Please tell your friends about federated social media site that speaks several fediverse protocols thus serving as a hub uniting them, hubzilla.eskimo.com, also check out friendica.eskimo.com, federated
macroblogging social media site, mastodon.eskimo.com a federated microblogging site, and yacy.eskimo.com an uncensored federated search engine. All Free!
— you might find some interesting non-NAS accounts in my following list. My criteria: interesting content, no pronouns, no creepy images, minimal language meant to be derogatory.
AI Art Director, amateur comedian, band-aid specialist, DEI hire, and street researcher Chris Waites returns to Heterodorx — now with 10% more white! After disclosing some shattering news from 23&Me, Chris shares his expertise on AI generated visual art (please follow along on his Instagram page). Is AI art actually art? Does it threaten human art jobs? What are the differences between models such as Midjourney and DALL-E? Are there hot redheaded men? Is AI a tool, or a medium? Why can’t AI imitate Nina’s style? Can redheads have souls? Who produces more crap: humans or AI? What’s the best way to write an AI visual prompt? Can a Pokemon consent? From Tumblr fursona artists to Google Gemini, the time of scarce content is over and a new era of head-spinning disorientation has begun. Bleeeep!
An ADP report found a significant number of Americans in every major city earn at least $500,000. San Francisco has the highest concentration of hefty earners.
the Serious Request fundraiser is nearing. The DJs lock themselves up in just under two weeks and on the 16th I start a week long working on metabolic disease related pathways, joined by already three others: sr24.wikipathways.org/
But the preparation has already started. I have spoken with researchers from @reactome, our TGX group doing research on mitochondria, and researchers in our university hospital.
Your donation to our action for the MetaKids foundation is welcome!
I learned that you can use PayPal to make a donation to #sr24 #metakids if you do not have a Dutch bank account. So, donate to our action! All donations go directly to MetaKids and give us motivation to donate our curation work.
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the Serious Request fundraiser is nearing. The DJs lock themselves up in just under two weeks and on the 16th I start a week long working on metabolic disease related pathways, joined by already three others: https://sr24.
West Point Band and West Point Glee Club perform "Mansions of the Lord" from the film We Were Soldiers, composed by Nick Glennie-Smith.West Point Band Bicent...
http://KEXP.ORG presents The War On Drugs performing "You Don't Have To Go" live in the KEXP studio. Recorded August 1, 2017.Host: Troy NelsonAudio Engineers...
Government building storming attempt in Abkhazia (breakaway from Georgia intended to be subjugated or annexed to Russia) as the people demand withdrawal of an "Investment Treaty" with Russia which seems to mean Russia's capitalists could just buy up Abkhazia piecemeal in yet another step towards the subjugation/annexation.
The people broke through the fence and threw eggs at the repression forces who threw chemical grenades at the people who then threw those back. At least 8 people injured. Reportedly the speaker and vice-speaker fled. After that the people demand resignation of the Putinist president.
The parliament building of Abkhazia (see previous toot) then succeeded. Apparently the protesters then met opposition, the remaining parliament members refused to "work under such conditions" (were you "working" before or dysfunctional?) and then the Putinist president whose resignation the protesters now also demanded announced preparing paperwork to withdraw the "Investment Treaty" with Russia which the protests sparked through opposition to (specifically sparked by that opponents to the treaty had been arrested).
Finally an article in English from an acceptable source. Until now I only saw English articles on this event from government-media of Russia (RIA Novosti & TASS) or government-media of USA (RFE/RL & VoA) and none of those should ever be used as they're thereby promoted and normalized, is my policy.
"Aslan Bzhania, the leader of the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, has resigned following negotiations with the opposition [...]" reuters.com/world/europe/leade…
Il 15 novembre il Parlamento dell'autoproclamata Repubblica caucasica dovrà ratificare l'accordo sugli "investimenti" russi. L'opposizione intende organizzare per quel giorno una grande manifestazione a Sukhumi
@ilfabbro Oh, I've seen reporting on the events leading up to this since hmm, I think the protests started latest Monday (?) and also saw reports on events leading up to that previously, but that was in Russian (opposition) and it wasn't until the storming that I deemed it of potential "worldwide interest" importance. I see a LOT more news than I toot. Like, more than a thousand headlines per average day. I choose subjectively what I think is likely of interest all the time.
Georgia, still protesting. Earlier some protesters peacefully walking down a street were attacked by two apparently civilian persons out of which one pulled a pistol, but then after a bunch of fighting they left.
The people have already gathered for today to start knocking on the steel barrier erected to keep the people out of the parliament of Georgia which supposedly exists for the purpose of representing the people:
Just, for those who missed it, these huge protests at parliament of Georgia aren't new.
The most recent time, AFAIK, they stormed parliament a bit todon.eu/@b9AcE/11236790095178… (thread) around May 1 but also similar before that too long back for me to want to go find among my old toots now.
Then there was also this storming of government building in Abkhazia, breakaway from Georgia for the intent of becoming subjugated or annexed to Russia, which lead to the president there resigning todon.eu/@b9AcE/11350551587253… in mid-November.
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After the center of parliament was secured with shields and that breach closed, the protesters in Georgia barricaded in the special forces so they are now ensieged and unable to retreat, reports SOTA
Insert your own pun about tras…
For being declared as over by the government two days ago, the protest at the parliament of Georgia is very big... ...pretty much no change for several days. Now:
The continued severe battery of the TV cameraperson in Tbilisi.
I'm reminded of thug gangs deployed by dictators and other authoritarian groups in the "Middle East" when the people are too close to successful liberatory uprisings.
Press being hospitalized. Assailants still unknown, but are described by the label "titushki" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titushky), similar to what I described previously but different area.
The "Special Investigation Service" (sis.gov.ge/en/?lng=eng) launched an investigation against the battery on the press in Tbilisi earlier.
Police also made some claim that the area must be cleared for "security", but then it seems like everyone ignored the police's obvious exploitation of the attack for ulterior motives.
A video at that time reportedly showed what appeared to be police on duty near the scene of the attack then.
The protesters responded by gathering in a park where there was said to have been an attack, then splitting up to look for "titushki" attackers.
Apparently the police decided this was a good time to shoot a little at the people in Tbilisi, with "rubber" bullet (that usually means solid steel with rubber coating). I think the person dressed in a red jacket responds very appropriately.
Protester: "A man was almost killed, 30 people were beaten, and you say you didn't see?! Then why are you standing here?! How can we protect ourselves?! Then give me that weapon! Handcuffs, a gun, and a baton! And we will protect ourselves! We have nothing! There is you, your uniform! So protect us!"
Cop: "Okay, we'll definitely do it."
One of the battered, apparently a well known actor (actually an actor as their job, not saying this is an act...): "You just watched! 30 people beat me with batons, and you watched! And when I come to you and tell you about it, you answer that you passed on information. What did you pass on?! You allow a person to be killed, and then you pass on something?!"
Things certainly calmed down very, very much in the capital of Georgia. In spite of the repression forces apparently trying to escalate things by bringing the water cannons into view.
Free hot tea and coffee for the protesters, from the Stamba hotel (stambahotel.com) in Tbilisi, Georgia. It's currently 4°C (39°F), so hours outdoors, potentially after water cannoned, needs hot beverage...
Protest seems significantly smaller in Georgia this evening. In response to and to fend off future "titushki" attacks like the horrible attacks on press and protesters yesterday without any police intervention, volunteers have now formed their own security:
"Georgian journalists allege brutal beatings as protests rage against ending EU talks" apnews.com/article/georgia-pro… Allege? There were beating. They were brutal. They were journalists. See earlier in this thread. WTF, AP?
Tens of thousands of people joined an 11th straight day of protests in Georgia on Sunday after the governing party moved to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union.
Reportedly the protesters in Tbilisi are quitting for the night now, as well as the repression forces. Sorry, not much to post about it this time, following my previous standards and sources.
"Hundreds of arrests and mysterious beatings as Georgia cracks down on pro-EU protests" reuters.com/world/europe/hundr… More than 70 journalists injured as of yesterday.
I saw no reports of significant protest events yesterday or day before that. That may however only be because the police didn't attack (which was reportedly the case) so there were no... spectacular responses from the people which press saw fit to report on, but that is of course speculation.
ACAB Day and general human rights protest in Georgia by the clubbing scene outdoors as most nightclubs have been closed due to the protests, which then went on to join the other protesters to march at parliament of Georgia:
Just now from Amnesty International: "Georgia: Police committing shocking human rights violations amid ongoing crackdown on protesters" amnesty.org/en/latest/news/202…
Much love for the unterrified press. The journalist Maka Chikhladze of TV Pirveli was greeted on return by the protesters in Georgia's capital after being one of those severely assaulted cpj.org/2024/12/masked-men-ass… by apparent pro-government thugs.
New York, December 9, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Georgian authorities to conduct a full investigation after more than a dozen masked individuals assaulted a camera crew with pro-opposition broadcaster TV Pirveli during a liv…
First, a brief look at the current state of things at protest at the parliament of Georgia, which more than 400 people have been detained for participating in on its now 16th consecutive day, then also at the same protest: punk AF.
Another look at the crowd tonight at the protest which the lying, cheating and brutally oppressive Putinist government of Georgia said on TV was over about a week ago, but still... 16 days consecutively.
The clubbers' protest for ACAB Day, for equality, against the patriarchy, against the LGBTQ persecution law, etc as a part of the wider protest in Georgia's capital city continues.
I'm reminded of the Reclaim the Streets and similar temporary utopias mostly in the late 90s, early 00s. Excellent.
It is snowing in the capital of Georgia where the popular protests continue this morning. It is cold, but they have the balls to keep warm. In reference to the current single-candidate rubber-stamping of a new president by the illegitimate Putinist "Georgian Dream" who only managed to keep power by blatant cheating in the recent elections, where they will decide ex-footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili is president instead of the nowadays only high ranking politician actually legitimately elected by the people, President Salome, who does of course not recognize the illegitimate politicians' choosing of a replacement president.
The balls and the red cards are of course references to football (or "soccer" to those who think football is played mostly with hands), while people have also brought their higher education diplomas on display in reference to that the footballer was ineligible for the post of being president due to not being able to show having higher education as required by the constitution (same as Erdoğan of Turkey, by the way... unelectable due to unable to prove graduation from university as required by constitution, yet still rules).
The people have also been banned from covering their faces, while it's snowing and the repression forces can and do.
The counting of the votes for the politicians' own choosing of a new president over the people in Georgia has begun. With only one candidate and only politicians who are backers of the illegitimate regime voting at all... this will be a very interesting to see: will it be 100% or in favor of the far-right chosen, or will it be more than 100%? Could go either way.
Meanwhile, a "mothers' march" arrived at the brutal police's line at Georgia's parliament, with front banner and main slogan of "let him go, it's my child!", which I believe is a reference to a desperate mother's plea on heir knees to a police special forces on the street a couple of nights ago, to which the cop just swore at her and walked off, on camera. Other slogans include demanding they don't torture people.
Black smoke in front of parliament as the result came in, all of the participating politicians voted for the far-right footballer who was the only candidate to be the new president of Georgia, with the only exception being Abkhazia's vote being blank because technically (look up Abkhazia for more info) while also reportedly verbally stating the only candidate to be a "bad choice".
"Yeah! You're great for getting a presidency when you were the only candidate and only your backers voted in the rubber-stamping process!", the Putinist "Georgian Dream" and allies applaud as their just chosen far-right (anti-LGBTQ* and so on) footballer took the presidency of Georgia.
Oh. They diluted their initial headline's phrasing now I see. You can still see the initial headline being what I copy-pasted into my toot if you look at the website-address of the article, since that doesn't change even if they change the text.
Hello, people are so strong and I hope they persevere. I was sick again. It's been a bit much the last two weeks and I'm just getting old. Have a nice weekend. See you then.
#Georgia, #Sakartvelo , you are amazing and you have my solid support to join the #EU and #NATO. The door must be explicitly open, I.e. stated as so by the EU and NATO.
James O'Keefe has done it again.. Biden's own White House is revealing what he is really like...FOLLOW O'Keefe Media: https://x.com/OKeefeMedia BECOME A MEMB...
debating whether to use tig or wire feed welder. wire feed is flux cored so its stinky with fumes, but tig is more of a hassle to move everything around
1951 Admiral Tele-Bar combination Television, Phonograph, AM/FM Radio, and Bar with glasses and locking cabinet. Super cool antique retro console that I've essentially been using as a storage...
kun porukka kyseenalaistaa että "ootko muka oikeesti mielisairas, siivoa huonees ja käy lenkillä" niin mun mielestä sen voisi muuttaa muotoon että "ootko muka oikeesti mielisairas, ota tästä kolme tonnia kuussa ja katsotaan sitten"
Nothing can get between these brothers' sweet bond, not even a bunch of school benches.RELATED VIDEO » Our favorite military reunions of all time https://yo...
"Wenn man zu lange auf Mastodon moderiert, verliert man nicht nur den Glauben in die Menschheit, sondern man vergisst auch, was echte Probleme sind." @ErikUden
Quote: Corporate profits have increased by 29% since the start of the pandemic; grocery prices have risen by almost the same percentage. According to the Groundwork Collaborative, this increase accounts for a large portion of the higher prices we are all paying. By their assessment, as much as 53 cents of every dollar spent can be attributed to corporate profit-taking.
Quote: Corporate profits have increased by 29% since the start of the pandemic; grocery prices have risen by almost the same percentage. According to the Groundwork Collaborative, this increase accounts for a large portion of the higher prices we are all paying. By their assessment, as much as 53 cents of every dollar spent can be attributed to corporate profit-taking.
"Human rights violations emerge in Syria amid shifting power dynamics", committed by the new rulers now pushed by world "leaders" and their press as jolly nice fellows and some delisted as terrorists even as new atrocities are documented, clearly for political purposes as those of the world political elite compete over which will grab overlordship over the new rulership in Syria npasyria.com/en/119713/
By Muhammad al-QadiQAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The presence of fighters affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the widespread distribution of weapons and armed individuals in various areas of Damascus has become a routine sight.On Dec.8,
Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights will be released in theaters on February 13, 2026. Starring Margot Robbie & Jacob Elordi as Catherine & Heathcliff. inbella.com/805143/emerald-fen… #PopCulture #SeriousGossips #TV&Movies🎬🍿
Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Wuthering Heights will be released in theaters on February 13, 2026. Starring Margot Robbie & Jacob Elordi as Catherine & Heathcliff. - INBELLA
Wal-Mart grocery shipping result: -Items being cancelled because they don't have it (why isn't it sold out immediately?), don't like that -I don't like that they substituted some items. Thankfully it was just the tubed yogurt, and only to another flavor. Sure, whatever. But if it happens and they substitute it to another brand entirely, that's bad because of my allergies -They fucked up the pasta sauce, it was another flavor and I sent a request for refund. Guess I'll have to try it now because today is spaghetti day -I got an entire bag of groceries I didn't ask for. Canned tomato sauce, canned corn and tim horton coffee ground. Guess I'll give it to my parents
In one of the final reports of this #PCAST, we have released a report on strengthening groundwater resilience in the US. Groundwater is an important resource for agriculture, drinking water, and industry, but many aquifers are being depleted faster than their natural recharge. Our knowledge of the precise state of these aquifers is quite incomplete. While the management of groundwater resources is primarily the responsibility of state, local, and tribal governments, we have some recommendations for ways in which the federal government can assist, in particular in creating a centralized effort to collect both federal and non-federal data, models, analysis and research on groundwater resources, and to support research on more sustainable uses of these resources. The press release is at whitehouse.gov/pcast/briefing-… and the report can be found at whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uplo…
The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) has released a new report addressing America’s groundwater resources. Groundwater is central to the health, security, and economic vitality of communities across the United States.
well, this concern could be legitimate if the quantum computing is actually effective realiry. But if you can break the encryption for bitcoin, you can break the encryption for every bank and any financial institution in the world plus the governments.
A recent court ruling stemming from Sean Spicer's dismissal could empower Trump to fire any Biden appointee. Discover how this legal precedent may reshape the political landscape.
Filmmaker Joel Gilbert uncovers the true story of the shooting of Trayvon Martin that divided America. By examining his 750-page phone records, Gilbert discovers the key witness in the trial of George Zimmerman, Rachel Jeantel, was a fraud. Gilbert locates Trayvon's real girlfriend, Diamond Eugene, who actually was on the phone with Trayvon in his final minutes, and exposes the epic hoax.
Uncover the shocking details of how the Biden administration failed to protect U.S. citizen Gonzalo Lira, ultimately leading to his tragic death in a Ukrainian prison. Read more to learn the full story.
Came across another great podcast episode while restoring my web-site. I interviewed @pluralistic about his first crowd funded publishing experiment, the short story collection, *With a Little Help*.
yesterday marked a huge day in with the development of exigy - a design feature i've had stashed in the back of my head for years, but haven't had the programming expertise to take advantage of it: loading code into existing objects at runtime.
this was the reason I chose Lua for building the engine/tooling day one: it has several functions that allow runtime inclusion and compilation of new code. it isn't done via any special process or hacky code injection - it uses all the same functions that are used when you require/include external scripts at compile time.
so as of today, exigy is capable of doing the one thing i wanted that no other game toolkit/engine does well: let me fiddle around with code while the game is running, and seeing what happens when the code changes, *without* recompiling.
thank you to @ThreeOhFour who introduced me to the exceptionally weird Else Heart.Break(). it was the realtime in-game code editor in that game that led to this IDE design feature. below: screenshot from Else Heart.Break()
the man Biden granted clemency ruined scores of children’s lives by sentencing them to juvenile prison, for which he received millions of dollars in kickbacks.
this is the kind of person the Democrats go to bat for. not people like you or me.
A new report by UK #NGO #Airwars has extensively analysed all available data about the victims of 606 "incidents of civilian harm" (mainly Israeli airstrikes) that were recorded in #Gaza over the first 25 days of the escalation back in October 2023.
The newly published report found that a minimum of 5,137 civilians were confirmed killed in the strikes. (There were likely considerably more whose bodies were never recovered, or who have subsequently died of their injuries, or who have died due to the collapse of the healthcare system that began in these strikes). The victims included over 1,900 children, a toll for children around seven times greater than any previous month of warfare anywhere in the world analysed by Airwars (which was established in 2014). Gaza is by far the most intense and deadly conflict for civilians over this period.
Out of all those confirmed killed in the 606 incidents analysed in the report, Airwars found the number of #Palestinian militants (Hamas or otherwise) was between 30 and 58, meaning combatants were only 0.6%–1.1% of all deaths (=98.9–99.4% civilian death rate for these airstrikes).
This data does not point to a military that is attempting to limit civilian casualties, rather than opposite.
According to often cited claims, Hamas alone had around 30,000 militants at the start of Oct 2023, representing approximately 1.3% Gaza's population.
So if you took a random sample of 5,000 people in #Gaza at that point, you would have picked more #Hamas militants than the Israeli military managed to target in hundreds and hundreds of airstrikes.
The #Airwars report includes a detailed explanation of their methodology and links to their full dataset, and is available for free here: gaza-patterns-harm.airwars.org….
@heretical_i @palestine I am citing a wide-quoted figure of 30,000 Hamas combatants, without intending to comment on its accuracy.
My point is that if you take that claim at face value (made repeatedly by Israeli military and political figures and cited endlessly in Western media) then you would expect that a random sample of 5,000 people in Gaza in early Oct 2023 would contain a minimum of ~1.3% people who might be considered combatants.
So the fact that this report found that these 606 incidents of civilian harm killed a far lower proportion of combatants than that shows that the Israeli military are either utterly atrocious at targeting, or are not really targeting combatants at all. The latter would be completely unsurprising to anyone who had been paying attention to the scores of examples of Israeli political and military leaders making outright genocidal statements during this period.
@heretical_i @palestine Yes, I agree. And this report brings mountains of evidence to demonstrate (once again) just how comprehensively that is true, and has been all along.
And it's important to have this kind of analysis because I suspect that there will come a day when western media and political elites seek to distance themselves from their full-throated support for this genocide, and one predictable line of (false) argument would be to say that the escalation of Israeli violence from the 7th October was initially targeted against the perpetrators of various war crimes, and only later devolved into genocide and ethnic cleansing, hence western support for this violence was also initially justifiable. But that will be a(nother) lie, because there was little attempt made by Israeli political and military figures to hide their genocidal intentions from the outset, and because the pattern of civilians harms documented in this report show definitively what was possible to grasp simply from looking at pictures of the devastating intense bombing campaign that began on 7th October: namely, that their stated intentions were being put into horrific reality.
Streaming now at https://abc7chicago.com/watch/live/11064984/.President-elect Donald Trump said Friday he's in favor of eliminating daylight saving time. FUL...
Assigning your copyright to the FSF helps defend the GPL and keep software free. Thanks to Justin Fields, Divya Ranjan Pattanaik, and John Devin for assigning their copyright to the FSF! /#Emacs /# gawk More: u.fsf.org/3ht #CopyrightAssignments
Friendly reminder that disagreeing with someone's opinion does not necessarily mean it breaks a rule. Stop spamming Fedi reports for not standing someone disagreeing with you. Grow up.
I guess the truth about Jan 6 just needed to keep together until Biden was reëlected or Harris was installed because it's all complete and utter bollocks. > A Day in the Life of Harry Dunn: Part One — A Leisurely Pace | The Truth About January 6 youtube.com/watch?v=PR403PdISF…
Former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn continues to make national headlines, while Congress and the Department of Justice ignore questions about the truthf...
The Vatican faces an unprecedented financial crisis, with donations plummeting and pension funds at risk. Discover how Pope Francis' leadership may be reshaping the Church’s future.
free activation any version of windows free activation any version of office
arrrrrgh i hazzz freezz VM windowz for thingz an Zuch # # # # # i would download or archive this because when they findout it's gone.......... github.com/massgravel/Microsof…
Open-source Windows and Office activator featuring HWID, Ohook, KMS38, and Online KMS activation methods, along with advanced troubleshooting. - massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts
Leaked internal documents show that the insurance giant is culling providers of applied behavior analysis from its network and scrutinizing the medical necessity of therapy. Advocates say the company’s strategy may be illegal.
I have a friend and two relatives with 5 autistic children between them and I've seen the excellent results from these kinds of programs (and, unfortunately, the poor results of not using them). It's shocking, yet at the same time not shocking, that an organization as evil as UnitedHealthcare would limit access, which will result in lifetime limitations to those denied.
Hate the word but just been out with a few of my ‘normie’ friends, a few I’ve known from primary (elementary) school. God help me, I’m trying so hard but people are blind beyond belief. It’s incredible the job THEY’VE done on us.
The rules are literally "Hitler." I had a friend who I was meeting for coffee bump into a mutual "friend" on the way into the place, wherein the mutual friend called me Hitler and then he subsequently came in and told me what he just said. I saw it go down 25 ft away.
Another friend (in the club) and I became more than acquaintances when he reached the threshold with some old friends. Had an IRL Mr Hitler's Anti-vaxxer club going on during the pandemic for a while.
Oh and I forgot, the friend who came over to tell me about the other guy is a jew. We had a good laugh over washed up feminized old white men talking gossip trash thinking the rest of us give a shit.
The Israeli army is preparing to deploy automated, remotely monitored machine guns to protect illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Army Radio reported on 15 December.
🍕 Deep Hamburger Sausage & Pepperoni Pie - this is a pizza lover's dream! 🍕
Ingredients: 1 lb ground beef 1 cup Italian sausage, crumbled 1 cup pepperoni slices 1 medium onion, chopped 1 green bell pepper, chopped 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese 1 cup marinara sauce 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon black pepper 1 package (2.5 oz) refrigerated pizza crust (or homemade dough)
Directions:
Preheat the Oven: Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C). Grease a deep-dish pie pan or pizza pan with cooking spray or olive oil.
Cook the Meats: In a large skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef and Italian sausage until fully cooked. Drain excess fat. Add the chopped onion and green bell pepper to the skillet, cooking until softened, about 5 minutes. Season with garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt, and black pepper.
Prepare the Pizza Crust: Roll out the refrigerated pizza crust on a floured surface to fit the size of your pan. Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pan, ensuring an even thickness.
Assemble the Pie: Spread half of the marinara sauce over the crust. Layer the cooked meat mixture evenly over the sauce, followed by the pepperoni slices. Sprinkle the shredded mozzarella cheese on top, then add the remaining marinara sauce.
Bake: Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown, and the crust is cooked through.
Serve: Let the pie cool for a few minutes before slicing. Serve hot, garnished with fresh herbs if desired. Enjoy your hearty Deep Hamburger Sausage & Pepperoni Pie!
Solvent-based gravure printing inks consist of pigments, resins, additives, and a significant amount of solvents, making the ink relatively thin. The drying process of solvent-based gravure inks is volatile, which makes them suitable for printing on paper, films, aluminum foil, and other materials. Given that gravure printing presses operate at high speeds and deposit a thick ink layer, it is essential to understand the impact of ink properties like thixotropy, flowability, viscosity, and drying speed on print quality. This knowledge is crucial for enhancing the quality of printed materials.
Thixotropy Thixotropy refers to the change in the flow properties of ink under the influence of external forces. Specifically, it is the phenomenon in which a suspension or dispersion thins when stirred and thickens again when left undisturbed.
Generally, high-quality inks have low thixotropy, allowing them to be used directly on the press without special treatment. However, inks without thixotropy tend to experience sedimentation, which is not ideal. In general, white, yellow, and cyan inks have low thixotropy, while magenta and black inks exhibit higher thixotropy.
The thixotropy of inks is influenced by the following factors:
Properties of the Pigment: For example, carbon black pigments treated with ozone have significantly lower thixotropy compared to untreated ones.
Pigment Particle Size: Smaller pigment particles result in lower thixotropy, while larger particles cause higher thixotropy.
Pigment Quantity: Larger amounts of pigment can cause coagulation between pigment molecules, which increases thixotropy.
Molecular Weight of the Resin: Inks with high molecular weight resins but low n-heptane values tend to have higher thixotropy, and vice versa.
Pigment Wettability: Inks with better wettability of pigments generally have lower thixotropy. Some ink manufacturers pre-disperse pigments in the production of black inks to improve wettability and reduce thixotropy. For solvent-based gravure printing inks, an appropriate level of thixotropy is required. If thixotropy is too high, the ink may exhibit poor leveling, viscosity control issues, and can result in printing defects like mottle or orange peel. If thixotropy is too low, dot gain may increase, causing text and lines to appear thicker.
Flowability The flowability of solvent-based gravure printing inks is a comprehensive reflection of factors such as relative density, viscosity, thixotropy, and cohesion. To achieve optimal flowability, the ink must have suitable viscosity, good pigment wettability, and a balanced pigment concentration, while minimizing thixotropy.
When testing the flowability of ink, aside from measuring its flow time using a #4 or Zahn #3 cup, the amount of ink remaining on the cup wall compared to the amount that flowed out is also important. With a fixed viscosity, the smaller the ratio of retained ink to flowing ink, the better the flowability.
If the ink’s flowability is poor, printing faults such as uneven ink transfer or print defects are likely to occur.
Viscosity Viscosity in solvent-based gravure inks is closely related to flowability, and maintaining the correct viscosity is key to ensuring effective ink transfer. Although many factors, such as resin type, ink adhesion, printing speed, pressure, substrate material, and environmental conditions, influence ink transfer, viscosity remains a critical factor. The relationship between viscosity and transfer rate is depicted in the diagram below.
Factors affecting viscosity in solvent-based gravure inks include:
Viscosity of the Resin Solution: Higher resin viscosity increases ink viscosity, and vice versa.
Pigment-Resin Compatibility: If pigments react with the resin and cause coagulation, the ink’s viscosity increases.
Solvent and Dispersant Compatibility: If solvents dilute the dispersants at any ratio, the ink’s viscosity will decrease.
Temperature: Lower temperatures increase ink viscosity, while higher temperatures reduce it. Low viscosity in solvent-based gravure inks can result in issues such as pinholes, uneven color coverage, rough patches, or poor adhesion, leading to print defects. On smooth surfaces, ink adhesion may be weak, and on paper substrates, powdering or flaking may occur.
Conversely, high viscosity can cause issues like scratching, color bleeding, plate flooding, and “orange peel” defects.
Conclusion In the design and production of solvent-based gravure printing inks, it is crucial to select compatible pigments, resins, and solvents to achieve the desired initial viscosity. Printers should use appropriate solvent blends, preferably provided by the original ink manufacturer, to adjust the ink to its optimal “working viscosity” for printing. This ensures high-quality printed results.
Furthermore, ink viscosity is also influenced by printing speed. Typically, faster printing speeds require lower ink viscosity to achieve optimal ink transfer.
Solvent-based gravure printing inks are volatile inks, meaning that when solvents evaporate from the wet ink film, it transitions from liquid to solid. The rate at which solvents evaporate directly affects the drying speed of the ink.
In designing and manufacturing solvent-based gravure printing inks, a mix of medium, low, and high boiling-point solvents is typically chosen to meet drying requirements. Incorrect resin selection, low softening points, poor solvent release from resins, or excessive high-boiling solvents can slow down solvent evaporation and result in residual solvent in the cured ink film.
When formulating solvent-based gravure printing inks, resins are typically selected first, followed by solvents. Solvents with similar solubility parameters to the materials being dissolved tend to dissolve more easily and evaporate faster. However, the presence of pigments reduces solvent evaporation rates, especially if the pigments are large.
Additionally, environmental factors such as higher ambient temperature, lower relative humidity, and faster air circulation increase the evaporation rate of solvents.
Common printing issues caused by improper drying include:
Ink drying too quickly at certain printing speeds can cause plate flooding, scratching, ink whitening, poor gloss, and leveling issues.
In multi-color printing, slow drying can result in roller adhesion or ink smearing during the next printing station, leading to print defects. The evaporation rate of solvents in ink depends not only on their boiling point, vapor pressure, and latent heat of evaporation but also on factors such as printing environment temperature, relative humidity, air flow, and ink layer thickness. Therefore, ink solvent evaporation rates should be adjusted based on varying conditions.
Under normal production conditions, if ink dries too quickly, slow-drying diluents should be added. If ink dries too slowly, fast-drying diluents should be used. Where possible, printing environments should be controlled between 18-25°C, with relative humidity kept below 65% to stabilize ink performance.
Lady MountainJay
in reply to John G. Dew [MMO.show] • • •Pacific NW Viking
in reply to Lady MountainJay • • •Are your associates allowed to call the pronoun mafia bad names?
Lady MountainJay
in reply to Pacific NW Viking • • •@viking — within satirical reason. ;) I just avoid accounts that spew epithets like a Tourette’s teen on Red Bull. 😆
@Dhowjen
chanon
in reply to Lady MountainJay • • •Sorry
@viking @Dhowjen