#data vulnerable thus

[r0entgen]

"Why won't Venezuelans just address the blockade?"

If you're wondering why, read below.

Let me start by saying that I wrote this after I finished work, with less than three hours of sleep and a single meal in my body, so if you find any grammar mistakes, my apologies.

This is the comment that kickstarted this post. I believe I've mentioned this before, but when you're living in a country that weaponizes propaganda and hijacks every single media outlet, you have to master the fine arts of fact checking and cross-referencing. Which is exactly what we're going to do right now, addressing the claim that 40,000 Venezuelans have been killed by the US sanctions, and why We Won't Engage with You In This Particular Argument.

*Note: click the underlined text for links and sources.

In the paper Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela by Mark Weisbrot and Jeffrey Sachs (who will be referred to as WS in this post), WS mention that between the years of 2017-2019, the economic sanctions caused a 31% increase in the general mortality rate in Venezuela, a number that they calculate may be of about 40,000 deaths. While they cite ENCOVI and a UN report from 2019 as the sources of this statistic, they clarify the following in the footnotes:

The ENCOVI 2018 survey has not been made public, the mortality statistic cited here is from the UN Report (2019).

As of this date, WS has not made public the data source for this estimate, and the UN report used as a source (Venezuela: Overview of Priority Humanitarian Needs, March 2019) is not publicly available.

So let's take a look at some sources that ARE publicly available.

The World Bank Group World Development Indicators registers at least a 30% increase in the infant mortality rate in Venezuela from the dates of 2013 to 2016. Similar numbers are reported in this paper, seeing a 40% increase in the infant mortality rate in Venezuela between the dates on 2008-2016. Here's an excerpt from the paper Impact of the 2017 Sanctions on Venezuela:

While different than other overall mortality rates, increases in infant mortality rates are generally interpretable as a preventable consequence of inadequate pre- and post-natal care for otherwise healthy but vulnerable infants. Thus, infant mortality is often recognized as a good proxy measure of the quality on overall public health provision.

What this tells us is that THERE HAS BEEN an increase in general mortality rate - one that started long before the 2017 sanctions.

However, this doesn't mean that in the periods of 2017-2019 there wasn't a high death toll. Let's look at another publicly available source.

The National Hospital Survey (2019) found that between November 2018 and February 2019, 1557 people died owing to the lack of supplies in hospitals [...]. 40 patients died as a result of the power outages in March 2019.

We see the first mention of a number in the 2019 Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Something interesting this report mentions is that 40 deaths were caused by the blackout in March 2019. A blackout that lasted 7 days and affected our 23 states.

The energy crisis which caused this nationwide blackout started in 2010. The Wikipedia article is a good summary, if a bit simple, of the events that led to and took place during and after the energy crisis (which affects us Venezuelans living in the country to this day)

Back to the UN Report. Something else this report indicates is the following:

In 2018, the Government registered 5,287 such killings, while the non-governmental organization Observatorio Venezolano de la Violencia reported at least 7,523 killings under this category. Between 1 January and 19 May 2019, the Government reported 1,569 killings for resistance to authority. The Observatorio Venezolano de la Violencia reported at least 2,124 such killings between January and May 2019. Information analysed by OHCHR suggests many of these killings may constitute extrajudicial executions.

[...] Six young men executed by the Special Action Forces (SEBIN) in reprisal for their role in anti-government protests in 2019.

This means that between the dates of 2018-2019, there have been approximately 9,647 deaths in the context of security operations - which includes Venezuelans that took part of the protests in 2019. Very similar to what we have been reporting since after the elections in July 28.

2017 to 2019 was one of the most difficult periods in Venezuelan history, marked by the sanctions imposed by Trump which affected oil export, access to diesel, and food and medicine imports. Some people argue that the economic recession in Venezuela was caused by the sanctions - failing to notice the negative trends in the years prior to these.

Bahar, Bustos, Morales and Santos (who will be referred to as BBMS in this post) conclude in their paper, Impact of the 2017 Sanctions on Venezuela, that while the sanctions had a negative effect in the oil production, "it is quite impossible to attribute the fall [...] to one single event (i.e., the sanctions), when many other confounding events were happening at the same time."

Oil production: Oil prices dropped during 2015, and oil production decreased as a result of lack of maintenance and investment.

Energy crisis: By 2009, when the energy crisis was first declared, the electrical grid had already been suffering from the lack of maintenance and investment since 1998. The Chávez administration distributed million dollar contracts [...] that enriched high officials of his government and the works were never built. [1] [2] [3]

Economic decline and hyper-inflation: Actions taken by the Chávez administration such as expropriation and price control, as well as the PDVSA purge in 2002 led the country to depend almost entirely on its already declining oil industry, causing shortages and price rises in common goods, food, medical supplies and so on. By 2015, 60% of the Venezuelan population was living in poverty. [1] [2] [3] [4]

From only these three points, we can establish a negative trend starting way before the first US Sanctions. Thus, we can conclude that by the time the devastating 2017-2019 sanctions took place, Venezuela was already deep in a state of generalized crisis.

WS conclude in their paper:

[...] One of the most important impacts of the sanctions is to lock Venezuela into a downward economic spiral. [...] An economic recovery could have already begun in the absence of economic sanctions.

While Bahar, Bustos, Morales and Santos declare:

[...] Our analysis finds insufficient evidence to conclude that they [sanctions] were responsible for the worsening of the socio-economic crisis. [...] The weight of evidence seems to indicate that, rather than being a result of US-imposed sanctions, much of the suffering and devastation in Venezuela has been, in line with most accounts, inflicted by those in power.

In conclusion - both papers seem to agree that the crisis in Venezuela started before 2017, but where WS claim that it worsened due to US sanctions, BBMS place a higher blame on the deterioration caused by the Venezuelan government.

Now, you may keep whichever analysis you prefer, but one thing we know for sure: the 40,000 Venezuelans that WS claimed died due to the sanctions cannot be found in any public report, while the death toll of protests and extrajudicial killings has been extensively reported.

Why is this relevant?

Contrary to what some people on this site would say, Venezuelans generally agree on the negative impacts of US-imposed sanctions (note: this poll accounts only for Venezuelans in Florida, as polls aren't often published inside Venezuela). However, the general consensus is that US-sanctions only added up to a crisis that had been building up since Chávez rose to power, and rather than the cause, it was yet another symptom.

Yes, the US is the Big Bad, but placing the blame solely on the sanctions only takes the responsibility away from the government and diverts the attention from the poor governance, rampaging corruption, violent repression and denialism that we've grown used to in the last 25 years.

So if you ask "why don't you address the blockade?", my response is: why don't you address the 9,647 extrajudicial killings, the 40 deaths caused by the energy crisis, the energy crisis itself, the economic decline, the lack of maintenance in the infrastructure, the violent repression, the forceful abductions and the censoring?

What we want you to understand is that when you center the US as the cause of the crisis, you are actively participating in our state-funded propaganda and knowingly turning a blind eye on the suffering of all Venezuelans. You are no better than imperialists - you ARE participating in imperialism.

Remember:

Last, but not least - be careful with your sources. This Venezuelanalysis article was written by Andreína Chávez, former editor-in-chief of TeleSUR, a government-funded news channel known for spreading Maduro propaganda. One of their most recent claims: dead Venezuelans are shown as having voted in the ballots shown in resultadosconvenezuela.com. Needless to say, this is false. This news portal is what some people would call, BIASED.

For more information, please read the amazing analysis written by @systhemes HERE.

A more direct response by @achillesmonochrome HERE.

For other sources, check HERE.

*Fellow Venezuelans, feel free to include anything I might have missed.

[tabithatwo]

are we ready to talk about shauna's barely hidden but somehow very ignored psychosis and how it, like a ton of her other qualities, is brushed aside by both those around her and the audience? like, i think its clear that a central focus of the show is the way lottie is the only one who got stuck in a facility (and natalie in and out of rehab being the next closest to reckoning with her shit) when the rest of them are very clearly not okay. as a certified Crazy Girl, i've been weary of how they'll handle lottie's story line (blurring psychosis and the supernatural is a very delicate and tricky thing and thus far i've been sort of just waiting to see where it goes). our data on and understanding of mental health is incredibly limited for a lot of reasons (but that's a rant for another time) but there is a large mainstream misconception of when hallucinations and delusions can happen. psychosis isn't just something that happens in schizophrenia and its very complex, so if you want to learn more there's plenty of info out there i'm not going to get into it here, but it happens in a lot of other cases. psychosis is, most simply put, a loss of contact with external reality. ptsd can cause psychosis, especially auditory and visual hallucinations.

so shauna is shown to have these experiences and i didn't realize that they were being so heavily overlooked by a large amount of people until the reaction to the scene where she beats lottie nearly to death. shauna is introduced in s1 as having hallucinations of jackie 25 years later. she is shown to disassociate. in 207, she both holds the baby's body and believes the delusion that they ate the baby. the episode shows her fighting the delusion until she can't anymore. meanwhile, adult shauna tells lottie she keeps callie at arms length out of "fear that she would die...i guess? or maybe that she was never even...real to begin with." then she adds "i think something is broken, lottie." implied: she's broken. something is wrong with her. this is the is the most honest about her mental state we've ever seen shauna be.

why? because lottie has always been and likely will always be perceived as crazier. lottie is the one they pin it on, lottie is the cult leader both then and now, lottie is the scapegoat, lottie is the one who got sent to switzerland. i think there's something to be said for the effect lottie has on people (again, a whole other post) but honestly, that alone is enough. shauna is feeling vulnerable for a lot of reasons and she can tell lottie that she thinks she's crazy, that she's never quite sure her daughter exists, that she's constantly afraid she'll die to the degree that she doesn't let herself interact with her in a real, tangible way, because it's always safer to tell the crazy girl you're crazy, too.

and lottie knows. shauna knows that. lottie clocked her psychosis almost immediately, when she was in the meat shed for all hours. the other girls were shocked by the makeup, and their shock was so fucking strange to me when i watched it, but now on reflecting i'm realizing maybe its the lottie effect. like, have i done the shit shauna has? abso-fucking-lutely not lol. but does my mind work in a way where i immediately would assume shauna was doing something along the lines of the shit she was doing out there, because to me its like...what else would it be? yeah. like sees like, in a way. lottie knows what this looks like at baseline, even if its coming out way different in shauna. even if in shauna it looks like aggression and violence a lot of the time. lottie gets it.

jeff doesn't get it, he thinks strawberry lube is too wild. taissa gets it to a degree, and we see shauna be the second most open with her, but tai suppresses and hides it a degree that she wouldn't dare step foot in a therapist's office (this is yet another thing that makes me crazy but is a whole other post lol). shauna's main goal in this life she's created is pretending to be normal. and she's like, impressively bad at it. but people let her, because what else are they going to do? addressing the clear issues is taboo, because we categorize people so heavily. she masks better than lottie, but it's fucking wafer thin. you see this when she interacts with people who aren't her family or the other yjs. the way she speaks to the taylors? to adam? shauna is only sometimes masking passably when she's in her set world, where she has a routine, and is surrounded by people she only has to half-convince of her sanity.

if shauna is honest about the level of psychosis she experiences, she knows she'll end up like lottie. and i think there's an argument to be made that the people around her (which at this point in her life is pretty much just jeff because she's done another common thing and insulated herself from other people, re: the way she behaves being clockably off to others who won't overlook certain things or can't relate) understand that too. it can't be addressed, because then in their minds there must be action of some kind if it is. (taissa yelling you're acting crazy, shauna is one of the most purely terrified moments we see of her in relation to shauna, because she knows she's admitting something. jeff yelling something to the same effect after the carjacking, same thing.)

the person we see try to get shauna to open up about it is callie. her teenage daughter, who bares the brunt of her difficulty maintaining reality, (who knows that shauna has never accepted her fully as her child, and seems to actually sense that there is a deeper reason for that), asks her to open up. she tells her after the club scene that she knows something is wrong. she even mentions jackie directly. she spends all of s2 trying to relate to shauna, to get her to be open with her about everything. there's no way shauna's trauma and psychosis and general issues have gone unnoticed by callie. daughters always know. they see it in their mothers before they even have a concept of the world. so we're watching a 16 year old try to get her mom to open up, because she doesn't understand fully why that's so dangerous to shauna. to callie, it may even be a secret she thinks other people are in on that she's being left out of. i think maybe she's realizing that it isn't personal and that shauna is guarded like this in general, and we're watching that happen.

callie is learning to care for and relate to her mother and she doesn't see why shauna won't let her in, because to her it's an innate truth that she'll be by her side no matter what (if only she'd let her be). she has unconditional love for her mother and that is the scariest thing in the world to shauna, because the last person who had unconditional love for shauna died because shauna didn't know what to do with it. a baby she never got a chance to meet in reality could've replaced the love that jackie gave her, and shauna was maybe starting to look forward to that, but that ended before it began. so twice shauna has killed that figure in her life. the one who loves her wholly and for who she is, which is terrifying to shauna in it's own right (she tried to take that away from jackie in their last moments, maybe you never really knew me, because that would be easier. shauna can't handle someone really knowing her because she can't handle really knowing herself because, again, that means addressing things that go unaddressed). and she doesn't plan on killing that figure again.

(if callie's even real, because the baby wasn't real when she met him and jackie wasn't real every time she's talked to her in the last twenty-five years, so who the fuck is to say callie is real?)

[fatehbaz]

Between 1970 and 1973, rent strikes erupted in towns and cities throughout the Republic of Ireland. These were organised by local tenants’ associations, most of which were affiliated to the National Association of Tenants Organisations [NAoTO] [...], an umbrella organisation for local associations established in 1967. [...] [O]rganisers claimed that at its peak almost half of all council tenants in the state, or approximately 50,000 households, were withholding their rents. These localised campaigns coalesced into a state-wide movement in late 1972 with [NAoTO] declaring a “national rent strike” which lasted until August 1973. At this point, the government conceded to [NAoTO]'s demands including revisions to the B scale differential rent system, a rent freeze for those on fixed (non-differential) rents, [and] better terms for tenant purchase [...]. [T]he long-term consequences are more ambiguous [...]. Nonetheless, it was described in an article in the Irish Times as “undoubtedly the most dramatic [...] victory ever achieved in this century by tenants versus landlords” [within Ireland]. [...]

Despite the scale and significance of these rent strikes, before this project started there was effectively no information available about them. The [Community Action Tenants Union Ireland] CATU rent strike history project aimed to address this situation, which we understood as an important gap in the collective memory [...]. The project set out to leverage the history of the rent strikes to engage people and involve them in the contemporary housing movement by providing an example of the power of collective action and building connections [...]. The project has been ongoing since late 2021 [...].

---

Gray (2018a, 2022) argues that, beginning in the 1960s, the urbanisation of capital created a new [...] working-class struggle in Italy, [...] characterised by divisions related to suburbanisation and geographical fragmentation. [...] Clare's (2020) analysis of [...] clandestine textile workshops in Buenos Aires highlights the importance of the spatial dimension [...] by describing how workshops are located according to a distinct socio-spatial strategy that divides the workforce and minimises outside interference, thus ensuring access to cheap, vulnerable labour. [...]

There are [...] connections between political decomposition and the loss of memory and knowledge of struggle, such as in the case of workplace restructuring after conflict to prevent the transmission of knowledge and experience between different generations of workers [...]. Responding to this situation, there has been a growing interest in recovering forgotten or suppressed histories of housing and urban struggles [...].

---

The background to the CATU rent strike history project is the so-called “housing crisis” in Ireland, which, contrary to the idea of a specific moment of crisis, has been a continuous feature of Irish society since at least the 19th century [...]. A persistent challenge faced by CATU and other similar movements is that of overcoming a pervasive sense of disempowerment and persuading people that it is worthwhile to engage in collective action [...]. [T]he [housing] crisis [is not necessarily] a unique moment of dysfunction in the housing system [but is] rather [...] a persistent feature of Irish, and increasingly international, capitalism [...]. [L]and and housing have been deeply interrelated with anti-colonial struggles including the Land War of the late 19th century, the civil rights movement, and anti-internment rent strikes in the 1960s [...].

---

27 oral history interviews were carried out with people who participated in the rent strikes in the 1970s [...] from various towns and cities across the Republic of Ireland [...]. Approximately 2,000 relevant articles published in local and national newspapers between 1966 and 1973 were identified and subject to close reading [...] Further data was gathered through a review of 161 articles about the rent strikes in radical newspapers [...]. Previous analyses have emphasised the atomisation of new suburban council estates and how these were part of a concerted effort to undermine working-class radicalism (McManus 2003). Beginning in the late 1950s, suburbanisation was further accelerated by the state's policy to attract [...] speculative investment in commercial office space and the displacement of working-class communities, in particular from inner-city Dublin [...]. However, [...] that fragmentation was countered in the late 1960s and early 1970s through the widespread, rapid formation of tenants’ associations organised around shared interests [...].

The interviews and newspapers produced by local tenants’ associations demonstrated the organisational density and array of community organisations [...] that fought to improve the conditions of everyday life [...]. Some of the forms of organisation that existed across many areas included collectively built and managed community centres, women's and youth committees, sports clubs, social activities for elderly people, and food cooperatives, amongst others. Illustrating the scale of community organising, in August 1973 the [NAoTO] newspaper reported that the West Finglas Tenants Association was running regular outings to the seaside that were attended on average by 2,000 people transported in 20 double-decker buses. [...] As described by [P.], a rent strike organizer in Ballyfermot:

"Street committees didn't just run the rent strike, they also ran summer programmes. If there was old people to come around at Christmas, we'd arrange for someone to cook an extra bit of dinner. It was more a living thing. It wasn't just a single issue. [...]"

---

All text above by: Fiadh Tubridy. "Militant Research in the Housing Movement: The Community Action Tenants Union Rent Strike History Project". Antipode Online Volume 56, Issue 3, pages 1027-1046. May 2024. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[seirei-bh]

Jason Mendal's facade. Deep analysis about him: his past, traumas, ideologies and subsequent development -Theories

I'm going to try to do a deep analysis here about why Jason is the way he is and how he became the person he is now. At least the little info que got about him until ep 5. Before start to read, you have to keep in mind that although there is some canonical data here, there is also a lot of speculation on my part, so these theories may be refuted in future episodes.

I am going to talk here about all the possible reasons for how his behaviour is today, applied to his business, as well as to his relationships of rivalry, friendship and romance. About his ideas, mentality, his heart, and everything related to the little we know about his childhood, personality and way of behaving. It will be a long analysis with many points to discuss.

Backstory and possible traumas

To begin with, another theory about Jason that I have after ep 5 that I'm going to add to my huge list of theories about him (you can read them in some of my previous posts, like this one and others in my Jason's headcanons post) is that, regarding the big number of brief romantic partners he had, and why he doesn't want to have a long and stable romantic relationship with anyone, I think one of the reasons to that fear may also be related to the death of his father and with his own actual “perfect” life in general.

First, I mean the fact that his father died when he was a teenager has made me think that perhaps Jason's emotional situation could be similar to Anthony from Bridgerton series, who after losing his father and seeing how much his mother suffered from that loss, that created a trauma that made him never want to fall in love for fear of losing someone else whom he loves again and suffering for it.

Perhaps his mother had depression after the death of her husband, maybe because of this she neglected her son or even lost her job, so they even had financial problems, and Jason having to deal with tons of responsibilities since he was too young. That also made Jason become a person more focused on getting money and power at any price and as quickly as possible.

We do not know how his father died, it is most likely that it was due to a car accident or some serious illness. About Jason and his mother, I wonder if maybe they never got along, or if their relationship deteriorated after his father died. But regardless of that, the death of one of your parents in your teenage years is something that can affect you greatly. This makes me think about what kind of situation Jason would live in high school, I’ve the feeling that he wasn't very popular, or at least not at first, and that he was one of those people who go from being one of those who suffered bullying to those who end up bullying others as a wrong way to show that he could be stronger and thus create some popularity with which he would stop feeling alone and unprotected. I bet his "charming personality" started to come through here, and the death of his father had a lot to do with it. Being a person who did everything possible to try to fit in, even if he had to destroy others to do so.

I also wrote a long time ago in another post that it is possible that other children made fun of Jason at school for having white locks, and that he perhaps dyed his hair all brown for a long time, and that perhaps his poliosis was also a consequence of Waardenburg syndrome, which can have other consequences. Which would only add more insecurities to that little Jason and cause him to accumulate more resentment.

He saw all those popular boys at high school who were very confident guys, seemingly charming (even though they were really jerks), rich, dating with all the pretty girlfriends they want, and who had everything going well in their lives, while him, being a good and nerdy boy couldn't achieve anything and who felt more vulnerable than ever after losing his father, so he told himself that to succeed and be stronger that was the law of the jungle that prevailed and that he had to be not only like them, but better, imitating them and also later going further than them in life, whatever was the price to pay. Succeeding the unpleasant way.

To add here something more: Chinomiko said originally when New Gen was still in the previous High School ideas, Jason was a character like a “stupid comical villain”, so at least we can imagine he ended been being a jerk in his teenage years for sure. Probably the typical pathetic bully who likes to bother others, but since his character had the best glow up I also guess that now he's more complex than before too.

And all this will also manifest itself in being obsessed with the ideal of perfection and in projecting an image of himself of absolute self-confidence. Which would also make him start faking a perfect image not only at high school, later at work, but among his “friends” and with his romantic partners, so it would be exhausting for him and would end getting bored of them and don’t make him feel happy. But by the other hand, he’s afraid that a woman could find out his true self and be disappointed, so he prefers to hide his insecurity and prevent them from seeing them, ending the relationship as soon as possible.

It could also be possible that Jason's father, before he died, was a very humble and good man who had high expectations for his son and convinced him that he had to reach very high levels professionally, either because he positively supported this and had great dreams and hopes for the future of his son so he could have the better chances in life he couldn't achieve, maybe even his father was the one who had the dream about “Goldreamz” and had the desire to start his own company one day, OR on the contrary, because he was a cold man who put a lot of pressure on him to achieve excellence, because he had no expectation that his son couldn’t achieve anything like him (I think it's more probably the first option than this second one because the second one is too similar to Nathaniel's father, but who knows). Both which also led Jason to want to achieve a high professional goal, either so that his father could have been proud of him and make their dream come true, or because he wanted to show him that he could be better than the low expectations that his father had.

Someone may think that Jason getting "daddy issues" and most of his problems being caused because of this is very cliche or simple, but we have seen that before with other Mcl characters, whether due to negligence and parental abuse (Nathaniel's parents), due to little attention and abandonment (Castiel's parents, Nina's father) or due to the death of their parents or one of the parental figures (Lysander, Armin and Alexy's biological parents, or Violette's mother), so I think it wouldn't be so strange for Jason to have a trauma related to that and that a lot of things that he try to goal in his life were in some way related to that, same about why he has that behaviour in his relationships.

Another thing: Jason mentions in ep 5 that his parents were not millionaires, and his birthday was rather modest. He is quite dry and serious when mentioning this, which makes me think that it is a detail of his life that he doesn’t like to talk about, since he may consider it a weakness. And it doesn't surprise me, since Jason couldn't set up the company alone, he needed the help of various private investors to whom he now owes money and favors. Also in his description he says that he likes expensive brand clothes and numbers (I guess this refers to money, not maths XD) So the fact of appearing to be a man with a lot of money is something that probably has him obsessed, and that it has cost him a lot of sacrifice to achieve, and he may also have still debts to those investors, but he does his best to pretend that everything in life is going very very well. He won’t want his rivals, his companions, or any flirt to find out that there are things in his life that are either not going so well or have not gone well in the past. (I’m not saying he’s broke, but I mean he’s not so rich as Amanda, despite of he tries to do his best to look like that, especially because all his company investors are probably rich men of very high category, high social standards you know), basically about this Jason is a bit like Jordan in The wolf of wall street movie, in the sense of someone who started very low in the social scale and ended up climbing to the top, according to him with clean methods, but who knows if he or any of his investors actually have any illegal secrets about his finances, and I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case and Jason purposely ignored this, since he himself said in ep 5 that he didn't know how some of his workers did their jobs and that he "wasn't interested in knowing it." He said this about Danica, but I think it really implies that he applies it to everyone who works with him and for him.

His business ideology:

There is a saying in Spanish that is quite famous in the world in marketing and great finances and that can be applied perfectly to Jason to explain and summarize his behaviour in business and his way to see the life: it is said that in business you need to have a "mentalidad de tiburón" (literally have a mind like a shark), this refers to a white shark, if it doesn't move it sinks, and means this is the mentality that an ambitious man of business must follow in order not to sink and continue continuing with his goals and dreams, the mentality of a person whose main motivation is money, who does not mind jumping the limits of ethics and morality in order to achieve it.

The equivalent in English here is “wolf-like mentality”, it’s similar to what I’ve explain, but includes too the saying of “divide and conquer” and to clarify this even more to understand Jason’s character, here I add all the main points it includes, something that can perfectly fix in Jason’s character to understand him better, a very Maquiavelo-like:

This can also apply to his personal relationships (romantic ones included), this way of thinking can explain it very well too what could be other of the reasons why he feels he cannot have a long romantic relationship: because his business are the first, and also can explain why perhaps he lost the interest in women very quick, because he’s mostly focused in the mentality of immediate results and thinks maybe the other choice is a lost of time + the fear for the previous trauma about the attacked and losing someone I’ve mentioned before.

And about wolf mentality and his rivalry and work…

Now let’s talk about the matter of his rivalry with Devon.

Maybe the answer is just a simple as: Jason was just frustrated for not be able to achieve his dreams for all the stuff I’ve been wrote before, which led him to steal the project from Devon (whether it was stealing it by himself acting alone and by himself in a desperate act or because some third person manipulated and convinced him to do it), but even if those were the main reasons, I still think there's something more here we still don’t know. Something more that happened between them before or during the town hall project thing, something more personal and complex than what we've been told, or at least that there's something more here that Devon doesn't know.

Maybe could be also for envy too. Devon was a good person and didn't have to pretend to be perfect to achieve his dreams like Jason did to have friends or a romantic partner and Devon seems to had a loving and stable family, maybe they meet each other since they were teenagers, but we still have no confirmation about this, so maybe I’m wrong, the only thing we know for sure is that at least they didn’t meet each other since childhood, since Chinomiko said it on Instagram long ago. But still this doesn’t feel enough (to me at least) to explain Jason’s behaviour.

For now, I also keep other of my old theories about there is possible a third person involved in all this problem. We’ll see what’s the real answer to this question.

Although here I want to add one more point, and that is that Devon and Devenementiel curiously represent the exact opposite of Jason and Goldreamz in the business approach, the called “sheep mentality”, and these are the differences between them:

Ironically, today in the competitiveness of modernity in business, it's considered that in reality the best entrepreneurs are neither one nor the other, but a mix between both types of mentality. Does this mean that there will be a time in the future when both companies find themselves in a delicate situation and decide to collaborate in order to mutually triumph against a greater enemy (Ioann and his company, f*ck Ysa's ex boyfriend, I hope we can punch him, that Ioann is gonna be the new Debrah and main villain mark my words) by overcoming their differences? Well, only time will tell...

Now, about Ysaline-Jason:

There is the small detail that Ysaline comes from a rich family, or at least her mother became rich and famous in her work in recent years, and thanks to that Ysaline was able to do private and expensive studies abroad (and Jason clearly knows this, he's an stalker who got her number and email easily XD and other characters like Thomas and Amanda knew Ysaline's mother was rich too just searching some info about her on internet). And that may also cause some insecurity in Jason, fearing that perhaps Ysaline may be disappointed if she finds out that he's not as perfect as he seems or at least that he was not at all in his past. Maybe he even had an ex girlfriend who, after she found out that, felt disappointed about him and left him, and that made him more superficial and cautious with her subsequent love conquests, or maybe since he only get romances once he started to put on his popular guy facade and succeed, he thinks he needs to impress and seduces her in the same way he did it with other women, because he thinks she will only be seduced by him by superficial stuff like his charms, attractive, money and work. Until Ysaline shows him what she wants is really get to know him, with all his weakness, in heart, mind and body, and until he realizes he really wants to know her better just because he loves to spend time with her and she makes him happy, and we know that will happen.

I've read some theories from different people and social webs that some think that Jason wants to use Ysa's family's money to invest in his own company, but I think his intentions are not in that way, but rather:

I think also one of the reasons why he agreed to help in ep 5 her was not only to seduce her or to show her Goldreamz so that she would want to work there with him, but also because Jason is able to see her potential, since a person with her studies, her family money, all the important contacts her mother has, and with the previous experience of having worked in a big important company and who has also shown him face to face that she has a competitive and brave side, she can undoubtedly go very far, and obviously he wants her to go far having her by his side, but of course he will also have a conflict here since I don't think he is the type of person who is comfortable mixing love with business, not like Ioann, the hell with that shitty man.

Obviously he also wants to manipulate her or at least bother Devenementiel somehow with all this. The little we have seen of Danica in ep 5 is that she is someone very efficient and fast at her job, Jason saw that and brought her to his side, now Jason sees that although Ysaline has failed in one of her projects, she still has potential to become a great event organizer. He also wanted to closely observe how she works when she is motivated and has someone guide her in the right path, when she is herself, and maybe even Jason sees in her the person he was before he achieved excellence. And Ysaline has ambition, she herself told Devon in one of the previous eps (if you follow Devon's route) that she dreamed of one day becoming a big star in the world of events and had the goal of being one of the best at her job. Even in one of the dialogues you can get in ep 2, Jason asks Ysaline "Aren't you willing to do anything to achieve success?" Jason knows that they are both similar in that way, and he wants to take advantage of that.

However Ysaline not only has ambition and a competitive will, but also a certain level of morality and feeling of unity with her co-workers, boss and her family and friends. And although it is still early to assume this, it's quite possible that she is the character that represents the perfect mix between the two business ideologies, both the wolf and the sheep. I'll call that fussion "the kitten mentality" because I can.

Of course, returning to the relationships issue, one thing to try his best to seduce her and make her work for him or at least have her as an ally and briefly as lover, and something very different is what we know will happen: that he will fall in love with her and both will want more, but he will feel that he cannot and shouldn't go further.

So we have here all this matter about his fake perfect facade of rich, charming and popular man of business + his humble origins + wolf-like mentality + his trauma about the losing of his father and more people in the future. A perfect cocktail to be afraid to have a stable relationship.

Greetings to all Jason fans like me who have him as a route and loves to suffer. In this house we love traumatized fictional men with red flags.

And let's add of course there will probably be many more problems that will make him fear having a relationship with Ysaline once he falls in love with her, because problems already numbered in more than 2000 words weren't enough first because he will try to convince himself that he only wants to manipulate her so that she change sides and join to Goldreamz, and to seduce her so that she'd end up in his bed (and she maybe would believe that too), but then when he finds out he's in love with her, and she with him, Jason will have to make the decision about whether to go ahead with his revenge against Devenementiel or not, because he knows that will end up hurting her, since she could suffer if her colleagues and boss find out about her relationship with him and distrust her or if that even ruins her reputation, which is was already bad in her previous company because she slept with her previous boss, and above all because she will never forgive him and will hate him if the Devenementiel closes and all his friends and her loses their jobs because of Jason's actions. And having a relationship with him makes her feels more guilty for what happened, like believing she was part of his plans and she helped him in some way, and then she could believe she was nothing except another more of his conquers and everything was a lie (her ex-boyfriend trauma attacking again here), or at least she wasn't as important to him as she thought.

And perhaps, even if he tries to stop those actions, and not harm Devenementiel further so as not to make her harm her, perhaps, by then, it will be too late to stop those revenge plans...

So he will lose another person that he loves and wants in his life. The only person who accepted him and loved him exactly who he really is and who really knows him. His biggest fears making true, again.

but this is an otome game, guys, everything will be solved at the end and everybody will be happy, don't worry!

[sleeplesssmoll]

Reverse 1999 Theory: What is "Perception" and how does it work in arcanists?

Vertin canonically has uncanny perception and a deep understanding for arcanum even amongst arcanists, despite her lack of skill. Arcanists are very sensitive, or rather, vulnerable to emotions. There is another arcanist known for her perception we can look at for more clues.

Mesmer Jr. also has a "acute perception", much like Vertin.

In Reverse 1999, Perception functions like a 6th sense in arcanists. But how does it work? I looked up to see if there is a connection between magnetic fields and emotions. Turns out there is A LOT. Specifically the magnetic field radiated by the heart.

Biomagnetic Communication Between People (source).

We have found there is a direct relationship between the heart-rhythm patterns and the spectral information encoded in the frequency spectra of the magnetic field radiated by the heart. Thus, information about a person’s emotional state is encoded in the heart’s magnetic field and is communicated throughout the body and into the external environment.

There is so much cool information in this article I'd love to gush about, but we're here for lore. Remember my psychube post that I never shut up about? It's actually missing very important information that I didn't add at the time because I could not figure out how it worked.

Polarization:

The different frequencies are triggered by different kinds of emotions and we can see the heart being affected by the electromagnetic fields. My theory is that this is the key to arcanist perception. This is how they "sense" emotions. They are picking up on these frequencies. For a real life example from the same article, look at these graphs showing how the influence of emotions:

Most people tend to think of communication solely in terms of overt signals expressed through facial movements, voice qualities, gestures and body movements. However, evidence now supports the perspective that a subtle yet influential electromagnetic or "energetic" communication system operates just below our conscious level of awareness. The following section will discuss data that suggests this energetic system contributes to the "magnetic" attractions or repulsions that occur between individuals.

Arcanists sense these waves and it can cause distress in them. Mesmer Jr. is a prime example of this. Other people's emotions get to her.

Now how does this tie into our beloved Timekeeper?

What if the reason Vertin has to stay "stoic" is because her emotions can influence the others around her and because she is extra susceptible to other people's incoming emotions. She needs to stay calm even in mental distress. Mesmer Jr. is also like this. She may come off as abrasive and snappy at times but she is described as a "an indifferent and refined machine" (Chapter 3: An Opened Sandwich). These two share a lot in common. They are both victims of trauma yet must operate in many emotionally taxing positions.

They even say "engraved in the heart" (although this could simply be word choice it really fits)!

Both Vertin and Mesmer Jr. struggle everyday to keep the their feelings at bay. Neither of them is "used" to this life but they have to keep up the facade for their sake and possibly for those around them.

The main story doesn't give us as much insight into Vertin's head but the traces do. She is always holding back, just like Mesmer.

Side note, do you remember the heartbeat we heard as Schneider was reversed? It raced. Interesting how later Schneider shows up in one of her dreams during Artificial Somnambulism. This could be an example of HF Polarization which generates strong and temporary mental images with very powerful emotions.

This also adds an extra layer to Vertin's interactions with others. She tried to get through to Druvis and Schneider, but as for Forget-me-not and Arcana, she didn't bother. Maybe their feelings of revenge and hatred are so tangible she knew it was lost cause. However, Druvis was laden with grief and loss. She was not a malicious person. Schneider was desperate and motivated by love for her family. Vertin even mentions she knew Madam Z was not part of Constantine's game by the "look in her eyes" and never blamed her for the loss of her friends.

If anything seems wrong or if I missed something, please let me know! I'd be happy if I could refine it further.

[lisa-russell]

Another point I will stick onto my GreyScale Agent 4 Hijacked Security System Avatar Conspiracy Board.

EDIT: Saw the new info. A copy of Four is Still...in a loose sense Four, like have you seen the Lesser Four Copies? The way they all pose and how the last one is just pulled down in the Grey Ooze cause they weren't focusing on 8...It's like the main Copy has all of the Ogs agents skills and drive. Yet pieces of Fours funky personality from in-game cannon got carried over by the portion of Said Soul being drawn in to form a pallette!

Click or tap images tah read and zoom in...So yah gonna tell me non of this has any real correlation or claim? *jabs finger at the images below.*

EDIT: I WAS RIGHT!, so what if The Parallel Cannon is said to be just a copy surronded by lesser copies. Order still had to capture a fraction of Fours Soul and than Copy a template or construct of Four, in the process of also Greyscaling those copies and reprograming them into a Security Force for its own use!

Meanwhile the Original Soul Fragment was WAS USED, to form a Pallete.

So...yah. Its maybe not the full 4 BUT it's also still technically 4 to a degree!

EDIT: Hmph. So I was pretty clam close to the lore!)

I am like 71% convinced that it is Agent 4. Despite. What. The. Game and Off the hook reacts to. Theirs faaaar to much evidence to not considered or convenience, me otherwise!

Another interesting detail is the very boss name itself...

And than these little tid bits below...theres far too much stuff HINTING AT 4...like we all know how Nintendo loooooves tah hide der lore.

EDIT: JUST LIKE THE JELLOTONS FOURS COPY WAS REPROGRAMED AND RECONSRRUCTED INTO A ROLE ONLY ORDER WOULD WANT.

And from dat ominoius statement Baby Order left on 4s Soul Weapon Pallete, I point to this other little fact.

Overlorder...so many little hints at the corrupted A.I twists what was going to be 4s job, or rather reaaaaally likes that idea.

And just inking goes for 4.

We or those who have read Marina's Dev Dairies know the rather horrifying and painfully traumatize process of being Sanitized.

And I point out GreyScaling sounds pretty similar no?

The memverse was made to REVERSE IT, or at least help bring life back to those poor empty husks. Yah, they legit said Husks.

I'm thinking Overlorder took dat Data and used it to form the Greyscaling process, taking advantage of the Glitch or Security Risk in the memverse and sucked up A Soul Fragment of Agent 4s portion via the Shellphone -to form the Copy Amalgamation of Parallel Cannon.

Ironically creating a Security System Avatar.

For its own purpose.

And may I point out, in my run after defeating Marina...it was them who I encountered next as if my 8 had activated the Avatar by excuting some form of alarm system built into the spire. And I recall that Marina made the whole thing to be repeatable, helping 8 or any Sanitized Octo regain their memories--yet when yah defeat dah boss, she reacts if she had never designed or even put in a template for that boss...unlike the other two. Which would explain dah new info e got on Order capturing and copying 4s Agent Skillset and Biodata for its own foul use!

-------(Edit: The famistu interview duddddes.)

A MUCH clearer new info about 4...

See dah part where der made out of sludge?

GREY FAMILIAR LOOKING SLUDGE. Grey Oooze...apparently capable of not only erasing memories and the conscious self, but also copying the Soul Fragments of captured victims when installed or pasted into it, thus creating an Artificial and rather freaky constructs or Avatars for Order to use...

A copy they maybe...but it still had to come from the Original Agent 4.

And I don't think Four would have willingly allowed the Corrupted Order A.i to use their biodata and skillsets for such a dark purpose.

IF yah think about it dis way, they had a fragment of der soul torn from themselves, thus becoming a victim and vulnerable to Greyscaling. THAN that Fragment was, forcibly copied without OGs Fours permission and most likely put through some kind of Greyscaling process, it's body and much like the Jellotons, was reconstructed and copied again tah be used as a weapon...

THAN that remaining OG Soul Fragment as turned into 4s favorite weapon...

Like hers how the describe Fours personality and traits directly from in-game lore:

"Agent 4 is described as a silent squid who goes with the flow even in raging waters, and values freedom and flexibility. They also "blast through any situation with ease." Agent 4 did not initially know who the Squid Sisters were, but later came to respect them after their journey in Octo Canyon. Agent 4, as seen in promo pictures and art, has a diligent work ethic, a lot of confidence, and is extremely free-spirited. Compared to Agent 3, they are shown to be more easygoing and relaxed, yet slightly upbeat in their mannerisms and are constantly depicted as smiling in official art."- Inkipedia

Now try and imagine how having a fragment of their soul captured would effect such a sunshine ray of an Agent... and I could see why Order made a moldable copy of Four. Four would rebel with all der might against Order, like Corrupted Order sounds like their worst nightmare...

And that is my thoughts on dah whole Agent 4 Thang.

[she-is-ovarit]

Women and girls are oppressed on the axis of sex:

Economic

 Around 2.4 billion women of working age are not afforded equal economic opportunity and 178 countries maintain legal barriers that prevent their full economic participation, according to the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2022 report. In 86 countries, women face some form of job restriction and 95 countries do not guarantee equal pay for equal work.

Globally, women still have only three quarters of the legal rights afforded to men -- an aggregate score of 76.5 out of a possible 100, which denotes complete legal parity.

Gender inequality is a major cause and effect of hunger and poverty: it is estimated that 60 percent of chronically hungry people are women and girls. (Source: WFP Gender Policy and Strategy.)

Less than 20 percent of the world's landholders are women. Women represent fewer than 5 percent of all agricultural landholders in North Africa and West Asia, while in sub-Saharan Africa they make up an average of 15 percent.

In the United States, the labor force participation rate among females is 56.5% and among males is 67.5% for 2022

Vulnerable employment among women [in the US] has remained nearly the same since 1991. Workers in vulnerable employment are the least likely to have formal work arrangements, social protection, and safety nets to guard against economic shocks; thus they are more likely to fall into poverty. Vulnerable employment among women is 3.9% and among men is 4.6% in the United States for 2021.

In the United States, women spend 1.6 times as much time on unpaid domestic and care work than men. In 2019, women in the United States spent 15.3% of their day and men spent 9.7% of their day on unpaid work. 

A 2013 study revealed that 7.6% of lesbian couples in the United States live in poverty compared to 5.7% of married different-sex couples. Similarly, one-third of lesbian couples without a high school diploma were in poverty compared to 18.8% of different-sex couples.

Study: Stereotypes of middle-aged women as less ‘nice’ can hold them back at work.

Women hold 66% of all student loan debt. 41% of women undergraduates take out student loans, compared to 35% of male undergraduates. Women take an additional two years on average to pay off student loans.

Education

Women make up more than two-thirds of the world's 796 million illiterate people.

While progress has been made in reducing the gender gap in urban primary school enrollment, data from 42 countries shows that rural girls are twice as likely as urban girls to be out of school.

Male violence against women

In the United States, the share of women who have experienced intimate partner violence is nearly the same as the world average, 27%. Intimate partner violence is by far the most prevalent form of violence against women globally and is defined as the percentage of ever-married women (ages 15-49) who have ever experienced physical or sexual violence committed by their husband or partner.

35% of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence.

1 in 3 women, around 736 million, are subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence from a non-partner – a number that has remained largely unchanged over the past decade.

Globally, 7% of women have been sexually assaulted by someone other than a partner.

Globally, as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by an intimate partner.

200 million women have experienced female genital mutilation/cutting.

Violence against women in Mexico rises to over 70%, study finds

7 in 10 human trafficking victims are women and girls.

Women and girls represent 65 per cent of all trafficking victims globally. More than 90 per cent of detected female victims are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Politics, power, and Influence

28.7% of seats in national parliament were held by women in 2022 in the United States

Metadata analysis shows biographies of women on Wikipedia are deleted and marked non-notable at a significantly higher rate than those of men.

Women continue to be underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, representing only slightly more than 35% of the world’s STEM graduates. Women are also a minority in scientific research and development, making up less than a third of the world’s researchers.

Medical discrimination, medical violence, and female healthcare

 Women 32% more likely to die after operation by male surgeon

Women are over-medicated because drug dosage trials are done on men.

Women are sometimes forcibly sterilized, without consent, across the globe.

Mental Health

A 2016 study investigating physical and mental health, and experiences of violence among male and female trafficking survivors in England found 78% of women and 40% of men reported high levels of depression, anxiety, or PTSD symptoms.

Female people in the US attempt suicide more frequently than men.

Adult women have higher rates of mental illness than adult men

Discrimination, bias, and sex-based stereotypes

 UN report finds 90% of men and women hold some sort of bias against females.

Men were 93 percent more likely to have their loans discharged when disclosing a medical condition, as compared to women who disclosed medical conditions.

We historically are not included in research, and when we are, are grouped in with men which is unhelpful (bonus question: What does this mean, then, if male people who "identify-as-women" are grouped in with women and not considered a separate category?)

The Madonna-Whore Dichotomy (MWD) denotes polarized perceptions of women in general as either “good,” chaste, and pure Madonnas or as “bad,” promiscuous, and seductive whores. Men who reported higher endorsement of the Madonna-whore-dichotomy rated their partner as less entitled to sexual pleasure. Women who reported higher endorsement of the Madonna-whore dichotomy devalued their own pleasure by rating their partner as more entitled to sexual pleasure than themselves.

“Their Great Shame is Poverty”: Women Portrayed as Among the “Undeserving Poor” are Seen as Deserving Sexual Assault

The Impact of Media Use on Girls' Beliefs About Gender Roles, Their Bodies, and Sexual Relationships: A Research Synthesis.

Mothers in China for decades pressured their daughters to bind their feet - often destroying the function and formation of their feet - in order to please and service men.

My one disclaimer to this post is that there is a tremendous amount of information left out of this post. This is because it is impossible to capture the vast amount of research and details within studies illuminating the sex-based oppression of women and girls. I have not gone into depth on the impact of media on teenage girls' body image, the role of trauma in girls influencing them to hate their bodies, FGM, the Iranian protests, etc. I hope others reblog and add more information.

[drdemonprince]

I deeply agree that weve got to meet people where they are at, and that there are multiple factors to consider in a masking situation. But I’m gonna be real as someone who was deeply disabled by covid something still urks me about the way people have been discussing covid protection with you. It is all so overwhelmingly from the perspective of someone not sick. It’s all about how one made the choice to not mask in certain situations and how doing otherwise would ruin ones life, and that’s like, sure, makes sense. But I don’t get that choice. That choice was taken away from me. And I am not making a ill-informed strategic decision in shaming others, I simply have no empathy for the hurt feelings of the people who put me on my deathbed, to be quite fucking honest. I am all for strategic discussions but I am not here to be tone policed by people talking about their choices that I don’t even get to take, sitting here struggling to even type.

Thanks for sharing this. One of the big tension points with COVID is that the target behaviors that need to be changed are located within people who are, statistically, not the most vulnerable -- and so, on a tactical level, we are tasked with extending compassion and aid to people who might not show the same consideration to us as disabled people, if we want to be safe.

As HIV spread throughout queer, sex worker, and intraveneous drug user communities, it was often these very communities that organized in order to influence behavioral change within their own ranks. Gay bars handed out condoms to gay men. Gay sex clubs facilitated fisting nights so people could have safer sex. Needle exchanges run by current and former drug users helped keep drug users safe. The people most likely to be infected were also the people whose behavior could be positively influenced to protect them, and thus protect the community as a whole.

That's not quite the calculus here. In order to protect disabled and high-risk people, we need EVERYONE to be on the same page with regard to COVID mitigation strategies. We need people who are not themselves high risk to mask, test, get vaccinnated, improve ventilation in their homes, etc.

Now, many of these "low risk" people are not actually low risk; the data is pretty abundant at this point that it is in actuality quite hard to pin down who will develop long COVID and who will not, it can happen to just about anyone. And indeed, even many people who know themselves to be high risk are still taking significant risks regarding COVID right now -- because they are forced to go to work in kitchens and grocery stores and live with roommates who travel and etc or because they are so filled with despair they are risk resigned.

So trying to demarcate who is a disempowered victim here and who is an inconsiderate abled person is not actually so easy -- we must resist the urge that has been drilled into us to issue moral judgements about whom is righteous and whom is deserving of suffering. That is not a disability justice politic. No one deserves long covid, no one deserves to die, no one deserves to overdose, no one deserves to get AIDS, no one deserves to perish because they could not handle the loneliness of social isolation either. We must believe that all disabilities are legitimate and in need of accommodation here, and that includes mental ones that make strict mitigation adherence hard for some. (hello, hi, i have crazy risk-taking brain disease, and even so i care about COVID mitigation, and i need community care too).

EVEN SO, it is undeniably true what you are saying, that we are focusing more on the actions and choices and hang ups of the people who have some freedom to choose, and not the people who have been at home for years at this point, completely isolated, because they are high risk or disabled by COVID already.

I would always caution people to remember that there very much are folks who are high risk and have long COVID who are still forced by economic circumstances out into public life every single day. so we can't equate who is at home and who is out in public taking risk with how disabled or sick someone is. But still, I digress, and on the whole you are right, we are concerning ourselves with people who have the freedom to choose how they respond to COVID, and doesn't that seem unfair?

Sure it's unfair! But the people who have the ability to choose how they respond to COVID risk are the exact people whose behavior we are trying to influence here! We want more people to mask, get tested, get vaccinated, socialize outdoors, etc. And so we do have to put considerable resources and messaging into reaching those people and influencing their behavior if we wish to protect disabled and high risk people.

Someone has to do the work of listening to their concerns, educating them, validating their feelings, giving them access to masks and tests, and removing barriers to them taking those kinds of desired actions. a LOT of people have to do that work. You don't have to do that work as someone who is chronically ill, but I'm gonna do it. and I wish more of my comrades would join me in it, for your sake too! We need to be doing the footwork of getting all your neighbors masking so that it is safe for you to go outside!

We also DO want to protect those people who are taking big risks. Their lives do matter just as much to me. Many of the people who are disabled with long COVID were them once. The fact that someone takes a risk does not mean they deserve to get sick and die. Again that is a fundamental cornerstone of a disability justice politic.

But yes, I hear you, it's annoying from where you are sitting to have to hear people who get to out in public and take big risks complaining about how they are sad when they get criticized. You don't have to listen to these conversations. It shouldn't be your job to hold those conversations. But they do need to happen.

[solomons-poison]

wait aaa so you’re doing kiss prompts? i can’t find the prompt list but i’ll request your fav one with the lovely sorcerer Solomon ofc 🫶🏻

I am! I have the prompt list linked at the bottom of each answer and I'll link it on this one, so if there's a number you'd like in particular, then feel free to send in another request~ for now I'll go with number 4 :>

Solomon x GN!reader

♡ kissing their nose to watch them blush

Solomon could be frustratingly composed. It took a lot to catch him off guard, and seeing him flushed red and with unsure or shocked expression was incredibly addictive thanks to its rarity. Thus, occasionally it would become a game between you and Asmo to see who could break his composure first. However, your plans often backfired, and you'd find yourselves getting flustered instead, totally thrown off your rhythm as your lover only laughed at the way he'd managed to turn it around. He was simply too perceptive sometimes.

It took a long time in your relationship to figure him out. Lots of studying, observing the way he reacted to different "stimuli", almost like an experiment to gather all the necessary data to make your next move. Honestly, if Solomon knew what you were doing, he'd likely be proud to know that 1) you were so interested in him and his reactions and 2) that you were working this hard just to one-up him. However, each way you tried to look at it, you just couldn't seem to figure out how to get him.

Finally, though, as genius often does, an idea hit you unexpectedly. In a very rare instance, you'd happened to wake up first, giving you time to admire your beloved. He was usually the last to go to bed and the first to wake (seriously, when did he sleep??), so you didn't get to see his vulnerable sleeping self very much, if at all. And boy was it gorgeous, his soft white eyelashes lying against his cheeks, hair a little messy from his sleep, and a peaceful expression on his face. Honestly, it was easy to stare, just absorbing this sweet image into your mind. That was why you almost didn't notice when Solomon started to shift in the beginning stages of waking. But he inhaled deeply, shifting into a new position right before his eyes fluttered open.

You were quick to settle, shutting your eyes and evening out your breaths to appear to be sleeping, and it seemed to work as Solomon stayed quiet, clearly trying to prevent you from waking. Warm fingers suddenly touched your cheek, gentle and loving in their caress, and it made your heart ache to feel the love in his touch. You wanted so badly to lean in to him, but you had an objective to meet. Eventually, his weight shifted on the bed towards you, his hand moving to softly cup the back of your head. He often gave you a forehead kiss in the morning as his wake-up call, and you knew exactly what was coming.

That made it easy, then, to catch him off guard. Just as you felt him lean forward, you opened your eyes and shot up, kissing him on the nose. Solomon instantly froze, hand still behind your head but arm suspended in the air as his sleepy brain struggled to compute what happened. Finally, you could see the blush creep up his neck and into his cheeks, mouth opening and closing as he struggled for words. It was the prettiest sight you'd ever seen, and it was worth Solomon's kissy revenge right after that. Your idea may have only worked this one time, but as you two dissolved into sleepy giggles, you were perfectly okay with that.

—

Send me a type of kiss and a character!

[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.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Eric W. Dolan

Published: Jan 3, 2022

Cognitive performance is slightly reduced among those with higher levels of celebrity worship, according to a new study published in BMC Psychology.

“Interest in the topic of celebrity worshipers spans almost two decades. From several studies, over that period, research showed a weak to moderate tendency for those who showed the strongest admiration for their favorite celebrity to have lower cognitive skills, using a variety of cognitive measures,” explained study authors Lynn E. McCutcheon, Ágnes Zsila, and Zsolt Demetrovics in a joint statement to PsyPost.

“However, most of these studies did not control for a variety of extraneous variables. The current study did control for several possibly relevant variables.”

In the study, 1,763 Hungarian adults completed a 30-word vocabulary test and a digit symbol substitution test, a validated assessment of fluid intelligence. The researchers also collected data about the participants’ self-esteem, current family income, material wealth, and highest level of education.

Celebrity worship was measured using a scientific questionnaire known as the Celebrity Attitude Scale. The scale asks participants the extent to which they agree or disagree with statements such as “I often feel compelled to learn the personal habits of my favorite celebrity,” “I am obsessed by details of my favorite celebrity’s life,” and “If I were lucky enough to meet my favorite celebrity, and he/she asked me to do something illegal as a favor I would probably do it.”

Even after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic variables, the researchers found that high scores on the Celebrity Attitude Scale were associated with lower performance on the two cognitive ability tests.

“We found a weak tendency for those who showed the strongest admiration for their favorite celebrity to have lower cognitive skills, suggesting that the earlier results were not due just to chance,” the authors of the study said. “Our results also support previous findings showing that excessive behaviors such as celebrity worshiping can possibly impair cognitive functioning, presumably due to the increased focus and energy invested in this behavior that becomes dominant in the individual’s life.”

“Although celebrity admiration seems not to be a strong precursor of poorer cognitive performance, high levels of admiration can be regarded as one contributing factor to lowered performance in tasks requiring cognitive effort, independently from education or age.”

But it is unclear whether celebrity worship is the cause or consequence of reduced cognitive ability. For example, it “may be that individuals with higher levels of cognitive skills are more likely to understand the marketing strategies behind a famous person,” and thus less vulnerable to celebrity worship, the researchers explained. But it is also possible that celebrity worship functions like an addictive behavior and requires cognitive effort to be maintained.

Previous research has found that celebrity worship is associated with addictive and problematic social media use.

“Future studies should seek further support for our suggestion that the cognitive effort invested in maintaining the absorption in a favorite celebrity may interfere with the person’s performance in tasks that require attention and other cognitive skills,” the authors told PsyPost. “Although our research does not prove that developing a powerful obsession with one’s favorite celebrity causes one to score lower on cognitive tests, it suggests that it might be wise to carefully monitor feelings for one’s favorite celebrity, keeping in mind that most celebrities are human beings who have some flaws just like average persons have.”

The study, “Celebrity worship and cognitive skills revisited: applying Cattell’s two-factor theory of intelligence in a cross-sectional study“, was published November 8, 2021.

--

Abstract

Background

Almost two decades of research produced mixed findings on the relationship between celebrity worship and cognitive skills. Several studies demonstrated that cognitive performance slightly decreases with higher levels of celebrity worship, while other studies found no association between these constructs. This study has two aims: (1) to extend previous research on the association between celebrity worship and cognitive skills by applying the two-factor theory of intelligence by Cattell on a relatively large sample of Hungarian adults, and (2) to investigate the explanatory power of celebrity worship and other relevant variables in cognitive performance.

Methods

A cross-sectional study design was used. Applying an online survey, a total of 1763 Hungarian adults (66.42% male, Mage = 37.22 years, SD = 11.38) completed two intelligence subtests designed to measure ability in vocabulary (Vocabulary Test) and digit symbol (Short Digit Symbol Test). Participants also completed the Celebrity Attitude Scale and the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale. Subjective material wealth, current family income and general sociodemographics were also reported by participants.

Results

Linear regression models indicated that celebrity worship was associated with lower performance on the cognitive tests even after controlling for demographic variables, material wealth and self-esteem, although the explanatory power was limited.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that there is a direct association between celebrity worship and poorer performance on the cognitive tests that cannot be accounted for by demographic and socioeconomic factors.

==

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Smithsonian Magazine:

On a sweltering summer day in Madison, Wisconsin, Jade Kochanski wades through a prairie bursting with wildflowers. Insect net in hand, she carefully scans the colorful blossoms. She’s on a mission to capture and identify the bumblebees that live there. If she’s lucky, she’ll discover a rare find—an endangered rusty patched bumblebee, named for the red-brown smudge that workers and males of the species sport on their backs.

Kochanski, a PhD student in integrative biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, meticulously measures the bumblebees she captures and snips off a tiny piece of leg, a common, non-lethal way to obtain genetic material from these creatures. Each sample she collects from rusty patched bumblebees is destined for a lab in Utah to help researchers uncover the genetic secrets critical to the bee’s survival. DNA analysis will help scientists estimate the number of colonies, identify patterns of inbreeding within those colonies, and understand overall genetic diversity and health of the rusty patched bumblebee populations.

Once common across the eastern United States and Canada, rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis) populations have plummeted by nearly 90 percent over two decades due to habitat loss, pesticide use, pathogens and climate change, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Now, they are found in only a fraction of their former range, with scattered populations in the Upper Midwest and Northeast United States. In 2017, the rusty patch became the first bumblebee to be listed as endangered in the United States.

In response to listing, Kochanski joined a network of scientists who began collecting tissue samples from rusty patched bumblebees across its range. The initiative started in 2020 when Tamara Smith, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s lead biologist for the rusty patched bumblebee, organized a meeting with bumblebee researchers in Minnesota. Their goal: to identify conservation tools that could help save the species. “Genetics was the No. 1 question that came out of that [meeting],” says Smith. “We needed to get a handle on what was going on with this species if we wanted to move forward with some of the other tools that would help with conservation.”

Their research was published this past spring in the Journal of Insect Science and provides the first range-wide genetic study on the species. The findings offer key insights that can aid conservation of the species, but also raise questions and concerns about the ability of the species to recover. “Genetically, they’re not doing as well as we had hoped,” says Smith.

The study revealed a surprisingly low number of rusty patched bumblebee colonies, even in places where the bee seems prevalent. “We’ve seen the Upper Midwest as the stronghold of the species,” says John Mola, an ecologist at Colorado State University and lead study author, “but what we’ve seen from the genetic data is that even within these strongholds for the species, they are still far fewer colonies than we might have expected.”

Since only queens produce offspring, bumblebee populations are measured by colonies, not individuals. Each spring, queen bumblebees emerge from hibernation to create nests where they produce non-reproductive female workers that forage, nurse larvae and defend the nest. Later in the summer, queens switch to producing reproductive individuals, including males and new queens, which will form their own colonies the following year. Each colony can contain over 100 individuals. Thus, even if several worker bees are seen in an area, they could all come from just one or two large colonies.

According to the study, having few colonies poses significant risks, including making them vulnerable to local extinction from unpredictable events like fires on the prairies where they live. In light of the study, land managers will need to be more strategic with using prescribed burns for managing prairies within the bee’s range. To assist these efforts, as part of her dissertation, Kochanski is developing burn recommendations that balance the need for prairie maintenance with protecting bumblebees.

[covid-safer-hotties]

A better approach to mitigate the risk of airborne infections in workplaces - Published Sept 13, 2024

A ‘let them rip’ attitude towards the mitigation of the risk of common airborne infections in the workplace is unacceptable in terms of law, good occupational medicine practice and public health. A proactive strategy underpinned by a better paradigm is urgently needed for the benefit of society and especially to protect those vulnerable through significant exposure or those susceptible for reasons such as co-morbidity. Even if the will to do what is needed at a national level remains lacking, forward-looking workplaces and other stakeholders should still take proactive steps to mitigate the risk of airborne infection. Thus they would fulfil the duty of care to workers and others as well as improve the resilience and productive potential of workplaces.

In 2010, this journal highlighted the potential challenge of a pandemic in the ensuing decade [1] and so it came to pass. During the peak of the pandemic, ‘Occupational Medicine’ played its part both in disseminating new knowledge and in expressing authoritative opinion. Looking to the future, many observers are awaiting cues from the outcomes of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Public Inquiry. The Module 1 report showed that the UK Government failed its citizens with its lack of preparation or a preventive strategy [2]. The report also emphasized the need to build resilience in government, associated institutions and their plans, but it has yet to address the resilience built into traditional occupational health control measures such as ventilation [3]. Module 3 [4] might address these measures but the limitations of the Inquiry could disappoint those concerned with workplace health, such as by addressing only health and social care workplaces (HSCW). Analyses of ‘lessons learned’ from COVID-19 [5–7] indicate various but sufficient reasons to eschew attitudes of ‘living with the virus’ or of reversion to ‘business as usual’ when facing common airborne infections at work such as coronaviruses, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Several studies attest to the increased risk of COVID-19 for many workers besides in HSCW [8]. Long COVID has had a profound impact on the UK’s workforce and economy [9]. Regrettably, the UK Government has considerably scaled down COVID-19 monitoring. Despite this, the data show persistent significant COVID-19 infection with recurrent waves, fuelled both by waning immunity and by new variants, and which are not limited to the winter during which seasonal influenza and RSV also contribute significantly [10]. Perhaps unsurprisingly in 2022, the UK sickness absence rate rose to 2.6% (the highest since 2004) [11]. The contribution of airborne infections to this absence may be variously coded as ‘minor illnesses’ (includes coughs, colds and flu), ‘other’ (includes coronavirus and infectious diseases) as well as ‘respiratory conditions’- comprising, respectively, 29%, 24% and 8% of the total sickness absence occurrences in 2022 [11]. Measures to reduce the risk of contracting airborne infections should, therefore, contribute to any strategy to reduce sickness absence and presenteeism and thus to improve productivity and benefit the economy. However, better data collection and analyses are needed for the quantification of the employment cost of common airborne infections in workplaces, as well as for monitoring interventions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated both the legal duty and the means for employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health at work of all their employees by reducing their exposure to a common airborne infection at work [12]. Similarly, employers are also obliged to ensure that other persons who may be affected are not exposed to risks to their health from the work being undertaken [12]. These could include children at school, passengers using public transport, the public in retail premises and hospitality venues, as well as in hospitals where the risk and burden of transmission are perhaps most obvious [13]. Schools, catering establishments and hospitals need to tackle the risk of airborne infection with the same commitment with which they currently address infestations, food hygiene and wound infection, respectively. Special considerations also apply to protect individuals who are more susceptible, according to Equality law [12,14].

On the basis of extant knowledge [6,7], if a workplace were to be truly ‘health promoting’ [3], then it would have to exceed mere compliance with the law and would have to rise to the challenge of having less exposure to airborne pathogens within the workplace than the average in the community outside. Such an endeavour would contribute to public health through a reduction in the overall incidence of airborne infection and in the pool of replicating and mutating pathogens. It would also make workplaces and society much more resilient in the face of the next airborne infection outbreak, especially during the lag period before a reliable vaccine or other pharmaceutical intervention were to become available.

Many might baulk at the challenge of developing a proactive strategy to mitigate the risk of airborne infection in the workplace perhaps because of the ubiquitous exposure throughout the community and the multifactorial contributions to the individual or societal burdens. However, the occupational health community has successfully dealt with analogous heterogeneous and complex challenges through a combination of good science and good policy in the past. The development and successful implementation of the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) ‘Tackling work-related stress using the Management Standards approach’ with its emphasis on prevention is an excellent example [15]. Such a national strategic approach would require widespread and systematic consultation involving a range of stakeholders such as regulators, notably the HSE, researchers, practitioners, workers’ representatives and employers. Extensive collaboration would be needed for the background research and development as well as to monitor the implementation of the strategy. The multiple actions that would result might include an ‘Approved Code of Practice’ or an approach as in the ‘Management Standards’ [15].

Whilst it might be premature to pre-empt the conclusion of the development of such broad-based and wide-ranging initiatives, some considerations regarding a better paradigm for mitigating airborne infection risk in the workplace can already be highlighted on the basis of current evidence. The traditional ‘hierarchy of control’ as applied to airborne hazards needs adaptation for airborne infection hazards (e.g. the hazard is not amenable to substitution) and a ‘source/pathway/receptor’ approach is better suited [16,17]. Although the World Health Organisation had a flawed position which denied airborne transmission from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic [17], it has progressed and is developing risk assessment tools for ‘aerosolized infectious respiratory particles’ [18].

Lessons learnt during the pandemic regarding source control [17] such as ‘working from home’ would need to be built into codes of practice. Moreover, evidence needs to be reviewed, for example, regarding the extent to which respirators can limit transmission from infected people [19] since such mitigation could protect health workers exposed to the source [17,19] or help them fulfil legal duties [12,14] towards susceptible patients or co-workers. However, the main emphasis would have to be on pathway control to reduce exposure to airborne pathogens through building design and engineering means notably ventilation ‘as a primary tool for controlling transmission of respiratory pathogens’ [6,7] and other measures such as germicidal ultraviolet light [6]. These measures would likely need supplementation by statutory air quality standards [20] as surrogates for pathogen exposure—analogous to the long-standing but specific exposure limits for airborne chemical agents. Thus society would progressively achieve a ‘clean air revolution’ in workplaces, through a structural engineered resilience. This would add a much-needed dimension to the resilience [2] of institutions and organizations in response to a pandemic. The best efforts in controlling the sources and pathways of transmission of airborne pathogens should reduce the need for personal protection of the ‘receptor’, notably respiratory protective equipment [3,19] as the first or main line of defence. Guidance would be needed as to the role of specific types of respirators such as facepieces or powered devices [3], especially when they might remain indispensable during high exposure in the ‘near field’ [5,17]. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation [21] is refraining from advising on occupational health vaccination programmes and is deferring this consideration to HSCW employers. Therefore, it is incumbent on the relevant regulator, that is, the HSE, in consultation with stakeholders to include vaccination guidance as part of a national mitigation strategy.

The development and application of a national strategy to individual workplaces would rely heavily on a range of disciplines from microbiology to engineering. However, implementation in workplaces would be driven mainly by occupational health professionals such as hygienists and physicians as they have long-standing competencies and experience in applying control measures for airborne hazards [3] ranging from asbestos and crystalline silica to Legionella and Mycobacteria. The COVID-19 pandemic taught us that the uncritical application of fallacious public health guidance resulted in a lack of protection for workers [5,17,22] as well as others in workplaces such as patients [13] whose airborne exposure is inextricably linked to that of workers. Occupational health standards of control tend to be higher [17] than those in a public health context and can contribute to the good practice of infection control and public health [22] as part of the collaboration between specialists in all these disciplines. Occupational health specialists should be able to advise employers on aspects of employers’ legal obligations including with reference to those in workplaces who are not workers [12] as well as on adjustments relating to susceptible individuals that may be needed to comply with Equality legislation [12,14].

A ‘let them rip’ attitude towards the mitigation of the risk of common airborne infections in the workplace is unacceptable in terms of law, good occupational medicine practice and public health. A proactive strategy underpinned by a better paradigm is urgently needed for the benefit of society and especially to protect those vulnerable through significant exposure or those susceptible for reasons such as co-morbidity. Even if the will to do what is needed at a national level remains lacking, forward-looking workplaces and other stakeholders should still take proactive steps to mitigate the risk of airborne infection. Thus they would fulfil the duty of care to workers and others as well as improve the resilience and productive potential of workplaces.

References 1. Agius R. Occupational medicine in the first decade of this millennium: looking to the future. Occup Med 2010;60:585–588.

2. UK Covid-19 Inquiry. Module 1: The Resilience and Preparedness of the United Kingdom. 2024. A Report by the Rt Hon the Baroness Hallett DBE Chair of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. 2024. covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/18095012/UK-Covid-19-Inquiry-Module-1-Full-Report.pdf (19 July 2024, date last accessed).

3. Agius R and Seaton A. Reduction of the risks of work-related ill-health & health promotion in the workplace. In: Agius R, Seaton A. eds. Practical Occupational Medicine. 2nd edn. London: Hodder Arnold, 2006; 129–160 and 253–269.

4. UK Covid-19 Inquiry. Module 3 Provisional Outline of Scope. 2022. covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Module-3-Provisional-Outline-of-Scope-in-English.pdf (22 July 2024, date last accessed).

5. Agius R. COVID-19 in workplace settings: lessons learned for occupational medicine in the UK. Med Lav 2023;114:e2023055.

6. Marr LC, Samet JM. Reducing transmission of airborne respiratory pathogens: a new beginning as the COVID-19 emergency ends. Environ Health Perspect 2024;132:55001.

7. Morawska L, Li Y, Salthammer T. Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for ventilation and indoor air quality. Science 2024;385:396–401. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp2241

8. Burdorf A, Rugulies R. The importance of occupation in the development of the COVID-19 pandemic. Scand J Work Environ Health 2023;49:231–233.

9. Reuschke D, Houston D. The impact of Long COVID on the UK workforce. Appl Econ Letters 2022;30:2510–2514.

10. UK Health Security Agency. UKHSA Data Dashboard. ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/ (19 July 2024, date last accessed).

11. Office for National Statistics. Sickness Absence in the UK Labour Market: 2022. 2023. www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/labourproductivity/articles/sicknessabsenceinthelabourmarket/2022/pdf (19 July 2024, date last accessed).

12. Agius RM, Kloss D, Kendrick D, Stewart M, Robertson JFR. Protection from covid-19 at work: health and safety law is fit for purpose. BMJ 2021;375:n3087.

13. Cooper BS, Evans S, Jafari Y et al. . The burden and dynamics of hospital-acquired SARS-CoV-2 in England. Nature 2023;623:132–138.

14. Pump Court Chambers: Employment and Discrimination Team. Covid-19, Service Providers, and Reasonable Adjustments. www.pumpcourtchambers.com/2024/06/03/does-equality-act-2010-impose-obligations-on-service-providers-in-light-of-covid-19/ (5 August 2024, date last accessed)

15. MacKay CJ, Cousins R, Kelly PJ, Lee S, McCaig RH. ‘Management Standards’ and work-related stress in the UK: policy background and science. Work Stress 2024;18:91–112.

16. McCullough NV, Brosseau LM. Selecting respirators for control of worker exposure to infectious aerosols. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 1999;20:136–144.

17. Agius RM. Prevention of COVID-19 in workers: preparation, precaution and protection. Ann. Work Expo Health 2024;68:1–7.

18. World Health Organization. Indoor Airborne Risk Assessment in the Context of SARS-CoV-2: Description of Airborne Transmission Mechanism and METHOD TO develop a New Standardized Model for Risk Assessment. 2024. ISBN 978-92-4-009057-6 iris.who.int/handle/10665/376346 (24 July 2024, date last accessed).

19. Greenhalgh T, MacIntyre CR, Baker MG et al. . Masks and respirators for prevention of respiratory infections: a state of the science review. Clin Microbiol Rev 2024;37:e0012423.

20. Morawska L, Allen J, Bahnfleth W et al. . Mandating indoor air quality for public buildings. Science 2024;383:1418–1420. www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.adl0677

21. Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. JCVI Statement on the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme for Autumn 2024. 2024. www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-autumn-2024-vaccination-programme-jcvi-advice-8-april-2024/jcvi-statement-on-the-covid-19-vaccination-programme-for-autumn-2024-8-april-2024 (4 August 2024, date last accessed).

22. Godderis L, Lerouge L, Samant Y, Noone P. Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic—what occupational safety and health can bring to public health . J Public Health Pol 2023;44:138–146.

[lets-try-some-writing]

The Grim Dark Archives: Statement #003 Holoforms

[Statement taken from [Redacted] on the 11th of October 2004, one year and two months after the Autobots have made their presence known and begun corresponding with human personnel. [Redacted] has been complacent but has refrained from revealing anything that we could use against the Autobots. They have shown willingness to give us ways to ward off Cybertronians, but they refuse to give us any data that we could use to potentially cause actual harm.

No amount of bribery or convincing has changed [Redacted]'s stance. Even using our own vulnerability as a talking point failed. High command has not issued an order to force [Redacted] to give up such information, but with what we are learning, I worry that order may come sooner rather than later.

Recently a report was received from Agent Fowler that caused a great deal of concern among high command. The Autobots were seen using what they call 'holoforms' to interact with humans. They do this by using an avatar that looks like it could be a human without closer inspection. It was not explained how they gained these avatars, but recently five individuals were reported missing across the continent. This alone is not unusual, but what is causing concern is the fact that the Autobots avatars match the missing individuals down to every detail except voice and mannerism.

In light of this, [Redacted] was called upon to give a statement in regard to the situation and what it means.

Statement begins.]

══════════════════

Holoforms? I suppose it would make sense for my kin to begin using them now that they have largely adapted to your planet and overall culture. My kind have always been fond of trying to blend in as much as possible on whatever worlds and with races they interact with. Its not even required half the time, but they do it instinctually. I suppose it is because blending in decreases chances of being killed, or it might even be a side effect of the T-cog. Whatever the case, it shows that they are settling in and preparing to act more boldly.

I will begin with a bit of history before I explain everything else.

To start, the idea of a holoform was not devised until the golden age when the empire struck out across the stars. Before that age we were content on our homeworld and had no need for holoforms to communicate. However as we spread and our empire grew, we found that even our adaptation couldn't make up for the impression our frames gave. Thus we searched for a way to make speaking with other races easier when our adaptation failed to suffice.

Much like T-cogs, our holoforms are not something we are forged with. No, the ability to create a holoform comes from an upgrade given to diplomatic units, or at least it was before the war. Now the upgrade is so common as to be given to every unit able to receive it. As for what the upgrade does? It allows up to process data on organic and inorganic material through a special series of... functions that we use to understand what we are processing on a base level. I do not believe it would be wise to elaborate further-

... I do not believe explaining the details would do you any good. It's not pretty by any means-

Fine... if you must know... just be warned that its a rather touchy thing for you organic types. The last group who learned very nearly waged war over the subject. I suppose it doesn't matter much now, you couldn't fight back against my kin even if you wanted to. At full strength, they could destroy your planet's entire structure without even devoting their full processing power to the action.

Right... we have unique nano-technology embedded alongside our processors that allows us to create a replication of what we are knowledgeable on. That means when we create holoforms we go out of our way to understand every single detail of what he are trying to replicate... inside and out. We need to pick what we are replicating apart in every conceivable sense to truly understand. We need to connect to them and see how they work, what makes them tick and function.

Those missing humans? I can tell you almost exactly what happened. It is near certain that they were specifically picked out from amongst your population for their traits and for their ability to vanish and largely be unnoticed. Looking at these files, I see a missing adult male, ex military with no family, grizzled expression and a firm build who disappeared in the woods up in Alaska. That one was likely taken by the Prime. I can already guarantee he is dead. The Prime most likely picked him out and hunted him down. At that point the male was most probably taken to whatever facility the Autobots are using and meticulously tested and taken apart until the Prime had a detailed understanding of how the male functioned.

I cannot even begin to guess what they did exactly. I have never taken a holoform, so I am unacquainted with the process. That said, it would not surprise me to learn that they dug through the male's mind until they had a detailed understanding of its functioning. It also would not be out of the ordinary for them to have slowly cut the male open to examine his biological functioning. The medic quite likely drew the process out too considering the way medics function. They are odd mecha... odd and dangerous. Whatever the case, the male is dead, along with whoever else was taken. They live on as images and facsimiles of my kin who will bear their likeness until they prove no longer useful or more data is made available.

Oh yes I can near promise you that the humans taken by the Autobots suffered and endured torment no being with pain receptors should ever face. However I would remind you that your world is covered in all sorts of your kind who can and do vanish without a trace. A few of your less useful humans perished so that the Autobots will not need to tear into your more valuable ones, at least until their medic decides to run more tests.

I would personally suggest keeping your noses out of it. The Autobots have what they want now, and if you keep clear of their machinations, you should be fine. Their acquisition of holoforms will not harm you any time soon. Now if there were a few dozen bots taking on holoforms, then I would tell you to begin gearing up for war. When that happens it generally means the empire is preparing for an invasion, but as it is, the Autobots are too weak and scattered to care about your planet in any significant manner.

Keep your head down and don't say a word. That is my advice if you want to keep of the medic's operating table.

══════════════════

[Statement ends.

[Redacted]'s words... they tell us a great deal. The Autobots are a threat, that much we know. They have weapons we didn't even know of and still there is so much to be addressed. What did [Redacted] mean when they spoke of the medic? Just what the hell happened to those missing people?

...What did [Redacted] mean by invasion?

We need to ask more questions, we need to understand everything we can about these aliens if we hope to survive. Not even [Redacted] is truly safe, they are not kind, though they portray themselves as if they were. They are different than the Autobots, that much is certain, but they are not like us. I doubt they even know that with how much they try to claim to understand about us.

Agent Witwicky signing off.

Recording ends.]

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Study on Brazilian heat wave deaths shows gender & racial disparities

However, just that alone may not suffice.

A new study estimates that the deaths of nearly 50,000 people in Brazil in recent decades could be attributed to the occurrence of heat waves, and it points out that these extreme events have become increasingly frequent.

The paper reveals that Blacks, Browns, females, older adults and those with lower educational levels are the most affected population subgroups, suggesting that the impacts of heat waves are felt unevenly, thus exposing socioeconomic inequalities.

The researchers analyzed data from 14 metropolitan regions with a population of 74 million people, representing nearly one-third of Brazil’s population.

This research is important because it joins others in analyzing racial and gender dimensions of the populations most vulnerable to extreme events, the scientific coordinator at Iyaleta Research Association says.

Continue reading.

[miss-mania]

In the early days of COVID, before any infections reached the US or Australia, I was telling everyone I could that based on the available data at the time that the situation was going to be absolutely disastrous. That unless something were done and severe measures taken quickly it would be too late to prevent an unfathomable amount of death and illness, but that I did not believe that the western capitalist paradigm would allow for such a response.

One of the things I would tell the people I know is that within a few years many people's lives would be divided into two periods; before the pandemic began and after. I even UNDERESTIMATED the number of deaths there have been thus far. I also would tell people the preventative measures that could be taken place, absorbed every new piece of information I could about COVID, and the most effective measures recommended by researchers to disinfect surfaces and prevent infection and spread of the disease.

A lot of people thought I was being a doomer. I was just being realistic, and the people who I told tend then to take these warnings more seriously now but plenty of people seem to be in denial regarding the severity of the damage COVID did and the threat it continues to pose because they were in the privileged position of not being personally too affected by it, and frankly some are so utterly fixed in the mindset capitalism has burned into the the very core of their being from birth that they actually cannot imagine how the global response could have been better and how the worst of it could have been avoided.

What I'm getting at is this: while we continue to be impacted by COVID both in terms of new infections and long-term health effects, we are staring down the barrel of another global pandemic. H5N1 has been around for a long time but in the last several months it has displayed a marked increase in pathogenicity and lethality in multiple mammalian species ranging from cows to penguins to seals and more in unprecedented levels. It is not a matter of if this virus will evolve and recombine in a way that will trigger a pandemic that makes COVID seem like a picnic, under the death cult of capital it is a matter of when. It is a matter of time.

Our governments will continue to do exactly what they have done under COVID; take the minimal precautions and delayed measures necessary only to keep the gears turning, while the sacrifice of the underpaid "essential worker" and the culling of the vulnerable continues, normalized and unabated.

I have no solutions to this particular parts of the problem and frankly I'm probably not knowledgeable or articulate enough that I should even be making this post. I do however believe that we should personally do whatever we can to prepare and protect the people around us. Get PPE and prep in advance, over time so as to not strain the supply when things escalate. Be mindful of washing your hands and being hygienic. Don't be around other people if you know you're sick or have been exposed. Mask up in public spaces. This is the bare minimum in terms of personal responsibility.

But I also believe that under a system so utterly corrupt and reprehensible that it considers millions of deaths to be merely the price to pay to continue with business as usual, which deems inconsequential the lives of those who for various reasons can't or won't devote themselves to it and extol its virtues, and which facilitates the growth of ideologies that venerate cruelty and exalt puerile displays of individualism above the safety of the whole, that it is an absolute moral imperative to rebel and live as much of your life divorced from that system as you possibly can.

Hang on to each other <3