Osteoporosis in the general population

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2024.05.16 09:23 MedicalMarvel69 How do you give up without giving up?

I want to have children, I want to buy a home, I want to work my job, I want to live healthy, I want to not step on others to make all that happen. It is impossible at this day and age to do all of them, maybe not even half at the same time.
The water we drink is poisoned. Whether it's waste legally dumped from factories making untested chemicals, or from the pipes it flows through or from the containers we drink from, it doesn't seem like you can drink untainted water.
Our food is poisoned. Whether it's the untested chemicals put into it to make it last longer, taste better, become more addictive and become cheaper, or from the chemicals known to cause health issues, sprayed on it to keep bugs off. If we are talking about meat, factory farmed livestock is given plastic to eat, pumped with hormones to grow bigger and faster, and all that's without getting into the torture of their short lives in the dark with no room to move, living in their own excrement.
Our shelter costs more than ever in American history, not just to own, but to borrow. Broken homes are being sold for what more than half the population could afford to "buy." Buy is a loose word because over 3/4ths of Americans live Paycheck to paycheck. We don't have money to "buy" anything. We have to borrow money from institutions that have crashed our economy, in order to hopefully, eventually own one of these broken homes. If you borrow shelter (rent), you are at the mercy of your landlord, almost guaranteed to have the rent go up every year and lose your down payments when you move out. If you refuse to buy or borrow, wherever you stay is likely illegal and the country is working on making it a crime to sleep outside. You will be productive, whether is by "choice" or in prision.
Our environment is poisoned. The air you breathe, the water you swim in, the ground you grow crops in, is it safe? Have you gotten it tested? Sure there are "acceptable" levels of everything, but who is it acceptable to? The people living in it or the people polluting it? Can you go for a swim at your nearest beach without getting tar balls stuck to your clothing or your dogs fur from the multiple offshore oil rigs crowding the sunset view? I can't. Can you swim in the lake or pond nearest to you? I can't. Its prohibited and I cannot find a specific reason, but I'm sure it has something to do with the water cooling the Power plant located there. Somehow the fish have been cleared as acceptable to eat though. If you can't find somewhere to swim, you better find a way to cool down because this summer will be the hottest on record until next summer and so on. You sure you want to live in the hottest parts of the country right now? Will they be habitable in a few years? Will even the poisoned water be available to drink?
Our medical care is so expensive we either don't have it or are so afraid to use it for fear of bankruptcy. Insurance companies are constantly denying payment for basic medical needs and death causing events. Cancer will kill you and if it doesn't, the bill at the end will make you wish you died instead. If you wanted to try and pay for it yourself, the insurance industry has caused even just basic services to sky rocket in price, it's impossible. A 15 minute checkup is $400 out of pocket at the medical office nearest me. That does not include the blood work they send you to a different facility for, or any other xrays, medicine or general care you may need otherwise.
Our jobs are so level locked that if you've got no education, you'll make enough that the government will assist you with some needs like food. Your community has been trained to judge you for it, thinking you're cheating the system because you don't want to work, when in reality it's whichever corporation your working for, actively gaming the system so they can keep their labor costs as cheap as possible. If you've got some education, you're probably living to work. Yeah you only make what minimum wage SHOULD be, but if you work 80 hours every week,, you might be able to pull off a lower middle class life style. With some education, you might even be able to sneak into a 9-5 where you don't have to work as many hours, but you're still not making enough to meet every basic need. If you have higher education, you might be doing alright, or you might be unable to find a job, while stuck in nonexpiring, crippling debt. Maybe you're somewhere in between. And even if you've got a great job... is it safe? Did the shareholders make enough so that there won't be a massive round of layoffs this quarter? Did the right political candidate get elected so the field you work in isn't shut down until the opposite party gets back into power?
Not every American is in this position, there are lucky ones who come from enough money that they'll never know struggle, never know food/wateshelteHealthcare insecurity. But the one thing that is STILL unavoidable, the one thing EVERYONE must participate in is stepping on others to live day to day. Everyday, we interact with, see, touch, feel or use a product that was made with questionable labor, if not outright slave labor and human suffering. From the people mining the basic materials to create products, to the people working the factories that products are produced in, to you neighbor that works at the shipping facilities to get it to you, the whole line is corrupted and meant to squeeze the absolute most out of the workers operating everything. The threat of losing even more of the basic needs keeps you in line, if not threat of physical and emotional torture.
I am only smart enough to see the things that are wrong in the world and recognize that it is unsustainable, but I'm too dumb to solve any of it and convince others to help.
So how do we give up without giving up? How do we get rid of our morals and act like everything is fine? How do we continue on feeling good about the systems we have in place, knowing there is so much suffering involved? How do I make a concious decision to bring another human life into this world, to experience what Im experiencing, but for it to be so much worse by the time they can recognize it? It seems that there is no way to change everything and we are headed towards inevitable collapse, so how the hell do we enjoy the ride that's left? I see people do it everyday. Not doing it is pure depression and I am so exhausted from being depressed.
submitted by MedicalMarvel69 to doomer [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 09:10 rafaelholmberg Commodities and Camus: a short text on the fetishism of existentialism

Commodities and Camus: a short text on the fetishism of existentialism
Some of you might find this of interest - I’ve included the full text below and the original link too if anyone wants to read more related writings. (N.B. This is not an attack on existentialism)
Salamano distraught by the loss of the dog that he himself spent a lifetime abusing; Ivan Karamazov ardent enough in his atheism to suffers a satanically-coloured psychic breakdown at the death his father; Joseph Garcin obsessed by a telephone that inevitably connects him only back to the hell of other people that he is already in; Abraham witnessing his devotion to God singularised in his love for a sacrificed son; Clamence’s critical juggling between a virtuous debauchery and a debaucherous virtue; Joseph Grand’s literary impotence and self-doubt at the production of a single line in the height of the plague of Oran - these ‘narrative object-relations’ represent a logic that lies at the heart of the existentialist tradition. Fundamentally, the avatars of the existentialist ‘method’, from the literary characters of Dostoyevsky via Kierkegaard to Camus and Sartre, define themselves broadly by their obscure attempts to treat things (whether their object, their comrade, or their duty) directly, yet by a directness adopted from a distance, in a mediated, self-reflective view - they define themselves by treating singular instances as if they were isolated from the situation of which these instances are the inevitable reproduction. In Sartre’s Huis Clos [‘No Exit’], the telephone in the hotel room which Joseph Garcin finds himself in alongside two female strangers - this room being Hell, as it is later revealed - functions only insofar as it veils its own function. The uncertainty of its connection with an outside world acts as an internally necessary distortion of the fact that its connection is a ‘closed-circuit’ connection to the crushing immanence of the inescapable room in which it is positioned, a room for which the ‘outside’ acts as an unsettling memory or an idealised, ethereal vision. In Camus’ La Peste [‘The Plague’], whilst the central characters of the plot set to work managing and planning for the containment of the plague that has struck Oran, Joseph Grand is occupied with a parallel object - his book - which veils the impasse that the general population of Oran finds itself in. Yet this impasse is veiled precisely by reformulating the impasse as internal to its own distraction (the book becomes an impasse for itself). The book, of which Grand is unable to conclude even the first line, is an object that indirectly returns him to his situation (the plague) only by removing him from this very situation, reformulating a generalised impasse into a personal, subjectivized impasse. Sartre and Camus’ dramas rely on an object, a singular point of subjective engagement, to distort or cover a situation which the object itself is a direct reproduction of. The object is treated as nothing other than itself - as being a self-explanatory x which rejects integration into its background scene, and yet it is precisely this rejection, this negative relation of the object to the situation of the drama itself, which acts as its most faithful reproduction of the drama’s central antagonism. The object veils the situation insofar as it paradoxically acts as its structural support. This object, this distortion-in-itself which acts as the support of a structure which it disguises in the very act of supporting it - this is nothing other than the quality which Marx attributed to the commodity, under the category of ‘commodity fetishism’. One of the breakthroughs of Marx’s materialism was the reformulation of the commodity as the product of a mode of reproduction that it materialises in order to reproduce this same political economy by which it is conditioned. This can be understood by firstly looking at Marx’s inversion of the category of a commodity’s ‘use value’. One of Marx’s criticisms of the classical English economists was their understanding of the form of ‘value’ which a commodity possesses: the standard understanding was that the commodity was infused with value by its usefulness being superior to that of its raw materials. Any value, in other words, was thought to be inherent to the commodity, a representation of value concentrated in its use. Hence Foucault’s description of pre-Marxist political economy as characterised by an ‘episteme [mode of discursive knowledge] of representation’. Commodities do not, for Marx, hold their value ‘in themselves’, as a constitutive quality inscribed in the essence of the object itself. Instead, the object is something ‘other than it appears’ - the commodity re-articulates the mode of economic reproduction of which it is the product. The process of commodity production and commodity circulation which Marx presents in Capital begins with an analysis of the radical re-invention of the factory, or more generally of the social mode of serialised production, which capitalism introduced. (It is worth noting that Marx is not inherently critical of capitalism in this work, but slowly begins to enumerate the social and economic conditions which allow for a capitalist mode of production, eventually extracting the inevitable forms of exploitation constitutive of this revolutionary system.) Fundamentally, the essence of the commodity is the it has no immanent essence, but that it is a product of labour-force: certain time in which a wage-labourer dedicates his energy towards production. Capitalism, Marx argues, begins where a working day’s labour time/value exceeds the ‘necessary labour time’ required for a worker to return the next day in his capacity as a worker (i.e. the necessary labour providing for rent, food, clothes etc.). The day’s labour which exceeds this necessary labour time is called ‘surplus labour’. If the division of social and factory labour is advanced enough, surplus value can reduce the amount of time needed for necessary labour times to be achieved. This is ‘relative surplus value’ (as opposed to absolute surplus value), with which, Marx notes, capitalism proper emerges. A series of investments into fixed and variable capital, calculations of turnaround times, necessary maintenance etc. are components of the mode of circulation of commodities which directly contribute to their continued production. Production, reproduction, and circulation are reciprocally supporting, requiring capital investments, planned labour divisions, and a reproduction of the social conditions in which capitalised reproduction itself can operate. The capitalist mode of production is therefore, as Marx insists, revolutionary insofar as it is a socially revolutionary political economy. It colours a domain which was previously excluded from economic consideration - the 21st century only more directly displays the non-boundary of the economic and the social, where the intimacy of everyday life lends itself to the most aggressive forms of economic appropriation. The value of the commodity lies in its support of this economic process - the commodity is the input of productive, capitalised, labour force exchanged and circulated through its social forms of reproduction. Commodity fetishism is therefore the contradictory treatment of the commodity as nothing other than a commodity - treating it as having its value inscribed within itself, detached from the situation of which it is the simultaneous product and support. The act of fetishism tells itself that an object is nothing but an object, that its value is internal. It therefore distorts the general antagonistic scene in which it is framed, by reducing its ‘difference’ to itself. Fetishism reproduces a situation in the very act of veiling it. A distortion clouding a distortion by locating the justification of its own existence within itself, a veil which clouds a situation by the very act of making it possible - this is the fetishism of the object which Marx located in the classical conception of our engagement with commodities, and as we might see, it appears to be a strange communal feature of the existentialist relation to its subjective ‘object’. Consider the miserable figure of Salamano in Camus’ L’Étranger [‘The Outsider’]: a lonesome wretch devoting his energy towards hatred for his submissive dog by abusing it - kicking and shouting at it, blaming his troubles on his unwilling four-legged companion. By an ironic inversion, Salamano’s misery is nevertheless fully actualised only once this dog escapes. The misery that he has attributed to his dog is a ‘negative support’ (what Freud would call a compromise solution), a paradoxical bulwark, against a more direct state of nothingness and desperation which emerges if this ‘compromise’ is removed (for Freud, the removal of an unpleasant symptom only leads to a more absolute state of irreparable despair). What Salamano loses with his dog’s disappearance is his functional fetishisation of this dog: this object was treated as an isolated instance of misery, yet it is precisely this focus which veils the dog’s distortion (and support) of a more absolute and universal state of misery. This is the ‘broad stroke’ of the obscure existentialist tradition - noticeable even where we turn to its earliest manifestations, the most direct example being the ‘knight of faith’, represented by Abraham of the Book of Genesis, in Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling. The paradox which, according to Kierkegaard, Abraham is forced to embody, is that whilst willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac, at the command of God, he must in the very moment of intervention (being told that he no longer needs to carry out the sacrifice), return to the position of an unquestionable devotion to his son, as itself representing his love for God. The moment of binding, Abraham’s dedication to the sacrifice of Isaac, is a horror which in the instance of its positing covers up the greater paradox of what happens without this binding. Without the binding of Isaac, the paradoxical formula which makes possible the unquestioning devotion of the knight of faith is itself removed. For Kierkegaard, faith is based on paradox: remove the paradoxical instance and you remove faith itself. This fetishism of the ‘leap of faith’ is that the contradictory instance supports, by veiling, the inconsistency structuring the religious scene as a whole. Dostoyevsky is equally a prototype of this existentialist fetishism. The atheist figure of Ivan Karamazov maintains a fidelity to his atheism despite his suggestion that without God, ethical codes would break down (here we see his nuance, irreducible to the ‘new atheism’ of Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris etc.). Yet this very fidelity to a form of pseudo-anarchic atheism leads him towards a severe psychotic break, of seeing a demon in his room, after his father’s death. The object of an amoral atheism here acts as a bulwark to a greater disharmony which nevertheless explains, by isolating, Ivan’s intellectual, anti-religious position. Precisely the same type of moral inversions would return in Camus’ La Chute: Clamance’s fixation upon virtue as an end in itself reveals itself to be a latent justification for an excess debauchery made possible by, and engaging in a dialogue with, the very category of ‘virtue’. The formula of commodity fetishism is evidently close to the existentialist mode of relating to its object. Across a series of dramas in this literary tradition, it is often a question of framing a singular subjective instance as an impasse or contradiction which veils, and in so doing supports (by reproducing), the central disharmony or paradox of a situation as a whole.
submitted by rafaelholmberg to CriticalTheory [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 08:29 TheTruthTalker800 I think Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Also Have a Notable Cult of Personality Among White College Educated Men & Women in the United States Today

Reasoning and proof to back up this claim, as I'm sure everyone with an IQ 100 or greater is by now well aware Donald Trump & co have THE cult of personality among resentment of poorly to not well educated voters of all stripes, but particularly a majority white voters in the US.
However, I would at this point very much argue that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris also have one to a lesser extent, it turns out...and here's how.
President Biden and VP Harris had about 40% of white voter support in the 2020 election- they still have about that much now 4 years later in 2024 believe it or not, but after a disastrous by any objective metric 4 year term, and have not lost or gained any support in this time with said bloc-- it is overwhelmingly concentrated among well educated voters in the Caucasian bloc, especially women, as trivia.
References: Nate Cohn, NYT Polls-- https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/05/upshot/polls-biden-trump-2024.html
"The survey finds that Mr. Biden enters his campaign as a badly weakened candidate, one running without the strengths on personal likability, temperament and character that were essential to his narrow victories in all six of these states in 2020. Long-festering vulnerabilities on his age, economic stewardship, and appeal to young, Black and Hispanic voters have grown severe enough to imperil his re-election chances. On question after question, the public’s view of the president has plummeted over the course of his time in office. The deterioration in Mr. Biden’s standing is broad, spanning virtually every demographic group, yet it yields an especially deep blow to his electoral support among young, Black and Hispanic voters, with Mr. Trump obtaining previously unimaginable levels of support with them."

Biden Has Particularly Lost Favor With Young, Nonwhite Voters

Whom they say they voted for in 2020 Whom they support now
Nonwhite, under 45 Biden +39 68-29
Nonwhite, over 45 Biden +47 73-26
White, under 45 Biden +5 50-45
White, over 45 Trump +16 57-41
(Based on New York Times/Siena College polls of 3,662 registered voters conducted Oct. 22 to Nov. 3 in six battleground states. The 2020 vote is based on how respondents say they voted in 2020, though margins are similar to The Times's estimates of the results. Numbers are rounded.)
"In contrast, Mr. Biden has retained the entirety of his support among older white voters, helping him stay relatively competitive in the older and predominantly white Northern battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, even as Mr. Trump builds a more comfortable lead in the more diverse Sun Belt states. There’s no reason to assume that next November’s final election tallies will match the results of these surveys. But if they did, it could represent an epochal shift in American politics, one with the potential to reverberate for decades as young and nonwhite voters make up a growing share of the electorate. Many familiar patterns in American politics would be blurred. Racial and generational polarization would fade. It would be the culmination of a decade-long realignment of the electorate along the lines of Mr. Trump’s conservative populism, all while dashing Democratic hopes of assembling a progressive majority around a new generation of young and nonwhite voters."
Second source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/upshot/biden-trump-black-hispanic-voters.html
Nonwhite voters
White voters at the bottom
"Mr. Biden’s tepid support among these voters appears to be mostly responsible for the close race in early national surveys, which show Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump all but tied among registered voters even as Mr. Biden runs as well among white voters as he did four years ago."
Third source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-15/biden-risks-losing-significant-share-of-black-vote-king-says**
"**President Joe Biden risks losing a significant share of Black votes in his rematch with Donald Trump unless his campaign improves his outreach strategy, said the daughter of slain civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. 'There are people in the Black community who are feeling like not a lot has changed,' Bernice King said Wednesday in a Bloomberg TV interview."
Fourth source: Axios, Polls-- https://www.axios.com/2023/11/06/biden-black-hispanic-voters-losing-polls
Overall point/conclusion: Joe and Kamala haven't moved with being favored by 40% of white voters and it's chiefly coming from them having >50% approval among well educated white women with postgraduate or higher degrees, despite falling consistently with their own core base in margins in Black, Hispanic, Asian, and young white voters consistently like with the country from 2020 to 2024. This all essentially indicates a cult of personality is concentrated to me chiefly around the former demographic, because Biden's standing has deteriorated among everyone but this bloc by this point, and for several reasons imo (I'll elaborate on that in another reply to those curious).
submitted by TheTruthTalker800 to HonestOpinion [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 08:22 Total-Mastodon-6888 Popular Immigration Destinations for Indians (Canada vs. Australia)

For many Indians, the allure of a new life abroad, brimming with opportunity and a different cultural landscape, is a powerful motivator. Canada and Australia have emerged as top contenders for Indian immigrants, each offering distinct advantages and considerations. At Adric Immigration Consultants in Bangalore, we’re dedicated to guiding you through the intricacies of immigration and helping you choose the destination that best aligns with your aspirations. Canada Visa Consultants
.
This blog post delves into a comprehensive comparison of Canada and Australia, providing insights into factors critical for Indian immigrants to consider:
Setting the Stage: A Glimpse into Canada and Australia
Canada:
Australia:
Choosing Between Canada and Australia:
The ideal destination ultimately depends on your individual priorities, career goals, and lifestyle preferences. Let’s explore some key factors to consider:
1. Immigration Programs & Eligibility:
Canada:
Australia:
For Indian Applicants:
Both Canada and Australia offer pathways for skilled Indian professionals with in-demand qualifications and work experience. Assessing your eligibility for specific programs through professional guidance from Adric Immigration Consultants can significantly streamline your immigration journey.
2. Job Market and Employment Opportunities:
Canada:
Australia:
Choosing the Right Fit:
While both countries offer promising job markets, consider your skillset and career aspirations. Research in-demand occupations in each country to identify the destination that aligns best with your professional goals.
3. Cost of Living and Lifestyle:
Canada:
Australia:
Finding the Perfect Balance:
Consider your financial situation and lifestyle preferences. Canada offers a more affordable cost of living, while Australia provides a warmer climate and a relaxed way of life.
4. Education System and Family Considerations:
Canada:
Australia:
4. Education System and Family Considerations (continued)
Important Considerations:
If you have children or plan to start a family, both Canada and Australia offer excellent education systems and support for families. Canada might be a better choice for affordability, while Australia might appeal to those seeking a warmer climate and strong social security benefits.
5. Settlement and Integration:
Canada:
Australia:
Building a New Life:
Both Canada and Australia offer welcoming environments for Indian immigrants. Canada allows for easier integration due to existing cultural similarities and a larger Indian diaspora, while Australia offers a vibrant multicultural environment with strong support networks for newcomers.
Conclusion: Start Your Immigration Journey
The decision to immigrate is a momentous one. By carefully considering the factors explored above, you can determine whether Canada or Australia aligns more effectively with your individual circumstances and aspirations.
Partnering with Adric Immigration Consultants:
At Adric Immigration Consultants in Bangalore, we understand the complexities of navigating the immigration process. Our team of experts can guide you through every step, from assessing your eligibility for various programs to preparing a strong application and providing interview coaching.
Contact us today for a free consultation and let us help you transform your dream of living and working in Canada or Australia into a reality. Together, we can ensure you make an informed decision and embark on a successful immigration journey.
submitted by Total-Mastodon-6888 to u/Total-Mastodon-6888 [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 07:48 PhysicalProgrammer66 Why are beef eaters so happy and well off in their lives?

We all know that anyone who eats beef will never be happy and successful in his/her life ever because cow is the most revered and sacred animal in this world and Vishnu Ji never accepts the prayers of beef eaters or meat eaters in general and always punishes them for doing this heinous sin. But, I have always had this doubt. If you look at people in countries like the USA, Canada, Western Europe, Arabic countries like UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and other developed and rich countries like China, Japan, South Korea, Australia. They eat a lot of meat and particularly, a lot of beef then why are they so well off in their life and why is their country so rich and developed? Most vegetarians live in India and almost 80% population is hindu and they don't eat beef but still India is way behind these countries. I don't understand why? Why are beef eaters and non vegetarians in general so happy, rich and well off in their life living in one of the most advanced, rich and developed places of the world as compared to non beef eaters and vegetarians in general? Almost everyone in America eats beef but still America is so rich, developed and powerful, why? Why are Arabic countries so rich and developed despite so many people there eating beef? Just look at Dubai or any other Arabic country like Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain. They are so rich and developed and the people living there who eat beef are living their life to the fullest. I don't understand why? And in India people are having so many problems despite not eating beef or any other meat and worshipping god, for example me.
submitted by PhysicalProgrammer66 to hindu [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 07:44 ivfbabyscience How COVID-19 Affects Fertility and Pregnancy

How COVID-19 Affects Fertility and Pregnancy
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https://preview.redd.it/mvd2jf528q0d1.png?width=4096&format=png&auto=webp&s=ba19b6fd74032399515b4f0afe7e308b1f8df225
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The COVID-19 pandemic changed everything, how we think about healthcare and family planning. If you were trying to conceive or already pregnant during this period, you probably had concerns about how the virus could affect your fertility and pregnancy. Even though things are improving, COVID-19 is still something to consider. That's why it's important to know how it affects fertility and pregnancy. In this blog, we'll explore this topic with insights from fertility experts like Baby Science IVF. We'll provide reliable information, address common concerns, and offer guidance for those thinking about fertility treatments during the ongoing pandemic.

The Effects of Coronavirus on Male and Female Fertility

Currently, there's limited evidence to suggest that COVID-19 directly affects fertility in either men or women. However, it's crucial to recognize that the virus can induce high fever and severe illness, which might temporarily impact sperm production or disrupt menstrual cycles. If you're considering natural conception or assisted reproductive technologies like IUI (intrauterine insemination) or IVF (in vitro fertilization), it's advisable to seek advice from a fertility specialist for personalized guidance.

The Risks of Coronavirus During Pregnancy

Pregnant individuals aren't more likely to get COVID-19 than the general population, but if they do, they might face a higher risk of severe illness. To protect themselves and their baby, it's vital for pregnant individuals to adhere strictly to preventive measures like wearing masks, maintaining good hand hygiene, practicing social distancing, and keeping up with regular prenatal care.

Fertility Treatments & COVID-19

Throughout the pandemic, fertility clinics have ramped up safety measures like virtual consultations, health screenings, and increased sanitation to lower infection risks. If you suspect exposure to COVID-19, it's wise to connect with your fertility specialist virtually. They'll offer advice on your next moves, possibly suggesting a delay in treatment if your health conditions could affect fertility procedures.

Precautions

When you're going through fertility treatments like IUI or IVF, it is important to follow the guidelines provided by your clinic. These may include:
  • Keeping up good hand hygiene and wearing masks when you're at the clinic
  • Following social distancing rules while you're there
  • Bringing only essential support people to your appointments
  • Opting for virtual consultations when feasible
  • Following your fertility specialist's instructions and medication schedules diligently

COVID-19 Positive During Fertility Treatment

Throughout the pandemic, fertility clinics have ramped up safety measures like virtual consultations, health screenings, and increased sanitation to lower infection risks. If you suspect exposure to COVID-19, it's wise to connect with your fertility specialist virtually. They'll offer advice on your next moves, possibly suggesting a delay in treatment if your health conditions could affect fertility procedures.
If you test positive for COVID-19 during fertility treatment, notify your specialist immediately. They'll advise on whether to continue or pause treatment based on your situation.
While the impact of Coronavirus on fertility is still under study, it poses unique challenges for those planning to conceive or pregnant. Stress and treatment disruptions underscore the need for support.
At Baby Science IVF Center, our team prioritizes safety during treatments. Book An Appointment for support on your fertility journey.
submitted by ivfbabyscience to u/ivfbabyscience [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 07:41 globose2024 Exploring Face Image Datasets: Insights and Ethics

In the ever-evolving world of technology, face image datasets have emerged as a cornerstone for advancements in facial recognition, biometrics, and artificial intelligence. These datasets, collections of annotated facial images, are instrumental in training and evaluating algorithms for various applications, from security systems to personalized user experiences. This blog delves into the significance, types, challenges, and ethical considerations surrounding face image datasets.

Understanding Face Image Datasets

Face image datasets are curated collections of facial images, often accompanied by annotations such as facial landmarks, expressions, and identity labels. These datasets serve as the foundation for developing and refining algorithms in facial recognition, emotion detection, age estimation, and more. The diversity and quality of these datasets directly impact the performance and accuracy of the algorithms trained on them.

Expanding on Diversity and Representation

One of the critical challenges in creating face image datasets is ensuring they represent the global population’s diversity. This includes not only a range of ethnicities but also variations in age, gender, facial expressions, and environmental conditions. The lack of diversity can lead to biased algorithms that perform poorly for underrepresented groups. Efforts are being made to address this issue, such as the creation of more inclusive datasets like the Diversity in Faces (DiF) dataset by IBM.

Advancements in Dataset Creation and Annotation

Technological advancements have led to more sophisticated methods for dataset creation and annotation. For example, 3D face datasets, like the 300W-LP and Multi-PIE, provide more comprehensive data, including depth information and varying poses. Automated annotation tools, powered by AI, are also being developed to reduce the time and effort required for manual labeling, improving the accuracy and consistency of annotations.

The Role of Synthetic Data

Synthetic data is becoming increasingly important in addressing the limitations of real-world datasets. By using computer-generated images, researchers can create diverse and balanced datasets without privacy concerns. Additionally, synthetic data can be used to simulate challenging or rare scenarios, such as extreme lighting conditions or occlusions, which are crucial for testing the robustness of algorithms.

Ethical Frameworks and Regulations

As the use of face image datasets grows, so does the need for ethical frameworks and regulations to guide their creation and use. Organizations and governments are developing guidelines to ensure that facial recognition technologies are used responsibly. For instance, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) imposes strict rules on the processing of biometric data, including facial images.

Future Directions

The future of face image datasets lies in addressing their current limitations and ethical challenges. This includes creating more diverse and representative datasets, developing more efficient annotation tools, and ensuring that facial recognition technologies are used ethically and responsibly. Additionally, as privacy concerns continue to grow, the use of synthetic data and privacy-preserving techniques, such as federated learning, are likely to become more prevalent.

Types of Face Image Datasets

  1. Public Datasets: These are freely available for research and development purposes. Examples include the Labeled Faces in the Wild (LFW), CelebA, and CASIA-WebFace.
  2. Private Datasets: Owned by organizations or companies, these datasets are often larger and more diverse but restricted in access due to privacy and proprietary concerns.
  3. Synthetic Datasets: Generated using computer graphics or deep learning techniques, these datasets can offer a controlled environment for specific scenarios not easily captured in real-world data.

Challenges in Face Image Datasets

  1. Diversity: Ensuring a dataset represents a wide range of ethnicities, ages, and expressions is crucial for developing unbiased algorithms.
  2. Privacy: With increasing concerns over data privacy, obtaining and using face images ethically and legally has become a significant challenge.
  3. Annotation Quality: Accurate annotations are vital for effective training, but manual labeling is time-consuming and prone to errors.

Applications of Face Image Datasets

Face image datasets are pivotal in various applications:
  1. Security and Surveillance: Enhancing security systems with facial recognition for identity verification and threat detection.
  2. Healthcare: Assisting in patient monitoring, diagnosing conditions, and personalizing treatment plans based on facial analysis.
  3. Entertainment and Media: Creating realistic digital avatars and enhancing user interaction in virtual reality and gaming.

Ethical Considerations

The use of face image datasets raises ethical concerns, including:
  1. Consent: Ensuring individuals in the datasets have given informed consent for their images to be used.
  2. Bias: Addressing potential biases in datasets that can lead to discriminatory outcomes in algorithms.
  3. Data Security: Protecting the privacy and security of individuals’ facial data from unauthorized access or misuse.

Conclusion

image annotation services are invaluable resources in the field of computer vision and artificial intelligence. Their applications span across various industries, from enhancing security measures to revolutionizing healthcare. However, the development and use of these datasets must be approached with caution, considering the ethical implications and challenges involved. As technology advances, the importance of diverse, high-quality, and ethically sourced face image datasets will continue to grow, shaping the future of facial recognition and beyond.
For a deeper understanding of the role of machine learning datasets in computer vision, consider exploring “Unlocking the Potential: Why ML Datasets for Computer Vision Are Crucial” at gts.ai.
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2024.05.16 07:39 ravedeath1917 Nationalism and Socialism, Paul Mattick (1959)

https://www.marxists.org/archive/mattick-paul/1959/09/nationalism.htm
At the base of the current national aspirations and imperialist rivalries lies the actual need for world-wide organization of production and distribution beneficial to humanity as a whole. First, as the geologist K. F. Mather has pointed out, because “the earth is far better adapted for occupation by men organized on a world-wide scale, with maximum opportunity for free exchange of raw materials and finished products the world around, than by men who insist upon building barriers between regions even so inclusive as a large nation or an entire continent.” Second, because social production can be fully developed and can free human society from want and misery only by international cooperation without regard to particularistic national interests. The compelling interdependency implied in further progressive industrial development if not accepted and utilized for Human ends, asserts itself as a never-ending struggle between nations and for imperialist control.
The inability to achieve on an international scale what has been achieved, or is in the process of being achieved, on the national level-partial or complete elimination of capital competition-permits the continuation of class antagonisms in all countries despite the elimination or restriction of private capital formation. To state it the other way around: because nationalization of capital leaves class relations intact, there is no way of escaping competition on the international scene. Just as control over the means of production assures the maintenance of class divisions, so does control over the national state, which includes control over its means of production. The defense of the nation and its growing strength becomes the defense and reproduction of new ruling groups. The “love for the socialist fatherland” in Communist countries, the desire for a “stake in the country,” as exemplified in the existence of “socialist” governments in welfare-economies, as well as national self-determination in hitherto dominated countries, signifies the existence and rise of new ruling classes bound to the existence of the national state.
WHILE a positive attitude toward nationalism betrays a lack of interest in socialism, the socialist position on nationalism is obviously ineffective in countries fighting for national existence as well as in those countries oppressing other nations. If only by default, a consistent anti-nationalist position seems to support imperialism. However, imperialism functions for reasons of its own, quite independently of socialist attitudes toward nationalism. Furthermore, socialists are not required for the launching of struggles for national autonomy as the various “liberation” movements in the wake of the second World War have shown. Contrary to earlier expectations, nationalism could not be utilized to further socialist aims, nor was it a successful strategy to hasten the demise of capitalism. On the contrary, nationalism destroyed socialism by using it for nationalist ends.
It is not the function of socialism to support nationalism, even though the latter battles imperialism. But to fight imperialism without simultaneously discouraging nationalism means to fight some imperialists and to support others, for nationalism is necessarily imperialist – or illusory. To support Arab nationalism is to oppose Jewish nationalism, and to support the latter is to fight the former, for it is not possible to support nationalism without also supporting national rivalries, imperialism, and war. To be a good Indian nationalist is to combat Pakistan; to be a true Pakistani is to despise India. Both these newly “liberated” nations are readying themselves to fight over disputed territory and subject their development to the double distortion of capitalist war economies.
And so it goes on: the “liberation” of Cyprus from British rule only tends to open a new struggle for Cyprus between Greeks and Turks and does not lift Western control from either Turkey or Greece. Poland’s “liberation” from Russian rule may well spell war with Germany for the “liberation” of German provinces now ruled by Poland and this, again, to new Polish struggles for the “liberation” of territory lost to Germany. Real national independence of Czechoslovakia would, no doubt, reopen the fight for the Sudetenland and this, in turn, the struggle for Czechoslovakia’s independence and perhaps for that of the Slovaks from the Czechs. With whom to side? With the Algerians against the French? With the Jews? With the Arabs? With both? Where shall the Jews go to make room for the Arabs? What shall the Arab refugees do to cease being a “nuisance” to the Jews? What to do with a million French “colons” who face, when Algerian liberation is accomplished, expropriation and expulsion? Such questions can be raised with reference to every part of the world, and will generally be answered by Jews siding with Jews, Arabs with Arabs, Algerians with Algerians, French with French, Poles with Poles and so forth-and thus they will remain unanswered and unanswerable. However Utopian the quest for international solidarity may appear in this melee of national and imperialist antagonisms, no other road seems open to escape fratricidal struggles and to attain a rational world society.
ALTHOUGH socialists sympathies are with the oppressed, they relate not to emerging nationalism but to the particular plight of twice-oppressed people who face both a native and foreign ruling class. Their national aspirations are in part “socialist” aspirations, as they include the illusory hope of impoverished populations that they can improve their conditions through national independence. Yet national self-determination has not emancipated the laboring classes in the advanced nations. It will not do so now in Asia and Africa. National revolutions, as in Algeria for instance, promise little for the lower classes save indulging on more equal terms in national prejudices. No doubt, this means something to the Algerians, who have suffered from a particularly arrogant colonial system. But the possible results of Algerian independence are deducible from those in Tunisia and Morocco, where existing social relations have not been changed and the conditions of the exploited classes have not improved to any significant extent.
Unless socialism is altogether a mirage, it will rise again as an international movement-or not at all. In any case, and on the basis of past experience, those interested in the rebirth of socialism must stress its internationalism most of all. While it is impossible for a socialist to become a nationalist, he is nevertheless an anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist. However, his fight against colonialism does not imply adherence to the principle of national self-determination, but expresses his desire for a non-exploitative, international socialist society. While socialists cannot identify themselves with national struggles, they can as socialists oppose both nationalism and imperialism. For example, it is not the function of French socialists to fight for Algerian independence but to turn France into a socialist society. And though struggles to this end would undoubtedly aid the liberation movement in Algeria and elsewhere, this would be a by-product of and not the reason for the socialist fight against nationalist imperialism. At the next stage, Algeria would have to be “de-nationalized” and integrated into an international socialist world.
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2024.05.16 07:22 pearldental12 Fluoride: Risks, uses, and side effects

Fluoride is a mineral widely recognized for its role in dental health. It is used in various forms, including in water supplies, dental products (like toothpaste and mouth rinses), and professional dental treatments. Here are the uses, risks, and potential side effects of fluoride:
Uses of Fluoride:-
Dental Health:
Cavity Prevention: Fluoride helps to remineralize tooth enamel, making it more resistant to decay.
Strengthening Teeth: It integrates into the tooth structure during development, creating a stronger enamel layer.
Reducing Bacteria: Fluoride can inhibit the growth of bacteria in the mouth that produce acid, which is responsible for tooth decay.
Public Health Measures:
Water Fluoridation: Adding fluoride to public water supplies is a common practice aimed at reducing the incidence of dental cavities in the population.
Professional Dental Treatments:
Fluoride Varnishes and Gels: Applied by dentists to provide a high concentration of fluoride to protect teeth.
Fluoride Supplements: Prescribed for children in areas where the water supply is not fluoridated.
Risks and Side Effects of Fluoride:-
Dental Fluorosis:
Cause: Overexposure to fluoride during the early years of life (typically up to age 8) when teeth are developing.
Symptoms: Causes discoloration and mottling of the teeth, ranging from mild white spots to severe brown stains and surface irregularities.
Skeletal Fluorosis:
Cause: Long-term exposure to high levels of fluoride, typically from drinking water with excessively high fluoride concentrations.
Symptoms: Can lead to pain and damage to bones and joints.
Potential Toxicity:
Acute Toxicity: Ingesting a large amount of fluoride at once can be toxic, causing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. This is rare and usually associated with accidental ingestion of high-concentration fluoride products.
Chronic Toxicity: Long-term ingestion of high levels of fluoride can lead to more serious health issues, including effects on bones and possibly the thyroid.
Other Side Effects:
Gastrointestinal Issues: Ingesting too much fluoride can cause stomach upset.
Skin Reactions: Some individuals may experience skin rashes or irritation from topical fluoride products.
Balancing Benefits and Risks:-
Optimal Fluoride Levels:
Water Fluoridation: The optimal fluoride level in drinking water recommended by health authorities is generally around 0.7 parts per million (ppm). This level balances the benefits of preventing tooth decay while minimizing the risk of dental fluorosis.
Dental Products: Using the right amount of fluoride toothpaste (a pea-sized amount for children) and ensuring children do not swallow toothpaste can help manage fluoride exposure.
Monitoring and Education:
Public Health Surveillance: Regular monitoring of fluoride levels in water supplies and dental health outcomes.
Education: Educating the public about the appropriate use of fluoride products and the importance of supervised brushing for children.
Conclusion
Fluoride is a valuable tool in promoting dental health and preventing cavities. When used appropriately, the benefits of fluoride in reducing tooth decay significantly outweigh the risks. However, it is important to manage fluoride exposure carefully, especially in young children, to prevent potential side effects like dental fluorosis. Consulting with dental professionals can help individuals and communities make informed decisions about fluoride use.
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2024.05.16 07:06 Adventurous-Baby-599 Beef is a scam IMO

As a university student (basically broke) i have found the difference in the cost between pork and beef to be absolutely unjustifiable.
Since I have started carnivore I have eaten beef only 2 times, one of which was a rib-eye and the other was a lean meat which was like eating rubber. The rib-eye was good but it was 10$ (converted from my national currency) for 300 grams and it was on sale! Basically 33$ for a kilogram ON SALE! The overall preparation was the same as i cook my pork steaks, fried. As I was ravenous I watched that juicy rib-eye cook and I finally had the opportunity to take a bite. It was nothing like people here glorify it to be. Yes, It had juice, i cooked it medium-rare, it had some crust on it but overall the taste was nothing significant. In fact I can generally say that pork IMO is a lot better than beef and a lot cheaper being only 4.5$ for a kilogram on sale (grass-fed beef is 733% more expensive!). Given the price difference and the literally no difference in taste (in fact it might be worse) I say that pork is a lot better for someone like me (broke). I understand that beef might have some micronutrients or be healthier overall but pork being red meat is still fulfilling your daily needs of micro- and macronutrients and is still generally a lot better than anything you eat otherwise such as junk food or processed meat or anything like that.
I can surely say that if we compare the huge price difference of 700%+, i just cannot find how can beef be even 200% healthier in order to justify the price being so high. I am from Eastern Europe if anyone wonders. I should add that the salaries here are way lower than your average American salary so keep in mind that affording to eat this type of beef everyday is not achievable by the most of the population.
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2024.05.16 07:05 BruhEmperor Freedom National Convention of 1904 American Interflow Timeline

Freedom National Convention of 1904 American Interflow Timeline
A certain echo drapes the Freedomite National Convention in one Monday afternoon. “Utter folly!”, yells a voice from the crowd. It was Miss Caroline. The daughter of the late president—and some call dictator—P.T. Barnum. Mrs. Barnum would rush to the Convention Chairman Russell B. Harrison, the son of the very candidate that ran against her father, Barnum would hand Harrison a note before quickly scurrying off the convention. Members of the crowd demanded Harrison read out the note. The note was handed to Hamilton Fish II to be read along to the attendees. “My father laughs at this party from the grave.”. Those words shook, but understandably resolved the feelings, of many present. Many were already uneasy, President Chaffee had already been renominated for President unanimously by the Patriots. The Freedomites had come last of the major in every election since the end of President P.T. Barnum’s tenure. Stirring opinions for the need of change, yet also calls for a return to tradition. Many in the party had been split on the policies made during President Chaffee’s tenure, with some more agreeing with his policies than others. The high stakes for the nomination would lead to Freedomite coming in droves to support their new shining star.
The Freedom Party National Convention was held at New Haven, Connecticut on June 6th, 1904.
Inside the Freedom National Convention
Joseph Gurney Cannon - Mr. Cannon had already lost 1900, why make him lead ‘04? A common cry shared among many who wanted a shift in grand party in ideology. Yet to many, Cannon was exactly what the party needs to revert back to tradition. Cannon support the Barnum administration and martial law, suing the Illinois electoral commission for omitting Whitelaw Reid from the 1888 ballot. A conservative stalwart and the “big bully” of Congress, 67-year old “Uncle Joe” was instrumental in securing the German peace deal in the Philippines, homeland army modernization efforts, and demanded diplomatic action be done against Russia during the ACCEC-KVZhD incident. Fiercely nationalistic and isolationist, unlike President Barnum, Cannon would reject imperialism and foreign meddling and deemed intervention only necessary if it directly threatened the US. Once deeming “To the world, their own. To the United States, its own.”. Cannon would also oppose Chaffee’s shift away from the gold standard to fiat money, the heightened regulations, the continued troop sending to American-occupied Fujian and the Congo General Administration, and the expansive powers give to the presidential cabinet. Cannon would advocate an "All-American Homeland Policy", with eyes of politics being strictly observant of the issues at home, not abroad. Cannon would be called hypocritical by many, due to his work in securing agreements with foreign nations, but his efforts would please nationalists as him simply defending the American honor.
Cannon with US Ambassador to the United Kingdom Robert Todd Lincoln
Henry Cabot Lodge - As the feelings of imperialism ran high, so did it root into major political figures. Replacing the radical Edward Bellamy as Senator from Massachusetts, the freshman senator was thrusted into the national spotlight as an American representative for the Treaty of São Paulo. Though his work was eclipsed by the work of the renowned George von Lengerke Meyer, the stunt gained Lodge a standing nationally. As the now 53-year old now seasoned Senator Henry Cabot Lodge enters the running for the nomination, his resume has now far exceeded his old one four years ago. Supporting the occupation of Fujian province, the defensive of the Filipino republics against the Germans, the American presence in the Congo General Administration, the solidification of Bahia Blanca as American territory, support of corporate regulations, and calling to occupy or annex the remaining praia states of the world. Lodge would position himself with the imperialists, with a traditional conservative flair. Perhaps Lodge’s most divisive position would be his support of Public Safety Secretary Edward Carmack. Carmack’s mass immigration policies and usage of BPS to hunt down the “high-grade criminal” got the support of Lodge in Congress. Lodge even hosted a party in honor of the Massachusetts chapter of the Hancockian Corps. Lodge would support the gold standard and opposing the lax tariff policies of the administration. Lodge’s public opinions about his support of imperialism and the “Chaffean Policy” pushes him firmly to one faction of the party, as the other factions would faint to the notion of his nomination.
Official congressional photo of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. - A scholar, a jurist, and an educator. Son of one of the most esteemed American poets and once presidential aspirant Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., the younger Holmes once dreamed of reaching the highest court of the nation. But being thrusted into the Senate by the Massachusetts opposition who rejected another Adams entering office, Holmes was dragged into a political hellscape even he saw as tiring and petty. Nevertheless, Holmes made work as senator, being renowned as a progressive and logician. Holmes would oppose imperialism and interventionism, demanding America’s legacy of isolationism continue on to this era. Once stating that "...if the United States made of the world its heated enemy, then none shall be surprise at its immediate collapse in warfare at the hands of the world." Holmes would act more as a lawyer than a traditional politician in the Senate, often defending his positions in common debates with his opponents. Senator George Murray would say that "None understands the complexity and framework created by the founders regarding the Constitution more than Senator Holmes.". One of the signatories of the “Declaration of National Renouncement”, declaring his opposition to Edward Carmack and the BPS’s actions and demanding his resignation and the restructuring of the bureau. Holmes would also support massive regulations on monopolies and oppose the fiat money policy. Though not that interested of the presidency, the progressive and anti-imperialists of the party saw Holmes as the best chance of ascension. They would campaign on his behalf and fashioned him as a spiritual successor to Hale and Clay. Senator James R. Garfield of Ohio would campaign for his colleague, declaring him “…the last hope of American reform and readjustment.”.
Senator Oliver Wendell Holmes
William Howard Taft - Once described as the “softer Taft”, not only as a jab for his figure but also his approach to politics compared that of his brother. Placed by his powerful brother as the overseer of the American occupation forces of Fujian and the American ambassador to the Bonifacian Filipino Republic (officially the Sovereign Tagalog Republic). Young Taft was renowned for his diligent and pragmatic work as a diplomat. Taft’s efforts and reforms in Fujian already uncovered a steadily growing “Americanized” society in the province, lifting its population from the repression of the former Qing government into the American brand of modernization. Praised by seemingly all members of the Freedomite factions, a praise for diplomacy only behind that of George von Lengerke Meyer. His general popularly and esteem made him an attractive candidate for a unifying nominee. Though Taft himself preferred his diplomatic station, or possibly a station in the US Supreme Court like Holmes before him, many influences continued to sway Taft to seek the nomination. One of those surprisingly being Commonwealth House Leader Theodore Roosevelt, who had a personal friendship with Taft, and continued to encourage him to seek the high office. His brother Charlie, the Freedomite House Leader, certainly would be please if his brother would be elevated to the high office. Taft continues to be slightly reluctant, though many recognize the pressure would certain thrust him into acceptance. Senator William McKinley would say in Taft's support "Many men here have individual commendable qualities, but Mr. Taft was gifted with truly presidential ones.".
Taft with the \"Taft Commission\", his diplomatic staff who aid him with his daunting diplomatic tasks
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2024.05.16 05:57 TheVeganDragon_ Help With an Education Project?

I'm working on a big project to educate about bits (the metal thing they put in a horse's mouth to control them) as most people don't know what they are, how they work, or how they harm horses. The information is crucial for activists, and the general population, to know so we can help these animals.
I've been collecting used bits, from the most commonly used, to the extreme ones with spikes. Yes, it's legal in the US and elsewhere to put metal covered in spikes in a horse's mouth... I've gotten lasso bits, overcheck bits, etc. and collected the studies, documentaries, books, etc of scientists and leading experts from around the world.
I've been working on this for a while. I have SOOOO much research, studies, etc. But I'm really running out of funds for this important project. No one else is doing anything like this so I really need to ensure it gets done and helps educate everyone on these important facts. Especially in the US as some European countries have had big education movements about bit, whip, spur, etc. abuse.
Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone might be interested in helping donate money so I can buy some more bits and a horse head model. I have a skull of a mare, but I would also like a stallion's skull since they do have different teeth than a mare so the bit can effect them differently. No, the skulls do not come from slaughterhouses. I find them in estate sales or from animals who die in the wild and their skulls were discovered. There's a large market for found skulls so getting a wild horse skull isn't an issue. There's people who go for hikes in the wilderness just to find bones and then sell them to schools, collectors, etc.
Anyway, Would anyone be interested in helping with this? I am more than happy to share what I already have, the studies I have, etc! ^_^ I'm excited to work on this project and hope to get it done before the end of the summer!
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2024.05.16 05:04 MirkWorks Excerpt from The Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch (The Narcissistic Personality of Our Time Continuation)

II. The Narcissistic Personality of Our Time
...
Social Influences on Narcissism
Every age develops its own peculiar forms of pathology, which express in exaggerated form its underlying character structure. In Freud’s time, hysteria and obsessional neurosis carried to extremes the personality traits associated with the capitalist order at an earlier stage in its development - acquisitiveness, fanatical devotion to work, and a fierce repression of sexuality. In our time, the preschizophrenic, borderline, or personality disorders have attracted increasing attention, along with schizophrenia itself. This “change in the form of neuroses has been observed and described since World War II by an ever-increasing number of psychiatrists.” According to Peter L. Giovacchini, “Clinicians are constantly faced with the seemingly increasing number of patients who do not fit current diagnostic categories” and who suffer not from “definitive symptoms” but from “vague, ill-defined complaints.” “When I refer to ‘this type of patient,’” he writes, “practically everyone knows to whom I am referring.” The growing prominence of “character disorders” seems to signify an underlying change in the organization of personality, from what has been called inner-direction to narcissism.
Allen Wheelis argued in 1958 that the change in the “patterns of neuroses” fell “within the personal experience of older psychoanalysts,” while younger ones “become aware of it from the discrepancy between the older descriptions of neuroses and the problems presented by the patients who come daily to their offices. The change is from symptom neuroses to character disorders.” Heinz Lichtenstein, who questioned the additional assertion that it reflected a change in personality structure, nevertheless wrote in 1963 that the “change in neurotic patterns” already constituted a “well-known fact.” In the seventies, such reports have become increasingly common. “It is not accident,” Herbert Hendin notes, “that at the present time the dominant events in psychoanalysis are the rediscovery of narcissism and the new emphasis on the psychological significance of death.” “What hysteria and the obsessive neuroses were to Freud and his early colleagues…at the beginning of this century,” writes Michael Beldoch, “the narcissistic disorders are to the workaday analyst in these last few decades before the next millennium. Today’s patients by and large do not suffer from hysterical paralyses of the legs or hand-washing compulsions; instead it is their very psychic selves that have gone numb or that they must scrub and rescrub in an exhausting and unending effort to come clean.” These patients suffer from “pervasive feelings of emptiness and a deep disturbance of self-esteem.” Burness E. Moore notes that narcissistic disorders have become more and more common. According to Sheldon Bach, “You used to see people coming in with hand-washing compulsions, phobias, and familiar neuroses. Now you see mostly narcissists.” Gilbert J. Rose maintains that the psychoanalytic outlook, “inappropriately transplanted from analytic practice” to everyday life, has contributed to “global permissiveness” and the “over-domestication of instinct,” which in turn contributes to the proliferation of “narcissistic identity disorders.” According to Joel Kovel, the stimulation of infantile cravings by advertising, the usurpation of parental authority by the media and the school, and the rationalization of inner life accompanied by the false promise of personal fulfillment, have created a new type of “social individual.” “The result is not the classical neuroses where an infantile impulse is suppressed by patriarchal authority, but a modern version in which impulse is stimulated, perverted and given neither an adequate object upon which to satisfy itself nor coherent forms of control…. The entire complex, played out in a setting of alienation rather than direct control, loses the classical form of symptom - and the classical therapeutic opportunity of simply restoring an impulse to consciousness.”
The reported increase in the number of narcissistic patients does not necessarily indicate that narcissistic disorders are more common than they used to be, in the population as a whole, or that they have become more common than the classical conversion neurosis. Perhaps they simply come more quickly to psychiatric attention. Ilza Veith contends that “with the increasing awareness of conversion reactions and the popularization of psychiatric literature, the ‘old-fashioned’ somatic expressions of hysteria have become suspect among the more sophisticated classes, and hence most physicians observe that obvious conversion symptoms are now rarely encountered and, if at all, only among the uneducated.” The attention given to character disorders in recent clinical literature probably makes psychiatrists more alert to their presence. But this possibility by no means diminishes the importance of psychiatric testimony about the prevalence of narcissism, especially when this testimony appears at the same time that journalists begin to speculate about the new narcissism and the unhealthy trend toward self-absorption. The narcissist comes to the attention of psychiatrists for some of the same reasons that he rises to positions of prominence not only in awareness movements and other cults but in business corporations, political organizations, and government bureaucracies. For all his inner suffering, the narcissist has many traits that make for success in bureaucratic institutions, which put a premium on the manipulation of interpersonal relations, discourage the formation of deep personal attachments, and at the same time provide the narcissist with the approval he needs in order to validate his self-esteem. Although he may resort to therapies that promise to give meaning to life and to overcome his sense of emptiness, in his professional career the narcissist often enjoys considerable success. The management of personal impressions comes naturally to him, and his mastery of its intricacies serves him well in political and business organizations where performance now counts for less than “visibility,” “momentum,” and a winning record. As the “organization man” gives way to the bureaucratic “gamesman” - the “loyalty era” of American business to the age of the “executive success game” - the narcissist comes into his own.
In a study of 250 managers from twelve major companies, Michael Maccoby describes the new corporate leader, not altogether unsympathetically, as a person who works with people rather than with materials and who seeks not to build an empire or accumulate wealth but to experience “the exhilaration of running his team and of gaining victories.” He wants to “be known as a winner, and his deepest fear is to be labeled a loser.” Instead of pitting himself against a material task or a problem demanding solution, he puts himself against others, out of a “need to be in control.” As a recent textbook for managers puts it, success today means “not simply getting ahead” but “getting ahead of others.” The new executive, boyish, playful, and “seductive,” wants in Maccoby’s words “to maintain an illusion of limitless options.” He has little capacity for “personal intimacy and social commitment.” He feels little loyalty even to the company for which he works. One executive says he experiences power “as not being pushed around by the company.” In his upward climb, this man cultivates powerful customers and attempts to use them against his own company. “You need a very big customer,” according to his calculations, “who is always in trouble and demands changes from the company. That way you automatically have power in the company, and with the customer too. I like to keep my options open.” A professor of management endorses this strategy. “Overidentification” with the company, in his view, “produces a corporation with enormous power over the careers and destinies of its true believers.” The bigger the company, the more important he thinks it is for executes “to manage their careers in terms of their own…free choices” and to “maintain the widest set of options possible.”
According to Maccoby, the gamesman “is open to new ideas, but he lacks convictions.” He will do business with any regime, even if he disapproves of its principles. More independent and resourceful than the company man, he tries to use the company for his own ends, fearing that otherwise he will be “totally emasculated by the corporation.” He avoids intimacy as a trap, preferring the “exciting, sexy atmosphere” with which the modern executive surrounds himself at work, “where adoring, mini-skirted secretaries constantly flirt with him.” In all his personal relations, the gamesman depends on the admiration or fear he inspires in others to certify his credentials as a “winner.” As he gets older, he finds it more and more difficult to command the kind of attention on which he thrives. He reaches a plateau beyond which he does not advance in his job, perhaps because the very highest positions, as Maccoby notes, still go to “those able to renounce adolescent rebelliousness and become at least to some extent believers in the organization.” The job begins to lose its savor. Having little interest in craftsmanship, the new-style executive takes no pleasure in his achievements once he begins to lose the adolescent charm on which they rest. Middle age hits him with the force of a disaster: “Once his youth, vigor, and even the thrill in winning are lost, he becomes depressed and goalless, questioning the purpose of his life. No longer energized by the team struggle and unable to dedicate himself to something he believes in beyond himself, … he finds himself starkly alone.” It is not surprising, given the prevalence of this career pattern, that popular psychology returns so often to the “midlife crisis” and to ways of combating it.
In Wilfrid Sheed’s novel Office Politics, a wife asks, “There are real issues, aren’t there, between Mr. Fine and Mr. Tyler?” Her husband answers that the issues are trivial; “the jockeying of ego is the real story.” Eugene Emerson Jennings’s study of management, which celebrates the demise of the organization man and the advent of the new “era of mobility,” insists that corporate “mobility is more than mere job performance.” What counts is “style…panache…the ability to say and do almost anything without antagonizing others.” The upwardly mobile executive, according to Jennings, knows how to handle the people around him - the “shelf-sitter” who suffers from “arrested mobility” and envies success; the “fast learner”; the “mobile superior.” The “mobility-bright executive” has learned to “read” the power relations in his office and “to see the less visible and less audible side of his superiors, chiefly their standing with their peers and superiors.” He “Can infer from a minimum of cues who are the centers of power, and he seeks to have high visibility and exposure with them. He will assiduously cultivate his standing and opportunities with them and seize every opportunity to learn from them. He will utilize his opportunities in social world to size up the men who are centers of sponsorship in the corporate world.”
Constantly comparing the “executive success game” to an athletic contest or a game of chess, Jennings treats the substance of executive life as if it were just as arbitrarily and irrelevant to success as the task of kicking a ball through a net or of moving pieces over a chessboard. He never mentions the social and economic repercussions of managerial decisions or the power that managers exercise over society as a whole. For the corporate manager on the make, power consists not of money and influence but of “momentum,” a “winning image,” a reputation as a winner . Power lies in the eye of the beholder and thus has no objective reference at all.
The manager’s view of the world, as described by Jennings, Maccoby, and by the managers themselves, is that of the narcissist, who sees the world as a mirror of himself and has no interest in external events except as they throw back a reflection of his own image. The dense interpersonal environment of modern bureaucracy, in which work assumes an abstract quality almost wholly divorced from performance, by its very nature elicits and often rewards a narcissistic response. Bureaucracy, however, is only one of a number of social influences that are bringing a narcissistic type of personality organization into greater and greater prominence. Another such influence is the mechanical reproduction of culture, the proliferation of visual and audial images in the “society of the spectacle.” We live in a swirl of images and echoes that arrest experience and play it back in slow motion. Cameras and recording machines not only transcribe experience but alter its quality, giving to much of modern life that character of an enormous echo chamber, a hall of mirrors. Life presents itself as a succession of images of electronic signals, of impressions recorded and reproduced by means of photography, motion pictures, television, and sophisticated recording devices. Modern life is thoroughly mediated by electronic images that we cannot help responding to others as if their actions - and our own - were being recorded and simultaneously transmitted to an unseen audience or stored up for close scrutiny at some later time. “Smile, you’re on candid camera!” The intrusion into everyday life of this all-seeing eye no longer takes us by surprise or catches us with our defenses down. We need no reminder to smile. A smile is permanently graven on our features, and we already known from which of several angles its photographs to best advantage.
The proliferation of recorded images undermines our sense of reality. As Susan Sontag observes in her study of photography, “Reality has come to seem more and more like what we are shown by cameras.” We distrust our perceptions until the camera verifies them. Photographic images provide us with the proof of our existence, without which we would find it difficult even to reconstruct a personal history. Bourgeois families in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Sontag points out, posed for portraits in order to proclaim the family’s status, whereas today the family album of photographs verifies the individual’s existence: its documentary record of his development from infancy onward provides him with the only evidence of his life that he recognizes as altogether valid. Among the “many narcissistic uses” that Sontag attributes to the camera, “self-surveillance” ranks among the most important, not only because it provides the technical means of ceaseless self-scrutiny but because it renders the sense of selfhood dependent on the consumption of images of the self, at the same time calling into question the reality of the external world.
By preserving images of the self at various stages of development, the camera helps to weaken the older idea of development as moral education and to promote a more passive idea according to which development consists of passing through the stages of life at the right time and in the right order. Current fascination with the life cycle embodies an awareness that success in politics or business depends on reaching certain goals on schedule; but it also reflects the ease with which developments can be electronically recorded. This brings us to another cultural change that elicits a widespread narcissistic response and, in this case, gives it a philosophical sanction: the emergence of a therapeutic ideology that upholds a normative schedule of psychosocial development and thus gives further encouragement to anxious self-scrutiny. The idea of normative development creates the fear that any deviation from the norm has a pathological source. Doctors have made a cult of periodic checkup - an investigation carried out once again by means of cameras and other recording instruments - and have implanted in their clients the notion that health depends on eternal watchfulness and the early detection of symptoms, as verified by medical technology. The client no longer feels physically or psychologically secure until his X-rays confirm a “clean bill of health.”
Medicine and psychiatry - more generally, the therapeutic outlook and sensibility that pervade modern society - reinforce the pattern created by other cultural influences, in which the individual endlessly examines himself for signs of aging and ill health, for tell-tale symptoms of psychic stress, for blemishes and flaws that might diminish his attractiveness, or on the other hand for reassuring indications that his life is proceeding according to schedule. Modern medicine has conquered the plagues and epidemics that once made life so precarious, only to create new forms of insecurity. In the same way, bureaucracy has made life predictable and even boring while reviving, in a new form, the war of all against all. Our overorganized society, in which large-scale organizations predominate but have lost the capacity to command allegiance, in some respects more nearly approximates a condition of universal animosity than did the primitive capitalism on which Hobbes managed his state of nature. Social conditions today encourage a survival mentality, expressed in its crudest form in disaster movies or in fantasies of space travel, which allow vicarious escape from a doomed planet. People no longer dream of overcoming difficulties but merely of surviving them. In business, according to Jennings, “The struggle is to survive emotionally” -to “preserve or enhance one’s identity or ego.” The normative concept of developmental stages promotes a view of life as an obstacle course: the aim is simply to get through the course with a minimum of trouble and pain. The ability to manipulate what Gail Sheehy refers to, using a medical metaphor, as “life-support systems” now appears to represent the highest form of wisdom: the knowledge that gets us through, as she puts it, without panic. Those who master Sheehy’s “no-panic approach to aging” and to the traumas of the life cycle will be able to say, in the words of one of her subjects, “I know I can survive… I don’t panic any more.” This is hardly an exalted form of satisfaction, however. “The current ideology,” Sheehy writes, “seems a mix of personal survivalism, revivalism, and cynicism”; yet her enormously popular guide to the “predictable crises of adult life,” with its superficially optimistic hymn to growth, development, and “self-actualization,” does not challenge this ideology, merely restates it in more “humanistic” form. “Growth” has become a euphemism for survival.
The World View of the Resigned
New social forms require new forms of personality, new modes of socialization, new ways of organizing experience. The concept of narcissism provides us not with a ready-made psychological determinism but with a way of understanding the psychological impact of recent social changes - assuming that we bear in mind not only its clinical origins but the continuum between pathology and normality. It provides us, in other words, with a tolerably accurate portrait of the “liberated” personality of our time, with his charm, his pseudo-awareness of his own condition, his promiscuous pansexuality, his fascination with oral sex, his fear of the castrating mother (Mrs. Portnoy), his hypochondria, his protective shallowness, his avoidance of dependence, his inability to mourn, his dread of old age and death.
Narcissism appears realistically to represent the best way of coping with the tensions and anxieties of modern life, and the prevailing social conditions therefore tend to bring out narcissistic traits that are present, in varying degrees, in everyone. These condition have also transformed the family, which in turn shapes the underlying structure of personality. A society that dears it has no future is not likely to give much attention to the needs of the next generation, and the ever-present sense of historical discontinuity - the blight of our society - falls with particularly devastating effect on the family. The modern parent’s attempt to make children feel loved and wanted does not conceal an underlying coolness - the remoteness of those who have little to pass on the next generation and who in any case give priority to their own right to self-fulfillment. The combination of emotional detachment with attempts to convince a child of his favored position in the family is a good prescription for a narcissistic personality structure.
Through the intermediary of the family, social patterns reproduce themselves in personality. Social arrangements live on in the individual, buried in the mind below the level of consciousness, even after they have become objectively undesirable and unnecessary - as many of our present arrangements are now widely acknowledged to have become. The perception of the world as a dangerous and forbidding place, though it originates in a realistic awareness of the insecurity of contemporary social life, receives reinforcement from the narcissistic projection of aggressive impulses outward. The belief that society has no future, while it rests on a certain realism about the dangers ahead, also incorporates a narcissistic inability to identify with posterity or to feel one self part of a historical stream.
The weakening of social ties, which originates in the prevailing state of social warfare, at the same time reflects a narcissistic defense against dependence. A warlike society tends to produce men and women who are at heart antisocial. It should therefore not surprise us to find that although the narcissist conforms to social norms for fear of external retribution, he often thinks of himself as an outlaw and sees others in the same way, “as basically dishonest and unreliable, or only reliable because of external pressures.” “The value systems of narcissistic personalities are generally corruptible,” writes Kernberg, “in contrast to the rigid morality of the obsessive personality.”
The ethic of self-preservation and psychic survival is rooted, then, not merely in objective conditions of economic warfare, rising rates of crime, and social chaos but in the subjective experience of emptiness and isolation. It reflects the conviction - as much a projection of inner anxieties as a perception of the way things are - that envy and exploitation dominate even the most intimate relations. The cult of personal relations, which becomes increasingly intense as the hope of political solutions recedes, conceals a thoroughgoing disenchantment with personal relations, just as the cult of sensuality implies a repudiation of sensuality in all but its most primitive forms. The ideology of personal growth, superficially optimistic, radiates a profound despair and resignation. It is the faith of those without faith.
submitted by MirkWorks to u/MirkWorks [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 04:45 semiurge D20x5 Staristocrats of the Faufreluchean Future

Inspired by Solomon VK's Faufreluche posts.
D20 This staristocrat's badge of office
1 is a golden diadem which projects a hologram of Old Sol from its highest tine, as well as the rest of Man's Cradle-System orbiting about it.
2 is a hideous diamondoid mask made in the image of an alien demi-god from whom their esteemed house claims descent.
3 is an auroran magneto-cloth cape which flares with the oscillations of subtle fields.
4 is a porous meteoric amulet that echoes with the music of the spheres.
5 is a blade of enchained magnetic monopoles channeling ouroboric tangles of plasma - ever-glowing, their patterned glows expressing the cyclical yet self-degrading nature of the cosmos, able to cut through all but the most unnaturally enforced materials.
6 is a scepter containing a degenerate micro-verse within its topping globe.
7 is a battered helmet pulled from the suit of one of the first humans to reach outer space.
8 is a battle standard bearing the heraldry of their family, and topped with the head of a lion, preserved and animated to roaring unlife by cybernetic tubes woven through its flesh and bone.
9 is a halo of abstract mathematics, written directly on the fabric of space-time rather than mere matter.
10 is a pauldron of fused silicon, the remains of an artificial intelligence which almost overcame humanity.
11 is a dilating-lens lantern of an indestructible, orange-green alloy - fully unleashed, its actinic brilliance can guide in a ship from high orbit.
12 is a vial of their own, genetically-perfected blood, crystallized into a ruby-like gem.
13 is a crown of golden rings hovering about each other, each engraved with the zodiac of a different solar system.
14 is a famous artifact of Earth preserved within a temporal stasis-orb.
15 is a set of infrasonic pan pipes that can manipulate the minds of men and machine alike.
16 is a holy book written by the first settler of their world, in an eclectic script unreadable by anyone yet living.
17 is a shield with a brazen, hypercubic boss and a rippling purplish forcefield about.
18 is a labrys bearing edges honed to subatomic sharpness with whetstones hewn from the preternaturally dense heart of a collapsed star.
19 is a bowl holding a fractal bonzai grafted with branches of every fruit-bearing tree of humanity's homeworld.
20 is the head-sized smaragdine egg of some voidborne beast, the inevitable hatching of which is said to herald the end of the universe.
D20 This staristocrat's holdings
1 lie under a dimming sun, weakened by its fusion-harvest which forms the foundation of the staristocrat's wealth.
2 contain no life-bearing worlds, its population sustained only by technocratic hydro-pneumatic despotism.
3 bear the glassy-green sheen and asymmetrical mutations left by ancient nuclear war.
4 are mineral-rich but poor in organics and water, expending most of their export-wealth on life-giving imports just to survive.
5 produce a unique and inimitable spice, and are thus coveted by an extra-solar rival.
6 are either watery or gaseous, with dry, solid ground an unimaginable luxury - the populace living on great rafts or aerostats.
7 have recently absorbed a mass of refugees fleeing a black swan xeno-threat.
8 were enclosed from the common space of comet-cowboys, who plague it with their raids to this day.
9 are nestled among the ruins of an extinct alien civilization, probed only gently for fear of waking their automatic guardians.
10 are slowly but surely having their life-giving atmospheres stripped away by the rapacious solar wind of their red gigantism-suffering sun.
11 are deliberately kept ignorant of the wider galactic community to reduce their capacity to revolt, and so that the ruling class can portray themselves as deific through their technological capabilities.
12 are undergoing a long and delicate process of terraforming which structures cultural and religious cycles around these artificial seasons and critical thresholds.
13 are overgrown with a police state only nominally under the staristocrat's authority, and the computational bureaucracy that's arisen to process all their surveillance.
14 are infamous for their permissiveness, and abound in every sort of vice.
15 are torn apart on a planetary scale for the sake of resource-harvest and industry, and what unruptured ground exists is blanketed in choking smog outside sealed habitats.
16 were recently seized from a treasonous vassal and bestowed upon this staristocrat - the old holder's sympathizers still lurk within the population, evading the claws of inquisition.
17 exist mostly fictitiously, as moving shell-games of companies and titles.
18 are centered on an ecumenopolis with some roads paved with stones hewn before humanity's ancestors came down from the trees - its corners hide occultic dens of our darkest imaginings.
19 are generally scorching, deserts or liquid hells, their structures mirrored and extending tubes of heat exchanges and radiators like a seraphim wings.
20 are verdant in all forms of life - none go hungry, yet many are eaten, and a clan of masked physicians go about the populace to rebuke the tides of plague.
D20 This staristocrat is attended by
1 a harem of genetically-engineered Willendorfian Venuses, bearing a continuous stream of heirs who will duel over the matter of their inheritance in the arena of their crèche.
2 artful historians hunchbent over data-tablets, preserving every moment and detail of the staristocrat's life in imperishable crystalline records.
3 nigh-invisible bodyguards swaddled in light-bending metamaterial cloaks, heat haze auras ready to strike down any offense against their master.
4 clanking cyborg-knights - behind their cuirasses are tanks preserving the most loyal and chivalrous parts of their mortal brains.
5 slaves bearing explosive collars - the tribute of many conquered worlds.
6 a squadron of musclebound eunuch-janissaries raised from childhood with size- and strength-stimulating hormones and non-stop brainwashing.
7 clones of themself educated according to various traditions as diverse yet biologically-partial advisors.
8 the cryogenically-preserved heads of their forefathers, which sometimes dispense shivering, crackling counsel.
9 hovering laser-turrets fitted with targeting algorithms able to anticipate their master's desire to kill before it's consciously felt.
10 an enormous parrot with impeccable skill at mimicry, whose mind has been overwritten with every song recorded by humanity up until the time of its creation.
11 a pair of titanic wolfdogs, with metallic teeth that could rend apart a tank and hides that have turned aside artillery-shells.
12 the plush animatronic companion of their childhood, its digital personality updated to be a competent advisor.
13 a caste of butlers who've served their family for generations, bred like pedigreed dogs.
14 a choir singing their praises, the choir's lungs replaced with cybernetic jet-intakes slatted between ribs, so that they might sing unceasing.
15 a former whipping boy, their oldest friend, bearing the delicate scars of tremendously sophisticated tortures.
16 tumbling jesters dressed in patchworks of impossible colours captured from the coronas of half-real suns.
17 technotheologic angels dancing through the air on wings of incandescent blazons.
18 abductees from primitive worlds fitted with neural implants which make them believe they are simply in an extended dream.
19 a team of chefs who can prepare the delicacies of a dozen worlds, never repeating the same twice in their master's lifetime.
20 grey masters of anagathic science, whisper-arguing over the injections and ointments that will quicken them a while longer.
D20 This staristocrat's court
1 is entertained by a vapourous alien intelligence which takes possession of lesser courtiers through a fanciful hookah.
2 has its lesser members partially memory-wiped when they attend it - able to recall their skills, yet unable to remember much of their own identities, and so how to apply those skills for personal benefit.
3 is deliberately, performatively humble, held in barns and suchlike.
4 is overlooked by a cine-dome showing stars, moons, and constellations in fortuitous alignments.
5 is addicted to novelty, and constantly seeks new performances and grotesques.
6 is made up nepotistically of their siblings who did not win the contest to inherit the throne.
7 are waited on hand and foot by fragile ceramic robots imprinted with the tightly-enchained engrams of political criminals.
8 takes place entirely remotely - members are provided radio-devices with frequencies that trigger voice-like vibrations in great bells this staristocrat is in the constant presence of.
9 were at first ironically and now legitimately entranced by a bloody cult of sacrifice and agonies.
10 has been forced to accept elected representatives from among the populace by a revolt - to the grumblings of those who attained their positions through inheritance.
11 is wracked by a scandal involving mistresses overspending from public coffers.
12 is perpetually-wrapped in augmented-reality projections of mythic mimesis.
13 is burrowed among the roots of the biggest mountain of their throne-world, so that it could survive all but the most devastating attacks.
14 are all accompanied by a member of an order of courtesan-assassins implanted with acid-glands in case their charge shows overt disloyalty.
15 solve disputes among themselves with duels, and drill daily with various weapons and fighting styles.
16 is held within a hollow pyramid, with this staristocrat at the top point and many stairs and levels filtering petitioners between them and the entrance at the base.
17 is largely taken over by a conspiracy to poison this staristocrat, and even the uninvolved have begun to circle like vultures.
18 is a ring of stone thrones built to scale with the renown of the one who sits upon them - this staristocrat themself sits like a small child on a throne fit for giants - their seneschal on a stool.
19 is held around a colosseum, where gladiators and vicious alien beasts fight for their amusement and haruspexies.
20 is itinerant, a grand airship which hovers above the realms of hosting vavasours.
D20 This staristocrat's noble flaw
1 is hubris - they believe they can become like God by funding breakneck scientific process.
2 is bravery - they will fight to the last in the face of overwhelming odds, even if better options present themselves.
3 is honour - their thinking is rigid and totally un-utilitarian.
4 is generousity - they give without thinking, disrupting economies and fostering dependence with their largesse.
5 is parental love - they spoil their children on a terrible, cosmic scale.
6 is a thirst for justice - a continent has burned due to their need for a punishment fitting a truly awful crime.
7 is filial piety - their increasingly-senile dowager-mother has them tied around her bony finger.
8 is tolerance - they've cultivated cosmopolitan communities, yet failed to confront division and rising extremism.
9 is an aesthetic sense that is souring into decadence.
10 is persistence - they are a dogged obsessive.
11 is realpolitik - they've alienated possible allies with ruthlessness.
12 is faith - they lean often into outright zealotry.
13 is cautiousness - they often dive into outright paranoia.
14 is competitiveness - they're innovative, but often only in the tortures applied to defeated rivals.
15 is cleanliness - they have advanced to a purgative germaphobia.
16 is contentment - they have come to peace with all things, even if others demand their action.
17 is honesty - they will never lie, even if it benefits them and their people.
18 is is humility - they are overly-convinced of their own incapacity.
19 is romantic love - their spouse manipulates them to their knowledge yet total acquiescence.
20 is imagination - their fancies often end up unproductive or outright destructive.
submitted by semiurge to d100 [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 03:36 almightymints When are you okay with paying above PriceCharting?

Just got back from a camping trip and happened upon a small retro collectibles store on the way home in a fairly small town. They had a great selection of games, better than some of the stores we have in my way more populated area, but everything was marked 10%-15% above PriceCharting. The exceptions being common and generally inexpensive games (Halo, LEGO, NFS, Madden, etc.) - those were all regularly priced.
I found quite a few things I rarely see near me, and purchased a few. I figured the novelty of happening upon a small town retro gaming store and finding some key games for the collection was worth the premium I paid for it. Considering the kinda random location (no other gaming stores sans one GameStop for MANY miles), I frankly found it a little exciting too!
When do you feel comfortable overpaying? Or are you strict about getting those screamin’ deals?
submitted by almightymints to gamecollecting [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:50 Worth-Employer2748 Gender & Fantasy Creatures

Do you often wonder why certain creatures of myth are consistently adapted for visual mediums with a specific archetype? For example, I rarely see female centaurs in onscreen Fantasy adaptations. Or why are Mermaids, Sirens and Succubi almost always predominantly women with Merman's and Incubi not really being pop cultural staples? A lot of these mythical beings are obviously some representation of the author or general society's fears and fascinations with a particular group of people. For Centaurs of Greek Myth, some explaination as to why they were almost always male is rooted in propaganda against Persian male migrants. The perception of the maurauding horde of lustful and violent 'outsiders' came to dominate their image. Mermaids (especially being inhabitants of the ocean) are the visual embodiment of female liberty while Sirens and Succubi are normally seen as the fearful side society has of femininity and female sexuality. What mythical creature has come to represent your wildest ideas about society and which popular or unpopular ones do you think still perpetuate certain ideas about a segment of the population or our collective culture?
submitted by Worth-Employer2748 to fantasywriters [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:45 InnerRadio7 Conjoint hamstring tendon-full thickness tear, anyone familiar with tendon surgeries?

In December, I tore my conjoint hamstring tendon off the bone. I was doing gentle yoga, and I move from one side to the other. 2 big bangs and bye bye leg.
When I presented at the hospital, they didn’t even look for this injury despite my textbook presentation. Apparently it’s a very uncommon injury in the general population, and is really only seen in the context of pro level sports. I told them about the Ehler’s Danlos. (It took 2 weeks for them to give me an MRI, and they treated me like I was crazy until they saw the results.)
Side note: I saw 2 Orthopaedic Surgeons who did physical exams-and they both told me I wasn’t injured and an X-ray and ultrasound were enough. Please my friends, if anything like this happens advocate for an MRI or Spect CT right away and don’t stop until you get it.
Full thickness tear of conjoint tendon, retraction of the tendons and muscle is 2.7 cm. I have 9/10 pain in the leg, and my knee is so lose I now have permanent 7-9/10 pain in my knee.
Does anyone have any experience with extreme or catastrophic tendon rupture resulting in surgery? Which tendon, and what was your result? Have you had this injury and lived without surgical repair?
submitted by InnerRadio7 to ehlersdanlos [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:40 aeuouea I love spiders but there are getting to be too many in my cabin

I have no issue with spiders and I appreciate the pest control that they contribute in my little dry cabin. I live in Alaska (farther south, so not freezing cold, I have all four seasons here) and the bugs tend to flock to my cabin for warmth. That hasn’t been too much of an issue as summer comes on, as the local spider population on my ceiling keeps them in check. But now, there is one visible spider for every corner of the room… which is 7. Sometimes I catch them crawling in the bed or up my leg. I’ve never been bitten, and I’m not too worried about it, as I have only seen little guys and wolf spiders. But what do I do to cut back on being so welcoming? Should I introduce a species that eats spiders to even things out? Are there types of candles of some sort, like the ones that deter mosquitoes? (Also, would love tips on how to keep them out in general. I don’t mind them, but my fiancé does!) TLDR; too many spiders in my room! How do I humanely deter them from coming? (Besides physically removing each one)
submitted by aeuouea to pestcontrol [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:34 No-Thanks-3825 33 [F4M] looking for someone to send me music. Maybe more if I like your taste ;)

Hi!
I’m looking for something real, long term, and not interested in nsfw, probably. Lol just kidding, please don’t, I’m classy and stuff.
I’m a unique mix of awkward, judgy, and sassy, but in a good way? A little wild, but only to say I’m as crazy as the average woman. You’ll probably like me anyway.
I feel too old to be on Reddit, so assume I’ve lived some life already. I’m hoping to find someone in that same place. Please have your shit together. Goals and stability are sexy. Stereotypical guy is my ideal, but also someone who can make me laugh and has good taste in music :)
At the risk of offending the populous, I’m not into anime. I’ve never met anyone in real life who is, but I think it’s because they live here on Reddit, so I just have to put it out there. Also, gaming is fine, but I’m not looking for a “gamer”.
Ugh, these things are the worst. Thank goodness I don’t work in sales. Although, I probably could just write “female” a few times and have a thousand responses. If this doesn’t work, I’ll try that.
If you’re interested and maybe looking for the possibility of an actual relationship, send me a message with your name and general location.
submitted by No-Thanks-3825 to ForeverAloneDating [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:33 MaleficentLocal2740 1500 mile report

1500 mile report
I'm from central México, got my Navi December 2022. The reason I decided to get the Navi was because even though I live in a small town, 100,000 population. Traffic can get annoying, mostly for complete lack of driving culture and.common sense. Gas cost and driving to places in a SUV became hectic; did some math, went to the bank and payments are basically what I'm saving on gas, also not putting miles on my now secondary vehicle, and cut all my commuting time by more than half. I got it having never riden a bike, I'm falling in love with bikes in general.
I got the bike for about $1500 new. I've done some modifications, painted black the handle bar, Mexican navis have chromed handle bars, smoked headlight and turn signals, removed back fender, breathers, bought a performance air intake, but it made it too loud so changed it back, added a Casio and that it I think. My future mod would be the shock, you can imagine how many speed bumps I have here, maybe rollers. Drive safe you guys!
submitted by MaleficentLocal2740 to hondanavi [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:32 No-Thanks-3825 33 [F4M] looking for someone to send me music. Maybe more if I like your taste ;)

Hi!
I’m looking for something real, long term, and not interested in nsfw, probably. Lol just kidding, please don’t, I’m classy and stuff.
I’m a unique mix of awkward, judgy, and sassy, but in a good way? A little wild, but only to say I’m as crazy as the average woman. You’ll probably like me anyway.
I feel too old to be on Reddit, so assume I’ve lived some life already. I’m hoping to find someone in that same place. Please have your shit together. Goals and stability are sexy. Stereotypical guy is my ideal, but also someone who can make me laugh and has good taste in music :)
At the risk of offending the populous, I’m not into anime. I’ve never met anyone in real life who is, but I think it’s because they live here on Reddit, so I just have to put it out there. Also, gaming is fine, but I’m not looking for a “gamer”.
Ugh, these things are the worst. Thank goodness I don’t work in sales. Although, I probably could just write “female” a few times and have a thousand responses. If this doesn’t work, I’ll try that.
If you’re interested and maybe looking for the possibility of an actual relationship, send me a message with your name and general location.
submitted by No-Thanks-3825 to R4R30Plus [link] [comments]

2024.05.16 02:28 ryeander Is it morally reprehensible to work part time as a physician, or retire early?

Is it morally reprehensible to work part time as a physician, or retire early?
I received a lot of hate and vitriol for describing our plan (we are a double physician household) for retiring at age 38. Is it really that immoral that doctors shouldn’t either work part time or quit early at our own discretion?
What’s wrong with focusing our limited time on earth to raising our kids and actually enjoying life after locking up our teens and twenties and thirties dedicated to serving others in grueling training/endless studying?
Haven’t we sacrificed a lot more than the general population just to help people?
submitted by ryeander to whitecoatinvestor [link] [comments]

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