#Reconstructing

[topazreshiram-blog]

SayMaxWell - Portal 2 - Reconstructing Science [Remix]

[lukaszmichal]

I am doomed to hope and trust; same as I am, with my prehistoric savannah-born physiology, doomed to be prone to addiction to sugar and as I am doomed to crave human contact; as a bird is doomed to flee the winter sothwards and as a catepillar is doomed to weave its cocoon; so am I doomed to humbly yield to the unknown and make a leap of faith that my love will outlive my soul

[byjove]

every prehistoric human reconstruction has me thinking “I want to smoke weed with this bitch”

she looks like she would have been an awesome neighbor, like she would have loved menthols and called me baby

[maked-art]

So, I saw this image on Facebook, and it was supposedly showing what Queen Nefertiti would have looked like in real life:

Now, I thought this AI generated garbage was just truly terrible on a number of levels; first off, she looks wayyyyyy too modern - her makeup is very “Hollywood glamour”, she looks airbrushed and de-aged, and as far as I’m aware, Ancient Egyptians didn’t have mascara, glitter-based eyeshadows and lip gloss. Secondly, her features are exceptionally whitewashed in every sense - this is pretty standard for AI as racial bias is prevalent in feeding AI algorithms, but I genuinely thought a depiction of such a known individual would not exhibit such euro-centric features. Thirdly, the outfit was massively desaturated and didn’t take pigment loss into consideration, and while I *do* like the look of the neck attire, it's not at all accurate (plus, again, AI confusion on the detailing is evident).

So, this inspired me to alter the image on the left to be more accurate based off the sculpture’s features. I looked into Ancient Egyptian makeup and looked at references for kohl eyeliner and clay-based facial pigment (rouge was used on cheeks, charcoal-based powder/paste was used to darken and elongate eyebrows), and I looked at pre-existing images of Nefertiti (namely other reconstructions). While doing this, I found photos of a 3D scanned sculpture made by scientists at the University of Bristol and chose to collage the neck jewellery over the painting (and edited the lighting and shadows as best as I could).

Something I see a lot of in facial recreations of mummies is maintaining the elongated and skinny facial features as seen on preserved bodies - however, fat, muscle and cartilage shrink/disappear post mortem, regardless of preservation quality; Queen Nefertiti had art created of her in life, and these pieces are invaluable to developing an accurate portrayal of her, whether stylistic or realistic in nature.

And hey, while I don't think my adjustments are perfect (especially the neck area), I *do* believe it is a huge improvement to the original image I chose to work on top of.

I really liked working on this project for the last few days, and I think I may continue to work on it further to perfect it. But, until then, I hope you enjoy!

Remember, likes don't help artists but reblogs do!

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

hehee ty for all the love on my redesigns post :3, heres a full ref of all of them!

[chrisshields18]

If they keep reconstructing, your contract, you should probably take, the hint. 🤫🤫🤫

It’s not a secret anymore. 😂😂😂

Patrick Mahomes will be restructuring his contract to create an additional $21.6 million worth of salary-cap space for the Chiefs as they aim to become the first NFL team to three-peat, per league sources. - Adam Schefter

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Blue Cross of Louisiana doesn’t give a shit about breast cancer

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in PITTSBURGH on May 15 at WHITE WHALE BOOKS, and in PDX on Jun 20 at BARNES AND NOBLE. More tour dates here.

A jury has ordered Blue Cross of Louisiana to pay $421m to a hospital specializing in a much sought-after type of breast reconstruction, primarily for cancer survivors. The insurer "preapproved" surgeries for thousands of patients, but then held back 92% of the payments it owed, with CEO Steven Udvarhelyi insisting that "authorization never says we’re going to pay you":

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25882446-steven-udvarhelyi-deposition/#document/p1/a2630959

In a characteristically brilliant and deep investigative story, Propublica's T Christian Miller explains how Blue Cross of Louisiana colluded with other Blue Cross franchises around the country to steal hundreds of millions of dollars by denying claims they'd already approved:

https://www.propublica.org/article/blue-cross-blue-shield-louisiana-insurance-lawsuit-breast-cancer-doctors

The hospital at the center of this controversy is the Center for Restorative Breast Surgery in New Orleans, founded by two surgeons, Frank DellaCroce and Scott Sullivan. DellaCroce and Sullivan are pioneers of an advanced form of breast reconstruction called "autologous tissue reconstruction," which eschews implants in favor of the patient's own fat to construct new breasts. While other surgeons perform this surgery, DellaCroce and Sullivan are acknowledged as national leaders, having invented many innovative techniques and trained many of the other surgeons who perform the procedure. As a result, patients travel from all over America to the Center for Restorative Breast Surgery.

DellaCroce and Sullivan's procedure is extremely precise and labor-intensive, and it comes at a high cost. Accordingly, patients seek pre-approval from their insurer before undergoing the procedure, and in Louisiana, that usually means calling up Blue Cross, the state's largest insurer. Despite pre-approving the procedure, Blue Cross of Louisiana has held back over 90% of the payments it owed to the hospital.

Rather than throwing their patients into the Blue Cross meat-grinder, DellaCroce and Sullivan carried the unpaid balance on its books, repeatedly suing Blue Cross for the unpaid amount. Finally, last week, the a jury ordered Blue Cross to pay $421m to the hospital (Blue Cross is appealing).

The case dragged Blue Cross's sleazy behavior – normally confined to bureaucratic memos and telephone denials – into the public, and boy is it ugly. Blue Cross's official excuse for denying the claims was that it was acting in the best interest of the millions of Louisianans it insures: DellaCroce and Sullivan are simply too expensive – it's not realistic for people in an insurance pool to expect that kind of care. However, Blue Cross executives repeatedly signed one-off, "single case agreements" so that their own wives could get the procedure from DellaCroce and Sullivan.

In addition to this argument, Blue Cross insisted that the fact that it had pre-approved all of these procedures did not oblige it to pay for them after the fact. Rather, an "approval" is a bureaucratic, heavily disclaimed term of art that means, maybe we'll pay for this and maybe we won't. In court, however, the company was forced to admit that an "approved" procedure has to be paid for in all but the most exceptional instances, for example, when the patient cancels their insurance between getting approved and going in for surgery.

The insurer also claimed that there were checks and balances to prevent arbitrary claims denials, but then Blue Cross executive VP Paula Shepherd acknowledged that "an appeal is not available to review an underpayment." As Miller writes, "The insurer simply issued an edict — the payment was correct."

Meanwhile, Blue Cross didn't just save money by denying the claims it had approved – it made money. Other Blue Cross organizations in different states would pay 16% kickbacks to the Louisiana Blue Cross, splitting the take every time it denied a payment.

All of this added up to means, motive and opportunity to engage in unbelievably sleazy – and fraudulent – behavior. Overall, Blue Cross paid $43m on $500m worth of invoices from the hospital. In 60% of claims, it paid nothing.

Blue Cross is one of the nation's largest health insurers, and Blue Cross's argument for stiffing this hospital is the argument for letting insurers buy one another up and grow to unimaginable scale. In David Dayen's amazing 2020 book Monopolized, he lays out the procession of America's morbid health care monopolization:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/29/fractal-bullshit/#dayenu

First, we allowed pharma companies to merge to monopoly, which gave them the power to screw hospitals with sky-high drug prices. So the hospitals defensively merged into regional monopolies with the power to negotiate those prices down, but this also gave them the power to overbill insurers. So the insurers also merged until they could resist the hospital chains' pricing power and force rates down.

And indeed, 97% of doctors and hospitals have a negotiated rate with Blue Cross of Louisiana (remember, it's the state's largest insurer). But DellaCroce and Sullivan haven't joined the Blue Cross network, because the rates the insurer offered wouldn't even cover the costs of the surgeries.

The theory that monopolies will defend us from other monopolies is a disastrous example of "the old lady who swallowed a fly" strategy. For the strategy to work, everyone has to be a monopolist, otherwise they'll get steamrollered – on their wages, their care, or their compensation.

And of course, patients don't get to merge to monopoly (that's what governments are for, and we know how Blue Cross feels about single payer care). Workers don't get to merge to monopoly either (that's what unions are for, and no one hates a union more than a health care monopolist).

Blue Cross's position – the position of the entire for-profit health industry – is that they should be able to grow as large as they can, at the expense of us, the patients. In other words, they are economic tumors – so no wonder they're on the side of breast cancer.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/12/pre-authorization/#is-not-a-guarantee-of-payment

[one-hit-boy-wonder]

“What if superman was evil?” “what if batman was evil?” What if they were really nice and smiled at kids and always saved the day and were best friends?

[blaczeko]

One of my favorite birds is the bittern and one of my favourite dinosaurs is troodon! That's why I combined them into one! By giving this prehistoric creature a marking inspired by this wonderful bird.

[prlssprfctn]

Do we think that after returning to Gotham, Jason had a major sense of derealization not only because he obviously died and missed a few years of a life, but also because both, LoA and All Caste was a very, very secluded, quiet places. He travelled around, but *still*, most part of his recovery was inside the very bubble-wrapped places hidden from the rest of the world.

And then he returns to Gotham for the first time, and it is huge, loud, buzzing in day and night, and the people pass by him, the world continues its daily life, and he just stands here, overwhelmed. Lost. Not exactly belonging here any more, but also having no other place he belongs to more than this town.

[lukaszmichal]

I think I can say with some confidence now that I have completely worked my way through a major faith crisis. Turns out I didn’t have to deconstruct my religious beliefs, but the idea of what it means to have faith

[norremire]

Thank you to DarlsDraws for another amazing picture on my Strawpage 🥰♥️

I'm featuring this design in my fic here c:

[omagpies]

anyway isn’t it amazing how Anya doesn’t quite overdose and she and Curly are rescued and brought back home and she moves into his spare bedroom and they sue pony express for the whole cryopods thing and with the money they get from that Anya goes back to school and Curly gets all the grafting and reconstruction possible and they meet between Anya’s classes when Curly goes to physical therapy and and and

[drag00ni]

she is held together by tape, hopes and dreams and texture brushes

[datgreenmonstah]

Worked more on the utahraptor, got the skull done, now to get the jaws set and then add the teeth.

I’ll be papermacheing this thing as a half and half like my Jane head, but I thought it would be fun considering how unique their head shape is to other dromeosaurs, especially their mouth.