#full-scale industrial processing facility

"The sleeping giant of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stirred.

In the past month, an avalanche of anti-pollution rules, targeting everything from toxic drinking water to planet-heating gases in the atmosphere, have been issued by the agency. Belatedly, the sizable weight of the US federal government is being thrown at longstanding environmental crises, including the climate emergency.

On Thursday [May 18, 2023], the EPA’s month of frenzied activity was crowned by the toughest ever limits upon carbon pollution from America’s power sector, with large, existing coal and gas plants told they must slash their emissions by 90% or face being shut down.

The measure will, the EPA says, wipe out more than 600m tons of carbon emissions over the next two decades, about double what the entire UK emits each year. But even this wasn’t the biggest pollution reduction announced in recent weeks.

In April, new emissions standards for cars and trucks will eliminate an expected 9bn tons of CO2 by the mid-point of the century, while separate rules issued late last year aim to slash hydrofluorocarbons, planet-heating gases used widely in refrigeration and air conditioning, by 4.6bn tons in the same timeframe. Methane, another highly potent greenhouse gas, will be curtailed by 810m tons over the next decade in another EPA edict.

In just a few short months the EPA, diminished and demoralized under Donald Trump, has flexed its regulatory muscles to the extent that 15bn tons of greenhouse gases – equivalent to about three times the US’s carbon pollution, or nearly half of the entire world’s annual fossil fuel emissions – are set to be prevented, transforming the power basis of Americans’ cars and homes in the process...

If last year’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), with its $370bn in clean energy subsidies and enticements for electric car buyers, was the carrot to reducing emissions, the EPA now appears to be bringing a hefty stick.

The IRA should help reduce US emissions by about 40% this decade but the cut needs to be deeper, up to half of 2005 levels, to give the world a chance of avoiding catastrophic heatwaves, wildfires, drought and other climate calamities. The new rules suddenly put America, after years of delay and political rancor, tantalizingly within reach of this...

“It’s clear we’ve reached a pivotal point in human history and it’s on all of us to act right now to protect our future,” said Michael Regan, the administrator of the EPA, in a speech last week at the University of Maryland. The venue was chosen in a nod to the young, climate-concerned voters Joe Biden hopes to court in next year’s presidential election, and who have been dismayed by Biden’s acquiescence to large-scale oil and gas drilling.

“Folks, this is our future we are talking about, and we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity for real climate action,” [Michael Regan, the administrator of the EPA], added. “Failure is not an option, indifference is not an option, inaction is not an option.” ...

It’s not just climate the EPA has acted upon in recent months. There are new standards for chemical plants, such as those that blight the so-called "Cancer Alley" the US, from emitting cancer-causing toxins such as benzene, ethylene oxide and vinyl chloride. New rules curbing mercury, arsenic and lead from industrial facilities have been released, as have tighter limits on emissions of soot and the first ever regulations targeting the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkylsubstances (or PFAS) in drinking water.” ...

For those inside the agency, the breakneck pace has been enervating. “It’s definitely a race against time,” said one senior EPA official, who asked not to be named. “The clock is ticking. It is a sprint through a marathon and it is exhausting.” ...

“We know the work to confront the climate crisis doesn’t stop at strong carbon pollution standards,” said Ben Jealous, the executive director of the Sierra Club.

“The continued use or expansion of fossil power plants is incompatible with a livable future. Simply put, we must not merely limit the use of fossil fuel electricity – we must end it entirely.”"

a map/diagram of Endless Sea Facility, the ground control for and supplier of Bright Crown. not necessarily 100% to scale or exhaustively accurate, more just thinking about the sorts of areas there might be, through the lens of how the actual game approaches it (regions)

BREAKING: Iran President Pezeshkian releases a lengthy public letter addressed to the American people ahead of Trump's address to the nation, defending its actions, denying it poses a threat, and blaming the U.S. for escalating conflict—while warning that continued attacks will deepen instability and resentment.

He warns: "Attacking Iran’s vital infrastructure—including energy and industrial facilities—directly targets the Iranian people. Beyond constituting a war crime, such actions carry consequences that extend far beyond Iran’s borders"

FULL LETTER BELOW:

Shadows Over the Cradle: Bianca's First View of Midgar

Enjoy the first article in the series 31 Days of FF7 Headcanons.

As mentioned in a previous post, I am currently away from Tumblr on vacation. I will be back 7.31. Until then, I wish all of you a burst of creativity to push through all of your projects.

From the time she was a baby until twelve, Bianca’s operational existence was entirely bounded by the windowless, subterranean laboratory complexes of the Shinra Building in Sector 0. Her environmental stimuli were strictly limited to sterile Mako containment units, clinical observation rooms, concrete corridors, and the windowless cell she shared with Sephiroth.

Consequently, her primary modes of spatial processing were internal rather than external. Prior to her departure for the Rhadore campaign, her understanding of height, open atmosphere, and scale existed only as abstract concepts described in manuals, observed via Shinra bio-monitors, or accessed through her corrupted celestial-demonic resonance.

Her physical body introduces further structural constraints. Having suffered the traumatic shattering of her wing humerus bones at age four during Hojo’s vivisection experiments, Bianca’s 9.92-foot wingspan was permanently rendered ornamental, supported internally by surgical wiring and dense scar tissue. For eight years, these wings represented an immobile, pain-inducing physical burden confined within tight laboratory spaces.

Possible Trigger Warnings: abuse, child abuse, confinement, experimentation, medical trauma, torture, mutilation, vivisection

Just to briefly summarize what's happening on Gariun's Forge, the planet that me (playing Pitiless Daybreak Hunter Cadre) and my girlfriend (playing Bandorekh Dynasty Necrons) are fighting over in our Warhammer games, and the place where all my Warhammer OCs are currently stationed:

Gariun's Forge was an Imperial Hive World in what is now Imperium Nihilus. Like many imperial worlds it was cut off from the wider Imperium upon the appearance of the Cicatrix Maledictum, sending the planet's administration into disarray and creating enormous strategic vulnerabilities. Some time after, the T'au Fifth Sphere expansion fleet, led by Commander Shadowsun, passed through the Startide Nexus and began conquering the Imperial worlds on the other side. Gariun's Forge was one of these worlds.

Location of the 5th Sphere Expansion relative to the wider T'au Empire.

Though weakened, the Imperial forces fought fiercely, with little regard for the planet's population. In turn, Shadowsun employed strategies she had previously used on Agrellan/Mu'gulath Bay, using precisely directed rail gun fire to destroy the foundations of the planet's fortified hive cities. In the end, the T'au triumphed, but Gariun's Forge was left in ruins and its population decimated.

As Shadowsun moved on with the expansion fleet, she left a young commander named Shas'O Nel'yun and her hunter cadre to defend the system and supervise the planet's integration into the Empire. The planet was redubbed Lys'ra, and Earth Caste technicians began the arduous task of restoring the planet's ravaged environment. Vast ecological restoration zones were carved into the planet's ruined surface, and the planet's industrial facilities were repaired through the use of T'au fiotech to supplement rather than replace the ancient Imperial machinery. The planet became a patchwork of ferrocrete wastelands and lush jungles, with churning manufactorums concentrated in a few key industrial zones.

During this process, Earth Caste scientists began picking up anomalous radiation readings from the ruined sectors. Though at first considered to be a sensor drone malfunction, Vespid hazardous environment teams paired with Pathfinder La'ruas were eventually dispatched to investigate the strange readings.

These scout teams were the first to encounter Necrons on the surface of Lys'ra. Crypteks of the Bandorekh Dynasty, supported by their own personal retinues of Apprenteks, Immortals and Deathmarks, were scouting the surface to retrieve lost Necron artefacts. The T'au were unprepared for the might of the Crypteks and their undying bodyguard, and over the course of several skirmishes across the wasted sectors of Lys'ra, the T'au failed to prevent the Crypteks from gathering the material they sought.

Shas'la Vsumal || Sureye and Shas'la Oba'ng take cover in a ruin while exchanging fire with Bandorekh forces.

The Crypteks took these artefacts underground, to the vast hidden tomb network laying below the surface of Lys'ra (or, as the Necrons know it, Obilhet). Using the recovered technology, the Phaerakh of the Bandorekh Dynasty, Merititek, was able to awaken enough of her subjects to mount a full-scale assault on the surface.

At Tsu'am-Kavall, an unprecedented concentration of Necron forces appeared near the planet's largest T'au population centre. Pitiless Daybreak Incursion Cadre was deployed to respond, led by Commander Weeping Blade herself. Despite heavy casualties, Weeping Blade’s Cadre just barely held the line, and the Bandorekh forces reatreated. Merititek struck again at Sang-Terre, a ruined human industrial sector from before T'au occupation, and Weeping Blade once again repelled her.

Shas'Nel D'Yan'Thun || Fireblade Morningblood leads Annihilating Wisdom Breacher Team against Bandorekh Canoptek constructs at the battle of Tsu'am-Kavall.

However, before Pitiless Daybreak could become complacent in their success, Bandorekh Crypteks distracted T'au forces by striking at Environmental Restoration Zone 4, while secretly planting powerful seismic charges at key locations on the planet's surface. Though Nel'yun successfully defeated the forces at Zone ER-4, the Crypteks had accomplished their true objective. Upon detonation, the charges carved an enormous chasm into planet's surface, allowing the Bandorekh dynasty to establish a permanent foothold on the planet's surface.

However, after initial rapid gains, Bandorekh progress has slowed. Nel'yun and Merititek are caught in a stalemate, in constant conflict but unable to achieve lasting victory. Since the Kesh'val declaration, the Fifth Sphere fleet has dispatched reinforcements to Lys'ra, in the hopes of recovering the planet from the Necrons and plundering their tombs for valuable technology. The Bandorekh Necrons, in turn, seek to complete construction of a Dolmen Gate, which would allow them to access weaponry and artifacts hidden in dynastic vaults spread across the stars.

Pitiless Daybreak Fire Warriors prepare to defend an industrial sector from advancing Necrons.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is exploring plans to launch a privately-run, statewide transportation system in Texas. The agency envisions a nonstop operation, funneling immigrants detained in 254 counties into ICE facilities and staging locations across the state.

Early planning documents reviewed by WIRED describe a statewide transport grid designed for steady detainee transfers across Texas, with ICE estimating each trip to average 100 miles. Every county would have its own small, around-the-clock team of contractors collecting immigrants from local authorities deputized by ICE. It is a subtle transfer of the physical custody process into the hands of a private security firm—authorized to carry firearms and perform transport duties “in any and all local, county, state, and ICE locations.”

The proposal emerges amid the Trump administration’s renewed campaign to expand interior immigration enforcement. Over the past year, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has poured billions into detention contracts, reactivated cross-deputation agreements with local police, and directed ICE to scale up removals inside the US. The plan fits neatly into that strategy; a logistical framework for a system built to move detainees faster and farther, with fewer federal agents ever seen in public.

pH.

That is it. That single number sitting somewhere on a scale between 0 and 14 determines more about what your water is doing to everything it touches than any other measurement you could take.

Whether metals dissolve or stay bound. Whether disinfection works or fails. Whether crops absorb nutrients or reject them. Whether ecosystems thrive or collapse.

And in most water systems industrial, agricultural, municipal it is measured periodically when it should be measured continuously.

What pH is actually controlling in your water

In drinking water and treatment EPA recommends pH between 6.5 and 8.5 for safe consumption. Outside that range infrastructure corrodes leaching lead and copper into supply lines. Chlorine disinfection loses effectiveness rapidly above pH 8. Problems that start with pH drift end with contamination that no downstream treatment fully corrects.

In agriculture and irrigation Irrigation water pH interacts with soil pH to determine nutrient availability. Too acidic or too alkaline and nutrients get locked into chemical forms plant roots cannot absorb. Crops receiving full fertilizer inputs still show deficiency symptoms. pH monitoring is one of the highest-return interventions available for yield improvement.

In industrial processes pH drift accelerates equipment corrosion. It destabilizes chemical processes that depend on specific ranges. It pushes discharge outside permitted limits in the window between compliance sampling events. The damage accumulates invisibly until it becomes expensive.

In aquatic ecosystems Most freshwater species require pH between 6.5 and 8.5. Outside that range ecosystems that took decades to establish can collapse within seasons driven by acidification or alkalization that nobody caught early because nobody was monitoring continuously.

The gap between grab sampling and real-time pH monitoring

A grab sample tells you the pH at the moment of collection.

Nothing before. Nothing after. Nothing right now.

pH in real water systems is not static. It responds to temperature. To biological activity. To chemical inputs. To weather. To process variations. A morning sample can show acceptable pH while afternoon conditions have already pushed readings into the range causing measurable damage.

Continuous pH monitoring through in-line sensors or logging meters closes this gap entirely.

✅ Real-time pH data every minute not every week ✅ Trend analysis showing where pH is heading not just where it is ✅ Threshold alerts reaching operators before damage occurs ✅ Continuous compliance documentation generated automatically

The instrument that pays for itself

Modern water pH meters portable handhelds for field work, in-line sensors for fixed monitoring, cloud-connected multiparameter systems for comprehensive programs provide the accuracy and connectivity that continuous pH monitoring requires.

The cost of a pH meter is always less than the cost of the problem it would have caught.

pH is the master variable in water quality. Measure it continuously. Respond when it moves. 📊

🔗 Advanced water pH meters for industrial, agricultural, and environmental monitoring: 👉 https://envirotesters.com

BREAKING: Iran President Pezeshkian releases a lengthy public letter addressed to the American people ahead of Trump's address to the nation, defending its actions, denying it poses a threat, and blaming the U.S. for escalating conflict—while warning that continued attacks will deepen instability and resentment.

He warns: "Attacking Iran’s vital infrastructure—including energy and industrial facilities—directly targets the Iranian people. Beyond constituting a war crime, such actions carry consequences that extend far beyond Iran’s borders"

FULL LETTER BELOW:

"To the people of the United States of America, and to all those who, amid a flood of distortions and manufactured narratives, continue to seek the truth and aspire to a better life:

Iran—by this very name, character, and identity—is one of the oldest continuous civilizations in human history. Despite its historical and geographical advantages at various times, Iran has never, in its modern history, chosen the path of aggression, expansion, colonialism, or domination. Even after enduring occupation, invasion, and sustained pressure from global powers—and despite possessing military superiority over many of its neighbors—Iran has never initiated a war. Yet it has resolutely and bravely repelled those who have attacked it.

The Iranian people harbor no enmity toward other nations, including the people of America, Europe, or neighboring countries. Even in the face of repeated foreign interventions and pressures throughout their proud history, Iranians have consistently drawn a clear distinction between governments and the peoples they govern. This is a deeply rooted principle in Iranian culture and collective consciousness—not a temporary political stance.

For this reason, portraying Iran as a threat is neither consistent with historical reality nor with present-day observable facts. Such a perception is the product of political and economic whims of the powerful—the need to manufacture an enemy in order to justify pressure, maintain military dominance, sustain the arms industry, and control strategic markets. In such an environment, if a threat does not exist, it is invented.

Within this same framework, the United States has concentrated the largest number of its forces, bases, and military capabilities around Iran—a country that, at least since the founding of the United States, has never initiated a war. Recent American aggressions launched from these very bases have demonstrated how threatening such a military presence truly is. Naturally, no country confronted with such conditions would forgo strengthening its defensive capabilities. What Iran has done—and continues to do—is a measured response grounded in legitimate self-defense, and by no means an initiation of war or aggression.

Relations between Iran and the United States were not originally hostile, and early interactions between the Iranian and American people were not marred with hostility or tension. The turning point, however, was the 1953 coup d’état—an illegal American intervention aimed at preventing the nationalization of Iran’s own resources. That coup disrupted Iran’s democratic process, reinstated dictatorship, and sowed deep distrust among Iranians toward U.S. policies.

This distrust deepened further with America’s support for the Shah’s regime, its backing of Saddam Hussein during the imposed war of the 1980s, the imposition of the longest and most comprehensive sanctions in modern history, and ultimately, unprovoked military aggression—twice, in the midst of negotiations—against Iran.

Yet all these pressures have failed to weaken Iran. On the contrary, the country has grown stronger in many areas: literacy rates have tripled—from roughly 30% before the Islamic Revolution to over 90% today; higher education has expanded dramatically; significant advances have been achieved in modern technology; healthcare services have improved; and infrastructure has developed at a pace and scale incomparable to the past. These are measurable, observable realities that stand independent of fabricated narratives.

At the same time, the destructive and inhumane impact of sanctions, war, and aggression on the lives of the resilient Iranian people must not be underestimated. The continuation of military aggression and recent bombings profoundly affect people’s lives, attitudes, and perspectives. This reflects a fundamental human truth: when war inflicts irreparable harm on lives, homes, cities, and futures, people will not remain indifferent toward those responsible.

This raises a fundamental question: Exactly which of the American people’s interests are truly being served by this war? Was there any objective threat from Iran to justify such behavior? Does the massacre of innocent children, the destruction of cancer-treatment pharmaceutical facilities, or boasting about bombing a country “back to the stone ages” serve any purpose other than further damaging the United States’ global standing?

Iran pursued negotiations, reached an agreement, and fulfilled all its commitments. The decision to withdraw from that agreement, escalate toward confrontation, and launch two acts of aggression in the midst of negotiations were destructive choices made by the U.S. government—choices that served the delusions of a foreign aggressor.

Attacking Iran’s vital infrastructure—including energy and industrial facilities—directly targets the Iranian people. Beyond constituting a war crime, such actions carry consequences that extend far beyond Iran’s borders. They generate instability, increase human and economic costs, and perpetuate cycles of tension, planting seeds of resentment that will endure for years. This is not a demonstration of strength; it is a sign of strategic bewilderment and an inability to achieve a sustainable solution.

Is it not also the case that America has entered this aggression as a proxy for Israel, influenced and manipulated by that regime? Is it not true that Israel, by manufacturing an Iranian threat, seeks to divert global attention away from its crimes toward the Palestinians? Is it not evident that Israel now aims to fight Iran to the last American soldier and the last American taxpayer dollar—shifting the burden of its delusions onto Iran, the region, and the United States itself in pursuit of illegitimate interests?

Is “America First” truly among the priorities of the U.S. government today?

I invite you to look beyond the machinery of misinformation—an integral part of this aggression—and instead speak with those who have visited Iran. Observe the many accomplished Iranian immigrants—educated in Iran—who now teach and conduct research at the world’s most prestigious universities, or contribute to the most advanced technology firms in the West. Do these realities align with the distortions you are being told about Iran and its people?