butteryscience

[butteryscience]

Chord.

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I remember reading a review of Disco Elysium back when it first came out that analyzed the Union something along the lines of "the game isn't as clever as it thinks it is by making the union members the corrupt bad guys, which would have been a tired subversion years ago."

And it just makes me think that Evrart and Manana are so clever that they even fool a lot of the players. At the risk of stating the obvious at this point, these two know exactly how to use society's prejudice to their advantage. Reminds me of two great pieces of advice from two great tricksters:

"Don't forget what you are. The World will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used against you" from Tyrion Lannister, and Mr. Wednesday's insistence that the easiest person to fool is someone who thinks they're clever.

How does Evrart manage to keep tabs on everyone and everything in Martinaise, despite being cloistered and immobile? Surely it's not that he's stationed his smartest lieutenant at a perch that gives him a bird's eye view of the entire district directly adjacent to the office and telephone--after all, that's just a lazy Mesque, a rootless Boiadeiro who believes in nothing but self-interest.

Then you take one look at Evrart--this fat, disabled man with a lazy eye and a slimy disposition. No one would believe he's a hero. He wants you to feel clever for seeing through his lies; he wants you to hate him. After all, aren't fat, disabled people greedy and lazy? The powers that be can control a man who wants to line his pockets: literally, controlled opposition. A man like that only speaks of seizing the means of production as an empty promise--hot air--because to do more would be a dangerous, idealistic proposition, of greater benefit to the line worker than the union leader skimming off the top.

I think there are really only two moments that we get a picture of the real Evrart: in his moment of triumph after seizing the docks from Joyce--and in Easy Leo's story of the two brothers who protected him in school.

You can't trust a word Evrart or Manana say, but that's not because they're corrupt, it's because they're true believers dedicated to the cause, and they're talking to a cop.

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hello!

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Hey, here's the full set of the brand new Disco Elysium pics!

Prints are available, and maybe these work well in poster format (which inprnt started doing a while ago)?

I'm sad I didn't get to draw any cars, would be nice to do 1 more, but I need to move on... Also, there has been a promo on all summer at inprnt that might end soon, so these are at 35% off right now!

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Pink

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Casterly Rock by Eva Kedves on ArtStation

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This is Shallan Davar from the Stormlight Archive series.

Love this piece by Michael Whelan.

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I feel like I should make a post about this because it’s not something that’s very well-known, and that Americans in particular may need to know about given the uncertain state of our healthcare system at the moment. I’ve wanted to write this out for a while, It’s kind of a long post, so sorry about that!

If you have an emergency and have to go to the hospital, you’ll owe the hospital a lot of money. (I got into a car wreck and broke my ankle and my arm. My hospital bill was around $20,000)

You’ll also owe the ambulance provider, if you need one. (My ambulance bill was about $800)

You may get separate bills from the anesthesiologist or surgeon. (My anesthesiologist bill was $1,700)

You may need follow-up appointments. (My orthopedic surgeon billed me for the appointments and his surgery together and it was about $1,000)

You’ve also got to pay for medical equipment you need afterward, like crutches or a walking boot. (Mine cost about $75)

Altogether, I ended up with almost $24,000 in medical debt from one car accident. That’s a really scary number for someone like me who makes $10/hr at a 12 hour a week job.

I got my debt down to $1075 by making some phone calls and submitting some paperwork.

The first thing I did was contact the hospital. They don’t make it easy to find, but many hospitals (perhaps most hospitals?) have financial assistance programs for people who can’t afford medical bills. I don’t make a lot of money, and I have bills to pay, so they were able to help me. I called the billing department and asked if they had any assistance programs for low income people who can’t pay their bills. I had to call multiple times, and I got transferred in circles by people who didn’t know what I was talking about. Finally, I got an appointment with someone in “Eligibility Services” (I don’t know what other hospitals call it, if it’s something different). I had to bring my pay stubs and copies of all of my bills. When I got to the hospital for the appointment, nobody knew what I was talking about so I had to wander a little to find where I needed to go. I spoke with the guy in Eligibility Services, and I waited for a decision on how much of the bill they would forgive. A month later, I got a call telling me it was totally forgiven.

I did the same thing for my ambulance bill and my anesthesiologist, but the process was a LOT easier. I just had to mail some paperwork and it was totally forgiven.

I didn’t bother with the medical equipment suppliers, since the bills came from separate companies and I didn’t feel like going through the process twice for $75. I was assured at the hospital that they had similar programs for debt forgiveness, so I could have probably avoided paying that too.

The only thing I couldn’t get taken care of was the surgeon/follow-up appointment cost, but they were able to put me on a no-interest payment plan.

Medical debt is scary because it’s something that can come from stuff that’s already really scary. I didn’t need the burden of $24,000 in debt on top of trying to get around on a crutch with a broken arm (it’s not easy, believe me!).. but I can’t imagine what it would be like with a bigger debt or a more severe medical emergency. I see lots of people in even worse trouble than I was in, both financially and medically. Please know that there are options for you when that GoFundMe doesn’t do enough. Even if your income is higher than mine, it’s worth a shot even for partial debt forgiveness.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/state-department-to-lgbt-married-couples-your-out-of-wedlock-kids-arent-citizens

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Can you suggest some good fantasy series? Not obvious ones like LOTR, ASOIAF or First Law.

Sure thing. Let’s go to the bookshop:

Rivers of London, by Ben Aaronovitch. For my money, the best urban fantasy ever, because Aaronovitch is one of the few authors who actually nails the urban side.

The works of Guy Gavriel Kay. Beautifully lyrical fantasy series deeply informed by a love of history. Renaissance Italy? Justinian’s Constantinople? Moorish Spain? Song and Tang Dynasty China? He’s got it all. 

Robert Jackson Bennett’s Divine Cities trilogy and Foundryside, whose works all avoid the usual Standard Fantasy Setting pitfalls, they’re all post-medieval, the world-building is very clever, the characters are well-drawn, and their politics are in the right place.

Steven Brust’s Dragaera novels. The Khaavren Romances are great Alexandre Dumas-style swashbucklers, the Vlad Taltos are noir mysteries, and they’re both set in the same world!

Scott Lynch’s Gentlemen Bastards series. The adventures of a bunch of con-men pulling off heists in various magical Renaissance city-states. 

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Happy 68th Birthday to the queen of Sci fi.  The one and only Sigourney Weaver. 

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Outlander Season 4 Entertainment Weekly Photo Shoot (x).

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The ultimate guide to traveling around the world, from how to pack your suitcase to how much you’ll be paying for a beer

Planning to travel to another country, even for a vacation, takes a lot of work.

We compiled the ultimate guide to traveling around the world, which can help you in every step of the vacation-planning process.

From applying for visas for your trips and finding an affordable flight to navigating the subway system, these 10 graphics have you covered.

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Thank you so much for your passion in sharing knowledge. We are all better for it. Questions: 1. How would you describe Dany’s education up until her first chapter in the series? Especially compared to other royalty growing up in exile. Would you compile a (deliciously exhaustive) list of books, articles, etc that you refer to in your blog essays? Oh! And a list that you consider good for rounding out one’s own education? Basically just a list to read. Thanks again!

Question 1:

We don’t have a particularly precise picture of Dany’s pre-ASOIAF education. We know that she can read and write, and that she speaks both the Common Tongue, High Valyrian, and quite a bit of the dialects of the Free Cities. We know she has a rudimentary grasp of history - she knows Nymeria’s Conquest but not the Water Gardens of Dorne, 

My guess is that Daenerys’ formal education was rather brief, given that the servants who would have been educating her ran off when she was five and they didn’t include a maester; in the period thereafter where they were staying with magisters and archons and the like, she may have had tutors but how in-depth their curriculum was is unclear. But when the money ran out, I think her education did too, as Viserys seems to have filled in a lot by telling her stories of the past and of home, etc. 

Question 2:

Great question!

My list would skew to the historical, naturally, and to stuff that was important to me when I read it. I reserve the right to amend this list as I look across my bookshelves and think of more stuff. 

 Karl Polayni’s Great Transformation. Totally changed my understanding of economic history, and the way we think about markets versus the way that markets actually came into existence. 

E.P Thompson’s work in general, but especially Making of the English Working Class and Customs in Common. One of the original social historians, and also a hugely important figure in revisionist Marxism.

Fernand Braudel’s The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. It’s a daunting read, but Braudel’s way of seeing the world as these interconnected geographical and commercial and cultural regions and the way that environmental forces shape our history without being aware of it, will change your mind.

Eric Foner’s work in general, but Reconstruction if you need to pick just one. Totally rewrote our understanding of the period and the way that race has shaped American politics. 

On the same note, David Blight’s Race and Reunion is abolutely key to understanding how historical memory of the Civil War was weaponized in the service of white supremacy in Soutth and North alike. 

To understand cities, I would argue you should read William Cronon’s Nature’s Metropolis on how Chicago reshaped the American West and Midwest, Burrows and Wallace’s Gotham, which takes you from the founding of New Amsterdam to the consolidation of the five boroughs into New York City in 1898. 

To understand what actually happened in the 1960s and how it led to our politics today, I would recommend Tom Sugrue’s Origins of the Urban Crisis and Sweet Land of Liberty, Martha Biondi’s To Stand and Fight, and Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland.

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