#time lapse 2014

[fanofspooky]

Scream Queen - Danielle Panabaker

[futurewife]

I love you a.drian chase

[supermarcey]

The Tubi Tuesdays Podcast Episode 149 - Time Lapse (2014) Patreon Pick

The Tubi Tuesdays Podcast Episode 149 - Time Lapse (2014) Patreon Pick

The Tubi Tuesdays Podcast Episode 149 Time Lapse (2014) Patreon Pick Download HERE https://supermarcey.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/the-tubi-tuesdays-podcast-episode-149-time-lapse-2014-patreon-pick.mp3 Movie Starts Playing At: 00:07:49 Welcome to our podcast series from The Super Network and Pop4D called Tubi Tuesdays Podcast! This podcast series is focused on discovering and doing…

[yog-sothoth-official]

1) make terrariums

2) get time lapse cameras

3) print out small images of everyone you know

4) put each one in a terrarium

5) make a time lapse of them being decomposed over the course of a year ish

6) wait for one of the people to wrong you ideally in an extremely minor way

7) send the person a gif of their face breaking down, being eaten by insects, moss etc, with caption 'get entropy'd idiot' in the 2014 meme font

8) block them

[lostcauses-noregrets]

Bad Boy

A few meta-type thoughts about Bad Boy, now the dust has started to settle.  There could hardly have been more hype in the run up to the release of Shingeki FLY, but Bad Boy certainly delivered.  It’s classic Isayama; for such a short chapter it really packs an emotional punch, blending real pathos and tragedy with shockingly graphic violence and body horror.  It doesn't really add anything to the over all plot, which is to be expected, but it does provide insight into Levi’s character and answers one question that fans have been speculating about for years.

The story of why Levi holds his tea cup in such a peculiar way isn’t new. Isayama mentioned this in a magazine interview (I think?) way back in 2014

Q: …why he has such way of holding cup? Isayama: About that, I was thinking of drawing this one day. When he was a kid, Levi was living in slums and poverty. He was yearning for a life in clean & neat environment (not rich life). When he finally obtained the tea and tea set those he has been desperately wanted, he was rejoicing that finally he can drink it. But when he started to grip on the handle and lift up the cup, the handle came off and his cup was shattered. He was so traumatised by this experience and that’s why he changed his way of holding cups to not using the handle.

However we now know that the cup belonged to his mother and the extraordinary lengths Levi went to recover it. What is new is that we finally have confirmation of when Levi’s Ackerpowers were awakened.  Fans have been arguing about this for years; some thought it was when he killed the man with the knife immediately before Kenny left, others suggested it was when Farlan and Isabel were killed. Now we finally have an answer.  It’s not exactly clear how much time has lapsed between Kenny taking Levi in, his powers awakening, and Kenny leaving, however the fact that Kuchel’s tea set hadn’t yet made its way to the surface suggests that not much time had passed at all. 

Levi’s description of his powers awakening is fascinating;  

“Strangely enough I didn’t doubt what was happening to me at that moment. The pain had vanished, my head was calm, as if it had been immersed in water. Clear instructions on what to do came to my mind. I simply followed them one by one.”

This is the most information we’ve ever had about the famous Ackerpowers and goes some way to explaining Levi and Mikasa’s preternatural calm and focus when they're fighting.   They really only succumb to panic and despair when their loved ones are threatened.  Think of Mikasa in Shiganshina and at Fort Salta, and Levi when Farlan and Isabel die and when he allows Zeke to escape after Erwin rode out to his death. 

The panel illustrating Levi’s powers awakening is also interesting as it looks very like a Titan transformation. This suggests there is more than a grain of truth in what the Yeagers said about Ackermans being a by-product of Titan science, who were able to access the power of the Titans without becoming Titans themselves.   

It’s not difficult to draw a direct line between the abuse and persecution Levi suffered as a child, with his determination to use his power to protect those in need.  Initially he used his strength to protect the vulnerable people of the Underground, such as Isabel, however once he met Erwin he was able to exert his power to serve an even higher goal - saving humanity. Isayama discussed this in the Answers Guidebook way back in 2006 and I think his comments are worth repeating here. 

Isayama With the heroes of American comics, conflicts dealing with the situation “with great power, comes great responsibility” have been depicted. In Levi’s case, if he had no power, he would probably have been an ordinary person with no responsibilities but, as a consequence of having power, that he became a person excessively burdened with responsibility. Kenny talked about “everyone… was a slave to something…”, when he put the question to Levi “what is yours!?”, Levi himself too perceived it. That he himself too was a slave in regard to his own strength. The sense of duty that “I must become a hero”. …the same thing can be said of Mikasa too but…, for the Ackerman family, in the service of their master, there are many people who are able to manifest their power to its maximum.

[Translation by @tsuki-no-ura]

I think it's also very in keeping with Levi's character that he remained devoted to saving humanity after the Rumbling; providing succour to the children in the refugee camp, and working to renew the environment destroyed by Eren's genocide, despite his injuries and regardless of whether he retained his Ackerpowers.

The title of the chapter, Bad Boy, is also interesting. No one actually calls Levi a “bad boy” in the chapter (though he is called worse) which suggests that this is how Levi sees himself.  It makes me wonder how much he internalised the thug’s insinuation that his mother would have been disappointed in him, and it also recalls Levi’s speech to Historia and the 104th, where he says he’s fine playing the role of the violent lunatic.  Poor baby.

Another point the chapter clarifies is the origin of Levi’s belief that Kenny was his father.  To be honest, it’s hardly surprising that Levi assumed this considering Kenny clearly had some kind of relationship with his mother and took him in without question. Still, knowing that the seed of that belief was planted by a thug who was willing to torture and kill a child, or sell him into sexual slavery, really twists the knife. 

[Translation by krtk.]

I am a little sad that we didn’t see more of Kenny in the chapter, but his presence certainly looms large.

I had expected to see more of Kuchel but at the same time I’m almost glad we didn’t.  Her life was brutal beyond measure and we’ve already seen her tragic death. Several fans have suggested that the reason we only see Kuchel in partial profile is because Levi’s memories of her are so hazy, all he really recalls is her grace 😢

It’s remarkable that Kuchel was able to retain such poise and grace despite living in such desperate squalor.  @momtaku has made the point that Kuchel appears to have been born into at least modest comfort, judging from Grandpa Ackermans’ home, which would explain where her elegance and also her fancy china came from.  It’s heartbreaking that both she and Levi clung on to this small memento of a better life. 

Levi’s devotion to his mother, his desire to emulate her grace and cling on to her belongings is devastating, is very much in keeping with everything we know about his character.  Levi has boundless compassion, is deeply loyal, and never forgets those he loves, whether it’s Farlan and Isabel, Erwin, or his squad.  He’s also very sentimental; saving his mother’s tea set, and drinking tea evokes a direct connection to Kuchel and the only good thing he remembers from the squalor and cruelty of his childhood. This makes Erwin’s willingness to indulge his sentimentality and bend the rules to procure a steady supply of high quality tea for Levi all the more poignant. 

There's been some debate about Gabi's reaction to Levi's story in the final panel...

Some people have interpreted her expression as holding back tears, while others have suggested she's trying not to laugh. I'm definitely in the stifled laughter camp. It just seems so very typical of Gabi and her relationship with Levi...

Gabi: - winds Levi up - Levi: - trauma dumps - Gabi: - stifled laughter / more wind up - Falco: - actually upset - "Would you guys stop??" Onyankopon: - shade -

It's also very typical of Isayama to poke fun at his characters like this, and it stops the story from tipping over into bathos.

There is one burning question that Bad Boy doesn’t answer and it’s this - what tf was kid Levi doing in Mr Smith’s classroom?? 

Despite hoping against hope, I never really expected Isayama to answer this, because he does love to troll his readers.  Is it too much to hope that sometime down the line he’ll reappear with another chapter called School Boy?? 

[sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog]

I just read the article you posted a while back about TB (heads up- it said the gift article link has lapsed or some such). Did J&J ‘evergreen’ (be allowed to be evil) or was it allowed to become generic?

Relatedly, how do you manage empathy fatigue? I deal with OCD too and it screams at me that I have to care about and do all the things all at once. How do you choose where to put your time and energy?

(Also, when I get the coffee subscription for my husband’s birthday, which version should I get?)

For me empathy fatigue sets in when I careen my attention from this crisis to that one to the next one to the one after that, always feeling overwhelmed by each emerging problem but never having the time or attention to devote myself to one problem or another.

I'll give you an example. In 2014, a horrific ebola epidemic swept through Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The world paid attention to it. Everyone was talking about it. And then .... it ended. At least in the global imagination. Money dried up. The world moved on to the next crisis.

That's not to say the next crisis wasn't important. It was important. But in Sierra Leone, the ebola crisis wasn't really over even after people stopped contracting ebola. 15% of Sierra Leone's healthcare workers had been killed by ebola, and the already fragile healthcare system plummeted into what one Sierra Leonean physician described to me as "a state of collapse."

And so the crisis remained a crisis even after the world's attention shifted. 1 in 17 women in Sierra Leone were dying in childbirth. Over 10% of kids born died before the age of five. Tuberculosis killed thousands every year despite curative treatment being available.

And this is when Hank and I finally, belatedly realized that responding to crises in the news was not adequate. Instead, we would need to commit the kind of long-term attention and long-term support that long-term crises demand. This means making difficult choices--there is also high maternal and child mortality in countries other than Sierra Leone, but we choose to focus on Sierra Leone because we see an opportunity to make a difference, because the government is serious if limited in its commitment to improving healthcare and educational opportunities, and because we had to make a choice or else we would be overwhelmed by the many causes.

What about the other causes? Well, we trust people to work on those causes. We believe in their importance. And we support their work by doing ours as well as we can, and trusting they are doing theirs as well as they can. I still get overwhelmed. I still get depressed. But I find that the deeper I go into my particular areas of interest--global healthcare delivery, health care accessibility, ending TB, fighting maternal mortality--the better I feel personally, and the more good I feel like I'm able to do.

2. Johnson & Johnson has not abandoned their secondary patents on bedaquiline but they have committed to allow generics to be available in most countries, even those where the secondary patents apply. Unfortunately this deal leaves out many countries that need generic bedaquiline, including Ukraine, which is absolutely unacceptable. So progress has been made, but the progress (as is so often the case) is inadequate. The fight goes on.

[allthedoorsareopennow]

Incomplete collection of Marius lore

suggestions for additions are welcome, but it MUST HAVE A SOURCE

overview 

He is the ship’s medic[1]/ship’s doctor[3], plays fiddle and has a mechanised right arm[1].

The ace of hearts card in his hat indicates he is asexual [18].

'He likes love, and love songs, and people in love' [18].

His own romantic inclination is unknown [18].

He knows some German words, but is not fluent [19].

backstory 

He is neither a baron nor a doctor[3][5]; ‘Baron’ is a corruption of his original name, Byron von Raum[2][5].

Marius has a sister called Dorothea, and they were raised by a single nonbinary parent. Marius doesn’t remember their name or face, and knows them only as Zeze[6].

It is strongly implied that Marius was not mechanised by Dr Carmilla [7].

Marius is 5’5 and very skinny. This is apparently because he came from a world that is ‘somewhat medieval in its nutrition levels’ and Marius was not a healthy child. [14]

He piloted a mecha called KISMET. She was 5-6 storeys tall and slightly insectoid, like a dragonfly or butterfly. [17]

‘The control pod’s entirely in the head, which allows the internal control rig to right itself like a ball bearing, keeping the pilot upright whether she’s standing on the ground, hovering, flying horizontally, banking sharply or even rolling.’ [17]

The mecha is not meelee-oriented. [17]

time with the mechanisms 

Drumbot Brian said that ‘given that we're immortal and don't need a doctor, it's the job we're most comfortable giving Marius, and it keeps him busy’ and also that he ‘frequently tries to psychoanalyze inanimate objects’ [5]

His mechanism was ‘probably botched’ and he has a ‘tenuous grasp on reality’[2] 

According to Jonny, he grew a beard presumably around 08/02/2014 ‘almost instantaneously, and without warning’ and was apparently ‘very upset’ and ‘said he’d been holding it in for decades and just that momentary lapse of concentration as I kneecapped him had ruined all his hard work’[8]

He once dressed up as the Toy Soldier for a halloween concert [9]

Drumbot Brian once responded to someone asking how the mechanisms were by describing marius as ‘mad’[10]

The Aurora describes Marius as ‘the broken doctor’ [16]

songs/albums

He had a planned lecture on the psyche of the olympians, but this was cancelled[11]

He helped Ashes install at a minimum the camera in Ulysses’ vault in UDAD, though he does not remember this[4]

Apparently, ‘Marius spent his time on Fort Galfridian sitting at the porthole for days staring into the sun because he didn't realise it was supposed to be unbearable, and now the Ghouls think he's some sort of prophet’ [12]

In The Bifrost Incident, Marius does not know where he got the violin - in fact, he doesn’t even realise he’s holding it until Lyf points it out [15]

death

Marius was always skeptical of the crew’s immortality and was less surprised to meet his end. ‘One day, at something of a loose end, he will decide to check on the octokittens. Unfortunately, the purring horde has not been fed in many decades, and devours him, head to toe, in 11.7 seconds.’ [13]

Jonny is implied to have already witnessed Marius’ death before the final concert; he says ‘11.7 seconds. At least, by my watch.’ [13]

In Marius’ death, tunes from ‘Blood and Whiskey’ and ‘Favoured Son’ can be heard [13].

[1] Mechanisms Marius von Raum Available at: https://themechanisms.com/the-crew/marius-von-raum/ Last accessed: 11/01/24

[2] Young (2020) Future Projects: The Death of Byron von Raum (spoiler free) Available at: https://kofiyoung.com/2020/07/25/future-projects-the-death-of-byron-von-raum-spoiler-free/ Last accessed: 11/01/24

[3] Revenge of Spaceport Mahon

[4] Mechanisms Eskhatos Available at: https://themechanisms.com/fiction/eskhatos/ Last accessed: 11/01/24

[5] Below (2013) Why do immortals need a ship doctor? Available at:  https://www.tumblr.com/the-mechanisms/58736308596/why-do-immortals-need-a-ship-doctor-i-need-an Last accessed: 11/01/24

[6] Young (2023) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/neitherabaron/727612334921678848/holding-checklist-titled-qualities-to-kill Last accessed: 11/01/24

[7] Rasputina (2013) Where'd you folks pick up Marius and Raphiella? Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/the-mechanisms/58960694562/whered-you-folks-pick-up-marius-and-raphiella Last accessed: 11/01/24

[8] Sims (2014) Ingratitude Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/the-mechanisms/75995731661/ingratitude Last accessed: 11/01/24

[9] wickedacephotos (2013) The Mechanisms at The Cellar, 29 Oct 2013, for Halloween with Polar Patterns Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/wickedacephotos/65528149745/wickedacephotos-the-mechanisms-at-the-cellar Last accessed: 11/01/24

[10] Below (2013) Hooray for questions! Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/the-mechanisms/58734952128/i-apologize-that-i-didnt-ask-a-question-to-make Last accessed: 12/01/24

[11] The Mechanisms Ulysses Dies at Dawn Available at: https://themechanisms.bandcamp.com/album/ulysses-dies-at-dawn Last accessed: 12/01/24

[12] thedreadvampy (2020) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/thedreadvampy/624522490768736256/i-feel-like-i-should-clarify-because-it-does-at Last accessed: 12/01/24

[13] The Mechanisms (2020) Death to the Mechanisms Available at: https://themechanisms.bandcamp.com/album/death-to-the-mechanisms Last accessed: 12/01/24

[14] thedreadvampy (2020) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/thedreadvampy/630817295229468672/so-i-am-absolutely-going-to-go-draw-tim-with Last accessed: 12/01/24

[15] thedreadvampy (2020) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/thedreadvampy/631436135234699264/you-dont-need-to-awnser-this-because-i-am-lore Last accessed: 12/01/24

[16] themechanisms A Bedtime Story Available at: https://themechanisms.com/fiction/ghost-in-the-machine/ Last accessed: 06/03/24

[17] Young (2023) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/neitherabaron/708247931183153152 Last accessed: 11/04/24

[18] Young (2024) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/neitherabaron/754005393719640064 Last accessed: 22/06/24

[19] Young (2024) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/neitherabaron/759338848830554112 Last accessed: 20/08/24

To do:

not yet added Marius’ dttm dialogue

may add more detail to what is contained in expert testimony

could probably add detail on things seen doing in photos, e.g. Marius playing rock paper scissors with TS. (are photoshoots canon? I assume so)

[3] missing a link

wow did I really miss pilchard. I will Get To It at some point maybe

fungus arm https://www.tumblr.com/neitherabaron/712149115253948416/

perhaps more backstory info from byron

https://x.com/neitherabaron/status/1231124594544783361?s=20

https://x.com/neitherabaron/status/1231604579529302018?s=20

numbers are ordered mostly in when I added the source rather than order of appearance as I have moved things around a lot. as above this is very incomplete and I don’t have the willpower to update this now maybe I will later. I’m just uploading it now since someone wanted marius lore

[thefirstknife]

Hello! Do you know if there is an index of which Hidden VIP designations refer to certain NPCs, or how I could easily find that info myself? I know we have a lore tab this season that tells us Eido and Spider’s, iirc!

There's nothing official so you'd have to look around for fan compilations. I personally couldn't find any completely up to date ones, but the ones from older lore tabs should be easier to find, but here they are:

Here's the one from this season: VIP#1889 - Spider VIP#4143 - Eido It mentions two others we knew from before: VIP#3987 - Mithrax VIP#2029 - Eramis

Same old lore tab also mentions: VIP#1121 - Variks VIP#4503 - Fikrul

Hidden Dossier: VIP#0013 - Namrask

More from before: VIP#3801 - Calus VIP#4044 - Val Ca'uor (Spire of Stars raid lair boss, we know it's this one because of time of release of this lore tab)

More: VIP#2014 - The Young Wolf VIP#1786 - Asher Mir

More: VIP#0704 - Mara Sov

And more: VIP#1315 - Drifter VIP#2015 - Oryx

WQ CE: VIP#0101 - Elsie VIP#3015 - I have no idea. Context for people who want to try and figure it out:

In the face of the malignant and continuous suffering aboard this ship, Katabasis's Ghost Gilgamesh gave up on his Guardian. It demanded to be destroyed as relief from the pain of a hopeless existence. Katabasis was left to suffer an unspeakable fate. We're all familiar with stories of lapsed or mistreated Ghosts, whether from the Dredgens or from personal encounters with VIP #3015 and the sadly departed Asher Mir.

[vocaloidfactoftheday]

Have You Seen This Lost GUMI Anime Pilot?

This is a bit of an unusual post for this blog, but I think I may have come across a case of lost media involving an anime pilot starring GUMI. It's possible that it exists on the Internet, and I hesitate to declare this as "lost media," but I cannot find it anywhere, and I figured that a post on this blog was the best way to see if anyone has any leads or extra info.

The anime is titled "Koisuru Dessan Ningyo," with an English title of "Do Drawing Dolls Dream of Love?" I don't know the runtime of the pilot, but I think it was most likely around 5-7 minutes. I believe this could have been the first instance of a Vocaloid being cast in a main voice acting role (perhaps, the first one cast in any voice acting role). I'm not completely sure if they actually used the Megpoid voicebank, or had Megumi Nakajima voice act as GUMI, but the way AnimeAnime (Japanese anime news site) describes it, it seems like it may have been the former. In either case, the character that GUMI portrays in the anime is a character that is clearly made to resemble her.

(These are the only screenshots I could find that come from the pilot, but more may exist.)

The main character is a doll (who I'm not sure is named), who models for a girl's drawings before eventually falling in love with her. I don't believe GUMI's character has a name, but she plays a main role as the girl the doll falls in love with.

Where It Was Seen

The pilot aired on NHK TV on January 9, 2014, during late night (possibly just after midnight?). It aired alongside another pilot as part of the program Aoyama 1seg Kaihatsu. This was a sort of tournament, where two pilots were broadcast once a month for three months, and viewers would vote for which pilot they liked best. Then, the three winners would go against each other in a final round, where the pilot with the most votes would get picked up to become a series. (I think they held this tournament once a year from 2010 to 2014 or 2015, though I don't know if it was the exact same every time.) The broadcast was 25 minutes long for each of the first three rounds, with the first half dedicated to showing both pilots and the second half dedicated to presentations about each pilot. (This is why I think this pilot was around 5-7 minutes, though I'm not sure exactly how much time commercial breaks would take up.) For a few years, including 2014, the program was hosted by the now-disbanded Japanese girl group E-girls (no relation to what you and I know as "e-girls." in their case the E stands for "exile.")

According to the official Tumblr account, karappo-heart, this pilot won the first round of the competition! It probably didn't make it out of the finals, though, since it didn't get picked up for a series. It's also possible that it did win, but some other issues prevented its production. In any case, the Tumblr account hasn't been updated since the first round ended. While this contest was going on, three shorts were apparently available to watch on NHK's website, but they have since been removed. I think at least one of the shorts was web-exclusive. I haven't been able to find info on who actually won the finals, or even what GUMI's short won against.

People Involved

The doll is portrayed by a masked dancer refererred to as Hitori de Dekiru Mon. I can't find much info about him online, but I think his real name is Takemura Ryohei. (I'm not sure because that part on his Japanese Wikipedia article has a "citation needed" label.) AnimeAnime specifically refers to his role as being the doll's "human form," though it's possible he provided voice acting too. AnimeAnime points out the unusual nature of having a human portray a doll, and having a Vocaloid portray a human.

Masanori Okamoto (who also wrote the screenplay and produced the pilot) animated the pilot with the pixilation technique, using time-lapse pictures to show movement of objects and people (this may have included live-action photos of the doll's actor portraying a "human form" of the doll). It seems like it may have blended stop motion/puppetry and live action stills with traditional animation? This is an example of Okamoto's work from around the same time, which seems like it might have been made in a similar style:

The third known person to have worked on this is none other than Vocaloid producer sasakure.UK. He composed the theme song, which of course features GUMI, and a few other songs to be used in potential future episodes. If you're a big fan of his, the anime title may sound familiar to you, as he released 3 of these songs (though both news sites I looked at, AnimeAnime and Anime News Network, say he made 4 total) plus their instrumentals as an EP under the same title. You can listen to the whole thing on YouTube!

I think this EP uses GUMI's VOCALOID3 voicebanks (the first sounds like either Native or Sweet, the second one sounds like Adult or Power (if it even is GUMI--it sounds more like IA to me, but sasakure.UK labeled it as a GUMI song so I kinda have to take his word for it) and the third sounds like Sweet). If that's the case, her V3 voicebanks would have probably been used for the voice acting, too.

Places I've Looked

After some Internet searches only garnered me a few screenshots, I decided to see if there was a way I could ask sasakure.UK himself about the short. I believe he has a contact form on his website, which I used to send a message in both Japanese and English (in case Google Translate was more helpful to him than my incoherent Japanese). This was back in May of this year and I never received a response. (Since I used a website contact form and not a direct email, I don't have the message I sent him anymore. I guess that's lost media now too.)

It occured to me while writing this post that I never contacted the animator himself, Masanori Okamoto. While his Vimeo and YouTube pages don't have the pilot, and his Twitter and Tumblr links haven't been updated in several years, he does have an email address listed. I sent him a message (in English because I was too sick and tired to try to write a coherent email in Japanese and I don't like waiting to do these things). I'm not sure he still checks his email since his social media that I've found has all been inactive for years, but I will post an update if he responds.

I know that this pilot is not on the NHK website, or, again, on the animator's YouTube or Vimeo pages. I also could not find it on the Internet Archive.

Now, I don't expect anyone reading this to have saved this on their computer and kept it there since 2014. But with this post, my goal is simply to make more people aware that this exists at all, and I'd also like to learn more about it myself (such as whether or not the pilot won in the finals after all, how much animation actually exists for it, if any more screenshots are out there, etc.)

Thank you for reading such a long post! Please feel free to correct any info I got wrong, or add on to this post with any knowledge you might have about this lost pilot!

(also sorry for any typos :()

[shannendoherty-fans]

Shannen Doherty’s Untimely Death Sparks Important Conversations About Healthcare Access And Equity

By Janice Gassam Asare

Shannen Doherty, the actress best known for her roles in Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed has died after a long battle with cancer, at the age of 53. In a 2015 statement to People magazine, the actress revealed her breast cancer diagnosis, stating that she was “undergoing treatment” and that she was suing a firm and its former business manager for causing her to lose her health insurance due to a failure to pay the insurance premiums. According to reports, in a lawsuit Doherty shared that she hired a firm for tax, accounting, and investment services, among other things, and that part of their role was to make her health insurance premium payments to the Screen Actors Guild; Doherty claimed that their failure to make the premium payments in 2014 caused her health insurance to lapse until the re-enrollment period in 2015. When Doherty went in for a checkup in March of 2015, the cancer was discovered, at which time it had spread. In the lawsuit, Doherty indicated that if she had insurance, she would have been able to get the checkup sooner—the cancer would have been discovered, and she could have avoided chemotherapy and a mastectomy.

Under the IRS, actors are often classified as independent contractors, which comes with its own set of challenges. Although it is unclear what Doherty’s situation was, for many independent contractors, obtaining health insurance can be difficult. Trying to get health insurance as an independent contractor can be a costly and convoluted process. A 2020 Actors’ Equity Association survey indicated that “more than 80% of nonunion actors and stage managers in California have been misclassified as independent contractors.” A 2021 research study revealed that self-employment (which is what independent contractors are considered to be) was associated with a higher likelihood of being uninsured.

Doherty’s tragic situation invites a larger conversation about healthcare access and equity in the United States. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as “Obamacare,” was signed into law in 2010 and revolutionized healthcare access in two distinct ways: “creating health insurance marketplaces with federal financial assistance that reduces premiums and deductibles and by allowing states to expand Medicaid to adults with household incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.” The ACA helped reduce the number of uninsured Americans and expanded healthcare access to those most in need. It also helped close gaps in coverage for different populations, including those with pre-existing health conditions, lower-income individuals, part-time workers, and those from historically excluded and marginalized populations.

Despite strides made through the ACA, healthcare access and equity are still persistent issues, especially within marginalized communities. Research from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) examining 2010-2022 data indicated that in 2022, non-elderly American Indian and Alaska Natives (AIAN) and Hispanic people had the greatest uninsured rates (19.1% and 18% respectively). When compared with their white counterparts, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders (NHOPI) and Black people also had higher uninsured rates at 12.7% and 10%, respectively. The Commonwealth Fund reported that between 2013 and 2021, “states that expanded Medicaid eligibility had higher rates of insurance coverage and health care access, with smaller disparities between racial/ethnic groups and larger improvements, than states that didn’t expand Medicaid.” It’s important to note that if a Republican president is elected, Project 2025, the far-right policy proposal document, seeks to upend Medicaid as we know it by introducing limits on the amount of time that a person can receive Medicaid.

When peeling back the layers to examine these racial and ethnic differences in more detail, the Brookings Institute noted in 2020 that the refusal of several states to expand Medicaid could be one contributing factor. One 2017 research study found that some underrepresented racial groups were more likely to experience insurance loss than their white counterparts. The study indicated that for Black and Hispanic populations, specific trigger events were more likely, as well as “socioeconomic characteristics” that were linked to more insurance loss and slower insurance gain. The study also noted that in the U.S., health insurance access was associated with employment and and marriage and that Black and Hispanic populations were “disadvantaged in both areas.”

Equity in and access to healthcare is fundamental, but bias is omnipresent. Age bias, for example, is a pervasive issue in breast cancer treatment. Research also indicates that racial bias is a prevalent issue—because the current guidelines in breast cancer screenings are based on white populations, this can lead to a delayed diagnosis for women from non-white communities. Our health is one of our greatest assets and healthcare should be a basic human right, no matter what state or country you live in. As a society, we must ensure that healthcare is available, affordable and accessible to all citizens. After all, how can a country call itself great if so many of its citizens, especially those most marginalized and vulnerable, don’t have access to healthcare?

[violivs]

NMTDaily: VOX POPS

- Hi all! I’m going to be rewatching along with TCWs NMTDaily and making posts about each episode, or as many as I can (I might miss some, but I hope not!)

- I want to start by saying thank you again to The Candle Wasters for making my favorite thing. Just, the amount of joy and creative fulfillment and friendship and delight I’ve gotten from this show and this fandom is still unmatched. Thank you so much for making it and sharing it. The love and care and skill with which NMTD was made still shines through and I’m still so awed by it. I think I was probably somewhat overdramatic about my reactions to Lolilo in places where you, TCW, could see, on my main blog, and you didn’t deserve that. I really hope I didn’t send you any aggressive asks about it, or make you uncomfortable in any way. I’m a little afraid I did, but I don’t know for sure. If I did, I apologize. I’m older and more mature now, I promise. I hope you’re all doing so very well now!

- I didn’t realize until today that Project I: VOX POPS was posted first, before any other video in the series. I didn’t start watching NMTD until right around the time Benedick’s first Q&A video was posted, so I binged the first chunk of episodes around that time. It will be interesting to watch them at a slower pace this time!

- I am immediately overwhelmed with warm fuzzies at seeing these characters again. They’re such babies! I love them!

- I never made a post about this, but Ben’s first line being about how he shares a (differently spelled) name with a Pope is both a great first line for him on a character level since he starts as kind of a cocky overconfident asshole (a cover for his soft sensitive insides) AND it’s evidence for my theory that he’s probably Catholic, but lapsed/non-practicing/maybe agnostic or atheist solely because I WILL keep projecting parts of me onto this character, it’s just what I do at this point. Other evidence: he has a confirmation name. We don’t get his full name til Lolilo, but still. And he’s partly Scottish, which can account for the fact that English people usually are not Catholic.

- “you need to imitate an eagle, that’ll scare them away!” That’s Ben’s second line and first bird reference! Already! Wow.

- The favorite band question! Mumford and Sons! Fife and the Drums! Sheep Dog and Wolf! The LORE! The REFERENCES! We’re already off to the races.

- “I don’t need chat-up lines” Beatrice I love you , and you have no idea what’s coming.

- I forgot about Beatrice’s Favorite T-Shirts Ranking System lol

- Extremely funny that Ben says bananas are his favorite food and then he goes on to become synonymous with mangoes instead. Sorry, buddy, you will always be Mango Skin Boy to us. xD

- I forgot how delightful Dogberry and Verges are in this episode

- “that you would leave me” oh Meg. Oh honey. Oh no.

- I’ve seen nine seasons of Doctor Who and only five episodes of Game of Thrones since 2014. Sorry Bea, I side with Ben on this one. And I’ve seen one season of Community. I’m slowly hacking away at the list of media referenced in nmtd that I need to watch!

- love it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, it will set you free! ❤️

- Balthazar plays every instrument, of course.

- Bea must not have an ear for music if she hated that question enough to force Ursula on-camera so she doesn’t have to answer it… Unless Ursula asked her something else she didn’t want to answer! Lol

- Ben makes me cringe so hard a couple times this episode. And yet I still love him. To be fair, that’s just every Benedick at the start of Much Ado, though. The cringy lines are completely in character.

- I decided to save the full story of how I discovered NMTD for whenever the NMTDaily email for Ben’s first Q&A episode goes out, because then it will actually be ten years almost to the day since I started watching. But I’m so impatient and excited to tell the story!

- It’s amazing how back then, these kids were my contemporaries and the Lizzie Bennet Diaries cast felt impossibly old compared to me. Now the NMTD kids are babies and I’m older than Lizzie Bennet! Trippy. It sure has been a nice ten years.

Until the next one! Happy NMTD Day, fellow flamangoes!

💖🥭🦩

[mogwai-movie-house]

Do you have any wierd indie film recommendations?

"Indie" is a little difficult to define, since just about all movies that get a theatrical release have some sort of big studio involved, at least in distributing them, but I'm going to take the term to mean quirky, low-budget films not made for a mass audience, (usually) without any big film stars and without wide, multiplex release. So this list is very loosely arranged to prioritize those criteria:

Welcome To the Dollhouse (1995)

The Survivalist (2015)

Kill List (2011)

Man Bites Dog (1992)

Interview With The Assassin (2002)

Triangle (2009)

Dogtooth (2009)

The Rapture (1991)

Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989)

Spanking The Monkey (1994)

Creep (2014)

The Little Death (2014)

Adoration (2019)

Blue Ruin (2013)

Buffalo '66 (1998)

Festen (The Celebration) (1998)

Black Cat, White Cat (1998)

Monsters (2010)

The Room (2019)

Withnail & I (1987)

The Cement Garden (1993)

Four Lions (2010)

Cashback (2006)

Down by Law (1986)

Time Lapse (2014)

Naked (1993)

Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

The General (1998)

Orlando (1992)

Let The Right One In (2008)

Timecrimes (2007)

The Duellists (1977)

Swingers (1996)

Talk To Me (2022)

Fall (2022)

You'll Never Find Me (2023)

Landmine Goes Click (2015)

Proof (1991)

The Coffee Table (2022)

To Leslie (2022)

Happiness (1998)

Brick (2005)

Chopper (2000)

11:14 (2003)

Deerskin (2019)

Romance (1999)

What Happened Was… (1994)

The Rules of Attraction (2002)

Les Amants du Pont Neuf (1991)

The Innocents (2021)

Rotting In The Sun (2023)

The Cuckoo (2002)

Land of Mine (2015)

Safe (1995)

John and the Hole (2021)

Sling Blade (1996)

The Field (1990)

Lamb (2021)

Romper Stomper (1992)

The Lobster (2015)

With Love and a Major Organ (2023)

Pusher (1996)

Love Is The Devil (1998)

Insomnia (1997)

Headhunters (2011)

Thelma (2024)

My Own Private Idaho (1991)

Bottle Rocket (1996)

Cold Souls (2009)

Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life (1993)

[hardpacker]

tricky shit under here sowwy (SA mention)

ever since a particular memory came back to me suddenly in 2014-2015 (i remember exactly where i was, but not the specific year... would've been autumn though) i am being so serious when i say it's been in my head every single day. there isn't a day where i don't brush up against it. not Thinking, exactly, because Thinking feels like... turning it over... considering... this is just something that floats in a corner of my peripheral vision there whether i'm thinking about it or not.

anyway. it's only one of a few things that add up to Things Not Being Quite Right. we've talked about it before, back when the aforementioned thing first came to me, (i also told 2 ex partners about 2 related instances) but last night anka and i had a big long talk which ultimately concluded in them giving me permission to think of myself as having been CSA'd... and encouraging me to think of myself that way in the event that it might recontextualise, reorient my sense of self in a helpful way, rather than try to push it down and out of me. they pointed out a bunch of things they see as being interconnected, which i guess does make things seem less— i was going to say chaotic but no like it all IS really chaotic and that's both part of the problem of collecting it as a whole And is itself a piece of the puzzle. and the more i talk the more i think i talk myself out of it, but then i'm back where i started. i'm always back where i started. i do feel better today than i have this whole difficult week where i lapsed into some bad habits. so maybe it is meaningful... i just wish i had something more concrete, i wish i had ANY memories of childhood and not only these bursts.

anyway... uhhh. yeah. beginning to feel better but definitely in a strange place at the moment. i wasn't getting much from my recent therapist/want something more structured or even intense so i guess that's my next step? ugh i'm pretty overwhelmed in general right now but i'll get there slowly.

frustrating! i wish any of the therapists i had since i was 12 picked up on the dysfunction at home... like it weirds me the hell out that there were so many signs and symptoms and it just didn't matter. but i will say it does feel better to lean into exploring it, sussing out my thoughts, through fictionwriting vs all the years i spent trying to toe the line, poorly and to the detriment of my entire self. there have been times of great misunderstandings of my interests and intentions, over what amounts to nothing. i do think it would've been easy to understand where i was coming from and why, but... it's a matter of trying and for most people i'm supposed to be the secret exception to their DNI, hahaha. what a sad life they've chosen for me in their minds. i am much more than that! it's so stupid too that i even tried to mention these events to someone who later on would call me like, a prude while at the time i was making stories about [REDACTED]. so it really doesn't matter what i do.

[hero-israel]

What’s the situation like, with the protests? I’ve seen images of streets filled with protestors.

I don't live in Israel, but the situation got pretty extreme yesterday. After the Defense Minister said the judicial reform plan should be halted, Netanyahu fired him. It was already the middle of the night and yet people streamed into the streets and redoubled the already huge protests. The next morning the Histadrut - Israel's largest and most important union - called a general strike, the first in decades and by far the largest in the country's history. Pretty much EVERYTHING SHUT DOWN IMMEDIATELY. Schools, universities, businesses, embassies, Ben-Gurion airport (the only previous time I had ever heard of it closing was after a Hamas lucky shot in 2014, and this was seen as a death-level shock), the hotel and tourism industry (UNTHINKABLE, they kept Eurovision running even during a big blow-up with Gaza). Netanyahu backed down somewhat, said the plan would be postponed until summer and Lapid/Gantz/Herzog said it was time for real negotiation, the general strike ended and everything reopened and by my understanding the protests have calmed and shrunken. Now, maybe Netanyahu thought he could do a pretend postponement, wait for everyone's attention to lapse and energy to fade, then ram the same thing through anyway in the summer, but the threat of a general strike has really changed the equation. If he repeats, they'll repeat.

Here is a good article summarizing how things got here and what the political impact has been.

To give simpler background, as best I can as a long-term observer:

The Israeli Supreme Court acts without the checks and balances that most Westerners (and certainly Americans) would recognize. There is no input from voters or legislators. No Presidential nominees, no Congressional hearings. Israeli lawyers and judges appoint new judges, that's that. Because Israel has no Constitution, there's no real boundary on what the ISC can do. They can intervene on pretty much any issue as long as they say they are being "reasonable." Now it just so happens that the ISC has been a reliable protector of minority rights, women's rights, Arab rights, LGBT rights, etc. So it's "doing the right thing, the wrong way," because it could decide tomorrow to strip away minority rights just because, and nobody could say boo. It is not inherently unreasonable for people to want judicial reform, to want there to be some level of election-related involvement in who sits on the court. But that cause is now discredited because a gang of indicted criminals and terrorist sympathizers tried to ram it through while also ending all investigations into their own crimes, stealing the power for the Knesset to overturn court decisions, limiting the Law of Return, etc.

This began because Netanyahu has compulsively betrayed and backstabbed so many of his natural allies in right-wing parties (Gantz, Liberman, Sa'ar, Bennett, etc.) that he literally cannot form a governing coalition with people who know how to govern. His only chance to get a majority was to elevate a Halloween parade of ultra-ultra-fringe lunatics (Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, Maoz), and that's who is in charge now. It's ironic because the whole point of Benjamin Netanyahu - the "value proposition" as it were - is that he was good at preventing major change while also growing the economy and diplomatic partnerships. And he has now shit on all that. If a new election were held today, Lapid or Gantz would be PM tomorrow. Inshallah.

There is A LOT in Israel that is clunky and unfair. The rabbinate, the marriage laws, school system, Temple Mount status quo, Haredi draft, ISC jurisdiction, and that's just in Israel, not even getting to the Palestinian Territories. In all such cases, it is better for people to try to cope with a clumsy work-around than to charge right at the gate with a big fast change. People have been fighting over literally every grain of sand there for 2,000 years and they are lucky it works even as well as it does.

[mysticstronomy]

WHAT IS THE BOOTSTRAP PARADOX??

Blog#257

Wednesday, December 28th, 2022

Welcome back,

The Bootstrap Paradox is a theoretical paradox of time travel that occurs when an object or piece of information sent back in time becomes trapped within an infinite cause-effect loop in which the item no longer has a discernible point of origin, and is said to be “uncaused” or “self-created”. It is also known as an Ontological Paradox, in reference to ontology, a branch of metaphysics dealing with the study of being and existence.

The term Bootstrap Paradox is derived from the expression to “pull oneself over a fence by one’s bootstraps”, which indicates performing an impossible or ludicrous task. In this instance, by pulling yourself over a fence by holding onto your bootlaces and tugging upwards. The first reference to such an absurdly impossible action is widely believed to originate from an 18th-century literary classic, ‘The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchhausen’, in which the eponymous hero is stuck in a swamp, and manages to escape by pulling upwards on his own hair.

The term “bootstrap paradox” was subsequently popularized by science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein, whose book, ‘By His Bootstraps’ (1941), tells the story of Bob Wilson, and the time travel paradoxes he encounters after using a time portal. One such example involves Wilson traveling to the future and being given a notebook by his future self, before then traveling to an earlier point in the future and using the book’s useful information to set himself up as a benevolent dictator.

After the notebook becomes worn, Wilson copies the information into a new notebook and disposes of the original. He later muses that there never were two notebooks and that the newly created one is actually the one given to him in the far future. So who wrote the book, and where did its information actually originate?

Information: An example of a bootstrap paradox involving information would be if a time traveler went back in time and taught Einstein the theory of relativity, before returning to his own time.

Einstein claims it’s his own work, and over the following decades the theory is published countless times until a copy of it eventually ends up in the hands of the original time traveler who then takes it back to Einstein, begging the question “where did the theory originate”. We cannot say that it came from the time traveler as he learned it from Einstein, but we also cannot say that it is from Einstein, since he was taught it by the time traveler. Who, then, discovered the theory of relativity?

In fiction, the Doctor Who episode ‘Blink‘ contains an information paradox in which a video message forms an endless loop spanning thirty-eight years. Likewise, the two-part Doctor Who episodes ‘Under the Lake‘, and ‘Before the Flood‘ also features a nifty paradox anecdote involving Beethoven’s music. The 2014 film ‘Time Lapse‘ provides a further example of a story rich in bootstrap paradoxes, with the main characters responding daily to photos they receive from 24 hours into their future.

Originally published on www.astronomytrek.com

COMING UP!!

(Saturday, December 31st, 2022)

"WHAT ARE VOIDS??"

[spinomusic]

The madness called PINK FLOYD

The history of Pink Floyd is one of the most iconic in rock and world music. The British band was formed in London in 1965 and is known for its musical, visual and lyrical innovations. The history of Pink Floyd is marked by periods of great success, but also by internal conflicts and line-up changes. Here is a summary of this trajectory:

Formation and Early Years (1965-1967)

Pink Floyd was initially formed by Syd Barrett (guitar and vocals), Roger Waters (bass), Richard Wright (keyboards) and Nick Mason (drums). They started out playing in small clubs in London, with a psychedelic sound influenced by the music scene of the time. The name "Pink Floyd" was inspired by the names of bluesmen Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

In 1967, the band released their first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, which is a landmark in psychedelic rock. The album featured compositions by Syd Barrett, who had an eccentric personality and unique creative visions. However, his mental health began to deteriorate due to drug use and personal issues, which led to his departure from the band in 1968.

The Post-Barrett Era and Early Success (1968–1973)

Following the departure of Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd went through a period of adjustment. David Gilmour was recruited to replace Barrett on guitar and vocals. The band's sound evolved into something more experimental and cohesive. In 1968, Pink Floyd released A Saucerful of Secrets, which reflected this new phase.

In the following years, the band began to explore deeper themes, such as alienation, war and the human condition. Albums such as Meddle (1971) and Obscured by Clouds (1972) began to show the progressive and conceptual style that would make Pink Floyd famous. However, it was with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) that the band achieved enormous commercial and artistic success. This album, considered a masterpiece, explored themes such as madness, time and death, and became one of the best-selling albums of all time.

The Heyday and the First Tensions (1975-1981)

In the following years, Pink Floyd continued to expand their sound and artistic ambitions. Wish You Were Here (1975) was inspired by Syd Barrett and his departure from the band, and is considered another of the band's greatest albums. Animals (1977) presented a more critical approach, with metaphors about the social and political system.

However, during the recording of The Wall (1979), internal tensions between the members increased. The idea of the album, conceived mainly by Roger Waters, was to tell the story of a character named Pink, who builds a metaphorical wall around himself, isolating himself from the world. The Wall became a cultural phenomenon, with iconic tracks such as "Another Brick in the Wall" and "Comfortably Numb". However, disputes between Waters and the other band members, especially Gilmour, were growing.

The Split and the End of the Classic Era (1982–1994)

The height of tensions led to Roger Waters leaving Pink Floyd in 1985. This left the future of the band uncertain. However, David Gilmour took over the reins of the band, and with Nick Mason and Richard Wright (who had been fired by Waters but was reinstated after his departure), Pink Floyd continued to release albums. The first post-Waters album was A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987), which continued the band's progressive style but with a more 1980s rock-oriented sound.

In 1994, Pink Floyd released The Division Bell, which was also a great success, but tensions between the band members were evident. This album marked the last studio recording with the Gilmour, Mason and Wright lineup.

The Return and Legacy (1994–Present)

Although internal infighting has persisted, Pink Floyd has always maintained its huge fan base. In 2005, the members of the classic lineup reunited for a historic show at Live 8 in London, a moment of great emotion and nostalgia. However, since then, the band has not reunited to tour or record new albums. In 2014, Richard Wright passed away, effectively ending any possibility of new projects from the classic lineup.

Today, Pink Floyd is remembered not only for its groundbreaking music, but also for the cultural and philosophical impact of its albums, especially The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall. The band has left a lasting legacy as one of the most influential bands in rock, both musically and in its artistic and conceptual approach.

Although surviving members, such as Gilmour, have gone on to pursue solo careers, Pink Floyd remains a fundamental part of rock history. The band's impact is still felt today, with their music being widely revered and their messages timeless.

listen on Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0k17h0D3J5VfsdmQ1iZtE9?si=9ud6evLxSpiv9T0k1KotXQ