#low evidence

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

The bar was that low.

[fayharley]

In a modern Zaundads AU, they're married and fostering Powder, Vi, Mylo, and Claggor. But Vander has hang ups about formally adopting them because he knew their "real" parents. Silco goes along with it until Powder starts having her problems and is in and out of the juvenile psych ward. He uses all his (somewhat shady) connections to rush through the process of him being legally declared Powder's dad so he'll have the right to determine her treatment, not the state.

So when the divorce gets really nasty Silco gets custody of Powder and the other kids stay with Vander. Powder visits for holidays but her and Silco move to a nicer part of town and she gets sent to private school. Vi hates it. She thinks Silco is evil and stole her sister.

[theblack-dog]

Modern day Darry would be one of those people that brings his little sibling to all his fights so they could record it for him.

[yingandzhan]

I've seen a little bit of confusion over whether LWJ took WWX back to the burial mounds after fleeing with him from Nightless City. People seem to have accidentally mistook the cave he took WWX to, and later the Lan Clan elders found him in, as at the burial mounds. This is NOT the case. The cave he was hiding him in as he tried to pass him spiritual power was a random cave in Yiling, not the burial mounds itself.

After two days, we finally found signs of your passage within the BOUNDARIES OF YILING. Wangji had hidden you inside a cave.

-Vol. 5, 7S translations

BUT! LWJ DID take WWX back there once he had confronted his own clan.

After HE STUBBORNLY ESCORTED YOU BACK TO THE BURIAL MOUNDS, he returned morosely on his own to receive his punishment.

-Vol. 5, 7S translations

This is in every translation, even ExR and the few fan translations that have covered chapter 99.

So yes, LWJ did take WWX back to the burial mounds. Which was probably a tactical decision in order to help protect him for as long as he could - by leaving him in the place he knew was protected and had people who cared for him.

[nostalgicish]

in a hater mood rn !! i don’t like the fanon portrayal of the vld team !! the fanon versions of them just boil them down to one or two overarching personality traits and ignores the rest of the character yk

like for example, people making hunk’s entire thing Nice Guy Who Likes To Cook yes ofc hunk is friendly and loves to cook and enjoys food but those aren’t the ONLY things about him

he’s also incredibly intelligent, and brave despite being afraid, and sometimes he’d rather stay home instead of fight but he’s got a strong sense of morality that overpowers that !!! he’s a talker, just loves to chat and doesn’t know when to stop ! and he thinks potty jokes are funny (that time with the olkari recording cube things he made a fart noise just so the cubes would play that back!!! he’s a loser!!!!! affectionately)

[slitheringghost]

Voldemort clearly chooses Death Eaters’ ranks based on usefulness. This means their social status is not all that matters - their actual skills are just as valuable.

The poor half blood and poor pureblood Death Eaters are all high ranking - Snape and the Carrows (who are implied as working class) are the three in charge of Hogwarts in DH.

Similarly, the three female Death Eaters that we know of are also high ranking - Bellatrix as second in command, Alecto is the same rank as her brother and iirc the one Voldemort contacts when he thinks Harry has broken into Hogwarts, and Narcissa is privy to several top secret plans.

We can extrapolate that this pattern likely extends to the rest of his ranks, and this so-called “equality” in his ranks may have been one way he made joining look appealing to disenfranchised Death Eaters.

[sciderman]

Do any of the boys wear jewelry?

Wade seems like the type to have those grandma box full of jewelry but Peter would probably have one pair of earrings for the occasion?? 

they're too broke for any kind of jewellery save for the edible kind

[mountedeverest]

Tommy and Buck are going as Han Solo and Luke Skywalker respectively for Halloween and you can’t convince me otherwise

[drjohnweston]

The most unrealistic thing in Being Human is the landlord coming round to fix the plumbing the same day that George calls him.

[randomtheidiot]

Hot take: Ash isn’t dumb. He just lacks social awareness, and he’s doing pretty good for an elementary school dropout who lives in a tent.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Bernard Lane

Published: Mar 25, 2024

Not good medicine

The dominant “gender-affirming” treatment approach—which promotes puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and mastectomy for minors—is “fundamentally incompatible with competent, ethical medical practice.”

That is the conclusion of a new paper by academic psychiatrist Andrew Amos in the journal Australasian Psychiatry.

Dr Amos says treatment guidelines from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne (RCH) “assert without evidence that pathology plays no part in the development of gender diversity,” which is said to be part of nature.

“If it is admitted there are some pathological causes of gender diversity, then it becomes necessary to assess the health or illness of all presentations [of gender identity],” Dr Amos says.

But the gender-affirming model insists that self-declared gender identity be affirmed, not interrogated for underlying mental illness.

“The emergence of non-binary and fluid genders means there are no boundaries to self-reported gender identity, which may include a gender consistent with one of the two biological sexes; a combination of features consistent with both sexes; the absence of features of gender; an identity as a voluntarily/involuntarily castrated eunuch; or arbitrary and rapidly changing variations,” Dr Amos says.

“From a psychiatric perspective, the proposition that psychopathology plays no role in gender diversity is absurd.

“The most detailed personal description of the experiences of psychosis is that of Daniel Paul Schreber, a German judge who minutely described his belief that God had turned him into a woman and was sending ribbons from the sun through his body to impregnate him and repopulate the earth.

“It is difficult to imagine a more pathological aetiology [or cause] for gender diversity, yet the [gender-affirming model] provides no framework for assessing such a patient, and does not view Schreber’s case as an absolute contraindication to social, medical or surgical transition.

“As Schreber illustrates, it is certain that pathology causes some cases of gender diversity. Differentiating between healthy and pathological gender diversity, or, more likely, gauging the relative contribution of healthy and pathological processes originating within or in the environment of each patient, can only be achieved by the comparison of an individual’s patterns of behaviour with patterns of normal and pathological development.

“While [gender-affirming] advocates have argued transition is safe in patients with psychosis because it is easy to differentiate psychotic from non-psychotic aetiologies of gender diversity, they have provided no guidance on how to do so, and no empirical evidence that it is safe to try.

“To the extent they discuss the role of psychosis or severe personality pathology in the development of gender diversity at all, it is only to deny that either might prevent transition.”

RCH Melbourne’s treatment guideline—promoted as “Australian standards of care”1 and used by children’s hospital gender clinics across the country—states that psychosis in a minor “should not necessarily prevent medical transition.” It does not explain how to discern those cases when psychosis should indeed rule out transition.

In the leaked WPATH Files, clinicians were revealed debating how to manage “trans clients” with dissociative identity disorder (multiple personalities or alters) in which “not all the alters have the same gender identity.”

Dr Amos argues that gender-affirming treatment guidelines “abandon the clinical discipline of diagnosis and make treatment contingent upon the unconstrained subjective experiences of children and potentially disturbed adults.”

“This is unethical, because modern medicine relies upon accurate diagnosis and evidence-based clinical reasoning to ensure that treatment is likely to help and not harm patients.”

Dr Amos notes tension in the 2023 gender dysphoria policy of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists between a traditional mental health approach and the unevidenced assertion that, “Being trans or gender diverse does not represent a mental health condition.” This policy area has occasioned sharp divisions within the college since 2019.

“Although it is clear that this [2023 policy] compromise balances the concerns of different stakeholders, the medico-legal implications for psychiatrists and their patients may be too important to long defer a conclusive position on the aetiological role of mental illness in gender diversity,” Dr Amos says.

He points out that the lack of evidence for the gender-affirming model has led an Australian medical defence fund, MDA National, to restrict coverage for private practitioners facing claims because of their involvement in the medical transition of under-18 patients.

[ Video: England’s NHS has radically restricted puberty blocker drugs, but it’s business as usual for Australia’s gender medicine lobby ]

“A patient should be more than a number, but detransitioners [who regret gender medicine treatments] can’t even get that. Reclaiming one’s biological gender after a gender transition is so taboo, that there is no way to document it in a medical record with an official diagnosis code.”—FAIR in Medicine fellow Aida Cerundolo, opinion article, The Hill, 15 February 2024

“International Classification of Disease diagnosis codes label patients’ medical issues and electronically shuttle them through the US healthcare system. These letter-number combinations facilitate communication, help prevent medical errors and signal insurance companies to reimburse for treatments. 

“Codes exist for patients ‘struck by orca, initial encounter,’ or who have ‘problems in relationship with in-laws’ and even for those ‘sucked into [a] jet engine, sequela.’ However, detransition remains an unrecognized medical entity because it has no corresponding diagnosis code.”

Taking cover

On May 9 last year, GCN reported that MDA National planned to restrict cover for private doctors assessing minors as eligible for medicalised gender change or initiating cross-sex hormones for them.

The insurer cited “the high risk of claims arising from irreversible treatments provided to those who medically and surgically transition as children and adolescents.”

The news appears to have alarmed the lobby group LGBTIQ Health Australia (LHA)2, whose access to federal Health Minister Mark Butler produced an “URGENT one day turnaround” brief from his department on the issue, according to documents obtained under Freedom of Information law.

These documents suggest Australia’s federal government is focused not on the international debate about safety concerns and the lack of evidence for youth gender medicine, but on expanding access to gender-affirming treatment as requested by well-connected LGBTQ lobbies.

On May 23, LHA chief executive Nicky Bath—who sits on the government’s LGBTIQA+ Health and Wellbeing 10 Year National Action Plan Expert Advisory Group—alerted Mr Butler���s office to MDA’s proposed restriction of insurance cover. (By market share, MDA is the second largest medical defence fund.)

That same day, the Department of Health and Aged Care3 secured a detailed account from MDA chief executive Ian Anderson of the insurer’s rationale for the change to take effect from 1 July 2023.

In its urgent brief sent to Minister Butler on May 30, the department relayed Mr Anderson’s explanation that—

While MDA itself had not received any claims arising from gender medicine, the insurer was aware of claims emerging with other indemnifiers in Australia and overseas

Members of MDA had expressed concerns about growing demand pressuring general practitioners (GPs or primary care doctors) to prescribe cross-sex hormones for minors

Those concerns included whether the usual consent would be sufficient for children, given the life-changing, permanent effects of such treatment; and reliance on medical opinion influencing that treatment decision in the event of a claim brought by a former patient

For these reasons, MDA had investigated the underwriting risk of claims arising from gender treatment of minors and concluded that it was unable to quantify and price the risk, quantum and frequency of claims; nor was it able to source appropriate data

MDA members with experience in gender medicine had stated their view that the best model for assessment and treatment of gender-distressed children involved a multi-disciplinary team backed by “a significant hospital”

In its brief, the minister’s department makes no reference to systematic reviews overseas showing the evidence base for paediatric transition to be very weak and uncertain.

However, the note suggests that if the regulatory Medical Board of Australia had to intervene in a case involving gender treatment of a minor, it would use the treatment guideline issued in 2018 by the gender-affirming clinic at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne (RCH) and badged as “Australian standards of care.”

“In determining what is safe clinical care and what is the best available evidence, doctors should have regard to relevant Australian standards of care,” the briefing note says.

There is no hint of the controversial status of the RCH treatment guideline.

The department’s note says the RCH guideline “clearly outlines the role of GPs in the assessment and care of adolescents with gender dysphoria”, which the note says includes prescription of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones “in collaboration with a paediatrician, adolescent physician or paediatric endocrinologist.”

However, towards the end of 2023, the RCH gender clinic changed precisely this section of the guideline consistent with a campaign by the gender-affirming lobby to ramp up GP provision of cross-sex hormone treatment for minors—the very issue that MDA was concerned about.

Gender-affirming clinicians see the mainstreaming of hormones through local medical practices as one answer to long waiting lists at children’s hospital specialist gender clinics, where older adolescents may age out before treatment.

The current, version 1.4 of the RCH guideline still says a multidisciplinary approach is “the optimal model of care” but adds new advice that, “GPs with sufficient expertise and skill in initiating and monitoring [cross-sex] hormone therapy can consider initiating and optimising hormone therapy for [minors].”

“This would typically be within a primary care-led multidisciplinary team tailored to the patient’s needs and availability of services…” (Emphasis added.)

It is not explained how GPs will know when they can go ahead without a multi-disciplinary team. Version 1.3—still available on the RCH website—did not recommend that GPs initiate cross-sex hormones without the precaution of specialist back up.

In November 2023, gender-affirming GPs keen to mainstream hormones for 16- and 17-year-olds without specialist back up complained of mixed messages as to whether or not they would be covered for this4 by the country’s largest medical defence fund, Avant.

Avant, which is understood to be defending psychiatrist Dr Patrick Toohey against a 2022 claim by detransitioner Jay Langadinos, told GCN it had not changed its cover. The fund did not answer the question whether it would cover claims arising from GP members initiating opposite-sex hormones for 16- or 17-year-old patients without the backing of a multi-disciplinary team.

Version 1.4 of the RCH guideline did not cite any new evidence supporting the practice of GP-led hormones, nor was the opportunity taken to cite fresh data reported since the guideline was first issued in 2018.

The RCH document makes no reference to systematic evidence reviews in Finland, Sweden and England since 2019. These reviews, undertaken independently, found the evidence base for hormonal treatment of minors to be very weak and uncertain.

==

"Gender affirming care" is pseudoscientific faith-healing quackery.

[daily-hanamura]

[evidence-of-the-unknown]

[ID: The cover of Evidence of the Unknown. Murphy, a pale woman with white hair in a green jacket, stands in front of a cork board covered in papers and red string. On the floor around her are boxes, more scattered paper, and other discarded objects. She is lit from light coming through a doorway behind the viewer, and a shadow of an unknown creature is cast on the floor. The text, on the top and bottom of the page, reads "Telebeast's Evidence of the Unknown." End ID.]

I'm excited to bring this comic to everyone! EotU is a science fiction story focused on aliens, conspiracies, biology, and weird women in the desert. Every Wednesday, beginning next week!

[dea-thynote]

Death note au (dimension travel) where ryuk never got interested in the human world therefore there is no kira. And lawlight had this coworkers to frenemies (and possibly lovers) tension that their coworkers just loaths. After they worked on a case (that seemed to work on the supernatural and drove both of them insane trying to get evidence on) and finally caught the criminal which light apprehended. The criminal curses light to become the worst criminal there is and of course, Light ignores it and goes home to sleep. Only, maybe he shouldn't have because now he keeps waking up in various places (or universe?) Where he has to keep saving L from dying because of him. But in doing so, he also dies either from a heart attack or gets executed to death by L. His only way out would be to either find the criminal from the universe that cursed him, or become 'kira' a mass murderer that is apparently him.

They finally caught him. A criminal that has been going around for months that either commits the most complicated murder or petty crimes, without leaving a trace! Which shouldn't be possible, for months both L and light tried to catch that guy but he somehow gets away! That at one point, while L and light were arguing how, L just throws the theory of supernatural and denies it by saying 'we can figure it out once we catch him'. And they do catch him. Light apprehended the guy before he does what ever he was going to do. The guys glare was venomous. And while being dragged to the police car with his hands behind him, he glares at light and curses him to become the worst criminal the world has ever seen.

Light ignores this and just sighs tiredly. He comes back to the head quarters and makes his way to L, who has been waiting for him with a blank face. 'He's mad' light thought and slows his steps. L congratulates him for catching the guy but also mentions how reckless it was for light-kun to work alone and go against the plan. Light immediately defends himself saying he was getting away and he had to do it. L stares at him and says that he doesn't need to put himself in danger like that, especially when the criminal is unpredictable. Light scoffs.

"Careful L, you sound like you care about me."

"I do."

That made light speechless.

"Afterall, Light-kun is my first friend."

"... oh"

Light excuses himself, mentions how he was tired and rushes out. L stares back to his monitor and plays back recordings of the criminal.

Light makes it to his home and settles down. He forgot about the mentioned curse and just thinks about his conversation with L. To him, L was both admirable and an asshole. Light finds himself fascinated whenever L speaks about his theories and findings, only for the moment to shatter everytime L tries to single him out.

'Afterall, Light-kun is my first friend."

Light shakes his head and dismisses thought. 'Yeah right'. He lays down and closes his eyes. Yeah, he just needs to rest, no need to think about L, considering that man is a manipulative liar.

But then he wakes up. Disoriented and catches himself before he falls down (falls down? Why is he standing?) He hears the sound of rushing rain and immediately becomes confused. 'Where is he?' He looks around, it seems to be a rooftop and in front of him was, L. Huh? What was he doing there? L is looking up. There's a sense of melancholy around the place that causes lights heart to stutter. And looking at L's expression his heart might've as well paused. The benefit of working with L for years had been that light was confident that he could easily read L's expression and posture and know what he's thinking. He's never seen L like this. Like he has already lost. Like he had given up, and waiting to his death. Light feels a sinking worry grow to his heart and calls out to him, asking him what he was doing there? When it became evident that L couldn't hear him, he walks to him, using his hand as a cover though it doesn't seem to stop the rain from going to his face.

Light asks him again and L mentions hearing a bell. The bell has been ringing non stop lately, can he hear it? Light shakes his head, and says he doesn't. Really? He wonders whether it was a church, maybe a wedding or perhaps... L pauses. Light is getting frustrated (he ignores the feeling of anxiousness or worry) and asks L what he's getting at, he should cut it out and they should go inside (because this isn't- this isn't a look that should be on L. This is not like him). L looks down and apologizes, and light's anxiousness grows even more evident in his face. "Nothing I say makes any sense anyway"

Light doesn't like it. He doesn't like the downcast expression plastered on L's face. His heart is slowly sinking down, and he fixes his expression into an amused one. If there's one thing light yagami knows, it's to frustrate L just as much as he frustrates him. So he agrees, and remarks how if he takes anything L says seriously there would not end his trouble. The words that would've been genuine at any other time feels like Ash to his tongue. He silently pleads, any expression on L's face would've been better than the one he is wearing right now. L stares at him,

"Tell me light, from the moment you were born. Has there ever been a point where you've actually told the truth?"

Light's heart skips a beat. L's face looks determined and accusing that it frustrates and confuses light even more. He couldn't take this anymore and is just confused why L is acting like this (like he's a criminal that should be arrested). And he couldn't take it anymore. He sighs angrily, and ruffles his head. A frustrated expression morphs to his face and he glares at L.

"What are you talking about L? Are you still mad about the case? I did what I had to do! I just-" light looks down, not catching the confused stare L gives him and stubbornly mutters

"I'm... sorry okay? I'll listen to you this time alright? Just-" don't make that face. Don't make that expression.

He doesnt continue and let's the silence fill the conversation. Before he hears a sneeze, which he drags L back to the building.

They both dry themselves off with a towel. Now that light is sitting down on the stairs, he thinks more about his situation right now. And realizes some things. He doesn't recognize this place and that what he's wearing right now is different from when he slept at his place. Those thoughts were interrupted by L apologising again, and crouching to his feet, towel in hand. L offers to dry his feet off, which light begrudgingly agrees to. Again, L looks like he's showing weakness which light resents.

"It'll be lonely, wouldn't it?"

Light resents him even more. And before L could say anything else, Light grips on his collar, until they are close to each other and seethes. He yells at L, what's wrong with him. Why is he acting like this? He couldn't control his expression before it morphs into worry and anxiousness. "You know you can talk to me about it right?" L stares at him. His face hardens, and light could see that he doesn't believe him even for a second.

'Just... why? What happened?'

His expression pleads for L to answer. To say anything. But L just stares at him, before his expression goes back to it again.

Light silently follows him. He would never admit it, but he's worried okay? This guy literally just told him he was his 'first' friend yesterday, and now he's acting weird. (And also it becomes apparent to him that this might not be a dream, to his frustration, and since he doesn't know where to go he mostly follows to not get lost).

They're at the monitor room and the task force greets them, some looking at a space warily. Light couldn't help but feel at awe with how different this place was and although he recognizes some people in there He's confused why there's only a few officers here. And soon, L announces his plan on testing the death note (death note?). The officers and his father were protesting which L dismisses. And then an alarm rings, L looks up at one of the monitors worryingly, as the data deletion happens. The officers panics and looks for the 'shinigami' which confuses light to also look around and looks back at L.

His eyes widen as L froze in shock, dropping the spoon from his hand before swaying and collapses. Light, catching his frozen expression, rushes and jumps to catch him before his body hit the floor. Light felt his heart stop as he looks at L, He's not dying-- is he? Light's face finally cracks as his face morphs to what he's feeling. From anxious, to horror, to worry. He tries to shake L, to stay with them, and shuffles for his phone. He can't find it, where is it!? He looks to the task force and shouts for them to call for help- an ambulance- fucking ANYTHING!

He doesnt get to see L's expression, his confusion and his sorrow. Even at the very end he didn't get the confirmation that light is kira. How cruel.

Light decided that he wants to get revenge. When they ask him to become the next L, he says yes. After all, he can't let who killed L know he's dead and also to proceed testing the death note. Light shut down every or any protest against the idea. This might not be his universe, but he would make sure that this criminal faces his deserved justice. After countless of sleepless nights (with all the data deleted he has to start from scratch. But it doesn't matter, he's confident in his skills) he gathers any and every information about kira from news articles, to his methods, to the theories. (He ignores the sinking feeling that the ideals of kira seems to align with his morals). And before he knows it, 13 days had passed after the prisoners used the death note.

They did not die.

And after the rule were discovered to be fake. Light and misa were arrested and before he knows it, he's already about to be executed. With his and misa's name and face plastered on every news media, even if they escaped or proven to be innocent. They would be damned by the public. He thinks about L in his last moments, and tries to process what is happening.

'It'll be lonely, wouldn't it?'

He sees a familiar figure at his execution. That man is--

He wakes up again. A phantom feeling of the pain he felt from the execution. And face to face with L pointing a gun to his direction.

[gerrydelano]

it's been like 10 hours and i am still thinking about gerry child experimentation canon. fuck my entire life

[agent-stone]

Shadow here.

It's really dark outside, so we're having to run on the small amount of chaos energy Robotnik has in his drone to use as light.

Knuckles seems tired, if not just concerned. We don't usually see him like this, so it makes me almost disturbed to hear him talk and act like this.

Sonic... I'm trying to keep him in close proximity. It's cold, and I know he isn't going to like what we see over at G.U.N.

If you have any suggestions, please give them to Sonic and I.