#and there is entitlement which is in exclusion not in inclusion

[justaholeinmysoul]

Oh now cultural appropriation is called white entitlement lmao

[beneathashadytree]

HEY GUYS! LONG POST HERE, BUT PLEASE READ🙏🏽

I am genuinely appalled by the discourse ongoing in the LNDS fandom these past few days—but above all, I am severely disappointed in what had started out as one of the most inclusive and sweet fandoms I’ve ever been in. I have a few things to say, so in this post I’m trying to put all my thoughts to words. Apologies if I sound harsh, but I’m genuinely livid. Also, please ignore any typos. I’m not wearing my glasses while word-vomiting.

First off, for a fandom that is composed of mostly adults, you guys have been acting terribly childishly. It’s 2024, and yet people are still unironically shaming others for “switching up on their favs” as if a person owes 2D characters any loyalty. Let people enjoy things. The novelty of Sylus and how he’s quite literally 6 months behind the other 3 love interests makes people want to catch up on the enjoyment of him all at once. He’s still such a brand new character and concept, so there’s no wonder everyone’s hyped up over him.

I’ve seen people get genuinely mad at other players and writing whole think-pieces about this. I promise you guys, the company making this game is still benefiting whether you’re pouring your money into Sylus or any one of the previous 3. We’re all happy to have an interesting character pop up among the roster now, and we’re taking our time getting to know him. Doesn’t make any of the first 3 any less loved. I genuinely don’t remember this amount of nastiness when solo events for each of the guys used to drop.

In fact, if the popularity thing is worrying you, going off MLQC (the company’s past game) the character who was last added was—eventually, after the initial hype died down—kicked off to the sidelines in most major events and was given the least content, and was the least favorite of fans.

Secondly, and this has my blood boiling, there is an insane amount of entitlement and rudeness I’ve seen on my timeline concerning how people characterize the men—particularly Rafayel.

Absolutely nothing warrants this shitty attitude towards other creators for how they depict characters in their fics. It seems you guys feel protected behind a screen and think it gives you the right to bully strangers online. Fanfiction is for fantasizing about your favs; for letting your imagination run wild. If this were a character analysis, then yes, maybe I’d agree that inaccuracies are aggravating. However, in fanfiction, there are zero rules, especially when it comes to smut.

Sexual preferences are not equivalent to a person’s whole personality—so whether he’s written as a dom, a sub, a switch, or whatever the fuck you wanna call it, this has nothing to do with his kindness, gentlemanliness, passion, power, ruthlessness, snark, or whatever minuscule aspect of his character makes up his lovely whole and matters to you.

I think this circles back to a lack of ability to separate sexual matters and personality, because how else do people interpret fics depicting him in a certain manner as them erasing his character? They might overlap, but they can very well be mutually exclusive. I’ve seen incredibly sweet and gentle men irl who were absolute doms in bed, and I’ve seen powerful and passionate men who were reduced to tears between the sheets. There is barely any correlation whatsoever, and if anything, claiming otherwise is what I consider piss-poor media literacy and reading-comprehension.

My third point is that for some reason, there have been many, many posts and replies on here where I’ve seen people just straight-up spread pure hate for the characters. Maybe this bothered me in particular because I’m an OT3 (OT4 now!) and absolutely adore all of them, but I find no logical reason for “yucking someone’s yum” when we’re talking about liking the characters of an Otome game—a genre of video games which is made to literally cater to the tastes of as many people as possible.

It’s especially disheartening to see when it’s at a time like this, when new content is about to drop, and you find in the replies of every other post/discussion at least a few people spewing hate and disgust at Sylus. Again, so many people are incredibly excited about him. Why is there a need to rain on everyone’s parade, especially in such an unsolicited manner?

This fandom originally started as a safe space for people of all races, backgrounds, genders, sexualities, and personalities to bond over our mutual love for characters. All I’ve seen on my TL lately (in terms of discussion) is negativity, and it’s such a fucking let-down. I hope whatever the fuck has happened to this fandom cools down after a bit. It’s probably exaggerated and very in-your-face rn, cause more and more people are downloading LNDS, so the probabilities of finding people being nasty are increasing. But I seriously don’t want to grow to resent this fandom and find myself distancing myself from it to protect my peace.

Let’s all remember to be kind towards other players, to not act entitled or bratty about the characters, and to try and mind our own business if we see content that doesn’t suit our tastes.

[voxofthevoid]

I'm so sorry you've got a transphobic stalker over top/bottom tags of all things! It's especially wild because your fics won't show up if they tag search correctly anyway (using both inclusive and exclusive). It's bizarre that they assume that their preferred orientation is the 'default' and should be pandered to. The only plus side I can think of is that it seems to be mostly one unhinged individual and not a large amount of the fandom.

Thank you 😘

The transphobia sure was new! But it was only a matter of time, really. Existing as openly trans in slash fandom* means that conflict will eventually draw someone who'd reach for that low-hanging fruit. People who send death threats and engage in long-term (attempted) harassment sure won't respect gender. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they're one tantrum away from calling us homophobic slurs on top.

And yep, you've hit the nail on the head—they want everything they like to be the default and everything else to be "warned" for. That bloody hypocrisy was why I initially stopped tagging top/bottom (5 years and 3 fandoms ago), and the JJK fandom has only confirmed that was the right decision. I'm not indulging such wanton entitlement.

The sustained stalking is thankfully just one person. Most of the others are drive-by dickbags. It's still infuriating, which is why you guys get an explosive show or ten 😮‍💨

*Or even as anything but a cis woman because people like these often assume slashers are all women or "women lite" and have no issue shitting out transphobic bullshit out of their mouths.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Amelia Mavis Christnot at The Big Picture:

When I attended an Ivy League school in the late 1980s, rich, White, male, legacy students lamented about the evils of “affirmative action.” The school—founded in 1769—only began to admit women in 1972 and people of color were few and far between until the late 1960s.

And not surprisingly, it was assumed by most that  these admissions were given to unqualified individuals to meet a race or gender based quota.  They believed and preached the 200+ years worth of almost exclusively rich, White men were all highly qualified to attend an Ivy League institution and receive the lifelong benefits of being an alumnus. The women and BIPOC now in their midst were unqualified and unworthy individuals who stole a spot from a White man. The absurdity of this mindset never occurred to them. But as I pointed out in my piece How Men Like Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh And Brock Turner Are Made, the academic underachievers at my Ivy in 1987 were those crying the loudest about the unfairness of affirmative action programs. As far as test scores and GPAs of incoming freshmen, White, male students scored the lowest on average with some White students of sufficient means actually falling below the minimum scores required for admissions.

How does someone like Donald Trump who writes and speaks at a grade school level graduate—allegedly—in 1968 from University of Pennsylvania's prestigious Wharton School of Business?  Being rich, White and male.

Time and time again, elite athletes and legacy students—students whose families attended institutions for generations when those schools were exclusively for White males—score lower than so-called affirmative action students—women and BIPOC.

“DEI Hire” And The Great Replacement Theory

Today, the fear associated with the term affirmative action has lost its potency after the conservative majority of the United States Supreme Court decided enforcing equality in evaluating candidates for academic opportunities was unconstitutional. In June of 2023, the SCOTUS ruled 6-3 that affirmative action programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause, which bars racial discrimination by government entities. Today's new conservative scare tactics and insults use DEI—diversity, equity, and inclusion—instead. It ties in well with the Great Replacement Theory promoted by White/Christian nationalists which claims a coordinated effort is being made to replace the White, Christian majority with Jews and BIPOC. Unlike affirmative action horror stories which are most often related to college admissions, private and public institutions and businesses and government entities in the United States have an office or officer dedicated to DEI. Conservative talking heads have gotten their base worked up to the point where you routinely see calls for boycotts and backlash on social media because their favorite company has a DEI office.

[...]

What Is DEI Supposed To Be?

For the underrepresented or historically excluded, DEI offers a promise of a “place at the table” for everyone who should be there. [...] Equity ensures opportunities are free from bias and discrimination. It's pointless to have a seat at the table when the diversity table is tucked in a back corner by the kitchen while the old guard carries on like always. Inclusion ensures everyone gets a chance to speak and be heard. In a past editorial job, our team discussed that the loudest voice in the room needs to be from the community affected. 

[...] While these men see diversity as the problem, the author points out the real issue is their own privilege and entitlement. Underrepresented and historically excluded peoples will see a job that they are applying and competing for, those complaining see the job, the school admission, the opportunity as rightfully belonging to them. Such attitudes are the backbone of modern movements like MAGA, White supremacy, Christian nationalism, and White nationalism. They believe the world belongs to them.

Amelia Mavis Christnot wrote in The Big Picture on how the right-wing’s war on DEI is about protecting White male privilege and backlash over being forced to compete with other (and often underrepresented folks) for spots that they earned just because they were a White man.

[alluralater]

I’m really glad I found your blog, I just started my side tumblr! I wanted to pick your brain, a blog showed up on my dash with a post about how when other blogs have “Men DNI” on them it makes them uncomfortable as a non binary and gender fluid person. The reblogs had a lot of tags with some discourse, but someone said “it’s a persons traits that make us uncomfortable”. I know when you drop a text post the descriptors are purposefully non-binary. I was just wondering how you felt about that.

hi! many of my posts are gender ambiguous, not specifically nonbinary. i am a lesbian with zero preference, and i believe even if i had them, i would still make highly inclusive nsfw content. but my lack of preference (though okay maybe i do favor people who bend their gender a bit more than those who don't) does lend a hand to the fact that many of my posts are gender ambiguous <3

i don't want to be so callous about it but i'm gonna push through the reluctance and say that people fighting over an innocuous "men dni" tag need to go outside and touch grass. the implication is consistent that it is exclusionary of those who identify solely as men- period. and the even more loud implication is excluding cisgendered heterosexual men. there is nothing wrong with people not wanting men to interact with their content and stating such. those who are saying it excludes nonbinary and genderfluid people should do less speculating and be instead directing their questions to the authors of that content. it makes literally no sense to say it is exclusive if they haven't asked the people making the posts with "men dni" tags.

internalizing the 'plight' of the patriarchy is lame as fuck. cis straight men are excluded from sapphic spaces plenty of the time for blanket coverage comfortability/safety reasons and many cis men complain about it (for reasons that cannot be seen as anything less than strange + creepy entitlement). to imagine that nonbinary and genderfluid people are looked at in the same regard online is wild. irl there is PLENTY of bigotry thrown at them, but honestly 90% of the people on here never post their faces or bodies and so it's not as though authors are combing through and being like "oooooOo you give me man vibes- time to add a men dni tag." it's not personal. to assume there is negative intent in regard to nonbinary and genderfluid people on the basis of a men dni tag would be just that- an assumption.

nsfw content creators operate on the foundation of trust and honesty with our audiences. these kinds of things could be easily solved by those who feel uncomfortable dropping that content creator an ask to clarify the meaning of their men dni tags. considering men dni tags are like 90% targeted at cisgendered heterosexual men, it seems like discourse for the sake of discourse if you ask me, which you did. but i'm not nonbinary or genderfluid so- it's not really for me to say with any kind of absolute. i can only speak to this as a lesbian who curates nsfw content for a wide variety of lovely sapphics <3

[bopinion]

2024 / 32

Aperçu of the week

“Live and let live.”

(This is the term used to describe the spontaneous emergence of non-aggressive behavior between troops facing each other as enemies at the front during the First World War. It is now used as a synonym for “to each his own” - as long as he doesn't step on anyone else's toes).

Bad News of the Week

The LGBTQ+ community is open, diverse, peaceful, colorful and inclusive. And stands for tolerance like no other. At the Christopher Street Day parades, which now take place in almost all major German cities throughout the summer, people are cheerful and exuberant. Many people are infected by the atmosphere. In cities such as Cologne, Berlin and Hamburg, hundreds of thousands come together and celebrate a festival of humanity and togetherness that excludes no one. That's nice.

Unfortunately, these events not only attract the attention of those with a positive attitude, but also those with a negative one. Hostility and even attacks on queer people at the events are becoming increasingly common. This happens primarily in the east of the republic and almost exclusively from the right-wing spectrum - neither of which is surprising. After all, the principle of free self-determination can easily be stylized as the antithesis of the conservative, traditional image of society.

The low point for the time being: the CSD in Bautzen in eastern Saxony took place under police protection and the closing party had to be canceled due to security concerns. Numerous disruptive actions were announced by right-wing organizations, including the far-right “Free Saxons” mobilizing on a grand scale, with a counter-event entitled “Against gender propaganda and identity confusion!!!”. In this way, a movement that not coincidentally has the same symbol as the peace movement, the rainbow flag, becomes the target of intolerance with violent tendencies.

Saxony's Justice Minister Katja Meier said that she was stunned that an event had to be cancelled due to the tense security situation and strong right-wing extremist mobilization. “Hatred and agitation against queer people are an expression of misanthropic ideologies that have no place in our society,” emphasized the Green politician. Unfortunately, it has to be said that this is not the case: this ideology has indeed found a place in society. In the state elections taking place this fall in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg, the far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) is expected to become the strongest party. And they have already polemicized against queer people with posters such as “Hands off our children!”. I'm starting to fear for our social peace...

Good News of the Week

I like this slightly rebellious attitude that the Scots like to display from time to time. Now Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is once again showing its stubbornness. A very positive one. It is rebelling against the public image of fossil fuels.

Specifically, this involves advertising, sponsorship, events etc. for a whole spectrum of companies, products or services. The list ranges from airlines and cruise ships to off-road vehicles and basically all oil and gas companies: “all companies and associated sub-brands or lobbying organizations that extract, refine, produce, supply, distribute or sell fossil fuels”.

In short: polluters should no longer be allowed to present themselves to the public. That makes sense. Because “carbon-intensive products and services undermine the council's commitment to tackling climate change”. Current example: In a report released this month, the International Energy Agency just found that if SUVs were a country, they would be the fifth largest CO2 emitter in the world.

Of course, this is only a symbolic step. But it is a step in the right direction. And is therefore being described by activists as a “historic” step in the fight against climate change. Which other British cities such as Cambridge, Liverpool and Norwich would like to follow. Thank you, dear Scots!

Personal happy moment of the week

My son has just gone on a bike ride with my father. He is 16 - and therefore 70 years younger than his grandpa. And yet the two of them can do something together that is “their thing”. For a whole week. Along the Elbe, from Dresden to Magdeburg. I particularly like the fact that this is also possible thanks to the sister and granddaughter. Because in the meantime, she looks after Granny at home. Because dad and son - of course - don't have time again. Thank you!

I couldn't care less...

...that the Republicans are calling Kamala Karris' new running mate Tim Walz a radical leftist and woke extremist. The “coach” is simply a successful, hands-on, people-oriented politician. He has a clear moral compass, his heart in the right place and his feet firmly planted on a democratic foundation. I like the guy. In whose shadow his political opponent J. D. Vance actually just looks weird. I'm looking forward to their debate in television.

It's fine with me...

...that freedom of speech exists. Because it is a valuable democratic asset. But in the age of social media, limits must be set - keywords hate speech and fake news. A prime example of this is a “free spirit” who happens to own his favorite platform: Elon Musk and Twitter (yes, I know he wants it called X). I don't mean that he has reopened this far-reaching mouthpiece to radicals. Or that he fired most of the team responsible for moderating and monitoring the posts. And not his interview with Donald Trump. But his own posts.

According to a study by the non-governmental organization Center for Digital Hate, Musk has spread 50 false or misleading messages on X since January about the upcoming presidential election in the USA alone. Musk's false messages have already been viewed almost 1.2 billion times this year, according to the center. False messages that could benefit Trump. And which are poisoning the political climate. According to his biographer Walter Isaacson, Musk wants to be seen as a “messiah”. He is convinced that he is right in everything he does and says. That makes him a loose gun. And that is dangerous.

As I write this...

...I'm still in a kind of Olympic spirit. For 16 days in Paris, you could watch ambitious athletes surpass themselves. With tears of joy and pain, with hope and adrenaline, despair and Covid - lots of great emotions. And a wonderfully motivating audience that not only cheered on their own, extremely successful athletes (“Allez les bleus!”), but actually rooted for everyone. Somehow this crisis-ridden time seemed to stand still a little, even and especially in France, which is currently in the midst of a full-blown government crisis. My personal discovery of these Summer Olympics is Breaking, this breathtaking mixture of athleticism, creativity, coordination, attitude and rhythm. Simply beautiful. See you in four years, Snoop Dogg!

Post Scriptum

That's what you call a roll backwards: the Liberals, who incidentally also provide the transport minister in the current government coalition, are seriously trying to score points with a clear “pro-car strategy” for city centers against the alleged “paternalism” of the Greens. With fewer pedestrian zones and cycle paths and more parking spaces - preferably with a flat rate, as an alternative to the Germany ticket for local public transport. I checked the calendar: no, it's not April 1st. So it must be serious. It rarely happens, but in this case I really am at a loss for words...

[coochiequeens]

A white man, with his junk intact, barged into a Korean-American space and insisted that the Christian owners ignore their beliefs and let him into the women’s section. If a white woman acted that entitled she would be bashed by leftists has a “Karen”.

A Seattle court has ruled that a female-only nude spa lacks the “constitutional right” to bar males from their facilities. The decision comes after the spa sued the Washington State Human Rights Commission (WSHRC), which had forced them to change their sex-exclusive policy due to the complaint of a transgender patron.

In May of 2020, a trans-identified male submitted a complaint to the WSHRC alleging discrimination on the basis of his gender identity.

Haven Wilvich had sought a membership at the Olympus Spa in January of 2020, but had been denied on the basis that he had not undergone “gender reassignment” surgeries and his penis was fully intact. 

In the complaint, Wilvich alleged his application to use the facilities at the spa had been rejected after staff told him that “transgender women without surgery are not welcome because it could make other customers and staff uncomfortable.”

The Olympus Spa, which has locations in Lynnwood and Tacoma, is a Korean-style health and wellness facility. The spa requires nudity in some of the areas, and, as such, has been reserved for female clientele. 

The owner of the spa, Myoon Woon Lee, and the spa’s president, Sun Lee, are of Korean heritage and modeled the spa after the tradition of jjimjilbang. They are also Christian, and cited their faith as a reason why they did not wish to accommodate males in the facility.

In March of 2021, the WSHRC served the spa with a Notice of Complaint of Discrimination and asked the owners to respond to the claim they had acted in a discriminatory manner. Sun Lee drafted a statement standing by their women-only rule.

Sun Lee explained that Olympus was a “family-owned women’s Korean traditional health spa” and noted that that nudity was required for certain procedures.

“We firmly believe it is essential for the safety, legal protection, and well-being of our customers and employees that we maintain adherence to this adaptation of a females-only rule,” Sun Lee wrote, also providing education on the cultural traditions of the jjimjilbang.

He concluded the response by indicating that Olympus Spa was “willing to consider a review of [its] current biological females only policy,” but that “we are unwilling to remake the ‘jjimjilbang’ haven we have worked so hard over many years to build and preserve, simply for the sake of promoting gender neutrality.”

Two weeks later, the WSHRC ruled that the spa had violated Washington anti-discrimination law, stating that the female-only policy “denies services to transgender women who have not had surgery … because their physical appearance is not ‘consistent’ with the traditional understanding of biological women.”

The spa disputed the veracity of Wilvich’s claims, asserting they had no documentation showing Wilvich had ever applied to enter the facility, and that no staff members could recall ever interacting with him. 

But the WSHRC upheld their ruling, and offered the spa a Pre-Finding Settlement agreement to avoid prosecution.

The Pre-Finding Settlement required the spa to remove all references to “biological women” on their site, and provide staff with “inclusivity” training.

In March of 2022, Olympus Spa sued Andreta Armstrong, the executive director of the Washington State Human Rights Commission, asserting that the actions taken against them violated their First Amendment rights to free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of association.

But a Washington District Court dismissed their lawsuit on Monday, upholding the ruling by the WSHRC and affirming that the measures taken to prevent the spa from having a female-only policy were lawful.

The court offered Olympus Spa 30 days to amend their complaint and refile.

Haven Wilvich, the trans-identified male whose complaint resulted in the loss of the female-only space, boasted about his success on Facebook after the initial WSHRC ruling.

Wilvich, born Caleb Richmond, identifies as a “non-binary transgender woman,” and currently purports to be a Project Coordinator at Fred Hutch in the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. 

In a 2020 interview, Wilvich stated he worked with clinical sites around the world on the operations of finding an effective HIV vaccine. 

Wilvich is also the founder of STANCE, the Seattle Trans and Nonbinary Choral Ensemble.

In 2022, Wilvich received a $2,000 grant from the Seattle Pride Association for providing “a vocal space free of gendered expectations, by and for transgender and nonbinary singers, to explore and express themselves through music.”

Prior to his transition, Wilvich also sat on the board of the Seattle Nonbinary Collective, and described himself as a “a tall, bearded, transfemme, King County native.”

In 2018, Wilvich was featured on a Futurism podcast wherein he lauded the idea of trans-identified males being given uterus implants for the purposes of giving birth.

The podcast description reads: “When Caleb Wilvich read about the first woman in the U.S. to have a baby via a uterine transplant in early December, they were stoked. Wilvich, who uses the pronoun “they,” has always wanted to give birth, and never had a uterus.”

Wilvich is quoted as saying: “The whole process of building that bond with a child through this period of pregnancy, through the trauma and joy of childbirth, through being there from their first moments in the world… I have so many strong emotions come up when I imagine being able to do those things.”

Olympus Spa is the third Korean spa in the United States to come into the crosshairs of the gender ideology debate over the past two years.

In 2021, a Korean spa in California made international headlines after a trans-identified sex offender had been granted access to the women’s facilities in accordance with California state law.

Wi Spa, a jjimjilbang-style establishment in Los Angeles, was the subject of viral attention after a video recorded by a female patron began circulating on social media. In the video, the woman confronts spa staff because of a nude male who was exposing himself in front of women and girls in the women’s changing room.

The incident was initially dismissed as a “transphobic” hoax by progressive commentators, but would later be verified by police who issued a warrant for the arrest of Darren Agee Merager, a registered sex offender. Merager was arrested in December of 2022.

Earlier this year, a trans-identified male launched a lawsuit against a Korean spa in New Jersey, alleging discrimination after he was told he could not use the female changing rooms.

Alexandra “Allie” Goebert was denied access to the women’s section of King Spa & Sauna in Palisades Park on the basis of his sex, a move he claims was a violation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD).

By Anna Slatz

Anna is the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief at Reduxx, with a journalistic focus on covering crime, child predators, and women's rights. She lives in Canada, enjoys Opera, and kvetches in her spare time.

[lemonhemlock]

I think the "why do people want Aemond to commit SA" thing is a Twitter thing as well because I've seen some people a few days ago saying Alysm0nd isn't the healthy, true romance type of ship that some shippers are claiming it to be because of its dubcon undertones. Frankly, I don't think this is a bad take? Like you said, the text DOES allow for the ship to be read in a very dark way and I don't think anyone should be claiming that whoever reads it this way automatically WANTS Aemond to be a sexual assaulter. And to be clear, yes, it wouldn't surprise me if SOME people want this because to make their own ship look better.

We also don't know how the show will adapt that relationship and just because it has potential to rival Da*myra or other ships doens't mean the writers are going to portray it in a positive light. They could very well do the opposite. Or something in between.

Anonymous asked: “why do you want aemond to commit SA” anon are you okay? have you gone outside lately? talked to a real person? tried to do smth besides discourse a book written like an unreliable twitter thread?

Clearing out a few old Alys asks. This was a previous debate in my inbox, but essentially I feel like this inclusion of the non-con element in Aemond’s and Alys’ portrayal is borne out of a desire to not gloss over the problematic aspects of this relationship, which are many, even if we are to go just from what we have in Fire & Blood. 

I’ve noticed this tendency in the fandom for people to romanticize this relationship a lot to the point of presenting it as some kind of aspirational dynamic for Aemond, to the exclusion of all other possible Aemond ships. People have become very gatekeep-y of Aemond lately and I think that some fans are reacting to this silliness by pointing out the unhealthy components. Not so much out of a desire to shame those who might enjoy exploring such a type of darkness, but as a form of highlighting some double-standards prevalent in shipping wars, especially when those shipping wars devolve in flaming other users and making them feel unwelcome in fandom spaces.

The truth is this could very well be toxic both for Aemond and for Alys and both of them could, in turn, be vectors for toxicity, so this uncritical promotion of alysmond feels unwarranted, as does the position of moral righteousness some of its advocates seem to adopt. “People are entitled to ship what they like”, as always, but oftentimes it feels that is an aphorism used to dogwhistle how you must only like and conform to some arbitrary principles of ship morality (alysmond) to the detriment of other “problematic” ships. Too many fans seem to conform to the dogma that only the problematic aspects they like should be celebrated and promoted, whereas others should be excluded and all discussion on them stomped. 

Anonymous asked: Do you have any wishes of how you want the writers to write alys?

I’ve said in the past that my grand idea would be to turn this into some kind of comedy and introduce her like a Skade-type character from The Last Kingdom. Mostly because Aemond’s story is dark enough already and I think it would provide some relief and breathing space.

Anonymous asked: I feel like HBO is gonna have it like where Aemond tells Alys she can leave Harrenhal if she wishes but she chooses to stay so they can hand wave it and be like “see guys, it’s consensual!”

Honestly, that’s very likely. It wouldn’t be the first time HBO would gloss over a problematic ship to make it more palatable to the audiences. They kind of do this with Daemyra on screen, though they did make efforts to point out in interviews that it’s not really rainbows and sunshine. We’ll just have to wait and see how they decide to tackle this; anything is just speculation at this point, since there are 24982 possible versions they could settle on.

[stereotypesclass1teachercarmen]

INVESTING ON BEATING STEREOTYPES CAN LEAD US TO A BETTER SOCIETY

Helena Benain

"Strength lies in differences, not in similarities" Stephen R. Covey well said. Indigenous are lazy. French are arrogant. Chinese are smart. Africans are athletic. Everyone has heard these, and eventually, believed on these affirmations. Stereotypes have long been silent architects of our society structures, often shaping how we communicate and interact within our communities. While stereotypes may seem harmless on the surface, they can have profound consequences, affecting not only communication, but also group living, personal development, and even leading to a more violent society. In a world that increasingly values diversity and inclusivity, it is crucial to recognize that investing in beating stereotypes is an opening to a better society.

Stereotypes create invisible barriers within society, inhibiting effective communication and harmonious group living. When we label or prejudge individuals based on some group they are a part of, we fail to see them as unique individuals, roping the foundations of genuine dialogue and collaboration. Therefore, in a valued diverse world, open communication and cooperation are crucial for progress, despite, stereotypes may often lead to the marginalization of certain groups, fostering, eventually, a sense of exclusion. When people feel marginalized, they are less likely to engage in open, constructive dialogues with others. As a result, group living becomes more fragmented, hindering our ability to address shared challenges and find common ground.

Although stereotypes can be explained as the result of a natural human brain phenomenon called “heuristics”, which are, according to the Berkeley University Psychologist Zaid Jilani in his article entitled "How to Beat Stereotypes by Seeing People as Individuals", sort of mental shortcuts needed by our brains to help us navigate the world, these preconceived notions can limit an individual's potential and self-esteem, affecting their aspirations, choices, and overall well-being, in oder words, their personal development. For instance, young girls who grow up surrounded by gender stereotypes that suggest they are not as competent in math and science as boys may shy away from pursuing careers in these fields. On the other hand, boys who are discouraged from expressing vulnerability or pursuing artistic interests may stifle their true selves and suppress their personal development. When we invest in overcoming stereotypes, we create a society that encourages individuals to be their authentic selves, so this nurturing environment fosters personal growth and allows diverse talents to flourish, also cultivating a society enriched by diverse perspectives and talents.

One of the most concerning aspects of stereotypes are their potential to escalate violence within society, in a way that stereotypes can reinforce harmful biases and perceptions, leading to prejudice and discrimination. When stereotypes are left unaddressed, they can contribute to social tensions and violence, particularly against marginalized or stereotyped groups. Stereotypes often trigger discrimination, bias, and systemic inequalities, which can escalate into more violent forms of expression. Consequently, biases can manifest as hate crimes, verbal abuse, or even structural violence, leading a path to a less hostile society. However, in order to build a safer, more peaceful world, we must address stereotypes at their root.

Investing in beating stereotypes is not just a matter of personal growth; it is essential for creating a more inclusive, harmonious, and non-violent society. Stereotypes have far-reaching implications, affecting our ability to communicate effectively, live together in harmony, develop as individuals, and avoid violence. By actively confronting stereotypes and working towards a society that embraces diversity and respects all its members, we can build a better world for ourselves and future generations. What do you stereotype?

[dreaming-about-somewhere-else]

Key Moments in Asian American History: An Incomplete Survey

Key Moments of Co-Racialization in Asian American History:

An Incomplete Survey

Co-racialization: The relative racialization of different Asian American groups based on their proximity to whiteness and distance from blackness. In this way, definitions of whiteness, blackness, and Asian Americanness are dependent on the current political moment in which they are being shaped.

1.     Black Orientalism 

Time Period: Reconstruction era United States,1860- 1890s

Context: Chinese Exclusion act of 1882

With white lawmakers deciding whether or not to include Black Americans in American Citizenship, there arguments in congress to stop further Chinese immigration amid a rising, widespread, anti-Chinese movement. A white minister argues to the Senate in 1878 that slavery has primed Black Americans for citizenship while the newly immigrated Chinese have not been similarly “compelled to give up idolatry” or adopt Christianity.  In order to bolster their bid for inclusion, the Black Press buys into Anti-Chinese rhetoric, proving their “deeply American character.” Black Orientalism was a path for Black people to negotiate citizenship in American Modernity through racial uplift, placing themselves above Chinese immigrants by reproducing and pushing anti-Chinese sentiments in their publications. These newspapers would describe the ‘sexually-deviant, filthy, diseased Chinese ghettos’ in an attempt to highlight the modest, Christian, and virtuous nature of Black Americans. In these efforts, Black Americans appealed to white citizenship for inclusion on the basis of their moral and religious superiority to Chinese Immigrants. However, the passing of the Chinese exclusion act led to the Supreme Court decision that cemented that racial segregation was an entitlement of white citizenship, thus undermining their efforts for inclusion.

Source: The Press for Inclusion in 19th Century Black Citizenship and the Anti- Chinese Movement by Helen Heran Jun

2.     Chinese Mississippians 

Time Period: 1920s-1940s

Context: Jim Crow South

Chinese Mississippians in the American Delta Made Bids for Whiteness by disassociating from the black communities they were a part of. Chinese Mississippians “earned” social mobility and “honorary whiteness” by endorsing black-white racial divide and white supremacy, as well as accruing capital, often by profiting off business from the black community that they disassociated from. They did this by breaking all former platonic and romantic ties with the black communities they lived in and seeking entrance into white schools for their children on the grounds that they too should be able to discriminate against black people. This begins in 1924, when Gong Lum argues in court for his daughter to attend a white school since she was “not a member of the colored race nor is she of mixed blood, but that she is pure Chinese”, and there was no Chinese school for her to attend. This bid for association to whiteness was based on the negative association of blackness, which defined the” colored” racial category in America at the time. Instead, the initial victory was appealed to the Mississippi Supreme court, which ruled that since Chinese are not white, they are “colored“. Gong Lum and other Chinese American parents then elected to send their children to private Catholic schools, still not willing to be associated with the black community, and still vying for approval from the white ruling class and thus higher social status. This paid off, after the alliance between US and China in World War II, the elite white schools opened the door for the Delta Chinese. However, this still legally undermined their bid for whiteness, as they were legally classified as non-white for the first time.

Source: Morphing Race Into Ethnicity: Asian Americans and Critical Transformations of Whiteness, Susan Koshy

3.     Bids for White Legal Classification 

Time Period: 1910-1970

Context: America was drawing a global map of who was “colored” and who was white. In ambiguity, people of different ethnicities bid for inclusion in the legal classification of white in order to attain citizenship, on which race is a basis for exclusion.

A few key court cases illustrate the many bids for inclusion and relative racialization of different ethnicities. The bid for whiteness from American colonial territories was fraught. A native Hawaiian who petitioned for citizenship in 1889 and was denied on the basis that he was of the “Mongolian” race, and that he was not “sufficiently intelligent” in the principles of the US. This legal racial classification of “Mongolian” was applied to Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, and Hawaiians, who were not hitherto grouped into the same racial category. The bids for western and south Asian claimants, who were racialized as Caucasian, because of the whiteness line being drawn “west of the subcontinent”, were treated with a different legal practice and interpretation. Early Syrian immigrants in the 60s petitioned for citizenship on the basis of their “whiteness” since their Christian communities reflected the appearance and values of American communities in the 1950s, with an emphasis on their strong Christianity, modest women, and distance from “barbaric” Muslim Syrians.

Source: Morphing Race Into Ethnicity: Asian Americans and Critical Transformations of Whiteness, Susan Koshy

Concepts that influence Asian American Racialization in North America:

Abstract Labor: The valuation of immigrant labor, and specifically Asian immigrant labor as disposable, thus dehumanizing and racializing the laborers and allowing the state to use Asian labor for country building. Meanwhile the laborers can make no demands of the state for better living conditions or working.

Abstract Citizen: A homogenous national identity that provides the state with uncomplicated devotion and affection. In the United States we may define this as the White Cis Het Man, the nation’s ideal citizen. Asian Americans may try to align themselves, but they will never truly be accepted into the national identity because of their ”perpetual foreigner” status.

Source: from Immigration, Citizenship, Racialization, Lisa Lowe

To be continued in ….

Key Moments of Coalition in Asian American History

1.     Third World Unity

Time Period: 1960s

Context: Huey P. Newton, leader of the Black Panther Party theorized Intercommunalism and Internationalism

“The Panthers Linked their own oppression with that of other racialized and oppressed groups in the US and linked oppression at home with imperialism throughout the tricontinental.”

Source: “Long Live Third World Unity! Long Live Internationalism” by Besenia Rodriguez

2.     Black Power Yellow Power

Time Period: 1960s

Context: Civil Rights Movement, Black Power Movement

“White America justifies the blacks’ position by showing that other non-whites – yellow people—have been able to “adapt” to the system… the yellow power movement is fighting a well-developed racism in Asin Americans who project their own frustrated attempt to gain white acceptance onto the black people. ”

Source: The emergence of the yellow power in America, by Amy Uyematsu

3.     Student Protests in California

Time Period: 1960s

Context: Civil Rights era, Third World Movements  

“African American, Asian American, Chicano, Latino, and Native American students called for ethnic studies and open admissions under the slogan of self-determination.”

Source: “On Strike!” San Francisco State College Strike 1968-1969 by Karen Umemoto

Suggested Reading on the Topic of Coalition:

Uses of Anger, Audre Lorde

Transformation of Silence into Action, Audre Lorde

Coalition Politics, Bernice Johnson Reagan

This Bridge Called My Back by Gloria Anzaldua and Cherrie Moraga

Cultural Identity and Diaspora, Stuart Hall

[captaindibbzy]

Ok so I'm thinking about this TERF bitch who wants a stage at Edinburgh Fringe and I think it's a good example of insula communities. The circles she runs in are probably very aligned with her views on things, which includes exclusively "gender critical" individuals. So she sees that as the greater world. Obviously this view is very common. She sees this as a key part of her and as she is an MP she thinks the people who vote for her must agree with her.

So she leaves her little internet bubble and decides to do something in the real world and runs in to a group of people who she thinks must be a small minority (cause it's not like she comes across them often, right?) of people who do not agree with her. And she thinks she has a mandate to speak cause obviously people voted for her views, and the circles she run in agree with her. So it's a minority standing in the way of a majority. But if she stood as an independent MP rather than with the SNP then she would have probably lost to her SNP counterpart. As with most people they rarely vote for the MP, they vote with the party, which is why local elections have lower turn outs.

Most people do not care about gender arguments. If you ask them about it they will drag it up from the depths of their brains and make up an opinion on the spot based on how they feel at the moment, and who they are talking to. Overall the tide is turning towards inclusion, as slow as it is.

I am never entirely sure how to interpret are "being canceled" cause for me it always sounds like a way of diminishing the consequences of your actions. You are not entitled to a stage or platform. You are not entitled to be heard. Your views are not entitled to be aired in public.

And the staff at the stage where you wanted to talk are entitled to say they don't want to work for you.

[sarahrserfati]

'Smart Cities', Making Publics, Making Places

"Turning closer to home, Australian residents' experience of place, sense of attachment and entitlement to participate is equally affected by location-specific factors, by access to the city and by socioeconomic status. Under-serviced suburbs impose disadvantages on families, youth, the sick and disabled, the poor and the old, restricting the benefits of living in cities — such as employment opportunities or access to fast broadband, medical and educational facilities — and therefore affecting the right to participate fully in urban life. Distance in Australia has always been a major factor in effective urban planning, governance and placemaking.

For example, Canberra, the 'bush' capital, is disposed over a large area relative to its population. The plan for a small light-rail development, to ease traffic flows into the city from a new northern suburb and lessen the need for central parking, has been controversial not simply because of the expected charge on the public purse but also, some argue, because of its inevitable obsolescence as the city grows (McIlroy 2015). Canberrans argue through The Canberra Times about inner city property development, and the squeezing out of the young from home ownership, with the resultant impact on social inclusivity. The concentration of vulnerable, high-risk populations in an outlying housing estate, 'the suburb where the only business is a liquor store, and no buses run' (Ellery 2016), particularly animates public debate. The Canberra Centre, a well-appointed shopping mall in the city centre, nevertheless has many 'dead spaces' that divide those with rights from those who are excluded. Surveilled walkways run between buildings where cars and pedestrians share access, and the homeless beg. Inside the mall, Salvation Army collectors are able to sit down, and an attractive illumination, 'A Light Touch', on the wall opposite a major retail outlet amuses consumers' children (Figure 3.2). Conventional assumptions about people, uses and values are embedded in these examples, but the practice of placemaking can unexpectedly open up. Canberra traders outside the mall recently announced a new revivification fund for small community projects for the city's 'dead heart', Garema Place, because, according to the fund's director, 'No single citizen should curate the city' (MacDonald 2016). Although cities' specific problems differ, large-scale, complex and individual problems are shared across cities. Planners' attention is justifiably attracted to the smart technologies thought capable of capturing the data necessary for more efficient designs — data which promise to provide timely whole-of-city information and can be used to model future population movements, to predict whole-of-city priorities, and to avoid the backlash from publics disappointed by unmet needs. Multiple examples of controversial placemaking, and a growing awareness of public connectedness or the lack of it, exist everywhere in Australia.

The panoptic gaze of UN Urban Renewal expert panels has resulted in endorsement of a charter of guiding principles on 'rights to the city' for global and local adaptation and implementation. Participatory approaches to urban governance have become the paramount consideration in urban renewal discussions. UN panels determined that, given the complexity of issues and problems that governments face, preserving inclusive 'rights to the city' will need a particular governance: 'Above all, new urban governance should be democratic, inclusive, multi-scale and multi-level' (Habitat 111 2016, p. 3). Technology is to be put to use democratically in administrative and governance functions for populations, and with populations. A governance approach is useful for analysis of responsive space, where technology may inflict collateral damage by unforeseen exclusions. Data streams 'place' people physically in a city square, and simultaneously locate them as nodes in the IoT, interacting with, and changing, the environment around them. Primary modes of data collection are through mobile usage, beacons and locative devices. The ways that rights are currently conceptualised will need to be supplemented in future by consideration of the limitations imposed by access to and use of technology, and the smart literacies and practices of city populations. Smart phone possession, knowledge of functionalities and app uses, and the ability to navigate data flows will be necessary to fully participate in urban life

The discourse of 'enhanced experiences' has been a significant marker of the debate about technology-enabled urban modernity. Pew research based on over 2558 expert predictions of the likely impact of the Internet of Things in 2025 found that the majority framed it positively, with one participant likening it to the way electricity now works seamlessly in everyday life (Anderson & Rainnie 2014). Smart features are increasingly familiar additions to consumer goods (from Mimo's baby-monitoring devices, to Safewise's wearable child and pet tracker, to Nintendo's sleep monitor). These products are all marketed as 'experiences': the first two, promising greater security for children, offer an enhanced parenting experience. The third sells an experience of personal health management. All have the potential to change behaviour patterns and relationships. Such products so rapidly familiarise consumers with the 'smart' functionalities of a range of ordinary goods that the process of data collection and reuse could seem merely part of a seamless continuum of technological advancements to improve individuals' everyday life. Marketed this way, the changes look beneficial. Though dependent on individual choices, they signify a more technologically invasive future. Manuel Castells argues that 'technology itself does not produce anything', and also that 'power relations are the DNA of society' (2012). The IoT, with human-machine actors, presents a different challenge from broadcast media and prior networks, and complicates a ready dismissal of technological determinism. Rapid migration of the IoT, from its main drivers in consumer and then civic domains, means that tracking the exact points of agency in each adaptation or new use of technology is complex. In the mass uptake of each smart device, and in each new value chain created, there are many individual and collaborative makers, interfaces, algorithmic designs, and evolving and automated connections between specialist businesses and platforms. Such chains disrupt established relationships, as well as generating and anchoring new ones.

In a city, as big data is collected and reused from a vast array of scarcely noticeable sensors, and information ecosystems are formed, the agents involved in helping a city 'talk' become invisible. Their invisibility and pervasiveness and the seamlessness of their operations means that inhabitants have less choice than when they are consumers of individual products. Pre-existing familiarisation with smart devices shapes and possibly restricts municipal approaches to 'experience'-driven civic relationships. Civil liberties groups rightly point to concerns about privacy and surveillance, governmental issues reminiscent of Foucault's disciplinary panopticon, and to the need to preserve the integrity of human agency and data security in these automated, non-transparent processes. The question of how consent is gained for the reuse of personal information, and all the (as yet) opaque affordances of smart technology, animates pessimistic discussions about smart technologies in the consumer domain and amongst privacy watchdogs such as the Electric Freedom Foundation, which tracks technological intrusions into the private domain and gives advice about the protective measures

'Open' and 'closed' loops in the city that talks

Industry and commerce have also taken on a significant role as 'explainers' of the smart city for the public and, significantly, for journalists mediating the information in ways they judge appropriate for their particular news publics. The concept of eliminating human error is a much-used trope in introductory explanations about responsive environments. Cisco Australia's explanation of the scale of the change is that people 'can start expecting a more responsive environment', mitigating its novelty by noting that people are already monitoring real time traffic flows on Google Maps. Kevin Bloch, a spokesperson, explains in an interview published in The Guardian (Yoo 2016): It's responsive because we're measuring and collecting data then making decisions on that data to change the actual city itself … With computers integrated into every piece of physical infrastructure, machines adapt to human behaviour and physical conditions to provide convenience, feedback and efficiency. Bloch (in Yoo 2016) uses 'open' and 'closed' communication loops to further describe responsive environments. He suggests that the IoT is a closed loop, with predictive benefits: Today we're in very much an open loop — something happens, a human makes a decision and that's it. In the future, we're moving to what I call a closed loop environment, where the human will have data coming to it telling you — don't go this way, go that way, or panic, somebody's just died over here — all sorts of things can start coming to you without actually humans intervening in it. Illustrating the way in which one closed loop might operate, he privileges data-driven mobility over human interventions (in Yoo 2016): You go to watch a sports game. Because there are 70 000 people all going to the one stadium, the cost of parking will dynamically go up. At the end of that afternoon, because it knows that people are leaving, the cost of parking will dynamically drop. The actual city itself starts telling you [how to optimise that] rather than you just blindly doing what you've been doing for the last 100 years. That's what they call cognitive systems, autonomous intelligence or artificial intelligence, which starts making the city even smarter than, perhaps, humans are. The activities described rely on real time information derived from big data, collected, stewarded, narrativised and reused by municipal agencies or corporations. Whether such data serve the demos depends on the level of granularity in the answers to questions about matters such as who collects the data, and why; what the alternative narratives are which can be told from data; who reuses the data, according to what kinds of protocols; and what the overall municipal governance objectives are. If the 'city' is 'talking' to its population, it is imperative to ask about both the premises of IoT scenography designers, and how they conceptualise the civic."

Griffiths, Mary. “‘Imagine If Our Cities Talked to Us’: Questions about the Making of ‘Responsive’ Places and Urban Publics.” In Making Publics, Making Places, edited by Mary Griffiths and Kim Barbour, 27–48. University of Adelaide Press, 2016.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.20851/j.ctt1t304qd.8.

[typoeastnews]

Health Insurers to Decide on Cashless Authorization Within One Hour: Regulator Update

In a significant move aimed at empowering policyholders and promoting inclusive health insurance, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has issued a new master circular on health insurance. This circular, which replaces 55 previous directives, introduces several key reforms designed to streamline and enhance the health insurance experience.

Key Highlights of the Master Circular

1. Faster Cashless Authorization

One of the most notable changes is the requirement for insurers to decide on cashless authorization requests within one hour. This rapid response is expected to alleviate stress for policyholders during medical emergencies and ensure timely access to healthcare services.

2. Consolidation and Clarity

The master circular brings together all entitlements in a health insurance policy into a single, easily accessible document. This initiative aims to provide policyholders with a seamless, faster, and hassle-free claims experience by clearly outlining their rights and benefits.

3. Wider Product Choices

Insurers are now required to offer a broader range of products, add-ons, and riders. These options cater to various age groups, regions, and medical conditions, ensuring that policyholders can find coverage that suits their specific needs and affordability.

4. Simplified Customer Information Sheet (CIS)

Every policy document will now include a Customer Information Sheet (CIS). This sheet explains the basic features of insurance policies in simple terms, including type of insurance, sum insured, coverage details, exclusions, sub-limits, deductibles, and waiting periods.

5. No Claim Bonus (NCB)

Policyholders who do not make any claims during the policy period may receive a No Claim Bonus. This bonus can be in the form of an increased sum insured or a discount on the premium amount, providing additional value to policyholders for maintaining good health.

6. End-to-End Technology Solutions

The circular emphasizes the use of technology to enhance policyholder experience. This includes solutions for effective and efficient onboarding, policy renewal, servicing, and grievance redressal.

7. Document-Free Claim Settlements

Policyholders will no longer need to submit documents for claim settlements. Instead, insurers and Third-Party Administrators (TPAs) will collect the necessary documents directly from hospitals, simplifying the process for policyholders.

8. Stricter Timelines for Portability Requests

The IRDAI has imposed stricter timelines for processing portability requests on the Insurance Information Bureau of India (IIB) portal. This ensures timely action from both the existing and acquiring insurers.

9. Penalties for Delayed Ombudsman Awards

Insurers are now liable to pay Rs 5,000 per day to policyholders if ombudsman awards are not implemented within 30 days. This measure aims to ensure timely justice and compensation for policyholders.

10. Immediate Release of Mortal Remains

In the unfortunate event of a policyholder’s death during treatment, hospitals are required to release the mortal remains immediately, ensuring dignity and respect for the deceased and their families.

Conclusion

The IRDAI’s new master circular represents a landmark effort to empower policyholders, ensuring they receive the highest standards of care and service. By fostering an environment of trust and transparency in the health insurance sector, these reforms aim to make health insurance more accessible, efficient, and user-friendly for all.

[anthonybialy]

A Tournament Exclusive

An inferior way of finding a champion sure is exciting.  March wasn’t just the month for contagious diseases four years ago.  Everyone who likes sports gets infected with 48 games over four days serving as the only cure.

But a different process would create even more welcome madness.  College basketball would find a truer champion with a smaller field featuring more selective appeal.  Find a winner like one of those dating apps that claims to have cooler matches.

The format debate weighs thrills of schools that suddenly spike in DuckDuckGo searches versus finding the season’s best team.  Schools you’ve probably heard of deserve the chance to show just how they became prominent in the first place.

Those accepted would never stop boasting about the Ivy League of basketball championships.  A truer challenge’s parameters easy to devise.  A 16-team field of all-at-large inductees would yield a truly worthy finale.  That’s about as many teams with a legitimate claim to being the country’s top entrant, which is a good start for a bracket that’s supposed to determine just that.

Early rounds would become rivalries through mini-series.  To avoid shocks inherent to single-elimination competitions, the first two rounds would feature rounds with two out of three on Friday, Saturday, and the day before classes if a tiebreaker’s necessary.  A better team is more likely to beat the other if given more minutes.  The semifinals could retain single-elimination matchups for the final four, which would preserve drama while recognizing teams that have made it that far have proven they’re prepared.

A lack of surprises wouldn’t just be great for avoiding anxiety.  Choice teams tending to prevail would reflect the best programs getting to prove it.  Anyone miffed at rejection from a Skull and Bones-style society has motivation to improve their social standing in hopes of an invitation in two semesters.

Surprises are more genuine when they’re not engineered.  An exclusive playoff would make upsets more upsetting, at least to arrogant basketball royalty knocked down by commoners.  Besides, student-athlete free agency has already leveled the court.  Recruit kids with your university’s awesome majors plus a promising extracurricular.  You can even make a couple bucks for textbooks these days without needing to receive an envelope behind a booster’s car dealership.

Recruit one-legged firefighters to ensure representation.  A skewered take on equality includes entrants from different regions and levels instead of whoever’s fantastic anywhere in the nation.  Fans who notice a setup that’s a bit too egalitarian wonder why a conference title entitles the winner to a shot at a national one, especially in the era where membership is chosen by dart.

A suitable backup prize would offer a chance to keep playing.  College basketball could feature a concurrent tournament of conference title winners who don’t earn their way in with a solicitation.  Not everyone deserves honor roll inclusion.  Snobbiness is desirable if you seek the top team instead of a widespread pastiche.

Consolation bracket enlistees would get to compete with others who triumphed in smaller tournaments that look like they’re played in high school gyms with highlights videotaped on JVC camcorders.  A free trip to the host city along with the chance at a Conference Supremacy Cup would serve as a fun deserved opportunity.

Postseasons should go nowhere for most collegiate participants.  Most bowl games fittingly feature a chance to win a trophy with a sponsor’s name and nothing more.  Victors don’t get to move on and shouldn’t.

That other prominent student athletic competition features a unique system where most teams with an even record or better get one more game against an equal foe.  Or, at least it did.  Expanding the football field will finally provide chances for multiple regular-season losers.

A competition with virtually open admission makes the regular schedule less appealing.  Basketball’s usual slate doesn’t receive much attention with the ensuing overshadowing showdown.  By contrast, the college game’s playoffs used to be the regular season.  But they naturally ruined what worked.  Soon, SEC teams will feel free to lose a second time and not fret about being left out.  Those who demanded expansion got what they want.  Intoxication is a challenge with dilution.

Enjoyment style would change for the better.  A four-round affair would lead to higher-quality games rather than freakish matchups that catch better seeds by surprise.  Fans would have heard of all the attending schools.  It’s easy to forget who went on unlikely runs.  Florida Atlantic wonders why you never text.

There’s no fretting about a more elite take on finding the season’s supreme team that’ll never happen.  I’m as realistic about the suggestion as I am certain it’d lead to a truer title.  The NCAA would rather sweeten crowd noise.  They’re more likely to expand to a seventh round than even consider cropping the field in half.

The certainty of keeping the present lineup isn’t an atrocity even if it’ll remain gimmicky.  It’s not like the champion is illegitimate.  Top teams usually persevere even if some surprising candidates head back to campus after opening weekend.  But there’s a definitive way to see who ought to be in dorms and not hotels.

The Rocky Balboas of basketball may pull off wins in early rounds even if they don’t win bouts.  The 16th-best team winning it all would still astound.  Going through with the games offers a reminder that nothing’s decided.  Rosters that presume they’ll advance get back to schoolwork sooner than expected.

An invitational like that national one would serve as a reminder of just what the competition is for, namely to determine the best team.  You’ll have to continue accepting stirring victories by slingshot-wielders against unprepared ostensibly superior underachievers as a substitute.

[ptlsalp]

Insurance: Certificates of Coverage for Marketplace plans -- is there no "one per lifetime" limitation?

I'll need to switch to a Marketplace plan effective 3/1 anyway, so I've been shopping for a plan.

What's a Certificate of Coverage?

Here's a good working definition: "A certificate of coverage is an official contract that outlines what an insured is entitled to, and what they aren't insured for, under a health insurance policy."

Of the Marketplace plans available to me, most haven't published Certificates of Coverage, but some have. In my unusual situation, I can only consider Marketplace plans that have published Certificates of Coverage.

Implications of Certificates of Coverage

Regarding the possibility of self-pay:

Some of the Marketplace plans' Certificates explicitly include coverage for treatment of complications related to non-covered services. Notably, none of them exclude this coverage. In contrast, my current private insurance plan explicitly excludes this coverage.

Regarding possible coverage as sterilization:

Under my current private insurance plan, coverage of sterilization under diagnosis code Z30.2 [Encounter for sterilization] is limited to one procedure per member per lifetime. However, these Marketplace plans' Certificates don't state the same limitation. Certificates are contracts, and typically insurers try to exclude everything they can; so, while the absence of an exclusion doesn't imply an inclusion, it's a good sign.

I also noticed that certain other procedures--like bariatric surgery, for example--are limited to one procedure per member per lifetime by these Marketplace plans' Certificates. That tells me that Marketplace plans can impose "one per lifetime" limitations in general, which makes it more notable that there is no stated "one per lifetime" limitation on sterilization coverage.

No stated limitation--I can't be sure yet that there is truly no such limitation, however.

Regarding possible coverage under gender-affirming care:

All Marketplace plans available to me cover gender-affirming care, so this is still a potential route.

Additional considerations

Network: I can only consider Marketplace plans under which all relevant providers and facilities are in-network.

No referral to see a specialist: I can only consider Marketplace plans that don't require a referral from a PCP to see a specialist. I haven't involved my PCP in this process at all. I'd prefer to keep it that way, even if it means I have to pay more for a PPO plan.

[rohitpalan]

Bot Services Market Overview: A Deep Dive into 2021 Global Sales at US$ 1.2 Billion

The global bot services market stands at US$ 1.6 Bn at present and is expected to reach US$ 18 Bn by the year 2032 at a whopping CAGR of 27.1% between 2022 and 2032.

The e-Commerce and BFSI sectors are more into usage of chatbots. Enterprises do adopt chatbots for internal tasks as well as customer service. One of the catalysts to bot services market is growing demand for feature phones along with incorporating advanced NLP and AI techniques. Urbanization and digitization have revolutionized the world, and bot services have played a vital role. Efforts are also being made for standardizing the ecosystem worldwide.

Various service companies did turn into bots during the pandemic, so as to help the clientele resolve issues without any propagation delay. The healthcare industry did see a spike in the sales of chatbots during the pandemic era. Several public healthcare and commercial websites made use of chatbots for diagnosing isolated patients and getting basic healthcare assessment done. On these grounds, the WHO, in April 2020, came up with chatbots on Fb messenger for providing precise information about Covid-19. Future Market Insights has walked through these facts with probable calls to action in its latest market study entitled ‘Bot Services Market’

Request a Report Sample:  https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-15670

Key Takeaways from Bot Services Market

North America holds the largest market share due to the US being home to hordes of IT companies.

Europe is at the matured stage in bot services market and expected to show this consistency in the upcoming period.

The Asia-Pacific, led by India, Japan, and China, is expected to be the fastest growing region in bot services market in the near future.

Competitive Landscape

Microsoft Corporation, in January 2021, did announce transitioning Microsoft healthcare Bot Service to ‘Azure’ to enable customers to take an advantage of the latter’s improved tools, compliance, and security features.

Poynter Institute’s IFCN (International Fact-Checking Network), in May 2020, came up with Whatsapp-enabled chatbots for providing access to translated network comprising over 80 fact-checking organizations across the globe.

Alvaria, in June 2022, put forth its very first native product called ‘Alvaria CX Suite’, which comes across as combination of Noble Contact Center and Unified IP/Advanced List Management from Aspect. CX suite has been rounded out with self-service, omnichannel, fraud detection capabilities, and compliant outreach.

Meta, in February 2022, launched the latest innovation regarding Universal Speech Translator, wherein it would be extending support to languages sans standard writing system (both – spoken and written).

Baidu, in November 2021, tabled PLATO-XL. It’s an AI model meant for dialogue generation. At present, it does outperform existing commercial chatbots on several conversational benchmarks, thereby showing exceptional performance.

Mindsay, in April 2021, used Genesys App Foundry for publishing AI chatbots. The agents are likely to quickly leave and engage in conversations with the customers through chatbot interface by integration of Mindsay chatbots with Genesys Cloud, that too, day in day out.

Yellow Messengers, an AI chat bot firm, did receive US$ 20 Mn in April 2020 from an investor for fulfiling the growing need of the market.

“With internet penetration witnessing an exponentiation, the global bot services market is likely to grow inadvertently in the forecast period”, says an analyst from Future Market Insights.

What are the inclusions of Bot Services Market Report?

Future Market Insights offers an exclusive perspective and various real-time insights on the bot services market in its latest study, presenting historical demand assessment of 2016 – 2021 and projections for 2022 – 2032.

The research study is based on service (platform and framework), by mode of channel (website, contact centers, social media, and mobile applications), by business function (sales & marketing, human resource, finance, supply chain & logistics, and IT), by application (customer engagement & retention, workforce management, agent performance management, content management, appointment scheduling, employee on-boarding, and others), by deployment mode (on-premises and cloud), by organization size (SMEs and large enterprises), and by vertical (BFSI, retail & e-Commerce, healthcare & life sciences, media & entertainment, travel & hospitality, IT telecom, government, and other verticals).

Bots let users add various intelligent agents communicating without investment of money and time in incorporating AI of their own.

Browse Full Report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/bot-services-market

Bot Services Market Segmentation

By Service:

Framework

Platform

By Mode of Channel:

Website

Contact Centers

Social Media

Mobile Applications

By Business Function:

Sales & Marketing

Human Resource (HR)

Finance

Supply Chain & Logistics

Information Technology (IT)

By Application:

Customer Engagement & Retention

Workforce Management

Agent Performance Management

Content Management

Appointment Scheduling

Employee On boarding

Other Applications

By Deployment Mode:

On-premises

Cloud

Organization Size:

Large Enterprises

SMEs

Verticals:

BFSI

Retail & e-commerce

Healthcare & Life Sciences

Media & Entertainment

Travel & Hospitality

IT & Telecom

Government

Other Verticals

By Region:

North America

Latin America

Europe

APAC

MEA