Below

Starting with Obariyon, Tsumugi Wakana's witch.

I'd like to start this by saying that this might be one of my favorites of the bunch. They're all really good, but something about this one just really pleases me. When I first saw it my first thought was "witch" and I know that's silly because obviously it is a witch, but the design really encapsulates the witch designs in the series, at least to me. What I'm trying to say is that it fits. It's beastly, it's bizarre, and it has a theme*.

I wasn't exactly sure how a vacuum witch was going to look but they pleasantly surprised me with this one. I especially like how they turned her into a bear, I find that very neat.

*Note that this is a crude list of what witches are. I'm sorry for the shallow, dumbed-down tldr of a witch but I really liked this design and couldn't find the right words to explain why, plus my brain is running on fumes. I hope the paragraph made a little bit of sense to at least someone reading ^^;

Carmela, Manaka Kurumi's witch.

What I like about this is how they continued to play into the jellyfish idea. When looking back at the doppel form, it gives me the idea of the jellyfish life cycle: going through the ephyra stage and transforming into the medusa stage, where the tentacles grow longer. It also eludes to an octopus with its many arms all multitasking, but the jellyfish idea still works, and is probably better.

Jellyfish have two kinds of tentacles: the stingers to paralyze the prey, and the oral arms to bring food into its mouth. Carmela has these two arm types as shown above: the ones with the burners and the ones that hold the cooking equipment—the dangerous arms that could harm anyone if they got too close, and the arms to serve food.

It also appears that Carmela lost her chairs that once stood on her face, only to be replaced by some kind of mass. I'm not sure what it could be, but I think it could either be fuel or the mysterious meat that she serves to guests.

Hevelius, Mifuyu Azusa's witch.

I'll be honest and say I didn't know what to think of this witch form at first. I'm not exactly a huge fan of the witch designs that are more on the humanoid side; however, this design does make sense for the bird-catcher theme.

A bird-catcher isn't just an object like a cage (which was what I originally thought of when hearing the term), but also a person who catches birds, and as we know, Mifuyu's doppel's description is a reference to the bird-catcher character from the novel Night on the Galactic Railroad.

When I remembered that detail, I came to appreciate the witch form much more.

Pennen Nenemu, Nemu Hiiragi's witch.

I originally didn't like this witch form because I thought it broke the whole bird-theming shared between Iroha, Touka, and Nemu's doppels (the loss of the red beak the doppel had). The only thing it has left that could tie into birds are the tail feathers and cape but that seems about it.

Still, I don't hate this design and I in fact still like it in its own way. I know I said that I wasn't a fan of the more humanoid witches, but that's not to say I outright hate them. Besides, the more I look at the picture the more I come to admire it.

Pennen Nolde, Touka Satomi's witch.

Something I liked in Pennen Nolde's doppel design was how the matchsticks were attached to its hanger, but here it seems more like she carries them around in her little basket. Another thing that's different is the clothes. The more elegant, frilly cloak/dress the doppel had is now more modest and meek, which does tie into the character that the doppel/witch references: the poor girl selling matches in Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince.

Still, in my personal opinion, I feel like they could've done more with this design while still maintaining the ties to the girl from the story. I feel like they should've kept the matches attached to the hanger (which in turn would still be coming out her back) as that would've made her seem more intimidating, kind of like a peacock. But then again, Charlotte wasn't intimidating and she was still dangerous and kicked ass.

Overall it's solid.

Finally, Old Dorothy, Alina Gray's witch.

Obviously we weren't going to get a bunch of paint splatters as those weren't the doppel's true form and was instead the cute little paint tube that sprouted from Alina's back. I was most excited about this one as Alina's one of my favorites and I have to say I wasn't disappointed.

I adore the gas mask as it plays into the toxicity and virus-like quality of the paint she produces. The little blue lines on the face also play into that theme as it appears she's sick as well, putting her in a perpetual state of dismay. Perhaps she looks like that because Alina herself is disgusted that she got a cute witch form as opposed to a nightmare creature.

Unfortunately I don't have much to say other than I like it and would love to see how Old Dorothy fights in battle

Finally, we're done. Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions of these designs if you'd like.

[ridatcompany]

Ridat AVF: Automatic Vacuum Forming Machine with Dual Ceramic Heaters

Ridat's AVF Series: High-performance Industrial Vacuum Former designed for consistent production of thermoformable materials up to 12mm thickness. User-friendly touch screen controls, dual ceramic heaters, and fully sealed mould chamber. Ideal for automobile parts, aircraft components, bathtubs, toys, and more. Optional features available. Contact us today!

[chernobog13]

CGI-version of the original Romulan Bird of Prey in the remastered Star Trek: The Original Series episode Balance of Terror.

Other than re-used footage in second season episode The Deadly Years, the Bird of Prey model was never seen in the series again. Instead, when the Romulans re-appeared in the third season episode The Enterprise Incident, they were using Klingon D-7 cruisers outfitted with cloaking devices.

Spock's line in that episode stating that intelligence reports indicated Romulans had acquired Klingon ships suggested an alliance. however brief, between The Klingon and Romulan Empires. This explained why later on in the Star Trek films Klingon ships were all equipped with cloaking devices.

This alliance might never have come to be if it were not for the fact that the original Bird of Prey model was destroyed by its creator.

Producer Robert Justman loved the work of prop builder Wah Chang. Chang had designed and or built several props for the show, including the communicators, the Salt Vampire, and the Tribbles.

There was just one teeny weeny little problem, though: Chang was not a member of the prop makers' union, nor was he eligible to join. Star Trek, as a studio production, was obligated to only use items designed and built by union members.

However, Justman considered Chang's work superior to that of studio prop makers. He conceived of a scheme to have Chang design and build the Romulan ship, but the studio would be invoiced for a pre-existing item, not something built specifically for the production. That would allow them to bypass the union requirement.

Chang built the 2 1/2 foot-wide, internally lit model out of vacuum-formed plastic, plaster, and metal in approximately two weeks. It was delivered to TOS production studio and filmed for the Balance of Terror episode. Because he was non-union, Chang would not get a credit for building the model.

Eventually the prop makers' union found out that Chang had built the model and filed a grievance. After much wrangling between the two sides, the union agreed to drop the grievance as long as Chang was not paid for his work. The studio agreed and Chang received the model back instead of the money he was owed.

Understandably angry, Chang smashed the model with sledgehammer when he returned home. Chang apparently confirmed this in 1982 during a radio interview.

When The Deadly Years was filmed stock footage of the Bird of Prey was used because there was no one to rebuild the prop (Star Trek's budget kept getting slashed each year). By the time The Enterprise Incident was being prepped the producers decided to forego the limited stock footage they had, and instead made use of the Klingon D-7, the model of which was still in the warehouse.

And thus, the brief Klingon-Romulan Alliance was born.

[sepublic]

To illustrate my point on some Metroid world building I did regarding a whole 'natural caste system' that people believe in and/or struggle with, consider: A lot of pilots have better reflexes and faster reaction times. This makes them ideal for high-speed combat. A lot of pilots are natural fliers, who are naturally evolved to go through the air at top velocity anyway.

Similarly, military leaders and those who have to make split-second decisions are typically species who perceive time more slowly than the average one, which enables them to process events more quickly, and come to more reasoned solutions.

When it comes to retail or the 24/7 news, businesses prefer species who can stay awake for longer periods of time; They don't need to be particularly strong, just capable of constant activity. Likewise, it's better for these species to require less sleep when they eventually do rest.

Actors are all about expression; Species with flexible faces, more moving bits to convey themselves through, emotive colors; They tend to get higher billing as movie stars. Similarly, vocal range makes for better singers, and those more attuned to subtler frequencies and noises are more likely to be on-pitch as musicians.

Species that can adapt to varying environments, and have good stamina, make for excellent explorers; They also function well as an intergalactic military, because it's cheaper to base all your infrastructure and equipment around a specific body type. And if you have to use one species, use one capable of adjusting to a wide diversity of biomes, adequately strong, and capable of outlasting enemies in combat; Hence, Earthians being the primary infantry.

If you work in space, it's so much cheaper if you're a species who can naturally survive in a vacuum. That way, employers save out on having to pay extra for equipment to keep you alive. Jobs can include construction in space, maintenance, exploration, rescue, etc.

Meanwhile, the Kriken believe there are no species who are better at any functions than them; With their Biomorph innovation, they can program individual Kriken to take on select traits for select situations. And if all other species are now redundant, then what use is there for them? Even the Space Pirates believe in exploiting other species, alive, for a purpose; Their issue comes from wanting mastery over those they still need. Meanwhile, the Kriken are truly adaptable and this is one of many factors that makes them such a terrifying military force.

This plays a factor into the Federation’s interest in the X parasites; Their perfect mimicry and ability to remix genomes and traits, enhancing them and improving upon pre-existing life forms, makes them superior to the Kriken’s Biomorph innovation. They are a species the Kriken would’ve never considered; Something better than them at something, something that makes even the Kriken’s Biomorph redundant because it comes naturally to any X, who individually can contain multiple genomes and are considered by some to be the ultimate life form. If the Kriken were to have learned of the X, they could’ve sparked a genuine, existential fear that no Kriken has ever felt in millennia.

Meanwhile, the Federation is used to many species being better than them at some things; The Federation is not a monolithic, singular species after all. They do not fanatically believe in wiping out any they see redundant, and are only made that way by the X, who are too non-sapient to even consider as a superior species to worship; They’re just a tool… And even if one were to acknowledge a species as ‘better’, they would still rightfully want to live and not be subjugated. And that is exactly why many object not just to the Space Pirates, but to this ‘natural caste system’ of species niches that the Federation seems to run on.

[dailyanarchistposts]

The Basis of the Environmental Crisis

There is a fundamental problem here: The dynamics of capitalism have an inherent tendency towards ecological devastation. To understand why this is so, we need to look at how firms are constantly searching for ways to minimize their expenses. This is how they ensure the firm can make the maximum in profits. Because capitalism is made up of relatively autonomous firms, they are in competition. If a firm doesn’t continuously seek ways to make profits, they won’t be able to expand their business, move into new markets, invest in new technology. Other firms will out-compete them. And minimizing expenses is central to the pursuit of profits. Thus minimizing expenses is central to survival for the capitalist firms. And to do this, firms do cost-shifting at the expense of both workers and the environment.

First, companies try to keep compensation to workers as low as they can get away with. They may look to cut taxes that support services working class people rely on. They try to find new forms of technology or new ways to organize the work that reduces the number of worker hours it takes to produce a unit of output. They might automate a production operation with robots, or they will seek ways to intensify work through “lean production” methods. For example, they’ll use computer tracking of a warehouse worker picking items for an order so that they have no rest time after finishing an order but are pushed to a new task through computer control. Work intensification and computer monitoring puts workers under more stress which can have damaging health effects over time. This means the employers are imposing a human cost on workers. If workers in a furniture factory are constantly breathing in finishes or paints being sprayed on furniture in the open, or electronics assemblers are breathing in solder fumes, these are also cases where capital is shifting costs onto workers. And these are cases where the costs could be avoided. For example, there are soldering tools that have a vacuum to suck off solder fumes so workers don’t breath it, but a firm may not want to pay the expense of installing that equipment. These are examples of how the capitalist mode of production tends to shift costs onto workers.

Second, emissions into the air and water are another form of cost-shifting. A utility firm may burn coal to generate electricity. This creates emissions that damage the respiratory systems of people in the region and also contributes to global warming. But the power firm is not required to pay anything for these damages. These costs to others from emissions are “external” to the market transaction between the power firm and its customers who pay for electricity. This is an example of a “negative externality.” Externalities are a pervasive feature of the capitalist mode of production. The fossil fuel industry generates many “negative externalities.” Fracking operations insert chemicals underground which can pollute the underground water sources. A large gas field or leaky oil refinery will generate large amounts of volatile organic compounds — including carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. Studies of gas fields show effects in the surrounding area such as goat herds and barn cats losing the ability to have viable offspring, due to the endocrine disruptors. Gas fields also contribute to global warming by leaking large amounts of methane. Contrary to gas industry claims, gas power plants contribute as much as coal-fired power plants to global warming due to all the methane leaks.

You’ll notice here that I’m focusing on how environmental devastation is rooted in production — not consumption. Some environmentalists try to suggest that we should understand the global warming problem by looking at consumption practices, and they use ideas like a person’s “carbon footprint” to focus on personal consumption. But consumers of electric power don’t have control over the decisions of power firms on the methods of electricity generation, or what technology firms rely on to move cargo around in the global supply chains.

Another useful concept here is throughput. The throughput of production consists of two things: (1) All the material extracted from nature for the production process, and (2) all the damaging emissions (“negative externalities”) from the production process. In addition to the damaging emissions into the air and water, capitalism is an extractivist regime with a long history of land-grabbing to minimize expenses — as in the US government handing over mineral wealth to mining companies, lands for commercial ranching and extraction of logs and wood debris from forests for the lumber and paper industries. The search for short-term profits can lead to unsustainable practices such as clear-cutting of forests or use of huge nets to scarf up all the fish in a coastal region without regard to the future of that fishery.

With the concept of throughput, we can define a concept of ecological efficiency. If a production process is changed in ways that reduce the amount of damage from emissions (or amount of extracted resource) per unit of human benefit, then that change improves ecological efficiency. And here is a basic structural problem of capitalism: It has no inherent tendency towards ecological efficiency. If nature is treated as a free dumping ground for wastes, there will be no tendency to minimize damaging emissions per unit of human benefit from production. Also, there will be no tendency to minimize materials extracted from nature except to the extent firms have pay for these resources.

A production system that could generate increasing ecological efficiency would tend towards reductions in pollution and resource extraction. This would require a non-profit, non-market type of eco-socialist economy where production organizations are held socially accountable — required to systematically internalize their ecological costs. Capitalism’s tendency to ever greater environmental devastation happens because firms have an incentive to not internalize their costs, but dump them on others.

The devastation wrought by the cost-shifting dynamic of capitalism is not limited to global warming. Capitalism has favored the evolution of agricultural practices that aim at highest output at lowest financial cost to the firm. Intense competition has led to ever-greater concentration in ownership of farm land. The capitalist setup allows the growers to rely on labor contractors to pay laborers as little as possible and get rid of workers who try to organize. Growers often own lands in various locations and pursue different crops to minimize their risks. With encouragement from the chemical industry, growers have adopted industrial production of a single crop in a large field with increasing usage of pesticides and inorganic fertilizer over time. Inorganic fertilizers typically provide some mix of nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium. Over-use of these fertilizers has led to excessive runoff, polluting water courses and leading to ocean “dead spots” around the mouths of rivers. Destructive effects on fisheries is thus one of the negative externalities from capitalist agriculture.

Since World War 2 chemical pesticide production world-wide grew from 0.1 ton to 52 million tons in 1976 and 300 million tons in 2015. Pesticides produced by the chemical industry are damaging to the health of farm workers, and pollutes water courses, and leaves residues on food. Pesticide overuse also destroys the natural predators of insects and breeds pesticide-resistant pests. This leads a kind of agricultural arms race as more and more pesticide is needed. As Fred Magdoff and Chris Williams report in Creating an Ecological Society, pesticides also reduce “presence in the soil of organisms that stimulate plants to produce chemicals to defend themselves.”

As with pesticides the chemical industry has also vastly pumped up the production of petroleum-based plastics which do not biodegrade but end up as vast scourge of pollution in the oceans. Plastic bags have grown in use because they take a lot less energy to produce than paper bags, and thus cost less. Production has increased from less than 5 tons in 1950 to over 340 million tons by 2014, according to the Plastics Europe trade association. At least a third of all plastic produced is not recaptured, but mostly ends up in the ocean where it is destructive to living organisms. The plastics industry does not have to pay for the negative effects on living things in the oceans.

If we bring in our definition of throughput, pollution and dumping of wastes are one aspect, but we need to also look at the destructive extractivist tendencies in capitalism, such as clear-cutting of forests or over-fishing. According to a 2003 study, “90 percent of all large fishes have disappeared from the world’s oceans in the past half century,” since the onset of industrial fishing with huge nets in the 1950s. “”Whether it is yellowfin tuna in the tropics, bluefin in cold waters, or albacore tuna in between, the pattern is always the same. There is a rapid decline of fish numbers,” according to Ransom Myers, a fisheries biologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax. To address the problem, many countries have banned long drift nets and untended longlines, and have instituted elaborate systems of licensing, and have instituted quotas and third party observers working on boats. Nonetheless, capitalist fishing outfits frequently ignore or evade these rules.

[snoozingredpanda]

Benni Winters — Neighbours

GN!Reader

18+ Please!

Warnings: Neighbour!Benni, stalker!pervert!Benni, NSFW, obsession, masturbation, toys, underwear stealing, kidnap, blackmail, swearing

—

• Neighbour!Benni who doesn’t really care when someone new moves into the community. She barely notices the moving trucks, only acknowledging them when she left for work.

• Neighbour!Benni who first sets eyes on you when she sees you tending to the weeds outside, a sun hat covering your pretty face. She’s instantly hooked; you’re such a cute thing.

• Neighbour!Benni who doesn’t introduce herself at first. She’s a bit nervous — just the thought of you makes her palms sweaty.

• Neighbour!Benni who at last says hi, when bumping into you when bringing in her shopping. She’s a bit awkward, but manages to pique your interest after turning on the charm.

• Neighbour!Benni who you often see coming and going from work, often carrying a variety of different photography equipment. You ask her what they’re for, and she tells you that’s her job, and she was working on a project from home.

• Neighbour!Benni who’s secretly using the cameras and stands to take photos of you through your window, adding them to her collections in a box under her bed.

• Neighbour!Benni who’s intentions turn vile when she looks out of the window, only to see you getting undressed. How stupid of you not to close your blinds. Don’t you know there are creeps around?

• Neighbour!Benni who snaps plenty of pictures, her heart beating at the speed of light. She’s all fired up, cunt throbbing for you.

• Neighbour!Benni who at first resists the urge, but after you kiss her innocently on the cheek for helping you change your tyre, she can’t help but bring out those perverted photos, tugging her sweatpants off in shame.

• Neighbour!Benni who tries not to enjoy herself as she pumps her fingers in and out of her sopping pussy, gaze trained on your naked body in photo form. She’s imagining how well she could fuck you, how she’d make you cry from overstimulation, her lips sucking harsh mark on your beautiful skin.

• Neighbour!Benni who cums with a groan, burying her face into her pillow. She’s ashamed, but just the thought of you gets her all worked up again.

• Neighbour!Benni who learns your timetable perfectly, knowing when you leave and arrive back at your house.

• Neighbour!Benni who uses this to her advantage, breaking into your house almost every day, just to help you out a bit, maybe wash up or vacuum clean. You do work so hard, after all. She’s not surprised you don’t have time to clean up.

• Neighbour!Benni who ends up doing your laundry one day, but stops dead in her tracks when she sees a pair of your underwear. There were splotches of white on them, and she knew exactly what you’d been doing in them.

• Neighbour!Benni you doesn’t think as she shoves them in her pocket, clenching her thighs together. She can’t stop thinking about them as she finishes up the laundry, only to speed back to her own house.

• Neighbour!Benni who holds your soiled underwear to her nose as she works her glistening cunt, eyes rolling back each time that tangy scent hits her nostrils.

• Neighbour!Benni who, after cumming, sighs, getting tired of her fingers. They’re just not good enough to keep her satisfied.

• Neighbour!Benni who explores your room more the next time she invades, only to gawk at the treasure trove she finds under your bed. Sex toys galore; you truly were a little minx.

• Neighbour!Benni who completely ignores the concerning BDSM material, too in love to think about you in any other way but a cute little thing.

• Neighbour!Benni who hates herself as she fucks herself on your bed, roughly slamming a dildo in and out of her pussy. Just the thought of you using it before makes her moan, pretending it’s your cock or strap on.

• Neighbour!Benni who swears she can feel your hand on her neck, your voice in her ear, telling her how pretty she looks under you. She throws her head back, clenching around the dildo as she cums again and again, an image of your naked body painted in her mind.

• Neighbour!Benni who cries out when she hears you gasp. Fuck, you’re at the door.

• Neighbour!Benni who whimpers an apology, expecting you to call the police.

• Neighbour!Benni who doesn’t realise you’re not an innocent little thing as you make yourself out to be. You’ve got a much more sinister side to you…

• Neighbour!Benni who’s speechless when you grin, hand sneaking down to her clit to help her along.

• “Such a slut, aren’t we? Using my dildo to get off? And I thought you were a gentlewoman.”

• “Go on, babe. Ride it just like that.”

• “Ah, ah, ah. Don’t you dare pull away. Unless you want me to report you. Now spread your legs wider.”

• Neighbour!Benni who you so devilishly blackmail into becoming your sex slave, living in your basement like a pathetic dog, collar around her neck, chains keeping her from leaving.

• Neighbour!Benni who didn’t care, servicing your every need with a needy smile on her lips. She doesn’t care that you’re probably some kind of serial killer and she’s your next victim. She doesn’t care that she’s probably never getting out of here.

• Neighbour!Benni who only cares about making you happy, even if that means never seeing the light of day again.

[astarab1aze]

➥ Thousand-Head Hydra

⸻Technical Information. // Face, Voice, etc.

01. Faceclaim. Satoru Gojo  [ Jujutsu Kaisen ] 04. Voice Claim. Kaiji Tang

⸻Profile Information. // Name, Age, etc.

01. Name. Unknown; Referred to in myths as Thousand-Head Hydra / Hand of God 02. Alias. Hydre Blanglas, Hydra   [ 'Hydra White-Ice' ; he's not very creative ] 03. Sex. Male 04. Gender. Male  05. Age. Unknown [ Thousands+ ; Youngest son of the Worldeater ] 06. Birth Date. November 13th   [ Scorpio ] 07. Blood Type. Sub-type Unknown, presumed HAO- [ Sapphiric Ichor ] 08. Race. Divine Hydra, Sunjatti by ethnicity. 09. Marital Status. Single   [ Multiship ] 10. Orientation. Demiromantic   [ Pansexual / no preference ] 11. Residence. Formerly, in the Gardens of Oblivion, the Hellplane, within the cosmic weave of the Worldeater's constellation ; Formerly, in his mortal life, the ancient Sunjatti city of Miraglas, of which no remnants remain  

⸻Physical Information. // Body, Equipment, Family, etc.

12. Physical Description. Hydre, in his anthromorphic humanoid form, is about 6'10". Tall, toned and defined, sporting a head of short, messy white hair with a slight bluish tint. Soft to the touch, but windblown and wild. His eyes are piercing, wide, expressive, framed by long, bluish-white lashes - striking prismatic blue in color; Impenetrable, unreadable, devoid of emotion despite his range of expressions - he generally keeps them covered by black cloth, not for any special reason but for the aesthetic. His skin is pale ivory in tone and riddled with iridescent white-blue scales, particularly in bonier areas (spine, nape, collarbones, jaw hinges, cheekbones, wrists, elbows, knuckles), with some accent spikes of varyingly short lengths (elbows, cheekbones) in matching his skin tone. He has a single scar looping around his neck caused by beheading, jagged and still-puffy even after a thousand years of slumbering among the stars.

His glacial hydra form is titanic in size, thick and muscular-bodied, covered in impenetrable bluish scales; Each head bears a fierce and vicious expression, many rows of spikes covering his body from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. Snow and ice naturally collect underneath his scales, secreted by hydroproduction glands all throughout his body. His blood is caustic and rich cobalt in color, wildly deadly to all living and spiritual beings. His body is built for long-term submersion in unimaginably frigid waters and the vacuum of space. His stomach acid is effectively a thousand times stronger than hydrochloric acid.

13. Equipment. Not applicable ; He has no need - he sort of is the equipment. 14. Occupation. The Hand of God, he who sows destruction so that the Worldeater may devour, he who ends so another may begin ; He is one of the Worldeater's many offspring and far from favorite, but given the responsibility of carrying out His will on the physical plain, naturally dispositioned to do so. 15. Job Performance. Terror ; There's a reason the Worldeater chose him for this over Versus, thousands of years ago on the day of his birth. 16. Parents. Nocturne, the Worldeater, Endbringer, the primordial outer god of cyclical destruction and rebirth ; Considered to be the most powerful and furthest reaching of all outer gods, king of demons, dragons, and reptilian nightfolk, and feared as the god of them all. 17. Siblings. Much and many, but none he gives a shit about ; He has one even he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy, a sister by the name of Versus - he finds her abhorrent in every way and would be quite happy to kill her again, given the chance.

⸻Personality Information. // Likes, Strengths, etc.

18. Likes. Snow, hydrangeas, napping, techno music, ghost stories, whatever the hell cellphones are, dancing, public transportation, scarbuncle cheese, modern pastries, beholder meat, fish, crocodingos, beholders in general, ice, rain, being in or around bodies of moving water, seaglass, early morning, styxies, recycling, mint chocolate ice cream, sulphur, dead silence, etc. 19. Dislikes. Nocturne, Versus, all of his other siblings too, humanity, nightfolk, weak and non-magic users, liars, picky eaters, whiners, high-pitched noises, chewing sounds, getting dirty, pickles, leeches, mooches, spiders, flies, fire-based magic users, boredom, people who are incapable of even accepting the truth, anything he can't eat, summer time, milk, etc. 

20. Positive Traits. Adaptive. Unwavering. Decisive. Intelligent. Introspective. Driven. Protective. Capable. Thorough. Confident. Controlled. Serious. Rational. Strong-willed. Accommodating. Accepting. 21. Negative Traits. Temperamental. Selfish. Violent. Cruel. Cold. Dismissive. Sardonic. Bitter. Remorseless. Ill-Mannered. Murderous. Hypocritical. Dishonest. Disloyal. Impatient. Vulgar. Noncommittal. Manipulative. Merciless. Unforgiving. Possessive. 22. Goals. To usher in the end of the current cycle, to pave the way for the Worldeater to swallow the world whole and begin a new cycle ; There is no other goal, he has no other purpose. He was born for this and this alone. 23. Desires. To go the FUCK back to bed. 24. Alignment. Neutral Evil - True Neutral

25. Personality. Hydre is an asshole. A very bored, very tired, very pissed off asshole. He's not easy to get along with by any stretch of the imagination and he genuinely does not care about anyone or anything beyond entertainment value, whatever that means to him. He's impersonally brutal, focused and unwavering, but he is also lazy and would rather sleep another thousand years than satisfy the conditions of his continued existence. He's extremely guarded and views mortal pursuits as inherently pointless, especially when considering just how long-lived he is. He's quietly bitter and miserable, loathsome and angry that he must continue to suffer an endlessly repeating cycle. Life has no value to him. Emotions are of no use to him. But there is a hint of a person in there, the person he could've been had he not been born to Nocturne.

⸻Sorcery Information. // Element, Talent, etc.

26. Element. Creation Root - godhood has its perks ; He has full control over and can source all types and subtypes of magic inherently. 27. Shapeshifting. Innate Hydra - he is neither shapeshifter nor were, but because of the circumstances of his birth, an exceptionally unique anthromorph ; He has ascendant capabilities in regards to multishifting (he's even better than Loux and the Face-Eater combined). 28. Utility. All. 29. Specialization. Ice Element - he's a Glacial Hydra by rights, so ice would be his primary element, or at least the one he uses and prefers the most as it was the element he was born with. 30. Graduate School. Not applicable. 31. Classification. Mythic Terror, Icewalker, Ichorus Starbeast, Men Bondye - the Hydra with A Thousand Heads ; He is literally a legendary thousand-headed hydra when not confined to his humanoid shape, rendered to little more than a bedtime story in the modern era (the cause of many a nightmare). He was once immeasurably feared by all nightfolk and humans, the mere mention of his long-faded name a cause for immediate descension into madness.

⸻Background Information. // Past to Present.

lalal already have it lined out, just need to type it up. need to take a nap or i'll die