#and it is absolutely that close proximity to each other that results in 95% of my intp x intp ships being hella toxic

[aceofbooks-creative-anthologies]

I still haven't posted anything about ace x senku (because fuck him), but I'm thinking about how that ship handles our dynamic.

Fundamentally, ace x senku and mikace are the same exact ship. INTP x INTP at our very worst. Competitive and methodical and lofty goals and misunderstandings and over analyzing motivations.

But where mikace becomes very codependent very quickly, even just as friends - ace x senku is forced apart right when we would have become codependent, and have to grow as individuals separately from each other. I think Senku is dead for a good while. Senku has to learn how to work through his blocks without me there to bounce ideas off of.

Which is why Ryusui is an important part of ace x senku. I have to learn to heal from Senku's "betrayals" (yes, plural) and Ryusui provides the love and understanding for me to do that. Ryusui grounds me and shows me a different way of viewing the world. I haven't figured out our break-up yet, but I know that it's going to be amicable and as friends. Ryusui is going to realize that the person I need, now that I've grown and healed, isn't him. And he'll be okay with it because he just wants to see me happy.

Mikace doesn't learn how to exist without each other. We break up every other week. We make our friends pick sides. When we're younger (15/16) we get into cat fights. More than once, we've both ended up with black eyes and sprained wrists or ankles because we thought a sparring match would help solve an argument. We do eventually grow as individuals, but all of our growth happens much too late in the relationship and only after a dozen or so interventions, led by Takemichi.

So yeah, mikace and ace x senku are the same ship, fundamentally. They both bring out the worst in me, and I believe I'd bring out the worst in them (this is also why mikace is exclusively final timeskip). But because of a correctly timed Tsukasa, ace x senku is a much healthier ship (when we get there, eventually; it's pretty toxic for a long while after the empire is dissolved).

[aihoshiino]

(139 spoilers!)

I know we all feel extremely disgusted by Airi and thus I started to consider her death. Taiki mentioned that it was a murder-suicide and Akane pinpointed that incident right before the twins were conceived... Which means that very close to HKAI got together (before or after), Hikaru was freed from Airi's control.

Putting my tinfoil hat on but I'm guessing the deaths had something to do with Hikaru. Either he did it or orchestrated it to to happen? (By revealing Airi's true colours to her husband.)

The more I think about Taiki the more I feel for him because dude lived his life thinking his legal father was an asshole & chose to bear his mother's name instead but then 15YL script came out. Just wish that Aqua at least had the decency to catch up with him before all this happened because obviously he knew when he agreed to do it.

So, the timeline for Airi's death is a little weird.

In chapter 68, Taiki says he was 'about five' when it happened which is obviously vague enough to leave some wriggle room for him to be a bit older if necessary.

We know Hikaru was eleven or so when Taiki was conceived and that he's a year younger than Ai, who is a third year middle schooler when she and Hikaru meet. This would place Ai at around fourteen years old and Hikaru at around thirteen as of ch139's movie scenes, meaning that Taiki is one or two years old here and we are two years out from Ai's pregnancy.

That gives us a span of anywhere between two to five years before the murder-suicide takes place.

Depending on exactly where the characters' ages all fall on the timeline, this does all seem to line up with the idea that the HKAI relationship and Airi's death happened in very close proximity to each other.

H O W E V E R. . . We have one major wrench thrown into this by chapter 95, where Saitou states that he clearly remembers when this incident happened and that the news broke while he was in a meeting with Ai about B-Komachi's Dome concert.

I'm not super sure how long it takes to fully plan a concert like that but typically, concerts at a venue like Tokyo Dome are announced six to nine months in advance. Being as generous as possible, let's say it takes another three to six months of planning and negotiations before it gets to the announcement stage. This means there was between a year and a year and a halfs' worth of time prior to Ai's death where this meeting would have taken place, which would place the incident as happening when she was around nineteen or eighteen. Either way, if Saitou is correct here, this means the incident happened well after the twins were born.

So what does this all mean? well what it means is that the oshi no ko timeline is absolutely penised and you shouldn't worry about it too hard.

More seriously, it means we can't really directly place when the incident happened just yet because the information surrounding it is all loosey-goosey. I do imagine it'll come up in the movie at some point purely on the basis of Airi's inclusion and the explicit depiction of her abuse of Hikaru but it's hard to say at this point exactly what came first - HKAI romance or Airi's death?

Regardless... I'm gonna get on my soapbox a little and say (and this is absolutely not aimed at you, anon, bc this is clearly a good faith question and I don't want you to feel bad lol) I am honestly not a huge fan of the idea of Hikaru being framed as culpable for Airi's death.

Like... at the end of the day, Hikaru was a teenage boy when this all happened. Uehara was an adult man. Even if I really stretch my suspension of disbelief and let myself believe that Hikaru somehow knew that Uehara was going to murder Airi as a result... sorry, but Uehara is still the one who did the actual murder! Even if Hikaru was the one to finally speak up about his abuse, it was Uehara who took it to the extreme that he did.

I also just don't think it really works, thematically speaking, with what Oshi no Ko has consistently said about the way children are exploited and abused by adults in the entertainment industry and how terrifyingly few safety nets there in place to either prevent it happening or help them recover in the aftermath. Given just how few punches the story is pulling thus far with its depiction and condemnation of the horror of Airi's actions and the sheer terror Hikaru shows when faced with her... it's really hard for me to imagine the story making him culpable for her death in a way we are supposed to condemn.

Not only that, but we don't even know if Hikaru was the one to give that info to Uehara. We have speculation on the topic from characters who are generally reliable but it's not something we can say we know without a shadow of a doubt. Not only that, but...

It's possible I'm reading too much into it, but the framing of this exchange seems to imply that - at least within 15YL's portrayal of events - Uehara may already suspect something is going on with Airi -> Hikaru.

[momtemplative]

A COVID mammogram.

I hadn’t stood among people in so long that the idea seemed ludicrous. And terrifying. I hadn’t been out in a public place in over six weeks. (Jesse does the weekly grocery shopping.) When Jesse asked if I was nervous about my mammogram appointment, I said, no. But I was nervous about going to a hospital—germ kingdom—and being in such close proximity with people who are in such continuous close proximity with sick people. I’m most certainly not alone with those concerns; I had just been reading about how it is becoming more common for people to avoid medical care due to fears of COVID, and how dangerous this can be. So, reluctantly, I kept my appointment. 

When it was suddenly the day before, it occurred to me that I needed a little practice run. I needed to see that people in small, spread-out groups were not so scary, just people and not vicious germ-spreaders. (Hopefully.) So I geared up with hand goop, sani-wipes and my cloth mask and headed to Home Depot for some flowers. My nerves rattled steadily from the moment I left my driveway to the moment I pulled into the parking lot. 

There were a ton of cars. Why did I think it would be empty? My shoulders hiked into my ears as I pulled into a parking spot. I video-chatted to a friend as I sat there, as if I were making a recording for myself: “You can do this. All these people just want plants like you. And mulch. You are all here for the same reason. Get on with it!” (A teacher of mine from long ago used to make herself motivational self-talk videos. I recently watched quite a few, so that concept was fresh on my mind.)

The sky was doing a heavy, melancholy thing—purple-grey clouds swirling like low-hanging thoughts. The wind hit me with an obnoxious gust as I exited the car, like when Ruth sneaks up on me and guerrilla-attacks my hair, leaving me looking disheveled and dumb. I returned to my car twice before I finally committed to a cart.

There was a young kid, probably college-aged, sitting alone in his car, with his windows up, as I walked through the parking lot. My first instinct was annoyance that he didn’t have a mask on, then logic slowly caught up to remind me that he was indeed, in his rolled-up car. I instantly changed gears to take pleasure in seeing his chin, his full-face, rather. I had the instinct to yell through his window, “Nice to see your face!” with a thumbs up, while wearing my mask, but I thought better of it. It isn’t until now that I write this that I step back to look at myself, thinking, dear god, what has become of this woman?

I’m pleased to report that everyone had masks on. Good thing, because this was one of those particular outings that I guarantee I would’ve straight-up judged someone’s character based on whether or not they were wearing a mask.

There was not much inventory in the outdoor section and that was just as well. I  only wanted a few pretty things to plant. And to be out in the world again. I grabbed a few small pots of blue-purple plants with tiny petals, a few magenta snapdragons for Ruth, and for Opal, the most insanely violet peony I have ever seen. (It reminded me of the African Violets my grandmother, Lenna, used to always have in little pink plastic pots in her sunroom. Same eye-straining shade of purple.) Then I broke my back on two bags of soil.

My Home Depot experience was lack-luster and underwhelming, as I suppose, is optimal. The outside cashier had a tag on that said, “I CARE about you, please stand 6-feet away.” This was impossible to pull off while paying. Two humans, (at least one with very conflicting feelings), two masks, two feet away. For the record, the cashier was wearing shorts and had a tattoo of a giant spider that covered the back of his entire right calf muscle. I had the thought, “He had the tattoo before COVID and he’ll still have that sucker after it’s all over.” 

On paper: a success. Like taking a newborn baby to Target for the first time, or coming out of a long illness to get back to work. But I could feel a headache creeping up from the base of my skull. I wanted to just curl up in my car and recover.

The next day.

Signs that read HEROS WORK HERE lined the entrance of Avista Hospital like political signs during a campaign.

The main entrance was closed, a printed sign pointed me to the ER entrance. What did I envision behind the closed doors?  A bustling scene of gun-shot wounds and blood-sodden bandages, dozens of people bent over coughing like they swallowed gravel? The mind is an amazing thing. And more than ever, I am seeing the power (and danger) of speculation.

What was behind the sliding door to the ER was, in fact, a quiet scene of two ladies behind a counter, staring at oversized computer monitors, wearing masks. There was also an RN named Justin (as said his name badge), in a face-mask, standing close to the entrance. I took a moment to absorb it all, and as I turned his way, he was already pointing a purple thermometer at my forehead. “Oh, hey—” I said, muffled behind the mask. I must’ve passed because he handed me a green circle sticker that said something in Spanish. I liked these people. 

Next stop was the lady who had me sign all the papers—also named Heather. I remembered her from my last mammogram because of her name. And her hair, which was sprayed solid into a perfect 80′s feather, on the top and sides. The back, however, was long and straight and hung free of chemicals. This time, her facemask cut perfectly between the calcified feather-layers, which I took in as a delightful detail.

Side doors led me to the main entrance of the hospital, where it is usually bustling like Union Station. But it was empty, quiet like the streets of a ghost town, save for a janitor in an orange vest and surgical mask.  

Typically, the mammography office is stocked with magazines of the sort I would never purchase on my own accord—People, Us, Vanity Fair, Oprah—so I purposefully neglected to bring anything to read. But today, the magazine rack was empty, except for one laminated sign saying “No Magazines Due to COVID.” I also forgot a bottle of water (I’m out of practice for packing for the outside world) but breathed a sigh of relief when I remembered the basket of bottled water the mammography office keeps by the door. However today, no water. The Keurig machine was covered in a white sheet as if it had died. I was instructed by Jesse to touch my phone only when absolutely necessary, so I sat quietly and looked at the wall.

The sum total of ladies in the waiting room was only me, unless you count the woman ahead of me who barely sat down before they called her name: “Hi-roo?” Then as they walked down the hall, they said, “Oh, sorry, it says here you go by Lucy.”

I sat by myself in the waiting room for near a half-hour. I’m not sure what Lucy had going on but it took a while. NO complaints, I was happy as a clam to just sit on my ass and think about filling the four corners of my torso with breath. There were four chairs in a row on each side of the room, but the two middle chairs of each were caution-taped off with scotch tape, so people could only sit on either end. 

After the mammogram—which is uncomfortable to begin with, but throw in wearing Jesse’s N-95 mask and it was downright obnoxious—I sat for another 20 minutes in the examination room and waited for the results. No magazines, no phone, only the hum of the radiology machine and the shwoosh of the waves that played in a relaxing nature video on the wall behind my head. 

I turned my chair around to have a better view of the waves and considered the strange and unexpected calm I had felt in my body since the moment I entered the hospital—in spite of the boob-smooshing mammo, uncomfortable mask, and being in very close proximity to other (highly exposed) nurses. 

My assessment: this was the affect of clear-enforced protocols. 

It made me think of how we, as a culture, have been children without a parent (or with one highly dysfunctional one) in this pandemic. We are given unclear rules that some of us follow, some of us rebel against, and that leaves everyone in a state of high-alert exhaustion and confusion.

The radiology tech returned and said, “It all looks great!” before promptly excusing herself so I could get dressed. What a fucking relief.

I slid my mask off and put in on the counter in order to put my shirt back on. Then, I realized what I had done, and lurched for it with a slow-motion grab—Nooooooo—and the peace and perspective I’d just been cultivating shattered in an instant. I was mortified.

But then, I wasn’t. 

I laughed, quiet but out loud. Softening with myself, at the utter inconceivability of getting it all right. The troubling impact of the hyper-germ-awareness boot camp we’ve all undergone over the last 6-weeks-plus was apparent. 

Then I thought of an image I saw in the Washington Post, of people on the beaches of Florida that reopened this week. One beach in particular was teeming with scantily clad people, holding beers and standing too close, and not a single mask in sight. It glared with the phrase FUCK IT ALL, WE’LL DO AS WE DAMN WELL PLEASE.

It makes me think of the kids at the park, back when we went to parks, who run amuck and fend for themselves while their parents are absorbed in their phones. Poor dears, scrambling for guidance.

[sherristockman]

Antibiotic Resistance Is Accelerating Near Pharmaceutical Factories Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola Nearly half of Americans took at least one prescription drug in the past 30 days,1 but chances are most of them did not give much thought to where those drugs came from. Unbeknownst to many, most drugs taken by Americans are not made in the U.S. but, rather, come from bulk drug manufacturing facilities in places like China and India. Hyderabad, India, is one particularly prolific city for these bulk drug manufacturers, producing 50 percent of India's drug exports.2 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other international regulatory bodies like the European Medicines Agency require such manufacturers to follow Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) to ensure drug safety, but there is a glaring omission from these guidelines: They do not consider the environment. As such, massive amounts of pharmaceutical waste — perhaps thousands of tons a day — are entering waterways near the facilities and, according to new research published in the journal Infection, resulting in the development of multidrug-resistant pathogens.3 High Concentrations of Antimicrobials Detected Near Drug Manufacturing Facilities In November 2016, researchers from Germany's University of Leipzig collected water samples from "the direct environment of bulk drug manufacturing facilities, the vicinity of two sewage treatment plants, the Musi River and habitats in Hyderabad and nearby villages."4 Twenty-eight sampling sites were surveyed, and the water samples were analyzed for 25 anti-infective pharmaceuticals as well as multidrug-resistant pathogens and certain resistance genes.5 All of the samples were contaminated with antimicrobials, including high concentrations of moxifloxacin, voriconazole, and fluconazole as well as increased concentrations of eight other antibiotics in area sewers. Some of the samples contained antimicrobials at levels up to 5,500 times higher than the environmental regulation limit. What's more, more than 95 percent of the samples also contained multidrug-resistant bacteria and fungi. The researchers called this contamination with antimicrobial pharmaceuticals "unprecedented" and blamed it on "insufficient wastewater management by bulk drug manufacturing facilities, which seems to be associated with the selection and dissemination of carbapenemase-producing pathogens."6 India Has Become a 'Hot Spot' of Antimicrobial Resistance Large environmental contaminations, including those leading to resistant organisms, have repeatedly been identified around bulk drug manufacturing plants in India and China. The study explained:7 "Particular bulk drug manufacturing plants in Hyderabad, South India, have been shown to dump waste into their surroundings or fail to treat manufacturing discharges appropriately, resulting in the contamination of rivers and lakes. The substantial quantities of antibiotic pollution, combined with runoff from agriculture and human waste, facilitate the growth of MDR [multidrug-resistant] bacteria in water bodies and sewage treatment plants. Consequently, India has become a hot spot of drug resistance, with drastic clinical consequences." They note that more than 56,000 newborn babies die in India each year due to drug-resistant infections. This is not a problem contained to India, of course, since "multidrug-resistance can move around the world within a flight time of only a few hours." They even stated that if you visit India or another country with a high prevalence of antibiotic resistance, you'll likely return home colonized by resistant bacteria which may be transmitted to others, including those in your household.8 Big Pharma's Greed Further Destroying the Environment Many drug companies have located their manufacturing facilities in countries like China and India simply because production costs are low, and despite the fact that these countries also tend to have far less rigorous water treatment protocols. For example, in Patancheru, India, it was previously found that 90 different pharmaceutical companies discharge 400,000 gallons daily into the local water treatment plant, and less than 25 percent of this waste water undergoes treatment. As reported by Forbes:9 "Researchers from Sweden have studied the area around Hyderabad for a number of years, publishing a series of reports since 2007 ... The worst pollutant was ciprofloxacin, with concentrations up to 31 mg/L and in only one day totaling '44 kg, which is equivalent to Sweden's entire consumption over [five] days or, expressed in another manner, sufficient to treat everyone in a city with 44 000 inhabitants.' These researchers also found that the effluent was toxic to many organisms, and that it promoted resistance genes. Almost [2] percent of DNA samples from downstream sites sampled had resistance genes." Aside from direct ingestion, contaminated wastewater also finds its way onto crop fields via irrigation and sludge (biosolids) used as fertilizer. This makes it easy for drug-resistant genes to spread throughout the global environment. According to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, E.coli bacteria resistant to multiple drugs have even been found in the Arctic, brought there by migrating birds.10 Incorrect Disposal of Medications Responsible for 'Micro-Contamination' Low levels of pharmaceutical pollution, including antibiotics, have been detected worldwide, according to the study authors. Even in the U.S., it's estimated that 80 percent of U.S. waterways contain pharmaceutical pollution,11 and the Alliance for the Great Lakes supports making pharmaceutical companies shoulder some of the cost for disposal of medications. The major source of environmental "micro-contamination" is thought to come from incorrect usage and disposal of medications. The FDA recommends disposing of unused medications via medicine take-back programs or using U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency-authorized collectors, which are available throughout the U.S. If these aren't available, mix the medication with dirt, kitty litter or coffee grounds (this is to discourage ingestion by animals or children) then place it in a sealed bag or container and throw it in your trash.12 Industrial Agriculture Also Responsible for Spread of Antibiotic Resistance "The development and global spread of antimicrobial resistance present a major challenge for pharmaceutical producers and regulatory agencies," the Infection researchers noted, and this is in part because there are so many contributing factors. Another major one, however, is the use of antibiotics in food animals, which is driving rates of antibiotic resistance sky-high. Eighty percent of the antibiotics used in the U.S. are used by industrial agriculture for purposes of growth promotion and preventing diseases that would otherwise make their concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) unviable. With animals packed into tight quarters, fed unnatural diets and living in filth, disease flourishes. Low doses of antibiotics are added to feed as a matter of course, not only to stave off inevitable infectious diseases, but also because they cause the animals to grow faster on less food. "But there is a terrifying downside to this practice," Scientific American reported. "Antibiotics seem to be transforming innocent farm animals into disease factories."13 The antibiotics may kill most of the bacteria in the animal, but remaining resistant bacteria is allowed to survive and multiply. You can be exposed to the resistant bacteria by eating contaminated meat or consuming produce grown in contaminated soil or exposed to contaminated water. It's becoming clear, however, that the deadly resistant microbes may be spreading far easier and wider than has been previously realized. With Drug Resistance Spreading, How Can You Stay Safe? Research published in Clinical Infectious Diseases revealed that current workers at hog farms are six times more likely to carry multi-drug resistant MRSA than those without exposure to CAFO pigs.14 They also observed active infections caused by livestock-associated Staphylococcus aureus (LA-SA). Worse still, aerosolized MRSA has been detected in the air inside and downwind of a pig CAFO, as well as in animal feed.15 Also revealing, people who have close proximity to pig CAFOS and areas where CAFO pig manure is applied to crop fields are more likely to be infected with MRSA, adding to the "growing concern about the potential public health impacts of high-density livestock production."16 Even carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriacea (CRE), bacteria resistant to the class of antibiotics called carbapenems,17 have been detected in a U.S. pig farm.18 So, with drug resistance spreading rapidly in food, water and air, what can you do to stay safe? According to the authors of the featured study:19 "Regulations must be imposed on the manufacturing process of finished drugs as well as active pharmaceutical ingredients to require strict compliance with environmental laws, adequate modernization of manufacturing units and treatment plants, and international labeling of the origin of medicines in a manner clearly visible for pharmacists, physicians and consumers." Eliminating the unnecessary use of antibiotics in agriculture and human medicine is also important, and you can help reduce your risk of being affected, personally, by: ✓ Using antibiotics only when absolutely necessary Antibiotics are typically unnecessary for most ear infections, and they do NOT work on viruses. They only work on bacterial infections and, even then, they're best reserved for more serious infections. Taking an antibiotic unnecessarily will kill off your beneficial gut bacteria for no reason at all, which could actually make it more difficult for you to recover from your illness. If you do take a course of antibiotics, be sure to reseed your gut with healthy bacteria by eating fermented foods or taking a supplement. As an all-around preventive measure, make sure your vitamin D level is optimized year-round, especially during pregnancy, along with vitamin K2. A number of other natural compounds, including vitamin C, oil of oregano, garlic, Echinacea and tea tree oil, can also help boost your immune system function to help rid you of an infection. Manuka honey can also be used for topical applications, as it's effective against many bacteria, including some resistant varieties, such as MRSA. ✓ Avoiding all antibacterial household products This includes items such as antibacterial hand sanitizers and wipes, toothpaste, deodorants and detergents, as these too promote antibiotic resistance. ✓ Properly washing your hands with warm water and plain soap, to prevent the spreading of bacteria Be particularly mindful of washing your hands and kitchen surfaces after handling raw meats from CAFOs, as about half of all meat sold in grocery stores around the U.S. is likely to be contaminated with potentially dangerous bacteria. ✓ Purchasing organic, antibiotic-free meats and other foods Reducing the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a significant reason for making sure you're eating only grass fed, organically raised meats and animal products. Besides growing and raising your own, which may not be an alternative for most people, buying your food from responsible, high-quality and sustainable sources is your best bet, and I strongly encourage you to support the small family farms in your area.