#visual continuum

[visualcontinuum]

.310.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2023/06/28/gravitational-wave-background-nanograv

The mind-bending finding suggests that everything around us is constantly being roiled by low-frequency gravitational waves

By Joel Achenbach and 

Victoria Jaggard

June 28, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. EDT

The very fabric of the cosmos is constantly being roiled and rumpled all around us, according to multiple international teams of scientists that have independently found compelling evidence for long-theorized space-time waves.

The claim that telescopes across the planet have seen signs of a “gravitational wave background” has sent a thrill through the astrophysics community, which has been buzzing for days in anticipation of the papers that were unveiled late Wednesday. The discovery seems to affirm an astounding implication of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity that until now has been far too subtle to detect.

In Einstein’s reimagined universe, space is not serenely empty, and time does not march smoothly forward. Instead, the powerful gravitational interactions of massive objects — including supermassive black holes — regularly ripple the fabric of space and time. The picture that emerges is a universe that looks like a choppy sea, churned by violent events that happened over the course of the past 13 billion-plus years.

The gravitational wave background, as described by the astrophysicists, does not put any torque on everyday human existence. There is not a weight-loss discovery in here somewhere. A burble of gravitational waves cannot explain why some days you feel out of sorts. But it does offer potential insight into the physical reality we all inhabit.

“What we measure is the Earth kind of moving in this sea. It’s bobbing around — and it’s not just bobbing up and down, its bobbing in all directions,” said Michael Lam, an astrophysicist at the SETI Institute and a member of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), a team largely based in North America. The NANOGrav team released the findings in five papers that were published Wednesday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Teams in Europe, India, Australia and China also observed the phenomenon and planned to post their studies at the same time. The simultaneous release of papers from far-flung and competitive teams using similar methodology came only after some scientific diplomacy that ensured no group tried to scoop the rest of the astrophysical community.

“We’ve been on a mission for the last 15 years to find a low-pitch hum of gravitational waves resounding throughout the universe and washing through our galaxy to warp space-time in a measurable way,” NANOGrav chair Stephen Taylor of Vanderbilt University said at a news briefing Tuesday.

“We’re very happy to announce that our hard work has paid off.”

Discovery from dead stars

The feat builds on previous discoveries of things in the universe that are invisible to the naked eye — pulsars. A pulsar is a type of neutron star, the ultradense remnant of a dead star. It is called a pulsar because it spins rapidly, hundredsof revolutions per second, and emits radio waves in a steady pulse. Pulsars were discovered only in the 1960s, not long after the invention of large radio telescopes.

NANOGrav gathered data from 68 pulsars using the Green Bank Telescope in rural West Virginia, the 27 telescopes of the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico, and the now-defunctArecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

The pulses from these bizarre objects reach telescopes on Earth at such predictable frequencies that they serve as cosmic timepieces, nearly as accurate as today’s most advanced atomic clocks, said Chiara Mingarelli, an astrophysicist at Yale and a member of the NANOGrav team.

Theorists believed that low-frequency gravitational waves could throw off the arrival of pulsar signals. Such low-frequency ripples can have crests separated by years, so the search for subtle swells in the sea of space-timerequired patience. The deviation in the pulsar data is so slight that it took 15 years of observations to come up with solid evidence of these gravitational waves, Mingarelli said.

The NANOGrav team had previously published reports with preliminary suggestions that the background exists, but had said more time was necessary to boost confidence that the signal was real and not just noise.

“Even devising the experiment was a huge mental leap,” Mingarelli said.

The existence of gravitational waves is not in dispute. In 2016, scientists announced that their ambitious four-decade experiment called LIGO, for Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, had detected waves from the merger of two black holes. But the newly announced waves are not one-shot wonders, and theorists are noodling the many potential explanations for why the cosmic sea ripples in such a fashion.

Supermassive black holes are the favored explanation.

Most galaxies are home to supermassive black holes in or near their central region. These black holes certainly deserve the “supermassive” label: They typically have the equivalent mass of millions or even billions of suns. By contrast, “stellar mass” black holes are pipsqueaks, with masses akin to 10 or 20 or 30 suns.

Galaxies rarely collide, but the universe is vast, there are many billions of galaxies, and they have had plenty of time to drift into one another. During a galactic meetup, theorists say, the supermassive black holesat the cores of the two galaxiesfirst will do a gravitational dance. They can orbit each other for millions of years, Lam said. This pairing is known as a supermassive black hole binary.

The swirling dance disturbs the fabric of space-time sufficiently to generate very low-frequency gravitational waves that travel across the universe at the speed of light, scientists believe. Over time, energy leaks from the dance party, as it were, and the supermassive black holes ease closer together, their orbital period shortening to just a few decades. At that point, the wavelengths begin to reach the frequencies detectable by NANOGrav, Lam said.

“So at this point in our measurements, we cannot definitively state what sources are producing the gravitational wave background signal,” NANOGrav team member Luke Kelley, an astrophysicist at the University of California at Berkeley, said at the Tuesday news briefing. However, he said, the data is a compelling match for theoretical predictions.

Theorists are “having fun” coming up with other possible sources for the low-frequency signal, he added. But “if it’s not coming from supermassive black hole binaries, we would need to come up with some explanation of where those supermassive black holes are hiding, and why we’re not seeing their gravitational waves.”

A new astronomical era

No matter the signal’s source, the announcement of a gravitational wave background represents a milestone in the embryonic field of gravitational wave astronomy.

Just as some astronomers use different wavelengths of light to probe the cosmos, they can now look for different types of gravitational waves. The low-frequency waves announced Wednesday wouldn’t be detectable by LIGO, and the opposite is also true: NANOGrav and similar efforts using pulsars could not detect the kind ofhigh-frequency waves from the unimaginably violent stellar-mass black hole mergers seen by LIGO.

Lam said the next goal is to pair specific gravitational waves with potential supermassive black hole binaries detected through more traditional forms of astronomy. In other words, rather than just saying we’re picking up signs of lots of waves, the astronomers could say this particular wave right here came from that place over there.

The announcement carries an echo of another milestone in the history of cosmology. In 1965, two physicists at Bell Labsreported that they had detected the signal of something previously theorized: the cosmic microwave background radiation. That residual glow offered landmark evidence that the universe was created by the big bang.

Maura McLaughlin, co-director of the NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center, said at the Tuesday briefing that the next step will be for the international teams to combine their independent data into one “uber data set” that should show an even clearer signal of the gravitational wave background — and maybe even the first detection of a supermassive black hole binary.

“We’re opening up a completely new window … on the gravitational wave universe,” she said.

The work, she said,should offer deeper insight into the ways galaxies form and evolve. It might even reveal exotic new physics that would alter our fundamental understanding of the cosmos: “It should be really, really exciting.”

[mangocoal]

how do you extract BB story mode sprites? I’ve been trying to get my hands on these sprites of Mu/Noel(?) for so long but no luck(not in it’s full body glory but yk..), all I know is that it appears in BBCS and maybe BBCP and BBCF too??

The files for this version of her story portraits were not in CF. I did find them in CS though. However, like all of the other story portrait files, they're broken up between a main body with no face and the facial expression images that they overlap on top of the body. So if you want a proper image, you'll need to use an image editor to layer the face on top of the body yourself. However, I'll save you the time of extracting the files at least and simply did so myself and put them in a .zip in a Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e4zvkqXY8PH2XI5_XN-LA0snxglb0tMj/view?usp=sharing

However, if you actually are curious on how I extract files, I use this tool called, GeoArcSysAIOCLITool.

Found the story mode portrait files for Mu-12 in this directory within the game's installation folder: "BlazBlue Chronophantasma Extend\data\Story\Avatar\mu" Took the .pac files in that folder, put them in "GeoArcSysAIOCLITool\Batch\PAC\GeoArcSysAIOCLITool - PAC - Unpack Recursive.bat" to unpack all of the .pac files. And then that should produce a folder called "mu_unpack" which contains even more folders with .hip files in them, the image format ArcSys uses in BB games.

Then I placed that folder in "GeoArcSysAIOCLITool\Batch\GeoArcSysAIOCLITool - HIP.bat" to convert all of the .hips into .pngs. Then I just used the Windows Explorer search option to find all of the .pngs, pressed Ctrl+A and then saved them all into a .zip to put them into one place instead of digging through each folder.

[marcosoropoet]

such-o

we'd pop balloons

'til afternoon

all sorts cohorts

of ringing goons

buffoons

seen lounging mounds 

of loons

sing-sang such

such-o

sluggish summer croons

we leapt up and

smartly grinned

gladly-o

not sad

in

cur tailed 

get-ups o

smartly clad

~ marcos oro

[literaryvein-reblogs]

heya!! Was wondering if you had any tips for writing characters going through withdrawal? Sorry if it's a weirder ask, but would a symptoms list be possible? Thanks in advance!!

Writing Notes: Withdrawal Symptoms

Withdrawal - Substance-specific physiologic effects, symptoms, and behavioral changes that are caused by stopping or reducing the intake of a substance.

It is a pharmacologic symptom in which untoward physical effects occur when the drug is stopped or when it is counteracted by a specific antagonist

Substance Withdrawal - A syndrome that develops after cessation of prolonged, heavy consumption of a substance.

Symptoms vary by substance but generally include:

physiological,

behavioral, and

cognitive manifestations, such as nausea and vomiting, insomnia, mood alterations, and anxiety.

DSM–IV–TR identifies 6 drug classes associated with withdrawal:

alcohol,

amphetamines,

cocaine,

nicotine,

opioids, and sedatives,

hypnotics, or anxiolytics.

DSM–5 and DSM-5-TR list

tobacco in place of nicotine and

further identify caffeine and

cannabis as being associated with a withdrawal syndrome.

To be classified as a substance-withdrawal disorder,

the withdrawal syndrome must cause the patient significant distress and/or impair functioning (e.g., social, occupational).

Most patients with withdrawal recognize that readministering the substance will reduce their symptoms.

ALCOHOL WITHDRAWAL

Alcohol Withdrawal - Symptoms that may occur when a person who has been drinking too much alcohol on a regular basis suddenly stops drinking alcohol.

These symptoms tend to occur within 8 hours after the last drink, but can occur days later. Symptoms tend to peak by 24 to 72 hours, but may go on for weeks.

Common alcohol withdrawal symptoms include:

Anxiety or nervousness

Depression

Fatigue

Irritability

Jumpiness or shakiness

Mood swings

Nightmares

Not thinking clearly

Other alcohol withdrawal symptoms may include:

Sweating, clammy skin

Enlarged (dilated) pupils

Headache

Insomnia (sleeping difficulty)

Loss of appetite

Nausea and vomiting

Pallor

Rapid heart rate

Sweating, clammy skin

Tremor of the hands or other body parts

Delirium Tremens - a severe form of alcohol withdrawal. It can cause:

Agitation, irritability

Sudden, severe confusion (delirium)

Fever

Seeing or feeling things that aren't there (hallucinations)

Seizures

A continuum of symptoms and signs of central nervous system (including autonomic) hyperactivity may accompany cessation of alcohol intake.

A mild alcohol withdrawal syndrome includes tremor, weakness, headache, sweating, hyperreflexia, and gastrointestinal symptoms. Tachycardia may be present and blood pressure can be slightly elevated. Symptoms usually begin within about 6 hours of cessation. Some patients have generalized tonic-clonic seizures (called alcohol-related seizure, or rum fits) but usually not > 2 in short succession. Seizures generally occur 6 to 48 hours after cessation of alcohol.

Alcoholic hallucinosis (hallucinations without other impairment of consciousness) follows abrupt cessation from prolonged, excessive alcohol use, usually within 12 to 24 hours. Hallucinations are typically visual. Symptoms may also include auditory illusions and hallucinations that frequently are accusatory and threatening; patients are usually apprehensive and may be terrified by the hallucinations and by vivid, frightening dreams. Alcoholic hallucinosis may resemble schizophrenia, although thought is usually not disordered and the history is not typical of schizophrenia. Symptoms do not resemble the delirious state of an acute organic brain syndrome as much as does delirium tremens (DT) or other pathologic reactions associated with withdrawal. Consciousness remains clear, and the signs of autonomic lability that occur in DT are usually absent. When hallucinosis occurs, it usually precedes DT and is transient.

Delirium tremens usually begins 48 to 72 hours after alcohol withdrawal; anxiety attacks, increasing confusion, poor sleep (with frightening dreams or nocturnal illusions), profuse sweating, and severe depression also occur. Fleeting hallucinations that arouse restlessness, fear, and even terror are common. Typical of the initial delirious, confused, and disoriented state is a return to a habitual activity; eg, patients frequently imagine that they are back at work and attempt to do some related activity.

OPIOID WITHDRAWAL

Opiates or opioids are drugs used to treat pain.

Opiates are derived from plants and

opioids are synthetic drugs that have the same actions as opiates.

The term narcotic refers to either type of drug.

If you stop or cut back on any of these drugs after heavy use for a few weeks or more, you will have a number of symptoms. This is called withdrawal.

Early symptoms of opiate and opioid withdrawal include:

Agitation

Anxiety

Muscle aches

Increased tearing

Insomnia

Runny nose

Sweating

Yawning

Late symptoms of opiate and opioid withdrawal include:

Abdominal cramping

Diarrhea

Dilated pupils

Goosebumps

Nausea

Vomiting

These symptoms are very uncomfortable but are not life threatening. Symptoms usually start within 12 hours of last heroin usage and within 30 hours of last methadone exposure.

Withdrawal from opioids can cause:

Sweating

Chills

Anxiety

Agitation

Muscle aches

Insomnia

Abdominal cramping

Nausea

Vomiting

Withdrawal symptoms may increase in severity over 72 hours before beginning to ease. Unlike withdrawal from other drugs such as alcohol or benzodiazepines, withdrawal from opioids is uncomfortable but rarely life-threatening.

The opioid withdrawal syndrome usually includes symptoms and signs of central nervous system hyperactivity.

Onset and duration of the syndrome depend on the specific drug and its half-life.

Symptoms may appear as early as 4 hours after the last dose of heroin, peak within 48 to 72 hours, and subside after about a week.

Anxiety and a craving for the drug are followed by increased resting respiratory rate (> 16 breaths/minute), usually with diaphoresis, yawning, lacrimation, rhinorrhea, mydriasis, and stomach cramps. Later, piloerection (gooseflesh), tremors, muscle twitching, tachycardia, hypertension, fever and chills, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may develop.

Opioid withdrawal does not cause fever, seizures, or altered mental status. Although it may be distressingly symptomatic, opioid withdrawal is not fatal.

The withdrawal syndrome in people who were taking methadone (which has a long half-life) develops more slowly and may be less acutely severe than heroin withdrawal, although users may describe it as worse.

Even after the withdrawal syndrome remits, lethargy, malaise, anxiety, and disturbed sleep may persist up to several months.

Drug craving may persist for years.

NICOTINE WITHDRAWAL

Common Nicotine Withdrawal Symptoms

Having urges or cravings to smoke

Feeling irritated, grouchy, or upset

Feeling jumpy and restless

Having a hard time concentrating

Having trouble sleeping

Feeling hungrier or gaining weight

Feeling anxious, sad, or depressed

Trying to quit smoking feels different for each person, but almost everyone will have some symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. When you stop, your body and brain have to get used to not having nicotine. This can be uncomfortable, but nicotine withdrawal can’t hurt you – unless you give in and have a cigarette. Over time, withdrawal symptoms will fade as long as you stay smoke-free.

CAFFEINE WITHDRAWAL

Caffeine intoxication and caffeine withdrawal are included in DSM-5-TR.

Caffeine use disorder, however, is in the section of DSM-5-TR for conditions requiring further research. While there is evidence to support this as a disorder, experts conclude it is not yet clear to what extent it is a clinically significant disorder.

Some signs of caffeine withdrawal include:

impaired behavioral and cognitive performance,

decreased or increased blood pressure,

decreased motor activity,

increased heart rate,

hand tremor,

increased diuresis,

skin flushing,

flu-like symptoms,

nausea/vomiting,

constipation,

muscle stiffness,

joint pains, and

abdominal pain.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ⚜ More: Notes ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Hi, it's alright. This is an interesting topic and quite important to portray in literature and other media. The symptoms depend on which substance/s your character has been using, but each person may also have different withdrawal symptoms. You can find more details in the sources. Hope this helps with your writing!

[ao3cassandraic]

Murderbot s1e7 quick reactions

Under a cut for spoilers, obviously...

Okay, so "we can talk about this" turns out to have some nuance, we learn in the open. Judging from Bharadwaj and Pin-Lee, it seems to mean something like "something's been wrong/awkward/bad between us, but enough water has passed under the bridge that we can talk about it now, it's fine." So the circle of PresAuxers was trying their best to forgive Murderbot and reopen communication with it, but Murderbot's not from PresAlliance so it missed the meaning. Ouch. (And Gurathin has absolutely not forgiven anything at all.)

Gurathin's backstory is every iota as awful as we all suspected it would be. Blackmail by addiction? That's just fucking evil.

Aaaaaaaaaand I'm not surprised he's a bit more than half in love with Mensah. He basically got himself reborn and imprinted on her. Explains a lot about the pillow thing.

Though Gurathin also has a soft spot for Bharadwaj. They're very sweet together. (No, I do not ship them. Maybe queerplatonically, but really, no.)

I really envy Mensah's sang-froid when criticized. I don't have that. I spiral at the least criticism -- I hate instructor evaluations so damn much -- and have had to train myself to clamp down hard on instinctive, unproductively nasty defensive responses. Mensah, you continue to be the best.

Murderbot, you were doing so well at a softer approach until your melodramatic streak surfaced! You'll get there, friend.

... But the logic of "if I wanted to kill you you'd be dead," unassailable though it is, isn't what they need to hear just now.

Nor is Ratthi's instinctive downplaying of everything ever. Be honest with the SecUnit and your comrades, Ratthi.

The continuum of beliefs about Murderbot is back in full force. Gurathin and Pin-Lee against Ratthi and Arada, with Mensah and Bharadwaj uneasily in the middle.

I suspect at least one of the writers is a Becky Chambers Monk and Robot fan. That was a visually lovely sequence.

Gura, your jealousy is unbecoming. And Mensah's right, wtaf are you thinking, man?!

"Any bullshit... Fine." Yeah, Murderbot-Gurathin parallels again. Neither of them is fine. Both of them keep claiming they are.

Bharadwaj does not think they can talk about this... which given the meaning of that to PresAlliancers, and given her reciprocal soft spot for Gurathin, I can see why not. Points to her for being the first one to take Murderbot seriously when it tells them to hit the hopper, though.

It would be just PresAux's luck if they just happened to land their hopper in the millipedes' preferred spawning ground. Oopsie.

I love Murderbot's uncompromising asexuality. Fistbump, Murderbot! (I mean, if you want. I know you don't like to be touched. An air fistbump is cool with me. Also, points to Ratthi for not actually hugging Murderbot. Disrespecting its boundaries would not have gone well at all.)

... anybody else humming Queen toward the end? Another one sure did bite the dust. Vindication for Arada's pro-animal stance.

Murderbot's head-tilt... I think it is having an idea. An idea involving disguise. Which calls back to Gurathin's story in the open, in a way. Spy, Murderbot, spy!

[geometrymatters]

The Polynon: A Geometry of Consciousness

How Consciousness is a fundamental substance and everything else, including the Observer, is it's function of self-reflection within a complex construct and hologram.

Introducing the polynon:

A polynon is a conceptual geometric entity, a polytope of which vertices are non-events and its edges, holograms. A polynon contains all the holograms of that which can be projected as a polytope. From tetranon to dodecanon, and special cases such as dinon and nullanon.

The epistemological foundation of the polynon is a non-event, hence multi (poly) non-events. The ontological foundation is a noumenon, both in its negative and its positive aspect.

Collapsing the noumenal realm into a single dimension results in the conceptual noumenal monad, where the perceptual border is equal to the infinity of noumenal possibilities, as well as the phenomenal something.

Or, as "a cercle with the centre everywhere and circumference nowhere". A monadic embodiment of the thing and the non-thing, the visual expression of the substance of consciousness.

The neutral monistic approach enfolds the ancient knowledge of the self, and the contemporary science of consciousness, from a Vedantic self reflected in Indra's net, to a multi-dimensional implicate and explicate construct of Bohmian orders.

Also encapsulated in the formulation f(f)=f, akin to an Ouroboros mathematical formulation symbolizing a form of autopoiesis or self-production ad infinitum, a self-referential Fichtean process where the self (I) is both the creator and subject of its reality.

The eternal aspect of consciousness, a timeless monadic essence, is described as the perceptual continuum of f=0, signifying pure, timeless potential.

"Eternity isn’t some later time. Eternity isn’t even a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now that all thinking in temporal terms cuts off." - J. Campbell

The wavefunction is defined here as a layer of the noumenal monad, a transition between epistemological and ontological, given by the limits of the Observer's senses and perception.

In this context, |ψ(x)>*n, with n not strictly equal to 2, transcends its conventional mathematical role within Hilbert space and diverges from standard quantum mechanics, suggesting that different values of n represent distinct dimensions or layers of noumenal collapse.

Each wavefunction is a layer of the noumenal lens, of which border is (n+), or consciousness C; it’s contents are negative noumena (n-) and it’s holographic centre “collapsed” onto a phenomenal Observer O(n) as function of noumenal self-reflection of consciousness.

Furthermore, the Observer is envisioned as a holographic projection sitting at the core of the noumenal lens, emerging from the focus and diffraction of noumenal probabilities within the noumenal lens.

The perceptual border of positive noumena (n+) reflects and focuses noumenal probabilities (n-) into the hologram of the Observer O(n).

A rotation of noumenal lens reveals the noumenal essence (n+), hidden under the superposition of the noumenal lenses (n-) and the hologram of the Observer O(n).

The observer’s perceptual focus, directed through Cognitive Gravity G and visualized with noumenal g(n) and cognitive gradients g(r), refracts the essence of Consciousness, transforming noumenal vertices into discernible edges like light through a prism.

As the number of noumenal collapses increases, the complexity and breadth of the observer’s perceptual dimension diminishes, resulting in a progressive refinement and narrowing of perceptual prowess of the observable construct.

A cognitive threshold marks the evolution from a purely phenomenal observer to one with phantasiai and developed cognitive functions. This threshold varies according to the local conditions of the observer’s cognitive gradient and gravity and the overall noumenal function.

The hologram of a polynon enfolds within it the reflection of the noumenal substance, that both originates and reflects consciousness. It encapsulates the entirety of consciousness in each of its vertices and edges, as projections into a perceptual reality.

The concept of “consciousness nodes” describes (n+) zones between noumenal lenses (n−), revealed as vertices of the polynon, equal and identical in nature.

The Observer O(n) is in superposition with the phenomenal p+, epiphenomenal or phantasiai p-, negative noumena n- and noumenal vertices (and centre) n+ of the hexanon as a function for self-reflection of consciousness C.

The polynon is abstract and elusive, residing beyond human imagination yet within its grasp. No heavier than a fleeting idea, but far too heavy to be understood. A palindrome for language and thought, mirroring itself in perpetual paradox. Beginning the same way it ends.

From the "Polynon: A geometry of Consciousness", by Tib Roibu Read the paper here.

[ericdeggans]

'Sinners' is the argument for why Hollywood needs DEI

(Be warned: This essay discusses plot points from the new movie Sinners)

Sitting in a movie theater on a Sunday, watching the grand spectacle that is Ryan Coogler’s horror movie/tone poem Sinners, I couldn’t stop chuckling.

Not just because the movie has its funny spots, including a great moment where one of Michael B. Jordan’s characters shoots a guy in the behind who is trying to rip him off. And not just because he’s crafted a story about vampires in the Mississippi Delta that feels both vibrantly fresh and achingly familiar.

I was laughing because Coogler, in crafting a successful film that is not just rooted in Black and non-white culture, but is a carefully-crafted, earnestly made love letter to it, he has provided the strongest argument yet against the toxic fiction that more diversity, equity and inclusion in a democracy is somehow bad.

Even as weak-kneed film studios and profit-focused media companies roll back DEI programs and offer mealy mouthed equivocations in the face of Donald Trump’s war on diversity, Coogler has stepped forward with a boldly creative film which simply proves, through its excellence, the value that comes from unleashing the creative spirit fortifying people of color.

Sinners is a movie which wears its themes on its sleeves. The vampire who threatens the rural honky tonk owned by Jordan’s characters in the 1932-era Jim Crow South is white. And he’s drawn to the place by the bold, pulsating creativity of Miles Caton’s Sammy “Preacher Boy” Moore -- a spellbinding blues singer whose talents are connected to a continuum of Black musical creativity which cuts across time and geography. The way Coogler illustrates this, with a magical musical sequence set in the honky tonk which includes a Black funk rock guitarist and African drummers, is one of the film’s most impressive sequences.

“In a lot of ways, Africa explained Mississippi to me,” Coogler told journalist Jelani Cobb for a feature story in The New Yorker, describing the impact of his first trips to Africa. “I realized, ‘All right, African Americans are extremely African.’ We may be more African than we know. With this film it was, like, ‘Oh, we affected this place [Mississippi].’ We brought Africa here.”

Jordan plays twins, named Smoke and Stack, who return to the Delta after years in Chicago, fortified with money earned from up North, hoping to build a life for themselves in their old hometown. But the evil and soul-killing exploitation of the white man’s world, embodied in the mysterious vampire drawn by Preacher Boy’s gifts, comes calling to threaten their dream.

It is a tale as obvious and clearly drawn as the wide vistas Coogler captures with his IMAX and Ultra Panavision 70 cameras – a pioneering combination which makes the film such a visual treat. Here’s a video where Coogler explains some of his production choices.

But because the writer/director is such a talented craftsman, we drink in every permutation of the story, even though we mostly know exactly where it is going. And because Coogler has built his brand around elevating Black centered stories which make room for other cultures, moving through Sinners also feels like a family dinner which makes room for everyone, from Native American vampire hunters to Chinese shopkeepers.

So why did Hollywood not see this success coming?

I have a few thoughts:

Hollywood still struggles with stereotypes dressed up like industry facts. Years ago, Hollywood executives would explain their reluctance to fund big movies centered on Black people and culture by saying the movies “didn’t travel,” or didn’t perform well overseas. But plenty of movies have busted that paradigm, from Coogler’s own Black Panther films, to Hidden Figures, Moonlight -- even Will Smith’s 2013 science fiction boondoggle After Earth made three times as much money overseas than in America, earning nearly $250 million worldwide. Too often, I think Black-centered projects have suffered from assumptions that audiences somehow cannot make the leap that Black audiences often do – seeing themselves in stories told about people who don’t look like them.

(Even Ben Stiller noticed Hollywood’s myopia when it came to Sinners.)

Hollywood has a tough time giving Black filmmakers the same respect as great white auteurs like Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan. I remain mystified by the buzz over Coogler’s deal with Warner Bros. which allows rights for the film to revert to him after 25 years. At a time when there is more content in front of consumers than ever – and debt-laden Warner Bros. Discovery needs a movie hit badly – why wouldn’t the guy who directed the most profitable movie in 2018 cut a deal to participate in the profits of his current film and own his intellectual property after it has been fully exploited by the film studio? Especially since other filmmakers, like Tarantino and George Lucas have managed to craft similar deals? Near as I can tell, Lucas’ ownership of Star Wars didn’t kill movie studios. So why would Coogler’s eventual ownership of Sinners?

Too much of the press which reports on Hollywood proceeds from the perspective of the people who run and own everything. One of the underappreciated consequences of the hollowing out of modern news outlets is that reporting on Hollywood has become much more specialized. So trade publications and hyper-focused news outlets like The Wrap, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Puck are leading coverage of Hollywood issues. And too many of these outlets, chasing a wealthy and monetizable audience of Hollywood players, create coverage which reflects their assumptions and biases back to them. I remember seeing this many years ago, when Deadline ran an ill-considered piece asking if the push for ethnic diversity in casting TV shows was “About Time or Too Much of Good Thing?”

This is, of course, something we’re struggling with in the wider world now, thanks to the anti-DEI fairytales spun by the Trump administration and propaganda-filled outlets like Fox News Channel. It is tough to convince Hollywood that, by making more inclusive and diverse TV shows and films, you’re actually making them less predictable, more appealing to a wide range of consumers and more likely to involve super talented people who might not be white.

In other words, you make them better.

Fortunately, Coogler has given us Sinners, a film which makes all those arguments and more in an engrossing, entertaining movie that will likely become one of the most profitable projects of the year.

What more proof does Hollywood need that DEI is G-R-E-A-T?

[trashland-llamas]

Force Continuum

[ x female reader // ao3 link ]

Frank teaching Reader how to shoot a gun. Only after making sure she knew how to throw a proper punch and maneuvers such as how to get out of a headlock. Or if they're pinned against someone larger, she can get out of it. In case she's on her own and Frank isn't there.

Aware that he can't always be there. Evident by the times he leaves for weeks on end before coming back to Reader waiting up for him, fast asleep on the couch. It was seeing her in such a vulnerable state that made him want to ensure she knew self defense. The knives and guns were meant as a last resort.

Reader sits in the passenger seat as they drive up to the range. Handing the employee at the counter their licenses once they arrived. Reader filling out the waiver, watching the small video at the end. Going through the membership line. 'I got the headphone type and I got these. Which do you want?' Frank holds up a plastic bag holding a set of silicone ear plugs. The type that squishes into the ear, attached by a string.

'Those are fine,' confirming she'd be okay with the squishy sort.

Putting his in as Reader untangles the string. 'Now eye wear,' handing her a pair of safety glasses. 'Let's go in,' going to lane 12. The one they had been randomly assigned. Pushing past the two sets of metal doors. Frank carried most of their gear in. The lane being pretty close quarters, just enough space for them to stand shoulder to shoulder.

Seeing her stand behind him, 'come on up here.' Holding a pistol in his hand, sans the magazine. The safety still clicked. 'Now this here is your .45 semi-automatic. Gonna pick it up with the hand you intend to shoot with.' Placing it down, Frank watches as Reader picks it up via the handle with her dominant hand. Trigger guard slotting into the space between her thumb and pointer finger.

Frank's hand took her non-dominant hand, cupping it around the bottom of the magazine. 'Wanna hold it like someone's trying to take it from you. Now, I put my thumbs to the side and then finger off the trigger till you're ready to shoot.' He was pretty much in teacher mode. Patient as he was expecting Reader to make a mistake.

Taking the gun back from her to explain the sights. The pistol had iron sights on it. 'See these?' The three bumps made a triangle shape. The middle one further up the gun. Once Reader nodded, he continued. 'You'll want to put that one between these two and then place that where you want it to shoot on the target,' Frank placed the gun down, creating a visual aid with his fingers.

Clipping the paper targets to the cardboard frame via a set of binder clips. Hitting the switch right behind him, they whizzed out to 10 meters. With the gun and loaded magazine in front of her, Frank stepped back after pulling the slide back.

Reader picked it up, slapping the magazine into the magazine well; an empty space in the bottom of the gun's handle. Reader figures out the button they needed to click to cock the gun after accidentally pressing the magazine release button. Watching the slide snap forward. Clicking the safety off. As she raised it up to eye level, the weight of it all hit her. Realizing the potential hazards the weapon in her hand could cause. Both to herself and others. Her heart was beating out of her chest as she squeezed the trigger. Unfortunately flinching as she felt the recoil and heard the loud bang that slightly deafened by her earplugs.

Stopped by the slide clicking back. Showing that she had ran out of bullets.

'Let's see how you did,' comes Frank's voice. The paper target whizzing towards them. 'You hit the target,' Reader can sense the pride in Frank's voice as he says it. The shots were nowhere near the center where she was actually aiming.

'Having fun?' Smiling as he sees her put two thumbs up. Knowing the adrenaline she was currently experiencing. It was daunting, the first time shooting a gun.

'Good, let's go again.'

[rin-and-jade]

Copy, and then Paste! : A Post About Introjection

You know it—the title is based off the Ctrl C and Ctrl V function from computers, but did you know we have our own version too?

Introjection is more than just mimicry or replicating something though, it apparently plays a far more important role than you'd initially thought. Want to know the answer? Let's check it out then! (not a clickbait)

Okay google, what is: to introject

Out of 1253 results, here is the recommended definition,

"Introjection occurs when a person internalizes the ideas or voices of other people" from Therapist Development Center

From the related result, here are top 3 examples: - When you internalize the idea of "crying is for the weak" - When you believe that you're not good enough - "I must dress pretty so i am socially accepted"

You can introject many sorts of things such as behaviors, mindsets, beliefs, traits, concepts or even feelings.

Articles on: How introjection happens

Well, it is a very complex process on how introjection happens, or why. But this search engine (me) will try to explain the whole concept to you in a simplified manner!

We have started to introject many things ever since a child, the world is difficult on its own to learn from scratch, which is why taking in qualities and behaviors from what we expose ourselves to the most shapes how we navigate the world.

Call it a framework to work with,, it is used to learn manners, or understand how to respond to a certain situation by observing, then, these values are internalized, importantly shaping us as we grow older. Though, introjection doesn't understand good or bad qualities as they're seen as "the truth" to one's mind, therefore it's possible to introject literally anything.

It can also function as a defense mechanism, where we adopt these values and internalize them in order to cope, or to repeat similar tactics that proved to be successful for the previous person. For example, if you were bullied, bullying back will mitigate the hurt you could receive in the future. This generally represents fictives and persecutors respectively, though varies for each person.

Fictive.. Factive.. What is that, Siri??

There are many kinds of introjects.. they can be based from fictional medias, real people, or even concepts like art or songs. But what the??

Easy now, sure the amount of introject kinds could throw anyone off, but the concept still stands true, though it gets trickier when it comes to other introjected concepts such as OCtives or Songtives, which i will explain too.

Thing is, what will help you understand many different kinds of them existing, is envisioning that introjection operates in a spectrum. Thats right, they are on a scale.

The idea is that introjection exists in a continuum. Just like how alters have varying degrees of development (a shard, or fragment), this scale is not meant to simplify or categorize things in its literal sense, but to help visualize and understand the level of complexities.

The level of complexity of a scale lies at what it/you introjected: Lvl 1: Introjection - the most basic forms can start from traits, ideas, or concepts. Example: Alters that formed off songs, art, thoughts, and even feelings. Lvl 2: Internalization - then getting to more fledged values like behaviors, life views. Example: Persecutors who had internalized negative attitudes from abusers. Lvl 3: Identification - and then lastly, when you identify the qualities of a specific person. Example: General Introjects, Fictives, Factives. (identification varies in intensity)

Sometimes, these introjected qualities are absorbed by multiple alters or by oneself. If it does not get absorbed to a pre-existing part, a new alter will be created to contain these qualities that it has internalized instead.

An introject possessing multiple sources from different aspects is also possible due to this process. (these three terms are originally interchangeable as they are under an umbrella of introjection, but i prefer to use them to represent each levels)

There's no result on the internet..

"What bests explains multiple introjects of the same source? What's with source separation? What about the memories that comes with said source?" Might be the search history in your phone right now, It's okay to stop searching, your answers are right under these fingertips!

Duplication of sources

When it comes to multiple parts of the same or similar source, it can be due to reasons like current hyperfixation or resonating with the qualities of said media. It can as be simple as wanting to have the same qualities from the media, too. Lastly, comorbids like autism and BPD plays a factor on how often you will introject.

Even duplicates will not act the same as the other one, which means each can introject different things from the same source, in different intensity or variation or alternative versions of source.

Additionally, being polyfragmented increases the amount of fragments/alters that could form, thus contributing to higher chances of having duplicates.

Source separating

When one introjected the qualities of a person/media, there might be a chance they identify as person/media due to it. The idea is that when one associates these qualities directly to the person, which then has a feedback loop where because the specific qualities are present, means they are that person.

Continuing from the example of bullying to not get bullied, they might see themselves just like the bully from the past due internalizing its behavior, in general this is equivalent to identification. Any negative or positive qualities can be introjected that later grow to identification.

The notion of needing to source separate is not something that have to be forced upon immediately. As it should be a transient process where one has to detach from the current sense of identity with one that is original.

No one can be 100% free from introjection, so source separation would mean minimizing the intensity of identification while developing a more whole sense of true self.

Being attached to a source in some level can be a positive outcome to implement, especially if it reinforces positive emotions or memories. As long it is not causing harm to anyone, since sometimes the urge to become the source or convincing of being one can be destructive.

Source memories

Remember something that had happened to you, but never happened to the body? It doesn't mean the memory itself is entirely fake, it is more to abstract context like how dreams manifests according to how you feel on a specific situation.

Just like dreams, the whole accident may never have happened in reality, but it is reenacting what had happened in the past with its own version/remake.

This happens when the true event is too much to take in or remember. When you cannot remember what truly happened, the somatic and emotional aspects to the trauma is still intact. Which contributes to why these fake memories aren't entirely fake.

Its good to take note that having a memory of going through an event, that doesn't happen bodily, never means you do understand the true experience of such event. It's only the impressions and assumptions of it.

With that being said, you can understand what your source memories are trying to convey by matching up similarities in your current life, or uncover how you feel or think of the event. Then, you can start healing whatever was left unresolved.

A scroll to the end of the web

Basically to reiterate things, we do copy and paste people's qualities for a living. But, not as a mere function like how computers implemented it.

Don't forget to consider who you will be friends with and how it'll impact you socially, and double-check whether you have adopted someone's essence that doesn't serve a meaningful purpose for you. You do become what you are exposed to, just like how you are what you eat.

Feel free to let us know your introject experiences, it could help validate someone else's experience, too!

- j & chaos

[vro0m]

As you said, it is the sheer strength of their fixation that has impacted performance. The Power of Manifestation.

Spiritual manifestation can be defined as the act of bringing desires or intentions into reality through focused thought, belief, and visualization. And I believe, truly, that Lenis Anon, having operated for this long, has honed their manifestation powers to a dangerous degree. They've created a small breach in the space-time continuum fueled by unchecked thirst and obsessive energy.

And here is the problem: Belief is real. The more people believe in something, the more real it becomes. The more energy you feed it (through blogs, tags, memes, anons), the more it solidifies in this plane.

We, at the Coven of the Hamilconsciousness, live in fear. We fear that if Lenis Anon continues to rally believers, they will spiritually transform the Lenis into a beast of gargantuan proportions, a mythical entity too powerful for his firesuit or his car weight limits. And this… this may cost Lewis the 8th championship.

All because someone couldn’t mentally put it away.

Ah so the issue is that Richard is making the lenis bigger by thinking about it? 🤔 I see I see 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

[jacob010105]

LANA DEL REY MOTHER OF ALT-MUSIC

Lana Del Rey, born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, has left a profound mark on contemporary culture since bursting onto the music scene in 2011 with "Video Games." Her unique style—a blend of melancholy, vintage romanticism, and social criticism—has redefined alternative pop and given voice to a generation navigating the continuum of nostalgia and modern anxiety.

With influences ranging from classic Hollywood cinema to American literature and dream pop, Lana has built an instantly recognizable aesthetic and sonic universe. Her melancholic and glamorous image, combined with lyrics that explore toxic love, sadness, desire, and American disenchantment, has deeply connected with young audiences seeking authenticity in a world saturated with superficial perfection.

Beyond music, her cultural impact extends to fashion, film, and social media, where she has inspired thousands of visual works, vintage aesthetics, and artistic movements such as the "sad girl aesthetic." She has influenced artists such as Billie Eilish, Lorde, and The Weeknd, demonstrating her role as a pioneer of introspective and cinematic pop.

Lana Del Rey embodies a contemporary sensibility that embraces vulnerability without sacrificing beauty. Her work has not only sparked debate about femininity, authenticity, and popular culture, but has also cemented her status as a modern-day cultural icon, capable of transforming sadness into lasting art.

Of his nine albums (all of which I personally consider bibles) I have my favorite songs, and here are my favorites from each:

Born to Die, Dark Paradise.

Paradise, Cola.

Ultraviolencia, Brooklyn Baby.

Honeymoon, Salvatore.

Lust for Life, Groupie Love feat. A$AP Rocky.

Norman Fucking Rockwell!, The Next Best American Record.

Chemtrails Over The Country Club, Yosemite.

Blue Banisters, If You Lie Down With Me.

Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, Margaret feat. Bleachers.

Do you have any favorites from Lana del Rey?

Jacob Gutiérrez :3

[annon-guy2]

XBLAZE: Remaster/Remake Idea Poll

Here's gameplay of the two XBLAZE Games to give you an idea of what they are and how they play (They're both Visual Novel Games, but Lost Memories adds "Dungeon" segments);

==============================

Explanations for choices;

Include an English Dub (Dual Audio): Adds an Engligh Dub alongside the Japanese Audio.

More Anime Cutscenes: Adds more Anime Cutscenes outside of the Opening Movie. An example could be Es' introduction scene where it can be animated instead of CG Illustrations and Story Portraits.

Add a "Third" Game to the Duology: Adds a new XBLAZE Game along with the two existing ones, similar to .Hack//G.U Last Recode's exclusive .hack//G.U. Vol 4//Reconnection chapter.

Expand Parts of the Story: Include additional story scenes to answer questions or reveal more that the original two games couldn't do (or believe didn't clarify enough).

Include Bonus BlazBlue DSi/3DS Games: Based from an earlier Hypothetical Collection Poll, include BlayzBloo: Super Melee Brawlers Battle Royale and/or BlazBlue: Clone Phantasma as bonus games you can play.

Simplified TOi System for XBLAZE: Code Embryo: Make the TOi System easier to understand or use to get better use out of it for Story Progression in XBLAZE: Code Embryo.

More Challenge to XBLAZE: Lost Memories Phantom Field Segments: Make the Adventure Sections in XBLAZE: Lost Memories a bit more challenging. For example, the monsters can actually hurt "Me"/Konoe beyond stunning her and their are more hazards. If you die, you'll be booted back to the start of the area you are in or forced to reload your last save.

Dialogue Options for XBLAZE: Code Embryo: Replace the TOi Mechanic with a traditional Dialogue Tree Option to decide routes and endings in XBLAZE: Code Embryo.

Add a Mini-Game Mode: Add Mini-Games based on the XBLAZE Cast. Just a fun bonus mode. Like fighting Unions as Es, Cooking as Hinata, do science stuff as Unomaru or punching training dummies as Drei.

Remix the Soundtrack: Remix the songs and music, similar to what BlazBlue Chrono Phantasma did when it remixed the character themes for the Calamity Trigger and Continuum Shift Roster.

Add an 'Elise Route' for XBLAZE: Code Embryo: Add a new story route featuring Elise von Klagen for XBLAZE: Code Embryo. While Kuon is meant to be the heroine to expand on Ishana, Elise could add more to it, although the diviation point would be during the Es/Hinata Route.

Add an Adaptation of BlazBlue: Bloodedge Experience: Adapt the BlazBlue: Bloodedge Experience Light Novel as an extra Gaiden Game.

Here's a Video Example of how the Mini-Game Mode Idea would work and how the DS BlazBlue games play;

[literaryvein-reblogs]

sorry not sure if i put in the request, but do you have something on prosopagnosia (face blindness)? i'm not entirely sure how i would describe the faces... thank you 🫶

Writing Notes: Prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosia - A form of visual agnosia in which the ability to perceive and recognize faces is impaired, whereas the ability to recognize other objects may be relatively unaffected.

Also called face blindness.

A condition where you have difficulty recognising people's faces.

The term was originally limited to impairment following acute brain damage, but a congenital form of the disorder has since been recognized.

Can be distinguished from prosopamnesia, which is an abnormal difficulty in remembering faces, even though they are perceived normally: The condition may be congenital or acquired.

Awareness of the disorder was greatly elevated with the bestselling book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales (1985) by British neurologist Oliver Sacks.

Symptoms

The main symptom of prosopagnosia is having difficulty recognising faces.

You'll still see the parts of a face normally, but all faces may look the same to you.

It affects people differently.

Some people may not be able to tell the difference between strangers or people they do not know well. Others may not recognise the faces of friends and family, or even their own face.

To people with prosopagnosia, people all look the same (barring hair color, skin pigmentation, body shape, and very specific details such as scars). The fact that people generally don't have a distinctive outfit or hairstyle makes interacting with people extremely confusing for them.

Other symptoms of prosopagnosia can include difficulty with:

recognising emotions on people's faces

recognising people's age and gender

recognising characters and following plots in TV programmes or films

recognising other things, such as cars or animals

finding your way around

Difficulty recognising faces may make it harder to form relationships, or cause problems at work or school. This may affect your mental health and may lead to social anxiety or depression.

There's no treatment for prosopagnosia, but there are things you can do to help recognise people.

tell people about the condition before you meet them

ask people you're close to for help identifying others

ask people to introduce themselves when you greet them

use people's voices or body language to tell them apart

make a note of distinctive features about a person such as hairstyle, jewellery or accessories

use name tags or write down the names of colleagues and where they sit at work

Prosopagnosia usually is permanent.

Some persons with acquired prosopagnosia, however, spontaneously recover facial-recognition abilities.

This could be the result of either physical recovery from injury, with eventual restoration of brain function, or reorganization of the facial-processing locations in the brain.

Prosopagnosia lies on a continuum and stricter vs. looser diagnostic criteria employed in prosopagnosia studies in the past 13 years have identified mechanistically very similar populations, providing justification for expanding the criteria to include those with milder forms of it.

It is important to use a combination of self-reported daily-life difficulties and validated objective measures when diagnosing prosopagnosia.

There are pros and cons to relying just on self-reports because it can be challenging to judge your own abilities or relying solely on objective lab measures that may not reflect everyday life.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

It's alright, only received this message. The other may have gotten lost. Hope this helps with your writing!

[formlines]

In Our Wake

Amber Spindel

from the website: In this watercolor painting, I sought to capture the essence of our ancestors and the enduring legacy they have bestowed upon us. The orca, adorned with a galaxy of dark saturated magentas and teals, serves as the focal point—a majestic being that embodies strength, wisdom, and the spirit of the ocean. Its vibrant hues are a nod to the mysteries of the cosmos and the deep, uncharted waters that our ancestors once navigated.

As you follow the orca to its dorsal fin, you are met with a mesmerizing wake of swirling Native designs. These intricate patterns are not mere decorations; they are a visual representation of our colorful and vibrant past. Each curve and line is a tribute to the traditions, stories, and lives that have shaped our identity.

My people, known as the Strong People, have a deep association with the orca. This connection has been a source of inspiration for me in creating this piece. It is through their teachings and the inspiration they provide every day that I find the strength to create art that honors our heritage.

This artwork is a heartfelt homage to those who came before us. It is a reminder that their traces are indelibly etched into our history, guiding us as we move forward. The orca, with its cosmic colors and the dynamic wake it leaves behind, symbolizes the connection between past, present, and future—an eternal continuum of cultural legacy and guidance.

[maaarine]

The Ideological Brain: The Radical Science of Flexible Thinking (Leor Zmigrod, 2025)

"I mapped participants’ cognitive flexibility along the axis of political partisanship, with each participant representing one data point, a dot on the graph.

Looking at the dots of hundreds of participants, they formed an arc, a parabola, a rainbow shape.

Instead of the presumed linear line that would suggest a rigidity-of-the-right, we see a rigidity-of-the-extremes.

The most extreme leftists ranked low on cognitive flexibility relative to nonpartisans, who represented the peak of the arc, the most cognitively flexible.

Moving from nonpartisans further to the right, cognitive flexibility dropped once more for extreme rightists.

Those on the extreme right exhibited a diminished mental flexibility on a number of tasks measuring adaptability in visual perception and linguistic puzzles.

The extreme right and the extreme left were cognitively similar to each other.

Both extremes struggled to adapt, to invent, to change mental schemas, even in neutral and nonpolitical situations.

This rigidity-of-the-extremes effect harks back to old horseshoe theories of politics—the idea that the extreme left and extreme right are ultimately similar in their intolerance and rigidity, that the left–right continuum is bent rather than straight, that fascism and communism end up meeting at the edges.

From the perspective of the individual, these results suggest that heightened cognitive flexibility may be a protective barrier against all kinds of extremism, left or right.

At first glance, the clear conclusion seems to be that the rigidity-of-the-extremes hypothesis prevails and the rigidity-of-the-right hypothesis is doomed to history.

Not so fast.

When we look closely at the rainbow-shaped curve we see that its peak is not aligned precisely to the center point of the left-to-right continuum.

The peak is slightly off-center to the left, such that the most flexible individuals are nonpartisans who lean to the left.

The rigidity-of-the-extremes may be compatible with, rather than antagonistic to, the rigidity-of-the-right hypothesis.

The most psychologically inflexible people are extreme partisans, regardless of their allegiance.

But the most flexible individuals are nonpartisans whose support tilts toward the left while resisting joining their identities too strongly with an established political party."