#NH 90

[opelman]

ECB / 1482 - NH Industrie NH 90 TTH by Laurent Quérité Via Flickr: Meeting Aérien Airshow Aérotorshow 2024 Alat 5ème RHC French Army Valence Chabeuil LFLU France IMG_7810

[nocternalrandomness]

NH-90 Silverback operated by the Royal Netherlands Navy parked at Volkel Airbase

[gravitywonagain]

Can't Cheat Death While You're Digging Your Own Grave; Part 4

Continued from [1][2][3]

What if Nie Huaisang and Wei Wuxian were closer? Sworn brothers, even? What if NHS visited WWX in Yiling?

Prompt from the wonderful @shiranai-atsune

[T (for now?), implied Wangxian, 1.4k, 4/?]

~

To say that the ambush was uneventful would technically be a lie. There were events. Upsetting ones, too. 

Nie Huaisang’s heart leapt into his throat and his feet froze to the ground when the Ghost General jolted abruptly -- a motion faster than sound -- and caught an arrow that was aimed for the center of Wei Wuxian’s chest. 

He wasn’t sure whether it was the Ghost General’s sudden movement or the attack on Wei Wuxian’s life that had Nie Zonghui reaching for his dual sabers, but the effect was the same once he’d seen the arrow clenched in the undead man’s fist. Nie disciples that had been trailing at a respectable distance flowed around them like water. Grey and green robes flared their allegiance loud and clear so that even the pompous ass up on the cliff could not be mistaken over such a declaration of protective intent. 

The idiot didn’t take the hint and started calling out Wei Wuxian for cursing him. He opened his robes, too, which was a disturbing sight, even without the curse-mottled flesh. 

It would take too much effort for Nie Huaisang to roll his eyes in a way that would be visible to Jin Zixun and the couple hundred disciples would actually be able to see, so he kept it small. Just a little look between himself and Wei-xiong. 

He and Wei-xiong had been engaging in a pleasantly light back-and-forth regarding the superiority of weasel hair over squirrel hair in calligraphy brushes -- Wei Wuxian was wrong, there was a significant difference in quality using the former -- when they were very rudely interrupted by Jin Zixun’s completely predictable attack. 

His friend wasn’t even a little bit shaken by the arrow aimed at his chest. Or the hundreds of arrows still aimed at him from up on the cliffs. Annoyed maybe, like Nie Huaisang was, at being interrupted or at being proven right by this random Jin cousin of all people. But he just smiled at Nie Huaisang’s eyeroll, a sideways grin that reminded Nie Huaisang of passing porn back and forth over peanut shells and jars of Emperor’s Smile. 

Wei Wuxian looked like he wanted to yell something back at Jin Zixun’s inane accusation, but Nie Huaisang beat him to it. It was better if he handled this. Better if it came back on the Nie directly. Better if Nie Mingjue’s useless brother was the one who insulted Jin Guangshan’s favorite nephew. 

There was a short back and forth between Jin Zixun and Nie Huaisang that roughly amounted to the former repeating variations of, “But he cursed me,” and the latter counting through all the ways he could think to politely say, “Nobody cares.” 

Nie Huaisang knew Wei Wuxian hadn’t cursed Jin Zixun because sometime in the middle of that back and forth, Wei-xiong leaned over to him and asked, very sincerely, “Who the fuck is this guy, again?”

Also, Wei Wuxian wasn’t exactly a man of subtlety. Or of half measures. Nie Huaisang was fairly convinced that if Wei Wuxian had cursed someone with one hundred holes in their chest, the holes would spell out his name, or list out their transgressions in order of most annoying to him, specifically. 

But none of that mattered in reality. Jin Zixun was convinced Wei Wuxian had done it, and Jins tended to become intractable when their ego was at stake. Probably, Jin Zixun had built himself up in his own mind as the nemesis of the Yiling Patriarch. Disabusing him of that notion would get them nowhere, so Nie Huaisang, instead, said, “He is under the protection of Qinghe Nie. You can take it up with my brother.” 

That seemed to shut Jin Zixun up quite nicely. 

Wen Qing, standing in front of her brother like she could protect him -- the probably immortal and incredibly powerful sentient fierce corpse -- from the world, looked shocked that such a lazy threat had actually worked. But, then, she’d never been on a battlefield with Da-ge, so Nie Huaisang could forgive her her surprise. 

The Jin disciples and, curiously, Lan disciples up on the cliffs began to retreat back toward Koi Tower. Jin Zixun lingered for a moment. But then his cousin came flying in on his sword, yelling at him from the air. 

Which was also curious. 

Nie Huaisang decided to ponder the timing of that more later. 

So while there had certainly been events that took place, the whole of the matter was finished within moments and nothing but bluster had actually come of it. Well, bluster and the dubious satisfaction of having their suspicions -- and their precaution -- validated. 

After a blubbering explanation from Jin Zixun and a much more coherent and succinct one from Nie Zonghui, Jin Zixuan agreed to escort his cousin back to Koi Tower himself and to relay the situation to Da-ge. Jin Zixun paled, possibly recalling Da-ge’s war face. The two of them left swiftly after that, the one’s reproof drowned out by the other’s whimpering. 

Predictably, Da-ge met them at the foot of the stairs when they arrived. He exchanged a quick few sentences with Nie Zonghui as he fretted, in his way, over Nie Huaisang. Gruff words to make up for gruff hands that had to refrain from touching and grabbing and patting him down to verify he was still in one piece while they were in public. (He was sure Da-ge was going to make him account for every inch of his skin later -- if not for scrapes and bruises, then surely for curse marks.) It was annoying, but sweet in Da-ge’s way. 

It was also to their benefit, so Nie Huaisang leaned into it, whining loudly to his brother and sect leader about how scared he’d been when Jin Zixun shot at Wei-xiong. 

He made sure to call Wei Wuxian “Wei-xiong” or “Xian-di” as often and as overtly as possible. Their intention to swear brotherhood should have been well known in Lanling by then, if his gossip mill was doing their job correctly, and if anyone but a Lan had been paying attention. But it was still important to reinforce the idea for the eyes and ears they’d captured with their dramatic arrival. 

Nothing damning showed on Jin Guangshan's face as he welcomed the Nie, Wei Wuxian, and two Wens into his banquet hall, but then, Nie Huaisang hadn't really expected it would. Jin Guangshan had been at his games much longer than Nie Huaisang had even been alive. They would just have to make sure to keep a close eye on Wei Wuxian and his Wens. It wouldn't be good to let them get separated, picked off one by one, and used against each other.

A quick glance around the room showed Lan Wangji paying very close attention to their little party. Lan Xichen, too, probably interested to know what his own disciples had been up to and why they were following Jin Zixun of all people. He departed his circle of delegates to corner San-ge. But Lan Wangji's gaze was fixed on Wei Wuxian.

Nie Huaisang watched him closely from behind the theatrics of his fluttering fan. He knew Wei-xiong was besotted with Lan Wangji. (He'd known before Wei Wuxian did, though it was nice that he'd figured it out on his own sometime since the lectures.) But, while he'd known Lan Wangji for much longer, the Second Jade's face was much more difficult for him to read. He didn't know whether Lan Wangji's continuous pestering of Wei Wuxian during the Sunshot campaign was born of worry or of actually, very Lan-like disdain for the kind of things Wei-xiong had been up to around then.

Was this close attention now worry for a man held in high regard? Or was it apprehension directed at an enemy of orthodox cultivation? Nie Huaisang was rather annoyed to discover that he couldn't tell.

Regardless, many eyes in the room were on them. Many afraid, many concerned, and many confused. It would be helpful if he and Wei-xiong could do their ceremony immediately. But that would be far too rude, which would, of course, harm their cause more than help it.

They could make it three days, Nie Huaisang was sure of it. Each of them were highly competent individuals. Capable of great feats and great focus when required.

Whether or not their opposition would catch them out somehow, well. That remained to be seen.

~

Tag list: @greywake (if anyone wants to be added for updates, let me know!)

[swaggerblonde]

Swagger Blonde Let's Play Theme Hospital PlayStation 1 #1 First hospital!

[corvidcrafts273]

GUYS I CANNOT STOP THINKING ABOUT NYE

[karliahs]

spoke to a new doctor today and he said he'd noticed I'd had a referral for trans healthcare and wanted to make sure they had my correct pronouns/name on the system and I immediately started crying a little

like. not even just the supportive of trans stuff aspect but just the fact that he had looked at my medical records beyond the absolute bare minimum he needed to. and cared about what i preferred, in any context

[thegreatestfilmnevermade]

today's song: 14th july, 2024 - 'On The Bound' by Fiona Apple (1999)

'genius' description: “On the Bound”, the opening song of 1999’s When the Pawn…, shows a Fiona Apple who’s struggling with her happy and prosperous (love)life, deciding pessimism might be the best choice for her.

personal thoughts: this song is so fierce, spellbinding, grand, immense & exquisite. And the chorus floors me. fiona apple is another one of my top 5 artists ever, she really just puts her entirety in everything she makes. this album is no exception. the arrangement of this song is absolutely jaw dropping.

what about you? what's your favourite of Apple's discography?

if you like this... weyes blood, elliot smith, pj harvey, st. vincent

[dogbunni]

My Dr has me wearing a 24hr blood pressure monitor and holy shit. the readings I've been getting. my high readings at the drs office were not white coat anxiety 👀

[cosmicrhetoric]

love when my parents/aunties/uncles go on vacation to a relatively white area cause they always go out for dinner and look around like wow 😊 look everyone here looks like us. so nice to see :) like yeah aunty you're at taco bell. youre at chipotle. it's not that rural new england is very brown it's that every brown person in rural new england is also here

[theabigailthorn]

What in the academic fuck is a GIC assesment

A GIC assessment (Gender Identity Clinic) assessment is the psychiatric interrogation you have to go through in Britain if you want permission to medically transition (and some aspects of legal transition too). Also called a Gender Dysphoria Assessment.

It involves answering a bunch of medically irrelevant, repetitive, deeply humiliating, repetitive questions like how you masturbate, what you wear when you masturbate, your sexual history, your childhood history, what toys you played with as a child, your employment, the clothes you like to wear, your relationship with your partners and family, etc. The classic is "Do you imagine yourself as a woman when you masturbate?" It also involves various psychiatric tests to check whether you're psychotic, which are deeply stigmatising. You will likely have to suffer this interrogation more than once if you want certain medical and legal doors to open. If you do not answer these questions "correctly" you may be refused transition.

If you want to get it for free, you'll need to wait several years, possibly decades depending on where you live, to be admitted to a Gender Identity Clinic.

If you want to go private, it will cost you about £500 a go, maybe more. (It's not technically a GIC Assessment unless it takes place at an NHS GIC; otherwise it's just sparkling humiliation.)

At the end of your interrogation you will - if you answered correctly - be diagnosed with "gender dysphoria." There is no way for them to check whether the answers you gave were truthful or whether you just told them what they want to hear. In Britain, about a third of trans people surveyed said they lied or withheld information during these assessments. There was no way for the 2015 American Psychiatric Association Working Group on gender dysphoria - the cis people who created the diagnosis* - to know that the interview data they based it on wasn't also full of people telling doctors what they wanted to hear! The unreliability of that data, some researchers have said, calls into serious question the use and sense of the diagnosis! * Fun fact: Ray Blanchard and Kenneth Zucker were both on that working group!

The NHS spends somewhere between 20 and 90 million pounds a year (depending on how you count it) on doing this.

Contrast that process to, say, the treatment pathway for menopause, where a cis woman who wants hormone replacement therapy can just get it from her family doctor 🙃

If you'd like to know more about this, I spoke about it here in more detail with citations

And wrote about it here

[opelman]

EBG / 1403 - NH Industrie NH 90 TTH Caïman by Laurent Quérité Via Flickr: Baccarat 2020 French Army Alat 5ème RHC Aérodrome Grenoble-Le Versoud LFLG Isère France IMG_4660

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - September 8-14

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my new(ly repurposed) Patreon!

1. Pair of rare Amur tiger cubs debuting at Minnesota Zoo are raising hopes for the endangered species

“[The Minnesota Zoo’s] Amur tigers have produced 57 cubs, [… 21 of which] have gone on to produce litters of their own, amounting to another 86 cubs. […] “They’re showing a lot of resiliency, which is something that we work hard for in human care. We want these animals to have a lot of confidence and be able to adapt to new environments just as they’re doing today.””

2. Powered by renewable energy, microbes turn CO₂ into protein and vitamins

“The team designed a two-stage bioreactor system that produces yeast rich in protein and vitamin B9. [… The protein] levels in their yeast exceed those of beef, pork, fish, and lentils. […] Running on clean energy and CO2, the system reduces carbon emissions in food production. It uncouples land use from farming, freeing up space for conservation[… and] will help farmers concentrate on producing vegetables and crops sustainably.”

3. JCPenney Launches Apparel Collection Aimed At Wheelchair Users

“A major department store is rolling out a new line of clothing specifically tailored to meet the needs of women who use wheelchairs featuring options for both everyday wear and special occasions. [… The clothing have] modifications like zippers located for easy access, pocket positioning and extended back rises optimized for the seated position and shorter sleeves to limit interference with wheels.”

4. Snails bred in Edinburgh Zoo sent to re-populate species in French Polynesia

“Thousands of rare partula snails bred at Edinburgh Zoo are to be released in French Polynesia to restore the wild population of the species.The last surviving few of the species were rescued in the early 1990s[….] 15 species and sub-species [are being bred in zoos for repopulation], the majority of which are classed as extinct in the wild.”

5. [NH Joins 19 Other States] to Provide Essential Behavioral Health Services Through Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams

“[CMS] approved New Hampshire’s Medicaid State Plan Amendment for community-based mobile crisis intervention teams to provide services for people experiencing a mental health or substance use disorder crisis. […] The multidisciplinary team provides screening and assessment; stabilization and de-escalation; and coordination with and referrals to health, social, and other services, as needed.”

6. Recovery plan for Missouri population of eastern hellbender

“It is expected that recovery efforts for the Missouri DPS of the eastern hellbender will reduce sedimentation and improve water quality in the aforementioned watersheds, which will also improve drinking water, as well as benefit multiple federally listed mussels, sport fish and other aquatic species.”

7. How $7.3B will help rural co-ops build clean power—and close coal plants

“[The funds are] serving about 5 million households across 23 states [… to] build wind and solar power, which is now cheaper than coal-fired power across most of the country. […] Some of it will be used to pay down the cost of closing coal plants[….] federal funding could help co-ops secure enough wind, solar, and battery resources to retire their entire coal capacity by 2032, cutting carbon emissions by 80 to 90 percent and reducing wholesale electricity costs by 10 to 20 percent[….]”

8. Native-led suicide prevention program focuses on building community strengths

“[Indigenous researchers have] designed programs that aim to build up a community’s endemic strengths, rather than solely treating the risks facing individuals within that community. By providing support and resources that enable access to Alaska Native cultural activities, they hope to strengthen social bonds that build resilience. […] “In a Yup’ik worldview, suicide is not a mental health disorder, and it’s not an individual affliction, it’s a disruption of the collective.””

9. Another rare Javan rhino calf spotted at Indonesia park

“A new Javan rhino calf has been spotted in an Indonesian national park, the facility's head said Friday, further boosting hopes for one of the world's most endangered mammals after two other […] calves were spotted earlier this year at the park, which is the only habitat left for the critically endangered animal.”

10. Transparent solar cells can directly supply energy from glass surfaces

“[Researchers have] unveiled a method of supplying energy directly from glass of buildings, cars, and mobile devices through transparent solar cells. […] It has also succeeded in charging a smartphone using natural sunlight. It also proved the possibility that a screen of a small mobile device can be used as an energy source.”

September 1-7 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[saintsenara]

JKR really could’ve done with throwing at least one successful wizarding/muggle couple in there…

as much as i hate to say it, i actually quite like that wizard/muggle mixed marriages canonically don't really work, whether or not it was an intentional decision from jkr to present it this way.

the wizarding state is really quite authoritarian, and the sole motivation for its repression is to prevent muggles from learning about magic's existence. it also seems to have social mores - especially around gender - which are much more old-fashioned than those in 90s britain, which is only to be expected from a small, insular community.

the only plausible theory we can draw from canon is that - while this might change post-war [hence ron taking a driving test] - living in the magical world means separating yourself entirely from the institutions of muggle society. unless you actively insist upon it [which is my theory about ron learning to drive - i think hermione makes him as a point of pride in her muggle heritage], you don't have a passport, or a bank account, or a national insurance number [so you can't work in the muggle world], you don't use the nhs, you don't have any muggle-recognised qualifications, and so on...

everything you might do which would generate a record with the muggle state - getting married, buying a house, having a baby, etc. - has its own parallel system in the wizarding world.

[to the extent that - surely - a witch who marries a muggle man in a muggle ceremony isn't legally married in the eyes of the wizarding state? tom riddle might be a legitimate heir in the muggle world and a bastard in the magical one...]

and while we know there are wizarding agents embedded in muggle institutions [from snape saying in deathly hallows that petunia's letter to dumbledore must have been intercepted by undercover wizards working for the post office], their purpose isn't to facilitate cross-community interaction... it's to contain breaches of the statute of secrecy and stop muggles finding out about magic.

as a result, i think it's really likely that muggles married to witches or wizards have literally no rights in the magical world. and i think that opens up two ways of thinking about mixed marriages which are worth exploring:

firstly, that the number of abusive magic/muggle relationships must be enormous - and not just because of the violence the power imbalance caused by magic has the possibility of inflicting, but because the muggle partner has absolutely no hope of having their abuser face justice.

[after all, i guarantee that the only thing which would happen if a wizard was arrested by the muggle police for assault is the state's obliviators swanning in to wipe the memories of everyone involved... there's not a ministry worker we meet in the books who seems likely to think that muggle women's rights were more important than upholding the statute of secrecy...]

and secondly, that there must be plenty of non-abusive magical/muggle relationships which end up being impossible for the people involved to sustain because it's just too difficult to deal with the restrictions placed upon the couple by the wizarding state.

the complete legal separation between the two worlds - and the implied difficulty this causes in making it possible to form cross-community relationships - is one of the really subtle, insidious ways that the ministry maintains blood- and magic-supremacy, which canon hints at but never really delves too deeply into. and so i think it's worthwhile for us to take that and run with it...

[swaggerblonde]

Swagger Blonde Let's Play Theme Hospital PlayStation 1 Greenpool part 1

[digitalstowaway]

AAAAAAAAAH YEAH THATS HIM the most unglamorous job you can have at 16 he's not thriving but he smiles a lot and is friendly and sometimes his friends or his mom visits him

once again inspired by @digitalstowaway 90's sitcom au, specifically their fanfic that mention's Jin Guangyao having an after school job. im not exactly sure what his after school job is. but my brain immediately jumped to supermarket cashier, we all know he's a customer service girlie ToT

[ ref in reblog via @ribloop ]

[ms-demeanor]

Going off that post about nutrition and science, I'd love to hear what you think of the 5:2 diet/The Fast 800 and its creator, Dr. Michael Mosley. For context: in order to get an NHS-funded breast reduction (it's a gender thing, but also just a general quality-of-life thing), I need to be a certain BMI, so I've been referred to a weight management clinic. The lady I've been seeing initially just put me on a low-carb diet (130g or less of carbs per day, with an aside from her about how bullshit Keto and BMI limits for treatment are), but now she's said that, if I wanted to speed up the weight loss, I should include the 5:2 diet: 5 days in a week where I eat "normally", and 2 fast days in which I restrict myself to 800kcals. I did a little looking into it myself, and found that 5:2 - which I HAD heard about before - is now being sold as part of "The Fast 800", with Dr. Mosley being the creator of it. I was shocked by that, because I was already a fan of Dr. Mosley's work (he has a podcast called "Just One Thing" that I really liked, and thought contained reasonable-sounding advice), and yet having a diet plan that he's clearly making money off of does immediately make me feel suspicious. I've borrowed his "The Fast 800" book from the library, both to find out more about the diet I've been put on and to see if it's at all backed by evidence, and he does cite a bunch of scientific studies which seem to back up his ideas, but I don't know how valid they are, and I don't just want to accept them at face-value (especially since he's a "we got fat completely wrong in the 80s, therefore we should eat a Mediterranean diet!" types). Obviously I'll go with what my weight management lady suggests, since she's obviously more qualified to talk about it than I am, but I am curious to know what you think, and whether I'm right to be distrustful of all of this.

I am, generally speaking, against any diet for rapid weight loss. They're not sustainable so people gain the weight back (often with more weight getting added on).

There have also recently been findings that suggest that BMI cutoffs for top surgery are detrimental to patients as patients in higher BMI categories are more likely to have minor complications like UTIs or to be readmitted, but are not likely to have major complications or be at risk of significant harm from having top surgery. I don't know if anybody will listen if you bring up that study, and I know that GCS is fraught in many places for many reasons.

I'm also just.

I'm so mad. I'm so fucking mad! I'm so mad about this!

One of my best friends is a guy who was pressured into a pattern of disordered eating and unhealthy exercise in order to qualify for top surgery; since then he has not been able to eat in a healthy way and has struggled with alternating between exercising to the point of harm and other destructive behaviors that make him unhappy and unsafe. And he didn't need that. He didn't need any of that! He needed a very safe surgery that had perhaps a slightly higher risk of minor complications at his size and instead he got top surgery and an eating disorder! I hate it! I'm so fucking mad about it!

Also as near as I can tell Michael Mosley qualified as a psychiatrist in the 90s, spent very little time working as a psychiatrist, and then became a media personality. From what is visible on his website and every biography I've found for him he apparently doesn't have any background in nutrition beyond whatever is standard for someone in medical school (which is NOT MUCH).

Hey I just looked at his website and this is straight-up fucked up.

Anybody recommending an 800 calorie a day diet for 2-12 weeks in a context that is not heavily medically supervised can fucking choke. That is *ridiculously* dangerous and the website says that this can improve insulin resistance but there are a shitload of studies about people on crash diets like this *developing* insulin resistance (oh hey like my friend who became prediabetic after his rapid significant weight loss).

Also in regard to the studies he cites on the website, the "two years later patients are still going strong in their diabetes improvements" it's really important to put shit like that in context

at 5 years 13% of the original intervention group were in remission from their type two diabetes; the average weight loss experienced by the intervention group as a whole was 6.1kg compared to 4.6kg in the control group. That's 1.5kg lower for the people who went through a twelve week medically supervised very low calorie diet compared. That's an average difference of 3.3 pounds between "starvation diet" and "no diet" for the Americans in the audience.

Yours is the second comment I've seen that has been leery of the Mediterranean diet, btw, and the Mediterranean diet is fine. It's very achievable and not super gimmicky and is based on very reasonable reassessments of fat, not the hardcore "you are fine to eat 100g of fat a day" kind of attitude that you get from the keto crew. There isn't really one Mediterranean diet and it certainly isn't low carb (which the bits from Mosely's website seem to indicate it is).

So, no, honestly I don't think much of Mosely and I'm very sorry you're in this situation, that sucks and I hate that they're refusing you treatment until you undergo an exceptionally difficult and potentially harmful weight loss excursion.

I know you're probably stuck with that and it's bullshit and I think it fucking sucks and unfortunately the medical advice you're likely to get is "eat in a significantly disordered manner at least until it is time for surgery" and it blows. That just fucking sucks.

If you're looking for rapid weight loss that you don't plan to sustain (and you shouldn't plan to sustain it, it won't stay off) you may want to look into body building forums for how they discuss cuts. It's still disordered eating and it's still not healthy, but at least they're effective and can tell you what supplements will keep you from becoming malnourished while you prepare for surgery. This is a terrible idea. I don't actually want to give this advice to anyone but bodybuilders are the exact kind of people who know how far and how fast they can push weight loss while having an awareness that it isn't really good for them and it won't stay off.

I cannot overstate enough how much I hate the thought that people are being encouraged to rapidly starve themselves in order to prepare to recover from surgery. I am so sorry and I'm so mad and