#Do. Not. Contribute. To. Media. Illiteracy!

[plottwiststudios]

Cheat Codes To Make A Writer Listen

Merry Christmas and all that. Here's a trendy guide to get writers, especially Indie writers, not to treat your feedback like negative noise!

Actually know what you're talking about

Don't hyper-focus on just the negatives

Don't only appear when you have criticisms

Don't treat their growth and improvements as a repellant

Don't run when people call out real flaws in your critiques

Don't undermine or ignore the good parts

Don't critique if you are literally unable to appreciate the good

Don't forget that it was easier for you to criticize than it was for them to create the story

Doing these things is a surefire way to send the message "Hey, I just wanted to bum you out because your story wasn't 200% what I wanted, and your actual improvement was not the chief priority."

It's not a weakness to acknowledge the strength of the writer when expressing how they can help their weaknesses. Acknowledge their strengths. Acknowledge their strengths. Acknowledge their strengths.

#Writing #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #media criticism #media critique #For the child back there about to say that I'm not taking certain situations into account: DUH. This is for when the critic is obviously ba #Do. Not. Contribute. To. Media. Illiteracy!

[evildilf2]

I think “media literacy crisis” might be hyperbolic & that “media illiteracy” being overrepresented has to do with the failures of our education system being put on display by the internet (in addition to spaces online being all age zones, not strictly for kids or adults, but that’s another topic). I say this because “media illiteracy” is not treated as if it were a crisis, but a moral issue… if someone’s skills for analyzing literature are underdeveloped, people often imply or outright say it is because they were a lazy in high school, “too busy drawing eyes” or whatever. It’s a systemic issue maaaan. & this also contributes to “media illiterate” and “poor reading comprehension” just being used as dunks these days, often by people who’s reading comprehension isn’t so great themselves. There’s no earnest desire to help people learn, just a drive to humiliate others. IDK.

#all my little words

[lockandkeyhyena]

as someone who's JUST been raped again this whole story thing you have going on feels like a huge betrayal. sorry not sorry but rape culture already forgives abusers, ESPECIALLY if they're male, and your story contributes to normalizing abuse because "ohhh the rapist is just a little guy!! the rapist ALSO has feewings ohhhh they're sooooo sad they totally regret doing this guys". have you seen how the public response towards sa/csa allegations against celebrities usually goes? the VERY first thing people do is jump to the rapist's defense because they seem so normal, how could they? obviously the accuser is lying. your attempt to "humanize" your abuser oc is deeply insulting and though i do agree that punitive justice does more harm than good in the long run the thread of logic you're spinning wrt this situation more often than not culminates in villifying victims when they're caught venting — as if victims of other crimes (or their families) don't also do this and as if expressing anger inmediately turns us into monsters, you know? i would much, much rather an actual rape victim tackled this rather than someone who needs to do research on how it feels to be raped and is using a deeply traumatizing event as a fun little hypothetical in all honesty. boost our voices if you want but don't twist our experiences into... this.

my advice on what to do with the story: absolutely DON'T post it on this account because warriors has a huge pedo problem and they will jump on the opportunity to absolve themselves via your characters. if you really want to keep going make a sideblog with a different name and trigger tag your stuff appropiately. this is like, common practice regarding nsfw stuff

hey, you’ve just undergone an incredibly traumatising event and are feeling all your emotions very highly right now, i completely understand where you’re coming from but i have given every possible warning and and way for you to avoid seeing this content.

for your own personal mental health, i highly highly recommend you block me and avoid looking at my content if it’s going to trigger you so intensely. you shouldn’t be so attached to my online persona that me exploring different topics in my work feels as though a personal betrayal to you.

the pedophile problem in the warrior cats community is not something i am personally responsible for, nor is it something that i should have to curate my space to avoid. it is not my job to cater to the media illiteracy of potential viewers.

additionally, i don’t intend to, nor would i *ever* create nsfw content regarding such a story and the insinuation that i would is deeply upsetting. sexual assault should not be an adults only topic.

finally, i understand your feelings that this story may be better if told by an actual rape victim- and i don’t disagree, but several rape victims have offered their assistance with this project and volunteered personal anecdotes and advice for writing about it.

ultimately, i feel as though i am doing my very best to handle the story with tact and grace, and while i am not against criticism, i feel as though you haven’t offered substantive evidence of such towards me.

still, i appreciate you giving your feedback, and i hope you block me so as not to trigger you any further. apologies if any of this comes across as aggressive or patronising, it is not my intent.

#yeen rambles #ask #rape ment #csa ment #and listen. i get that it’s a luxury that i get to be calm in this situation. but i don’t think that i should be barred from exploring #topics i haven’t personally experienced in my art as long as i do it respectfully #alvin's infurno

[enarei]

STOP USING RAR

rigorous discussion about comic book file formats ensuing on the manga piracy subreddit last night. I've taken the side that CBR is flawed and the only reason people continue to use it is because they're unfamiliar with the spec. there isn't a lot to know about this subject because there's very little public facing information surrounding the creation of these file formats, which originated with a program called CDisplay (that is now dead, sort of, which is a shame for how influential it has been), but at the same time, the practical information that we have available from using them is very straightforward: CBZ, CBR, CB7 and so on are different file extensions for zip, RAR, or 7z archives respectively. that's essentially it. the extension does a lot to obfuscate to most people that the "obscure" manga format they downloaded from some shady pirate website, is literally just a folder of images that has been compressed, and it's trivial to rename the file and inflate it to see its contents individually (there's a neverending stream of stupid questions relating to this).

imo this variety of options does more harm than good, because you see, the pages, the images (jpeg, gif, png, though some readers also support webp), are already as compressed as they can be, so the efficiency of the program used to create the archive does not matter – if you've ever tried to zip a folder made up only of videos or images and saw that the file size barely shrinked, if at all, that's because ironically, these file formats are already pretty damn efficiently compressed. often the compression step of the archival process is completely disabled because it only slows the time it takes to open the finished archive.

so as a format intended for media distribution, specially often bootleg, user contributed distribution on the web, you'd think CBZ should be the ubiquitous standard, as zip, regardless of its compression efficiency compared to newer algorithms, remains the standard compression utility, it's installed on literally every machine that can display images, including ones with more restrictive software limitations.

but for some reason some fucks keep sharing archives made with 7zip and WinRAR!!!! which is like. idk. it's like purposefully sharing someone's music in much more convoluted notation from what everyone else uses when there's no practical benefit to do so, and continuing doing it after someone has asked you not to and told you that is not standard. it's proprietary software that is not even useful for what people typically use it for (distributing already compressed media online!), cuz you don't get any benefit from it, it just limits the type of devices and number of hoops you have to jump through to open it. it's one of those salient points about how even mild tech illiteracy and ignorance about pernicious licensing in popular freeware software can have meaningful repercussions to media preservation. Windows users not knowing know they don't need to install an external utility to compress files has popularized CBRs to the point I've had to argue with people that wrongly assume they're the standard used in digital comics publishing.

#you have to rely on the author's blessing to extract rar files #so it's considerably more difficult to develop anything that deals with rar archives in an OS agnostic way

[surpriserose]

we need more people to talk about how bad media literacy is and not for stupid fanfic reasons I mean like legit so many people are so incurious and susceptible to propaganda as well......if you look up anything about palestine right now youll see. Obviously its not just media illiteracy contributing to this its the racism ingrained in people from years of previous racist propaganda and they just keep feeding each other.

but if youre wondering who the hell is falling for the beheaded babies nonsense (besides the literal president) and the video game loot drop top secret plans with badly translated arabic and every single lie about hamas atrocities while israel actually commits worse atrocities with no criticism, its redditors its redditors all the way down. And lots of people get their news from reddit the same way they get it from tumblr or twitter or tiktok and thats not great obviously but thats...just whats happening. And none of them want to consider for a second, like everyone should if they havent realized this shit already, why theyre willing to fall hook line and sinker for israeli propaganda and constantly posting news from Israeli papers and the IDF ITSELF exclusively (with some american state news sources occasionally lol)

I cant tell you how many new stories on reddit are completely fabricated or just posting the israeli state line and how many of them are all posting shit israel is currently doing and blaming it on hamas. Israel had the power to shut off all the water in gaza because they already have that much control over Palestinian lives and then did it? Well hamas also fucked up the water pipes and used them for weapons (??????) Israel ordered a million people to evacuate gaza and started bombing evacuation routes? well actually its hamas stopping people and blocking evacution routes because uhhhhhh they want more people to die because uhhhhhh??????? and the proof is uhhhhh??? the IDF said so and they have no reason to lie i mean its not like theyre doing everything to genocide Palestinians in plain sight with imperialist backing and weapons and these are geniunely things ive all seen posted on reddit

idk why im posting this really like i guess i just want people to be more aware of the propaganda out there and be more willing to combat it on and offline when they recognize it and my god is it BLATANT right now and i hope im preaching to the choir right now but my god is it disheartening

Please donate to Palestinian aid if you can and if you dont know where to donate there are better posts than this for that but doctors without borders is in gaza right now

[demogordon]

Well I don't think people ship Sasha and Quinni after the whole bookstore situation anymore, or at least I hope so. In the beginning I thought they were cute but then as the series progressed I was like okay this isn't it and I was also thinking about r*nance lol.

And before people complain about Steve being bitchy as well, the difference is yeah he can be annoyed but he would never intentionally make the other person feel bad. Throughout the series, it's shown how much he cares about others and tries to be a better person, unlike Nancy, who is still mostly the same since s1. Robin is comfortable around Steve. She can rant without him rolling his eyes constantly, and he would immediately apologize when he hurt her feelings.

What pisses me off the most about r*nance is that Robin is clearly used to only better Nancy, like she has to fill the void Barb left or she's there to let Nancy explore her sexuality (imo she's like the straightest girl alive but I digress). When you go through the Robin tag, it's all about Nancy, not even about her own character. Her love interest gets ignored or made into a villian caricature, even though canonically Vickie is the one showing interest in Robin, unlike Nancy, who's again emotionally cheating on her bf, this time with her ex. Also, it's kinda annoying that as soon as a lesbian interacts with another girl, they automatically have to be in love, that they are incapable of having female friends. Stop shipping lesbians with straight girls and stop shipping autistic people with people who can't handle their neurodivergence 2023.

thank u anon for your thoughtful contribution! i have some thoughts here, under the cut, so people aren’t forcefully subjected to my rambling

you bring up an excellent point about the issues with making a lesbian character have to be with any pretty girl she stands next to, which is super common in fandom spaces and like. needs to stop yesterday. it’s annoying for one, but more importantly, it feeds into this gross idea of a “predatory lesbian.” like she can’t just have friends, there has to be underlying sexual tension with any girl she comes within a 50 foot radius of.

there’s also this way that people ignore canonically bi characters (vickie, which is confirmed through her actress) and try to villainize them for straight up no reason. i don’t think people have to ship robin and vickie at all. i do, but obviously shipping is up to an individual. i also don’t think people even have to like vickie!

the problem here, at least for me, is that she exhibits the exact same autistic traits (info dumping, lack of social filter) that robin does (and canonically feels insecure about!!) and instead of letting robin have a nd love interest, people are like…. no…. i think i’ll make her be with a straight girl who doesn’t even like her. n*ncy definitely mistreats robin until she finds out that steve and robin aren’t dating and even after that, is annoyed by her until she shows that she is smart and useful.

tl;dr: absolutely. let’s leave behind shipping lesbians with straight girls, nd characters with characters who treat them like a chore AND media illiteracy. (also not treating nd people like they’re inherently useless would be cool too)

[whenyouworkatflaconi]

The Top 5 Benefits And Importance Of Reading News

How distracted are we mentally that we miss reading daily news? With each passing generation, we struggle even more to keep up. Reading the news was a habit that our parents followed more religiously However, it appears the tradition is slowly disappearing. To find out more info on online news, you must browse 9janews site.

It's becoming more and more common to access news via technology. News is crafted by hand to catch the attention of its readers and even in a compact format. There are several news apps that provide e-papers and tit-bits of news as notifications/updates for their users. Today, we can access news online on our mobiles tablet, computers and other gadgets as digital magazines and digital newspapers. From the most remote areas of the nation , to metro cities, newspapers and magazines are available everywhere. Accessibility issues have been solved by the advancement of technology. What do we have to be waiting for right now?

Let's gain a better understanding into some of the benefits of reading news.

1. Enrich Your Knowledge

With every story or article that is read, the reader acquires knowledge of the current events taking place across the world. Reading news is the quickest and most efficient method of learning about global and current events. Since news media cover all subjects that are of interest, such as Politics, Fashion, Lifestyle, Sports, Entertainment and many more The reader is always up-to-date on all aspects of.

2. Keep in touch with the world

Wherever you are The news acts as a set of threads which tie the urban and rural population together. It is possible to constantly stay informed about the events of a town, city or even a village. With the help of electronic newspapers and e-magazines the reader doesn't have to struggle all day long to find the news-- with real-time updates.

3. Develop your skills in the language and vocabulary

News reading doesn't just help build knowledge, but can also contribute in different ways to an individual's development. Voracious and dedicated news reading can help to build their language skills and expand their vocabulary. It will help you understand the bigger picture and appreciate the interconnectedness between politics, economy, and the environment.

4. Participate in a larger Conversation

It is essential to be a responsible citizen and actively contribute to the progress of the nation. This means being involved in the growth and development of the nation, even when it's via conversations or dialogue. It's simpler to make connections and draw parallels through reading the news and also when people have discussions about current events and politics. As a knowledgeable and responsible citizen, you can participate in larger discussions that are vital to the nation and the state.

5. Keep up-to-date with the latest innovations and discoveries

News reading can help you acquire an understanding of different things like Politics, Science, Entertainment, Sports and so on. In addition, you'll be able to keep up to date with the latest developments in a field. Through reading news, you're constantly updated and engaged.

Let's end with the statement that reading news can have many advantages. It can increase knowledge, decrease illiteracy, and help create more informed and responsible society.

[jordanianroyals]

8 March 2021: Queen Rania raised the alarm on growing global inequality caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that the crisis has exposed and exacerbated long-standing disparities within society.

Speaking live via video call to the virtual John F. Kennedy (JFK) Jr. Forum hosted by the Harvard University Institute of Politics, Queen Rania warned that, “for the first time in 20 years, extreme poverty is back on the rise,” with so many people reeling under parallel pandemics of hunger, violence, and increasing illiteracy.

Her Majesty described this as “a vicious, destructive cycle,” explaining that inequality fuels the global spread of COVID-19, and in turn, the ensuing health, economic, and education crises fuel further inequality. (Source: Petra)

Addressing Harvard students and faculty in a conversation conducted by Harvard University Professor Melani Cammett, the Queen identified surging inequality as a “defining feature of our world,” crossing geographies as well as income, gender, and racial divides.

Noting that low-income countries are less able to devote resources toward pandemic mitigation and recovery, Her Majesty pointed out that “poorer countries simply lack the liquidity to dedicate to stimulus packages that are much needed to resuscitate their economies.”

The Queen explained that the pandemic has “unveiled a tale of two realities,” drawing a comparison between those who could easily work from home and those who could not afford to self-isolate because “staying at home meant they would die of hunger.”

Her Majesty also stressed the pandemic’s impact on women in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region, stating that they were already at a considerable disadvantage prior to the pandemic.

“They only account for 20% of the labor force, although they do five times as much unpaid care and domestic work,” the Queen said, adding that lockdowns and school and daycare closures have only deepened this gender divide.

“That is really difficult for moms and their families, but we also need to remember that it’s terrible for our economies,” she warned. “According to the World Bank, if we could bring women’s lifetime earnings in the MENA region to equal those of men, then we could add around 3 trillion dollars’ worth of wealth to our region. That’s 3 trillion-worth of lost opportunities.”

Queen Rania suggested that the adoption of flexible work-related practices in the wake of COVID could foster increased workplace inclusivity, for women as well as “people who are traditionally shut out from the workplace because of their circumstances,” such as those with disabilities, single parents, or refugees.

Arguing that the pandemic’s economic fallout has increased the predicament of the global refugee community, the Queen warned that in Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq, the COVID crisis has pushed more than 1 million Syrian refugees further into poverty.

Her Majesty added that the pandemic has even disproportionately affected refugees living in high-income nations, who are at greater risk of unemployment, and pointed that there are those who would use the pandemic as a “political tool” against refugees to stoke panic by attempting to draw a link between refugees and the spread of COVID-19 for political gain.

“What a lot of these politicians and some of the people who vote for them miss is that, in many instances, refugees and immigrants give back to society,” adding that refugees with backgrounds in medicine have contributed to combatting the pandemic in Jordan, France, Peru, and elsewhere.

Referring to the key role played by immigrants in vaccine development, Her Majesty said, “the two co-founders of Moderna and their chief critical scientists are originally immigrants, and so is the chief executive of Pfizer.”

The Queen underlined that these examples “vouch for the power of diversity,” and reminded her audience that “more often than not, refugees and immigrants benefit, not burden economies” as international studies classify them as net job creators, not job takers.

During the Forum, Her Majesty also discussed deep-rooted inequalities in education access and reflected on the pandemic’s toll on the state of regional education.

She explained that in the Middle East, one in five children were already out of school prior to the pandemic, and disruptions to education have put an entire generation at further risk, with 40 percent of schoolchildren in the MENA being cut off from remote schooling in 2020, according to UNICEF.

The Queen emphasized that the COVID crisis should compel the international community to prioritize equal access to quality education, underscoring that this need is even more pronounced in the Middle East because of its unique demographics.

“We have a youth bulge: close to 70% of our population is under the age of thirty. To reap that demographic dividend, we really must make these urgent investments in quality education,” she said, calling for expanding on the hybridization of education by investing in in-person and remote learning methodologies and ensuring educators are prepared to deliver on those effectively.

Despite shining a spotlight on pervasive inequality, Her Majesty said the crisis has also afforded us an “opportunity to reimagine a new future” and the “impetus to make the changes that are so long overdue.”

Queen Rania also highlighted the role COVID-19 has played in changing attitudes surrounding climate change, and credited the pandemic with increasing people’s awareness of their environmental impact, with lockdowns around the world temporarily contributing to cleaner air and lower pollution rates.

Noting that accountability for the climate crisis has long been shirked by humanity as a whole, Her Majesty expressed optimism that the world is finally taking action. “I think now there is a sustainability revolution underway that is led mostly by young people but that is being heard by everyone.”

The Harvard University Institute of Politics John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum regularly hosts heads of state, leaders in politics, government, business, labor, and the media. The institute’s mission is to unite and engage Harvard students with academics, politicians, activists, and policy makers to inspire them to consider a career in politics. Her Majesty was previously a guest speaker at Harvard University in May 2007.

#Queen Rania

[hello-robin-goodfellow]

THE DIFERENT CYCLES OF NOSTALGIA FILTER

Most of the nostalgia towards the past is based on Nostalgia Filter. The good stuff is remembered and the bad stuff ignored, forgotten or not even taken in account. When it's about a time period Two Decades Behind people will be nostalgic for it because they experienced it themselves, but from the viewpoint of a child or a teenager, when they didn't have to worry about all the adult stuff that depresses them nowadays, because the grownups took care of all that: taxes, work, bills, tragic news events,... If the nostalgia is about a time period people didn't directly experience themselves the romanticism is even more rampant. People will base their rosy posy image of that time period on stuff they have seen and read in books, comic strips, cartoons, TV series, films, old photos and/or fond memories of older family members. Usually they aren't aware that many things they now take for granted didn't always exist back then or were still considered highly controversial.

The glories of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome where the cradle of philosophy and science started, everyone is able to enlist in the army (well, if you weren't a woman or a slave, of course) and see the world while doing so. You can go and enjoy watching Olympic Games, a play in the theater or watch exciting gladiator battles in the arena, philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Virgil are respected as pillars of their societies, and people were opened to sex and LGBT as opposed to the close-minded Christians in later centuries. Not taken in account: class systems, people dying early of diseases we nowadays have proper treatment for, slavery, democracy only for rich upperclass males citizens, bloody battles, Roman military service had to be fulfilled several years! before you could retire and start a civilian life, women having no rights, not even allowed to watch sporting games, xenophobia was so prevalent that would make modern prejudices and bigotry look tame, scientific contributions were more based on superstitions and empirical and weren't always based on logic (see Plato's and Aristotle's works), pederasty was the only accepted form of homosexuality and it was punishable if a relationship did not fit in those criteria (also it was only tolerated in some city and states), Roman sexuality was still arguably patriarchal and not all sexual taboo was acceptable (ie. a wealthy man get away with his slaves while married women were expected to be faithful, oral sex was considered shameful).

The thousand years of Chinese dynasties up until Republic was the time where people dressed in beautiful colorful haifu with good etiquette and manners, scholars were appreciated, education was valued as opposed during the Cultural Revolution, the Tang Dynasty was the golden age of prosperity and where women has more rights than any other periods. Not taken in account: the Confucians were oppressive against the lower social classes, the caste system, education systems were corrupted with many scholars and students were promoted based on bribes rather than actual skills, women were still considered inferior in the Tang Dynasty, the royal court were so deadly and decadent that would make the place in wuxia media look tame, slavery, the rebellions and civil wars (ie. The Three Kingdoms, An Lushan Rebellion, Taiping Rebellion) that were very common that cost million of lives that went unheard of and resulted in many famine and diseases that led to cannibalism, footbinding was practiced since the Song Dynasty, xenophobia was prevalent including against their sister countries like Japan and Korea.

The Middle Ages are usually romanticized as a glorious past with chivalrous knights fighting for the honor of beautiful princesses, proving their worth in tournaments, stuffing themselves at royal buffets with the kind old king, and defending castles against malevolent invaders. Not taken in account: The Plague, wars, mercenaries and soldiers plundering farms and villages, filthy streets, people dying at a young age because of insufficient knowledge of diseases, the injustice of the feudal system, monarchs and the Catholic Church being oppressive towards people with other viewpoints, high illiteracy, people executed and tortured for audience's pleasure and often without anything resembling a fair trial, women considered being lesser in status than men, famine whenever harvests failed... Ironically, the part that was arguably good, the Byzantine Empire (with its extremely high literacy and such luxuries as running water) is usually overlooked or completely ignored.

The Renaissance and The Enlightenment are the time when society finally got out of the bleak, primitive and God fearing Dark Middle Ages and gained wisdom by discovering a lot of stuff. Kings and queens never looked more magnificent. Artists and sculptors painted the finest works and humanists, philosophers and Protestants learned humanity to think for themselves. You could enjoy a Shakespeare play, listen to baroque classical music or have a swashbuckling duel. Not taken in account: A lot of new thought and discoveries in the field of science were very slowly adapted into society. Mostly because a lot of royals, religious authorities and other government officials suppressed these "dangerous" new ideas. Compared to those "primitive" Middle Ages more people have been hanged or burned on the stake for their beliefs and/or on the assumption that they were witches during the 1500s, 1600s and 1700s than in the centuries before! The Reformation and Counter-Reformation divided Europe and caused many casualties. All the great books and art works created during this era were only enjoyed or experienced by the very rich. Wars still ravaged Europe, colonization exploited other continents, slavery became a real industry and absolutism made the monarchy and nobility so powerful and decadent that they didn't care about the lower classes. Duels weren't glorious at all, just a matter of killing off your opponent.

The Golden Age of Piracy is one big adventure where you could go on a boat trip with pirates and have fun attacking other ships, taking gold and bury or search for treasure on some Deserted Island. Men were real men with a Badass Beard and cool looking eye patches, hooks for hands and wooden legs. Not taken in account: scurvy, people forced to do what their captain told them, your ship being attacked by other ships and losing, keelhauling, loot just being spent instead of buried, anti-piracy laws could get you arrested and hanged, storms could destroy your ship, all the cool looking eye patches, hooks for hands and wooden legs were just practical solutions for grievous injuries suffered during fights, and the fact that most of the Caribbean economy was reliant on the slave trade. There were also plenty of brutal attacks on helpless villages, indigenous communities, plantations, civilian ships, and even colonial settlements. In addition to helping themselves to everything that wasn't tied down, pirates would also torture, murder, enslave, and/or rape men, women, and children indiscriminately just for their own sick pleasure.

America's Wild West is a fun era where you could roam the prairie on a horse, visit saloons and shoot outlaws and Indians. Not taken in account: slavery was not abolished until deep in the 19th century and still going on in many colonies or remote place in the American South, cowboys took care of cattle and didn't engage in gun fights, gun violence was just as illegal as it is nowadays and could get you arrested by local sheriffs, outlaws could actually remain on the loose for several years, Native Americans being massacred by white settlers and armies, black people having no basic human rights, The Ku Klux Klan was a respected organization...)

The mid-to-late 19th century and early 20th century were a classy time period where everybody was impeccably dressed and had good manners. You could take a coach ride or (later on) test the "horseless carriage", read some of the greatest novels in history, listen to the first records or even the great Caruso in person, admire the wonders of electricity and enjoy a world still untouched by modern industry. Life in the colonies was even more fun because you so many countries were still unexplored territory and the ideal place for adventure. Not taken in account: Victorian values were dominant, women couldn't vote, poor people couldn't vote, industrialization didn't have any health, safety or ethical rules to obey, child labor was rampant, workers had no rights, factories were very harmful to people's health and the environment, city rivers were open sewers, upper class had all the advantages upon the lower class, people could be sent to the poor house when they couldn't pay their debts, many novels were just pulp (think of it as the 19th century version of Internet) and music was strictly symphonic, the first automobiles were as dangerous as electricity, colonization was great for white Europeans but not as much for the oppressed native populations of Africa and Asia, animals were still hunted down as trophies, people who looked different were exploited in freak shows and circuses for spectators to Come to Gawk.

The Interbellum (1920s and 1930s): Between the two world wars, life was great. Everybody went to night clubs and/or revue theaters where they could enjoy great jazz music, girls and comedians. Movie theaters were a great place to be, because fantastic cinematic masterpieces were made. On the radio you could great music and serials, and newspapers published the best and most engaging comic strips ever printed. Not taken in account: From 1920 until 1933 alcohol was prohibited in the USA, so having an alcoholic drink was impossible without getting arrested or dying because of bad homemade brew. Crime was able to organize itself in a way that will probably never get untangled again. Many people got murdered in gangster violence. Jazz music was initially seen as "barbaric" just because it was made by blacks, and it had to be adapted to symphonic music to make it well-known. Hollywood in its early years was subject to more scandals than ever since, leading to a industry-wide censorship that lasted until the 1960s. The Great Depression between 1929 and 1940 caused major unemployment and poverty in many civilized countries, also forcing quite some people to start a life in crime. The "Dust Bowl" generated a desertification of the Midwest. Germany was particularly struck hard, because the country was still paying huge war debts to other countries, causing mass poverty and the ideal atmosphere for Nazism to gain voters. Many countries during this time period suffered under either Nazism, Fascism or Communism. From 1933 on Jewish, homosexual, Romani and left wing people were already persecuted in Nazi Germany, at the same time disagreeing in anything with Stalin meant a one-way ticket to Siberia. War was already brewing in Europe and the Far East, when Japan invaded China and South East Asia. Many countries were still colonies, which wasn't a great deal for the natives there. Afro-Americans were still second class citizens and the Ku Klux Klan was still quite powerful in many political circles.

The '40s and World War II, the time where the entire world was united against a common evil foe and soldiers could still fight a just cause. Everybody worked together to defeat the Nazis or Japanese, while enjoying great Hollywood films and jazz and big band records on the radio. Not taken in account: Not everyone was united against the Axis. Numerous people (even Lindbergh and Ford) didn't consider Nazism or Fascism anything bad or felt their country should stay neutral in the war. During the occupations many people on both sides were arrested, deported, and/or murdered. People couldn't trust anyone, because your neighbor might be a Nazi collaborator or a spy who would turn you in to the authorities. The Nazis banned American and English music and films in Europe, so you could get in big trouble if you tried. Also, you know, there was a big war on. Millions of young soldiers were drafted and died on the battlefield, cities were bombed and occupied by enemy armies, you could die any day, shortages were rife.

The '50s: The last truly great time period in history. Music, films, politicians were nice, clean and decent. There was a general optimistic feeling about the future, exemplified in sunny fashions, interiors and technology. The youth enjoyed some great rock 'n' roll on their transistor radios and the early TV shows show how happy and pleased everybody was. Not taken in account: the Cold War, the Red Scare, anti-communist witch hunts, the Korean War, the French Indochina War, many European countries tried violently oppressing the inevitable independence of their colonies, Afro-Americans were still second-rate citizens in the USA and had to fight for human rights, homosexuals were forced to keep their sexual identity silent in many countries, the traditional role of women as housewives was still encouraged in many Western countries, a lot of music in the hit parade was still the bland, square, formulaic and sappy crooner music popular since the 20s, adults were scared of early rock 'n' roll and actually did everything to suppress the youth from listening to it and becoming teenage delinquents, the TV shows and films of that decade were so escapist that they ignored every controversial element.

The '60s and The '70s, a great time when everybody was a beatnik or a hippie and enjoyed fantastic rock music, marijuana, LSD and free love. People chased bad guys with their own hands with cool funk and disco music playing in the background. The young demonstrated for more democratic rights and everything changed for the better. Not taken in account: the older generation looked down upon hippies, the Vietnam War cost many lives, The Cuba Missile Crisis nearly caused a nuclear war between the USA and USSR, Afro-Americans still had to fight for civil rights, just like today there were just as much idealistic but naïve demonstrators who merely wasted time smoking pot instead of actually doing something, drug casualties were just as rampant back then as they are today, people took the law on their hands because of the alarming crime rates, not helped by the extreme corruption of police forces, psychedelic rock, funk and disco are now confined to sit in the shadow of both rock-and-roll and modern pop music, to the point that for decades, these were considered as the most cheesy genres created by man, [[not all demonstrators were pacifistic in their approach and it's an open question whether everything actually changed for the better.

The '80s: Oh yes. A great decade for pop culture after the sordid '70s and before everything went to the gutter in the '90s: Everybody felt a bright future coming along, as demonstrated by good TV shows, groundbreaking technology, computers and videogames, colorful clothing, simple yet catchy pop music and finally a TV channel that showed your favorite bands 24/7. The Cold War came to an end, the Berlin Wall and Apartheid fell. Not taken in account: The early 1980s had many people fear the Cold War wasn't going to end well. The Latin American debt crisis. President Reagan wanted more nuclear missiles in Europe, envisioned the Star Wars defense system and the "Evil Empire" speech reflected the "Red Scare" at a time "the Bomb" was still making everybody nervous. The Cold War, Berlin Wall and Apartheid did fall, but only near the end of the decade. Unemployment and economic crisis were a huge problem in many Western countries in the early years of the decade and the high speculation led to a bubble which fatigued in 1987 and burst in 1989. AIDS caused many victims because governments were slow to inform the general public on this disease as most people at first dismissed as just a problem for blacks, gays and drug users. TV shows and movies were extremely escapist and PCs and video games were prohibitively expensive. MTV did bring music videos on TV, but the downside was that how a pop star looked and danced became more important than the music, which was now created by computers, becoming increasingly sappy and repetitive as samples became the norm, becoming a disadvantage for those who still wanted to use actual instruments, chords and tunes. Metal and rap were seen as crime-mongering and even "satanic" as a whole. Also drugs went artificial during this time, turning Florida into a Crapsaccharine World. The nuclear power plant explosion in Chernobyl caused another major fear among people about the dangers of nuclear power.

The '90s and The Aughts: Dude. The Cold War has ended, and though some pesky Arabs (and some nutcases in the West) will try to blow people up and some Central European countries will be at each other's throats, there is peace at last! Outsourcing has lifted the West from the heavy load of manual work for good and turn to technology, and anyways, isn't the Internet wonderful? Society and culture are now free to break all imposed boundaries: Music has become more authentic with the arrival of rap, hip-hop, grunge and pop-punk. TV and movies now address modern issues instead of being stuck in those stodgy 50s and 60s. Politicians at last agree on stuff and generally get along. Whatever. Not taken in account: While a couple of years in the late 1990s were quite peaceful, the years before were marked by the extremely chaotic rearrangement of the former Warsaw Pact nations and the decade after was dominated by the Iraq War and memories of 9/11. The "technological revolution" ultimately never became the boon it was supposed to be: Economically, the exodus of manufacturing jobs forced the middle class to live on debt, which would give way to an economic meltdown by the end of the 2000s while privacy would gradually become a major source of concern as personal data became readily accessible. During the 1990s, the Internet was very expensive and was the province of businessmen and geeks while during the following decade, online downloads and chatrooms became incendiary topics. Grunge and "gangsta rap" were better known at their peak for the demise of several of their stars than for the music while hip-hop and pop-punk would be regarded in retrospective as trashy as the bubblegum pop that dominated the late 90s. By increasingly appealing to the trendy set, TV and film became increasingly shallow. While ideological differences became a thing of the past, politics became more self-serving and conflicts became pettier. As a result, people began to feel a sense of disconnection, which eventually led to the rise of strongly ideological populist movements.

SOURCE:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe

EXTRA: IN THE DISTANT YEAR OF 2045.

The New '10s and New '20s : Remember that meme? Do you have a Harriet doll? I need her to complet my My Little Poney: Friendship is Magic and Equestria Girls collection. Do you want to exchange her for my Fluttershy doll? Oh, do you like Lady Gaga? Her music was so deep. “Oppan Gangnam style. Gangnam style. Op, op, op, op oppan Gangnam style. Gangnam style. Op, op, op, op oppan Gangnam style. Eh sexy lady. Op, op, op, op oppan Gangnam style. Ehh sexy lady, oh, oh. Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh”. Oh, i love your funko pop of Baby Groot!  “ Gotta get that. Gotta get that. Gotta get that. Gotta get that that that. Boom boom boom (Gotta get that). Boom boom boom (Gotta get that). Boom boom boom (Gotta get that). Boom boom boom. (Gotta get that) Boom boom boom. That boom boom boom. That boom boom boom. Boom boom boom”. Avengers Assemble! 

Not taken in account: The Syrian refugee crisis. The burning of the Amazon jungle. Donald Trump as the american president. Jair Bolsonaro as the brazilian president. The Covid-19 Pandemic. Navy oil in the beachs of the brazilian north east. The Brazilian Cinematheque getting closed. Height of murders of LGBTQ in Brazil. Disney monopolizing the american TV an Movie Industry.

@theroguefeminist @ardenrosegarden @witches-ofcolor @mademoiselle-princesse @butterflyslinky @anghraine @notangryenough @musicalhell @rollingthunder06 @graf-edel-weiss @princesssarisa @culturalrebel @irreplaceable-ecstasyy @im-captain-basch @iphisquandary @jonpertwee

[therepublicofletters]

(1/?) I live in Tuscany (no cases except that one in Florence). I think that people are freaking out for two reasons: 1) media and 2) fake news. Both national and private channels have been talking about coronavirus nonstop, sometimes even reporting false alarms. Old people (50+) are more than half of the population and, as coronavirus seems to affect more them than young people, it makes sense that they feel threatened: this results in mass hysteria in the affected areas [...]

2/?) [...] pharmacies have finished masks and sanitary gels). But also fake news contributes to this hysteria. There are countless of videos, Facebook posts, WhatsApp audios claiming that the death toll is higher, that coronavirus is the result of China/America/whatever plan to conquer the world, that media isn't telling us the truth. In Italy there's a lot of functional illiteracy so a large part of the population can't distinguish between a fake news and a real one.

(3/3) The government is indeed doing a good job but some regional governors did whatever they wanted, like closing schools/uni and shutting down everything, even when there were no cases. I sincerely hope that this mass hysteria ends soon otherwise it is likely that they'll close my uni (I study in Siena) and this means my graduation will be delayed >:(

I sincerely hope that it stops spreading and that people calm down, particularly so that 1) people stop freaking out overall and 2) cultural institutions, education, etc. can resume as usual ...  But it is really interesting to consider this as a symptom (ha) of the bigger issues that we have like climate change, fake news, uncertain healthcare, etc... I don’t propose to have answers to any of these but maybe it is a sign that we should take a step back and consider it.

#this is way more asks than i've had in a very long time lol #personal correspondence #coronavirus

[uncloseted]

Do you have any tips on like learning how to think more critically and forming your own opinions on things? And articulating your opinions?

This is a great question and I’m glad you asked it.  Critical thinking is something that a lot of people talk about but that not a lot of people are taught how to do.  Our collective media illiteracy contributes to the spread of misinformation and the increase in partisanship we’ve seen in recent years.  So what do we do about it?  

First and foremost, I think it’s important to understand how data can be distorted. This is a good introduction to some of the common logical fallacies (basically, common errors in reasoning that diminish the validity of an argument) that are used when trying to convince people of a point.  Logical fallacies are especially common on social media sites like Reddit and Tumblr, but they also appear in more “official” media like news articles and online publications. These include arguments like the Slippery Slope argument (“If we ban Hummers because they are bad for the environment eventually the government will ban all cars, so we should not ban Hummers.”), hasty generalizations (”Even though it's only the first day, I can tell this is going to be a boring course.”), begging the claim (”Filthy and polluting coal should be banned.”), and ad hominem attacks (”Green Peace's strategies aren't effective because they are all dirty, lazy hippies.”) among others.

Equally as important to understand is how data and statistics can be manipulated in order to support a given claim.  For example, people will use “relative risks” to make a problem look bigger than it actually is.  Saying that crime has doubled sounds like a huge problem, but it’s not really if the doubling means it went from one incidence to two.  Similarly, people will use “only x number of people” or “over x number of people” to make a problem sound bigger or smaller, even if the reality is that it’s the same number of people.  This powerpoint from UCSD does a good job of illustrating some of the more common ways that data is manipulated to prove a point.  Similarly, graphs and other visuals can be manipulated to make a problem seem bigger or smaller than it actually is.  

For example, this graph was shown in Congress to convince people to defund Planned Parenthood in the US:

The red arrow shows abortions increasing over time and cancer screenings and other preventative services decreasing over time.  This isn’t an outright lie, but the graph above is actually two graphs overlaid and hasn’t been corrected for scale.  When you correct for scale, it looks more like this:

Which is a way different takeaway than the first graph had.  When talking about statistics, it’s also important to remember that correlation does not equal causation.  This is a logical fallacy called post hoc ergo propter hoc- basically assuming that if 'A' happened after 'B' then 'B' must have caused 'A.'  For example, here’s a graph of people who died by falling out of their bed compared against the number of lawyers in Puerto Rico.  At first glance, it might seem like these two are related in some way, since the graphs line up (they’re correlated).  But obviously, people dying by falling out of their beds has no impact on the number of lawyers in Puerto Rico or vice versa.  There’s no causal relationship between the two of them.

Once you understand the ways that media can be manipulated, it becomes easier to think critically about what you’re reading, hearing, or seeing. 

When you interact with something new, there are a few things you should think about in addition to keeping your eyes open for logical fallacies and data manipulation.  Consider where the source is on the media bias chart to understand what point of view it may be trying to convince you to take.  Consider who the author is and what their purpose for writing this article and point of view is.  Look for the places where they’re making assumptions, and challenge those claims in your own mind.  If you can, look for other sources that corroborate what you’re reading (especially if it’s a social media post) and sources that challenge what you’re reading.  Getting a full picture of the issue, even if you already know which side you think you agree with, is important in being able to critically interact with media.  Try to consider alternative explanations and the larger context of what you’re reading about to prevent just taking the article at face value.

Lastly on understanding critical thinking (and if you’ve gotten this far, thank you for sticking with me), it’s important to understand your own biases and how they might impact what you believe when interacting with new information.  Humans are prone to confirmation bias (interpreting new information as confirmation of our existing beliefs, or throwing out information that doesn’t mesh with our existing beliefs), and so it’s important to understand what your biases are in order to critically interact with new information.  The goal is to be open to new information but aware of all of the extraneous factors that complicate our relationship to media.  Many people see changing their mind as a weakness, but I see it as the ultimate strength.  How great is it that we can grow and change the more we learn?  How great is it that every day, we have the opportunity to be just a bit better than we were yesterday?  Being able to admit that we were wrong is important for emotional growth, and I wish more people were willing to do it.

Moving onto the second part of your question, articulating your opinions just takes practice.  Once you understand how to construct an argument and how to write without using fallacies, it’s really just about communicating to other people what you believe and working on being persuasive.  Reading a lot of other people’s arguments will also make you familiar with how to articulate your thoughts, so I highly recommend reading as much of other people’s work as you can.

[scifigeneration]

Confused about what to eat? Science can help

by P.K. Newby

Science can help you decide which diet works best for you. wavebreakmedia/shutterstock.com

Do you feel like nutritionists are always changing their minds? Do you want science-based information about diet but don’t know whom or what to believe?

If you’re nodding in agreement, you’re not alone: More than 80% of Americans are befuddled.

Yet it’s a lament that’s getting quite tiring – if you’re a nutrition scientist, that is. So much so that I refocused my career to shine scientific light on today’s critical food conversations, which have profound impacts on public health and the environment. My mantra: From farm to fork, what we eat matters.

In fact, did you know that 80% of chronic diseases are preventable through modifiable lifestyle changes, and diet is the single largest contributing factor?

Science says plants are better for you and our planet

Scientists agree plant-based diets are better for both you and the planet. casanisa/shutterstock.com

Clean eating or keto? Paleo or gluten-free? Whole 30 or vegan? Forget fad diets, because science has the answers – there is far more agreement about diet and health than you may know. The scientific report from the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, for example, concluded that a plant-based diet is best for human health and the environment alike. More than 75% of your meal should comprise vegetables, fruits and whole grains, and protein sources should include beans, peas, nuts, seeds and soy.

Canada’s 2019 Food Guide is similarly plant-focused, as is Harvard’s Healthy Eating Plate, while Brazil emphasizes foods “mainly of plant origin.” These guidelines and others also stress the importance of limiting processed and ultra-processed foods.

There’s also consensus from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and others that plant-based diets are more sustainable, largely due to the high energy inputs and environmental damage of livestock.

While it may sound like a fad, a “plant-based” diet has been studied for decades. Awareness escalated as it addresses two urgent public health challenges: the chronic disease epidemic and the climate change crisis. It’s a win-win for human health and the environment. Plant-based diets can be adapted to suit your taste preferences, traditions and cultures, as the Blue Zones, or regions of the world where people typically live longer than average and with fewer chronic diseases, indicate.

If science has the keys to a health-promoting, disease-preventing, planet-saving diet, why are people so confused? A closer look will arm you with the skills to sort fact from fiction.

There’s money in confusion

Celebrity junk science is an obvious player. It might even be cloaked in scrubs, like Dr. Oz – though chastised by the Senate for his quackery. (Physicians, in general, have little to no training in nutrition.)

Celebrities garner enormous platforms, often clouding the truth (or drowning it completely); the deal between Netflix and Gwyneth Paltrow, whose company Goop was sued over a certain jade egg, suggests that science is losing the battle.

One needn’t be a celebrity to hold sway, however. A list of the Top 100 influencers showed that most were bloggers or athletes with no expertise. (None were scientists.) These voices gain considerable traction on social media. Health Feedback, a network of scientists who review the accuracy of online content, conducted a study with the Credibility Coalition and found a minority of articles received a positive rating, with most “exaggerating the benefits and harms of various foods.”

Traditional media don’t always shed light, alas. Single-study sensationalism is ubiquitous – for example, glyphosate in oats, coconut oil and weight, coffee causing cancer – and findings lack context.

And science journalism has taken a hit, and is perhaps why CNN interviewed an anti-science zealot. Or why the Los Angeles Times tweeted that there’s a “growing belief” about the health benefits of celery juice. (Pro tip: It’s not a thing.)

Surrounding the din of bogus dietary advice and media hype is a backdrop of science denialism, which legitimizes anti-science when espoused from top levels of government. Science illiteracy also plays a role.

Nonetheless, there are knowledge gaps: 57% of Americans have never seen the dietary illustration from the U.S. Deparment of Agriculture called MyPlate or know little about it, and 63% reported it was hard to recognize sustainable choices. Shoppers also claimed that identifying healthy food was difficult (11%) or moderate (61%). Unsurprising, perhaps, since 48% looked to crowded food packages for guidance: Some labels are meaningful while others are little more than marketing. (All natural, anyone?) Indeed, powerful food and agriculture lobbies still exert influence on dietary guidelines and obscure the science.

Through all of this, I believe the nutrition science community has tacitly contributed by failing to participate collectively in the public discourse. Nor have we adequately defended our discipline when attacked, whether by journalists, physicians or food writers.

Changing the conversation

Potent societal powers create a culture of nutrition confusion that not only obfuscate the truth about diet, they undermine science as a whole. Three steps will help eaters navigate this rocky terrain.

Begin by asking critical questions when digesting diet news. Does the writer have an advanced degree in nutrition, or does she or he have expertise in science journalism? Are there references to peer-reviewed studies or scientific organizations? Is the source credible? Are miracle cures or quick results promised? Are there expensive price tags for magic bullets? Does it sound like clickbait? Questioning the who-what-where-why-how is paramount.

Second, remember that what flits through our newsfeeds often comes via algorithms that enable news to careen through our echo chambers and elicit confirmation bias, factual or not. Offline, too, we are more likely to share beliefs with friends and family, our tribe. Getting curious about what you eat and why it matters beyond your comfort zone is necessary: You may need to “unlearn what you have learned.”

Finally, try this on for size: Nutrition. Isn’t. Confusing. We all have cherished traditions and values – what we eat isn’t just about the science. (At least, I hope not.) But it is time to learn the fundamental food and nutrition facts that will inspire you to harness the power of food to promote health, prevent disease and protect the planet. Change is possible – and the truth is out there.

About The Author:

P.K. Newby is a Scientist, Science Communicator, and Author at Harvard University

This article has been republished from our content partners over at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

[schraubd]

What Went Wrong in 2016?

Right up until election day, most people thought Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election. She didn't, and many people have many different theories about what went wrong. Which one you ascribe to probably does a fair bit of work in explaining who you back in 2020 and why. And the fact that we don't really know which answer is the right one, and feel an urge to cover all our bases "just to be sure", probably contributes to the Johnny Unbeatable problem -- the explanations aren't all mutually compatible, and so "learning their lessons" will pull us in contradictory directions. Theory #1: It was anti-Clinton mania: Claim: Hillary Clinton is uniquely reviled for idiosyncratic and effectively non-ideological reasons. Lesson: don't nominate Hillary Clinton. Simple. Theory #2: It was misogyny: It's not just Hillary Clinton. Any female candidate is going to whip up a toxic brew of wounded masculinity and machismo. People nervous about nominating another woman often believe this. Theory #3: Clinton was too elitist: Generally a favorite of not-Democrats, though endorsed by some "moderates" too. The idea here is that Hillary Clinton represents a far-left agenda and the Democrats need to return to the good old days when they were the party of ... Bill Clinton? JFK? FDR? Unclear. What is clear is that Democrats need to show more respect for rural heartland voters, respect people who oppose gay rights, respect people who want to deport immigrant children, and above all respect people who want to ban abortion. Oh, and under no circumstances should a Democrat call anyone "deplorable" -- except maybe Ilhan Omar. These folks believe Joe Biden would have won in a cakewalk Theory #4: Clinton was too centrist: Hillary Clinton didn't offer a true progressive alternative to conservatism, to capitalism, to corporatism, to technocracy, or to neoliberalism. Hence she didn't inspire voters thirsting for an alternative. Donald Trump at least purported to speak to voters who believed the system had failed him, and a Democrat who basically was seen as a "the status quo is okay" figure would not do well. A bold and uncompromising progressive vision that unabashedly targets the systemic forces immiserating us all, by contrast, can speak to the millions of Americans who feel dejected, disempowered, and ready for a change. Favored diagnosis of the "Bernie would have won!" crowd. Theory #5: Clinton abandoned the Midwest: "She didn't even visit Wisconsin!" The blue wall cracked, Democrats lost Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. So to win -- rebuild that blue wall, by nominating a candidate most likely to be extremely popular among rust belt swing voters in the Midwest. This could point you anywhere from Joe Biden to Tim Ryan to Amy Klobuchar to "recruit Sherrod Brown". Theory #6: Clinton didn't excite the base: Democrats took for granted the constituencies that are most responsible for powering them to victory and so left a ton of votes on the table. Rather than chase the elusive (and probably white) swing voter, the strategy here is to goose turnout among voters (especially women) of color. It's not the same as Theory #4 because -- despite what Jacobin Mag would have you believe -- it is not necessarily the case that people of color are inspired by fire-eating leftism of the Jacobin Mag bent. Often believed by those who think Democrats must nominate a woman and/or person of color; and often also paired with a belief that Democrats should abandon the rust belt and focus more on winning emergent sun belt swing states like Arizona, North Carolina, or (dare to dream) Georgia and Texas. Theory #7: PC backlash: The Democratic Party allowed themselves to be taken over by a radical identity politics fringe who alienated regular Americans with all this talk of "intersectionality" and "microaggressions" and "trigger warnings". Trump's victory was a result of a PC backlash prompted by White men who just was sick and tired of being called racist all the time, and lashed out by ... endorsing a really racist candidate. The interesting thing about this diagnosis is that its political description basically boils down to "White Americans are hella racist" while its political prescription is usually "don't ever say White Americans are racist." Facts sure care about those feelings. Theory #8: Voter suppression: Lower turnout among the base wasn't (just) because of less enthusiasm for Clinton. It was also a function of a sustained conservative campaign to obstruct poor and minority communities from voting. Proponents of this view aren't necessarily tied to a particular candidate as they are to urging Democrats to take voter access seriously as a top priority -- both in terms of legislating and in terms of activism. Unfortunately, the Senate won't pass any legislation, the courts are basically endorsers of the voter suppression project, and it's not like Republicans are going to be less invested in voter suppression the next time around, so this can rapidly turn fatalistic. Theory #9: Conspiracy theories: Russian interference, social media, fake news. Voters were buffeted by a frenzy of misleading or outright false information. Not only were some taken in by outlandish nonsense (QAnon, Pizzagate, Soros conspiracies), even those who weren't directly affected often suffered a general decline in trust for political institutions and the reliability of authority -- something that ended up redounding to Trump's benefit. And the Republicans exploited media timidity and its reflexive instinct to tell "both sides" to put naked falsehoods on par with actual truth. To a large extent, people in this camp think the media has to accept in a much more decisive manner its obligation call lies lies -- even if it makes "certain" elected officials mad. Theory #10: The Democratic Party is corrupt/incompetent/in disarray: Democrats don't really want to win, or they don't want to win if it means displeasing their true corporate masters. The party is beholden to an out-of-touch consultant class and big money donors locking them into unpopular positions that predictably lose elections. Only by seizing control of the party apparatus and smashing the old guard can Democrats actually run races that will actually inspire people. The more militant version of Theory #4. Theory #11: Nothing went wrong -- it was a fluke: During the entire 2016 cycle, the polls oscillated between a high of "Hillary Clinton landslide" and a low of "statistical dead heat". The argument here is that all that happened in 2016 is that election day happened to have the tremendous bad luck of occurring at one of the nadirs, leading to what was effectively a statistical dead heat and a coin-flip Donald Trump win. The lesson here is that there is n: o lesson: if you have a campaign strategy that gives you a win 75% of the time, that's a pretty good strategy even though (as Nate Silver reminds us) statistically you should lose a quarter of the time. All the efforts to "explain" the outcome basically a function of statistical illiteracy. To the extent Democrats should be on alert for anything, it's in letting the "we have to change something" impulse to tinker lead to making things worse. via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/2Fv6yC9

#Democrats #Election 2016 #Election 2020 #Hillary Clinton

[dnjenkins]

Marginless Living

From  “Margin”  by Richard A, Swenson,M.D.- marginless living 

    “That our age might be described as painful comes as a discomforting surprise when we consider the many advantages we have over previous generations. Progress has given us  unprecedented affluence, education, technology, and entertainment. We have comforts and conveniences other eras could only dream about. Yet somehow, we are not flourishing, under the  gifts of modernity as one would expect. 

   Why do so many of us feel like air-traffic controllers out of control? How can the salesman feel so stressed when the car is loaded with extras, the paycheck is bigger than ever, and vacation lasts four weeks a year? How is it possible that the homemaker is still tired despite the help of the washing machine, clothes dryer, dishwasher, garbage disposal, and vacuum cleaner? If we are so prosperous, why are  the therapists offices so full? If we have ten   times more material abundance than our ancestors, why are we not ten  times more content and fulfilled? 

    Something has gone wrong. Our society has been attacked by pain. If you know what pain wounds look  like, you will see them on all your friends. To be sure, there are as many different kinds of pain as there are reasons for pain. Most people associate the doctor’s office with the pain of organic disease. But this is not the only suffering physicians have to deal with. There are, for example, the pains of self-destructive behaviour, of abuse and poor parenting, of pollution, of unrestricted sexual permissiveness, and even the pains associated with prosperity itself. But it is not the focus of this book. Instead, this book is dedicated to exposing and correcting the specific kind of pain that comes from marginless living. Why? Because we find ourselves in the midst of an unnamed epidemic. The disease of marginless living is insidious, widespread, and virulent.

        The marginless lifestyle is a relatively new invention and one of progress’s most unreasonable ideas. Yet in a very short time it has become a nearly universal malady. Few are immune. It is not limited to a certain socioeconomic group, nor to a certain educational level. Even those with a deep spiritual faith are not spared. It’s pain is impartial and nonsectarian--everybody gets to have some

      Others deny vehemently that anything is wrong. “Life has always been hard.” they say. “People have always been stressed. It is simply part of living. There has always been change to cope with. There have always been economic problems, and people have always battled depression. It is the nature of life to have its ups and downs--so why all the fuss?” 

  I’m not the one who's making the fuss; I’m only writing about it. I’m only being honest about what I see all around me. I sit in my examining room and listen. Then I repost what I hear. Something is wrong. People are tired and frazzled. People are anxious and depressed. People don't have the time to heal anymore. There is a psychic instability in our day that prevents peace from implanting itself  very firmly in the human spirit. And despite the skeptics, this instability is not the same old nemesis recast in modern role. What we have here is  a brand-new disease. 

     All of these advantages have been granted in America today. Yet the formula for happiness has proven to be more elusive than the simple bestowing of these benefits. Somewhere the equation has broken down. Food plus health plus warmth plus education plus affluence have not quite equaled Utopia. We live with unprecedented wealth and all it brings. We have leisure, entertainment, convenience, and comfort. We have insulted ourselves from the unpredictable ravages of nature. Yet stress, frustration and often times even despair unexpectedly accompany our unrivaled prosperity. 

    Is there a disease? We will soon  have a remedy. Is there poverty? We have enough wealth to go around, and a social program or two will solve the problem of the poor. Is there an energy shortage? We will find new technologies to harness the power of the nucleus and to capture the sun. Is there famine? We will use fertilizers and hybrid seeds to conquer hunger. In our most idolatrous moments, we actually began to assume that the solution to any problem could be confidently entrusted to progress. Thanks to its blessings, we came to perceive the future as a safer place to live. 

    It is not my intention  to denigrate the value of progress’s achievements. We have a;; benefited greatly. As a physician, I understand the tremendous advantages of immunizations, antibiotics, and anesthesia. We all marvel at the  power of communications and the speed of transportation. The print media has vastly increased access to learning. Wealth has permitted opportunities far beyond the imagining of our great-grandparents

  Yet as visible as these achievements have been, our faults demand a glaring prominence of their own. If we lead the world in successes, we also lead in far too many failures. Through much of the last decade, we had the developed world's highest rates of divoce, teenage pregnancy ,illicit drug abuse, crime, homicides, AIDS, litigation, functional illiteracy, national debt, and foreign  debt. We even make more garbage than anyone else. 

   With the aid of progress, perils now encircle us. No matter which direction we turn, yet another crisis stares us in  the face. Not only has progress been unable to solve these crises, it has not even been able to slow them. ..

          These patients are depressed, stressed, and exhausted. Some are desperate. Their jobs are insecure. Their farms have been repossessed. They are over their heads in debt. Their marriages are in trouble. Their sons are using drugs, and their daughter are getting pregnant.

    These patients don’t know what to do or where to turn. They have no social support, no roots, no community. Their stomachs won’t stop burning. They can’t sleep at night. They think about drastic solutions. The public blames the medical profession for giving too many tranquilizers and antidepressants. But what would you do? Doctors like to see healing as the result of their work. Yet today we often must be content with far less. There are so many things wrong with people’s lives that even our best is only a stopgap.  

     There can be little doubt that the ubiquitous contemporary absence of margin is directly linked to the march of progress. Those cultures with the most progress are the same as those with the least margin. If you were wondering why there is a chapter of progress in a book on margin, this is the reason. Margin has been stolen away, and progress was the thief.  If we want margin back, we will first have to do something about progress.

     We must have some room to breathe. We need freedom to think and permission to heal. Our relationships are being starved to death by velocity. No one has the time to listen, let alone love. Our children lay wounded on the ground, run over by our high-speed good intentions. Is God now pro exhaustion? Doesn’t He lead people beside the still waters anymore?    

   In its specifics, the definition of progress varies from culture to culture and from age to age. Within contemporary American society, however, our  notion of progress was first defined and later dominated by money, technology, and education. Each of these areas is of value, but none of them cares much about our transcendent needs. That indifference constitutes a fatal flaw. 

   In our enthusiasm to improve material and cognitive performance, we neglected to respect the more complex and less objective parameters along the way. The social, emotional, and spiritual contributions to our well-being were, and continue to be, overlooked and underestimated. Not only are they more difficult to measure, but we apparently believed they would simply ‘improve” along with everything else. Or else, in our rush for the future, we didn’t care. 

    While the progress we boast of is found within the material and cognitive environments, most of the pain we suffer is found within the social, emotional and spiritual. The material and cognitive environments are unquestionably important. They also have an advantage in that they are more visible and thus more highly pursued. Scripture teaches us , however, that the social, emotional, and spiritual environments are more important. A crucial task for our society today is to reverse the order of emphasis and viability of these environments.

     How might we know that the relational environments are where God would have us concentrate? Simply put, these are the same areas Christ spent His time developing and where His teachings focused.

      Where do you  think God would have  us search for answers regarding drugs, crime, divorce, sucide, depression, teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and litigation? In the material and cognitive reals, or in the relational ones? Our society tries in vain to remedy these problems using the  popular notions of progress---appropriating more money (that is, material/physical answers)   and setting up more classes (that is. cognitive /education answers). But insufficient funds and lack of education are not the problems. The problem is lack of love.

     With the establishment of a proper emphasis, all appropriate needs will be met. Should  we fail in this task, however, progress will only bring us increasing pain. Our wallets will get fatter, our houses are bigger, our cars faster, and our brains smarter. Yet when we neglect the most important priorities, our final reward will fittingly be all the unhappiness money can buy.”

#spirituality

[market-research-future]

Medical Holography Market Key Players, Opportunities and Global Industry Analysis Till 2023

A holography is a method of producing a three-dimensional image of an object using an interference pattern. The existing 3D technologies such as 3D-CT, 3D rotational angiography, 3D-ultrasound revolutionized medicine because they allowed doctors to see an individual patient's anatomy without cutting into the body. The exceptional penetration rate of holography products is attributable to the natural benefits of this technology over conservative alternatives, which influence companies to work further toward developing these products for subsequent commercialization.

The global Medical Holography Market is majorly driven by factors such as rapid adoption of holography technology by medical fraternity for applications such as medical education, dentistry, orthopedics, increasing applications of holography in diagnostic imaging to visualize complex 3D structures in human body and biomedical research recent technological advancements in holography products are expected to significantly contribute to the growth of the market throughout the forecast period.

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Technological advances in hologram recording techniques in the recent years and the availability of tools for interpretation of holographic interferograms should boost its usage in the field of urology, pathology, ophthalmology, and orthopedics. Moreover, endoscopic holography should emerge as a powerful tool for non-contact high resolution and non-invasive measurements inside the human organs.

The market for Medical holography will grow very rapidly at a rate of 32% CAGR during the forecasted period 2017-2023. The market is expected to reach USD 3.5 billion during the forecasted period.

Industry updates:

Nov, 2016 Holoxica Limited introduced a holographic 3D digital human anatomy atlas prototype for neuroscience. This product impacted medical science giving neurosurgeons and clinicians insights into identifying, diagnosing and treating a wide range of neurological conditions.

Dec, 2015 Japan scientists developed touchable holograms, which are to be adopted in wide range of applications in the future, to enable improved demonstration of biological processes and procedures.

Nov, 2015 Zebra Imaging acquired Rattan, a software-consulting firm. This acquisition was carried out to accelerate the integration of advanced 3D light-field technology in their array of holographic display products.

Dec, 2014 Bristol University developed a touchable holographic display through the generation of air disturbances using ultrasound to create 3D haptic shapes.

Oct, 2014 Zebra Imaging entered into a partnership with Zygote Media Group to develop advanced 3D biomedical models to visualize human anatomy.

Oct, 2013 RealView Imaging Ltd. and Royal Philips completed an assessment of live 3D holographic imaging, which facilitates 3D interaction and facilitates minimally-invasive structural heart disease procedures.

Sept, 2012 Zebra Imaging, Inc.’s digital print technologies have proven useful in medical, military, retail, and other commercial disciplines. This acquisition will add new products to HoloTech AG’s product portfolio, which will also help the company to expand its presence in holographic digital print operations.

Global Medical holography Market – Regional:

Geographically, the regional market is segmented into America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa.

America accounts the larger market for the hologram machines. As the early adoption of new technologies and more R&D is being carried out in this region. North America is the largest market for the hologram machines which is led by the United States. The adoption of new technology is more in this region as the research and development is also more and developing day by day.

Europe is the second largest market as it also has the advanced technologies and its own R&D. The region is also having its own set of regulations for the medical regulations. The expenditures are also more by the government bodies for the healthcare and adoption for the new and sophisticated technologies.

The Asia-Pacific region is witnessing fast growth in this region because of the rising factors such as healthcare spending, improving healthcare infrastructure in developing economies such as China, India, and South Korea, and growing awareness regarding the usage of holography products in medical applications.

The Middle East and Africa region is growing slowly due to factors like large number of unskilled labours, illiteracy is more, and economic development is slow.

Real View Imaging (Israel), Echo Pixel (CA), Integraf (USA), Royal Philips (Netherland), Zebra imaging, Eon Reality (US), Nano live SA (Switzerland), Holoxcia (Engalnd), Lyncee Tec (Switzerland), Mach 7 Technologies, General Electric Company, DPL Industri A/S Denmark, Olomagic, Arnold Herzig GmbH and others are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the global medical holography treatment market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.  

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About Market Research Future:

At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.

MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.

In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.

Contact:

Akash Anand

Market Research Future

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Email: [email protected]

[agedtoperfection777-blog]

Against Poverty

"Men and women who fight the suppression of the human voice, who fight disease, illiteracy, ignorance, poverty, and hunger. Some are known, others are not. Those are people who have inspired me."

-Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first democratically-elected President

Nelson Mandela prevailed against apartheid and white minority rule in South Africa and was banned and imprisoned during the struggle. In addition to the loss of freedom, he suffered from a debilitating illness, was separated from his loved ones, and faced incredible oppression. Yet he never strayed from ideals that resonate – democracy, equality, and the right to quality education.

The call-to-action for the 2021 observance of Nelson Mandela Day on July 18 is to take action, inspire change and make every day a “Mandela Day.”

From his first act of civil disobedience as a student protestor in the 1940s until he died in 2013, the Madiba clan's most celebrated son fought against poverty and its contributing factors.

Today, South Africa is burning again. I am reflecting on the root causes of so much violence and rioting and it is a trope I recognize – poverty begat violence.

I am praying for South Africa. Yet today, I am also celebrating and sharing some inspiring opportunities to join the global network of good people taking a stand against poverty in South Africa and around the globe.

They inspire me.

I always like to say "aim small – miss small." To me, the phrase means to do one single thing well and trust it will have an impact because others are doing the same thing.

I know of a preschool run by inspiring women in an impoverished South African township outside of Cape Town. I am involved in another effort to empower women entrepreneurs. In just a short time, I’ve seen what well-intentioned efforts can yield.  

Mana Preschool Grows Literacy and Produce

In pursuit of the mission to strengthen the development of the whole child by providing an all-inclusive education that encourages independent thought and essential skills, including empathy for others, resiliency, personal confidence, and affirmation of individual worth. This is the Mana Preschool in a nutshell. I watch videos each week that my friends at the preschool send me and I hear literacy blooming with my own ears. And there is a garden – one small seed that could sprout into an urban agriculture solution that addresses so much earthly goodness I can hardly control my enthusiasm.

Every Curated Piece tells a Story.

On Mandela Day – July 18 - and throughout July, you can visit my passion project’s social media pages and write in how you #InspireChange in our world. At the end of the month, we will recognize one person and present them with one of the most prized items in our Mana Boxes collection. Crafted from the raw Robben Island prison fence – that separated Nelson Mandela from freedom for 18 of his 27 years in captivity - comes this beautiful Strength necklace and earrings. You can wear his inspiration every day. The pieces delicately expose the raw fence sealed forever in laminate:

I believe - as do all of my friends in South Africa - when you empower a woman, you empower family, community, nations, and the world.