#forced laborers

[softsoundingsea]

Japan removes monument for Korean forced labor victims despite criticism

By Yi Wonju

TOKYO, Feb. 1 (Yonhap) -- A Japanese local government has taken down a memorial stone for Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor at a public park earlier this week despite opposition from activist groups.

Authorities from Gunma Prefecture began pulling down the stone on Monday and finalized the removal on Wednesday, Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported the next day.

Aerial photographs taken by the news outlet showed the remains of what appeared to the base of the memorial stone smashed into pieces at the site.

The authorities are said to have spared the epitaph of the stone and handed it over to a civic group handling the memorial stone, before tearing down the concrete wall.

The phrase, "Remembrance, Reflection and Friendship," is engraved in Korean, Japanese and English on the epitaph.

The memorial stone was erected in 2004 by a civic group in Japan to promote the public's understanding of the shared past history from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and the friendship between the two neighbors.

In 2014, Gunma Prefecture refused to extend the state approval for the establishment of the stone, claiming a civic activist made inappropriate remarks about the forced labor victims during a 2012 memorial event.

Japan's top court ruled in favor of the Gunma authorities in 2022, but the civic group has filed for separate suits seeking to block the removal.

Source: https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20240201008400315

[reasonsforhope]

Green energy is in its heyday. 

Renewable energy sources now account for 22% of the nation’s electricity, and solar has skyrocketed eight times over in the last decade. This spring in California, wind, water, and solar power energy sources exceeded expectations, accounting for an average of 61.5 percent of the state's electricity demand across 52 days. 

But green energy has a lithium problem. Lithium batteries control more than 90% of the global grid battery storage market. 

That’s not just cell phones, laptops, electric toothbrushes, and tools. Scooters, e-bikes, hybrids, and electric vehicles all rely on rechargeable lithium batteries to get going. 

Fortunately, this past week, Natron Energy launched its first-ever commercial-scale production of sodium-ion batteries in the U.S. 

“Sodium-ion batteries offer a unique alternative to lithium-ion, with higher power, faster recharge, longer lifecycle and a completely safe and stable chemistry,” said Colin Wessells — Natron Founder and Co-CEO — at the kick-off event in Michigan. 

The new sodium-ion batteries charge and discharge at rates 10 times faster than lithium-ion, with an estimated lifespan of 50,000 cycles.

Wessells said that using sodium as a primary mineral alternative eliminates industry-wide issues of worker negligence, geopolitical disruption, and the “questionable environmental impacts” inextricably linked to lithium mining. 

“The electrification of our economy is dependent on the development and production of new, innovative energy storage solutions,” Wessells said. 

Why are sodium batteries a better alternative to lithium?

The birth and death cycle of lithium is shadowed in environmental destruction. The process of extracting lithium pollutes the water, air, and soil, and when it’s eventually discarded, the flammable batteries are prone to bursting into flames and burning out in landfills. 

There’s also a human cost. Lithium-ion materials like cobalt and nickel are not only harder to source and procure, but their supply chains are also overwhelmingly attributed to hazardous working conditions and child labor law violations. 

Sodium, on the other hand, is estimated to be 1,000 times more abundant in the earth’s crust than lithium. 

“Unlike lithium, sodium can be produced from an abundant material: salt,” engineer Casey Crownhart wrote ​​in the MIT Technology Review. “Because the raw ingredients are cheap and widely available, there’s potential for sodium-ion batteries to be significantly less expensive than their lithium-ion counterparts if more companies start making more of them.”

What will these batteries be used for?

Right now, Natron has its focus set on AI models and data storage centers, which consume hefty amounts of energy. In 2023, the MIT Technology Review reported that one AI model can emit more than 626,00 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent. 

“We expect our battery solutions will be used to power the explosive growth in data centers used for Artificial Intelligence,” said Wendell Brooks, co-CEO of Natron. 

“With the start of commercial-scale production here in Michigan, we are well-positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for efficient, safe, and reliable battery energy storage.”

The fast-charging energy alternative also has limitless potential on a consumer level, and Natron is eying telecommunications and EV fast-charging once it begins servicing AI data storage centers in June. 

On a larger scale, sodium-ion batteries could radically change the manufacturing and production sectors — from housing energy to lower electricity costs in warehouses, to charging backup stations and powering electric vehicles, trucks, forklifts, and so on. 

“I founded Natron because we saw climate change as the defining problem of our time,” Wessells said. “We believe batteries have a role to play.”

-via GoodGoodGood, May 3, 2024

--

Note: I wanted to make sure this was legit (scientifically and in general), and I'm happy to report that it really is! x, x, x, x

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

anyone else have multiple traumatic memories associated specifically with holidays/family vacations? because that is a topic I never see discussed in all the So You Had A Shitty Childhood, Now What? self-help books i've been reading. but for me, it was a significant thing. and the more i think about it the more it seems like this would be an (unfortunately) common experience. would be grateful to hear if this matches other peoples' experiences...

[alwaysbewoke]

[kingbear8]

Something about making you take it. My seed. My genes. Planting it in your body where it could take root. Then absolutely everything will change, your body and life forever subjugated to attenteding my baby.

[nevermeyers]

Do you know the number of manga authors who have died in the last decade? Do you know the number of physical illnesses a mangaka can develop due to his work? Muscle and posture problems, kidney problems, circulation problems. Not to mention that in recent years it is also common to say “being sick” to have depression, something that many manga artists suffer from due to the media exposure of their works to hundreds of thousands of ungrateful people who constantly insult and harass them.

Some of y'all are disgusting.

I hope I don't see any of you posting ANYTHING about the importance of mental health on your shitty profiles after everything you're doing with Gege Akutami. You're so self-fucking-centered and ungrateful.

[nonbinarywannabepreggo]

I've been trying to experiment with femininity here and there, using women's clothes and displaying my huge birthing hips and fat ass. My hourglass shape shown off, denouncing my female anatomy.

My fiancée requested me yesterday to shave my pussy. I've done so and got carried away. I shaved every centimeter of my body, except my face. All those years of T and my body is still a woman's. I rubbed one of while shaving, thinking about how dysphoric that would make me feel and how much more of a proper wife he's turning me into. And now that I am indeed dysphoric, I can't wait for my fiancée to come here and fuck me in my fakeboy cunt, spraying his seed against my cervix and breeding me into the most feminine I can be: heavily pregnant, curvy, with enlarged udders. I'm just training to be your breeding bitch, when I am large and heavy carrying yours, so undeniably female.

Every time he insults my womanhood by saying I wouldn't be able to birth naturally because there would be no passage, I get wetter and hornier. I want to prove him I'm a proper mommy, and I want him by my side, telling me I'm a good girl and that I should just let my mother instinct take place, because that's what girls are for while I'm birthing his seed. i want him to remind me every second of it of how I'm now his woman, his wife, and that to accept my girl biology. You're the man, you are smarter than me. I should just put myself in my female role and obey the male. My job isn't to think, it's to carry and birth your children. Yours is to think, because my mind is all "pregnancy brain" from the moment I understood that was my duty.

[littl3d0ll-art]

My delicate princess of a husband <33

[sillybirdhole]

my favorite flavor of brudick and bruce&dick is Bruce being so emotionally stunted that he becomes incredibly attached to and dependent on his 9 year old ward

Dick growing up and moving out happens more like a terrible breakup because Bruce has no boundaries or emotional regulation when it comes to all things Dick-related

tfw it’s just canon

[acornsinmypocket]

The Iranian missile attack on Israel last week consisted of about 200 missiles. Each of those cost about a million dollars to produce. This means that the Iranian government thinks **200 million dollars** would do more good exploding over the sky somewhere else than being used for welfare, education and infrastructure inside Iran. I wonder how many Iranian lives that is in car accidents and cancer medicine. Every rocket shot by Hamas costs about 800$ to produce. By a very conservative estimate they averaged spending about 700,000$ a year between 2001-2021 just on rockets. They also spend about 300 thousand dollars for a kilometer of underground tunnels. They likely have about 800km. That's 240 million dollars. I'm not even counting other war spendings right now. I wonder how many parents wouldn't have had to wait for permits getting their children heart surgeries in israeli hospitals. I wonder how many impoverished young people could have received scholarships to become engineers and musicians and climate leaders and architects. I wonder what relations of mutual growth a thriving Gaza could have built with both Israel and Egypt. I also wonder how many disabled people won't receive financial aid, how many schools would go underfunded, how many people will die in understaffed hospital wards in israel this year because some rabid militarist decided this money is better spent killing people abroad to perpetuate the pointless cycle of retaliations. I'm also furious at all of this. And so fucking tired.

[xforcefullybredx]

This blog contains NSFW/very dark posts.

Forced breeding and birth- all fantasy.

This post is tagged with my used tags for easier post finding.

Open to RP and chats. Just please be responsive with more than a sentence of info.

[knifebaby3000]

young prince

[oceanicluvrboy]

WEEE LALALA BIRTHDAY GROCERY SHOPPING !! [ i refuse to draw backgrounds 2day just trust me on this one ]

[bunabi]

Anyone scared of New DA Fandom just weren't there. New blood, new character interpretations, new speculation is exactly what we needed. Getting fresh eyes on the lore is soo fun I love it. Don't blow this for me. 😭

[hansluvs]

close to you — itoshi s.

i burn for you, and you don't even know my name - in which you make your debut into the ton expecting to find true love, and instead catch the attention of piercing teal eyes belonging to the man you swore to never acquaint yourself with.

wc: 3.1k+ (ongoing)

tags: regency au, itoshi sae x f!reader, strangers to lovers, (eventual) mutual pining, slow burn, sae is a little shit in every universe i will die on this hill

notes: took me a few months to get back to this but here it finally is! very excited for this idea it's been fermenting in my brain for a while

masterlist | next part

Your debut into the ton was certainly an anti-climactic one. Being the youngest of your five sisters, who had all been whisked away and married by the time you were of-age, everyone's attention had already moved on from your family's matches and preyed on the newer debutantes that had come in from further districts.

However, a debut that had certainly shocked the ton was that of the oldest Itoshi brother, who was the son of the King's advisor and had been close friends with the crown prince along with his brother since they were children. The entire society had been waiting for him to pursue a marriage match since his younger brother, Rin, had tied the knot with a very fortunate debutante the previous season.

Itoshi Sae had the reputation of being quite the rake, and was notorious for never taking the same woman to bed twice. He was very easily bored, as he put it, always looking for a new source of entertainment. Which consequently swiped marriage right off the table, as words from the mamas claim he's never so much as considered it.

Yet there he is now, standing beside his mother and younger brother, nursing a glass of lemonade. His teal eyes are carefully flitting around the room, seemingly cold and calculated. You hoped they would not meet yours.

As much as the alluring man across you had piqued your interest, you were determined to achieve your one and only goal for this season: to find a love match, and ultimately decided that Itoshi Sae was certainly not the man for the job.

A gentle hand had rested on your shoulder and you turn around to find Mikage Reo, the only son of the Viscount Mikage, and your dearest friend.

"Nervous?" he asked, a cheeky grin on his charming face usually reserved for poking fun at you.

"Hardly. I find it's quite boring, you promised me more fun than this," huffing out a sigh, you take another sip from your lemonade. 

Reo lets out an amused chuckle, his eyes crinkling at the corners in the way you've always admired. You've harbored an unrequited crush on him for quite some time now, ever since their family had moved in across the street from yours and he had introduced himself with that same toothy grin he now flashed at you.

"It is uncharacteristically dull tonight, I suppose. Would you fancy a dance instead?"

Reo would have been the perfect match for you; attractive, intelligent, humorous, and not to mention from one of the most well-off families in town. You two got along well, and it was no question your shared affection for one another.

"And risk Seishiro shooting another rude remark at me? Thank you, but I'll pass."

If only he had not been in love with your older brother, Seishiro - who had returned his feelings, which you only found out this summer. Reo shoots you a scolding look, as if to warn you about someone overhearing your conversation. It was, after all, inappropriate for two men to be involved romantically within the ton.

Which was why your brother was standing a few feet away from the pair of you, a bored expression on his face as he pretended to listen to whatever Mr. Bachira was talking excitedly to him about.

Reo hurriedly scribbles down his name into your dance card then gently pulls you onto the large ballroom floor. "Don't worry about him, he's not the one making their debut. Besides, someone needs to dance with you in order to gain the attention of other suitors."

As the orchestra plays another lively tune, you scoff at your friend. "I don't need you to attract suitors! I can do that perfectly by myself, thank you very much."

"Really?" Reo smiles, lilac eyes not pointed at you but at somewhere, someone in the crowd instead. "So, do you reckon that Mr. Itoshi Sae would have noticed you had I not intervened?"

"What are you on about?"

As the pair of you turn, you finally see what Reo had meant.

Itoshi Sae, with his piercing teal eyes and indifferent expression, had been watching you move across the dance floor the entire time. Like a hawk.

The two of you meet each other's gaze and a shudder runs through you as Reo twirls you away from him. A sudden, awful feeling sinks into the pit of your stomach, and it seems that you were entirely incorrect.

This season would be far from boring, as you'd come to find out.

[the-final-sif]

The qsmp being investigated by the French government for labour laws infringement was not on my 2024 bingo card

Currently I don't believe it's the French Government, currently it's the Solidaires french labor union, but shockingly they have actually apparently gone after minecraft servers before for poor labor practices and taken them to court, although my limited searching hasn't resulted in the outcome of that case. I don't want to talk too much about the qsmp because it's not my business, but legit there's a huge amount of exploitation in youtube spaces that is probably illegal but gets brushed over. Creators are so often removed from it to the point of plausible deniability so it never really gets addressed properly. You see it with merch companies delivering awful quality products, having huge wait times and massive delays, missing people, not staying in contact, mistreating employees, scamming fanartists and underpaying them (look into youtoonz for some of that stuff), etc.

It's part of why I respect Dream so much for building out his own merch company and not going with one of the crappy ones. I love ordering merch from his company because I know I'm going to get what I paid for, it's going to be comfortable as fuck, and if there's any issues the company goes out of it's way to make things right. That sort of company set up takes time and a lot of care and effort to build. When you just half ass it, and don't supervise or actually run your own company, that's how you end up breaking a shit ton of labor laws, exploiting a number of people (at least some of which may be teenagers), and potentially end up getting sued.

I honestly do hope Quackity gets taken to court over this not out of any malice, but because these sorts of creator practices can't be allowed to continue. Creators at his size and scale are getting millions and millions of dollars and they can't be operating like a twitch channel with 20 viewers. If cases get brought to court, even if they aren't won, it will scare a lot of creators off from doing labor exploitation and push them do things more like Dream, where people are paid properly and fans aren't end up getting shafted at every turn.