#colon cancer cure

[rightnewshindi]

हिमाचल में कैंसर के 32 हजार 909 मरीज, 3 हजार 138 अस्थमा से पीड़ित; धनीराम शांडिल

Himachal Pradesh Cancer Patients: हिमाचल प्रदेश में कैंसर के 32 हजार 909 और अस्थमा के 3 हजार 138 मरीज हैं. मौजूदा वक्त में चिकित्सा शिक्षा एवं अनुसंधान हिमाचल प्रदेश विभाग के तहत जिला शिमला, कांगड़ा, सिरमौर, मंडी और हमीरपुर गवर्मेंट मेडिकल कॉलेज और अस्पताल चलाए जा रहे हैं. इन महाविद्यालय एवं चिकित्सालय में यह मरीज अपना इलाज करवा रहे हैं. यह जानकारी हिमाचल प्रदेश विधानसभा के मानसून सत्र के दौरान…

[codewitch]

Blood of Eden remembers that Jod nuked earth. I wonder if they remember what he did before then. It is believed Cytherea hung out with them for a while. I wonder if they told her he used to cure cancers. If they did, she was absolutely 100% justified for everything she did in book one. Girl spent 10,000 years in a perpetual state of end stage blood cancer that had colonized her lungs in the service of a man who could’ve fixed it. I too would’ve gone on a rampage.

[ceyhanmedya]

What is stomach cancer? What are the symptoms and treatment methods? 2023

New Post has been published on https://bankakredin.com/what-is-stomach-cancer-what-are-the-symptoms-and-treatment-methods-2023/

What is stomach cancer? What are the symptoms and treatment methods? 2023

Stomach cancer is caused by abnormal division of cells in the stomach. The stomach is a muscular organ located in the upper part of the abdominal cavity on the left side just below the ribs. Oral food is delivered to the stomach via the esophagus. Foods reaching the stomach can be kept in the stomach for a while. They are then destroyed and digested.

The stomach consists of four parts: the “cardia”, to which the esophagus is connected and called the stomach gate, the “fundus”, which is the upper part of the stomach, the “corpus”, which is the body of the stomach, and the “pylorus”, which connects the stomach to the small intestine. Gastric cancer, also known as gastric cancer, can originate from any part of the stomach. In most parts of the world, the most common site of stomach cancer is the body of the stomach. However, in the United States, the most common site of gastric cancer initiation is the gastroesophageal junction, where the stomach and esophagus connect.

Stomach cancer is a slowly progressive disease. It mostly occurs in people between the late 60s and 80s.

What Are the Types of Stomach Cancer?

Gastric cancer originates from the glandular cells that cover the inner surface of the stomach at a rate of 95%. Stomach cancer can progress and spread to the stomach wall and even to the blood or lymphatic circulation.

Gastric cancer is named according to the cell from which it originates. Some common stomach cancers are as follows:

Adenocarcinoma : The most common type of stomach cancer. The tumor is formed from the glandular structure that covers the inner surface of the stomach.

Lymphoma : It originates from lymphocyte cells in the immune system.

Sarcoma : It is a type of cancer originating from adipose tissue, connective tissue, muscle tissue or blood vessels.

Metastatic cancer : It is a type of cancer whose primary cancer tissue is not in the stomach, which is seen as a result of the spread of other cancers such as breast cancer, lung cancer or melanoma to the stomach.

Other types of stomach cancer, such as carcinoid tumor, small cell carcinoma, and squamous (squamous) cell carcinoma, are less common.

What are the Causes of Stomach Cancer?

The mechanism that triggers the uncontrolled growth and proliferation of cells in the stomach and leads to cancer is not fully known. However, it has been determined that there are some factors that increase the risk of gastric cancer. One of these is H. pylori bacteria, which can cause a widespread asymptomatic infection and stomach ulcers. Gastritis, which is defined as inflammation of the stomach, pernicious anemia, which is a long-lasting anemia, and polyps, which are structures protruding from the stomach surface, increase this risk. Other factors that increase the risk of stomach cancer are given below:

To smoke

Being overweight or obese

Excessive consumption of smoked and salty foods

Consuming too much pickle

drinking alcohol regularly

Having stomach surgery due to ulcer

A blood group

Epstein-Barr virus infection

some genes

Working in the coal, metal, timber or rubber industry

asbestos exposure

Having a family history of stomach cancer

Having Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP), Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer (HNPCC)-Lynch Syndrome, or Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome

Stomach cancer begins when cells in the stomach change their DNA, which is the genetic material. These changes allow cancer cells to divide and live very quickly while healthy cells die. Over time, cancer cells combine and wash away healthy tissue. Thus, it can spread to other parts of the body.

What are the Symptoms of Stomach Cancer?

The most common symptom of stomach cancer is weight loss. The patient has lost 10% or more of his body weight in the last 6 months. The following symptoms can be counted as early signs of stomach cancer:

Indigestion

feeling bloated after eating

burning sensation in chest

mild nausea

Loss of appetite

Symptoms such as indigestion or a burning sensation in the chest alone do not indicate cancer. However, if the complaints are too many and more than one symptom is seen, the patient is examined in terms of risk factors for gastric cancer and some tests may be requested.

As the tumor size increases, the complaints become serious. The following serious symptoms can be seen in the later stages of stomach cancer:

Stomache ache

seeing blood in the stool

Vomiting

Weight loss for no apparent reason

difficulty swallowing

Yellowish eye whites and yellowish skin color

swelling in the stomach

constipation or diarrhea

Weakness and fatigue

chest pain

The above-mentioned complaints are more serious and require a doctor’s consultation.

How is Stomach Cancer Diagnosed?

There is no screening test for stomach cancer. In the last 60 years, there has been a decrease in gastric cancer cases. However, people with a family history or syndromes that pose a risk for stomach cancer should go to routine controls. The patient’s medical history is taken and begins with a physical examination.

If the doctor deems it necessary, he may order some tests such as:

Tumor Markers:  Blood level of substances known as cancer markers (CA-72-4, carcinoembryonic antigen, CA 19-9)

Endoscopy:  The stomach is looked at with the help of a thin and flexible tube and a camera.

Upper Gastrointestinal System X-ray: A  limy liquid called barium is given to the patient and the stomach is visualized on the direct X-ray.

Computed Tomography: It  is an imaging device that creates detailed images with the help of X-ray rays.

Biopsy:  It is examined pathologically by taking a sample from the abnormal tissue of the stomach. The definitive diagnosis is biopsy and the type of cancer is determined by the pathology result.

How Is Stomach Cancer Treatment?

The most important factor determining the treatment of gastric cancer is the stages of gastric cancer. Stomach cancer stages; It is determined by the size of the tumor, whether it has spread to the lymph node, whether it has spread to a place other than the stomach.

Stage 0 : It is the presence of unhealthy cells that have the potential to turn into cancer cells in the epithelial layer covering the inner surface of the stomach. A cure is achieved by removing part or all of the stomach with surgery. Along with the stomach, the lymph nodes near the stomach, which are an important part of the immune system in our body, are also removed.

Stage 1:  At this stage, there is a cancer cell in the stomach and may have spread to the lymph nodes. As in stage 0, some or all of the stomach and lymph nodes in the nearby region are removed with surgery. Chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy may be added to treatment before or after surgery. It is used before surgery to reduce the size of the cancer and to remove more with surgery, and when done after surgery, it is used to kill the remaining cancer cells after surgery. Chemotherapy is drugs that aim to kill cancer cells. In addition to drugs, chemoradiotherapy aims to kill cancer cells by making use of the high energy of the rays with radiotherapy.

Stage 2 : The cancer has spread to the deeper layers of the stomach and lymph nodes. Similar to stage 1 treatment, the main treatment in stage 2 consists of pre- or post-surgical chemoradiotherapy and surgery.

Stage 3 : Cancer has spread to all layers of the stomach, as well as to nearby organs such as the spleen and colon. The entire stomach is removed with surgery and chemotherapy is given. However, although this treatment does not provide a definitive cure, it relieves the patient’s symptoms and pain.

Stage 4 : Cancer has spread to organs far from the stomach, such as the brain, lungs, and liver. Curing is much more difficult, the goal is to relieve symptoms.

What Can Be Done to Prevent Stomach Cancer?

Some of the measures that can be taken to prevent stomach cancer are listed below:

quit smoking

 Treating a stomach ulcer

Eating a healthy diet with fiber-rich foods

not consuming alcohol

Using pain relievers and medications like aspirin cautiously

If you have a lot of stomach ailments or if you have serious complaints such as seeing blood in the stool or losing weight quickly, it is recommended that you apply to health institutions and get support from specialist physicians.

stomach cancer,are stomach cancer symptoms intermittent,are stomach cancers curable,are stomach cancer and colon cancer related,are stomach cancer symptoms constant,are stomach cancer symptoms persistent,are stomach cancer lumps painful,what are stomach cancer symptoms,what are stomach cancers,what are stomach cancer treatments,what are stomach cancer chemo,can stomach cancer be cured,can stomach cancer kill you,can stomach cancer be detected by blood test,can stomach cancer cause diarrhea,can stomach cancer cause weight gain,can stomach cancer be seen on ct scan,can stomach cancer cause back pain,can stomach cancer cause itchy skin,can stomach cancer cause shortness of breath,

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Errors, “Errors,” and Sci Fi

@strawberry-crocodile

tvtropes calls stuff like the wolf example "science matches on" which I think is a pretty fair shake

This.  This is what’s got me thinking so much about errors.  There’s a certain danger, here.  A certain way that this particular effect — delicious dramatic irony — tempts the mind when reading old stories, even true ones.

What do you know about R.M.S. Titanic? I ask my class every year, and the first hand rises.  “It was unsinkable,” the student inevitably says, and everyone is nodding, “or so they thought.”  I write the word UNSINKABLE on the board, underneath my crude drawing of a ship with four smokestacks.  It will be crossed out before the end of the hour, but not for the reason they expect.

“I find no evidence,” Walter Lord, preeminent biographer of the ship’s survivors, wrote, “that Titanic was ever advertised as unsinkable. This detail seems to have entered the collective mind so as to create a more perfect irony.”  Indeed, historians’ examinations of White Star Line documents show the shipbuilders themselves worried it would be so large as to risk collision; they stocked several more lifeboats than 1910s regulations required.

The War to End All Wars (deep breath, satisfied exhale), also known as World War ONE. Chuckle.  Shake of the head.  What if I told you that this phrase, used primarily in American newspapers after the fact, wasn’t meant to be literal? Nowadays we’d say The Mother of All Wars, or One Hell of a Fucking War, but we wouldn’t mean literal motherhood, literal intercourse.  What if I said the armistice and the Lost Generation and the Roaring 20s were all braced for another outbreak of European conflict, and yet we still failed to prevent it?

Did you know they were so confident in the safety of the S.S. Challenger that they put a civilian schoolteacher onboard? I do, because I’ve heard that one repeated many times.  Only, see, it’s got the cause and effect reversed.  Challenger launched on a day the shuttle’s engineers knew to be dangerously cold, because the first civilian in space was on board. And NASA knew its shuttle project would be cancelled entirely, if they couldn’t get that civilian’s much-delayed entry into space in the next two weeks.  So they launched on a cold day, and killed her instead.

These are all what cognitive science calls Hindsight Bias on the personal level, what sociology calls Presentism on the cultural level.  Social psychology’s a little of both, is primarily interested in why you’re sitting on your couch in a Colonize Mars shirt watching PBS and chuckling at the fools who believed in El Dorado.  It wants to know why the mind flees straight from “marijuana will kill you” to “marijuana will cure cancer” without so much as a pause on the middle ground of its real benefits and drawbacks, its real (mild) risks and rewards.

And they can paralyze the sci-fi writer, if you think too much about them. Jetsons is futurist one decade, retro the next.  “There are no bathrooms on the Enterprise,” the creators of Serenity say smugly, as if Gene Roddenberry should’ve simply known that decades later it’d be acceptable to show a man peeing in full view of the camera, nothing but the curve of the actor’s hand to protect his modesty.  “No sound in space,” the Fandom Menace says, “No explosions in space,” and “A space station can’t collapse in zero-G.”  Only then NASA burns a paper napkin outside of atmosphere, transmits music using only the ghost of nearby planets’ gravities, and logs onto Reddit long enough to point out the Death Star would implode in its own gravity field.  And now we’re the ones pointing, the ones laughing, at those earlier point-and-laughers.  Self-satisfied, smug in superiority.  As if we did the work to find out ourselves, instead of just happening to be born a little later than George Lucas.

[secular-jew]

While directionally accurate, this map minimizes Islam aggression by egregiously missing the Muslim colonization and subsequent subjugation in Turkey, the Indian subcontinent and much of Southeast Asia - for example, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population on the planet. As for Europe /North/South America, the West doesn't have a weapon or an answer to combat creeping Islamism, or a cure for the metastasizing cancer known as intolerant Islam:

[mostlysignssomeportents]

All the books I reviewed in 2023 (Graphic Novels)

Next Tuesday (December 5), I'm at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC, with my new solarpunk novel The Lost Cause, which 350.org's Bill McKibben called "The first great YIMBY novel: perceptive, scientifically sound, and extraordinarily hopeful."

It's that time of year again, when I round up all the books I reviewed for my newsletter in the previous year. I posted 21 reviews last year, covering 31 books (there are two series in there!). I also published three books of my own last year (two novels and one nonfiction). A busy year in books!

Every year, these roundups remind me that I did actually manager to get a lot of reading done, even if the list of extremely good books that I didn't read is much longer than the list of books I did read. I read many of these books while doing physiotherapy for my chronic pain, specifically as audiobooks I listened to on my underwater MP3 player while doing my daily laps at the public pool across the street from my house.

After many years of using generic Chinese waterproof MP3s players – whose quality steadily declined over a decade – I gave up and bought a brand-name player, a Shokz Openswim. So far, I have no complaints. Thanks to reader Abbas Halai for recommending this!

https://shokz.com/products/openswim

I load up this gadget with audiobook MP3s bought from Libro.fm, a fantastic, DRM-free alternative to Audible, which is both a monopolist and a prolific wage-thief with a documented history of stealing from writers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can-you-hear-me-now/#acx-ripoff

All right, enough with the process notes, on to the reviews!

GRAPHIC NOVELS

I. Shubiek Lubiek by Deena Mohamed

An intricate alternate history in which wishes are real, and must be refined from a kind of raw wish-stuff that has to be dug out of the earth. Naturally, this has been an important element of geopolitics and colonization, especially since the wish-stuff is concentrated in the global south, particularly Egypt, the setting for our tale. The framing device for the trilogy is the tale of three "first class" wishes: these are the most powerful wishes that civilians are allowed to use, the kind of thing you might use to cure cancer or reverse a crop-failure.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/11/your-wish/#is-my-command

II. Ducks by Kate Beaton

In 2005, Beaton was a newly minted art-school grad facing a crushing load of student debt, a debt she would never be able to manage in the crumbling, post-boom economy of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Like so many Maritimers, she left the home that meant everything for her to travel to Alberta, where the tar sands oil boom promised unmatched riches for anyone willing to take them. Beaton's memoir describes the following four years, as she works her way into a series of oil industry jobs in isolated company towns where men outnumber women 50:1 and where whole communities marinate in a literally toxic brew of carcinogens, misogyny, economic desperation and environmental degradation. The story that follows is – naturally – wrenching, but it is also subtle and ambivalent. Beaton finds camaraderie with – and empathy for – the people she works alongside, even amidst unimaginable, grinding workplace harassment that manifests in both obvious and glancing ways.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/14/hark-an-oilpatch/#kate-beaton

III. Justice Warriors by Matt Bors

Justice Warriors is what you'd get if you put Judge Dredd in a blender with Transmetropolitan and set it to chunky. The setup: the elites of a wasted, tormented world have retreated into Bubble City, beneath a hermetically sealed zone. Within Bubble City, everything is run according to the priorities of the descendants of the most internet-poisoned freaks of the modern internet, click- and clout-chasing mushminds full of corporate-washed platitudes about self-care, diversity and equity, wrapped around come-ons for sugary drinks and dubious dropshipper crapola. It's a cop buddy-story dreamed up by Very Online, very angry creators who live in a present-day world where reality is consistently stupider than satire.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/22/libras-assemble/#the-uz

IV. Roaming by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki

The story of three young Canadian women meeting up for a getaway to New York City. Zoe and Dani are high-school best friends who haven't seen each other since they graduated and decamped for universities in different cities. Fiona is Dani's art-school classmate, a glamorous and cantankerous artist with an affected air of sophistication. It's a dizzying, beautifully wrought three-body problem as the three protagonists struggle with resentments and love, sex and insecurity. The relationships between Zoe, Dani and Fiona careen wildly from scene to scene and even panel to panel, propelled by sly graphic cues and fantastically understated dialog.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/11/as-canadian-as/#possible-under-the-circumstances

Like I said, this has been a good year in books for me, and it included three books of my own:

I. Red Team Blues (novel, Tor Books US, Head of Zeus UK)

Martin Hench is 67 years old, single, and successful in a career stretching back to the beginnings of Silicon Valley. He lives and roams California in a very comfortable fully-furnished touring bus, The Unsalted Hash, that he bought years ago from a fading rock star. He knows his way around good food and fine drink. He likes intelligent women, and they like him back often enough. Martin is a—contain your excitement—self-employed forensic accountant, a veteran of the long guerilla war between people who want to hide money, and people who want to find it. He knows computer hardware and software alike, including the ins and outs of high-end databases and the kinds of spreadsheets that are designed to conceal rather than reveal. He’s as comfortable with social media as people a quarter his age, and he’s a world-level expert on the kind of international money-laundering and shell-company chicanery used by Fortune 500 companies, mid-divorce billionaires, and international drug gangs alike. He also knows the Valley like the back of his hand, all the secret histories of charismatic company founders and Sand Hill Road VCs. Because he was there at all the beginnings. Now he’s been roped into a job that’s more dangerous than anything he’s ever agreed to before—and it will take every ounce of his skill to get out alive.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865847/red-team-blues

II. The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation (nonfiction, Verso)

We can – we must – dismantle the tech platforms. We must to seize the means of computation by forcing Silicon Valley to do the thing it fears most: interoperate. Interoperability will tear down the walls between technologies, allowing users to leave platforms, remix their media, and reconfigure their devices without corporate permission. Interoperability is the only route to the rapid and enduring annihilation of the platforms. The Internet Con is the disassembly manual we need to take back our internet.

https://www.versobooks.com/products/3035-the-internet-con

III. The Lost Cause (novel, Tor Books US, Head of Zeus UK)

For young Americans a generation from now, climate change isn't controversial. It's just an overwhelming fact of life. And so are the great efforts to contain and mitigate it. Entire cities are being moved inland from the rising seas. Vast clean-energy projects are springing up everywhere. Disaster relief, the mitigation of floods and superstorms, has become a skill for which tens of millions of people are trained every year. The effort is global. It employs everyone who wants to work. Even when national politics oscillates back to right-wing leaders, the momentum is too great; these vast programs cannot be stopped in their tracks.

But there are still those Americans, mostly elderly, who cling to their red baseball caps, their grievances, their huge vehicles, their anger. To their "alternative" news sources that reassure them that their resentment is right and pure and that "climate change" is just a giant scam. And they're your grandfather, your uncle, your great-aunt. And they're not going anywhere. And they’re armed to the teeth. The Lost Cause asks: What do we do about people who cling to the belief that their own children are the enemy? When, in fact, they're often the elders that we love?

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865939/the-lost-cause

I wrote nine books during lockdown, and there's plenty more to come. The next one is The Bezzle, a followup to Red Team Blues, which comes out in February:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

While you're waiting for that one, I hope the reviews above will help you connect with some excellent books. If you want more of my reviews, here's my annual roundup from 2022:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/01/bookishness/#2022-in-review

Here's my book reviews from 2021:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/08/required-ish-reading/#bibliography

And here's my book reviews from 2020:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/08/required-reading/#recommended-reading

It's EFF's Power Up Your Donation Week: this week, donations to the Electronic Frontier Foundation are matched 1:1, meaning your money goes twice as far. I've worked with EFF for 22 years now and I have always been - and remain - a major donor, because I've seen firsthand how effective, responsible and brilliant this organization is. Please join me in helping EFF continue its work!

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/2023/12/01/bookmaker/#2023-in-review

[gayhenrycreel]

okay i filled out a google doc survey of aro experiences in the queer community and at the end i kinda went on a commie rant, so this is it copy pasted. (yes my mutuals, im aware as i reread this that this sounds like the blorbos 4.07 monologue)

i want people to know that no one should ever be in a relationship just because they want to be considered normal. alloros included. the relationship hierarchy hurts everyone.

hierarchy has always been the problem. its time that people start realising that we are all equals, and the idea of any particular thing being inherently better than another is the basis for amatonormativity, homophobia, racism, transphobia, misogyny, eugenics, and ultimately fascism. "superiority" does not exist.

even the natural world is negatively affected by human ideas of hierarchy. conservation efforts are for animals, occasionally plants, and never for fungi. fungi are barely even researched properly compared to other clades. how many fungi have gone extinct without anyone knowing, because no one cares?

this affects humans directly. penicillin comes from a fungus. hallucinigenic mushrooms can treat anxiety, depression, adhd, and even ptsd. lions mane contains biochemicals that prevent cell death, which means (and research is ongoing) it could slow aging, lead to longer lives, and quite significantly, prevent dementia.

those are just known fungi. imagine how many are out there that could save lives that are endangered and dying, but no one cares to save them because they are small and not very noticeable. theres an antioxidant thats exclusively found in fungi. that means it too could prevent cell damage, such as those that cause cancer.

if i were to get into human prejudice this would go on forever. hierarchy kills. it destroys entire species, cultures, lives. the solution to defeating amatonormativity is to remove hierarchy.

this would also solve infinite other problems. we could no longer have to work our asses off for the profit of billionares. we would use resources when we need them, not for some hypothetical world where they might be bought on mass. no one needs a billion iphones. the slaves who make them certainly dont.

things should be produced when they are actually in demand, not just so elon can get money he will never use. that money could go to education, science, sustainable energy, medicine, conservation, and literally billions of people who are starving because elon and bezos want to think about their sci fi fantasys that they do not allow to become reality by not bloody paying their slaves, as well as hoarding money that could be used by places that could legitimately get people to mars like nasa.

elon works closely with nasa, but nasa cant afford to pay their own scientists. many of nasas workers hate spacex. one even quit over it. there are so many people who could help humanity, who could invent cures for AIDS, vaccines for deadly diseases, better solar panels, solutions for space junk, more efficient farming, more nutritious native plants that people have harvested for centuries before colonizers decided nutrient poor cabbage is better than the vitamin rich indigenous vegetables.

like seriously, there are so many plants that indigenous societies have been eating for thousands of years that the world just doesn't know about anymore.

the wider queer community could do a lot for arospecs by taking off the hierarchy glasses. we all need to take off the hierarchy glasses. its killing the world.

[ovaruling]

@thebloodiestmary its idea is that fat should make up the largest percentage of your dietary intake, with as few carbs as possible. carbs are demonized to an extreme that has made them synonymous with “weight gain” and they’re treated like toxins or contaminants. there is an obsession to have as close to zero carbs as possible in your daily intake, although the general starting point tends to be “under 100g” as the novice and then graduates to “under 50g” as the intermediate.

most of the diet is, of course, animal products. high fat, slightly less high protein (excess protein is converted to glucose and thus evil), and minimal carbohydrates.

fiber, however, cancels out “bad” carbohydrates in this theory. if a food has 10g carbs, but 4g of those are fiber, then in the keto world that food contains 6g of “net carbs.” it is a crazy-making algebraic way of calculating your intake. and even though fiber is a focus, it is de-prioritized completely in this diet which is so full of animal protein and animal fat that i am not surprised to see many keto fanatics come out with bowel cancers or leaky gut or heart disease or high liver enzymes/fatty liver disease or gallbladder disease/gallstones.

the idea is no sugar, no carbs. as little glucose activity as possible.

people tend to lose weight on it usually because they are actually eating fewer calories than they usually would, but not realizing it. keto usually counts by macros, not by calories. in fact, it often discourages calorie tracking. this sounds promising, but it also means most people who lose so much weight with it don’t tend to realize that it’s because they’re in a large caloric deficit. it’s a scam! if you tracked your calories you’d probably realize you were in a deficit all along, and that THAT’S why you’re losing weight, not bc of some magical keto spell.

only eating meat and dairy and eggs will do that. meat and dairy and eggs are PRIMARY weight loss foods and always have been. keto fanatics feel smug because they’re eating bacon and steak and fried eggs and full-fat cheese, but they don’t realize how few calories they’re taking in by eliminating all other foods.

keto has a bad reputation for making its dieters paranoid about fruit, beans, whole grains, and even vegetables.

hardcore keto dieters barely get any of those in their diet. but they lose weight, so it must be healthy!

their boasting of “lower cholesterol” and “lower blood sugar” is almost certainly bc they are losing weight IN A CALORIC DEFICIT.

it is not possible to lose weight if you are not in a caloric deficit.

there is the famous “keto flu” onboarding stage where you feel sick and tired for about a week or sometimes more as you “wean” off of carbs. that is your body starving for nutrients lol. it’s starving. you feel sick and exhausted bc you have almost nothing going in.

and i can say this with confidence bc i fell for this diet hardcore when i was 20. i lost tons of weight eating “fatty” foods. what was actually happening was rabbit starvation—i was getting so much protein and so few other nutrients that i was actually starving myself.

it’s a poisonous diet, nothing more than a weight loss fad, wholly unsustainable, and wildly expensive btw.

any “benefit” that anyone claims comes from it is usually simply from the process of weight loss in a deficit if one’s original health problems (usually heart or diabetes related) were due to being overweight.

and yeah again i won’t even bother to get into what happens to one’s colon and bowels in general eating that many animal products and hormones and that much fat with little to no fiber. with all its parading of red meat and bacon and sausage and other cured meats, it’s a recipe for colon cancer, that’s all i’ll say.

it’s done so much damage to our understanding of food and balanced nutrition and it’s sneaky and dishonest in its ~famed results. it’s a fancy way of getting yourself into a caloric deficit, that’s all.

if all you ate in one day was a McDonald’s value meal at 1200 calories or whatever, you’d lose weight. you’d be in a deficit. keto makes you think it will be possible to consume 5000 calories of fatty fried foods and lose weight—but that literally is not what happens. you usually remain in a deficit because you’re starving trying to keep your carbs as low as possible. and you don’t notice it bc you’re not keeping track of calories, only grams of carbohydrates vs grams of fat.

so many topics exist on keto forums like “why am i not losing weight with keto?!” and answers will urge the user to eat less lmfao. or go on a “fat fast” to “get your body to prioritize burning fat as its primary source of energy” which is eating mostly like 90% fat as your intake majority with 0g of carbs. aka starvation.

you cannot train your body to “prioritize” fat as its primary source of energy. it will ALWAYS prefer carbohydrates as the most efficient and easily digestible source of fuel. the only way you can sustain “ketosis” (which is a dangerous medical condition btw) is by never feeding yourself enough carbs so that your body literally thinks it’s starving—BECAUSE IT IS!!!! you’re “burning fat” bc you are STARVING!!!!

and yeah. just. terrible for your gallbladder, your liver, your digestion, your heart, your inflammatory system, everything. horrific diet.

tl;dr—snake oil, low energy starvation recipe for bowel cancer!

[mithliya]

so they just found the cure for cancer in india which is a great thing but this got me thinking why there still isn’t a pill for menstrual cramps. Humans are close to achieving transhumanism and colonizing mars but still there isn’t a fucking pill for menstrual cramps. Why don’t they try to make one? Any company that sells it would literally make a fortune

did they find the cure actually? bc that’s a massive achievement and i’m surprised i didn’t hear of it

also i know there isn’t a pill for menstrual cramps specifically but there r pills that can be used for that, no? idk i think something that kills many ppl per year and has no kind of cure or solution is probably more urgent. that said female health is generally very underesearched hence why there’s no treatment for PCOS specifically for example

[hero-israel]

This isn’t either of our places to say as neither of us are Palestinian but this is something I’ve been thinking about and I’m curious if you have thoughts.

In order for the Two-State Solution to happen, Palestine will need to nation build, which it is of course already in the process of. One crucial element of that is the culture, and I feel that Palestinian culture has historically largely centered being anti-Israel. Some could point to antisemitism or even try to invalidate the Palestinian identity as a whole by saying it only exists to undermine Israel, but putting all that aside and trying to be charitable, it would not be a sustainable situation to have one nation’s foundation being opposition of its neighbor. So what would Palestine after the conflict even be? From my limited knowledge, my idea would be expanding the resistance narrative beyond just Israel, to British colonizers, Jordan and Egypt’s times of owning parts of it, other Arab and Western states using it for their own ends and being neglectful, etc. Obviously this is still bitter and accusatory, but not only is it now broader than Israel (who could be framed here as just being an occupying and violent force instead of denial of Jewish indigeneity) but it could be less about hating countries/neighbors and having a vengeful grudge but instead about resilience despite everything else. It’s probably not the most historically accurate but there’s been much worse things made up.

Idk, just idealist spitballing here.

If they want to build a society / country around the concept of "Finally we are independent!", like a hypothetical Kurdistan would be vis-a-vis Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, I'd have no critique about that. The problem would be that I don't think it's realistic to expect them to take such an approach, it strikes me as more how Jews wish Palestinians thought instead of how they actually do; perhaps more importantly, it is how Jews talk to Palestinians about creating a state instead of how the rest of the world talks to Palestinians about it. Right up there with "You could have turned Gaza into Singapore!". For every voice describing how to build a distinctive and stable country, there are 100,000 describing how to kill all the Jews and take everything. This can very much shape their expectations.

It is hard to build a culture out of an anti-culture, and that is just one of the major obstacles to Palestinian state-building. I was in an argument with a Palestinian here some years ago, precisely over the make-Gaza-better-with-what-you-have issue, and they actually said - verbatim - "We're not going to gentrify the place." Getting rid of the rubble was far less meaningful than getting rid of the Jews.

Like the meme says: I don't want to cure cancer, I want to turn people into dinosaurs.

[jugglingjujube]

A very interesting thing for Cytherea - someone who is mostly cancer and a little bit of woman - to say.

I keep bouncing back and forth on whether John could have cured her cancer. A dark take is he could and choose not to because if he could freeze the cancer in place ... a walking thanergy generator. If that could be controlled, it solves the houses thanergy problems and stops them from having to constantly colonize new planets. Unfortunately it didn't seem to work

Honestly the more I think about Cytherea, the more I feel like Loveday was extremely justified to hate everyone

[drnishargpatel]

Understanding the Long-Term Effects of Ulcerative Colitis

A chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that affects the colon (large intestine) and the rectum is called ulcerative colitis (UC). Many individuals get treatment to deal with their side effects, this medical condition can have lasting effects that affects many pieces of a person's life. The long term effects of the condition will be discussed in this article, with possible risk and the management techniques.

Effects of Chronic Inflammation

Inflammation over time in the colon causes long-term damage, which is one of the main concerns related to ulcerative colitis.

Risk of Colorectal Cancer: People who experienced UC for longer than 8 to 10 years are more likely to develop colorectal cancer due to ongoing inflammation of the colon.

Tissue Scarring: Prolonged inflammation can result in colon tissue scarring, which can lead to problems like strictures (colon constriction) and restrictive symptoms.

Severe Flare-ups: As UC progresses, a person's colon may enlarge rapidly and more frequently. This can result in challenges including toxic megacolon, a potentially fatal illness.

Effects on the Digestive Systems

Ulcerative colitis can cause major, long lasting changes to the digestive system.

Nutritional Deficiencies: Iron, calcium, and a lack of vitamin D can result from impaired nutrient caused by steady irritation and recurrent diarrhea.

Dehydration: UC patients frequently struggle with dehydration, especially during flare-ups, which can be set on by tireless diarrhea.

Changes in Bowel Function: Many UC patients could require a medical surgery to remove all or a part of their colon, which will modify their capacity to pass stool. The body's ability to control the digestion of water and supplements might be affected by this.

Systemic Health Improvement

Ulcerative colitis doesn't just affect the colon; it can also affect different regions of the body.

Joint pain (Joint Irritation): A great deal of people with UC experience joint inflammation, which brings side effects like joint inflammation.

Skin Conditions: UC can lead to skin issues like difficult red bumps known as erythema nodosum and ulcerative skin lesions called pyoderma gangrenosum.

Inflammation of the eye, like in uveitis and episcleritis, is more common in patients with ulcerative colitis.

Impact on the Brain and Heart

A constant sickness, for example, UC can negatively affect one's mental health.

Stress and Tension: Dealing with a condition with painful and unpleasant side effects that is unstable brings higher pressure and nervousness.

Depression: There is a higher possibility of creating depression because of the chronic nature of ulcerative colitis (UC) as well as expected limitations on everyday activity and interaction with others.

Body Image Issues: Certain people may have issues with their body image because of weight loss, actual look of their condition, or medical surgery, (for example, a colectomy or the requirement for a stoma).

Perspectives Affecting Quality of Life

An individual's personal satisfaction can be affected by UC in various areas of day to day existence.

Physical Restrictions: Exhaustion, continuous bowel movements, and pain during eruptions can cause limitations on actual work and create some issues for social or professional commitments.

Dietary Limitations: To control their side effects, many people with UC should stick to diets that reject explicit things that could cause eruptions.

Surgical Results: A colonoscopy, or the expulsion of the colon, might be important for specific UC patients at some point. This procedure can change a patient's bowel designs and require long lasting modifications.

Extended-Term Care and Therapy

Ulcerative colitis cannot be cured, long-term care can greatly enhance results.

Medication: Immunosuppressants, biologics, and anti-inflammatory meds are habitually used to reduce inflammation and treat side effects for an extended timeframe.

Continuous Monitoring: To follow the course of the condition and identify any possible issues, like colorectal disease, from the beginning, patients should have routine colonoscopies and other diagnostic testing.

Way of life Changes: Reducing pressure, eating a balanced diet, practising habitually, and stopping smoking are great ways of working on the side effects of ulcerative colitis (UC) and reducing its eruptions.

Don't forget to read our next article on''Ulcerative Colitis: Causes, Symptoms, and Key Factors."

There is something else to ulcerative colitis besides eruptions and side effect the board; it is a persistent sickness. Dr Nisarg patel best gastroenterologist in sids hospital surat, will give you the best advice and cure for your IBD issue. Patients and medical care experts can make better designs for decreasing complexities, upgrading personal satisfaction, and deflecting risks by having a better understanding of the disease's drawn out effects. Living with ulcerative colitis can be figured out how to consider a satisfying existence with the right care, checking, and lifestyle changes.

[rabbitcruiser]

National Dress in Blue Day 

The idea for ‘National Dress in Blue Day’ was originally come up with by Anita Mitchell, a stage IV colon cancer survivor who had lost a close friend and her own father to the disease. Greatly saddened by the fact that both of those tragedies could have been prevented, Ms. Mitchell saw a need to bring greater awareness to cancer that not many people wanted to discuss.

So, in 2006, she worked with her children’s school to coordinate a recognition day. That very year in March, students who normally had to wear uniforms to class were allowed to wear a blue outfit of their choice, if only they made a $1 donation to colon cancer awareness.

There have been some hopes to turn all of March, and not just the first Friday of the month, blue by promoting colon cancer awareness all month long, much like National Breat Cancer Awareness Month takes place every October.

History of Blue Dress Day

Anita then brought the ‘National Dress in Blue Day’ concept to the Colon Cancer Alliance. ‘National Dress in Blue Day’ was first launched in 2009 by the Colon Cancer Alliance in a massive nationwide campaign. It was introduced to raise awareness of colon cancer as well as to recognise the bravery of those suffering from the disease, and the now nationally-recognized blue star was chosen to symbolize both the memory of loved ones lost to colon cancer and the perspective of a better future without the disease.

With its actions, the Colon Cancer Alliance hopes to encourage people to become more interested in the potentially fatal threat that is colon cancer, by for example getting screened regularly in hopes of being able to detect any warning signs before the situation becomes much more serious.

Diagnosis of cases of colorectal cancer through screening tends to occur 2-3 years before diagnosis of cases with symptoms, and thus screening has the potential to reduce colon cancer deaths by 60%. It has been found, in fact, that most colorectal cancers should be preventable altogether, through increased surveillance and lifestyle changes, such as simple diet changes or an increase in the amount of physical activity an individual does, which makes prevention a truly important aspect.

Carmen Marc Valvo, an American fashion designer, partnered with the Colon Cancer Alliance in 2011 to promote National Dress in Blue Day after hew own personal struggle with the cancer.

How to celebrate blue dress day

Individuals, companies and neighbourhood groups celebrate ‘National Dress in Blue Day’ by wearing blue and encouraging their friends, family and colleagues to do the same. There are many different ways this can be used to raise money. Proceeds raised through ‘National Dress in Blue Day’ are used to fund important research and prevention programs, as well as to provide support to patients.

As one example, businesses can allow their employees to wear jeans and a blue t-shirt instead of their usual uniforms, in return for a small fee. Some people both raise awareness and show support for friends or family members who have suffered or are suffering from colon cancer by wearing a shirt that says simply, “I’m blue for my son” or, “I’m blue for Sarah”.

An individual can also collect sponsorship from their friends and family in return for dressing head to toe in blue for a day – including clothing, shoes, make up and even hair dye! This money is then of course donated to the Colon Cancer Alliance, and used both to help survivors of colon cancer as well as do more research into possible ways to hopefully one day cure it completely.

Source

[randomfoggytiger]

X-Files Collector’s Edition: Ghostly Hauntings and Experiences-- AUs

Mulder and Scully always find themselves in ghastly, ghostly situations-- but it’s even more fun to twist canon or at least stretch its limits a little bit. These fics feature AU Mulders and Scullys dealing with ghosts, as wells as other timelines where they become ghosts themselves. Let’s go!  

Loose chronological order below~ 

Dealing With Various Ghosts 

theramblinrose’s The Holinshed Ghost

Chapter 2  

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

““...So, the story has it that he got tired of her mouth and he killed her with an axe. It’s something of a joke, in the area, to remind all new brides of what happened to Marguerite Holinshed.”

“A word to wise women,” Mulder said with a laugh.

“Charming,” Scully responded.

“Beg your pardon, Ma’am,” Bernie said. “It’s just a local legend.”

“No, it’s fine,” Scully said. “Sometimes those legends hold keys that help us in understanding the people we’re dealing with and the possible background of the crimes that have been committed.””

Post Irresistible Scully has recovered enough to join her husband Mulder on a new ghost case in a small semi-superstitious town. The couple discuss her recovery, new levels of openness and intimacy, and their excitement over parenthood of their developing “alien” while solving the case in a Scooby Doo-esque “haunted” hotel with secret hallways.

The Holinshed Ghost is a part of theramblinrose’s unnamed series, where Mulder and Scully’s marriage and pregnancy replaces the abduction arc. LOVE these fics (especially when she paralleled it to the Aubrey storyline and carried that developing narrative through to End Game.) It’s riveting how she depicts the duo’s advanced bond while acknowledging the changes and slight growing pains their new relationship would bring; but tenderness and trust smooth most road bumps and pave the way for a better path ahead. Unfortunately, this series was never finished; BUT I can fill in the blanks by myself, thank you very much!

(*Note: As an aside, this story reminded me of Analise’s Haunted House and @dreamingofscully​​‘s Surely, to the sea -- soon to be on their own lists.*) 

prufrockslove/plenilune’s (Ao3, Alt. Gossamer, Geocities, Colonization HQ)

Finding Rokovoko (Ao3) 

“If a cure existed, Mulder would make the deal - leave the X-files, abandon his search for the truth. Do whatever Cancerman demanded in exchange for Scully’s life.

If a cure existed.

In the dark doorway of a ruined little building far across the courtyard, Mulder spotted three small, pale children, squatting, arms around their knees, and watching him. Or an optical illusion. Or some beige rocks. He didn’t know or care anymore.”

Post Never Again AU-- Mulder’s frustrations at Scully’s distance (after she had made moves on him and shut down immediately after) is halted by both her cancer revelation and by being stranded in the woods while squallies-- children with black eyes-- surround their car and confuse their directions. Scully’s health quickly deteriorates; and their only shelter leads them further into possible destruction and death... but also into the heart of the mystery of the Litchfield projects. There are only two teams, and both are monsters. 

Keleka’s Gray Ghosts 

“I can't help but wonder why I'm the one seeing ghosts on this trip.  Maybe I wouldn't be seeing them if I hadn't become more open to extreme possibilities in recent months.  Mulder would give up his accumulated leave to see this, but he's back in the hospital sleeping off a narcotic cocktail.” 

Post Theef-- Mulder and Scully bring TLG with them to investigate the violent deaths of the 47th Brigade. As Mulder plunges headlong into the alternate dimension of a vengeful demon- undeterred by his earlier proposal and recent injury at the hands of a possessed soldier- Scully grapples with her faith in religion, her father, and her military when she witnesses General Patton and his soldier ghosts praying in the cathedral. 

MD1016′s (FFN) Journal 2000 3/3

“For eight days he shadowed her every move, leaving her only for the handful of minutes he spent in the bathroom.  Dag brought in all the supplies they needed, but never stayed for more than a minute or two.  Her mother visited nearly every day, but never broached more than light conversation, and even that felt forced. Scully wasn't sure what Mulder had said to them, but it was clear by the way they looked at her as if she might foam at the mouth at any moment that he said something.

It was strange, suddenly seeing the world through the lens Mulder had worn for so many years, especially now that he was looking at her through the other side.  And, of course, that was the most difficult part.  That Mulder, for the first time, was on the outside peering in.”

Colonization Scully and Mulder are settling into a new location, waiting for their child’s arrival with the support of Maggie, TLG, and new friends. When Scully begins to question her own sanity-- taunted by her brother Charlie’s ghost and losing some of Mulder’s trust in the process-- she becomes increasingly afraid at the warnings only she can hear: that she, alone, will be have to face re-abduction to save Mulder and the planet. 

This is an incredibly strange follow up to the Colonization drama of Journal 2000 Parts 1 and 2-- I’m conflicted between liking parts (when Scully is proven correct) and parts where I believe my own criticisms are valid. Personally, though, when I’m in the mood to reread this mini-series I read Part 2 more: barely escaping their settlement, crashing in a lift in the woods, navigating the snow and temperature and tiredness, and waiting with baited breath as the mountains crack through the night airs with possible avalanche groans... those were my favorite moments (But that’s not this list, SO NEVER MIND.) 

Dealing With Their Own Ghostly Existence

Hestia01‘s (Ao3) The Next Great Mysery 1/ 2/

““Now we just have one question left. Where do we haunt?”

A wicked grin crosses Scully’s face, immediately mirrored by her partner. As usually, they’re thinking the same thing.

“Could be a federal offense.”

“Come and get me.”

In the blink of an eye, they stand together in the basement office they’d spent so much of their lives in. They both look around at it and have to smile, they’re home.”

Circa Post Paper Clip Scully rejects Heaven after death to keep Mulder company. She returns in time to witness his “death by grief”; and the two start kicking it, giggling at Skinner taking their poster and getting to box Bill in the nose. Everyone wises up to their antics and celebrates by marrying them. Then they all get bored of catering to ghosts, and Skinner “fires them to death.”

I laugh every time I think about the ending. 

Philiater’s Night House  

““Why do I get the feeling that this is more about satisfying your curiosity than my safety?" I said, trying to deflect his concern. 

"I'm always thinking of the paranormal possibilities, but I'm more worried about you. It's not like you to run off and buy houses on a whim." 

"No it's not," I admitted reluctantly, "but, I'll be fine. I have to go. Goodbye, Mulder."

I hung the phone up before he could say more. No one it seemed could fathom why I'd bought this dream house. I wasn't entirely sure I understood it either.”

Scully buys a haunted house, only to realize it is she who is haunting it.

Joyce’s

Revenant

“Here, shrouded beneath the greenwood, the stars are dimmer.  They do not dance like living flames to the music of the spheres.  The ocean of heaven does not shine with their fire.  I raise my vacant eyes to heaven, remembering the warmth of my dream, but see only pale crystals of ice glittering in the somber sky.  I reach up to touch my late companions in the dance, to grasp the hem of their robes in supplication, beseeching them to take me back.  My hand, more earth than flesh now, cannot reach the sky.  

I cry aloud my desolation, the horror of existence within this rotting shell.”  

Circa The End Mulder is raised from his heartwrenching death by Scully’s cry for help. He shambles- rotting- into the night to prevent her demise and to avenge his own. She releases his “debt” after he gruesomely stops her enemies.

Ghost in Her Life 1/  2/

““I wasn't supposed to die, Scully.  Get banged up, spend a week in the hospital with a broken shoulder, but dying wasn't on the agenda.  Somebody fouled up somewhere and to everyone's surprise out there, I showed up.  By the time the mistake was caught, there wasn't much use in sending me back.  Believe me, Scully, you really don't ever want to see what the inside of a brain looks like after it's been smushed into pate.  Yuck.””

A separate AU-- Mulder is killed by a baseball hit to the head, and Scully is horrified at his sudden death. That horror, however, turns to confusion, disbelief, and wavering acceptance when his ghost returns to explain that, because he wasn’t supposed to die YET, he’s stuck on earth until things are sorted out. Both find tentative happiness as they use his new enhancements to their advantage in investigations (despite the challenges of him having to manage his new corporeality and leech-like existence.) 

The Ghost at her Side 1/  2/  3/

“Mulder leaned carefully over the side of the desk, his arms folded behind his back, trying to avoid brushing against Skinner as he attempted to read the open file.  Two men murdered, both prominent citizens, and a police chief who asked for him by name, that was almost an X-File by itself.  Mulder tried to remember where he might have met Chief Anson Talbert.  The name was vaguely familiar, but the precise memory was elusive.  As Mulder craned over to read the opening paragraphs of the report, Skinner leaned forward to close the file and his head brushed against Mulder's face.  Skinner jerked with shock, shivering as the chill of Mulder's aura set his teeth aching.  Mulder shuddered violently and fled to the far corner of the room, trying to shake the horror of feeling a living body pass through him.” 

It still isn’t easy being a ghost-- Mulder and Scully are still solving crimes; but the greatest challenges are still adjustments for Mulder and vulnerabilities for Scully. Both help the other with their struggles and find new allies in like-minded Chief Talbert and slow-learning new partner Agent Ambercrombie.

The Ghost in the Dark

“With her new-found sensitivity to Mulder's moods, helped by the fact that he turned odd shades of gray according to the prevailing emotion, Scully decided that she could finish her quarterly expense report at home.  Death really hadn't changed Mulder all that much.  As long as there was a case to keep him occupied, he seemed to accept being a ghostly appendage to her life.  He had been on his best behavior despite the boredom of no new case in nearly three weeks, but she was well aware of his growing restlessness.  She had been bracing for an outbreak of mischief in the upper levels of the FBI building for nearly a week now; it was like waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Mulder was going to get into mischief.  The only question was how much chaos was he going to leave in his wake.” 

While Ghost Mulder is wandering around on Halloween, he is abruptly summoned by an unapologetic woman who needs help dealing with the local bullies. The poorer kids haven’t been able to trick-or-treat like those in safer areas, and her righteous indignation ignites Mulder’s protective anger to permanently quell the chaos.  Old and new wounds are healed with the balm of acceptance and love that no one else but Scully had given him in life or death.

I cannot state ENOUGH how BEAUTIFUL these are. Ahhh, the perfect sting-- that tightrope between pain in life and pleasure in death; transformed purpose; and the existential question of life, meaning, and joy through suffering. ALL of these fics are so, so, SO good. (Confession time: I’ve only thoroughly read Revenant and The Ghost in the Dark, but the others are just as good-- though I don’t know if they’re just as GOOD good. HIGHLY recommend you at LEAST read those two. ...Wow, look at all these words that capitalized-- you could say that I’m passionate about these fics, y’know, hypothetically~.) 

threeguesses’s (Live Journal, DreamWidth) 

And if I make my bed in Sheol (DreamWidth)

“When she wakes up, he is still there, watching her from a chair.  “You don't exist,” she says, but goes into to the bathroom to change anyways.

He is still there when she eats breakfast.  And when she unloads the dishwasher.  And when she leaves for work.  And when she comes home.

A week later, and he is still there.  Scully has stopped telling him that he isn’t real.  Talking to one’s delusions is probably not the best route to mental wellness.”

Mulder dies when Scully is not there to back him up. His ghost finally breaks her denial at acknowledging his presence; but his victory is short-lived when she begins to give up living life to stay in her apartment with his trapped soul. 

Jenna Tooms/misslucyjane’s (Ao3, mulderscreek)

Ghost- A Love Story (Ao3, Goss) 

“Her hair is silver and her face is lined, but her eyes are still bright and her mouth still a cupid’s bow. Her voice has a slight quaver but it still reminds me of syrup over pancakes, husky and warm and soothing. Her hands aren’t as steady as they once where, but she hasn’t wielded a scalpel in years. Nowadays her hands mostly cook and caress her grand-nephews and -nieces, tend her roses and linger over old photographs.

I watch her and she doesn’t know it. I watch her read or garden or watch her beloved old movies. I watch her slowly brush her hair, her eyes far away and dreamy. I watch her eat and sleep and talk, and I marvel at how little she’s changed.”

Mulder is killed... but, stubborn ghost that he is, he’s not ready to cross into the beyond. He follows Scully around and happily observes her griefs, joys, and full life until one day she is able to join him. 

WELP, what a way to cap off this list. Love all these fics in their own, unique ways (of course) and hope you all-- 

Enjoy!

[walrusmagazine]

Are We Losing the War on Cancer?

For half a century, we have thrown everything we have at the disease, but we are no closer to curing it

The premise behind the war on cancer was wrong. Cancer is not a single grim foe. We know now there are hundreds of distinct cancers. An oncologist in the 1980s would have known there were two types of lung cancer. Today, by looking at the molecular biology of the tumour cells, scientists can determine there are at least eighty different subtypes of lung cancer. There are at least twenty subtypes of breast cancer. In Booth’s speciality, there was just colon cancer until the past decade. Now there are a dozen known subtypes.

Read more at thewalrus.ca.

Illustration by Jeannie Phan (jeanniephan.com)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Deena Mohamed’s ‘Shubiek Lubiek’

Shubeik Lubeik, a trilogy of graphic novels by Deena Mohamed, took the Arab comics world by storm, winning Best Graphic Novel and Grand Prize at the Cairo Comix Festival; today, Pantheon Books releases a gorgeous hardcover omnibus English translation:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/606934/shubeik-lubeik-by-deena-mohamed/

The world of Shubeik Lubeik is an intricate alternate history in which wishes are real, and must be refined from a kind of raw wish-stuff that has to be dug out of the earth.

Naturally, this has been an important element of geopolitics and colonization, especially since the wish-stuff is concentrated in the global south, particularly Egypt, the setting for our tale.

Though the underlying wish mechanism is metaphysical, Mohamed plays out her worldbuilding in a very science fictional way, constructing an intricate — and skillfully deployed — set of social consequences for a world where wishes are a fact of life.

Indeed, it’s this science fictional trick of “in-clueing” (to use Jo Walton’s excellent critical term) that makes Shubiek Lubeik such a cracking, cross-cultural read:

https://www.tor.com/2010/01/18/sf-reading-protocols/

For though the three stories that make up the trilogy are intensely culturally situated in modern Egypt, they play out as universal, intricate human ethical dilemmas. Mohamed delivers the realistic — but unfamiliar to westerners — depiction of contemporary Egyptian life with the same smart, deft technique that she uses to paint in the rules of a world where wishes are real.

The framing device for the trilogy is the tale of three “first class” wishes: these are the most powerful wishes that civilians are allowed to use, the kind of thing you might use to cure cancer or reverse a crop-failure.

These first-class wishes are the near-exclusive purview of the rich and powerful and their use is tightly monitored and licensed. However, three of these wishes, of Italian origin, are, improbably, in the inventory of Shokry, a poor, pious kiosk owner in central Cairo.

Despite knock-down prices, no one wants to buy Shokry’s wishes. Potential customers are put off by his desperate, hand-lettered sign advertising the wishes, combined with the implausibility of first-class wishes being offered for sale in a humble koisk.

But one of Shokry’s regulars, a fiery old lady who buys her cigarettes from him each day, convinces him to let her nephew design a slick poster advertising the wishes, and the tale begins in earnest.

Every story of a wish is both a puzzle — how would you construct a wish so that it couldn’t possibly backfire — and an ethical conundrum. That is what makes wish stories so delicious to read, whether it’s Sheherezade’s tales or O. Henry.

The engine of wish-fulfillment is a powerful one, capable of hauling behind it almost any kind of tale. Mohamed’s three-act play blends class- and sectarian divides, gender relations, depression and resilience, and kindness and regret.

The first volume, Aziza, is about corruption, using a parable about elite wish-hoarding to tell a wrenching story about loss, love, hope and resilience. It’s a gorgeous, deeply romantic love story, and because it’s a wish story, there’s a devilish twist.

The second volume, Nour, is about depression, privilege, coping, and gender (and, like Aziza, it’s ultimately about resilience, too). There’s some delicious worldbuilding here, and Nour herself is a great character, whose depression is mapped in a series of comedy charts worthy of Randall Munroe.

The conclusion, Shorky, opens the world up, showing us how wishes interact with theology, colonialism, the antiquities trade, and sectarian Egyptian politics. All three stories have wish-style surprises, but the surprises in this one are jaw-dropping. And while all the stories have a lot of broad comedy and great characterization, this one introduces a sprawling cast that is choreographed with absolute mastery.

It’s easy to see why this book did so well in the Arab world. It’s incredibly exciting to see it in English. Many of us have experienced Japanese comics, of course, and if you follow the brilliant publishing program of First Second, you’ve gotten some great French and Spanish comics. But this is the first graphic novel from the Arab world that I’ve had the pleasure of reading. It won’t be the last.

[Image ID: The cover for the Pantheon English translation of Deena Mohamed's 'Shubeik Lubeik.']