#breakthrough seizure

[nopressurenostress]

Epilepsy Word Vomit

It’s been over a year since I last had a seizure and this morning I woke up with a purple inside of my mouth and a vague recollection of “shit goin down” aka having a seizure. It’d been a very glitchy day - in and out of consciousness a few times and trying to carry on as normal. So I start the grief process again. Every time. Over the years the process got speedier. Instead of hitting me 2 days later like a tonne of bricks it became a slowly creeping entity that came to rest beside me after a few hours. We are slightly more comfortable with each other now. Now that the general shape of my life and dreams has morphed considerably. I call her over with a guided mediation and we sit in the quiet together and sigh. It is so confusing. Invisible illness screams to be seen to “feel validated” at times - and yet when it is here, rearing it’s terrifying head, there is a sickly concoction of grief and validation that sits uncomfortably on my chest and crushes me. Are you meant to feel guilt for sympathy you receive for something out of your control? This morning my Dad says “oh, you were doing so well”.

[sky-walkerem]

y’all send some good vibes my way, i have Covid (for the 3rd time) and im symptomatic and have underlying conditions, wish me luck 😭

[wormsdyke]

chronic illness go craaazy. explodes into many fragments

[victoriadallonfan]

I saw a really funny meme about Victoria’s interaction with Gong, and it made me think…

There’s probably a LOT of unexplored potential in bias and prejudice against Cauldron capes, right?

What kind of micro aggressions can form due to this? How does it interact with capes in the same team, politically?

For context:

- Dying 15.3

Victoria gives a pretty well explained summary of Shaker-Movers, helping to explain why the cape is acting like she has PTSD (which is why Vic’s orders work and Gong’s didn’t), and Gong’s simple response is that she is a Cauldron cape.

Ergo, she wouldn’t have these issues like “real” capes. Right? Victoria wants to argue against it, but she has no real proof of this. She has theories but that’s all they are. Theories.

But WE know the truth. Victoria is correct in that vial capes get powers based off of their personality and mental states!

Battery was a passionate and fiery person who uses memories of staying calm, using breathing techniques from her past to help her manage her fear and pain, which gave her the power to become untouchable so long as she forces herself to remain calm and unmoving to charge up.

Newter was insensate with pain, delirious, and his body torn apart when given his vial, and he gained a body that deals with damage, heals, and induces delirium in others.

Sveta was trapped, torn to shreds, skin peeling off in ribbons and trapped metaphorically in a body that wasn’t right for her. She was given ribbons that could get her out of danger, that would provide and protect her with minds of their own, and a body that was what she wanted while still not being hers.

And WB did a great breakdown of the travelers:

There’s more to explore like how Alexandria had a desire to remain young, a mind foggy from drugs and a body sensitive to pain etc etc, but the gist is that cauldron capes DO have power issues related to what they can do. And according to Battery, they experience mind boggling amounts of pain with each drink of a vial.

However…

Would non-cauldron capes even care?

When Taylor learns about cauldron capes, her first reaction is disgust that these people didn’t earn their powers. That they didn’t suffer like REAL Parahumans did.

Even Victoria is offended when she learns Dean was a cauldron cape, as the intimacy of sharing their trigger events was seen as the next step of their relationship.

When Legend explains how they all should have had trigger events, but didn’t, it falls on deaf ears. No one responds to him and Taylor doesn’t give his words much thought at all.

And why should they? Cauldron capes are liars. They’ve been lying all this time. Nothing they say could be taken at face value. Eidolon could give a huge public speech about being born disabled, suffering from seizures, and his suicide attempts… and it would mean nothing.

He LIED to them about his origins. An unspoken rule has been broken. He didn’t suffer enough to earn his powers.

It’s interesting to me that the Undersiders nor Breakthrough had someone who was a voluntary cauldron cape. Sveta was an advocate for C53’s and hated Legend for being part of Cauldron, but we don’t hear her thoughts on people who simply bought powers. Taylor never knew Accord and Citrine were Cauldron until the very end.

I don’t know how to end this, but his line sticks out to me:

- Blinding 11.5

[technoarcanist]

WAR NEVER CHANGES. BUT,

WARFARE NEVER STOPS CHANGING

"I've seen countless reasons why most mech pilots don't make the cut, but one of the largest hurdles are the physical alterations. The implants and modifications done to the fleshware is so extreme that it's enough to push most would-be pilots away from day 1.

Back in the day, when mech tech was still in its wild west years, when the technology was still in its infancy, things were different. Levers, joysticks, switches, a chair, most of the first models were something between the cockpit of a construction vehicle and a fighter ship.

Pilots in those days still consisted largely of the usual suspects. Test pilots, army jocks, space force veterans looking for something new, the occasional crazy who lucked their way up the ranks. All you needed back then was to be fit enough to work complex machinery. 'Handler's wouldn't be a coined phrase for nearly a decade. I still remember being a kid and seeing repurposed older models in the mech fighting streams.

Everything changed with the Bidirectional Cerebellum Computer Interface. To say nothing of how it changed civilian life, it was a military marvel. The BiCCI saw the creation of Mechs as we understand them today. The first generation were just retrofits, older models with a pilot's chair, and even manual controls to use in an emergency, but even then we knew that was only temporary. Before long, sleek frames of sharp angles, railguns and plasma cannons were rolling off the factory floor.

Like many things, it began small, optimising first for cockpit space by removing the manual controls. Before long, my then-supervisors thought, "Why have this glass? Why not hook the pilot's eyesight right into the advanced multi-spectral camera system? Before long, cockpits were but soft harnesses made to house a living body, their very soul wired into the machinery. Obviously, for security reasons, I cannot tell you everything about how our latest cockpits work, but suffice to say we've been further blurring the line between pilot and frame ever since.

This drew a very different crowd. Out were the army jocks and powerlifters. The only ones who even dared to have the interface hardware installed into their brainstem and spinal cord were the dispossessed, the misanthropes, those who sought not to control their new body, but to be controlled by it. No AI can work a mech properly on its own, but our pilots are never really in full control either anymore. Those who do try to go against the symbiosis get a nosebleed at best, and vegetative seizures at worst.

And that was that. The only people left who pilots these things are those who had already been broken, those who sougt a permenant reprive from being anything resembling human. A lot of my department quit around this time. I've lost a few friends over it, I'm not shy to say. Did we knew we'd be bringing in the more vulnerable people? Of course we did. But, the wheels of progress must turn, as they say, and it wasn't like we were shy of volunteers.

In our latest models, we have refined an even more advanced frame. Again, security detail prevents me from divulging too much, but one breakthrough we've made is decreasing action latency by approximately 0.02s by amputating the limbs from our pilots and replacing them with neural interface pads.

Using the pads where the limbs once were, pilots are screwed directly into the cockpit, which itself can now be 30% smaller thanks to the saved space. And, of course, we provide basic humanoid cybernetics as part of their employment contract while they are with us. Not that most of them are ever voluntarily out of their cockpits long enough to make use of them. Even removing the tubes from their orifices for routine cleaning incurs a large level of resistence.

And, yes, some of them scream, some of them break, some become so catatonic that they might as well be a peripheral processor for their mech's AI. But not a single one, not even one pilot, in all the dolls i've ever trained, have ever accepted the holidays we offer, the retirement packages, the stipends.

As you say, there are those who like to call me a monster for my work. I can see why. After all, they don't see the way my pilots' crotches dribble when I tell them I'll be cutting away their limbs, or the little moans they try to hide when we first meet and I explain that they'd forever be on the same resource level as a machine hereafter.

Those who call me a monster don't realise that, even after going public with how we operate our pilots, even after ramping up mech frame production, we still have more than twice as many volunteers as frames.

Those who call me a monster cannot accept that my pilots are far happier as a piece of meat in a machine of death than as the shell of a human they once were.

Those who call me a monster never consider the world my pilots grew up in to make them suitable candidates in the first place."

-Dr Francine Heathwich EngD

Dept. Cybernetic Technologies @ Dynaframe Industries

[In response to human rights violations accusations levied by the Pilot Rehabilitation Foundation]

[mariacallous]

Ukraine’s daring attack on a major Russian warship in occupied Crimea in the small hours of Dec. 26 was one more episode in Kyiv’s strategy to deny Russia control over the Black Sea. With most of its ships driven out of its home port in Sevastopol, the Russian Black Sea Fleet can no longer find safe haven anywhere along the Crimean Peninsula. All ports there are now vulnerable to attack.

The Institute for the Study of War tells the story with data, showing that Sevastopol saw a steady decline in the number of Russian naval vessels in port between June and December 2023; by contrast, Novorossiysk on the Russian mainland farther east showed a steady gain. While Russia has been going all-out to attack Ukraine’s infrastructure, its risky move to deploy ships and submarines armed with Kalibr missiles in the Black Sea is exposing them to potential Ukrainian attack. It is a tacit acknowledgment that Russia can no longer depend on Crimean ports and launch sites.

Ukraine’s success has been due to domestically produced missiles and drones, sometimes launched using Zodiac boats or jet skis. But its most potent attacks have come from the air, where Ukraine has used its Soviet-era fighter aircraft to launch both domestically produced and NATO-supplied missiles. These attacks have taken place with the protection of Ukraine’s advanced air defenses—including newly supplied foreign ones—which are regularly shooting down the majority of Russian missiles and drones destined for Ukrainian targets.

Ukraine thus has made significant strides denying Russia control of both the sea and airspace over and around its territory, thereby preventing the Russian Navy and Air Force from operating with impunity. But is that enough for Kyiv to win? To many Western observers, victory doesn’t seem possible in the face of wave after wave of Russian troops grinding down Ukrainian defenders. Ukraine’s strategy to deny Russia free use of its sea and airspace may be working, but as things stand, it cannot defeat the Russian army on the ground, nor can it defend against every missile striking civilian targets.

Indeed, the current conventional wisdom in large parts of the West is that Ukraine is losing the ground war, leaving no pathway to victory for the country as Russia pounds Ukrainian civilians into submission. Kyiv might as well call for a cease-fire and sue for peace.

The trouble with this scenario is that it spells defeat not only for Ukraine, but also for the United States and its allies in Europe and Asia. It would embolden both Russia and China to pursue their political, economic, and security objectives undeterred—including the seizure of new territory in Eastern Europe and Taiwan.

But is the conventional wisdom right—or does Ukraine’s clever success at sea and in the air suggest that a different outcome is possible? Perhaps the Russian army can be defeated by making use of Ukraine’s willingness to fight in new ways. If you asked a U.S. military professional, the key to dislodging the Russians is to subject them to relentless and accurate air attacks that are well synchronized with the maneuver of combined arms forces on the ground. While the Ukrainians are admirably using the weapons at hand to strike Russian forces both strategically, as in Crimea, and operationally, as in hitting command and logistics targets, success at the tactical level has remained elusive. To achieve a tactical breakthrough on the ground front that leads to operational and strategic success, they will need to be more effective from the air.

For power from the air to be decisive in 2024, the Ukrainian Armed Forces must create temporary windows of localized air superiority in which to mass firepower and maneuver forces. Given the Ukrainians’ success in denying their airspace to Russia at points of their choosing, such windows are possible using the assets they already have at hand. More and better weapons tailored to this scenario would make them more successful across the entire front with Russia.

Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, the commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, acknowledges that to break out of the current positional stalemate—which favors Russia—and return to maneuver warfare, where Ukraine has an advantage, Ukrainian forces need air superiority, the ability to breach mine obstacles, better counter-battery capability, and more assets for electronic warfare. Specifically, he argues for three key components. First, armed UAVs that use real-time reconnaissance to coordinate attacks with artillery (which could include properly armed Turkish-built TB2s, MQ-1C Gray Eagles, MQ-9 Reapers, or bespoke cheap and light UAVs capable of employing the necessary weapons). Second, armed UAVs to suppress enemy air defenses, as well as medium-range surface-to-air missile simulators to deter Russian pilots. And third, unmanned vehicles to breach and clear mines.

Although the technologies are new, this combination of capabilities recalls the method U.S. and allied NATO forces practiced during the Cold War in West Germany to confront numerically superior Warsaw Pact ground forces protected by layered air defenses. The Joint Air Attack Team (JAAT) was developed to synchronize attack helicopters, artillery, and close air support by fighter planes to ensure a constant barrage of the enemy in case of a ground force attack. Pooling NATO assets in this way was designed to give the alliance’s forces the mass, maneuverability, and flexibility needed to overcome superior numbers, avoid a war of attrition, and escape the type of bloody slugfest that characterizes the current stalemate in Ukraine.

In Ukraine’s case, a modernized JAAT would encompass, among many things, armed UAVs carrying Maverick and Hellfire missiles, loitering munitions, precision-guided artillery shells, and extended-range standoff missiles fired by aircraft. These systems would be coordinated in an electromagnetic environment shaped by Ukrainian operators to dominate the local airspace, saturate the battlefield with munitions, and clear mines to open the way for a ground assault. This updated JAAT—let’s call it electronic, or eJAAT—would create a bubble of localized air superiority that would advance as the combined arms force advances under the bubble’s protection.

Given Russia’s willingness to endure significant casualty rates, the eJAAT could be even more effective on defense: Massing firepower against advancing troops through an eJAAT might result in a stunning rout of the attackers, opening opportunities for Ukraine to strategically exploit the sudden change of fortunes.

Zaluzhny has made it publicly clear that “the decisive factor will be not a single new invention, but will come from combining all the technical solutions that already exist.” Like all good commanders, Zaluzhny is painfully aware that the 2023 campaign didn’t work as well as he had intended. Even so, and to their advantage, the Ukrainians have clearly demonstrated their innovative talents, willingness to exploit Western methods, and total commitment to victory. U.S. and European assistance to work with them on how to better manage operational complexity and combine technology, information, and tactics in more dynamic ways, coupled with security assistance tailored to the eJAAT approach, would return movement to the now-static battlefield and give Ukraine a fighting chance.

If Ukraine can achieve the momentum in the ground war that evaded it during its failed summer offensive, Kyiv will have a real pathway to victory. That pathway will run through Ukraine’s demonstrated prowess at sea and in the air, joined to an embrace of a sophisticated combination of techniques on the ground. It will be a pathway to victory not only for Ukraine, but also for the United States and its allies.

[thehopefuljournalist]

Am I a little bit late for some of you? I might be. But anyways. Here's what went right around the world this past week :)

Youth climate activists won a huge climate lawsuit

Sixteens youths (aged five to 22) from Montana, US, have emerged victorious after suing state officials for violating their right to a clean environment.

In their lawsuit, they argued that Montana's fossil fuel policies contributed to climate change, which harms their physical and mental health. Montana is a major coal producer, with large oil and gas reserves. The state has rebuffed these claims, saying that their emissions were insignificant on a global scale.

Judge Kathy Seely, in a 103-page ruling, set a legal precedent for young people’s rights to a safe climate by finding in their favour. “Every additional tonne of GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions exacerbates plaintiffs’ injuries and risks locking in irreversible climate injuries".

This win marks the very first time a US court has ruled against a government for a violation of constitutional rights based on climate change. It will now be up to Montana lawmakers to bring state policies in line.

“As fires rage in the west, fueled by fossil fuel pollution, today’s ruling in Montana is a gamechanger that marks a turning point in this generation’s efforts to save the planet from the devastating effects of human-caused climate chaos.” - Julia Olson, executive director of nonprofit law firm, Our Children’s Trust, which represented the youths in this case.

Number of Mexicans living in poverty fell by millions

Thanks to a new minimum wage boost and increases to pensions, the number of Mexicans living in poverty fell by 8.9 million between 2020-2022, according to new data published by the country’s social development agency, Coneval.

Coneval’s statistics suggest that the number of people living in extreme poverty also fell – from 10.8 million in 2020 to 9.1 million last year – although that figure is still up from a pre-Covid 8.7 million recorded in 2018.

There is still a long way to go, and some critics do claim that during the current president, López Obrador's presidency has been characterized by austerity.

An organised crime group trafficking endangered species has been jailed

The Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC), a small European wildlife charity, is apparently busting kingpins behind as much as half of the world's illegal trade in pangolin scales. The traffickers began six-year jail sentences a few weeks ago.

The wildlife charity went undercover to expose three Vietnamese and one Guinean national, members of an organised crime group trafficking body parts of endangered species including rhinos. 

They were arrested in May 2022, following a four-year investigation by the WJC, and were accused of trafficking 7.1 tonnes of pangolin scales, as well as 850kg of ivory. Last month they pleaded guilty to smuggling and were jailed for six years.

All eight species of pangolin are listed as threatened animals, four critically endangered - they are protected by international law.

“There has not been a reported seizure of pangolin scales in Asia originating from Africa in more than 550 days,” said Steve Carmody, WJC’s director of programmes. “There is no clearer example of the importance of disrupting organised crime networks.”

AI gave conservationists a breakthrough

The use of AI-controlled microphones and cameras seems set to revolutionise

biodiversity monitoring in the UK following groundbreaking work by researchers at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). They used the tech to record and analyse 3,000 hours of wildlife audio captured by monitors located near London railway lines.

The computers detected dozens of bird species, foxes, deer, bats and hedgehogs, and mapped their locations.

It’s hoped the innovation will help improve conservation and habitat management on Network Rail land.

This year is best ever for UK renewable energy installations

This years looks to be the best year so far for UK renewable energy installations, with record numbers of households fitting solar panels and heat pumps.

2023 marks the first time solar panel installations have topped an average of 20,000 a month, as homeowners look to harvest energy from the sun amid rising utility bills. 

Read the full story here.

The UK’s Tree of the Year shortlist was revealed

The Woodland Trust has announced the shortlist for its annual celebration of some of the UK’s most treasured ancient trees, and for 2023 the spotlight is on the urban landscape.

“Ancient trees in towns and cities are vital for the health of nature, people and planet,” said the charity’s lead campaigner Naomi Tilley. “They give thousands of urban wildlife species essential life support, boost the UK’s biodiversity and bring countless health and wellbeing benefits to communities.”

Article published August 17, 2023

Thank you so much for reading! Let me know what interested you, and if there's any specific topic you'd like me to dig into, my DM's are always open :)

Much love!

[thekingbiscuit]

More than three people seemed to like the half drabble from my notes last time (insane but also thanks!) so here I shall give another.

It's a creature au where a loner mer legend finds a half dead bottled fae and reluctantly makes friends in his desperation to help the little guy out.

It's written like an outline and I don't have it I'm my soul to write a full on fic so consider this free and open source. (I'll also reblog with what I wrote about my creature headcannons so check that if it's confusing)

Legend is swimming around lazily in the sun, trying to get away from it all.

He's half asleep when a bottle knocks against him.

He's pretty far off and nothing should be able to get in or out of this water. But he decides it's not his problem.

He likes the bottle, and he's a bit of a hoarder, so he takes it. Back in his den he opens it to find a dead looking fairy.

He has no clue what to do, but feels kinda bad so he rests him on a ledge.

He covers it with a soft cloth, hoping it would die peacefully, but it clutches at his fingers, a gesture legend takes as wanting to live.

Legend is secretive but also a little lonely, so he decides to take on the task.

He flunders for a couple days. A first it's too hot, so he cools it with water, but then it suddenly starts to shiver, so he puts him in the sun under some blankets, that makes him get some kind of seizure. All the while he's accidentally getting attached.

It takes three days for the annoying human to come looking for him. It's warriors and he brought some fish. He's really after his flame rod for a bonfire.

Legend is stressed as it is and tries to get the intruder to leave, but wars finds out anyway.

Legend shields him protectively, but wars insists that the fae will die at this rate. Out of options, he accepts help.

Wars suggests time, who supposedly grew up with fae, but leg can't get that far into the island and is unwilling. He tells him to help him himself or don't help at all.

Wars does what he can, he's having a hard time with such a small patient. They have a breakthrough when his breathing is steady and he's no longer fitful, but he is still definitely going to die without any food.

Legend gives in and they go visit four, unfortunately that means including war's charge wind. Four has a forge near a river that legend is able to get near to, but he cannot go all the way. Wars leaves his scarf with legend as insurance and goes with the fae to get help.

Legend is beside himself despite himself and it shows so clearly that sky tries to cheer him up. Leg bites at him though. Sky says he wishes he'd hang out with them more, and he'd love to help him with whatever, but he needs to talk to them.

Sky flies off, and the trio returns with the patient. Legend tolerates four and vice versa, so four agrees to be a live in nurse in exchange for some sea minerals for his forge.

Legend is appalled at the idea of more people in his sea cave, but wars insists that the fae needs better care, so he agrees. Four moves in.

The fae child improves rapidly with someone his size to feed and look after him. He even wakes up one night. Legend alone talks to him, he's not very present, but he says he's lost and gives him his name. Leg is against it, but hyrule doesn't understand why, and learns that the fae boy is probably an orphan.

During Hyrule's recovery wild finds them, begging four for a new sword. He's mostly uninterested in the fairy. Four doesn't want to leave so soon, but hyrule is ok with it and legend is more than happy, like a liar.

Wild makes a meal for legend and crew as an apology for taking four away. Wars explains that wild is the only soul on the island who can cook a decent meal, and will constantly use this to bribe for his own way. It works too.

Legend has to coax hyrule into eating, and then learns that he enjoys watching his new little friend thrive.

Hyrule gets better on tall tales from Wind's seemingly imaginary time as a pirate and war's time in the army. Legend never knew the islanders had actual lives like that. Hyrule asks him about his own past.

He doesn't tell them all his trauma, but just that he was accused of kidnapping his own sister, the princess and was banished away. This was his second time washing up on an island.

Finally Hyrule tells his own story, he's a rare type of male great fairy nymph, with royal blood that can be used for premium dark magic, so he was being milked for his blood. He tells the story in an extremely innocent way.

His bottle fell out of a window, and he was at sea for a very long time. He thanks legend for all his help.

Later, hyrule worries about his wings. He's been trapped all his life and never learned to fly. Legend does not hesitate to enlist sky for help this time. Hyrule caught on quickly and they make a day of it, legend leaps as high up as he can to try to catch the airborne creatures.

The avian invites legend to a campfire. Legend hasn't been to one before, he avoids them, but this time he agrees. Hyrule is excited about the food. Sky warns him to introduce Hyrule to twilight first so there won't be any problems.

Legend does try, but hyrule falls into a panic attack at the scent of dark magic, and they learn that he isn't completely ok. Twilight is a little put off, but respects their space.

Time just pushes himself in at that point, wondering why he hasn't gotten to see the new islander yet. Time adores fae and is very good to hyrule, making legend jealous.

He leaves Hyrule in time's care to go hunt. When he returns hyrule tries to tell him about time teaching him that all dark magic isn't evil, and that he gave him something to show him, but legend brushes him off.

They're at sea when hyrule brings up the bonfire again, legend asks if he's sure, and hyrule isn't afraid of twili magic, only dark. He wants to show him the item time gave him, but legend has no time to react to the twili crystal and suddenly he's a drowning rabbit in the ocean.

Legend resigns himself to death, but the entire chain joins a rescue mission. Now legend is the sick one. He wants a moon pearl so he can grovel in his misfortune in his cave, but nobody will let him, in fact they take advantage of his situation and show him around the land bits of the island.

When he does turn back, he's just a dude with pink hair. He's forced to admit that he's cursed with legs if he gets beached, but he has to drown on air before it kicks in so he doesn't. The rabbit thing is a different curse. He's just really cursed.

They convince him to stay human just for the bonfire.

Finally they get to see what the bonfire thing is all about, and it's really just a good time with food and friends. Legend almost can't believe it deep down. Yet here it is.

[lifecyclesofmayflies]

My poor baby had a breakthrough seizure today 😭😭 meaning, even though he took his meds, he still had one. I wasn't home but had just gotten to the gym when my sister called.

😔😔😔

[tanadrin]

The invention of the basic BCI was revolutionary, though it did not seem so at the time. Developing implantable electronics that could detect impulses from, and provide feedback to, the body's motor and sensory neurons was a natural outgrowth of assistive technologies in the 21st century. The Collapse slowed the development of this technology, but did not stall it completely; the first full BCI suite capable of routing around serious spinal cord damage, and even reducing the symptoms of some kinds of brain injury, was developed in the 2070s. By the middle of the 22nd century, this technology was widely available. By the end, it was commonplace.

But we must distinguish, as more careful technologists did even then, between simpler BCI--brain-computer interfaces--and the subtler MMI, the mind-machine interface. BCI technology, especially in the form of assistive devices, was a terrific accomplishment. But the human sensory and motor systems, at least as accessed by that technology, are comparatively straightforward. Despite the name, a 22nd century BCI barely intrudes into the brain at all, with most of its physical connections being in the spine or peripheral nervous system. It does communicate *with* the brain, and it does so much faster and more reliably than normal sensory input or neuronal output, but there nevertheless still existed in that period a kind of technological barrier between more central cognitive functions, like memory, language, and attention, and the peripheral functions that the BCI was capable of augmenting or replacing.

*That* breakthrough came in the first decades of the 23rd century, again primarily from the medical field: the subarachnoid lace or neural lace, which could be grown from a seed created from the patient's own stem cells, and which found its first use in helping stroke patients recover cognitive function and suppressing seizures. The lace is a delicate web of sensors and chemical-electrical signalling terminals that spreads out over, and carefully penetrats certain parts of the brain; in its modern form, its function and design can be altered even after it is implanted. Most humans raised in an area with access to modern medical facilities have at least a diagnostic lace in place; and, in most contexts, they are regarded as little more than a medical tool.

But of course some of the scientists who developed the lace were interested in pushing the applications of the device further, and in this, they were inspired by the long history of attempts to develop immersive virtual reality that had bedevilled futurists since the 20th century. Since we have had computers capable of manipuating symbolic metaphors for space, we have dreamed of creating a virtual space we can shape to our hearts' content: worlds to escape to, in which we are freed from the tyranny of physical limitations that we labor under in this one. The earliest fiction on this subject imagined a kind of alternate dimension, which we could forsake our mundane existence for entirely, but outside of large multiplayer games that acted rather like amusement parks, the 21st century could only offer a hollow ghost of the Web, bogged down by a cumbersome 3D metaphor users could only crudely manipulate.

The BCI did little to improve the latter--for better or worse, the public Web as we created it in the 20th century is in its essential format (if not its scale) the public Web we have today, a vast library of linked documents we traverse for the most part in two dimensions. It feeds into and draws from the larger Internet, including more specialized software and communications systems that span the whole Solar System (and which, at its margins, interfaces with the Internet of other stars via slow tightbeam and packet ships), but the metaphor of physical space was always going to be insufficient for so complex and sprawling a medium.

What BCI really revolutionized was the massively multiplayer online game. By overriding sensory input and capturing motor output before it can reach the limbs, a BCI allows a player to totally inhabit a virtual world, limited only by the fidelity of the experience the software can offer. Some setups nowadays even forgo overriding the motor output, having the player instead stand in a haptic feedback enclosure where their body can be scanned in real time, with only audio and visual information being channeled through the BCI--this is a popular way to combine physical exercise and entertainment, especially in environments like space stations without a great deal of extra space.

Ultra-immersive games led directly, I argue, to the rise of the Sodalities, which were, if you recall, originally MMO guilds with persistent legal identities. They also influenced the development of the Moon, not just by inspiring the Sodalities, but by providing a channel, through virtual worlds, for socialization and competition that kept the Moon's political fragmentation from devolving into relentless zero-sum competition or war. And for most people, even for the most ardent players of these games, the BCI of the late 22nd century was sufficient. There would always be improvements in sensory fidelity to be made, and new innovations in the games themselves eagerly anticipated every few years, but it seemed, even for those who spent virtually all their waking hours in these spaces, that there was little more that could be accomplished.

But some dreamers are never satisfied; and, occasionally, such dreamers carry us forward and show us new possibilities. The Mogadishu Group began experimenting with pushing the boundaries of MMI and the ways in which MMI could augment and alter virtual spaces in the 2370s. Mare Moscoviensis Industries (the name is not a coincidence) allied with them in the 2380s to release a new kind of VR interface that was meant to revolutionize science and industry by allowing for more intuitive traversal of higher-dimensional spaces, to overcome some of the limits of three-dimensional VR. Their device, the Manifold, was a commercial disaster, with users generally reporting horrible and heretofore unimagined kinds of motion-sickness. MMI went bankrupt in 2387, and was bought by a group of former Mogadishu developers, who added to their number a handful of neuroscientists and transhumanists. They relocated to Plato City, and languished in obscurity for about twenty years.

The next anybody ever heard of the Plato Group (as they were then called), they had bought an old interplanetary freighter and headed for the Outer Solar System. They converted their freighter into a cramped-but-servicable station around Jupiter, and despite occasionally submitting papers to various neuroscience journals and MMI working groups, little was heard from them. This prompted, in 2410, a reporter from the Lunar News Service to hire a private craft to visit the Jupiter outpost; she returned four years later to describe what she found, to general astonishment.

The Plato Group had taken their name more seriously, perhaps, than anyone expected: they had come to regard the mundane, real, three-dimensional world as a second-rate illusion, as shadows on cave walls. But rather than believing there already existed a true realm of forms which they might access by reason, they aspired to create one. MMI was to be the basis, allowing them to free themselves not only of the constraints of the real world (as generations of game-players had already done), but to free themselves of the constraints imposed on those worlds by the evolutionary legacy of the structures of their mind.

They decided early on, for instance, that the human visual cortex was of little use to them. It was constrained to apprehending three-dimensional space, and the reliance of the mind on sight as a primary sense made higher-dimensional spaces difficult or impossible to navigate. Thus, their interface used visual cues only for secondary information--as weak and nondirectional a sense as smell. They focused on using the neural lace to control the firing patterns of the parts of the brain concerned with spatial perception: the place cells, neurons which periodically fire to map spaces to fractal grides of familiar places, and the grid cells, which help construct a two-dimensional sense of location. Via external manipulation, they found they could quickly accommodate these systems to much more complex spaces--not just higher dimensions, but non-Euclidean geometries, and vast hierarchies of scale from the Planck length to many times the size of the observable universe.

The goal of the Plato Group was not simply to make a virtual space to inhabit, however transcendent; into that space they mapped as much information they could, from the Web, the publicly available internet, and any other database they could access, or library that would send them scans of its collection. They reveled in the possibilities of their invented environment, creating new kinds of incomprehensible spatial and sensory art. When asked what the purpose of all this was--were they evangelists for this new mode of being, were they a new kind of Sodality, were they secessionists protesting the limits of the rest of the Solar System's imagination?--they simply replied, "We are happy."

I do not think anyone, on the Moon or elsewhere, really knew what to make of that. Perhaps it is simply that the world they inhabit, however pleasant, is so incomprehensible to us that we cannot appreciate it. Perhaps we do not want to admit there are other modes of being as real and moving to those who inhabit them as our own. Perhaps we simply have a touch of chauvanism about the mundane. If you wish to try to understand yourself, you may--unlike many other utopian endeavors, the Plato Group is still there. Their station--sometimes called the Academy by outsiders, though they simply call it "home"--has expanded considerably over the years. It hangs in the flux tube between Jupiter and Io, drawing its power from Jupiter's magnetic field, and is, I am told, quite impressive if a bit cramped. You can glimpse a little of what they have built using an ordinary BCI-based VR interface; a little more if your neural lace is up to spec. But of course to really understand, to really see their world as they see it, you must be willing to move beyond those things, to forsake--if only temporarily--the world you have been bound to for your entire life, and the shape of the mind you have thus inherited. That is perhaps quite daunting to some. But if we desire to look upon new worlds, must we not always risk that we shall be transformed?

--Tjungdiawain’s Historical Reader, 3rd edition

[chroniconic]

Hi all!

I made this blog as a diary, support and recovery blog for my chronic illnessess. I want to find other people like me, pratice acceptance, share what worked and any research you could also discuss with your doctor. I will talk about medication, good and bad days, and try increase awareness.

Diagnoses that affect me the most

- Chronic migraine

This began with 15-25 migraine days per month in 2021, with episodic migraine and migraine-related seizures being diagnosed around 2014.

I started Botox for migraines in 2022 which reduced my migraine days to 1-5 days per month.

However, since October 2023 I developed daily, non-stop migraines. I’ve been bedridden since then and I’m currently on Botox injections, occassional nerve blocks, Ajovy, and sodium valproate as preventatives.

- Endometriosis

I’ve had severe pain, prolonged bleeding, etc since the beginning of puberty, but it got worse each year until I was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2022 via ultrasound and a physical exam after multiple ER visits where I was bleeding out.

Coincidentally, that’s also the time where my migraines became chronic.

I don’t have access to a good surgeon right now or a second opinion, so I’ve had to manage symptoms on Mirena (the breakthrough bleeding and cysts made it worse), then standalone dienogest (it was great for endometriosis but I’m assuming it triggered worse migraines for me, however I gave it 4 months), and now I’m on NuvaRing continously.

Finding relief for chronic migraine and endometriosis is an unequal balancing act, but there’s so much we still don’t know and can do to make our lives better.

Other diagnoses and issues I’m pursuing help for

- Breathing and sleep quality issues

I’ve progressively had issues with shortness of breath, especially after exercise and before sleep, or in bouts where I feel like I have no oxygen at all. I assume this could also affect migraines and muscle pain. I wake up during the night a lot, and can’t breathe before falling asleep.

Strong allergies, heart problems and structural issues with the nose are ruled out except a slightly deviated septum but my ENT doctor doesn’t think septoplasty would be beneficial so I don’t know.

I had turbinate reduction surgery a year ago and now I’m constantly using hormonal nasal sprays because I feel like I have chronic sinusitis otherwise, air literally doesn’t pass through one of my nostrils at least.

I am currently on asthma treatment (Pulmicort and Berodual for a week first, now Symbicort) after inconclusive spirometry, but I will be working with a pulmunologist to figure it out. But the medication has helped me immensely, as I’ve never felt like I could breathe as well as I do now, and I sleep like a baby. The pulmonologist thinks that if asthma medication helps, then it’s asthma.

So all of my breathing issues are under investigation and inconclusive.

- ADHD and Autism

I was diagnosed with autism as a child, but ADHD was a late diagnosis. I struggle a lot with uni and work in terms of understanding requirements, or sensory overload, etc but it’s been much better since starting medication (unsure yet if lisdexamfetamine or methylphenidate is better). It’s not my main issue whatsoever at the moment since I’m not working or studying at a traditional university, but I struggled a lot when I was working or wasn’t able to study everything from home. So I won’t talk about this as much at the moment.

However, I’m interested in research relating gut issues, autism and immune system issues (e.g my breathing problems, inflammation from endometriosis etc could also fall under that) and biologics like Ajovy, but that’s another fringe topic.

Disclaimer about linking research

I will sometimes make posts that link several research articles or literature reviews (all from reputable sources) together after carefully examining them and discussing my questions with my neurologist. I will always provide references and links or DOIs. Whereas I studied some medical statistics, I’m not a doctor and my advice, experimentation on myself, etc is not medical advice but something you should always discuss with your doctor.

[ever-go-on]

a harrowing thing ive been processing has been how little i was cared about. like, i always knew that was a factor (have i ever felt cared about? no) but i never Really Knew. its taken a few therapy sessions of the occasional voice crack when i talk about being persistently ignored when having obvious medical episodes or asking for help. and it feels very scary. i have incredibly worrying symptoms and yet i dont think theyre bad at all because nobody ever really cared. my seizures are non epileptic but if they had not been i could be dead from neglect right now. my getting lost outside at night because of dissociative fugue have always ended up ok but it can take one accident and i would be dead right now. i dont particularly want to die. i just want someone to pay attention to me

typing this made me emotional which is honestly a breakthrough from how disconnected i usually am. im really glad i am loved these days and my boyfriend was angry at me yesterday for having a dissociative episode because he was scared for my safety. and he was scared for my safety. its making me realise things are bad and normally i would be so loved and cared about and worried about. everything ive ever wanted. and its making me realise things are bad and thats terrifying, i dont want this brain damage, i dont want to be in danger from myself, i just want to be loved

theres a cute photo from my bedroom window. it looks like a lot of the photos i save as motivation to survive. the ideal life photos full of warm lights and safety. im getting there. i just need to process and grieve some things first

[chidoroki]

182 Days of TPN - Day 154

Chapter 154: "A Breakthrough"

Hearing someone declare that they wanna turn their life around and live hits the feelings hard every single time. From Ray, to Yuugo, with Norman now and eventually with Isabella as well, I'm glad they all found something to cherish during their lives.

Imagine planning out this entire extermination idea, creating a poison to wipe out the demons, going out to destroy farms and make alliances, keeping the paradise hideout under control, on top of dealing with such troublesome seizures. Not to mention that he suffered from them during his time at Lambda when he had to worry about the daily tests and preparing an escape in secret away from the staff's eyes. It's a miracle Norman didn't crash sooner.

Emma doesn't look too happy that he kept such a serious problem to himself but at least Norman's apologizing for it now. Still wish he apologized for not waiting for her & Ray to return like he promised but I understand the extermination plan couldn't wait since it had a set date, on top of the Lambda crew all slowly dying.

Forget about the medications, Vincent needs some serious chill pills.

Cislo best Lambda child confirmed. He's seriously so sweet. He needs more love.

I like how well "supposedly" is used here because it's true how Ray, Emma, Don & Gilda wouldn't truly know for themselves if Adam had any seizures during the last couple years since the four of them were away from the shelter the majority of the time while searching for Cuvitidala & the Seven Walls.

Of course our medics Anna & Sandy are already testing stuff out but I love how Rossi is there helping too since we saw him learning from Lucas in ch97. It's cute how him & Jemima are trying to keep Adam distracted and calm. I wish we got to see more of this group figure out a cure for the seizures, especially since it would give more focus to characters like Sonya, Nat and the two troublemakers who we all haven't seen them do much of anything recently. Granted, they didn't have much time to work out a solution between Jin informing everyone of the situation and the demon soldiers attacking the base, but it would've been something. We don't hear much of this issue again until ch181 when we learn the medicine was already developed and everyone in Lambda had their side effects taken care of.

I know I praise Emma for getting back up after her stab wound from Leuvis, but Barbara is on a whole other level seeing how this girl didn't pass out once. She doesn't even have protagonist plot armor to rely on. Lambda kids are totally built differently.

How did y'all not hear or see Legravalima get back up?? She's pretty hard to miss!

Favorite panel/moment:

I can't get over how good of a boy Cislo is. He knows his boss well.

All the younger kiddos being happy with Adam (although being reminded that Chris is still unconscious is upsetting!).

And lastly, Cislo's face here.

[warningsine]

The NHS is to offer children with brain tumours in England a groundbreaking new targeted drug therapy to tackle the disease – a development charities are hailing as the biggest breakthrough in decades.

Gliomas are the most common type of brain cancer in children but experts say the standard treatment of chemotherapy can be brutal and gruelling, and also carries the risk of side-effects such as weight loss, seizures and headaches.

A kinder drug therapy has got the green light from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice). Studies showed it caused fewer side-effects, improved children’s response rate to treatment and their survival time without the disease getting worse.

Dabrafenib with trametinib was found to halt the growth of tumours for more than three times as long as standard chemotherapy for children with low-grade gliomas that have a specific genetic mutation, while also helping spare many of the harsh side-effects of chemotherapy.

The treatment will initially be available on the NHS in England for people aged one to 17 with low- or high-grade gliomas that have a BRAF V600E mutation.

The combination treatment, which can be administered at home rather than in hospital, works by targeting the proteins made by the altered BRAF gene that are responsible for uncontrollable tumour growth.

Gliomas grow in the brain or spinal cord and can be low grade, where tumours grow slowly, or high grade, where they grow more rapidly and may be fatal. About 150 children are diagnosed with low-grade gliomas every year in the UK and about 30 are diagnosed with high-grade gliomas.

Clinical trials have shown that as well having fewer side-effects than chemotherapy, the treatment stalled growth of low-grade gliomas for about two years (24.9 months) on average – more than three times as long as standard chemotherapy (7.2 months), NHS England says.

In some cases, tumours disappeared, though longer-term follow-up of patients is needed.

Dabrafenib is given as dissolvable tablets that are taken twice a day, and trametinib is an oral solution taken once a day. The drugs work together by blocking the growth signal from the mutant BRAF protein and can slow or even stop the tumour from growing.

Dr Michele Afif, the chief executive of the Brain Tumour Charity, said: “We are delighted that Nice has approved the first new treatment for paediatric brain tumours in decades.

“Though this will only affect a small population, it is of huge significance to them and their loved ones and represents real progress. We hope that this will be the first of many new treatments that will ensure our community can live longer and better lives.”

Suki Sandhu, whose eight-year-old son Raj died from a high-grade glioma six years ago, welcomed the rollout of the new therapy on the NHS.

“I had to make the decision to stop chemotherapy treatment for my son as he was suffering with horrible side-effects after years of harsh treatment. It was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make … We need kinder drugs and new treatments for those with brain tumours, like this treatment, and I am hopeful other families will go on to get access to these drugs and, hopefully, remain disease-free for longer and live good quality lives.”

Prof Peter Johnson, the NHS England national clinical director for cancer, said: “It is a significant step forward in treatment that has been shown to be easier to take than chemotherapy and very effective in blocking the growth of the disease, helping children have a better quality of life for longer.

“It can also be taken at home, meaning children and teenagers can spend less time in hospital having treatment and more time with their loved ones and doing things they enjoy.”

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Hi, I'm running out of sicknesses to slap characters with for sicktember, do you have suggestions? I'm trying to avoid repeats and it's, uh, proving to be harder than expected.

Also here is a photo of a tiny frog I found at school:

FROGGY! :D

Hmm, let’s see, acute illness stuff 🤔

Pancreatitis, pneumonia, flu, RSV, croup, seizures, stomach bug, poison Ivy/oak/sumac/anything rash, chickenpox, strep throat, migraines, pink eye, sinus infection, mono, appendicitis, diverticulitis, bronchitis

Acute on chronic stuff:

Asthma attack, breakthrough seizure, fibromyalgia flare up, lupus flare up, so many chronic things that could act up and cause someone misery

[whatevergreen]

Palestinian writer Susan Abulhawa was forcibly removed alongside other activists from Philadelphia City Hall. Many protesters were blocked from even entering.

Activists protested a "fake peace resolution" introduced by City Council that doesn't condemn the bombing in Gaza.

Source: Breakthrough News via twitter: https://twitter.com/BTnewsroom/status/1715152511974187142

The police attacked journalists while they were dragging Susan from the chamber, and she had a seizure: