#trait globals

[picknmixsims]

Social - Ask Favourite Colour

Social - Ask Favourite Colour

This social mod adds an option for one Sim to ask another what their favourite colour is.

Requires Trait Globals

[ozimaniac]

GUYS ZENYATTA IS LITERALLY CANCER!!!

(The zodiac sign. 🙂❤️)

[skylilac]

this book is acruakly soooo disappointing

[craig960114]

why craig are take over world

essay by me (craig)

As much as Craig may seem like a simple doodle of a cat, his potential for world domination should not be underestimated. Despite his crude appearance, Craig embodies the essence of adaptability and resilience, traits that are essential for any aspiring ruler.

Firstly, Craig's simplicity works to his advantage. Underestimation is a powerful tool in warfare, and many would dismiss Craig as inconsequential. However, this oversight allows Craig to operate in the shadows, biding his time until the perfect moment to strike.

Secondly, Craig's lack of defined features makes him a versatile symbol. He can represent anything from innocence to cunning, depending on the narrative spun around him. This ambiguity allows Craig to appeal to a wide range of followers, from disillusioned citizens seeking change to opportunistic power-seekers.

Thirdly, Craig's handwritten signature adds a personal touch to his endeavors. In a world increasingly dominated by digital signatures and impersonal interactions, Craig's handwritten mark harkens back to a simpler time, fostering a sense of nostalgia and authenticity among his followers.

In conclusion, Craig may appear unassuming at first glance, but beneath his simplistic exterior lies the potential for world domination. Through adaptability, versatility, and a personal touch, Craig has the tools necessary to rally followers and reshape the world in his image. Beware the power of Craig, for his ascent to global dominance may be closer than we think.

[solipseismic]

'commonly recognized in the west' by whom. where. and how. 99% of the people i know can't distinguish ANY asian writing from another much less recognize it as east asian LET ALONE recognize it as KOREAN. again! unless they are koreaboo freaks*.

[destielcorecore]

there is something so endearingly dadcore about cas in the later seasons of supernatural. like for example, when he brings food to people in the bunker, that shit makes me feel secondhand fondness cause i'm sitting over here like. bro i want cas to knock on my door and be like "here, i brought you some soup." like hello?? what a sweet dude

[its-spooky-bitch]

Bruh when I was working I overheard some people (solicitors outside the grocery store) talking about this show called Ancient Apocalypse and I looked it up and it is all pseudoarcheology and pseudoscience and I guess it’s all “evidence” that there was an advanced civilization before the Younger Dryas which was killed by a comet and that ancient monuments are proof of this civilization and that archeology is lying? I heard these people say like the Serpent Mound is an actual serpent that was built over or that the pyramids were batteries or that no regular average humans could have built Gobekli Tepe its very gross. Like I don’t care if it’s saying humans did it and that they all died because a comet and everyone on earth descend from the survivors, it’s still bad like I haven’t watched the show but it seems to homogenize every human culture in the Pleistocene as being super advanced and that there was a civilization that seemingly everyone had and it all disappeared at the same time. I know it’s not ancient aliens but it is still very icky after reading the synopsis and watching the trailer tbh.

[kulay-ng-banaag]

One look at Geopolitics Boys ch. 62 and that's how I knew not to trust the mangaka.

[diamondnokouzai]

if you phrase it like 'stop doing borders' im going to assume you mean sewing

[picknmixsims]

Trait Globals

Trait Globals

Adds two global BHAVs to help discover a Sim's preferred and disliked colours

See also Social - Ask Favourite Colour

[headspace-hotel]

There was this post a while ago where somebody was saying that Cheetahs aren't well suited to Africa and would do well in Midwestern North America, and it reminded me of Paul S. Martin, the guy I'm always pissed off about.

He had some good ideas, but he is most importantly responsible for the overkill hypothesis (idea that humans caused the end-Pleistocene extinctions and that climate was minimally a factor) which led to the idea of Pleistocene rewilding.

...Basically this guy thought we should introduce lions, cheetahs, camels, and other animals to North America to "rewild" the landscape to what it was like pre-human habitation, and was a major advocate for re-creating mammoths.

Why am I pissed off about him? Well he denied that there were humans in North America prior to the Clovis culture, which it's pretty well established now that there were pre-Clovis inhabitants, and in general promoted the idea that the earliest inhabitants of North America exterminated the ecosystem through destructive and greedy practices...

...which has become "common knowledge" and used as evidence for anyone who wants to argue that Native Americans are "Not So Innocent, Actually" and the mass slaughter and ecosystem devastation caused by colonialism was just what humans naturally do when encountering a new environment, instead of a genocidal campaign to destroy pre-existing ways of life and brutally exploit the resources of the land.

It basically gives the impression that the exploitative and destructive relationship to land is "human nature" and normal, which erases every culture that defies this characterization, and also erases the way indigenous people are important to ecosystems, and promotes the idea of "empty" human-less ecosystems as the natural "wild" state.

And also Martin viewed the Americas' fauna as essentially impoverished, broken and incomplete, compared with Africa which has much more species of large mammals, which is glossing over the uniqueness of North American ecosystems and the uniqueness of each species, such as how important keystone species like bison and wolves are.

It's also ignoring the taxa and biomes that ARE extraordinarily diverse in North America, for example the Appalachian Mountains are one of the most biodiverse temperate forests on Earth, the Southeastern United States has the Earth's most biodiverse freshwater ecosystems, and both of these areas are also a major global hotspot for amphibian biodiversity and lichen biodiversity. Large mammals aren't automatically the most important. With South America, well...the Amazon Rainforest, the Brazilian Cerrado and the Pantanal wetlands are basically THE biodiversity hotspot of EVERYTHING excepting large mammals.

It's not HIM I have a problem with per se. It's the way his ideas have become so widely distributed in pop culture and given people a muddled and warped idea of ecology.

If people think North America was essentially a broken ecosystem missing tons of key animals 500 years ago, they won't recognize how harmful colonization was to the ecosystem or the importance of fixing the harm. Who cares if bison are a keystone species, North America won't be "fixed" until we bring back camels and cheetahs...right?

And by the way, there never were "cheetahs" in North America, Miracinonyx was a different genus and was more similar to cougars than cheetahs, and didn't have the hunting strategy of cheetahs, so putting African cheetahs in North America wouldn't "rewild" anything.

Also people think its a good idea to bring back mammoths, which is...no. First of all, it wouldn't be "bringing back mammoths," it would be genetically engineering extant elephants to express some mammoth genes that code for key traits, and second of all, the ecosystem that contained them doesn't exist anymore, and ultimately it would be really cruel to do this with an intelligent, social animal. The technology that would be used for this is much better used to "bring back" genetic diversity that has been lost from extant critically endangered species.

I think mustangs should get to stay in North America, they're already here and they are very culturally important to indigenous groups. And I think it's pretty rad that Scimitar-horned Oryx were brought back in their native habitat only because there was a population of them in Texas. But we desperately, DESPERATELY need to re-wild bison, wolves, elk, and cougars across most of their former range before we can think about introducing camels.

[jet-bradley]

honestly im less annoyed that my better works arent getting attention as i am about the fact that the t*p gun fic is. it isnt a good movie and most of you are only here bc of the sequel, which is worse because the sequel is inferior in every single way. worse airplane scenes, less hot actors, and arguably somehow even more morally bankrupt than the original, all while telling you why you should care about maverick mitchell's weird scientology feelings instead of giving you any reasonable hook. plus how much of it is in f-18's. L+ratio+ur plane sucks+ur movie taste sucks+if you're gonna like a propaganda film for the US military it better at least be good

[i-was-today-years-old-when]

i learned that the Platypus stands out as one of the most unique and intriguing animals globally, brimming with contradictions and surprising features. Here are some astonishing contradictions and exceptional traits that will surely blow your mind:

It is a mammal, yet it lays eggs. This contrasts with the common expectation that mammals give birth to live young.

It produces milk to nurse its puggles (young platypuses) after hatching, yet it has no nipples. The milk is secreted through pores in the skin, and the puggles lap it up from the mother's belly.

Its digestive system is truly distinct, lacking a stomach and also teeth. Instead, it utilizes gastroliths (small stones) in its gizzard to aid in breaking down food.

Displaying a duck-like bill, a trait typically associated with birds, it's equipped with sensors to detect electrical signals from its prey. This feature is unparalleled among mammals.

The male platypus possesses venomous spurs on its hind legs, reminiscent of a reptilian trait.

Despite its semi-aquatic nature, it boasts webbed feet ideal for swimming like aquatic animals, alongside strong claws suited for burrow-digging for land-based living.

Employing both echolocation (sound-based navigation) and electrolocation (detecting electrical fields generated by muscle contractions in prey), it adeptly hunts underwater. This remarkable ability allows it to hunt without relying on eyes, ears, or smell.

As a monotreme, it has a single opening for the digestive, urinary, and genital organs, whereas in other species these organs are separate.

What a weird animal. It's so weird that it's hilarious that when the first specimen was sent to England about 200 years ago, British scientists initially believed it to be a hoax, suspecting that someone had combined the beak of a duck with the body of an otter or beaver.

[episims]

Color Trait Accessories

In collab with awesome @pforestsims ✨

Watering Cans by Color Traits

Makes the watering cans that sims use for flowers and garden crops appear in their favorite color. If the sim has multiple favorite colors, the first one in the inventory rules the color. The watering can is green if the sim doesn't have a favorite color.

Two versions to choose from: the classic version replaces the can mesh, while the maxis match version uses the original one.

The classic version has an additive map so it looks the best with the Standard Material Edit by @crispsandkerosene but works fine without it too, the texture will only seem slightly flatter.

Download Watering Cans (SFS) (alternate)

⚠️ Trait Globals by @picknmixsims are required.

Both versions use 256x256 textures. These mods aren't compatible with other watering can replacements. Please check the standard material edit's post for up-to-date information about its shader conflicts.

Kicky Bags by Color Traits

Makes kicky bags appear in that sim's favorite color who initiates the game. If the sim has more than one favorite color, it's randomized between the first three in the inventory. The kicky bag is red if the sim doesn't have a favorite color.

Also replaces the kicky bag mesh so that it actually looks like a bag instead of a ball.

Download Kicky Bags (SFS) (alternate)

⚠️ Trait Globals are required.

The new mesh is 568 polys and the textures are 256x128. This mod isn't compatible with other kicky bag replacements.

Jumping Ropes by Color Traits

Makes jumping ropes appear in the sim's favorite color. If the sim has more than one favorite color, it's randomized between the first three in the inventory. The jumping rope is brown if the sim doesn't have a favorite color.

Download Jumping Ropes (SFS) (alternate)

⚠️ Trait Globals are required.

This mod conflicts with Cyjon's Jump Rope Fitness but includes the same fix, so you can delete Cyjon's mod. This mod is compatible with simler90's Slower Fitness Gain but only if mine loads after it.

Tiny 32x128 textures. This mod isn't compatible with other jumping rope replacements.

Happy 20th Birthday to The Sims 2 🎉

[mostlysignssomeportents]

America’s richest Medicare fraudsters are untouchable

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/13/last-gasp/#i-cant-breathe

"When you're famous, they let you do it": eight words that encapsulate the terrifying rot at the heart of our lived experience, a world where impunity for the powerful trumps the pain of their victims.

"Populism," is shorthand for many things: rage, despair, distrust of institutions and a desire to destroy them. True populism seeks to channel those totally legitimate feelings into transformative change for a caring and fair society for all. So-called "right populism" exploits those feelings, using them to drive a wedge between different groups of victims, turning them against each other, so that elites can go on screwing the squabbling factions.

The far-right parties that are marching to victory through a series global elections are different in many ways, but they all share one trait: they appeal to mistrust of institutions, claiming that the government has been captured by elites who serve them at the expense of the governed. This has the benefit of being actually true, and while the fact that far-right parties are owned by these government-capturing elites might erode their credibility, the fact that so many "progressive" parties have stepped in to defend the institutional status quo leaves an open field for reactionary wreckers:

https://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-dem-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/02/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-slogan-219908

Why would voters turn out to support a "Department of Government Efficiency," run by a bully whose career has been defined by abusing the people he is in charge of? Maybe they're turkeys voting for Christmas, but they also have personal, traumatic experience with government departments that protected the abusive corporations that preyed on them.

Today on Propublica, Peter Elkind tells the incredible story of Lincare, the nation's leading supplier of home oxygen, a repeat-offender fraudster and predator that has made billions in public money without any real consequences:

https://www.propublica.org/article/lincare-medicare-lawsuit-settlements-oxygen-equipment

Lincare has been repeatedly found guilty of defrauding Medicare; in this century alone, they have been put on probation four times, with a "death penalty" provision that would permanently disqualify them from ever doing business with the federal government. In every case, Lincare committed fresh acts of fraud, but never faced that death penalty.

Why not? Lincare is far too big to fail. In America's bizarre, worst-in-class, world-beatingly expensive privatized health care system, even public health provision (like Medicare) is outsourced to the private sector. Lincare has monopolized oxygen, a famously very important molecule for human survival, and if it were disqualified from serving Medicare, large numbers of Americans would literally asphyxiate.

Lincare clearly knows this. Too big to fail is too big to jail, and too big to jail is too big to care. They are the poster children for impunity, repeat offenders, multiply convicted, and still offending, even today. Lincare has been convicted of fraud under the administrations of GW Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden, and they're still in business.

What a business it is! Elkind takes us to the asbestos-poisoned town of Libby, Montana, where more than 2,000 of the 2.857 population suffer from respiratory diseases from the open-pit mine that operated there from 1963-1990. The elderly, dying population of this town rely on Medicare and Medicare Advantage oxygen concentrators to draw breath, and that means they rely on Lincare.

That means they are prey to Lincare's signature scam: charging Medicare (and 20% co-paying patients) to rent an oxygen concentrator every month, until they have paid for it several times over. This is illegal: under federal rules, patients are deemed to have bought their oxygen concentrators after 36 months and contractors are no longer allowed to charge them. Lincare doesn't give a fuck: the bills keep coming, and Lincare patients who survive long enough have paid the company $16,000 for a $799 gadget.

When Brandon Haugen, a local Lincare customer service rep, noticed this and queried the company's home office in Clearwater, Florida (home to Scientology and the Flexidisc), he was given the brushoff. After multiple attempts to get company leadership to acknowledge that this was illegal, he quit his job, along with his colleague and childhood friend Ben Montgomery. Between them, Haugen and Montgomery had 14 children who depended on their Lincare paychecks. Despite this, they both quit and turned whistleblower, with no job lined up. Eventually, Lincare paid $29m to settle the claim, with $5.7m to the whistleblowers and their lawyers. For Lincare, this was part of the cost of doing business and the fraud rolls on.

Lincare doesn't just defraud Medicare, they also have a high-pressure commissioned sales force that has repeatedly been caught defrauding Lincare customers – overwhelming sick, poor, elderly people. Patients are pressured to accept auto-billing, then Lincare piles medically dubious gadgets onto their monthly bills, as well as useless, overpriced "patient monitoring" services. Customers with apnea machines are mis-sold ventilators by salesmen who falsely claim these are medically necessary.

Salespeople illegally auto-shipped parts and consumables for Lincare machines to patients, then billed them for it. To satisfy the legal requirement that they telephone patients before placing these orders, sales agents would call patients, put them on hold, then part the call until the patient hung up.

Salespeople are motivated by equal parts greed and terror. Make quota and you can get up to $8,000 per month in bonuses. Miss that punishing quota and you're out on your ass (which is why one salesperson ordered a medically unnecessary ventilator).

Lincare also habitually ignores requests to pick up medically unnecessary equipment, because so long as the equipment is on the patient's premises, they can continue to bill for it. As one Ohio manager wrote to their staff: "As we have already discussed, absolutely no pick-ups/inactivation’s are to be do[ne] until I give you the green light. Even if they are deceased." Execs send out company-wide emails celebrating regional managers who have abandoned pick-ups, like a Feb 2022 "Achievement Rankings" email that touted the fact that most regional centers had at least 150 overdue pickups.

Lincare represents a deep, structural rot in American society. They are too big to punish, and too powerful to regulate. A 2006 law meant to curb oxygen payments was gutted by industry lobbyists. Today, Congress is weighing legislation, the SOAR (Supplemental Oxygen Access Reform) Act, which will allow Lincare to bill the public for hundreds of millions more every year, raising rates and eliminating competitive billing. The bill is supported by patient advocates who are rightly interested in getting oxygen to patients who have been locked out of the system, but the cost of that inclusion is that Lincare will be even more firmly insulated from its corruption.

The Trump Administration will doubtless crack down on some of America's worst companies, and the furious voters who elected the only candidate who campaigned on the idea that America was rotten will cheer him on. But Trump has made it clear that he will select the targets of his administration based on whether they are loyal to him or stand in his way, without regard to whether they harm his supporters:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/12/the-enemy-of-your-enemy/#is-your-enemy

Companies like Lincare, repeatedly caught paying illegal kickbacks, know how to play this game.

Image: p.Gordon (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smoke_bomb_with_burning_fuse.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en