day 86
do any of yall ever have like. an Evil infodump? where instead of endlessly word vomiting about a thing you love and are very informed about, there is a thing you are equally well-informed about but hate with a passion that you cannot hold back in conversation?
i do :')
(I'll put it under the cut for the curious because I think it's important and i cannot be stopped but also i'm not kidding the facts are infuriating)
SO. "Homeopathic" is often interpreted as sort of a vague synonym for "natural," or "organic," but it's actually related to a system of alternative medicine that means something Very Specific.
There are two main principles behind the practice of Homeopathy.
"Like cures like." This is the idea that, for example, if you have a headache, taking a veeeery small amount of a substance that is known to CAUSE headaches will cure that symptom. I understand where people fall into this flawed idea, as it sounds very similar to the principles behind, say, vaccines, or antivenom. But it isn't universally applicable in this way. An herb isn't a virus. But even if it was, a Homeopathic preparation of that herb would not have any effect on the body because of the second principle.
"Water has memory." This is the idea that water is able to "remember" any substance that it has had contact with. This is also not true. Molecules don't really have any way to store information like that, and even if they did, well... What would that information do inside our bodies? Would our cells have any way to interpret and process that information? What would they do with it? It's all rather nebulous and it seems like more of a spiritual claim than a scientific one. Which is fine, but is not medicine.
So, with these principles in mind, the process of creating a "Homeopathic Preparation of [insert substance here]" goes a little something like this:
You take a dropper and put one drop of your active substance in a container with a hundred drops of water. You then take a drop of that mixture, and put it in another container with another hundred drops of water. You continue this dilution process until there is, quite literally, a near-zero percent chance that your mixture contains even a single molecule of your original active substance (depending on the level of dilution believed to be best for the substance in question. Typically, a higher dilution is considered more potent.) So it is, by this point, literally just a vial of water.
This vial of water is what is then sold as a "Homeopathic preparation of [substance]." OR that water is used to compound a batch of sugar pills, or gel capsules, or tablets, whatever format is being offered. Regardless, the composition of the tincture is literally just water and ~*vibes*~.
And they sell these vials of expensive vibe water! At!!!
THE PHARMACY!!! WITH LIKE THE IBUPROFEN AND ALL THE OTHER REAL MEDICINES!!! AND NO BIG WARNING LABELS THAT SAY, "THIS CONTAINS NO ACTIVE INGREDIENTS AND IS BASED ON VIBES ALONE," OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT!!
In fact! In the US they are able to advertise that they have been FDA approved! (FDA approval of dietary supplements is not the same as FDA approval of actual medications. In the context of supplements, approval just means they've proved it won't just kill you straight up, and thus you're allowed to sell it.) And, well. It certainly won't kill you! In fact they often also advertise things like, "It's natural!" and "No harmful side effects!" and "No risk of overdose!" and it's all technically true! BECAUSE IT'S JUST WATER! LIKE I CAN'T STRESS ENOUGH HOW IT'S LITERALLY JUST WATER!!!
Anyway. Please keep this in mind the next time you are offered a homeopathic remedy, or see one advertised in the store, or hear your antivaxxer auntie bragging about the fact that her kids all got a "homeopathic" alternative to their MMR shots.
IT'S! JUST! VIBE WATER!!!!
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hi! I was scrolling down your DC tag and found this post (www(.)tumblr(.)com/cleromancy/735420182202368001/fucking-no?source=share) -I hope the link doesn't vanish but just in case it's one where you talk about approaches to writing DC and you cite waid, grayson and morrison. I know a bit more about morrison's, but (if you don't mind), would you care to elaborate on each style?
speaking very very broadly here, and therefore making generalizations that won't apply to every single thing each writer has ever written, but rather their general reputation or what i personally have found reading their work
waid is famously well-read and generally tries to reconcile as much canon as he can while still 1) telling the story he wants to tell and 2) fitting with modern style/genre/etc conventions. if he does make a departure you generally assume he knew he was doing it and did it on purpose while still mostly adhering to that former goal. im thinking of the donna/garth situationship in worlds finest teen titans here, which to me read like he was like "wait, why *wouldnt* they have ever had a thing, they have so much in common" and an exploration of that, and it does actually mesh with stuff that came before imo. but i picked waid as an example of someone who is extremely well read and puts a lot of effort into yes and-ing what came before. but at the same time he Builds a lot off of it, he's not just parroting.
devins approach to my reading is more like... she's character driven in a way where like. 1) she probably has a solid understanding of the history of her mains and has probably read at least the recent stuff but definitely hasnt sat down and read their Whole History, and 2) if her character concept differs from what came before she's comfortable stepping away from it. so by contrast to waid as an example, you generally won't see her playing with minor elements from teen titans 1966 or new teen titans, or if you do it's a surprise and she might have just taken a concept and turned it on its head, if that makes sense. shes more likely to bring in her own stuff. but at the same time you usually don't expect anything of hers to be a sharp departure from anything recent or any of her contemporaries. devin is someone who can read catwoman comics and then be like "i actually think catwoman should be more like xyz, because when i boil her down to what i see as her essential/core elements, this is what feels honest and compelling to me," and then that's how she'll write her.
morrison is pretty infamous for their "everything is canon" approach by which i mean. they may not have read anything recent scrimblo scringus was in, but they *did* read the elseworlds comic from 1989 where they originated that bears little to no resemblance to their current iteration, and they think it would be fun to randomly bring in some shit from that story into scrimblo's mainline continuity. so you get things like new earth jason being a redhead but also entirely unlike either pre-crisis jason or post-crisis jason in any discernable way, or they'll import batcow from tiny titans to the main continuity. because actually why Shouldn't we have batcow too. so morrisons something of a wildcard in terms of both what they might have read and in what they'll use and what they'll ignore, its a total free for all. every comic ever written is their playground, pretty much.
hopefully that makes sense lol. and i am oversimplifying a lot but that was my logic in name-dropping those three
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Hello! I love your designs so much! Could you do demi Darkstalker for me please?
Thank you so much! And of course I can.
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