#theyre like a scientific research group

[pinkeoni]

streddit is such an interesting place because I’ve never seen a community that was so active in their fandom that so adamantly rejects what is happening on screen. Like it’s not a case of GA who watch the show casually so they may not pick up on certain things— it’s fans who frequently engage with the show, the supplemental books and comics, fan material, but they also so adamently ignore surface level canon material if it doesn’t match the version of the show they built in their head. They are too involved to be GA and let they know less than actual GA

[moodr1ng]

"this social psychology experiment proves humans are inherently cruel and domineering!" "no this other social psychology experiment proves humans are inherently kind and cooperative!" everyone learn that singular experiments cannot be taken as conclusive proof of anything + consider that perhaps literally no amount of social psychology studies will ever "prove" any kind of inherent, all-encompassing moral truth about all of humanity and will only ever be an example of possible group conduct in certain conditions, in a certain culture and time, among certain people

[spricket-central]

the way they "cuddle" is probably one of my favorite spricket behaviors. its so cute :,)

i wonder why they do it? theyre cold blooded, so its not like theyre sharing body heat.

my hypothesis is that its a safety thing.

i once read a little story about a woman with sprickets in her basement, and she described the way theyd all start hopping when they felt her footsteps as being "like popcorn popping," and its a descriptor thats really stuck with me. like, the visual is perfect. just a bunch of jumpy lil kernels.

so im wondering if perhaps they cluster like this during the day- when theyre likely sleeping- so that if one spricket gets spooked and hops, it triggers a chain reaction of all these lil popcorns popping.

its beneficial to the group as a whole, because it gives those who would have otherwise not detected the intruder a heads up, and the resulting chaos may even scare off the intruder. their defense mechanism is to jump AT predators to try and startle them, after all, and based on the general human consensus towards these guys, it works ahaha. so having a cluster of them doing it is going to be that much more likely to succeed.

just my hypothesis though. i dont know if theres been any actual scientific research into this behavior (though based on the lack of scientific research of the species as a whole, i find it highly unlikely).

but regardless of why they do it... the result is adorable :,)

[skepsys]

I'd love to know more about your new boy! Does he have any hobbies? What're you're ideas for his backstory? Any scars / tattoos? What's something he likes?

(I apologize if this is too many questions I just like hearing about your ocs and your comics for them ^^)

its okay!!!! sorry for the kinda late response i was just sorta thinking on it... igarin's still vry much a wip so some of this is kinda... handwave-y or vague :')

put under a readmore bc i can never be succinct about ocs zzzzz

hobbies is kind of a funny one bc i ALWAYS struggle with this no matter which ocs it is... i get so wrapped up in making them into a big cool thing and giving them backstory and stuff that i forget about like. the smaller, more 'human' things i guess. that said even before this big turning point thing that happened in his backstory hes always been like...a very logical, science and math-minded kind of person so he probably enjoyed anything that could keep his mind engaged and make him think... various types of puzzles? maybe building/collecting models of various things?

his backstory is so....its still pretty piecemeal at this point but the idea is that he was a scientist, or i guess maybe more specifically an astronomer (and/or physicist?) that was a part of a team researching deep space (as in, dark space where there's little to no galaxies or otherwise recognizable signs of. anything). at the risk of going on a tangent the idea is that in this universe where all my oc stuff takes place, general laws of physics and things are the same as they would be in reality--there's magic, of course, and that has an effect on everything but, y'know. it's Fairly Normal within reasonable parameters.

deep space is, scientifically speaking, Fucked Up and its very well accepted that you just don't stray away from known safe lanes of space travel because in space things get Weird. i've yet to get down the hard specifics, let alone how in-universe researchers might go about categorizing the types of things that have recorded and observed in researching deep space but really Anything can happen, all sort of anomalies and phenomenons and strange creatures and beings that, while they (sentient or not) may not be Malevolent that operate on just a completely different set of rules than 'normal' reality.

(small tangent but just as an example i had another story thread ive never done anything with about a solo space explorer who gets trapped in a similar anomaly and they're stranded because their ship won't start again--not because it's broken but because the laws of physics are fundamentally different in that specific area and the engine physically Could Not work anymore)

anyways oh my god. so igarin and the rest of the group find an Anomaly that theyre trying to study and one thing comes to another and they decide to physically approach it in a ship. there's no way to figure what may or may not happen so theyre all very aware of the risks and that they might not be able to come back...

what winds up happening is the ship seems to vanish off any sorts of sensors or communications or Anything for like. 15 minutes. and then it comes back. there's nothing telling anyone at the team that stayed back that anything went wrong so they send a second group to go and get them, only to find the first ship looks like. completely trashed, and as if it's been a wreck for decades, not a few minutes.

this is kind of the part where it gets a little vague bc im just soo indecisive on what i want to be the root of what happened!!! i know that it's like, this second team makes it onto the first ship and its just. grisly. slimy fleshy infectious looking growths and spores and nasty shit yesss god... the entire crew is dead, subsumed into this writhing mess Except igarin who seems to. more or less coherent and in possession of his mind (if not his wits, having been there for what seemed to him to be more like decades instead of minutes) despite how almost half his body is Also overrun with this strange parasitic thing, though a lot less aggressive and more like. symbiotic than consuming him...?

idk what it is though....! some kind of strange alien fungi, parasite, is it all one singular being, is it sentient or was it just doing what it did as a natural thing that would make sense for it back where it came from...?

they wind up getting him out of there and back home before anything else happens.. his left arm winds up getting amputated and a bunch of his body and internal organs get replaced trying to essentially cut out what is initially seen as some kind of sickness they can get rid of but it just never seems to go away no matter how they treat it; but it also never seems to be causing him problems either, not in pain, physically moving about fine, etc

i guess that kind leads into if he has scars because umm... well after a fashion i suppose he does LOL

i think over time he gets treated less like a friend/solleague that the others are trying to save and more of a research subject which, being a scientist himself he's fine with but over time it gets a lot worse and impersonal, its kinda obvious hes more of a Weird Thing so they wind up uhhh. having a Disagreement and he winds up breaking himself out of there

at this point igarin is like. Dubiously human. visually he looks normal, it's a setting where it's very normal for people to have not only cybernetics but 'unnatural' features so at a glance i dont think most people would look twice at him. this parasite thing though is kinda inextricable from him, not only even his body but like worming into the cybernetics and able to influence those too (idk how to describe this without a drawing and im too tired to do that rn...)

im not sure where hes going from here tbh. there's not really anyone for him to go to about whats happening to him nevermind if there's even anything to possibly do about it. maybe he tries to go back to the place it happens and see if he can figure smth out...? much to think about but this is far too long as it is LOL

if any1 read this far. sweet jesus. sorry but also thanks LMAO

[foilfreak]

Nobody asked for this, but I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately so I’ve decided to post about it in the hopes that my brain will stop thinking about it if i write my thoughts out, or at the very least spit them out onto a tumblr post. So here’s a nowhere-near-comprehensive list of all the heroes who I think should be friends and why, in no particular order:

1. Iaian and Genos. I’ve talked about them before but I just think that they’d get along really well for some reason. They’re both fairly close in age and seem somewhat similar in personality and disposition so i think, given some time and heavy avoidance of the topic of whose master is superior, a good strong friendship could blossom between these two disciples, a friendship that gives them the opportunity to relax, let loose, and actually have fun in ways they wouldn’t normally because theyre usually too busy being responsible heroes and saving cities and innocent civilians from certain death and destruction. Idk I just want them to be best friends who secretly gossip and talk shit about other heroes over Mario Kart and a bottle of Absolute, is that so much to ask? Can Genos have a friend of his own for once plz?

2. Tanktop Master and Superalloy Darkshine. A friendship between these two gym rats would radiate such chaotic bro energy that i don’t think ppl would physically be able to handle the combined amount of protein powder and boiled chicken that must be seeping from these guys’ pore. That being said however, if I don’t see at least 1 chapter of them acting like total fucking morons together like ive seen in a few fics now, I will be flying to Japan to personally fistfight ONE and Murata.

3. Golden Ball and Child Emperor. This one comes with a few headcanons Ive created about Golden Ball so if u don’t see it I don’t blame u, but basically the idea is that Golden Ball is a pretty smart guy, he got like a masters degree in chemical engineering or something before becoming a hero, so Golden Ball and Child Emperor probably met at some science convention and got to know each other by talking about various scientific theories and whatever shit they happen to be working on at that time. Child Emperor will occasionally ask Golden Ball to guest lecture for one of his classes. Golden Ball’s probably asked child emperor to read over the thesis or research paper he’s working on and give suggestions. They’re fellow colleagues who share more in common than just being heroes and child emperor probably enjoys talking to an adult who actually has a brain cell or two on hand at any given moment.

4. Death Gatling and Smile Man. Gatling looks like he could use a friend looking out for him (both in hero work and just in general) and Smile Man seems like a really nice and cool guy, idk there’s just something I like about him and I think he’d be a good friend to someone like Death Gatling. I’d certainly be Smile Man’s friend, if nothing else!!!

5. Chain’n’toad and Mumen Rider. I liked seeing them work together and show concern for each other when they fought that lizard monster in the OVA, I think they’d be good friends and get along outside of work too!

6. Captain Mizuki and Fubuki. Fubuki needs a girl-friend who doesn’t work for her and Captain Mizuki seems like the kind of lady who’d have a positive impact on Fubuki if they ever did become friends.

7. Captain Mizuki and Lily. Girl alliance.

8. Captain Mizuki, Fubuki, and Lily. Ultimate Girl Alliance!

9. Captain Mizuki, Fubuki, Lily, and Okamaitachi. ULTRA MEGA SUPREME GIRL ALLIANCE!!!!!!!

10. Tatsumaki and King. Tbh I want them to fuck, but that’s a post for another day, I do however think that a friendship between the two of them would be beneficial for much the same reason as a relationship between them would work out, just minus the romantic elements. They both have a decent amount of respect for each other and I think they’d both encourage the other to improve themselves and become better people/heroes, which they actually would because you’re a hell of a lot more likely to take criticism from someone if you respect their opinion and see the validity in their criticisms/suggestions. Tatsumaki would force King to actually leave his house and go do stuff with her and King would force tatsumaki to chill the fuck out and not yeet ppl into walls... maybe.

11. Amai Mask and Zombieman. More or less the same deal as Tatsumaki and King except there’s an extra 5 months at the beginning of their “friendship” that consists almost entirely of just straight up hate fucking. They’d be friends with benefits if they stayed friends tho.

12. Atomic Samurai and Bomb. Kamikaze is friends with Bang therefor he’s friends with Bomb too, shut up

13. Spring Mustachio and Bushidrill. I want to see them get drunk together, i think that would be quite fun

14. Snek and Saitama. I want Snek to join the Saitama group and I want him to be PISSED about it.

15. Snek and Lightnight Max. On a slightly more serious note, I do think these guys would make good friends, if only because of their love for martial arts.

16. Pig God and All my love and affection. He just deserves it ok, idk what else to say.

And thats about all i can think of for right now, but ill be sure to come back with a part 2 if i can think of anything. Let me know what u think. Further suggestions are highly encouraged!

[wisherbysharlight]

WHAT IF... SANDERS SIDES BUT MAKE IT A TROPEY TEEN BEACH AU

Endgame!LAMP. Dukeceit, Remile

Just 2k stream of consciousness words from a plunny that grew legs TW for v slight underage drinking, one joking mention of violence, and a non-specific discussion of intrusive thoughts

-Janus has just moved there because his parents wanted to start a new "adventure" and he is a Stereotypical Teenager. Very "ugh MOM I wanna go back to my FRIENDS for my LAST SUMMER BEFORE COLLEGE"(most of his friends suck. He should not spend time with them. He does not know this)

His Parents buy him a surfboard and tell him to try it out as a way to get him to Shut Up

Hes a Skater Boy(cue music) so he picks it up super fast from like,,, youtube videos

 -He gets told to Get a Job if he wants to like, keep buying surf gear?

All the local kids work at like one restaurant/yacht club type place right on the beach

Janus gets hired as a host

 -Logan is a beach badge checker, Patton, Roman, and Remus are beachfront restaurant waiters but Roman just Really Wants To Surf, Emile and Virgil are Lifeguards, and Remy is a bartender

 -Janus is Very Good At Customer Service because Fake Smiles

Patton recognizes this Immediately

He shows him the Rage Closet which is a tiny room with an arm chair that locks from the inside where you can punch a pillow on your break when it gets to be Too Much

-Janus is Attached now and there is no getting rid of him

Patton Fully Endorses this and introduces him to the rest of the group

Janus Knows Immediately that LAMP is In Love but says nothing because he aint no snitch

-Remus surfs, but he also always wear a thong while doing it

Roman wears a full wetsuit and somehow still gets Board Rash. Remus is somehow immune and it infuriates him

 -Janus, not knowing that the twins live right on the beach cuz they are RichTM: Hey Ree I kinda wanna learn how to surf would you be able to teach me 

Remus, who religiously watches Janus surf every morning, but is absolutely willing to play this game: Yeah absolutely

Patton, later: “lets rinse off at the twins they’re right here” Janus: theyre.... What?!

 -Meanwhile, elsewhere, Virgil and Roman are double teaming Logan to drag him into the water with them cuz he’s pouting about losing a debate with their manager about how he didn’t really be mean to the dudebro who wanted to get his buddies onto the beach without paying, he was just enforcing the rules. And if the dude was so offended by Logan’s Very Accurate Dragging that he complained to management then, well, that’s his problem not Logan’s

 -Logan is never without a book. Ever. And its always a different book. Janus is starting to think he owns a library

One day he is just... reading a Physics textbook. Not taking notes or anything. Just reading. 

Roman is Very Very Alarmed by this because he is Gay and Math is Scary

"Roman I'm also gay that is not a determining factor"

"Yeah but you can't drive"

"...fair"

 -the first time janus has a shift with the twins, he cant stop staring, not just because hes like,,, super attracted to Remus but also because they are like Chaos Incarnate and yet somehow get the most tips??? He doesn't understand???

It's just cuz they are both Huge Flirts and Flatterers and the patrons dont care that they're not-so-subtly beating the shit out of each other right there on the dining floor because theyre just so charming

 -one of the bartenders gets aggressively snapped at by a customer and called "sweetheart" and before Janus can even begin to react Remy is there, sunglasses off, fire in his eyes, telling them to settle their bill and get the fuck out

Janus, used to City Restaurants- "Wont you get in trouble with the owner?!"

Remy, who knows Nothing Else But This- "What?? Not likely I only did it cuz Thomathy wasnt here to do it himself"

 -the restaurant is closed Monday and Tuesday so that is the Pseudo Weekend for the staff where everyone hangs out at the beach

Emile and Virgil take Tuesdays off but still work Monday’s cuz they feel better being the one watching over their friends

 -Roman, staring at Virgil on the lifeguard stand: ugh he’s so pretty I almost wish I was drowning just so he could give me cpr 

Janus: you wanna potentially get your ribs broken just for lip contact? 

Remy, staring at Emile on the lifeguard stand: listen, if that’s what it takes, I’ll take it

Remus, immediately going up to the lifeguard stand because he has 0 impulse control: hey my brother and cousin want you to break their ribs 

Virgil and Emile: excuse me?????

 -Patton will literally spend hours in the water. Logan physically drags him out to put sunscreen on him every two hours to the minute. Patton does not admit that he purposely "forgets" just so Logan will do so

Logan is Dark and has never used sunscreen ever but Patton is so pale and he just gets so concerned about him. Patton thinks its adorable

He has pages of research on proper spf determination.

Roman and Remus use spf 15 just on their faces and have never once burned in their lives

Logan wants to submit them for scientific study because that shouldnt be possible

Virgil calls Logan out on the fact that he also should be wearing sunscreen and Logan like... blue screens he cant believe in all his research he missed that

 -Patton is like... a ridiculously strong swimmer. Virgil still has a heart attack every time he goes for laps when there is the slightest hint of an undertow

Patton Knows This so he tries to stay in Virgil's sight line for the most part if there is an undertow. Or just dives over the waves again and again.

His nickname is Ariel. He thinks its just cuz of the swimming and the fact hes a red head. LAP all separately also tack on that its the swimming, the red hair, and the hnng pretty 10/10 would follow out to sea ala Prince Eric

 -first beach bonfire Janus goes to Remy is Fully In Emile's Lap like... half an hour in

he has had like maybe a sip of a beer

Remus says he still claims this is because he is a Clingy Drunk

no one will call him on it, least of all Emile

 -there is truth or dare. Roman may or may not skinny dip you have no proof

 -Logan gets infuriated that he cannot roast a marshmallow properly

Patton does it perfectly every single time but its ok cuz he shares and Logan eats it right from his fingers and Roman and Virgil are just in the background Trying and Failing not to be the Most Jealous

Patton thinks theyre upset they didn't get marshmallows and makes some for them too and there is lots of Significant Eye Contact involved

Janus is going to spontaneously combust if they don't get their shit together

 -Janus is out walking on the beach one night on a full moon cuz he cant sleep with everything so quiet around here when he sees a bright green patch out in the water and goes ...wait

he calls out to Remus and he comes into shore and is like "waves are perfect at night you should join me" so janus goes back and gets his board and they surf and chat for like the entire night

Janus finds out Remus couldn't sleep cuz intrusive thoughts were keeping him awake

Janus listens and doesn't judge, just lets Remus talk it out

They go back to shore and fall asleep on the sand next to each other like mid sentence still talking, now about whatever creative business idea Remus had, and get woken up by Logan's morning rounds like "come on guys you know you're not allowed to sleep out here" but they dont care theyre both just *blushing emoji*

-Logan Always Has A Notebook right? And a regular book he reads. And everyone assumes they are like Notions and Observations, but no, it’s actually blank paper and he uses it to sketch and then one day he leaves it behind and someone either Virgil or Patton finds it and flips through it and it’s all sketches of them and Roman and they’re like??? Actually really good? Anyway that’s how they find out Logan is actually minoring in art even though he’s majoring in something Very STEM 

And he never told his best friends because like almost all his pre college art is Them and he doesn’t want to be caught having Feelings and by the time it gets to college it’s been too long and he can’t tell them now 

Roman takes one of the sketches of him surfing and makes it his profile picture on All Social Media He Has and Logan is so flustered he nearly breaks his damn phone

Patton is so offended he didn’t get invited to Logan’s first showcase that he doesn’t talk to him for like two whole hours 

Virgil quietly asks if there is any art of all four of them, finds out there is, and makes a print and keeps it on his bedside table

 -They are all Pining Outwardly Now and its Worse

 -Remus : you have known them since pre-k please ask them out I beg of you 

Roman: You just dont get it 

Remus: I asked Janus out after 4 weeks what is your problem

 Emile: Virgil, I love you, you are my Partner in Anti-Drowning but you are so stupid 

Virgil: What???? All I said is that you and Remy are really cute and I'd love to be in a relationship like that 

Emile: I am not a violent person, Virgil, but I have the strong urge to smack you

 Patton, in the Rage Closet: They're all just so hOT and ReSPEctFUL 

Janus, waiting for his turn, trying to act like he cant hear him: I Am Looking Elsewhere

 Logan: I just don't understand why they were more upset that I didn't tell them than that I'd been making art of them for years?? Shouldn't that second part be worse??

Remy, who has been partial to Every Single One Of AMP Waxing Poetic About Logan: Yeah, no idea /s

 -the twins get into a surfing competition as a pair and everyone goes to see them and support them

Thomas airs the competition on every tv in the restaurant cuz he’s Proud of his Bois

They WIN cuz they are Creative and Talented and came up with all sorts of crazy tricks while they were fucking around in the water but it earns them Major Bonus Points for originality

 -Roman does the run off the podium and into Love’s arms trope with just like... whoever’s closest lets go Patton because he is a Waif and forced himself up front so he can see

The other two are Devastated because well shit but then Roman pushes through the crowd, still holding Patton’s hand, and gives them this smile and is like “remember in like second grade when we said we’d do everything together and made a pact on this beach”

Analogical: uhhhhhh yeah

Roman: holding you both to it. No take backs. This counts. Now kiss me, dammit, we WON and they DO MANY TIMES AND ITS REAL CUTE

 -Meanwhile dukeceit have Mysteriously Disappeared and No One wants to be the ones to go find them. They show back up, eventually. Janus has a branch in his hair and remus' hair is sticking straight up and when he opens his mouth roman glares at him and tells him in no uncertain terms that they do not want to know

 AnYWaY these are my children and I will gladly answer any questions about them. I left out Janus Backstory and Creativitwins Angst and Many Individual LAMP Scenes and Remile/Dukeceit getting together and Epilogue but can absolutely provide such things on request

[fandommomhater]

theres 3 groups in my wc oc universe (i dont like calling them "clans" </3) but i dont have names for the groups yet.

group 1 is the main group, theyre more scientific, philosophical and 'progressive' than the other groups, they research and study and observe everything like biology, health, psychology, etc.

group 2 is extremely conservative, hyper-religious, almost cult like, very emotionally closed off, strict. they are not having a good time </3

group 3 is also emotionally closed off but in a yolo life has no meaning do you want to do extremely dangerous things for the thrill of it way

i dont know how to explain them more without putting mildly sensitive content in your inbox 😔 and also writing 80 paragraphs

these sound like such cool concepts omggggg chernobyl kitty cats holy fuck… ALSO feel free to dm me with more about them i literally love reading 80 paragraphs and i’m going to be so bored at work tomorrow i’ll DIE.

[veldian]

I only recently started following you and am very curious so please infodump if you wanna -- who are the think tanks?

HELLO 💞 WELCOME TO THE BIG MOUNTAIN RESEARCH FACILITY. here you will find robot dogs and scorpions, war criminals, anti-communists, and Your Brain.

the think tank are a group of people (debatable) from old world blues; a fallout new vegas dlc. formally human; after a large nuclear war, the land was destroyed by radiation, and our scientists refused to let something as minor as death stop their research. they implanted their brains in floating tanks, accessorized with screens that constantly show two eyes (which, iirc, they actually do see out of) and a mouth.

when you start the game, they are kept within the confines of their crater (previously a mountain, but an explosion blew the top off), and being tormented by another brain who used to be in their ranks before he defected. they have been abducting humans and finding ways to insert their brains into human vessels so they can escape out into the wasteland.

they abduct the player and take your brain out too, but due to a previous major head injury, you somehow survived with your consciousness and problem-solving skills intact. they instruct you to go find technologies to help them escape the harassment of doctor mobius, which, conveniently, are also some of the tools needed to successfully replant a brain into someone's skull.

the remaining members of the think tank, along with mobius, used to be the executives of big mt before, uh. everyone except for them died. they were brilliant geniuses, but now they're significantly... less brilliant. part of the charm of them is the fact that theyre very eccentric.

klein, although he used to be human, has forgotten what some very basic parts of human anatomy are, or what they're for. he also doesn't seem to understand what the technologies you're supposed to collect actually do. dala on the other hand, is obsessed with humans, to the point of it being seen as whatever the tank equivalent of sexual attraction would be. she will pay you to let her watch you breathe. borous, creator of the coyote-rattlesnake hybrids that roam the wasteland, along with giant mutated tarantula hawk wasps, seems to be mainly interested in talking about what he went through in high school, as well as being a very outspoken and dramatic hater of communists.

0, whose name is supposed to be read as Zero but is usually referred to “O/"oh"”, is meant to be the head of robotical engineering, although he.. doesn't seem to understand most of what the others are talking about (to give him some credit, he did successfully create a sentient robot when he was human! that robot is um. exclusively obsessed with coffee cups). 8 seems to be the most mentally stable ....besides the fact that due to an intruder reprogramming his voice module, he speaks in code/static; and he also ejaculates into a gun in front of the player and the rest of his colleagues. not to mention mobius, who, while he has been attempting to threaten the other brains, also seems to be going a bit senile due to the biogel that homes his brain starting to rot. the excessive drug use probably doesn't help either.

in the dlc you can also have an.. intense conversation with your own brain, who has also been given its own, albeit stationary, brain tank, as well as a voice synthesizer. it does not like you.

anyway that's a lot of paragraphs just to say that i saw these six scientific geniuses bickering amongst each other and thought "huh. they're all married. all six of them." i primarily draw them when they were human and i pretend to not see their growing number of crimes against humanity and instead draw them being trans and gay. a common joke is that klein and mobius are bitter exes because mobius targets taunts towards klein most often. 0 is also a tsundere forrrrr... all of them. klein has a soft spot for 8. do not argue with me i know i am right

okay that's it that's all i got thanks for letting me write a fuckin essay ✌️

(the war criminals in question)

[phoenixfangs]

okay this post got a little out of hand so its going under a readmore, im rambling abt irredeemable media and purity culture and the critical culture on tumblr and how it jazzes me up and infuriates me at the same time. i mention killing stalking specifically so if u dont wanna see that go ahead and skip this one

ive been a little fascinated by the concept of "irredeemable media" lately and like. i think we as a community on tumblr r trying so hard to compartmentalize media into only two boxes: problematic and unproblematic. and i think thats A Little idiotic LMAO

oftentimes were not even digging into the material we just See smthn like a distasteful trope or a -phobia or -ism Somewhere in the material and brand it problematic, and leave it at that. most "critics" (i hesitate to call them that but i dont have a better word) on this site dont even watch or read the thing theyre talking abt -- its valid to not Want to read smthn like killing stalking but at the same time how many ppl decrying it as The Worst Possible Thing have read even a chapter of it? my guess is very few

(this is NOT an endorsement of killing stalking btw, this is what started my fascination with "irredeemable media" so i am currently reading it to see if it rlly is that bad, and like. yeah its p god awful LMAO i cant in good conscience even recommend it for others to review/critique it its so vile. i want to make it abundantly clear that i am NOT reading it to enjoy it, i am NOT enjoying it in really any way while i am reading it, i think its disgusting in the way it depicts homosexuality, abuse/sexual assault and the way it treats women as a whole. i just wanted to read it bc now i have proof to back up any points i happen to make abt it being a disgusting story, bc im the type of person that wants to experience the Thing b4 i give genuine criticism of it)

ANYWAY killing stalking is maybe not the best example of my point bc even if u havent read it its not hard to accurately criticize it bc it rlly is Just That Awful but its what i brought up bc its what im investigating rn (i dont even wanna call it 'reading' bc thats embarrassing that im reading it LOL im investigating im doing research on killing stalking this is a scientific venture of mine), but like ill see smthn labelled as "irredeemable media" and i think "hm. has this person ever engaged with the material? how do they know its irredeemable? did they actually read/watch/whatever or did they see a lot of ppl talking abt it on tumblr?"

and like i said, i have no problems w anyone who looks at smthn labelled "irredeemable" and decides they dont want to engage w it, i couldnt give less of a shit what other ppl do with their time at this point in my life, i just think the critical culture on tumblr makes it maybe not the best place to get accurate, authentic criticism of things that have problematic elements (or anything rlly, the critical thinking skills on tumblr r subpar at best even when it comes to "good" or "acceptable" media)

and anyway im more fascinated w the culture of engaging w "irredeemable media": if u consume X media that is bad then, by the transitive property, u r bad. THAT is what fascinates and infuriates me abt the critical culture on tumblr. am i a bad person now bc im reading an Objectively Problematic comic as research, even tho literally nothing else abt my behavior/thoughts/morals has changed besides the mere existance of this comic in my life? will i be viewed as a dangerous person bc im reading an Objectively Problematic comic even though im actively decrying it and authentically telling u how bad it is and how much i dislike it and dont want others to read it because its so bad?

bc its not just media we try to box up into "problematic" and "unproblematic", its consumers too. for some reason when it comes to things deemed "irredeemable", if ANYONE engages with the source material, they r suddenly branded as "irredeemable" too, and any nuance of the situation is sucked out into the vacuous wasteland of media criticism on this website. obviously i think it goes without saying that bad media attracts bad ppl but at the same time, we make that assumption abt EVERY consumer of bad media, and i think thats unfair and narrow minded, esp through the lens of criticism

ppl want a moral high ground so badly, they want to feel superior to others so badly, that they jump at the opportunity to call someone an X apologist bc they consumed a media one time. purity culture on this website makes media criticism so difficult and toxic and its. ITS INTERESTING. ITS FRUSTRATING. I LOVE AND I HATE IT. i want to study some of u ppl like animals, the way u react when u hear someone watched hetalia one time or read homestuck one time or laughed at family guy one time. if i had the time i would Genuinely write a think piece on this phenomenon bc its so fascinating to see ppl playing into this purity culture and trying to one up each other by saying "well i NEVER watched this or read that so im morally superior to this other person who did"

i guess my point is, purity culture goes beyond just wanting pure, wholesome media with no flaws and no problematic elements (which is impossible btw bc everybodys standards r different) for the sake of. idk -- ppl like that would claim its to create a positive non-toxic space for folks in margianalized identity groups or smthn probably but idk if i buy that from ppl who behave in such a self righteous, self fellating sort of way -- but that demand for purity extends to consumers of problematic media as well and, who is it passing judgement on those ppl from on high, like a god? the same idiots sitting at their computers reblogging "x my beloved" gifs, same as anyone else

i guess what im actually saying is that NOBODY on this website has any right to pass such harsh judgement on anyone else, nobody anywhere has the right to feel superior to anyone else just bc they only watch pure childrens cartoons and not terrible problematic things like game of thrones or whatever

[redwoodrroad]

arkus’s birthday and some background info on him

SO ive been very busy with work these past two weeks AND sick with several things SO NOW TO MAKE UP FOR MISSING ARKUS’S BIRTHDAY (WHICH WAS ON JANUARY 3RD), im gonna talk about his research

here he is hard at work in his favorite part of the Priory: the ~secret~ library

everything else is under the cut because there’s a lot of science babble, but i do hope it’s fun to read if youre into science as much as i am. i also included some sylvari-centric stuff at the end because it’s specific to arkus

so simply put: Arkus’s concentration is on a mixture among anthropology (not just human-centered either), archaeology, and geology. separately, these sciences are completely different and require different skill sets, mindsets, tools, and research tactics, but these sciences also intersect in many ways and tell a fuller and more comprehensive story when put together. consider a nomadic culture that subsists on farming and animal products: they make clear boundaries in the land between where you sleep, where you eat, where you grow the food, where you cook the food, where you prepare animal parts either for consumption in one area or the creation of materials or clothing, ETC, my point is that this group needs a specific type of landscape to settle--that type of landscape needs to be sheltered enough from weathering and predators while also close to a water source, and the land itself must contain the right nutrients to grow crops; furthermore, the general landscape must be well-liked by large animals that are high enough in quantity that the group can sustain themselves on these animals and not risk endangering the population. the geology of the earth itself, the makeup of the land, is vastly important to this culture because it deigns where they can live and how they can survive in that area

of course, when they move away, they leave behind an imprint in the land itself--these cultures are not the type to necessarily bury their dead for fear of leaving them behind, but that’s also an extrapolation on my part so i cant definitively say that, but theyre also not necessarily the type to waste or throw away animal parts--so this group might not necessarily leave the obvious archeological choice of bones behind, but bones are not the only types of fossils that exist, and they certainly arent the main focus of archaeologists on digs: archeologists are looking for everything in an area--remains of encampments, clothing, pottery, tools, etc. these are the things a nomadic group might leave behind if theyre broken or unusable or perhaps if a disaster struck, and great swaths of belongings had to be left behind. lots of things are left behind when a group like this moves away--furthermore, evidence of a large group living in a place for what we can assume is several years to decades can almost always be found in each of those locations for a culture that is nomadic. archaeologists look for that evidence, and it’s the sort of thing they can follow like a map to see the direction in which this group moved

of course, the culture of that group itself is very important and just as fascinating as the prior fields of research: consider whether this group in my example might have a hierarchy--are elders the leaders of the group? is there a matriarch or a patriarch? how are children raised, and are they raised in a manner that separates them by gender, combined with the types of work or activities these genders are expected to perform? i read about a culture where the women did the foraging and held baskets at all times, and the men did the hunting and held bows and arrows at all times, but before this makes you mad and think that this culture might have been very strict on their gender conforming, the only gender “marker” in this society was that of the baskets or the bows. regardless of sex or gender at birth--concepts this culture had no definition of beyond the gendered tasks--if you wanted to hold a basket, you are a woman; if you wanted to hold a bow, you are a man. and you’re held to that standard until you decide you want to change that. there are also cultures ive read about where food is very closely linked with the cycle of life--there are some foods you eat when you are young, there are some foods you eat when someone is pregnant, and there are items to eat when someone dies, and everything has a very specific meaning assigned to it along with when and how those items are consumed.

all of these fields coalesce in different ways, and my passion for it is also Arkus’s. i imagine he goes out several times a year to conduct field research--something that is also very particular, and no two people do field research the same way, especially when it comes to soft sciences. i will also say that Arkus’s preferred style of research is one that has a little bit of discourse in the science community, and that is that he lets himself get involved with the culture.

in the soft science world, there are two pretty big styles: Positivism and Antipositivism (also called Interpretivism but ive definitely heard it called naturalism too). positivism is clean-cut--it’s objective and empirical scientific Fact. we’re talking quantitative data analysis, objective reasoning and observation (observation ONLY), and a clear separation between Scientist and Subject. 

antipositivism is the opposite--it’s not all data points and “objective” observation because to observe a culture without being part of it is not objective at all. you’re not learning about the culture if youre just watching it; you’re watching this culture from an outsider’s perspective, and from an outsider’s perspective with a completely different cultural background in mind, you will not understand the significance to any cultural action in front of you. in this way, the scientist is not separating themselves from the “subject(s);” rather, the outsider is interacting with and empathizing with the insiders. it’s a completely different mindset and one that yields results that almost cannot be measured on data points or spreadsheets.

(if you cant tell, i am an antipositivist lol)

Arkus is an antipositivist: he finds positivist thinking to be too clinical and perhaps inappropriate for his research purposes. that said, he goes out and locates groups like the vague culture i described above, and he learns about them through empathic interaction and openness. he doesnt always publish his work, but he does always ask his participants if they would like to be participants, and if not, then he helps them if they would like the interaction or leaves if they would prefer he not stick around. and that’s okay too! what he does publish is always very lengthy and involves detailed diagrams of rock formations, tools, structures, the landscape, etc, and if he’s in a position to do a dig, he may take samples of the landscape back to the Priory for further testing, especially when it comes to carbon dating or whatever the tyrian equivalent might be (the lifeforms are PROBABLY carbon based on tyria but you never know lol). at this point in the story, Arkus has been doing research for several years now--i haven’t decided when he becomes an archon, but it’s certainly his biggest career goal overall. i think it’s probably tough though because archons typically oversee really dangerous magics and sciences, so one of these days, Arkus will find a way to present his work as especially useful for that specific realm of study

i also think that with arkus’s background in a culture that is largely mysterious to other cultures is also part of why arkus has his passion for his work. to learn and discover things about culture while being simultaneously respectful and open to differences is very important to arkus, and it’s something that his culture has a particular closeness with given their history with--for EXAMPLE--the asura. no tea no shade but arkus isnt trying to be that type of way--but they also changed and got better over time; now arkus just has beef with the inquest because their research style and scientific process is the exact opposite of how arkus wants to be

i should also say--and i havent really seen really problematic evidence of this in the game--that research organizations such as the durmand priory have a tendency to be sorta...... grabby with their research. like there’s a big scientific attitude towards discovery in the modern world where the scientist(s) who discovered something feel Entitled to that discovery. it’s very western and ethnocentric, and it’s Bad. western scientists discovering x y z historic item that is important to an overseas culture’s history does not belong in a western museum or lab, i dont make the rules! unfortunately, the western scientists make the rules so like thems the brakes but let the record show i hate that

arkus is very aware of this scientific tendency to want to hold on to discoveries and sort of keep them close--safe even, in priory custody--but he also recognizes that it’s wrong to do that, so he specifically finds ways to work around that so the culture in mind gets to keep their history. sharing history and culture is really good and healthy for all cultures, but ONLY if that sharing isn’t forced or pressured onto the culture in question. arkus lives by that rule!

anyway, this was obviously just a way for me to gush about science under the guise of my character’s belated birthday, but i hope it was informative! i had fun with it ;u; and i’ll start drawing my characters again too dhfgadjfhg soon i hope

thank you for reading!

[dailynewswebsite]

How mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna work, why they’re a breakthrough and why they need to be kept so cold

Moderna's new mRNA vaccine is nearly 94.5% efficient in large-scale trials. JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP by way of Getty Photos

Because the climate cools, the variety of infections of the COVID-19 pandemic are rising sharply. Hamstrung by pandemic fatigue, financial constraints and political discord, public well being officers have struggled to regulate the surging pandemic. However now, a rush of interim analyses from pharmaceutical corporations Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech have spurred optimism {that a} novel kind of vaccine constructed from messenger RNA, generally known as mRNA, can provide excessive ranges of safety by stopping COVID-19 amongst people who find themselves vaccinated.

Though unpublished, these preliminary stories have exceeded the expectations of many vaccine specialists, together with mine. Till early this yr, I labored on growing vaccine candidates towards Zika and dengue. Now I’m coordinating a world effort to gather stories on grownup sufferers with present or earlier cancers who’ve additionally been identified with COVID-19.

Promising preliminary outcomes

Moderna reported that in the course of the section three research of its vaccine candidate mRNA-1273, which enrolled 30,000 grownup U.S. contributors, simply 5 of the 95 COVID-19 circumstances occurred among the many vaccinated, whereas 90 infections have been recognized within the placebo group. This corresponds to an efficacy of 94.5%. Not one of the contaminated sufferers who acquired the vaccine developed extreme COVID-19, whereas 11 (12%) of those that acquired the placebo did.

Equally, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, was 90% efficient in stopping an infection in the course of the section three scientific trial, which enrolled 43,538 contributors, with 30% in U.S. and 42% overseas

How does mRNA vaccine work?

Vaccines prepare the immune system to acknowledge the disease-causing a part of a virus. Vaccines historically comprise both weakened viruses or purified signature proteins of the virus.

However an mRNA vaccine is totally different, as a result of fairly than having the viral protein injected, an individual receives genetic materials – mRNA – that encodes the viral protein. When these genetic directions are injected into the higher arm, the muscle cells translate them to make the viral protein instantly within the physique.

This strategy mimics what the SARS-CoV-2 does in nature – however the vaccine mRNA codes just for the important fragment of the viral protein. This provides the immune system a preview of what the true virus seems to be like with out inflicting illness. This preview offers the immune system time to design highly effective antibodies that may neutralize the true virus if the person is ever contaminated.

Whereas this artificial mRNA is genetic materials, it can’t be transmitted to the following era. After an mRNA injection, this molecule guides the protein manufacturing contained in the muscle cells, which reaches peak ranges for 24 to 48 hours and might final for a number of extra days.

The immunization timeline for the Moderna vaccine trial. undefined undefined/iStock/Getty Photos Plus

Why is making an mRNA vaccine so quick?

Conventional vaccine improvement, though properly studied, may be very time-consuming and can’t reply instantaneously towards novel pandemics comparable to COVID-19.

For instance, for seasonal flu, it takes roughly six months from identification of the circulating influenza virus pressure to provide a vaccine. The candidate flu vaccine virus is grown for about three weeks to provide a hybrid virus, which is much less harmful and higher in a position to develop in hens’ eggs. The hybrid virus is then injected into a variety of fertilized eggs and incubated for a number of days to make extra copies. Then the fluid containing virus is harvested from eggs, the vaccine viruses are killed, and the viral proteins are purified over a number of days.

The mRNA vaccines can leapfrog the hurdles of growing conventional vaccines comparable to producing noninfectious viruses, or producing viral proteins at medically demanding ranges of purity.

MRNA vaccines remove a lot of the manufacturing course of as a result of fairly than having viral proteins injected, the human physique makes use of the directions to fabricate viral proteins itself.

Additionally, mRNA molecules are far less complicated than proteins. For vaccines, mRNA is manufactured by chemical fairly than organic synthesis, so it’s a lot faster than standard vaccines to be redesigned, scaled up and mass-produced.

The truth is, inside days of the genetic code of the SARS-CoV-2 virus turning into out there, the mRNA code for a candidate vaccine testing was prepared. What’s most tasty is that after the mRNA vaccine instruments change into viable, mRNA may be rapidly tailor-made for different future pandemics.

A comparability of conventional with the brand new mRNA vaccines. CC BY-SA

What are issues with mRNA?

MRNA know-how isn’t new. It was proven some time again that when artificial mRNA is injected into an animal, the cells can produce a desired protein. However the progress remained sluggish. That’s as a result of mRNA is just not solely notoriously unstable and simple to degrade into smaller elements, it is usually simply destroyed by the human physique’s immune defenses, which make delivering it to the goal very inefficient.

However starting in 2005, researchers discovered learn how to stabilize mRNA and package deal it into small particles to ship it as a vaccine. The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are anticipated to be the primary utilizing this know-how to be accredited by the FDA.

After a decade of labor, the mRNA vaccines are actually prepared for analysis. Physicians can be anticipating unintended immune reactions, which may be each useful and detrimental.

Why preserve mRNA supercold?

Crucial problem for improvement of a mRNA vaccine stays its inherent instability, as a result of it’s extra prone to break aside above freezing temperatures.

Modification of the mRNA constructing blocks and improvement of the particles that may cocoon it comparatively safely have helped the mRNA vaccine candidates. However this new class of vaccine nonetheless requires unprecedented freezer circumstances for distribution and administration.

What are the refrigeration necessities?

The Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine will have to be optimally saved at minus 94 levels Fahrenheit and can degrade in round 5 days at regular refrigeration temperatures of barely above freezing.

[Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]

In distinction, Moderna claims its vaccine may be maintained at most dwelling or medical freezer temperatures for as much as six months for delivery and longer-term storage. Moderna additionally claims its vaccine can stay secure at normal refrigerated circumstances, of 36 to 46 levels Fahrenheit, for as much as 30 days after thawing, inside the six-month shelf life.

Not surprisingly, Pfizer can be growing delivery containers utilizing dry ice to handle delivery constraints.

Sanjay Mishra receives funding (P30 CA068485) from the Nationwide Institute of Well being via his employer.

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/how-mrna-vaccines-from-pfizer-and-moderna-work-why-theyre-a-breakthrough-and-why-they-need-to-be-kept-so-cold/ via https://growthnews.in

[morganbelarus]

Inside the six-figure project to solve the mystery of NBA flopping

Could a group of scientists help refs by figuring out when basketball stars were acting? Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wanted to find out…

Ken Clark did it for science.

It was 2014, and Clark, then a doctoral student at Southern Methodist University, was part of a biomechanics group tasked by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with studying and perhaps fixing flopping, basketballs dark, daffy art of fooling referees into calling fouls that arent.

Like all researchers, the SMU team needed data. Specifically, collision data. The underlying idea, Clark tells the Guardian, was what if we just imagine people like billiard balls and go from there? And thats how Clark, his colleagues, and some hardy student volunteers found themselves in a campus lab, slamming each other off their feet, over and over again, as sensors captured every pileup.

I dont want to get the lab in trouble, as far as exposing students to bumps and bruises, says Clark, now a kinesiology professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, with a laugh. But Ill say this: the collisions were designed to replicate what goes on in a game.

Years after a company owned by Cuban gave a six-figure grant to SMU to investigate a perpetual hoops quandary that leaves game officials perplexed and fans apoplectic flop or not? the schools Locomotor Performance Laboratory has released its findings in an amusing and informative video that breaks down everything you wanted to know about the physics of flopping, but probably never thought to ask:

It takes surprisingly little force to knock a stationary human off balance or entirely onto their keister, even someone as large and strong as the typical National Basketball Association player which means flopping may not be as common as people assume.

If a player throws their arms skyward upon contact like theyve just crawled through 500 yards of sewage-smelling foulness to escape the Shawshank penitentiary, then yes, theyre probably flopping.

Floppers bring a distinct quality to their performances measurable momentum that can be used to help identify and perhaps even police the act.

The athletes in the NBA and college basketball are incredible, Clark says. But when you watch them take a hit, its obvious that sometimes they are positioning themselves in a way to topple with the least amount of force possible and thats putting it tactfully. To put it bluntly, theyre exaggerating collisions and falling down when they wouldnt normally have to. So when are they flopping? We felt we could address that from a rigorous scientific framework.

Everybody flops

Marcus Smart did not step on a landmine. It only looked that way. During an Atlanta-Boston game in 2016, the Celtics guard and acknowledged grandmaster of contemporary NBA flopping dashed along the baseline to position himself for an offensive rebound. Hawks forward Kyle Korver bumped (brushed?) Smart with his hip. Smart went airborne, knees tucked toward his chest like a platform diver, groan-gasping as if Mike Tyson had just landed a kidney shot, eventually landing somewhere in the vicinity of the basket stanchion.

Manu Ginobili was known for his simulation skills during his career. Photograph: Guardian graphic

Speaking to ESPN earlier this year, Smart didnt defend his flop, which earned him a $5,000 fine from the league office. But he didnt exactly condemn the practice, either. Lets get that straight, thats a flop, this was hilarious, he said. I deserved everything that came my way after that. I flop on defense, your favorite player flops on offense. Thats the only difference. Especially in a game where the offense has nothing but the advantage, the defense has to do something to get the advantage back.

Smart wasnt wrong. In the NBA, there are two types of players. Those who have flopped, and those who havent yet. LeBron James flops. Chris Paul flops. Stephen Curry flops. Hoops historys attic is crammed with Oscar-worthy efforts: a Vlade Divac pratfall here, a Dwyane Wade tumble there, a truly magnificent offense-defense double dive from Manu Ginobili and Raja Bell, the flopping equivalent of the Al Pacino-Robert DeNiro diner face-off in Heat.

Flops have been around for a long time, says Ronnie Nunn, a former NBA referee and league director of officials. We even have rebounding flops! Dennis Rodman was really good at grabbing the wrist of his opponent while going up and making it look like he was being fouled. Karl Malone introduced an arching back on rebounds if he was closer to the basket than his man, he would make it look like he was pushed [in the back] and was being moved, even if that [opponents] forearm never came forward.

Nunn laughs. Basketball is a crafty game. In terms of fooling the referee, flopping is part of its art and culture.

Cracking down

Flopping is also, to use a technical term, cheating. A kind of athletic Fyre Festival ticket. Basketball fans love to see the good guys get away with some well-timed ersatz contact; they get irate when the bad guys pull the same trick.

Players, coaches, and NBA front offices are no different. In 2012, the league cracked down, announcing that flops defined as any physical act that appears to have been intended to cause the referees to call a foul on another player would earn warnings for first-time violators, followed by an escalating series of fines for repeat offenders.

I think flopping had a lot of [general managers] up in arms, says Washington Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard, who has worked in the NBA for 26 years. It had become a weapon, and it seemed like an unfair advantage. Its not fair. Its not right. It doesnt pass the eye test. So the league tried to shame people into not flopping.

To stop flopping, however, you first have to spot flopping yet by definition, a good flop is indistinguishable in real time from a genuine foul. According to Nunn, separating fiction from fact isnt always easy. Not when the game features some of the worlds most explosive athletes. And not when officials already are keeping a watchful eye on a half-dozen different things in any given moment.

Besides, not all flops are considered flops. Pretending to get hit and falling down? Verboten. Acting as though a forearm that never touched your face nearly removed your head? A no-no. But adding a dramatic physical flourish when youre also really and truly being fouled? Thats just selling a call and the NBA is fine with it.

Embellishments are the other piece to this, Nunn says. Players use them to win calls they were going to win anyway. Say you have a dribbler putting his arm into the chest of a defender. The defender flailing away like the offensive player threw a punch may be less bad than the offensive player using their arm to get an advantage.

Beyond the eye test

Enter Cuban. Curious and data-driven, he approached SMU biomechanics professor Peter Weyand in 2013 with a novel request.

Could Weyands lab study flopping, the better to reduce referee guesswork by creating some basic guidelines on what levels of force, speed, and size contribute to genuine falls especially in a league where guards weighing less than 200lbs regularly bowl over front court players more than 50lbs heavier?

If you look at a high-contact sport like football, you see few pancakes, where guys end up on their behinds, Cuban told the Wall Street Journal at the time. Yet in our sport, guys end up on their backsides all the time.

Weyand and his team specialize in athletic performance theyve researched Usain Bolts unique stride, Oscar Pistorius artificial legs, and how to run a marathon in less than two hours. Yet when they began to investigate athletic performance art, they quickly realized it was virgin scientific territory.

We looked at sports science related to soccer theres obviously a lot of flopping there, Clark said. We looked at the biomechanics of slips and falls in daily living. We looked all over the place. There wasnt much out there.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban commissioned the study into flopping. Photograph: Tony Gutierrez/AP

Facing a void, the SMU researchers began with a basic question: just how much force does it take to knock someone off balance, or completely over? Weyands team wrote predictive equations. They fashioned a mechanical dummy nicknamed Gus out of plywood, PVC pipes, and galvanized tubing and repeatedly knocked it down with a padded, sensor-equipped yellow bar. They used to same bar to topple lab volunteers outfitted with reflective sensors.

I wanted to put a [San Antonio] Spurs jersey on Gus, Weyand said with a laugh. Maybe Ginobili or someone else known to be a flopper. But not everyone in the group would have been happy with that it would have been pushing it little too far to put [the Mavericks] cross-state rivals in there. No pun intended.

All three experiments told the same story. It doesnt take much to knock someone standing upright off balance just 50lbs for a quarter of a second, roughly the same as walking or lightly jogging into someone.

Weyand, who played basketball at Bates College, was surprised. If we had found that it takes huge amounts of force, then you could assume that every time you see someone falling over in a NBA game, theyre faking it, he says. But no in many cases, if the defender just doesnt move their feet, then down they go. Ive been through thousands of charge-block collisions, and never realized how easy it was.

Adding extra

Next came human-on-human collisions. One person got a running start. The other remained stationary. Participants wore boxing headgear and baseball catcher chest pads, and fell into a padded track and field pit mat.

It was more fun than dangerous, Weyand says. We had very thick mats.

Did anyone end up needing to wear a cup? If someone had gotten really doubled over or took a shot [between the legs], it would have been common knowledge in the lab, he says.

The researchers staged hundreds of collisions at different speeds, heights, and angles. In some, the stationary targets were told to react naturally; in others, they were told to flop. All of the hits were recorded using a 12-camera system similar to the ones used to create motion-capture animations for video games such as NBA 2K.

Analyzing that data, Weyand and company drew two key conclusions. First, during natural two-person collisions, the stationary recipient will fall backwards with their arms out but not up, and certainly not high enough to direct traffic on an aircraft carrier flight deck.

Those big, above the head gestures you see in the NBA? Clark says. Thats not natural counter-movement. Thats what floppers do.

Second, the SMU researchers confirmed that human collisions are subject to the same laws of physics as billiard balls. How so? When two objects collide, total momentum is conserved that is, the stationary object cant gain any more momentum following the impact than the moving object loses. In flops, however, total momentum increased, a telltale sign that the floppers were adding something extra to the equation.

Either they were jumping after the collisions, or it was excessive arm action, Clark says. Either way, we could measure it.

Lasting value

Drawing on their study, the SMU group has recommendations for NBA officials and anyone watching at home making Flop or Not calls:

Make sure the defenders body and feet are stationary;

Make sure actual contact has occurred;

Make sure the defenders response time is appropriate that is, that they dont start going down before a collision, nor too late after one;

Check for defender arm motion thats excessively upward.

Karl Malone: if he was closer to the basket than his man, he would make it look like he was pushed. Photograph: Guardian graphic

The main thing is just to look at what players do with their upper bodies, Clark says. Thats the major giveaway. Anything going on probably isnt necessary. Theyre doing it to sell it. It may still be a charge, but they are selling.

If that all seems obvious less Galileo championing heliocentricity than the latest concussion study confirming that getting hit in the head is bad well, sometimes the scientific method leads to known territory.

Besides, Clark does have one potentially revolutionary idea: use data from the sophisticated motion-tracking cameras installed in every NBA arena to calculate the momentum conserved or added during questionable player collisions, the better to flag who might be flopping.

We thought about that a lot, he says. They know much these players weigh, and what speed theyre moving at all times. Depending on how accurate the cameras are, you dont need a system like we have in our laboratory to do similar calculations.

But does the NBA need a system at all? In the first three seasons following the adoption of anti-flopping rules, the league reportedly handed out a total of 87 warnings and 13 fines to 73 players. Last season, by contrast, just five warnings and zero fines were issued.

Nunn attributes the drop to improved officiating. Sheppard says an emphasis on perimeter play means fewer low-post backdowns and rim-attacking drives which also means fewer opportunities for traditional defensive pratfalls.

Still, neither man believes flopping is a dying art. Instead, its simply evolving. Now you have more varied flops, Nunn says, and more flops by offensive players. To wit: in 2017, Houston guard James Hardens ability to draw dubious fouls on three-point shot attempts led the league to adopt new officiating guidelines.

[Flopping] gets passed down from generation to generation, Sheppard says. Usually its peer-to-peer, but sometimes players become a coach and teaches it. Its getting that handful of jersey, or sticking that elbow under someones arm, and somehow youre the one being held or being hit. Guys that can master it can squeeze another year or two out of their careers. Setting screens, drawing fouls, getting an extra possession that is valuable.

Should Cuban again decide that flopping is valuable enough to research, theres much more to study.

The circumstance we looked at in the lab was stationary defender, offensive player coming in, the most controlled situation so we could be most certain of the numbers, Weyand says. But a lot of collisions on the court are not like that. You have off-ball picks, rolls with two players moving. To have firm answers to those, wed have to [study] an actual NBA game. Is it potentially possible? Sure.

Original Article : HERE ;

Inside the six-figure project to solve the mystery of NBA flopping was originally posted by MetNews

[itsbetterthananal]

This is exactly the problem. "Fellow men", you realise that being a man or a woman is a very superficial connecting feature with others of the same. Start treating shitty people as individuals and stop having that crowd mentality as if as soon as one person has done something - everybody needs to be blamed. As for the righteous mission of feminism for men, tell that to the wing of 'journalists' who tried to get men killed in droves by pushing a dangerous hormonal contraception that got pulled.

nobody is asking you to go out and be some grand missionary to stop all men who are shitty we’re literally asking yall to check your friends and family if you’re aware that something theyve said hurts other people. like literally all im saying by checking your “fellow men” is like, when your friend makes a passing comment about a woman thats derogatory or makes a rape joke hold them fucking accountable for their actions and educate them on how harmful it can be. its not hard and its not asking you to do anything more than be aware of how men have the upper hand and need to realize how much their small actions (that dont necessarily make them shitty people) can harm others. if you are connected to someone who says something shitty and is ignorant to how it affects others yeah you should hold them accountable. to compare: being white. as a white person instead of whining and going “but not all white people!! im not like that!!” i take the time to listen to poc and understand how their lives are different to mine and eliminate actions that harm them that i never even realized i was doing, and i keep my fellow white people in check when i see them doing the same shit, because they too need to understand that its harmful. crowd mentality is something that needs to be considered because we are all part of these groups and these groups can form hierarchies that people at the top are not even aware of. individual shitty people still contribute to societal groups and then these societal groups prevent other groups from moving forward. that doesnt mean you have to be a sociological activist literally just listen to what women are telling you about what frightens them and hurts them and let your male friends know when theyre doing something harmful to others

as for the male contraceptive killing droves of men, i hadnt heard of any men being killed by contraceptives so i decided to do a little research on both news sources and empirical scholarly journals. I found absolutely 0 news or scholarly articles about male contraceptive killing, how you say, “droves of men”. this “dangerous” hormonal contraceptive that was pulled from its testing due to 20 men dropping out was because of side effects of mood changes, depression, pain at injection site, and acne. (and heres the original scientific article, in case you dont trust the news) a.k.a everything that women go through on hormonal birth control. side effects which are common in all hormonal drug use. other than these side effects, the injections were shown to be 96% effective in dramatically reducing sperm count as well as sperm returning to normal rates after stopping the injections. while there were about 4 participants who did not regain full fertility, the risk remained low. not only that, ive read a bunch of different articles on alternative male contraceptives testing, such as this one published earlier this year. This news article talks about how male contraceptive pills arent available because testosterone is more difficult to keep at bay than estrogen, so the pills that have been tested have only worked for a short period of time, and that researchers are looking for a more direct way to create male contraceptives that dont change hormonal levels.

so, i dont know what “journalist” youve been looking at that are talking about killing men but maybe you should do some research before saying that feminists are trying to kill yall just so you dont have an obligation to look out for women lmao

[jobsearchtips02]

The most active VCs for digital health, startups they’re banking on

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They’re backing psychological health startup Mindstrong, test-deliverer LetsGetChecked, care planner PatientPing, and 22 other companies.

Visit Company Expert’s homepage for more stories

Investors poured a record $181 billion into healthcare business in the last quarter, according to a brand-new industry report by CB Insights.

Digital health start-ups, or those that use technology like mobile phones to do care and research study, nabbed $5.8 billion, which is the 2nd best-performing quarter on record, the report stated. Digital health business raised the most among the health care categories CB Insights tracks, including AI and telehealth.

Equity capital companies are fueling the fire, some more than others. While smart cash has actually long supported the shift to savvier healthcare, coronavirus outbreaks prompted a lot more top firms to offer digital health companies more than a passing glimpse

Read more: Telemedicine startups have raised numerous millions as the coronavirus puts them to the test. Meet the 12 startups forging a new path for healthcare.

The most active firms, measured by their number of special deals, made 30 bets in total. Those startups are taking on a series of problems made more pushing due to coronavirus, like at-home testing, remote immediate care, mental health, and drug research study.

Here are the 5 most active firms

Optum Ventures, which is moneyed by UnitedHealth Group and has $600 million under management, bought Dispatch Health, Somatus, Kaia Health, DocASAP, Mindstrong, Holmusk, and LetsGetChecked

General Catalyst selected Kernel, Oscar, Mindstrong, Plume, Ophelia, and Sondermind for its digital health bets. The firm’s raised about $7 billion to date, it informed Service Insider.

Andreessen Horowitz, a $2.7 billion company, is backing Cedar, PatientPing, Alpha Health, Insitro, Nautilus Biotechnology, and Tomorrow Health

Khosla Ventures likewise invested in Kernel and Oscar, as well as Menten AI, Yes Health, Carrot Health, and Siren KV has more than $5 billion under management.

GV, which handles more than $4.5 billion, shares bets with Andreessen Horowtiz on PatientPing and Insitro. It’s also backing Owkin, Aledade, and DNAnexus

Learn More: Here’s how 11 leading VCs like Andreessen Horowitz and GV are altering their healthcare methods, from bets on telemedicine to virtual scientific trials

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[thisdaynews]

Plastic bags have lobbyists. They're winning.

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/plastic-bags-have-lobbyists-theyre-winning/

Plastic bags have lobbyists. They're winning.

A woman puts ginger in plastic bags while shopping. | David Paul Morris/Getty Images

TRENTON, N.J. — The plastic shopping bag has long been hunted by state and local policymakers pushing for its extinction. But still it thrives, thanks to the deep-pocketed chemical industry that birthed it and the political influence of retailers and restaurants. Only eight states ban single-use plastic bags. Nearly twice as many have laws protecting them.

To take on a global and well-heeled industry, U.S. environmentalists have adopted a strategy of winning hyper-local grassroots victories to build momentum to ban the bag and other plastics. The approach helped California environmentalists win a referendum to uphold a bag ban in 2016, and, in 2019, legislation to phase out plastic hotel toiletry bottles.

Other states are attempting to follow suit. New York is implementing a bag ban passed in 2019, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to do away with plastic foam. In New Jersey, at least 46 municipalities already limit plastic bag use, and the Legislature last week was on the verge of passing a statewide ban on bags and polystyrene food containers.

Single-use plastics have also become a target in Canada, where Prince Edward Island in July became the first province to prohibit businesses from providing plastic bags to customers. Newfoundland and Nova Scotia will follow suit this year. In Montreal, a ban on single-use plastic bags took effect two years ago, and Vancouver will ban the bag starting in January 2021.

Still, after years of environmental lobbying in the U.S., only eight states — California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New York, Oregon and Vermont — ban plastic bags. Fourteen others, including Florida, have moved in the opposite direction, adopting laws to tie the hands of local officials, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Last Monday, New Jersey’s much-anticipated plastics bill died.

“Their failure to act will mean that our plastic waste problem will continue to get worse,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

The recent rush of legislative activity is partly about rising public consciousness — and partly about money.

No one likes the sight of plastic bags snagged in storm drains, drifting from tree branches, or tangled around sea turtles. But beyond the bag, governments are feeling the financial pinch of plastic waste writ large.

Drink bottles, food wrappers and the like account for nearly a fifth of U.S. municipal solid waste. Less than 10 percent of that is recycled, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

As the plastic has piled up, so has the plastics legislation. Nationwide, state lawmakers introduced at least 95 bag-related bills in 2019, including bans, fees, and improved recycling measures, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In the mix are industry-backed bills that handcuff localities that want to adopt their own restrictions. The Sierra Club tracked some 290 pieces of state legislation related to plastics last year.

Still, the bag and its cousin, the pouch, are a $22.2 billion global business and growing, according to BCC Research. U.S. plastic bag sales are projected to reach $1.4 billion this year.

Leading the charge against bag bans is the American Progressive Bag Alliance, which represents the plastic bag industry, which employs nearly 25,000 workers in 40 states.

The alliance, an independent division of the Plastics Industry Association, won’t disclose the size or source of its funding. The industry association itself is a relatively small player in Washington, spending just $320,000 on federal lobbying in the first nine months of 2019.

The alliance has held bag bans at bay by sticking to the scientific merits, Executive Director Matt Seaholm said. The group touts studies that show plastic bags are more environmentally sustainable than paper.

And Seaholm pointed to a 2017 Canadian study showing that 78 percent of plastic bags have a second life. People use them to pack school lunches or dispose of pet waste, for example.

“Unfortunately, so much of our time is drawn to the efforts to ban our products or tax them,” Seaholm said. “That takes away from an opportunity that would be really fantastic if we could work together to promote recycling.”

Environmentalists label the industry’s recycling message “greenwashing.”

The claim that plastic bags can be recycled “doesn’t pass the laugh test,” said Judith Enck, a senior adviser at Bennington College and former regional administrator of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama.

Plastics bans have a long tradition of bubbling up from the grassroots. Democratic California state Sen. Nancy Skinner of Berkeley, as a City Council member there in 1988, authored one of the first, a ban on plastic foam, including Styrofoam.

“It’s why McDonald’s, across the country, does not use Styrofoam,” Skinner said. “We start things.”

By 2014, some 150 California cities and counties had banned plastics. In 2016, green groups built on those gains to win a statewide voter referendum banning single-use plastic bags, defeating a $5.5 million campaign by the bag alliance, whose backers included Hilex Poly, Superbag Corp, Advance Polybag, Durabag and Formosa Plastics Corp.

A California ban on plastic drinking straws came in 2018, and in 2019 legislators outlawed plastic hotel toiletry bottles, passing a bill modeled on an ordinance adopted by Santa Cruz.

“Locals have to lead,” said Heidi Sanborn, executive director of the Sacramento-based National Stewardship Action Council.

“The big opponents have the most influence with their money at the federal level, next at the state level, and the least at the local level,” Sanborn said. “We will always be able to get better bills at the local level than at the state, and state than at the federal.”

Until last week, New Jersey was poised to follow in California’s footsteps. A bill from Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex) would have phased out plastic and paper bags and polystyrene food containers. Straws would have been available at eateries only by request.

“It’s gonna be the toughest plastic bag bill in the country,” Smith boasted in October.

It wasn’t the first time New Jersey environmentalists lost a bag fight. In 2018, Gov. Phil Murphy vetoed a measure that imposed a fee on plastic bags and preempted localities from passing their own bag bans — a tactic favored by industry. Murphy, under pressure from environmental advocates, said the bill didn’t go far enough.

New Jersey leaders had promised to pass the Smith bill by the end of this year’s session, but it stalled in the Assembly after clearing the Senate on a 21-14 vote.

Smith said the governor’s office, Senate and Assembly couldn’t agree on phase-out timelines for paper and plastic bags. There also was disagreement over whether thicker plastic bags should be considered reusable and not subject to the ban.

While green groups and their allies have made recent gains, progress is slow and industry groups have notched some creative victories.

One of those was in Florida, which preempted local bag laws as part of a wide-ranging energy bill in 2008.

Environmentalists had hailed the energy measure as a response to climate change, but the bill had a catch: The Florida Retail Federation had persuaded the Republican-led Legislature to require the Department of Environmental Protection to issue a study on plastic bags.

It seemed innocuous, but the language required the Legislature to adopt the department’s recommendations before local governments or state agencies could limit the sale or use of the bags.

The Department of Environmental Protection delivered its recommendations in 2010. A decade later, the Legislature has failed to act on the report and the preemption remains in place.

In New York, bag makers got a win after they gave money to the Black Leadership Action Coalition led by Bertha Lewis. Lewis was an outspoken foe of bag fees in New York City, saying they would burden low-income residents. She denied at the time that she was acting in exchange for payment.

Supporters of a bag fee eventually won their fight in New York City. Then state lawmakers began hearing from constituents complaining about the cost to consumers. And plastic bag makers seized on another wrinkle: The city’s 5-cent fee would have gone into the pockets of retailers, not government coffers, because the city can’t impose a tax without the state’s OK.

With the bag fee poised to take effect, state Sen. Simcha Felder — an influential Democratic lawmaker who at the time caucused with Republicans — won a measure to block it, making his point by brandishing a loaf of Wonder bread and a carton of eggs. Assembly Democrats lined up behind him after the speaker assured them that an influential environmental group wouldn’t penalize members who voted to override the city’s bag fee.

Cuomo signed the bill in February 2017, promising a statewide solution. But he invested little political capital and Senate Republicans were loath to act. The effort languished until Senate Democrats took power in 2019 and adopted a plastic bag ban. The measure is now law and set to take effect in March.

Back in California, lawmakers and plastics foes are emboldened. Last year, lawmakers introduced a measure that would require all single-use plastic packaging and commonly used single-use food service plastics to be recyclable or compostable by 2030. The measure also would require the volume of plastic waste to be reduced by 75 percent by 2030.

The pair of identical bills foundered on the final night of the legislative session in September after leadership failed to bring them up for a floor vote and after Novolex, a South Carolina-based packaging manufacturer formerly known as Hilex Poly, set up a group called Californians for Recycling and the Environment and spent $959,000 lobbying against the measure.

Most players in Sacramento chalk up the bills’ failure to a flurry of last-minute activity on other measures and legislators’ sense that the issue could wait.

Micah Grant, spokesman for the industry-backed Californians for Recycling and the Environment, said his group wants a more comprehensive solution to plastic packaging, one that expands the state’s recycling infrastructure.

The group is “open to practical solutions that begin to solve the problem effectively and allow consumers to have the things they need and want,” Grant said.

California lawmakers will pass a broad-based plastic waste measure in 2020, Skinner predicted.

Environmentalists are taking no chances. In November, a San Francisco-based waste hauler, Recology, and two members of the California Coastal Commission filed a ballot initiative that would, like the bills, set a 2030 deadline for plastic packaging to be recyclable, reusable or compostable. Plastic packaging and products would be taxed up to a penny per item and polystyrene would be outlawed. The tax would fund the expansion of recycling facilities.

“If the Legislature fails to act, we have something on the ballot,” said Sanborn of the National Stewardship Action Council. “It helps the Legislature hold the bar high when they know there’s an alternative floating around out there.”

Recology has pledged $1 million toward the effort, an outlay that has drawn guffaws from industry. The group needs $5 million to $6 million just to gather the 623,212 signatures required to get the measure on the ballot, CRE Executive Director Reed Galen said.

“Telling the California political set that you’ve got a million dollars is a little bit unserious when it comes to ballot measures,” Galen said.

So while bag bans in states like California and New York command media attention, industry groups say they still have the upper hand. Most of the nation hasn’t banned plastic bags, and likely won’t.

“I’m happy to say a lot of cities and a lot of states have made the right decision,” Seaholm said. “Unfortunately, some haven’t.”

Samantha Maldonado reported from Trenton, N.J., Bruce Ritchie reported from Tallahassee, Fla., and Debra Kahn reported from Sacramento, Calif. Marie J. French contributed to this report from Albany, N.Y.

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[brainchallengeme]

Customer Intimacy as well as Empathy are Keys to Technology

Most of all, we understand that an entrepreneurial technique has even more possibility of success the a lot more it begins with the users-- their energies, their values, their truths ... the test of an innovation is constantly what it provides for the user ... it is by no means hunch or bet. However it is likewise not exactly scientific research. Rather, it is judgment.-- Peter Drucker, Innovation as well as Entrepreneurship 

 Even if a company is investing money on research (such as markets, clients, or new modern technologies) as well as growth doesnt indicate they will certainly get advancement. Advancement, just like advertising and marketing, training, or lots of other company investments, depends on the quality of the financial investment as long as the amount of sources placed in it. A high proportion of ingenious brand-new products, services, as well as companies flop. Thats commonly since managers develop better mousetraps without very first ensuring there are any type of mice around. Or that individuals still wish to catch them. 

 Lots of technologies originate from a deeper level of customer and market understanding. They go beyond what current consumers say they require. They fix troubles that customers either do not realize they have or didnt understand might be fixed. These developments produce needs and efficiency voids only once consumers start using them and obtain transformed on to the possibilities. 

 Every services and product we now consider given was as soon as foolish, fascinating, or just a weird interest. What would we have stated to a market scientist asking about a video machine for our TELEVISION when there were couple of films to rent out? Just how about CD players when there were no CDs to purchase? What concerning a bankcard to withdraw cash from an ATM? Just how around a desktop computer? In the fifties, how extremely would we have rated the requirement for jet aircrafts when our business was conducted within a few hundred-mile radius of our office? 

 These are a few examples of the countless innovations that client or market research as well as affordable benchmarking would certainly never ever have determined a need for. The firms who originated these kind of ingenious developments had years of incredible earnings growth as well as market management. 

 Walking in Our Consumers Footwear 

 The need for innovation on an extraordinary scale is a given. The question is exactly how. It appears that giving the market free rein, inside and outside the company, is the best-- probably the just-- satisfying answer.-- Tom Peters, Liberation Monitoring: Required Lack Of Organization for the Split Second Nineties 

 Technology is a hands-on issue. It asks for an intimate understanding of our present customers as well as markets, potential new clients or markets, group as well as company expertises and enhancement possibilities, vision, worths, and also goal. We cant develop that affection from a range. Research studies, reports, surveys, charts, as well as measurements wouldnt do it. 

 Effective innovation depends on disciplined administration systems and procedures. However it starts with individuals. Individuals looking for innovative means to do things much better, different, or more effectively. Individuals attempting to comprehend how other people make use of, or might make use of, the services or products their organization could produce. That makes development a management issue. 

 Past the administration tools of surveys, emphasis teams, and so forth, innovation leaders discover a multitude of methods to live in their customers world. Theyre finding out exactly how to gain from the market, not simply marketing research. Innovation leaders try to find ways to straighten the companies product or services growth expertises with unexposed or unexpressed market as well as client demands. Since customers do not understand whats feasible, they frequently cant identify technologies that brake with acquainted patterns. 

 At the other extreme, leaders recognize that their organizations are regularly at risk of establishing product or services with little or no market charm. Many brand-new (or extended) products and services originated from empathic technology. These are advancements that move from a deep empathy and also understanding of the designated clients problems and desires. 

 With staying in and empathizing with their customers globe, development leaders concentrate their companies growth capabilities on fixing problems or conference requires that consumers may not understand can be done. 

 As my initial consulting company, The Achieve Team, was working with current and possible Customers to move beyond the training area to company improvement, we came across the demand for elderly management education and learning, technique formula, and execution preparation sessions. This came from working closely with Clients struggling to get people in their organization trained and also using new methods to customer care, quality improvement, as well as teams. It became clear that just how the elderly management team pulled every little thing with each other and led the initiative was the essential stumbling block or tipping stone to the whole initiative. After experiments, pilots, and couple of failures, Achieves extremely effective exec retreat procedure advanced as well as developed to satisfy a demand no person had expected.