We are made of Stardust and Stories

tagged by @littleblackraincloudofcourse

i. favorite flower - stargazer lilies, but i never get them bc they're toxic to cats. also a fan of violets, they dotted the yard where i grew up and i loved to pick them.

ii. favorite season - fall for sure. the colors, the smells, the crunchy leaves, the breezes skirling out of nowhere.

iii. favorite soup - cheddar broccoli

iv. favorite anime - hellsing (original not ultimate)

v. favorite sport - uhhhhhhhhh. uh. uhhh. gymnastics? i admire the strength and coordination. it's a very powerful sport.

vi. favorite ships - graythrax, graydon and anybody really, bagginshield, daforge, jaime x brienne, johnlock, frostiron, joxer x ares

vii. favorite holiday - halloween still i guess. not really a holiday person but that one has the best aesthetic. thanksgiving if it's just me and my partner.

viii. favorite soft drink - diet coke

ix. favorite sea creature - manatee

x. favorite number - i don't think i have one. am i missing out?

tagging @swordkitty @the-grimsqueaker @greencheekconure27 @groceryshoppingwithaghost @cenobitic-anchorite @morriganwarrior @ankahikoibaat

Thanks @lowkeyed1 :)

1. Favourite flower? Lavender! Its my favourite scent too.

2. Favourite season? Winter! I'm now in my element with it having been winter officially for 4 days now. I'm wearing my hoodie to work and I'm comfortable and I only start sweating when one of the others in the office puts the heater on.

3. Favourite soup? Chicken. My grandma's chicken soup specifically (she's dead now, but i try and recreate it sometimes). Also pea and ham! Thats good shit. And mushroom!! OH ITS WINTER WHICH MEANS ITS SOUP SEASON :D

4. Favourite anime? I got a list, can't pick one. Fairy Tail, Assassination Classroom, Erased and Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. I peaked in the mid 10's.

5. Favourite sport? No. I used to be obsessed with soccer as a kid but I have a movement based seizure disorder and that really puts a damper on your enthusiasm for physical activity let me tell you.

6. Favourite ships? Pirate ships 😏. But no, in earnest I'm still on the Kit x Jade from Willow bandwagon. I haven't really shipped much for a long time.

7. Favourite holiday? As a working professional in Australia I'm a fan of Christmas. I get 10 days off and only have to use 3 days of my annual leave. Its good for a quick break.

8. Favourite soft drink? Vanilla coke! But also, very niche, the limited run of lime flavoured frozen fanta that Hoyts did back in about 2013. That was amazing. I think fanta did regular lime flavoured drink for a short time too, which was also delicious, but they took it away 😠

9. Favourite sea creature? I was a fan of dolphins as a child, now I'm a fan of crabs.

10. Favourite number? 13. I think it has a bad rep. But any uneven number thats not divisible by 5 is fine by me.

Thanks @the-grimsqueaker :)

1. Favourite flower? Hibsicus, daffodils, and tulips

2. Favourite season? Honestly, I'm living somewhere with proper seasons for this first time so right now I'm still just really loving seasons.

3. Favourite soup? baked potato :)

4. Favourite anime? I uh..... really have not watched very many. SpyxFamily

5. Favourite sport? I figure skated competitively as a child, and my mom used to teach gymnastics, so I enjoy watching those most because I actually understand what it takes to be able to Do That.

6. Favourite ships? I don't really engage with content around ships the way most people do on here. I just am like "oh, this couple is interesting" while watching the media. So uh, Imogen/Laudna and Orym/Dorian are the two that come to mind first?

7. Favourite holiday? I like just about any excuse to celebrate or spend time with loved ones. Halloween is always fun, but also moving further from home has left us not usually able to visit parents for thanksgiving and the friendsgiving we've started attending is a lot of fun.

8. Favourite soft drink? I don't really drink soda anymore, but I do miss the taste sometimes of a real-sugar dr pepper, and my husband introduced me to Specher's and their cream soda is the BEST.

9. Favourite sea creature? octopuses! they're fascinating.

10. Favourite number? I don't really have one, so I always default to 42 when people ask.

Weird Al is allowed to parody everything because he's operating under copyright law, not trademark law.

Trademark governs who can "trade" under what "mark" i.e. the brand identity of a company. Companies don't own their trademarked word forever, but they maintain the exclusive right to sell things under that brand in their specific market sector. Patagonia doesn't own the name of a geographical region, they just own the right to be the only company using that name to sell clothing and outdoor gear.

A drag queen name can be a parody of a clothing and outdoor gear company.

A company's trademarked logo can be used in parody creative works, with more leeway if it's not for commercial purposes. Trademark parody is allowed! Patagonia has been aware of and allowed Pattie Gonia's trademark parody for years.

Trademarks are specific to market sector. Actress Chase Infiniti could start a makeup line named after herself and her trademark would not infringe on the Infiniti car brand because they are different markets and there is no risk of confusion. Pattie Gonia could probably trademark her name to sell frozen veggie burgers and Patagonia would not care.

Drag queen Jan Sport did a collab with JanSport bags. What Jan Sport almost certainly did not do is independently apply to register "Jan Sport" as a trademark in order to sell bags on her own, because that would infringe on JanSport's own trademark in the bag market sector.

What Pattie Gonia is not allowed to do -- the thing that Pattie Gonia actually did do and is being sued for -- is apply to register "Pattie Gonia" as a trademark to sell clothing, because apparently Pattie is in talks with North Face and HydroFlask to sell "Pattie Gonia"-branded gear. These companies probably won't finalize anything unless Pattie shows that she actually owns the trademark. Unfortunately, "Patagonia" is already a registered trademark in the clothing market sector, and these two names are too similar to exist in the same sector (see: "likelihood of confusion" legal standard).

Your drag queen name can parody a clothing company. You can parody the trademarked logo of a clothing company. But you cannot use the same name to then go on to also become a clothing company.

In order to maintain their own trademark, Patagonia must sue for trademark infringement. If they don't sue, and Pattie Gonia gets her own trademark, Pattie could sue Patagonia for infringement on her trademark. You can see why Patagonia won't be dropping this suit no matter how much you harass them.

The new conflict is from Pattie Gonia using the Patagonia imagery and the Pattie Gonia name on her own merchandise. This is the email Patagonia sent, with the images they feel conflict with the 2022 agreement.

Pattie responded to that by disagreeing that she had broken any agreement, and also obliquely threatening to expose Patagonia for making tactical gear for the US military?

Pattie selling shit with her stage name on it Really Obviously isn’t going to have any negative effect on the continued lining of Patagonia CEO pockets, as if that even fucking matters, and no amount of waxing poetic about “well they have to 🥺🥺🥺” is going to make me say anything other than “fucking stupid if true then”.

In terms of whose pockets are being lined:

Rather than selling the company or taking it public, Mr. Chouinard, his wife and two adult children have transferred their ownership of Patagonia, valued at about $3 billion, to a specially designed trust and a nonprofit organization. They were created to preserve the company’s independence and ensure that all of its profits — some $100 million a year — are used to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land around the globe.

The unusual move comes at a moment of growing scrutiny for billionaires and corporations, whose rhetoric about making the world a better place is often overshadowed by their contributions to the very problems they claim to want to solve.

At the same time, Mr. Chouinard’s relinquishment of the family fortune is in keeping with his longstanding disregard for business norms, and his lifelong love for the environment.

(NYT Gift Link)

Since 2022, 100% of Patagonia's profits have gone to climate and environmental causes. They have completely restructured the ownership of the company so that this will continue in perpetuity.

"GUESS."

I think murderbot would rage earlier in the emotion checks if it were clippy asking it

“Grace says he would like half of dome to be water.”

“Oh, is necessary for humans to have large amounts of water question?”

Small Eridian equivalent of a sigh. “No. Not needed for life. In fact Grace will die if he falls in water and does not get out.”

“Tell him we give him water in containers that won't kill him. Lots lots lots of water on Erid for Grace to drink.”

“No. Grace say he want water on ground. Also want it with excess sodium chloride compound so it will be unhealthy for drink.”

“Grace want this liquid for celebration.”

“Of course.” They scan it. “You have wrong liquid. This contain compounds which are poisonous for humans.”

“Yes yes yes. Grace say humans like feeling of being slightly poisoned.”

Just like it wasn’t until Apollo 11 that we actually landed on the moon— this was only Artemis 2. There was 10 other Apollo missions before the “big important one that everyone remembers/still talks about”, and there were 6 more after (Apollo 17 was the last of the Apollo missions).

And who helped me with that? Not people calling for some nebulous revolution. Not people telling me that the system was useless. Not people preaching at me to grow my own food. It was a church food bank partially funded by the state of Texas that some southern hippies donated a bunch of Whole Foods nonsense to.

And you know what? I’m sick and tired of defeatism. What can we get done right now, huh? Are you gonna accept something a bit better to help people right now or are you waiting for your perfect utopia to come to you?

My poor, sensitive nervous system... 😭

"The substances behind the slimy strings from okra and the gel from fenugreek seeds could trap microplastics better than a commonly used synthetic polymer.

Texas researchers proposed in 2022 using these sticky natural polymers to clean up water. Now, they’ve found that okra and/or fenugreek extracts attracted and removed up to 90% of microplastics from ocean water, freshwater, and groundwater.

With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, Rajani Srinivasan and colleagues at Tarleton State University found that the plant-based polymers from okra, fenugreek, and tamarind stick to microplastics, clumping together and sinking for easy separation from water.

In this next stage of the research, they have optimized the process for okra and fenugreek extracts and tested results in a variety of types of water.

To extract the sticky plant polymers, the team soaked sliced okra pods and blended fenugreek seeds in separate containers of water overnight. Then, researchers removed the dissolved extracts from each solution and dried them into powders.

Analyses published in the American Chemical Society journal showed that the powdered extracts contained polysaccharides, which are natural polymers. Initial tests in pure water spiked with microplastics showed that:

One gram of either powder in a quart (one liter) of water trapped microplastics the most effectively.

Dried okra and fenugreek extracts removed 67% and 93%, respectively, of the plastic in an hour.

A mixture of equal parts okra and fenugreek powder reached maximum removal efficiency (70%) within 30 minutes.

The natural polymers performed significantly better than the synthetic, commercially available polyacrylamide polymer used in wastewater treatment.

Then the researchers tested the plant extracts on real microplastic-polluted water. They collected samples from waterbodies around Texas and brought them to the lab. The plant extract removal efficiency changed depending on the original water source.

Okra worked best in ocean water (80%), fenugreek in groundwater (80-90%), and the 1:1 combination of okra and fenugreek in freshwater (77%).

The researchers hypothesize that the natural polymers had different efficiencies because each water sample had different types, sizes and shapes of microplastics.

Polyacrylamide, which is currently used to remove contaminants during wastewater treatment, has low toxicity, but its precursor acrylamide is considered toxic. Okra and fenugreek extracts could serve as biodegradable and nontoxic alternatives.

“Utilizing these plant-based extracts in water treatment will remove microplastics and other pollutants without introducing additional toxic substances to the treated water,” said Srinivasan in a media release, “thus reducing long-term health risks to the population.”

She had previously studied the use of food-grade plant extracts as non-toxic flocculants to remove textile-based pollutants from wastewater and thought, ‘Why not try microplastics?’"