#can you tell i just relistened to 36 questions

[youknowhowido]

the way 36 questions leaves the ending up to your interpretation hurts me so much. the way you can’t totally tell if they’re both still in love with the other, if it’s only one-sided, it makes me go INSANE.

in my mind jace and judith are living in a high rise apartment somewhere (in a state that allows you to have a duck as a pet)

[allondonboy]

you're my best friend so I would say I know a fair bit about u but I wanna know more, so have some asks: 3,12,14 (go on tell me what our apartment would look like lol), 16 (this could create discourse just fyi lmao),36,41,51, and 99

thank u for the questions friendo

3. what random objects do you use to bookmark your books?

so actually, none. i used to use proper bookmarks but i didn’t like how they’d make some of the pages bumpy/get crushed when i was transporting the book, then when i tried i think receipts?? bc that’s what my grandma did, the ink started rubbing off on the pages and it stressed me out so now i just memorise the page number/flick through the book to work out where i was

12. what’s your favourite planet?

ooh. hm. i think saturn bc rings!!!!!! but also jupiter bc the spot. and mars looks gorgeous from all the photos. i’ve always loved the idea of neptune just because of the name. but saturn most of all maybe. also saturn in holst’s planets is brutally fun

14. if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like?

many books. and bean bags to sit on while reading said books. tall bookcases with a sliding ladder that goes around the room like in one of those huge libraries. a kitchen not too disimilar to your parents’ actually (i really really like their kitchen) but with gas hobs bc electric hobs stress me out sorry, where the kitchen is big enough for dramatic singing (in socks so we slide around the floors) while cooking. an under the stairs cupboard turned den/reading cubby hole with a cat safe rocking chair. and so many cats! with like one of those runs for cats that goes around the tops of the walls so they can be high up and hang and inevitably fall off (and then pretend they didn’t). A BALL PIT. A HELTER-SKELTER. but the flat would still have all the eaves in the ceiling etc. and low ceilings and that really lovely old english cottage feel to it. a little balcony garden that gets the sun in the afternoon, with like reclining chairs for more reading. ooh a room like the room i stayed in at yours with the long beds (oh my gosh so comfy) with the tv. i feel like we’d end up with walls of photos and a handful of pride flags everywhere, surrounded by fairy lights. ooh it would be really cool to have a wall for like tickets for where we’ve travelled although you’d easily have more than me bc you’ve actually gone to places and all my tickets are like returns to london lol. also can we appreciate how clean our place would be?! please can we live together i’ll move to germany

16. what’s your favourite pasta dish?

lasagne. either traditional beef lasagne or the wild mushroom one that college did this term because that was incredible. or aubergine lasagne. idk what it is about lasagne but wow. goats cheese and spinach ravioli comes a close second, as long as it’s in tomato sauce and/or pesto, with enough pepper and sufficient parmesan

36. which band’s sound would fit your mood right now?

(mate. you know how i am with music.)

probably imagine dragons, but like evolve-time imagine dragons. 9 times out of 10 they always fit my mood tbh. smoke and mirrors used to be my revision music, then was my angry music, and evolve has very much been my music for this year. still not 100 % on their most recent album but i think i just need to listen to it more

or actually lifehouse, thinking about it. i need to relisten to their music too

41. what’s the last book you remember really, really loving?

Undivided: Coming Out, Becoming Whole, and Living Free from Shame, by Vicky Beeching

she’s a very well-known gay Christian songwriter-turned-activist (she had to stop writing/performing after coming out bc the world is shitty and very homophobic) and it’s her sort of autobiography and completely destroyed me in the best way when i read it back around christmas and i’m rereading it for the third time now and i still love it and i resonate so so much with it and she’s extraordinary

51. think of a person. what song do you associate with them?

you, and in a getaway car because it was your url when i properly discovered taylor swift and i think around the same time when i visited you last summer and we did a lot of driving in your car

99. list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them.

black tie - grace petrie

who am i - casting crowns

believer - imagine dragons

twenty-six summers - vicky beeching

glow - east of eli

everything - lifehouse

(...and now i’m off to make a playlist)

[smokescreen24]

50 DND Questions

1. What do you think your d&d race would be? Proabably human. If I get the choice, I’d like to be either an Elf or Dragonborn. I’d be cool with either of those. 

2. What class? Mostly likely a fighter? I’m not religious enough for a cleric, and not smart enough for a sorcerer or wizard. I like the idea of being able to throw hands. 

3. What two feats would you have? I’d want the Alert feat, and more than likely the Lucky feat. Alert means my initiative gets improved, and Lucky means that I can reroll a bad throw. Those would get used a lot. 

4. What has been your favorite d&d character you've played? (NPCs count for DMs) I’ve only got the two for now, but Liander’s been getting the most love. She’s probably my favorite. 

5. Which of your d&d characters has been the most like you? Oh, Liander, without a doubt. She’s pretty close to my baseline personality.

6. Which of your d&d characters has been the least like you? And that would be Cade. Cade is just this side of Chaotic Evil, so she’s a little harder for me to get into the right headspace for. Playing her takes a lot out of me, to be honest. 

7. How do you go about making a character or NPC? That’s hard to say - I give the session about an hour or so to feel it out, and let the personalities develop naturally over time. My playing style is reactive, so I let the situation dictate how said character would respond. 

8. What is the most memorable natural 20 you've ever experienced? That would be with Cade. I’d rolled to take out a stone giant, suplexed them (because she’s a barbarian and her strength stat is wild), then chopped his dick off with my battleaxe like I was swinging a golf club. It uh, made an impression on the rest of the party, and the rest of the enemies. 

9. Has one of your d&d characters ever died? How? Not yet, so don’t jinx me! I’m still attached to both of them, and would like to keep them around! 

10. What is your favorite class to play? So far, it’s been my ranger. She’s fun, and I’m digging the whole ‘animals as companions’ thing she’s got going. 

11. Have you ever fought a dragon? Yes. Between Cade and Paileous, we cut it’s head off. It’s currently a trophy back at home base. Got a lot of gold for our trouble, too. 

12. Have you ever fought a beholder? NO. Not entirely sure I wanna, either! 

13. Have you ever fought a mind flayer? No, but it’s coming up. My buddy is having us roll new characters for the Underdark campaign. I might try a cleric just for funsies. 

14. Have you ever had a romance with an NPC or another PC? Nope. I am here to tell you that neither of my characters is looking for any of that. Liander’s too busy, and Cade is a halfling barbarian surrounded by equally questionable Drow paladins and rouges. No thanks. 

15. Do you prefer to DM or play?  I have no desire to DM. I’ve only been playing for a little while, and I’m not creative enough to attempt it. I’ll stick to playing. I’m good at that. 

16. What is your favorite D&D pod/vodcast? I’ve been listening to Critical Role - I’m relistening to the Whitestone/Chroma Conclave arcs. I love No Mercy Percy so much. 

17. Who is your favorite "celebrity dm?" I only know the one - Matt Mercer. 

18. Do you use props/minis/terrain in your game? Very rarely. I think we’ve only had like, two sessions that actually had terrain and mini’s. 

19. How did you discover D&D? My friends. I sat in on one of their games, and just for the hell of it, they rolled me a character, and thus Cade was born. 

20. If you run a homebrew game, give an out of context spoiler. I’m not running it, but smuggling is a thing, and the dude we’re smuggling for is someone whose face is on a wanted poster in my pocket. 

21. Drop a picture of a mini you painted (if applicable) Sorry, I don’t have any minis. They’re all with my DM. 

22. Write a brief scene centered around one of your characters! Uh, hang on -  "That was nice. I didn't ask you to get it for me, and I distinctly remember telling you I can get my own. Not my fault you don't listen worth a damn." Liander says with a slight grin. She doesn't know why, but she likes poking at Chancel. Not many folks react the way he does, and the scowl he sends her just makes her grin wider. "Come on. I cannot possibly be the only one who's pointed that out to you." 

 "Yeah, me. Two minutes ago." Zulth mutters into his mug.

23. Do you have any art of your characters? Yeah, one of my more artistic friends drew a sketch of Liander for me, complete with her cat on her shoulder. It’s pretty cool. It’s also huge, which is why I’m not posting it here. 

24. Have you ever played any TTRPGs other than D&D? No, this is my first foray into TTRPGs. 

25. What is your favorite snack for d&d? I reach for Cheetos or Doritos usually. They’re good, crunchy snacks. 

26. If you could have one potion from d&d, which one would you choose? If I could just load up on superior healing potions for life, I’d be a happy woman. 

27. If you could cast one spell from d&d, which would you cast? Fireball. That’s a nice equalizer, I think. 

28. What is the most memorable natural 1 you've experienced? Oh man. That would be with Liander this time. She was trying to sneak into a well fortified part of the city, and tamper with the water supply for one family. Well, I had to roll to hop the fence to do so, rolled a natural one, my foot caught in the fence, and there was a dog right in front of me. Landed on my face, and got bitten for my trouble. Still got the mission done, though. 

29. Have you ever been drunk playing d&d? I’ve been buzzed. Does that count? 

30. Homebrew or prewritten? Both? Both. Both is good. 

31. Tell me about your current party! Which one? Well, for the Alagaesia campaign, there’s my character Liander, a dwarf named Thorin, a rouge(?) named Zulth, an herbalist named Liam, and the man who hired us, an NPC named Bjorn. We’re actually trying to accomplish something with this campaign, or so the DM says. 

For the Guardians of Gravenhollow campaign, I’m a halfling barbarian named Cade, there’s a drow Paladin named Varis, and another Drow rouge named Paileous. This particular campaign is just chaotic evil fuckery. 

32. Most memorable NPC you've encountered in a game you played in. Victor. He built a clock, I wanted his tinkering kit, and wound up buying both at a just criminally low price. I kinda feel like I ripped him off, tbh. 

33. Do you listen to music while playing? What kinds? Mostly the Skyrim soundtrack with a little Witcher soundtrack thrown in for funsies. Atmospheric stuff. 

34. Favorite accent to do for characters? I don’t really have one for either of my characters. Mostly because I’m bad at keeping it up. I forget. 

35. Favorite classic d&d trope Tragic Backstory(TM). Only one of my characters has it, but it’s damn fun to role-play.

36. What was your first d&d character you made? That would be Cade! She started out as kind of a throw-away, but she got mixed in with Paileous and Varis and she’s living her best chaotic life. 

37. What is the most recent PC or NPC you've created? That’d be Kahtri, actually! I haven’t played her a whole bunch, so I’m not really familiar with her yet, but it’ll be interesting to play a Drow cleric who doesn’t actually worship Lolth. (I don’t do spiders.)

38. Goblins or Kobolds? I actually haven’t dealt with either yet. I’m slightly more familiar with Goblins simply because of CritRole. 

39. Favorite villain you've defeated? Uh, I dunno if I’d classify her as a villian exactly, but Cade’s killed an NPC named Creed who was a servant to the god Grotz. Pretty sure he’s out for revenge now. 

40. What d&d deity would you be a cleric of? I am a cleric of the Drow deity Elistraee. (I had to double check the spelling on that) 

41. Give an out of context quote from one of your games! Liander - “I tried to stop him, but he fucking yote me across the room like I wasn’t even there. Is it weird I’m bitter about that?”

Thorin - *emerges from the wreckage of the crate we were smuggling holding dragon eggs* “I FOUND LIVING ROCKS!” 

Liander and Zulth in tandem - *knows exactly what he’s holding* “Oh for fuck’s sake!” 

42. Have you ever rolled turn into a potted plant on the wild magic table? No, I don’t think I know anyone who plays that particular class, so I’ve never seen it happen. 

43. Minis and terrain or theater of the mind? Theater of the mind, good sir/madam. 

44. Mulligan, Mercer, Murphy, or McElroy? Mercer! Mercer! Mercer! 

45. What is the longest session you've ever had? Oh, jeez. Like, fourteen hours, give or take?

46. What is the longest battle you've fought or run? Uh, that’d be the fight with Creed. It took us like two hours to beat her down with three of us. She was stupid powerful. The bounty was great, though. 

47. Have you ever played at level 20? No, my highest level character is a level 11. I’m working on it, though. 

48. Does your dm say "How do you want to do this?" Oh yes. The table just blows up when that happens, not gonna lie. It’s fun to hear, especially if it’s aimed at you. 

49. Have you ever played an edition other than 5th? No, I started playing last year, so 5th is all I know. 

50. Will you try to convince others to play? Already done so. I’ve added a couple people to the group - my husband, whose character is the best straight man to our fuckery, and one of our mutual friends whose lunacy works with our brand of crazy. 

[logicalparafox]

Rules: Complete the survey and say who tagged you in the beginning. When you finished tag 5 people to do this survey. Have fun and enjoy!!!

(vaguely pointed to) by @nicoroni

1: Are you named after someone? The character Stephanie in the movie Short Circuit, where a military robot is struck by lightning and becomes conscious. She lives in a trailer with a bunch of animals including a raccoon. 

2: When was the last time you cried? Rogue One. That movie wrecks me. I want to watch it again

3: Do you like your handwriting? Appearance wise? Noo, not really. Usefulness? Yes. I can scrawl super fast if messily and pretty illegibly to people who are not me! It’s also a skill I somewhat cultivate so I can do things like take notes in work meetings that are really about non-work things but the people next to me can’t tell because it’s A-too small for old people to read and B-basically illegible. Sometimes I wish it looked nicer but it’s v. useful. 

4:What is your favorite lunch meat? Roast beef

5: Do you have kids? I have cats and projects and books

6: If you were another person, would you be friends with you? If I was still like me, yes probably? But also I’m kind of hard to be friends with given my semi frequent bouts of antisociality and generally not getting out much and losing track of time

7: Do you use sarcasm? No, of course not, what would give you that impression

8: Do you still have your tonsils? Yarp

9: Would you bungee jump? No. Maybe skydive, but bungee jumping just seems like I would be the nauseous-est. Yay motion sickness

10: What is your favorite kind of cereal? Cinnamon Toast Crunch

11: Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Only if I literally can’t get the shoes off without untying them and sometimes I just struggle them off anyway

12: Do you think you’re a strong person? In some aspects, yes. 

13: What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Cookie dough, or strawberry

14: What is the first thing you notice about people? Movement and bearing usually. Body language. I am really good at spotting people from far away based on how they move

15: Red or pink? Red!

16: What is the least favorite physical thing you like about yourself? My meat suit, basically all of it, though I agree with Nico that this is a really negative question

17: What color pants and shoes are you wearing now? At work in my business casual attire, so I’ve got black slacks and black flats on

18: What was the last thing you ate? Bagel for breakfast while rotating pokemon on isle evelup! I have charts in order to maximize pokedex filling. 

19: What are you listening to right now? Show is currently paused so I can focus and type, but I’m in the middle of an It’s Always Sunny episode since the new season dropped on hulu this week. Non-video wise I’m like 75% through a relisten of Maskerade by Pratchett for background brain distracting

20: If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Scarlet maybe? Or orange. I had a somewhat new-agey friend once tell me I had a warm orange aura and I like the concept of it. Also DR gave me an affection for the color

21: Favorite smell? Ocean, but not so much beach? The salty sharp smell when you’re a couple of miles off shore and can barely see land

22: Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? My grandma. My aunt her caretaker texted to ask if I could call and make sure she had taken her medication since my aunt didn’t have phone service where she was staying with her friend 

23: Favorite sport to watch? Mmm synchronized swimming maybe? Some of those routines are amazing

24: Hair color? Dark brown

25: Eye color? Hazel

26: Do you wear contacts? I don’t and am also SUPER TERRIBLE at putting them in so mostly I cosplay without them

27: Favorite food to eat? Hmm... good bread?

28: Scary movies or comedy? Comedy!

29: Last movie you watched? Aforementioned Rogue One

30: What color of shirt are you wearing? Olive green

31: Summer or winter? Winter, but the kind of winter where I live in socal where it’s chilly but not actually freezing or snowing and there’s still sunshine

32: Hugs or kisses? Kisses, but only from select people

33: What book are you currently reading? Thud! Making my way through Discworld

34: Who do you miss right now? Given that Nico tagged me and is therefore on my mind, Nico. Also Droog and Caribou and Boss and other far-away friends I see rarely if ever but who I love lots

35: What is on your mouse pad? Stylized octopus

36: What is the last TV program you watched? Currently watching It’s Always Sunny, they’re such terrible people

37: What is the best sound? I favor water sounds generally like waves or running water. I love standing waist deep in the ocean after dark when you can just hear the roaring of the waves 

38: Rolling Stones or The Beatles? Is neither an option?

39: What is the furthest you have ever traveled? Austria

40: Do you have a special talent? Spotting things others miss, I’m good at finding things (maybe I AM a Hufflepuff, lol)

41: Where were you born? California

42: People you expect to participate in this survey? @nicoroni already did and I expect @infectedmetaphysic will as well. Possibly @dorky-malorky, @soggywarmpockets, and @theredberin ?

[stogutrosenberry]

“A gift to the construction industry”: catchy quotes from Court of Appeals argument on OSHA’s silica standard

OSHA took the long road to adopt a standard to address respirable crystalline silica. Although the final rule was issued in March 2016, it is being challenged by both industry and labor groups. The first says OSHA went too far, the other says OSHA didn’t go far enough.

The long road, however may be coming close to end. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard oral arguments last week from parties that are challenging the rule. Judges Merrick Garland, David Tatel and Karen LeCraft Henderson spent more than two hours listening to arguments from the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association (NSSGA), the Brick Industry Association (BIA), the U.S Chamber of Commerce, the North America Building Trades, the United Steelworkers and others.  Attorneys with the Department of Labor’s Office of the Solicitor were there, too, to defend the OSHA rule.

I enjoyed listening (and relistening) to the court’s audio of the oral argument. What made it particularly enjoyable was listening to the judges—they did their homework!

Judges Garland and Tatel, in particular, probed, cajoled, and challenged the attorneys to clarify their arguments. The judges pressed the attorneys on issues concerning economic feasibility, health risks, and the legal standard for substantial evidence. There were plenty of references to prior litigation on OSHA health standards. They mentioned significant previous court decision on OSHA standards, such as for asbestos, lead and formaldehyde.  I felt a bit like an outsider, listening to the attorneys speak about those rulings. They described them as if they were old friends who remain relevant today. And like relationships with old friends, we don’t always agree about what she said or remember events in the same way.

There were times during the oral arguments that the presenting attorney rose to a judge’s challenge for a cogent response. But I cringe a few times when I heard nervous laughter from an industry attorney who knew he was stumped by the judge’s question.

Below are just some of my favorite quotes and exchanges. The text doesn’t capture the animation I heard in the audio from the courtroom or the commitment of the attorneys to their arguments. I’ve included a time stamp at each quote so you can listen for yourself. (I had difficulty distinguishing Judge Garland’s from Judge Tatel’s voice. If I incorrectly attribute the quotes, please leave a comment and I’ll correct it.)

NSSGA and BIA argue that OSHA overstates the risk of health harm caused by exposure to respirable crystalline silica. Their attorney, William L. Wehrum, said:

“We assert that OSHA had a thumb on the scale. We believe the record makes clear that OSHA came to this rulemaking with a determined goal of reducing the level of the standard. We believe it clouded OSHA’s judgement and caused it to lose objectivity, which we believe permeates the entire proceeding.” [00:02:36]

Judge Tatel chimed in:

“You say that OSHA had its thumb on the scale, which is a curious statement given our standard of review. The question is: is there significant evidence in the record to support OSHA’s position for what it did? You can certainly point to contrary evidence, but OSHA has explained all that. …You have to make your argument in terms of our specific standard of review, which is the substantial evidence question. Our case law is very specific about that.”

Sounding like a law professor Tatel added:

“What’s your best argument regarding the substantial evidence test?” [00:04:19]

Wehrum had difficulty providing a short and sweet and precise answer.

Judge Garland addressed the problem for the court of dueling scientists. William Wehrum tried to describe the evidence from his side’s experts, but Garland interrupted:

“We have scientists on both sides and the law here is quite clear. When there are scientists on both sides, OSHA is permitted to take the ones that are most likely to protect worker safety. There is supposed to be a thumb on the scale in terms of safety. …That’s what our own case says. It is perfectly appropriate for OSHA to weight in favor of worker safety. That’s right, isn’t it. [00:09:56]

William Wehrum: “Correct your honor to a point, but that dosen’t insulate OSHA from review.

Soundly a bit frustrated, Garland said:

“That’s what we doing here, but it is not enough to say there is a plausible mechanism. You have to be able to show that OSHA’s studies are not themselves substantial evidence.”

The attorney representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was also schooled by Judge Garland. This time it was a math problem.

Attorney Michael Connolly argued that there are so few deaths today is the U.S. from silicosis that OSHA has not met its burden of demonstrating that exposure to respirable silica poses a significant risk of harm to workers. Connolly pointed to the low number of silicosis deaths reported on death certificates and compared to the millions of workers in silica-related industries.

Judge Garland asked [00:18:50]:

“Is that the right division? Dividing the total number of deaths that are reported on the death certificates by the total number of workers in industry? Or is the right number the total number of deaths at a certain level of exposure? That is, in terms of the 1 in 1,000 test.

(The “1 in 1,000” comes from a 1980 Supreme Court ruling about OSHA’s benzene standard. The Supreme Court justices did not offer a specific ratio but indicated that the threshold likely fell somewhere between 1 death per 1 billion (which would not be considered significant) to 1 death per 1,000 (which would be significant.))

Judge Garland continued:

“It’s not supposed to be just 1 over the entire population of the United States, or 1 over everybody who works. It’s supposed to be 1 over 1,000 people who work at a certain exposure level, isn’t that right?”

Michael Connolly: “Sure. That’s correct.”

Judge Garland:

“Isn’t it exposed to silica at a certain exposure levels that matters? Not all people who may have been exposed to silica? [20:03]

Score one for the judge.

I wish I’d been in the courtroom for that exchange. I would have turned my head to see if Judge Garland’s remark brought a smile to the attorneys who were defending OSHA’s rule.

Labor Department attorney Kristen Lindberg was charged with responding to some of the arguments raised by the industry petitioners. Among her excellent synopsis was this:

[00:35:00] “It’s worthwhile to step back a little bit and review the support OSHA had in the record for its findings. Their risk assessment findings were supported by nearly all of the occupational health and medical organizations that commented on the rule, including NIOSH, the American Cancer Society, the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the American Thoracic Society, the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics, and the American Public Health Association.”

“… Industry petitioners want you to reject conclusions that have overwhelming support among scientists and that were supported by the independent peer reviewers who scrutinized OSHA’s risk assessment. They want you to reject this extensive body of scientific evidence on the flimsy basis that there are flaws in some of the studies that OSHA relied upon and that there is uncertainty in epidemiology. They want you to impose a legal burden on OSHA that the agency could never meet.”

[00:36:53] “The broad support for OSHA’s conclusions within the scientific community should increase the court’s confidence that OSHA’s analysis is sound. The courts understand that OSHA, in marshalling scientific evidence to support a risk assessment, cannot ever reach perfection because the science those risk assessments are based on is not perfect. There will be flaws in studies, there will be stronger and weaker studies, there may be some uncertainty, but what OSHA has done here, its extensive analysis based on a huge body of evidence conforms fully with the OSH Act and with the requirements of courts that have interpreted the OSH Act.”

Bradford Hammock argued the case on behalf of the National Association of Home Builders and other industry groups. He tried to convince the judges that OSHA’s requirements for the construction industry are not technological feasible.

Victoria Bor, the counsel for North America’s Building Trades Unions dismissed Mr. Hammock’s assertions. Her argument began with the following [00:67:40]

“By way of context, Table 1, which is the centerpiece of the construction standard, is a gift to the construction industry. Most OSHA standards set a permissible exposure limit and require employers to monitor their workplaces and devise their own strategies following the hierarchy of controls to bring exposures below the permissible exposure limit (PEL). The silica standard gives employers options. They can follow the traditional approach or they can follow Table 1, which is in effect is a manual that lists 19 of the 23 construction tasks that most commonly generate significant silica exposure, and specifies control strategies for each. Employers who fully and properly implement the controls listed on Table 1 are freed from monitoring their workplace and have a safe harbor for complying with the PEL.

“…OSHA assumes that most employers will follow table, which is a completely reason assumption because it tells employers exactly what they have to do, frees them from monitoring, and gives them a safe harbor for complying with the PEL.”

“Now rather than accepting this gift, as Mr. Hammock already explained to you, the industry petitioners point to Table 1 and argue that to the extent it requires the use of respirators….OSHA is conceding that the standard isn’t feasible. …The petitioners’ argument completely ignores that Table 1 does not require employers to comply with the PEL. What it requires is for employers to implement the listed controls. So whether the PEL can be reached without the use of respirators—the question that the industry petitioners focus on— is actually completely irrelevant.”

Victoria Bor continued:

“What is relevant, as Ms. Goodman [of the Labor Department] said, is that the typical employer can comply with Table 1 most of the time. On this question, the petitioners argument on feasibility rests on vague assertions that in certain circumstances, certain employers may not be able to use certain of the wet methods listed in Table 1 at some time. …Petitioners point to no evidence that undermines OSHA’s conclusions that most employers will be able to comply with Table 1 by utilizing those controls most of the time.”

There was dead silence after her rebuttal. None of the judges asked Victoria Bor to clarify or further defend her arguments. They seemed convinced.

The excerpts above are just some of memorable moments from the oral argument. Another was a lengthy argument by the unions and rebuttal by the Labor Department about OSHA’s provisions for medical surveillance and medical removal protections. It was the one time that the Labor Department’s case seemed on shaky ground.

If you  listen to the audio for yourself you’ll hear the word “grapple” used numerous times by attorneys for the unions. You’ll hear the Labor Department attorneys repeat the phrase”de minimis benefit.” You’ll hear one judge say to an industry attorney “it’s not your principle argument, it’s your only argument” and another judge mention “a shopping list.” You’ll hear all the parties claim that OSHA’s decisions are, or are not, “supported by the record.” Finally you’ll hear many references to previous Supreme Court and Appeals Court decisions on other OSHA standards.

It’s been many years since OSHA started down the road toward a comprehensive silica standard. People will disagree on when the agency actually hit the road, but they know that last week’s stop at the U.S. Court of Appeals means the road may soon be coming to an end.

Judges Garland, Henderson, and Tatel are now at the wheel. They will decide whether OSHA’s rule will stand as is, or whether the agency needs to make a U-turn.

I relished listening to the oral arguments. I’ll be eager to read the judge’s opinion when it’s issued.

      Article source:Science Blogs

[subtletyislost]

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1. Tell us about your WIP!Currently I’m working on a lesbian romance novel about two girls in college,one is a double majoring in business and english education, the other doublemajors in computer science and astrophysics (the college she goes to doesn’t do“rocket science” or aeronautical engineering, so this is probably as close asshe’s going to get for programing rockets and theoretical space flightpaths/devices). The other major part of the story is that the MC (the rocketscientist) is searching for her missing brother at the same time.

3. What is your favorite/least favorite part aboutwriting?My favorite part about writing is that moment hen someone tells me eitherthat they like my writing or gives me some kind of critique/encouragement (yes,I actually like receiving constructive criticism). My least favorite part aboutwriting is trying find people to give that critique/trying to stay focusedenough to actually finish a story.

5. Top five formative books?I don’t know what this means but the books I read as a child that made mewant to write were: 1. The Magic Treehouse Series 2. Molly Moon’s IncredibleBook of Hypnotism 3. Bloody Jack 4. The Tale-Tell Heart (and other Edgar AllenPoe things) 5. The Little Princebooks that shaped my writing style/preferences though were 1. Molly Moon’sIncredible Book of Hypnotism 2. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witchof the West 3. Welcome to Night Vale: The Novel 4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide tothe Galaxy 5. Martin the Warrior

6. Favorite character you’ve written?Fandom: Sera, Leliana, Josephine, Cole (Dragon Age), Jack, Liara, Peebee (MassEffect), Pharah (overwatch), Raven (Teen Titans), Lara Croft (Tomb Raider)Original: Cassandra Tesla (the MC of the wip from question 1), Scion, Xia,Sage, Ruka, and Nvros

8. Do you have anywriting buddies or critique partners? yes! @wardenpharah @snowstorm-thirteen @uswhovianswillholdasiton and acouple others who I mostly talk to on discord

9. Favorite/leastfavorite tropes? Favorite: I don’t know trope names, but there’s trope that I didn’t know was atrope until I came across it in a few fics and a podcast where basicallysomeone is separated from their spouse and when they meet back up with themthey’re like “I missed you so much! Btw I kind of accidentally adopted thiskid/[wayward character]”; that trope “remove your weapons” *pulls a ridiculousamount of weapons out of nowhere* “ALL of them” *reluctantly hands over one ortwo more*; “will this work?” “I have no idea” *thing explodes* “was it supposedto do that?” “I don’t know but it was awesome!”Least favorite: that trope where they destroy the MCs hometown/house/familyjust so the MC has nothing tying them back to where they began and then proceedto do absolutely nothing with that plotwise and it affects nothing but gettingthe MC to actually leave their town

10. Pick an author(or writing friend) to co-write a book with@snowstorm-thirteen or @wardenpharah or one of my new friends from discordwhose tumblr I’ve forgotten

12. Which story ofyours do you like best? why? Original Works: either Light in the Dark or The Forgotten Realm of Dreams orThe Invisibles, because they’re all really really gay and really really nerdyFanfic: Is This Home Yet is without a doubt my best work ever. I’m consideringrewriting it as a novel. Wouldn’t be hard because the only thing making it afanfic and not an original work is that I used the two mcs to basically justget more attention.

13. Describe yourwriting processIt tends to be: sit down, open a notebook/grab paper/open scrivener/word/googledocs, stare at the page, start writing, erase things, write different things,listen to music, check tumblr, write more, somehow things get done or they don’tget done.

15. How do you dealwith self-doubt when writing? look at paper, say “I hate this”, cry, complain to anyone who will listen,stop writing for however long that takes, go back to writing, say “this is bad”,complain more, talk shit out, then it branches: if feel better, keep writing! Ifnot, stop writing and play video games then come back to writing two or threedays later!

16. Cover love/dreamcovers? I love me some good book covers, but professional ones are expensive orrequire talent that I do not have. Light in the Dark would be good with eithera mysterious cover, cover with a bunch of letters and envelopes, a soft gaycover with two girls that fit Cass and Ruka’s descriptions, or a cover that’s likethe soft gay cover but with space and video games/a computer incorporated intoit.

17. What things(scenes/topics/character types) are you most comfortable writing? scenes: anything not smut or fightingtopics: I’m comfortable writing about anything except incest/ddlg|mmlb/anythingthat falls in the realm of ‘not my thing to talk about’ (ie. I will write transcharacters, but not specifically about trans issues—nonbinary/agender issuesthough I will; I’ll write mlm characters but not specifically about theirissues; I’ll write poc or religious characters but I won’t write specificallyabout the issues that they face-without a lot of research and talking to peopleand such—because it’s just not my place. To explain a bit, I mean that I’llwrite characters that are not like me, and will do research to make sure I don’taccidentally do that in an offensive manner, but I won’t tell their stories forthem because I am not them. I hope this makes sense.)character types: women or nonbinary individuals, rebels, nerds, autistics,abuse victims/survivors, lesbians, ace people, the secretly nerdy femme, thesecretly nerdy butch, the secretly nerdy anyone,the tough girl who likes soft things, the soft girl who will kick your ass, thereptile person (person who likes reptiles), pirate, scientist, explorer, ectthere’s a lot of character types I love to write

25. What’s yourworldbuilding process like? this deserves its own post

21. What aspect ofyour writing are you most proud of? characterization

22. Tell us about thebooks on your “to write” listmost of them are in some way all part of the same series, but not necessarilyconnected, and not necessarily linearly or direct successors. Some/most can be stand-alonethat just happen to take place in the same universe as the others

27. Every writer’sleast favorite question - where does your inspiration come from? Do you docertain things to make yourself more inspired? Is it easy for you to come upwith story ideas?Dreams. Most if not all my story inspiration and ideas come from dreams, therest come from songs or random thoughts that just get stuck in my head. To getmore inspired I play games, bounce ideas off my friends, listen to music, orsleep. It’s fairly easy for me to come up with ideas, almost as easy as comingup with characters *shoves my like 300 ocs into the closet*

28. How do you stayfocused on your own work and how do you deal with comparison?I don’t focus, that’s the problem that’s why there’s so much unfinished shit onmy ao3. Tbh I’m usually the one doing the comparing and I deal with it bylearning from the work I’m comparing mine to and improving.

30. Do you like toread books similar to your project while you’re drafting or do you stick tonon-fiction/un-similar works?I don’t read. I can’t focus long enough to read. Instead I play video games inthe same genre or daydream or occasionally relisten to the Welcome To NightVale novel audiobook. I’m starting to branch out and try to find otheraudiobooks to listen to, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a pretty goodone on Audio.

33. What’s yourrevision/rewriting process like?draft one on one side of the screen, draft two on the other side of thescreen and literally rewriting draft one in draft 2. Sometimes I’ll rewrite onthe same document using markups like strikethrough instead of deleting thingsand other colors for the new additions, also lots and lots of sleeping andcrying, and soda (I don’t drink coffee).

34. Unpopular writingthoughts/opinions? Ernest Hemmingway sucks. He’s a terrible writer and you should not aspire towrite like him nor should you look up to him. Said is a perfectly valid word.The Oxford Comma is required not optional. Adverbs are not bad, use them if youwant. First person is a valid form to write in. Parenthetical asides (likethis) are just as valid as hyphenated asides—like this—and should be used if itfits the story/narration style. If your pov character doesn’t understand theforeign language the other character is speaking, putting the words in theother language in the text with a footnote translation is just as valid as “hesaid something in [language] but MC didn’t understand it.” Stalking is notromantic. Unhappy endings do not belong in the romance genre. Your charactercan be gay without complaining about it or it making their life hard. You canhave more than one minority character! You characters never going to thebathroom is unrealistic. Mosquitoes are a thing and if your character isoutside in the summer they had better damn well be protecting themselvesagainst them or slapping at at least one. A romance story with a character whowon’t take no for an answer, who isn’tthe antagonist/big (or little) bad, is not romantic. A romance story where thecharacters kiss or have sex when one of them clearly doesn’t want to, is notromantic. BOTH characters in your romance story need to change by the end ofthe story, that’s just good characterization. You can have polyamorouscharacters, but we are not a kink/fetish, if you don’t actually support actualpolyamorous people in real life don’t write about us in your fiction it’sdisrespectful and you’re probably going to do it wrong. Cheating is notromantic. Asexuals exist, Aromantics exist, Bisexuals exist. Romance doesn’tneed sex. … I’ll stop now, I have a lot of things I could say here.

35. Post the lastsentence you wroteShe blinked them back, willing herself not to cry.

36. Post a snippetCassandra had never been one for plans, if she had she might have actuallytalked with her roommate before move-inday. Even so, despite not planning things much, she did have goals. Her goal onmove-in day was simple: move in, preferably alone. She’d been under theimpression that she was the first one to arrive and that her roommate wouldn’tbe coming until later in the day. So, it was a shock to her when she arrived ather dorm room and found it was already open. She tapped her foot against the doorto get the attention of whoever was inside the room. She couldn’t quite see whomight be in there through the boxes that she was carrying.

“I hope you don’t mind,” a soft voice from inside the roomsaid, “it’s just that it was easier to leave the door open than to have to keepunlocking it.”

Cassandra tilted her head as she walked into the room,lowering the boxes just enough to see over them as she did so. “It’s notrouble,” she replied. “Who are you?”

The girl she was addressing, that she assumed was herroommate, was probably the most delicate looking girl she’d ever seen—wearing alight blue sundress with a ribbon around her waist and matching Mary Janes. Inher mind, the girl gave the impression of the enchanted rose from Beauty and the Beast; almost more likean idea than a person. She had long dark blonde—or was it light brown—hair withfaint, but still visible, red and dark brown streaks running through it, asthough it contained a fire within its French braid. Her smile was soft, barelyeven visible, and she looked like she might have played a sport in highschool—probably archery or fencing. Her brown eyes sparkled in the light fromthe window, like a stone of topaz against a blanket of snow. Never in her life,had Cassandra ever seen a girl that made her wonder if she was staring, but shehad now.

37. Do you ever writelong handed or do you prefer to type everything?100% depends on the story, and the day, and whether or not my eyes hurt.Sometimes ideas flow better on paper, sometimes typed, sometimes they flowbetter when I talk them out those days are bad for writing but good for gettingideas.

42. How many draftsdo you usually write before you feel satisfied? 100% depends on if it’s original work or fanfiction. Original works I’m usuallynot satisfied even after 6, 7, or even 10 drafts. Fanfiction, sometimes I justpost up the first draft without caring, sometimes I’m more satisfied with a seconddraft. It usually doesn’t go beyond that.

48. Do you prefer towrite skimpy drafts and flesh them out later, or write too much and cut itback?I just write. Usually my second draft is longer and more detailed than thefirst, and by the 5th or 6th everything has changedbecause of added or removed details.

51. Are you asecretive writer or do you talk with your friends about your books?I don’t shut up about my writing, not with my friends.

52. Who do you writefor? Myself., or anyone who pays me.

54. Favorite firstline/opening you’ve written? Absolutely nothing could go wrong, she thought just exactly as everythingwent wrong.

50. Do you share yourrough drafts or do you wait until everything is all polished?I share them, if I waited until they were polished no one would ever get toread them

55. How do you manageyour time/make time for writing? (do you set aside time to write every day ordo you only write when you have a lot of free time?) I have no job and no life. 0/10 do not recommend my method of having writingtime