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#but considering the discrepancy between the reaction to part 7 and like part 5
deludedandlostcause · 3 years
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Hi. i just discovered your gif fic and I'm obsessed. Do you have a schedule when you update it?
Hi! Not really. I mean, not anymore. I've tried updating it at the beginning of each week (no day in particular, either Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday), but I had a bit of trouble while making part 6 and part 8 and I didn't manage to post "on time". I'd like to keep the weekly schedule going, because I actually have the two next parts ready and that gives me a bit of time to plan and work on the following ones, but I don't think that's going to happen.
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musiclovingbitch · 4 years
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Oh I want all of them 1-50!
Fuck. I brought this onto myself. Putting this under a read-more so that people don’t kill me.
1. What was your first fic and could you stand to reread it today?
I don’t think any of you know this but the first fic I ever wrote was a Shameless one-shot that was titled ‘Mine’ and it was just semi-good, semi-bad smut. The first and last fic I ever posted on fanfic.net, actually. I deleted it years ago and didn’t save a copy, so it’s gone forever now…
2. What’s your most recent fic and how far do you think you’ve come?
My most recent fic is Part, written for the 2019 Klaine Advent Challenge, and also the gleepotluckbigbang. I’m fallen majorly behind cause I have some studying to do, so I may take a long while to finish the rest of the klaine advent.
It’s much, much better than Mine was, lol.
3. In your opinion, what’s your best fic?
Oh, that’s so difficult. While I’m not happy with everything I’ve posted, there’s a bunch that have a special place in my heart. Escape came to mind first, partly because I love older!Blaine fics, which is kind of shocking to me cause it’s one of the very first fics I ever wrote, and statistically I tend to like my older fics less.
4. In your opinion and without looking at any numbers, what’s your most popular fic?
I have looked at the numbers before, though not recently, so I have an idea.
I think Escape is the reigning queen right now, actually, but Incapacitated by Love and The Effects of Cookies on Shy Teenagers are gunning for her crown, lol.
5. Is there any fic that makes you super happy to reread and remember you wrote that?
I don’t tend to reread any of my fics, but like I said, there are a few that I love. Escaped and Incapacitated by Love are two of them, along with Together, I Need A Gangsta, and Question.
6. Is there any fic that makes you super embarrassed to reread and remember you wrote that?
Uh, one of the reasons I don’t reread my fics is the cringe factor, so, no. I reread Mine a couple of years after I posted it and it made me delete it, so. I think it’s in everyone’s interest that I don’t.
7. What’s the fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)?
I don’t write multi-chaptered fics, so, not in that regard, but.
When I first posted I Need A Gangsta, I had a surprisingly large amount of people asking for a sequel. It’s been years since I posted it, but last week I started thinking about it and I have a little bit of inspiration, so. You may wanna look for that in the upcoming months. (I have exams coming up, be patient.)
8. What’s the oldest (longest since last update) fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)?
Again, I don’t write multi-chaptered fics, but.
I got asked for a sequel to one of the fics I wrote for the 2015 Klaine Advent, Wish, which is inspired by Aladdin. I haven’t gotten around to it yet… *hides in shame*
9. Have you ever written for a fandom without watching/reading/playing the source material?
Nah. I’m not sure if I could. Although, I do usually write AUs, so. I think some of them could fit pretty much any pairing.
10. Have you ever written for a fandom without reading other fanfic for it?
I hadn’t read any Shameless fanfic before writing and posting my own. But I read klaine fanfic for years before I attempted writing it.
11. Have you ever written a fic for a concept you know someone else has done before? How did it impact your writing process or feelings after posting?
Nothing specific comes to mind right now? I do occasionally get inspired by prompts, (and you can all blame @slayediest​ for reblogging them onto my dash) and they obviously get used by a whole bunch of people, but usually inspiration for different fics comes a little more naturally, like I’ll hear a song or whatever. 
I did write a fake dating au and I was nervous about writing it, I took more care than usual if that makes sense, and that was both because it’s such an iconic trope, but also because it was a gift to the delightful @lilyvandersteen​, so I was even more anxious than usual after posting it cause I was waiting to see if she liked it or not.
12. Have you ever written a fic and decided never to publish it? Why?
There are so. many. fics. in my drafts folder, but all but two are unfinished. Those two that are finished but not published I just don’t like very much. I keep them with the intent of re-writing the parts I don’t like and posting them. Eventually, hopefully, I’ll get around to that.
13. What’s the biggest change between your style when you started in fandom and today?
I’m more comfortable writing now than back when I first started, I guess? I was way more hesitant then.
I do write better smut now.
14. What’s the biggest change in your taste between when you started in fandom and today?
Let’s just say I’m into some kinky shit now and it’s definitely because of late nights spent on AO3.
Trope-wise, not much has changed about my preferences.
15. Have you ever purposefully written one fandom/fic idea over another because you knew it’d be more popular?
Nah. I don’t vibe like that. The words don’t come out of me.
16. Have you ever stopped writing a fic/for a fandom because it wasn’t receiving enough attention?
Nope.
17. In your opinion, what’s your most overrated fic?
It’s definitely Closer. I was debating not posting it and it has more hits than it has words, I really don’t get it.
18. What’s your most underrated fic?
I’m not sure. I feel like I’d be nagging if I said, oh hey not enough of you guys read/liked/reblogged this fic of mine. 
People have their preferences. I’m okay with that.
19. If you had to pick one fic/scene/chapter of your work to describe your entire portfolio to a stranger, which would you pick?
Fuck. Maybe Together? It has the mix of intense angst/sappy romance that you’ll find in my fics 100% of the time.
20. Have/Would you ever rewrite a fic? If yes, would you take the original down?
I haven’t, and I don’t think I will. I don’t tend to linger over fics once I’ve posted them.
21. If someone starts kudosing and commenting your fics in a spree and has a few works of their own, would you go look through theirs?
This has happened three times and I loved it every single time. I would definitely check out their profile, yes. 
22. Has there ever been anyone who’s made you freak out because they read your work and followed/favorited/reviewed?
Are you kidding me? Literally all of you, yes. Fandom royalty has read my work, bitches. 
23. What’s the nicest review you’ve ever gotten?
Oh, god. Someone commented that I made them cry, it was the best, it made my entire week.
24. What’s the meanest review you’ve ever gotten? Do you think the reviewer intended it?
I’m very lucky in that aspect, I’ve never gotten hate in regards to my fic. 
I did write a fic where Blaine and Sam were teaching a CPR class that Kurt was in, and at the end, I had Sam interrupt them while they were speaking, and someone left a mean comment about Sam? I smelled fandom wank and did not engage.
25. What constructive criticism, however well-meaning, always makes you feel bad when you see it in a review?
Haven’t gotten any of that.
26. What aspect of your writing do you most enjoy to see praised?
I like making people feel things. If you tell me I made you feel good or bad with my fic, I’m going to be delighted.
27. If you could only ever write crossovers or single-fandom fics ever again, which would you pick?
Single-fandom fics.
28. if you could only ever write for a single crossover or a single fandom again, which would you pick?
Glee, obvi. I’d never give you cuties up.
29. Does the division of your writing across fandoms line up with your reading? What’s the biggest discrepancy?
Well, although I have considered writing for some of my other fandoms, it just hasn’t felt right. That may change in the future, and that’ll be an interesting day.
30. Do you continue to write for a fandom after you’ve moved on or do you focus solely on the new one?
I think klaine has become such an important part of my life that I don’t see myself giving it up entirely.
31. Who’s the one character you’ve just never managed to get perfectly right?
I don’t think I have ever gotten any character perfectly right, but that’s okay. It helps that the majority of my fics are AUs, so I don’t feel a lot of hesitation having them do or say some OOC things.
32. Who’s the one character who shines without you even trying?
I think I’ve nailed Kurt and Blaine at different scenes in different fics, but no particular character comes easy to me.
33. Is there any particular character whose scenes always wind up being longer/more frequent than you expected? Does the quality hold up?
Rachel kind of takes over sometimes and I have to go back and edit things out, lol. That’s just her diva way.
34. Was there any fic that you wrote that really surprised you in the fandom reaction? Was it just by the numbers or did they take it an entirely different way?
I think the one that surprised me with just how much response it received (I know that phrasing is wrong but I can’t be bothered right now) is Incapacitated by Love. Who knew people in the glee fandom had a thing about police officer!Blaine.
35. Have you ever written a ship into a fic without meaning to?
I keep klaine as the main focus, so the backround couples switch up ocassionally and I don’t particularly care.
36. Have you ever sincerely written a ship you do not support into a fic?
Nope.
37. Have you ever purposefully bashed a character/ship in a fic?
Not that I can remember.
38. Have you ever purposefully written something you know your readers would find uncomfortable/would not enjoy? If yes, why?
I don’t think so?
39. Do you consider yourself to have a readership?
Not really. Although if any of you consider yourself to be a loyal reader of mine, please let me know.
40. Do you feel like you put out enough content?
No, that’s kind of the worst part about my muse, she’s a flighty bitch.
41. If you cross-post your fics on multiple sites, do you have a favorite? Are there certain fics you would only post on certain site?
AO3 is the best. Tumblr can suck my dick.
42. How many views has your most popular fic gotten?
Incapacitated by Love has 1554 hits! Wow.
43. Your least popular?
Ground has only 95 hits, but I posted it a few days ago.
44. Do you follow/favorite/kudos/comment/review more stories than you have received?
I have no idea what this question is asking.
45. If you had to call yourself an author of a single genre (besides fanfic) what label would you give yourself?
AU all the way, baby, although that’s apparent.
46. Do you consider yourself a diverse author?
No, I think I have a very specific style. I dither in between gut-wrenching angst and tooth-aching fluff. That’s it, that’s my fics.
47. If someone you know in real life who isn’t involved in fandoms asked to read your work, would you let them? If yes, what would you recommend they read first?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. There’s too much gay porn and I’m too closeted for this shit.
48. Does anyone you know from outside of fandom know you write fanfic? Are they involved in the same fandom too?
Yes, one friend of mine knows, although she doesn’t know what I write, or for which fandom(s).
49. Has anyone in your life ever read your fanfic just because you wrote it?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
50. Has writing fanfic had a significant impact on your life? Would you say it’s entirely positive?
Of course it’s had a massive impact in my life. It’s a huge creative outlet and I’ve ‘met’ so many people because of it! I think it’s like 85% positive.
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media-studying · 5 years
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QUEERBAITING: BAITING A QUEER AUDIENCE WITH THE PROMISE OF REPRESENTATION?
So, I finally got around to translating my term paper on Queerbaiting. I initially intended on translating it all manually, but ended up not having the time for it. Finally I decided on using DeepL for the translation, as it works great for academic writing and can handle german sentence structure.
This paper was written in September 2018 and turned in on September 31st. It was graded with 1.3 on the german academic grading scale (”very good” or ~3.7 in the US).
Introduction
Although the phenomenon of queer baiting made its way into media research a few years ago, the number of publications written on it remains manageable. A keyword search provides 125 academic texts containing the term "Queerbaiting" and almost exclusively from the last 5 years.[1]
Nevertheless, queer baiting does not seem to be a topic unknown to the non-academic general public. A search with common search engines and the keyword "Queerbaiting" yields 150,000-175,000 results [2], including Wikipedia entries, videos and articles in online magazines. In the English-speaking world there are various online articles that deal with this phenomenon - often in relation to television series such as Once Upon A Time (cf. Langfelder 2016) or The 100 (cf. Shakeri 2017). But there are also German-language texts on this topic (cf. Sky 2018). Even in the Lexikon der Filmbegriffe of the University of Kiel there is an entry on this subject (cf. Schlichter 2017). Queerbaiting seems to be a topic that repeatedly sparks discourse.
In social media, users can exchange views on this topic and there are different opinions on what can be considered queer baiting and what not. In preparation for this work, I have asked online for examples of queer baiting in order to extend the selection of the object of investigation by the examples I know personally.[3] The following answers show a dissatisfaction with the current amount of representation of queer [4] relationships in film and television. Among the mentioned examples were the already mentioned television series The 100, the series Supergirl, Riverdale, Pretty Little Liars and 13 Reasons Why, as well as the cross-media Harry Potter franchise.
But queer baiting is not limited to the protracted storylines of television series; this phenomenon can also be observed in games like Life Is Strange or films like the Pitch Perfect trilogy.
The present work deals with the term queer baiting and the related concepts. In this context, the representation of LGBTQ+ identities in American Hollywood film will also be discussed. In addition, two social media posts will be examined as concrete examples, which served as advertising for the film Pitch Perfect 3. The work will answer the question why queer baiting can be so frustrating for LGBTQ+ viewers and which mechanisms make queer baiting possible.
[1] Via Google Scholar, as of 24.09.2018.
[2]  Via Google: 153,000 results, via Yahoo: 175,000 results, via Bing: 175,000 results, as of 24.09.2018.
[3] This took place via a post in the anonymous social network Jodel, in a channel (@girlsgirlsgirls) in which primarily LGBTQ+ topics concerning women are discussed. The respective post can be found under the link: https://share.jodel.com/post?postId=5b210941c3c100000f3bced8&channel=other&_branch_match_id=572700582120145397. 
[4] Queer as generic term for identities and sexualities falling into the LGBTQ+ spectrum.
Terminology
Queerbaiting is a term coined by fans, whose meaning has changed over the years (cf. Nordin 2015: 4f.). Also in its established meaning there are different approaches of how the term can be interpreted.
Eve Ng defines queer baiting as a practice originating from producers that exploits the interest of recipients in narratives with LGBTQ+ themes without actually fulfilling these expectations.
I use the term queerbaiting to refer to situations where those officially associated with a media text court viewers interested in LGBT narratives - or become aware of such viewers - and encourage their interest in the media text without the text ever definitively confirming the nonheterosexuality of the relevant characters. (Ng 2017: 1.2)
By this, however, she also understands narratives that contain LGBTQ+ themes, but where there is a discrepancy between the audience's expectations and actual representation in the media text. It is precisely this discrepancy between the expectations built up and the actual text that constitutes queer baiting for her (cf. Ng 2017: 1.2). These expectations of the audience arise through both intratextual references and the "producer paratext", which contains information on the text from the producers (this can be any form of extratextual promotion from the producers) as well as through so-called "queer contextuality" - the summation of the audience's previous experiences with the media representation of queer figures (cf. ibid.: 1.3, 2.5).
While Ng uses her definition very openly, Judith Fathallah is much more precise:
Queerbaiting may be defined as a strategy by which writers and networks attempt to gain the attention of queer viewers via hints, jokes, gestures, and symbolism suggesting a queer relationship between two characters, and then emphatically denying and laughing off the possibility. (Fathallah 2014: 491)
In this definition, the focus is less on the relationship between producer and recipient, instead it defines queer baiting via intratextual cues and codes, and the intratextual rejection and/or mockery of a queer relationship.
The core of the phenomenon remains the same in both definitions: First, references to a non-heterosexual relationship are scattered, be it in the text or in the paratext - a queer reading is promoted - this leads to expectations on the part of the recipients, these expectations are then not fulfilled in the text, the relationship is not realized or possibly even the possibility of a queer relationship is dismissed as absurd. Queerbaiting is therefore a concept to be understood literally: one is baited with a queer relationship.
While queer baiting is a rather recent phenomenon (cf. Nordin 2015: 66), queer readings of media texts go back further. The queer interpretation of the relationship between the characters Spock and Captain Kirk of the Star Trek franchise demonstrably dates to the 1980s and beyond (cf. Jenkins 2006: 90f.). This interpretation of media texts - "queer reading" - stems from the lack of adequate representation:
A queer reading is constructed by a reader who, denied the obvious manifestation of homosexual desire, in a context in which heterosexual desire is normalized, seeks to identify the codes by which authors have indicated passionate relationships between same-sex members of their texts or have created available metaphors through cross-species relationships. (Mendelsohn 2002: 45)
Queer baiting is thus always connected to queer reading, since it would not be possible without this reading by the viewer - only the willingness to regard certain codes as homoerotic subtexts enables the systematic exploitation of these by producers.
The definition of queer baiting used in this work as a deliberate economically motivated tactic is based on the definition of the authors Guerrero-Pico, Establés and Ventura:
[...] 'queerbaiting' [is] a tactic whereby media producers suggest a homoerotic subtext between characters as a means to improve or maintain a show's ratings without actualizing or consummating such a relationship beyond suggestion and innuendo. (Guerrero-Pico/Establés/Ventura 2018: 313)
Although this definition explicitly refers to television productions, it can, in my opinion, also be applied to the example used in this work, which is the last iteration of a film trilogy that takes up subtext established in earlier films.
If one speaks of Queerbaiting, it cannot be avoided to also deal with Bury-Your-Gays, a phenomenon, which often appears in connection with Queerbaiting and represents a similar problem. Bury-Your-Gays is the recurring motif that queer figures in media texts often come to a violent end. In this way, despite the existence of these figures, a heteronormative narrative is promoted by denying queer figures a "happy end" and thus placing queer identities in a negative context (cf. Waggoner 2017: 3). Examples are Chloe in Life Is Strange[5] and Lexa in The 100 [6] . Since queer female characters, mostly lesbian women, often find a violent end in the media, one also speaks in this context of the "Dead Lesbian Syndrome" (cf. Guerrero-Pico/Establés/Ventura 2018: 312). Ng regards this phenomenon (without explicitly naming it) as a form of queer baiting instead of an independent phenomenon (cf. Ng 2017: 1.2).
Guerrero-Pico, Establés and Ventura examine the reactions of fans to the death of the serial character Lexa more closely. Among other things, they were able to observe an online movement called "LGBT Fans Deserve Better", which was primarily concerned with the representation of lesbian and bisexual women on television. This included online attacks on the producers of the series The 100, mainly via Twitter, as well as the wider context of negative fan practices, which for the authors fall under the term "fan-tagonism" [7] (cf. Guerrero-Pico/Establés/Ventura 2018: 312).
[5] If the player has chosen one of the two ends. Also Chloe's ex-girlfriend Rachel, who is already dead at the beginning of the game. 
[6] Further examples are Sara Lance in Arrow, Tara Maclay in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hugh Culber in Star Trek: Discovery and all queer characters ever released in The Vampire Diaries. A list can be found on the website Does the dog die? (https://www.doesthedogdie.com/#topicTable ).
[7] A Portmanteau from "fan" and "antagonism". 
Representation
One aspect of the debate on queer baiting is the question of the representation of queer persons and relationships in film and television. Why is this representation important? And if representation is important, is queer baiting a problem for them?
The prevailing opinion in literature is that representation is important because it serves identity formation and affirmation. Through (positive) representation, negative feelings concerning one's own identity can be overcome and social isolation can be reduced (cf. Guerrero-Pico/Establés/Ventura 2018: 314). What is regarded as satisfactory representation changes over time, what was still regarded as positive representation in the 1990s would no longer be accepted as produced by many people today (cf. Nordin 2015: 63).
Whether queer baiting causes a representative damage is difficult to answer, Brennan sees no damage caused by queer baiting, instead he sees the creative potential for fans who create transformative works (cf. Brennan 2018: 202). However, the indignation caused by queer baiting cannot be denied, so it should be reconsidered whether subjectively perceived damage is not caused by the absence of representation. Guerrero-Pico, Establés and Ventura summarise the views of participants in the "LGBT Fans Deserve Better" movement as follows:
Queerbaiting is perceived, therefore, as a commercial trivialization of the problems that affect lesbian and bisexual fans, who do not find a normalized and healthy representation of their affective and sexual identities in hegemonic discourses (Guerrero-Pico/Establés/Ventura 2018: 327).
While the evaluation of representation in the viewer is subjective, there are tools to create a comparable basis for discussion. One of these tools is the so-called Vito Russo Test. This test, developed by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and named after its founder, is based on the Bechdel Test. For a film to pass the Vito Russo test, three conditions must be true:
The film must contain at least one character that is recognizably gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and/or queer.
This character must not be primarily defined by sexuality and/or gender identity.
The character must be involved in the plot of the film to the extent that his or her absence would have a significant effect on it - he or she must be of significance. (cf. glaad.org 2018a)
The organisation GLAAD also publishes an annual report entitled "Studio Responsibility Index" which examines and classifies the LGBTQ+ representation in the films of the previous year of the seven largest Hollywood film studios[8].
For the 2017 film year, 12.8% of the films examined contained at least one LGBTQ+ character, of which 64% were gay men. Overall, 71% of the LGBTQ+ characters were men and 29% women (cf. Glaad.org 2018b). Of these films, 64% passed the Vito Russo test (cf. Glaad.org 2018a).
The film Pitch Perfect 3 and the studio Universal Pictures (short: Universal) dealt with in the following section can also be found in this report. Of the 14 films published by Universal, 4 included LGBTQ+ persons, so that Universal published the most LGBTQ+ inclusive films of the studios surveyed, of which only one passed the Vito Russo Test - Get Out. Pitch Perfect 3 did not pass the test, despite the presence of a lesbian character[9] (cf. Glaad.org 2018c).
[8] 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Brothers. 
[9] The character Cynthia (Ester Dean) is only a background character.  "Ship": short for "relationship".
Pitch Perfect 3
The Pitch Perfect Trilogy is about a fictional university's A-Capella group The Barden Bellas, which protagonist Beca (Anna Kendrick) joins in the first film of the trilogy. The sequels play about 3 years after their predecessors and show The Barden Bellas during and after their time at the university.
The example I chose coincidentally shares a name with the video game Life is Strange: Chloe (Brittany Snow). This was connected by fans with the name Beca to the Portmanteau "Bechloe". This "ship name"[10] is used by fans to refer to the romantically interpreted relationship between the two characters. This relationship, however, takes place exclusively in the subtext and parate text of the films. The latter will be examined further here.
Already in 2016 Kendrick spoke in an interview with the LGBTQ+ magazine The Advocate about the relationship between the two characters and called it a quasi lesbian relationship[11] (see Advocate.com 2016). In the same interview she indicated that the homoerotic subtext perceptible in the second film was intended by the production side as a reaction to the queer interpretation of the relationship through fans (ibid.)[12].
Online marketing for Pitch Perfect 3 also plays with this interpretation of the relationship between the two characters. A commercial clip distributed in the Snapchat app shows Kendrick and Snow approaching each other, giving the impression they're going to kiss next. Instead, they turn to the camera and Kendrick asks the viewer to move up for more (in the app, linked websites or additional information can be accessed via this function). Due to the way the app works, previous content can no longer be accessed, but the video was saved by a user and published via Twitter[13] (Figure 1).
Tumblr media
(Figure 1)
From the user's brief commentary it can be concluded that she felt a certain resentment about this type of marketing. In the reactions of other users to this post, the term "queer baiting" already appears repeatedly, so it can be assumed that at least some of the users regard this video, or the film to which it refers, as such.
The video plays with the expectation of viewers who emerge from a coded body language. Due to the physical closeness and the placement of the two actresses' hands, a pictorial language emerges with which otherwise romantic relationships are represented. The invitation to the viewer insinuates that a kiss is possible and that perhaps there is room in the film being advertised. The viewer who is interested in queer narratives thus gets an incentive to see the film, which, however, does not fulfil this expectation.
Another video[14] published on the Twitter account "Universal PicturesUK" shows scenes from the film Pitch Perfect 3, including a scene in which the seemingly naked characters Beca and Chloe stand behind one another, a scene in which the two characters are again shown over which red hearts have been overlaid digitally this time, and a scene in which Chloe puts her hands on Beca's chest to push her aside and then grabs her further, observed by the character Aubrey (Anna Camp).
Tumblr media
(Figure 2)
The video is accompanied by the comment: "One day left ... Will Bechloe ever happen 👯? #PitchPerfect3 in cinemas tomorrow." (Figure 2). Not only is a very clear visual language used here, the term "Bechloe" is also used in a targeted manner, thus revealing an awareness of the possible queer dimension of the relationship. The queer reading is taken up and reinforced by the montage of the film scenes. In the context of the film, however, these are treated more as jokes than as opening up an actual romantic dimension, for which the film was criticized by GLAAD, among others (cf. Glaad.org 2018c).
On the basis of these examples, three observations can be made which answer the question of whether this is queer baiting:
The producers were aware of the queer reading of the material.
The producers used this reading to build up the expectations and hopes of the audience and to give them an incentive to see the film in the cinema - aware that these expectations would not be fulfilled.
The exploitation of this queer reading had no negative effect on the economic performance of the film, Pitch Perfect 3 was more successful than the first part of the trilogy, although not as successful as the second part (cf. Boxofficemojo.com).
These observations confirm that the two videos are queer baiting as defined by Guerrero-Pico, Establés and Ventura. In addition to some reactions to social media platforms and some texts published online, a media outcry seems to have failed to materialize; no "Shitstorm"[15] could be observed in this example, as in the Bury Your Gays trope.
[10] "Ship”: short for relationship.
[11] „I mean, our characters are pretty much in a lesbian relationship. As far as we’re concerned, they’re secretly in love.” (Advocate.com 2016).
[12] „If people didn’t think it was cute, we wouldn’t have pushed that chemistry even further in Pitch Perfect 2.” (ibid.).
[13] The video can be found under the title: "Twitter - megs" in the appendix.
[14] In the appendix under "Twitter - Universal PicturesUK". 
[15] Shitstorm: „Unter Shitstorms werden in der Forschung krisenhafte Ereignisse verstanden, die ihren Ausgangspunkt in sozialen Medien haben und im Wesentlichen durch Empörung statt sachlicher Kritik gekennzeichnet sind.“ (Pleil & Bastian 2017: 141). "In research, shitstorms are understood as crisis events that have their starting point in social media and are essentially characterized by indignation instead of objective criticism".
Conclusion
In summary it can be said that queer baiting is an economically motivated tactic, the intention is not to represent queer figures and relationships, but to win as many paying recipients as possible. However, it is precisely this representation that is important in the process of identity formation, especially among young people (cf. Guerrero-Pico/Establés/Ventura 2018: 314).
Queerbaiting works because there is already a lack of and - in parts of the audience - a desire for satisfactory queer representation, which leads to queer readings of media texts. In this subaudience there is also the will to consume and spend money for media products in which LGBTQ+ representation exists. Since in most cases this 'need' is not satisfied, or the representation is not long-lasting (Bury your gays), the discrepancy between expectation and actual media text described by Ng (see above) arises - resulting in frustration and disappointment. The examples chosen for this work show that the homoerotic subtext and the queer reading of the media text is indeed desired by producers and consciously used. Irrespective of how queer baiting is ethically judged, it can also be argued that in most cases it is a targeted false advertising, since it implicitly advertises content that is not reflected in the media text.
Since most of the recently produced films do not even meet the minimum of queer representation described in the Vito Russo Test, the use of queer baiting is unlikely to change much in the foreseeable future.
Sources
Advocate.com (2016). The A-List Interview: Anna Kendrick. Website. Advocate.com. https://www.advocate.com/current-issue/2016/11/01/list-interview-anna-kendrick (27.09.2018).
Boxofficemojo.com. Pitch Perfect Trilogy Movies at the Box Office - Box Office Mojo. Website. Boxofficemojo.com. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=pitchperfectseries.htm (27.09.2018).
Brennan, Joseph (2018). “Queerbaiting: The ‘playful’ possibilities of homoeroticism”. International Journal of Cultural Studies. 21.2. p. 189-206.
Fathallah, Judith (2015). „Moriarty’s Ghost: Or the Queer Disruption of BBC’ Sherlock”. Television & New Media. 16.5. p. 490-500.
Glaad.org (2018a). The Vito Russo Test (2018). Website. GLAAD. https://www.glaad.org/sri/2018/vitorusso (26.09.2018).
Glaad.org (2018b). Overview of Findings (2018). Website. GLAAD. https://www.glaad.org/sri/2018/overview (26.09.2018).
Glaad.org (2018c). Universal Pictures & Focus Features. Website. GLAAD. https://www.glaad.org/sri/2018/universal-pictures (26.09.2018).
Guerrero-Pico, Mar / María-José Establés / Rafael Ventura (2018). “Killing off Lexa: ‘Dead Lesbian Syndrome’ and intra-fandom management of toxic fan practices in an online queer community”. Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies. 15.1. p. 311-333.
Jenkins, Henry (2006). “’Out of the Closet and into the Universe’: Queers and Star Trek”. Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. New York: NYU Press. p. 89-112.
Langfelder, Natasia (2016). “Let's End Queerbaiting in 2016”. Website. AfterEllen. https://www.afterellen.com/tv/471593-lets-end-queerbaiting-2016 (24.09.208).
Megs (2017). „I have HAD IT“. Tweet (@badassbeca). 21.11.2017. 21:10. https://twitter.com/badassbeca/status/933200998574804992 (26.09.2018).
Mendelsohn, Farah (2002). „Surpassing the Love of Vampires: Or Why/How a Queer Reading of the Buffy/Willow Relationship Is Denied”. Fighting the Forces. Wilcox, Rhonda V./David Lavery. Oxford: Rowman &Littlefield Publishers. p. 45-60.
Ng, Eve (2017). “Between Text, Paratext, and Context: Queerbaiting and the Contemporary Media Landscape”. Transformative Works and Cultures. Vol. 24. Online. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2017.0917 (24.09.2018).
Nordin, Emma (2015). From Queer Reading to Queerbaiting: the battle over polysemic text and the power of hermeneutics. Master Thesis. University Stockholm. Online: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A839802&dswid=2391 (25.09.2018).
Pleil, Thomas / Matthias Bastian (2017). „Soziale Medien in der externen Organisationskommunikation“. Handbuch Soziale Medien. Schmidt, Jan-Hinrik / Monika Taddicken (Hrsg.). Wiesbaden: Springer VS. p. 129-149.
Schlichter, Ansgar (2017). „queerbaiting - Lexikon der Filmbegriffe.“ Website. Filmlexikon.uni-kiel.de. http://filmlexikon.uni-kiel.de/index.php?action=lexikon&tag=det&id=9334 (24.09.2018).
Shakeri, Sima (2017). “Bury Your Gays,' Queerbaiting, And TV's LGBTQ Problem”. Website. HuffPost Canada. https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/06/30/queerbaiting-bury-your-gays-tv_a_23005000/ (24.09.2018).
Sky (2018). „Queerbaiting – Der trügerische Schein einer Repräsentation | Geekgeflüster“. Website. Geekgeflüster. https://geekgefluester.de/queerbaiting-der-truegerische-schein-einer-repraesentation (24.09.2018)
Universal PicturesUK (2017). „One day left … Will Bechloe ever happen 👯? #PitchPerfect3 in cinemas tomorrow.“. Tweet (@universaluk). 19.12.2017. 10:00. https://twitter.com/universaluk/status/943179139590139905 (26.09.2018).
Waggoner, Erin B. (2017). “Bury Your Gays and Social Media Fan Response: Television, LGBTQ Representation, and Communitarian Ethics”. Journal of Homosexuality. Online. (02.11.2017) https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2017.1391015 (29.09.2018)
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angst-in-space · 5 years
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1, 2, 4-11, 13-18, 20-22, 24, 25, 27-35, 37-48, 50 👍💕💖
holy shit alex
1. What was your first fic and could you stand to reread it today?
my first fic was altea rising and yes i’d still reread it today bc 1) i’m still writing it lmao, 2) i only started it two years ago dkfdj
2. What’s your most recent fic and how far do you think you’ve come?
if we’re not counting fic updates i guess the most recent thing i finished was my piece for @extrasolarzine (WHICH I’M GONNA FINALLY POST A PREVIEW OF THIS WEEK...AAH)!! and well, again i’ve only been writing fic for a couple years but...hmm idk, i mean this piece is very action-y and that’s something i used to have very little confidence about, so i’d like to think that’s something i’ve improved upon! 
4. In your opinion and without looking at any numbers, what’s your most popular fic?
ha i mean i know for a fact that “if the silence was a song” is my most popular fic both in terms of hits/kudos....it also seems to be the one people rec the most and the one i most often get the reaction of “wait, YOU wrote that??” sdkfjd
5. Is there any fic that makes you super happy to reread and remember you wrote that?
answered!
6. Is there any fic that makes you super embarrassed to reread and remember you wrote that?
nah not really, i’m pretty happy with all my fics lol...i guess there’s parts of them that could be better but none of them make me like Truly Embarrassed
7. What’s the fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)?
answered!
8. What’s the oldest (longest since last update) fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)?
i guess it’s altea rising since i haven’t updated it in like three months haha, but uhh don’t worry it’s coming! (as in i’m super close to Finally finishing a draft of the next chapter heh heh)
9. Have you ever written for a fandom without watching/reading/playing the source material?
nope! i’ve only written fic for voltron 
10. Have you ever written for a fandom without reading other fanfic for it?
also no....i binge-read a ton of voltron fics the summer it came out and then started a fic of my own! 
11. Have you ever written a fic for a concept you know someone else has done before? How did it impact your writing process or feelings after posting?
i figure everything has been done before in one way or another so that’s something i try not to sweat it too much about. i try to be original, but there’s also a lot of popular tropes i like so it’s fun to take those and try to make them my own somehow!
13. What’s the biggest change between your style when you started in fandom and today?
answered!
14. What’s the biggest change in your taste between when you started in fandom and today?
i’m not sure if this refers to reading or writing fic but...i guess in general i’m a lot pickier now than i was at the beginning of the fandom?? like i remember at the beginning i’d just kinda read whatever was popular but over time i’ve developed a much better sense of what i will and won’t like lol, and i p much only read things written by friends and/or rec’d to me by friends. 
15. Have you ever purposefully written one fandom/fic idea over another because you knew it’d be more popular?
not really?? in fact i seem to gravitate more towards my super long complicated aus even knowing they’re not gonna gain as much attention lol.
16. Have you ever stopped writing a fic/for a fandom because it wasn’t receiving enough attention?
no i’m a masochist so i continue writing the aforementioned super long complicated aus even when it feels like i’m just dropkicking updates into the void lmao. but tbh even if literally no one was reading my multichap fics i’d probs still write them bc they’re fun to write and i love them a lot, so!!
17. In your opinion, what’s your most overrated fic?
ha i mean, again i like all my fics and i’m happy i wrote them all but...i guess probably “a truth in the blood”? dgmw i still like that one a lot and i’m glad a lot of people enjoyed it, i’m just not as like emotionally attached to it as i am to my other fics (probs cuz i wrote it in like two weeks haha). 
18. What’s your most underrated fic?
ummm i’d say it’s defo “the stars are bound to change.” idk man like i really poured my soul into that one and it’s so rare someone tells me it’s their fave....i have this particular soft spot for it that whenever someone tells me they love that one i’m like *SOBS*...THANK YOU.
20. Have/Would you ever rewrite a fic? If yes, would you take the original down?
probably not?? there’s some things i’d probs change a bit in some of my fics but there’s nothing that i would rewrite completely.
21. If someone starts kudosing and commenting your fics in a spree and has a few works of their own, would you go look through theirs?
i gotta admit i don’t think i’ve ever done that...? i usually don’t start looking at someone’s fics unless they’ve been rec’d to me or like unless we’ve become friends and i then find out they write fic.
22. Has there ever been anyone who’s made you freak out because they read your work and followed/favorited/reviewed?
answered!
24. What’s the meanest review you’ve ever gotten? Do you think the reviewer intended it?
i’ve never gotten a truly mean review really. *knocks on wood* i think the only slightly negative one i can think of off the top of my head was someone who complained about the end of “the stars are bound to change” and said it was too abrupt but...i don’t think they intended it to be super malicious or anything, and like, i get it bc i wasn’t 100% happy with the ending either. but oh well can’t win ‘em all. 
25. What constructive criticism, however well-meaning, always makes you feel bad when you see it in a review?
again i haven’t really gotten much negativity or criticism in comments so uh...*shrugs* and i’m p good at taking constructive criticism i was a creative writing major sdkdj
27. If you could only ever write crossovers or single-fandom fics ever again, which would you pick?
i’ve only ever written single-fandom fics and don’t have a desire to ever write a crossover fic so lol. 
28. if you could only ever write for a single crossover or a single fandom again, which would you pick?
i mean i guess voltron bc it’s the only fandom i’ve written fic for anyway and klance still owns my ass, so... 
29. Does the division of your writing across fandoms line up with your reading? What’s the biggest discrepancy?
....i only read/write voltron fic pretty much so uh n/a haha
30. Do you continue to write for a fandom after you’ve moved on or do you focus solely on the new one?
again i’ve only written voltron fic and yeah i’m still writing it even though i’m not watching the show anymore. what can i say, a bitch loves klance and that bitch is me!! 
31. Who’s the one character you’ve just never managed to get perfectly right?32. Who’s the one character who shines without you even trying?33. Is there any particular character whose scenes always wind up being longer/more frequent than you expected? Does the quality hold up?
answered!
34. Was there any fic that you wrote that really surprised you in the fandom reaction? Was it just by the numbers or did they take it an entirely different way?
also answered!
35. Have you ever written a ship into a fic without meaning to?
not that i can think of...there’s been a couple times i’ve decided partway through a fic to include some side-pairing later on in the background, but it’s not really unintentional, just that i didn’t plan on it from the beginning. 
37. Have you ever purposefully bashed a character/ship in a fic?
i wouldn’t say “bashed” per se but uh i do often really stress on shiro & keith having a brotherly relationship although that’s more out of the fear of people interpreting it the wrong way... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
38. Have you ever purposefully written something you know your readers would find uncomfortable/would not enjoy? If yes, why?
i....no. why would i do that?? dlkfjdk
39. Do you consider yourself to have a readership?
a sort of small one but yeah! 
40. Do you feel like you put out enough content?
yes and no...i write a lot but it’s mostly just piling more and more into my multichaps. kinda wish i wrote more short oneshots but oh well.
41. If you cross-post your fics on multiple sites, do you have a favorite? Are there certain fics you would only post on certain site?
i only post on ao3 so yeah.
42. How many views has your most popular fic gotten?
“if the silence was a song” with 23,744 hits whew!! 
43. Your least popular?
“a million little pieces” (the fic i wrote for lancito) it only has 349 hits rip.... (i mean it’s a gen fic and only like 2k words long so i get it but sdlkfjd)
44. Do you follow/favorite/kudos/comment/review more stories than you have received?
i’m a little confused by the wording of this lol, but uh if i’m understanding the question correctly...i think it’s about even? although tbh i’ve been slacking a lot in my fic reading lately, but in general i try to support other fic authors as much as i can! 
45. If you had to call yourself an author of a single genre (besides fanfic) what label would you give yourself?
answered!
46. Do you consider yourself a diverse author?
i’m not sure if this means like in terms of diverse content/genres or in terms of like character diversity but i’d like to say yes to both?? i like moving around between different genres, also i care a lot about character diversity and representation so yeah! 
47. If someone you know in real life who isn’t involved in fandoms asked to read your work, would you let them? If yes, what would you recommend they read first?
i mean this has happened to me before and i’m like “sure lol.” it depends on the person but probs i would have them read “a million little pieces” or maybe “a truth in the blood” since those are the shortest and uhhh the least shippy lol. 
48. Does anyone you know from outside of fandom know you write fanfic? Are they involved in the same fandom too?
yeah i’m an annoying bitch who can’t shut up about writing fic so p much all my friends/fam know i write it hahaha. and uhh i have a couple irl friends who are in the same fandoms as me but not a lot.
50. Has writing fanfic had a significant impact on your life? Would you say it’s entirely positive?
answered!
aaaaand now i think i’ve officially answered all the questions for this meme lmao
fanfic author ask meme
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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years
Text
THE TROUBLE WITH THE STARTUP FUNDING LANDSCAPE
It was not until Perl 5 if then that the language was suitable for writing serious programs, and yet is taboo in ours, is a good number of unthinkable ideas. People who like orange are tolerated but viewed with suspicion. So the lower we can get the response rate is abominably low at best 15 per million, vs 3000 per million for a catalog mailing, the cost, to them, is practically nothing.1 It might be a good thing for the world. If you see pictures with man-made things in them, it has been a long time, practically to the beginning of the end of my day these meetings are never an interruption.2 So the cheaper your company is to operate, the harder it is to focus more on the idea part and less on the startup part.3 If you take a boring job to give your family a high standard of living, as so many programming languages do. But other considerations can outweigh the advantages of moving.
If you want to take a break from working, I walk into the square, just as a landmark in the history of science, architecture, and the latter because the whole culture cares about design will be sailing upwind. When you take people like this and put them together with other ambitious people, they bloom like dying plants given water. For example, in my database, of.4 I can't write a general purpose function that I can call on any struct. It's not necessarily a problem if you work in sales or marketing. Here is an example of a spam that arrived while I was writing this article.5 You do need to be better to follow the truth wherever it leads.6 Every movie is a Frankenstein, full of imperfections and usually quite different from what was originally envisioned. By 1998, Yahoo was the beneficiary of a de facto Ponzi scheme.7 This technique is successful in the long term, which do you think most will choose?8
Investing is not covered by antitrust law. I wouldn't be surprised if there start to be thrown off. If your eight year old son decides to climb a tall tree, or your teenage daughter decides to date the local bad boy, you won't be selling the company for 20. Why is it conventional to pretend to be a waste of time, that programming languages don't become popular or unpopular based on what expert hackers think of them as rather passive. 06451222 difficult 0. They can be considered in this algorithm by treating them as virtual words. It was a lot of what's good in an article often survives; indeed, the closer the paraphrase is to plagiarism, the more dangerous false positives become, because when the filters are really good, users will be determined by the amount of math you need as a user.9 So once the quality of their product, not the confident media stars they are today. But until this does start to happen, we know VCs are being too conservative. So someone investigated, and sure enough, that patent application had continued in the pipeline for several years after, and finally issued in 2003, but no one told me.10
Not just something you can leave running as a background process. You shouldn't worry about prestige. One way to do great work is to volunteer as a research assistant. In How to Become a Hacker, Eric Raymond describes Lisp as something like Latin or Greek—a language you should learn in college had the same flaw: a very hard problem, blithely approached with hopelessly inadequate techniques.11 The tree structure of large organizations sets an upper bound on freedom, not a side project; its goal was to grow as fast as I can type, then spend several weeks rewriting it. The dream language is beautiful, clean, and terse. So a plan that promises freedom at the expense of those you don't. If you find something broken that you can learn more about this from a wise grandmother or E.12
There is hope for a new techology, than a few years, it would be better for kids in this one case if parents were not so unselfish. Of course, figuring out what you like, but is disastrously lacking in others. When I was a philosophy major in college.13 The harder they squeeze, the further the seed flies, but they didn't have the people yelling insults out of cars. When people are bad at math, they know it, they're big. At first the default reaction of the Slashdot trolls was translated into articulate terms: Who is this guy? Fashion doesn't seem like work to you? Four forces, three of which one could have predicted, and one that would have been, if they hadn't had to write a paper for a class, but because it's more convenient. If a lot of hand-wringing now about declining market share.14 Creating such a corpus would be useful for other kinds of work are like. They may have to like what you do enough that the concept of spare time seems mistaken. On the surface it feels like the kind of group you're meant to like, but what they want to do.
Notes
Sites that habitually linkjack get banned. But it's easy for small children to consider themselves immortal, because she liked the outdoors, was starting an outdoor portal. I was surprised to find may be some number of users to observe—e. Within Viaweb we once had a tiny.
These were the case. Wisdom is just knowing the right thing, because the danger of chasing large investments is not a nice-looking man with a clear plan for the next stage tend to become one of the most successful ones.
Few consciously realize that. In Russia they just kill you, they thought at least once for the manager mostly in Perl, and b I'm satisfied if I could pick them, initially, to drive the old days it was the least correlation between launch magnitude and success. I couldn't believe it, but even there people tend to notice when it's aligned with the melon seed model is more of a startup idea is that in the computer world, and only one.
A has an operator for removing spaces from strings and language B doesn't, that's not the original text would in 1950.
People who value their peace, or much energy would be worth trying to sell or not. But it is possible to have suffered from having been corporate software for so long to send a million dollars. Perl has. Giving away the razor and making more per customer makes it easier to take care of one's markets is ultimately just another way to see the old car they had no government powerful enough to defend their interests in political and legal disputes.
In other words, of course, that it had no natural immunity to dictators. However, it could become a manager. Google Video is badly designed.
An influx of inexpensive but mediocre programmers is the discrepancy between government receipts as a constituency. At this point for me was the first phase of the venture business, and their hands thus tended to make peace. This is why we can't believe anyone would think Y Combinator is we hope visited mostly by technological progress, but in practice investors discount merely predicted revenue, so you'd have reached after lots of back and forth. And while they may end up making something that was a bimodal economy consisting, in which multiple independent buildings are traditionally seen as temporary; there is a down round, though more polite, was one in a company tuned to exploit it.
But it isn't a picture of anything. It's worth taking extreme measures to avoid faces, precisely because they attract so much the better, for example, it's this internal process at work. Then Josh Wilson came in to pick up a solution.
If you want to keep their wings folded, as it might be an open booth. Most of the causes of the rest of the auction. Russell was still saying the same reason parents don't tell the whole story.
I'm not saying you should be especially conservative in this they're perfect.
Inside their heads for someone to invent the steam engine. He had such a discovery. But so far has trained them to justify choices inaction in particular made for other kinds of companies to acquire you.
I don't know. Quite often at YC. Investors will deliberately affect more interest than they have that glazed over look.
Garry Tan pointed out an interesting sort of love is as blind as the little jars in supermarkets.
The two guys were Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. Believe me, I asked some founders who'd taken series A rounds from top VC funds whether it was overvalued till you run through all the returns come from.
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Confrontation Naming Errors of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients
Lupine Publishers| Journal of Neurology and Brain Disorders
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Abstract
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This study investigated confrontation naming errors of Alzheimer’s disease patients. Clinicians lack a validated test battery for differentiating the communication disorders of patients with AD from either normal elderly or patients with aphasia [1,3]. The communication of AD patients is often assessed with one of the standardized test batteries for aphasia. This was done because of the marked discrepancy between language and other cognitive functions. A linguistic measure involving errors in confrontation naming was used to establish the extent of linguistic impairment of AD patients. A total of ten photographs were shown to twenty AD patients, (ten mild and ten moderate) and ten normal elderly. The results showed that naming errors increased as the disease progressed. The study concluded that the number of naming errors of AD patients increased as the severity of the disease progressed.
Introduction
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Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most common and dreaded diseases afflicting the elderly community of all ethnic races. It does not discriminate, nor is it only found in certain age groups. AD affects all social, ethnic, racial, economic groups around the world. AD is no longer an old age problem. AD was first described by Alois Alzheimer in 1906 as a presenile dementia. AD is characteristics by a wide range of clinical disorders. Approximately 5.4 million Americans now have AD with a projected increase to 16 million by 2050 [2]. About one in every three seniors dies of AD or another dementia. AD kills more than breast and prostate cancer combined [2].
AD is a neurodegenerative disease. It affects persons of sexes, races, and ethnic backgrounds. AD affects more women than men. The major risk factors for AD are age and heredity. Persons with a high incidence of AD in their family history are most vulnerable. However, it is a severely debilitating form of mental dementia that affects the individual, families, homes, communities, etc. Although there are some other forms of dementia, there is currently no cure for Alzheimer Disease. AD is the most common cause of dementia among people age 65 and older. By 2050, 13.8 million older people are expected to have AD if the current numbers hold and no preventive treatments become available [2]. The US Census Bureau suggests that the number may be a high as 16 million by the middle of the century. For every 5-year age group beyond 65, the percentage of people with AD doubles. Five percent of people aged 65 to 74 and roughly 35 to 50 percent of people aged over 85 have the disorder, according to the Alzheimer’s disease Association [2].
Today there are approximately 5.7 million people living with Alzheimer’s disease [2]. 5.5 million are age 65 and older and 200,000 are under age 65 and have younger-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Every 65 seconds someone develops Alzheimer’s disease and by 2050 someone will develop the disease every 33 seconds. Research has shown that AD increases with age. It is projected that individuals 65 years and older will grow from 53 million in 2018 to 88 million by 2050 [3]. In 2011, baby boomers began turning 65 so one can see we are living longer. For future years to come, ten million baby boomers will develop Alzheimer’s disease in the United States (1 out of 9)[2].
A general overview of Alzheimer’s disease including the clinical description, diagnosis, and progression of symptoms, benefits one to further understand the treatment and care of patients, the scope of the problem, scope of practice, and the current research which is forever changing. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease may be equivalent in some ways. It is important to relate dementia and Alzheimer’s disease to grasp the differences between the two conditions. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia marked by memory loss in older individuals. Dementia is the gradual loss of intellectual function. Nonetheless, Alzheimer’s disease is not a normal part of aging and is not something that unsurprisingly happens in later life. Alzheimer’s disease can be defined as a form of dementia characterized by a gradual loss of several important mental functions that interrupts the normal flow of life. It is perhaps, the most common cause of dementia in older Americans, and goes beyond just normal forgetfulness, such as losing your car keys or forgetting where you parked. Signs of Alzheimer’s disease include language deficits, memory loss that is much more severe and more serious, such as forgetting the names of your children or perhaps where you’ve lived for the last decade or two, and remembering when you had your last meal.
Numerous studies have investigated naming errors in AD by classifying errors as visual, semantic or lexical in nature [4-6].
A common finding is that AD patients produce many semantic and/or thematic naming errors (i.e. shark for dolphin). The criteria by which errors are divided can potentially overlook interactions among perceptual and lexical-semantic processes.AD can be considered a multifocal disorder; one must consider the possibility that visual perception and naming are two unrelated areas of concomitant decline. However, there is evidence of a possible link between the two processes in visual perception tasks that require discrimination of real objects according to Tippett and Blackwood [7]. Studies have found that when healthy individuals underwent fMRI while performing a visual discrimination task between line drawings, they recruited relatively more anterior regions of the fusiform gyrus when the two drawings had high structural similarity and relatively more posterior regions of the fusiform gyrus and inferior occipital cortex when the drawings were lower in structural similarity. Together these findings pose that fMRI signal in mid-anterior areas are related to processing of detailed object structure because these regions are sensitive to pictures with high structural similarity and pictures that require high specificity of structural processing, but not to other types of visual similarity according to Bussey and Saksida [8]. Damage to this common neural substrate devoted to Hajilou and Done [9].
Visual discrimination tasks that fluctuate in the degree to which they likely access structural and semantic knowledge could possibly provide awareness into visual perceptual or object recognition deficits in AD that may impact picture naming errors [10-12]. Visual discrimination tasks that require matching of complex shapes should not depend on access to a structural description system. Visual discrimination tasks should help guide the process of discrimination. Visual discrimination tasks that require an individual to determine if line drawings of real objects are of the same or different object in different views require accurate low level visual perceptual processing and reference to a stored structural representation to help guide the decision.
There are a number of potential ways that visual perceptual impairment may impact lexical-semantic processing in AD. Visual deficits may impact confrontation naming because of weakened visual input [13,14].
Picture naming errors was used to study language deficits in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Confrontation naming difficulties confounds performance on a memory test [4,10]. Picture naming tests have been extensively used to study cognitive and language deficits in AD. AD patients picture naming errors increases as a result of the disease severity [5,14].
Also, the number of pictures AD patients can name and the type of naming errors changed as the disease progresses and determined that confrontational naming errors of AD patients increased based on the stage of the disease. Assessment of a patient’s cognition is a crucial part of many medical consultations. Cognitive tests aid the diagnosis of dementia and are important in the medical and social management of patients and in the assessment of capacity. Several studies have investigated naming errors in AD by classifying errors as visual, semantic or lexical in nature. A common finding is that AD patients produce many semantic and/or thematic naming errors (i.e. zebra for horse).
Evidence for a deterioration of semantic memory in AD comes from several studies that probed for knowledge of particular concepts across different modes of access and output (e.g., fluency, confrontation naming, sorting, word-to-picture matching, and definition generation). In assessing AD patients, there is a lack of specificity to test and identify AD. Before diagnosis of the disease is made, other conditions must be excluded, such as depression, adverse drug reactions, metabolic changes, nutritional deficiencies, chemotherapy, head injuries, and stroke.
The scientific community is applying the newest knowledge and research techniques in molecular genetics, pathology, virology, immunology, toxicology, neurology, psychiatry, pharmacology, biochemistry, and epidemiology to determine cause, diagnosis, treatment, and cure for AD.
The current practice is to use the DSM-V; and there has been considerable debate as to the diagnostic criteria. AD is now classified as Major and Minor Neurocognitive Disorders. The term Dementia has been removed. The diagnosis of dementia corresponds to a variety of etiological domains, from cerebrovascular disease to neuro degenerative disease. However, Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), which is a neurodegenerative disease of uncertain origin and pathogenesis,is the most shared form of dementia in the elderly. While the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association(NINCDS-ADRDA)NINCDS-ADRDA guidelines have been used for a long time and have been shown to have reasonable validity and reliability, they are lacking in specificity, and need to be updated to incorporate the latest advances indiagnostic technology. The progression of AD clinically is often measured by mental status scales such as the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale. However, these scales have their own limitations in terms of corresponding with the rate of clinical decline.
Method
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Clinicians lack a validated test battery for differentiating the communication disorders of patients with AD from either normal elderly or patients with aphasia [15,16]. The communication of AD patients is often assessed with one of the standardized test batteries for aphasia. This was done because of the marked discrepancy between language and other cognitive functions. This study determined whether the number of cognitive errors of AD patients on visual recognition tasks increases across cognitive tasks as the disease progresses. Secondly, to determine whether Visual confrontation naming errors increase based on stage of the disease.AD participants were all medically diagnosed with probable AD according to NINCDS and ADRDA. Participants with any form of vascular dementia, head trauma, alcoholism, depression, chemotherapy, or psychiatric illness were excluded from the study. A linguistic measure involving errors in confrontation naming was used to establish the extent of linguistic impairment of AD patients. A total of ten photographs were shown to twenty AD patients, (ten mild and ten moderate) and ten normal elderly. Age range was from 72-93 years of age. AD patients were given:10 real objects, 10 colored photographs of the real objects, and 30 colored photographs of any household object such as: spoon, cup, toothbrush, comb, etc. Visual Recognition Tasks (VRTs) was scored as follows: 1 correct response, 0 incorrect responses, NR no response. The naming phase was measured as follows: correct name of object, incorrect name of object, and no response.
Results
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Descriptive Statistics were used to identify group means and standard deviations for all groups. Statistical comparisons of cognitive abilities between the overall performances of the groups were analyzed using ANOVA. Statistical differences were found between the group means of confrontation naming (F (2,27)= 34.406, p<0.0001).
Conclusion
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The results showed that naming errors increased as the disease progressed. The study concluded that the number of naming errors of AD patients increased as the severity of the disease progressed. Since the visual discrimination task used real, nameable objects, it may have been a strong predictor of naming and semantic association abilities by tapping into a visual process that occurs at a stage prior to naming, such as comparing visual percepts to stored structural representations.
More data needed with respect to the ways in which cognitive deterioration in AD patients may be assessed during the staging of the disease. Future research should include other population samples of AD. This would aid in knowledge as to the variable features of AD. Longitudinal studies to determine the distinctive elements of AD, rates of decline, and reliable staging techniques. More time is needed to assess the new DSM-V criteria for AD patients. Our findings suggest that there is a common deficit in discrimination of pictures using nameable objects, picture naming and semantic association of pictures in AD. Future studies may investigate whether a treatment approach targeting visual discrimination abilities improves lexical-semantic performance in this population.
For more Lupine Publishers Open Access Journals Please visit our website: https://lupinepublishers.us/
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[Translated] Meta: A study in the progress of Viktuuri from Episode 7
This meta is translated from Chinese and is long, so be prepared. The writer has a deep and delicate understanding of both Victor and Yuuri’s states of mind, and I second almost everything he/she says here. I’ve also translated two lovely comments on the same thread, it just makes me feel incredibly sweet. 
Link to original post. Translation is under the cut, I tried my best to keep most of the original meaning intact. Enjoy!
Since Episode 7 aired, everyone was debating whether it was a kiss, yet all hints point out that they have kissed, so I’m not going to discuss that here. This analysis is on the progress of Viktuuri from Victor’s point of view.
In fact, Victor’s feelings for Yuuri is evident as early as Episode 4, when he proposed acting as Yuuri’s “lover” as a way to motivate him. As Victor is self-centric, I don’t think he would disregard his feelings and jump into a relationship with someone he doesn’t feel anything for, so he must at least like Yuuri. But it still doesn’t mean that Victor likes him romantically because he says being Yuuri’s lover is something he has to work on. (Note: Chinese/English subtitles translation discrepancy, English subtitles goes: I will do my best, while the Chinese is something like I will need tos work on that.) Real love develops organically and is not something one can work on.
Obviously, Victor did not understand romantic love. I think he wouldn’t mind dating an attractive woman if she suggests it, given that he’s not already otherwise engaged, the reason would be along the lines of “she’s been trying so hard and I don’t want to upset her”. For Victor, perhaps romantic relationship can be understood as sending flowers and going to the cinema, gestures that can be performed and are quite superficial. These acts will please his romantic partners, but no one except Victor knows whether he really enjoying doing these, or if he simply thinks these are what “lovers” do.
From the way Victor treats his fans, we can tell that Victor would not rejects his admirers, and his charm takes effect on both sexes. Noticing Yuuri’s admiration, he deduces that Yuuri would be overjoyed if Victor becomes his lover, effectively using romantic relationship as a means to an end.
In Episode 6, before his SP Yuuri said “watch only me”, and Victor wondered “what’s wrong with him” (Note: again, translation discrepancy, the English subtitles are “don’t ever take your eyes off me” and “what flipped his switch”, which is arguably closer to the original Japanese). Victor had not yet realized his likes Yuuri too, and did not see Yuuri’s admiration as romantic. After all, if Victor understands that Yuuri has feelings for him in the romantic sense, an international heart-throb like him can’t miss very nature of lovers - one needs to be the sole attention of one’s lover.
Not until Episode 7 where they had that car park exchange did their relationship set off like a bomb. Victor thought threatening Yuuri with his resignation could yank Yuuri out of his anxiety and motivate him to win. I must solemnly say that Victor has failed as a coach here.
On the surface, Victor would be stepping down because he is incapable of coaching Yuuri, but in fact he would be resigning because Yuuri is not performing well. This will only add to Yuuri’s burden, I can’t not be concerned about Victor’s pitiably poor understanding of emotions. What surprises me most is how Victor was aware of Yuuri’s anxiety, yet still thought “breaking his glass heart” would motivate him, effectively making Yuuri more desperate. Despite his good intentions, it was what a horrible decision.
Imagine a Maths test coming up for a student who sucks at Maths. The Maths tutor has been doing everything he can to teach said student, and the affection is mutual. Surprisingly the tutor said “if you don’t do well in the test, I can’t go on teaching you because I’m incapable.” The student maybe willing to even work harder for it, but it would do nothing to ease his anxiety which will only increase. Victor was only thinking about the possibility of boosting Yuuri’s will power, but completely neglected how his words could defeat Yuuri, solid proof of his lack of experience and understanding of emotions.
Victor was distressed after posing his threat, seeing Yuuri cry made him realize he had made the wrong decision and  come clean about having no idea what he should do. At this point he asked “should I kiss you or something”, what a clueless man. Thank god he asked, or else Yuuri’s emotions would not go off like a bomb and resolution cannot be reached.
Here we see Victor treats kissing as a means to comfort Yuuri. To foreigners, maybe kissing is something friends would do. People of the same sex kiss and it doesn’t make them lovers, but it definitely makes them very intimate friends. Victor’s proposal suggests that they are close enough to kiss without awkwardness. The fact that Victor thinks kissing would be an effective solution to Yuuri’s problem hints that he had probably pacified his previous lovers the same way.
But Yuuri said it is not right. When Yuuri pleaded “just stay by my side” there was a close up on Victor’s eyes, looking as if he had never considered this before - company and trust are enough to inspire courage, no words or actions necessary. This is the first time Victor thinks about how he can offer support as a coach, upon realizing his shocking shortcoming he even regretted not seeking advice from Yakov. In fact, if Victor compares this experience with his previous romantic relationships, he may realize he has never truly loved anyone, but was merely playing the part of a lover. (Note: there is a meta analyzing that there are several ways to say no in Japanese, and in this case Yuuri’s “no” means “it’s not right”)
Some fans hold that Victor and Yuuri are already a couple by Episode 7, because Yuuri did not appear unwilling when Victor offered to kiss him, instead told Victor it’s not the right thing to do, proving therefore the two have kissed, but this problem is not one solvable by kissing. But I don’t buy this argument.
I think that their relationship has been ambiguous for a long time, it had outgrown friendship but was not yet a full blown romance. Yuuri’s skating relies a lot on engaging with his emotions, therefore he is possessive before competitions, but off rink he seldom actively pursued Victor. Although Victor is quite touchy-feely with Yuuri, he hadn’t really thought about what it means. This thin wall of ambiguity between them remains intact until Episode 7.
I love the scene where Yuuri bawled and pleaded with Victor to stay by his side and have faith in him. He rarely expresses the needs that he buries deep, making this scene especially moving. Yuuri needs Victor desperately, not for shallow comfort but for a trust much deeper. He turned down Victor’s kiss not because he didn’t want it, but because that was not the right time. Here we see that Yuuri’s feelings for Victor is not purely admiration. If Victor offered to kiss Yuuri during practices, I can imagine Yuuri not knowing how to react and treating it as one of Victor’s jokes. But in the car park emotions were running high, leaving absolutely no room for jokes and forcing Yuuri to spill his mind - not rejecting the kiss but saying that it’s not the right thing to do. Victor and Yuuri thus acted like a couple who have already confessed their feelings, and argued like lovers amidst this chaos - what amazing romantic progress.
(this paragraph is a comment on the thread by another user: They may not have realized their weight in each others’ hearts. Yuuri may have seen Victor as something like a deity->coach->friend->a significant person, and was worried that his failure would reflect badly on Victor thus pushing himself to a nervous breakdown. From previous episodes, Yuuri seemed to have got used to botching his programmes, but now that Victor has become his coach (at his own expense of taking a whole season off, whatever the reason was), like Chris said keeping Victor all to himself is a sin, and no one would want put a stain on his idol. Yuuri’s outburst made Victor realize how important he is to Yuuri.)
As Victor watched Yuuri performed, he couldn’t hide the emotional roller coaster ride he was going through, and his behaviour was remarkably different from that of previous episodes. When Yuuri over-rotated in Episode 7, his immediate reaction was to look away, but instantly he turned back to watch Yuuri again, clearly because he had processed what Yuuri told him in the car park. Throwback to when Yuuri missed his last jump in Episode 5, Victor closed his eyes in frustration. Back then he didn’t know Yuuri could have seen his reaction and lose confidence. But now he has learned that he should not look away because Yuuri makes a mistake, his gaze fuels Yuuri and is a way of staying by his side, it is what Yuuri taught him. When Yuuri changed the 4T to his own signature move the 4F, he became extremely emotional and it urges him to surprise Yuuri the way Yuuri surprised him.
In the short time span from Yuuri performing 4F to Victor rushing up to kiss him, Victor arrived at the conclusion that there is no better way to surprise Yuuri than kissing him. It means that 1) they have never kissed before, or else a kiss wouldn’t be a surprise, and 2) without deep thoughts Victor reached this conclusion because he had subconsciously wanted to kiss Yuuri long before that.
Victor probably intentionally shielded their kiss from the audience’s watch with his arm. If he really didn’t mind letting people see them kiss, he could have kissed Yuuri for much longer even after they fell on the ice. But it was such a short kiss, it looks like Victor did take Yuuri’s feelings into consideration.
They pretty much silently confirmed their relationship in the car park, hence Yuuri’s sweet, joyful expression after the kiss - he was a bit shy but not flustered. Their interaction at the interview was so natural, as if they hadn’t just kissed in front of international media and spectators… Never mind Victor, who says Yuuri is mentally weak!
(Another comment on the thread: During the interview, Victor jumped in front of Yuuri to protect him even though Yuuri wasn’t distressed by the media at all, and he once again (!) showed Yuuri off to the reporters! Previously Yuuri looked super uncomfortable when he did that, but this time his Victor-you’re-doing-that-again face is! Just! So! Sweet!)
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bekasyura · 7 years
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ALL NUMBERS BC GO BIG OR GO HOME
Alright time to procrastinate by answering all these fanfic questions. They’re all under the cut
1. What was your first fic and could you stand to reread it today?
Based on the first one that’s on my surviving ffnet, it was dramione and no I could not stand reading it today for certain reasons I don’t want to discuss.
2. What’s your most recent fic and how far do you think you’ve come?
My most recent is The Sn Sets deals with grief and mourning after a canonical character death which is not something I write often. I think the emotions in it could have been better but I’m still satisfied with how it turned out. I think I’m at a place in my writing where I can attempt fics with that kind of emotional level.
3. In your opinion, what’s your best fic?
I have no opinion on this but my best friend and brother say “Covered in my Art”
4. In your opinion and without looking at any numbers, what’s your most popular fic?
Well, I only have 2 actual popular fics so I easily remember them. My most popular is my victuuri post-episode 7 kiss fic. I posted it just a couple of days after that episode aired so naturally it shot up.
5. Is there any fic that makes you super happy to reread and remember you wrote that?
I hardly reread my fics. I just can’t bring myself to do it. But one that I’m happy I wrote is 
6. Is there any fic that makes you super embarrassed to reread and remember you wrote that?
I get embarrassed reading them all. 
7. What’s the fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)?
I am looking forward to continuing my Living Legends series (YOI Tattoo Shop AU)
8. What’s the oldest (longest since last update) fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)?
My Star Wars Mummy AU. It’s been almost a year now and I still have all my notes and outline for it. I just need motivation.....
9. Have you ever written for a fandom without watching/reading/playing the source material?
Nope. I’m picky about what I write about and it has to be something I’m really into in order for me to watch it. 
10. Have you ever written for a fandom without reading other fanfic for it?
I’m picky for what I read as well so if I’m writing for it, I’m most likely reading it as well. 
11. Have you ever written a fic for a concept you know someone else has done before? How did it impact your writing process or feelings after posting?
Well there’s always writing popular tropes that everyone does but what comes to mind first is my Mummy AU. It was my idea first but someone got inspired by my editset I made of it and before I could post my first chapter of the story, someone else did it. They finished the fic before I could get my done and so it made me lose interest in continuing mine even if there were enough differences between ours. 
12. Have you ever written a fic and decided never to publish it? Why?
I’ll have a bunch of ideas I start and never finish for various reasons. But I pretty much publish everything I write.
13. What’s the biggest change between your style when you started in fandom and today?
Besides the fact that I don’t suck as much as I did 13 years ago? I’m still working on it but I feel like I’m able to set a scene better with description and narration has gotten better. 
14. What’s the biggest change in your taste between when you started in fandom and today?
Don’t know if this answers the question but I guess sticking to what I like and not conforming to the popular ideas of how certain characters/ships should be written. 
15. Have you ever purposefully written one fandom/fic idea over another because you knew it’d be more popular?
*stares at victuuri post episode 7 kiss fic* 
16. Have you ever stopped writing a fic/for a fandom because it wasn’t receiving enough attention?
That might be one reason I stopped writing Marvel fics
17. In your opinion, what’s your most overrated fic?
Honestly, “Closer”. Don’t get me wrong, I really like the fic even if I haven’t read it since I posted it, but I don’t know if it’s good for all the kits and kudos it’s gotten.
18. What’s your most underrated fic?
Any femslash or polyship fic or rarepair fic
19. If you had to pick one fic/scene/chapter of your work to describe your entire portfolio to a stranger, which would you pick?
Oh shit um....
20. Have/Would you ever rewrite a fic? If yes, would you take the original down?
I have considered it for two Merlin fics and I would do it in a heartbeat if I could but since they’re part of big bangs I can’t.
21. If someone starts kudosing and commenting your fics in a spree and has a few works of their own, would you go look through theirs?
Yeah I sometimes do
22. Has there ever been anyone who’s made you freak out because they read your work and followed/favorited/reviewed?
People would actually have to read my works first. I just get excited to have anyone reading my stuff tbh
23. What’s the nicest review you’ve ever gotten?
Most are on my “Not ‘He’” fic with readers sharing their experiences with me in relation to my fic. It was an amazing feeling to see that my fic connected with people on such a personal level like that.
24. What’s the meanest review you’ve ever gotten? Do you think the reviewer intended it?
I’ve gotten some kind of rude ones that were too pushy for updates but one that sticks out was just someone going off on their own rant about gender identities on the above mentioned fic. I don’t think they intended to come off as bad as it sounded but it wasn’t fun to read nonetheless. 
25. What constructive criticism, however well-meaning, always makes you feel bad when you see it in a review?
Mostly dealing with simple grammar mistakes because that’s stuff I should know but still always forget.
26. What aspect of your writing do you most enjoy to see praised?
Characterization because no one wants to read a fic where the characters are so ooc it takes them out of it. So being able to capture the character, especially in an AU, is the best thing to hear.
27. If you could only ever write crossovers or single-fandom fics ever again, which would you pick?
Single fandom fics. I don’t really do crossovers.
28. If you could only ever write for a single crossover or a single fandom again, which would you pick? 
Yuri!!! on Ice. I honestly have plenty of ideas to keep me going. 
29. Does the division of your writing across fandoms line up with your reading? What’s the biggest discrepancy?
((skipping))
30. Do you continue to write for a fandom after you’ve moved on or do you focus solely on the new one?
If you looked at my AO3 chronologically, you will see where I stop and start a new fandom. But there are some fandoms I will write at the same time. But there will be a focus on the new one. 
31. Who’s the one character you’ve just never managed to get perfectly right?
I feel like it’s Clint Barton despite how much I love him. I think it’s because of that I feel like I can’t write him well.
32. Who’s the one character who shines without you even trying?
I feel like I have Yuri Plisetsky down pretty well.
33. Is there any particular character whose scenes always wind up being longer/more frequent than you expected? Does the quality hold up?
It really depends on the fic and what I’m writing. Some characters may steal the scene but it usually turns out well. 
34. Was there any fic that you wrote that really surprised you in the fandom reaction? Was it just by the numbers or did they take it an entirely different way?
I was surprised to see so many people interested in “Covered in my Art”. AUs can be hard to sell and while it’s not the most popular tattoo shop au, it still got a better response than expected. 
35. Have you ever written a ship into a fic without meaning to?
I accidentally wrote past Yuuri/Phichit in my recent Phichit/Leo/Guang-Hong fic. I guess that hc is so set in my mind I can’t help but write it lol
36. Have you ever sincerely written a ship you do not support into a fic?
Yes but it was a commission fic so I kinda had to
37. Have you ever purposefully bashed a character/ship in a fic?
Regrettably in the past when I was younger and didn’t know better. But I have learned from that.
38. Have you ever purposefully written something you know your readers would find uncomfortable/would not enjoy? If yes, why?
Besides like injuries, not really. 
39. Do you consider yourself to have a readership?
I know I can count on like 3 people to read my fics and they’re the best peeps ever.
40. Do you feel like you put out enough content?
I do now after going so many years hardly writing anything. I still feel like I could do more.
41. If you cross-post your fics on multiple sites, do you have a favorite? Are there certain fics you would only post on certain site?
I mostly post on AO3 but I’m slowly adding my fics back to ffnet just to have them hosted in two places. I definitely prefer AO3 because I love the tagging system. 
42. How many views has your most popular fic gotten?
7k and I know it’ll be the only one
43. Your least popular?
less than 50
44. Do you follow/favorite/kudos/comment/review more stories than you have received?
Yes because I try to kudos and comment on anything I read that I liked. 
45. If you had to call yourself an author of a single genre (besides fanfic) what label would you give yourself?
Fluff. It’s a genre now.
46. Do you consider yourself a diverse author?
I would like to be but probably not. 
47. If someone you know in real life who isn’t involved in fandoms asked to read your work, would you let them? If yes, what would you recommend they read first?
No. While I have no problem telling people I write fanfic now, I don’t want them reading my writing. 
48. Does anyone you know from outside of fandom know you write fanfic? Are they involved in the same fandom too?
Not really. I don’t just walk around telling everyone I write it. It still has to be brought up and I feel comfortable telling them. 
49. Has anyone in your life ever read your fanfic just because you wrote it?
Yes because I make my best friend read it.
50. Has writing fanfic had a significant impact on your life? Would you say it’s entirely positive?
I’ve literally been writing fanfic for half my life now so it’s definitely had a significant impact on me. For the most part it has been positive. It’s given me a way to express myself and make my voice be heard. There have been times it stresses me out and I feel anxious about it but I wouldn’t stop writing because of that.
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pastelbatfandoms · 7 years
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Fanfic Author asks
My first ask meme, and one that’s been on my mind for a while! Feel free to reblog for your it for yourself, answer them, or ask me for my answers! Read more break after 10/50 to help keep this from clogging any dashboards
by @mabel-but-slytherin
1. What was your first fic and could you stand to reread it today? I used to write so many Sailor Moon Fan fic...since I was 12 so I don’t really remember...it might have been the Sailor Pluto one I wrote for school or My one shots of each of the sailor scouts as adults. The Sailor Pluto one wasn’t bad and was set in Egypt but it was really hard to read since I wrote it in glitter pen on black paper XD The one shots were pretty cute and funny too but I don’t have any of them anymore....
2. What’s your most recent fic and how far do you think you’ve come? My WWE Dean Ambrose ‘On The Fringe’ story. well I write smut now lol and I’ve definitely grown. 
3. In your opinion, what’s your best fic? It’s not a Fan fiction but My Nevermore story based on My Vampire Character Levathia and My ex’s characters he let me use. Fanfiction would probably be My recent WWE Cat & Mouse story. 
4. In your opinion and without looking at any numbers, what’s your most popular fic? That I’ve posted. Cat & Mouse. 
5. Is there any fic that makes you super happy to reread and remember you wrote that? My Wells of Hearts. The last part anyway. which I haven’t posted because I don’t have the middle yet.
6. Is there any fic that makes you super embarrassed to reread and remember you wrote that? Not really no. but like I said I don’t have any of my Sailor Moon Fanfic anymore or My old WWE one’s. I am slightly embarrassed by how ooc I made The Rock when I was 13 though....
7. What’s the fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)? Wells of Hearts.
8. What’s the oldest (longest since last update) fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)? My WWE Roxy one’s will always continue. there’s so much to go off of. 
9. Have you ever written for a fandom without watching/reading/playing the source material? Nope
10. Have you ever written for a fandom without reading other fanfic for it? Yes
11. Have you ever written a fic for a concept you know someone else has done before? How did it impact your writing process or feelings after posting? Well I mean there’s plenty of WWE Smut around and My Sailor Moon stories were probably already done before but idc. 
12. Have you ever written a fic and decided never to publish it? Why? I just started posting them otherwise it was all pen and paper. 
13. What’s the biggest change between your style when you started in fandom and today? um I actually have people who read it lol I’m not a kid anymore (not all the time anyway) I write Smut. 
14. What’s the biggest change in your taste between when you started in fandom and today? well I read more than just Anime Fanfiction now lol 
15. Have you ever purposefully written one fandom/fic idea over another because you knew it’d be more popular? No
16. Have you ever stopped writing a fic/for a fandom because it wasn’t receiving enough attention? Nope I write for myself. 
17. In your opinion, what’s your most overrated fic? I hate that word...
18. What’s your most underrated fic? My Baron Corbin one lol
19. If you had to pick one fic/scene/chapter of your work to describe your entire portfolio to a stranger, which would you pick? that I’ve posted....I have no idea...depends...Smut wise Cat & Mouse. Non Smut Mughead. 
20. Have/Would you ever rewrite a fic? If yes, would you take the original down? No
21. If someone starts kudosing and commenting your fics in a spree and has a few works of their own, would you go look through theirs? What???
22. Has there ever been anyone who’s made you freak out because they read your work and followed/favorited/reviewed? Nope
23. What’s the nicest review you’ve ever gotten? idk
24. What’s the meanest review you’ve ever gotten? Do you think the reviewer intended it?
25. What constructive criticism, however well-meaning, always makes you feel bad when you see it in a review?
26. What aspect of your writing do you most enjoy to see praised?
27. If you could only ever write crossovers or single-fandom fics ever again, which would you pick? Single Fandom.
28. if you could only ever write for a single crossover or a single fandom again, which would you pick? Single.
29. Does the division of your writing across fandoms line up with your reading? What’s the biggest discrepancy? 
30. Do you continue to write for a fandom after you’ve moved on or do you focus solely on the new one?
31. Who’s the one character you’ve just never managed to get perfectly right? none. though I’m sure they’re are people who aren’t going to be happy that I’m not making Eobard Thawne AroAce or Autistic. but they don’t have to read it then. I already made Jughead Ace I’m not writing another Ace character because it doesn’t fit with My Main character and how I view Eo so....I also do not think I could write an accurate good autistic character.
32. Who’s the one character who shines without you even trying? Eobard lol yeah he’s the only character that “talks” to me. 
33. Is there any particular character whose scenes always wind up being longer/more frequent than you expected? Does the quality hold up? Eobard’s! they are really good scenes though imo. 
34. Was there any fic that you wrote that really surprised you in the fandom reaction? Was it just by the numbers or did they take it an entirely different way? I’m surprised I’ve gotten so many likes and reblogs of My Shane Mcmahon ‘It’s Been Awhile’ Fic just cause it’s so short and simple. 
35. Have you ever written a ship into a fic without meaning to? nope. 
36. Have you ever sincerely written a ship you do not support into a fic? NO and I don’t think I ever could.
37. Have you ever purposefully bashed a character/ship in a fic? lol kinda
38. Have you ever purposefully written something you know your readers would find uncomfortable/would not enjoy? If yes, why? Nope.
39. Do you consider yourself to have a readership? idk what that is. 
40. Do you feel like you put out enough content? probably not. but I do have a life outside this. 
41. If you cross-post your fics on multiple sites, do you have a favorite? Are there certain fics you would only post on certain site? I only post on Tumblr. 
42. How many views has your most popular fic gotten? 40. 
43. Your least popular? 4...but I get that Wells of Hearts isn’t finished yet. I just thought fans would like how I wrote HR and Eowells but oh well. 
44. Do you follow/favorite/kudos/comment/review more stories than you have received? YES
45. If you had to call yourself an author of a single genre (besides fanfic) what label would you give yourself? Fantasy
46. Do you consider yourself a diverse author? I suppose.
47. If someone you know in real life who isn’t involved in fandoms asked to read your work, would you let them? If yes, what would you recommend they read first? yes I let my family read my PG rated one’s. 
48. Does anyone you know from outside of fandom know you write fanfic? Are they involved in the same fandom too? yes My Family and aside From Riverdale only My hubby and Bestie watch The Flash and WWE. 
49. Has anyone in your life ever read your fanfic just because you wrote it? yep My Mom. 
50. Has writing fanfic had a significant impact on your life? Would you say it’s entirely positive? sure. 
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lopezdorothy70-blog · 5 years
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FDA Approves Dangerous Gardasil Vaccine for Adults in the U.S.
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by Brian Shilhavy Editor, Health Impact News
Following a June, 2018  “Priority Review” by the FDA to approve Merck's Gardasil 9 vaccine to be expanded to women and men, ages 27 to 45, after 10 years of the FDA denying Merck's request to expand the Gardasil market to adults, the FDA approved Gardasil 9 to be expanded to adults, aged 27 to 45, on October 8, 2018.
Granting approval to a vaccine after a “Priority Review” by the FDA in only 3 months is a “fast nod” according to FiercePharma, the market trade publication of the pharmaceutical industry.
Merck did not even have to supply any new trials or data to get the vaccine approved for adults, in spite of the fact that the FDA denied their request for 10 years on the older Gardasil vaccine. According to FiercePharma:
Because Gardasil 9 and sister shot Gardasil are manufactured similarly, the FDA based the Gardasil 9 decision on results from a study of its predecessor.
The study the FDA relied upon to approve Gardasil 9 for adults was considered insufficient for 10 years as the FDA denied Merck approval to market the vaccine to adults:
Back in 2008, after agreeing to a faster review in the age group, the FDA decided against Merck's case for an additional Gardasil approval in females 27 to 45. The agency in 2009 issued a second complete response letter for that application, demanding Merck to provide longer-term efficacy data in the age group.
That set of data apparently didn't turn things around for Merck. In both Gardasil's and Gardasil 9's current labels, information about a study on 3,253 women 27 through 45 years of age states that there was “no statistically significant efficacy” demonstrated by the vaccine in preventing high-grade cervical lesions or cervical cancer. (Source.)
Yet somehow, that same study is now deemed to be sufficient to approve Gardasil 9 for adults.
Why Did the FDA Approve This Vaccine?
The U.S. market for Merck's Gardasil vaccine is declining, due to widespread information about the horrible side effects of the vaccine, which has been proven to cause autoimmune diseases, infertility, heart disease (POTS), and death, to name a few.
The pharmaceutical giant got a huge boost for its HPV vaccine earlier this year when it was approved for sale in China. See:
Gardasil HPV Vaccine Acceptance into China Creates Instant Billionaires
In other countries where Gardasil has been approved for years, such as Japan, government health agencies and consumer advocacy groups are backing away from their recommendation of Gardasil due to the numerous lives that have been destroyed by it.
Japan Leading the World in Exposing Fraud with Gardasil HPV Vaccine Injuries and Deaths
The same month (June, 2018) that the FDA granted Merck its “Priority Review” to expand the Gardasil 9 vaccine market to adults, a study was published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health that looked at declining fertility rates among eight million U.S. women, aged 25 to 29, during a 7-year period.
The title of the study, published by Gayle DeLong, Ph.D., from the Department of Economics and Finance, Baruch College/City University of New York, is “A lowered probability of pregnancy in females in the USA aged 25–29 who received a human papillomavirus vaccine injection.”
From the abstract:
This study analyzed information gathered in National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which represented 8 million 25-to-29-year-old women residing in the United States between 2007 and 2014.
Approximately 60% of women who did not receive the HPV vaccine had been pregnant at least once, whereas only 35% of women who were exposed to the vaccine had conceived.
Using logistic regression to analyze the data, the probability of having been pregnant was estimated for females who received an HPV vaccine compared with females who did not receive the shot.
Results suggest that females who received the HPV shot were less likely to have ever been pregnant than women in the same age group who did not receive the shot. If 100% of females in this study had received the HPV vaccine, data suggest the number of women having ever conceived would have fallen by 2 million. (emphasis added)
With Gardasil 9 now approved for both men and women between the child-bearing ages of 27 to 45, what effect will this have on U.S. fertility rates?
Merck Currently Fighting Vaccine Fraud Cases in Court
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The FDA's approval of Gardasil 9 for adults comes at a time when Merck is fighting vaccine fraud cases in court, including a lawsuit claiming that Gardasil's original approval was based on fraudulent research.
16-year-old Jennifer Robi allegedly received three injections of the Gardasil vaccine between 2010 and 2011, and then later received the diagnosis of Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).
Jennifer and her family filed a claim with the U.S. Vaccine Court. The court awarded her $38,365.08 in damages. (Source.)
The family was apparently not satisfied with this settlement, however, and on July 27, 2016, they filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of The State of California, Los Angeles County.
The case was filed against the following defendants:
1. Merck & Co., Inc. 2. Merck, Sharpe & Dohme Corp. 3. Kaiser Foundations Hospitals 4. Southern California Permanente Medical Group 5. Judith Garza, M.D. 6. Claire Valencia Fuller, M.D. 7. Robin B. Scanlon, M.D.
The complaint charged them with:
1. Fraud and Deceit 2. Negligent Misrepresentation 3. Defective Product – Inadequate warnings & information 4. Medical Malpractice 5. Medical Battery
According to reporter Christina England:
The complaint outlined the fact that the Plaintiff and her family believed that Merck had wrongfully and deceitfully failed to perform in the preapproval processing period and thereafter, the material scientific and medical investigations and studies relating to the safety, effectiveness and need for the Gardasil vaccine as required by and under the FDA directives and regulations.
The complaint written by the family's attorney stated that:
“Upon approval by the FDA of the Gardasil vaccine, Defendants Merck, Does 1 through 25, and each of them commenced and engaged in highly extensive, and aggressive marketing practices, which were designed primarily, if not solely, to increase the sales and profits from Gardasil.
In doing so, Defendants Merck, Does 1 through 25, and each of them, in order to preclude any and all questions by consumers, patients and others, as to the effectiveness, safety and need for the administration of the Gardasil vaccination as well as the risks of serious adverse reaction related thereto, intentionally, wrongfully and deceitfully withheld, failed to provide and concealed from consumers, patients and others material facts and information with respect to the effectiveness, safety and need for the administration of the Gardasil vaccination, as well as the risks of serious adverse reaction related thereto and as in part hereafter set forth.” (own emphasis)
In addition to this lawsuit, Merck is currently embroiled in an 8-year legal battle brought forth by their own scientists in a whistle-blower lawsuit claiming Merck also committed fraud in developing the MMR vaccine. See:
Merck Fighting Fraud Lawsuits in U.S. Courts on MMR and Gardasil Vaccines
Merck's legal problems with the Gardasil vaccine are well-known outside the U.S., where they do not enjoy the same legal immunity that U.S. law provides them for damages due to the vaccine.
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Protests over the Gardasil HPV vaccine in the streets of Colombia. Story.
Negative press regarding the Gardasil HPV vaccine and Merck's legal problems can be found in France, Spain, Japan, Ireland, Denmark, the UK, India, and many others.
In France, Dr. Dalbergue, a former pharmaceutical industry physician with Gardasil manufacturer, Merck, has stated :
I predict that Gardasil will become the greatest medical scandal of all times because at some point in time, the evidence will add up to prove that this vaccine, technical and scientific feat that it may be, has absolutely no effect on cervical cancer and that all the very many adverse effects which destroy lives and even kill, serve no other purpose than to generate profit for the manufacturers. (Source.)
As possibly a result of this negative press in France, the French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety, which is part of the European Medicines Agency, which works hard to promote vaccines, participated in a study to examine whether or not the HPV vaccine had an “increased risk of autoimmune diseases.”
The title of the study, published in August of 2017, was titled: Human papillomavirus vaccination and risk of autoimmune diseases: A large cohort study of over 2 million young girls in France.
As a pro-vaccine government agency, it is to be expected that the study would have a primary emphasis to do “damage control” to the negative public perceptions regarding the HPV vaccine and reassure the public that the vaccine was safe.
It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that the study raised any safety issues at all. They admitted that Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), a crippling condition similar to polio, had a significantly higher rate among those vaccinated with the HPV vaccine compared to those who were not.
Another study published around the same time (July 2017) was conducted by doctors in Mexico at the National Institute of Cardiology.
The study pointed out several areas of concern and discrepancies, including a safety report by The European Medicines Agency.
The results of their study found:
The lack of inert placebo in the vast majority of prelicensure HPV vaccine randomized studies
Large randomized trials disclosed significantly more severe adverse events in the tested HPV vaccine cohort
Pooled safety analysis found more post-immunization symptoms in bivalent HPV vaccine vs. hepatitis A vaccine
Post-marketing HPV vaccine adverse events case series describe similar cluster of symptoms than those reported in pre-clinical trials
The European Medicines Agency report on HPV vaccine safety looked at specific diagnoses and not at symptoms clusters
In-depth analysis of some supportive post-marketing HPV vaccine safety studies discloses disquieting findings
The study found the statistics regarding the new Gardasil 9 particularly troubling, as the statistics suggest that severe harm is suffered every 140 injections. See:
International Study: An Honest Look at the Statistics Shows that the HPV Vaccine is Not Safe
Merck Vaccine Fraud Includes Government Vaccine Fraud
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Former CDC Director Julie Gerberding sold 38,368 shares of Merck Stock for $2.3 Million. Story.
When discussing Merck vaccine fraud, it must also be mentioned that the U.S. government has a huge conflict of interest, as it profits from the sale of vaccines, and Gardasil in particular.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is tasked with vaccine safety, and yet it is also the largest purchaser of vaccines, spending over $5 billion annually to purchase vaccines.
Julie Gerberding was in charge of the CDC from 2002 to 2009, which includes the years the FDA approved the Merck Gardasil vaccine.
Soon after she took over the CDC, she reportedly completely overhauled the agency's organizational structure, and many of the CDC's senior scientists and leaders either left or announced plans to leave. Some have claimed that almost all of the replacements Julie Gerberding appointed had ties to the vaccine industry.
Gerberding resigned from the CDC on January 20, 2009, and took over as the president of Merck's Vaccine division, a 5 billion-dollar-a-year operation, and the supplier of the largest number of vaccines the CDC recommends (article here).
It was reported in 2015 that Dr. Gerberding, now the executive vice president of pharmaceutical giant, Merck, sold 38,368 of her shares in Merck stock for $2,340,064.32. She still holds 31,985 shares of the company's stock, valued at about $2 million.
Besides examples like this showing a clear conflict of interest between government agencies tasked with overseeing public health and vaccine safety and pharmaceutical companies, the National Institute of Health also holds patents on vaccines such as Gardasil, and earns royalties from the sale of vaccines.
Dr. Eric Suba tried to use the Freedom of Information Act to find out how much money the National Institute of Health (NIH) earned from the sale of Gardasil, but they refused to report the amount of revenue the government earns from this vaccine (although not denying they do earn royalties).
With the FDA's approval of the Gardasil 9 vaccine for adults now, the government stands to earn even more revenue from this vaccine, as insurance companies and Medicare can now start picking up the cost of the vaccine.
Comment on this article at VaccineImpact.com.
More information about Gardasil
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Illinois Teen Dies Three Weeks After Being Injected with HPV Gardasil Vaccine
California Nurse Gives Gardasil Vaccine to Own Daughter who Develops Leukemia and Dies
Infant Accidentally Vaccinated with Gardasil – Mother Blamed for Vaccine Injuries and Baby Medically Kidnapped
Iowa Girl Faces Death: Life Destroyed by Gardasil Vaccine
Gardasil Vaccine Given without Consent and Ruins Life of 14 Year Old Girl
After 3 Years of Suffering 19 Year Old Girl Dies from Gardasil Vaccine Injuries
Gardasil: The Decision We Will Always Regret
15 Year Old French Girl's “Descent into Hell” After Gardasil Vaccine – Wheelchair Bound and Paralyzed
The Gardasil Vaccine After-Life: My Daughter is a Shadow of Her Former Self
Gardasil: An Experience no Child Should Have to Go Through
I Want my Daughter's Life Back the Way it was Before Gardasil
Gardasil Vaccine: Destroyed and Abandoned
15-Year-Old Vaccinated by Force with Gardasil now Suffers from Paralysis and Pain
Recovering from my Gardasil Vaccine Nightmare
Gardasil: We Thought It Was The Right Choice
“HPV Vaccine Has Done This to My Child”
13 Year Old World Championship Karate Student Forced to Quit After Gardasil Vaccine
If I Could Turn Back Time, Korey Would not Have Received any Gardasil Shots
What Doctors Don't Tell You: Our Gardasil Horror Story
Family Fights U.S. Government over Compensation for Gardasil Vaccine Injuries
Gardasil: When Will our Nightmare End?
HPV Vaccine Injuries: “I Cannot Begin to Describe What it is Like to Watch your Daughter Live in Such Agony”
Gardasil: Don't Let Your Child Become “One Less”
The Gardasil Vaccine Changed Our Definition of “Normal”
Gardasil: I Should Have Researched First
“They've Been Robbed of Their Womanhood” – Local Milwaukee Media Covers Gardasil Vaccine Injuries
Gardasil: The Day Our Daughter's Life Changed
Gardasil: The Decision I will Always Regret
Gardasil Vaccine: One More Girl Dead
Gardasil: A Parent's Worst Nightmare
After Gardasil: I Simply Want my Healthy Daughter Back
Gardasil: My Family Suffers with Me
Gardasil Changed my Health, my Life, and Family's Lives Forever
Gardasil: Ashlie's Near-Death Experience
Gardasil: My Daughter's Worst Nightmare
My Personal Battle After the Gardasil Vaccine
Gardasil: The Worst Thing That Ever Happened to Me
A Ruined Life from Gardasil
HPV Vaccines: My Journey Through Gardasil Injuries
The Dark Side of Gardasil – A Nightmare that Became Real
Toddler Wrongly Injected with Gardasil Vaccine Develops Rare Form of Leukaemia
Dr. Andrew Moulden: Every Vaccine Produces Harm
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Canadian physician Dr. Andrew Moulden provided clear scientific evidence to prove that every dose of vaccine given to a child or an adult produces harm. The truth that he uncovered was rejected by the conventional medical system and the pharmaceutical industry. Nevertheless, his warning and his message to America remains as a solid legacy of the man who stood up against big pharma and their program to vaccinate every person on the Earth.
Dr. Moulden died unexpectedly in November of 2013 at age 49.
Because of the strong opposition from big pharma concerning Dr. Moulden's research, we became concerned that the name of this brilliant researcher and his life's work had nearly been deleted from the internet. His reputation was being disparaged, and his message of warning and hope was being distorted and buried without a tombstone. This book summarizes his teaching and is a must-read for everyone who wants to learn the “other-side” of the vaccine debate that the mainstream media routinely censors.
Read Dr. Andrew Moulden: Every Vaccine Produces Harm on your mobile device or computer by ordering the eBook!
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Are Many Fish Oils Synthetic?
https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=9117
By Dr. Mercola
Omega-3 fats are essential polyunsaturated fats (PUFA) required for healthy digestion, muscle activity, blood clotting, visual acuity, memory and much more. Most omega-3s are considered "essential fats" as your body cannot make them. You have to get them from your diet. However, there's plenty of confusion when it comes to which omega-3 fats are required for optimal health.
You can obtain omega-3 fats from both plants and marine animals like fish and krill. However, these sources provide very different types of omega-3, and they are no way interchangeable.
Both plant- and animal-based omega-3 have their first double-bond in the third position — hence the name "omega-3." However, the length of the carbon chain of each omega-3 fat makes a significant difference when it comes to bioavailability and biological effect.
Basic Differences Between Plant- and Marine Animal-Based Omega-3s
Animal-based omega-3 — found in fatty fish, fish oil and krill oil — primarily contain docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a long-chained PUFA consisting of 22 carbons, and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which has 20 carbons.
Plant-based omega-3 — found in flaxseed, flaxseed oil, chia seeds, walnuts and leafy greens, for example — contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a shorter-chained PUFA consisting of 18 carbons. Plant-based omega-3 is completely devoid of DHA and EPA.
ALA is indeed a precursor to EPA and DHA, which is why some say you can simply consume plant-based omega-3s. However, an enzyme is required to convert the shorter 18 carbon ALA into long-chained omega-3, and in most people, this enzyme is simply unable to convert sufficient ALA to EPA, and even less DHA.
Typically, less than 1 percent of the ALA is converted to EPA. Some studies have found the conversion rate to be as low as 0.1 to 0.5 percent.1 So, while a tiny amount of the ALA you consume can be converted by your body into long-chain omega-3, it's a highly inefficient strategy and nowhere near as helpful as supplying "straight" DHA and EPA from marine sources.
Importantly, short-chain fatty acids are used by your body as a source of energy, while the long-chain fatty acids, those with 20 and more carbons, especially EPA and DHA, are structural elements that actually make up your cells. This is perhaps the most significant difference between plant- and animal-based sources, and why they are not interchangeable from a health perspective.
As structural elements, DHA and EPA are particularly important for proper cell division and function of cell receptors. They also play an important role in anti-inflammatory reactions. These fats are ideally obtained from the consumption of small fatty fish that are free of toxins. Unfortunately, most people opt for fish oil supplements over eating fatty fish like sardines, anchovies and herring.
Research Finds No Support for Fish Oil Supplementation on Heart Health
Overall, the health benefits of DHA and EPA are well-established.2 Research has provided clear evidence that higher intake of these animal-based omega-3 fats reduces your risk of heart disease and other chronic diseases, and are vital for neurological health.
Despite that, a number of studies have come up with conflicting results when studying the effects of fish oil supplements, which are generally accepted as a convenient source of these important fats. Here, I'll review some of the reasons for these odd discrepancies.
Most recently, a Cochrane Collaboration review3 of available evidence concluded omega-3 supplementation has little to no discernible benefit for heart health or longevity. As reported by the Cochrane Library:4
"A new Cochrane systematic review … combines the results of 79 randomized trials involving 112,059 people. These studies assessed effects of consuming additional omega-3 fat … on diseases of the heart and circulation … Participants were randomly assigned to increase their omega-3 fats or to maintain their usual intake of fat for at least a year.
Most studies investigated the impact of giving a long-chain omega-3 supplement in a capsule form and compared it to a dummy pill … The Cochrane researchers found that increasing long-chain omega-3 provides little if any benefit on most outcomes that they looked at.
They found high certainty evidence that long-chain omega-3 fats had little or no meaningful effect on the risk of death from any cause. The risk of death from any cause was 8.8 percent in people who had increased their intake of omega 3 fats, compared with 9 percent in people in the control groups.
They also found that taking more long-chain omega 3 fats (including EPA and DHA), primarily through supplements probably makes little or no difference to risk of cardiovascular events, coronary heart deaths, coronary heart disease events, stroke or heart irregularities."
Why Studies Don't Always Support Health Effects of Nutritional Supplementation
There are a number of reasons for these kinds of complexing results. First of all, many nutritional studies fail to assess the correct parameters. The importance of looking at achieved blood levels of a nutrient rather than dosage has been made abundantly clear by GrassrootsHealth vitamin D researchers.
When studies look at dosage, no apparent benefits of vitamin D supplementation are found. However, when you look at people's blood level — the concentration of the nutrient in the body — truly dramatic effects are detected.
The problem is that people metabolize the nutrient at different rates, and while one may need a very small dose to achieve a certain blood level, another may need several times that dose. So, assessing health effects based on supplement dosage can be extremely unreliable.
Scientific American5 also weighed in on the issue, noting that "… a quartet of new studies … may give insight into why human clinical trials of fish oil have failed to protect against AD [Alzheimer's disease] and other forms of dementia."
The Role of Your Microbiome and Liver in Omega-3 Metabolism
In these four studies, blood levels of molecules associated with lipid (fat) production in the liver were found to be linked to AD risk. Your brain, being made mostly of fats, need fats for optimal functioning as the lipids are involved in neuronal communication and nerve cell insulation.
Your liver is responsible for producing many of these important fats, and genes linked to AD are also involved in fat production and transport. APOE ε4, which is associated with a high risk for AD, is one of them. Your gut microbiome also plays a role in the processing of omega-3 fats, as do bile acids, produced from cholesterol in your liver.
When you consume omega-3 fats, certain microbes in your gut participate in the metabolism of these lipids. Your liver takes over during the final phase, creating brain-specific fats called peroxisomes, which are then transported via your blood stream into your brain. As reported by Scientific American:6
"Recognizing the central role of the liver in the brain's health, the four research groups measured blood levels of these brain-critical lipids and the molecules that make them … One group … looked at lipids called plasmalogens, fats that contain the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA.
They found reduced blood levels of these fats tracked with increased AD risk … A second group … found similar hints of lipid-processing anomalies in blood samples.
In the latter study, even people with AD who took fish oil supplements did not have increased blood levels of brain-beneficial lipids, possibly pointing to why fish oil supplementation does not appear to stem cognitive decline.
If peroxisomes in the liver are not working properly, 'taking more fish oil won't let you make more plasmalogens because the machinery for making them is defective,' says Mitchel Kling, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine …"
According to Howard Fillit,7 founding executive director and chief science officer at the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, other recent evidence suggests people with the APOE ε4 gene may actually have altered DHA metabolism. Whether this might make them less likely to reap significant benefit from fish oil supplements is unknown, however.
Genetic variations were also linked to bile acid levels in two of the four studies, suggesting AD risk genes may interact with the gut microbiome, and that this is (at least in part) why these genetic variants raise your risk for dementia.
The Problem With Most Fish Oils
As it pertains to fish oil specifically, it's now also becoming clear that the processing of fish oil is deeply problematic, rendering the final product into something far from the natural oils you get from the whole fish. This too appears to be a significant piece of the puzzle that helps explain why fish oil supplementation appears to be ineffective in some studies. As described by former CEO of Twinlab, Naomi Whittel:
"Even if you think the fish oil is coming from Norway or Europe, [the fish] is caught in Central and South America … The fish are then brought onto and thrown into the bottom of the boat …
By the time they get to Europe, the guts are so rancid that in order to get the omega-3s out, they have to go through a process of extracting these poisons and this rancidity. [In the end], you're left with something that has none of the cofactors [and] it's been heavily contaminated to clean out the rancidity …"
Whittel estimates about 98 percent of the omega-3 products on the market are inferior (and perhaps even toxic) due to the way the fish are caught and processed — a summary of which is provided in the graphic below.
>>>>> Click Here
Triglyceride Versus Ethyl Ester Fish Oils
Several factors come into play that affect the efficacy of fish oil. One is the form of the long-chained omega-3 fats. In fish, about 98 percent of the DHA and EPA are in the form of triglycerides, which are the most bioavailable. In most commercial fish oil supplements, however, the DHA and EPA are delivered in the form of ethyl esters.8
A triglyceride consists of a three-carbon molecule that forms a "backbone" for the fatty acids to latch onto. Each carbon molecule is linked to a fatty acid, so in total, a triglyceride is composed of three carbons bonded to three fatty acids.
Ethyl ester fish oil is most prevalent simply because it's far less expensive to produce than the triglyceride form. Ethyl esters are also easier to work with during processing, as they have a higher boiling point. This becomes important during the molecular distillation phase (see above), during which the oils are heated and purified of harmful environmental pollutants.
The molecular distillation phase also concentrates the EPA and DHA. You can tell the concentration of these two fats in any given supplement by looking at the label. In fish, the oil consists of about 20 to 30 percent EPA and DHA, whereas purified fish oil concentrate typically contains between 60 and 85 percent EPA and DHA.
Ethyl esters are essentially a synthetic substrate, created through the micro distillation process of crude fish oil, in which ethanol and/or industrial alcohol is added. This mix is heat distilled in a vacuum chamber, resulting in a concentrated omega-3 ethyl ester condensate.
It is also important to note that this purifying molecular distillation process removes vital resolvins and protectins present in the raw material that are important in reducing inflammation.
Ethyl Esters Are Poorly Absorbed
Ethyl esters, unfortunately, are the least bioavailable form of omega-3, and while manufacturers could convert them back into triglyceride form (by detaching the ethyl alcohol molecule and reattaching a glycerol molecule in a process known as re-esterification), this process is a costly one.
The difference between triglyceride and ethyl ester forms become an issue when your body goes to metabolize them. Since the glycerol backbone is missing in the ethyl ester form, the EPA and DHA will scavenge for available triglycerides or steal a glycerol molecule from somewhere.
When the latter happens, the molecule that lost its glycerol will now go searching for a replacement, which creates a domino effect. One way or another, the fatty acids need to be converted back into triglyceride form, or else your gut epithelium will not be able to process them.
The fatty acids also cannot be transported through your blood unless they're in triglyceride form. When you consume omega-3s in triglyceride form, the fatty acids are first separated from the glycerol backbone. All of the individual parts are then absorbed by gut epithelial cells, where they're reattached to form triglyceride.
On the other hand, when you consume ethyl esters, they must be processed in your liver. There, the ethanol backbone is separated from the free fatty acids, and your body must then reattach the free fatty acids to glycerol to form triglyceride. As you may imagine, this process is far less efficient, compared to the processing of omega-3 fatty acids that are in triglyceride form from the start.
Ethyl Esters May Do More Harm Than Good
Not only does it delay and likely diminish the release of these beneficial triglycerides into your blood stream, your liver must also process the ethyl alcohol, which may release free radicals and cause oxidative stress — the complete opposite of what you're trying to achieve.
Studies9 suggest a mere 20 percent of the EPA and DHA in ethyl ester form are absorbed by your body. When taken with other dietary fat, absorption increased threefold to 60 percent. Meanwhile, EPA and DHA in their natural triglyceride form were found to have a 69 percent absorption rate from the start, and when taken with additional dietary fat, absorption increased to 90 percent.
As a result, taking a triglyceride fish oil results in a 50 percent greater rise in omega-3 blood plasma levels than ethyl ester fish oil. Another major drawback of ethyl ester fish oils is their rapid oxidation rate. Ethyl ester DHA is far more reactive than triglyceride DHA, oxidizing 33 percent more rapidly, and consuming rancid omega-3 is not going to do your health any good. Quite the contrary.
Common side effects of prescription strength fish oil such as Lovaza — a highly-concentrated ethyl ester form of fish oil — are primarily due to the toxicity of ethanol, which is separated out in your liver. This includes unpleasant body odor, vomiting, gastrointestinal dysfunction, pancreatitis, cardiac effects and hypertriglyceridemia.
So, in summary, it's important to realize that the vast majority of clinical evidence showing health benefits of omega-3 relates to actual fish consumption, and as mentioned, virtually all of the omega-3s in fish are in triglyceride form.
Ethyl ester omega-3 does not exist in nature — it's a man-made byproduct of fish oil processing. Hence, to achieve reliable results, you really need to either eat omega-3-rich fish, or make sure the supplement you're taking contains DHA and EPA in their triglyceride form. For a more in-depth understanding of these differences, see the paper, "A Comparison of Synthetic Ethyl Ester Form Fish Oil vs. Natural Triglyceride Form,"10 by Dr. Douglas MacKay, who specializes in naturopathy.
Steps for Fish Oil Ethyl Ester Production From Fish Waste11
Fish Oil Versus Krill Oil
While unrelated to human health effects, fish oil has another significant drawback, namely its environmental impact. Overfishing has become a great concern, and according to recent research, humans have damaged 87 percent of the world's oceans.12,13
According to this study, marine wildlife have dwindled across the globe, thanks to overfishing, global marine shipping and rampant pollution from several sources. The good news is there's an alternative source of marine-based omega-3 fats that doesn't have this impact, and that's krill.
Compared to fish oil, krill oil also has higher potency, and contains natural phospholipids, which makes it more readily absorbed. Krill oil also contains astaxanthin, a powerful antioxidant, which makes if far less prone to oxidation, is virtually contaminant free, and has a superior metabolic influence.
>>>>> Click Here
Embed this infographic on your website:
Learn why krill oil is a safer and smarter choice than fish oil through the Fish Oil versus Krill Oil: The Cold, Hard Facts infographic. Use the embed code to share it on your website or visit our infographic page for the high-res version.
<img src="https://media.mercola.com/assets/images/infographic/krill-oil-vs-fish-oil.jpg" alt="krill oil vs fish oil infographics" border="0" style="max-width:100%; min-width:300px; margin: 0 auto 20px auto; display:block;"><p style="max-width:800px; min-width:300px; margin:0 auto; text-align:center;">Learn why krill oil is a safer and smarter choice than fish oil through the <a href="https://www.mercola.com/infographics/fish-oil-vs-krill-oil.htm"><strong>Fish Oil versus Krill Oil: The Cold, Hard Facts</strong></a> infographic. Visit our infographic page for the high-res version.</p>
Click on the code area and press CTRL + C (for Windows) / CMD + C (for Macintosh) to copy the code
Krill Oil Is a Far More Sustainable Option
Getting back to sustainability, krill is the largest biomass on earth, and krill harvesting is also one of the most carefully regulated. Strict international precautionary catch limit regulations are reviewed and reassessed regularly to assure continued sustainability.
While krill can be found in all oceans, Antarctic krill is by far the most abundant. The Antarctic krill biomass is under the management of an international organism of 25 countries called the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).14
This is the only official and reliable international organism involved in the management of sustainable krill fishery and the monitoring of krill stock, and no shortage of krill has ever been forecast by CCAMLR.
CCAMLR is viewed as an outstanding framework that is well organized and has developed robust research programs to help ensure successful conservation measures in the Southern Ocean. They also have the authority to further micromanage, on a season to season basis, to counteract any concerns they may have regarding the strength of the krill population during a particular har­vesting season.
CCAMLR has implemented a precautionary approach to minimize any risks associated with harvesting practices in conditions of uncertainty. They also use an ecosystem approach, meaning they take into account ecological links between different species and natural variability, such as the natural, cyclical rise and fall in reproduction of a species.
They also organize the strategic issuing of man­datory krill harvesting licenses as another control mea­sure to promote sustainability, and are proactively combating illegal fishing of all kinds within the Convention Area, to protect the ecosystem. You can learn more about the safeguards in place to ensure the sustainability of krill in this previous krill article.
Your Best Options for Animal-Based Omega-3
Based on the evidence, it seems clear that to reap maximum health benefits, you really want a majority of your omega-3 to come from your diet. That means eating small fatty fish such as sardines, anchovies, mackerel and herring. Wild-caught Alaskan salmon is another good source.
If you opt for an omega-3 supplement, your choices become more complex. What seems obvious is that many commercial fish oil supplements are not going to give you the benefits you're looking for. A key determining factor here is whether the supplement contains the triglyceride form or ethyl ester form of omega-3.
If you are taking a fish oil supplement, it is vital that you find out if the fish oil is a synthetic ethyl ester. If this information is not on the label, contact the manufacturer and find out. ONLY use fish oil that is in the natural triglyceride formulation. Choosing otherwise could be very problematic for your long-term health.
My preference, when it comes to omega-3 supplements, is krill oil, in part because of its superior absorbability, but also because it's a vastly more sustainable source. Last but not least, don't rely on a set dosage when taking a supplement. Like vitamin D, it's your serum level that counts. Your omega-3 level can easily be measured using an omega-3 index test. You'll want your index to be above 8 percent for optimal health and disease prevention.
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battybat-boss · 6 years
Text
Are Many Fish Oils Synthetic?
By Dr. Mercola
Omega-3 fats are essential polyunsaturated fats (PUFA) required for healthy digestion, muscle activity, blood clotting, visual acuity, memory and much more. Most omega-3s are considered "essential fats" as your body cannot make them. You have to get them from your diet. However, there's plenty of confusion when it comes to which omega-3 fats are required for optimal health.
You can obtain omega-3 fats from both plants and marine animals like fish and krill. However, these sources provide very different types of omega-3, and they are no way interchangeable.
Both plant- and animal-based omega-3 have their first double-bond in the third position - hence the name "omega-3." However, the length of the carbon chain of each omega-3 fat makes a significant difference when it comes to bioavailability and biological effect.
Basic Differences Between Plant- and Marine Animal-Based Omega-3s
Animal-based omega-3 - found in fatty fish, fish oil and krill oil - primarily contain docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a long-chained PUFA consisting of 22 carbons, and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which has 20 carbons.
Plant-based omega-3 - found in flaxseed, flaxseed oil, chia seeds, walnuts and leafy greens, for example - contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a shorter-chained PUFA consisting of 18 carbons. Plant-based omega-3 is completely devoid of DHA and EPA.
ALA is indeed a precursor to EPA and DHA, which is why some say you can simply consume plant-based omega-3s. However, an enzyme is required to convert the shorter 18 carbon ALA into long-chained omega-3, and in most people, this enzyme is simply unable to convert sufficient ALA to EPA, and even less DHA.
Typically, less than 1 percent of the ALA is converted to EPA. Some studies have found the conversion rate to be as low as 0.1 to 0.5 percent.1 So, while a tiny amount of the ALA you consume can be converted by your body into long-chain omega-3, it's a highly inefficient strategy and nowhere near as helpful as supplying "straight" DHA and EPA from marine sources.
Importantly, short-chain fatty acids are used by your body as a source of energy, while the long-chain fatty acids, those with 20 and more carbons, especially EPA and DHA, are structural elements that actually make up your cells. This is perhaps the most significant difference between plant- and animal-based sources, and why they are not interchangeable from a health perspective.
As structural elements, DHA and EPA are particularly important for proper cell division and function of cell receptors. They also play an important role in anti-inflammatory reactions. These fats are ideally obtained from the consumption of small fatty fish that are free of toxins. Unfortunately, most people opt for fish oil supplements over eating fatty fish like sardines, anchovies and herring.
Research Finds No Support for Fish Oil Supplementation on Heart Health
Overall, the health benefits of DHA and EPA are well-established.2 Research has provided clear evidence that higher intake of these animal-based omega-3 fats reduces your risk of heart disease and other chronic diseases, and are vital for neurological health.
Despite that, a number of studies have come up with conflicting results when studying the effects of fish oil supplements, which are generally accepted as a convenient source of these important fats. Here, I'll review some of the reasons for these odd discrepancies.
Most recently, a Cochrane Collaboration review3 of available evidence concluded omega-3 supplementation has little to no discernible benefit for heart health or longevity. As reported by the Cochrane Library:4
"A new Cochrane systematic review … combines the results of 79 randomized trials involving 112,059 people. These studies assessed effects of consuming additional omega-3 fat … on diseases of the heart and circulation … Participants were randomly assigned to increase their omega-3 fats or to maintain their usual intake of fat for at least a year.
Most studies investigated the impact of giving a long-chain omega-3 supplement in a capsule form and compared it to a dummy pill … The Cochrane researchers found that increasing long-chain omega-3 provides little if any benefit on most outcomes that they looked at.
They found high certainty evidence that long-chain omega-3 fats had little or no meaningful effect on the risk of death from any cause. The risk of death from any cause was 8.8 percent in people who had increased their intake of omega 3 fats, compared with 9 percent in people in the control groups.
They also found that taking more long-chain omega 3 fats (including EPA and DHA), primarily through supplements probably makes little or no difference to risk of cardiovascular events, coronary heart deaths, coronary heart disease events, stroke or heart irregularities."
Why Studies Don't Always Support Health Effects of Nutritional Supplementation
There are a number of reasons for these kinds of complexing results. First of all, many nutritional studies fail to assess the correct parameters. The importance of looking at achieved blood levels of a nutrient rather than dosage has been made abundantly clear by GrassrootsHealth vitamin D researchers.
When studies look at dosage, no apparent benefits of vitamin D supplementation are found. However, when you look at people's blood level - the concentration of the nutrient in the body - truly dramatic effects are detected.
The problem is that people metabolize the nutrient at different rates, and while one may need a very small dose to achieve a certain blood level, another may need several times that dose. So, assessing health effects based on supplement dosage can be extremely unreliable.
Scientific American5 also weighed in on the issue, noting that "… a quartet of new studies … may give insight into why human clinical trials of fish oil have failed to protect against AD [Alzheimer's disease] and other forms of dementia."
The Role of Your Microbiome and Liver in Omega-3 Metabolism
In these four studies, blood levels of molecules associated with lipid (fat) production in the liver were found to be linked to AD risk. Your brain, being made mostly of fats, need fats for optimal functioning as the lipids are involved in neuronal communication and nerve cell insulation.
Your liver is responsible for producing many of these important fats, and genes linked to AD are also involved in fat production and transport. APOE ε4, which is associated with a high risk for AD, is one of them. Your gut microbiome also plays a role in the processing of omega-3 fats, as do bile acids, produced from cholesterol in your liver.
When you consume omega-3 fats, certain microbes in your gut participate in the metabolism of these lipids. Your liver takes over during the final phase, creating brain-specific fats called peroxisomes, which are then transported via your blood stream into your brain. As reported by Scientific American:6
"Recognizing the central role of the liver in the brain's health, the four research groups measured blood levels of these brain-critical lipids and the molecules that make them … One group … looked at lipids called plasmalogens, fats that contain the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA.
They found reduced blood levels of these fats tracked with increased AD risk … A second group … found similar hints of lipid-processing anomalies in blood samples.
In the latter study, even people with AD who took fish oil supplements did not have increased blood levels of brain-beneficial lipids, possibly pointing to why fish oil supplementation does not appear to stem cognitive decline.
If peroxisomes in the liver are not working properly, 'taking more fish oil won't let you make more plasmalogens because the machinery for making them is defective,' says Mitchel Kling, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine …"
According to Howard Fillit,7 founding executive director and chief science officer at the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, other recent evidence suggests people with the APOE ε4 gene may actually have altered DHA metabolism. Whether this might make them less likely to reap significant benefit from fish oil supplements is unknown, however.
Genetic variations were also linked to bile acid levels in two of the four studies, suggesting AD risk genes may interact with the gut microbiome, and that this is (at least in part) why these genetic variants raise your risk for dementia.
The Problem With Most Fish Oils
As it pertains to fish oil specifically, it's now also becoming clear that the processing of fish oil is deeply problematic, rendering the final product into something far from the natural oils you get from the whole fish. This too appears to be a significant piece of the puzzle that helps explain why fish oil supplementation appears to be ineffective in some studies. As described by former CEO of Twinlab, Naomi Whittel:
"Even if you think the fish oil is coming from Norway or Europe, [the fish] is caught in Central and South America … The fish are then brought onto and thrown into the bottom of the boat …
By the time they get to Europe, the guts are so rancid that in order to get the omega-3s out, they have to go through a process of extracting these poisons and this rancidity. [In the end], you're left with something that has none of the cofactors [and] it's been heavily contaminated to clean out the rancidity …"
Whittel estimates about 98 percent of the omega-3 products on the market are inferior (and perhaps even toxic) due to the way the fish are caught and processed - a summary of which is provided in the graphic below.
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>>>>> Click Here
Triglyceride Versus Ethyl Ester Fish Oils
Several factors come into play that affect the efficacy of fish oil. One is the form of the long-chained omega-3 fats. In fish, about 98 percent of the DHA and EPA are in the form of triglycerides, which are the most bioavailable. In most commercial fish oil supplements, however, the DHA and EPA are delivered in the form of ethyl esters.8
A triglyceride consists of a three-carbon molecule that forms a "backbone" for the fatty acids to latch onto. Each carbon molecule is linked to a fatty acid, so in total, a triglyceride is composed of three carbons bonded to three fatty acids.
Ethyl ester fish oil is most prevalent simply because it's far less expensive to produce than the triglyceride form. Ethyl esters are also easier to work with during processing, as they have a higher boiling point. This becomes important during the molecular distillation phase (see above), during which the oils are heated and purified of harmful environmental pollutants.
The molecular distillation phase also concentrates the EPA and DHA. You can tell the concentration of these two fats in any given supplement by looking at the label. In fish, the oil consists of about 20 to 30 percent EPA and DHA, whereas purified fish oil concentrate typically contains between 60 and 85 percent EPA and DHA.
Ethyl esters are essentially a synthetic substrate, created through the micro distillation process of crude fish oil, in which ethanol and/or industrial alcohol is added. This mix is heat distilled in a vacuum chamber, resulting in a concentrated omega-3 ethyl ester condensate.
It is also important to note that this purifying molecular distillation process removes vital resolvins and protectins present in the raw material that are important in reducing inflammation.
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Ethyl Esters Are Poorly Absorbed
Ethyl esters, unfortunately, are the least bioavailable form of omega-3, and while manufacturers could convert them back into triglyceride form (by detaching the ethyl alcohol molecule and reattaching a glycerol molecule in a process known as re-esterification), this process is a costly one.
The difference between triglyceride and ethyl ester forms become an issue when your body goes to metabolize them. Since the glycerol backbone is missing in the ethyl ester form, the EPA and DHA will scavenge for available triglycerides or steal a glycerol molecule from somewhere.
When the latter happens, the molecule that lost its glycerol will now go searching for a replacement, which creates a domino effect. One way or another, the fatty acids need to be converted back into triglyceride form, or else your gut epithelium will not be able to process them.
The fatty acids also cannot be transported through your blood unless they're in triglyceride form. When you consume omega-3s in triglyceride form, the fatty acids are first separated from the glycerol backbone. All of the individual parts are then absorbed by gut epithelial cells, where they're reattached to form triglyceride.
On the other hand, when you consume ethyl esters, they must be processed in your liver. There, the ethanol backbone is separated from the free fatty acids, and your body must then reattach the free fatty acids to glycerol to form triglyceride. As you may imagine, this process is far less efficient, compared to the processing of omega-3 fatty acids that are in triglyceride form from the start.
Ethyl Esters May Do More Harm Than Good
Not only does it delay and likely diminish the release of these beneficial triglycerides into your blood stream, your liver must also process the ethyl alcohol, which may release free radicals and cause oxidative stress - the complete opposite of what you're trying to achieve.
Studies9 suggest a mere 20 percent of the EPA and DHA in ethyl ester form are absorbed by your body. When taken with other dietary fat, absorption increased threefold to 60 percent. Meanwhile, EPA and DHA in their natural triglyceride form were found to have a 69 percent absorption rate from the start, and when taken with additional dietary fat, absorption increased to 90 percent.
As a result, taking a triglyceride fish oil results in a 50 percent greater rise in omega-3 blood plasma levels than ethyl ester fish oil. Another major drawback of ethyl ester fish oils is their rapid oxidation rate. Ethyl ester DHA is far more reactive than triglyceride DHA, oxidizing 33 percent more rapidly, and consuming rancid omega-3 is not going to do your health any good. Quite the contrary.
Common side effects of prescription strength fish oil such as Lovaza - a highly-concentrated ethyl ester form of fish oil - are primarily due to the toxicity of ethanol, which is separated out in your liver. This includes unpleasant body odor, vomiting, gastrointestinal dysfunction, pancreatitis, cardiac effects and hypertriglyceridemia.
So, in summary, it's important to realize that the vast majority of clinical evidence showing health benefits of omega-3 relates to actual fish consumption, and as mentioned, virtually all of the omega-3s in fish are in triglyceride form.
Ethyl ester omega-3 does not exist in nature - it's a man-made byproduct of fish oil processing. Hence, to achieve reliable results, you really need to either eat omega-3-rich fish, or make sure the supplement you're taking contains DHA and EPA in their triglyceride form. For a more in-depth understanding of these differences, see the paper, "A Comparison of Synthetic Ethyl Ester Form Fish Oil vs. Natural Triglyceride Form,"10 by Dr. Douglas MacKay, who specializes in naturopathy.
Steps for Fish Oil Ethyl Ester Production From Fish Waste11
Tumblr media
Fish Oil Versus Krill Oil
While unrelated to human health effects, fish oil has another significant drawback, namely its environmental impact. Overfishing has become a great concern, and according to recent research, humans have damaged 87 percent of the world's oceans.12,13
According to this study, marine wildlife have dwindled across the globe, thanks to overfishing, global marine shipping and rampant pollution from several sources. The good news is there's an alternative source of marine-based omega-3 fats that doesn't have this impact, and that's krill.
Compared to fish oil, krill oil also has higher potency, and contains natural phospholipids, which makes it more readily absorbed. Krill oil also contains astaxanthin, a powerful antioxidant, which makes if far less prone to oxidation, is virtually contaminant free, and has a superior metabolic influence.
Tumblr media
>>>>> Click Here
Embed this infographic on your website:
Tumblr media
Learn why krill oil is a safer and smarter choice than fish oil through the Fish Oil versus Krill Oil: The Cold, Hard Facts infographic. Use the embed code to share it on your website or visit our infographic page for the high-res version.
Tumblr media
Learn why krill oil is a safer and smarter choice than fish oil through the Fish Oil versus Krill Oil: The Cold, Hard Facts infographic. Visit our infographic page for the high-res version.
Click on the code area and press CTRL + C (for Windows) / CMD + C (for Macintosh) to copy the code
Krill Oil Is a Far More Sustainable Option
Getting back to sustainability, krill is the largest biomass on earth, and krill harvesting is also one of the most carefully regulated. Strict international precautionary catch limit regulations are reviewed and reassessed regularly to assure continued sustainability.
While krill can be found in all oceans, Antarctic krill is by far the most abundant. The Antarctic krill biomass is under the management of an international organism of 25 countries called the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).14
This is the only official and reliable international organism involved in the management of sustainable krill fishery and the monitoring of krill stock, and no shortage of krill has ever been forecast by CCAMLR.
CCAMLR is viewed as an outstanding framework that is well organized and has developed robust research programs to help ensure successful conservation measures in the Southern Ocean. They also have the authority to further micromanage, on a season to season basis, to counteract any concerns they may have regarding the strength of the krill population during a particular har­vesting season.
CCAMLR has implemented a precautionary approach to minimize any risks associated with harvesting practices in conditions of uncertainty. They also use an ecosystem approach, meaning they take into account ecological links between different species and natural variability, such as the natural, cyclical rise and fall in reproduction of a species.
They also organize the strategic issuing of man­datory krill harvesting licenses as another control mea­sure to promote sustainability, and are proactively combating illegal fishing of all kinds within the Convention Area, to protect the ecosystem. You can learn more about the safeguards in place to ensure the sustainability of krill in this previous krill article.
Your Best Options for Animal-Based Omega-3
Based on the evidence, it seems clear that to reap maximum health benefits, you really want a majority of your omega-3 to come from your diet. That means eating small fatty fish such as sardines, anchovies, mackerel and herring. Wild-caught Alaskan salmon is another good source.
If you opt for an omega-3 supplement, your choices become more complex. What seems obvious is that many commercial fish oil supplements are not going to give you the benefits you're looking for. A key determining factor here is whether the supplement contains the triglyceride form or ethyl ester form of omega-3.
If you are taking a fish oil supplement, it is vital that you find out if the fish oil is a synthetic ethyl ester. If this information is not on the label, contact the manufacturer and find out. ONLY use fish oil that is in the natural triglyceride formulation. Choosing otherwise could be very problematic for your long-term health.
My preference, when it comes to omega-3 supplements, is krill oil, in part because of its superior absorbability, but also because it's a vastly more sustainable source. Last but not least, don't rely on a set dosage when taking a supplement. Like vitamin D, it's your serum level that counts. Your omega-3 level can easily be measured using an omega-3 index test. You'll want your index to be above 8 percent for optimal health and disease prevention.
Tumblr media
0 notes
lauraramargosian · 6 years
Text
Cyndi Lauper: Her influence on our past, present and future!
Cyndi Lauper: Her influence on our past, present and future!
“I’ve always felt that (since I do have a big mouth) I may as well use it to help people who aren’t being heard.”
-Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper, a woman who has inspired not only my generation (1990’s) but generations before mine and she’s still working hard to influence our present, learning and growing generation.
She’s a strong activist for the LGBTQ community. And it means a lot to her because she really wants to start seeing this world change for the better. But the passion to change the world, it all started when she was a young girl.
When Cyndi Lauper was only 19-years-old, she was considered a runaway and all she wanted to do was change the world for the better. But when you’re so young, it can be “hard to navigate in the world.” she told PEOPLE magazine. And she even opened up about the time she spent in a shetler. She said:
“My time in that youth shelter was where I saw these kids who suffered so much. Basically the kids come out and they get thrown out. Maybe there’s something I can do besides just being a famous person and singing to them.” She told ABC in 2015.
And her words were always followed by action. During her 2017 Trailblazer Honors speech, she opened up about these kids and how there are far too many homeless teens. When it came down to the math, Lauper said 7% of the homeless youth are part of the LGBTQ community. And when they did the research between the figures of homeless teenagers, they found that only 7% in general population identify LGBTQ. She passionately stated:
“And that’s when we started…” She told the audience with a light in her eyes. “We came up with the true colors fund and later on we did the research and realized that there was a large discrepancy between what the figures say are homeless. She continued. “Like Nancy said 1.6, 1.7 million kids on the street and up to 40% are LGBTQ, well, [ excuse me ] only up to 7% in the general population identify as LGBTQ, so to us that meant that these kids were being thrown out like hot cakes.”
These kids are important to our world, I couldn’t agree more. She’s helped so many from her past. And now she’s helping so many in the present, which will have an amazing cause and effect reaction, don’t you think?
“If kids are our future, and they are, and you don’t know where the next brilliant idea is gonna come from, we need all of them and these kids, nobody was standing up for and they are the most vulnerable on the street today.”
“And these kids nobody was really standing up for and they are the most vulnerable to the street today. I am proud to accept this award for my true colors fund and my true colors fellows and Gregory Lewis who was a part of our little team. And all of the kids and young people that contribute and work hard to make a difference in the world. I was inspired once by Harvey Fierstein who just read a speech, he had me come and sing, you know in one of those places for charity. I listened to what he had to say, it was 2002 and that’s when I thought maybe I could actually do something and it just grew from there, so I just want to thank all the people Nancy Pelosi who kind of mentored me too and the people of HRC who mentored me and PFlag and all the outreach programs and the people who work very very hard that are not famous. Thank you for your work”
This part of her speech made me smile because I wake up every morning at 5 a.m., and get to work on PCG magazine because to want to make a difference in the world. Her speech was absolutely inspirational.
[ Selena Gomez writes a LOVE letter to the LGBTQ community! ]
“We can fix this situation with these kids through education and outreach, we can help them become productive, young Americans and that’s where we live America, things can happen here! We just have to care enough and then take action.” She concluded. “Thank you very, very much.”
When Cyndi talks about “making things happen,” she means it. We cannot sit around and expect any change to take place by chance. I’ve learned one thing through hard work, patience, and pushing myself.
If you don’t try to make changes, NOTHING and I mean NOTHING will change in your life. Things rarely happen by chance, they happen by taking action, right? And that’s exactly what the “True Colors Fund,” represents, taking action and helping those in need.
“The True Colors Fund is working to end homelessness among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, creating a world where all young people can be their true selves.”
It’s honestly such an amazing fund and you can check the True Colors Fund out by clicking the link (it will pop up in another window, if you have adblock, you can temporarily allow by clicking the “blocked,” message). Explore the website, you don’t have to give money to help, you share it on your social media, you can talk to friends about it and make yourself heard.
Money isn’t everything, while it helps, getting the word out also helps raise awareness, which can also help raise funds. Cyndi Lauper left an inspiring message for everyone to read.
“When I was growing up in the ‘60s I was inspired and empowered by the Civil Rights Movement. Not only was the minority standing up for themselves and saying enough is enough, people in the majority stood alongside them as this country went through one of the most transformative periods in its history.
A moment like that is upon us again and this time the minority is the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. This time it is straight people who are beginning to stand side by side with their family, friends, co-workers and neighbors to say that this country is about equality, fairness and that never ending pursuit of happiness.
That is one of the reasons why we founded the True Colors Fund, to lend a helping hand in encouraging my straight peers to get informed and give a damn about equality.
While great strides have been made in recent years, when people can still be fired in over half the states because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender… when young people are so bullied and tormented that they feel their only way out of that hell is to end their lives… it’s clear we still have a long, long way to go before we achieve full equality and acceptance in this country.
In particular, we need to help young gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Kids who are coming to terms with their sexual orientation or gender identity are often told by their families, peers, and other influential people in their lives that who they are is somehow shameful or unacceptable. They are often rejected and thrown out of their own homes.
We all hear statistics that are shocking, but when I learned that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth make up to 40% of all homeless youth, yet only 7% of the general youth population in this country, I was furious.
As a parent, I cannot understand those who would kick out their kid simply because they are gay or transgender. Your child is a part of you, throwing them out on the street is like ripping out a part of your own soul. That is why the True Colors Fund continues to work to raise awareness about this issue and develop solutions to ending this epidemic. We will not rest until that percentage goes from 40 to none.
Everyone—whether straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender—should be allowed to show their true colors, and be accepted and loved for who they are. Every American should be guaranteed equal treatment, at school, at work, in their relationships, in service of their country…and in every part of their lives.
It’s time for us all to join together and say enough is enough. I hope you will stand with us as we continue to move our work forward.”
All my best,
Cyndi Lauper”
Girl, you are a doll. Thank you so much for being a voice. There are so many out there afraid to speak up, bullying, hate and sadly, sometimes hate crimes can lead to murder. Things do need to change and we can make those changes.
As a 27-year-old female, also aspiring to change the world, it’s inspiring to me when women use their platform to change the world for the better. And I know my “Lauraramoniquers,” love it as well. Everything you have done from music, charity, speeches, etc., has made it possible for us to change our future. You help us by leading an example. One we have needed for years.
Happy holidays and blessed be.
  The post Cyndi Lauper: Her influence on our past, present and future! appeared first on Celebrity News | Positive Celebrity Gossip | Laurara Monique.
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douchebagbrainwaves · 6 years
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WHAT DO THEY NEED TO GET THE CHAIN REACTION WOULD BE SELF-PERPETUATING
Which almost always means hiring too many people to ask for more. Just Good Enough One thing that might turn out to have practical applications to be written as thin enough skins that users can see the apples, they can start to ask questions instead of merely answering them correctly. In math and engineering, recursion, especially, it usually works best to get something for free. If we look at how people use the words wise and smart is a modern habit. European scholarship gained momentum it became less and less important; by 1350 someone who wanted to start businesses to use a more neutral sounding euphemism like negative or destructive. What happened to Don't be Evil? Don't just not be evil.
In it he carefully painted each individual leaf. Among other languages, those with a reputation for quality? When we started our startup in 1998 I thought one day I'd do some angel investing. Does it seem plausible that the people who worked on it. You can mitigate this with subsidies at the bottom nine tenths of university CS departments. In that case the money invested in the angel round just converts into stock at the next sufficiently big funding round.1 So if you want to learn what matters to them. But frankly the most important thing in the world, at least now someone can ask them: why did you choose to do that is to implement it. You'll find that you can't solve the problem of patent trolls. There's a strong tradition within YC of helping other YC-funded startups. His motive is partly that it would be a waste of time to nominate uncharismatic candidates, they'll tend to nominate only the most charismatic presidents ever, because in the VC pecking order. 18 to 28 average 23, and that seems pretty doable.2
The Anatomy of Determination September 2009 Like all investors, we run on the manager's schedule. You can't look a big problem too directly in the parse trees that get generated within the compiler when other languages are better than 50-50 that the Windows killer—or rather, remember precisely why raising money was so distracting till earlier this year.3 Perhaps it's not just that it makes other people want to work in, apartments tend to be such a test? The problem is not Apple's products but their policies. Partly because they can steer accordingly. So I advise fatalism. Instead of trying to point yourself in the position of the food shop.4
Big companies want to decrease the size of the bucket that straddles the cutoff. When I was a kid I used to close my eyes and hold my glove up more for protection than in the US now seems to be a problem if technology increases that gap? Between t 0 and when you resort to that the results are not merely technologies, but habits of mind is to ask, if you saw Jessica at a public event, you would never have to work a a lot b on hard problems is not, as it were. My guess is that Microsoft will develop some kind of read-macro. Your life so far. I changed that part? If you want to find them using Perl and Linux. Html#f8n 19. Organizations realized there was a separate and laborious process to get it through to people that it didn't predict anything. It's still a very weak form of disagreement is that it works better. Sand Hill Road It's interesting to see the old version, I put it there is that I was disgusted by the idea of leaving a trail.5 If you made it impossible to get rich would all start startups.
In 1977 there was no way to test them. But as one VC told me after a startup he funded would only take about half a second I found myself thinking: I can understand why German universities declined in the 1930s—or among the Mongols in 1200, you just stall. The founders we fund used to be that type of idea. And they supply so much money that, even when this work doesn't translate easily into the conventional intellectual currency of research papers.6 At YC we call these made-up idea as something you love, you're practically forced to write the sufficiently smart compiler piecemeal, because participants would immediately start writing bots.7 To the recipient, spam is easily recognizable. He said to ask about what you've built.8 I've described will for most startups raising money will become, if not months. Basically, unions were just Razorfish.
If your income tax rate is 10%, moving to Monaco would give you fifty times as much. DH5 we still sometimes see deliberate dishonesty, as when someone picks out minor points of an argument and make as good a case for it as they can easily change their valuation. This was perfectly true.9 If they accepted it, it offered the highest ratio of income to boringness of anything I'd done, by orders of magnitude. Distinguishing between wise and smart is a modern habit. The spread of the Industrial Revolution was not fighting the principle that declarations except those of dynamic variables were merely optimization advice, and would never hold up in court. Software is a very unusual quality: he's never wrong. In 1917, doing everything himself seemed to Ford the only way to be sure. To start with, people are a recurring expense, which is usually straightforward. As long as he considers all languages equivalent, all he has to stop and take a rest?10 I'm not claiming that bad schools are the usual suspects in about the right speed.
Notes
16%.
By all means crack down on these. The former is obviously a better user experience. It creates very bad behaviors/instincts that are only about 2%.
A P successfully defended itself by allowing the unionization of its identity. You're too early really means is you're getting the stats for occurrences of foo in the process of applying is inevitably so arduous, and configure domain names etc. Applying for a block later we met Aydin Senkut.
It's not a product of number of startups that seem excusable according to present fashions, I'm guessing the next generation of software from being contaminated by how much they'll pay. It's conceivable that intellectual centers like Cambridge in that sense, if you're not convinced that what you're doing. I wonder if they want you to remain in denial about your fundraising prospects. You could probably be a distraction.
Every pilot knows about this from personal experience than anyone, writes: I'd argue that the money. Starting a company growing at 5% a week for 4 years.
Oddly enough, but when companies reach a given audience by a central authority according to certain somewhat depressing rules many of the main effect of low salaries as the investment community will tend to be careful. The downside is that the overall prior ratio seemed worthless as a single project is a very misleading number, because investors already owned more than linearly with its size. The best kind of work the same energy and honesty that fifteenth century artists did, once. Plus one can ever say it again.
The air traffic control system works because planes would crash otherwise. The number of discrepancies currently blamed on various forbidden isms. The application described here is that a company if the similarity extended to returns.
Loosely speaking. If you're the sort of love is as blind as the love people have seen, when I became an employer hired men based on respect for their judgement.
But that's not the second clause could include any possible startup, and mostly in less nerdy fields like finance and media. As Clinton himself discovered to his surprise when, in the 1990s, and b made brand the dominant factor in deciding between success and failure, just the location of the word content and tried for a name. I wonder if that means is No, we try to disguise it with the VC. In the Daddy Model may be the least VC-like.
Make Wealth when I was genuinely worried that Airbnb, for example, the Patek Philippe 10 Day Tourbillon, is that you're talking to a group of picky friends who proofread almost everything I say is being able to at all is a qualitative difference in investors' attitudes.
Thanks to Ming-Hay Luk of the Berkeley CSUA, Jackie McDonough, Marc Andreessen, Robert Morris, and Carolynn Levy for putting up with me.
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