Bagma's corner

Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes, art, some cats and the occasional crochet project... Oh! and slash, of course. And bits of fics, when RL allows it.

[catasters]

[princip1914]

Having some feelings about the most recent MASH episode I watched (season 4 ep 20 “some 38th parallels”). It’s just so tightly written? And so well structured?

In this episode, Radar gets attached to a patient after catching a mistake (IV not connected) that maybe could have killed him. Radar gets to know the guy, he gets sicker—BJ operates on him again—he gets better, they talk about home, and then he dies anyway. It’s clear from how the episode develops and the foreshadowing that this guy is gonna die, but it’s not shown on screen. All you see is Radar doing a puzzle with him to pass the time, the episode cuts to the B plot, and then you see Radar dejected sitting on the bench outside Post Op and you know clearly what happened without it being spelled out. Then BJ and Radar have a conversation and Radar is like “he was just talking with me, how could he have died?” And BJ is like “sometimes people just die. I could explain it medically but it won’t help.”

Ugh, it’s just so understated, so good, so succinct, and captures…I don’t know…an extremely real feeling of what these moments are like without any need for realism (no shots of medical heroics, no discussion of what procedures were tried, just two people sitting on a bench). It works so well.

The cherry on top which really makes this episode transcendent, is that the B plot is about Hawkeye’s dick not working. BJ’s lowkey teasing him about it, gleefully being a bit of an asshole, and then a few minutes later, he’s having that conversation with Radar about a young guy he couldn’t save. The whiplash of it, the profane to the sacred, is just so good, so compelling, again so real without being realistic. (Incidentally, putting these two plots together also makes Hawkeye’s sex problems more poignant—of course the issue is not that he needs a hobby, it’s that kids are dying for no reason and he can’t fix it, but that never needs to be said explicitly because the A plot makes it obvious.) The juxtaposition shouldn’t work, but it hits JUST right. And it’s something I feel a lot of modern shows wouldn’t be brave enough to try.

[princip1914]

Too good to leave in the tags @genderbendingavatar ! This show has so much to say about masculinity and how men can be vulnerable and support one another in their vulnerability.

[sadburro]

[fuckyeahvolcanoes]

Alien landscape at home #1: Kilauea eruption with molten lava and papaya trees near Kapoho, Hawaii, unknown photographer, 1960. 

[purplepints]

Oldest human footprint discovered, made 153,000 years ago in South Africa.

Oldest human footprint in North America, made 21,000 years ago in New Mexico, USA.

Oldest human footprint on the Moon, made July 20, 1969 on the Sea of Tranquility, Earth's moon.

[miseducatedmelanicmuse]

[creature-wizard]

So, you know how certain Christian missionaries are trained to act in a very obnoxious way, so that most people they preach to will reject them outright, so they feel like the world hates them for being Christian and they can only be friends with fellow Christians? You know that thing?

I think as activists, we sometimes need to stop and ask ourselves whether we're acting like those missionaries. I think this type of behavior is a little more ingrained into our society than some of us realize, and some of us have internalized it without realizing what it's actually meant to do.

[penrosesun]

OP I know that this is probably a different direction than you were going, but genuinely this advice would do so so much to help people not fall into secular political cults.

A lot of high control groups use this tactic to isolate their members. It’s absolutely not just evangelizing Christians. New age wellness cults often encourage their members to make outlandish and offensive accusations regarding the mental and physical health of other people or their children, because they know that the backlash their members receive will reinforce the idea that the “mainstream” simply has no room for people who like crystals and essential oils. White supremacist cults will seed the vocabulary of new recruits with Nazi dog whistles that fly over those recruits heads, specifically so that they will get clocked as possible neo-Nazis and shunned by anyone who might offer them another perspective and help them to get out before it’s too late. And a lot of left-leaning political cults strongly encourage members to share their views in the most inflammatory ways possible, and then say “you see? everyone outside of this small circle is evil and cannot be relied on” when, inevitably, that produces bad results.

Sometimes I think that activists fall into these patterns completely accidentally, either because they were raised in culturally Christian evangelical environments and never unpacked it, or else because they just aren’t any good at approaching things in a non-inflammatory way and no one’s shown them how.

…But sometimes, these structures emerge in activist circles because those circles are legitimately becoming high control groups.

I think some things to watch out for especially in this regard are:

Are you being directed to behave in an extremely hostile and alienating way? (even if it’s by someone who you trust!)

Does the group you are in immediately shut down any conversation about the effectiveness of an antagonistic strategy? In particular, do they shut that conversation down using in-group stock phrases?

Is experiencing harsh rejection seen as something of a rite of passage?

Do you receive more validation from the group you are in after you have been rejected by someone outside the group than at any other time?

Have you ever been concerned that the antagonistic strategy you are using hurt someone you cared about, only to be quickly advised by members of the group that that person was toxic and that you should actually completely cut them out of your life?

These to me are all pretty significant red flags about the group in question, whatever the specific thing that brings people together there is. If you start noticing them in a group that you are a part of, be that an in-person activist circle or a Discord server or anything in between, take a step back and seriously consider the possibility that the good thing that you joined is turning into something different, and possibly dangerous.

In the words of Jonestown survivor Deborah Layton, “Nobody joins a cult. You join a self-help group, a religious movement, a political organization. They change so gradually, by the time you realize you’re entrapped – and almost everybody does – you can’t figure a safe way back out.”

[livebloggingmydescentintomadness]

this is a pdf detailing the BITE model of authoritarian control, a method for determining whether or not you're in a cult.

even if you feel confident you are not and have never been in a cult, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with the signs, just in case one begins to sneak up on you in the future.

[penrosesun]

Ok, I actually want to talk about this for a moment.

Jonestown, one of the most infamous cults in history, with a mass suicide / mass murder that left more than 900 people dead of cyanide poisoning, hundreds of whom were children… was a leftist political cult. That fact is an unambiguous and completely undebatable matter of historical record.

This isn’t a footnote in the story of Jonestown, and it isn’t a weird anti-leftist gotcha either. Jonestown attracted people to their cause with anti-segregation and anti-poverty activist work, and they did actual, meaningful good for those causes. The People’s Temple was a leftist org, unambiguously. They created mutual aid networks for food aid, and rent assistance, and job placement services, and clothing donations, and winter heating. They leaned heavily on the Indianapolis Human Rights Commission in order to push desegregation, and led sit-ins and boycotts and protests. They participated in significant voter registration efforts. They led the fight against the eviction of tenants from San Francisco's International Hotel.

People joined The People’s Temple because it was a good thing when they joined it. They didn’t start out as brainwashed cultists, and they didn’t gravitate towards the leadership of Jim Jones out of masochism, or inherent submissiveness, or a perverse love of creeping authoritarianism. They fell in line under Jim Jones because he’d built a community that was genuinely helping people, and was advancing a political cause that seemed worth fighting. They followed Jim Jones because he earned their trust.

Jim Jones then used the trust and the social capital that he had gained from all of the above in order to elevate himself to the status of a messianic figure, and abuse and profit off of his followers. Slowly but surely, he boiled the frog. It was all good – and then it was mostly good – and then, well there was some abuse, but it wasn’t that bad, and it wasn’t really his fault – and then there was a lot of abuse, but the outside world would destroy them if given the chance, so wasn’t it the lesser of the two evils? And then, eventually, it got so bad that hundreds of people poisoned themselves and their children at his command, and murdered everyone in the compound who refused and resisted.

Your cause of choice is not immune from abusers taking advantage of it!

It doesn’t matter if you’re right. It doesn’t matter if your cause is just. It does not matter if your good thing really is a good thing, because there is always the possibility that it will one day be co-opted by a monster. And if the fact that it started good is enough for you to ignore that gradual, subtle change, you could end up in a truly horrible situation.

One of my best friends in undergrad got sucked into a cult. Years later, we talked about it, and he told me something that I’ll never forget which is, it’s only when you look all the way back at things that they seem crazy. You start off with things that are totally normal and innocuous: “we’re stronger together”; “oppression is bad”; “you can accomplish more if you believe in yourself”; “empathy is important and we should all try to bring more of it into our lives”; etc. Then, you move to something that’s just a little step away from that. And then again. And then again. And then again. But it never feels like a big jump, because it’s not! A -> Z is crazy, but A -> B wasn’t, and B -> C wasn’t, and C -> D wasn’t, and…

This friend was smart, and rational, and independent, and normal, and by the time he and his wife left, they’d gone from just thinking that we should all practice more emotional mindfulness, to being terrified that leaving the cult and the cult leader would literally kill them, via the cult leader having magical powers.

If your only analysis is “Where I started was good, and no single step since then has been crazy” that is utterly insufficient to keep you safe.

“This can’t possibly be a cult, because when I joined it was a leftist political org and there’s never been a single instance where it suddenly changed” is literally the exact logic that kept people in Jonestown until it was too late.

[fleurdulys]

Summer Rain - Hasui Kawase

1932

[wapiti3]

OUR GARDEN LATE JUNE 2016

my pics

[succumbing-song]

[dragon-in-a-fez]

[tiktoksthataregood-ish]

[sweetwithheatwriting]

@hellenhighwater @copperbadge

[copperbadge]

These popcorns are very spicy.

[windwenn]

Guy who is quite frankly too short for all of this

[random-brushstrokes]

Rudolf Swoboda - Shanker Girr (1886-1888)

This is one of over 40 portraits of people from the Middle East and South Asia painted at the request of Queen Victoria. Shanker Girr was a Fakir (an ascetic holy man or mystic) from Malabum, Nepal, aged 23 at the time of his sitting for Swoboda. He wears the orange robes traditionally associated with Buddhist monks, but his long, shoulder-length hair has not been shaved close to the scalp. Rudolph Swoboda sailed for India on 7 October 1886. Queen Victoria paid for his passage and gave him £300 to cover his travelling expenses. In return he was to provide the Queen with sketches worth £300. The Queen gave Swoboda specific instructions: ‘The Sketches Her Majesty wishes to have – are of the various types of the different nationalities. They should consist of heads of the same size as those already done for The Queen, and also small full lengths, as well as sketches of landscapes, buildings, and other scenes. Her Majesty does not want any large pictures done at first, but thinks that perhaps you could bring away material for making them should they eventually be wished for.’ When Sir Howard Elphinstone, a contemporary, saw some of the sketches in 1888 he observed: ‘They are very clever indeed, most characteristic of the different types, & drawn with wonderful vigour’. When Queen Victoria received them she was very pleased and thought them ‘such lovely heads… beautiful things’. (source)

[shamebats]

The whole concept of migraine triggers is just perfectly suited for making disabled people who are already suffering waste time & energy obsessing over every single thing they do every day, especially their diets, and to then blame themselves for their attack like their problem is a lack of discipline & willpower and not the fact that they have a chronic illness. If you get migraines, that isn't because your lifestyle & diet isn't sufficiently optimized, it's because you have a migraine disorder.

[shamebats]

My neurologist didn't waste any time trying to get me to identify triggers and just got me on the right meds as soon as she could and I'm so glad she never made me feel like it was somehow my fault.

I'm now finally on a preventative that works for me & I literally don't do anything differently but I went from having daily migraines to sometimes not having a single one for over a week. I could do & consume every supposed trigger & still not get a migraine, when before the medication, I could do everything "right" every day for a week & still get a migraine every single day.

It's always like it's a medical disorder that causes your body to react badly to certain normal daily things & the goal should be to make it do that less, not to find ways to totally avoid all those normal daily things.

[shamebats]

Yeah...they're caused by migraine disorders. Because people without them don't get migraines on a regular basis.

The chocolate advice is probably bullshit too. Unless you specifically identify it as something that makes your migraines worse (unlikely), it's way more likely to just be a common craving people have during the prodrome phase before the pain starts. If it's your body signaling you that it wants chocolate, there's no reason not to eat it.

Also, my neurologist said if you take triptans, take them during the headache phase immediately when it starts, not during the aura.

[shamebats]

This isn't just my opinion btw, it's the current state of migraine research that shows that a) evidence for the belief that specific foods can trigger an entire migraine in someone who would've otherwise not had it is just not there and b) people are prone to misidentifying "triggers" and c) some "common triggers" have been shown in research to have protective qualities against migraines in some people and finally, d) the most up to date approach is to, instead of chasing possible triggers, raise your migraine threshold, which for some people can be achieved only with medication, but stuff like exercise & a nutritious diet could possibly also help you become more resistant too, once your threshold has been raised enough that you have the spoons for it, that is.

The Science Behind Migraine Triggers: Are Migraine Triggers Real or Part of the Prodrome Phase? | American Migraine Foundation

Learn more about how “triggers” may actually be signs of migraine prodrome and why identifying migraine triggers is not always easy.

Sometimes when people attempt to carefully track and avoid all their triggers, it creates a sense of guilt. When we think about it this way, the burden is on the person with migraine to avoid their triggers, and people may feel that if they experience an attack, it’s because of their own behavior. “Many times it is just the disease,” says Dr. Halker Singh. “This is the unpredictable nature of migraine. I think we carry enough on our shoulders as it is without the added stigma or guilt [around triggers].” Instead, we can shift to a healthier conversation about awareness in migraine management by learning to recognize prodrome symptoms and early signs of a migraine attack. This puts the focus on a deeper, more personalized understanding of each individual’s own unique experience with migraine. “I think making that shift is a little bit freeing and allows us to separate ourselves from migraine,” says Dr. Halker Singh. “My personal relationship with my migraine changes a little bit—I can separate from my own guilt and say, ‘OK, this is happening, what can I do about it?’” This kind of shift enables someone with migraine to focus more on self-care and addressing what their body needs in the moment during an attack.

The Migraine Trigger Myth: Why We're Often Wrong About What Causes Our – Cerebral Torque

New research reveals that 82% of suspected migraine triggers may be false. Learn how science is challenging traditional beliefs about migrai

Diet and Headache Control | American Migraine Foundation

Your diet can sometimes impact your migraine. Learn which foods are suspected triggers and how to adjust what you eat to help prevent or rel

One study compared headache activity between two groups of people living with migraine while they followed different diets. One diet eliminated foods commonly thought to trigger migraine attacks, and the other diet required patients to eat those same foods. Interestingly, headache frequency improved on both diets. This suggests that particular foods are not likely to trigger an attack, but rather that following a consistent, healthy diet may itself be therapeutic. In other words, feeling that you have control over your headaches may improve your headache symptoms. It also suggests that no single food is a trigger for all people living with migraine.

[shamebats]

There's lots of people in the tags going well my dad's uncles grandma cut X out of her diet & it cured her migraines.

If you're a chronic migraine haver please please learn to ignore all of that. There's always going to be people claiming that doing keto/paleo/gluten-free or cutting out seed oils/sugar/MSG and taking 15 different supplements cured their chronic illness and migraine is much the same. I'm not saying they're lying, they can absolutely believe that's what happened but it doesn't mean any of that is going to work for you nor do you have to try it.

[shamebats]

I had some of my worst most painful headaches while on strong painkillers, at the hospital, eating only bland low sodium vegan hospital food and getting fluids straight into my veins because apparently, the stress of surgery & recovery made my migraine disorder worse. Despite me being on Emgality. That's just what being chronically ill is like sometimes, there's not much you can do. Some of us can't self-optimize ourselves out of it, despite what every armchair neurologist & dietitian seems to think.

[thesilicontribesman]

The Pennanular Brooches of the St Ninians Isle Treasure, Early Medieval, National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh

[cristalplanetheart]

[bigbigtruck]

sucking at something is the first step to getting good at it

[adoelhome]

Some sketches I made recently with azicrow

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

Cnetizens: Why the thousand-year-old stone statues at the Northern Song Mausoleums aren’t covered with glass enclosures.

The director of the Cultural Relics Bureau replies: "They’ve stood here largely intact for over a millennium. Why add extra barriers?"

Visitors worry wind, rain and sunlight in the farmland will wear them down. The director explains:

Glass covers speed up decay—it’s like locking the statues in a sauna. Trapped heat and moisture create sharp temperature shifts. Salt crystals inside the stone expand and crack the carvings far faster than open-air exposure.

These statues blend naturally with the farmland landscape. Glass barriers would destroy the sense of scale and historical atmosphere.

When first built, the mausoleum complex was a restricted royal compound ringed by walls, palaces and pine trees—no farmland at all. After the Song fell, protection systems collapsed. Wars and weather destroyed buildings. Local residents gradually dismantled the abandoned structures, reusing timber and bricks in nearby villages.

By the Ming and Qing dynasties, villagers turned the empty grounds into farmland, leaving stone figures scattered amid crops.

Few people damaged the statues for three reasons: each weighs several tons and is impossible to move; folk belief held that anyone who damaged the guardian statues would be cursed with misfortune; every later dynasty passed laws punishing those who vandalized former imperial mausoleums.

Once an exclusive imperial burial ground, now ordinary farmland—this shift tells the story of history. Glass covers would only be unnecessary. As an old Chinese poem puts it: 旧时王谢堂前燕，飞入寻常百姓家

The swallows that were wont to grace the halls of Wang and Xie, Now seek the humble roofs of common men.

(cr 大鹅呀eyaeyaeya，陈帆fotochen，摄色📸，腾腾兔兔🐰)