#apr 2014

[kingwilliamv]

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince George during a visit to the Bilby Enclosure at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. — 20 April 2024

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Slayer ‎– Black Magic 

[egg2k16]

"Mystery Train" came out on Mar 14, 2011, n it was about Finn's 13th birthday, so I'm just gonna lazily use that date as his birthdate

[musicalthought]

album review; mitski's bury me at makeout creek (2014)

♡ fav song(s): francis forever; last words of a shooting star

♡ least fave song: i don’t smoke

♡ overall: 9.8/10

♡ mascara tracks down my cheeks, sobbing, hiccuping with snot, rethinking every decision in my life, etc.

[puns-fr]

ive been here since 2014 and every year going through my apparel to get rid of duplicates or find something valuable becomes less and less appealing

[mostlysignssomeportents]

General Mills and cheaply bought "dietitians" co-opted the anti-diet movement

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in NEXT THURSDAY (Apr 11) in BOSTON with Randall "XKCD" Munroehttps://cockeyed.com/lessons/viagra/viagra.html, then PROVIDENCE, RI (Apr 12), and beyond!

Steve Bannon isn't wrong: for his brand of nihilistic politics to win, all he has to do is "flood the zone with shit," demoralizing people to the point where they no longer even try to learn the truth.

This is really just a more refined, more potent version of the tactical doubt sown by Big Tobacco about whether smoking caused cancer, a playbook later adopted by the fossil fuel industry to sell climate denial. You know Darrell Huff's 1954 classic How To Lie With Statistics? Huff was a Big Tobacco shill (his next book, which wasn't ever published, was How To Lie With Cancer Statistics). His mission wasn't to help you spot statistical malpractice – an actual thing that is an actual problem that you should actually learn to spot. It was to turn you into a nihilist who didn't believe anything could be known:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/04/how-to-truth/#harford

Corporations don't need you to believe that their products are beneficial or even non-harmful. They just need you to believe nothing. If you don't know what's true, then why not just do whatever feels good, man? #YOLO!

These bannonfloods of shit are a favored tactic of strongmen and dictators. Their grip on power doesn't depend on their citizens trusting them – it's enough that they trust no one:

http://jonathanstray.com/networked-propaganda-and-counter-propaganda

Bannonflooding is especially beloved of the food industry. Food is essential, monopolized, and incredibly complicated, and many of the most profitable strategies for growing, processing and preparing food are very bad for the people who eat that food. Rather than sacrificing profits, the food industry floods the zone with shit, making it impossible to know what's true, in hopes that we will just eat whatever they're serving:

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2003460

Now, the "nothing can be known" gambit only works if it's really hard to get at the truth. So it helps that nutrition and diet are very complex subjects, but it helps even more that the nutrition and diet industry are a cesspool of quacks and junk science. This is a "scientific discipline" whose prestigious annual meetings are sponsored (and catered) by McDonald's:

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/05/my-trip-mcdonalds-sponsored-nutritionist-convention/

It's a "science" whose most prominent pitchmen peddle quack nostrums and sue the critics who point out (correctly) that eating foods high in chlorophyll will not "oxygenate your blood" (hint, chlorophyll only makes oxygen in the presence of light, which is notably lacking in your colon):

https://www.badscience.net/2007/02/ms-gillian-mckeith-banned-from-calling-herself-a-doctor/

When the quack-heavy world of nutrition combines with the socially stigmatized world of weight-loss, you get a zone ripe for shitflooding. The majority of Americans are "overweight" (according to a definition that relies on the unscientific idea of BMI) and nearly half of Americans are "obese." These numbers have been climbing steadily since the 1970s, and every diet turns out to be basically bullshit:

https://headgum.com/factually-with-adam-conover/what-does-ozepmic-actually-do-with-dr-dhruv-khullar

Notwithstanding the new blockbuster post-Ozempic drugs, we're been through an unbroken 50-year run of more and more of us being fatter and fatter, even as fat stigma increased. Fat people are treated as weak-willed and fundamentally unhealthy, while the most prominent health-risks of being fat are roundly neglected: the mental health effects of being shamed, and the physical risks of having doctors ignore your health complaints, no matter how serious they sound, and blame them on your weight:

https://maintenancephase.buzzsprout.com/1411126/11968083-glorifying-obesity-and-other-myths-about-fat-people

Fat people and their allies have banded together to address these real, urgent harms. The "body acceptance" movement isn't merely about feeling good in your own skin: it's also about fighting discrimination, demanding medical care (beyond "lose some weight") and warning people away from getting on the diet treadmill, which can lead to dangerous eating disorders and permanent weight gain:

https://www.beacon.org/You-Just-Need-to-Lose-Weight-P1853.aspx

Fat stigma is real. The mental health risks of fat-shaming are real. Eating disorders are real. Discrimination against fat people is real. The fact that these things are real doesn't mean that the food industry can't flood the zone with shit, though. On the contrary: the urgency of these issues, combined with the poor regulation of dietitians, makes the "what should you eat" zone perfect for flooding with endless quantities of highly profitable shit.

Perhaps you've gotten some of this shit on you. Have you found yourself watching a video from a dietitian influencer like Cara Harbstreet, Colleen Christensen or Lauren Smith, promoting "health at any size" with hashtags like #DerailTheShame and #AntiDiet? These were paid campaigns sponsored by General Mills, Pepsi, and other multinational, multibillion-dollar corporations.

Writing for The Examination, Sasha Chavkin, Anjali Tsui, Caitlin Gilbert and Anahad O'Connor describe the way that some of the world's largest and most profitable corporations have hijacked a movement where fat people and their allies fight stigma and shame and used it to peddle the lie that their heavily processed, high-calorie food is good for you:

https://www.theexamination.org/articles/as-obesity-rises-big-food-and-dietitians-push-anti-diet-advice

It's a surreal tale. They describe a speech by Amy Cohn, General Mills’ senior manager for nutrition, to an audience at a dietitian's conference, where Cohn "denounced the media for 'pointing the finger at processed foods' and making consumers feel ashamed of their choices." This is some next-level nihilism: rather than railing against the harmful stigma against fat people, Cohn wants us to fight the stigma against Cocoa Puffs.

This message isn't confined to industry conferences. Dietitians with large Tiktok followings like Cara Harbstreet then carry the message out to the public. In Harbstreet's video promoting Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs and Trix, she says, "I will always advocate for fearlessly nourishing meals, including cereal…Because everyone deserves to enjoy food without judgment, especially kids":

https://www.tiktok.com/@streetsmart.rd/video/7298403730989436206

Dietitians, nutritionists and the food industry have always had an uncomfortably close relationship, but the industry's shitflooding kicked into high gear when the FDA proposed rules limiting which foods the industry can promote as "healthy." General Mills, Kelloggs and Post have threatened a First Amendment suit against such a regulation, arguing that they have a free speech right to describe manifestly unhealthy food as "healthy."

The anti-diet movement – again, a legitimate movement aimed at fighting the dangerous junk science behind dieting – has been co-opted by the food industry, who are paying dietitian influencers to say things like "all foods have value" while brandishing packages of Twix and Reese's. In their Examination article, the authors profile people who struggled with their weight, then, after encountering the food industry's paid disinformation, believed that "healthy at any size" meant that it would be unhealthy to avoid highly processed, high calorie food. These people gained large amounts of weight, and found their lives constrained and their health severely compromised.

I've been overweight all my life. I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting when I was 12. I come from a family of overweight people with the chronic illnesses often associated with being fat. This is a subject that's always on my mind. I even wrote a whole novel about the promise and peril of a weight-loss miracle:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781429969284/makers

I think the anti-diet movement, and its associated ideas like body acceptance and healthy at every size, are enormously positive developments and hugely important. It's because I value these ideas that I'm so disgusted with Big Food and its cynical decision to flood the zone with shit. It's also why I'm so furious with dietitians and nutritionists for failing to self-regulate and become a real profession, the kind that censures and denounces quacks and shills.

I have complicated feelings about Ozempic and its successors, but even if these prove to be effective and safe in the long term, and even if we rein in the rapacious pharma companies so that they no longer sell a $5 product for $1000, I would still want dietary science to clean up its act:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2816824

I'm not a nihilist. I think we can use science to discover truths – about ourselves and our world. I want to know those truths, and I think they can be known. The only people who benefit from convincing you that the truth is unknowable are the people who want to lie to you.

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/2024/04/05/corrupt-for-cocoa-puffs/#flood-the-zone-with-shit

[vmddirectory]

Twinkle World

apr, 02/13/2016

Choreography: Miko

Distribution Video

Password Hint Translation: Song title + Video number. Note: The bowlroll title and file mispell “twinkle.” Use this misspelling when entering the passwords.

[heroesriseandfall]

It’s so amusing to me when characters within comics use the fun-trivia-for-fans maps. Like technically that’s a perfectly good canon map. But when Jim Gordon uses it he feels like a tourist to me.

Eliot Brown’s map from Batman: Gotham City Secret Files & Origins #1 (Apr 2000), in Commissioner Loeb’s office in Detective Comics Vol. 2 #25 (Jan 2014)

It’s more funny when it’s shown on a computer though. You’re telling me Oracle and Batman have super highly sophisticated computers but the maps of Gotham on those computers use a numbered legend, instead of anything more technologically efficient and helpful?

Batman: Gotham Knights #55 (Sep 2004) — how is she supposed to find the CCTV if it’s not on the legend? :( lol

Batman Vol. 1 #683 (Jan 2008)

Robin Vol. 2 #178 (Nov 2008) / Titans Vol. 2 #15 (Sep 2009)

Batman Vol. 2 #24 (Dec 2013)

Absurd. And hilarious. This is a very ineffective map for them to quickly identify deep details of the terrain. But it IS an effective way to get me to laugh in the middle of a comic intended to be high stakes and serious. Important mission who? I only know fun background map.

[matan4il]

On this Yom Ha'Zikaron Le'Chalalei Ma'rachot Yisrael (Memorial Day for Israel's Fallen Soldiers and Terror Victims), I figured it's important to remember that Israeli victims did not exist solely on Oct 7. We have lost loved ones before and since. Here's a list with just one random victim to represent each year. Please scroll down the list to see how far back it goes.

(part 1/5, all parts in the reblogs)

2024: On Jan 7, we lost 19 years old Shai Garmai

2023: On Oct 7, we lost 28 years old Osama abu Madiam

2022: On Nov 23, we lost 18 years old Tiran Faro

2021: On May 12, we lost 5 years old Ido Avigal

2020: On Aug 26, we lost 39 years old Shai Ochayon

2019: On May 5, we lost 49 years old Zaid al-Chamamda

2018: On Dec 12, we lost Amiad Israel Yish Ran, who was murdered in his mother's womb

2017: On Nov 22, we lost 21 years old Hodaya Nechama Assoulin

2016: On Oct 25, we lost 14 years old Rami Namer abu Amar

2015: On Feb 17, we lost 4 years old Adelle Biton

2014: On Oct 22, we lost 2.5 months old Chaya Zissel Brown

2013: On Dec 24, we lost 22 years old Salech al-Din abu al-Atayef

2012: On Jul 18, we lost 28 years old Yitzchak Idan Kolangi

2011: On Apr 17, we lost 16 years old Daniel Aryeh Viplich

2010: On Feb 26, we lost 52 years old Netta Blatt Sorek

2009: On Apr 2, we lost 13 years old Shlomo Nativ

2008: On Mar 6, we lost 26 years old Doron Trunach Mahareta

2007: On Jun 17, we lost 85 years old Meir Cohen

2006: On Aug 10, we lost 4 years old Fatchi Assdi

2005: On Jul 12, we lost 16 years old Nofar Horvitz

2004: On Sep 29, we lost 2 years old Dorit Massarat Binsan

2003: On Sep 9, we lost 20 years old Naava Appelbom

2002: On Nov 10, we lost 4 years old Noam Levi Ochayon

2001: On Dec 12, we lost 42 years old Ester Avraham

2000: On Nov 21, we lost 19 years old Itamar Yefet

1999: On Jun 24, we lost 34 years old Tony Eliyahu Zanna

1998: On Dec 2, we lost 41 years old Osama Moussa abu Aisha

1997: On Mar 13, we lost 13 years old Natali Alkalai

1996: On Feb 25, we lost 57 years old Yitzchak Elbaz

1995: On Jul 24, we lost 60 years old Zehava Oren

As Tumblr limits a post to 30 images... part 1/5 - the next parts will be posted in the reblogs momentarily. Please check out the full list.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[kingwilliamv]

Prince William and Catherine, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge sample red wine as they visit Otago Wines at Amisfield winery in Queenstown, New Zealand. — 13 April 2014

[nnytweets]

I see guys who meet a girl and spend the rest of their lives with them, not killing them at all, and I think "how does that even work?!"

Maybe I just haven't met the right person, someone with the right kind of understanding, and also armored.

Apr 24, 2014

[thesummerestsolstice]

Top Five Bird Elronds:

Dove: Good messenger bird, very easy for Gil-Galad to tie a message to his back and (lovingly) throw him out a window. Enduring symbol of peace, which feels on point. Ideally held gently, like hamburger.

Nightingale: Classic line of Luthien symbolism. Beautiful birdsong. Small enough to easily fit into a coat pocket unnoticed.

Gyrfalcon: Credit to @rain-sleet-snow for this awesome idea. A bird truly befitting a king. Striking and majestic. Featured in all of Gil-Galad’s royal portraits. Still appreciates head pets.

Swan: Taking inspiration from Elwing here. Graceful. Fully capable of acting as a bodyguard. Too large to fit in pocket but can easily be carried around in a bag.

Hummingbird: I have no excuse for this one. Small and very colorful. Has attended multiple parties as a hair accessory. Gil-Galad keeps flowers around for him.

Image Credits Under the Cut:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-believe-managing-like-holding-dove-your-hand-you-hold-riley-doherty

https://thewire.in/environment/nightingale-courtship-song-advertises-fathering-skills

https://www.featheredphotography.com/blog/2014/02/22/yet-another-escaped-falconry-bird-white-gyrfalcon/

twitter.com/stgwindsor/status/1110169079980216320

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/apr/12/hummingbird-research-a-delicate-job/

[dontirrigateme]

Happy Gonorrhea Day!

SSG William Guarnere, 28 Apr 1923 - 08 Mar 2014

Other Aprilers:

PFC Patrick O'Keefe: 03 Apr 1926 - 08 Feb 2003

LTG Robert Sink: 03 Apr 1905 - 13 Dec 1965

PFC James Miller: 11 Apr 1924 - 20 Sep 1944

CPL Walter "Smokey" Gordon: 15 Apr 1920 - 19 Apr 1997

LTC Ronald Speirs: 20 Apr 1920 - 11 Apr 2007

PVT Alton More: 23 Apr 1920 - 31 Jul 1958

SSG Earl McClung: 27 Apr 1923 - 27 Nov 2013

1LT Henry Jones: 27 Apr 1924 - 21 Jul 1947

[yama-bato]

Raymond Depardon

[tcustodisart]

Okay, here's the second summary, this time for all the work I've done this year.

Jan | Feb | Mar

Apr | May | Jun

Jul | Aug | Sep

Oct 1 &2 | Nov | Dec

Honorable mentions go to: this year's pride month post, "I wish I had wings", some kisses, baby Faust, BFFs, grrahrarjshhhhrhjjrhragrrrgaghghr, all of Faustober

2014 |  2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

I want to take some time to share my thoughts on 2023, it's kinda personal and long so you can read it under the cut.

This year has been the hardest year of my adult life. It started with my grandma coming back from the hospital. She was in a terrible state so we had to take care of her almost 24/7. Which was colliding with my work a lot because we we're understaffed. I have very vague memory of the first 4 month of this year because to me it was: go to work, go to my parents to take care of grandma while my parents are at work, go back home, sleep, repeat. Unfortunately grandma passed away near the end of april. But that wasn't the end of my problems, now I had problems with my apartment. Some of you may know I was struggling with bedbugs, I spent over 1k PLN for professional help just for these feckers to come back because they were coming from my neighbors. Then around summer a cable in my kitchen melted and caused a power outage. I'm ending my year with a gaping hole in my bathroom wall because an upstairs neighbor flooded me and the bathroom cabinet had to be removed because it was destroyed by water. It was an awful year for me personally. I'm surprised all that stuff had almost no effect on my art. While picking stuff for this summary I had some hard time picking just one for month. I'm hoping that the next year will be better, because I can't believe it can get any worse. Thank you for following my silly little blorbos from my head, it means so much to me, you have no idea. Here's to more happy Fausts in 2024.