#rife for sale

[trinityauctiongallery]

Online Auction Event

This online auction event will be a special one for us. 2025 will be our 18th year in business. This online auction event will offer Asset Marketing Pros offers a variety of consigned & estate rifles and shotguns. Brands include Smith & Wesson, Remington, Winchester, PSA, and Maverick. We carry &W and Palmetto State Armory as well. Our selection includes Taurus, Ruger, Glock, Bersa, Ket-Tec,…

[therawellness]

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[rifemachineusa]

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Rife Machine USA company brings you the best Rife Machine for sale in the USA which is a quantum energy healing machine it can do home remedies naturally at home by light healing therapy. It has 100 percent accuracy. It generates 1 Hz to 1000000 Hz frequency energy. This is fully automatic. This can be bought with 2 years warranty. This is right for people suffering from any serious illness in bed. It is also best for persons with a serious illness of any stage of cancer or HIV.

[dekariosclan]

Tav and husband Tav are milling around the shops. Tav sees something that they want but needs assistance from a sales rep. Unfortunately, the sales rep is a gum-chewing, dead eyed teenager who is rude AF and absolutely gives no shits about their job (you know the type). Sales rep ignores Tav twice before sassing them and being generally unhelpful.

How would husband Gale respond?

*Gale, angrily leaning over the order counter at the Baldur’s Gate McDonald’s, finger raised, nostrils flared*

Gale: Young man! Look here! (gestures at the sad excuse for a burger sitting on the counter in front of them) I’ll have you know we’ve dined on fish heads AND stale bread that far surpasses the utter slop my beloved has been served today—which, I might add, happened not once, not twice, but thrice—

Crappy Worker: *shrugs* What’s wrong with it?

Gale: Well! As my dearest has politely tried to inform you already: Cold meat; wet bread; extra mayonnaise when we CLEARLY asked for none, and, to add insult to injury, the most unappetizing topping of them all: TWO body hairs of very questionable origin—

Crappy Worker: *shrugs again* So?

Gale: ‘So??’ (gestures furiously at Ronald McDonald poster on wall) How befitting that your patron is a clown, because this entire establishment is rife with clownery—

Tav *hiding a smile*: Love, it’s okay! We’ll go somewhere else.

Gale *indignantly, over his shoulder as Tav leads him out the door*: And you can tell Sir Ronald or Lord McDonald or whatever his moniker is that he has lost our good will, and henceforth we shall ONLY be dining at the Burger Monarch down the road—

Tav: (whispers into Gale’s ear)

Gale: At the BURGER KING down the road—

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Emily Singer at Daily Kos:

On Wednesday, Donald Trump nominated former Rep. Billy Long to chair the Internal Revenue Service, a Missouri Republican who tried to abolish the tax-collecting agency while serving in Congress. Long was a cosponsor of the Fair Tax Act, a bill that would abolish income taxes and instead implement a whopping 23% sales tax—a regressive tax that the Tax Policy Center said would lead to a tax increase on the middle class and a massive cut for the wealthiest Americans. The bill Long co-sponsored also sought to repeal the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, which gives Congress the power to create and collect income taxes, and ultimately would abolish the IRS entirely. The bill Long cosponsored tracks with the goals of Project 2025, the right-wing roadmap for Trump’s second term. Like the Fair Tax Act, Project 2025 calls for replacing individual and corporate income taxes with a consumption tax, which the Center for American Progress said would lead to a “$5,900 tax increase for the middle 20% of households and an average $2 million tax cut for the top 0.1%.” Long also was the cosponsor of a bill that would repeal the estate tax, which only kicks in for people who inherit more than $13.6 million—amounting to yet another giveaway to the mega rich.

Since leaving Congress in 2023, Long has been serving as a tax adviser to businesses, and has encouraged them to use a pandemic-era Employee Retention Tax Credit that's cost the government billions more than anticipated due to it being rife with fraud. Trump touted this work as a reason why he chose Long to lead the IRS. “Since leaving Congress, Billy has worked as a Business and Tax advisor, helping Small Businesses navigate the complexities of complying with the IRS Rules and Regulations,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “I have known Billy since 2011 - He is an extremely hard worker, and respected by all, especially by those who know him in Congress. Taxpayers and the wonderful employees of the IRS will love having Billy at the helm. He is the consummate ‘people person,’ well respected on both sides of the aisle.” Democratic senators are already concerned about Long’s work helping businesses scam the government.

Former Missouri Congressman Billy Long has been picked by Donald Trump to lead the IRS with the intent to abolish the agency, a longtime calling card for the right.

[nothwell]

Now is your best chance to find my entire ebook collection for a steal at Smashwords as part of their End of Year Sale through the end of 2024!

Including… ♡ Oak King Holly King, a Victorian fae romantasy between a fae warrior and a mortal clerk. ♡ Fiorenzo, a fantasy-of-manners romance featuring swordplay, hurt/comfort, and a happily-ever-after. ♡ Mr Warren's Profession, a Victorian cross-class romance featuring hurt/comfort and a happily-ever-after. ♡ Hold Fast, a Victorian romance between a whaling harpooner who inherits a baronetcy and the estate agent tasked with turning him from sailor to gentleman. ♡ The Haunting of Heatherhurst Hall, a Victorian gothic romance rife with horror and heartache, wherein an American heiress makes an ill-advised marriage to bring herself closer the woman who’s stolen her heart.

[matoroblogs]

LEGO Almost Went Bankrupt. These Heroes Saved Our Bricks.

How a brain tumor inspired Bionicle, one of the most popular toys of a generation.

BY DAVID LUMB PUBLISHED: JUN 21, 2020

The Platinum Avohkii mask, a rare one- of-a-kind piece made of solid platinum purchased by Andre Hurley, who has The Bionicle Archives collection

Courtesy Andre Hurley/The Bionicle Archives

In 2003, LEGO seemed to be riding high after shrewd licensing deals brought Star Wars and Harry Potter sets to the masses. But unbeknownst to many—even those inside the company—sales were plummeting, and there were only guesses as to why.

Some blamed poor strategic choices in the 1990s—Legoland theme parks, forays into digital products—for LEGO’s hemorrhaging. All that misguided development time slashed profitability, and even Star Wars and Harry Potter sales shriveled between movie releases. It’s hard to conceive of now, but at the turn of the millennium, beloved LEGO might have been headed toward a pitiful end.

During this fallow period, one product line stood apart with startling, consistent success: Bionicle, a series of buildable action figures backed by rich worldbuilding and cross-platform promotion. Inspired by co-creator Christian Faber’s battle with a tumor at the base of his brain, the toy warriors of Bionicle wouldn’t just conquer their fictional enemies. They’d pioneer innovations that would transform LEGO and rescue the company from possible doom.

Courtesy Andre Hurley/The Bionicle Archives

Today, Christian Faber looks a bit like a Danish Paul McCartney. His youthful smile pairs well with his genial nature, which one might mistake for meekness until he starts talking about his creative projects. The 54-year-old embodies the unchecked enthusiasm you’d expect from a 28-year veteran of LEGO projects. If Faber’s long-time illness dimmed his appetite for play, you wouldn’t know it.

In 1986, Faber began working for Advance, a Copenhagen- based marketing firm that partners with LEGO. But shortly after his career began, Faber’s vision began to falter. A doctor found a benign tumor inside Faber’s pituitary gland that was impeding his sight, a condition called prolactinoma. Doctors said the tumor was maybe in the least accessible spot in the body for surgery, so they prescribed Faber daily medication to keep the tumor from growing. Among the drugs’ side effects, however, were severe nausea and dehydration, effectively sidelining Faber from social activities.

Courtesy Christian Faber

“It was the strangest mix of feelings,” Faber says. “I was happy at the job, but faced the physical and mental strain of the medicine and a long-term illness.”

Faber’s side effects attacked him hardest in the mornings, so he found most of his energy for work at night. Early in his career, Faber designed brochures for LEGO toy lines. Exposure to the different products, including the undersea-based Aquazone and the sophisticated Technic series, gave him experience with LEGO’s standards and practices—a moving target in the mid- 90s, when the rise of computers and video games pressured LEGO to move from their traditional years-long R&D cycle toward what Faber calls ‘craze products,’ toys tuned to current market tastes with a planned one-year shelf life.

The craze-products movement was rife with experimentation for LEGO, and it materialized soon after a medical breakthrough for Faber. After 10 years of daily medication, Faber’s physicians moved him on to a new treatment which, in Faber’s own words, gave him his life back. The new treatment was a regular injection scheduled just once every two weeks, allowing Faber to engage with the world relatively free from side effects. He could chase higher ambitions than brochures, and he had an idea for a new kind of LEGO toy: a sort of Bionicle precursor called Cybots.

Courtesy The LEGO Group

“I was sitting with LEGO Technic and thought I would love to build a character instead of a car,” Faber says. “I thought of this biological thing: The human body is built from small parts into a functional body just like a model. What if you got a box full of spare parts and built a living thing?”

With his assistant graphic designer Jan Kjær, Faber pitched Cybots, a line of humanoid action figures with attachable limbs and ball-and-socket joints. LEGO didn’t furbish Cybots, but they would implement Faber’s concepts in craze products like Throwbots in 1999 and RoboRiders in 2000. By 2001, LEGO was testing a line called Bone Heads of Voodoo Island—masked robots with heads that could shoot off their bodies like Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. Most of Bionicle’s look had been seeded: masks, buildable bodies, articulate limbs.

Courtesy Andre Hurley/The Bionicle Archives

Bone Heads of Voodoo Island was a bust—focus groups demonstrated kids didn’t respond well to detachable heads—so that same year, LEGO pivoted to focus on Bionicle. The plan was to take a more holistic design approach with these new toys than with craze products, but LEGO extended that comprehensiveness to the worldbuilding around the toys, too, a new strategy for the company. Faber and LEGO design manager Martin Riber Andersen were joined by former BBC film and TV executive Bob Thompson and writer Alastair Swinnerton to refine the Voodoo Island concept and pitch a new story. Faber, fresh from working on Star Wars LEGO sets, imagined something massive.

“After being on Star Wars, I was thinking that the only thing to do from here is our own stuff, but it should be as big as Star Wars,” Faber says. “It should be a big, full universe.”

For the storyline, Faber drew on his experience with prolactinoma. To him, his every-other-week injections seemed like sending in a new wave of protectors to battle his tumor with every dose. Faber imagined this group of disease-fighters arriving on an unknown beach with no memory. The story of these warriors would be called Bionicle, a portmanteau of ‘biological chronicle.’

Courtesy The LEGO Group/Christian Faber

Courtesy The LEGO Group/Christian Faber

Courtesy The LEGO Group/Christian Faber

“We took an episodic story line but chose not to play it out in any single medium,” Thompson told Kidscreen in 2003. “We would take that story and scatter it like a paper trail through different types of media.”

Bionicle’s in-world story evolved through comics and chapter books, written in large part by Greg Farshtey of LEGO’s promotional periodical LEGO MANIA Magazine (also known as LEGO Club Magazine, but now called LEGO Life Magazine). Farshtey followed Bionicle’s story bible from the original team, but as he began accounting for character changes correlating with new toy sets, he added his own takes. By the end of Bionicle’s run in 2010, he had interwoven the story with three feature films and shepherded the comic series that, at its peak, reached almost 2 million readers per month, making it the most widely circulated monthly comic on the planet.

Courtesy Andre Hurley/The Bionicle Archives

By all accounts, Bionicle was the hit LEGO needed. In 2001, its first year on the market, the line brought in over $160 million in sales, it was declared “Most Innovative Toy of the Year” by the Toy Association.

"Flat sales and profit decline made LEGO believe the brick was passé and it needed to move to digital and virtual toys to remain relevant,” David Robertson, author of LEGO history book Brick by Brick, told Popular Mechanics. “But as Bionicle became a success, LEGO learned the difference between sufficient and necessary. It wasn't sufficient to just offer customers another box of bricks, but it was necessary. If a LEGO toy didn't have interlocking plastic pieces, consumers didn't want it. But to succeed and grow, it was necessary to embed a story in that box of pieces and tell that story through comics, books, video games, movies, and events at the LEGO Stores."

Courtesy The LEGO Group

In other words, Bionicle had all the ingredients of a fun LEGO toy, but Faber’s inspiration was key to making it a smash. “[My condition] had a direct effect on my career, and especially on the creation of Bionicle,” he says, ticking off the allegories. “A biological robot attacked by ‘illness,’ waiting for the right ‘medicine’ to arrive. Even the canisters the Toa warriors arrived in resembled the medicine capsules I had to eat every day.”

Bionicle hit its stride just as LEGO’s financials were bottoming out. While LEGO flirted with bankruptcy in 2003, Bionicle accounted for 25 percent of the company’s total revenue and 100 percent of its profits. As LEGO slashed its workforce, reduced the number of pieces it produced, and increased its range of licensing deals, Bionicle continued to diversify. Partnerships spawned. There were Bionicle-branded Nike shoes, McDonald’s Happy Meal toys, even Colgate toothbrushes. The cross-promotion paid off: By the end of Bionicle’s initial run in 2010, it sold over 190 million toys.

All the newness shook up LEGO’s tried-and-true project structure. Bionicle’s multifaceted development process blended design, marketing and engineering teams to hash out new sets, ingest market feedback, receive directives from LEGO executives, and issue their own directives to subsequent narrative and design teams. Under the new dynamic structure, development time for a new toy line at LEGO accelerated from three years to less than one. The rapidity created an exciting energy.

“We broke a lot of new ground experimenting and pushing boundaries,” Bionicle co-founder and design manager Martin Riber Andersen says. “One of the key ethos of the core team was this is a shared collaboration: We stand together. We all believed it was so in contrast to ‘the normal LEGO company’ that we might as well direct our energy to the team instead of our individual career objectives.”

Courtesy The LEGO Group

Courtesy The LEGO Group/Christian Faber

From 2003 to 2005, Bionicle was the reported top-performing LEGO toy line, but after that, sales dipped below expectations. The decline continued to 2009, when LEGO handed down word it was time to end Bionicle. The creators wrapped up the narrative in 2010, but it was hard to let go. Farshtey wrote Bionicle stories on the now-defunct BIONICLEStory.com until 2011, fans dissected the line’s mythology on BZPower forums, and custom Bionicles continued to appear. In 2016, Faber wrote to series fans: “The stories we hear and the stories we tell shape who we are and what we do ... through almost 30 years [of my career in storytelling], no story has proved this stronger than Bionicle. The fans were, are, and will be the true heroes of this ... great adventure.”

These days, you still see Bionicle at toy conventions, and the r/bioniclelego subreddit is alive and well. In fact, the front page of Reddit was graced in November 2019 with an essential, timeless question: “What is the appropriate amount of time to wait before showing your new significant other your Bionicle collection?”

The toys’ invigorating combination of articulate LEGO figures and intricate, multimedia story resonated with the LEGO company as well as fans. The brickmakers use the business strategy they honed on Bionicle with lines like Ninjago today, to great success.

"It's hard to overstate how important the Bionicle line was for LEGO,” Brick by Brick author Robertson notes. “Without the sales and profits of Bionicle in 2003 and 2004, the company would not have survived. Bionicle taught LEGO that success depended on the ability to hook kids on characters and story, and LEGO was smart enough to spread those practices throughout the company."

Courtesy Andre Hurley/The Bionicle Archives

After Bionicle, Swinnerton moved on to write children’s books and TV scripts, Andersen took on a senior position

at a European consulting agency, and Thompson founded a media production and consultancy firm. Farshtey, meanwhile, still edits LEGO’s free fan magazine. All cite Bionicle as high points in their careers.

“We should all be proud of what we achieved individually,” Thompson says. “But in my view, more important is what we did collaboratively. After all, LEGO fans are still talking about what we did with Bionicle—after two decades.”

Faber moved on from his design job at Advance in 2014 after 28 years working on LEGO. His medical journey continues to inspire his creative work, including a post-apocalyptic world he’s designing filled with adventure, danger, and a pro- environmental bent. Looking back, Faber sees the impact his illness and treatment had on the stories and projects he’s touched. Almost 20 years after co-creating the action figures that sustained LEGO through one of the darkest times in its history, talking about Bionicle still makes him reflective.

“Biology is a balance more than a battle between good and bad,” he says. “Ever since Bionicle, balance has been my goal in the stories and pictures I create.”

Courtesy The LEGO Group/Christian Faber

article graphics faber bs01

[mothercetrion]

I really like the relationship between Johnny and Ashrah. like, a lot, and I think it's a very underrated relationship between the characters. full thoughts under the cut because it gets long (and also has MK1 spoilers!).

they get along for the duration of the story mode, with Johnny flirting with her/talking about her looks significantly less than he does any of the other women he has met (Kitana, Mileena, and Sindel, notably). he still does on occasion, but it doesn't feel as often? to me?

Johnny is the one to invite Ashrah and Syzoth to come back to Earthrealm with him, Kenshi, and Lao. when Johnny gives her what she views as a ridiculous disguise at the festival, she openly says as much, and Johnny insists that it looks good on her. it's about as flirtatious as he gets when he's speaking to her in the story.

A: You couldn't steal a more functional hat? JC: What? It hides your face. And honestly...it suits you.

I'm sure it's more of a nod to her more well-known design, but…still. it feels so much more genuine than his normal compliments, if that makes sense? no cheesy nickname, nothing drawn-out or overly dramatic. short and sweet. very unlike Johnny and incredibly endearing (and noticeable) as a result.

and then, once they're in Earthrealm, he's the one to introduce Ashrah and Syzoth to Liu Kang. he attributes the safe arrival to Earthrealm to them, which is true, but hearing Johnny openly credit them for their help was quite nice.

their story mode interactions end here, but their pleasant relationship continues in their intros. granted, Johnny does flirt with her (he is Johnny, after all), but it's a lot less than it is with the other girls on the roster. their intros are actually incredibly sweet and show off their close bond.

A: You fought bravely against Shang Tsung. JC: That's just life imitating art, sweetheart.

Johnny calls her "sweetheart" in this one. typical Cage flirting and hyping himself up.

A: I will fight without fail until I am absolved. JC: You are truly a wonder, woman.

more flirting…and a not-at-all-subtle "Wonder Woman" reference. a mix of Johnny's typical media references/possible flirting and a nod to Ashrah's VA (Susan Eisenberg, known for voicing Wonder Woman) from NRS. checks out.

JC: It's hard to believe there's a demon inside there. A: My true face would horrify you, Cage.

they talk about Ashrah's demonhood and how human she looks, something Johnny notes within seconds of their meeting. I feel like this intro also implies that Johnny thinks she's beautiful? "under there" being a beautiful face and Ashrah's "true" face potentially being horrifying to him, unlike her more human face.

JC: Your kriss would look outstanding on my mantel. A: I could never part with Datusha.

Johnny needs a replacement for Sento since he gave it to Kenshi! he thinks Datusha is neat, just like he did Sento. not a surprise here either.

JC: I love redemption stories. A: Yet mine is not for sale.

JC: C'mon, a tour would really help my story research. A: No living creature should visit the Netherrealm.

A: Your Hollywood is rife with evil. JC: You don't need your kriss to know that.

they talk about Johnny's movies, life in Hollywood, and Ashrah's story being made into something that Johnny makes. it makes sense with Johnny's character since he's interested in everyone else's stories for his movie, but talking about Hollywood generally is interesting to me.

A: So you were once married? JC: Amazing anyone would let me go, right?

Ashrah talks to Johnny about a very personal part of his life, possibly in an effort to get to know him more? or perhaps just asking him about it after hearing it from someone else. it's not revolutionary that she would ask, considering that it's brought up in other intros, but it's still interesting nonetheless.

JC: I've been in recovery too, y'know. A: We all have our inner demons.

this intro is one of my favorites for Johnny. he mentions doing "steps" to her briefly in the story mode, and he mentions his "recovery" here. I am extremely curious about what he's gone through in his career to warrant what sounds like therapy of some kind. regardless, he knows what it's like to want to be a better person, and he tells Ashrah that, supporting her own journey to goodness in his own way. it's a new layer to him that I would love to know more about. regardless, for some people, talking about their vulnerabilities so openly can be challenging, so it's clear that he doesn't want Ashrah to feel alone in her efforts. it's sweet.

A: You have poor taste in disguises. JC: [groans] When will you forgive me for that hat?

…and Ashrah still gives him hell about that disguise.

the vast majority of their intros are friendly with minimal flirting in sight. if so, it's much more subtle than his usual manner. Johnny is much more genuine with Ashrah than he is with the other women on the roster, and I think a lot of that is because of their time together in the story mode. they get to know one another and even have some things in common, things to bond over to strengthen their relationship.

anyway, I think Johnny and Ashrah are really close <3 and I think it's sweet.

[the-whumpening]

consider: whumpee who gets sent to a robot factory, forcefully converted into a cyborg, and then sold like any other robot, with no one but the whumpee aware that theyre actually human

Oh man, anon, you are a non after my own heart <3 I’ve been thinking about robo-whump lately, so this is a perfect excuse to play around with it! (Sidenote: I’ve had Fallout on the brain recently as well, and this gives me so many ideas for Vault-Tec and synth fics. Vault-Tec is just rife with whump potential)

Also, please know that it took all my restraint to not turn whumpee into like a coffee maker or something lol

—————————————————————

CW: robot whumpee, dehumanization, brief references to gore maybe?

—————————————————————

“We just got this one today—fresh from the factory!”

Whumpee’s eyes fluttered open. Or at least, they wanted to. They were awake, but their eyes seemed fused shut. Did they forget their eye drops again?

“Can we get a demo before we buy it? I wanna see it in action first.”

Neither of these voices seemed familiar. Who the hell—I didn’t leave the door unlocked, did I?

A surge of electricity crackled up their spine, but they couldn’t scream. Their mouth, too, refused to budge. A screen flickered to life, and with it, their vision returned.

Bright—too bright—brightness everywhere. It burned their . . . eyes? Not eyes. More like their optic nerve was set ablaze, bypassing the eyes altogether.

Faint memories tugged at the edges of their consciousness. It had been this bright before. Before they went to sleep. Before they woke up here. But where were they before that? All they can seem to recall is an assortment of sensations: the blinding light, the overwhelming stench of copper and steel, the ripping and tearing of flesh. Their own howls of pain, before they suddenly couldn’t scream anymore.

It took a few painful moments before they could process the blur of light and colors. A man—no, two men. One with a blue polo and a yellow name tag. One in a gray suit.

They were looking at Whumpee expectantly.

“Isn’t it supposed to . . . do something?” Gray suit asked.

Blue polo fiddled with device in his hand, and another sickening crack of electricity yanked Whumpee’s body into motion against their will.

Hey! They tried to cry out. What’s going on?!

Whumpee stepped down from their platform onto the sales floor. Their knees bent, lowering them down to the grubby multicolored carpet. Usually, this low-pile, high-traffic stuff rubbed their skin all wrong, leaving angry red rashes on their shins. But now . . . they couldn’t feel it at all. In fact, they couldn’t remember what that scrape felt like anymore, or when they’d experienced it. Their body settled into a respectful kneel, the only sensation a tugging pain throughout their muscles.

Their head tilted up to face their future owner.

“Hello, Master,” a synthesized voice piped out. Not Whumpee’s voice, not from their throat. They weren’t even sure they could feel their throat anymore; otherwise, they were sure it’d be raw from screams and thick with tears. “How may I serve you?”

[lunafiorewrites]

For anyone participating in the TransRightsReadathon over on Twitter and Instagram (or for anyone who just wants to read books from a Genderfluid author), all of my books are on sale in my Itch store! All of my books are half off or buy them in a bundle for $5

Sale

Don’t let them see you. Don’t let them notice you. Don’t ever step foot in Underhill.

With a deathbed promise to her mother and a curse that exiles her from the realms, Alannah has no intention of ever leaving the fringe. She is content to live her life quietly and unseen by those in the forest. Until she saves a human from a harrowing death at the hands of a Fae prince. Elliot thanks her by upending her life, getting her cat to talk, and convincing her that she isn’t as content as she thought. When he finds a possible solution to her curse, the three of them brave the realm of Underhill to find the queen that placed the curse on Alannah’s family. Instead of removing the curse, the queen gives Alannah an impossible quest. To find a person of Fae and Witch blood.

Alannah’s journey through Underhill is rife with attempted assassinations, new and unexpected allies, and experiences and emotions that Alannah doesn’t understand. Underhill is nothing like she imagined. It is strange. It is wonderful. It is full of old and deadly secrets. To survive her journey, she must learn how to rely on others. And Alannah learns that being connected is so much better than being alone. If she succeeds, she’ll never have to be alone. But is she ready for the truth and its consequences?

Never go into Witches End. There is nothing but death and grief in that soil and everything beyond it is not for us.

Makenna has never belonged. As a fire witch born in a village of healer and blamed for every fire-related incident even if she wasn't at fault, she has always lived on the outside looking in. When Makenna's sister, Niamh, is horribly burned during a ritual, Makenna is chased into the lifeless woods of Witches End. But the woods are not empty. A plea turns into a bargain and Makenna pledges her nights to a shapeshifter named Fen. But Fen has many secrets and Makenna is plunged into the mystery of the Morrigan and the spell performed hundreds of years ago to seal away a terrible foe. All secrets have a price and Makenna just might pay with her life.

Romance Books

[eelhound]

"Nearly half of the US population uses TikTok. It’s the most downloaded app in the country and the world. And last Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed its ban into law.

Members of Congress backing the anti-TikTok bill from both sides of the aisle have tried to emphasize that it’s 'not a ban' — it’s a forced sale. The 'ban' requires Chinese tech company ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, to sell the app to a US-based company within twelve months or the app will be banned in the United States.

ByteDance has responded saying that it will refuse to sell, and that it will instead fight the ban in court. ByteDance believes it can win the court case, based on precedent from federal courts blocking an attempted ban in Montana in November 2023. Former president Donald Trump also tried to ban TikTok twice by executive order when he was in office; those efforts were struck down by the courts too.

Lawmakers are citing data privacy and national security as the primary concerns behind the ban. But others have been more explicit — they are worried about how the app is influencing Americans’ political views, particularly among young voters.

Discussion of the TikTok ban in Congress has been rife with red-baiting and anti-Chinese fearmongering. Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, referred to TikTok as a 'Communist Party propaganda tool.' And Senator Pete Ricketts, a Nebraska Republican, said:

Pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas hashtags are generating fifty times the views on TikTok right now. . . . These videos have more reach than the top ten US news websites combined. This is not a coincidence. The Chinese Communist Party is doing this on purpose.

The senator went on to blame TikTok and the Chinese government for the student protests that started at Columbia University and have since spread to dozens of college campuses across the country on TikTok and the Chinese government.

There is no concrete evidence supporting the idea that political ideas shared on TikTok are more progressive or pro-Palestine than what you find on other platforms or that it skews more progressive than the overall population — with nearly 70 percent of voters now supporting a cease-fire in Gaza. It’s unclear how TikTok’s algorithm handles political content. But one of lawmakers’ greatest concerns is that the platform has offered a new avenue for people to virally spread political messages outside of traditional media.

This is not to say that TikTok doesn’t pose data-privacy concerns. But as Paris Marx writes, TikTok’s opaque data-privacy practices are not specific to TikTok or China. TikTok is a private company. Like all profit-driven social media companies, US- and Chinese-owned alike, there are genuine concerns over data usage — but the TikTok ban won’t fix those.

'The US government’s desire to ban TikTok instead of taking industry-wide action is a good indication that its campaign isn’t really about national security or data protection,' Marx points out, 'but something much deeper: namely the preservation of American economic and geopolitical hegemony.'

In this regard, the federal government sees a lot to gain from banning TikTok. Asserting control over highly profitable Chinese tech companies will help US companies like Meta maintain dominance in the social media space, an important consideration given the United States’ growing Great Power rivalry with China. The ban may also allow the US government tighter control over media narratives, particularly around Israel’s increasingly unpopular war on Gaza and government repression of protests.

I’m a content creator on TikTok, alongside millions of others. TikTok has allowed me to reach millions of people to share ideas about movements for social and economic justice. Recently, I’ve covered the wave of student protests calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and university endowment divestment from weapons manufacturers and other financial ties to Israeli apartheid by interviewing students on the ground in New York City. If TikTok is banned, it means shutting down my voice and the voices of many others who are loudly opposing our government’s support for Israel and spreading awareness of the growing protest movement.

It’s unclear if the ban will be upheld in court. And if the forced sale is upheld, it’s also unclear if twelve months will be enough for a sale to make it through the legal and financial red tape. In any case, it will be at least a year before we see any changes to the app and its availability in the United States.

If the TikTok ban is successful, though, it will serve as a major blow to free speech without actually protecting users’ data. It will mean restricting access to news and political ideas simply because the federal government wants to suppress the ideas that are being shared and popularized on the platform — like opposition to US support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza."

- Caitlyn Clark, "The TikTok Ban Is an Egregious Assault on Free Speech." Jacobin, 29 April 2024.

[rifemachineusa]

Monkeypox is a contagious virus that attacks primates, such as monkeys and chimpanzees. Symptoms of monkeypox may include fever, headache, neck stiffness, and rash. The virus is spread through contact with saliva, mucus, or blood from an infected person. There is no vaccine or cure for monkeypox. Treatment focuses on relieving symptoms.

[olderthannetfic]

Re: Black people with electricity powers being "stereotypical", I can explain that one. DC's first black superhero, Black Lightning, was, well, a black man who had electricity powers. Before anyone gets upset in the notes, please remember that it was 1977. The name was progressive by the standards of the time. He had the option to use a costume that hid all of his skin, since he made his own superhero outfit, but he refused it, instead choosing to show his skin and proclaim that he was black in his superhero name. People who were against "political correctness", "liberal madness", "forced activism" and other culture war buzzwords were not pleased at DC having him at the time. His comic was retired due to poor sales, then revived in the 1990's, where it had substantially more success. He was a popular character not just with black people, but with kids who liked that the series focused on storylines addressing issues that were in the news, making it more timely and realistic than many comics.

Three things happened subsequently. Firstly, owing to his popularity, Marvel Comics created their own black, electricity using superhero, and then used that concept for a few other knockoffs to fill out team rosters/crowd scenes. Secondly, due to legal issues regarding licensing (who created him and if he was entirely the IP of DC were in dispute for a long time), DC instead made other black, electricity-wielding superheroes for Superfriends and crossover comics between titles. Thirdly, comic publishers outside of the big two started making black men with electricity powers as lead superheroes. (Usually with edgier backstories, because the 1990's was rife with those for superheroes.)

The logic that this means that black superheroes having electricity powers = racist stereotyping is, however, ridiculous. This trope has never been a frequent or constant thing in media, for one thing. None of Marvel's knockoffs lasted into the late 90's, most indie comics knockoffs sold poorly and were retired fairly quickly, and other than the Superfriends cartoon, no characters of this description were in animation until the early 00's. Furthermore, not only is this a relatively unknown trope, but there isn't anything actually racially related about it other than "this person is black, cis, male, and uses electricity". The vast majority of these characters also don't get their powers the same way - Black Lightning made tech to give him his powers, Static from Static Shock was in an accident involving gas that gave people superpowers, Black Hammer has a magic hammer, etc. In order for the trope to be racist it would have to have more to it than what it currently does.

Basically the commenter might as well have been going, "Uh, Black Lightning and his knockoffs had electricity, that means you can't use that for black people anymore." which is really dumb when you remember how many superheroes with identical powersets exist without anyone ever going, "Uh, Superman flies and has super-strength, that means you can't use that for white people anymore."

Gee I wonder what the thing is that makes Black Lightning and Superman different. Hmm. What could it be? /s

--

[beevean]

I definitely agree that sticking Shadow right back into his past is a bad move post 05 (man he hasn't been in the games much since, no I don't count 06)

But in the same turn, it's Sonoc x Shadow Generations, this is serving the same purpose the original Generations is. A lot of kids can't go back and play the 2000s games, this will be their introduction to these stories.

I just want to see what comes after all of this.

From what I've seen, Iizuka has confirmed that basically this is all meant to tie-in to the third movie. So yes, at the end of the day, it is a marketing move to introduce newcomers to Shadow and his story.

The OG Generations wasn't for newcomers, though. It was a love letter to the series for old time fans, in a time where fans were happy with "going back to the roots" (and the reason I prefer it over Mania is that it was a love letter for the whole series, not just a small part of it). A game meant for newcomers was, say, Sonic Heroes which came out at the same time as Sonic X and the boom of Gamecube players who tried SA2B - and even that game was rife with references to past games for the sake of old fans lol.

I dunno, I get the logic, but

they could have promoted SA2, anything from re-releasing it in a slightly polished state to just putting it on sale. It's on Steam. Release it on Switch, I don't know. Promote those old games! They're not garbage!

as pointed out multiple times, it feels disingenuous to have a game where Shadow revisits his past in great detail when that part of his arc is effectively done. Newcomers might not know what a ShTH is, and no way they're going to promote that one, but games are supposed to be valid experiences through time, not just be locally relevant. Then again, Frontiers reopened the arcs of Amy moving on from being a lovestruck Sonic fangirl, Knuckles grappling with his role as the guardian of the ME and Tails gaining confidence away from Sonic, so I guess we're just doing the Adventure games 2.0 now.

this comes after years of the fandom reducing Shadow to his angst out of backlash for the 2010s (I still posits that his portrayal in Forces had nothing wrong with it), the fandom coming up with headcanons like "Shadow was tortured on the ARK because Gerald always saw him as a tool" to really squeeze as much pain from him as possible. So there is definitely this feeling of ST, once again, listening to the most vocal side of the fandom who's just in for the vibes of the blorbo and who hype his writing in SA2 despite it being the lowest point of his character (not in quality, but you know, he was a brainwashed villain and all).

I'm not angry, honest. I'm not a Shadow fan so I'm not personally invested, I'm still intrigued, I hope there are as many references as ShTH as possible and I'm already happy they remembered Battle. It just feels... iffy, the whole thing. Yes: it's just a marketing ploy for the kids who'll come out of the theatres fascinated with Shadow - and we still don't even know what they'll do with him.

[housewarningparty]

what is NWOAHM? (I have been slowly trying to get more into metal but I don't really know how sorry)

Absolutely no reason to apologize. I love talking about metal, I'm excited whenever anyone is interested enough to ask about it. New fans can't be expected to know everything and it's usually more fun getting something explained to you by another fan vs reading a wiki article or something.

NWOAHM stands for New Wave of American Heavy metal. I'll talk more about that in a sec but here's a quick and dirty breakdown of related terms for context.

Starting in the 60s and 70s we have the first wave of British Heavy Metal which includes bands like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin. After that, we had the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) with bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. The US equivalent of the first wave would be hair bands in the 80s like Motley Crue, Poison, Guns n Roses. You get the idea.

Basically, broad terms to refer to the periods when metal bands were most culturally relevant. If not fully mainstream, then at least popular enough to have significant accessible subcultures. People don't usually refer to "first wave" bands as such, they usually just say '70s metal' or whatever. Out of all these terms NWOBHM is the most widely referenced - it's common as shorthand to describe any band playing music in that style (newer bands playing NWOBHM-style music are also often described as 'trad metal')

NWOAHM refers to a wave of American metal bands mostly from the late 90s to mid 00s that saw a lot of popular success. Stylistically, it largely describes bands influenced by a mix of European melodic death metal as well as American hardcore. A lot of metalcore bands of the era can be considered part of the NWOAHM like Unearth, Killswitch Engage and God Forbid, but bands like Lamb of God, Devildriver and Machine Head also qualify.

The music industry that underpinned this scene was very different from our current industry. Big, nationwide touring festivals (Mayhem for metal, Taste of Chaos for emo/post-hardcore, Warped for pop punk a bit of everything else to boot) drove a lot of sales and engagement. This was also an era where MTV and similar music channels still had major relevance. If you turned on MTV on a Friday night you'd get an entire block of extreme metal music videos in any house in America with cable access. This went a long way to exposing people to new music, especially young metal heads with limited funds. Remember, at this time there was no real streaming model yet and most music was sold via physical format like CDs.

The article I linked (which, despite the inflammatory headline, is actually pretty fair imo) describes some of the differences between the NWOAHM scene and today's scene.

Certainly the NWOAHM scene was rife with problems and I don't want to give in too much to nostalgia, but there's something kind of sad to me about the way that there's almost no mainstream-ish entry point to a robust, extreme metal scene like there used to be. I have nothing against pop inspired metal on its own, but I do wish there was still an environment that allowed new fans to experience a wider variety of styles.

[theboombutton]

Do you have any linguistics book recommendations for laymen please pleaseeeee I'm desperate

If you want an introduction to linguistics, I highly recommend picking up the textbook for your local university's LING 101 class, rather than a book specifically directed at laypeople.

On top of the usual problems with popular science books - the commonness of quackery in the genre, the reliance on intuition, the forced and flaccid tone of profundity that especially ramps up at the end of every chapter - popular linguistics books in particular are rife with political implications. Linguistics is both a cultural and a psychological topic, which makes it easy for anyone with an agenda (or even no agenda, just underlying bigotry) to write a book and get their ideological fingers up into readers' brains in ways that are sometimes subtle.

Consider the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, the idea that the language(s) a person speaks changes the kinds of thoughts they're likely to have. That sounds reasonable, right? If someone asked you to think of a plant, you'd probably pick a plant you had a word for. And by the same principle, maybe people who speak a language without a future tense have a harder time conceptualizing the future! This is the kind of intuitive-but-profound-seeming observation/speculation that pop science books love.

It was also a big part of the rationalization/justification for the Indian residential school system and the suppression of Native languages.

(Also technically English doesn't have a future tense, but no one ever mentions that in the context of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis because the entire point of the thing is to exoticize non-European languages for fun and profit.)

These sorts of just-so stories found in pop linguistics books have profound political implications about mental or cultural diffences (read: usually inferiority) of those who speak languages foreign to the the audience, and more often than you'd think they bypass the bigotry bullshit detectors of otherwise well-intentioned readers - because of the informative tone of the work, the intuitive sense it makes for a language to change the way people think, and above all, "It can't be racist, it's about their language, not their race!"

A textbook can make these errors too, of course - the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis does come up in many introductory textbooks. The difference is that 1. a textbook is far more likely to mention that a given idea is "controversial" or "disputed," since unlike pop science they don't need to keep up the tone of mind-blowing profundity to make sales; and 2. since these sorts of bullshit cognitive linguistics theories are fully in the realm of "wouldn't it be interesting if", there's just not enough to say about any one of them to take up more than a page or two in a book that actually needs to contain information.

So yeah tl;dr just pick up a LING 101 textbook. There'll probably be less bigotry, and you'll actually learn about linguistics instead of the author's pseudoprofound wank.