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shreeji-ingredients · 1 day

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Corn Grits by Shreeji Ingredients: The Secret Ingredient Behind India's Favorite Snack Brands.

In the bustling world of Indian snacks, there's a quiet hero at the heart of many beloved treats: corn grits. This essential ingredient is the foundation for a variety of snacks, offering the perfect balance of taste, texture, and nutrition. One name that stands out in the industry is Shreeji Ingredients, known for being among the best corn grits manufacturers for snacks in India. Let's explore how Shreeji Ingredients' corn grits are revolutionizing snack production and why they are the top choice for snack brands across the country.

The Versatility of Corn Grits

Corn grits are made by grinding dried corn kernels into coarse granules. Their neutral flavor and adaptable texture make them an ideal base for a wide range of snack products, from crunchy chips to fluffy puffs and crispy wafers. Shreeji Ingredients excels in producing high-quality corn grits for Indian snack brands, ensuring that each batch meets the stringent standards required for creating delicious and consistent snacks.

High-Quality Corn Grits for Indian Snack Brands

Quality is paramount in snack production, and Shreeji Ingredients takes this seriously. As one of the leading corn grits suppliers for healthy snacks, Shreeji Ingredients ensures that their corn grits are processed with the highest standards of hygiene and quality control. This dedication to excellence ensures that snack brands receive grits that are not only tasty but also nutritionally beneficial, catering to the growing demand for healthier snack options.

Leading Corn Grits Suppliers for Healthy Snacks

Health-conscious consumers are increasingly seeking snacks that offer more than just great taste. They want snacks that provide nutritional benefits without compromising on flavor. Shreeji Ingredients, as one of the leading corn grits suppliers for healthy snacks, delivers products that are rich in fiber, gluten-free, and free from artificial additives. This commitment to quality helps snack brands develop products that resonate with health-conscious consumers.

Reliable Corn Grits Manufacturers for Wafers Production

Wafers are a staple in the Indian snack market, loved for their light and crispy texture. Achieving the perfect wafer requires reliable corn grits manufacturers for wafers production. Shreeji Ingredients excels in this area, providing corn grits that have the right consistency and quality for producing uniformly thin and crispy wafers. Brands trust Shreeji Ingredients for their reliability and consistency, ensuring that their wafers meet consumer expectations every time.

Top Corn Grits Suppliers for Snack Production

For large-scale snack production, brands need suppliers who can consistently meet their volume and quality requirements. Shreeji Ingredients stands out as one of the top corn grits suppliers for snack production, offering not only high-quality products but also dependable logistics and customer support. Their understanding of the snack industry's needs allows them to provide tailored solutions that ensure smooth and efficient production processes.

Best Corn Grits Manufacturers for Snacks in India

India is home to several esteemed corn grits manufacturers, but Shreeji Ingredients is among the best corn grits manufacturers for snacks in India. Their commitment to innovation, quality, and sustainability sets them apart. Shreeji Ingredients invests in advanced processing technologies to produce grits that enhance the taste and texture of snacks while also focusing on eco-friendly practices.

The Future of Corn Grits in the Snack Industry

As consumer preferences continue to evolve, the role of corn grits in snack production is set to grow even further. Innovations in processing techniques and flavor development are enabling brands to create exciting new products that cater to diverse tastes. With Shreeji Ingredients leading the way, the future of corn grits in the snack industry looks promising, with potential for even more delicious and nutritious snacks.

Conclusion

Corn grits might often go unnoticed by consumers, but they are the backbone of many of India's favorite snacks. Shreeji Ingredients, recognized as one of the best corn grits manufacturers for snacks in India, plays a crucial role in this landscape. Their high-quality corn grits and reliable supply chain make them the top choice for snack brands aiming to deliver the best products to their customers. Whether it's crispy wafers or savory puffs, Shreeji Ingredients' corn grits are the secret ingredient that ensures every bite is perfect.

#Best corn grits manufacturers for snacks in India #Top corn grits suppliers for snack production #High-quality corn grits for Indian snack brands #Leading corn grits suppliers for healthy snacks #Where to buy premium corn grits for snack manufacturing #Reliable corn grits manufacturers for wafers production #Best sources for corn grits in the snack industry #Corn grits suppliers for large-scale snack production #Trusted corn grits manufacturers for food processing #Affordable corn grits for commercial snack production #Best corn grits wholesalers for snack producers #Corn grits procurement for snack manufacturing companies #Verified corn grits suppliers for high-volume snack production #Premium corn grits for making quality snacks #Best corn grits distributors for snack factories #Corn grits suppliers specializing in snack ingredients #Corn grits for snack production: top manufacturers #Best-rated corn grits suppliers for snack industry #Corn grits for snack manufacturing: trusted suppliers #High-grade corn grits for professional snack makers

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deanpinterester · 1 year

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i cannot stress this enough: if your reasoning for clowning on the mcu is "they overwork their cg artists and animators" i 1000% guarantee that a show or movie you have been stanning for years also abused their artists and you just haven't heard about it because the production companies aren't in the spotlight like mcu productions are. that cartoon for kids? that incredibly animated movie? that non-marvel superhero movie? i've seen people declare their hatred for the way the mcu treats their workers and then turn around and gush about a show that i know for a fact was hell for the artists attached

and no this is NOT me saying "this means you should stop hating on the mcu uwu" it's me saying you gotta be aware that this shit is an INDUSTRY WIDE PROBLEM. you CANNOT "fix" it by refusing to watch mcu movies and feeling good about it. you have to be aware that it's EVERYWHERE. why do you think so many animation and vfx productions are sourced in canada? in india and the phillipines? we are not unionized.

i know it's hard to face the idea that your favourite show might have been made unethically especially when you've spent so much time hating the mcu for doing the same thing. you don't have to start hating your favourite show. just like...be aware. don't be smarmy about it. don't claim without research that a beautifully animated movie Must mean the animators were not working 16 hour days and weekends. i do think we can fix this 👍 but we can't fix it if 90% of us don't even realize what the problem really is

#uhhhh me #with the recession coming up a lot of my coworkers have come out of the woodworks to talk abt their experiences #and i feel like i've been wearing rose tinted glasses abt my company (bc i work here and i like my supervisors!)#i knew ofc that aniamtion studios here aren't always on the up and up but i did Not know how bad it got #and it just! sucks! that whenever ppl online talk abt shitty treatment of artists they're only talking in regards to the mcu

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accordinc · 10 months

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Navigating Success: The Role of Sourcing Agents in India

In the dynamic world of global commerce, sourcing the right products at the right prices can make all the difference between a successful business and a struggle for survival. For many companies, especially those venturing into international trade, partnering with sourcing agents has proven to be a strategic move. Among the top players in the sourcing landscape, India stands out as a formidable hub, providing businesses worldwide with an array of advantages.

The Sourcing Agent Advantage

Sourcing agents act as intermediaries between businesses and manufacturers, connecting supply with demand seamlessly. Their expertise lies in understanding market trends, identifying reliable suppliers, negotiating deals, ensuring quality control, and streamlining the entire sourcing process. This leaves businesses with more time and energy to focus on core operations and market expansion.

India: A Sourcing Powerhouse

When it comes to sourcing agents in India, India emerges as a prominent player. The country's robust manufacturing industry, diverse product offerings, and skilled workforce make it an ideal sourcing destination. From textiles and apparel to electronics and machinery, India's extensive supply chain can cater to a wide spectrum of industry needs.

Key Benefits of Partnering with Indian Sourcing Agents

Expertise: Indian sourcing agents possess in-depth knowledge of local markets, regulations, and suppliers. This expertise helps businesses navigate potential challenges and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

Cost Efficiency: One of the most attractive aspects of sourcing from India is cost savings. The country's competitive labor rates and production costs translate to cost-effective sourcing solutions for businesses.

Quality Assurance: Reputed Indian sourcing agents prioritize quality control, ensuring that products meet international standards. This focus on quality minimizes risks and builds long-lasting business relationships.

Supplier Network: Sourcing agents in India have a well-established network of suppliers across various industries. This network allows them to swiftly identify the most suitable partners for specific sourcing needs.

Cultural Understanding: Effective communication and cultural sensitivity are vital in global trade. Indian sourcing agents often bridge cultural gaps, facilitating smoother interactions and negotiations between businesses and suppliers.

Challenges and Overcoming Them

While partnering with Indian sourcing agents offers numerous benefits, challenges like language barriers, time zone differences, and occasional miscommunication can arise. However, these challenges can be mitigated through clear communication, regular updates, and establishing transparent expectations.

In Conclusion

As businesses strive to stay competitive and agile in a fast-paced global market, leveraging the expertise of sourcing agents has become increasingly essential. India's role as a sourcing powerhouse cannot be overstated. Its diverse manufacturing capabilities, coupled with the knowledge and skills of local sourcing agents, create a win-win situation for businesses looking to optimize their supply chains.

In the journey of international trade, having a reliable sourcing agent from India by your side might just be the key to unlocking smoother operations, higher cost savings, and a distinct competitive edge.

#sourcing products from india #supply chain companies in india #supply chain management in india #sourcing agents in india #sourcing companies in india #buying agents in india #sourcing agent

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mteksourcing403 · 1 year

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#mteal #sourcing #china #India #outsourcing #outsourcinglobal #manufacturing #product #production #natural products #global #company #solutions

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chaos0pikachu · 5 months

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Is BL Being Overly Influenced by Modern Western Romance Tropes?

Short answer: No. anyways, in the following essay I will explain that James Cameron is a weeb...

(okay fine~~ lets actually do this)

TLDR: discussing what media globalization is, how fandom can distill it down to only American/European cinema, showcasing how a lot of current BL is influenced by countries within it's own proximity and NOT "the west" but each other, also James Cameron is still a weeb

I had seen a post that basically proposited that BL was being influenced by modern western romance tropes and had used things like omegaverse and mafia settings as an example. I found this, in a word, fucking annoying (oh, two words I guess) because it's micro-xenophobic to me.

It positions western - and really what we mean by this is American/European countries, we're not talking about South American countries are we? - cinema as the central breadbasket of all cinema in and of itself. Inherently, all following cinema must be in some way, shape, or form, influenced by American/European standards, and as such America/European countries are directly responsible for cinema everywhere else, and these places - namely non-white countries - do not influence each other, nor have their own histories in regards to storytelling or cinema and do not, in turn, also influence American/European film making either.

Now like, do I think all of that~~ is intentionally malicious thinking on behalf of folks in fandom? No, so chill out.

I do, however, think a lot of it is birthed from simple ignorance and growing up in an environment where ~The West~ is propagated to be central, individual, and exceptional as opposed to the monolith of "Asia" - by which we mean China, Korea, Japan don't we? How often in discussions of Asian countries is Iran, India, or Saudi Arabia brought up even tho they are all Asian countries? - or the monolith that is South America - in which some folks might believe regions like the Caribbean and/or Central America belong to, but nope there both North America.

Anyway, what we're talking about here is the concept of "media globalization":

"The production, distribution, and consumption of media products on a global scale, facilitating the exchange and diffusion of ideas cross-culturally." (source)

"The media industry is, in many ways, perfect for globalization, or the spread of global trade without regard for traditional political borders. [...] the low marginal costs of media mean that reaching a wider market creates much larger profit margins for media companies. [...] Media is largely a cultural product, and the transfer of such a product is likely to have an influence on the recipient’s culture." (source)

Typically when I see fandom discussing what falls under MG the topic is usually focused on how "the west" is influencing Thai/Korean/Chinese/Japanese media.

Enter, Pit Babe.

Surely Pit Babe was influenced by Supernatural right? Omegaverse is huge in the west - love it, hate it, meh it - it originated in the west - specifically via Supernatural after all.

Nah.

Omegaverse has been popular in Japan and China for almost a decade, if not longer. The earliest omegaverse manga I can think of is Pendulum: Juujin Omegaverse by Hana Hasumi which was released in 2015, almost a decade ago.

(what if you added furries into omegaverse? WHAT IF?? - Japan)

There's countless popular omegaverse manga too, and the dynamics only moderately resemble the ones we're familiar with in the west. Juujin is part omegaverse and part furry/beastmen - the alphas are all beastmen the omegas are humans - while something like Ookami-kun Is Not Scary only slightly resembles omegaverse dynamics as a hybrid series - beastmen are really popular in Japan in part b/c of historical mythology (you see the combination of romantic Beastmen and Japanese culture & folklore in Mamoru Hosoda's work The Boy and the Beast and Wolf Children).

Megumi & Tsugumi (2018) is so popular they're an official English edition published by VIZ's imprint SuBlime and that's a straight up omegaverse story.

(look at the omega symbol on the cover loud and proud baby)

So if Pit Babe was influenced by anything, it certainly wasn't "the west" it was Japan, Korea and China. Because those countries have a thriving omegaverse sub-genre going and have had such for 10 plus years now. Supernatural is popular in Japan, yes, and that may be where Japan and Japanese fans originally found omegaverse as a fictional sub-genre.

HOWEVER

Japanese fans took the sub-genre, bent it, played with it, and evolved it into their own thing. As such, other countries in their proximity, like Thailand, China, and Korea who read BL and GL manga, found it and were like "hey, we wanna play too!"

(is that an omegaverse yuri novel I spy?? yes, yes it is)

When I watched the Red Peafowl trailer, it had more in common with Kinnporsche, History: Trapped, along with films and shows like: Jet Li's The Enforcer, and Fist of Legend, Donnie Yen's Flash Point, Raging Fire, and Kung Fu Jungle, Han Dong-wook's The Worst of Evil, Kim Jin-Min's My Name, Lee Chung-hyeon's The Ballerina, Baik's Believer & Believer 2, Yoshie Kaoruhara's KeixYaku, popular Don Lee films The Gangster, the Cop and the Devil and Unstoppable alongside BL manga like Honto Yajuu and Bi No Isu (probably one of the most well known yazuka manga to date).

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Like, we're seeing a rise in mafia based BLs and people think that's because of "western influence" and not the absolute insane success of kinnporsche??? Especially in countries like China, Korea, Taiwan, Philippines and other Asian countries???

Mafia films and gang shows aren't even that popular here in America/Europe; don't get me wrong, they still get made and exist, but the last full length film was The Irishman which did not make it's budget back, and while Power is still on-going it's not a smash hit either. The heyday of Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, The Wire, Goodfellas, and Scarface are long gone. And if you've watched any those shows or films they have very little in common with Kei x Yaku, Kinnporsche, or Red Peafowl in tone, or style.

(who knew martin just wanted to make his al pacino/robert de niro fanfic come to life all these years?)

Another example, The Sign, which is clearly taking inspiration from Chinese costume dramas: Ashes of Love, Fairy and Devil, White Snake (and it's many adaptions), Guardian, & Ying Yang Master Dream of Eternity. Alongside Hong Kong and Korean cop and romance shows like Tale of the Nine-Tailed, Hotel Del Luna, Director Who Buys Me Dinner, First Love, Again, and previously mentioned cop dramas.

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Like, I know y'all don't think Twins is influenced by, what, American sports classic Angels in the Outfield?? Gridiron Gang?? Rocky?? Nah that shit is inspired by the popularity of sports manga like Haikyuu!!, Slam Dunk, Prince of Tennis (which even has a Chinese drama adaption), and the like. And also probably History 2, & Not Me but I'm like 87% sure Twins is just Haikyuu fanfic.

So like, does this mean that there's NO history in which American and European cinema influenced these countries? What, no, obviously that's not true, American/European totally have had media influence on countries like Korea, Japan, etc.

Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka considered "the father of manga" was inspired by Walt Disney's work on Bambi. Another more recent and prominent example is director Yeon Sang-ho and his film Train to Busan.

"And it was Snyder’s movie [Dawn of the Dead, 2004], not the 1978 original, that filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho recalled as his first encounter with the undead. “That was when I started my interest in zombies,” Yeon said, in an email interview through a translator from South Korea. Even today, he added, “it’s the most memorable and intense zombie movie I’ve ever seen.”" (source)

HOWEVER, the global influence doesn't stop there. It's not a one-way street. Yeon Sang-Ho was inspired by Zack Synder's Dawn of the Dead, a remake of George Romero's own work, but Yeon Sang-Ho's work has inspired countless Korean film makers to make their own zombie media; following Train to Busan there's been: Kingdom (2019 - current), All of Us Are Dead (2022), Zombie Detective (2020), Zombieverse (2023), Alive (2020), Rampant (2018).

And hey, wouldn't you know it now we're starting to see more zombie media coming out of places like Japan (Zom 100 the manga, movie, and anime) and High School of the Dead.

Do you know what Domundi's series Zombivor (2023, pilot trailer only) reminds me of? It's NOT The Walking Dead (which is the only relevant zombie media America has created in the last decade) it's Korea's All of Us Are Dead (2022). Comparing the trailers, the settings, the tone, it's clear where Zombivor is pulling inspiration from: Korean zombie cinema. NOT American zombie cinema.

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In fact a lot of Domundi's shows - Cutie Pie, Middleman's Love, Naughty Babe, Bed Friend - are all very clearly inspired by Korean filmmaking, specifically that of romantic kdramas from the 2016 - 2020 era. Not always in story, but rather in technique.

This is media globalization. It's not simply ~The West~ influencing non-American/European countries but countries who are often more close in terms of: proximity, culture, and trade are going to have more influence on each other.

It is far more likely that Aoftion (Naughty Babe, Cutie Pie, Zombivor) was influenced by watching Train to Busan, All of Us Are Dead, and other Korean zombie shows and films than a single episode of Walking Dead.

My point isn't that this goes one way only, but rather it is very literally a global thing. This includes American and European film makers being influenced by non-American and European cinema.

Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Darren Aronofsky, Christopher Nolan, the Wachowski sisters, George Lucas and James Cameron have all been influenced by Japanese film making, especially the works of Akira Kurosawa, Satoshi Kon, and Mamoru Oshii.

John Wick's entire gun-fu sub-genre is heavily influenced by classic Hong Kong action films, specifically John Woo films. Legend of Korra, The Boondocks, Voltron, Young Justice, My Adventures with Superman are all obviously inspired by Japanese anime but animated by a Korean animation studio (Studio Mir). Beyond that, the rise in adult animated dramas like Castlevania, Critical Role Vox Machina, and Invincible to name a few are very clearly taking inspiration from anime in terms of style. The weebs that were watching Adult Swim's Inuyasha, Bleach, and Dragon Ball Z have grown up and are now working in Hollywood.

Okay so like, what's the point of all this? What's the issue? Since American/European cinema does influence et all cinema does any of this really matter?

YES.

I take contention with this line of thinking because it centers "the west" and our supposed individual importance way to much. Declaring definitively that "BL is being influenced by western tropes" and then including tropes, narratives, and film making styles that aren't inherently western and actually have major roots in the cinema of various Asian countries, removes the existence of individual history these countries have which are rich, varied, and nuanced. It removes the "global" part of globalization by declaring "the globe" is really just America and Europe.

It distills these countries down to static places that only exist when American/European audiences discover them.

BL doesn't exist in a vacuum you can trace the development of Korean BL to the development of Korean het dramas almost to a T. You can also trace their development to the queer history of each country and how Thailand interacts culturally with China, Japan, Korea, etc and vice versa. It also ignores the history of these countries influencing American cinema as well. Don't mistake "the globe" for only your sphere of experience.

Anyway James Cameron is a damn weeb y'all have a good night.

Check out other posts in the series:

Film Making? In My BL? - The Sign ep01 Edition | Aspect Ratio in Love for Love's Sake | Cinematography in My BL - Our Skyy2 vs kinnporsche, 2gether vs semantic error, 1000 Stars vs The Sign | How The Sign Uses CGI | Is BL Being Overly Influenced by Modern Western Romance Tropes?

[like these posts? drop me a couple pennies on ko-fi]

#kinnporsche #pit babe the series #the sign the series #twins the series #red peafowl the series #domundi #gmmtv #chaos pikachu speaks #fucking a this was an entire essay #i should drop a ko-fi link cause good god damn #chaos pikachu metas #Youtube #pikachu's bl film series

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fatehbaz · 4 months

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Endangered Indian sandalwood. British war to control the forests. Tallying every single tree in the kingdom. European companies claim the ecosystem. Spices and fragrances. Failure of the plantation. Until the twentieth century, the Empire couldn't figure out how to cultivate sandalwood because they didn't understand that the plant is actually a partial root parasite. French perfumes and the creation of "the Sandalwood City".

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Selling at about $147,000 per metric ton, the aromatic heartwood of Indian sandalwood (S. album) is arguably [among] the most expensive wood in the world. Globally, 90 per cent of the world’s S. album comes from India [...]. And within India, around 70 per cent of S. album comes from the state of Karnataka [...] [and] the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore. [...] [T]he species came to the brink of extinction. [...] [O]verexploitation led to the sandal tree's critical endangerment in 1974. [...]

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Francis Buchanan’s 1807 A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar is one of the few European sources to offer insight into pre-colonial forest utilisation in the region. [...] Buchanan records [...] [the] tradition of only harvesting sandalwood once every dozen years may have been an effective local pre-colonial conservation measure. [...] Starting in 1786, Tipu Sultan [ruler of Mysore] stopped trading pepper, sandalwood and cardamom with the British. As a result, trade prospects for the company [East India Company] were looking so bleak that by November 1788, Lord Cornwallis suggested abandoning Tellicherry on the Malabar Coast and reducing Bombay’s status from a presidency to a factory. [...] One way to understand these wars is [...] [that] [t]hey were about economic conquest as much as any other kind of expansion, and sandalwood was one of Mysore’s most prized commodities. In 1799, at the Battle of Srirangapatna, Tipu Sultan was defeated. The kingdom of Mysore became a princely state within British India [...]. [T]he East India Company also immediately started paying the [new rulers] for the right to trade sandalwood.

British control over South Asia’s natural resources was reaching its peak and a sophisticated new imperial forest administration was being developed that sought to solidify state control of the sandalwood trade. In 1864, the extraction and disposal of sandalwood came under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department. [...] Colonial anxiety to maximise profits from sandalwood meant that a government agency was established specifically to oversee the sandalwood trade [...] and so began the government sandalwood depot or koti system. [...]

From the 1860s the [British] government briefly experimented with a survey tallying every sandal tree standing in Mysore [...].

Instead, an intricate system of classification was developed in an effort to maximise profits. By 1898, an 18-tiered sandalwood classification system was instituted, up from a 10-tier system a decade earlier; it seems this led to much confusion and was eventually reduced back to 12 tiers [...].

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Meanwhile, private European companies also made significant inroads into Mysore territory at this time. By convincing the government to classify forests as ‘wastelands’, and arguing that Europeans would improves these tracts from their ‘semi-savage state’, starting in the 1860s vast areas were taken from local inhabitants and converted into private plantations for the ‘production of cardamom, pepper, coffee and sandalwood’.

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Yet attempts to cultivate sandalwood on both forest department and privately owned plantations proved to be a dismal failure. There were [...] major problems facing sandalwood supply in the period before the twentieth century besides overexploitation and European monopoly. [...] Before the first quarter of the twentieth century European foresters simply could not figure out how to grow sandalwood trees effectively.

The main reason for this is that sandal is what is now known as a semi-parasite or root parasite; besides a main taproot that absorbs nutrients from the earth, the sandal tree grows parasitical roots (or haustoria) that derive sustenance from neighbouring brush and trees. [...] Dietrich Brandis, the man often regaled as the father of Indian forestry, reported being unaware of the [sole significant English-language scientific paper on sandalwood root parasitism] when he worked at Kew Gardens in London on South Asian ‘forest flora’ in 1872–73. Thus it was not until 1902 that the issue started to receive attention in the scientific community, when C.A. Barber, a government botanist in Madras [...] himself pointed out, 'no one seems to be at all sure whether the sandalwood is or is not a true parasite'.

Well into the early decades of twentieth century, silviculture of sandal proved a complete failure. The problem was the typical monoculture approach of tree farming in which all other species were removed and so the tree could not survive. [...]

The long wait time until maturity of the tree must also be considered. Only sandal heartwood and roots develop fragrance, and trees only begin developing fragrance in significant quantities after about thirty years. Not only did traders, who were typically just sailing through, not have the botanical know-how to replant the tree, but they almost certainly would not be there to see a return on their investments if they did. [...]

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The main problem facing the sustainable harvest and continued survival of sandalwood in India [...] came from the advent of the sandalwood oil industry at the beginning of the twentieth century. During World War I, vast amounts of sandal were stockpiled in Mysore because perfumeries in France had stopped production and it had become illegal to export to German perfumeries. In 1915, a Government Sandalwood Oil Factory was built in Mysore. In 1917, it began distilling. [...] [S]andalwood production now ramped up immensely. It was at this time that Mysore came to be known as ‘the Sandalwood City’.

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Text above by: Ezra Rashkow. "Perfumed the axe that laid it low: The endangerment of sandalwood in southern India." Indian Economic and Social History Review 51, no. 1, pages 41-70. March 2014. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Italicized first paragraph/heading in this post added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

#a lot more in full article specifically about #postindependence indian nationstates industrial extraction continues trend established by british imperial forestry management #and ALSO good stuff looking at infamous local extinctions of other endemic species of sandalwood in south pacific #that compares and contrasts why sandalwood survived in india while going extinct in south pacific almost immediately after european conques #abolition #ecology #imperial #colonial #landscape #indigenous #multispecies #tiger #tidalectics #archipelagic thinking #intimacies of four continents #carceral geography #geographic imaginaries #haunted

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a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives · 8 months

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AMC Picks Up Captain Nemo Origin Series ‘Nautilus’ From Disney, Plans to Air Show in 2024

The Captain Nemo origin story series “Nautilus” lives on, with AMC Networks licensing the U.S. and Canadian linear and streaming rights to the live-action series from Disney Entertainment.

The 10-episode show was originally slated to air on Disney+, but it was announced back in August that the show was not going forward at the streamer as part of a wide-ranging cost cutting initiative at the Mouse House.

AMC and AMC+ will now air the show as a special television event in 2024, with an exact premiere date to be announced later. Inspired by Jules Vernes’ “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” the show will explore the early life of Captain Nemo, who is played by Shazad Latif. The character is described as “an Indian Prince robbed of his birthright and family, a prisoner of the East India Mercantile Company and a man bent on revenge against the forces that have taken everything from him.”

“’Nautilus’ is a big, sweeping drama that is sure to appeal to fans of our Anne Rice Immortal Universe and other buzzy and fan-forward series like ‘Orphan Black: Echoes,’” said Ben Davis, executive vice president of original programming for AMC Networks and AMC Studios. “We are looking forward to bringing it to AMC+ and AMC as a special television event next year.”

Along with Latif, the cast of the show includes Georgia Flood, Thierry Fremont and Céline Menville, with guest appearances from Richard E. Grant, Anna Torv and Noah Taylor.

The series was developed and produced by Moonriver TV’s Xavier Marchand and Seven Stories’ Anand Tucker. James Dormer serves as writer and executive producer. Johanna Devereaux, Chris Loveall, Colleen Woodcock, and Daisy Gilbert also executive produce. Cameron Welsh serves as producer. Michael Matthews was the lead director.

“I am hugely excited that the efforts of everyone involved in the making of the show will be seen on such a prestigious network,” said Dormer.

“We are so thrilled to present the epic adventures of Captain Nemo and his legendary submarine The Nautilus alongside the other incredible AMC universes,” said Marchand and Tucker. “The series will take viewers on a breathtaking journey with Nemo and his crew, battling terrifying creatures and the dark forces of the British Empire.”

“Nautilus” is distributed by Disney Entertainment and acknowledges the support from the Australian Government’s Location Incentive and from the Queensland Government via Screen Queensland’s Production Attraction Strategy.

Source: The Variety

#black sails #luke arnold #john silver #nautilus #amc networks

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hedgehog-moss · 1 year

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[1] `there are often translations available in other languages long before English ones` This is really interesting! I'm familiar with translation in games, where english is often a very early target (a small game might get 0-5 translations, depending on amount of text) because the size of the market is larger.

[2] Do you happen to know why this is different for books? Is it faster to come to a deal about publication rights for some other languages to get started on the translation? Is translation to english harder (at least from French) than to say, Spanish?

The literary translation situation has long been very dismal in the English-speaking world! I don’t know a lot about video games, but are localisations provided by the company that makes the game? Because if that's the case it makes sense that games would get translated into English as a priority. For literary translations which are imported rather than exported, other countries have to decide to translate a foreign author and anglo countries (US, UK and Canada at least) are not very interested in foreign literature. There's something known as the "3% rule" in translation—i.e. about 3% of all published books in the US in any given year are translations. Some recent sources say this figure is outdated and it’s now something like 5% (... god) but note that it encompasses all translations, and most of it is technical translation (instruction manuals, etc). The percentage of novels in translation published in the UK is 5-6% from what I’ve read and it’s lower in the US. In France it's 33%, and that’s not unusually high compared to other European countries.

I don't think it's only because of the global influence of English* and the higher proportion of English speakers in other countries than [insert language] speakers in the US, or poor language education in schools etc, because just consider how many people in the US speak Spanish—I just looked it up and native Spanish speakers in the US represent nearly 2/3rds of the population of France, and yet in 2014 (most recent solid stat I could find) the US published only 67 books translated from Spanish. France with a much smaller % of native Spanish speakers (and literary market) published ~370 translations from Spanish that same year. All languages combined, the total number of new translations published in France in 2014 was 11,859; in Spain it was 19,865; the same year the US published 618 new translations. France translated more books from German alone (754) than the US did from all languages combined, and German is only our 3rd most translated language (and a distant third at that!). The number of new translations I found in the US in 2018 was 632 so the 3% figure is probably still accurate enough.

* When I say it’s not just about the global influence of English—obviously that plays a huge role but I mean there’s also a factor of cultural isolationism at play. If you take English out of the equation there’s still a lot more cultural exchange (in terms of literature) between other countries. Take Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead; it was published in 2009, and (to give a few examples) translated in Swedish 1 year later, in Russian & German 2 years later, in French, Danish & Italian 3 years later, in English 10 years later—only after she won the Nobel. I’m reminded of the former secretary for the Nobel Prize who said Americans “don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature” because they don’t translate enough. I think it's a similar phenomenon as the one described in the "How US culture ate the world" article; the US is more interested in exporting its culture than in importing cultural products from the rest of the world. And sure, anglo culture is spread over most continents so there’s still a diversity of voices that write in English (from India, South Africa, etc etc) but that creates pressure for authors to adopt English as their literary language. The dearth of English translation doesn’t just mean that monolingual anglophones are cut off from a lot of great literature, but also that authors who write in minority languages are cut off from the global visibility an English translation could give them, as it could serve as a bridge to be translated in a lot more languages, and as a way to become eligible for major literary prizes including the Nobel.

Considering that women are less translated than men and represent a minority (about 1/3) of that already abysmally low 3% figure, I find the recent successes of English translations of women writers encouraging—Olga Tokarczuk, Banana Yoshimoto, Han Kang, Valeria Luiselli, Samanta Schweblin, Sayaka Murata, Leila Slimani, of course Elena Ferrante... Hopefully this is a trend that continues & increases! I remember this New Yorker article from years ago, “Do You Have to Win the Nobel Prize to Be Translated?”, in which a US small press owner said “there’s just no demand in this country” (for translated works); but the article acknowledged that it’s also a chicken-and-egg problem. Traditional publishers who have the budget to market them properly don’t release many translations as (among other things) they think US readers are reluctant to read translated foreign literature, and the indie presses who release the lion’s share of translated works (I read it was about 80%) don’t have the budget to promote them so people don’t buy them so the assumption that readers aren’t interested lives on. So maybe social media can slowly change the situation by showing that anglo readers are interested in translated books if they just get to find out about them...

#ask #anyway it's difficult to find accurate stats for translation and compare between countries because some % you see are #for all translations and as i said technical translations / computer manuals etc make up the bulk of it #some % are averages over decades; others only for fiction or for novels & poetry etc so you end up comparing apples and oranges #but the fact remains that the three percent website (translation database) was able to list every single literary translation #published in the us year after year and it was never higher than 600-ish titles in the 2010s. it's not great #when you see much smaller countries release translations in the thousands or tens of thousands #it's also not a huge improvement over the 400-ish yearly US translations in the 00s #but they haven't released numbers for the past few years and maybe the situation is a bit better now

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whencyclopedia · 1 month

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Indigo Revolt

The Indigo Revolt (aka Indigo Riots or Blue Mutiny) of 1859-60 in Bengal, India, involved indigo growers going on strike in protest at working conditions and pay. The subsequent violence was aimed at exploitative European plantation owners, but the cause was, during and after, taken up by anti-colonial Indian liberals as an example of the necessity for independence.

The Indigo Trade

India was known for its cotton textiles through the Middle Ages, and by the mid-16th century Gujarat in northwest India was major a source of indigo, the deep blue-violet dye used to colour cotton and other materials. Indigo was in high demand by the European trading companies, including the British East India Company (EIC) which made large profits from its export. The EIC used well the long-standing expertise of Indian indigo growers and dyers, particularly in centres such as Sarkhej in Gujarat and Bayana in neighbouring Rajasthan, both in northeast India.

The making of indigo dye was a long and labour-intensive process. The plant cuttings were harvested once a year in June or July before the onset of the rainy season. These were then taken to a factory by cart where they were emptied into large vats to steep in water. The dyed water and mash was then boiled as this brought out a richer colour in the indigo grains, which then had to be strained out. The grains were next pressed into dried cakes, which were in turn pressed into barrels or, alternatively, the mass was cut into cubes and packed into chests ready for transportation. Most indigo was shipped to Calcutta (Kolkata) for sale to merchants who then organised shipment to England or the Americas where it was used to colour textiles. From the late 18th century, Bengal became the major centre for indigo production, accounting for 67% of London's total imports of the dye in 1796 (around 2 million kilograms) and then rising further into the 19th century.

The indigo industry was a volatile one. Too much or too little rain greatly affected the quantity and quality of the dye produced each year, and in boom years, overproduction brought a crash in the price. Still, for the long-term investor, indigo could be a very lucrative industry indeed. Unfortunately, the financial speculation that resulted in such a crop with potential for large gains was another source of instability. Finally, the location of many indigo plantations made them prone to flooding, which not only damaged the crop but often swept away the factory facilities.

#History #BritishRaj #India #IndigoRevolt #WHE #[#]

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rhysdarbinizedarby · 3 months

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Night Court S02 "The Duke's a Hazard" Welcomes Dave Foley, Rhys Darby

We have preview images for Melissa Rauch, John Larroquette & Dan Rubin's Night Court S02 "The Duke's a Hazard," with Dave Foley & Rhys Darby.

Before we take a look at the next episode of series star/EP Melissa Rauch, co-star/EP John Larroquette & writer/EP Dan Rubin's Night Court, we have to throw out some serious thanks once again to series star Lacretta for dropping us the news that The Kids in the Hall's Dave Foley would be appearing this during a conversation last month. Well, it turns out that Foley will be guest-starring in Tuesday's "The Duke's a Hazard" – and he's not alone because Our Flag Means Death star Rhys Darby will be joining him. For a look at what you can expect, check out the official overview & preview images that were released.

(Photo by: Nicole Weingart/NBC)

Night Court Season 2 "The Duke's a Hazard" Preview

Night Court Season 2 "The Duke's a Hazard": When Gurgs' (Lacretta) royal boyfriend pays a surprise visit, she questions their compatibility. Dan (John Larroquette) defends his family's honor after he discovers a feud that dates back centuries. Rhys Darby and Dave Foley guest star.

(Photo by: Nicole Weingart/NBC)

The eternally optimistic Abby Stone (Melissa Rauch) follows in the footsteps of her revered late father, Judge Harry Stone, as she takes on the challenge of overseeing the night shift of a Manhattan arraignment court.

Abby always sees the best in people, and her passion for justice is undeniable. In her quest to bring order and dignity to the court and reign in its colorful crew of oddballs, she enlists former night court district attorney Dan Fielding (John Larroquette) to serve as the court's public defender. Still exceedingly self-confident, Fielding must adjust to a new boss and a new job – defending the downtrodden. And, beneath his arrogant demeanor, there is an empathetic side to Fielding that Abby is determined to unearth.

They both must contend with Olivia (India de Beaufort), the court's officious assistant district attorney. Driven and ambitious, she views the night court as a stepping stone on her way to bigger things. Wyatt Shaw (Nyambi Nyambi), the court's new quick-witted and sarcastic clerk, has seen it all. As a recently divorced, overprotective father of two young girls, he's determined to make sure his daughters see way less than he did.

Rounding out the staff is Donna "Gurgs" Gurganos (Lacretta), the night court's sharp-witted bailiff. Gurgs takes her job very seriously and is fiercely protective of her night court colleagues. Nikolai (Dimiter Marinov) is the court's maintenance man. A staple character within the building, Nikolai pops up in the day-to-day lives of the crew. He's a mystery to everyone around the courthouse (and he likes it that way).

Rauch and Winston Rauch executive produce via After January production company (based at Warner Bros. TV) alongside Rubin- with Larroquette set to produce. After January produces in association with the original series studio, Warner Bros.

Source: Bleeding Cool

#rhys darby #david foley #night court

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ess-ell-sourcing-co · 12 days

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Examining Ess Ell Sourcing Co.'s Whole Range of Consumer Product Testing

Ess Ell Sourcing Co is renowned for its rigorous and comprehensive consumer product testing. This ensures that products meet high standards of quality, safety, and performance before they reach the market. The various types of consumer product testing conducted by Ess Ell Sourcing Co are crucial for different product categories and their respective regulatory and consumer expectations. Here’s a look at the primary testing types:

Safety Testing

Safety is paramount, and Ess Ell Sourcing Co conducts extensive safety tests to ensure products are free from hazards. This includes electrical safety testing for appliances, fire resistance testing for textiles, and toxicity testing for children's toys and products. Ensuring compliance with safety regulations such as CE, UL, and ASTM is a top priority.

Performance Testing

Performance testing evaluates whether a product performs as expected under normal and extreme conditions. For instance, electronic gadgets undergo functionality tests to ensure they operate correctly over a specified lifespan. Household items like cookware are tested for durability and effectiveness in real-world usage scenarios.

Quality Testing

Quality assurance is a cornerstone of Ess Ell Sourcing Co's testing processes. Products are subjected to tests that assess their overall build quality, material integrity, and craftsmanship. For example, textile products are tested for colorfastness, shrinkage, and seam strength to ensure they maintain their quality over time.

Chemical Testing

Chemical testing is critical, especially for products that come into direct contact with consumers, such as cosmetics, toys, and food containers. Ess Ell Sourcing Co tests for harmful substances like lead, phthalates, and other restricted chemicals to ensure products are safe for consumer use and comply with regulatory standards such as REACH and RoHS.

Environmental Testing

Understanding how products impact the environment is increasingly important. Environmental testing includes evaluating the biodegradability of materials, the presence of eco-friendly components, and the overall carbon footprint of the product. This testing helps ensure products meet environmental standards and sustainability goals.

User Experience Testing

User experience testing focuses on how consumers interact with the product. This involves usability testing to gauge ease of use, ergonomic testing for comfort, and consumer feedback sessions to gather insights on product satisfaction and potential improvements.

Regulatory Compliance Testing

Ess Ell Sourcing Co ensures that all products meet the necessary regulatory requirements specific to the markets they are entering. This includes compliance with international, national, and industry-specific standards and certifications, ensuring that products can be sold legally and safely in their intended markets.

Conclusion

Ess Ell Sourcing Co’s diverse range of consumer product testing services underscores its commitment to delivering high-quality, safe, and reliable products. By leveraging comprehensive testing protocols, the company ensures that every product not only meets but exceeds consumer expectations and regulatory requirements. This meticulous approach to product testing solidifies Ess Ell Sourcing Co’s reputation as a leader in quality assurance and consumer safety.

#quality control services in india #reliable product sourcing company in india #product design services

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naturalrights-retard · 9 months

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STORY AT-A-GLANCE

ViAqua Therapeutics, an Israeli-based biotechnology startup, has secured $8.25 million in funding for its oral RNA-based shrimp vaccine

The vaccine targets white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), which leads to a 15% reduction in global shrimp production each year

ViAqua plans to administer its RNA-based product via coated feed; the RNA molecules can inhibit gene expression, silencing disease-affected genes

Shrimp lack an adaptive immune system, the type that “remembers” exposures to infectious agents, so it’s long been assumed that shrimp cannot be vaccinated; now it’s becoming clear that shrimp do have some defense against viruses, which is only beginning to be understood

The risks of tinkering with shrimp genetics, and using mRNA shots in pigs, cattle and other animals intended for food, are completely unknown

Shrimp are slated to become the latest food source exposed to messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines, courtesy of ViAqua Therapeutics, an Israeli-based biotechnology startup. The company has secured $8.25 million in funding from venture capitalists for its oral RNA-based shrimp vaccine, which is intended to target white spot syndrome virus (WSSV).

With plans to administer its RNA-based product via coated feed, ViAqua suggests the RNA molecules can inhibit gene expression, silencing disease-affected genes with every meal.1 WSSV is a devastating condition in shrimp, leading to a 15% reduction in global shrimp production each year — an annual loss of about $3 billion.2

ViAqua says challenge tests show its RNA-based formulation improved shrimp survival against WSSV, but at what cost? The use of mRNA in the food supply is controversial for good reason — no one knows what the long-term consequences will be.

RNA Vaccines Coming for Shrimp

ViAqua is using RNA interference (RNAi) particles, provided as a feed supplement, to manipulate gene expression in shrimp, one of the most widely consumed forms of seafood worldwide. In a 2022 proof of concept study that used a polyanhydride nanoparticle delivery platform to deliver RNA to shrimp orally, it’s stated:3

"RNA interference (RNAi) in invertebrates is an antiviral cellular mechanism by which a trigger, such as double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) or small interfering RNA (siRNA) starts sequence-specific degradation of target mRNA, thereby preventing viral gene expression.

… In aquaculture systems, the concept of RNAi-based vaccines has been championed for several reasons: (a) RNAi works as an antiviral immune response in shrimp; (b) it is pathogen-specific; and (c) it generates a long-term protective immune response."

The study found that the "nanovaccine" was about 80% effective in protecting against WSSV in shrimp, when administered via reverse gavage to "mimic an oral route."4 ViAqua has brought the potential for oral delivery to the next level, with plans to begin producing its RNAi capsule products in India in 2024.5 Shai Ufaz, ViAqua’s chief executive officer, stated:6

"Oral delivery is the holy grail of aquaculture health development due to both the impossibility of vaccinating individual shrimp and its ability to substantially bring down the operational costs of disease management while improving outcomes … We are excited to bring this technology to market to address the need for affordable disease solutions in aquaculture."

Can Shrimp Be Vaccinated?

Shrimp lack an adaptive immune system, the type that "remembers" exposures to infectious agents so it can mount a better response the next time it comes around. Because of this, it’s long been assumed that shrimp cannot be vaccinated. According to the Global Seafood Alliance:7

"Scientific literature on shrimp has often adopted terms and approaches from mammalian immunology, but not always in a correct way. Such is the case in the use of the term "vaccination" in crustaceans. The principle of vaccination is based on two key elements of the immune system: specificity and memory. These two properties are not recognized in the immune systems of shrimp and other invertebrates."

However, while shrimp don’t have adaptive immunity in the traditional sense, it’s becoming clear that they do have some defense against viruses, which is only beginning to be understood. In 2008, researchers with Australia’s University of Queensland explained, "There is mounting evidence for specific immune memory in crustaceans, including shrimp," adding:8

"It has been widely assumed that no such adaptive systems exist in invertebrates, thus vaccines have not been routinely developed and used in shrimp aquaculture. Invertebrates were considered to rely solely on an innate immune system characterized by generalized immune responses to conserved molecular structures of invading pathogens such as bacteria and fungi.

Some of these pathways are relatively well understood, involving an array of pattern recognition receptors interacting with serine proteases to initiate encapsulation, phagocytosis and an antimicrobial cascade based on the phenoloxidase enzyme system.

However, what is becoming more apparent is that the diversity and sophistication of innate responses in invertebrates is far greater than previously assumed. The invertebrate immune response to viruses is particularly poorly understood."

ViAqua’s RNAi product claims to "enhance resistance to viral infections" in shrimp,9 and they have plans to develop additional mRNA vaccines for fish and other biotechnology products targeting additional shrimp viruses and other pathogens.10

But shrimp pathogens of one kind or another are virtually guaranteed to persist in the intensive aquaculture farms where many shrimp are raised. Further, the risks of tinkering with shrimp genetics are completely unknown.

Download this Article Before it Disappears

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mRNA Shots Already Used in Pork

The media has been pretty quiet about the up-and-coming genetic manipulation of shrimp. This seems to be par for the course. Few are aware that, since 2018, pork producers have been using customizable mRNA-based "vaccines" on their herds — as it largely slipped by under the radar.11

It wasn’t until attorney Tom Renz began promoting new legislation in Missouri (House Bill 1169,12 which he helped write) that would require labeling of mRNA products that it began to receive attention.13 In an April 1, 2023, tweet, Renz stated:14

"BREAKING NEWS: the lobbyists for the cattleman and pork associations in several states have CONFIRMED they WILL be using mRNA vaccines in pigs and cows THIS MONTH. WE MUST SUPPORT MISSOURI HB1169. It is LITERALLY the ONLY chance we have to prevent this … NO ONE knows the impacts of doing this but we are all potentially facing the risk of being a #DiedSuddenly if we don't stop this."

Even though the bill asks only for transparency — not a ban of the mRNA-based shots — industry pushback has been enormous. They don’t want you to know that they’re using mRNA and similar products, because then they'd have to admit that the resulting foods may have gene-altering effects. And it’s not just pork, either.

Cattle Groups Urge Caution Over mRNA

The first RNA-based livestock vaccine, a swine influenza (H3N2) RNA shot developed by Harrisvaccines was licensed in 2012.15 The company followed up with an avian influenza mRNA shot in 2015.16

Concerns that mRNA injections could end up "in the global protein supply chain" also prompted warnings from cattle producers and calls for mandatory country of origin labeling (MCOOL) so consumers can choose meat from countries that don’t allow mRNA shots in meat animals.17

In an April 2023 news release, Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA), a nonprofit that represents interests of independent U.S. cattle producers, shared concerns about the use of mRNA shots in cattle and other meat animals. Max Thornsberry, DVM, R-CALF’s animal health committee chair, met with medial doctors and a molecular biologist before briefing the R-CALF USA board:18

"Thornsberry reported that some researchers have found that mRNA and its coded virus is likely passed from an injected human to a noninjected human, and to humans who have consumed dairy products or meat from an mRNA-injected animal.

He said that because the research on mRNA is still in its infancy, no one really knows the full impact it has on either humans or animals, particularly its long-term impact. He said this itself warrants more extensive mRNA research focused on safety, heightened public vigilance, and greater transparency."

In a commentary, R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard also urged caution regarding mRNA injections, stating:19

"It’s not a vaccine as we typically understand vaccines. So, for the rest of this discussion, I’ll refer to it as an injection. It’s an injection of a laboratory-produced substance into humans or livestock that is coded with a particular virus, such as COVID-19, that produces an immune response against the particular virus.

And what does mRNA do? Well, it hijacks living cells, tricking them into producing some level of immunity against human viruses like COVID-19 and livestock viruses such as foot-and-mouth disease or lumpy skin disease. It does this by rewriting the instructions from the body’s DNA. And what are the potential risks to humans and livestock?

The truthful answer is we don’t yet know the long-term effects of mRNA injections in either humans or livestock.

… There is great concern that living cells excrete the mRNA over time and the mRNA can then be transferred to animals and humans that have never received the mRNA injection. It is believed, for example, that humans can contact mRNA by eating meat from livestock that have received the injection.

The reason mRNA is an issue today is that pharmaceutical firms have found that it takes very little of it to hijack a cell, and it can be produced cheaper than typical virus vaccines."

Is it possible that mRNA or RNAi nanoparticles could persist in the meat and shrimp you’re eating? Penny Riggs, associate research professor of functional genetics at Texas A&M, stated, "The estimate is that half of the mRNA from a vaccine is gone in about 20 hours, and completely destroyed within a few days."20

However, Thornsberry cited21 one study, published in Biomedicines, that found mRNA from injections can be detected in blood 15 days post-shot.22

The proof-of-concept study for the shrimp RNA nanovaccine also found the particles persisted long after administration: "The nanoparticles localized to tissue target replication sites for WSSV and persisted through 28 days post-administration."23 Again, the consequences of consuming these nanoparticles remains to be seen.

Antibiotic Resistance Widespread in Shrimp

Farm-raised seafood is among the most contaminated foods you can eat, shrimp included. Antibiotics are commonly used on farmed shrimp in an attempt to slow down pathogens.24 Not surprisingly, shrimp is often contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria as a result.

One investigation by CBC News Marketplace found 17% — nine of the 51 packages of shrimp imported from Vietnam, Thailand, China, India and Ecuador — were contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.25 Among them, all but one showed resistance to multiple antibiotics.

Investigators purchased imported shrimp labeled "organic" as well as some with the "Best Aquaculture Practices" certification, which maintains that farmers only use antibiotics minimally.

So, while shrimp can be a healthy addition to your diet, it’s important to avoid farm-raised shrimp, which is the type served in most restaurants and the variety that’s slated to receive a gene-altering nanoparticle vaccine in its feed. When it comes to purchasing high-quality shrimp, look for those that are either wild caught or locally produced.

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thebleedingwoodland · 4 months

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Being busy with real life, so I just watched The Sims channel on Youtube, I found youtube video

EA what is this? l Sims 4 For Rent Expansion Pack by Matinee

Ha ha ha.

"Coconut rice"?

What the ****, EA? As a Southeast Asian I never heard of term "Coconut rice"

I asked my real friend from Malaysia, and she was confused with word "Coconut rice" too, she laughed then replied to me, "You mean Nasi Lemak? *laughing emoticon*"

^ Yes, seriously, but I cannot show her chat screenshot due to privacy.

Probably Coconut rice is word invented by Westerners or White Caucasian race. As if the word sounds like "Rice" with grated "Coconut" toppings, which sounds very misleading.

As Southeast Asian, we say dishes that have rice cooked with coconut milk in direct name of the dish, not just "Coconut milk rice" or "Nasi Santan". Malaysians call it Nasi Lemak. Indonesians call it Nasi Uduk. Thais call it ข้าวเหนียวมะม่วง (Khao Niao Mamuang) --> Thai Mango Sticky Rice

Here are pictures of Coconut Milk. For this kind of product it is called "Coconut Cream" because it has little amount of water. 100% legit my own photos I took from nearby minimarket.

By Googling "Nasi Lemak", here is the result:

How could EA, as big massive company make stupid mistake like this? Designer is not just 1 person in studio. There are Intern, Junior Designer, Senior Designer, Supervisor, Art Director. And there are a lot of people in the studio who can supervise and give feedback and advise internally. And yet they cannot Googling "Nasi Lemak" properly. What's the point of Supervisor and Art Director once again? Makan gaji buta? Eating salary without giving effort at all?

EA wrongly represented Nasi Lemak with random rice texture, but then they decided to just "renaming" it with Western/White Caucasian term "Coconut rice" instead of giving update correct Nasi Lemak mesh.

As a designer from corporate who had worked in video game company before, I can tell you this apologize is not sincere and lazy. The proper apologize is supposedly making proper new mesh update of Nasi Lemak.

CC creator, icemunmun, from India, has already created functional Nasi Lemak. CC LINK DOWNLOAD

EA is massive company releasing The Sims as AAA video game titles from The Sims 1,2,3,4 with many expensive expansion packs who brought them massive profit yet they didn't want to spend any effort to give correct proper update with one new mesh.

As if they already know they made mistake and decided to not wanting to spend any more effort because

They already gained massive profit from international sales... and don't care much about players from Southeast Asian countries including Malaysian that their content depicted wrongly in-game as they thought Southeast Asian players are not profitable enough compared to USA and European players.

Ignorance about Asian culture, instead of hiring Southeast Asian people as staff/source person who are willing to give authentic information. They non-Asian people must be thinking that "Nasi Lemak and Coconut rice are the same thing because contains coconut!!"

Yes I know EA studio who created The Sims 4 content is from U.S.A. Here I need to tell you something, U.S.A. people: We Asians, including Europeans, took food very seriously. Food is culture. If you U.S.A people depict our food wrongly, it means you insult our culture. I heard many Europeans complained about U.S.A people who don't take European food culture very seriously. What if USA flag is wrongly depicted by other flag such as Australian flag or Malaysian flag? I bet you USA people are very offended, right?

People tend to learn something from media, movies and video games. Because many Westerners don't know Nasi Lemak, they will think Nasi Lemak looks like porridge like what depicted in-game. Despite White Caucasian of British colonizer had colonized Malaysia, yet many White Caucasian people still don't know what Nasi Lemak looks like.

This is not first time EA misinterpreted Asian culture. EA has wrongly misinterpreted Chinese culture very badly in Shang Simla world.

Thank you sister Martinee for daring to speak up about this issue.

What EA depicted as "Nasi Lemak"

Looks like baby porridge I ate because I was sick.

#nasi lemak #malaysian #southeast asian #hahaha coconut rice what is that westerner?#the sims 4 for rent #electronic arts #the sims 4 #santan #asian sims players #united states of america #innacuracy in video games #asian representation

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spaceobloquy · 9 months

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All the Armored Core VI Endings Are Bad

There's been some debate online as to which ending to the game is good and which is bad, and why, and I'm here to tell you that they're all bad in different but more or less equally horrible ways and you're wasting your time defending one over the other. Before we start in on that, let's lay some groundwork. I'd like to credit this video by MadLuigi with helping hone my thoughts, although a lot of the below are my own observations.

Dune & Blade Runner

The first thing you need to know is that Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (henceforth AC6) is extremely heavily based on the novel Dune and the movie Blade Runner.

The Dune connection is pretty obvious: Coral was originally named Mélange in the leaked information on the game, using the more technical name for the Spice which facilitates future-sight and thus enables FTL travel in the Dune books (among other things). That should tell you all you need to know, but it doesn't stop there. Of course, Rubicon 3 being the only known planet with Coral is just like how Arrakis in Dune is the only source of the Spice Mélange. The currency of all past Armored Core entries were the generically named credits, but in AC6, it's COAM. The big feudal megacorp of Dune, standing in as the space version of the Dutch East India Company, is CHOAM, Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles. While the AC6 currency might either be an acronym or a contraction and its full meaning is unknown, this is more than a coincidence. The Rubicon Liberation Front styling themselves as "Coral Warriors", their use of Coral as a quasi-religious substance and object of worship, and their zealous dogmatism is an obvious reference to Dune's Fremen, and particularly the Fedaykin, or death commandos. Dosers and civilians are kind of like how the people of Arrakis are inadvertently exposed to Spice simply through ambient sources with the Dosers taking Coral recreationally like how Spice is used in coffee, and mealworms raised on Coral being the source of most food on Rubicon 3. All this will be very important to know for the Liberator of Rubicon ending.

The references to Blade Runner are more subtle. While human augmentation (Human PLUS) has a long history in the Armored Core franchise (going back to the first game) and in the cyberpunk genre as a whole (to which AC6 absolutely belongs), one of the progenitors of that genre is Blade Runner (1982), released in the same year as the manga Akira, and predating the genre's "literary" birth with Neuromancer in 1984. Blade Runner has an immense influence on AC6's visual and auditory style, as well as its treatment of augmented humans in a way similar to the Replicants (that is to say, as basically slaves). If you want to see this for yourself, all you have to do is compare AC6's Reveal Trailer with the opening of Blade Runner. You should be able to easily hear how heavily Kota Hoshino and company were influenced by Vangelis's score, as well as see how the visual framing was influenced.

These are not the only references AC6 has or makes, but they form the bedrock of understanding its genre and heritage as a thoroughly dystopian cyberpunk work.

Coral

AC6 revolves around Coral, and you need to understand that Coral is also a number of allusions wrapped up into one. While at heart an alien substance of biological origin (but not necessarily a lifeform unto itself) which mimics Dune's Spice Melange, it also evokes many other things:

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Permet: Permet is a mineral which facilitates remote data connections and is used to enhance various technological products, as well as augmenting humans. In sufficient quantity, if activated correctly, it can also modify local spacetime conditions, and can even host conscious minds. Sound familiar? This is likely a case of simultaneous parallel evolution rather than direct reference, as G-Witch came out so near the end of the game's development, but the similarities with Coral are hard to ignore. I'm not the first to draw this connection.

The Andromeda Strain - Andromeda: The titular Andromeda is a biological organism from Earth's upper atmosphere which directly converts energy to matter and which is capable of rapid mutation; it goes from crystalizing blood upon initial landfall on the planet to eventually consuming rubber and plastic near the book's conclusion. Andromeda's ability to self-replicate using almost any source of energy and to mutate to fit its environment is obviously reflected in Coral being able to grow best in space and experiencing Mutation Waves.

Mythology - Red Mercury: A purely fictional substance, red mercury is supposedly involved in nuclear weapons manufacture or capable of being used as an extremely potent chemical explosive rivaling nuclear weapons in destructive ability depending on who one asks. Coral's combustibility and color is a fairly obvious allusion to this or something like it.

Real Life - Nuclear Weapons: It should probably come as no surprise to you that due to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and more recently the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, that Japan has long had a fascination with and revulsion toward nuclear weapons. Coral is an explicit reference to nuclear weapons technology, taking the place of a sci-fi equivalent to them: a nuke greater than nukes. You can tell because the visual language of the Fires of Ibis directly references nuclear test footage:

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The destruction of the Grid system is visually a direct allusion to test examples of nuclear destruction.

Rubiconians

When I refer here to Rubiconians, I refer explicitly to Coral-based intelligence like Ayre, not the human population of Rubicon 3. This is an important distinction. It's also important to understand that intelligences like Ayre are a relatively recent phenomenon. We know this because the game tells us so:

The Mutation Wave detected at Watchpoint Delta, which 621 liberates by destroying the regulator, is Ayre, who subsequently makes Contact with 621. We know this because ALLMIND will also refer to Ayre as a "C-pulse wave mutation—Ayre" in the Alea Iacta Est ending mission. In other words, Ayre is relatively new. Coral has not traditionally manifested sapient personalities on Rubicon 3, certainly not prior to the arrival of humanity. Ayre is a direct reaction to humanity's actions. Given Ayre is a Wave Mutation, although she (and ALLMIND) refer to other Coral as her siblings, it is not at all clear that they are self-aware in the same sense as she is. She seems to be unique among Coral, which is why she and 621 are the triggers for Coral Release in ALLMIND's ending—only they have properly made Contact.

This should immediately make you suspicious for two reasons.

Firstly, humans are the way they are because of a long evolutionary process which begat physical, corporeal bodies, eventually resulting in anatomically modern humans that think and express in the ways we are familiar with. Coral does not have any of these constraints, and therefore should not naturally produce anything resembling a human mind, and yet Ayre seems remarkably human without having any of the physical neurological structure or evolutionary history to support that human mentality. This is extremely unlikely to happen purely by random chance.

Secondly, we learn over the course of the game that Ayre is capable of hacking, cracking, searching, and understanding human communication and data systems to an impossibly advanced degree. This is proven in small ways over the course of the campaign where she helps 621 out with locked systems—often to Walter's surprise—but is most grandly demonstrated in the Fires of Raven ending, when she takes over the PCA's abandoned Closure System to try and shoot down the Xylem, a feat which Carla asserts would be impossible for the corporations to do—and Carla is the best and brightest survivor of the Rubicon Research Institute. In other words, Ayre is capable of breaking into any piece of human technology, and can also easily determine what ALLMIND is doing despite encryption and it covering its tracks.

Ayre also has access to another piece of technology which is outfitted with a Coral transceiver: 621. Ayre is most likely readily able to approximate a human in mindset and expression because she's hooked up to a human full of human memories.

This is not to say that Ayre is or isn't deceiving 621 as to what she is. It's not clear how sincere or not Ayre is. It's not clear how truthfully she is presenting herself and her agenda. She could be perfectly earnest and forthright, or she could absolutely be presenting 621 with what she thinks 621 needs to hear to do what is best for Coral and using 621 as a tool and means to an end, or anything in between. She could be benevolent and a true believer in symbiosis, or she could be using 621 to liberate Coral so that it may parasitize humanity. It's worth noting here that the easiest means of hacking systems is social engineering, and that 621 was specifically targeted for Contact.

What you're really presented with in AC6 is an Outside Context Problem: you are interfacing with an alien entity that certainly seems to be sapient, agreeable, helpful, and wanting only the best for you and humanity as a whole. But does it really? The game is essentially about who you decide to trust as you make a decision on an evolutionary question about the future of humanity.

Are human morality and ethics, and a willingness to be open and inclusive and welcoming, an evolutionarily adaptive trait? Or are they, in this case, maladaptive? Or... neither? Is trusting Ayre a good idea?Or Rusty? Or Walter and Carla? Or even ALLMIND? Or is the road to Hell paved with good intentions?

The truth is... all your choices are bad.

Ending: Fires of Raven

Walter and Carla's point—and that of Overseer and Professor Nagai of the Rubicon Research Institute—is fairly easy to understand. If nuclear bombs could self-replicate and were also sapient, would you allow them to do so just because they asked nicely? Or would you consider that to be a threat to not just humanity, but all life on Earth? They see the question of Coral as this hypothetical writ large, because Coral can replicate endlessly throughout space.

If one planet's worth of Coral can burn and contaminate an entire star system (or several; the game isn't quite clear on how many systems were affected), then what could a star system's worth of it do? How about several star systems? Or an entire galaxy? Coral is potentially a threat to the entire universe if it's allowed to get off of Rubicon 3. That Coral can also be ignited at any time by any sufficient explosion or natural phenomena; solar flares, supernova, nuclear bombs, even a sufficient chemical explosive or friction heating can ignite it. It could all go off for any reason at any time. Coral will present a threat as long as it exists, because there will always be those who seek to claim its power as their own for whatever ends: "Where there's Coral, there's blood."

The calculation as far as Overseer is concerned is simple: burn Rubicon 3, everyone on it, and everyone near it to save the rest of humanity and the universe at large. The casualties are collateral damage compared to the stakes. There are far, far more humans elsewhere than there are on Rubicon 3, and the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

Is that right? Is it right to make Coral extinct, and genocide those on Rubicon 3, to save the rest of humanity, which apparently lives under an oppressively hypercapitalist megacorporate dystopia?

(It's worth noting at this point that the PCA is not the military of some grand government off to one side somewhere, like the UNSC Navy. It's its own entity and is effectively the Rubicon space police. This is reflected not only in its ship design, but in its ranks ("high-ranking officers" in the PCA are First Lieutenants and Captains, which are junior officers in an army or air force, but high ranks among police), in its language (the PCA treats resistance as a "declaration of war" upon itself, not any government it represents), in its ability to be banished from Rubicon 3 and an inability to reinforce from anywhere else, from the PCA's System AI being buried in the depths leading to Institute City, from the its terminology (Ekdromoi, CATAPHRACT, and NEPENTHES are all references to ancient Greece, notably dominated by city-states), and from the fact that in the Fires of Raven ending, despite being disgraced and shattered it's still in a position to negotiate, which would have been taken over by a higher authority above it after its dismal performance if any such authority existed. The PCA was most likely set up by the corporations (or perhaps planetary-level governments) as an independent actor after the Fires of Ibis. There is no grander government out there to save the day, and Armored Core as a franchise has never centered governments outside of Armored Core 2: Another Age.)

Some say yes, for the reasons Overseer gestures at. It's simply too dangerous to let it live, whether it's exploited by corporations or not, whether it achieves a Coral Collapse or not. It's also not talked about much, but an entity like Ayre also represents an infinitely more capable danger than one like ALLMIND; all she might need is time to gather resources.

Some say no, arguing that entities like Ayre have as much right to exist as humans, and that extinguishing them is not only repeating humanity's greatest crimes but denying its future improvement. It becomes tempting at this point to draw historical parallels, but the truth is that any such parallels are of dubious applicability considering human-on-human violence is not the same as interspecies violence against aliens, which humanity has (seemingly) never encountered, let alone aliens which are effectively weapons of mass destruction unto themselves. Some go even further and suggest humanity as it exists within AC6 is not worthy of survival, which is a much more suspect argument which frankly reeks of ecofascism.

The answer is: it depends on your risk assessment. Neither we the players, nor 621, know enough to actually make a truly informed choice. All the people who do and who aren't blinded by greed and power lust (that is to say, Walter, Carla, and Nagai) think it's the right thing to do. Do you trust them? It's ultimately your judgment call.

If you take the Fires of Raven ending, you (supposedly) destroy all the Coral, purge life from Rubicon 3 and its system, and cripple human civilization at large. Walter, Carla, Chatty, Rusty, Ayre, and everyone else all die. 621 is perhaps the sole survivor. It seems the Fires of Raven are grander than the Fires of Ibis, and the disgraced PCA and depleted remnants of Arquebus and Balam agree to abandon Rubicon 3 as they try to rebuild. 621, as Raven, goes down in history as the greatest monster of all time.

It is, however, entirely possible, given FROMSOFTWARE's Dark Souls series, that the Fires of Raven is merely the second in a never-ending line of humanity having to return to Rubicon 3 to ignite more Fires again and again, in a kind of grim echo of "linking the fire" in the first Dark Souls.

But what if I told you that the reason this ending is bad isn't necessarily because of the apparent extinction of Coral, or all the deaths both personal and statistical? Those are bad things, to be sure, but the real tragedy of the ending is you failed to actually engage with the problem Coral represents. You threw the baby out with the bathwater, and although you may or may not have prevented a Coral Collapse, you did nothing to change humanity's dystopian reality, and actually only made it worse by making it post-apocalyptic on top of everything else.

This fundamental issue—not really engaging with the problem—is true for the other endings as well. Each is an all-or-nothing solution to the problems at hand, and that is why they are all bad. Let's skip over to...

Ending: Alea Iacta Est

In this ending, Ayre lives, as does maybe Rusty, but you kill Chatty and ALLMIND kills Walter and Carla. ALLMIND betrays you, you fight the personality upload of G5 Iguazu, and finally defeat ALLMIND, but initiate ALLMIND's Coral Release program yourself.

What happens next is... unclear. Interpretations of it vary.

To me, it appears to be a kind of transcendent technological singularity wherein Coral, humanity, and humanity's technology in the form of Armored Cores, all unite together to create new kinds of beings beyond time and space, and beyond even death itself. The closest analogy to this is probably the Human Instrumentality Project in Neon Genesis Evangelion, or the "stargate sequence" in 2001: A Space Odyssey where Bowman is uploaded into the Monolith and becomes the Star Child. Or, to return to Dune once again, Leto II's symbiosis with the Sand Trout of Arrakis to become a human/Sandworm hybrid. Given the other ACs present in the ending, this appears to not be limited to 621, but likely extends to everyone on Rubicon 3, if not all of humanity. Another analogy might be the true ending of Bloodborne, but on a much grander scale.

This has the same problem as a sort of similar ending from the Mass Effect series, Mass Effect 3's Symbiosis ending. While in that game, BioWare attempted to make it the "correct" choice by showing everyone happy and satisfied with it in its ending cinematic, the truth is that nothing can possibly be a grander violation of the rights of sapient beings than forcing them into a new mode of existence which is discontinuous with their lives theretofore. It is not simply a violation of individual decision-making ability, it is a violation of bodily autonomy and control—it is rape, by the commonly understood definition, as rape is truly about bodily power over others and not sex, and it is the most egregious kind of rape imaginable: becoming something else entirely beyond human. This is effectively an eldritch body horror ending in which somewhere between Rubicon 3 and the entirety of humanity, if not the entire universe, appears to have been raped in an irrevocable fashion.

Whatever its exact nature, this ending has the same problems as the Fires of Raven: it does not actually engage with any extant problems at hand, it simply throws the baby out with the bathwater. In this case, rather than it being Coral that's disposed of, it's humanity itself, as V.III O'Keeffe feared when you were sent to eliminate him on the road to this ending. Humans aren't human anymore. None of humanity's issues were actually dealt with, they were simply disposed of wholesale with humanity having been deemed unworthy of any expenditure of effort, merely replacement through upgrading.

And here we come to...

Ending: Liberator of Rubicon

On the surface, this seems like the good ending, which is why most people call it that. Ayre lives, although 621 has to personally kill Walter, Carla, and Chatty, and it seems like Rusty is killed. The RLF takes control of Rubicon 3. 621 and Ayre look to the cosmos with hopeful optimism. What's not to like?

Except... remember Dune? This is the ending of Dune.

Do you know what happens after Paul Atreides and the Fremen defeat Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV and House Harkonnen on Arrakis, and Paul becomes Emperor himself? I'll tell you. His fanatical Fremen warriors spread his name throughout the rest of human space in Muad'Dib's Jihad, conservatively killing 61 billion people, mostly serfs and peasants and those who refused to forsake their faith.

Now you might say that Ayre and 621 don't want that to happen, but that's the point: it's not their choice to make, it's the RLF's. Paul didn't want it to happen in Dune either, he simply knew he couldn't stop it.

What exactly do you think is going to happen now that the faith of the Coral Warriors of the RLF is affirmed as righteous and true, now that they've defeated the PCA and corporations, now that they're in possession of all the Coral and all the Rubicon Research Institute's technology? What do you think Elcano is going to do with that research, alongside BAWS? Do you think they're going to just secure the system and be content?

Also, if Coral and humanity are to coexist together, doesn't that mean both growing in kind, together, as Ayre says? Doesn't that mean Coral augmentation surgery for everyone, with all the drawbacks that has? Or, at least, every human being a Doser to commune with Coral? What about all those who had Coral-replacement augmentation surgery, which negated the need for relying on Coral in the first place? Are they not automatically a threat to the new order, which must be destroyed to safeguard it?

Think that sounds too grim?

Don't you think it's odd that this ending comes with no narrated epilogue like Fires of Raven does, telling you what happened afterward? Instead you get Ayre telling you simply:

"Raven… One day, humanity and Coral will thrive together. You kept our potential safe. I know Walter feared a Collapse… but I promise you, there's another way. Raven… we'll find it. Together."

That sounds quite hopeful, but personally I key in on two particular phrases: one day, and we'll find it together. They remind me of something from another franchise:

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Palpatine seduces Anakin to the Dark Side of the Force by dangling the prospect of cheating death in front of him, preying on Anakin's fear of visions of Padmé dying. After Anakain has committed to betraying his allies and helped kill Mace Windu, Palpatine admits:

"To cheat death is a power only one has achieved, but if we work together I know we can discover the secret."

I find Ayre's very similar speech after 621 has betrayed and killed Carla, Chatty, and Walter to be... uninspiring... personally.

Now, I'm not telling you that Ayre is Darth Sidious or a Sith Lord, although it sure is interesting Coral is red.

What I am telling you is to remember that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and where there's Coral, there's blood. You shouldn't naïvely assume that the story so heavily influenced by Dune, which is at this point directly referencing Dune, will stray very far from it, no matter how good Ayre's intentions might actually be. Because if Ayre is genuine, then she's exceptionally naïve herself, as we see from her reactions to ALLMIND's plans in Alea Iacta Est.

Even if no Dune-like Jihad sweeps AC6's universe, all the problems posed by Coral detonations and Wave Mutations and Coral Collapse still remain.

This ending, too, throws the baby out with the bathwater: instead of losing Coral, or overtly losing humanity, we have instead decided to discard the grim hypercapitalist megacorporate dystopia for a grim ultrafanatical cult religion dystopia which will also probably be even worse and/or the omnipresent threat of total mass destruction. In The Devil's Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce gave the following definition:

Conservative (n.) A statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.

If the Fires of Raven is conservative, preserving the status quo and its existing evils and making them worse, then both Alea Iacta Est and Liberator of Rubicon are liberal, ushering in different horrors which are only refreshing in so far as they are different than the ones that came before.

If Balam and Arquebus stand in for, oh, say, Amazon and Apple, then the RLF stands in for ISIS or Al Qaeda or the Shining Path. This is not a happy and uplifting ending, it's simply different and arranged to feel good in the moment to those who don't know what the game is drawing upon so it can pull the rug out from under them later.

Avatar

Since Dune has featured so prominently in this essay, I want to take a moment to talk about James Cameron's Avatar (2009), which has over time variously been derided as a rip-off of Dune, or Dances With Wolves or FernGully: The Last Rainforest in space, among other things. You might be asking why, so I'll cut to the chase.

The problem with Avatar is that nothing is actually resolved. Although Jake Sully's defection to the Na'vi results in the human Resources Development Administration being driven from Pandora, their hunger for unobtanium isn't quenched. Earth's resource crisis isn't solved. The shadowy elites ruling over humanity are still in charge. Nothing actually changes, problems are merely kicked down the road. The reason for this is simple: individual actions cannot solve systemic problems, whatever that systemic problem might be, be it classism, racism, environmental degradation, or so on.

In AC6, we observe systemic problems in the form of humanity's capture by corporations and bureaucracies that serve profits or power and not the common good, and the persistent problem of Coral which must be managed somehow. We do not actually resolve either of those issues as 621. We simply upset the balance one way or another and let the chips fall where they may, invoking this or that abhorrent deus ex machina.

Conclusion

While Fires of Raven represents the status quo (and stagnation and decay), Liberator of Rubicon represents the chaos of change (and likely war and fire) and Alea Iacta Est represents a fundamental rejection of humanity.

621 never actually lives up to the reputation of Raven in choosing a path of their own making. All the endings simply involve 621 choosing to trust one party or another, be it Walter and Carla and Nagai, or Ayre, or ALLMIND, rather than truly coming to their own decisions and directly addressing the actual problems at hand. This is represented in how the player is always held back until they have to deal with Xylem about to hit the Vascular Plant one way or another.

While I said that individual actions cannot solve systemic problems, they can begin to show the way toward systematic approaches to systemic problems. This is what we're told Raven represents when they're introduced properly, and also seems to be what Branch as a faction stand for. (It's notable here that when we meet Branch in NG+/NG++, they're working against the RLF, despite having previously fought the PCA.) It's also a video game, and thus is really about a power fantasy, but there's no power fantasy here. The game is never actually about your choice, it's only about who you choose to side with...

... And all the options they present you with are bad.

If there was to be an expansion, as with so many other FROMSOFTWARE games, I would hope it would be one focused around actually resolving the situation in a way of our own choosing, because that option is sorely lacking in an otherwise fantastic game.

#Out Of Character #Long Post #Meta #Armored Core VI #Armored Core 6 #Rape Mention TW #Genocide Mention TW #Death Mention TW #Spoilers TW

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