#Four Approaches of Formal Analysis

[nicholas1673]

Four Approaches of Formal Analysis and a painting of Salvador Dali

When criticising an artwork there are four approaches of formal analysis and they are description focuses on what you see by describing the art elements and principles of design that an artwork has, analysis focus on how the art elements and principles of design work together in this artwork, interpretation focuses on what is the meaning or mood of the artwork and judgment focuses on the evaluation of success of the artwork.

I am going to talk more by criticising an artwork using the four approaches I have just mentioned of formal analysis the artwork that I chose is called Swans Reflecting Elephants made by Salvador Dali. This painting was made in 1937 it a Surrealism style created on canvas and painted with oil paint. In this artwork you can see different coloured values that are blend of browns, blues, white and black, shades of darker colour, tint of lighter colour and a bit of highlights in the middle of the artwork. Is also has forms of biometric that is made nature and irregular, form to create a shade of illusion with light in the howl painting. The lines that this painting has are diagonal, curved and line quality of thickness even thinness on the trees, horizontal line is on the back of the trees. On the trees you can also see a bit of shape that has organic effect and the positive and negative space. On the rocks it has a bit of texture and a smooth texture on the animals, pond, trees and the clouds. It also has space of overlapping, sizes are different, lose detail, placement of closer to the horizon line appear farther away and the colour as lose brightness when is farther away. The balances that this painting has are colour, value and texture. This painting is also has the golden ratio and a rhythm of flowing that shows an organic feeling. The artwork has a unity of similarity also variety of different versions of art elements. My analysis about this painting it has a lot of art elements and a bit of design principles but it has a great balance of colours, values and textures so with these effects it made the artwork to have a rhythm, unity, proportion and variety that made the painting more interesting, effective and eye catching. The interpretation of the painting that shows the swans and elephants they have a symbolic meaning like the swans symbolize self-love, loyalty, grace, trust, love, beauty, purity and light. Elephant symbolize wisdom, vitality good luck, memory, power, prosperity, long life and strength. That is why Salvador Dali wants to show that he loves art and his passing the wisdom. My judgment of this painting is that when looking at the painting in a distance the swans and the elephants are hard to notice because it has too much detail on the background so my eyes mostly were focusing on the background not on the swans and elephants that has a symbolic meaning, so at first I thought it was a landscape only with no animals. In my own opinion I think that this painting could have been better if the artist had used lighter colours so the swans and the reflection of the elephant are viewed more with brighter colours so the people’s eyes will focus on the swans and the elephants.

Figure 1: Swans Reflecting Elephants, Salvador Dali, 1937

 

References list:

ALEX+ANI, 2022. History + Meaning of the Elephant.[online].Available at: <https://www.alexandani.com/blogs/the-wire/symbol-meaning-elephant#:~:text=Why%20Elephants%20Are%20A%20Popular,long%20life%2C%20memory%20and%20vitality> [Accessed 28 October 2021].

Garth Cilfford, C. 2021. Swan Symbolism & Meaning (+Totem, Spirit & Omens).[online].Available at: <https://worldbirds.com/swan-symbolism/> [Accessed 28 October 2021].

Gutierrez, E. 2022. Salvador Dali’s Swans Reflecting Elephants / Analysis.[online].Available at: <https://enriqueg112.medium.com/salvador-dalis-swans-reflecting-elephants-analysis-1f6e4493e94d#:~:text=Swans%20are%20a%20symbol%20of,and%20the%20wisdom%20Dali%20possessed.>  [Accessed 28 October 2021].

[jubileemon]

Character Analysis: Byakuya Kuchiki

Captain Byakuya Kuchiki is a fan favorite, but his bad attitude typically gets him into a lot of trouble. Over time, we learned much more about Byakuya Kuchiki and what makes him such a great character after all. Byakuya redeemed himself and became a supportive brother and her after all, making him a real standout in Bleach. But in different parts of the story, Byakuya Kuchiki also showed his worst side, such as his negative personality traits or making ill-advised decisions.

His Background and Finding Love

Byakuya comes from the prestigious Kuchiki clan, one of the four noble families in the Soul Society. As the head of the Kuchiki family, he inherited the position of captain of the 6th Division. Byakuya's early life was marked by his dedication to the principles of the Kuchiki clan, emphasizing discipline and adherence to rules.

Byakuya's controversial decision to marry a commoner seemed like a bad idea, since he could potentially tarnish the noble Kuchiki family's name with this marriage. Even though the marriage was against Soul Society law, Byakuya went through with it anyway out of true happiness. The shrine with Hisana's picture serves as a heartbreaking reminder of Byakuya's enduring love and the profound impact she had on his life.

Adoption and His Treatment of Rukia

Byakuya adopted a young Rukia after the death of Hisana, fulfilling a promise he made to his dying wife. Byakuya's adherence to duty and tradition led him to adopt his sister-in-law , but the guilt of bending the rules strained their relationship.

The formal ceremony symbolized a turning point, integrating Rukia into the prestigious Kuchiki family. Byakuya's cold demeanor towards her stemmed from his duty as captain and the strict traditions of the Kuchiki clan. In an attempt to reconcile his actions with the expectations of the Kuchiki clan, Byakuya adopted a distant and cold demeanor towards Rukia. This behavior served as a coping mechanism to suppress his internal conflict, allowing him to maintain a façade of adherence to the clan's principles. His stoicism can also be seen as a form of self-punishment, as he grappled with the guilt of breaking the rules for the sake of someone he loved.

Believing that treating Rukia coldly would compensate for the unconventional adoption, Byakuya aimed to protect the honor of the Kuchiki clan and adhere to the Soul Society's rules. However, this approach inadvertently created a lonely and awkward environment for Rukia. Byakuya's misguided attempt to fulfill his duty resulted in a strained sibling relationship, depriving Rukia of the warmth and connection she may have sought in her new family.

Rukia serves as a constant reminder of Hisana for Byakuya Kuchiki. Hisana, Byakuya's late wife, pleaded with him to find and protect her younger sister before her death. By adopting Rukia, Byakuya fulfilled this promise, but the presence of Rukia became a living connection to Hisana. Every interaction with Rukia likely stirred emotions and memories associated with Hisana, intensifying Byakuya's internal conflict. The guilt of breaking the rules to save Hisana's sister and the responsibility of raising her as a Kuchiki created a complex dynamic. By treating Rukia distantly, Byakuya may have sought to suppress his emotions and maintain the façade of a stoic and duty-bound captain.

Rukia's Perspective

Rukia's perspective of Byakuya and his cold treatment, unaware of their familial connection, reflects the emotional complexity within their relationship. From Rukia's viewpoint, Byakuya appears distant and unwelcoming, making her integration into the Kuchiki family challenging. Without any knowledge of Hisana being her older sister before the reveal, she was left to interpret her older brother's behavior through the lens of his strict adherence to rules and societal norms.

Byakuya Upheld Rukia's Execution With Total Conviction

Despite his noble background, Byakuya's loyalty to the established rules took precedence over questioning the legitimacy of Rukia's sentence. His commitment to duty and the honor of the Kuchiki clan led him to defend Rukia's unfair sentence, aligning himself with the Soul Society's decisions.

Byakuya stood firmly by the Soul Society's decision to execute Rukia. His adherence to duty and the preservation of the Kuchiki clan's honor drove him to prioritize the established rules, even if it meant opposing characters like Ichigo and putting himself at odds with their efforts to save Rukia. As a member of one of the four noble families in the Soul Society, Byakuya was raised with a strict sense of duty and a strong emphasis on upholding the honor of his family and the traditions associated with it.

Saving Rukia

Despite his initial cold and distant attitude towards Rukia during the Soul Society arc, when faced with the threat posed by Aizen and Gin. This moment showcases a shift in Byakuya's priorities, as his actions go beyond mere adherence to rules that reflects a genuine concern for Rukia's well-being.

Hus disclosure to Rukia about Hisana's dying wish to protect her provides insight into his motivations and internal struggles. This revelation marks a turning point, humanizing Byakuya and shedding light on the complexities of his character. His sincere apology to Rukia, acknowledging the conflict between promises he made to Hisana and his parents, shows a significant step towards reconciliation and Rukia's acceptance.

[jackoshadows]

With the assistance of an experienced FOIA litigation team, we repeatedly sued the military. Over four years, the agencies released enough documentation to us that, assisted by other source materials, we were able to put together a collection of seven hundred and eighty-one possible war crimes, perpetrated against more than eighteen hundred alleged victims, that the U.S. military took seriously enough to investigate.

Examples of these crimes and these cases being dismissed:

Forcible kissing and disrobing of female detainee On October 7, 2003, a female detainee was allegedly sexually assaulted by military interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison. The woman, whose name is redacted in records, told investigators that the interrogators took her to an abandoned cell in a deserted wing of the prison, where one held her hands behind her back and a second forcibly kissed her while a third served as a lookout. They then showed her to a cell where they made her look at a naked male prisoner and threatened her. After that, they allegedly took her back to the abandoned cell, where they forced her to kneel down and take her shirt off. When the interrogators returned the woman to her own cell, they told her that they planned to visit her again. All three soldiers received nonjudicial punishment on charges of indecent assault, conspiracy, maltreatment, and communicating threats.

Of the seven hundred and eighty-one cases we found, at least sixty-five per cent had been dismissed by investigators who didn't believe that a crime had even taken place. Soldiers would return to the United States and confess—to women, health-care workers, job interviewers—that they'd murdered civilians or prisoners, but military investigators would find that the allegations couldn't be substantiated. Detainees at Abu Ghraib prison reported abuse by their guards, but investigators did not find sufficient evidence to confirm that it had happened. Civilians driving distractedly or too fast were shot dead approaching traffic checkpoints, and investigators deemed these killings acceptable escalations of force. Young men were found unresponsive at Camp Bucca prison, and their deaths were attributed to natural causes.

We identified five hundred and seventy-two alleged perpetrators associated with these hundred and fifty-one criminal cases. Only a hundred and thirty of them were convicted. The records show that they rarely received lengthy prison terms. Much more often, their cases were dealt with by commanders, who have broad discretion to punish their troops with extra duty, demotions, or reprimands, circumventing formal prosecution altogether. (The commanders themselves almost never seemed to face consequences for the misdeeds of their subordinates.) Fewer than one in five alleged perpetrators appear to have been sentenced to any type of confinement, and the median sentence was just eight months. "The conviction rates and the rate of sentencing for these kinds of very serious person crimes is just far below what you would see in the civilian system," Roman said.

We sent summaries of our findings to the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Air Force, and requested an opportunity to present their leaders with the details of our analysis. None took us up on the offer. The Army replied that it "holds Soldiers and Army Civilians to the highest standards of personal conduct." The Marine Corps didn't respond. What we're publishing is not a complete record of the atrocities committed by the military since 9/11; it would be impossible to know them all. This is a repository of the seven hundred and eighty-one possible war crimes investigated by the U.S. military that we were able to identify.

[uta-makura]

The other day I was rewatching Chishiya's last scene at the hospital, and being the translation nerd that I am, I started focusing on the dialogue choices the Netflix subtitles took. I was a little baffled because some decisions felt a little out of place to me. Now, I only studied Japanese for about three or four years (which is very little when you've got an ideogram-built language in your hands), but I still felt like taking a look at the entire original dialogue. and boy was it interesting.

So I ended up writing an analysis on Chishiya and Niragi's last conversation, comparing the source text (in Japanese) and the Netflix subtitles' target text (in English). I watched using the subtitles without closed captions, so those are what I'm going to be referencing. I then ended up writing my own personal translation of their conversation. Please take note that I'm not an English native and that while fluent in English I might've lost some nuances.

If you're interested in some details of Chishiya's (and/or Niragi's) psychology that I believe got a little lost in the target text, bear with me and let's have a look at their conversation! In the first part I'm going write down both the source text and Netflix's target text (without cc), and in the second part I'm going to examine what those word choices mean and suggest my own personal translation when I feel it necessary. So - here we go!

韮木 / Niragi: 何か / Can I help you? (1)

苣屋 / Chishiya: あなたも心肺停止を体験されたらしいですね / Apparently, your heart stopped as well. (2)

韮木 / Niragi: よく知ってますね / How do you know that? (3)

苣屋 / Chishiya: 俺もだ / It happened to me too. (4)

韮木 / Niragi: 奇遇だな / What a coincidence. (5)

苣屋 / Chishiya: 死にかけたことで、何か変わりました? / Since you almost died, did anything change with you? (6)

韮木 / Niragi: どうかな。まあ、見た目が派手になったくれえだな。そっちは? / I don't know. Well, I guess I look flashier than before. What about you? (7)

苣屋 / Chishiya: 随分とダメな生き方をしてきたから、これからはもう少しマジな生き方ができそうな気がする。そんなところかな / Since I've wasted my life until now, I think I'll be able to live a more useful life from now on. That's about all. (8)

韮木 / Niragi: ろくでもねえ野郎だったのか、お前も / So you were a good-for-nothing jerk too, huh? (9)

苣屋 / Chishiya: まあね / Yeah. (10)

(1) [Lit. Something?] Here we see Niragi initiating a conversation with a stranger using directly the informal speech (known as ため口 tameguchi). It is very uncommon in japanese culture to approach an unknown person without using formal speech, thus this immediately frames his real-world character as someone who's direct and on the defensive. In my opinion, it is better translated with "Need something?", because I'd say it's a bit more aggressive and fits the character portrayal better.

(2) [Lit. Apparently, you happened to experience a cardiopulmonar arrest as well.] The first line coming from real-world Chishiya tells us two very important things about him. The first thing we notice is that he uses very technical, surgical words that definitely come from his medical knowledge: 心肺停止 shinpaiteishi is a complex word, not very much used in informal conversations. I believe that using a simple "your heart stopped" in the target text undermines Chishiya's portrayal as someone who's pretty knowledgeable about medical terms. So what I would do is write directly in the target text "cardiopulmonar arrest". The second thing we notice is the fact that, unlike Niragi, he approaches him using formal speech (known as 丁寧語 teineigo). This kind of talk is the most common and polite way to speak with an unknown person. He even uses the most respectful second-person pronoun, あなた anata, which comes out as quite detached as well.

(3) [Lit. You know that well?] Niragi's line is a direct response to Chishiya's display of medical knowledge. The most curious thing about this line, though, is the fact that Niragi appears to correct himself and use teineigo as well!This seems to be pretty unprecedented for his character, who's previously always been showed as aggressive and as direct as possible. Instead, here he falls in line with his interlocutor's formal speech use and acts polite as well. He's baffled by his vocabulary, sure, but he also replies in an equally respectful way.

(4) [Lit. Me, too.] It's funny, because what we see is a back-and-forth between tameguchi and teineigo: here Chishiya is the one using informal speech. Unfortunately European languages make this type of transition almost impossible to convey, but I think it is curious that after Niragi has adapted to the polite form common between strangers, Chishiya feels that no, perhaps informal speech is what feels more right. It's almost like he seems to acknowledge an unconscious feeling of already knowing that other person in some way.

(5) [Lit. What a fortuitous meeting.] Chishiya's switch seems to have made Niragi subtly more comfortable because he goes back to using tameguchi. Also, while I think "coincidence" is a pretty good translation, it fails to 100% convey the fact that 奇遇 kigū points at the coincidence of meeting someone. It's not simply "what a coincidence we both had a cardiac arrest"; its meaning is more along the lines of "what a coincidence that we both ended up sharing this hospital room". So once again the dialogue implicitly suggests that the two characters have some sort of connection.

(6) [Lit. Since you came close to death, did anything change?] The back-and-forth continues because Chishiya now returns to teineigo. He seems to keep the stranger at arm's length and to feel confused about whether he knows this person or not. Also, Chishiya doesn't ask whether anything changed with Niragi, because what he says is "did anything change at all?". His question is broad, referencing what could a personality trait, a new worldview, or something else entirely.

(7) [Lit. Who knows. Well, my appeareance has probably become more flamboyant. And you?] Some things to notice here as well. First of all, Niragi keeps using tameguchi; his speech pattern is pretty brash, considering the other person is officially a complete stranger who's settled on teineigo. He even uses そっち socchi as a second-person pronoun, which is not aggressive, but definitely feels colloquial. Another word choice I wanted to look at was the term 派手 hade. Now, this made me raise my eyebrows, because according to Weblio's Japanese-to-English dictionary, some of the meanings of this word are "flamboyant", "gay", "showy", "gaudy", "loud". Niragi is essentially comparing himself at the flashy way queer people are known to dress in (especially in Japan, where gay men in particular are still subject to stereotyping as funny and colorful people).

(8) [Lit. Since my way of living has been without purpose until now, I have a feeling that my way of living will be able to be a little more useful from now on. That's about it.] I'll give you three seconds to guess what Chishiya does in this line. Ready? 3, 2, 1... yes, of course he switches to tameguchi again. Once again his instinct must be telling he's got some sort of previous knowledge of this other person, and so he drops teineigo definitely. Moving on, a change that I think is important to apply to the target text is the translation of 気がする ki ga suru. It does not mean "I think" (which is a conscious action we make) and instead conveys the idea of "I have a feeling that", "I feel like" (which portrays a subconscious feeling we can't always explain). Borderland Chishiya had experiences that brought him to a conscious change of heart, but of course Real-life Chishiya doesn't know that, so what he references is a simple sensation he gets.

(9) [Lit. So you too were a worthless asshole.] Tameguchi remains the speech manner through which the conversation is carried. Niragi makes it even more personal because he uses the second-person pronoun お前 omae, which is specifically masculine in use and extremely forward, often used to directly confront the interlocutor. The word 野郎 yarō is one of the few Japanese strong insults and covers a variety of English epithets like "bastard", "son of a bitch", "asshole". Now the nuance may very but I think "jerk" is a little too mild for both the term used and Niragi's usual speech. We also see the use of the adjective ろくでもない rokudemonai, which can mean "good-for-nothing", but also "worthless", "insignificant", "up to no good", "without purpose". Once again, the nuance used here may vary.

(10) [Lit. Well.] Chishiya concludes their conversation with one of the colloquial expressions we see him using during the series, which is non-committal and generic. You could also translate it as "I suppose", "Yeah", "You could say so".

It was very interesting for me to observe how in the space of a few lines the two characters went from using polite speech and respectful pronouns to a way more informal and direct way of speaking, in just a matter of minutes. I also enjoyed seeing Chishiya's medical background making an appeareance in the source text, and his hesitance towards using an informal speech pattern with someone he doesn't remember meeting, but feels like knowing. I think there's a lot here that gets expressed in an implicit manner and in the source text only!

I definitely had a lot of fun writing this analysis, so since I'm kind of in an Alice in Borderland brainrot I may in the future consider observing the translation process of other (more important) scenes. But this was a fun approach to begin with. Thank you for reading if you've come this far!

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Christina Buttons

Published: May 13, 2024

A guide to the international debate on youth medical transition, where medical authorities in the United States depart from a growing international consensus.

The world is reacting to the U.K.'s Cass Review and associated systematic evidence reviews, which found "remarkably weak" evidence supporting medical interventions for gender transition in minors. Released on April 9, 2024, the final report from the national gender clinic service for those under 18—following four years of meta-analyses of the available literature—dealt a major blow to the gender-affirming model of care and marked its termination in England.

NHS England, which commissioned the report, expressed gratitude to Dr. Hilary Cass and committed to implementing her recommendations. These advocate for primarily relying on psychotherapy to address gender-related distress in minors and discontinuing the use of puberty blockers as part of England’s publicly funded healthcare system. The NHS predicted the landmark review would have "major international importance and significance"—a prediction that has proven correct. Just one month later, we are already beginning to see its impact.

What’s New

Scotland and Wales

In response to the Cass Review, Wales and Scotland have joined England in halting new prescriptions of puberty blockers for minors under 18 diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Additionally, in Scotland, cross-sex hormones will not be available to those under 18. In the last few years, beyond the U.K., Sweden, Finland, and Denmark have adopted a more cautious approach by placing restrictions on medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors. Norway has also signaled intentions to follow a similar path.

Germany

Now, Germany has emerged as the latest country to initiate steps towards placing restrictions on gender transition treatments for minors. Earlier this week, the German Medical Assembly, a pivotal body representing medical professionals across the country, passed a resolution that calls for the restriction of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries for gender dysphoric youth to strictly controlled research settings. Another resolution passed that stated minors should not be permitted to "self-identify" into a chosen sex without first undergoing a specialist child and adolescent psychiatric evaluation and consultation.

While national restrictions have not yet been formalized, experts in gender medicine research are describing this update as a “major development” — especially considering that Germany has been one of the most permissive countries on this issue.

Read the SEGM Analysis

Belgium

Additionally, in Belgium, leading physicians are advocating for significant reforms in the treatment protocols for gender dysphoria in children and adolescents. According to an April 2024 report authored by pediatricians and psychiatrists P. Vankrunkelsven, K. Casteels, and J. De Vleminck from Leuven, there is a pressing need to follow the precedents set by Sweden and Finland, where hormones are regarded as a last resort. Their findings and recommendations were published in a prestigious medical journal associated with Dutch-speaking medical faculties in Belgium and their alumni associations.

International Bodies

International bodies such as the United Nations (UN) have also responded to the Cass Review. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, issued a statement on the UN’s website declaring that the Review’s recommendations are essential for protecting children, especially girls, from harm.

In addition, the European Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP), a prominent umbrella association of 36 Child and Adolescent Psychiatry societies worldwide, recently issued a policy statement on child and adolescent gender dysphoria. They urged healthcare providers to "not to promote experimental and unnecessarily invasive treatments with unproven psycho-social effects and, therefore, to adhere to the ‘primum-nil-nocere’ (first, do no harm) principle."

These responses stand in stark contrast to that of World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), a body-modification advocacy organization. WPATH emailed a statement to its subscribers in response to the Cass Review, vehemently rejecting its findings and adhering to its ideological beliefs. WPATH criticized the Cass Report as “harmful” and "rooted in a false premise" that suggests distressed children can be helped without "medical pathways.”

United States

In response to the Cass Review, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Endocrine Society (ES) recently provided statements to WBUR, doubling down on their endorsement of the gender-affirming model of care and medical interventions for minors. Both blamed “politics” for spreading “misinformation.” Meanwhile, prominent gender clinicians have expressed to WBUR that they are ��perplexed and concerned�� by these organizations’ statements, given the Cass Review’s findings.

WPATH, AAP, and ES continue to mislead the public by claiming that the gender-affirming model of care adheres to the principles of evidence-based medicine (EBM), despite clear evidence to the contrary. Their recommendations for medical interventions are not grounded in robust evidence but rather rely on "circular referencing" of each other’s guidelines, effectively creating a citation cartel.

Comprehensive Overview of the International Debate On Youth Transition by Country

In recent years, there has been an ongoing debate about the best approach for treating gender-distressed youth, addressing the global increase in young people, primarily adolescent females, seeking services from gender clinics. Countries with pediatric gender clinic services have shown varied responses, ranging from highly medicalized treatment pathways to approaches that prioritize psychotherapy.

Nations such as the UK, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark have taken unified steps to heavily restrict medical transitions for minors, aligning their guidance with the results of systematic evidence reviews, with Norway similarly indicating moves in this direction. Elsewhere, medical and health authorities remain divided on best practices, although there are signs of some reevaluating their positions on the medical transition of minors. This guide will highlight significant updates and changes observed in these practices over recent years.

The Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the birthplace of the Dutch Protocol—the highly medicalized approach to treating youth with gender dysphoria—is facing increased scrutiny. As of 2023, there is a growing debate within medical, legal, and cultural realms about the practice of youth gender transitions.

On February 15, 2024, the Dutch Parliament ordered an investigation into the physical and mental health outcomes of children who have been prescribed puberty blockers. Despite these developments, the guidelines for treating gender dysphoria have not yet been updated.

In April 2024, Amsterdam UMC, the Dutch clinic that pioneered youth gender transition practices, issued a statement in response to the Cass Report. The clinic commended several elements of the report but expressed disagreement with its conclusion that the evidence supporting the use of puberty blockers is insufficient.

In May 2024, one of the Netherlands' national newspapers profiled the new policy statement from The European Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP) that advocated for a non-medicalized approach to treating child and adolescent gender dysphoria.

Norway

In 2023, the Healthcare Investigation Board of Norway (Ukom) issued recommendations urging the Ministry of Health and Care to instruct the Directorate of Health to revise the national professional guideline for gender incongruence, drawing on systematic evidence reviews. Additionally, the Ukom report proposed classifying puberty blockers, as well as hormonal and surgical interventions for children and young people, as experimental treatments. This classification would subject these treatments to more stringent regulations regarding informed consent, eligibility, and outcome evaluation. However, Norway has not yet issued any explicit new guidelines following these recommendations.

Denmark

In July 2023, Ugeskrift for Læger, the journal of the Danish Medical Association, reported a significant shift in Denmark's approach to treating youth with gender dysphoria. Instead of receiving prescriptions for puberty blockers, hormones, or surgery, most young people referred to the centralized gender clinic now receive therapeutic counseling and support.

France

In 2022, the National Academy of Medicine in France advised exercising "the utmost medical caution" for the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for children and adolescents, citing the risk of regret. Despite this caution, the prescription of these treatments remains permissible at any age with parental authorization.

A 2023 poll by the Journal International de Médecine found 84% of healthcare professionals in France are in favor of a moratorium on the administration of hormonal treatments for trans-identified minors.

In March 2024, French senators released a 369-page report advocating for the cessation of cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers on minors. Based on the findings of this report, lawmakers have drafted a bill that is set to be debated on May 28, 2024.

Italy

In January 2023, the Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI) wrote a letter to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, expressing "great concern" over the "ongoing experimentation" with drugs designed to halt puberty in children and calling for a "rigorous scientific discussion."

In March 2024, the Vatican’s doctrine office, after five years of preparation, released a report approved by Pope Francis that declared gender-related surgeries to be "a grave violation of human dignity."

In April 2024, five Italian medical organizations released a joint position paper on managing adolescent gender dysphoria. This document, which extensively references WPATH, supports the medical transition of minors.

Sweden

In 2022, Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare declared that the potential harms of puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormone treatments for individuals under 18 years of age surpass the possible benefits for this demographic. The board recommended that such treatments should primarily occur within a research setting to better assess their effects on gender dysphoria, mental health, and quality of life among young people. Additionally, it noted that hormone treatments could still be administered in exceptional circumstances.

In April 2023, a systematic review conducted by researchers from Karolinska Institutet, University of Gothenburg, Umeå University, and the Swedish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services was published in Acta Paediatrica. This review assessed the existing evidence on hormonal treatment for individuals under 18 years old with gender dysphoria. The researchers concluded that such interventions “should be considered experimental treatment rather than standard procedure.”

Finland

Finland was the first Western country to conduct a systematic review of the evidence for youth gender transition, that led to a significant update of its guidelines in 2020. Observations from Finnish gender clinics showed that hormone treatments do not typically improve—and can worsen—the functioning of gender-dysphoric youth. In response, the country's Council for Choices in Health Care revised its guidelines to emphasize psychosocial support as the primary approach and restricted hormonal interventions to exceptional cases. These interventions are permitted before age 18 only if the individual's cross-sex identity is confirmed as permanent and causes severe dysphoria, the child fully understands the significance, benefits, and risks of the treatments, and there are no contraindications.

In October 2023, Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala, a leading Finnish gender clinician and researcher at Tampere University Hospital, wrote an op-ed in The Free Press, titled "Gender-Affirming Care Is Dangerous. I Know Because I Helped Pioneer It.” She highlighted concerns about the practice of pediatric medical transition in the U.S. and the lack of solid evidence supporting the efficacy of medical transition in reducing suicide rates among young people.

In February 2023, a landmark study from Finland revealed low suicide rates among trans-identified youth and found no evidence of benefits from gender reassignment. The study showed that, after accounting for psychiatric needs, there was no statistically significant evidence that gender-referred youth have higher suicide rates compared to the general population. The authors concluded that the risk of suicide related to transgender identity and/or gender dysphoria "may have been overestimated."

England

In January 2020, National Health Service (NHS) England formed a Policy Working Group (PWG) to conduct an assessment of the existing research on the use of puberty blockers and feminizing/masculinizing hormones in children and young people with gender dysphoria. This was aimed at shaping a policy stance on their continued application. The findings from these reviews were released in March 2021.

In February 2022, the interim report to the Cass Review was published, which had been commissioned by NHS England to evaluate the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, the UK's only national clinic for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria. The review highlighted significant concerns about the clinical decision-making framework, noting a lack of robust evidence and consensus on the most effective treatments.

In July 2022, NHS England announced it would close GIDS in Spring 2023, which was delayed until Spring 2024. Two new regional hubs opened in London and the north of England to move away from a single-service model.

In October 2022, the NHS England issued new draft guidance following their systematic evidence review, stating that there is "scarce and inconclusive evidence to support clinical decision-making" for minors with gender dysphoria, and for most who present before puberty, it will be a "transient phase" requiring psychological support rather than medical intervention.

In March 2024, NHS England announced that it would end the prescription of puberty blockers at gender clinics for children due to insufficient evidence regarding their safety and effectiveness. These treatments will now only be accessible through clinical research trials.

On April 9, 2024, the final 388-page report of the Cass Review was published, along with 9 studies (8 of which were systematic evidence reviews) by the University of York.

Ireland

In March 2023, HSE published a review of the interim Cass Report to assess Gender Identity Services for children and young people in Ireland.

In April 2024, the Health Service Executive (HSE) announced the development of a new clinical program for gender healthcare, scheduled over the next two years. They also stated that the final report for the Cass Review will be included as part of this process.

Canada

In January 2024, Alberta announced the implementation of measures that significantly restrict medical transitions for minors. This policy establishes Alberta as the only province in Canada to enforce such limitations on gender transition procedures for individuals under 18. Under the new regulations, minors are prohibited from undergoing any gender-related surgeries, and those aged 16 and younger are prevented from accessing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.

United States

The three main organizations that have issued guidelines on youth medical transition include the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Endocrine Society (ES), and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). Other groups, such as the American Medical Association, have either publicly supported “affirming” medical practices without presenting evidence, or have aligned themselves with the guidelines set by one or more of these three organizations. Notably, none of these organizations have yet conducted systematic reviews of the evidence, which are designed to avoid selective inclusion of studies and biased interpretations.

Leaders at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) ignored five resolutions from its members over four consecutive years, each urging that youth transition guidelines be aligned with findings from systematic evidence reviews. In August 2023, the AAP Board of Directors finally agreed to conduct their own systematic review of the evidence and consider updating its guidance. At the same time, the Board "voted to reaffirm" its 2018 policy statement on gender-affirming care.

In 2022, Florida took the lead as the first state to curtail the widespread administration of hormonal and surgical interventions to the increasing number of gender-dysphoric youth. Early in the year, Florida’s public health authority commissioned an overview of existing English-language systematic evidence reviews. Based on the findings from this review, the Florida Boards of Medicine subsequently decided to halt the provision of gender-transition services to minors, unless conducted within research settings across the state. 

As of April 2024, 24 states have now placed age restrictions on hormonal and surgical sex-trait modification interventions for minors. Democrats in four states (Texas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Maine) have voted in favor of age restriction laws or against turning their states into hormone sanctuaries.

Spain

In 2018, the Spanish Association of Paediatrics and the Spanish Society of Paediatric Endocrinology published a statement endorsing youth medical transition.

In 2022, the directors of Spain’s Society of Psychiatry, Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Society of Endocrinology expressed their opposition to a proposed law that would enable minors to access medical transition procedures. El Mundo, the second-largest daily newspaper in Spain, highlighted this controversy on its front page with the headline: “Psychiatrists explode against the Trans Law: It can bring a lot of pain and regret to many people.”

Australia and New Zealand

In August 2021, The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) issued its first position statement focused on the mental health needs of individuals with gender dysphoria, followed by an update in September 2021. This statement was the first from a professional body that did not explicitly endorse a gender-affirming approach.

Australia has experienced considerable debate in recent years regarding youth medical transition. This topic has been extensively covered by Australian journalist Bernard Lane for his Substack, Gender Clinic News.

New Zealand's Ministry of Health was expected to release an evidence brief in early 2024, aimed at reviewing the current evidence on the safety of puberty blockers. Although the publication has been delayed, it is anticipated to be released soon.

In April 2024, Guardian Australia reported that neither New South Wales or Victoria have plans to make changes to puberty blocker prescribing or accessibility as a result of the Cass Review.

International Bodies

In July 2023, for the first time, international experts publicly weighed in on the American debate over "gender-affirming care." 21 leading experts on pediatric gender medicine from eight countries wrote a letter expressing disagreement with US-based medical organizations over the treatment of gender dysphoria in youth, urging them to align their recommendations with unbiased evidence “rather than exaggerating the benefits and minimizing the risks.”

In January 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) updated its announcement on developing healthcare guidelines for “trans and gender diverse (TGD) people.” The WHO stated in an FAQ that it would not be making recommendations that impact minors. Importantly, they made the following admission: "[O]n review, the evidence base for children and adolescents is limited and variable regarding the longer-term outcomes of gender affirming care for children and adolescents" (January, 2024).

Further Information

For additional information, one of the studies that contributed to the Cass Review conducted a survey of European gender services for children and adolescents from September 2022 to April 2023. Additionally, a Wikipedia page provides an overview of the "legal status of gender-affirming healthcare" (for adults) in various countries worldwide.

If you found this guide helpful, I am working on developing an information-based website that will feature up-to-date data, counterarguments to activist claims, explainers on research, and useful resources related to gender pseudoscience.

[thewertsearch]

Asks Comp - 16/4

I literally did not know The Baby Is You was a thing. To be welcomed back into the comic like this after four months is very on brand for Homestuck.

... and wow, its outro really does match the end of this song, doesn't it? That's even funnier than if he'd snuck some of Megalovania in there.

Ooh, that's another liveblog I'll want to check out when I'm done! I've never actually seen a Worm liveblog before. Adding it to the list myself!

Nothing's really changed since I've been gone! I make a conscious effort not to do much Homestuck analysis off-blog, since I want my journey to be fully documented here.

It's good to be back! I'm looking forward to a full reread when I'm done.

Would you believe I didn't even know there was a book?

I also didn't know the movie had two (allegedly) terrible sequels, which is very funny. Neverending story indeed.

Thank you! I can't take too much credit, though - most of my tagging system has been crowdsourced from askers!

At some point, before we reach the end of the comic, I'm going to have to formalize my approach to liveblogging Homestuck's side content.

What I'll probably do is give each of them the 'lite' treatment initially, but if they turn out to be more canonical than I thought, or particularly interesting to liveblog, I'll 'zoom in', and analyze them properly. We'll see how we go!

Could you imagine the relationship dynamics in your average troll soap opera? The shipping web for a single season would make our heads explode.

It's a fun question. What sort of object symbolizes everything?

The first thing I'd try would be a star chart, Dave's magnifier and a literal planetful of Grist.

Added to the list! Not until later later on, though - I'd worry that the opinions and theories of another liveblogger could interfere with my own, especially if they're talking about it with someone who's already read it!

I would find it hard to disagree.

Do people think Act 1 is pointless?

I mean, it is the slowest Act in terms of pacing, but slow pacing isn't always a bad thing. You sort of have to take it slow when your readers have this much to get to grips with.

...okay, maybe we didn't need quite as many Sylladex mishaps as we got. But we still needed some. Homestuck has a lot to introduce you to.

I always pictured an English accent for Hass - although, interestingly, I didn't picture one for Jade. As a headcanon, I like the NZ one better.

Where did Grandpa grow up again, actually? He was raised by Fake Mark Twain, who was from Missouri - but I don't have a clue what a Missouri accent sounds like, let alone one from a century ago. I have a funny feeling that it's not the accent I'm imagining coming from Jade.

Now that's a ship I'd never have seen coming. Props to Hussie for coming up with something more controversial than my Feferi<>Equius.

All four kids, with four endgame weapons, might be able to challenge Jack's current incarnation - but they're not going to get the chance. You've hit the nail on the head - he's semi-perfect Jack for a reason.

I have several theories for Jade's prototyping, and every single one of them would make Jack even more dangerous than before. It's just barely possible to challenge him now, but things will only get worse.

Read the room, Serket!

Would Vriska have tried to negotiate? She feels like the type of person who'd rather take a beating than admit they're outclassed. Plus, I'm not sure how much she'd have to offer Aradia, who seemed entirely motivated by revenge (and, possibly, secretly motivated by timeline stuff).

All that said, I would have loved to hear Vriska trying to worm her way out of this.

I love it! Please send in the completed house, if you get the chance. That's going to look so cool with a moving meteor.

And they're both easily distractible! This feels like two people who might actually get on surprisingly well, if they were in, say, the same high school class.

It's hard to say what's a rarepair, since I don't know what ships are rare in the fandom - although I'd have a few guesses about the most common ones.

If we're going for a ship with very tenuous connections, I will submit Rose x Feferi for your appraisal. They're both fans of the Noble Circle, and their signature colors are pretty close.

You know what, I'll just review all of your ships. Tavros/Gamzee - PB&J - is pretty cute. [] I'd recommend Miracle Child for a number of reasons, but it does include a well-written Gamtav. Jack/Droog is more <> to me than it is <3. Like One Sundered Star might be influencing that? I'm not really sure. Somewhere I think I saw a Jack<>Droog. Your pre-shipping chart post isn't in the chrono; also, I'm pretty sure the A6A6I5 ask is one of mine. Gamzee/Eridan is a rarepair; I've seen it, but not often, and it's a <> in the fic I'm referencing. Kanaya<>Terezi and Feferi<>Vriska are strange enough that I've never seen them anywhere, really. [] And finally, Vriska and Tavros. These two are the textbook example of why the ashen quadrant needs to exist, and they're a perfect pair for it. [] ~LOSS (8/1/23)

I don't even know if Carapacians have moirallegiance - but those two would definitely work if they did.

Out of all my ships you flagged as rare, I think my favorite is Feferi<>Vriska. I just think they'd gel weirdly well together!

[malachiwardyt]

Hello again, podcast side of Tumblr.

This time around, I did a video on Ethics Town, a relatively new cosmic horror podcast about a British valley town where nothing is quite as it seems. Right now Ethics Town is a terribly underrated series, so this video is both my analysis of it, and also my attempt at getting more people to listen to it.

Anyways, yeah, watch the video if you want, or not, it's up to you I guess. If you want to, though, I really do suggest you take the less than four hours and actually listen to the podcast, it's well worth your time.

SPOILERS FOR ETHICS TOWN SEASON ONE BEYOND THIS POINT. CONTINUE READING AT YOUR OWN RISK. / / / / / / / / / /

As with the last post, I also want to share the art from the video. For the first one, I wanted to do something that captured the feel of the Ethics Town logo, which is all black and white and red, so I stuck with a pretty monochromatic colour palette here. The image depicts the Mayor of Ethics, Ian Jacobs, moving the wrapped body of Natascha Flynn to make space for a nearby factory's planned expansions. It was one of two scenes I considered, and I think this was the much better option. The skyline in the background, while not perfect, is meant to mimic the same skyline seen on the Mayor's hat in the logo. The other weird detail here is that everything was done linelessly, which was very weird for me, because I thought it created an interesting look. Oh, also, yes, I did give Ian a ponytail.

The other art piece is a sketch of Ian Jacobs and January Johnson, because I wanted to experiment with how much I could push their designs before they stopped looking like the same person. I also wanted to have their outfits at least be a little similar, so both of them have outer coverings closed around the middle of the chest around a shirt beneath, and both Ian and January have black headware. I considered giving January a white band on his headphones, but it just wound up getting lost. Another notable difference is in the hair, which I imagined here as blonde, probably in a more platinum direction, though you can't tell that very well from the greyscale. Ian's hair is pulled back in the aforementioned ponytail while it's left loose when he's acting as January. January also has a little more stubble, and his eye bags sag a little more. Finally, even though I only really had two colours to work with, I wanted to try expanding on how he acts within each role using the clothing. January's clothes are lighter, thanks in big part to the grey and white striped hoodie, which is designed to make him seem more emotionally truthful than he actually is. Underneath that light tone, though, is a plain black tee, which ties him to the darker colour scheme of Ian and also hints at the fact that, below his friendly and approachable personality hides the dark secret that he is, in fact, the Mayor who has been making such terrible decisions. Going back to the sweatshirt, the grey and white striping is also slightly reminiscent of the stripes on prison jumpsuits, which is a way of representing his feeling of being trapped into bad decisions and being ensnared by Ethics and his secret role as Mayor. Speaking of the Mayor, Ian is a lot simpler. I considered giving him a big, slightly cartoon-y MAYOR sash, but I wound up preferring how he looks without it. Generally, I tried to keep his wardrobe darker and more formal, and, of course, I had to include the fancy hat we see on the logo of Ethics Town. I also reduced the amount of vape cloud around him for two reasons. First, the in-story reason, is that Ian has accepted who he is and the role he plays in the "narrative" of Ethics, so I imagine he's a bit less stressed. It also works really well metaphorically, though, because he's not disguised anymore. When we see Ian at the end of "The Identity Issue," the mask is fully off. Artemis knows exactly who he is, which means that his identity doesn't have to be clouded by as much smoke. Oh, also, it's a cosmic horror podcast, so if I didn't put something tentacle-esque around the main antagonist, there would be problems.

And I think that about covers it. I had a lot of fun listening to the podcast and making the video, and I hope it can bring joy to y'all as well. Catch y'all next time around for The Buried Explained!

[mariacallous]

Sitting on the South Lawn of the White House on Sept. 13, 1993, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Under a brilliant, cloudless sky, an uncomfortable Israeli prime minister and a beaming Palestinian leader clasped hands in pursuit of peace as an exuberant U.S. president embraced the duo, smiling like a proud parent.

The occasion was the signing of the first agreement of what came to be known as the Oslo Accords, which established an interim framework that, if implemented successfully, might actually lead to final status negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Even with all the challenges that lay ahead, I was convinced that the Arab-Israeli peace process was now irreversible.

Efraim Halevy, who in just a few years would become the head of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, would later write to me questioning my faith in that irreversibility and fearing the confrontation that could follow. Halevy’s analysis proved all too prescient. Today, 30 years after that historic day, what remains of the spirit and much of the substance of the Oslo agreement lies bloodied, buried, and betrayed across an Israeli-Palestinian landscape that seems to leave little room for hope and none for illusions.

The most right-wing and fundamentalist government in Israel’s history sits in Jerusalem, committed to the annexation of the West Bank in everything but name only, as well as expanding settlements and enabling settler terror and violence against Palestinians. The Palestinian national movement is deeply divided, resembling a kind of Noah’s Ark where there are two of everything—constitutions, governments, security services, patrons, and even visions of Palestine. In Gaza, Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad plan and encourage terror attacks against Israelis, while in Ramallah, a weak and discredited Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority is unable or unwilling to control terror emanating from the northern West Bank.

Yet the lessons of Oslo still have some relevance, whatever the future holds for Israelis and Palestinians. Having had a ringside seat during those fateful years, four key takeaways stand out for me personally.

1. Interim can’t be final.

On paper, the Oslo Accords seemed logical and compelling. Territory would be transferred gradually to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for its assumption of security responsibilities. As we’ll see, the perverse dance between the occupier and the occupied would doom this approach. But it might have survived had the two sides been willing to make it clear from the outset what final outcome the interim period was supposed to produce, and then taken mutually reciprocal actions on the ground to prepare for it.

For Palestinians, that final outcome was an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. For Israelis, it was TBD—to be determined. Driven by domestic politics and their own doubts about the Palestinians’ capacity for statehood and what it might mean for Israeli security, neither Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin nor his successor Shimon Peres were prepared to commit to any agreed outcome—even as an aspirational vision. You can look long and hard for the term “Palestinian state” in the Oslo documents, but you won’t find it. It would take another half-dozen years before the idea of statehood worked its way into Israel’s negotiating assumptions. Not until 2001, as U.S. President Bill Clinton left office, did the United States formally and publicly articulate support for a two-state solution.

With no clear end goal to work toward, the process floundered. By 1999, not a single Oslo deadline had been met. Negotiations on permanent status had begun three times but produced nothing, and neither Israelis nor Palestinians could see where things were headed. But both had grown weary and wary of a seemingly never-ending interim process punctuated by Palestinian terrorist attacks and Israeli settlement expansion.

The result was the situation we have now: a strategic cul-de-sac in which the two sides are stuck and the gaps on issues such as borders and Jerusalem are as wide as the Grand Canyon, with no shared vision and no faith that one will ever materialize.

2. Leaders—and not just their negotiators—have to be willing to yield.

It seems like another world now given the state of relations between Israelis and Palestinians today, but back then, the negotiators for both sides actually worked hard together to solve problems and manage the ones they couldn’t. It was less so for the leaders who had to deal with the politics of the negotiating process and defend what they could—and punt and parry the issues they couldn’t.

In the early Oslo years before Rabin’s murder in November 1995, the Israelis and Palestinians doing the negotiating laughed, yelled, and cried together against the backdrop of a roller coaster environment that included agreements, missed deadlines, Palestinian and Israeli terror attacks, and continuing frustrations and suspicions. They became friends. I saw security officials from both sides—hard men with blood on their hands—engage with one another with respect and even affection. At one negotiating session at the Laromme Hotel in Jerusalem, an exhausted West Bank security chief Jabril Rajoub laid down in the same bed with Israel Defense Forces’ central commander Shaul Mofaz, jokingly pretending to take a nap.

For the negotiators, Oslo was not about zero-sum advantage but mutual benefit. That view was best embodied by Oslo’s two lead negotiators, Uri Savir and Abu Ala (both of whom have since died), who would become fast friends. Interviewing them both in 2013 on the 25th anniversary of Oslo, that sense of partnership was front and center. Abu Ala, also known as Ahmed Qureia,  opined about the promise Oslo held: After decades of bitter struggle, during which both saw each other only through a barrel of a gun, they realized that it is possible to overcome hatred, misgivings, denial, and their own red lines. Neither man was a dreamer, but both saw the opportunity that Oslo offered to better understand the needs of the other and to humanize the adversary.

I sometimes thought that, had the decision-making been left to Abu Ala and Savir, Oslo would have had a better chance of delivering. But in the hard and cruel world of Israeli and Palestinian politics, leaders had their own personal and political constraints with which to reckon.

For Rabin, dealing with the Palestinian issue was never his first choice. It is true that as defense minister during the First Intifada, Rabin began to understand that the conflict had no military solution, and by the spring of 1993, he had reached the conclusion that no one—not Jordan, not West Bankers, not Gazans—could replace the PLO as an interlocutor. But peace with Syria was his preference because of its strategic character and its avoidance of hot-button issues such as Jerusalem. Then, in August 1993, with the U.S.-mediated Israeli-Syrian channel making progress but with little chance of a dramatic breakthrough, the secret Oslo channel delivered—and suddenly, Rabin was thrust into dealing with the Palestinian issue head on.

In the Oslo Accords, Rabin made a historic decision with respect to the Palestinians. But translating that to an Israeli bureaucracy and security establishment that held the key to making life better for Palestinians on the ground proved much harder. By 1993, the policies of the Israeli occupation had become deeply entrenched in Israeli politics and day-to-day relations with Palestinians.

Rabin had also locked himself into a public commitment not to dismantle any settlements during the interim period, and to do so only as part of a permanent status negotiations. He would later regret that decision when, in the wake of an Israeli settler massacring 29 Palestinians in Hebron, he resisted pressures from within his own government to remove the 400 settlers living there who required a large Israeli military presence to protect them. Rabin was fearful of reaction from the right-wing opposition and worried that Yasser Arafat, then the chairman of the PLO, would exploit the crisis to push for an international presence in the West Bank. Yet Rabin’s unwillingness or inability to limit, let alone halt, settlement expansion diminished Palestinian willingness to implement their own commitments under Oslo.

As for Arafat, I was never really sure of his motives for accepting the Oslo Accords. They compelled him, at least for the moment, to recognize Israel without achieving any of the Palestinians’ demands—not self-determination, not statehood, not East Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital, not the right of return for Palestinian refugees. My best guess is that for Arafat, Oslo represented Israel’s, the United States’, and the international community’s validation of himself and the PLO as the only legitimate avenue for dealing with the Palestinians. Arafat put up with the interim process because, in essence, the entire world recognized him as the exclusive address for all matters Palestinian. It was the triumph of personal ego over national interest.

But Oslo proved to be the first and last concession that Arafat was prepared to make. In March 2002, during a mission with the George W. Bush administration’s special envoy, Anthony Zinni, we saw Arafat at his headquarters surrounded by Israeli forces. Entrances barricaded, windows blacked out, candles on the table lighting an otherwise darkened conference room, there was Arafat with his black machine gun on the conference table, talking about martyrdom for the cause of Palestine.

He had come a long way, but could never quite make the transition from the mentality of a revolutionary leader committed to armed struggle and the use of violence against Israel to the world of compromise and diplomacy that would have been required, together with a foresighted Israeli leader, to bring about the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

3. The occupier and the occupied aren’t equals in negotiations.

The good news about Oslo was that Israelis and Palestinians had managed to hammer out a substantive and complex agreement between themselves directly, face-to-face. It’s like that old adage: In the history of the world, nobody has ever washed a rental car. Why? Because folks only care about what they own. Oslo was an example of authentic ownership. Agreement was reached because the parties themselves had a sense of urgency and a need for their own interests to come together without external pressure.

But the Israeli and Palestinian dual act was also bad news because of the power imbalance between the two parties: one the occupier, Israel, and one the occupied, the Palestinians. Given this reality, it was remarkable that anything got done at all in terms of territorial transfer, economic and security cooperation, and building Palestinian institutions.

The asymmetry of power was clear: As the occupier, Israel wielded the power of the strong—the capacity to impose its will on the Palestinians. This took the form of everything from settlement construction, land confiscation, and housing demolitions to closures of the West Bank cities and towns (preventing travel), and targeted killings. Settlement construction was especially egregious, with 115,700 Israeli settlers residing in the West Bank and Gaza at the end of 1993; by mid-1999, that number had risen to 176,973.

Palestinians, on the other hand, wielded the power of the weak: terrorism. As the weaker party in the negotiations, Palestinian leaders rationalized the use of terror and violence and the armed struggle against Israel as an acceptable instrument to fight back against Israeli occupation and the ongoing settlement expansion. Even though most of the terrorist attacks in the early Oslo years were carried out by Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad outside of the Palestinian Authority’s control, Arafat—who never abandoned the use violence as potential tool—could or would not do more to prevent terrorist attacks or arrest the perpetrators.

From Israel’s perspective, land was transferred to the Palestinians, yet the terrorism continued, raising questions about the PLO’s reliability. From the Palestinian perspective, Israel had put Palestinians on probation. Israel was appropriating land that Palestinians believed to be theirs, and any confidence-building measures were only offered in return for Palestinian performance and good behavior. These mindsets produced a barrier that, in the absence of a third party that could help balance the power asymmetry and press each side to implement their commitments, proved insurmountable.

4. A mediator must be present—and credible.

In many respects, the early years of Oslo were a U.S. negotiator’s dream. Israelis and Palestinians had finally done what we had been encouraging them to do for years: get together and work through their own problems themselves. Rabin briefed U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher on the outlines of the Oslo breakthrough in July, minus the mutual recognition package. But neither Rabin nor Arafat wanted Americans in on the substance—Rabin wanted the United States involved only to pressure the Palestinians but was wary that the Americans might adopt a pro-Palestinian position, and Arafat was concerned they’d side with the Israelis.

And so, in the early years until Rabin’s murder in late 1995, Washington’s role was limited to hosting signing ceremonies, rallying donors, and playing firefighter at critical points when negotiations reached a crisis—such as when a terrorist attack occurred, or when Israeli settlement expansion or other unilateral acts threatened the process. What the United States didn’t—and couldn’t—do, largely because of Israel’s objections, was create the one thing that might have actually given the Oslo process durability: a monitoring mechanism to hold each side to the commitments they had made and, if necessary, impose costs for a breach.

Doing so was a bridge too far. This was partly because of the United States’ traditional special relationship with Israel, which made getting tough with the Israelis, especially on settlement expansion, off limits; partly because of the Clinton administration’s determination to improve relations with Israel after the stormy years of former President George H.W. Bush; and partly because, when it came to Oslo violations, terrorist attacks were understandably viewed as more lethal than settlement expansion and pushed the United States to side with Israel.

From Oslo on, with Rabin’s pro-peace successor Peres and especially with Ehud Barak at the Camp David summit, Clinton didn’t want to jam up Israeli prime ministers. Far too often, Americans—myself included—essentially acted as Israel’s lawyer. What this meant in practice was a disposition favoring Israel on process, substance, tight coordination, and no surprises.

I’ll never forget: On the fourth day of the summit, I saw the late Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on one of the walking paths. He stopped and asked when the Palestinians were going to receive the draft of a paper that we were preparing on the core issues. I said it was taking more time to prepare than we thought. Smiling, Saeb replied, “Aaron, you’ve given it to the Israelis first, haven’t you?” I smiled back and kept on walking.

In the wake of Rabin’s murder, the United States tried to take a more active role. From 1995 to 2000, working with Arafat and two Israeli prime ministers—Benjamin Netanyahu and Barak—Americans were able to keep the process alive, broker three interim accords, and strengthen Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation, with the CIA working directly with the Palestinians. But the same structural factors that made Oslo a long shot even in the heady days of the fall 1993—the absence of an agreed political vision, the perverse dance between the occupier and the occupied, and terrorism and settlements—were simply too much to overcome.

And what proved to be an ill-advised and ill-conceived summit in July 2000 at Camp David, however well intentioned, could not redeem what had already been lost.

In the 30 years since the Oslo Accords, Israeli-Palestinian peace turned out to be anything but inevitable. Looking back, Oslo represented a moment when Israelis and Palestinians came together in hopes of securing a better future.

Paradoxically, talk of potential Israeli-Saudi normalization has revived a key concept of the Oslo process focusing on the so-called Area C, which constitutes 60 percent of the West Bank and is where most of Israel’s settlements are located. There are credible reports of various proposals made by the Palestinian Authority, the United States, and Saudi Arabia arguing that Israel should agree to transfer a significant portion of Area C to Palestinian control as part an agreement between Riyadh and Jerusalem to normalize relations.

Such a proposal will almost certainly be resisted by extremist ministers in Netanyahu’s government, and it’s unclear how flexible Netanyahu—who is desperate for a deal with the Saudis—will be. Still, it would be quite extraordinary if the presumed dead and buried architecture of the Oslo process was resurrected to try to redeem the fast-fading hopes of progress on the Israeli-Palestinian track.

But even with this potential opening, there’s still no clear pathway to end the conflict, and no organizing principle around which a majority of Israelis and Palestinians can rally. Without giving up hope—and we cannot—we also should not succumb to facile illusions and assumptions about silver bullets that can redeem a peaceful future for both peoples. If Oslo demonstrated anything, it’s that even with leadership and partnership, the journey is long, hard, and strewn, more often than not, with failure.

None of this means that the past is inexorably prologue. None of us can see around corners, and abandoning the search for an equitable and durable Israeli-Palestinian peace is neither morally nor ethically responsible—and it’s not in U.S. interests. We need leaders who see peace as critical to their own people and who are prepared to understand and work to accommodate the needs of the other side; a mediator who’s prepared to be reassuring, patient, and tough on both sides when necessary; and an end state that recognizes that a durable and equitable solution depends on a balance of interests, not an asymmetry of power.

None of these things is available now. Yet the United States may someday have another opportunity to pursue Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, and we should do so without illusion and without believing we can do it alone or abandoning that pursuit if we run into serious challenges. And with right-thinking and courageous Israelis and Palestinians, support from the Arab world and beyond, and a fair amount of luck, one day—who knows—we might just get there.

[power-chords]

so what is your thesis?

Oh, that’s a joke on my part. Mostly. To call it a “thesis” exaggerates the level of formality involved. I’m just bitching about the scope of the work, which I feel entitled to do because my insistence on pursuing this is less a function of personal choice than personal pathology.

Regardless, it IS intended to address the lack of interdisciplinary synthesis on a literature graduate and polymath whose formative influences are known to preempt his interest in film by at least 20 years. Mann's approach to filmmaking — in structure, in semantic ambition — is grounded in a literary systems analysis that he quite literally inherited as the descendant of Russian/Ukrainian Jewish émigrés; that would soon later reach a fever pitch in American English departments in the form of its descendants when he was a student. And like, in fairness, it took Mann being like "Heat is my Faust. By the way ;)" before I myself was like "OOHHHH" and simultaneously zoomed in and zoomed out to examine his work at the requisite resolution(s). I've been tugging at threads ever since to see what unravels and what leads me closer to the center of the labyrinth.

The irony is that the film literature has mostly missed the trees for the forest, and the forests for the biome. In the same way that Goethe had to iterate upon the constituent structure of Faust in order to "bring current" and encapsulate a more complete historical and referential sphere for its mythic content, Mann is using the component forms of cinema — its emergent technological and visual language, right down to grammar and syntax — to chart the "becoming" of a new postmodern age, its grand crises of meaning and morality. To quote Goethe: "Content brings form with it; form is never without content."

This is, for example, why you have Pacino and De Niro playing the roles that they do in Heat; why Heat exists in no fewer than four different evolutionary stages; why Tom Cruise was cast as Vincent in Collateral and why the film was shot digital (also why Mann initially considered casting a woman as Vincent!!!); why every last detail down to the buttons on a suit jacket or a "psychotic kitchen chair" brokers his consideration; why he hates the S-word; why every one of his actors receives a complete backstory and life history for the character; why he CUTS AND RE-CUTS AND RE-CUTS AND RE-CUTS FOREVER AND EVER FROM EDITION TO EDITION... I could go on. He's not just an auteur, he's the ur-auteur. The inter-text is the text, and there is nothing outside the text, for him maybe more than anyone else.

[tarns-neurodivergent-lookbook]

How I Purged My Entire Closet in 48 Hours (PT.1: Preparing for a Purge)

TL;DR:

    Step 1: Do ALL your laundry.     Step 2: Sort your clothes into broad categories and write them down.     Step 3: Decide which categories you're purging today.     Step 3.5: Put everything you're not purging out of sight.     Step 4: Purge.

But if you want to know all the details of how I made it go so quickly for my neurodivergent self, here are the real steps to purging an entire closet.

The Real Steps to Purging an Entire Closet

Real Step 1:Understand how your brain categorizes your clothes.

Take a look at where you currently keep your clean clothes or how you aspire to store them. Are your socks and underwear crammed together in the same space, making it difficult to find the pizza patterned socks you really want to wear today? Apply the same concept to other clothing items as well. For example, if you have multiple styles of shirts mixed in the same drawer, it can lead to mental overload and analysis paralysis. Real life example:

Before my clothes purge, all my shirts from crop tops to casual long sleeves were crammed into the same drawer. This chaotic system didn't work for me because I rely on visual organization. If things aren't visible at first glance, they might as well not exist. Real Step 2: Categorize your clothes!

Here's my primary categories and subcategories: Tops Crops (sleeves of any length) Tanks Tees Nice Short Sleeves and No Sleeves Formal Short Sleeves and No Sleeves Casual Long Sleeves Nice Long Sleeves Formal Long Sleeves Exercise Bottoms Short Shorts Shorts Long Shorts Capris (purge category) Jeans Casual Pants Formal Pants Exercise Intimates Bras Sports Bras Underwear Boxers Socks Thigh High Mid Calf Above Ankle Ankle Tights Bathing Suits Masc Suits Fem Suits Secondary Warm Layer Sweaters with buttons Sweaters without buttons Hoodies Dresses (Sorted by formality) Skirts (also sorted by formality) Officewear, Etc. Coats Exercise Raincoats Vintage Winter Casual Accessories such as shoes, belts, hats, jewelry, as complementary items, are their own beasts and will be addressed separately after purging the bulk of clothing. The key aspect of Step 2 is that the bolded categories are planned and intentional, while some subcategories emerge organically as I take stock of my belongings and determine their appropriate spot.

Example of planned vs organic subcategories:

For intimates, I utilize a plastic chest of drawers. The top drawer is reserved for bras, the middle one for underwear, and the bottom one for socks. Purging according to these categories, one at a time, was part of my plan.

On the other hand, regarding tops as referred to in Step 1, I initially stored all of them in the same drawer. However when I had them all on the floor in front of me during the purging process…

The twelve piles pictured organically developed.

The bottom left pile consisted of items to be hung up, including long sleeves that didn't belong in that drawer to begin with, and nicer short and sleeveless tops. The three center piles were t-shirts sorted by level of "formality," while the six piles on the right were tank tops and crop tops. Why Categorize and Subcategorize Before Purging? Addressing similar clothing groups individually is far less overwhelming than tackling the entire "shirts" category at once. This approach allows me to evaluate each shirt as part of my wardrobe, going beyond a simple decision of whether to keep or discard it.

For instance, I categorized together these four functionally identical shirts (tops/short sleeve/nice but not formal/neutral):  

If I had sorted "Tops" as a whole instead of categorizing first, I might have kept all four without realizing that two of them were similar enough to purge.  By considering the specific subcategory, I was able to identify the factors that led me to purge the two on the left in favor of keeping the more flattering V-neck style in a much better condition.

Breaking down the process into manageable clothing categories before tackling allowed me to evaluate each item based on its function and relevance to my wardrobe, rather than feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of clothing or missing near-duplicates. In Part 2 of "How I Purged My Entire Closet in 48 Hours," I'll elaborate on how I purged based on the most flattering colors and cuts that complement my personal style, referencing seasonal color analysis and the Kibbe system.

[charlesangels03]

ART CRITIC PAPER

Title: Candle Vendors

Artist:Vicente Manansala

Medium: Painting

Date: 1977

Introduction

Candle Vendors (1977) by Vicente Manansala is an artistic blend of cubism and the cultural elements of the Filipinos, an oil in canvas. This artwork reflects the everyday life of the people of the Philippines by Manansala. This artwork portrays the four women selling a candle, reflecting the artist connection to the culture and his use of cubism. It explores the intricate pattern, vibrant colors and the culture of the people mixed in the painting, it also reflects the life of the people at that time, this artwork is conveying a story of the life of the Filipino.

Details

This artwork is a captivating oil painting of Vicente Manansala,portraying the Cubism's unique approach, created in 1976. It is portraying three women selling candles in a market place, beside a hallway heading to darkness. The three women are facing front with the use of the shadows and light to emphasize the subject of the painting. The intricate design of this artwork are the lines that creates an illusion of an abstract painting rather than cubism, another is the color palette used, an intriguing color scheme that emphasizes the arts details that gives life to the painting.

Formal Analysis

This artwork of Vicente Manansala called the”Candle Vendor” is an example of his masterful clear cubism technique. The is focused on the four women selling candles at a market, with two women looking at the front and two which looks the other way. Showing the contrasting colors by using shadows to highlight and the angles of the subject to show the important details like the expression of the face, and the way the corridor is from a wider part to getting smaller that heads to a dark area, emphasizing a movement that emphasizes the Cubism technique. The colors that are clearly present are the brown, black and white from the corridor, the red and white from the candles and the green with red and white in the outfits of the women. He used the light and dark colors to contrast one another and  emphasize the shape and lines that focus on the subjects and creating a spacial dynamics . Manansala used the space by placing the figures within view with light, also within the shadow and hidden making it appear real and intriguing.

Interpretation

This artwork of  Vicente Manansala explore the culture and identity of the Filipinos through the use of cubism. The paintings description about the women selling the candles, is a picture of the spirit and strong Filipino people. There are some reflections, like the women selling candles that reflects the determination and struggle in the everyday life of the people, it also highlights the economic of the Philippines. The candles is a representation of hope that encourages their lives. His use of the Cubism technique, connects the modern and traditional theme of the art. The various perspective shown in the artwork invites the viewer to see it in different angles, showing the complex life of the Filipino people. The color palette of the painting  suggest an alluring and sentimental approach for the viewers of the art. The expressions of the women evoke a sense of dignity and  strength as they work hard. This art piece is a multi-layered art full of culture and tradition of the Filipino life.

Judgement

The  elements within this art are showing a unity within the painting. With the geometrical shapes that makes an illusion of an abstract painting, with just the shadow and light that creates an emphasis and depth to the artwork. The shades of the color present in this art provides a peaceful ambiance, but also a dignifying one that draw’s an attention. This arts theme vary from interaction and connection by showing the different angle of the women selling candles, with this depiction in the art we can say that they shared an activity in different angles and contrasting colors that interrelates it all together. This pieces light and shadows, symbolism within and the color palette interrelates to one another to create a unity and making it intriguing to the viewers.

Conclusion

The artwork of Vincent Manansala called “Candle Vendor” is a combination of modern and traditional culture and techniques. Through his use of the Cubism method, Manansala shows the everyday life within the Philippines, that focus on the spirit and and strength of the people. This is a composition of contrasting colors, harmonious vibe, and symbolism interrelate to one another, creating an impact and connecting with the viewers.

[wainswright]

This is a guy trying to start a cult when he was around 20 (apparently he tried again in HP after losing all converts in LOTR but I haven’t read that far, putting here for notes.)

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/19GpMh506PQNBB4qeTdASHirmJ2YwzElEjHoOSLiYtLc

Putting this informally because I’ve come to dislike a lurid approach, I think “cult” is a specific word related to a specific approach and idea, and is otherwise not specific enough to describe more formalized/organized for lack of a better word consistent recognition of abuses within high-control groups (a little more specific a term) or the concepts behind extremist political movements or small abusive groups or even, at some stretch, abusive corporate practices present in corporate towns.

Military seems to be a separate concept that has to be approached differently for scale, commonality, and mixing with bureaucracy and greater political system classification.

But for these small, convenient to try to finagle over the internet ‘cult’ affairs, there are a few consistent factors that lead to harm that look pretty noticeable.

This is also informal in rigor, because I’m reading a blog post and bloggin.

1. Vague mythos. Weakest, more like a style or use of mythos in response to specific questions/in relation to behavior. It more represents a path to future harm than guaranteeing harm in itself and would require extremely specific analysis not put here. It is not only possible, but common for people to attend small isolated camps to improve a skill. However, these camps are usually acknowledged by wider society and have a proven track record of success, (ideally) competent teachers with records of knowledgeable cogent skill and success, and an understandable and specific road map to specific kinds of knowledge or skill. To skip to the heuristic, if someone reflexively and seriously answers they are “saving the world” in response to someone completely trusting them to teach erstwhile esoteric knowledge, this is so vague it’s more a requirement of belief in faith than a guarantee of a specific skill. (Not that pseudo science babble is better, but that’s a different analysis.) It’s pretty odd. I’m sure anything sufficiently unmeasurable or elastic with vibes based interpretation like spiritual power or inherent intuition of correctness is also rife with potential promise of idealism/persistent vagueness that can get people invested with a very low chance of actual practical use (its kind of like saying think good thoughts for success), if not necessarily abusive or guaranteeing abuse. It does flag as scam, unintentional or not, to me.

It’s another thing to explicitly try experimental approaches to something, I guess? If the idea is a hook, then “being special, intelligent, a secret elite agent for good,” is universally appealing. But it’s more of an induction to a society than a specific skill guarantee. It’s certainly possible someone might rediscover the benefits of emotional regulation as questionably conveyed by aspiring cult leader, even if this is not necessarily exclusive to the brand. Suggesting 24/7 strictly monitored changes in cognition are also somewhat suspect under most circumstances, belying the fact learning anything new requires some amount of blind trust, at least in more novel-to-a-person areas. (sometimes heuristics such as confidence and looks aren’t accurate. discussion later.) But concern kicks in more when paired with the following-

2. Control. (totalitarian.) Mounting pressure (“that somehow just happens”) to cut off all friends unrelated to the brand, teaching people to repeat alienating rhetoric to people not into the brand, being the sole source of food and shelter and money and positive attention and then intermittently using this to pressure and threaten the inductee, no matter the aspiring cult leader’s seeming “awareness” of this pressure- also, they are always suffering some looming crisis that can only be solved by total subservience that can’t have independent conclusions or analysis. (By this I mean there’s actual ways a prophecy can be proven wrong or changed in any detail or way. expand later.) Prophet-coded. (Life after death is sufficiently vague. A fear of death, fomo, hope for legacy, fame, money, respect, honor- always in style, let’s say.) A need for emotional reliance from inductees, which can just be equivalent to close friendship, with the harmful part being the consistent abuse of trust, emotional abuse, creating a distorted picture of reality and probable eventual financial demands where it essentially just becomes a grift of fake promises and emotional investment by spinning a story and periodically rattling the inductee’s cage for continued crisis support while there is no actual crisis except the refusal to acknowledge there is some endpoint to lying where apparently all the person wants is social (and even excessively monetary) acknowledgement for being gods specialist little guy and war hero without the any of the work required for how similar accolades could be earned irl. Which is common enough, except for all the charity scams and physical or emotional abuse or years stolen from others that seem common to this sort of grift. I suppose the tell would be a weirdly constant state of stress that doesn’t quite match up with real world ups and downs, ever. Thinking of youtuber cult incidents, a miasma of suicidal doom of being the only people who know why there’s no hope and people should just kill themselves and this retroactively justifies [whatever a lot of people seem consistently mad about] seems a pretty common unifying theme. I don’t think this is a logical conclusion unless whoever was declaring it is god. That’s another thing, disavowing knowledge or responsibility or harm reduction when clearly taking up a position of authoritative leadership and ducking behind fervent defenders. On one hand, nobody likes facing criticism or the consequences of their mistakes, unintentional or not. On the other hand, guess what the disqualification is to get someone out of a position of authority? Proven abuses of power. (well, complicated, but in terms of usual base reasoning.) In certain formal situations termed functional this is enforced legally, if not so much on the lands of forum when just chatter. (Just remembered the apology video phenomenon. Makeup youtube analysis sometime eh.)

3. Memory editing. After some thought, thought I should throw this in. Research in court evidence history, psychology, and what I know of scientology point to the fact that people can form false memories. When we first recount an event, this will probably be the most accurate representation. With heavy pressure, prompting, and a kind of forced retelling, people can come to believe something is true that is completely and proven with DNA evidence to be untrue, from the face of the person who raped them to the fact there was an argument or tone at all. There appears to be nuance to this in that it’s more applicable to blurry details (?) or trust in someone’s word or representation when in a state of initial disarray and stress that affects someone forming the memory more. (The reason people are not shown police line ups right after a traumatic event, they can imprint on one of the faces even when it is false.) This is not to discount sometimes you genuinely remember things wrong, but I think this is very uncommon, and it is more common that you may have just misread intent and remember the interpretation. (? needs more research, sorry. For example, I don’t know much about hallucinations but I believe there are emotional states when they can be aggravated?) I am under the impression leaders of cults use this phenomenon to try to gaslight inductees that things progressed or happened that did not strictly happen, and I would imagine discourage any questioning of this with accusations of lack of integrity, belief, things important to the inductee’s identity, and general character. The warning signs of this would be a complete obsession with some impossible standard of feelings, perhaps, or periods of constant emotional breakdowns caused by oddly common “personality/memory editing” sessions.

I don’t doubt that this specific nugget can be packaged with more harmless and common venting with friends or seeking opinions or analysis of past behavior with friends, but maybe a warning sign here is that just having emotional reactions in themselves isn’t a bad thing, and if someone is constantly telling you the feeling in itself “shouldn’t be happening,” this is either ignorant or a fishy attempt at control. Having emotional reactions is just a fact, usually a logical response to something and a personal thing besides, the action you take in response to an emotional response can also be reasoned out without constant insults about your inherent inner character. Some emotional reactions are not even that “inherent” or permanent. Also, people are logical in that empirical evidence such as notes written down in the moment, video recordings, photos, or previous cool headed personal analysis can help refresh your memories to confirm what did or did not happen.

Intersecting topic: this comes up with dementia patients in the hospital. False memory is not in itself harmful. And in cases of hallucinations, a belief is genuine, and there is no overarching purpose to insisting it is false. Ah well, this depends on specifics. Situations differ when a false belief would be a basis to harm someone else or spread mass disinformation. Difficult to phrase, will try again later.

In addition, something like a job performance review shouldn’t be literally demanding your loyalty and enthusiasm, though I imagine this is common. Especially in smaller places of employment where people have a go getter attitude! Not necessarily nefarious in base concept, gets historically bad if systemized. Appeal to a higher up is good for being promoted by that higher up, a lack of impairment is a universal privilege, but I don’t believe there’s real jobs (exceptions for working with very specific sensitive situations, maybe, or ideologically based partnership) that can justify requiring a specific kneejerk emotional reaction/personality more than competence at a specific task. Basic ability to be sociable aside, (i genuinely think think this is a skill more than inherent anything, while easier for some people more than others,) which is also generally helpful.

All of this does not deny the existence of suppressed memories from trauma, witness testimony gathered under standards and in aggregate or specific, contentious friendships, vague yoga summer camps, or jointly paid rent friend groups where everyone is into a similar ideological goal, although the last one might cause a different subset of interpersonal issues, it is not necessarily abusive. (this is why im meh on the word cult, it doesn’t describe dynamics but tries to characterize a more nebulous social “thing.” the jim jones cult was explicitly based off of a religion. i’m also fairly sure the use of cult as an identifying word was championed by news headlines, which often are based off of vibes that excite the imagination, which isn’t always useful for more specific analysis where consistent judgments and accuracy are essential.) (I also think it’s inherently confusing while pushing a supernatural definition- people say cults are bad referring to the abuse, not the “state of mind of feeling belief in a cause” I mean it’s a problem when the methodology seemingly necessitates abuse, ptsd, false beliefs enforced by various means to “disincentivize” having different beliefs. things like that.)

I should rephrase this later, but- it appears the downsides to putting people in a constant state of isolated escalated stakes over tiny signals, or under stress/pressure via lies on hairpin fractures may lead to intentionally aggravated suggestible states of mind from distress, erratic behavior, emotional or physical abuse accepted and dealt out thoughtlessly to surroundings, and make murder look like a reasonable and logical decision when in an ordinary circumstance it would not. If it does not go that far, a constant regret and persisting negative reaction at the mistreatment. Salesman put people in a state of panic to narrow their options and inhibit their calm judgement, but an aspiring cult leader doing this long term to people who trust them in a position of authority goes beyond we-live-in-a-society manipulative and into ‘ruining people’s lives’ and ‘justifiably getting sued for assault or blackmail or fraud.’

[theblogs2024]

How You can Make use of a Matchmaking Company: A Step-by-Stage Information to Acquiring Really like

While in the age of digital relationship, where swipes and likes dominate the hunt for adore, matchmaking companies offer you a customized and efficient option. These services, operate by Qualified matchmakers, provide a curated method of locating significant relationships. But how do you make the most of the matchmaking support? This stage-by-action information will walk you thru the process, helping you know how to use a matchmaking assistance to seek out your excellent match.

Action one: Exploration and Pick the Ideal Matchmaking Assistance Before diving in to the matchmaking approach, it’s vital to pick the correct assistance for you personally. Below’s how:

Determine Your requirements: Identify Whatever you’re in search of in a connection and what sort of service satisfies your lifestyle. Have you been seeking area matches or are you open up to extended-distance associations?

Analysis Companies: Try to look for matchmaking services with excellent reputations, favourable assessments, in addition to a demonstrated track record. Consider things including expertise, consumer recommendations, and success tales.

Consultations: Several matchmaking expert services offer cost-free Original consultations. Use this chance to request thoughts, have an understanding of their process, and see if their strategy aligns with your preferences.

Action 2: Preliminary Consultation and Profile Creation After you’ve chosen a matchmaking provider, the method commonly starts by having an in-depth session.

Personal Session: All through this session, the matchmaker can get to know you. Be ready to examine your romance history, particular preferences, values, and That which you’re seeking inside a partner.

Honesty is vital: Be open up and trustworthy in the course of this session. The greater accurate and specific your info, the greater your matchmaker can discover acceptable matches.

Profile Creation: Depending on your session, the matchmaker will create a detailed profile that highlights your character, passions, and marriage ambitions.

Step three: Match Variety and Vetting With your profile in hand, the matchmaker will commence the entire process of picking probable matches.

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Give Responses: Share your views and ordeals together with your matchmaker. What did you like with regards to the match? What may very well be enhanced?

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Check more info. here: how to use a matchmaking service

[evoldir]

Fwd: Postdoc: CER_Hungary.EvolBiologicalInvasions

Begin forwarded message: > From: evoldir@evol.biology.mcmaster.ca > Subject: Postdoc: CER_Hungary.EvolBiologicalInvasions > Date: 17 May 2024 at 05:12:13 BST > To: rdmpage@gmail.com > > > > CER_Buadapest.EvolutionaryEcology > > Postdoctoral Position in evolutionary ecology of biological invasions > > HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research (CER) is looking to hire a > Postdoctoral Researcher for 18 months (with a possibility of continuation) > to work on the evolutionary ecological aspects of invasion biology as a > part of the Invasion Biology Division (IBD) of the National Laboratory > for Health Security. > > BACKGROUND: > > The establishment and expansion of non-native species is one of the > great challenges of our time. Invasive alien species are one of the > major drivers of biodiversity loss, which generally negatively affect > the economy and human health. The Invasion Biology Division (one > of the four pillars of the National Laboratory of Health Security, > https://ift.tt/TbpUlah) aims to understand the ecological and > evolutionary causes and consequences of the establishment and spread > of invasive species through a unified approach. Our goals are also to > explore the social and economic consequences of invasions, and develop > methods of prediction and control based on scientific evidence. > > OUR WORK: > > Invasion Biology Division (https://ift.tt/wL0ncVz) > covers all aspects of invasion biology research with a focus on a broad > spectrum of animal and plant taxa. We aim to document and continuously > monitor invasion and spread of various target species that play a key role > in conservation, economic or social terms by applying various methods, > e.g. citizen science mapping, field sampling, taxonomic identification, > genetic screening, meta-analysis and phylogenetic comparative methods. We > intend to reveal the causes behind the success of invasive species by > studying the morphological, physiological and life-history traits and > invasion pathways, as well as to uncover the evolutionary dynamics > of invasion. > > JOB DESCRIPTIONS: > > We are looking for an applicant with a solid background in ecology > and/or evolution who demonstrates interest in the research fields of > Invasion Biology Division and is keen to work on any of the studied > model organisms (see the research topics of different working groups > at https://ift.tt/oqROrML) > > Ideally, we expect the candidate to work on her/his own (but with the > ability to communicate effectively as a member of a team), and could > bring novel concepts/expertise within the research project. As a formal > qualification, the candidate must hold a PhD degree (or equivalent), > and a considerable publication record. > > The postdoc will be based at the CER (https://ift.tt/s4zE3lM), > Hungary's largest ecology and evolution institute, with more than > 200 researchers and a diverse array of research topics. The research > program is incorporated into a larger National Laboratory platform that > establishes strong collaborations with sixteen research institutes > along the One Health concept. The postdoc will work in Budapest or > in Vácrátót (a beautiful botanical garden) and will interact with > members of the other research groups and institutes, but we offer high > flexibility with regard to the working routine. Salary range will be > subject to further negotiations and will depend on professional experience > of the candidate as well as on the requirements of the National Laboratory > program in Hungary. > > To apply, please just send an email to kiss.orsolya@ecolres.hu with the > following pdf documents as attachments: CV (max 2 pages), cover letter > specifying the applicant’s motivations (max 1 page), one or max two > recommendations suggested. All applications, irrespective of age, gender, > disability, race, religion or ethnic background, are welcome. The deadline > for applications is 15/06/2024. > > László Zsolt Garamszegi > Project leader (IBD) — Director general (CER) > > > László Zsolt Garamszegi

[unanihakeem]

Unraveling the Legacy of Unani Medicine in Mumbai: A Time-Honored Tradition in the Heart of the City

Introduction:

In the bustling metropolis of Mumbai, where skyscrapers kiss the sky and the pace of life never seems to slow, there exists a hidden treasure trove of ancient healing wisdom. Nestled amidst the chaotic streets and vibrant culture lies the tradition of Unani medicine, a holistic approach to healthcare that has stood the test of time. In this blog, we delve into the rich history, principles, and contemporary relevance of Unani medicine in Mumbai, exploring its profound impact on the health and well-being of its inhabitants.

Unraveling the Origins of Unani Medicine:

Unani medicine traces its roots back to ancient Greece, where the renowned physician Hippocrates laid the foundation for a system of healing based on the balance of the four humors – blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Over the centuries, this ancient knowledge was passed down through the Persian and Arab civilizations, eventually finding its way to the Indian subcontinent during the medieval period.

Leech therapy in Mumbai flourished under the patronage of the Mughal rulers, who valued its holistic approach to health and healing. The city became a hub for Unani scholars and practitioners, with prestigious institutions such as the Hamdard University contributing to its growth and development.

Principles of Unani Medicine:

At the heart of Unani medicine lies the concept of the human body as a microcosm of the universe, governed by the same elemental forces – earth, water, air, and fire. Health is seen as a state of balance between these elements, while disease is viewed as an imbalance or disruption in their equilibrium.

Unani physicians employ a range of diagnostic techniques, including pulse diagnosis (Nabz), urine analysis (Baraz), and examination of the patient's temperament (Mizaj), to identify the underlying cause of illness. Treatment modalities may include herbal remedies, dietary modifications, physical therapies, and spiritual practices, all aimed at restoring the body's natural harmony.

Revival and Resurgence in Modern Mumbai:

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in Unani medicine in Mumbai, fueled by a growing awareness of its holistic approach and emphasis on natural remedies. As people seek alternatives to conventional healthcare, Unani clinics and wellness centers have sprung up across the city, offering a range of services to meet the diverse needs of its inhabitants.

One such example is the Tibbiya College and Hospital, affiliated with the Aligarh Muslim University, which has been at the forefront of Unani education and research in Mumbai. Here, students learn not only the theoretical principles of Unani medicine online but also gain practical experience through hands-on training and clinical rotations.

In addition to formal institutions, Mumbai is home to a vibrant community of traditional healers and herbalists who continue to practice the ancient art of Unani medicine in its purest form. These healers, known as Hakims, draw upon centuries of wisdom passed down through generations, treating ailments ranging from common colds to chronic diseases with a combination of herbs, spices, and natural remedies.

Challenges and Opportunities:

Despite its rich heritage and proven efficacy, Unani medicine faces several challenges in modern Mumbai. One of the primary obstacles is the lack of recognition and support from mainstream healthcare systems, which often favor allopathic medicine over traditional healing modalities. This has led to a disparity in access to Unani healthcare services, particularly among marginalized communities who may rely solely on government-funded facilities.

Another challenge is the integration of Unani medicine into the broader healthcare landscape, including the regulation of practitioners and the standardization of treatment protocols. While efforts have been made to establish regulatory bodies and licensing requirements for Unani practitioners, there is still much work to be done to ensure quality control and patient safety.

However, amidst these challenges lie opportunities for growth and innovation. With the rise of holistic health movements and the increasing demand for personalized and preventive care, Unani medicine is poised to make a resurgence in Mumbai and beyond. By embracing its cultural heritage and adapting to modern times, Unani practitioners have the potential to revolutionize healthcare delivery and promote wellness for all.

Conclusion:

In the fast-paced urban environment of Mumbai, where stress and lifestyle-related diseases are on the rise, the ancient wisdom of Unani medicine offers a beacon of hope for those seeking holistic and natural solutions to their health concerns. As the city continues to evolve and embrace diverse healing traditions, Unani medicine stands as a testament to the enduring power of ancient knowledge in the modern world. Through education, advocacy, and community engagement, we can ensure that the legacy of Unani medicine thrives for generations to come, enriching the lives of Mumbai's inhabitants and beyond.

[the-woes-of-an-english-teacher]

Author’s intent

Literary analysis is an essential component of high school English classes. It’s a challenge right now because reading and writing stamina are low, as are attention spans. It’s also difficult to balance literary classics with modern literature. This is why I love short stories so much. I’ll address that in my next post.

Today’s debatable issue: how important is authorial intent? I would not dare say it’s totally unnecessary, however can we really know an author’s intent? Isn’t that ultimately a form of conjecture?

My favorite professor from High Point University said this:

Ben, That's a raging question these days. My answer is that a writer has no control over the interpretation of his/her poem, which will always be filtered through a reader's intellectual background, experience, and feelings. I'm a poet with four books; I give readings often in North Carolina. I am delighted by the range of reactions conveyed by listeners and readers. Some are stunningly perceptive; others discover nuances I never imagined were in the poem; some seem irrelevant. When a poem leaves my hands, it belongs to others. I do not want to limit their responses to what my intention was. Ben, sometimes I don't know what I mean to do in a poem. I start with an image, a snatch of dialogue, or a memory. My poetry rises from life, not from ideas. It often leads to strange, unanticipated places. That's good. When you develop thoughts, you are writing essays or sermons. Poets don't sit down and think, "Now what do I want to say?" When you follow a trail in the woods instead of a train of thoughts, you never know where the trail is going until you get to the end. It could be a fork and the road not taken; it could be a pregnant deer wounded by a hunter; it could be the ghost of your grandfather saying, "It's time for us to talk." Poetry is not pro forma; paint by numbers. Now here's the flip side: Formalist critics like T.S. Eliot and the Fugitive School argued that an analyst needed to restrict interpretation to the words of the poem, to what was on the page. They emphasized formal analysis instead of the author's biography, history, or personality. I admire this approach until it becomes too rigid. I think everything should be taken into account, beginning with what's on the page and then considering outside factors. No real poet would ever want to insist that a poem means one thing and one thing only or that the poet's intention must be exalted above all. The Formalists called focusing on an author's intention "the intentional fallacy." I think you should stress what's on the page but be willing to move outside the poem for influences, etc. If you google me, you can find some of my poems in journals. If you want to ask me about my intention in a specific poem, I'll try to answer and to mention where the poem went….Congrats on your teaching career. You were a sharp, energetic student--a pleasure to talk with.

#literature #books #analysis