#apr 2004

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Bad Religion - Fuck Armageddon… This Is Hell

[mikeywayarchive]

Bottom Lounge, Chicago // Apr 4th 2004 // mechanical_riot on livejournal

[mikeywayarchive]

x

[anamon-book]

演劇ぶっく APR. 2004 NO.108 演劇ぶっく社 表紙＝松尾スズキ 「発表! 演ぶチャート2003」

[fatliberation]

they have a point though. you wouldn't need everyone to accommodate you if you just lost weight, but you're too lazy to stick to a healthy diet and exercise. it's that simple. I'd like to see you back up your claims, but you have no proof. you have got to stop lying to yourselves and face the facts

Must I go through this again? Fine. FINE. You guys are working my nerves today. You want to talk about facing the facts? Let's face the fucking facts.

In 2022, the US market cap of the weight loss industry was $75 billion [1, 3]. In 2021, the global market cap of the weight loss industry was estimated at $224.27 billion [2]. 

In 2020, the market shrunk by about 25%, but rebounded and then some since then [1, 3] By 2030, the global weight loss industry is expected to be valued at $405.4 billion [2]. If diets really worked, this industry would fall overnight. 

1. LaRosa, J. March 10, 2022. "U.S. Weight Loss Market Shrinks by 25% in 2020 with Pandemic, but Rebounds in 2021." Market Research Blog. 2. Staff. February 09, 2023. "[Latest] Global Weight Loss and Weight Management Market Size/Share Worth." Facts and Factors Research. 3. LaRosa, J. March 27, 2023. "U.S. Weight Loss Market Partially Recovers from the Pandemic." Market Research Blog.

Over 50 years of research conclusively demonstrates that virtually everyone who intentionally loses weight by manipulating their eating and exercise habits will regain the weight they lost within 3-5 years. And 75% will actually regain more weight than they lost [4].

4. Mann, T., Tomiyama, A.J., Westling, E., Lew, A.M., Samuels, B., Chatman, J. (2007). "Medicare’s Search For Effective Obesity Treatments: Diets Are Not The Answer." The American Psychologist, 62, 220-233. U.S. National Library of Medicine, Apr. 2007.

The annual odds of a fat person attaining a so-called “normal” weight and maintaining that for 5 years is approximately 1 in 1000 [5].

5. Fildes, A., Charlton, J., Rudisill, C., Littlejohns, P., Prevost, A.T., & Gulliford, M.C. (2015). ��Probability of an Obese Person Attaining Normal Body Weight: Cohort Study Using Electronic Health Records.” American Journal of Public Health, July 16, 2015: e1–e6.

Doctors became so desperate that they resorted to amputating parts of the digestive tract (bariatric surgery) in the hopes that it might finally result in long-term weight-loss. Except that doesn’t work either. [6] And it turns out it causes death [7],  addiction [8], malnutrition [9], and suicide [7].

6. Magro, Daniéla Oliviera, et al. “Long-Term Weight Regain after Gastric Bypass: A 5-Year Prospective Study - Obesity Surgery.” SpringerLink, 8 Apr. 2008. 7. Omalu, Bennet I, et al. “Death Rates and Causes of Death After Bariatric Surgery for Pennsylvania Residents, 1995 to 2004.” Jama Network, 1 Oct. 2007.  8. King, Wendy C., et al. “Prevalence of Alcohol Use Disorders Before and After Bariatric Surgery.” Jama Network, 20 June 2012.  9. Gletsu-Miller, Nana, and Breanne N. Wright. “Mineral Malnutrition Following Bariatric Surgery.” Advances In Nutrition: An International Review Journal, Sept. 2013.

Evidence suggests that repeatedly losing and gaining weight is linked to cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes and altered immune function [10].

10. Tomiyama, A Janet, et al. “Long‐term Effects of Dieting: Is Weight Loss Related to Health?” Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6 July 2017.

Prescribed weight loss is the leading predictor of eating disorders [11].

11. Patton, GC, et al. “Onset of Adolescent Eating Disorders: Population Based Cohort Study over 3 Years.” BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 20 Mar. 1999.

The idea that “obesity” is unhealthy and can cause or exacerbate illnesses is a biased misrepresentation of the scientific literature that is informed more by bigotry than credible science [12]. 

12. Medvedyuk, Stella, et al. “Ideology, Obesity and the Social Determinants of Health: A Critical Analysis of the Obesity and Health Relationship” Taylor & Francis Online, 7 June 2017.

“Obesity” has no proven causative role in the onset of any chronic condition [13, 14] and its appearance may be a protective response to the onset of numerous chronic conditions generated from currently unknown causes [15, 16, 17, 18].

13. Kahn, BB, and JS Flier. “Obesity and Insulin Resistance.” The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Aug. 2000. 14. Cofield, Stacey S, et al. “Use of Causal Language in Observational Studies of Obesity and Nutrition.” Obesity Facts, 3 Dec. 2010.  15. Lavie, Carl J, et al. “Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease: Risk Factor, Paradox, and Impact of Weight Loss.” Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 26 May 2009.  16. Uretsky, Seth, et al. “Obesity Paradox in Patients with Hypertension and Coronary Artery Disease.” The American Journal of Medicine, Oct. 2007.  17. Mullen, John T, et al. “The Obesity Paradox: Body Mass Index and Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Nonbariatric General Surgery.” Annals of Surgery, July 2005. 18. Tseng, Chin-Hsiao. “Obesity Paradox: Differential Effects on Cancer and Noncancer Mortality in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.” Atherosclerosis, Jan. 2013.

Fatness was associated with only 1/3 the associated deaths that previous research estimated and being “overweight” conferred no increased risk at all, and may even be a protective factor against all-causes mortality relative to lower weight categories [19].

19. Flegal, Katherine M. “The Obesity Wars and the Education of a Researcher: A Personal Account.” Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, 15 June 2021.

Studies have observed that about 30% of so-called “normal weight” people are “unhealthy” whereas about 50% of so-called “overweight” people are “healthy”. Thus, using the BMI as an indicator of health results in the misclassification of some 75 million people in the United States alone [20]. 

20. Rey-López, JP, et al. “The Prevalence of Metabolically Healthy Obesity: A Systematic Review and Critical Evaluation of the Definitions Used.” Obesity Reviews : An Official Journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, 15 Oct. 2014.

While epidemiologists use BMI to calculate national obesity rates (nearly 35% for adults and 18% for kids), the distinctions can be arbitrary. In 1998, the National Institutes of Health lowered the overweight threshold from 27.8 to 25—branding roughly 29 million Americans as fat overnight—to match international guidelines. But critics noted that those guidelines were drafted in part by the International Obesity Task Force, whose two principal funders were companies making weight loss drugs [21].

21. Butler, Kiera. “Why BMI Is a Big Fat Scam.” Mother Jones, 25 Aug. 2014. 

Body size is largely determined by genetics [22].

22. Wardle, J. Carnell, C. Haworth, R. Plomin. “Evidence for a strong genetic influence on childhood adiposity despite the force of the obesogenic environment” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Vol. 87, No. 2, Pages 398-404, February 2008.

Healthy lifestyle habits are associated with a significant decrease in mortality regardless of baseline body mass index [23].  

23. Matheson, Eric M, et al. “Healthy Lifestyle Habits and Mortality in Overweight and Obese Individuals.” Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine : JABFM, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 25 Feb. 2012.

Weight stigma itself is deadly. Research shows that weight-based discrimination increases risk of death by 60% [24].

24. Sutin, Angela R., et al. “Weight Discrimination and Risk of Mortality .” Association for Psychological Science, 25 Sept. 2015.

Fat stigma in the medical establishment [25] and society at large arguably [26] kills more fat people than fat does [27, 28, 29].

25. Puhl, Rebecca, and Kelly D. Bronwell. “Bias, Discrimination, and Obesity.” Obesity Research, 6 Sept. 2012. 26. Engber, Daniel. “Glutton Intolerance: What If a War on Obesity Only Makes the Problem Worse?” Slate, 5 Oct. 2009.  27. Teachman, B. A., Gapinski, K. D., Brownell, K. D., Rawlins, M., & Jeyaram, S. (2003). Demonstrations of implicit anti-fat bias: The impact of providing causal information and evoking empathy. Health Psychology, 22(1), 68–78. 28. Chastain, Ragen. “So My Doctor Tried to Kill Me.” Dances With Fat, 15 Dec. 2009. 29. Sutin, Angelina R, Yannick Stephan, and Antonio Terraciano. “Weight Discrimination and Risk of Mortality.” Psychological Science, 26 Nov. 2015.

There's my "proof." Where is yours?

[matan4il]

On this Yom Ha'Zikaron Le'Chalalei Ma'rachot Yisrael (Memorial Day for Israel's Fallen Soldiers and Terror Victims), I figured it's important to remember that Israeli victims did not exist solely on Oct 7. We have lost loved ones before and since. Here's a list with just one random victim to represent each year. Please scroll down the list to see how far back it goes.

(part 1/5, all parts in the reblogs)

2024: On Jan 7, we lost 19 years old Shai Garmai

2023: On Oct 7, we lost 28 years old Osama abu Madiam

2022: On Nov 23, we lost 18 years old Tiran Faro

2021: On May 12, we lost 5 years old Ido Avigal

2020: On Aug 26, we lost 39 years old Shai Ochayon

2019: On May 5, we lost 49 years old Zaid al-Chamamda

2018: On Dec 12, we lost Amiad Israel Yish Ran, who was murdered in his mother's womb

2017: On Nov 22, we lost 21 years old Hodaya Nechama Assoulin

2016: On Oct 25, we lost 14 years old Rami Namer abu Amar

2015: On Feb 17, we lost 4 years old Adelle Biton

2014: On Oct 22, we lost 2.5 months old Chaya Zissel Brown

2013: On Dec 24, we lost 22 years old Salech al-Din abu al-Atayef

2012: On Jul 18, we lost 28 years old Yitzchak Idan Kolangi

2011: On Apr 17, we lost 16 years old Daniel Aryeh Viplich

2010: On Feb 26, we lost 52 years old Netta Blatt Sorek

2009: On Apr 2, we lost 13 years old Shlomo Nativ

2008: On Mar 6, we lost 26 years old Doron Trunach Mahareta

2007: On Jun 17, we lost 85 years old Meir Cohen

2006: On Aug 10, we lost 4 years old Fatchi Assdi

2005: On Jul 12, we lost 16 years old Nofar Horvitz

2004: On Sep 29, we lost 2 years old Dorit Massarat Binsan

2003: On Sep 9, we lost 20 years old Naava Appelbom

2002: On Nov 10, we lost 4 years old Noam Levi Ochayon

2001: On Dec 12, we lost 42 years old Ester Avraham

2000: On Nov 21, we lost 19 years old Itamar Yefet

1999: On Jun 24, we lost 34 years old Tony Eliyahu Zanna

1998: On Dec 2, we lost 41 years old Osama Moussa abu Aisha

1997: On Mar 13, we lost 13 years old Natali Alkalai

1996: On Feb 25, we lost 57 years old Yitzchak Elbaz

1995: On Jul 24, we lost 60 years old Zehava Oren

As Tumblr limits a post to 30 images... part 1/5 - the next parts will be posted in the reblogs momentarily. Please check out the full list.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[heroesriseandfall]

It’s so amusing to me when characters within comics use the fun-trivia-for-fans maps. Like technically that’s a perfectly good canon map. But when Jim Gordon uses it he feels like a tourist to me.

Eliot Brown’s map from Batman: Gotham City Secret Files & Origins #1 (Apr 2000), in Commissioner Loeb’s office in Detective Comics Vol. 2 #25 (Jan 2014)

It’s more funny when it’s shown on a computer though. You’re telling me Oracle and Batman have super highly sophisticated computers but the maps of Gotham on those computers use a numbered legend, instead of anything more technologically efficient and helpful?

Batman: Gotham Knights #55 (Sep 2004) — how is she supposed to find the CCTV if it’s not on the legend? :( lol

Batman Vol. 1 #683 (Jan 2008)

Robin Vol. 2 #178 (Nov 2008) / Titans Vol. 2 #15 (Sep 2009)

Batman Vol. 2 #24 (Dec 2013)

Absurd. And hilarious. This is a very ineffective map for them to quickly identify deep details of the terrain. But it IS an effective way to get me to laugh in the middle of a comic intended to be high stakes and serious. Important mission who? I only know fun background map.

[vintagelasvegas]

Thunderbird / Silverbird / El Rancho

Thunderbird Hotel, 1948

Thunderbird, '48-'76

'46: Marion Hicks and Lt. Gov. Cliff Jones purchase property for a planned Nevada Ambassador hotel on 3/11/46. The property was bought from Guy McAfee, Art Ham, and J.K. Houssels who had planned a hotel called Casa de Oro. Sale price is rumored $85,000.

'47: Officers of Thunderbird are a Las Vegas and Los Angeles group, Hicks, Jones, V. Sayer, J. Lane, P. Wagoner, J. Wells (Reno), and J. Kozloff. Hicks as builder. Construction begins on 46 acre lot in Oct.

'48: Thunderbird opens 9/2/48. 107 rooms, 75-foot observation tower. Signs by Graham Sign Co (RJ 8/18/48).

'53: Hicks builds the spin-off Algiers Hotel.

'58: renovation, adding new second floor over casino framed in rectangular box, new porte-cochère. New signs by Western Neon (RJ 11/24/58, RJ 12/24/58).

'59: “Thunderbird” logo changed, road sign replaced in Fall.

'61: road sign moved to the front-center of the hotel, fire-shooting stick added to both birds.

'62: new road sign and pylon.

'63: Thunderbird Downs quarter horse track opened, Oct. 5 (RJ 9/24/63).

'64: Sold to Del Webb Corp in Sep.

'65: 700-ft horizontal “Thunderbird” sign by Bill Clarke/Ad Art installed over the south rooms in Jun. (RJ 6/10/65); road sign & pylon replaced with one road sign and new neon bird.

'72: Sold to Caesars World Inc.

'73: Blue/green sign painted zigzag red/orange in summer.

'76: Sold to Tiger Investment Co (Thomas, Mack, K. Sullivan, et al), leased to Major Riddle in Dec.

Silverbird, '77-'81

'77: Reopened as Silverbird in Jan.

'78: Thunderbird signs replaced by the 190-ft sign/porte-cochère designed by Raul Rodriguez for Heath, built by AdArt. (RJ 3/29/78)

'81: Closed in 12/3/81.

El Rancho, '82-'92

'82: Sold at auction to Ed Torres in Feb; renamed El Rancho in Apr (RJ 3/18/82, 4/7/82). Opens at El Rancho 8/31/82.

'87: Tower addition.

'92: Closed Jul. 6.

2000: Tower demolished, Oct. 3. After the site was cleared the El Rancho sign remained, covered with advertised for Turnberry Place until '04 or '05.

Other sources include: “New Hotel To Be Built.” Las Vegas Review-Journal, 3/13/46 p1; Vegas as Playground. Review-Journal, 7/31/46 p5; Construction Started. Review-Journal, 10/28/47; Thunderbird Hotel. Review-Journal, 8/29/48; Martin Stern Jr. profile by P. Michel. UNLV Libraries, archived 3/10/2004.

Photos: (1) Postcard c. 1948. (2-3) Undated aerial photo of construction, by Las Vegas News Bureau. Radio station KENO west of the Thunderbird site. (4) Undated, during construction. Photo taken from the observation tower, by Las Vegas News Bureau. (5) Same models as the color postcard, from Union Pacific Railroad Photographs (PH-00043), UNLV Special Collections & Archives.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The true post-cyberpunk hero is a noir forensic accountant

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TOMORROW (Apr 17) in CHICAGO, then Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

I was reared on cyberpunk fiction, I ended up spending 25 years at my EFF day-job working at the weird edge of tech and human rights, even as I wrote sf that tried to fuse my love of cyberpunk with my urgent, lifelong struggle over who computers do things for and who they do them to.

That makes me an official "post-cyberpunk" writer (TM). Don't take my word for it: I'm in the canon:

https://tachyonpublications.com/product/rewired-the-post-cyberpunk-anthology-2/

One of the editors of that "post-cyberpunk" anthology was John Kessel, who is, not coincidentally, the first writer to expose me to the power of literary criticism to change the way I felt about a novel, both as a writer and a reader:

https://locusmag.com/2012/05/cory-doctorow-a-prose-by-any-other-name/

It was Kessel's 2004 Foundation essay, "Creating the Innocent Killer: Ender's Game, Intention, and Morality," that helped me understand litcrit. Kessel expertly surfaces the subtext of Card's Ender's Game and connects it to Card's politics. In so doing, he completely reframed how I felt about a book I'd read several times and had considered a favorite:

https://johnjosephkessel.wixsite.com/kessel-website/creating-the-innocent-killer

This is a head-spinning experience for a reader, but it's even wilder to experience it as a writer. Thankfully, the majority of literary criticism about my work has been positive, but even then, discovering something that's clearly present in one of my novels, but which I didn't consciously include, is a (very pleasant!) mind-fuck.

A recent example: Blair Fix's review of my 2023 novel Red Team Blues which he calls "an anti-finance finance thriller":

https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2023/05/13/red-team-blues-cory-doctorows-anti-finance-thriller/

Fix – a radical economist – perfectly captures the correspondence between my hero, the forensic accountant Martin Hench, and the heroes of noir detective novels. Namely, that a noir detective is a kind of unlicensed policeman, going to the places the cops can't go, asking the questions the cops can't ask, and thus solving the crimes the cops can't solve. What makes this noir is what happens next: the private dick realizes that these were places the cops didn't want to go, questions the cops didn't want to ask and crimes the cops didn't want to solve ("It's Chinatown, Jake").

Marty Hench – a forensic accountant who finds the money that has been disappeared through the cells in cleverly constructed spreadsheets – is an unlicensed tax inspector. He's finding the money the IRS can't find – only to be reminded, time and again, that this is money the IRS chooses not to find.

This is how the tax authorities work, after all. Anyone who followed the coverage of the big finance leaks knows that the most shocking revelation they contain is how stupid the ruses of the ultra-wealthy are. The IRS could prevent that tax-fraud, they just choose not to. Not for nothing, I call the Martin Hench books "Panama Papers fanfic."

I've read plenty of noir fiction and I'm a long-term finance-leaks obsessive, but until I read Fix's article, it never occurred to me that a forensic accountant was actually squarely within the noir tradition. Hench's perfect noir fit is either a happy accident or the result of a subconscious intuition that I didn't know I had until Fix put his finger on it.

The second Hench novel is The Bezzle. It's been out since February, and I'm still touring with it (Chicago tonight! Then Turin, Marin County, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, etc). It's paying off – the book's a national bestseller.

Writing in his newsletter, Henry Farrell connects Fix's observation to one of his own, about the nature of "hackers" and their role in cyberpunk (and post-cyberpunk) fiction:

https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-accountant-as-cyberpunk-hero

Farrell cites Bruce Schneier's 2023 book, A Hacker’s Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society’s Rules and How to Bend Them Back:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/06/trickster-makes-the-world/

Schneier, a security expert, broadens the category of "hacker" to include anyone who studies systems with an eye to finding and exploiting their defects. Under this definition, the more fearsome hackers are "working for a hedge fund, finding a loophole in financial regulations that lets her siphon extra profits out of the system." Hackers work in corporate offices, or as government lobbyists.

As Henry says, hacking isn't intrinsically countercultural ("Most of the hacking you might care about is done by boring seeming people in boring seeming clothes"). Hacking reinforces – rather than undermining power asymmetries ("The rich have far more resources to figure out how to gimmick the rules"). We are mostly not the hackers – we are the hacked.

For Henry, Marty Hench is a hacker (the rare hacker that works for the good guys), even though "he doesn’t wear mirrorshades or get wasted chatting to bartenders with Soviet military-surplus mechanical arms." He's a gun for hire, that most traditional of cyberpunk heroes, and while he doesn't stand against the system, he's not for it, either.

Henry's pinning down something I've been circling around for nearly 30 years: the idea that though "the street finds its own use for things," Wall Street and Madison Avenue are among the streets that might find those uses:

https://craphound.com/nonfic/street.html

Henry also connects Martin Hench to Marcus Yallow, the hero of my YA Little Brother series. I have tried to make this connection myself, opining that while Marcus is a character who is fighting to save an internet that he loves, Marty is living in the ashes of the internet he lost:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/07/dont-curb-your-enthusiasm/

But Henry's Marty-as-hacker notion surfaces a far more interesting connection between the two characters. Marcus is a vehicle for conveying the excitement and power of hacking to young readers, while Marty is a vessel for older readers who know the stark terror of being hacked, by the sadistic wolves who're coming for all of us:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I44L1pzi4gk

Both Marcus and Marty are explainers, as am I. Some people say that exposition makes for bad narrative. Those people are wrong:

https://maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/my-favorite-bit/my-favorite-bit-cory-doctorow-talks-about-the-bezzle/

"Explaining" makes for great fiction. As Maria Farrell writes in her Crooked Timber review of The Bezzle, the secret sauce of some of the best novels is "information about how things work. Things like locks, rifles, security systems":

https://crookedtimber.org/2024/03/06/the-bezzle/

Where these things are integrated into the story's "reason and urgency," they become "specialist knowledge [that] cuts new paths to move through the world." Hacking, in other words.

This is a theme Paul Di Filippo picked up on in his review of The Bezzle for Locus:

https://locusmag.com/2024/04/paul-di-filippo-reviews-the-bezzle-by-cory-doctorow/

Heinlein was always known—and always came across in his writings—as The Man Who Knew How the World Worked. Doctorow delivers the same sense of putting yourself in the hands of a fellow who has peered behind Oz’s curtain. When he fills you in lucidly about some arcane bit of economics or computer tech or social media scam, you feel, first, that you understand it completely and, second, that you can trust Doctorow’s analysis and insights.

Knowledge is power, and so expository fiction that delivers news you can use is novel that makes you more powerful – powerful enough to resist the hackers who want to hack you.

Henry and I were both friends of Aaron Swartz, and the Little Brother books are closely connected to Aaron, who helped me with Homeland, the second volume, and wrote a great afterword for it (Schneier wrote an afterword for the first book). That book – and Aaron's afterword – has radicalized a gratifying number of principled technologists. I know, because I meet them when I tour, and because they send me emails. I like to think that these hackers are part of Aaron's legacy.

Henry argues that the Hench books are "purpose-designed to inspire a thousand Max Schrems – people who are probably past their teenage years, have some grounding in the relevant professions, and really want to see things change."

(Schrems is the Austrian privacy activist who, as a law student, set in motion the events that led to the passage of the EU's General Data Privacy Regulation:)

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/15/out-here-everything-hurts/#noyb

Henry points out that William Gibson's Neuromancer doesn't mention the word "internet" – rather, Gibson coined the term cyberspace, which, as Henry says, is "more ��capitalism’ than ‘computerized information'… If you really want to penetrate the system, you need to really grasp what money is and what it does."

Maria also wrote one of my all-time favorite reviews of Red Team Blues, also for Crooked Timber:

https://crookedtimber.org/2023/05/11/when-crypto-meant-cryptography/

In it, she compares Hench to Dickens' Bleak House, but for the modern tech world:

You put the book down feeling it’s not just a fascinating, enjoyable novel, but a document of how Silicon Valley’s very own 1% live and a teeming, energy-emitting snapshot of a critical moment on Earth.

All my life, I've written to find out what's going on in my own head. It's a remarkably effective technique. But it's only recently that I've come to appreciate that reading what other people write about my writing can reveal things that I can't see.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/17/panama-papers-fanfic/#the-1337est-h4x0rs

Image: Frédéric Poirot (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/fredarmitage/1057613629 CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

[gunsandspaceships]

MCU Timeline: The Incredible Hulk

This timeline is based on dates from the movie, its deleted scenes, calculations and logic, and not on Fury's Big Week (see the reason here). I must admit that compared to the other movies I've covered, this one gave me a bit of a headache.

~1946 - Thaddeus E. Ross is born.

December 18, 1969 - Robert Bruce Banner is born.

~1970 - Emil Blonsky is born.

~1973 - Ross returns from Vietnam at the age of 27.

March 5, 2004, 2:30 pm - experiment by Dr. Banner and Dr. Betty Ross turns Bruce into the Hulk. He kills two scientists, a military officer, and injures General Ross and his daughter.

In the newspaper we can see part of the date "06". The most logical option would be "2006", but this contradicts other dates, plus Marvel often blurs or skips years in their newspapers. The next option is - day. We can't see the month, but there is another paper connected to it that says "March 07". So I assume the original incident happened on March 5 (the day before this newspaper was published).

~March 6 or 7, 2004 at 2:50 pm - Bruce visits Betty in the hospital. General Ross confronts him. Bruce runs away. Ross begins his hunting campaign.

April 18, 2004 - Banner is spotted by a surveillance camera.

This is a US surveillance camera (date format), meaning it happened while Bruce was hiding inside the country (thus shortly after the original incident).

2004-2006 - Banner spotted in Idaho. Hulk kills a state trooper.

Here I would guess that the suicide attempt in Alaska from the deleted alternate opening scene took place in the winter of 2004-2005 or 2005-2006. And it wasn't the suicide attempt Banner was talking about in The Avengers, because he didn't put a bullet in his mouth in the deleted scene. Instead, he aimed at the ice so it would break and drag him out to the sea, I guess. So officially he's attempted suicide at least twice, and the bullet-in-mouth was before that ice-cold-one (it doesn't make sense to put so much effort into attempting suicide if you haven't tried all the easier options. And I'm sure he tried them).

February 7, 2006 - Banner attempted contact with Betty Ross.

May 27-28, 2006 - Bruce/Hulk spotted in Canada. Hulk (possibly) kills two Canadian hunters.

September 4, 2006 - Hulk out with house demolition. Probably still in Canada.

Not sure why "Notification: MOSSAD": this doesn’t look like Israel at all. But perhaps after this incident Bruce flew from Canada to Israel, and then from there went to Europe.

October 21, 2006 - "last seen fleeing".

This "No Sightings For 5 Months" contradicts October 21, 2006, because there were events a month before and after that date. And that's okay, because it doesn't actually mean that that line has to have any connection to that specific date. It just means that Ross lost him for 5 months during his hunt, and it's just part of a larger report, most of which we don't see.

November-December 2006 (snow) - Hulk smashes trucks in Europe (European license plate).

January 22, 2007 - Hulk out in Samara, Russia.

2007-2008 - Bruce in a Tibetan monastery.

March 2009 - Bruce is hired to work at the Antonio Carlos soda bottling plant in Rio (Rocinha favela), Brazil.

So his path most likely looked like this: US (Virginia > Idaho) > crossed US/Canada border > Alaska > back to Canada > Israel > Central Europe > Russia > China (Tibet) > Japan > South America (Paraguay > Brazil).

5 years after initial incident (2004-2009):

~August 2, 2009, 158 days after the last incident:

Banner cuts his finger at the plant and a bottle of soda containing his blood is shipped to the US.

Here on the sticker we see "19 APR". At this quality I can't really see what that date means, but I'm guessing it's a bottling or shipping date. So in the movie it must be April 19th, right? But if we use that date, other dates won't work (especially the last scenes in Canada). Instead, I'll use secondary evidence like the weather and college students later in the movie (doesn't look like summer, does it?) to determine an approximate date, and ignore "19 APR".

Note: This weather forecast matches August 2009 in Rio, but not April.

He tries the mysterious flower on his blood cells, but it's just another failed attempt to cure himself of the Hulk. He sends a sample of his blood to Dr. Samuel Sterns.

~30 days later - Stan Lee in Wisconsin drinks the bottle with Banner's blood.

Shortly after, ~September 2, 8:10 pm - General Ross learns of this and sends his men to search for Banner.

~September 3 (190 days without incident):

Ross has assembled a special forces team to capture Bruce, led by Emil Blonsky. They are sent to Brazil immediately.

Same day in Brazil - Sterns informs Bruce that he has succeeded in reducing the gamma radiation levels in Banner's blood sample.

~September 4, early morning - Ross' team tries to catch Bruce. He hulks out and escapes.

~September 8:

Morning - Bruce returns to himself in Guatemala, thousands of miles from Rio.

Why ~4 days later and not 1: Hulk's running speed in the MCU is about 100 km/h. The distance between Rio and Guatemala that he had to run is ~7 thousand km. I doubt he ran at the same speed the whole distance, so that gives us at least 3-4 days.

(Probably) same day, evening - Bruce in Chiapas, Mexico.

~September 24:

10:40 am - Bruce arrives at Culver University but can't get inside.

Note: there are too many students for summer, and some are wearing sweaters and jackets. All this tells us that it is most likely September.

Night - he visits his old friend Stan.

~September 25 (Friday):

Bruce gains access to the university database, but finds that all of his data has disappeared.

Bruce and Betty meet. She hides him at her house (or rather at her boyfriend's house, according to deleted scenes) and gives him the data she saved.

Betty mentions that it's Friday, and in this movie the days of the week match our universe, unlike Iron Man 1 where they don't. I'll make another post explaining why there's such a difference between the movies, rather than just calling it a mistake.

Blonsky gets an injection of super soldier serum.

~September 26 - General Ross attacks Bruce at Culver University. Bruce hulks out, badly injures Blonsky, saves Betty and runs away with her. They spend the night in a cave.

Note that some trees in the scene are already changing colors to yellow and red, which usually starts in mid-September.

~September 27 - Hulk in. Betty takes Bruce to a motel. Blonsky is healed of all his injuries.

~September 28:

Bruce sends the data to Sterns. He and Betty drive to NYC. Blonsky gets a second injection.

Here we can see "06.12.08", but: 1) it contradicts other dates; 2) the time +0004 does not match the time Bruce sent the message (it was daytime, not 00:04); 3) there is another message with "06.00.08". I conclude that this is not even a date, or not a date we can trust.

Night - Sterns uses his antidote on Banner, which temporarily suppresses the Hulk.

General Ross tranquilizes Bruce and takes him into custody. Blonsky forces Sterns to inject him with Banner's blood, and Blonsky becomes the Abomination. He hits Sterns, and a drop of Banner's blood falls into Sterns' head wound.

The Abomination attacks Harlem. Bruce hulks out and fights him. He defeats Blonsky and runs away.

~October 29 (31 days later) - Bruce in Bella Coola, BC, Canada. He learns to control the Hulk and hulks out on purpose in his cabin.

This is not earlier than October. Closer to November. Not summer at all. The warm clothes people are wearing in the last scenes also confirm this.

Note: the "more than a year without an incident" from The Avengers doesn't really tell us anything about the year of this movie, because Bruce could have had an incident at any time after that. Or a whole bunch of incidents.

Note: comic book The Incredible Hulk: The Big Picture is not compatible with the movie, despite being released in the same box in 2008. Why we can say this: 1) the date of the first incident in the book is April 16, 2005. The movie contains evidence of Ross's hunt from April 2004. 2) The scenes of Bruce and Ross's first confrontation are different. In the movie, it takes place in the hospital; in the book, it takes place in the destroyed lab, where shirtless Banner stayed for three days. 3) In the book Blonsky had already encountered Hulk before the chase in Rio. He didn't see him, but he interrogated a boy who did. In the movie, Blonsky had never heard of the Hulk before.

Iron Man (2008) Timeline

Iron Man 2 (2010) Timeline

Thor (2011) Timeline

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) Timeline

The Avengers (2012) Timeline

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Bad Religion - American Dream

[mikeywayarchive]

Skate and Surf, Asbury Park, NJ // Apr 17th 2004 // Joey Kotfica

[mousemannation]

RAFAEL NADAL: Pacific Life Open player profile [17 Mar 2004] / NASDAQ 100 Open player profile [4 Apr 2004] / NASDAQ 100 Open 3rd Round Federer [1] v Nadal [32] match stats [23 Apr 2004] / NASDAQ 100 Open Rafael Nadal results [4 Apr 2004]

[kiragecko]

Names Used: Cass Summary

(See the other posts HERE.)

(See these charts, and others, in a screen-readable format HERE.)

In many ways, Cass’ use of names is very simple. You get a codename or a civilian name.

The complexity comes from the fact that, usually, you don’t get a name at all.

Cass ONLY uses names when there might be ambiguity. While these tendencies lessen as she gets more comfortable with speech, she remains much less likely than others to use names all through the comics.

If she's talking directly to a person, she might use their name to get their attention, but is much more likely to just ask a question or make a statement, assuming they’ll be able to tell she’s addressing them.

She will refer to a third person by name, if needed, but is still more likely to point to something related or just stare at the person she's speaking to until they figure it out.

Fascinatingly, she does not usually even THINK of people by name unless she's recalling information from the Bats' databases. So if she sees a crime on the street, she is very unlikely to think about any of the people involved by name, even if they say them. She'll use pronouns, and if there's too many people for pronouns, she usually stops referring to them at all - she's much less likely to have an internal dialogue in crowds, instead switching entirely to the moment and body reading.

BUT, if she is meeting an ally for the first time, or following a suspect that she found by using Babs' system, she'll often think their full name and alias to herself.

(An early exception to this is Commissioner Gordon. I'm not sure if it was a different authour, Cass just considers Babs' dad to be a special case, or if it's related to hearing about the crime through the news, but when Gordon gets shot she is CONSTANTLY thinking his name while she tries to figure out what happened (Batgirl 12, Mar 2001).)

-

For every one time Cass says Babs or Bruce’s names directly to them, they say her name between 5 and 8 times. (Babs is 114 to Cass’ 24, Bruce is 55 to Cass’ 8).

Meanwhile, Tim and Steph don’t even manage to use her name TWICE as often. (45 to 27 and 29 to 17, both add up to 1.7 times as often.)

Alfred has a similar fraction to Babs (14 to 3, which is 4.7 times as often), and Dick is also similar (12 to 3, 4 times as often).

Damian and Cass have one appearance together, and both address each other 3 times, while Jason and Cass never talked in the preboot.

-

Cass likes teasing people, but rarely does it through nicknames or other references. These are the only times I’ve recorded Cass using something other than a codename or civilian name:

Tim – she calls him ‘Bait’ twice (I’m not sure when), and indirectly refers to him as a ‘Little Kid’

Babs – she calls Babs ‘Baby’ once after she starts watching soap operas to get better at colloquial speech (Jun 2004).

Bruce – she uses a few teasing references to Batman, like ‘Ultimate Loner Superhero’ and ‘Creature of the Night’, after her comic ends (ie. after Apr 2006)

Alfred – she describes him as ‘A … Friend of the Family’ to her civilian friend Brenda, while trying to convince Brenda that he wasn’t a client and she isn’t a sex worker (Apr 2005).

That’s it.

-

So on to the details!

-

With almost everyone, Cass is more likely to use a codename than a civilian name.

With Damian –

uses a codename directly 3 times (100%)

Bruce –

codename directly 7 times (88%), indirectly 27 times (82%)

name directly 1 time (13%), indirectly 4 times (12%)

Babs –

codename directly 18 times (72%), indirectly 13 times (77%)

name directly 6 times (24%), indirectly 4 times (24%)

Dick –

codename directly 2 times (66%, one as ‘Nightwing’, one as ‘Batman’), indirectly 10 times (100%, all ‘Nightwing’)

name directly 1 time (33%)

Tim –

codename directly 14 times (52%), indirectly 17 times (85%, never as ‘Red Robin’ for either, only ‘Robin’)

name directly 11 times (41%), indirectly 2 times (10%)

Jason –

codename indirectly 1 time (50%, as ‘The Second Robin’)

name indirectly 1 time (50%)

Steph –

codename directly 7 times (41%, 2 were ‘Robin’, the rest ‘Spoiler’), indirectly 7 times (47%, all ‘Spoiler’)

name directly 10 times (59%%), indirectly 18 times (53%)

Alfred –

name directly 3 times (100%), indirectly 2 times (67%)

(Reminder: Babs and Bruce are in the VAST majority of Cass' 73 issue run, as well as a variety of other appearances. Steph and Tim are major parts of her life, who she's interacted with a BUNCH. Alfred is less frequent, and Dick, Damian, and Jason have few on panel interactions with her, but the low numbers here are generally NOT because of a small amount of sources. She just doesn't use names.)

-

Cass rarely switches between multiple forms of civilian names. People are either their full given name OR the nickname they were introduced with. ('Tim' and 'Dick' get nicknames, everyone else ('Barbara', 'Bruce', 'Stephanie', 'Alfred', 'Jason') is full given names.) As I mentioned before, if she’s introduced to them by full first and last name (often through their computer profile) she may think of them that way for quite some time, before switching over to just a given name.

Steph was ‘Stephanie Brown’ from Batgirl 20 to 53 (Nov 2001 to Aug 2004), when she switched to ‘Stephanie’.

(Steph is the only exception to the ‘given name OR nickname’ rule. After her death, Cass starts switching between ‘Stephanie’ and ‘Steph’ (Oct 2005). While this corresponds with a sharp drop in writing quality, it may still be meaningful.)

Bruce was ‘Bruce Wayne’ in 24, ‘Wayne’ in 27, and not ‘Bruce’ until after the series ends, but he’s a different kind of exception. Cass only knew him as Batman until later in Batgirl 24, and only uses ‘Wayne’ when talking to someone else who doesn’t know he’s Batman. At no point does he suggest she use his name, or she express interest in doing so. It’s only much later that she starts seeing him as a person separate from the costume.

-

And that's everything about this girl's speech. Basically, if you're writing her, try to remove everything but the very heart of what she's trying to say. Describe her body language. If it's from her perspective, stay very in the moment. Don't use names unless you have to, and keep them very basic.

-

Timeline of Cass’ speech and socialization:

Batman 567 (July 1999) – Cass introduced, has just learned to speak her first word –  ‘Stop’ - which she says to her father

Batgirl 4 (July 2000) – her vocabulary has grown to around a dozen words – very simple things like ‘Me’, ‘No’, ‘Shutup’, ‘Yes’, and ‘Ssh’.

Then a telepath downloads language into her brain, reorganizing things to make it fit. Cass is very pleased, until she discovers that her fighting ability is one of the things disrupted.

Cass now THINKS in words, as well. Before this point we had NO internal narration.

Despite understanding language now, she still struggles to use it, as her mouth and throat have no practice forming the sounds

Batgirl 7 (Oct 2000) – Cass first thinks of someone by name – ‘Shiva’. She also goes shopping for clothes and nail polish with Babs, and they tease each other. (Babs: “Hm. Black. Interesting choice. Thanks … but I don’t wear lipstick.” Cass, looking over the sunglasses she’s trying on with a shit-eating grin: “Don’t … DATE … either. Maybe … SHOULD.”)

Batgirl 9 (Dec 2000) – Cass first refers to someone by codename – ‘Oracle’ and ‘Batman’.

Batgirl 12 (Mar 2001) – Cass first thinks of an ally by given name – ‘Barbara’.

Batgirl 20 (Nov 2001) – Cass gets Steph to read a note for her, and they team up.

Batgirl 24 (Mar 2002) – Cass actually learns Batman’s civilian identity. By accident. Because he’s been accused of murder. She continues to only think of him as ‘Batman’.

Batgirl 28 (July 2002) – Steph convinces Cass to train her while Bruce is mysteriously missing. (He’s wanted to murder.) (Steph: “Pretty please? I’ll be your best friend?”)

Batgirl 30 (Sept 2002) – Cass first actually addresses Babs by given name – ‘Barbara’.

Batgirl 38 (May 2003) – Cass and Steph fight. Cass ignored Bruce’s orders to stay away from Cass, but DOES agree with his assessment that Steph isn’t good enough to be in the field. (Cass: “Still … friends?” Steph, leaving: “Friends don’t turn their backs on each other.”)

Batgirl 39-44 (Jun – Nov 2003) – A terrorist/freedom fighter starts flirting with Cass, and she’s not sure if she’s intrigued or uncomfortable. She ends up going out on a date with Superboy to explore her feelings. They realize that they are NOT attracted to each other, and happily part as friends. She continues to struggle with her feelings about flirtation and attraction, but lets them go underground after the terrorist/freedom fighter dies.

Batgirl 51 (June 2004) – Cass starts watching TV (specifically soaps) to improve her casual speech. She starts saying things like, “You bet ya sweet patootie, Baby!”

Batgirl 58 (Jan 2005) – Cass starts keeping an audio journal, because she wants to ‘learn to … think better in words, because … all I’ve ever known is “movement.”’

Batgirl 61 (Apr 2005) – Cass is visiting diners by herself and trying to carry on conversations with the owner. She’s also trying to navigate ordering without being able to read the menu.

Batgirl 63 (Jun 2005) – Cass is going out to dance, and flirting with interesting guys. She’s also experimenting with fashion and self-expression.

Robin 150 (July 2006) – Cass now speaks perfectly, is leading the League of Assassins, and tries to murder Tim. From this point on, Cass’ growth needs to be inferred - we don't get a well written Cass back until January 2011.

[japanesecds]

Avril Lavigne - Don't Tell Me

Released: 28 Apr 2004 Japan

[whumpookies]

General hospital Jason Morgan's whump list...

Suffered permanent brain damage following a drunk driving car accident caused by his brother, A.J. [Dec 28, 1995]

Hospitalized after being beaten up by men working for Sonny Corinthos [Aug 23, 1996]

Fell when the ground caved in beneath him while trying to rescue Sonny and Brenda; pulled back up [Mar 3, 1997] **giffed**

Shot in the abdomen by The Tin Man [Jul 11, 1997] **giffed** here

Shot in the side by Moreno's men when their mob meeting went wrong [Dec 1, 1999] **giffed**

Attacked with a knife by Lucky Spencer, who was brainwashed by Helena Cassadine [Mar 20, 2001Held at gunpoint by a cemetery 

Cut his hand after breaking a glass window at Kelly's to unlock the door [Aug 13, 2002]

Jumped overboard Luis Alcazar's yacht and was subsequently shot at by his men; suffered a laceration to his forehead as a result [Sep 5, 2002]

Renrered unconscious after being hit over the head by Coleman Ratcliffe [Oct 23, 2002]

Hit over the head with a candle stick and tied to a stair banister by Jax [Dec 23, 2002]

Injured in a car accident with Courtney Matthews while headed to tell Sonny about them [Feb 5, 2003]

Had emergency surgery for injuries sustained in the car crash [Feb 7, 2003] **giffed**

Knocked unconscious [Apr 15, 2003]

Knocked unconscious [Aug 14, 2003]

Engulfed in a backdraft that separated him from Courtney and Brian Beck during the PC Hotel Fire [Feb 11, 2004]

Shoved down stairs by Andy [Feb 13, 2004]

Left handcuffed to a pipe to burn to death during the PC Hotel Fire by Andy [Feb 13, 2004]

Caught in an explosion during the PC Hotel Fire after Nikolas accidentally broke a gas pipe saving him [Feb 16, 2004]

Caught in an explosion that occurred in the courtroom during Sonny and Carly’s custody hearing due to a bomb being planted in Sonny’s car; not injured [Mar 15, 2004]

Knocked unconscious by Courtney [Apr 12, 2004]

Shot in the side by FBI agent Reese Marshall [Feb 2005] **giffed**

Injured his arm after falling from a balcony at the Quartermaine Mansion [Apr 2005] **giffed**

Crashed his motorcycle [Aug 2005]

Almost poisoned to death by Asher Thomas [Aug 2005]

Began suffering from a potentially fatal brain aneurysm which was causing him severe headaches and seizures after taking an experimental drug [Aug-Dec 2005; Jason was revealed to be suffering from a brain aneurysm on Sep 6, 2005; he survived]

Suffered from amnesia as a result of the brain aneurysm [Aug 24-Nov 28, 2005]

Shot in the leg by Manny Ruiz [Oct 13, 2005] **giffed** here

Injured in a train wreck [Nov 2005]

His heart stopped [Nov 2005

Began suffering extreme seizures as a side effect of the drug and required surgery [Dec 2005]

Shot in the shoulder by Manny Ruiz while attempting to rescue Sam McCall [Jul 4, 2006]

Shot in the knee by police [Nov 2006]

Hit over the head with a tequila bottle and rendered temporarily unconscious by Lulu Spencer [Nov 2006]

Suffered burns to his hands while trying to save a women in a burning ambulance [Jul 2007; GH:NS]

Severed tendons in both of his hands from shards of glass being embedded in them[43], while rescuing Elizabeth (and Sam) from Diego Alcazar (aka the Text Message Killer) and required three reconstructive surgeries[44] [Mar 2008; suffered from severe blood loss due to his hand injury

Almost smothered to death with a pillow in his sleep by Claudia Zacchara (it looked like she was about to but when he woke up she just told him she was giving him an extra pillow) [Jun 23, 2008]

Trapped in a cave with Sam [Dec 2008]

Accidentally shot in the shoulder by Sam McCall during the hospital bio-toxin crisis [Feb 4, 2009] 

Injured in a car bomb explosion [Apr 23-24, 2009

Developed an infection after Jerry Jacks shot him in the clavicle and trapped him underneath the rubble of an abandoned church, leaving him for dead; he suffered from hallucinations as a result the infection [Aug 2009]

Suffered a head injury after a car accident [Aug 2011]

Underwent a brain biopsy [Aug 2011]

Has a seizure [Aug 2011]

Underwent brain surgery to remove a piece of dashboard from his 1995 car accident with A.J. [Aug 2011]

Passed out in his hospital room [Aug 2011]

Drugged and trapped in a room by Franco and was forced to watch what he believed was Franco raping his then wife, Sam [Nov 2011; Sam learned that she hadn't been raped in May 2013]

Rendered unconscious after running into Michael while on his motorcycle [Dec 2011]

Passed out in the hospital corridor [Jan 2012]

Passed out [Feb 2012] Underwent surgery to relieve the swelling on his brain [Feb 2012]

Experienced a fever after ingesting the toxin Jerry Jacks had placed in the Port Charles water supply [Sep 2012]

Shot in the leg by Ewen Keenan while rescuing Elizabeth Webber [Sep 2012]

Presumed dead after being shot in the back by Cesar Faison (disguised as Duke Lavery) and kicked into the harbor [Oct 19-22, 2012; Jason was revealed to be alive in 2014]

Held captive at a clinic in Russia by Dr. Klein under the orders of Peter August [Oct 2012-Oct 2017; as Patient 6]

Given a sedative [Sep 25, 2017; as Patient 6]

Jumped into the water to save Sam [Oct 30, 2017; as Patient 6]

Ran into Charlie's pub to save Kristina and was caught in an explosion [Sep 10, 2018]

Assumed hypothermia and bruised ribs after falling into the catacombs [Jan 22, 2019; escaped and made it into cold waters of Pier 55 on Jan 23, 2019; rescued by Sam on Jan 24, 2019] **giffed** here

Infected by a latent virus and rendered temporarily blind [Feb 22-25, 2019] 

Attacked and nearly bludgeoned to death by Shiloh after losing a fight to him [Sep 25-26, 2019]

Rendered unconscious after a motorcycle crash caused by Cyrus [Aug 6-11, 2020; Cyrus' involvement revealed on Aug 7, 2020; had exploratory brain surgery on Aug 10, 2020]

Left the hospital prematurely [Aug 24, 2020] 

Jumped into cold water in an attempt to find Sonny, who disappeared after a bridge collapse [Dec 21, 2020]

Stabbed in the stomach by Shawn Butler under Carly Corinthos's orders to get him out of Pentonville [Apr 22, 2021]

Shot at by Carl Pine, one of Cyrus' men, while escaping with Dr. Britt Westbourne [May 3, 2021; saved by Brick]

Shot in the back by an unknown person while escaping with Britt [May 3, 2021]

His blood type is O- [revealed May 4, 2021 Received a blood transfusion from Carly [May 4, 2021]

Tied up and held hostage at gunpoint on Cassadine Island by his twin brother, Drew Cain, who was being programmed by Peter to do his bidding [Nov 2, 2021]

Held hostage with Drew in a wine cellar on Cassadine Island by Peter [Nov 2-18, 2021; revealed on Nov 8, 2021; Jason escaped] 

Presumed dead after being caught in a tunnel collapse which was caused by his shootout with Peter [Nov 19, 2021; Jason was legally declared dead on Mar 15, 2022; ]

2024! March 7th Shot (gifset here )

March 8th reunion with carly, injury treated and suspect (gifset here )