@startorrent02

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/ama-use-bmi-alone-imperfect-clinical-measure

does. DOES THIS MEAN THAT MEDICARE/AID WILL COVER SURGERIES EVEN IF YOU DIDNT MEET THE BMI BEFORE?

Got an answer from a savvy anon btw:

they will probably take a while to change their rules. insurance (especially government insurance) changing their rules takes ages of bureaucracy and probably will not change in the next year or two. but the fact that the AMA updated its stance on BMI means that things will probably head in the direction youre hoping for (i.e. not requiring a specific BMI for certain surgeries and instead taking a more integrated approach)

This is the first time someone's pointed something out about the way we behave I didn't even realise and found myself realising they are entirely right

this is immensely funny to me

People forget that in fandom you’re like. Allowed to believe multiple things simultaneously. And explore all of those things. You can both agree with the opinions that a character is a shithead and that they’re the most amazing person ever and do zero reconciliation between those opinions. Not “I like this character because they’re a shit head” or “this character is the most amazing person ever because they’re a shithead” no! You’re allowed to hate a character’s guts and sing their praises at the same time without there being any link between those opinions! It doesn’t have to make sense! It doesn’t even have to make nonsense! You’re just allowed to do that!

And it fucks!

Being able to use multiple opinions whether while enjoying media or while creating it fucks hard! It allows you to create multiple perspectives! It even, and stay with me here, allows you to use different perspectives for different stories. I know right?? You can just do that! And no one can stop you! Not even the cops!

You can just write a story where in one you shamelessly make your blorbo the most OP and perfect form of themselves that gets all the guys and galls and palls and another where you mercilessly tear them to bits and have everyone and the universe and the readers cheer as you repeatedly kick their gonads in and it literally doesn’t matter at all! It’s free and fun and good for the soul! Go do it!

Stray thought activated my latent simmering rage over Amazon closing down fabric.com someone remind me in like 8 hours to go on the rant cuz I have one very specific pet peeve about fabric shopping on Amazon that pisses me off so much that I just plain don't buy fabric on Amazon.

Okay here's the rant: Amazon is VASTLY inferior to fabric.com. It may have more selection (though fabric.com had a pretty wide selection) but it is SO much harder to find exactly what you're looking for. Because Amazon does not understand fabric or people who buy fabric.

Prior to them closing fabric.com down they saw that statistically the most common cuts were 2 yards. So they told vendors to sell their fabric in precut 2 yard increments. If you've ever sewn anything requiring multiple yards, you know you use less fabric overall if those yards are continuous. Not to mention there are plenty of things that are more than 2 yards long that would need to be seamed, which may or may not ruin say, the drape of a ballgown. So Amazon doesn't understand or even care about fabric they care about money.

Amazon has VASTLY inferior filters for searching for fabric. Searching for linen filled me with so much rage I refuse to ever buy fabric on Amazon. There was a LOT of cotton fabric with a "linen weave" otherwise known as a plain weave and you. Can't. Filter. By. Fiber. Content. So finding actual linen was a fucking guessing game of "this fabric is expensive is it li- oh it's cotton again."

I have one (1) requirement from fabric websites and it is the ability to filter by fiber content. It can be shitty in other ways I'll deal but that is a basic requirement. So I won't buy fabric off Amazon.

I also won't buy fabric off Amazon because I don't trust Amazon to be truthful about what fiber content something is. I trusted fabric.com to be mostly reliable in that. Even if they fixed the fiber filter issue, I still would not buy fabric off Amazon for this reason.

In conclusion fuck Amazon I will never forgive them for what they did.

FINAL FANTASY XIV 1.0 ARCHIVE

In honor of FFXIV: A Realm Reborn's 10th Anniversary and this year's Rising event, comes the public release of my years-long passion project to create a 1.0 Archive of the original 2010 release of the game. This 1,500 page archive contains a full annotated transcript of the original 1.0 MSQ, the 1.x GCQ (End of an Era storyline), full Class and Job questlines, Side Quests, and Open World NPC Dialogue and Newspaper articles.

FFXIV 1.0's continued existence on the internet means so much to me, and this project is possible only thanks to monumental efforts from Gamerescape, ChrysalisWiki, dedicated 1.0 Youtubers, and long-time loremonger AnonyMoose. Thank you all! It is my hope that this archive provides one more accessible source from which to read and enjoy the game that we celebrate every year at the Rising.

— The Ugly Future of the GOP: Vivek Ramaswamy and the Evolution of Cruelty and Greed

-There Is Always An Alternative: Remarks presented to York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies Graduating Class of 2023

Radio Free Monday

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

Ways to Give:

Anon linked to a fundraiser for andromeda3116, who needs help with medical bills for an upcoming surgery so as not to divert rent money for it. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

ufoend is raising funds for a $500 overdue electricity bill as well as basic necessities such as food, trash bags, and water after they and their disabled spouse were recently kicked out by their family due to homophobia. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

avatarpyler is raising funds for medication for themselves and food for them and their family, as they currently have no transportation to get to the local food bank. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

gelasius is raising funds to help their queer polycule pay rent and bills while Gelasius is out of work in a substance use treatment program; they're working hard, but getting back on one's feet is difficult and the family currently has only 2/3 of their usual income. You can read more and give to the fundraiser here.

57flagsofdeath is fundraising for a close friend who is disabled and Two Spirit; due to issues with the DC Housing Authority, they are at risk of losing their home, cannot access critical medical services including home healthcare aid, and have had to delay a necessary surgery. You can read more and reblog here or give directly here.

chaosfay and her husband have been unable to share a bed for nearly a year because their mattress causes him so much pain, and is increasing her chronic pain as well; they are a single-income household and saving for a new mattress that will suit them both is difficult. They are accepting donations but also selling quilted textiles and digital images/patterns at their Ko-Fi shop. You can read more, find giving links, and reblog here or purchase from their ko-fi shop here. Use code SLEEPCOMFY for 25% purchases through September 4th.

Anon linked to a fundraiser for Rivers Solomon, a Black, queer, and nonbinary author, who is trying to offset expensive immigration fees to the UK (where they reside) and get back on their feet after a couple of hard years that have left them in a financial crisis. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

Recurring Needs:

alirhi linked to a fundraiser to get herself, her mother, and her sister stable housing; they are currently staying in their cars in a a dangerous parking lot. They have a friend who will let them park a camper in her yard, but the camper there currently is unlivable, and they haven't been able to find an affordable replacement. With two of the family on disability it is difficult for them to keep up with bills and also save for housing. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

Anon linked to a fundraiser for dee-the-red-witch, a trans woman who needs to raise $10K to keep her home. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here, give via paypal here, or purchase her leatherwork here.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can post items for my attention at the Radio Free Monday submissions form. If you're new to fundraising, you may want to check out my guide to fundraising here.

Anyway my favourite part of The Golden Enclaves is El's old classmates being absolutely ride-or-die for her, but she has no room in her internal narrative for being looked up to with admiration and respect so she just completely fails to process it even a tiny bit.

#where’s the post about how alliances are the most important thing to teen mages #and she all but literally made an alliance with her whole graduating class #hell with her whole school - tanoraqui

She made one, and didn't ask for anything in return. She didn't even tell anyone her intentions until one of her actual allies tried to pull her back, and then she casually let slip that yes, she considered herself allied to every single one of them

so uh. this is what the author of The Care And Keeping Of You looks like.

if you wanna know what my dissertation is about, it's pretty much this!

I work with definitions a lot because they’re very telling. It seems part and parcel of Western struggles with the concept of wilderness that all our words for gardening spaces are words that mean “enclosed space”: garden, horticulture, park, orchard, yard

For those following the SAG and WGA strikes there’s new shit a-brewing, this time targeting background actors (aka extras).

Some may know that one of the issues SAG is fighting is that studios want to take virtual scans of background actors and use them in perpetuity (meaning forever) without any additional compensation to those background actors. So you would just see a bunch of AI generated humans in future movies based off of a background actor that worked one day.

This is already shitty because working as an extra for 3 days on a union set (if you receive a union voucher each day) is one of the main ways to qualify for SAG eligibility. This means that a lot of actors working background do not yet have union protection and likely do not have an agent or manager to protect them. Disney has already allegedly told background actors to do this on the set of Wanda Vision: https://www.avclub.com/wandavision-background-actors-say-disney-scanned-them-1850709900

Here’s where it's worse.

There is one main company that supplies background actors for major union and non union productions. Central Casting. They love to brag about their very long influence in the industry - in old movies dating back to the 40s you can hear jokes about hiring extras from Central Casting.

Central Casting has been including an electronic document for all actors in their database to sign as part of onboarding. Signing it gives Central Casting the right to use your images, your videos, and YOUR LIKENESS in perpetuity, forever. They would OWN your likeness. Instead of it being a studio supplying the AI background actors, it would be Central Casting instead.

Receiving any work from Central Casting in the future is conditional upon signing it. No signature = no extra work = no extra income for union actors trying to make health insurance minimums, no union extra work for pre-SAG members.

SAG already reached out to Central Casting to tell them to stop. Central Casting refused.

Edit to say: this is not new. It’s part of actors onboarding and is called the Photo, Image, and Video Release. It’s phrased to sound like you are just giving them permission to use your image and video for CC’s website and promotional purposes. But the actual language is much broader. It's only recently being brought up as a point for discussion because some casting directors (who are generally supportive of the strike) started pointing it out.

Central Casting is owned by Entertainment Partners which is also a giant software conglomerate and owns a lot of the software used to organize background casting and pay actors. https://www.ep.com/company/about-us/

I don’t believe in complying with laws in general

But I especially don’t believe in complying with laws passed by worthless inferior trash  like the nauseating cancer upon America that is the “government” of Texas in general and the neo-nazi sister-fuckers like Greg Abbott that are part of it in particular

Complying with a Nazi makes you a Nazi.

There is no ifs, ands, or buts.

Either you stand against or stand for.

Fuck you moderation. Fuck your compromise.

We are not letting that shit happen again.

To Republicans and Republican supporters we say: Fuck your opinions

Fuck your lack of spine

When you are miserable, know that we’re just fine :D

There is a strong chance that the center will be reopening with another name that complies with the bullshit law just enough to not get fucked with. I know my school is doing that.

That is what is happening, yes. They closed the center and are opening another center with a name that complies with the law but is functionally identical.

Texan here. Part of this law specifically established annual audits to make sure universities don't just rename these DEI offices and continue providing the same supports. Those of you saying they shouldn't comply - these are state universities that are wholly dependent on state funding. If they don't comply, they don't get funding, and would have to cease operations immediately. I get it, I do, I work at a public TX university and I'm livid. There are good people here trying to do what we can to mitigate immediate damage and work towards long term goals of getting DEI back in our institutions. That involves getting asshats like Dan Patrick and Hot Wheels out of office, and voting in reps to our state congress who can undo this damage. If these laws are undone in my lifetime, I'll be very surprised, but getting our institutions shut down does not help with those goals.