#Labeler Market Factors

[electronalytics]

RFID Label Printers Market, Overview Development and Outlook on Key Growth Trends, Factors and Forecast 2032

RFID Label Printers Market Overview:

The RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) Label Printers market is a dynamic segment within the broader realm of automatic identification and data capture technology. These specialized printers are designed to produce RFID labels, which contain embedded RFID tags that can store and transmit data wirelessly. The market's significance lies in its role as an enabler of efficient inventory management, supply chain optimization, and enhanced asset tracking across various industries. As organizations increasingly adopt RFID technology to improve operational efficiency and traceability, the RFID Label Printers market experiences sustained growth.

Market Share: The RFID Label Printers market is primarily dominated by a few key players, including Zebra Technologies, Honeywell International Inc., Avery Dennison Corporation, SATO Holdings Corporation, and Printronix, among others. These companies hold a significant share of the market due to their established presence and wide product offerings.

Types: RFID Label Printers come in various types, including desktop RFID printers, industrial RFID printers, and mobile RFID printers. Desktop RFID printers are compact and suitable for low to medium-volume printing, industrial RFID printers are designed for high-volume and rugged environments, while mobile RFID printers are portable and used for on-the-go printing applications.

Applications: RFID Label Printers are used across a range of industries and applications. Some common applications include inventory management, supply chain tracking, retail and apparel tagging, healthcare asset tracking, and access control. The ability to encode RFID tags while printing labels makes them invaluable in applications where tracking and tracing items are crucial.

Opportunities and Key Trends: The RFID Label Printers market continues to grow due to the increasing adoption of RFID technology across industries. Key trends include:

Integration with IoT: RFID Label Printers are increasingly being integrated with the Internet of Things (IoT) to enable real-time tracking and monitoring of assets and inventory. This integration enhances data visibility and analytics.

Customization and Flexibility: Customers are demanding more versatile and customizable RFID label printing solutions to meet specific needs. Manufacturers are responding by offering printers with greater flexibility in label design and encoding options.

Sustainability: Environmental concerns are driving the development of RFID Label Printers that are more energy-efficient and use eco-friendly materials. This aligns with the growing focus on sustainability in various industries.

Global Expansion: As RFID technology adoption continues to spread globally, there are opportunities for RFID Label Printer manufacturers to expand their presence in emerging markets and cater to the growing demand for RFID solutions.

The RFID Label Printers market's growth is intertwined with the broader adoption of RFID technology across industries, highlighting the critical role of these printers in enabling efficient data capture, tracking, and identification processes essential for modern businesses and organizations.

Market Dynamics:

Growing Adoption: The RFID Label Printers market is experiencing steady growth due to the increasing adoption of RFID technology across industries. This adoption is driven by the need for efficient inventory management, improved supply chain visibility, and enhanced asset tracking capabilities.

Regulatory Compliance: Regulatory requirements and industry standards, such as those in healthcare (e.g., UDI for medical devices) and retail (e.g., EPC Gen2 for apparel), are influencing the demand for RFID Label Printers as companies seek to comply with labeling and tracking mandates.

Products:

Desktop RFID Printers: These compact printers are suitable for low to medium-volume printing. They are commonly used in retail stores, offices, and small-scale warehouses for applications like price tagging and item tracking.

Industrial RFID Printers: Designed for high-volume and rugged environments, industrial RFID printers are favored in manufacturing, logistics, and distribution centers. They offer robust construction and high-speed printing capabilities to handle large-scale RFID labeling needs.

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Market Segmentations:

Global RFID Label Printers Market: By Company • Zebra • Toshiba • Honeywell • SATO • Printronix • Avery Dennison • Postek Global RFID Label Printers Market: By Type • Desktop RFID Printers • Industrial RFID Printers • Mobile RFID Printers Global RFID Label Printers Market: By Application • Industrial Application • Transportation & Logistics • Retail • Healthcare • Other Global RFID Label Printers Market: Regional Analysis All the regional segmentation has been studied based on recent and future trends, and the market is forecasted throughout the prediction period. The countries covered in the regional analysis of the Global RFID Label Printers market report are U.S., Canada, and Mexico in North America, Germany, France, U.K., Russia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and Rest of Europe in Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Rest of Asia-Pacific (APAC) in the Asia-Pacific (APAC), Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, South Africa, Egypt, Israel, Rest of Middle East and Africa (MEA) as a part of Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Argentina, Brazil, and Rest of South America as part of South America.

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[ranticore]

Now that you mentioned it in the tags; I really enjoyed how you did the queerness of characters in-text and I saw you mentioned more than once before how they consider/call themselves gay or anything and I was wondering if you'd be willing to elaborate on that (in Ironwall, MVF etc), but more from a writing standpoint than a worldbuilding one. Hope Im making sense lol

i looked up the invention of the word 'homosexuality' and found that it was invented 6 years after stbh is set

ghksjdg i mean there's more to it than that but it meant that my language was constrained, which also means that the characters' language is constrained as well. i have to think about ways i want this to come across to the reader. at the time i was thinking about how the basic concept of "btw this character is not straight/cis" is communicated in some of the stories i'd read, and one that stood out to me was a comic i read in a fully fantasy setting where the writer brought the narrative to a juddering halt to explain exactly how gender & sexuality are handled by the people here. as in the characters essentially turn to the camera and give the main character a lecture. i really didn't like it, the author's hand was too visible behind the panels.

but i took it as a learning exercise as well on what i didn't want to do. i didn't like the neon signs pointing at any instance of non-heteronormativity and i also don't like stories that market themselves based on the characters' gender identities, particularly stories which do not involve a coming-of-age/character learns to discover themselves narrative. it's a book about two trans men but it's not a book about being trans. that's none of the reader's business, that's hidden from you (particularly in islin's case, intentionally). i never wanted to foster a sense of voyeurism towards trans people particularly knowing that most readers, statistically, will not be trans. crucially the characters are stealth to literally everybody but like 3 people. their transition is done.

i never wanted a coming out moment, or an "i'm here i'm queer" moment either - not even because Society in the setting just because i don't like those things. to completely normalise it in the narrative between these characters is the goal - almost to the point of never even pointing it out at all except when it has to be. the vibe i wanted was like... hanging out in not necessarily a gay space, but with gay people, talking about random other stuff. i didn't even like the One coming out scene i had to put in (senca being like "i only fuck women" to bowman so that he would stop hitting on her)

so when writing i had a pretty good idea of what i didn't want. for the setting i had some strict rules to follow as well. characters would not identify as gay or bisexual or even some fantasy equivalent because those were not identities, they were acts. and heterosexuality wasn't an identity either, it wasn't even "the natural way of things", it was the means by which wealth could transfer between generations. if you do not marry, then you are not conforming to your gender. the four unmarriagable men in mvf are all denied entry to normative manhood for many de-gendering factors (disability, unmanly hobbies, vow of chastity, etc) but the culmination of those factors is that they can't marry, which is the whole POINT of being a man. three of them are entirely denied generational wealth - forcing them into poverty (it's not a coincidence that gay people are overrepresented in the criminal organisation)

from a writing standpoint this leaves them in a grey zone. when writing i tried out different language to see if it read nice to me (19th century equivalents to 'boyfriend' etc) and they all rang quite false, because outside of the whole 'can we put a label on something that doesn't officially exist in society' thing, the characters themselves are not the types of people to think that way. Bowman was dating Léa but he was never dating Félix. you can't date another man. the only people who date men are women, and Bowman is not a woman. therefore he is not dating Félix. to give just one example. ultimately for the language used i found that just leaving it as-is worked the best for me.

so after working all that out i wrote tha thing and then wanted to kind of explore - at what point does it become romantic? is there an actual border between romantic and platonic when you've kind of already fallen between the cracks in society into the grey zone where nothing is defined because it doesn't affirm the power of the ruling class. and in these particular friendships, where they've already been all things to one another, they've already done everything together, good or bad, does adding 'romantic love' to that list of things wildly recontextualise it retroactively or does anything change at all? just like the ending reveal of stbh says: who actually is the guy we've been thinking of as 'félix ortega' ? does it recontextualise everything we've just read? no, right? (or does it?)

the usual 'will-they-won't-they' romance plot isn't a factor in the book, we already know they will, they have, they won't, and they refuse to, all at once.

(jean-baptiste thinks of himself as an invert because he is Learned and has read some fascinating journal articles about cutting-edge sexology, and his relation to his sexuality is very very different. it's not something he shares with his closest friends in spaces without scrutiny; his entire life is scrutinised and his social system is predicated on marriage. like i think i said in the book, probably, i don't remember: he and renard are two guys clinging to the same life raft. they hate each other! but if you push the other guy off the life raft, then you're just one guy alone at sea, forever.)

[hlficlibrary]

Heyy, do you have any recs for canon fics where Louis is like “straight" but still secretly hooking up with Harry behind the boys' backs? Or maybe one where they’ve never dated but eventually have some kind of confrontation about their weird dynamic? Basically, a fic where Louis struggles with his own sexuality and the feelings he has for Harry 😬😬

Thanks!! 💞

Hi, anon! You're very welcome! Here are some fics that I think fit what you're looking for!

Nobody compares to you by fallenflowercrowns / @headband-husbands

Harry has a long-term crush on his bandmate and best friend Louis, who is straight, at least as far as he knows. He also starts falling in love with this guy he met on tumblr. Who also has a crush on his own best mate. Things are about to get complicated.

Or, the one where Harry falls in love twice, Louis is just incredibly sweet and supportive, and Al from tumblr is super nice but also really secretive about his identity - not that Harry can blame him, considering his own blog is run under false pretences, too.

Follow Your Heart by dimpled_halo / @comebackassholes

“What do you mean exactly?” Harry asks. Louis’ heart is threatening to beat out of his chest. His stomach is sinking, and he’s holding his breath waiting for the words he knows are coming.

“We think it would be best to market you guys as a couple,” Simon tells them. The tone in his voice makes Louis think there’s no wiggle room to even try to argue about it.

Louis’ heart stops and his breath hitches. This cannot be happening. This has to be some sort of dream. Actually this has to be some sort of prank, really. He absentmindedly looks around the room for any evidence of hidden cameras or microphones to no avail.

“You’re kidding,” Louis says flatly. Louis is pretty sure a lot of the music industry these days likes to hide the fact that an artist isn’t straight, afraid that it might affect record sales and now he’s sitting in the middle of an executive label meeting being told he had to be in a relationship with his best friend–who’s a boy he’s been secretly in love with for most of his adolescence–in order to sell records? What kind of alternate universe level bullshit is he living in?

Completely, and Absolutely by iwillpaintasongforlou / @canonlarry

Louis is so completely and absolutely NOT gay that the fact that anyone thinks Harry is his soulmate is just being ridiculous. Including himself. He just thinks they're mates that are two parts of the same soul, and that's not weird at all. Okay?

Or, the one in which Louis spends the entirety of X Factor so deep in denial that he doesn't realize he's gay until he's already 3000% gone for the dimpled mess in his arms.

[ettawritesnstudies]

For this definition, the craft of storytelling can refer to the coherency of plot(holes), character development, worldbuilding, the style of the prose.

I'm excluding fanfiction because I'm trying to do research on the published fiction market for my own sake.

When I refer to tropes I'm broadly speaking about genre and categories (e.g. if you typically read fantasy romance, what would you rate a psychological thriller?) as well as the conventional archetypes and tropes within the genre (if you enjoy high fantasy with dragons and elves and stock creatures versus high fantasy with wholly unique worlds. Either could have good or bad worldbuilding on the Y axis depending on execution but the inclusion of the beings themselves is a trope that aligns with personal taste.)

Feel free to label the graph and share it in the reblogged with your commentary, and also share whether or not you're a writer and how that's changed your point of view. I'll share mine in a reblog.

[cantcompetewhereudontcompare]

I might add this to the post about the myth of Harry being pushed to the front by the label because I think it's fantastic, but I really wanted to make a post about this.

A beautiful anon sent me two links, and one of them is just... a jewel that I needed to share.

It's this podcast from January 2021 — the whole thing is interesting, but the relevant part starts at around 1:09 (an hour and 9 minutes):

The two people talking in this podcast are Jade Driver, who's AJ McLean's (Backstreet Boys) manager and co-founder a marketing agency with several high profile clients (such as Backstreet Boys, New Kids On the Block, McFly), and Tim Byrne, who was an executive at Syco Entertainment (the company behind the X Factor).

I'm just going to transcribe the conversation and highlight the relevant bits with a little commentary.

For ease of reading, the name of who's talking will be highlighted in blue each time we change speaker, the relevant bits will be highlighted in red.

****

Jade: I love this subject. We're gonna dive into One Direction. Let's do it! Tim, you had so much to do with putting together One Direction.

Tim: So, fast forward to 2008 and by then I'm working for Simon Cowell as the creative director of his company. There was a TV company where we made Got Talent and X Factor and there was a record label. And obviously I'd been working with Leona Lewis at that point, so we're making the X Factor in 2008 and along comes a fourteen-year-old kid called Liam Payne. And Liam had the most amazing haircut — it was kind of a bit of a Bieber-cut, and Twitter started an account called "Liam's hair" at that point, which became huge.

And Liam made it all the way through to almost the Live Shows. But for some crazy reason they didn't put him through to the Live Shows. I think they felt he was too young and not quite ready. But I'd met him and worked with him in the auditions, at that point. And I just thought, "This kid is an absolute superstar." So I make sure I got his details. I make sure I kept in touch with him. And we would meet up regularly.

And I used to say to Liam, "I think you should be in a boyband, and if you stick with us, we'll build a boyband around you." And Liam was amazing. At fourteen, he went and slugged around the country as a Michael Bublé tribute act, at that point, singing all Michael-Bublé-type of songs. But he went out and got the experience of singing hundreds and hundreds of live shows and built his confidence and built his craft and everything.

And at the age of sixteen, it was time for him to come back and audition for the X Factor. At which point, the intention had always been to create a boyband, at that point, so Liam was a dead cert — he was in the band. And then as we were doing the auditions in 2010, we were looking out for other people who were suitable to be in this boyband.

In walks Harry Styles to the audition room, and you're like, "I want him for the boyband!"

Jade: Yes!

Tim: And the producers wanted him for the main show. And then, obviously, in walks Zayn Malik*, who I have to say has the greatest charisma and star quality and presence of anyone I've ever been involved with. This kid's just like radiating something really incredibly special, with a really nice voice, great personality that you really warm to.

And across the X Factor, you know, One Direction were put together on the show. And, at that point, it was 100% my responsibility, then, to help them become a group, work together as a group. So I took them away and helped them become the group, and —

Jade: You ran the One Direction boyband bootcamp.

Tim: I ran One Direction, at that point, to help them prepare for the Live Shows. I was working with all the contestants equally.

****

He starts talking about Fifth Harmony, because he put the group together. I'll take this intermission to address the asterisk. Tim and Zayn are friends, which is why, presumably, he's so over the top complimentary. When they're introducing the podcast at the beginning, Jade says that she doesn't know much about Take That because she's American and then this:

Jade: Tim is obviously from England. Where are you from?

Tim: I'm from Yorkshire, in the North of England. I'm from the same place as Zayn Malik.

Jade: Ooooh, do you like Zayn's new song?

Tim: I LOVE Zayn's new song. Zayn is... yeah, he's my friend.

Just a funny aside. Let's continue:

****

Tim: You get lucky at a certain point. Had Harry Styles not walked in, or had Camila not walked in, you wouldn't have had the same groups.

[Anecdote about the bathrooms in the X Factor studios and Jade meeting Harry there that goes on forever.]

Tim: They were incredible to work with. Out of any acts I've ever worked with. They just had such discipline. They were really serious about it and really ambitious. And so, you know, we helped prepare them for the Live Shows and then every single week on the X Factor, choosing the songs and how they would perform, and all of that. They were just — they worked their souls off. They worked harder than any other act on that show.

****

So, essentially, what Liam said was absolutely true. You can watch it here. It's almost word for word what Tim said.

Tim's podcast was a year and a half before Liam's. It's really cool to have corroboration. They were auditioning boys to form a boyband around Liam. This man KEPT IN TOUCH with Liam and flat out told him they would build a boyband around him.

Liam is just retelling what he was flat out told to his face.

I also find it very funny that he highlighted that the producers wanted Harry for the main show, essentially saying that they wanted him solo, but that the Syco executives wanted him for the boyband.

It's funny because if it wasn't for Liam Harry could've had a similar start to Justin Bieber, but clearly the Syco executives at the time had the idea of a boyband in mind and Liam as the frontman, so they stuck to that.

So much for "if it wasn't for 1D Harry would still be working in a bakery."

But anyway, thank you so much to the anon who sent that. Seriously, what a gem of a find!

[yurimother]

Yuri of Absence and The Chair of Yuri: Combining Lesbian Manga and Science Fiction - The Secret Garden

This article was originally written in 2021 as part of The Secret Garden, YuriMother's exclusive series of articles, available only for Patrons. If you want to access other articles and help support Yuri and LGBTQ+ content, subscribe to the YuriMother Patreon.

In the “olden days” of Yuri, which is really to say anything in the ‘00s or earlier, there was not much variety in the mainstream Yuri market. If you wanted to read a manga about the romance between two women or watch an anime with clear lesbian elements, choices were between a sweet school story or a classic tragic school Yuri story. As I have mentioned many times recently, one of the most significant advancements in the recent Yuri genre is the advent of sub-genres. Once considered an element or subgenre itself, Yuri hosts various works from isekai to feminist literature. However, one of the most curious and certainly most well-known subgenres is science fiction.

Yuri science fiction is in the spotlight right now, with everything from visual novels like Synergia to webcomics like Ratana Satis’s Soul Drifters. However, one of the most prolific and rightly celebrated titles is Iori Miyazawa’s Otherside Picnic. The series began publishing under Hayakawa’s Bunko JA imprint in 2017, and over the past few years, it exploded onto the scene.  It has an upcoming sixth book, a manga adaptation serialized in Monthly Shounen Gangan, healthy overseas publishing, and of course, an anime adaptation helmed by Kase-san and Stiens;Gate director Takuya Sato. It has garnered praise from critics CBR, Anime News Network, and Erica Friedman of Okazu. I wrote glowing reviews for the first few books, complimenting its worldbuilding, pacing, and characters. However, Otherside Picnic did not spring out of anywhere. Indeed, it is the product of gradual shifts in Yuri and sci-fi storytelling and Miyazawa’s genius theories and knowledge of the genres.

The mixture of Yuri and science fiction is not anything new; it predates most other forms of Yuri save Class S school romances. You may not picture many of these when you think of modern Yuri sci-fi, but as early as 1975, we had Yuri stories like Boku no Shotaiken that included small sci-fi elements, in this case, transferring the mind to another body. Over the next two decades or so, a time during which so few Yuri titles surfaced, it is occasionally referred to as Yuri’s “era of Darkness,” multiple titles sci-fi titles including Dirty Pair, Project A-Ko, Bubblegum Crisis, and Iczer featured science fiction settings and Yuri elements. At this time, Yuri was not much of a genre as we think of it today, but more of a factor inserted into a larger narrative. Think of Yayoi and Shion from Psycho-Pass for a more contemporary example. In fact, except for Iczer, none of these titles feature any outright lesbian characters, just female casts with “Yuri-ish” moments of women standing close together and being companions.

These titles feature two key elements that many current series have shifted further away from, soft sci-fi and Weak Yuri. Soft, as opposed to hard science fiction, is the more established of these two scales. Science fiction can be separated between outlandish and impossible ideas, sometimes known as science fantasy, and those based in reality, research, and the hard sciences such as physics, astronomy, and mathematics. Sorting works between these two labels is, ironically, not an exact science, and fans and critics alike argue about their precise definitions. However, let us consider soft and hard science as a spectrum, with outlandish premises like Dragonball on the soft end and the reality-based concepts of Space Brothers at the other. One can sort most titles along this continuum. M Alan Kazlev does an excellent job dissecting this scale in further detail. Many of the titles we enjoy today, including Otherside Picnic, inhabit this transitory space, as it is not fantasy. Still, its reliance on anthropology and psychology’s soft sciences may put it a small step below more grounded hard sci-fi. Still, it is far above the aliens and superpowered robots in ‘80s anime, so we shall consider it hard sci-fi for the sake of this argument.

*Note: Many science fiction circles use the abbreviation sci-fi for soft science fiction and SF for hard science fiction. For ease of readability and common vernacular, this article uses “sci-fi” for both instances.*

Sci-fi Yuri did not break out of soft science fiction territory until very recently. In the 1990s, Yuri underwent dramatic changes thanks to Sailor Moon and Revolutionary Girl Utena, which helped reform it as a genre rather than a feature. Maria Watches Over Us revived S Yuri traditions, and new titles were set in schools and focused on modern girls’ lives. In the 2000s, Yuri magazines began serialization and featured stories such as Kisses, Sighs, and Cheery Blossom Pink and Strawberry Shake Sweet (both serialized under different names). Despite being primarily aimed at adult women, the magazine found success with male audiences, prompting new stories appealing to men and boys. These works reintroduced action and science fiction into the genre with pieces like Kannazuki no Miko: Destiny of the Shrine Maiden, Blue Drop, and Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl (Yuriboke does a better job breaking all these down). However, all these were still vehemently in soft sci-fi territory, with Kashimashi’s only surreal element being an alien because the author was, to simplify grossly, unable to fathom the existence of transgender people (coming full circle from Boku no Shotaiken). Possibly the only contemporary mainstream hard sci-fi title to include Yuri and enjoy a modicum of success was Qualia The Purple. However, this series did not have the genre-defining power that later works would.

However, what changes between these series and those mentioned earlier is the Yuri itself. The relationships become much more explicit and central to the plot. You can deliberate whether or not Bubblegum Crisis is sapphic, but just try sitting someone down and arguing that Kannazuki no Miko is not built around the crux of two women holding romantic interest in each other. Yuri science fiction author Gengen Kusano proposes a dichotomy similar to soft and hard sci-fi to analyze these titles, Weak and Strong Yuri. He explains it in his own brilliantly convoluted and philosophical way, but in short, Weak Yuri relies on using logic and the mind to make the real imaginary, while strong Yuri is about emotionalism and realism, making fiction into reality.

Strong Yuri is Yuri that focuses on realism through feelings and emotions. Kusano describes it as fiction characters having real emotions. They have strong connections and affection for each other that are real and powerful. The audience experiences the feelings between the characters as they are felt and portrayed. Think of how emotional the exclamations and love, sorrow, confusion, and affection are in titles like Bloom Into You and Citrus. In a sense, they can be so strong that they transcend their fictional confines and become real, as they are experienced by considers, a stage called “radically Strong Yuri.” Most explicit Yuri, which is not subtext or suggestive content but in-your-face lesbianism, is Strong Yuri, although not all Strong Yuri is outright depictions of lesbianism; it is a square rectangle situation, not all rectangles are squares, but all squares are rectangles.

Weak Yuri is cemented in the areas of thought, logic, and epistemology. It deals with the theory of mind, the ability to attribute mental states to others or ourselves. For example, when we see someone smiling or laughing, we may not feel their emotion ourselves, as we do not have direct access to their mind, but we recognize that they are happy. In Weak Yuri, one uses their theory of mind to observe facts and deduce the existence of a Yuri relationship, even if one is not present. So-called “Yuri-ish” titles like Yuru Camp or K-ON! do not outright state or depict romantic or sexual attractions, but is attributed by the viewers onto characters.  Said observer witnesses the interactions between girls and, using that factual and observable data, puzzles out a lesbian attraction they prescribe to the subjects, whether real. Shipping culture relies on Weak Yuri’s logic Kusano’s most extreme, “Radical Weak Yuri,” the relationships of real people, like idols, become imaginary through these projections.

Blue Drop and Kashimashi may have been soft Sci-fi, but unlike the soft sci-fi, Weak Yuri series of the twentieth century, they featured Strong Yuri and placed it more as a central aspect of the work with other elements built around, rather than as a side element. The next revolution in sci-fi Yuri came when hard sci-fi titles began production. A few of the principal players here are Kusano himself, Otherside Picnic Creator Iori Miyazawa, and editor Rikimura Mizoguichi, all of whom feature in the viral Yuri Made Me Human interview of Miyazawa. Most of the theories and ideas discussed in this article, including Kusano’s Weak and Strong Yuri arguments, came from these seminars.

It all started with Kusano’s existential widescreen Yuri baroque proletariat hard sci-fi Love Live AU fanfic of the popular ship NicoMaki, consisting of Nico Yazawa and Maki Nishikino. The revised edition of this story, Last and First Idol, was published in 2016 and became the first debut title to win the prestigious Seiun Award in 42 years. Satoshi Maejima’s post-script essay at the end of the Last and First Idol collection gives far more detail into these works’ history. However, Idol was the first prominent story to feature Yuri in a hard sci-fi narrative. It was not perfect. In fact, in its push to feature gruesome content and insane hard sci-fi that Yuri is pushed to the wayside during most of the story.

*Author’s note: The first time I read Last and First Idol, I was completely unaware of its contents, which was a shocking experience; the story comes with a severe content warning).

Last and First Idol did not create a woven hard sci-fi, Strong Yuri narrative. However, it was a definite proof of the concept, a testament that the sprawling details and imagery of hard Sci-Fi could work with Yuri relationships. Kusano’s next short story, Evolution Girls, which would appear alongside Last and First Idol in the collection of the same name, saw the author focus more on emotionalism and create a Strong Yuri work. Nevertheless, Last and First Idol was a massive success. Future hard proof that Yuri hard sci-fi was coming in force came in December 2018, when Hayakawa Shobo ran a special edition of its long-running S-F Magazine featuring Yuri stories. The issue, planned by Rikimura Mizoguchi, proved so popular for the second time in its then 59-year history, the magazine had to reprint before release.

While Kusano was developing theories on Yuri and Hayakawa Shobo worked to push the public eye onto Yuri sci-fi, author Iori Miyazawa was refining his own Yuri premises, ones that, though he did not know it at the time, would not only see Strong Yuri and Hard sci-fi standing side by side in the same story but would synthesis the two into a unique product that could attract new fans and expand the borders of science fiction and Yuri. The work in question, of course, is Otherside Picnic. This light novel series about girls journeying to another world to hunt creatures from occult internet lore is to date Yuri science fiction’s best execution.

As Miyazawa admits, he strives to create Strong Yuri by focusing on emotionalism and realistic characters. However, such character-driven narratives are often at odds with hard science fiction, which requires dense walls of text to explain the complicated science behind its concepts and world. Miyazawa avoids this trap by utilizing Yuri tropes, specifically scenic Yuri and “Yuri of absence,” and integrating Yuri relationship into these explanatory literary lectures. Examining the latter first, rather than using narrative or exposition dialogue to unravel the intelligence behind the world or elements of science fiction, Miyazawa uses the relationship between Sorawo and Toriko.

In Otherside Picnic, explanations of the mysterious Otherside come primarily from two sources, dialogue and Sorawo’s inner monologue. When Sorawo and Torikko discuss a nuance of the paranormal creatures they investigate, it no longer becomes a large infodump but a Yuri scene about their relationship through their interactions and responses. According to both the strong Yuri theory and Yuri’s traditional definition, these emotions and discussions are the crux of the genre – stories about females’ relationships. Similar emotionalism fills Sorawo’s inner monologues, specifically in the frequent romantic admirations of Toriko. Thus, an explanation existing in that same space becomes Yuri, as it mirrors the same emotions and attraction. Merely by placing the usual exposition into interactions and relationships, Miyazawa was able to open hard science fiction to new readers, who may have been apprehensive before because of these text walls.

Miyazawa’s other secret weapon is, as he describes it, “Yuri of absence.” Relying on the principles of Strong Yuri, that Yuri is fiction made real through emotions, Yuri of absence extends these parameters outside of characters. As Strong Yuri relies on feeling, not observable data like characters, anything that invokes two women’s feelings together is Yuri. It could be a song, or an empty bench, as one can imagine two women on it and feel emotions tied to that. Of course, taken to its extreme, nearly anything can then be Yuri, as I have joked before, gesturing to an empty chair proclaiming, “Behold, a Yuri!” However, Miyazawa uses this Yuri of absence sparingly, rendering it closer to scenic Yuri’s intimacy.

Scenic Yuri, a particular type of Yuri of absence, focuses exclusively on setting and imagery, a feature that works particularly well in science fiction as according to Masahiro Noda’s “sci-fi is all about images.” Traditional Yuri uses character interaction and supplements it with images and sights that help communicate characters’ emotions and intimacy, like fleeting shots or descriptions of the sky. Take the shot from Kase-san and Morning Girls where Yamada stands by the bus stop. The distance between the girls, the tree in the foreground on Yamada’s side, and the pole on the right all invoke emotion and help tell the girls’ story, distanced by their differences and upcoming life paths. Now remove the girls, the scene remains, as does its meaning and emotions, whether the characters are present or not.

Scenic Yuri is employed vigorously in more male-targeted S Yuri (a minority of the Class S genre). Here, the imagery provides intimacy so that the voyeuristic viewer could look into the characters’ private and forbidden lives, specifically the girls in all-girls schools. Take the shot from Strawberry “Mo Man May Enter Here” Panic. The sweeping view of the Strawberry Dorms atop Astraea Hill, a place where men are forbidden, gives the consumer an exclusive inside look at the private home of its subjects. Otherside Picnic uses these same scenic Yuri principles in its descriptions. In this case, the intimacy does not come from a place where men are prohibited or a shot describing women’s relationships. Instead, the reports of abandoned ruins and deserted open fields where only Toriko and Sorawo exist provide extreme intimacy. It is an emotional view of two of the few women in this world with nothing but each other; thus, Yuri.

Yuri science fiction is easily the most exciting place in the genre right now. Its creators are experimenting with new theories and storytelling methods to expand the boundaries of what science fiction or Yuri alone could never do. The subgenre has undoubtedly come a long way from its Weak Yuri roots and continues to grow. Industry leaders like Miyazawa and Mizoguichi will continue to push into this excited and uncharted territory, using tactics new and old to bring together Yuri’s emotional and romantic core with science fiction’s epic and provoking imagery. I have few doubts that we have seen all these pioneers have to offer and that Last and First Idol and Otherside Picnic are just the beginning.

Sources

Friedman, Erica, and Kishiji Bando. “Shoujo Yuri Manga Guide.” Yuricon, 29 Mar. 2011, https://www.yuricon.com/oldessays/shoujo-yuri-manga-guide/.

Hanson, Katherine. Yuri No Boke 百合のボケ 〜百合が好きだ〜: Sci-Fi Yuri Anime and Manga. 17 Feb. 2012, http://yurinoboke.blogspot.com/2012/02/sci-fi-yuri-anime-and-manga.html.

Kit, et al. Tomo Choco Podcast Episode 58: A Trip to the Otherside. https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/tomochoco5287491142565609/id/14974343. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Komatsu, Mikikazu. “S-F Magazine’s Yuri-Themed Issue Gets Reprints Before Release.” Crunchyroll, https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2018/12/18/s-f-magazines-yuri-themed-issue-gets-reprints-before-release. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Kusano, Gengen. “[R-18] #SF #矢澤にこ 【SF合同サンプル】最後にして最初の矢澤 - 節足原々（セッソクハラハラ）の小説.” Pixiv, https://www.pixiv.net/novel/show.php?id=4992326. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

M Alan Kazlev. “The Scale of Hardness in Science Fiction.” Futurism, https://vocal.media/futurism/the-scale-of-hardness-in-science-fiction. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Masayuki Sakoi. Strawberry Panic S01:E21 - Like a Flower. Madhouse, 2006. tubitv.com, https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/558933/s01-e21-like-a-flower.

Maser, Verena. Beautiful and Innocent: Female Same-Sex Intimacy in the Japanese Yuri Genre. ubt.opus.hbz-nrw.de, https://ubt.opus.hbz-nrw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/695. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Miyazawa, Iori, et al. Yuri Made Me Human, Part 2. Translated by Kati_lilian, 24 Aug. 2018, https://teletype.in/@kati_lilian/S1yjBCJgH.

Miyazawa, Iori, and Rikimaru Mizoguchi. Yuri Made Me Human — Interview with Iori Miyazawa. Translated by kati_lilian, May 2018, https://teletype.in/@kati_lilian/SJA8KwjjN.

Moore, Caitlin, et al. “The Winter 2021 Preview Guide - Otherside Picnic.” Anime News Network, https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/preview-guide/2021/winter/otherside-picnic/.167892. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Nicki “YuriMother” Bauman. The History and Future of Transgender Representation in Yuri - The Secret Garden, January 2021 | YuriMother on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/posts/45495024. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

---. “Yuri Is for Everyone: An Analysis of Yuri Demographics and Readership.” Anime Feminist, 12 Feb. 2020, https://www.animefeminist.com/yuri-is-for-everyone-an-analysis-of-yuri-demographics-and-readership/.

Pinansky, Sam. Interview with J-Novel Club’s Sam Pinansky. Interview by Erica Friedman, 1 Oct. 2019, https://okazu.yuricon.com/2019/10/01/interview-with-j-novel-clubs-sam-pinansky/.

Sarantos, Constance. “How Otherside Picnic Breaks the Yuri Genre Mold.” CBR, 10 Jan. 2021, https://www.cbr.com/otherside-picnic-breaks-yuri-genre-mold/.

“「SF冬の時代」は雪解けを迎えた 早川書房・溝口力丸 Vol.1.” KAI-YOU Premium, https://premium.kai-you.net/article/201. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Snapshot. https://www.cbr.com/otherside-picnic-breaks-yuri-genre-mold/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021.

Takuya Satou. Watch Kase-San and Morning Glories. Sentai Filmworks, 2018. vrv.co, https://vrv.co/series/GYQWD1X1Y/Kase-san-and-Morning-Glories.

Walter, Damien. “Science Fiction vs SciFi vs SF: What Is the True Definition?” Damien Walter, 7 Aug. 2018, https://damiengwalter.com/2018/08/07/science-fiction-vs-scifi-vs-sf-what-is-the-true-definition/.

YuriMother. “LGBTQ Light Novel Review - Otherside Picnic Vol. 1.” The Holy Mother of Yuri, 12 Dec. 2019, https://yurimother.com/post/189635367305.

This article was originally written in 2021 as part of The Secret Garden, YuriMother's exclusive series of articles, available only for Patrons. If you want to access other articles and help support Yuri and LGBTQ+ content, subscribe to the YuriMother Patreon.

[router2260]

my experience as someone non-binary is so difficult sometimes because people will go about and talk about trans people, joke about trans people, and constantly turn a blind eye to trans injustices with their own prejudice.. and i just have to stand there like i’m not trans myself :( i know i am not a man, i know i am not wholly a woman.. gender is so confusing to me. call me woman or man, guy or girl, it doesn’t matter. but she? he? it disturbs me. after all these years of self discovery, experimenting with both masculine and feminine clothing, pronouns, genders, appearances, personalities.. nonbinary has always felt like me. neither one or the other.

and it scares me. the fact i’ll feel this way likely forever. that i’ll call myself a girl but never wholeheartedly believe it. whenever i meet new people or attend a new conference or join a committee, i have to endure being called she the whole time because i’m terrified i’ll be disrespected. i’m kept up by the thought of what will happen to me when i leave high school? go to college? get a job? go on dates?

being non-binary, choosing to label myself as such, presenting myself as such, has been such a freeing experience devoid of gender constraints. but in the eyes of the world around me, will being non-binary end up defining who i am? how i am perceived, marketed, factored for success?

will i ever be remembered as a good human being in the same breath as being non-binary? or will i settle for being called she, because at least i’m being remembered?

[transmutationisms]

thoughts on adhd diagonsis and the rising numbers of it? heard a couple different theories, including a school therapist saying that he thinks children are just getting misdiagnosed because they’re cutting recess times, but interested in your thoughts! lol

yea i talked about this a bit here but i would add for clarity:

this kind of narrative of 'rising rates of' [any dsm diagnosis, in this case adhd] is kind of misleading on the surface because these numbers, and cultural and medical attitudes toward these labels, vary widely. matthew smith gives a very abridged introduction to varying attitudes toward adhd globally, and points out that countries that have 'embraced' the adhd diagnosis and its corresponding drug treatments tend to be countries where pharma companies have pushed to expand their market for these drugs, and have been able to succeed in partnering up with local and regional medical guilds and practitioners' professional interests. which is to say that any 'rise' in 'adhd' should be interpreted with an eye to material factors, meaning, specifically, profit-seeking and broader patterns of imperialism and global market expansion.

none of this is to say that the impairments people experience in adhd are any less real, debilitating, or distressing. however, when we ask about those impairments becoming more widespread or severe, often the conversation becomes rapidly re-routed to cover only a narrative of individual cognitive or neurological 'failures' constituting a distinct 'disorder'. elided from this framing is the idea that an impairment of this sort arises not just from the individual's brain-mind-body, but from the extent to which that person is being accommodated by their social context, specifically demands for productivity, sustained attention, &c in the home / school / workplace.

the core research methodologies & data interpretation in the psy-sciences embed social valences into neuro-psychological investigations, heightening the perceived contrast between, eg, 'normal' and 'adhd' brains / neurotypes / &c. susan hawthorne points out that this is a powerful feedback loop: social values are embedded in the scientific investigations, the results of which are then of further social interest, and together social and scientific values tend to converge, mutually reinforce one another, and strengthen the ideas and data interpretations supporting the concept of a discrete, pharmacologically actionable, transhistorical and cross-societal brain disorder.

i truly cannot overstate the extent to which it matters that when ritalin arrived on the us market in 1955, psychiatric diagnosis of and pharmacological prescription for children's behaviours were in a very different state to how they are today. it is quite common (in psychiatry but also in other branches of medicine!) that diagnostic definitions and categories change, or even come into existence altogether, at the behest of pharmaceutical companies who need a diagnostic label in order to ensure insurance coverage for patients interested in taking their patented drugs. this combined with marketing direct to patients, and paid promotion to physicians, is a critical piece of the history of the adhd diagnosis.

because i always feel the need to make this crystal-clear: i do not oppose or object to people seeking or using stimulant medications lol. i <3 stimulants. that's not what this is about. i want you and me both to be able to use white-market amphetamines whenever we damn well please and you don't need to justify that on any moral or medical grounds. xx

[awesomefringey]

Hii! So, I don’t know if you believe in Ziam or you’re just larrie, but it doesn’t really matter. I believe, 100%, in both. The only odd thing is why cannot they be free/out? It’s 2024. It has been 14 years since x-factor. Aren’t their contracts with Syco over? Are they still under Simon or what? I just don’t understand why can’t they say the truth when they’re all under different labels now.

Hey nonnie! This is such a good question. I’m not sure if what we referred to as “freedom” in 2015 means the same thing in 2024. The circumstances are so different these days. The real question is, what’s there to gain from coming out now?

Back then, they were trapped in the messy situation their management created to maintain the band’s squeaky-clean image and keep their most marketable band mates available as fantasy material for their main target group, teenage girls.

From the beginning of their careers, they were involved in stunts and actions designed to cover up their sexuality and provide enough tabloid fodder for the British press to keep the band going. Their closeting strategies were always connected to the careers of others. Back then, all of One Direction. Later the careers of their popular girlfriends who have their own brands and enterprises to protect. It isn’t all that simple, if not near impossible to come out in 2024 without creating a huge scandal for so many people. I don’t think Louis or Harry want that for themselves or the people involved.

So these days, I think their idea of freedom is involves protection of their privacy and their love life from the general public and the gossip tabloids. Another factor is being able to turn their “weakness” into their strength by utilizing romance to their benefit, since dating will always be their most influential tool to get attention around themselves, their art, their projects, their endorsement deals.

As much as I’d love to see a British Vogue cover shoot featuring them in a South English castle (Louis in Harris Tweed like he stepped out of Peaky Blinders, towering behind Harry who is lounging on an expensive sofa in a silky onesie. Louis’ hand softly lying on Harry’s shoulder, Harry’s hand on top, both staring at the camera) with a headline like "But Daddy, I Love Him" and a ten-page interview explaining why they had to hide and why they’re done now…

I think the reality would be quite different... Such a personal statement would likely lead to excruciating exploitation, with countless exclusives from people around them who were once bound by NDAs, and a flood of articles about their exes, all trying to salvage their reputations and explain their roles in keeping the two hidden. To me, nothing about this scenario sounds like “freedom”.

[cozylittleartblog]

hey, so I'm trying to figure out what places would be good to sell my own art at, and I'm wondering- what has been your experience with selling on etsy? I've heard mixed reviews from people, and I want to know your perspective as an etsy seller.

etsy is not perfect but i think it gets a little more shit than it deserves, i've thought about opening my own website but generally i'm actually pretty okay with the services i get on etsy compared to what it costs so i'm just gonna make a subjective pros/cons list for you under the cut (because its loooong)

oh and if anyone else has experience selling on etsy and would like to add their two cents in the replies/reblogs please do!

Pros

⭐ The search function - this is etsy's biggest selling point. it already has a dedicated userbase of millions of people and a search feature to help them find your shop, which takes a lot of the load of marketing off your shoulders, and marketing is a huge factor for pushing sales. i am not good at marketing and a lot of my sales just come from people searching my stuff up lol

⭐ Purchase protection program - if USPS loses or damages your package, you file a missing package report and they confirm they don't know where it is, Etsy will refund your buyers order out of their own pocket (under $250). this is my favorite etsy feature because USPS likes to eat packages every now and again. delicious keychains. if you had your own storefront, you'd just have to replace the order yourself.

⭐ Share & Save program - every time someone makes an order on your shop through a special Share & Save link, etsy will refund you 4% of the fees. it's a nice perk to doing some of your own marketing and it helps combat the moderately high etsy fees!

Trackable letter mail - selling stickers but think it's insane to charge $4 shipping? you can buy letter mail labels for about the rate of regular postage, which is like .65c. this tracking is done through etsy though so you can't track with usps, but it does give customers a little peace of mind. this only works in the 50 US states though.

Customs forms built into your shipping label - shipping internationally is a nightmare. etsy makes it easy though, generating everything you need to ship internationally on one label that you just have to sign and date and slap on your package like normal. for some countries they will actually just have your package sent to a domestic facility where they literally do all that for you. this is miles easier than having to do all that paperwork yourself.

buy shipping labels directly from etsy - related point, and just what it says on the tin. when you fulfill an order, you can buy your labels right there on Etsy so you don't have to mess around with a third party website. it comes out of your sale funds so you don't need to charge a card or a bank account or anything.

star seller program - some people say this is completely useless but i actually disagree! it's incredibly easy to earn this badge, and it lets buyers know you've got some of the best products, shipping, and customer service around. it helps you stand out from some of the more... questionable shops on the website.

sales tax - they remit sales tax for you. i don't think any of the other online platforms similar to etsy do this but i could be wrong. doing any kind of taxes sucks so i consider it a perk if they do it for you.

website promotions - every now and again etsy likes to host sales out of their own pocket. you get all the perks of having a sale without eating into ur profit margin. HUGE sale booster

generally the site is just very easy to learn and use and it's very beginner and dumbass friendly. i say this as a former beginner and current dumbass 👍

Cons

❌ the fees. oogh the fees. they claim it's just a 6.5% fee per sale, but on top of that you have to pay .20c automatically for every individual item you sell, plus there are processing fees (3% + .25c) that apply both to the item you sold AND the cost of shipping. i think it comes out to like 10% total in fees on average @ > @

❌ but wait, there's more fees! if you make more than $10k in sales a year (very easy number to hit actually) you are forced to participate in offsite ads, which i believe takes 15% of your total sale on top of the fees in the previous point. these kinds of sales are not as common as you'd think, but it's still annoying having a couple bucks shaved off your profits a few times a month because of them.

corporate bullshit - etsy is like renting a space in a mall. you don't own your lot, nor the mall itself, so if upper management decides to make any stupid ass decisions, you just have to deal with it or pick up and move. if they decide to raise fees again, you just gotta Deal. you are a little bit helpless on this website unfortunately

the push for discounts - etsy is constantly shoving it in your face that they want you to do discounts. they want you to have free shipping on orders over $35, they want you to do 25% off or more on sales, they want you to have returning customer discounts and abandoned cart discounts and 'you recently favorited this item' discounts - but you already have to compete with the steep fees, and when a customer gets free shipping, you still owe USPS that $4-ish bucks to send the package. you don't have to do any of this, but they do reward participating shops by favoring them in the algorithm and search results, so you can feel like you're missing out.

there aren't as many cons imo but they Are steeper cons. generally etsy is very beginner friendly and easy to get into and set up, and in spite of everything i do actually recommend everyone looking to get into online retail start on etsy and perhaps move to other platforms in the future. plus, you can combat all the fees by just... making your prices a dollar or two higher than you initially wanted to, and using your 'save and share' link as frequently as possible. the fees are a little bit much, but you have to think about what you get in exchange:

the search is invaluable, you could argue the fees are partially a marketing budget lmao. if you have a private website you alone have to push traffic to your website, and not as many people know about things like shopify and bigcartel so they might not be as trusting putting their card details into it. i miss out on a lot of REALLY COOL STUFF because artists only advertise on instagram and i don't hear about them, meanwhile if i want some cool owl house stuff i can literally just search that in etsy and find a lot of TOH stuff super easily. i cannot highlight enough how GOOD the search function is, especially in this day and age where social media like instagram and twitter will blacklist your posts if you say words like 'shop' or 'sale' and now nobody can find your stuff in that website's search either. its very hard to do your own marketing now a days :(

being able to refund customer's lost orders out of the company's pocket is such a nice thing to fall back on if you have to and worth its weight in fees. USPS lost like... four or five packages of mine in december. that's like $100 or more worth of stuff that Etsy Covered Completely, and a lot of the times the customer will take that refund to make their order again. don't abuse this system, make sure you check with usps that the package is actually Gone, but it's a godsend when you don't make billions of dollars and eating the cost of lost orders would otherwise sting a bit.

if etsy did not make international shipping easy i simply would not ship anywhere but the US to be honest. shipping to europe is still a headache though but that's because europe is stupid

that's everything i can think of, but tl;dr yes please open an etsy 👍 i recommend it completely in spite of everything

⭐ if anyone wants to open their own etsy shop, use my referral link to make your first 40 listings for free! :)c ⭐

[bravecrab]

I was just listening to a podcast about the Peter Thiel backed Enhanced Games, a proposed alternative Olympics in which doping would not only be allowed but be the whole point. It's not an original idea, as long as doping has been in the conversation about the Olympics, there's always been people flippantly saying that they should just do something like the Enhanced Games, see how far we can push it. What's the harm?

There are plenty harms related in using cocktails of drugs to push the human body past it's natural limits, and there are plenty people who have made these comments in regards to the Enhanced Games. However a harm that I haven't seen mentioned yet, is the normalisation of pharmaceutical drug use and associating it with "peak physical performance". The Enhanced Games would be more than just an exhibition of sport, it would be a marketing platform for the pharmaceutical industry. Each athlete would have their own team to build them into the perfect athlete, more like Formula One, although who knows if the athletes will have to wear the brand logos on all their gear, so the audience know who sells the best steroids.

Let's not beat around the bush, an event that focuses on finely tuning the human body into a "perfect" form, is eugenics. The proponents of the Enhanced Games will deny it, but they want it to be successful and influential. They want it to be more successful than the Olympics. And that will require a normalisation of Eugenics.

A philosophy of domination is behind both the Enhanced Games and the Olympics. It's always been about peak fitness, as well as geopolitical bragging rights. A mindset of domination has always been used to justify eugenics, domination theology stating that God created the Earth for human consumption, and that of all creatures, Man is closest to God. That's been weaponized as white supremacy and as patriarchy, amongst many other oppressive norms, making claims through pseudo-science, that white, cis, straight men are the pinnacle of humanity. Both events are an exhibition of dominance, and while the Enhanced Games is definitely worse, the Olympics still promotes an idea that the winners are just Great Athletes, and their winning has nothing to do with factors like national wealth and resources.

Another concern I have over an event that normalises enhancing bodies beyond human limits, is that it will attempt to normalise it in work places. Despite advances in automation, a lot of physical work is still done by humans, and will remain that way as long as it is cheaper. If one of the biggest sporting events endorses performance enhancers, it's not a stretch for them to become popularly used in physical workplaces. I've done many years of warehousing work, and guys in those jobs are very much into the idea of being the biggest and strongest. Employers will definitely be happy to exploit this.

I think an event like Enhanced Games is easy to overlook. The concept has been the curiosity of a lot of people as soon as they're aware of doping. However it's the involvement of ghouls like Peter Thiel, people with a TESCREAL philosophy (Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effect Altruism, Long-termism), who want to control the future of all humankind, that make this worrying. These are billionaires who want to sell you your greatest sci fi fantasies, while maintaining a firm grasp on the controls. A future in which Peak Human Performance requires you to buy a steady supply of performance enhancing drugs, is one in which the Pharmaceutical industry is perpetually wealthy.

I'd also like to include that there is also the potential of a backlash to an event like Enhanced Games, it which all forms of alterations and modifications to the human body are labelled as evil and impure, which will likely be used to endorse transphobia.

[girloftheisland]

Scammed on Mercari: How I Fell Victim to Fraud Thanks to Social Engineering

If it's too good to be true, then it probably is.

I had never been scammed before on the web. I thought it was something that happened to boomers with low internet literacy, to those who open suspicious emails with urgent subject lines that impersonate someone they know, asking for help in the form of $100 gift cards. You know, scams like that.

I confess before this incident I hadn't shopped much on Mercari to buy American Girl stuff on the second market. Mercari seemed like a place where everyone tries to squeeze maximum dollars out of a sale. Dolls go for high prices, and rare outfits go for egregious prices.

One day recently I was skimming through listings on Mercari because I had decided that I wanted to find an early Pleasant Company Molly. I found a lot that was labeled as "Molly American Girl Doll by Pleasant Company HUGE LOT" — and you can bet that it was a huge lot. This person was selling a PC Molly, along with most of the things from her collection: furniture, outfits, accessories, and trunk. If that wasn't enough, the person was also selling a grill and picnic set and several modern outfits, including one that I consider the holy grail of Pleasant Company outfits: a complete Earth Day Outfit that speaks to me on a deep level with its hippie style and 90s beatnik vibes.

It may sound silly now, but it was the Earth Day Outfit that sent me over the edge. Here was something that I had been trying to grab at a decent price for ages. The entire lot was listed for over $650 but marked down to around $550. With Mercari's fees and taxes, it would be around $700. That's a lot of money. But there was a lot of bang for the buck here. I thought that maybe someone was clearing out their storage unit and just wanted to get rid of these 90s toys. On top of that, the listing had a notification at the top that read: "Someone has this in their cart."

Sites like Mercari and eBay (well, maybe every consumer site) will use forms of social engineering to entice users to buy. Lower those inhibitors. It happened to me. As soon as I saw that "someone else has this in their cart" message, whether real or generated, my brain froze and my fingers took over. I grabbed the lot in seconds and then triumphantly sat back in my chair when the payment successfully went through, and whoever had the item in their cart (real or generated) was out of luck.

And once that shopper's high was over, reality started to settle in. There were several odd factors about this listing that I should have paid attention to, and usually do when I'm not a goblin chasing after a perfect set. Most collectors will know the tell-tale signs of a fraudulent or questionable listing.

First, and this will be obvious, you probably shouldn't buy from someone who has zero ratings on their seller profile. How can you know that they're reputable? Scammers create new profiles all the time just to sell an item, or a large lot, and then delete the profile once the scam is complete and the money is in their pockets. They can't reuse the same profile every time; otherwise, it'd have a pile of negative reviews, right?

In my case, the listing also had an unanswered question on its page. That's another red flag. Shouldn't the seller communicate with potential buyers? One user had asked if Molly had a white or tan body, and the seller never answered. So if you're not sure if a listing is real or fake, chat up the seller to see what they know about the item. If you get nothing but radio silence, abort the mission.

After completing the purchase, I had immediate doubts, but I couldn't give up the idea that I had just scored an impressive lot and a number of things that I could check off on my collecting list. That's how these scams work: they pull you in and keep you there. The lot was marked "shipped" the next day and dropped off at the USPS the following day, and when viewing the shipment tracker, I had to face yet another red flag. The original listing said the lot was located in Ohio. But the package was dropped off in Tampa, Florida.

Due to Hurricane Helene, it was stuck in Tampa for several days. It was supposed to arrive on a Monday, but that day came and went, and I was getting worried that it got stuck. Understandably, too, since the hurricane devastated the Carolinas and hit Florida hard. I messaged the seller for the first time and asked what they knew about the postal situation down there, and all they replied was: "Hello, it has been delivered."

Ha, delivered!? USPS trackers are decent enough, and this one said it was still in transit and so unequivocally NOT delivered to my doorstep. In retrospect, I imagine that the scammer was probably laughing and enjoying the ride, while I continued to live in a dreamworld where a huge PC Molly lot was heading my way. I didn't reply to the seller, because ironically, the package was delivered that same evening.

I had asked my partner, who was working from home that day, to check our driveway periodically and be on the lookout for a large package. He checked every half hour but found nothing. You see, we live in a rural area. Our mailbox is not at our house but located half a mile down the road in a cluster mailbox where all the houses on our street collect their mail. Small packages are stored in parcel lockers there. Big packages come straight to the house. When my "lot" was delivered, the tracker said it was left at the mailbox. And I can tell you that there could be no way that such a large lot would fit in a tiny parcel locker. It was another red flag.

I got in my car and drove down the road, inserted my key into our mailbox, and found a small bubble envelope addressed to me. I ripped it open right there and stared dumbfounded at not a PC Molly lot, but a $1 Morgan silver dollar coin. I was angry and felt my blood pressure rise, and you'd think that I would wake up there and then, but I was still clinging to the hope that I would get that Molly lot. I just assumed that the seller had sent me the wrong thing. It's okay to laugh.

I drove back home and messaged the seller. I demanded that they send me the correct items or issue a refund ASAP. I showed the coin to my partner, who immediately understood that I had been the victim of a scam. He talked some sense into me, and I slowly realized that he was right. I had fallen hard for the scam and wanted to cling to it even with all the evidence before me.

Plus, I had just lost $700 dollars.

My partner was calm about the situation, but I was pissed. We decided that we would follow protocol and try to get the money back. We read postings on reddit threads about other people who had fallen for Mercari scams and how they resolved them. I followed Mercari's rules and opened a ticket. I asked to return the item and chose one of their predetermined reasons, that the item I received didn't match the listing. It sure as hell didn't.

Mercari approved the request and sent me a label to ship back this stupid $1 coin. However, on the return label I saw the final red flag. If you remember, the lot was supposed to ship from Ohio but was actually dropped off at a USPS in Tampa, Florida. The return address on the new label was listed for Hawaii. I googled the address and quickly realized that it wasn't valid. The street address was for a block of condos, but the condo or apartment number on the address didn't exist. How was I supposed to return this item, have it delivered, and then receive the refund?

This is how scammers get away with it. According to Mercari's policy, you have three days after receiving an item to try to return it. Otherwise, the sale will be marked as final, and the money goes to the seller. The sale will also be marked as final if you rate the seller. I became worried that the package would get stuck in USPS limbo because it didn't have a valid address, and then the scammer would reap the reward.

I wouldn't go down easily, though. I was going to kick and scream until the situation was rectified. I would make no future contact with the seller. I refused to mail off the item and renewed my ticket with Mercari. I presented all the evidence. Listed off the hallmarks of the scam. Waited for them to do something.

Luckily, the next day I received a refund notification and a note on the ticket from a real person at Mercari that said the sale was cancelled due to the safety of the transaction and other jargon, which all meant that they realized it was a fraudulent post and would delete the listing and the scammer's account.

It was a relief. It was a hard lesson to learn.

The moral of this story is that scammers are attracting unassuming buyers from all sorts of collecting worlds. Even American Girl/Pleasant Company. Try to be safe and savvy when browsing the web. Don't be like me and jump on something that's too good to be true. Because it probably is.

But to end on a positive note, the $1 silver dollar Morgan coin that was shipped in place of the PC Molly lot could be worth $300+ due to its rarity. So that's something.

[waitmyturtles]

Last Twilight, episode 2: reflections

I wanna give @benkaaoi a huge hug for tagging me in an amazing post about labels and "being known" in society vis à vis one's perceived individual strengths and weaknesses in episode 2 of Last Twilight. @benkaaoi, you put down a LOT of behavioral stuff that I think about a lot in these dramas, behavioral factors that are used to drive a story and narrative.

I think about labels all the time -- very often in my posts, I link back to my Theory of Love review, where I talk about Khai's difficulties in shedding the labels that Third (and even Khai's homies) have given him as a playboy. And the fact that many societies -- America and Thailand included -- aren't keen on allowing people to change and shed/shift those labels over the course of time. As humans in society, mammals acting out our lives within group dynamics, we are so very often boxed in. Day, over the course of a year, shifting from a national badminton player to a homebound visually impaired young man: I am not surprised that that brought on not just fear in interacting with a physical world that he could no longer see, a physical world that has hurt him, significantly; but also likely a very real depression that kept him in the confines of his room, that Day's mother and Night have learned to adapt in their everyday lives.

The wonderful twist about Mhok's behavior towards Day is: he's meeting Day where Day is at, at this moment in time. He didn't know Day before, so Mhok isn't biased.

We had that great tiny flashback (such an Aof thing to do to use that technique) of Mhok hiding the ankle monitor as he's being judged while looking for jobs.

And we see Mhok further attempting to relate to Day by going to his regular day market, blindfolded.

In other words: Mhok's putting in the work to understand Day's perspective of everyday life. I want to emphasize how very rare that is for any of us to experience, at all, in our lives, vis à vis the people around us, even our loved ones.

And the fact that the drama, in episode 2, has Mhok doing this, means: we don't have to see Mhok, say, "growing up" or changing within to get to the point of wanting and/or being able to do this for Day. Mhok lost someone close to him in a very frightening way, he embodies it, and I have a feeling he's connecting that with his engagement with Day, wanting a person that's newly close to him to not experience the same kind of hurt.

Whew. @benkaaoi, you gave me a lot to think about before I've had my first cup of coffee this morning! Thank you!

Other little tidbits that I loved about this episode:

1) I did not watch Vice Versa, so I know nothing about Jimmy's and Sea's chemistry, but I like where this is going.

2) I'm impressed by Jimmy. He's holding my attention.

3) I mentioned last week that I haven't been a fan of Namtan's past work, but she is holding up and showing up. I LIKE her Porjai.

I'm very happy to be back in an Aof show -- this is very well done so far.

P.S. I think the last time we saw Kun Kunchanuj in a GMMTV show was as Todd in SOTUS S. I knew I knew him! It'll be interesting to see his role as an emotional translator for both Mhok and Day.

[todays-just-a-daydream]

Charting the rise of Oasis in summer 1994 via archives of Music & Media (pan-European music industry magazine in the 90s). Issue dates from each clip left to right: 13 August; 27 August; 3 September; 17 September; 17 September.

Radio reports in industry magazines tell the story of Oasis climbing the UK charts and breaking into Europe in late summer 1994. Music & Media in the 90s was the European version of America’s Billboard magazine. While the record charts were the focus, each issue also included a section in new releases (both singles and albums) as well as station reports. Each week radio stations would report their lists to the magazine and include what songs they've added to their rotation. The way I understand it, A lists are played more than B lists, which are played more than N lists.

I went through the August-September 1994 issues of Music & Media searching “Oasis” for any relevant clips.

Note: Keep in mind all dates reflect the issue that the content was in and that there was a slight lag (generally 1-2 weeks) in industry news outside of the UK.

Following Live Forever’s release

The third Oasis single, Live Forever, gets added to the BBC1's N list on 6th of August upon its release, due to consistent interest in each single since Columbia (White Label Demo) in Dec 1993.

The single also makes the B list for Virgin 1215 AM London. The next week, Forth RFM in Edinburgh adds the song to its A list. One week later, the song gets a small mention in the New Releases review section of the magazine:

Is it a fata morgana, or is Oasis for real? We've had so many over-hyped British bands now, that we prefer to take a back seat. But then again we haven't heard such good pop since the La's.

Two weeks later, 27th of August, Live Forever reaches no. 10 on the UK singles chart.

The magazine reports this in a small blurb describing them as "Scottish band Oasis", possibly due to the concentration of the band’s support being in Scotland. Radio Clyde in Glasgow adds the song to its rotation. MTV Europe also adds the video to its new videos list.

At the start of September, Definitely Maybe gets a review in the new album releases, where Live Forever is called “a masterpiece.” I should add industry mags are typically dry and not prone to hyperbole.

Radio Clyde's head Bobby Hain writes that Oasis has become "local favourites" since performing at T in the Park festival a few weeks before.

At the same time, Live Forever gets added to more radio playlists. Red Dragon FM in Cardiff adds the song to its B list. In Europe, Radio 21 in Brussels, Het Station in Hilversum (Holland), and Polskie Radio 2 in Warsaw (Poland) add it to their A list.

By the 10th of September MTV Europe adds the Live Forever video to its Buzz Bin. This week Sveriges Radio in Stockholm (Sweden) adds the song to its A list, with Radio Stella FM 106 in Helsingberg following the next week.

But it takes until the 17th of September for Oasis to get a full length article in the magazine, entitled "Oasis Is No Mirage Of the British Hope and Glory" (above). It mentions the skepticism in Europe of British bands that don’t live up to the hype. But argues Oasis is the real deal. It singles out Sweden as the first European market where the band has broken out from the UK. It calls the band’s songs “retro pop,” lists some influences from Neil Young to T-Rex, and leaves with the idea Oasis seems like a “universal band” that can translate to other countries.

The case study of Sweden

The band plays the Hultsfred festival in Sweden 13 August 1994. This is also the site of the classic Gallagher interview where Noel claims their music will stand the test of time. There’s also bootlegs of a radio broadcast of the show, but it’s not clear if it aired live at the time or was simply recorded and broadcasted later in 95.

Noel and Liam both bragged about making headlines in the country for starting a bar brawl after they played this festival. Did this play a factor in the band’s early chart success there?

Notably mentioned by Music & Media, by the 3rd of September, Swedish radio stations are already picking up Live Forever, while most of Europe is still working through older singles.

Sweden becomes the first country outside of the UK for Definitely Maybe to chart (even a week before Ireland), entering the chart at no. 14. The album reaches 4 by 17th of September (to compare the album is at 9 in Ireland the same week).

Along with sales elsewhere, it’s enough to pull the album to 10 in the European charts.

Did the bar brawl help album sales in Sweden?

When looking at Oasis gigs in August/September it’s not surprising Sweden is the first to chart. They play Paris in June and New York in July. But Sweden is the first place outside the UK they have two gigs in less than one month. The festival gig in August and another one a few days after the first album is released.

Now I know controversy sells is a 90s maxim and Oasis used outrage to their advantage. But I remain skeptical of the claim they made front page headlines from the bar brawl. It seems to me that’d be a clipping you could find online if it happened. I don’t have access to Swedish papers to directly verify the pages (if anyone has access, lmk!). But I could do a quick search of archives of two popular newspapers, a morning newspaper and an evening one, to see "oasis" mentions in 1994:

While “oasis” gets mentioned a few times before August (some nonband mentions including a guy named Kenny Oasis drive earlier mentions), it’s steady afterward in reference to the band.

The results of a search for “oasis” in Dagens Nyheter in 1994 includes a thumbnail of the page and the relevant excerpt to check context. Below are the excerpts visible for August/September and a rough translation (any Swedish fans out there correct me if I’m wrong).

The 11th of August has a short article on page 20 about the Hultsfred festival they were set to play on the 13th.

On the 15th on page 24, the band gets mentioned in a review of the festival:

När Oasis spelade vid sextiden var det väldigt mycket folk i Saharatältet

(When Oasis played at six o'clock there were a lot of people in the Sahara tent)

On the 18th in the entertainment section of ads, Definitely Maybe as a pending Oasis album is mentioned. There’s also an ad for another show with Oasis on the bill with Pavement at the top and Jeff Buckley. This is most likely the 2 September show at the Gino.

On the 24th, Liam’s face makes an appearance on page 21 along with other band/artist photos. The photo caption reads “Liam Gallagher i Oasis renodlar det som andra påbörjat.” (Liam Gallagher's Oasis refines what others have started.) with a photo credit to “matthias bardå Filmiskt” so good bet it’s from the Hultsfred festival.

The 31st of August shows the closest Oasis gets to the front page at the time. On page 2, Live Forever is mentioned in a list of things to complain about (an opinion piece? satire? it’s not clear): Yvs över exportaktiernas uppgång, yvs över Oasis ”Live Forever”, men herregud, att yvas över ett land, ett stycke mark, det är väl. (Howl about the rise of export shares, howl about Oasis' "Live Forever", but oh my god, howl about a country, a piece of land, that's fine.) The mention does suggest the song is already recognizable to Swedish readers by the time Definitely Maybe is released.

Oasis at the Hultsfred festival is still being talked about 2nd of September (page 77):

Beatles anses vara en inte oviktig förebild för Oasis. Och det bekräftades i Hultsfred.

(The Beatles are considered a not unimportant role model for Oasis. And it was confirmed in Hultsfred.)

On page 75 the same day, an ad for the Gino show that night. But Oasis is now top billing (no Pavement).

Same issue, the show gets mentioned on earlier pages (page 20) in context of the band’s climb:

Oasis klättrar raskt och spelar dessutom i Stockholm i dag, fredag.

(Oasis is climbing fast and is also playing in Stockholm today, Friday.)

The rest of September, Oasis gets 8 mentions in the paper on pages 20-29.

Now without access to each article in full, I can’t be certain there is no mention of the bar brawl in all of this. But these excerpts do suggest that it’s a nonissue at least in this paper. Their festival show is well attended, people remember it, another show is set for a few weeks later and is advertised as the postfestival chatter ramps up the album release excitement. They return a second time for more buzz and the album hits the top 5 a few weeks later. But obviously that’s boring so bar brawl narrative it is.

[nevermore-ocs]

your Slasher ocs x Chubby reader hcs 🔫 hand them over (please)

(This is gonna be the FIRST PART OUT OF, HOWEVER MANY, I just got way too many horror and horror adjacent characters to comply them all to ONE list, so this one is gonna have 3 and then we'll go on from there!!)

-North-

-Being as mute as he is, North is a master of communicating in numerous other means

-Ever observant, this towering powerhouse of a woodsman finds himself regularly staring at you whenever he can't touch you right away

-Working outside on the outer perimeter of his self claimed property? He always catches his gaze cutting away from his work to wordlessly gawk at you sat patiently on the porch of his abode, he can't help himself

-The way that your plushy curves and hips and sides, thighs and all can be hugged by clothing given if their more form fitting or not is enough to drive him up a wall in the best way possible, and while he may not ever be inclined to speak, just eyeing your stretch marks and belly when you stretch and your shirt is gracious enough to him to allow him to snag a few peeks, his hushed breath often hitches in his throat at just how attractive you are to him

-And then there's his hands

-Calloused, rough, and powerful, however, he's so delicate with his touches with you

-They're, greedy, and drawn out. Gliding his palms over the front of your thighs, the sides of your hips, your sides, they're never too rough to cause you any pain, of course, but he'll pause his hand's movements to let the tips of his digits dip into your flesh and relish at how your pillowy body always fills out his awaiting palm

-And of course he does indeed pepper your stretch marks and belly with kisses, he knows that sometimes that can be a problem area for you to make peace with somedays, so he wants to be diligent with how much he adores it cause there's always just more of you to give love to

-Ivy Darrow-

S/i: "Whew, is it hot in here or is it just me?" Ivy: "It's you--" S/i: "Wha-" Ivy: "WHAT-"

-Seriously, I cannot stress ENOUGH on how just being in your presence ups her dorkiness factor past like 11, like the first time y'all even met she had a comical fumbling pratfall befitting something of Hanna-Barbera cartoons as she clumsily attempted to catch the spatula that slipped out of her hand

-Sickly sweet and abundant in her praises, there's never a day where she doesn't tell you just how insanely beautiful she'll always find you

-Your number one and biggest fan in the history of ever, she always encourages you to wear and dress yourself in things that'll show off your shape more, and she barely even regards her own pleasure in witnessing you in such an outfit, she wants you to feel like a person who can indulge on things marketed to slimmer people cause you're as much as a person as they are, and don't need to "fit" in

-But yes she absolutely did nearly faint when she saw you in a crop top, and, raising herself back up off of the mattress, she made grabby hands at you, because belly, obviously--

-You did have to partially restrain her from near mauling someone when she overheard the insult thinly guised as a compliment "you're so brave for wearing that", but you know she always means as well as she can be

-But days like that is when she layers on the praises, the sweet words, the compliments, even more than she already does and she does it plenty enough as is, you're her favorite person ever, legit her dream partner and her second half, and whilst she loathes the demonic genes of the Mordeo tainting her blood, she's not at all ashamed in letting that side out if it meant defending you

-Salem Abbott-

-Salem is...nice?? In his own right?? If you can label the shit that comes out of his garbage disposal of a mouth "nice"

-"I fuck with fat bitches heavy, thanks-" And then he promptly spanks your ass as you stand next to him, I-

-Your fault, you chose him, you know what you signed up for--

-You gave him a little bit too much credit to not be painfully obvious with him staring at you, but there's plenty moments throughout a day where you can feel his stare locking onto you, and if you even turn to face him to meet his gaze, his eyes linger knowingly for a few moments or so before they cut upwards onto yours and he doesn't say anything right away, rather, he allows this shit-eating grin to spread across his lips and he gives you a little wave with his fingers

-"My eyes are up here, Sal-", "I've already made my decision-"

-Despite all that, Salem, if you could believe it or not, isn't a creep or weird, or anything malicious like that, with you ever

-He's already experienced how dangerous someone can be when they just want to take, and take, and take something like that from someone, there are a multitude of moments where humanity does breach the surface of his sociopathy

-Kisses against the back of your head while whispers about how fucking gorgeous you are melt against your head and your hair, his touches are a lot like North's in a way, they're greedy and take their time traversing over the bountiful, supple curves of your body, but they never go any sordid without you explicitly giving him that consent to go further

-He loves the word perfect for you, he says it a lot to you, so, fucking, perfect, he's far from it himself, and has been for quite a long time now at this point, so someone that he views as utter perfection wasting their time with him, he has no idea how you put up with him, and he never will

[abattoirstars]

im back, and would love you to share your hypothesis on Why The Band Hate Arc

— out of town for the day anon

back to music discourse. i'll have to get c @hellkitepriest to mine for the interview footage where jon especially recoils a bit from Arc because it's the foundation of this take BUT if we take that as read, the timeline goes like this:

Cough Cough drops as a single in October 2012 and charts (still the band's only top 40 single). Then in January 2013, three days before Arc releases, Bastille release Bad Blood with Pompeii on it and completely explode the whole scene.

I reckon Pompeii especially stings because it's doing SUCH a similar thing to Cough Cough but through a combination of factors (including Dan Smith being a much more indie-darling quiffed up frontman) it completely overshadows literally every other song released that year. It was the UK's most streamed song of all time until mid-2014.

So my take is that the band (Jon especially) has a residual bitterness about Arc and Cough Cough/Kemosabe because THEY should've maybe been the percussion heavy, rnb influenced indie pop album that went Huge or at least charted well that year, but instead their first major label release got swept out from under them by a band I guarantee they thought were making much less musically interesting decisions than them (even if Bastille do sing about Twin Peaks).

Interestingly, Bastille ALSO then release Wild World in 2016 which is doing the exact same Farage and Brexit thinking as GTH/AFD and again outsells, though at least this time GTH/AFD become cult classics.

(I have wider thoughts on the Dan Smith being hot and marketable thing but they start to sound quite parasocial. I will just say that Arc is notably the only album cover of theirs to feature their own faces until it's deliberately referenced/parodied/bastardised by Re-Animator, and they've really tried to beautify the FUCK out of them)