#16 valve

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Jensen GT, 1975. A shooting brake version of the Lotus-engined Jensen Healey roadster. Production amounted to 509 cars before Jensen went into receivership in 1976

[witchofthesouls]

I wish I had digital art skills because I'm haunted by The Primes' Rooster AU, such as:

The sheer hungry look by Liege Maximo licking up the mess upon Sentinel's thighs and pressing his mouth on the most perplexing valve anyone as come across.

A well-bitten Solus smoking a cigarette in the berth, a contented and well-bedded Megatronus next to her slipping on a nice drink through a straw, and Megatronus is sharing that with a slightly dented Sentinel who's between them and has his own super curly straw to sip the cocktail.

Quintus' labs with the Prime recording the procedures. A serious face in one frame, then a "Oh, someone's (it's Sentinel. He has permission to get inside and Quintus is too deep in Science to realize there's another person there.) messing with my valve. Well, the newsparks do need materials and I can't remember the last time I've eaten."

Alpha Trion and the Cybertronian version of Kama Sutra

Vector Prime distantly watching over others clanging with a glass of wine because of his voyeur kink

Sentinel with his own weapon forged by Solus herself. It's a cross between his canon sword and the Skyboom shield.

Short-king Sentinel with his tall-ass Primes and equally tall-ass teenage/adult children.

Starscream's and Sentinel's dramatic BEEF with each other. Literal cockfighting between these two.

And Rooster!Sentinel in Canon!verse, going "Look at me. I'm your sire/geni now." to Orion and D-16.

On one hand, pre-betrayal discovery is Rooster!Sentinel slinging the Cogless versions of two of his sons/grandsons over his shoulders. On the other hand, post-betrayal discovery is Sentinel versus Sentinel. D-16 won't bow before the false Prime, but he'll lower his face because of the resulting selfcest and the filthy, filthy commentary on Megatronus' (his hero's) sexual preferences. (The High Guard peanut gallery chiming in over Megatronus' getting his back blown by Solus and/or Prima.)

[transingthoseformers]

hello there, spike measuring contest anon here dropping a line i forgot to write:

who do you think wins? And does the winner get to test his spike on a valve?

You know, either would be funny I'll admit

And, to the second question, of course :)

[drugstorecowboi]

Slapshot: “Secrets” 16 Valve Hate (1995)

[andnowrotfront]

i hope exactly one more tf2 update comes out and it shuts down every valve server and uninstalls the game from everyones pc

[guerrilla-operator]

[idealdieselmarine]

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

The US Copyright Office frees the McFlurry

I'll be in TUCSON, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

I have spent a quarter century obsessed with the weirdest corner of the weirdest section of the worst internet law on the US statute books: Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the 1998 law that makes it a felony to help someone change how their own computer works so it serves them, rather than a distant corporation.

Under DMCA 1201, giving someone a tool to "bypass an access control for a copyrighted work" is a felony punishable by a 5-year prison sentence and a $500k fine – for a first offense. This law can refer to access controls for traditional copyrighted works, like movies. Under DMCA 1201, if you help someone with photosensitive epilepsy add a plug-in to the Netflix player in their browser that blocks strobing pictures that can trigger seizures, you're a felon:

https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-media/2017Jul/0005.html

But software is a copyrighted work, and everything from printer cartridges to car-engine parts have software in them. If the manufacturer puts an "access control" on that software, they can send their customers (and competitors) to prison for passing around tools to help them fix their cars or use third-party ink.

Now, even though the DMCA is a copyright law (that's what the "C" in DMCA stands for, after all); and even though blocking video strobes, using third party ink, and fixing your car are not copyright violations, the DMCA can still send you to prison, for a long-ass time for doing these things, provided the manufacturer designs their product so that using it the way that suits you best involves getting around an "access control."

As you might expect, this is quite a tempting proposition for any manufacturer hoping to enshittify their products, because they know you can't legally disenshittify them. These access controls have metastasized into every kind of device imaginable.

Garage-door openers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

Refrigerators:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/12/digital-feudalism/#filtergate

Dishwashers:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/03/cassette-rewinder/#disher-bob

Treadmills:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/22/vapescreen/#jane-get-me-off-this-crazy-thing

Tractors:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#deere-john

Cars:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world

Printers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/07/inky-wretches/#epson-salty

And even printer paper:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/16/unauthorized-paper/#dymo-550

DMCA 1201 is the brainchild of Bruce Lehmann, Bill Clinton's Copyright Czar, who was repeatedly warned that cancerous proliferation this was the foreseeable, inevitable outcome of his pet policy. As a sop to his critics, Lehman added a largely ornamental safety valve to his law, ordering the US Copyright Office to invite submissions every three years petitioning for "use exemptions" to the blanket ban on circumventing access-controls.

I call this "ornamental" because if the Copyright Office thinks that, say, it should be legal for you to bypass an access control to use third-party ink in your printer, or a third-party app store in your phone, all they can do under DMCA 1201 is grant you the right to use a circumvention tool. But they can't give you the right to acquire that tool.

I know that sounds confusing, but that's only because it's very, very stupid. How stupid? Well, in 2001, the US Trade Representative arm-twisted the EU into adopting its own version of this law (Article 6 of the EUCD), and in 2003, Norway added the law to its lawbooks. On the eve of that addition, I traveled to Oslo to debate the minister involved:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/28/clintons-ghost/#felony-contempt-of-business-model

The minister praised his law, explaining that it gave blind people the right to bypass access controls on ebooks so that they could feed them to screen readers, Braille printers, and other assistive tools. OK, I said, but how do they get the software that jailbreaks their ebooks so they can make use of this exemption? Am I allowed to give them that tool?

No, the minister said, you're not allowed to do that, that would be a crime.

Is the Norwegian government allowed to give them that tool? No. How about a blind rights advocacy group? No, not them either. A university computer science department? Nope. A commercial vendor? Certainly not.

No, the minister explained, under his law, a blind person would be expected to personally reverse engineer a program like Adobe E-Reader, in hopes of discovering a defect that they could exploit by writing a program to extract the ebook text.

Oh, I said. But if a blind person did manage to do this, could they supply that tool to other blind people?

Well, no, the minister said. Each and every blind person must personally – without any help from anyone else – figure out how to reverse-engineer the ebook program, and then individually author their own alternative reader program that worked with the text of their ebooks.

That is what is meant by a use exemption without a tools exemption. It's useless. A sick joke, even.

The US Copyright Office has been valiantly holding exemptions proceedings every three years since the start of this century, and they've granted many sensible exemptions, including ones to benefit people with disabilities, or to let you jailbreak your phone, or let media professors extract video clips from DVDs, and so on. Tens of thousands of person-hours have been flushed into this pointless exercise, generating a long list of things you are now technically allowed to do, but only if you are a reverse-engineering specialist type of computer programmer who can manage the process from beginning to end in total isolation and secrecy.

But there is one kind of use exception the Copyright Office can grant that is potentially game-changing: an exemption for decoding diagnostic codes.

You see, DMCA 1201 has been a critical weapon for the corporate anti-repair movement. By scrambling error codes in cars, tractors, appliances, insulin pumps, phones and other devices, manufacturers can wage war on independent repair, depriving third-party technicians of the diagnostic information they need to figure out how to fix your stuff and keep it going.

This is bad enough in normal times, but during the acute phase of the covid pandemic, hospitals found themselves unable to maintain their ventilators because of access controls. Nearly all ventilators come from a single med-tech monopolist, Medtronic, which charges hospitals hundreds of dollars to dispatch their own repair technicians to fix its products. But when covid ended nearly all travel, Medtronic could no longer provide on-site calls. Thankfully, an anonymous hacker started building homemade (illegal) circumvention devices to let hospital technicians fix the ventilators themselves, improvising housings for them from old clock radios, guitar pedals and whatever else was to hand, then mailing them anonymously to hospitals:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/10/flintstone-delano-roosevelt/#medtronic-again

Once a manufacturer monopolizes repair in this way, they can force you to use their official service depots, charging you as much as they'd like; requiring you to use their official, expensive replacement parts; and dictating when your gadget is "too broken to fix," forcing you to buy a new one. That's bad enough when we're talking about refusing to fix a phone so you buy a new one – but imagine having a spinal injury and relying on a $100,000 exoskeleton to get from place to place and prevent muscle wasting, clots, and other immobility-related conditions, only to have the manufacturer decide that the gadget is too old to fix and refusing to give you the technical assistance to replace a watch battery so that you can get around again:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/26/24255074/former-jockey-michael-straight-exoskeleton-repair-battery

When the US Copyright Office grants a use exemption for extracting diagnostic codes from a busted device, they empower repair advocates to put that gadget up on a workbench and torture it into giving up those codes. The codes can then be integrated into an unofficial diagnostic tool, one that can make sense of the scrambled, obfuscated error codes that a device sends when it breaks – without having to unscramble them. In other words, only the company that makes the diagnostic tool has to bypass an access control, but the people who use that tool later do not violate DMCA 1201.

This is all relevant this month because the US Copyright Office just released the latest batch of 1201 exemptions, and among them is the right to circumvent access controls "allowing for repair of retail-level food preparation equipment":

https://publicknowledge.org/public-knowledge-ifixit-free-the-mcflurry-win-copyright-office-dmca-exemption-for-ice-cream-machines/

While this covers all kinds of food prep gear, the exemption request – filed by Public Knowledge and Ifixit – was inspired by the bizarre war over the tragically fragile McFlurry machine. These machines – which extrude soft-serve frozen desserts – are notoriously failure-prone, with 5-16% of them broken at any given time. Taylor, the giant kitchen tech company that makes the machines, charges franchisees a fortune to repair them, producing a steady stream of profits for the company.

This sleazy business prompted some ice-cream hackers to found a startup called Kytch, a high-powered automation and diagnostic tool that was hugely popular with McDonald's franchisees (the gadget was partially designed by the legendary hardware hacker Andrew "bunnie" Huang!).

In response, Taylor played dirty, making a less-capable clone of the Kytch, trying to buy Kytch out, and teaming up with McDonald's corporate to bombard franchisees with legal scare-stories about the dangers of using a Kytch to keep their soft-serve flowing, thanks to DMCA 1201:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cold-war

Kytch isn't the only beneficiary of the new exemption: all kinds of industrial kitchen equipment is covered. In upholding the Right to Repair, the Copyright Office overruled objections of some of its closest historical allies, the Entertainment Software Association, Motion Picture Association, and Recording Industry Association of America, who all sided with Taylor and McDonald's and opposed the exemption:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/10/us-copyright-office-frees-the-mcflurry-allowing-repair-of-ice-cream-machines/

This is literally the only useful kind of DMCA 1201 exemption the Copyright Office can grant, and the fact that they granted it (along with a similar exemption for medical devices) is a welcome bright spot. But make no mistake, the fact that we finally found a narrow way in which DMCA 1201 can be made slightly less stupid does not redeem this outrageous law. It should still be repealed and condemned to the scrapheap of history.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

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/2024/10/28/mcbroken/#my-milkshake-brings-all-the-lawyers-to-the-yard

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[jevilowo]

I love dates in the tf2 lore. I love knowing exactly when stuff happened. Which makes THIS THING I JUST FOUND a BEAUTIFUL MIRACLE

You've seen this image before, but have you noticed the dates on the prison card thingies? Presumably this is written the American Way (the writers are so american they make Scout and Sniper both call their mothers "mom" despite preferring "ma" and "mum" respectively, as shown previously SEVERal times), so Spy and Scout were arrested on

The 7th of September, 1972.

We can do a lot with this information.

Mann Co was taken over by Grey and Olivia half a month before this: roughly the 23rd of August

Contrary to popular belief, most of the comics have to take place in 1973! Seeing as 6 months after late August is late February.

This also means Scout had to have been born in 1946/7. Not sure about Sniper, I have yet to overanalyse the New Zealand timeline paragraph. I'll get to it eventually.

Medic implies in comic 6 that our mercs have worked together for "at least eight years", while talking about the lore breaking Demo eyeball halloween thing. Assuming the "at least" confusion is over the 1972 Halloween they missed while not working together, the Teufort Nine were hired in 1964.

(I've almost mentally rationalised the lore breaking eyeball as a thing they do at like 4am after regular Scream Fortress shenanigans. Almost.)

Scout claims he has known Ms Pauling for six years. During the War! update, Demoman is unfamiliar with Ms Pauling (he knows she works for the administrator, but thats it), so we can assume that is the point she started working more closely with the mercs, and also 1966/7

I really need to go back to actively working on my timeline instead of passively wondering at 11pm "hey what time of year is it in the comics" and going down a rabbit hole.

Uh if you want to build off this, feel free to, but tell society twas I, the great and nobel Jevil_Owo, who first conceptualised all this.

UPDATE! This post seems to be picking up reblog steam again, so now is a good time to say I was WRONG about the mercs being hired around 1964.

This blog post from 2009 claims the WAR update took place in 1962, meaning the mercs have to have been hired in early 1962 at the latest.

Seeing as Scout would have been 15/16 in 1962, and as that's kind of the youngest one can be hired for just about anything, I'd assume it actually is 1962 they were hired. Ok thats enough I just felt it was my duty as Person Timelining to update people on this Discovery.

SECOND UPDATE!!

Okay this is lowkey blowing up again and I just wanted to add that Valve themselves are not aware of the comics taking place in 1973. Idiots! This is why "7 years later" is 1979 instead of 1980 like it should be. Sigh.

I had already figured that out from a few other things (see the timeline in my pinned post, I point it out a couple of times), but this solidified it lmao.

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Subaru Vivio RX-R, 1992. A high-performance kei-car powered by a supercharged 658 cc EN07Z DOHC 4 cylinder engine limited to 66hp in order to stay within the limitations laid down by Japan's kei car legislation. The "Vivio" model name refers to the 660cc engine displacement written in Roman numerals (VI, VI, O). The RX-R was widely used for rallying in Japan.

[megtrns]

thinking about the different kind of lovers megatron would be across timelines (nsfw!) (mdni!) (tfp, mtmte & transformers one) tw : rough sex, voyeurism, megatron being megatron

01. TFP Megatron is a callous warlord, if not a little cruel. And even if it was never in his intention to hurt his little human (because he's grown too attached to go through the trouble of replacing you), his roughness still bleeds into the bedroom. Sharp dentas, long claws: they were bound to leave marks on your body. But while they were never enough to injure, they were always enough to remind you that he placed them there on purpose. Megatron doesn't make mistakes ; every move is calculated and deliberate. Because whenever he runs his servos down the hickeys along the column of your throat, you can tell from the look in his optics that the sight gave him a special kind of high that not even dark energon can replicate.

He moves like he's been starved, bending you over tables and thrones, and sometimes, Megatron doesn't care for interruption. Once (without his mass displaced) as he was occupied with you in his throne room, a single talon circling your entrance as you sat across his lap, he had summoned a meeting — your back arched and eyes shut, legs spread open for his scientists and second-in-command to see. (It's safe to say that you and Starscream couldn't look at each other in the eye for weeks).

He doesn't make love. But on the days when he has the patience for it, and there is no urgency above the nemesis, Megatron moves with deep, shallow thrusts that leaves you on the edge of sobbing. With both wrists pinned above your head, he wants you to look — to watch as he slowly pushes into you. He wants you to feel every stretch, every delicious burn, unable to decide if he enjoys the sound of you begging more than the feel of your wet, human valve. And even when his mass is displaced, it still takes you some time to get used to him. Always, the pain was fleeting and barely there, quickly replaced by a growing heat that unfurls from your abdomen throughout your body. He treats you like a stretch of land for him to conquer and take  — who are you to deny him? Under his commands, your body does nothing but surrender to the raw pleasure each time. 02. MTMTE Megatron would be hesitant , apprehensive about this new relationship between you and him. He would initially withhold himself, only going as far as peppering kisses down your chest before retreating in guilt. On the days where he feels too undeserving, he'll act withdrawn and even cold, leaving you to wake up alone — the imprint of his body against the sheets the only thing convincing you that you hadn't dreamt him up. You tell him you're sick of it : of the push and pull and the slow, dull ache that rises to your chest whenever he refuses to look at you in the eyes.

But Megatron was always somewhat obsessive. He used to want a lot of things : the war, the fighting, the victories. But you made him feel like that was another life altogether. These days, all he could want was you spread out underneath him : chest to chassis, heartbeat singing along to the thrum of his spark. The image of your spine, bathed under the faint starlight creeping past the windows, running amok within his processors.

So somewhere along the way, he gives in. For the first time in millennia, he let's himself want — the taste of your mouth against his was the closest thing to benediction he'd ever received. Like a sinner sinking into his knees, Megatron seeks atonement with his helm between your legs, glossa slow and careful as both servos knead the curve of your waist. He says he likes giving more than receiving, eager to please, the mech's always been a little poetic (you don't expect less from him.) But you knew his guilty pleasure was losing himself to the feel of your mouth against his spike, soft and wet, so foreign to his sharp and unyielding world.

03. TF ONE D-16 is curious, all wide-optics and eager to learn. He doesn't think too much about the consequences of misusing his newly found T-cog to displace his mass so that he can see optic to eye with the little alien who had escaped a Quintesson ship. As much as he tries to act as the more responsible one between him and Orion, D-16 is still young. And like all young and healthy mechs (yet to be scarred by war), he has the usual appetite for visual contraband that had been smuggled and circulated into the mining sectors. He has never been the one to indulge in...strange preferences, but he’s heard about them before.

Of wealthy mechs and their voyages off worlds, where they'd suffocate themselves in exotic luxuries and mingle with all sorts of alien species — organics, particularly, were always tucked away somewhere in the furthest most empty corners of the galaxies. They are as rare as they come, only growing to become a popular genre of fantasy for Cybetron in the past decade. So, realising that he had one currently sitting across him, so squishy and gentle, D-16 had to swallow his shame when the request to pressurise his spike pinged to life within his internal processor.

Somewhere along the way, as you two were being held in a windowless prison by the High Guard, you’ve end up like this : with your shirt hiked up and his servos impatiently circling your back to pull you close. While you both couldn't understand one another, there is a universal kind of language in wanting. And you could see a kind of appetite in his electric, yellow eyes — as if he wanted to eat you. From the staring whenever you're bending over or fixing your clothes to the sudden surge of possessiveness whenever the other red and blue bot tried to hold you. Now, the second you are alone, he shrinks himself down to your size. There was a silent question in the air waiting to come to life, and as he waited, the air had grown taut and thin with tension. It was a good thing you had nothing to lose, choosing to answer his question by taking big, bold strides across the room and crashing your lips against his.

At first, you struggled to slot yourself against his armor: the hard surface and edges just wouldn't weld with your limbs. But he was persistent, and so you tried your best to breach the language barrier and teach him, satisfied that he's already learning not to bite you too hard. It was rough and fast and sloppy : a lot of fumbling and bumping into one another. And by the time you both got the hang of it, you were sticky and sweaty everywhere, the surface of his metal armor heating up against your skin. He had you pressed down against the floor, ass up in the air as he finally succeeds in pushing the head of his dick past your soaking, aching cunt. You both moaned in relief, his voice a broken jumble of foreign whirs and clicks. He paws experimentally at your chest, the noise between your bodies wet and obscene. You two must've looked like rabbits, and you were too far gone to care, letting him have his way with you if it meant you were going out with a good time.

[jweekgoji]

Hello! So I read your sentinel/starscream x reader fic and was absolutely devastated to check the tag and see it was one of like…maybe 3 other TFO!starscream fics on here? So I wanna request NSFW of my boy TFO!Starscream. The lack of content is killing me 🤕 Thank you! (Specifically a high guard!reader x starscream if you do end up see this)

Starscream/High Guard!Reader [TFO]

tw: NSFW (minors don't read, don't interact), praise kink, commander/subordinate relationship. word count: ~740 a/n: I think this version of Starscream will be more popular if only the writers decided to keep that scene where Starscream helps the main trio to rescue D-16 and the others. :(

It was no secret that the well-known leader of the High Guard was quite popular among the citizens of Iacon. Compliments came from all over the place, from the citizens to the Primes themselves.

“You've been so great today, I don't know who else would lead a mission against Sentinel so well like you do.”

“Mhhm.”

“There is no one else, a better commander than you.”

“...Continue.”

“I think you're far smarter and stronger leader than this false Prime wannabe, Lord Starscream.”

Starscream's servo clamps his mouth shut as your words reach his audio receptors. You notice his optics dimming a little, a slight shiver running along his spine. Did the mention of the title capture his attention that much? Or perhaps it was your confession that he was better than that greedy liar leading Iacon now? Either way, it doesn't matter at this moment.

“You're unbelievable...” Starscream says through gritted teeth, holding back from letting out more shameless sounds. Someone might hear.

Fragging you on the throne while your comrades are unaware, seemed a tiny bit risky, don't you think? He knows that, of course. If Skywarp or Slipstream spot the two of you like that, they will never miss the chance to tease him about it for cycles.

You meet his thrusts with your hips, feeling his spike pushing even deeper inside you. A slight smirk sparkles on your face in response to an earned muffled groan from your commander.

Who would have thought so? Starscream, of all the mechs you've ever met, melts in your optics with praise. At first, you hardly even noticed it. A brief ‘you're so strong, Commander!’ or ‘wonderful job, sir’ every time made him immediately drop whatever he was doing, only to realize what you had just said.

Receiving a lot of compliments was never unusual, but for some reason, it was you who made his spark beat a little faster.

“Don't even think...about telling it to someone,” his clawed servo snakes around your waist, pushing you lower onto his lap, digits pressing tighter with each deep thrust.

You purr softly in response, enjoying the lovely view of your leader sitting directly beneath you. At a steady, lazy pace, you felt his spike buried deep inside your valve, every tiny movement causing you to hold onto him tighter.

So, so painfully slow, it almost makes the red-and-white jet hiss in annoyance. Any other good day he would have appreciated your desire for something so vanilla, but right now, all he can think about is flopping your back down on his throne, taking you right here and there how he wants it now. But that would be too good to ask for, wouldn't it?

“If you want to do it faster, just say ‘please’,” you coo, rocking your hips against his own. “It's not that hard.”

“No,” he huffs, shooting you a strict glance. Him? Begging? How funny.

“Come on, boss,” you lean a little closer, his bright red optics narrowing at the sight of yours.

“Don't be ridiculous.”

Now that's your turn to huff. Maybe if you try to use your big, charming optics on him, to make him finally give in and admit to what exactly he wants from you. You want it too. Why can't he just use his words instead of giving you these longing looks? Your commander is so unfair and childish sometimes. He can't even look you in the optics right now, perhaps, so you wouldn't give him that puppy optics of yours even he can't say no to.

“If you weren't so moody all the time, commander,” you trace your digits around the edge of the jet's wings, rubbing the small circles around the sensitive spot. “I'd let you frag me on this throne any day of the week. Just so our comrades will know that I belong to you.”

For a moment, you see him stop. A sudden sense of panic runs through your processor. Was it too forward? Now things will be awkward. You've been so caught up at the moment, you barely had the chance to think about what slipped from your mouth.

Not like anyone had the strength not to fall on their knees for Starscream, though...that is, until you feel his wings twitch at the touch. A soft, pleased hum coming from his chassis. His servo slowly wraps around your own, only to catch your wrists together, pulling them in front of your center.

“Prove it then.”

[tf-kinktober2024]

Transformers Kinktober 2024 prompt list. Transcript under the cut:

1. Exhibitionism, Filming/Photographing

2. Spanking, Frame Modifications

3. Power Play, Gags

4.  Roleplay, Insecticons

5. Wet & Messy, Group Sex

6. First Time, Blindfolds

7. Plug & Play, Sex Toys

8. Medical Play, Fisting

9. Spike Worship, Overstimulation

10. Spark Play, Oviposition

11. Dirty Talk, Autobot/Decepticon

12. Edging, Noncon/Dubcon

13. Beastformers, Tentacles

14. Dom/Sub, Free Use

15. Bot/Human, Hatesex

16. Voyeurism, Robogore

17. Valve Worship, Masochism

18. Bondage, Somnophilia

19. Alt Form Sex, Vore

20. Praise Kink, Monsterfucking

21. Phone Sex, Captor/Prisoner

22. Size Difference, Predacons

23. Sex Pollen, Public Humiliation

24. Oral Fixation, Stuck

25. Seduction, Size Kink

26. Electricity Play, Watersports

27. Pet Play, Anonymous Sex

28. Bathing, Knife Play

29. Secret Identity, Minicons

30. Femmedom, Riding

31. Wild card!

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive

"No big deal." "Just a cold." "Back to normal."

The proportion of babies born with a congenital heart abnormality increased by 16 per cent after the first year of the pandemic, according to research at City St George's, University of London and published today in Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Heart defects are the most common type of anomaly that develop before a baby is born, with around 13 babies diagnosed with a congenital heart condition every day in the UK and impacting one in 110 births globally . These include defects to the baby's heart valves, the major blood vessels in and around the heart, and the development of holes in the heart.

In over 18 million births, researchers analysed data from US birth certificates from the Centre of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) between December 2016 and November 2022 to evaluate the effect of the pandemic on the number of babies born with a congenital heart defect.

They compared the number of babies born with a congenital heart condition every month before the Covid-19 pandemic (1st December 2016 to 30th November 2019) with those during the pandemic (1st December 2020 to 30th November 2022).

This data was then compared to the number of babies born with Down's Syndrome - a genetic condition not affected by the virus. This was to help ascertain if any differences observed might have been due to Covid-19, or if they were a result of other factors including limited access to antenatal services during the pandemic.

A total of 11,010,764 births before and 7,060,626 births during the pandemic were analysed. Data was adjusted to account for mother's BMI, diabetes and blood pressure before pregnancy, age, number of times they had given birth and the season in which prenatal care started.

The number of births with a congenital heart condition increased by 16% after the first year of the pandemic, with 65.4 cases per 100,000 live births compared to 56.5 per 100,000 births in the period studied before the pandemic.

The number of babies born with Down Syndrome did not change for the duration of the study, suggesting that the increase in fetal heart defects were not due to a disruption of health services.

Studying this large US dataset has revealed an unexpected picture for how the pandemic has affected the hearts of unborn babies, but we need to untangle the reasons for this link. We need to determine if the SARS-CoV-2 virus directly causes the development of fetal heart problems during pregnancy, and if so, how the virus makes these changes in the heart.

We don't have this type of data set available in the UK, but it's important to see if this pattern is seen in other parts of the world.

Covid-19 is still circulating and is easier to catch in the winter months. These results act as an important reminder for pregnant women to get their Covid-19 vaccinations to help protect themselves and their baby."

Professor Asma Khalil, lead author and Professor of Obstetrics and Maternal Fetal Medicine at City St George's, University of London

Source: City St George's, University of London

Journal reference: Khalil, A., et al. (2024). Congenital heart defects during COVID‐19 pandemic. Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology. doi.org/10.1002/uog.29126. obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/uog.29126

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

1930 Ford Highboy Coupe

There’s always lots of detail work with any build and this ’30 Ford highboy coupe is no exception. Look closely and you will find Craftworks Fabrication handmade steel motor mounts. The license plate and valve covers were painted by Jeremy Seanor of Luckystrike Designs. He also painted all the accompanying engine and tranny parts. The powdercoat was handled by Pittsburgh Powder Coat while the chrome plating was conducted by Jon Wright’s Custom Chrome Plating.

The chassis is comprised of a Roadster Shop custom frame that was stepped, stretched, and features contoured ’32 Ford-style framerails. It was also then boxed, capped, and has hole punch flared front framehorns. From here the frame is outfitted with a Super Bell 4-inch drop, drilled and plated I-beam axle, low-profile monoleaf spring with Ridetech tubular shocks paired to custom-made drilled billet radius rods from Johnson’s Hot Rod Shop. Steering falls to the Flaming River box and a LimeWorks Hot Rod column topped with a four-spoke Billet Specialties Sprint Car–style leather-wrapped wheel. In back there’s a Currie 9-inch rearend outfitted with 3.70 gears, 31-spline axles, QA1 coilovers, a Pete & Jakes Panhard bar, and a parallel four-link setup. Braking is a combination of disc/drum front to rear. The forward braking dark gray–painted Wilwood Dynalite calipers are neatly hidden behind the Pete & Jakes finned backing plates. While in back the 9-inch is outfitted with 11-inch brakes, this time hidden beneath the SO-CAL Speed Shop finned drums all the while the chassis rides on a full set of 16-inch Dayton wire wheels wrapped with Coker/Excelsior rubber measuring 5.50R16 in front and 7.00R18 in the back.

All hot rods have something fun settled between the ’rails and beneath the hood (well if they have a hood). In the case of our ’30 Ford highboy coupe it sure appears to be a vintage Ford Y-block but after more than a cursory look we begin to see the telltale signs that there’s something more. Indeed, while it may look like a Ford it truly is a 376-inch LSX iron block, with aluminum heads and ARP studs, plus adapter-equipped small-block Ford (Windsor) valve covers all from Don Hardy Race Cars and then assembled by Talik and Marc Mullin. The intake is an Edelbrock LS dual quad with a pair of Thunder AVS EnduraShine carbs dressed in OTB air cleaners. Delivering the gas from the Tanks stainless reservoir is an Earl’s Performance billet fuel pump. More engine accessories include an MSD 6AL box to go along with the MSD billet Ford small-block distributor that functions through a timing cover adapter from Chevrolet Performance all the while using an MSD coil and Lokar vintage plug wires. Powermaster also supplied the alternator and starter, the battery is an XS Power AGM, and a Wegner Motorsports water pump is used as well as a Wegner front accessory drive unit. This 500-plus hp V-8 utilizes custom headers made at Craftworks Fabrication based on Ultimate Headers LS header flanges. The pseudo-Ford small-block is backed up to a TCI StreetFighter 700-R4 with a 2,800-stall speed converter operated by a Lokar shifter. The trans cooler comes by way of Derale Performance and moves the power through a 3-inch-diameter custom-made driveshaft.

[scrunckled-idiot]

RANDOM ART DUMP FROM OVER THE YEARS!

wanted to post this weeks ago but forgor. enjoy :)

photoshoot with the spy i made for my mum (she added it to her shrine of me)

2. the smaller spy i made for myself

3. pootis figure (i also made one for my mum)

4. my chewable bbgs wrench (engineer)

5. the sandvich

6. T H E S E A L

7. Archimedes

8. golden pan

9. pocket medic

10. tf2 birthday cake

11. bonk soda cherry fizzon can

12. my very well-loved sniper mug

13. BUCKET!

14. my personal favorite... solly!

15. my very first tf2 fan art, inspired after watching expiration date. i think this is my most valuable one to me, even with its tacky look. i remember watching experation date and meet the team shorts when i was a little girl and having no clue what they were (thinking they were part of a tv series. godamn it valve). i was already into tf2 without even knowing what it was back then.

16. bonus solly with the tumor bread