#Process Safety Services Market

[sweatybelieverfun]

Process Safety Services Market Drivers Shaping Global Demand and Industrial Safety Advancements

The process safety services market is witnessing substantial momentum, driven by a mix of regulatory, technological, and industrial factors. As industries continue to face increasing scrutiny over safety compliance, the demand for robust process safety frameworks has surged. This growing need is shaping market dynamics, compelling organizations to adopt preventive systems and structured safety protocols.

Rising Regulatory Pressure Across Industries

One of the most significant drivers is the mounting pressure from regulatory bodies. Governments and international organizations are enforcing stricter safety regulations in sectors such as oil & gas, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing. Agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and others are emphasizing accountability and transparency in process safety. These rules require companies to conduct regular hazard assessments, maintain safety instrumented systems, and implement corrective measures—creating a steady demand for professional process safety services.

Increasing Incidents and Risk Awareness

High-profile industrial accidents, such as chemical plant explosions and oil rig fires, have heightened global awareness about operational risks. These events have acted as catalysts, pushing industries to evaluate their safety standards more critically. Businesses now prioritize risk analysis, hazard identification, and emergency response planning, all of which are central offerings in the process safety services market. The emphasis has shifted from reactive approaches to proactive safety systems designed to prevent such incidents altogether.

Technological Advancements in Safety Systems

Technological evolution is another strong force driving this market. The integration of automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in safety systems has transformed how industries monitor and manage risks. Predictive analytics, remote sensors, and real-time monitoring tools enable early detection of anomalies, significantly reducing the chances of failure or human error. These innovations not only enhance safety but also increase efficiency, making process safety services an attractive investment.

Rapid Industrialization in Emerging Economies

Developing regions such as Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East are undergoing rapid industrialization. As infrastructure grows and new plants are established, there is a greater need to implement structured safety frameworks from the ground up. Multinational corporations operating in these regions are also transferring global best practices, thereby increasing the demand for specialized process safety services. The adoption of global standards like ISO 45001 and IEC 61511 further contributes to market growth.

Outsourcing of Safety Expertise

Many companies, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), lack the internal resources or expertise to manage complex safety systems. This has led to a surge in outsourcing safety-related tasks to specialized third-party service providers. These providers offer comprehensive solutions including process hazard analysis (PHA), layer of protection analysis (LOPA), safety integrity level (SIL) assessments, and more. The ability to access expert services on demand is making outsourcing a strategic choice for many firms.

Focus on Operational Efficiency and Sustainability

Operational efficiency and environmental sustainability have become major strategic priorities for businesses worldwide. Unsafe processes often result in unplanned downtime, legal penalties, and environmental damage. By investing in robust process safety systems, companies can ensure continuous operations, minimize waste, and enhance public trust. Safety has become integral not just to compliance, but also to long-term business sustainability and brand reputation.

Growth in High-Risk Sectors

Industries such as oil & gas, petrochemicals, power generation, and mining remain inherently high-risk and continue to fuel demand for process safety services. The complexity of operations in these sectors makes safety assessments and risk management critical to daily functioning. As these industries expand and innovate, their dependency on expert safety services grows proportionally.

Conclusion

The process safety services market is poised for sustained growth as industries across the globe prioritize safety, compliance, and operational excellence. With regulatory agencies tightening standards and technological innovation reshaping the landscape, service providers are expected to play a critical role in helping businesses meet their safety goals. The market's forward trajectory is clear—rooted in the undeniable value of protecting lives, assets, and the environment through proactive safety management.

[ujwala-hole11]

Process Safety Services Market Insights Growing Need for Safety Culture and Employee Training

The demand for hazard management solutions in the process safety services market is on the rise. Companies are increasingly adopting advanced risk assessment techniques like HAZOP (Hazard and Operability Studies) and FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) to identify potential hazards early in their operations. This trend helps mitigate risks and improve overall safety performance.

Process Safety Services Market Insights: Increasing Importance of Regulatory Compliance

Compliance with safety regulations is a major driver of the process safety services market. As governments and regulatory bodies implement stricter guidelines to improve safety standards, industries are investing in services that help them remain compliant. Safety audits, regulatory compliance consulting, and safety management systems are becoming essential in meeting these growing demands.

Process Safety Services Market Insights: Digital Transformation in Safety Monitoring

Digital technologies are playing an increasingly important role in process safety services. Automation, cloud platforms, and AI-powered analytics are transforming the way companies monitor safety. Real-time monitoring systems, integrated with smart devices and sensors, allow businesses to track processes more efficiently, identify anomalies, and prevent accidents before they occur.

Process Safety Services Market Insights: Focus on Real-Time Risk Management

Real-time risk management is becoming a priority for many industries. With advanced monitoring systems and predictive analytics, businesses can identify potential risks and take corrective action quickly. Real-time data collection and analysis provide critical insights into operational hazards, allowing companies to prevent incidents and improve decision-making processes.

Process Safety Services Market Insights: Role of Artificial Intelligence in Process Safety

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into the process safety services market, offering enhanced safety measures. AI technologies can analyze vast amounts of data from industrial processes, predict potential failures, and recommend preventive actions. Machine learning algorithms improve the accuracy of risk assessments, leading to smarter safety solutions and better decision-making.

Process Safety Services Market Insights: Expansion in High-Risk Industry Segments

The demand for process safety services is expanding in high-risk industry segments such as oil and gas, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. These industries deal with complex operations and hazardous environments, making safety a top priority. Specialized services like safety audits, risk assessments, and emergency response planning are in high demand, driving market growth.

Process Safety Services Market Insights: Growing Need for Safety Culture and Employee Training

A robust safety culture is essential for maintaining a safe working environment. Companies are increasingly investing in training programs to educate employees about safety protocols, hazard identification, and emergency response procedures. This focus on employee safety training is driving the demand for process safety services, ensuring that organizations adhere to best practices and minimize accidents.

Process Safety Services Market Insights: Integration of IoT for Safety Operations

The Internet of Things (IoT) is playing a key role in enhancing safety in industrial settings. IoT-enabled devices and sensors provide real-time data on process conditions, allowing for continuous monitoring and immediate response to any safety issues. The integration of IoT into safety systems helps improve efficiency, reduce downtime, and enhance the overall safety performance of operations.

Process Safety Services Market Insights: Rising Demand for Safety Consulting and Audits

As industries continue to prioritize safety, the demand for safety consulting and audit services is growing. Experts in the field help companies assess their safety practices, identify gaps in compliance, and recommend improvements. This trend is especially prominent in highly regulated industries like oil and gas, where adherence to safety standards is critical.

Process Safety Services Market Insights: Emerging Markets Driving Service Expansion

Emerging markets are becoming increasingly important in the process safety services sector. As industrialization accelerates in regions like Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East, demand for process safety services is expanding. Industries in these regions are recognizing the importance of implementing safety solutions to ensure compliance, mitigate risks, and protect employees.

Conclusion

The process safety services market is evolving rapidly, driven by advancements in technology, the growing importance of regulatory compliance, and a heightened focus on risk management. The integration of AI, IoT, and digital technologies is reshaping the way safety is managed in industries. As high-risk industries continue to prioritize safety, the demand for specialized services such as hazard assessments, safety audits, and consulting is expected to remain strong, especially in emerging markets. The continued emphasis on employee training and a strong safety culture will further propel market growth, ensuring that safety remains a top priority for organizations worldwide.

[aadeshmmr]

The Process Safety Services Market is anticipated to grow to roughly US$ 72.65 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 37.98% during the forecast period.

[marketprofessional]

High-Level Disinfection Services Market: Safeguarding Health with Advanced Cleaning

The Importance of High-Level Disinfection: The High-Level Disinfection Services Market has seen a surge in demand as the need for sterile environments becomes more critical in hospitals, clinics, and public spaces. These services use advanced technologies and protocols to eliminate pathogens and reduce the spread of infection. 🚫 Trends: Ultraviolet (UV) disinfection, electrostatic sprayers, and automated cleaning systems. 🛡️ Impact: Boosting safety and hygiene standards, protecting patients and healthcare staff. #Disinfection #HygieneServices #HealthSafety

[mostlysignssomeportents]

FCC strikes a blow against prison profiteering

TOMORROW NIGHT (July 20), I'm appearing in CHICAGO at Exile in Bookville.

Here's a tip for policymakers hoping to improve the lives of the most Americans with the least effort: help prisoners.

After all, America is the most prolific imprisoner of its own people of any country in world history. We lock up more people than Stalin, than Mao, more than Botha, de Klerk or any other Apartheid-era South African president. And it's not just America's vast army of the incarcerated who are afflicted by our passion for imprisonment: their families and friends suffer, too.

That familial suffering isn't merely the constant pain of life without a loved one, either. America's prison profiteers treat prisoners' families as ATMs who can be made to pay and pay and pay.

This may seem like a losing strategy. After all, prison sentences are strongly correlated with poverty, and even if your family wasn't desperate before the state kidnapped one of its number and locked them behind bars, that loved one's legal defense and the loss of their income is a reliable predictor of downward social mobility.

Decent people don't view poor people as a source of riches. But for a certain kind of depraved sadist, the poor are an irresistible target. Sure, poor people don't have much money, but what they lack even more is protection under the law ("conservativism consists of the principle that there is an in-group whom the law protects but does not bind, and an out-group whom the law binds but does not protect" -Wilhoit). You can enjoy total impunity as you torment poor people, make them so miserable and afraid for their lives and safety that they will find some money, somewhere, and give it to you.

Mexican cartels understand this. They do a brisk trade in kidnapping asylum seekers whom the US has illegally forced to wait in Mexico to have their claims processed. The families of refugees – either in their home countries or in the USA – are typically badly off but they understand that Mexico will not lift a finger to protect a kidnapped refugee, and so when the kidnappers threaten the most grisly tortures as a means of extracting ransom, those desperate family members do whatever it takes to scrape up the blood-money.

What's more, the families of asylum seekers are not much better off than their kidnapped loved ones when it comes to seeking official protection. Family members who stayed behind in human rights hellholes like Bukele's El Salvador can't get their government to lodge official complaints with the Mexican ambassador, and family members who made it to the USA are in no position to get their Congressjerk to intercede with ICE or the Mexican consulate. This gives Mexico's crime syndicates total latitude to kidnap, torture, and grow rich by targeting the poorest, most desperate people in the world.

The private contractors that supply services to America's prisons are basically Mexican refugee-kidnappers with pretensions and shares listed on the NYSE. After decades of consolidation, the prison contracting sector has shrunk to two gigantic companies: Securus and Viapath (formerly Global Tellink). These private-equity backed behemoths dominate their sector, and have diversified, providing all kinds of services, from prison cafeteria meals to commissary, the prison stores where prisoners can buy food and other items.

If you're following closely, this is one of those places where the hair on the back of your neck starts to rise. These companies make money when prisoners buy food from the commissary, and they're also in charge of the quality of the food in the mess hall. If the food in the mess hall is adequate and nutritious, there's no reason to buy food from the commissary.

This is what economists call a "moral hazard." You can think of it as the reason that prison ramen costs 300% more than ramen in the free world:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/20/captive-market/#locked-in

(Not just ramen: in America's sweltering prisons, an 8" fan costs $40, and the price of water went up in Texas prisons by 50% during last summer's heatwave.)

It's actually worse than that: if you get sick from eating bad prison food, the same company that poisoned you gets paid to operate the infirmary where you're treated:

https://theappeal.org/massachusetts-prisons-wellpath-dentures-teeth/

Now, the scam of abusing prisoners to extract desperate pennies from their families is hardly new. There's written records of this stretching back to the middle ages. Nor is this pattern a unique one: making an unavoidable situation as miserable as possible and then upcharging people who have the ability to pay to get free of the torture is basically how the airlines work. Making coach as miserable as possible isn't merely about shaving pennies by shaving inches off your legroom: it's a way to "incentivize" anyone who can afford it to pay for an upgrade to business-class. The worse coach is, the more people you can convince to dip into their savings or fight with their boss to move classes. The torments visited upon everyone else in coach are economically valuable to the airlines: their groans and miseries translate directly into windfall profits, by convincing better-off passengers to pay not to have the same thing done to them.

Of course, with rare exceptions (flying to get an organ transplant, say) plane tickets are typically discretionary. Housing, on the other hand, is a human right and a prerequisite for human thriving. The worse things are for tenants, the more debt and privation people will endure to become home-owners, so it follows that making renters worse off makes homeowners richer:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/06/the-rents-too-damned-high/

For Securus and Viapath, the path to profitability is to lobby for mandatory, long prison sentences and then make things inside the prison as miserable as possible. Any prisoner whose family can find the funds can escape the worst of it, and all the prisoners who can't afford it serve the economically important function of showing the prisoners whose families can afford it how bad things will be if they don't pay.

If you're thinking that prisoners might pay Securus, Viapath and their competitors out of their own prison earnings, forget it. These companies have decided that the can make more by pocketing the difference between the vast sums paid by third parties for prisoners' labor and the pennies the prisoners get from their work. Remember, the 13th Amendment specifically allows for the enslavement of incarcerated people! Six states ban paying prisoners at all. North Carolina caps prisoners' wages at one dollar per day. The national average prison wage is $0.52/hour. Prisoners' labor produces $11b/year in goods and services:

https://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2024/0324bowman.html

Forced labor and extortion are a long and dishonorable tradition in incarceration, but this century saw the introduction of a novel, exciting way of extracting wealth from prisoners and their families. It started when private telcos took over prison telephones and raised the price of a prison phone call. These phone companies found willing collaborators in local jail and prison systems: all they had to do was offer to split the take with the jailers.

With the advent of the internet, things got far worse. Digitalization meant that prisons could replace the library, adult educations, commissary accounts, letter-mail, parcels, in-person visits and phone calls with a single tablet. These cheaply made tablets were offered for free to prisoners, who lost access to everything from their kids' handmade birthday cards to in-person visits with those kids.

In their place, prisoners' families had to pay huge premiums to have their letters scanned so that prisoners could pay (again) to view those scans on their tablets. Instead of in-person visits, prisoners families had to pay $3-10/minute for a janky, postage-stamp sized video. Perversely, jails and prisons replaced their in-person visitation rooms with rooms filled with shitty tablets where family members could sit and videoconference with their incarcerated loved ones who were just a few feet away:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/14/minnesota-nice/#shitty-technology-adoption-curve

Capitalists hate capitalism. The capital classes are on a relentless search for markets with captive customers and no competitors. The prison-tech industry was catnip for private equity funds, who bought and "rolled" up prison contractors, concentrating the sector into a duopoly of debt-laden companies whose ability to pay off their leveraged buyouts was contingent on their ability to terrorize prisoners' families into paying for their overpriced, low-quality products and services.

One particularly awful consequence of these rollups was the way that prisoners could lose access to their data when their prison's service-provider was merged with a rival. When that happened, the IT systems would be consolidated, with the frequent outcome that all prisoners' data was lost. Imagine working for two weeks to pay for a song or a book, or a scan of your child's handmade Father's Day card, only to have the file deleted in an IT merger. Now imagine that you're stuck inside for another 20 years.

This is a subject I've followed off and on for years. It's such a perfect bit of end-stage capitalist cruelty, combining mass incarceration with monopolies. Even if you're not imprisoned, this story is haunting, because on the one hand, America keeps thinking of new reasons to put more people behind bars, and on the other hand, every technological nightmare we dream up for prisoners eventually works its way out to the rest of us in a process I call the "shitty technology adoption curve." As William Gibson says, "The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed" – but the future sure pools up thick and dystopian around America's prisoners:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/24/gwb-rumsfeld-monsters/#bossware

My background interest in the subject got sharper a few years ago when I started working on The Bezzle, my 2023 high-tech crime thriller about prison-tech grifters:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

One of the things that was on my mind when I got to work on that book was the 2017 court-case that killed the FCC's rules limit interstate prison-call gouging. The FCC could have won that case, but Trump's FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, dropped it:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/06/prisoners-lose-again-as-court-wipes-out-inmate-calling-price-caps/

With that bad precedent on the books, the only hope prisoners had for relief from the FCC was for Congress to enact legislation specifically granting the agency the power to regulate prison telephony. Incredibly, Congress did just that, with Biden signing the "Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act" in early 2023:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1541/text

With the new law in place, it fell to the FCC use those newfound powers. Compared to agencies like the FTC and the NLRB, Biden's FCC has been relatively weak, thanks in large part to the Biden administration's refusal to defend its FCC nomination for Gigi Sohn, a brilliant and accomplished telecoms expert. You can tell that Sohn would have been a brilliant FCC commissioner because of the way that America's telco monopolists and their allies in the senate (mostly Republicans, but some Democrats, too) went on an all-out offensive against her, using the fact that she is gay to smear her and ultimately defeat her nomination:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/19/culture-war-bullshit-stole-your-broadband/

But even without Sohn, the FCC has managed to do something genuinely great for America's army of the imprisoned. This week, the FCC voted in price-caps on prison calls, so that call rates will drop from $11.35 for 15 minutes to just $0.90. Both interstate and intrastate calls will be capped at $0.06-0.12/minute, with a phased rollout starting in January:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/07/fcc-closes-final-loopholes-that-keep-prison-phone-prices-exorbitantly-high/

It's hard to imagine a policy that will get more bang for a regulator's buck than this one. Not only does this represent a huge savings for prisoners and their families, those savings are even larger in proportion to their desperate, meager finances.

It shows you how important a competent, qualified regulator is. When it comes to political differences between Republicans and Democrats, regulatory competence is a grossly underrated trait. Trump's FCC Chair Ajit Pai handed out tens of billions of dollars in public money to monopoly carriers to improve telephone networks in underserved areas, but did so without first making accurate maps to tell him where the carriers should invest. As a result, that money was devoured by executive bonuses and publicly financed dividends and millions of Americans entered the pandemic lockdowns with broadband that couldn't support work-from-home or Zoom school. When Biden's FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel took over, one of her first official acts was to commission a national study and survey of broadband quality. Republicans howled in outrage:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/10/digital-redlining/#stop-confusing-the-issue-with-relevant-facts

The telecoms sector has been a rent-seeking, monopolizing monster since the days of Samuel Morse:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/18/the-bell-system/#were-the-phone-company-we-dont-have-to-care

Combine telecoms and prisons, and you get a kind of supermonster, the meth-gator of American neofeudalism:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tennessee-police-warn-locals-not-flush-drugs-fear-meth-gators-n1030291

The sector is dirty beyond words, and it corrupts everything it touches – bribing prison officials to throw out all the books in the prison library and replace them with DRM-locked, high-priced ebooks that prisoners must toil for weeks to afford, and that vanish from their devices whenever a prison-tech company merges with a rival:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/02/captive-customers/#guillotine-watch

The Biden presidency has been fatally marred by the president's avid support of genocide, and nothing will change that. But for millions of Americans, the Biden administration's policies on telecoms, monopoly, and corporate crime have been a source of profound, lasting improvements.

It's not just presidents who can make this difference. Millions of America's prisoners are rotting in state and county jails, and as California has shown, state governments have broad latitude to kick out prison profiteers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/08/captive-audience/#good-at-their-jobs

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

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/2024/07/19/martha-wright-reed/#capitalists-hate-capitalism

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[literaryvein-reblogs]

Hi there! I'm writing a barista character and got a bit stuck. Do you have any notes on how to write baristas (e.g. what shifts are like; what you have to learn to be one, etc)? Thank you so much!

(Your posts here are invaluable, by the way, and super helpful. 😄)

Writing Notes: Barista

Barista - specializes in making a variety of coffee and espresso beverages.

Usually works in a cafe, coffee shop or bookstore where they take customer orders, complete transactions and serve drinks.

May also prepare and serve a few small meals and pastry options.

Day-to-Day Tasks

As a barista, you would:

prepare the premises or outlet ready for opening

welcome customers, take orders and process payments

prepare and serve coffees, hot snacks, sandwiches and cakes

clean and tidy work areas, equipment and coffee machines

check and order new stock

Preparing Beverages. One of the barista’s primary duties is preparing various drinks to meet customer preferences. This involves:

Crafting Espresso-Based Drinks: Baristas skillfully pull espresso shots, steam milk, and create drinks like cappuccinos, lattes, and macchiatos. They ensure each beverage has the perfect balance of flavor and texture.

Brewing Specialty Coffees: Many coffee shops offer pour-over coffees, cold brews, or French press options. Baristas must understand brewing methods, grind size, and extraction techniques to achieve the desired flavor profile.

Creating Latte Art: For many customers, presentation matters as much as taste. Baristas often add intricate designs, such as hearts or rosettas, to elevate the visual appeal of lattes and cappuccinos.

Customizing Orders: Customize drinks to customer preferences by adjusting sweetness levels, switching to non-dairy milk, or adding extra espresso shots.

Other barista duties may include: 

Welcoming patrons to the shop

Building a relationship with regular customers and remembering their orders

Explaining the cafe’s special menu items as necessary

Recommending beverage options if requested

Following recipes and presentation guides to make beverages

Preparing plates or takeaway containers of pastry and food items

Cleaning and maintaining the commercial coffee machine, steamer and blender

Following health and safety policies

Removing dishes from the table as patrons finish their drinks

Preparing checks and taking payment from patrons

Work Environment 

Baristas work in a variety of coffee shops with the following characteristics:

Standing and walking around for extended periods of time

Lifting and carrying food and drink trays to tables

Working near many other customers, servers and kitchen staff

Wearing a uniform if required by the restaurant

Working environment may be noisy

Typical Hours

40 to 42 hours (variable) per week

Evenings / Weekends / Holidays (on shifts)

Cafes and coffee shops typically open early in the mornings

May require baristas to be flexible with scheduling to meet customer demand

The work can be fast-paced during busy periods

Suitable job for students and part-time workers

Career Path & Progression

There may also be opportunities to move into:

barista staff training

equipment maintenance

coffee tasting and buying

product development and marketing

You could become self-employed and open your own coffee shop.

With experience, you could become a:

store manager, then

regional manager, with a coffee retail chain or franchise.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Flexible Hours: Perfect for students or part-time workers.

Skill Development: Learn customer service, multitasking, and coffee expertise.

Social Interaction: Build relationships with customers and colleagues.

Career Growth: Opportunities to advance into management or specialty coffee roles.

Cons

Physical Demands: Standing for long periods and repetitive motions.

Irregular Hours: Early mornings, weekends, and holidays are typical.

Modest Pay: Entry-level wages can be low, though tips often help.

How to Become a Barista

You can get into this job through: a college course; an apprenticeship; applying directly; training with a professional body.

College. Although not essential, you could do a college course that would give you some of the skills needed for this role. Courses include:

barista skills

food and beverage service

retail skills

Apprenticeship. You can apply to do a Hospitality Team Member Level 2 Intermediate Apprenticeship.

This will usually take 12 months to complete

A mix of on-the-job training and time spent with a college or training provider

Direct Application. When you start, your employer will put you through training in barista skills and product knowledge. Some employers may prefer you to have experience in customer service, retail sales or catering.

Common Personality Traits

22,778 baristas were surveyed to learn what personality traits and interests make them unique. Based on the Holland Codes:

Baristas tend to be predominantly conventional individuals, meaning that they are usually detail-oriented and organized, and like working in a structured environment.

They also tend to be realistic, which means that they often enjoy working outdoors or applying themselves to a hands-on project.

Based on The Big Five:

Baristas score highly on openness, which means they are usually curious, imaginative, and value variety.

They also tend to be high on the measure of extraversion, meaning that they rely on external stimuli to be happy, such as people or exciting surroundings.

Barista Tools

Baristas use a wide variety of tools to complete their duties. Some common tools:

Espresso Machine. Allows you to brew highly concentrated black coffee. During this process, the machine forces pressurized hot water through finely grounded coffee. Some types of drinks you can make using an espresso machine include: Macchiato; Cafe latte; Cappuccino; Mocha; Affogato; and Americano

Frothing Steam Pitcher. Used to create any drink that requires milk. A frothing stream pitcher helps you create a milk foam to top off a cup of coffee. You can also use this type of pitcher to create an assortment of latte art. Frothing pitchers are stainless steel and feature a handle and pouring spout. A narrow spout can offer control when pouring latte art, such as a heart or rose. You can also find frothing pitchers in different sizes, depending on the amount of milk you want to froth.

Foam Frothing Spoon. After creating foam from a steam pitcher, you can use a foam frothing spoon to control how much foam you pour over a cup of coffee. Using a frothing spoon can prevent spilling that may occur when pouring the foam into a cup of coffee. This type of spoon features a flat tip that makes it easier to scoop only foam from a steaming pitcher.

Thermometer. When making espresso, it's important to consider the brewing temperature, along with that of the milk froth. If your espresso machine doesn't come with a proportional-integral-derivative, use a thermometer to measure espresso as it leaves the brew head.When making a drink that requires steamed milk, it's important for the milk to reach the ideal temperature of about 149 degrees Fahrenheit. To reach this temperature, consider using a frothing thermometer for complete accuracy. A frothing thermometer can also help you avoid burning the milk while ensuring a caramelized milk finish that can elevate the flavor of any coffee.

Commercial Coffee Maker. This type of coffee maker lets you brew a standard cup of coffee. After filling it with water and coffee grounds, a coffee maker filters hot water through a basket holding coffee grounds. After filtering, black coffee enters the coffee pot. You can use this black coffee for a standard cup of coffee or for other drinks such as an iced coffee or latte.

Tamper. Baristas use tampers to brew espresso, whether in a machine or through a stovetop espresso maker. A tamper lets you pack loosely dosed coffee grounds so they're tightly pressed, ensuring a quality espresso shot. You can also adjust the length of a tamper depending on the espresso dosage.

Scale. Helps you achieve a consistent and accurately measured espresso shot. In terms of measurement, a scale helps you determine the amount of beans you use for one shot. If you use a quality grinder with a doser, you may not need a scale.

Coffee Grinder. Grinds fresh coffee beans before the brewing process. A coffee grinder lets you grind as much coffee as needed, whether for an espresso shot or a large batch of coffee. Many coffee grinders have conical burrs that let you select the size of your coffee grounds.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 ⚜ More: References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Hi, thanks so much for your lovely words, you're too kind! Hope this helps with your writing 💕

[darkmaga-returns]

by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is launching a “stronger, more systematic review process for food chemicals” — a move the agency described Thursday as a “major step to increase transparency and ensure the safety of chemicals in our food.”

“No parent should ever worry about what’s in their child’s food,” U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “We’re taking decisive action and using every authority we have to clean up the food supply and protect American families.”

The new process will include a “modernized, evidence-based prioritization scheme” for existing chemicals, a “systematic post-market review process” for food chemicals that will be “shaped by stakeholder input,” and the development of an “updated list of chemicals under review.”

[mariacallous]

"I’m going to let him go wild on health,” former president Donald Trump said of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at his Madison Square Garden rally in New York City this past weekend. “I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines.”

Kennedy, a former Democrat, suspended his presidential campaign in August and endorsed Trump. He has since launched the Make America Healthy Again campaign, an initiative focused on tackling chronic diseases that Trump has seemingly embraced in recent weeks. Given Kennedy’s anti-vaccination stance and conspiratorial leanings, some policy experts and former government officials are concerned about how his views could shape the nation’s health agenda.

Kennedy has long made false statements about the safety of vaccines and has touted disproven treatments for Covid-19, including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. On the campaign trail, he has railed against seed oils, blaming several chronic health conditions on their presence in processed foods.

How much influence Kennedy could have on national health policy will all depend on his role within a future Trump administration. Trump did not clarify his remarks at Sunday’s event, including what position he is considering Kennedy for. According to a CNN report that ran late Tuesday, Kennedy said Trump “promised him control of the public health agencies,” but in an email to WIRED on Wednesday, Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign communications director, said that formal discussions of who will serve in a second Trump administration are premature.

Trump could be considering Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, which has 80,000 federal employees, or one of the agencies within it, such as the Food and Drug Administration or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It would be a departure from his previous top health picks, who had lengthy government or public health careers. For instance, Alex Azar, Trump’s HHS secretary, was deputy HHS secretary under George W. Bush and an executive at drugmaker Eli Lilly. Scott Gottlieb, a physician and investor appointed as FDA commissioner under Trump, had previously worked for the FDA and had served on the boards of pharma and biotech companies.

When asked to elaborate on Kennedy’s health priorities, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, the former candidate’s campaign director and daughter-in-law, told WIRED: “Bobby aims to end conflicts and corruption at the agencies, ensure all testing is undertaken by scientists who have no financial interest in the outcome, and all results of all trials are released to the public. The free market will take care of it from there.” (The National Institutes of Health already requires results of clinical trials funded by the agency to be published to a government database.)

Jerome Adams, US surgeon general under Trump and current executive director of health equity initiatives at Purdue University, says that even if Kennedy were tapped to lead HHS, the FDA, or the CDC, it’s unlikely that he would ascend to one of those roles due to his lack of medical training and controversial views on public health issues. “Congressional approval is required for these positions, and his stances could be a barrier,” Adams says.

If Republicans control the Senate after next week’s election, though, that calculus could change. “The GOP has generally fallen into line in terms of supporting candidates that President Trump does,” says Genevieve Kanter, associate professor of public policy at the University of Southern California.

If chosen to be FDA commissioner, Kennedy would control the agency’s budget and priorities and could have a sizable impact by installing lower-level appointees who are sympathetic to his worldview. While the FDA commissioner does not single-handedly approve or authorize new drugs, Kantner says outside political pressure can certainly influence that process. Kennedy could also appoint members to FDA advisory committees, panels of outside experts that make recommendations to the agency on drug approvals and other regulatory matters. The FDA often follows the recommendations of advisory committees when making decisions on new drug approvals, but not always.

The FDA can also choose to not enforce some rules in certain circumstances—what’s known as enforcement discretion. Given his support for dubious and unproven therapies, such as stem cells and hyperbaric oxygen, an FDA under Kennedy, for instance, could choose to not go after companies that market unapproved treatments.

“When we think of the kind of person we want to be head of HHS or be FDA commissioner, someone ‘going wild’ isn’t exactly the first trait that comes to mind,” Kanter says. “It wouldn’t ease the public’s concern that we would see more food safety incidents and adverse events from poorly regulated drugs and devices from a lax administration that is known for embracing unscientific theories.”

Kennedy wouldn’t have free rein though. Existing laws and regulations govern how the agency works, and a new FDA commissioner wouldn’t be able to get rid of those quickly. “If you’re dealing with regulatory issues that have been long-standing and have lots of precedent, it’s just not possible to turn some of those things around or dismiss them overnight,” says a past leader of the FDA, who requested anonymity so that they could speak freely.

Likewise, even in a leadership role at HHS or the CDC, Kennedy wouldn’t be able to easily affect vaccine policy. Vaccine recommendations are made by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which comprises outside medical and public health experts. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, says Kennedy could try to stack that advisory committee with people who are sympathetic to his views on vaccination, but those members are chosen through a rigorous nomination process.

“He could certainly change policy that way, but it takes a while and it won't be a secret. There are ways in which the public can push back, including taking a case to court,” he says.

Kennendy could have influence in other ways beyond direct control of a public health agency. Trump could potentially bring Kennedy on as a White House adviser, which wouldn’t require approval by the Senate.

“Without congressional vetting and oversight, there is potential for unchecked impact. RFK's views could shape health policies, raising concerns about misinformation and harm,” Adams says.

Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, told WIRED in an email that if reelected, Trump will establish a “special Presidential Commission of independent minds and will charge them with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illnesses.” She did not say whether Kennedy would be chosen for that task force.

Kennedy has also been sizing himself up for another position in a potential Trump cabinet: agriculture secretary. A longtime environmental activist, Kennedy has promised to take on big farms and feedlots, reduce pesticides, and fix what he presents as a food system captured by corporate interests. “When Donald Trump gets me inside,” Kennedy said in a video shot outside the Department of Agriculture headquarters in Washington, DC, “it won’t be that way any more.”

This platform is a continuation of Kennedy’s long history as an antagonist against the agriculture industry. In 2018, Kennedy and a team of attorneys won an initial $289 million settlement against Monsanto, representing a groundskeeper who developed cancer after being soaked with a herbicide made by the agrochemical firm. He also attempted to sue the pig farming company Smithfield because of its production of hog manure, although that case was thrown out by a federal judge.

Kennedy’s past makes him an unlikely candidate for agriculture secretary, according to Daniel Glickman, who served in the role during Bill Clinton’s presidency. “It’s hard for me to imagine, given Trump’s traditional base in the heartlands, that he would pick somebody who was an advocate for breaking up large farms and breaking consolidated agriculture,” says Glickman.

Like top posts at HHS, the USDA secretary position would need to be confirmed by a Senate vote. “I don’t think [Kennedy] is a slam dunk,” says Glickman.

Trump’s pick for USDA chief during his first term was Sonny Perdue, a former governor of Georgia and founder of an agricultural trading company. Most agriculture secretaries either have a background in the industry or politics—two crucial constituencies for the person who will be in charge of a department that employs nearly 100,000 and is made up of 29 agencies, including forestry, conservation, and nutrition programs. “The difference between Sonny Perdue and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is like night and day,” says Glickman.

If Kennedy were to be confirmed as agriculture secretary, he might struggle to enact the most radical parts of his program. He is an outspoken critic of pesticides, but the USDA is generally not in charge of regulating those, says Dan Blaustein-Rejto, director of agriculture policy and research at the Breakthrough Institute. Rather, the EPA regulates pesticides with public health uses.

Although he may not be able to directly influence pesticide regulations, Kennedy has said he would try to “weaponize” other agencies against “chemical agriculture” by commissioning scientific research into the effects of pesticides. The USDA Agricultural Research Service has a nearly $2 billion discretionary budget for research into crops, livestocks, nutrition, food safety, and natural resources conservation.

There are other levers that an agriculture secretary could pull, says Blaustein-Rejto. The USDA is investing $3 billion through the partnership for climate-smart commodities—a scheme that’s supposed to make US agriculture more climate-friendly. A USDA chief might be able to put their thumb on their scale by influencing the selection criteria for these kinds of programs. The USDA also oversees the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), which has a $5 billion fund that it uses to support farm incomes and conservation programs, and to assist farmers hit by natural disasters. It’s possible that a USDA chief could influence how these CCC funds are distributed by the agency.

Kennedy has also argued that corporate interests have captured the US’s dietary guidelines, and he pledged to remove conflicts of interest from USDA groups that come up with dietary guidelines. US dietary guidelines are developed jointly by the USDA and HHS and are updated every five years, giving the agriculture secretary limited opportunities to influence any recommendations.

“If RFK is in a high-level policy role, I expect to see a lot more talk about ultra-processed foods, but I’m not sure what that would actually entail when it comes to the dietary guidelines,” says Blaustein-Rejto.

The experts WIRED spoke with largely think Kennedy’s more extreme positions will likely be constrained by bureaucracy. But the message that elevating a vocal vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist would send remains a serious concern ahead of a potential second Trump administration.

[thesubswhisper]

Hey anonymous if you’re still reading, here’s a long one for you 😛

So we all have heard of

🔥Pro Dom’s/Dommes🔥

But have you heard of

🔥Pro Submissives?🔥

**What is a pro submissive !?!**

A Pro Submissive is someone who gets paid or formally booked to perform in submissive roles whether in scenes, events, demos, porn, educational workshops, or custom client play.

But don’t let the word submissive this isn’t some “do whatever you say�� pushover. A pro submissive is an elite-level, intentional, well-trained, emotionally aware, spiritually 🦆ing tapped-in bottom.

✨They’ve got scene etiquette down to an art.

✨They can play different submissive archetypes: brat, service sub, painslut, slave, doll, etc.

✨They don’t get thrown off emotionally in heavy scenes.

✨They can take impact, humiliation, objectification, you name it—with control, grace, and consented power.

✨They help Doms look good because they know how to flow in a scene, build tension, and hold 🦆ing space.

IMO

Pro submissives are magic.

They are orchestrators of surrender.

The Dom may be “in charge,” but the pro sub is the foundation that holds the entire scene together. Quietly. Skillfully. Powerfully.

**🧨 So Why Aren’t They as Prevalent As Pro Doms?**

Let’s 🦆ing go there. From my experience and research, Some people are too simple to understand that submission is not weakness.

Society teaches If you’re submissive, you’re less than, You’re a follower, You can’t lead, so you serve.

But… true submission is leadership in disguise.

A Pro Sub isn’t being “used” they’re choosing to channel something bigger than both people. That makes people step back who think power only looks like dominance.

Another thing I’ve people don’t want to pay a submissive

Let’s keep it all the way honest-People are used to thinking subs exist to serve, not to charge. So they think: “Why should I pay a submissive? They should be lucky to serve me.“Doms are the ones with skill and control.” “Subs aren’t doing anything to me, they’re just taking it.”

They don’t see that holding space, staying in the right headspace, emotional labor, processing, presence, rhythm, and safety awareness is a 🦆ing craft.

And it should be compensated like one.

There are blogs and there’s books that helps people understand what submissive do, how they react, and why they do what they do there’s so many books on bottoming but there’s no real infrastructure “Yet” .

Pro Dommes have Marketing platform, Directories, Websites that showcase and celebrate them ( My links in bio☺️) and a strong online presence with supportive subs hyping them up❤️

Subs not so much😕

Why?

Because there’s stigma, confusion, and no 🦆ng template yet. There isn’t a “Hire a Service Sub” platforms, “Impact Bottoms for Demo Nights” “Pro submissive scene partners for education” Not (YET”) anyways but there can be😏

In the end …..

A Pro Submissive is not someone who just shows up and takes it.

They are a conductor of surrender, a mirror for power, and a living 🦆ing work of erotic devotion.

They’re rare because the world hasn’t made space for them 😩

but we’re gonna change that, aren’t we?

Do any of you think that you could be a pro submissive? Is this something that you never thought was a possibility but you can definitely make it work for yourself?!

let me know 🤩

P.S

Earlier I said, I haven’t seen a lot of pro submissive blogs but they’re definitely out there

and here are some and books 📚 that I found were very insightful

✨”How I move” by Stephanie parent

✨“Where I am Led: A Service Exploration Workbook” by Christina Parker

✨ “The Submission Gift” by Solace Ames

✨ “Real Service” by Raven Kaldera and Joshua Tenpenny

[hum-suffer]

The MASSACRES of KASHMIRI MUSLIMS by INDIAN FORCES

1. 1947 Jammu Massacres: 20,000-100,000 Muslims killed in communal riots by Dogra forces and Hindu mobs.

2. 1947-48 Rajouri Massacre: Hundreds of Muslims reportedly killed during the tribal invasion by Dogra forces.

3. 1947 Mirpur Massacre: Around 20,000 Muslims killed when Mirpur fell to Pakistani tribal raiders.

4. 1990 Gawkadal Massacre: CRPF opened fire on civilians in Srinagar on Jan 21, 1990 - 50 to 200+ civilians killed.

5. 1990 Handwara Massacre: On Jan 25,1990- BSF fired on unarmed people in Handwara, killing at least 31 civilians.

6. 1990 Zakoora and Tengpora Massacre: On Mar 1, 1990 - BSF killed 40+ unarmed protestors in Srinagar while suppressing a demonstration.

5. 1990 Hawal Massacre: On May 21,1990 - CRPF killed 60+ mourners in Srinagar during Mirwaiz Farooq's funeral procession.

6. 1993 Bijbehara Massacre: On Oct 22, 1993 -BSF fired on unarmed protestors in Bijbehara killing 35 to 51 civilians

7. 1993 Sopore Massacre: mourners in Srinagar during Mirwaiz Farooq's funeral procession.

8. 1993 Bijbehara Massacre: On Oct 22, 1993-BSF fired on unarmed protestors in Bijbehara, killing 35 to 51 civilians.

9. 1993 Sopore Massacre: On Jan 6, 1993 - BSF killed 43+ civilians and burned down Sopore market.

10. 1993 Lal Chowk Fire: Security forces allegedly set fire to the busy Lal Chowk market, exact casualties unknown

11. 1994 Kupwara Massacre: On Jan 27, 1994- Indian Army opened fire on protestors in Kupwara town, killing 27 civilians and shopkeepers.

Now please provide statistics of how many Hindus died in Kashmir? Will it cross the killings that happened to far of the Kashmiris?

You compared the Palestinian issue with Kashmir so you should know that Kashmir is an Indian OCCUPIED land. Just like how Israel has OCCUPIED Palestine. They are the colonizers. Quite similar issue actually. And the imbalance of injustice is apparent as well. The colonizers kill more. That's how they maintain power and oppression.

Here’s a clear list outlining how Kashmiris have faced oppression and occupation under Indian forces, based on historical and contemporary reports:

1. Heavy Military Presence

Kashmir is one of the most militarized zones in the world, with hundreds of thousands of Indian soldiers deployed.

Military checkpoints, bunkers, and patrols are widespread, affecting everyday life.

2. Arbitrary Arrests and Detentions

Many Kashmiris, including minors, have been detained without trial under laws like the Public Safety Act (PSA) and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

3. Communication Blackouts

Internet shutdowns and phone service suspensions are frequent, especially during unrest, cutting Kashmiris off from the world.

4. Extrajudicial Killings

Numerous allegations exist of civilians being killed during military operations, often labeled as “militants” without investigation.

5. Torture and Abuse

Reports from human rights groups (like Amnesty International) document cases of physical and psychological torture by Indian forces.

6. Enforced Disappearances

Thousands of Kashmiris have disappeared after being taken into custody, with families left searching for decades.

7. Demographic Changes

Since 2019, India has changed residency laws, allowing non-Kashmiris to settle, raising fears of demographic engineering.

8. Media Censorship and Harassment

Kashmiri journalists face intimidation, arrests, and restrictions on reporting, especially if critical of Indian actions.

9. Crackdown on Religious Practices

Restrictions on gatherings, prayers at major mosques like Jamia Masjid, and religious mourning processions (especially Muharram) have been common.

10. Land Grabs

Large areas of land have been taken for military use, displacing local populations without fair compensation.

11. Psychological Trauma

Generations have grown up surrounded by violence, leading to widespread PTSD, depression, and anxiety among Kashmiris.

12. Revocation of Autonomy (Article 370)

In August 2019, India revoked Kashmir’s limited autonomy without Kashmiri consent, intensifying anger and repression.

13. Human Rights Violations Documented by International Organizations

UN reports, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and others have repeatedly raised concerns about abuses in Kashmir.

Information is just a click away. Search Kashmir and Human Rights Watch. You'll get all the necessary information to give you a broader perspective.

Also, Kashmiris are being so apologetic for a crime they didn't commit, where is the apology from the Hindus for the daily atrocities that are being carried upon the Indian Muslim Minority? Do a quick search on how many Muslims are being daily killed in your land by the andbhakts. Not only the Muslims, which minority is safe in your land? Are the Christians safe? Are the dalits safe? Your religion yourself have an inhumane list of castes as if it is a moral hierarchy where is it is a racist system rotten to the core. Where is the apology for that?

Ek toh, the audacity you have to compare killings is baffling. I'm not touching those points with a ten foot pole, they're delusional beyond belief. One sided information much? There have been seven exoduses of Kashmiri Hindus, that have been recorded. Pillaging and plundering has always been done to this land, and I'll let you guess who were the perpetrators.

We do not blame Kashmiris for the attack, you fool. We blame the perpetrators and the people who call this horrifying act as "Hindu/BJP propaganda". And you talk about Minorities in India? Minorities enjoy several rights, which put them at par with (and sometimes above) the majority population. For fucks sakes, do you not know basic laws of this country that facilitate good life for the minorities? Yes, there are some extremists who would rather see people die and even commit such atrocities. Newsflash, kiddo, those are everywhere. Shall I copy paste a list of 77 terrorist organisations run by Muslim ideals?

Shall I recount how the youth of the Kashmir you so love have been led astray by several of such supremacists? Shall I tell you how they use financial services to manipulate literal children into the world of terrorism? And do not get me started on castes. The idea has been warped with time and if you do not know that basic of a fact, I wish to have no discussion with a willingly blind idiot.

Kashmiri people and the land itself have suffered under your wish to "free" it. Attacks like these are direct attacks on the integrity of the people as well as the financial situation of the state. Kashmir has historically been of the Indian people and you claim that we occupied it? If your source of information is "a click", run to your home, child.

So you will come here, list the selective atrocities committed, and demand an apology? Your history is written in the blood of innocents. No apology would be enough for that.

[iww-gnv]

A troubling trend is brewing underneath America's strong employment market: more children are working in dangerous jobs, violating the nation's labor laws and putting their lives at risk.  In the last 10 months, federal regulators have found almost 4,500 children working in violation of federal child labor laws, an increase of 44% from a year earlier, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Some of the children were operating dangerous machinery, such as deep fryers and meat-processing equipment, the agency noted.  The surge in cases of illegal child labor come as some states are weakening their child labor laws, while some lawmakers have also pointed to an influx of unaccompanied minors crossing into the U.S. as an underlying cause. On Wednesday, a congressional hearing focused on the hundreds of thousands of children who have entered the U.S. alone since 2021, with some lawmakers questioning Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra about their safety.  "Earlier this year, news reports detailed cases of unaccompanied minors working in harsh conditions in plants and factories," Rep. Kathy Castor, a Democrat from Florida, said at the hearing. "The reports were shocking and deeply disturbing." Almost 400,000 children have entered the U.S. alone since 2021, according to government data. The numbers have spiked in 2021, 2022 and 2023 compared with 2020, the data shows. A New York Times investigation published earlier this year found that the use of child migrant labor in factories across the U.S. has "exploded" since 2021, and concluded that "the systems meant to protect children have broken down."

[catboygirljoker]

no idea how to phrase this bcs it's a bit esoteric i guess but any like niche and oddly specific headcanons/thoughts on like, just the places in kh generally? like what the archetypical average joe in twilight town gets up to or local favorite radiant garden food hot spot, things of this nature

oh this is a GREAT opportunity because ive been wanting to develop Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden's, like...Sense of Place for my fic [since most of it takes place there] and i haven't really thought about it much! so . excuse me while i tunnel vision here a bit. [also all of this is just touys and pretend and speculation]

i think RG is the biggest city in any extant contiguous original KH world—"extant" to exclude Scala, "contiguous" to exclude Quadratum, and "original" to exclude San Fransokyo. i kind of assume they model enough buildings/detail to suggest that it's a larger city than it actually is. it'd be supported by smaller settlements/towns in the same world, and realistically it'd have a seaport and a proper entry gate that vehicles or carts could pass through. it wasn't modeled to have those, but it wasnt important to the story, and ive got an imagination.

i've already posted about small town boy Terra calling Merlin "sir" and getting burned. in general, i think RG is ~relatively egalitarian. like, AnsemTW is the king, people defer to him, they call him His Lordship, but he works alongside his apprentices. i dont think everyone is 100% equal in RG, but i think there's less class striation, less expectation for people to defer to their elders, more of an assumption that respect is owed to those who earn it.

the castle is huge, and i dont imagine AnsemTW being the kind of ruler who has all that opulence for its own sake—part of it is laboratories for sure, but i think the researchers and guards and other staff of the castle all live in it, as well. we see dilan and aeleus guarding the castle, but i imagine it'd be open to the public from time to time, and i wonder if there are entrances that are open to the public, with like a library or other public education services.

in terms of recreation/leisure: there's the literal gardens of RG, the pride and joy of the city. maybe everyone takes part in the care of the gardens—like a spring festival where people clear out the dead plants and plant new ones, trim and prune and fertilize in preparation for the new year. plants and flowers would be important to the culture of the city. the ocean would be, too—people sail and swim and take ferries out to the nearby islands. and fish, obviously, seafood would be a big part of the RG diet.

RG strikes me as a kind of like...social market economy sorta situation. there are businesses, but with regulation and social safety nets. politically it's a monarchy, and i think it's a situation where monarchs choose their successors, but not much more codified than that. everyone operates under the assumption that a just and wise king will always choose just and wise successors, and that this process will never be interrupted. it's easier and less scary than looking directly at the obvious problems with that.

a lot of this has to do with Themes and such in my fic specifically—but im interested in exploring the idea of RG, culturally, having an intense fear of darkness and chaos and disorder. the social safety nets were almost put in place more out of fear of crime than out of love for its people. i imagine that in the games we're meant to understand that the fall of RG was purely natural disaster and/or the work of Maleficent and AnsemSoD, but im interested in the idea that this fear of darkness contributed to RG's fall, that there were cracks in the foundation that were compulsively plastered over and ignored until they couldn't be anymore.

a lot of the city is destroyed in the fall of RG, and the sea around it is frozen solid, barring access to any other towns and probably destroying those too—so although a lot of people died, i think as people are returned from Traverse Town, RG ends up being more populated than it can handle. there are a lot of hands on deck rebuilding the city, including a Literal Wizard, but it's pretty dicey for a while. it's a disaster situation—no shops are running, shelter is established wherever the roofs don't leak, soup kitchens are stocked by regular gummi ship supply runs and whatever Merlin has the energy to conjure (theyre not able to fish, obviously).

RG seems like it's fully restored by the events of 3, but i imagine there's still more work to be done. that's a central part of the city that we see, it makes sense that it'd be restored more quickly, and if the gardens are culturally important to the citizens then maybe they replant those as soon as they can, as a symbol of the city's restoration.

it was fun too sit down and think abt this...the KH games are a big wide sandbox to explore :o)

[beardedmrbean]

Bodega cat ‘certification’ plan seeks vet care for four-legged deli workers: ‘Most of them are abused’

The creator of an Instagram account dedicated to profiling the Big Apple’s deli cats is now championing a measure to protect them – as advocates say a concerning lack of regulations lead to many of the city’s feline workers not being properly taken care of.

Dan Rimada, founder of @BodegaCatsofNewYork, launched an online petition last month to create a “certification program” to eliminate health department fines on “responsible” bodega cat owners and establish a city-backed $30,000 Bodega Cats Support Fund for medical and other resources.

“Bodega cats have long been an iconic part of New York City’s soul—they keep shops pest-free, brighten our streets, and offer comfort to communities,” Rimada said in the petition, which has amassed nearly 5,000 signatures to date. “Yet outdated health codes and inconsistent care practices leave many of these cats at risk and burden small business owners with unfair fines.”

“Through years of hands-on experience, I’ve witnessed both the charm of well-cared-for bodega cats and the harsh reality of neglect when standards aren’t met,” Rimada added.

The city’s Department of Health directed The Post for comment to the state’s Department of Agriculture and Markets, which said it “has not been approached about this effort” yet.

Live animals are not allowed in food service establishments, according to New York City health code.

“The majority of bodega cats that I’ve seen were not properly taken care of,” said independent animal rescuer Tiff Winton, who helped save a cat left behind in a shuttered deli last summer and has since aided several dumped deli cats in the Bronx.

“As much as bodega cats are beloved in New York, most of them are abused and neglected,” she told The Post, adding that she’s seen malnourished, medically neglected and even abandoned deli pets.

Winton attributes the alleged neglect largely to a lack of responsibility and knowledge, and argues the cost-prohibitive nature of veterinary care is a non-factor given the number of free and low-cost services through various nonprofits in the Big Apple.

The certification program would require owners to take a free, multilingual online training course about responsible pet care and food safety, according to the petition.

“There needs to be some sort of process that holds bodega owners accountable for their pets,” she said. “If you have a dog, you have to get a license for it … but there’s no regulations for [cats], nobody is watching if anyone is taking care of them.

“I think it’s partially cultural, it’s partially carelessness – they don’t have the cat because they want to have a pet, it has a function,” she added, alluding to the tradition of keeping store cats as mouse trappers.

Workers at Rodriguez Deli in Williamsburg, Brooklyn told The Post that its cat Ashley last went to the veterinarian two years ago — and reportedly hasn’t required a visit since.

“She is behind on her vaccines,” one worker admitted. She said she wasn’t sure if the bodega would be interested in participating in a certification program, and referred The Post to the owner.

The proposed program would also protect owners who meet standards like regular vet check-ups, proper feeding and safe environments from fines from the city, despite the illegal practice. It would rely on both self-certification and “community-triggered” spot-checks from rescuers, as well as create an online reporting portal for concerns, the petition reads.

The program, which would be funded through a discretionary funding request in City Council, would launch in 15 bodegas to start and collect data on cat health, owner participation and community response before an expansion.

Funds would also be garnered through annual fees around $150 from participating bodega owners and be managed by local veterinary organizations.

A similar petition was launched in 2016 to “legalize” bodega cats with more than 5,800 supporters – but garnered no response from then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, who the petition was addressed to.

Council members Tiffany Cabán, Julie Menin, and Shekar Krishnan have been asked to support the pilot program, according to a project proposal shared with The Post – though none returned a request for comment from The Post regarding whether or not they’ll take up the cause.

About $20,000 of the discretionary funding, if approved, would go towards medical care like spay and neuter services, vaccines and emergency treatment, the proposal states. 

The remaining funds would be split on stipends and travel reimbursements for animal rescuers working on the ground – who oftentimes pay for emergency vet care in the thousands of dollars out-of-pocket, according to Winton.

“We’re not funded at all by the city or anyone – some of the rescues are lucky enough to get small grants – but it’s really a labor of love,” the rescuer said.

Winton recounted the rescue last week of a tuxedo cat on death’s door from a Hell’s Kitchen deli – and a local nonprofit is now helping rescuers like her foot the $7,500 bill after a vet diagnosed the feline with a severe urinary tract infection and blockage. 

“They watched this happen, for days they let this go on and on — and they did nothing,” Winton said, adding the cat was rescued “just hours away from dying.”

While the rescuer contends that $30,000 won’t go very far considering the costly nature of some treatments, Winton contends any support from legislation to regulate – or educate – would help the cause.

“The bodega cat issue, to me, seems like it’s solvable: It’s regulation, education, some sort of program where [owners] have to register their cats and keep up to date on vaccines and have them clean and neutered,” Winton said.

They’re simple things that they should be required to do, just like they’re required to wash their hands before they make a sandwich.”

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Fintech bullies stole your kid’s lunch money

I'm coming to DEFCON! On Aug 9, I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). On Aug 10, I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

Three companies control the market for school lunch payments. They take as much as 60 cents out of every dollar poor kids' parents put into the system to the tune of $100m/year. They're literally stealing poor kids' lunch money.

In its latest report, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau describes this scam in eye-watering, blood-boiling detail:

https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_costs-of-electronic-payment-in-k-12-schools-issue-spotlight_2024-07.pdf

The report samples 16.7m K-12 students in 25k schools. It finds that schools are racing to go cashless, with 87% contracting with payment processors to handle cafeteria transactions. Three processors dominate the sector: Myschoolbucks, Schoolcafé, and Linq Connect.

These aren't credit card processors (most students don't have credit cards). Instead, they let kids set up an account, like a prison commissary account, that their families load up with cash. And, as with prison commissary accounts, every time a loved one adds cash to the account, the processor takes a giant whack out of them with junk fees:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/14/minnesota-nice/#shitty-technology-adoption-curve

If you're the parent of a kid who is eligible for a reduced-price lunch (that is, if you are poor), then about 60% of the money you put into your kid's account is gobbled up by these payment processors in service charges.

It's expensive to be poor, and this is no exception. If your kid doesn't qualify for the lunch subsidy, you're only paying about 8% in service charges (which is still triple the rate charged by credit card companies for payment processing).

The disparity is down to how these charges are calculated. The payment processors charge a flat fee for every top-up, and poor families can't afford to minimize these fees by making a single payment at the start of the year or semester. Instead, they pay small sums every payday, meaning they pay the fee twice per month (or even more frequently).

Not only is the sector concentrated into three companies, neither school districts nor parents have any meaningful way to shop around. For school districts, payment processing is usually bundled in with other school services, like student data management and HR data handling. For parents, there's no way to choose a different payment processor – you have to go with the one the school district has chosen.

This is all illegal. The USDA – which provides and regulates – the reduced cost lunch program, bans schools from charging fees to receive its meals. Under USDA regs, schools must allow kids to pay cash, or to top up their accounts with cash at the school, without any fees. The USDA has repeatedly (2014, 2017) published these rules.

Despite this, many schools refuse to handle cash, citing safety and security, and even when schools do accept cash or checks, they often fail to advertise this fact.

The USDA also requires schools to publish the fees charged by processors, but most of the districts in the study violate this requirement. Where schools do publish fees, we see a per-transaction charge of up to $3.25 for an ACH transfer that costs $0.26-0.50, or 4.58% for a debit/credit-card transaction that costs 1.5%. On top of this, many payment processors charge a one-time fee to enroll a student in the program and "convenience fees" to transfer funds between siblings' accounts. They also set maximum fees that make it hard to avoid paying multiple charges through the year.

These are classic junk fees. As Matt Stoller puts it: "'Convenience fees' that aren't convenient and 'service fees' without any service." Another way in which these fit the definition of junk fees: they are calculated at the end of the transaction, and not advertised up front.

Like all junk fee companies, school payment processors make it extremely hard to cancel an automatic recurring payment, and have innumerable hurdles to getting a refund, which takes an age to arrive.

Now, there are many agencies that could have compiled this report (the USDA, for one), and it could just as easily have come from an academic or a journalist. But it didn't – it came from the CFPB, and that matters, because the CFPB has the means, motive and opportunity to do something about this.

The CFPB has emerged as a powerhouse of a regulator, doing things that materially and profoundly benefit average Americans. During the lockdowns, they were the ones who took on scumbag landlords who violated the ban on evictions:

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

They went after "Earned Wage Access" programs where your boss colludes with payday lenders to trap you in debt at 300% APR:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/01/usury/#tech-exceptionalism

They are forcing the banks to let you move your account (along with all your payment history, stored payees, automatic payments, etc) with one click – and they're standing up a site that will analyze your account data and tell you which bank will give you the best deal:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/let-my-dollars-go/#personal-financial-data-rights

They're going after "buy now, pay later" companies that flout borrower protection rules, making a rogues' gallery of repeat corporate criminals, banning fine-print gotcha clauses, and they're doing it all in the wake of a 7-2 Supreme Court decision that affirmed their power to do so:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/10/getting-things-done/#deliverism

The CFPB can – and will – do something to protect America's poorest parents from having $100m of their kids' lunch money stolen by three giant fintech companies. But whether they'll continue to do so under a Kamala Harris administration is an open question. While Harris has repeatedly talked up the ways that Biden's CFPB, the DOJ Antitrust Division, and FTC have gone after corporate abuses, some of her largest donors are demanding that her administration fire the heads of these agencies and crush their agenda:

https://prospect.org/power/2024-07-26-corporate-wishcasting-attack-lina-khan/

Tens of millions of dollars have been donated to Harris' campaign and PACs that support her by billionaires like Reid Hoffman, who says that FTC Chair Lina Khan is "waging war on American business":

https://prospect.org/power/2024-07-26-corporate-wishcasting-attack-lina-khan/

Some of the richest Democrat donors told the Financial Times that their donations were contingent on Harris firing Khan and that they'd been assured this would happen:

https://archive.is/k7tUY

This would be a disaster – for America, and for Harris's election prospects – and one hopes that Harris and her advisors know it. Writing in his "How Things Work" newsletter today, Hamilton Nolan makes the case that labor unions should publicly declare that they support the FTC, the CFPB and the DOJ's antitrust efforts:

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/unions-and-antitrust-are-peanut-butter

Don’t want huge companies and their idiot billionaire bosses to run the world? Break them up, and unionize them. It’s the best program we have.

Perhaps you've heard that antitrust is anti-worker. It's true that antitrust law has been used to attack labor organizing, but that has always been in spite of the letter of the law. Indeed, the legislative history of US antitrust law is Congress repeatedly passing law after law explaining that antitrust "aims at dollars, not men":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/14/aiming-at-dollars/#not-men

The Democrats need to be more than The Party of Not Trump. To succeed – as a party and as a force for a future for Americans – they have to be the party that defends us – workers, parents, kids and retirees alike – from corporate predation.

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

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/2024/07/26/taanstafl/#stay-hungry

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

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

[altiantg]

Altiantg.com review Support Contact Information

When searching for a reliable and trustworthy broker, it's essential to dive deep into the details of their operations, regulatory status, user reviews, and overall credibility. In this brand review, we will explore Altiantg.com review, a platform that has garnered attention in the financial world. By analyzing key aspects such as its licensing, domain purchase date, and customer feedback, we aim to provide you with a clear understanding of whether this broker meets the standards of legitimacy and trustworthiness. Let's examine the facts to determine if Altiantg.com reviews is the right choice for you.

How to Contact Altiantg.com Support: Email and Phone Assistance

When using the services of Altiantg.com review, having access to reliable and responsive customer support is essential. Luckily, this broker offers multiple ways for users to get in touch with their support team. Here's a breakdown of the contact options available:

Email Support: You can reach the Altiantg.com reviews support team directly via email at support@altiantg.com. This method is ideal for detailed inquiries or if you need a written record of your communication. Whether it's about account issues, deposits, withdrawals, or any other concerns, the support team is ready to assist you.

Phone Support: If you prefer speaking with a representative, you can call their support number at +1 226 828 2236. This phone line provides a more direct and immediate way to resolve urgent issues or ask questions that require a quick response.

Domain Purchase Date and Brand Establishment

One of the first signs of a legitimate broker is that the domain purchase date should be aligned with, or even precede, the brand's establishment. In the case of Altiantg.com review, this is exactly what we see. The domain was purchased on 2016-02-07, which is right before the brand was officially established in 2018. This indicates a well-thought-out process for setting up the platform before going live.

It’s important to recognize that when a brand buys its domain ahead of time, it shows careful planning and a commitment to operating under a recognized name. This is not something a fraudulent broker would do, as it requires an upfront investment and attention to detail.

Licensing and Regulation

Another crucial aspect of a legitimate broker is the type of license they hold and the regulatory bodies that oversee their operations. In the case of Altiantg.com reviews, the platform is regulated by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), a well-respected and authoritative body in the financial sector.

The FCA is known for its stringent regulatory standards, and brokers who hold this license must adhere to strict rules regarding transparency, fair treatment of clients, and the security of customer funds. This regulation ensures that the broker operates within a legal framework, protecting users from potential fraud or malpractice.

This is a solid argument for the broker's legitimacy. FCA regulation means that Altiantg.com review is monitored by one of the most respected financial authorities globally, which adds a layer of security and trust. For anyone concerned about the safety of their investments or their rights as a customer, knowing that the platform is regulated by such an authority should provide significant peace of mind.

Trustpilot Reviews and Reputation

When evaluating the legitimacy of an online broker, user feedback plays a crucial role. Altiantg.com review has received a Trustpilot score of 4.4, based on 2,995 reviews, which is an outstanding indicator of its reputation in the market. A score above 4 is considered excellent, especially in the financial industry, where trust is paramount.

Not only is the overall rating high, but the number of reviews is also impressive. Having nearly 3,000 reviews suggests that the broker is widely used and that a large number of customers are willing to share their experiences. This level of feedback indicates that the platform is not only accessible but also engaged with its users, who are confident enough to rate their experiences.

This is a strong argument in favor of the legitimacy of Altiantg.com reviews. Positive user reviews and a high overall rating on Trustpilot are clear indicators that the broker is trusted by its users. The more reviews a platform has, the more reliable its reputation tends to be, and a score of 4.4 with such a high number of reviews is something that stands out in the forex industry.

Conclusion

After thoroughly examining the key aspects of Altiantg.com review, it is clear that this broker operates under solid, trustworthy conditions. The FCA regulation, a well-respected financial authority, guarantees that the platform follows strict guidelines to protect users and ensure fair practices. Additionally, the purchase of the domain before the brand's establishment shows careful planning and commitment to creating a legitimate platform.

The Trustpilot reviews further reinforce the legitimacy of Altiantg.com reviews, with an excellent rating of 4.4 based on nearly 3,000 reviews. This level of customer satisfaction and transparency is a strong indicator that the broker is well-regarded in the trading community.

With these factors combined, it's safe to say that Altiantg.com review can be trusted as a legitimate and reliable broker. If you're considering using this platform, the facts presented make it clear that this broker meets the necessary standards for operating in the financial industry with integrity and professionalism.

[viewpestcontrol]

Six Tips on Deciding On Oviedo Exterminator

Taking care of an insect issue is actually certainly never pleasing. Whether it's ants in the kitchen, pests in the walls, or mice in the attic room, insects can ruin building as well as present health dangers. If you stay in Oviedo, Florida, where the warm, damp environment is perfect for bugs and animals, picking the correct parasite control business is vital. Right here are actually 6 tips to aid you make the correct decision.

1. Search For Proper Licensing and License

In Fla, bug control providers are actually controlled due to the Team of Farming as well as Consumer Companies. Help make sure the business you select is actually completely certified and accredited to run in Oviedo. A registered company indicates its professionals have undertaken suitable instruction and comply with state standards for secure as well as effective Oviedo exterminator practices. Don't wait to talk to for certificate numbers or look all of them up online.

2. Look for Adventure as well as Field of expertise

Not all insect concerns coincide. Some providers provide services for pest control, while others pay attention to standard family parasites or even creatures extraction. When exploring Oviedo exterminator suppliers, inquire the length of time they've operated and also whether they have adventure managing your details concern. A provider knowledgeable about popular Fla insects-- like palmetto insects, fire ants, or even below ground pests-- will be actually much more helpful.

3. Read Customer Reviews and Seek Referrals

Online customer reviews are actually a fantastic means to assess a company's reputation. Look at systems like Google, Howl, and also the Better Business Bureau to see what past consumers are actually stating. Take notice of exactly how the company takes care of problems and also whether they act on unsatisfied customers. Even better, talk to good friends, family, or next-door neighbors in Oviedo for referrals. Referral referrals can easily be actually the absolute most reputable.

4. Ask them about Protection as well as Treatment Techniques

Safety is important, particularly if you possess children, pets, or even sensitive individuals in your house. Inquire concerning the kinds of chemicals and treatment strategies used. A professional pest control Oviedo company need to agree to explain their process, provide protection information sheets, and also offer green or even low-toxicity possibilities. Ensure their technique aligns along with your wellness and also ecological worries.

5. Match Up Expenses and Solution Plans

Insect control rates may differ depending upon the severeness of the infestation, the measurements of your residential or commercial property, and the style of insects involved. Request for comprehensive quotes from several companies in Oviedo as well as contrast what is actually featured. Look for transparency-- there need to be no concealed fees. Additionally, examine if they offer continuous maintenance strategies or even one-time treatments, depending upon your needs.

6. Evaluate Customer Support as well as Reliability

Your initial interaction with an insect control firm may say a lot concerning just how they perform service. Are they reactive, well mannered, and useful? Do they get here promptly for evaluations and also precisely communicate the program of action? A qualified company market values consumer solution equally long as technical ability. Select one that treats you with appreciation and also creates you feel great in their potentials.

Final thought

Pest control is actually additional than only splashing a few chemicals-- it has to do with guarding your home and satisfaction. By observing these 6 recommendations, you can locate a reputable and reliable bug control company in Oviedo that meets your needs and also always keeps bugs away year-round.

All American Pest Control

Oviedo, FL 32765

(321) 296-8999

Pest Control Oviedo