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things2mustdo · 3 years

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Those who plan to improve their learning skills must be alert against a volley on false claims that are ripe in books and materials devoted to accelerated learning. This short and concise list should help you avoid books or websites that do not stick to the basics of science. In addition to memory myths, you will find, at the bottom, a summary of other myths described extensively at other places of this website.

Remember to remain skeptical. Hone your skepticism and treat this list with skepticism too. Consult reputable sources.

Contents:

Memory myths

Genius and creativity myths

Sleep myths

SuperMemo myths

Language learning myths

Skepticism (links to skeptic websites)

Memory myths

Myth: It is possible to produce everlasting memories. Even reputable researchers use the term permastore (see: Prof. Harry Bahrick). It is a widely-held belief that it is possible to learn things well enough to protect them permanently from forgetting. Fact: It is possible to learn things well enough to make it nearly impossible to forget them in lifetime. Every long-term memory, depending on its strength, has an expected lifetime. When the memory strength is very high, the expected lifetime may be longer than our own lease on life. However, if we happened to get extra 200 years to live, no memory built in present life would remain safe without repetition

Myth: We never forget. Some accelerated-learning programs claim that we never forget what we learn. Knowledge simply gets "misplaced" and the key to good memory is to figure out how to dig it out. Fact: All knowledge is subject to gradual decay. Even your own name is vulnerable. It is only a matter of probability. Strong memories are very unlikely to be forgotten. The probability of forgetting one's name is like the probability of getting hit by an asteroid: possible but not considered on a daily basis

Myth: Memory is infinite. Fact: Anyone with basic computational understanding of memory knows this claim is absurd. However, this is just one of a million living claims that are incongruent with primary school level science. After all, half of Americans still believe the earth was created by God less than 10,000 years ago (apology). We cannot even hope to memorize Encyclopedia Britannica in lifetime. Memories are stored in a finite number of states of finite receptors in finite synapses in a finite volume of the human central nervous system. Even worse, storing information long-term is not easy. Most people will find it hard to go beyond 300,000 facts memorized in a lifetime. For the other extreme of this myth see: Memory overload may cause Alzheimer's

Myth: Mnemonics is a panacea to poor memory. Some memory programs focus 100% on mnemonic techniques. They claim that once you represent knowledge in an appropriate way, it can be memorized in a nearly-permanent way. Fact: Mnemonic techniques dramatically reduce the difficulty of retaining things in memory. However, they still do not produce everlasting memories. Repetition is still needed, even though it can be less frequent. If you compare your learning tools to a car, mnemonics is like a tire. You can go on without it, but it makes for a smooth ride

Myth: The more you repeat the better. Many books tell you to review your materials as often as possible (Repetitio mater studiorum est). Fact: Not only frequent repetition is a waste of your precious time, it may also prevent you from effectively forming strong memories. The fastest way to building long-lasting memories is to review your material in a precisely determined moments of time. For long memories with minimum effort use spaced repetition (see SuperMemo)

Myth: You should always use mnemonic techniques. Some enthusiasts of mnemonic techniques claim that you should use them in all situations and for all sorts of knowledge. They claim that learning without mnemonic techniques is always less effective. Fact: Mnemonic techniques also carry some costs. Sometimes it is easier to commit things to memory straight away. The pair of words teacher=instruisto in Esperanto is mnemonic on its own (assuming you know the rules of Esperanto grammar, basic roots and suffixes). Using mnemonic techniques may be an overkill in some circumstances. The rule of thumb is: evoke mnemonic techniques only when you detect a problem with remembering a given thing. For example, you will nearly always want to use a peg-system to memorize phone numbers. Best of all, mnemonic tricks should be a part of your automatically and subconsciously employed learning arsenal. You will develop it over a long run time with massive learning

Myth: We cannot improve memory by training. Infinite memory is a popular optimist's myth. A pessimist's myth is that we cannot improve our memory via training. Even William James in his genius book The Principles of Psychology (1890) wrote with certainty that memory does not change unless for the worse (e.g. as a result of disease). Fact: If considered at a very low synaptic level, memory is indeed quite resilient to improvement. Not only does it seem to change little in the course of life. It is also very similar in its action across the human population. At the very basic level, synapses of a low-IQ individual are as trainable as that of a genius. They are also not much different from those of a mollusk Aplysia or a fly Drosophila. However, there is more to memory and learning than just a single synapse. The main difference between poor students and geniuses is in their skill to represent information for learning. A genius quickly dismembers information and forms simple models that make life easy. Simple models of reality help understand it, process it and remember it. What William James failed to mention is that a week-long course in mnemonic techniques dramatically increases learning skills for many people. Their molecular or synaptic memory may not improve. What improves is their skill to handle knowledge. Consequently, they can remember more and longer. Learning is a self-accelerating and self-amplifying process. As such it often leads to miraculous results.

Myth: Encoding variability theory. Many researchers used to believe that presenting material in longer intervals is effective because of varying contexts in which the same information is presented. Fact: Methodical research indicates that the opposite is true. If you repeat your learning material in the exactly same context, your recall will be easier. Naturally, knowledge acquired in one context may be difficult to recover in another context. For this reason, your learning should focus on producing very precise memory trace that will be universally recoverable in varying contexts. For example, if you want to learn the word informavore, you should not ask How can I call John? He eats knowledge for breakfast. This definition is too context-dependent. Even if it is easy to remember, it may later appear useless. Better ask: How do I call a person who devours information?. Now, even if you always ask the same question in the same context, you are likely to correctly use the word informavore when it is needed. For more on encoding variability and spacing effect see: Spaced repetition in the practice of learning

Myth: Mind maps are always better than pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words. It is true that we remember pictures far better than words. It is true that mind maps are one of the best pictorial representations of knowledge. Some mnemonists claim that all we learn should be in the form of a picture or even a mind map. Fact: It all depends on the material we learn. One of the greatest advantages of text is its compactness and ease at which we can produce it. To memorize your grandma's birthday, you do not really need her picture. A simple verbal mnemonic will be fast to type and should suffice. In word-pair learning, 80% of your material may be textual and still be as good or even better than pictorials. If you ask about the date of the Battle of Trafalgar, you do not need a picture of Napoleon as an illustration. As long as you recall his face at the sound of his name, you have established all links needed to deduce relevant pieces of knowledge. If you add a picture of the actual battle, you will increase the quality and extent of memorized information, but you will need to invest extra minutes into finding the appropriate illustration. Sometimes a simple text formula is all you need

Myth: Review your material on the first day several times. Many authors suggest repeated drills on the day of the first contact with the new learning material. Others propose microspacing (i.e. using spaced repetition for intervals lasting minutes and hours). These are supposed to consolidate the newly learned knowledge. Fact: A single effective repetition on the first day of learning is all you need. Naturally it may happen, you cannot recall a piece of information upon a single exposure. In such cases you may need to repeat the drill. It may also happen that you cannot effectively put together related pieces of information and you need some review to build the big picture. However, in the ideal case, on the day #1 you should (1) understand and (2) execute a single successful active recall (such as answering the question "When did Pangea start breaking up?"). One exposure should then suffice to begin the process of consolidating the memory trace

Myth: Review your material next day after a good night sleep. Many authors believe that sleep consolidates memories and you need to strike iron while it is hot to ensure good recall. In other words, they suggest a good review on the next day after the first exposure. Fact: Although sleep is vital for learning and review is vital for remembering, the optimal timing of the first review is usually closer to 3-7 days. This number comes from calculations that underlie spaced repetition. If we aim to maximize the speed of learning at a steady 95% recall rate, most well-formulated knowledge for a well-trained student will call for the first review in 3-7 days. Some pieces must indeed be reviewed on the next day. Some can wait as long as a month. SuperMemo and other computer programs based on spaced repetition will optimize the length of the first interval before the first review

Myth: Learn new things before sleep. Because of the research showing the importance of sleep in learning, there is a widespread myth claiming that the best time for learning is right before sleep. This is supposed to ensure that newly learned knowledge gets quickly consolidated overnight. Fact: The opposite is true. The best time for learning in a healthy individual is early morning. Many students suffer from DSPS (see: Good sleep for good learning) and simply cannot learn in the morning. They are too drowsy. Their mind seems most clear in the quiet of the late night. They may indeed get better results by learning in the night, but they should rather try to resolve their sleep disorder (e.g. with free running sleep). Late learning may reduce memory interference, i.e. obliteration of the learned material by the new knowledge acquired during the day. However, a far more important factor is the neurohormonal state of the brain in the learning process. In a hormonal sense, the brain is best suited for learning in the morning. It shows highest alertness and the best balance between attention and creativity. The gains in knowledge structure and the speed of processing greatly outweigh all minor advantages of late-night learning

Myth: Long sleep is good for memory. Association of sleep and learning made many believe that the longer we sleep the healthier we are. In addition, long sleep improves memory consolidation. Fact: All we need for effective learning is well-structured sleep at the right time and of the optimum length. Many individuals sleep less than 5 hours and wake up refreshed. Many geniuses sleep little and practice catnaps. Long sleep may correlate with disease. This is why mortality studies show that those who sleep 7 hours live longer than 9-hour-sleepers. The best formula for good sleep: listen to your body. Go to sleep when you are sleepy and sleep as long as you need. When you catch a good rhythm without an alarm clock, your sleep may ultimately last less but produce far better results in learning. It is the natural healthy structure of sleep cycles that makes for good learning (esp. in non-declarative problem solving, creativity, procedural learning, etc.). It is not true that if your sleep is short, so is your memory

Myth: Alpha-waves are best for learning. Zillions of speed-learning programs propose learning in a "relaxed state". Consequently, gazillions of dollars are misinvested by customers seeking instant relief to their educational pains. Fact: It is true that relaxed state is vital for learning. "Relaxed" here means stress-free, distraction-free, and fatigue-free. However, a red light should blink when you hear of fast learning through inducing alpha states. Alpha waves are better known from showing up when you are about to fall asleep. They are better correlated with lack of visual processing than with the absence of distracting stress. You do not need "alpha-wave machinery" to enter the "relaxed state". You can do far better by investing your time and money in ensuring good peaceful environment for learning, as well as in skills related to time-management, conflict-resolution, and stress-management. Neurofeedback devices may play a role in hard to crack stress cases. However, good health, peaceful environment, loving family, etc. are your simple bets for the "relaxed state"

Myth: Memory gets worse as we age. Aging universally affects all organs. 50% of 80-year-olds show symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Hence the overwhelming belief that memory unavoidably gets rusty at an older age. Fact: It is true we lose neurons with age. It is true that the risk of Alzheimer's increases with age. However, a well-trained memory is quite resilient and shows comparatively fewer functional signs of aging than the joints, the heart, the vascular system, etc. Moreover, training increases the scope of your knowledge, and paradoxically, your mental abilities may actually increase well into a very advanced age

Myth: You can boost your learning with memory pills. Countless companies try to market various drugs and supplements with claims of improved memory. Fact: There are no memory pills out there (August 2003). Many drugs and supplements indirectly help your memory by simply making you healthier. Many substances can help the learning process itself (e.g. small doses of caffeine, sugar, etc.), but these should not be central to your concerns. It is like running a marathon. There are foods and drugs that can help you run, but if you are a lousy runner, no magic pill can make finish in less than 3 hours. Do not bank on pharmiracles. A genius memory researcher Prof. Jim Tully believes that his CREB research will ultimately lead to a memory pill. However, his memory pill is not likely to specifically affect desired memories while leaving other memories to inevitable forgetting. As such, each application of the pill will likely produce a side effect of enhanced memory traces for all things learned in the affected period. Neural network researchers know the problem as stability-vs.-plasticity dilemma. Evolution solved this problem in a way that will be hard to change. Admittedly though, combination of a short-lasting memory enhancement with a sharply-focused spaced repetition (as with SuperMemo) could indeed bring further enhancement to learning

Myth: Learning by doing is the best. Everyone must have experienced the value of learning by doing. This form of learning often leads to memories that last for years. No wonder, some educators believe that learning by doing should monopolize educational practice. Fact: Learning by doing is very effective in terms of the quality of produced memories, but it is also very expensive in expenditure of time, material, organization, etc. The experience of a dead frog's leg coming to life upon touching a wire may stay with one for life (perhaps as murderous nightmares resulting from the guilt of killing). However, a single picture or mpeg of the same experiment can be downloaded from the net in seconds and retained for life with spaced repetition at the cost of 60-100 seconds. This is incomparably cheaper than hunting for frogs in a pond. When you learn to program your VCR, you do not try all functions listed in the manual as this could take a lifetime. You skim the highlights and practice only those clicks that are useful for you. We should practise learning by doing only then when it pays. Naturally, in the area of procedural learning (e.g. swimming, touch typing, playing instruments, etc.), learning by doing is the right way to go. That comes from the definition of procedural learning

Myth: It is possible to memorize Encyclopedia Britannica. Anecdotal evidence points to historical and legendary figures able of incredible feats of memory such as learning 56 languages by the age of 17, memorizing 100,000 hadiths, showing photographic memory lasting for years, etc. No wonder that it leads to the conviction that it is possible to memorize Britannica word for word. It is supposed to only be the question of the right talent or the right technique. Fact: A healthy, intelligent and non-mutant mind shows a surprisingly constant learning rate. If Britannica is presented as a set of well-formulated questions and answers, it is easy to provide a rough estimate of the total time needed to memorize it. If there are 44 million words in Britannica, we will generate 6-15 million cloze deletions, these will require 50-300 million repetitions by the time of job's end (see spaced repetition theory), and that translates to 25-700 years of work assuming 6 hours of unflagging daily effort. All that assuming that the material is ready-to-memorize. Preparing appropriate questions and answers may take 2-5 times more than the mere memorization. If language fluency is set at 20,000 items (this is what you need to pass TOEFL in flying colors or comfortably read Shakespeare), the lifetime limit on learning languages around 50 might not be impossible (assuming total dawn-to-dusk dedication to the learning task). Naturally, those who claim fluency in 50 languages, are more likely to show an arsenal of closer to 2000 words per language and still impress many

Myth: Hypertext can substitute for memory. An amazingly large proportion of the population holds memorization in contempt. Terms "rote memorization", "recitatory rehearsal", "mindless repetition" are used to label any form of memorization or repetition as unintelligent. Seeing the "big picture", "reasoning" and leaving the job of remembering to external hypertext sources are supposed to be viable substitutes. Fact: Associative memory underlies the power of the human mind. Hypertext references are a poor substitute for associative memory. Two facts stored in human memory can instantly be put together and bring a new idea to life. The same facts stored on the Internet will remain useless until they are pieces together inside a creative mind. A mind rich in knowledge, can produce rich associations upon encountering new information. An empty mind is as useful as a toddler given the power of the Internet in search of a solution. Biological neural networks work in such a way, that knowledge is retained in memory only if it is refreshed/reviewed. Learning and repetition are therefore still vital for the progress of mankind.

Myth: People differ in the speed of learning, but they all forget at the same speed. Fact: Although there are mutations that might affect the forgetting rate, at the very lowest biological level, i.e. the synaptic level, the rate of forgetting is indeed basically the same; independent of how smart you are. However, the same thing that makes people learn faster, helps them forget slower. The key to learning and slow forgetting is representation (i.e. the way knowledge is formulated). If you learn with SuperMemo, you will know that items can range from being very difficult to being very easy. The difficult ones are forgotten much faster and require shorter intervals between repetitions. The key to making items easy, is to formulate them well. Moreover, good students will show better performance on the exactly same material. This is because the ultimate test on the formulation of knowledge is not in how it is structured in your learning material, but in the way it is stored in your mind. With massive learning effort, you will gradually improve the way you absorb and represent knowledge in your mind. The fastest student is the one who can instinctively visualize and store knowledge in his mind using minimum-information maximum-connectivity imagery

Myth: Learning while sleeping. An untold number of learning programs promises you to save years of life by learning during sleep. Fact: It is possible to store selected memories generated during sleep by: external stimuli, dreams, hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations (i.e. hallucinations experienced while falling asleep and while waking up). However, it is nearly impossible to harness this process into productive learning. The volume of knowledge that can be gained during sleep is negligible. Learning in sleep may be disruptive to sleep itself. Learning while sleeping should not be confused with the natural process of memory consolidation and optimization that occurs during sleep. This process occurs during a complete sensory cut-off, i.e. there are no known methods of influencing its course to the benefit of learning. Learning while sleeping is not only a complete waste of time. It may simply be unhealthy

Myth: High fluency reflects high memory strength. Our daily observations seem to indicate that if we recall things easily, if we show high fluency, we are likely to remember things for long. Fact: Fluency is not related to memory strength! The two-component model of long-term memory shows that fluency is related to the memory variable called retrievability, while the length of the period in which we can retain memories is related to another variable called stability. These two variables are independent. This means that we cannot derive memory stability from the current fluency (retrievability). The misconception comes from the fact that in traditional learning, i.e. learning that is not based on spaced repetition, we tend to remember only memories that are relatively easy to remember. Those memories will usually show high fluency (retrievability). They will also last for long for reasons of importance, repetition, emotional attachment, etc. No wonder that we tend to believe that high fluency is correlated with memory strength. Users of SuperMemo can testify that despite excellent fluency that follows a repetition, the actual length of the interval in which we recall an item will rather depend on the history of previous repetitions, i.e. we remember better those items that have been repeated many times. See also: automaticity vs. probability of forgetting

The list of myths is by no means complete. I included only the most damaging distortions of the truth, i.e. the ones that can affect even a well-informed person. I did not include myths that are an offence to our intelligence. I did not ponder over repressed memories, subliminal learning, psychic learning, or remote viewing (unlike CIA). The list is simply too long.

More links from Randi's JREF

Skeptical Information Links - 532 links to skeptical websites (Aug 3, 2003)

What is not myth?

Sometimes I receive requests for the evaluation of legitimate learning methods. I will only shortly list here the keywords that are worth studying and that are legitimate! You will find plenty of information about these on the net.

Legitimate concepts and authors that might be misunderstood at best and dismissed at worst receive our stamp of approval: mind maps, Mega Memory (never mind Kevin Trudeau's reputation), mnemonic techniques, peg-list system, loci method, Mind Manager, ThinkFAST, Tony Buzan, Sebastian Leitner, expanded rehearsal, reactivation theory, SAFMEDS, bright-light therapy, chronotherapy, melatonin, neurogenesis in adulthood, brain growth through training, neural compensation (e.g. in brain damage), and physical exercise as a brain booster. See also:

Discuss it and add more at SuperMemopedia

Apology (March 2005)

I have received mail that the passage about American beliefs on the age of the Earth may be considered offensive. It is not my intent to offend anyone. I believe that stating facts of science resolutely is an obligation of anyone involved in myth-busting. Unlike far blunter James Randi, who I admire immensely, I try to use a gentler language. If submitted, I am ready to accept a less offensive rewording of the said passage as long as it plainly expresses my belief that most rudimentary scientific consensus leaves no place for infinite memory or young earth. In addition, the passage must include most telling data on how basic science remains little understood by a vast proportion of population in industrialized nations of which the US is probably the best example of contrast. You can leave your comments at SuperMemo Wiki

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jaybug-jabbers · 3 years

Text

Top 3 Favorite PokeGods

For the unaware, PokeGods were schoolyard rumors back in the days of Gen 1, of powerful, secret pokemon hidden in the games. Many of these rumored pokegods were entirely fabricated, while others were apparently based off poor memories of seeing snippits of actual pokemon designs planned for the next gen of games.

I thought I’d make a list of my top 3 favorite pokegods, since I’ve been in a top 3 sort of mood.

#1 - Shadybug

Shadybug has an interesting detail to his tale; rumors of his reality persisted longer than other pokegods. Up until fairly recently, he had an entry in Bulbapedia, claiming that Shadybug was a pokegod based off glimpses of a real beta pokemon design.

This supposed design was called “Kage no Mushi” (‘Shadow insect’), and was a pokemon design supposedly uncovered in a Japanese web archive.

This is a sketch supposedly along similar lines to the fan sketches of Honōguma and other beta pokemon (or perhaps an attempt at concept artwork from the game creators themselves):

However, this is in all likelihood not a real alpha/beta design– there are few sources for this supposed design leak. For further discussion on this, go here.

All this talk aside as to whether Shadybug is a real beta design (no evidence for this at all), it IS a real Pokegod. In other words, there really were rumors in the 90s and early 2000′s circulating about him along with the other pokegods.

Rumors of course differ, and some rumors said Tricket, another bug-type pokegod, was the evolution of Shadybug, while others said they were two unrelated bug-type pokemon.

In any case, the two always really intrigued me. I’m honestly thrilled and impressed that bug-type pokegods were even invented by kids, as bug type was traditionally viewed as the weakest. And yet, they exist. Bug types were also included among the pokegods that were evolutions of pre-exisiting pokemon (usually evolved via the mythical ‘Mist Stone’): Beedrill evolved into ‘Beepin,’ Butterfree into ‘Locustud’ or ‘Locustod,’ Parasect into ‘Brainsect,’ etc. Even Metapod had a pokegod evolution, oddly enough– Metazap, a presumably Bug/Electric type created when you gave it ‘the Lightning stone.’

Getting back to Shadybug, though, if we look at the original pokegod rumors, we don’t know much about it. Typically it’s only described simply as “a bug that protects itself with a leaf.” The Kage no Mushi design seems to take it in a design direction similar in ways to Paras or Nincada. My favorite fan interpretation of Shadybug can be found at this post here, which honestly is so adorable I want to scream.

#2 - Tricket

This pokegod had a very consistent rumored ‘code’ for how to obtain it, something copy and pasted among the many 90s websites of young pokemon fans:

This code is for TRICKET! a new Pokemon for Gold/Silver.

First, you must carry ALL 6 BUG POKEMON in your party in this order: Caterpie, Metapod, Butterfree, Weedle, Kakuna, Beedrill. Then, open an empty box in your PC without any Pokemon in it. Go into the Safari Zone and catch a wild Venonat and a wild Venomoth. You cannot catch Venomoth before Venonat.

Then, catch a wild Paras and a wild Parasect. Same rule applies for Parasect not before Paras. Keep them all in your PC box and do not change for any new ones. You do not need Scyther or Pinsir because they are rather rare to find. You’ll see them on the Victory Road, however, by catching all of the other bug Pokemon. That’s a pre-code.

Yes, along with Scyther in Red, Pinsir will be in Red too, and along with Pinsir in Blue, Scyther will be in blue! It’s the truth. Beat the Elite Four all the way through with the 6 Pokemon told. Do not allow Caterpie, Metapod, Weedle or Kakuna to continue to evolve, just press B to stop them from evolving.

Its best for them to be on high levels. Such as L50 Caterpie and Weedle, L60 Metapod and Kakuna and L75 for Butterfree and Beedrill. You can use Rare Candies and Gameshark to boost them up. After you win all five(Gary too) matches, Professor Oak notices you have all your Bug Pokemon. He asks if you’re a bug collector, YES or NO. If you answer NO, he says, “my mistake” and then the Hall of Fame comes up. If you answer YES, then, he takes you a cage where TRICKET the CRICKET lives! He lets you take it and use it for future battles.

Tricket is on Level 65, the same level as Gary’s final Pokemon. Tricket knows Spore, Twineedle, Mega Kick(crickets like to kick their legs) and Sing. I do not know if it learns any moves. It has no link with Shadybug. Shadybug is an entirely different Pokemon. They’re just bug pokemon.

There’s appeal to this code– unlike a lot of the wild ‘codes’ for obtaining pokegods that relied on doing something an exhausting number of times (and thus was hard to prove wrong), this was a single challenge run that sounded quite possible, albiet difficult. I also admit with my bug type bias and my love of pokemon bug runs of the game, I love the heck out of it for that reason too.

There’s a few other rarities about this code that I like; for one, Tricket is a very pokemon-sounding name. It seems to rely on a simple and appealing word-mash of ‘Trick’ and ‘Cricket’ and a rare moment of genuine quality for pokegod names. A lot of pokegod names are rather outlandish and sound very much like young kiddos made them up: Anthrax (this was during an anthrax scare in the US, keep in mind), Mysterio, Doomsday, Zapmolcuno …

Additionally, the moves described for Tricket are all real in-game moves. Again, usually when moves are described for pokegods, they’re invented with outlandish names. But the moveset described adds to the realism here. Admittedly, ‘Spore’ and ‘Sing’ are needlessly redundant, though. I would suggest swapping Spore out with something else, such as Screech or Razor Wind or something.

Anyway, there are a number of charming fan interpretations of this pokegod. One popular design is this one here, which is a rather straightforward but cute cricket with surprisingly big fists, akin to Ledian. Seems to suggest some punching moves in addition to the kicking ones.

Another sketch posted to Tumblr that only has a few notes is actually a very unique and awesome Tricket design, in my opinion, right here. A wizard cricket sounds fantastic, and it’s well executed in this sketch. The original moveset suggested for Tricket seems to have a physical attacker emphasis, but this version would probably be Bug/Psychic and more of a special attacker. We have yet to even have a Bug/Psychic type in pokemon, so the idea is an exciting one.

#3 - Mysterio

The interaction between pokegods and glitch pokemon is a complex one. It would be inaccurate to say glitch pokemon inspired all pokegods, or that all glitch pokemon were granted pokegod status, because that’s definitely not always the case. It was sometimes, though.

In many cases, it appears that pokegod rumors came about first, and that later on, Gameshark codes were assigned with the different well-known and well-loved pokegod names, with the tantilizing promise of easily obtaining these mythical creatures. Some authors who made these assigments were very direct and upfront about their arbitrary selections: they heard the pokegod rumors, knew them to be false, but liked to dream about them, and so they decided to assign names to the glitch pokemon just for fun. Other authors seemed to pass along these code lists and earnestly insisted that they were the genuine pokegods. Occasionally these authors made short notes about how the pokegods would ‘appear like messed-up blocks/like Missingno.’ but that they were indeed real despite this fact. In these cases, it seemed most fans agreed that the glitchy appearance was a dissappointment or a downside; people probably preferred the visions in their minds of great, powerful pokemon, not glitches.

The influence of glitch pokemon on pokegod lore was more sublte in other cases. Sometimes, the names of glitch pokemon would bleed into pokegod names. For instance, Blastoise’s pokegod evolution, Rainer, was possibly influenced by glichmon hex C4. This pokemon’s name appears as ‘PokéWTrainer’ in full, but due to the spaces in its name, often only appears as RAINER. It can be accessed via the Mew trick/trainer escape glitch, although its front sprite crashes the game. “Pokemaniac” also appears on many, many pokegod name lists, and this is a glitch typing of glitch pokemon also available through the trainer escape glitch.

Still, these are simply names. Something that seemed far less common were glitch pokemon inspiring any sort of detailed pokegod lore. Mysterio seems to represent at least a few attempts at this, though. It was a name given to ‘M, the sister species of Missingno. that also shares pokedex number 000. It could be encountered along with its sister Missingno. during the surfing along the Cinnabar coast/old man trick.

The relationship kids had with these two glitchmon was complicated. Missingno. and ‘M were typically treated with awe and fear. The false rumor that Missingno. could destroy your savefile or your entire game was incredibly common even back then, which probably explains why this rumor is still so staunchly believed even to this day. (See endnote.) Other kids valued Missingno. and its sister for its ability to duplicate items and used it for that but advised against daring to capture it, lest you put your game at risk.

It’s hard to say what other glitchmon possibly influenced pokegod lore. However, considering that encountering glitch pokemon without a cheating device (via Old Man Trick or the Trainer Escape Trick) seemed fairly well-known and easy to execute, and that the Gameshark codes were well-circulated for those lucky enough to own such a device, kids definitely were exposed to these glitchmon– making for ideal circumstances for rumors and stories to grow and flourish. It’s also noteworthy that glitchmon often had extreme stats; some were incredibly weak but others were incredibly powerful, with stats far exceeding any real, natural pokemon. They also fulfilled two other major expectations of pokegods: they were hidden and could only be revealed with special in-game tricks or Gameshark codes, and their pokedex numbers often exceeded 150. It’s quite possible these factors seriously influenced the rise of pokegod rumors in general, especially the various “tricks” that promised to grant you access to the land of the pokegods. Since these tricks for acquring M’ were real, for example, surely that meant other tricks could do the same for others? What else was waiting out there for discovery?

That same adventuresome, wonderous curiosity is something I feel is still kept alive today with glitch hunters. People are still discovering amazing ways of exploiting glitches and exploring the inner ‘guts’ of the game. Some of the glitch exploits sound like they stole a page right out the pokegod lore books, especially for arbitrary code execution. That’s why I have Mysterio listed as my final favorite pokegod. I feel it bridges the gap between the pokegods and the glitchmon. Quite frankly, if you’re searching for the pokegods, I’d say they have already been found: powerful, mysterious, occasionally dangerous, and completely alien, surpassing even the most wild young kid’s imaginations.

End Note on Dangerous Missingno. Rumor:

While encountering or capturing Missingno. and ‘M does not dangerously damage the savefile, it does visually corrupt Hall of Fame data, which is part of the savefile. This possibly contributed to the rumor that they can harm the save file. There also is a chance of crashing the game if you capture a pokemon at an abnormal level (lvl 0, namely) while having a full party and transferring it automatically to the PC, and then attempting to withdraw it. (Go here for details.) Because pokemon encountered during the Old Man trick, including Missingno. and ‘M, can appear at abnormal levels, this also may have contributed to the rumor.

However, to be perfectly honest, another reason is probably a case of mistaken identity. Missingno. was the first glitch pokemon to be discovered, most likely– certainly the one that was popularized and easy to access. Kids probably applied the name to all glitch pokemon. There are plenty of glitch pokemon that can severely corrupt your game, via glitch moves with unterminated names (called ‘Superglitch moves’). Poor, innocent Missingno. and ‘M were possibly blamed for their cousin’s crimes instead.

Finally, it should be noted that Missingno. in pokemon Yellow is far more ornery then in Red and Blue. With the Trainer Escape glitch, its front sprite can often lock up the game upon encounter; additionally, if successfully captured, it can cause various graphical glitches upon returning to the overworld.

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Jan 14, 2019.

#pokemon #pokegods #top3 #shadybug #tricket #mysterio #missingno #missingno.#mycontent #pokemon favorites

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betterthedevilyouknowuk · 5 years

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LGBTQ+ inclusion, the 7 Tenets & my experience within The Satanic Temple UK - Neil Currie

Hail Satan, my name is Neil. I am guessing that as you are reading this blog you have at least a passing interest in The Satanic Temple. And, given the title of the post I’m hoping you have more than a passing interest in the LGBTQ+ community and its experiences. Whilst deciding on writing this blog post I decided that for it to make sense I would need to start in the past. I grew up in the UK, in fact, other than a short sojourn in Barcelona, my experience of the LGBTQ+ “community” is predominantly one grounded in the UK.

A little about me, I came out as queer in the late 1980s in a small town in Yorkshire, of course, there was no LGBTQ+ community (although at this point in queer history it was just LG, the B was added around 1989 the rest later). In order to try to find my tribe I had already been exploring the post-punk and goth scene in Leeds, this was centred around a now legendary club called Le Phonographic. Some of you reading this may remember it and if you were there between 89 and about 92 may even know me. After coming out I was welcomed with open arms by this community and as the UK in the 80s and early 90s was still less than welcoming to LGBTQ+ people, the community was very tight knit. Although it was tight knit, it was very welcoming and whilst being predominately very white and often with separate Women’s and Men’s spaces, it was diverse, diverse in the sense that it didn’t matter if you were a goth, or a rocker or a disco bunny, there was little or no fem shaming like there is today. I felt welcome in both my communities. In fact, in the 90s there were even queer clubs specializing in “Alternative” music, which were generally packed to capacity. Fast forward to 21st century LGBTQ+ community, it has become homogenized with difference being used as a tool to shame. Okay, all well and good but what does this all have to do with The Satanic Temple and the 7 Tenets you ask. Well, hopefully I can translate the confusing mess of thoughts into a coherent post.

The homogenization of our culture and “difference” being used as a tool to shame is not unique to the LGBTQ+ community, The Right is yet again on the rise and whilst the moderate right have historically simply been the other side of the isle to my own political standpoint in the UK our Conservative party are sliding towards becoming a party of the far right. This move emboldens those in the wider community who would seek to further oppress minorities and more specifically seek to remove those protections in law we have achieved over the last few decades. It is this march to the right that I, to some extent, blame for the LGBTQ+ community becoming less tolerant of difference.

For some time now I have been following The Satanic Temple in the US, watching what they have been doing with interest and wondering about how to get involved. I am an Atheist, I do not believe in Magick or superstition, so TST’s brand of Satanism really appealed. After reading the Seven Tenets:

(Image copyright of The Satanic Temple, source)

This made my mind up and I joined up through the website. Of course, like everyone else I tried to find a chapter near me. At the time I joined, the UK only had a “friends of”, we have now been granted official chapter status. Since joining the UK chapter (friends of at the point I joined), I very quickly found I was making a new family, one that accepted everyone as they were, through upholding the Tenets my person was accepted without question. There was no expectation for me to have to change to fit in, I simply am, what I am. And, my experience, is these are not just words, we have had some amazing discussions on such varied and wide-ranging topic, not all about LGBTQ by any means. But, through these discussions and members and allies have shown they actively live the tenets. I have found, I suppose, what I had in the post-punk and goth scene of the late 80s. People who genuinely believe and live the seven tenets, as part of their truth, as part of their life. This may all seem obvious and are asking does this need to be said?

I have to say I honestly think it does. For those of us, through who we are, are often singled out for abuse and exclusion by the state, state sponsored actors, or just those members of our society deem who or what we are to be outside of what they view as acceptable ways of “being” to find a place where we are not simply accepted, but, through the very core of the beliefs that the community we are joining actually live. We are validated, we are supported and defended.

Words are insufficient to get across how this feels and what it means., certainly to me, as I realise, I cannot speak for everyone in the LGBTQ+ community. So, I guess this is my “love letter”, if you like to The Satanic Temple. A clumsy metaphor I know but I am at a loss for a better one. I must also stress, this is MY experience, My personal view. But one I felt important to get across so those members who have not experienced what it is to be “other than” in this world could understand the very meaningful impact finding this “family” has on people.

The views in this article are that of the writer, Neil Currie, based on his own personal experiences, and should be treated as such.

#the satanic temple #the satanic temple uk #uk #united kingdom #satanism #satanic #satanist #satan #hail satan #TST #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtq+#pride #satanism uk

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 years

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#1yrago Oh for fuck's sake, not this fucking bullshit again (cryptography edition)

America, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and Australia are in a surveillance alliance called The Five Eyes, through which they share much of their illegally harvested surveillance data.

In a recently released Statement of Principles on Access to Evidence and Encryption, the Five Eyes powers have demanded, again, that strong cryptography be abolished and replaced with defective cryptography so that they can spy on bad guys.

They defend this by saying "Privacy is not absolute."

But of course, working crypto isn't just how we stay private from governments (though god knows all five of the Five Eyes have, in very recent times, proven themselves to be catastrophically unsuited to collect, analyze and act on all of our private and most intimate conversations). It's how we make sure that no one can break into the data from our voting machines, or push lethal fake firmware updates to our pacemakers, or steal all the money from all of the banks, or steal all of the kompromat on all 22,000,000 US military and government employees and contractors who've sought security clearance.

Also, this is bullshit.

Because it won't work.

Here's the text of my go-to post about why this is so fucking stupid. I just can't be bothered anymore. Jesus fucking christ. Seriously? Are we still fucking talking about this? Seriously? Come on, SERIOUSLY?

It’s impossible to overstate how bonkers the idea of sabotaging cryptography is to people who understand information security. If you want to secure your sensitive data either at rest – on your hard drive, in the cloud, on that phone you left on the train last week and never saw again – or on the wire, when you’re sending it to your doctor or your bank or to your work colleagues, you have to use good cryptography. Use deliberately compromised cryptography, that has a back door that only the “good guys” are supposed to have the keys to, and you have effectively no security. You might as well skywrite it as encrypt it with pre-broken, sabotaged encryption.

There are two reasons why this is so. First, there is the question of whether encryption can be made secure while still maintaining a “master key” for the authorities’ use. As lawyer/computer scientist Jonathan Mayer explained, adding the complexity of master keys to our technology will “introduce unquantifiable security risks”. It’s hard enough getting the security systems that protect our homes, finances, health and privacy to be airtight – making them airtight except when the authorities don’t want them to be is impossible.

What these leaders thinks they're saying is, "We will command all the software creators we can reach to introduce back-doors into their tools for us." There are enormous problems with this: there's no back door that only lets good guys go through it. If your Whatsapp or Google Hangouts has a deliberately introduced flaw in it, then foreign spies, criminals, crooked police (like those who fed sensitive information to the tabloids who were implicated in the hacking scandal -- and like the high-level police who secretly worked for organised crime for years), and criminals will eventually discover this vulnerability. They -- and not just the security services -- will be able to use it to intercept all of our communications. That includes things like the pictures of your kids in your bath that you send to your parents to the trade secrets you send to your co-workers.

But this is just for starters. These officials don't understand technology very well, so they doesn't actually know what they're asking for.

For this proposal to work, they will need to stop Britons, Canadians, Americans, Kiwis and Australians from installing software that comes from software creators who are out of their jurisdiction. The very best in secure communications are already free/open source projects, maintained by thousands of independent programmers around the world. They are widely available, and thanks to things like cryptographic signing, it is possible to download these packages from any server in the world (not just big ones like Github) and verify, with a very high degree of confidence, that the software you've downloaded hasn't been tampered with.

Australia is not alone here. The regime they proposes is already in place in countries like Syria, Russia, and Iran (for the record, none of these countries have had much luck with it). There are two means by which authoritarian governments have attempted to restrict the use of secure technology: by network filtering and by technology mandates.

Australian governments have already shown that they believes they can order the nation's ISPs to block access to certain websites (again, for the record, this hasn't worked very well). The next step is to order Chinese-style filtering using deep packet inspection, to try and distinguish traffic and block forbidden programs. This is a formidable technical challenge. Intrinsic to core Internet protocols like IPv4/6, TCP and UDP is the potential to "tunnel" one protocol inside another. This makes the project of figuring out whether a given packet is on the white-list or the black-list transcendentally hard, especially if you want to minimise the number of "good" sessions you accidentally blackhole.

More ambitious is a mandate over which code operating systems in the 5 Eyes nations are allowed to execute. This is very hard. We do have, in Apple's Ios platform and various games consoles, a regime where a single company uses countermeasures to ensure that only software it has blessed can run on the devices it sells to us. These companies could, indeed, be compelled (by an act of Parliament) to block secure software. Even there, you'd have to contend with the fact that other states are unlikely to follow suit, and that means that anyone who bought her Iphone in Paris or Mexico could come to the 5 Eyes countries with all their secure software intact and send messages "we cannot read."

But there is the problem of more open platforms, like GNU/Linux variants, BSD and other unixes, Mac OS X, and all the non-mobile versions of Windows. All of these operating systems are already designed to allow users to execute any code they want to run. The commercial operators -- Apple and Microsoft -- might conceivably be compelled by Parliament to change their operating systems to block secure software in the future, but that doesn't do anything to stop people from using all the PCs now in existence to run code that the PM wants to ban.

More difficult is the world of free/open operating systems like GNU/Linux and BSD. These operating systems are the gold standard for servers, and widely used on desktop computers (especially by the engineers and administrators who run the nation's IT). There is no legal or technical mechanism by which code that is designed to be modified by its users can co-exist with a rule that says that code must treat its users as adversaries and seek to prevent them from running prohibited code.

This, then, is what the Five Eyes are proposing:

* All 5 Eyes citizens' communications must be easy for criminals, voyeurs and foreign spies to intercept

* Any firms within reach of a 5 Eyes government must be banned from producing secure software

* All major code repositories, such as Github and Sourceforge, must be blocked in the 5 Eyes

* Search engines must not answer queries about web-pages that carry secure software

* Virtually all academic security work in the 5 Eyes must cease -- security research must only take place in proprietary research environments where there is no onus to publish one's findings, such as industry R&D and the security services

* All packets in and out of 5 Eyes countries, and within those countries, must be subject to Chinese-style deep-packet inspection and any packets that appear to originate from secure software must be dropped

* Existing walled gardens (like Ios and games consoles) must be ordered to ban their users from installing secure software

* Anyone visiting a 5 Eyes country from abroad must have their smartphones held at the border until they leave

* Proprietary operating system vendors (Microsoft and Apple) must be ordered to redesign their operating systems as walled gardens that only allow users to run software from an app store, which will not sell or give secure software to Britons

* Free/open source operating systems -- that power the energy, banking, ecommerce, and infrastructure sectors -- must be banned outright

The Five Eyes officials will say that they doesn't want to do any of this. They'll say that they can implement weaker versions of it -- say, only blocking some "notorious" sites that carry secure software. But anything less than the programme above will have no material effect on the ability of criminals to carry on perfectly secret conversations that "we cannot read". If any commodity PC or jailbroken phone can run any of the world's most popular communications applications, then "bad guys" will just use them. Jailbreaking an OS isn't hard. Downloading an app isn't hard. Stopping people from running code they want to run is -- and what's more, it puts the every 5 Eyes nation -- individuals and industry -- in terrible jeopardy.

That’s a technical argument, and it’s a good one, but you don’t have to be a cryptographer to understand the second problem with back doors: the security services are really bad at overseeing their own behaviour.

Once these same people have a back door that gives them access to everything that encryption protects, from the digital locks on your home or office to the information needed to clean out your bank account or read all your email, there will be lots more people who’ll want to subvert the vast cohort that is authorised to use the back door, and the incentives for betraying our trust will be much more lavish than anything a tabloid reporter could afford.

If you want a preview of what a back door looks like, just look at the US Transportation Security Administration’s “master keys” for the locks on our luggage. Since 2003, the TSA has required all locked baggage travelling within, or transiting through, the USA to be equipped with Travelsentry locks, which have been designed to allow anyone with a widely held master key to open them.

What happened after Travelsentry went into effect? Stuff started going missing from bags. Lots and lots of stuff. A CNN investigation into thefts from bags checked in US airports found thousands of incidents of theft committed by TSA workers and baggage handlers. And though “aggressive investigation work” has cut back on theft at some airports, insider thieves are still operating with impunity throughout the country, even managing to smuggle stolen goods off the airfield in airports where all employees are searched on their way in and out of their work areas.

The US system is rigged to create a halo of buck-passing unaccountability. When my family picked up our bags from our Easter holiday in the US, we discovered that the TSA had smashed the locks off my nearly new, unlocked, Travelsentry-approved bag, taping it shut after confirming it had nothing dangerous in it, and leaving it “completely destroyed” in the words of the official BA damage report. British Airways has sensibly declared the damage to be not their problem, as they had nothing to do with destroying the bag. The TSA directed me to a form that generated an illiterate reply from a government subcontractor, sent from a do-not-reply email address, advising that “TSA is not liable for any damage to locks or bags that are required to be opened by force for security purposes” (the same note had an appendix warning me that I should treat this communication as confidential). I’ve yet to have any other communications from the TSA.

Making it possible for the state to open your locks in secret means that anyone who works for the state, or anyone who can bribe or coerce anyone who works for the state, can have the run of your life. Cryptographic locks don’t just protect our mundane communications: cryptography is the reason why thieves can’t impersonate your fob to your car’s keyless ignition system; it’s the reason you can bank online; and it’s the basis for all trust and security in the 21st century.

In her Dimbleby lecture, Martha Lane Fox recalled Aaron Swartz’s words: “It’s not OK not to understand the internet anymore.” That goes double for cryptography: any politician caught spouting off about back doors is unfit for office anywhere but Hogwarts, which is also the only educational institution whose computer science department believes in “golden keys” that only let the right sort of people break your encryption.

https://boingboing.net/2018/09/04/illegal-math.html

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ineededanamesohereisaname · 4 years

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Course Post #4: Don’t worry, it’s not theft, it’s only data-mining!

In Our Digital Rights to the City, Jathan Sadowski writes something in his essay “Access Denied” that really has me reflecting on my own (un)willing participation in data-mining by Facebook, social media platforms, and general online activity:

“Practices of dataveillance have become so common and so varied that few people know about the systems that target them in homes, stores, streets, online, and nearly everywhere else. These systems are used to create data dossiers about each of us, they fuse and analyze data from many sources, they sort and slice us into categories, and they do so largely without our awareness and input.” (emphasis added)

The world no longer operates solely in the physical realm; marketing, consumerism, and day-to-day social bonding takes place largely via the internet--especially as today’s social distancing precautions are forcing our normal physical operations online, what with the increasing threat of Coronavirus, and ensuing social panic. Websites in general, but especially social media platforms, encourage you to feel at ease, with “privacy policies” and “terms of services” in place “for your protection.” Websites want you to browse, like, save, comment, share, and shop freely, as if no one is watching, as if the digital world is at your disposal. Ownership of property has moved online as we create and care for several profiles and wishlists and playlists, often blissfully unaware of what “cookies” are, or as we remain indifferent towards the ways in which what we browse now will affect our online engagement in the future.

The language I’ve chosen to emphasize in the above quote by Sadowski is somewhat ominous and definitely threatening if you consider this violation of our online privacy as violent, under-handed, and victimizing. As a result of our unwaivering trust in treating our computers as if they were just as reliable in storing personal data as a physical lock-safe, we willingly (albeit, sometimes, unknowingly) grant the oh-so-trusted world wide web permission to data-mine our activity, to catalog our information, and use it against us; be it the everyday ad you see as you scroll down your feed, to archiving your user experience for future search engine optimization. If you truly believe your activity online is private, then, for one, you’re a fool; and two, you’ll have no choice but to conclude that your personal property, the information you insert online, is being stolen each and everyday from the silent thief known as data-mining.

The alarming thing is that Sadowski argues that data-mining occurs largely without our awareness, but don’t we all know generally what “this website uses cookies” implies? Don’t we understand that clicking on one ad for braces will change the ads on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. until we google the next random thing? How many of us have suffered from the endless parade of Universal Studios ads because we looked up the price of tickets one time? Or the constant videos about where to find your next dream home because you wanted to go on Zillow and pretend for an afternoon that you were a multi-millionaire in the market for a mansion in upstate New York? I first looked up Ph.D. programs on a “Find Your Dream College with this Super Simple Quiz” site a year ago and I’m still attacked by “Enroll in Our Online College!” emails on a weekly basis! My point is, to a large extent, I’d argue that we are very aware of what happens on the other side of the screen, and like the man in the picture above, w e d o n ’ t c a r e. We ignore it and pretend as if there is nothing violating or malicious about what happens in data-mining and we continue to post memes and go about our daily activities as if no one’s monitoring us, knowing 100% that nothing we do online is a secret.

My question, then, is to what extent are we willing to forfeit our privacy to the convinience of technology? One of the creepiest and most violating things I’ve seen recently is advertisements for an app that monitors your sleep habits. Upon further research, there are actually several apps that will do this same thing. While it isn’t information per se, it is still a form of physical, personal property, but now, at a biological level.

Are we really so concerned about tracking at what hours we began snoring, we rolled over, or what hour we talked from unconsciousness that we’d actually give permission to an app to monitor us throughout the night? Do those who download these sorts of apps even consider or care what happens to this very personal data once it’s uploaded to the app’s databse? (I don’t have the space to even begin to critique the violation of online sexting or nude-sharing). It’s concerning that people still remain ignorant enough to not understand that what they allow their phones and computers to monitor and archive is no longer their personal property, but it is now the property of capitalism and the realm of marketing target-schemes against you, the consumer.

Among all this talk about city spaces, and planning for the future, and what the creation of utopias means for the living situation for the average urbanite, it cannot be forgotten to consider the almost utopian promise of utter privacy and judgment-free browsing when it comes to societies that exist and operate solely online. We cannot be so caught up in our concern for changes in the physical world and physical spaces that we forget to consider what’s taking place online, our digital spaces that have consumed so much of our lives already. I don’t think we’re completely ignorant of the fact that privacy doesn’t actually mean privacy anymore. Nevertheless, we should never for a moment stop questioning what it means to have ownership of our property and ourselves once we’ve allowed our information and activity to spill out, or take place exclusively, in the digital world.

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wakraya · 6 years

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Alright, let me put a few points of stuff I’ve seen on the tags to rest here.

1) Jades Are A Rare Caste.

They are implied to be less plentiful than other castes, yeah, I believe Seadwellers are also rare? But here’s the thing- We have six Jades. When someone says “There’s twice as many Jades as we have Rusts or Bronzes”, it sounds like, shit, yeah weren’t they supposed to be less abundant? Except. They’re still, in total, just Six. Alternia is a planet. Lore-wise, they may be a less plentiful Caste, but they’re not even... In the double digits. This is not even the population of a neighborhood, Xefros’ suburban area likely had more Trolls in total than there are Trolls in this Troll Call, and besides it’s likely all Jades are in the same place for some reason- Jadeblood School is the biggest headcanon right now, for example, so... Why wouldn’t you have a bunch of Jades there?

2) Jades Are All Female.

This is a straight-up misconception, yeah they’re mostly girls, but canon still leaves room for Jadeblood boys. So Male Jadeblood? Yeah, can happen, and there’s nothing going against the canon here.

3) Trolls Have No Concept Of Gender.

This one is honestly baffling to me because I haven’t heard about this until the discourse today. I am assuming this comes from the fact Troll Reproduction doesn’t care who provides the genetic material? Their reproduction is not tied to gender, which has made people assume Troll junk is the same for both guys and gals. Except... That’s about it. Even though it’s silly because they’re bugs and implied to be hermaphroditic, they still show sexual dimorphism. And even if they didn’t, they still have a concept of Gender, merely based on the fact there’s Troll Boys and Troll Girls? He/She divide? With Hiveswap expanding on it and showing us there are, indeed, NB Trolls that prefer They/Them. This Gender Divide is actually talked about by Porrim, who also implies that while Fuchsia-down Alternia seemed a Matriarchy, Purple-down it was actually a Patriarchy, informing us that not ONLY is there sexual dimorphism, but also, a cultural divide. By saying that Lanque can’t be Trans because Trolls have no concept of Gender, you’re either mistaking headcanons for actual canon... Or being transphobic by equating genitalia to gender. In which case, fuck off.

4) Trolls Don’t Care About Fashion.

This is something Karkat says, and I believe Kanaya also implies she cares about it more than it’s usual? But Fashion in Troll Culture, seems to be exactly like Mail. Karkat mentions there’s no Mail they do not get a Mailbox with a Flag, yet we see Xefros get mail! Except it’s not Mail. It’s parachuted delivery straight from a website. There’s no standarized Mail system on Alternia, but that doesn’t mean companies can’t deliver things themselves, directly to their Hives. Similarly, Trolls have no concept of Fashion- They don’t care about things such as trends, variety, being dressed properly. And... Hiveswap doesn’t break this. They have more colorful clothes, and some look pretty good! But. Look at Cirava. They’re an absolute fashion disaster. Diemen is just dressed like a hot dog. The Jades all seem to wear uniforms of some sort. Fozzer and Marsti, Skylla, they are more akin to work clothes. The Soleil Twins and Marvus are more flashy, because they’re likely part of a spectacle. Most of them are either a sort of uniform or outfit that’ll fit whatever they’re doing, or a basic color with their symbol somewhere. And you can go from Bright Pink Bathrobe Stelsa, to Pirate-Clad Remele, and back to Punk Denim Elwurd. Not being Fashionable can be about trends, they may simply dress however they want, because of their interests, or their jobs.

But let’s think about this another way. Let’s say that, yeah, they did retcon Troll Fashion- Would... Would you really be mad if they retconned Troll Fashion. Like... Would you be happier if every Troll shown was wearing a plain black shirt with their Symbol, and pants or a skirt, with slight variations of a jacket or a tank top. I don’t think there’s a single Hiveswap design I dislike, and they’re all visibly varied and easily recognizable, and tell a lot about the character, which is like. Character Design 101? So I honestly don’t know what the complaint here is exactly, except Canon Purity.

5) Hiveswap Ruined Fantroll Variety

How. First of all, the entire previous point. Just, expanding upon basic Troll Clothes, showing us the extent of how Trolls dress. But also like... What did they limit exactly? We’re going to learn more about Trolls and Troll Culture and Biology, of course headcanons are going to clash with canon, but so far, what have they limited? I’ve heard about Horns, but like... These horns have all been so varied, and sure there’s stuff like hooks with Ceruleans and Jades, and Four Horns with Golds but... This pattern is also broken, with Azdaja having three, for example. We’ve seen new Psionic colors, we’ve seen stuff like Horn Piercing, we’ve seen Troll Twins, we have seen horns where the orange part starts at different heights than you’d expect and even some of the parts jutting out having their own red-orange-yellow coloration separate of the main shaft of the horn. If anything, until now, there’s always been headcanons for Horns, like, “Oh this is their symbol so it’ll be like this”, or “this is their caste, so, they’ll have big horns”, but no, we have Purples with small horns, we have Bronzes with curly horns downwards, we have a cerulean with super uneven horns, we have a gold with three horns, we have a teal with flat horns, we have rounded horns, we have hotdog horns. I’ve heard people wonder about some Horn Shapes in the prior weeks, about how they didn’t match their restrictive headcanons, and NOW you tell me they’re restrictive? There’s also been complaints about caste roles and stereotypes, and I feel people really forget that Alternia is a Tyranny that forces the inhabitants in roles they are most likely not happy with, specially for the lower castes. Like... Rusts are disposable, and likely to be bound to a life of servitude. Because they’re the lowest of the low, society treats them as such, and there’s stereotypes like Indigos being strong, but that’s not any more restrictive than Psionics being a Gold-only thing, and much like we see Zebede not having Psionics or Elwurd and Mallek having normal eyes to every other cerulean’s messed-up ones... There’s exceptions to the rule everywhere. There have always been.

I’ve also seen complaints about no mutant bloods or things like Albinism and such? And like... The fact they didn’t include it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. We actually got Freckles with Zebede, so it already implies skin conditions are a thing, so Albinism could happen, if anything we have more PROOF that it may be a thing! Complaining about a lack of Limebloods and Violets, too, is just nitpicking, we know there will be Violets eventually, but either we haven’t been shown right now, or they’re just. In the sea. And we’re in the land. And Limes are likely to be a plot point, I’m expecting at least ONE Lime (Fiamet), if not more to show up at some point, and if there’s NO Limebloods I’m sure there will be at least talk OF Limebloods and their whole, you know, extermination, which is a canon thing that happened.

6) The Game’s Representation Is Bad Representation

Listen... Listen. I have friends ecstatic that there’s at LEAST three non-cis characters in Hiveswap (One trans boy, two NBs), without counting the possibility of other characters being Trans (Pretty much anyone could be), or NB (Like, I think about half of the characters don’t have pronouns on their bullet points?), not to mention, further acts with new characters. Hell, even Xefros or Dammek or Joey could be Trans. We. Literally know nothing about these characters, our information is so limited, and yet there’s already people cheering about it and super happy to see representation and I’ve seen one person in the tag encouraged to come out because Lanque is Trans. There’s also at least two Jewish Trolls, plus the possibility of Kanaya being Jewish as well, either her, Rose, or both. And yet, even though they have simply said this, in good faith, respectfully, and trying to add diversity to their roster, and even though we literally know NOTHING of how it’ll be handled yet, you... Bash them for it?

Like, okay. Lanque. The big topic today. He’s not particularly masculine, but as has surely been repeated over and over and over again, not all trans men are masculine, and not all trans people suffer dysphoria. And yeah, it’s true! It would be nice if there was a more masculine trans man! It would be great if there were trans girls! It would be great if there were more diversely coded NB characters! And there may be?? There’s going to be more characters, if not in this Act, in future Acts, and of the ones we’ve seen, many of them could still be NB or Trans. Like... Again. We’ve got three bullet points from each character. Like, I’m sorry you didn’t get a trans character that you could identify better with yet? But that doesn’t mean you have to bash the one we got? When there are people genuinely happy and encouraged about it? You’re not being progressive. You’re being an elitist asshole, if you only accept 100% perfect representation suited to your tastes, and everything else is garbage, or god help me, ‘fetishization’ or ‘disgusting’ (I have heard both on the Tags), like seriously. You’re being the oppressive one. You’re the one making representation harder than it should be.

Oh and if you’re on the OPPOSITE side of the spectrum and simply being Transphobic or saying how all of this is ‘pandering’ to the audience, really I have nothing to say, if you cannot have basic empathy for a group of people finding representation in a game which source material is extremely queer, and have to resort to bashing it down, screw you.

7) WhatPumpkin Are Doing A Bad Job

This is your subjective opinion, and I’d dare to say, a wrong opinion, but let’s not go there for now. WP has suffered a lot of hate for some reason? There have been lies and slander and bashing for absolutely no reason. People hate Cohen for some reason, and have demonized him, when so far what I’ve seen about him is that he’s a pretty chill dude. The writing of Hiveswap wasn’t like, a masterpiece? But it was fun and it got a good bunch of chuckles out of me and made me care for the characters, and even got me a bit scared and sad at some points during the game! It has that Homestuck Spark, and if you say ‘it’s not like Homestuck’, you’re... I’m sorry, you’re just an elitist, or simply don’t like the style anymore? But it carries a very similar charm.

I’ve heard complaints about Hussie not being involved in the project- Which is false, he did write the entire story FIRST THING, and is overseeing the whole project with the rest of the team. There’s also been criticism towards WP ‘failing’ at representation (Before actually seeing the representation apparently, again, we know NOTHING about the game and how it’ll handle stuff so far), and also accusing WP and Cohen specifically of adding representation because of Woke Points and like... WP are Queer as Heck? I don’t know all of them, I don’t even know how many people are working at WP. But they’re not all straight 100% for sure, and I believe they’re not all cis- And even if they ARE all cis, I also doubt a group working on such a Queer game would NOT hear out from Trans friends. What I’m trying to say, is that they haven’t shown at any point disrespect of ignorance regarding the diversity they want to tackle, they’re not doing things out of bad faith, and we haven’t seen how they handle it yet. Even if they didn’t handle it ideally! Does it need to be absolutely perfect, there can be missteps on the way there, god dammit if someone’s trying to better themselves but not quite getting it right you don’t insult them and tear them down! You show them what to do better next time or where they are mistaken, by pessimistically ignoring what they’re trying to do out of spite you’re discouraging good will and being an asshole! Which leads me to my last point for now.

8) They Could Have Told Us We Were Misgendering Lanque

This one is... Really, a bit ridiculous. Okay, let me explain. If someone is Trans and you misgender them accidentally, they’ll tell you quickly and you’ll, hopefully, correct yourself. Obviously. When the Trolls leaked, everyone latched onto Lanque as ‘Butch Lesbian’, and clung to that hope, and now that they were proven wrong, there was salt, at first, and THEN came the talk about Misgendering Lanque. And let me tell you, I think this is very selfish of everyone saying it.

What WP likely thought would happen is that they’d reveal Lanque to be a Trans boy, and people would be like “Oh! Nice, Trans Rep!”. Sure they could’ve told us back then but... Why? Lanque is not. A real person. He’s a fictional character, he’s not going to be offended because you thought he was a butch woman for a few months, in fact the SILHOUETTE alone ALREADY had people clinging to him as a butch woman. If he were a real person? Of course there’d be a quick correction. But he’s. A character. He’s just a god damn character. Who is Trans, out of good faith by a very Queer company, showing us a Trans man, who is a character, and expecting that, like NORMAL PEOPLE, we would not do something like THIS.

When you criticize WP for not telling us Lanque was a Trans Man, all I’m seeing is a shift of blame, not wanting to simply admit you were wrong and jumped to conclusions, and like- Even if there was Fanart or Fanfic of Lanque calling him a woman briefly, shipping him around mistakenly, who cares? You just. Go. “Okay, I’ll change it” or “Whoops haha this was from when we didn’t know he was a Trans boy!” Why the militant hatred? Why the absolute disgust shown today? I can’t understand, I simply cannot understand why your first reaction to “Trans boy Jadeblood” is “WELL I THOUGHT HE WAS A BUTCH LESBIAN!! I WASN’T WRONG BY ASSUMING THIS, WHATPUMPKIN WERE FOR TRYING TO MAKE THEIR GAME MORE DIVERSE”. It’s like... You just. Correct it? You just correct yourself? And yeah you can want more masculine Trans boys, that’s fair! But dismissing what we got, entirely, and insulting it, and getting like THIS, and blaming the team, it just seems.

Narcissistic. It seems narcissistic and extremely self-centered, and perfectionist to the extreme of not wanting anything other than a complete and absolute ideal, that may fit you but may also not fit others.

In conclusion?

People are happy about representation. This isn’t destroying diversity or representation, this is not reducing customization of Fantrolls, this is only building MORE on the already expansive system, and giving us representation and hope for MORE representation in the future, and if you cannot be happy for a genuine, good natured, and honestly, perfectly fine attempt, if you cannot feel empathy for the people who did feel for this representation, if you can only want to find reasons to bash something down and demonize something good and point out how BAD and NOT GOOD things are and how MUCH BETTER they could be, then honestly, you’re a deeply unpleasant person.

Give things time. Give people with good intentions chances. Learn to backpedal and learn from mistakes and simply correct yourself when you’re wrong instead of going down a hateful spiral. Learn to separate fiction and reality. Just like... Think, for a moment, when you’re writing something down- Is it a jaded opinion, or an objective fact? Will it hurt and discourage people who’re genuinely happy or trying to make others happy? Why do more harm than good when there are good intentions paving the way?

I just simply cannot understand the basic lack of critical thought and empathy of some people I have seen today, and hopefully with this I can make my opinion on the whole absurd Discourse that transpired today clear.

#Hiveswap #Homestuck #Lanque #WhatPumpkin #Discourse #Long Post #Longpost

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brittanyjone01 · 3 years

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Why Do Healthcare Costs Keep Rising?

It’s no surprise that Americans spend a huge amount of money on health care each year. High insurance premiums, high deductibles, co-pays, and other out-of-pocket expenses are just some of the costs associated with health and wellness in the country.

One reason for rising healthcare costs is government policy. Since the inception of Medicare and Medicaid – programs that help people without health insurance – providers have been able to increase prices. The government provides a huge source of revenue to the healthcare providers and a virtual unlimited pool of money. With the implementation of Medicare in 1966, for-profit hospitals began to appear in the early 1970’s to take advantage of this new and unlimited source of revenue.

Still, there’s more to rising healthcare costs than just government policy. Read on to find out how much the U.S. spends on health costs, and which factors shape prices in this industry. Also, I would like to add some more details I have found via the website family health insurance in Lancaster pa.

Key Takeaways

Healthcare costs in the U.S. have been rising for decades, and are expected to keep increasing.

According to a study by the American Medical Association, the U.S. spent almost $3.5 trillion on healthcare in 2017.

The study found five factors that affect the cost of healthcare: a growing population, aging seniors, disease prevalence or incidence, medical service utilization, and service price and intensity.

Overall Costs of Healthcare

Healthcare costs have risen drastically in the U.S. over the past several decades. According to a March 2019 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), healthcare spending in the U.S. rose nearly a trillion dollars between 1996 and 2015.

The study reported that healthcare spending in the U.S. in 2017 was $3.5 trillion, or about $11,000 per person. By 2027, these costs are expected to climb to $6 trillion – roughly $17,000 per person.

Where does that money go? According to the study, spending can be broken down into 11 categories:

Hospital care (32.7%)

Physician services (15.6%)

Other personal health care costs (15.1%)

Prescription drugs (9.5%)

The net cost of health insurance (6.6%)

Nursing care facilities (4.8%)

Investment spending (4.8%)

Clinical services (4.3%)

Home healthcare (2.8%)

Government public health activities (2.5%)

Government administration (1.3%)

Why Are Healthcare Costs Rising?

The JAMA study investigated how five key factors were associated with healthcare increases over time:

Population growth

Population aging

Disease prevalence or incidence

Medical service utilization

Service price and intensity

The authors found that service price and intensity, including the rising cost of pharmaceutical drugs, made up more than 50% of the increase. Other factors, which comprised the rest of the cost increase, varied by type of care and health condition.

Growing and Aging Population

Health care gets more expensive when the population expands – that is, as people get older and live longer. Therefore, it’s not surprising that 50% of the increase in healthcare spending comes from increased costs for services, especially inpatient hospital care. Nor is it a shock that the two next-highest factors contributing to the increase in healthcare spending are population growth (23%) and population aging (12%).

Increase in Chronic Illnesses

The authors of the JAMA study point to diabetes as the medical condition responsible for the greatest increase in spending over the study period. The increased cost of diabetes medications alone was responsible for $44.4 billion of the $64.4 billion increase in costs to treat that disease. The ability to diagnose disease has also improved as a result of advances in healthcare and technology. It could be that diseases have always been there – we are just better at detecting and treating them.

After diabetes, conditions with the greatest increase in costs were:

Low-back and neck pain: $57.2 billion

High blood pressure: $46.6 billion

High cholesterol: $41.9 billion

Depression: $30.8 billion

Urinary disease: $30.2 billion

Osteoarthritis: $29.9 billion

Bloodstream infection: $26 billion

Falls: $26 billion

Oral disease: $25.3 billion

As you can see, changes in diet and exercise can dramatically reduce the cost of healthcare in the population.

Increased Ambulatory Costs

Of all treatment categories studied, ambulatory care, including outpatient hospital services and emergency room care, increased the most. Outpatient costs rose from an annual cost of $381.5 billion to $706.4 billion. Emergency department costs across all health conditions rose 6.4% over the same time period.

Rising Health Insurance Premiums

How healthcare costs affect your wallet is a top concern. The rising cost of health insurance premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket expenses are the biggest concerns. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), the average annual premium for family healthcare coverage rose nearly 5% in 2018 to ,616. With a median household income of $63,179, health insurance costs constitute 31% of total income, higher than any time in history.

The average increase in premium costs in 2018 for people on a private plan or a healthcare exchange was $201. The two reasons most often cited for these increases were government policy and lifestyle changes.

Government programs like Medicare and Medicaid have increased overall demand for medical services, resulting in higher prices. Also, increases in the incidence of chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease have had a direct impact on increases in the cost of medical care. Those two diseases alone are responsible for 85% of health care costs, and almost half of all Americans have a chronic illness.

Higher Out-of-Pocket Costs

Higher insurance premiums are only part of the picture. Americans are paying more out of pocket than ever before. A shift to high-deductible health plans (HDHP’s) that impose out-of-pocket costs of up to $13,300 per family has added greatly to the cost of healthcare.

(These costs have risen since the study: For 2020, the out-of-pocket maximums under the Affordable Care Act are $8,150 for individuals and $16,300 for families. These limits are up from $7,900 and $15,600, respectively, for 2019.) Most Americans cannot afford these out-of-pocket expenses, and therefore do not seek health care even when they need it. Effectively, they have insurance but cannot afford it use it, so are they really “insured”?

Patients Avoiding Care

Rising costs have created another casualty: People who skip medical care altogether. They do so not because they are afraid of doctors, but because they’re afraid of the bills that come with health care.

A poll by the West Health Institute and NORC at the University of Chicago revealed that 44% of Americans refused to go to a doctor due to cost concerns. About 40% of those surveyed said they skipped a test or treatment for the same reason. In many cases, those who refuse treatment have medical insurance.

Inefficiency and Lack of Transparency

Thanks to a lack of transparency and underlying inefficiency, it’s difficult to know the actual cost of health care. Most people know the cost of care is going up, but with few details and complicated medical bills, it’s not easy to know what you’re paying for.

The Wall Street Journal ran a story about a hospital that discovered it was charging more than $50,000 for a knee-replacement surgery that only cost between $7,300 and $10,550. If hospitals don’t know the true cost of a procedure, patients may have difficulty shopping around.

When it comes to overall transparency, a New England Journal of Medicine survey showed that only about 17% of care professionals believed their institutions had either “mature” or “very mature” transparency.

The Bottom Line

Each of the factors mentioned here contributes to rising healthcare costs. Increasing costs for medical services, caused by both a growing and aging population, play a large role.

But so do other factors, such as the growing number of people with chronic diseases, increased costs for outpatient and emergency room care, higher premiums, and higher out-of-pocket costs. These factors are exacerbated by inefficiency and lack of transparency in the world of medicine.

#health insurance #life insurance #Health Care #plans

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labbaik-ya-hussain-as · 3 years

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A must read:

The Lost Jewel – Rediscovering Hazrat Imam Ali’s (A.S.) Letter

This is a fascinating story.

Pakistan’s premier female poet Fahmida Riaz, read a letter by Imam Ali (A.S.) while browsing through a translation of Nahaj ul Balagha. Today via email, she narrated how she was “so touched, and felt so angry for not knowing about it all my life, because really no one talks about the real jewels of Muslim history, they would rather conceal it from one generation after another”. She took notes from the ancient text and recently quoted it in her paper presented at an Urdu Conference held at Heidelberg, Germany.

On her current sojourn in the USA, she showed this text to Dr. Patricia Sharpe who was impressed enough to put it on her website under the title GOOD GOVERNANCE EARLY MUSLIM STYLE.

In her email Fahmida writes further that “Another American friend in Santa Fe is writing a book for the National Geographic about the achievements of Muslim thinkers and men of the sciences and letters. I showed him the text and he has asked me to forward it to him so that he may include it in his book. ‘The Americans should know about it ,’ he wrote. I have sent him the text, sighing to myself, “..and so should the Muslims”.

But really, what are we ever told about Islam or Muslims other than chopping of arms and killing of infidels? Or we are informed that Muslims once had a great empire, a brutal picture of conquest and subjugation of the so-called “infidels”. What do we know of Hazrat Imam Ali (A.S.) except that he was very brave with a legendary sword? Pretty little.

And writes Riaz: “here is this document, written by him,1500 or so years ago. The sheer beauty of his thought, the largesse of his great heart, the incredible refinement of his mind! It takes your breath away and brings tears to your eyes. And then, his understanding of the class structure of society.. long before anyone in the world paid attention to the composition of society! All this is so incredible.

The other ancient classics about governance that come to mind…. tell you how to invite your enemy to dinner and then stab him in the back. They tell you how to perpetuate your RULE. In comparison, Imam Ali (A.S.) is telling you how to create a State that provides the greatest opportunity for the people to be happy. So great was this man that even being remotely associated with him is an honour that we hardly deserve though we are all born in the fold of his faith.

Another thought that comes to haunt you: Hazrat Imam Ali (A.S.) was so close to the Holy Prophet (S.A.W) that he could never say what he did not believe to be the Holy Prophet's (S.A.W) own will? O my God! Then in what unworthy hands his teachings fell! How unfortunate it is for us.”

I wanted to share this excitment and sadness of Fahmida on this space.

Here is the entry in Patricia’s blog where she has reproduced sections of letter and also improved the translations available online:

George W. Bush seems to think that the US political system must be replicated in structure and spirit in order for people to enjoy a decent political system. In fact, the Muslim world also has traditions and texts which establish the principles of good governance. Below are quotes from one such document, a document that might profitably be added to all basic political science syllabi. A close reading might also provide insights and terminology for American public diplomats tasked to engage Muslims in a dialogue about the universal human interest in fair, honest and competent government.

Ali bin Abi Talib (A.S.) Wali-Allah, the First Imam and son-in-law of the Holy Prophet Mohammed Mustafa (S.A.W), wrote a long letter of guidance after appointing Maalik al-Ashtar to be Governor of Egypt. He advises the new governor that his administration will succeed only if he governs with concern for justice, equity, probity and the prosperity of all.

The passages excerpted below illustrate the timeless applicability of Imam Ali’s (A.S.) admonitions. The letter itself is contained in the Nahjal Balaagha, which is a collection of the letters and speeches of the First Imam.

Manifest religious tolerance: Amongst your subjects there are two kinds of people: those who have the same religion as you [and] are brothers to you, and those who have religions other than yours, [who] are human beings like you. Men of either category suffer from the same weaknesses and disabilities that human beings are inclined to; they commit sins, indulge in vices either intentionally or foolishly and unintentionally without realizing the enormity of their deeds. Let your mercy and compassion come to their rescue and help in the same way and to the same extent that you expect Allah to show mercy and forgiveness to you.

Equity is best: A policy which is based on equity will be largely appreciated. Remember that the displeasure of common men, the have-nots and the depressed persons overbalances the approval of important persons, while

the displeasure of a few big people will be excused…if the general public and the masses of your subjects are happy with you.

The rich always want more: They are the people who will be the worst drag upon you during your moments of peace and happiness, and the least useful to you during your hours of need and adversity. They hate justice the most. They will keep demanding more and more out of State resources and will seldom be satisfied with what they receive and will never be obliged for the favor shown to them if their demands are justifiably refused.

A healthy society is interdependent: The army and the common men who pay taxes are two important classes, but in a well faring state their well-being cannot be guaranteed without proper functioning and preservation of the other classes, the judges and magistrates, the secretaries of the State and the officers of various departments who collect various revenues, maintain law and order as well as preserve peace and amity among the diverse classes of the society. They also guard the rights and privileges of the citizens and look to the performance of various duties by individuals and classes. And the prosperity of this whole set-up depends upon the traders and industrialists. They act as a medium between the consumers and suppliers. They collect the requirements of society. They exert to provide goods….Then comes the class of the poor and the disabled persons. It is absolutely necessary that they should be looked after, helped and provided….at least the minimum necessities for well-being and contented living….

Ensure an honest judiciary: You must select people of excellent character and high caliber with meritorious records….When they realize that they have committed a mistake in judgement, they should not insist on it by trying to justify it….they should not be corrupt, covetous or greedy. They should not be satisfied with ordinary enquiry or scrutiny of a case but…must attach the greatest importance to reasoning, arguments and proofs. They should not get tired of lengthy discussions and arguments.Theymust exhibit patience and perseverance…and when truth is revealed to them they must pass their judgements….These appointments must be made…without any kind of favoritism being shown or influence being accepted; otherwise tyranny, corruption and misrule will reign….Let the judiciary be above every kind of executive pressure or influence, above fear or favour, intrigue or corruption.

Poverty leads to ruination: If a country is prosperous and if its people are well-to-do, then it will happily and willingly bear any burden. The poverty of the people is the actual cause of the devastation and ruination of a country and the main cause of the poverty of the people is the desire of its ruler and officers to amass wealth and possessions whether by fair or foul means.

Corruption undermines national well-being: I want to advise you about your businessmen and industrialists. Treat them well….They are the sources of wealth to the country….One more thing….you must keep an eye over their activities as well. You know that they are usually stingy misers, intensely self-centered and selfish, suffering from the obsession of grasping and accumulating wealth. They often hoard their goods to get more profit out of them by creating scarcity and by indulging in black-marketing.

Stay in touch with the people: You must take care not to cut yourself off from the public. Do not place a curtain of false prestige between you and those over whom you rule. Such pretension and shows of pomp and pride are in reality manifestations of inferiority complex and vanity. The result of such an attitude is that you remain ignorant of the conditions of your subjects and of the actual cases of the events occurring in the State.

Peace brings prosperity: If your enemy invites you to a peace treaty….,never refuse to accept such an offer, because peace will bring rest and comfort to your armies, will relieve you of anxieties and worries, and will bring prosperity and affluence to your people. But even after such treaties be very careful of the enemies and do not place too much confidence in their promises, because they often resort to peace treaties to deceive and delude you and take advantage of your negligence, carelessness and trust. At the same time, be very careful never to break your promise with your enemy; never forsake the protection or support that you have offered to him, never go back upon your word and never violate the terms of the treaty.

History reveals all: Do not reserve for yourself anything which is a common property of all and in which others have equal rights. Do not close your eyes from glaring malpractice of officers, miscarriage of justice and misuse of rights, because you will be held responsible for the wrong thus done to others. In the near future your wrong practices and maladministration will be exposed and you will be held responsible and punished for the wrong done to the helpless and oppressed people.

*The honorific changes, depending on whether the reference derives from the Shia or Sunni tradition. Note also that I changed British spelling to American, have modified some awkwardnesses common to translations into English and have altered some punctuation for clarity’s sake.

Pingback: The Lost Jewel - Rediscovering Hazrat Ali’s (A.S.) Letter « Jahane Rumi

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babaleshy · 3 years

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Something I May Need to Stop Doing...

I'll be venting in this post, but this is about the desire to move out of a desperate want for change right now even though such a move is not meant to be.

On occasion, I go onto zillow's website and check out houses around Pittsburgh out of curiosity just to see what houses are going for what price in what kind of condition. I've noticed something incredibly enticing: there are some houses going for under $100,000 and are technically livable. It's just got flaking/chipping paint, may need new rugs, and other general clean-ups. The only "major" thing I wanna do to any of these houses falling under this criteria is the fact that I feel more comfortable with a tin roof.

These houses that I find are within city limits, most of these houses I've shown an interest in are close to sidewalks. This means if I were to move into one of these houses, then I'd have a chance to properly commute!

Ah, but why exactly am I making this post? What is it that I'm venting about? And what did I mean earlier when I said "not meant to be?"

Back in 2014 (autumn, specifically), my husband and I had to move out of our apartment in downtown Pittsburgh to my parents' farm in Ohio. Two reasons made us do this: one was the skyrocketing rent prices when HUD sold our building, causing rent to go from $539/mo to $720/mo. My husband worked at a casino, and was making $10/hr, so when rent prices went up like mad, we really began to struggle to survive. The other thing was bedbugs. The building manager laughed at our discomfort and said, "What do you expect me to do about it? Where would everyone go for the building to be treated?" Like, you're a shit manager if you haven't come up with those contingency plans.

Paying $720/mo for a bedbug-infested apartment (bedbugs are fucking hard to get rid of) and living in a constant state of itchy breakout made us decide it was time to move in with my parents. Because we literally could not afford to live anywhere else, and our student loan debt fucked up our credit scores, so we couldn't even get a house (and we were looking for one at the time!).

We used to think living on this farm was temporary until reality set in, that there is absolutely no possible way for us to make it on our own now. My husband has ADHD and anxiety and is still struggling to practice to get his driver's license (it's hard when my dad is a major source of my husband's stress; my dad's an asshole and gets worse by the year), and I'm Autistic, so I can't hold down a regular job, and nothing else is hiring.

In terms of getting a job for me at all, either I'd have to go to school for my special interest for the job (ecology, entomology, and/or paleontology) or I'd rather work in a library.

Welp, college is far too expensive for me to pay out of pocket, and my already existing student loan debt is barring me from getting any sort of financial aid to go back to school at all. As far as the library is concerned? Remember when I said my husband is currently struggling to practice for his license? (He doesn't get much practice because my dad is a stressful asshole that makes my husband have a horrible headache and anxiety after he drives). We have 2 vehicles, one my mom uses to get to work, and the other my dad uses to take my husband to work as well as do errands in like grocery shopping and shit like that.

I can't get a ride.

Can't ride a bicycle, either. It's definitely not safe (I live in America, if you couldn't tell). My parents' farm is deep within one of the back roads with one of the properties on this road being an oil rig. The oil workers drive like assholes, not caring what animal they hit, speeding through here. There are dirtbikes and four-wheelers that speed through here, too. There's no room for 2 vehicles to pass one another, and nothing but pure fucking hill the moment you step off the side of the road. I literally cannot bike here.

But let's pretend I got onto one of the main roads on either end of our road. It's even worse! And STILL no room for bicyclists! This goes for fucking miles until you reach a residential area! Except for a nearby little village-town that has the closest library branch. It's the village my husband grew up in, but there's a lot of sketchy turns, corners, and again, no room for bicycles. This includes main roads.

With all this in mind, I actually considered the possibility of moving to that village, because the village itself is actually safe enough to bike ride in. The problem is: I'm not guaranteed to get a job at the library at all. I tried getting a job as a library clerk at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, got interviewed and everything, and didn't get the job for whatever reason. In fact, I'm not guaranteed a job at all at any library branch, regardless of the neighborhood. So moving to such an area depending on the chance of being hired there is not worth it.

Such a village is actually rather unfriendly, and that goes for a lot of communities here on this side of Ohio. You'd think this was one of the southern states from its people and what flags they fly.

So why not Pittsburgh? Why not move there if we could?

Well, I thought about it. It has all the perks I could expect such as public transportation, somewhat safer bicycling areas to commute to school and work, and more importantly: THINGS TO DO.

Living in the middle of nowhere blows when you want to, on your own without relying on someone to drive you, go and do something, such as buying fabric or art supplies for future projects, or going to the library, or anything, really! Yeah, I do want to garden, but I don't have the means to do that on a damn farm (long, frustrating story that made me stop believing my parents' promises).

Not to mention, I still have friends in Pittsburgh, If I wanna see them, they don't have to drive an hour and 45 minutes (and that's if they have a car) to visit. I got 2 friends here in the area, and they're busy with their work's demanding schedules. When we do hang out, Cards Against Humanity, Uno, and D&D can only do so much until it gets old and boring and you wanna do something else that isn't hanging out at a dead mall. There is truly nothing to do here. Pittsburgh has the museums, libraries, parks, and far more interesting establishments to lurk in.

So again: why not Pittsburgh?

Because that city has changed and is still changing compared to when I was last there. My regular watering hole (The Beehive) is no more. There are neighborhoods being gentrified (meaning I'm not guaranteed to keep my home even if I pay it off). Businesses are closing, meaning people will be losing their jobs, and some of the other places hiring (like libraries) are not guaranteed to hire me, especially when I haven't had a job since 2010.

There's also my cat to consider; she gets stressed at the sound of a lawn-mower (I don't blame her). She wouldn't be able to handle the sounds of the city. Unless we found a place not too close to downtown, such a move is a no-go.

I've daydreamed about living in Pittsburgh again. I'm homesick for Pittsburgh. I've realized only recently that that city was my home. Not this farm, not even the house I grew up in. I felt like a person who didn't have to rely on people for rides and such. It's the only place where I've truly lived on my own and enjoyed it.

I've actually considered moving out of this country and found that even more impossible. No matter which country you pick, no matter what language you learn, not only do you have to pay for your things to be shipped, for your plane ticket for a one-way trip, or whatever you need to become a citizen there, you still have to pay at least $2,000 to revoke your American citizenship or else you will be forced to pay American taxes despite never setting foot on American soil ever again.

Thanks to capitalism, America has made it fucking impossible for the average person to leave for good. If you are born here, you are financially enslaved here unless you're wealthy enough to leave.

So... What's the plan?

Well, for now: not much. The pandemic has set plans back a bit, but my parents have a lien on the house thanks to my private student loans my mom was bullied and forced into co-signing for. She... I guess?... is almost done paying them off? I don't know. My parents don't like communicating need-to-know info with me and then get mad when I don't absorb it through osmosis. Once the lien is taken off the house, mom wants to move north to be near her sister, and she said she'll try finding a farm for sale near Kent State so it'll be an easier commute (be it by bicycle or by car). My intention is to enroll there to be able to get a job as an ecologist (focus in entomology, specializing in arachnology) with a minor in paleontology.

Once I've gotten that all taken care of (as well as my husband going back to school for what he wants), we move to the pacific northwest, mainly just north of Seattle somewhere.

I hate Ohio. I hate running into people I've gone to school with that I try to avoid (more like I see them, but they don't recognize me? At least I hope not?). I hate this place so much. I hate this climate, being near people I don't want just randomly showing the fuck up. And what's the use of living near family when they don't want to bother visiting you? I hate hearing my mom tell me so-and-so that I obviously want nothing to do with told her to tell me they said hi. I'm tired of fearing I'll run into someone that abused me in the past because now they're back in the fucking area again apparently.

I've got my fingers crossed that something is gonna give and college to some level (community college?) will be free for residents or something. It'll give me a chance to go back to school for something close to what I wanna do so I can maybe get a job? Completing something at a community college would at least make it easier for me to get enrolled at a university.

My husband and I picked Seattle (or close to Seattle) for its climate. It's (usually) not blistering hot every goddamn year, and it's not horribly cold thanks to the mountain range (I'm quite cold-intolerant). We both enjoy overcast weather and rain. We'd rather take our chances with volcanoes than earthquakes or hurricanes in areas where these things are guaranteed to happen yet nobody ruling these areas wants to invest in infrastructure that helps stand a chance against them. Seattle also has a nice combination of city and wilderness side-by-side. Not much of that with Pittsburgh.

If I was forced to only move to Pittsburgh and no other city, I wouldn't mind, especially since I'm more familiar with Pittsburgh than I am with anything in my current local area (because I had to travel on foot instead of relying on a car to get to places!). Fuck, my mom wouldn't even let me do anything by myself out of the yard when we lived in the village I grew up in because she was a paranoid fuck and by the time I JUST STARTED gaining independence for having a bike and bicycling to the post office everyday, we moved to this farm.

Oh, this isn't a roof over my head I should be thankful for. My parents got screwed. Our water is full of iron and calcium that no filter can fix, so we constantly have plumbing problems, the post and internet connections are questionable at best, we get ant infestations from 2 species EVERY YEAR, all for a farm my mom wanted for horses she always wanted and eventually got but has little next to no energy to spend the time she wants with them and she refuses to admit her age has a lot to do with it on top of her working so she sits in the living room on THREE DIFFERENT DEVICES sucking up bandwidth to religiously watch every fucking livestream of a country singer she likes (and complains if she's missing it for any reason!), scroll through Facebook, and play a fucking shitty app game!

Our internet out here? The physical equipment is outdated (copper wires instead of fiber-optic cables) because the fucking company doesn't wanna spend the money to upgrade it.

So instead, we're stuck here, with my husband losing his sanity bit by bit by the day at his shitty retail job (every other available job offering would be worse in this area) and I sit here and hope that maybe, JUST MAYBE, I could start gardening soon.

I miss Pittsburgh. I really do. But despite all of its benefits it would give me and my husband if we moved back, I don't think it will happen.

In the off-chance that we don't move north, that my dad's assholery intensifies and he decides to remain here (he has to legally agree to sell this house in order for my mom to move north; dad's reasons keep fucking changing), Pittsburgh is a nice back-up plan. Pitt University actually has the major I'd want to go back to school for, as well as what my husband wants to go back to school for, and we'd already be familiar with the city and what to expect of it. However, we're aiming higher, and hoping to move to the pacific northwest, instead.

But I think to avoid losing my sanity, I should stop daydreaming about a future that may never be.

Fingers crossed!

#rant #ramble #vent #I wanna move so bad but can't

0 notes

infraredforhealth1 · 3 years

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9 Benefits of Infrared Sauna Pod Detox Therapy

Infrared Sauna Pod Is a Great Alternative to Traditional Saunas

A sauna pod session is a new and emerging type of sauna designed to relax you and help you clear your mind.

In a sauna pod session, you are placed in a sealed enclosure where you are totally enclosed and the heat from the stones heats up your body.

The high temperatures relax your muscles and prepare you mentally for a good night’s sleep.

It is like going into a warm bath but with the added benefits of having hot rocks placed right on your skin. You can even choose a color to suit your mood.

A sauna pod session is great because it is a cheaper alternative to having a full-size sauna installed.

Many people find sauna therapy to be a very soothing and healing experience.

When you take advantage of a sauna pod session, you will not have to make the long journey to a sauna center to get your desired result.

A sauna pod session is a 35 minute sweat session where you lay in a warm cocoon

Infrared Sauna Pod Detox Therapy Like an Increase in Energy Level and a Healthy Glow

One of the newest health trends in the world of alternative medicine is infrared sauna pod therapy.

When we use an infrared sauna pod detox therapy, we raise our bodies temperature and increase blood circulation to help flush out toxins from our body.

A great side effect of this increased circulation is the release of endorphins that make us feel happier and healthier.

The infrared sauna pod detox therapy also releases vitamins and minerals from the body that our bodies need to stay strong and healthy.

And, it seems as though we are also able to shed some unwanted weight as we lose extra water weight through the natural sweat loss from the sauna.

If you want to lose weight and feel better than ever, using an infrared sauna pod or infrared sauna therapy may be just what you need.

An infrared sauna therapy session can usually be done in about 45 minutes and sometimes less depending on the severity of your condition.

Most people who get one of these treatments usually notice an increase in energy level almost immediately.

They will also notice that their skin and hair seem to be much healthier and their breathing becomes easier. It can even help you sleep better at night.

Although there are many other health benefits from using an infrared sauna, the one that is most beneficial to our health and well-being is the release of endorphins.

This is why an infrared sauna pod detox is so effective at helping you achieve a healthy, glowing glow and to help you lose weight at the same time.

You don’t have to go on a diet to get these benefits either, simply add a sauna treatment to your fitness routine and enjoy the health benefits of infrared sauna therapy like an increase in energy level and a healthy glow.

Far Infrared Therapy For Your Body

Far infrared rays have a high absorption rate in water and will not absorb the skin’s water content.

It is this property of the far infrared rays that makes it a great solution for sweating.

Far infrared rays have the ability to penetrate deep down into the body, reaching the tissues and muscles beneath. It emits vapor-like sweat that reduces body odour.

Far infrared rays also increase your core body temperature, raising your core temperature and producing cooling sweat.

Many people suffer from excessive sweating and hyperhidrosis, a medical condition that causes excessive sweating.

They do not sweat because they want to cool themselves, but due to an overactive sympathetic nervous system.

There are two ways that the far infrared rays can affect your condition, either through stimulating it or eliminating it. This means that your far infrared rays can either be used to stop excessive sweating, or to actually cause you to sweat less.

This makes far infrared rays a very good treatment option for those with sweaty hands and feet.

If you suffer from any kind of sweating issues, then using a Far Infrared Ray Therapy will benefit you.

It has been scientifically proven to work and is very effective at eliminating hyperhidrosis and other types of sweating problems.

Many people have experienced success with far infrared rays and have seen amazing results with their weight loss.

Far infrared rays help the body regulate its temperature and are a great way to improve your sleep at night and clear your skin of bacteria and germs that cause acne.

The far infrared rays have been proven to be an effective natural treatment for various ailments including: eczema, asthma, herpes, cancer, stress, skin conditions, sores and burns, cuts and rashes, insect bites, joint pain, headaches, boils and abscesses.

Far Infrared Skin Rejuvenation penetrates the Body Up to 10 Inches Below the Epidermis

Far Infrared Therapy is an age old treatment that has been used for a very long time to treat many ailments, including fatigue, muscle and joint pain, sunburns, flatulence, and many other ailments.

There are two major advantages of using a far infrared sauna.

The first is that it works better than traditional therapy when it comes to penetrating the skin and entering the deepest layers of the skin where cellulite and fat deposits are often found.

Far infrared therapy penetrates the body up to ten inches past the surface of the skin, this means that more than ninety percent of the energy that reaches the skin goes directly to the damaged areas.

Another far infrared benefits is that the energy generated from the heating source is completely natural and free of any harmful chemicals or toxins.

Far infrared rays emit far infrared radiation which is similar to the one we receive from sunlight but is a hundred times stronger.

This makes it ideal for treating and preventing a variety of medical conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, Parkinson’s disease, psoriasis, and much more.

Far infrared therapy is also very effective at increasing energy levels within the human body while it heals and detoxifies the cells, this means that Far Infrared Therapy can help you to lose weight, increase your energy, lower your blood pressure and cholesterol levels, improve your circulation, and heal your joints and muscles so that you feel like you’re making improvements day by day.

Far infrared saunas can be found in many health spas, health stores and even online, with some health spas offering the sauna experience right on their website for a fraction of the price that regular saunas would cost you.

Far infrared skin rejuvenation is a must if you want to achieve younger looking skin, healthy glowing skin, improved health and fitness and better overall health.

This type of natural healing is the wave of the future and has already been used successfully for decades within the medical industry.

Far Infrared Skin Rejuvenation can help you achieve a wrinkle-free complexion, smoother and softer skin, healthier, younger looking skin that has a natural luster, improved skin tone and even greater depth of feel with just a few treatment sessions.

What Can I Expect From a Regular Mid infrared Sauna Therapy session?

For centuries, the benefits of the infrared saunas have been recognized by the medical community.

Over the years, there has been much research done on their effectiveness as a pain relief, and cleansing tool.

Much research also has been done on their ability to help with weight loss.

Regular mid-infrared saunas treatment has proven to significantly increase blood circulation; its therapeutic effects lasting after the last sauna session has been completed.

Because Far Infrared Heat from the sun hits the body directly and not just heating the air surrounding the skin, it increases the actual core body temperature and produces a deeply detoxifying sweat at the subcutaneous level, where all toxins are located.

The regular use of Far Infrared rays or FIR saunas as they are sometimes called, has shown to help with cancer, arthritis, hypertension, skin problems such as acne, psoriasis and severe dry skin.

Many other ailments can be helped with the effects of Far Infrared rays, which include fatigue, allergies, asthma, chronic pain, stress, inflammation, and even minor colds and flu symptoms. The infrared rays help to stimulate lymphatic flow throughout the body, increasing overall bodily functions and health.

Far infrared saunas have been found to be more effective in treating some forms of cancer.

However, it should be noted that Far Infrared is different from visible or ultraviolet light, and cannot actually reach the inner layers of the skin.

Some of the symptoms, it does cause, such as pain and swelling, are also caused by the presence of heat already in the tissues.

If you do decide to use one of these saunas, you should wear sunglasses, a hat with a wide brim and avoid getting near the heat because this can further cause burning.

Remember, any damage to your skin caused by the heat will not only harm your appearance, but can also make the cancer from which you are suffering much harder to treat.

Mid-Infrared Therapy mirrors the Benefits of a Passive Cardiovascular Workout

Far Infrared or mid-infrared sauna therapy heats the body directly rather than simply warming the air, it increases the core body temperature and stimulates sweating.

Research in the alternative health field has shown that deep, detoxifying sweat at the cellular level, where most fat is dissolved, also aids in blood circulation and weight loss, burning up to 300 calories per hour.

Another benefit of the infrared sauna therapy is that it has been scientifically proven to increase energy levels and concentration.

It has also been proven to stimulate lymphatic drainage, lower cholesterol, increase testosterone levels and induce breast milk.

The heat from the sauna therapy penetrates all layers of the skin, working the fat away and reducing cellulite as well as promoting a natural high.

The first infrared therapies were believed to be conducted on people with emphysema and other lung disorders.

Scientists are continually researching new methods and treatments for cancer patients, AIDS patients, heart patients, stroke patients and aging adults who have lost most of their muscles.

The infrared therapy for the treatment of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease was approved by the FDA in 1998.

The infrared waves penetrate deep within the body, stimulating the nervous system, producing a natural high similar to a placebo.

The infrared waves also stimulate the immune system, which helps protect us against colds, flu and even yeast infections.

Many people who suffer from arthritis use infrared saunas to relieve joint pain and stiffness.

For hundreds of years, people with various diseases, including arthritis, asthma, hypertension, heart conditions, ulcers, COPD, fibromyalgia, Lou Gehrig’s disease, MS (Multiple Sclerosis), osteoporosis and obesity, have all been treated with the benefits of infrared heat saunas.

There are currently infrared therapies that are being used in medical spas across the country.

With infrared sauna therapy, the heat is not merely conducted through the sauna or the body.

Rather, the infrared heat travels directly to the joints, muscles and tissues, stimulating the nerves and blood vessels.

This type of therapy may soon be readily available at many of the traditional saunas as well as at health clubs and in rehabilitation centers throughout the country.

Health Benefits of Mid Infrared Waits

There are many benefits of mid-infrared rays and as most people are aware, this is the same energy that is said to be responsible for the warmth felt by our body.

However, did you know that this warm energy can also be used to help with our health?

One of the main benefits of the mid-infrared rays is that it has the power to penetrate deeper into the skin and in doing so it is able to work more effectively.

Since we have been told often enough that the sun is good for our health, we want to make sure that the same energy that gives us warmth is also good for our skin, and in a way, this will help to reverse some of the signs of aging that occur as we age.

One of the most commonly known benefits of these rays being used on the skin is the ability to help with improving the blood flow to the skin.

As you may not know, circulation is very important.

This is because the proper flow of the blood is needed in order to keep everything properly under control.

This is why the skin needs to get the proper amount of oxygen and nutrients so that the cells can properly function.

By increasing the circulation to the skin, you will allow your body to receive the proper nutrients and oxygen that it needs to remain healthy.

In addition to helping improve the skin, mid infrared rays have also been used to help with other skin conditions.

For example, those suffering from acne have been proven to benefit as well by using mid infrared technology.

This is because the warmth from this type of technology allows for better penetration into the skin and thus better treatment of acne. The rays also help to clear away dead skin cells so that the complexion of the face begins to look brighter and healthier.

The Infrared Technology Used in Infrared Sauna Pod

Near infrared technology is a form of electromagnetic therapy that uses the heat from the human body and the atmosphere to help treat various ailments.

It is usually used in the cosmetic and medical spa industry, but it can also be used in the home spa too.

The energy emitted by the body and the sweat on our skin is each emitted waves of infrared light.

While those waves pass through our bodies, they are picked up by the near infrared devices and then be turned into heat, which works wonders on our muscles.

In a typical near mid infrared sauna therapy session you will lie down on a table that has been warmed to about 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Your bottom half is covered with a sheet of plastic that has been fitted for your comfort.

Next the plastic is covered with the cellular level emitting device and the top layer of your skin is then lightly laid with your head facing upward.

As you begin to relax you will begin to feel warm and tingly and the heat will continue to be felt until you are comfortable with the amount of heat being emitted.

During your first session you may not feel any effects at all, but as you progress towards your desired skin rejuvenation result the effects will become more noticeable.

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How Near Infrared Waves and Short Frequency Range Can Affect Your Skin?

Recent research has revealed that when a person is subjected to a short wavelength radio frequency, which is absorbed by the fat cells in the human body, this in turn causes them to heat up.

So, it is believed that the skin may not only be harmed by the above mentioned long-wave radiation, but also by the shorter wavelength near infrared waves.

These waves are able to pass through the epidermis of the skin and do not affect the cells of the deeper layer. Hence, these waves penetrate the skin and have long wave frequencies that cause certain changes in the body.

When it comes to the skin, the waves play a vital role in regulating the body’s temperature.

The human body experiences three different types of temperature levels; hot, cold or medium.

Long wavelengths of the near infrared waves do not change the temperature levels as fast as the shorter waves, which make it easier for the body to maintain its temperature level.

The longer wave frequencies of the infrared rays are able to penetrate through the skin and reach the deeper layers of the skin.

This enables the heat generated in the skin to be dissipated in the form of coolness, hence the temperature remains constant.

The longer wave infrared rays are also able to alter the chemical composition of the body in a natural way, without causing any harm.

The heat generated by the body cannot be lost in the air because the longer wave infrared rays have the ability to penetrate through the skin and reach the deeper layers where the heat is not lost.

Hence, the body does not heat up and remains comfortable.

The best way to keep yourself warm and cozy is by putting on a pair of infrared bed covers.

Infrared Heaters Have Been Found Seven Times More Effective Than Traditional Saunas

Infrared heat has become very popular in the last couple of years. People are seeing and realizing how much better their health is as a result of spending less time in the sauna.

The traditional saunas are far too hot for the vast majority of people, and they don’t enjoy it for the most part.

They are also more often then not crowded and the rooms can be quickly dimmed to give them a more private feel.

When infrared is used instead, it allows people to stay longer in the sauna because their temperatures are so intense.

The infrared rays are also able to reach farther than the far infrared rays which means people can stay longer in the far infrared rays as well.

They can sweat far more freely then as in the traditional saunas.

This then leads to more metabolic activity in the body and helps you burn more calories and lose weight.

The infrared waves penetrate the body more deeply thus burning more calories faster.

There are two main types of infrared heaters. There are the free-standing units and then there are the ground or cabinet units.

The cabinet units are usually mounted on the walls but can also be positioned underneath tables or anywhere that you would like to be able to place the unit.

The biggest advantage of using the cabinet units is that they take up very little space. They will stand up on their own and then be mounted on the wall or wherever you choose to put them.

Infrared Sauna Detox Therapy

The use of infrared sauna pod detox method is a popular home remedy that is gaining more popularity and success.

Infrared sauna therapy is a method used for detoxification and cleansing the body that uses infrared heat from a sauna to penetrate the skin and reach the deeper layers of tissue.

The heat generated from the sauna activates an abundance of natural healing properties found naturally in the human body.

Many people who have taken an infrared sauna report very positive changes in their health, weight, stress levels, blood pressure, respiratory problems, acne, digestive problems, insomnia, digestive disorders, as well as a decrease in joint pain, aches, and stiffness.

The increased blood circulation and oxygen flow caused by the heating from the sauna activate natural antioxidants, which serve as a defense mechanism for the body against harmful substances and free radicals

The infrared sauna therapy is also reported to have increased the immune system, which is a tremendous benefit to those who suffer from colds, flu, or other viral infections.

Some people who suffer from allergies have even reported feeling more relieved after using an infrared sauna.

An increase in blood circulation also means that there is less waste products in the urinary tract and thus an overall decrease in the incidences of infection in the lower urinary tract.

This type of detox can also help the body to rid itself of toxins that build up over time from the excessive consumption of alcohol or illegal drugs.

This can be a huge benefit to someone who has been abusing these substances for years without being able to stop.

Also a good detox can make someone feel more energized and alert as well as help them lose weight.

The cost of a good quality infrared sauna is much more affordable than a traditional sauna.

Infrared Sauna Pod Therapy For Detoxification

Infrared sauna therapy is a health-conditioning technique that involves the application of infrared energy onto human tissue through the use of saunas that utilize this kind of energy to heat up the user inside and outside.

This method of using heat is meant to penetrate deeply into the human body’s soft tissues, increasing circulation and aiding in weight loss, while relieving stress, muscle pain and joint stiffness, as well as reducing swelling, redness and pain in various parts of the human body.

However, one of the primary kinds of the infrared sauna pod therapy is the infrared sauna pod detox therapy which uses a detoxifying sauna pod that works by heating up and circulating water into the system, removing toxins and impurities within the human body. The toxins and impurities are then eliminated from the digestive system and circulatory system through the skin.

The heat generated by the sauna pod is actually able to penetrate deep below the skin, into the body’s deepest layers where it can be absorbed and eliminated from the body.

The infrared sauna pod therapy may also be used on people who have Lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, or any other type of ailments that the body is not meant to be combating.

The infrared energy generated by the sauna pod can actually break down Lupus and other immune system problems, allowing the sauna to help fight against these ailments and increase the body’s immune response as well.

In addition to working on the skin, the sauna also has the ability to kill off harmful bacteria and viruses which have accumulated in the body’s skin layers.

This kind of therapy may even be used on a person’s face, neck and feet to help get rid of blemishes, spots and sores that occur on these areas.

As a result, the skin looks clearer and healthier with fewer blemishes and is able to breathe easier. With these benefits, it becomes easy to see why using an infrared sauna can detoxify the skin, help the skin look clearer, and improve the skin’s health.

The Benefits of Using a Traditional Sauna

If you are like many people, you probably think that traditional saunas only heat the air around you and do nothing else.

However, the fact is that saunas can be used to treat a wide variety of health conditions, including everything from allergies to depression.

There is no reason that you should have to deal with the health issues associated with traditional saunas when you can get the same health benefits from a modern sauna.

Although traditional saunas can be used for just heating the air, you can also use them to help you treat various illnesses. There are also a number of other benefits to be gained by using traditional saunas.

One benefit that many people will enjoy by taking advantage of a traditional sauna is that they can get a great workout in while getting their body warmed up. Traditional saunas are often used by people who are trying to improve the tone of their muscles or improve the flexibility of their body. By taking advantage of a traditional sauna you can not only improve your physical health but you can also improve your mental health as well.

You may have to pay a little bit more money to enjoy all the great benefits of traditional saunas, but in return you will be able to enjoy all of the health benefits. Unlike traditional saunas that only heat the air around you and don’t do anything else, modern saunas do a whole lot of different things.

For example, some modern saunas even have music players or televisions so that you can relax while the television shows you how to take care of a particular problem or how to get your hair to grow back.

As you can see, there are all sorts of benefits to be gained from taking advantage of traditional saunas and modern saunas that are both affordable and easy to use.

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The Difference Between Traditional Saunas and Infrared Saunas

Unlike traditional saunas, infrared saunas penetrate your body at a cellular level, using the heat from the sun to increase blood circulation and increase heart rate.

There is no hot stone, hot water, or ashes involved. Because the heat comes from an infrared source, it is safer than traditional methods of sauna use.

This can be a great way to lose weight, feel better, and treat many health problems. Infrared saunas are very effective for people who have sore muscles and limited mobility.

Instead, your body’s own heat comes out to help with circulation. If you are sweating in traditional saunas, the heat from the stones burns fat, making you feel tired and lethargic much of the time.

However, in an infrared sauna, the heat helps to increase circulation, giving you a jolt of energy that helps you to feel much better throughout the day.

Traditional saunas also have a number of side effects that can be harmful.

Is Infrared Heat More Comfortable Than a Traditional Sauna?

In comparison to the traditional sauna, infrared heat sauna is a safer and easier way to detoxify your body. Saunas are commonly thought as an effective way to stay in shape and sweat much, but they are not effective at heating the body at all. Infrared heat is effective at heating your body more comfortably at lower temperatures than traditional saunas.

One reason why infrared heaters are more comfortable is because you are more relaxed in them. When you are in a traditional sauna you are bending over a hot stove or barbeque with the possibility of overheating your skin.

Infrared heaters are designed for your comfort and convenience, because you can sit back and relax with a warm towel on your lap instead of having to get up and move around.

Another big advantage of the infrared heater is the cost, infrared saunas are much cheaper than traditional saunas.

This can mean the difference between using the sauna regularly or only using it once or twice a year. Infrared heaters don’t have to be used nearly as often, making them more cost effective.

Finally, when you are in a traditional sauna you are subjecting yourself to steam or water. Both of these can cause you to get dehydrated. Infrared heaters provide you with a cool, refreshing feeling because they utilize airflows similar to what your lungs would experience with the flu. A sauna will give you the health benefits of steam and water without the side effects and with infrared you can still get a cool sensation.

Infrared Sauna Pod Detox Therapy

Infrared sauna pods are a great alternative to the more traditional saunas that can be found at health and wellness centers. One of the best things about the infrared sauna pod detox therapy is that it’s a very safe, natural way to detox your body. The body works better when it is working with a warm environment. With a sauna, you are subjecting yourself to a very hot and humid environment. This creates a faster and more thorough burning of the fats and toxins in your body.

The infrared sauna pod detox treatment helps to remove the toxins and excess water from the inside of the body while working at the same time.

The infrared sauna pod detox therapy works with many different types of therapies.

You can work on detoxifying your bowels while working at the sauna as well as working to improve your complexion.

This is one of the easiest forms of sauna therapy to do. This is a great way to detoxify the inside of your body while getting some great benefits at the same time.

The Advantages of Using an Infrared Sauna Pod Detox Therapy

Infrared sauna pod therapy is a very effective, natural way to lose weight. It has many health benefits and some of them include reducing the risk of cancer, strengthening the immune system and also assists in pain management.

Many people are unaware that we come into contact with toxins every day, and that these toxins can cause problems such as weight gain, acne breakouts and even some forms of cancer.

Toxins can be found in our foods, on the air and in our water supply. When you use an infrared sauna, you can quickly and easily remove all of these toxins and leave your skin feeling great!

Does the Infrared Sauna Pod Detox Therapy Really Work?

One of the most popular infrared sauna options on the market today is an infrared sauna pod. Infrared saunas have been around for many years and have been used by many cultures for healing purposes. However, it is only in the last few years that they have gained popularity among the mainstream health conscious population. The reason this product is becoming so popular is because of all the health benefits associated with it.

The infrared sauna pod detox therapy works by cleaning your body of toxins and impurities that have built up over time.

The energy you absorb from the heat also helps to improve your immune system and reduce stress levels.

You will find that you sweat less and are able to get more sleep throughout the night. Not only will you be able to detox your body by using the infrared sauna pod but you will also feel better on a daily basis.

Infrared Sauna Detox Therapy

The infrared sauna pod detox therapy is a relatively new product to hit the market, but the promise of a great body and great health is hard to pass up. You’ll experience the heat of an infrared sauna and the relaxation that comes from it without ever leaving your home. This can be a great way to help you get into shape without all the hassles of travel and hotel rooms and with less hassle than a traditional sauna.

An infrared sauna pod is basically a special pod that holds a chamber with an infrared sauna heater. It’s plugged into a wall socket and works just like a traditional sauna.

You simply put your feet in the pod and the heat will distribute throughout your body. A small heating element regulates the heat as well so you don’t overheat and have to sit for hours. Some models even have music players, so you can enjoy your time in the sauna.

An infrared sauna pod detox treatment can be taken several times a week.

Infrared Sauna Pod Therapy – A Variety of Saunas Can Be Used For Detox Therapy

The infrared sauna pod is a useful and popular tool that promotes relaxation & stress management. This type of sauna allows you to reap the health benefits of infrared technology without the mess and stench of steam saunas or the large amount of energy that is required to use this type of sauna. This style of sauna has an upper & lower body infrared heating system, which operates via infrared sauna heating pads. This heating system uses less heat than other types of heating systems, allowing you to reap the benefits of infrared technology with less energy use and less waste.

An infrared sauna pod can be placed almost anywhere in your home and is convenient because of its small size and user-friendly design.

Detox therapy is a great way to improve your health, whether you are trying to lose weight or detoxify your body. This type of therapy works by increasing the elimination of built up toxins in the body. These toxins build up over time and often times are the source of ailments and illnesses.

Detox can be performed in several different ways including saunas, butters, diets, and juices.

This type of detox treatment is a great method of cleansing your body, whether you want to lose weight, feel better, or just to detox your body to be healthier. The benefits and advantages of this therapy far outnumber the negative aspects that are often associated with it.

What an Infrared Sauna Pod Detox Therapy Burns

If you have ever used a traditional sauna to sweat off the dirt and grime from your body, then you know that the sauna can be very hot. The infrared sauna actually works at a lower temperature so your body does not overheat. When you use an infrared sauna, it actually feels much like lying down in a cool forest. As the infrared heat penetrates deep into your skin, your body begins to sweat. This sweat helps you rid your body of impurities and detoxify your system.

Infrared Sauna Pod Detox Therapy

Infrared sauna therapy is a new way of using an infrared sauna that can increase blood circulation and speed up the removal of toxins from the body.

When your body has no need to use its energy and waste products, it simply gives up the fight and falls into a restful state. This may sound like good news, but the rate at which our bodies leave the state of rest is affected by many factors. One of these factors is the overall health condition of the person.

Our cells are living breathing machines. The oxygen in our blood travels throughout our body, carrying nutrients and waste products with it.

As we work or move around, the cells release waste products as waste and these become trapped in our cells. This then slows down the efficiency with which the cells will remove oxygen from the blood. There are now increased oxygen flow and faster removal of waste products, which allow you to rid your body of toxins and thus improve your overall health.

An infrared sauna pod is a small, self contained unit that will typically contain two saunas each with their own heating element.

The heating elements within the sauna pods will warm the water contained in the saunas to above body temperature. This increased heat creates the ideal environment for the detoxification of your body.

Infrared Sauna Pod Detox Therapy and a Peeling Off of Toxins and Fats

The infrared sauna pod is an energy sauna that is smaller and more portable than traditional saunas. The sauna is an infrared heat saver which means it warms your body without using the flames like a traditional sauna does.

It works by emitting a warm, invisible infrared radiation. This heat penetrates deeply into the muscles, tissues and joints and soothes and relaxes your body as it does.

You feel refreshed after every use of an infrared sauna. It is the perfect sauna therapy to get rid of excess weight and help the body burn fat.

The infrared heat penetrates deeply into the body and gets into the cells where it helps break down fats and toxins.

An infrared sauna therapy and detox program help the body cleanse itself and make your internal organs and systems work better.

When you use an infrared sauna, the lymph system and blood circulation are improved. The skin also feels softer and smoother due to the increase circulation and lymph flow.

The skin and tissues are cleansed and moisturized. The immune system is strengthened and boosted. Your energy levels are increased and your blood pressure is lowered. You may notice an increase in the strength and endurance of your muscles. The infrared sauna pod detox program and treatment will make your body strong, fit and youthful looking.

Infrared Sauna Detox Therapy For Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Infrared sauna therapy for Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome can help alleviate the symptoms related to both conditions.

Many people don’t know that Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are similar to many other “old age” illnesses such as arthritis, Lupus, Depression and anxiety.

It is very important that we learn how to live better lives while we age. One of the best things we can do for ourselves is to find out what triggers our symptoms, and how we can eliminate or suppress them.

Many people suffer from Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and many have found relief by using an infrared sauna on a daily basis.

An infrared sauna is a heating device which is placed directly over a patient’s body. The sauna heats the air surrounding your body, thus causing the water vapor in your body to turn into steam. The steam then rises into the sauna where it stimulates your immune system and heart rate.

Treating Arthritis Joint Pain With Infrared Heat

Infrared heat therapy is a form of alternative treatment for many different medical conditions. Arthritis, as well as other degenerative medical conditions, can be greatly affected by using infrared heat. Infrared heat can provide relief to patients suffering from arthritis joint pain and stiffness. Arthritis affects over 40 million Americans, and almost half of these people suffer some degree of pain from their condition. Infrared heat therapy is one of the most effective ways to relieve pain from this condition, and it may even be able to completely cure the disease.

The heat from an infrared device reaches directly into the tissues. This heat penetrates the bone and soft tissue beneath the skin, where it then increases blood flow and circulation.

The Infrared Sauna Pod Detox Therapy For Cardiovascular Health

Infrared sauna therapy is the latest innovation in the world of saunas. This high technology infrared sauna is very similar to a traditional sauna, except that it uses infrared heat, and not steam as is done with the traditional style sauna.

In addition, instead of breathing in steam as you would in the traditional style sauna, you breathe in oxygen and then release that oxygen into your bloodstream, helping to improve your heart health and to purify your lungs.

In addition, it will help to clear your skin of unwanted toxins, which can be felt as weight loss, clearer skin, more energy, and better overall bodily function.

The reason that this type of sauna is so good for your heart and your skin is because the heat from the sauna penetrates deeper than what most other types of saunas achieve.

Because of this heat penetrative quality, infrared sauna therapy has been shown to be just as effective at reducing a person’s risk of heart disease, and also at reducing or eliminating the risks of skin infection and allergic reactions.

These skin purification properties are especially important since they tend to show up the more you use the sauna.

Over time, if your skin becomes coated with the chemicals from your body, you can start to develop some pretty serious health conditions. Unfortunately, there is no way to completely get rid of these chemicals without taking some sort of radical lifestyle change, such as removing some of your body fat or changing your diet.

However, by using an infrared sauna pod detox treatment, you can begin to clean up those chemical levels inside of your body, allowing you to feel better and become healthier in a more natural and healthy manner.

Not only will you find that you will have improved health, but also that you will have better skin, better circulation, and an overall better body appearance.

The benefits of this infrared sauna therapy for cardiovascular health are becoming more apparent by the day, so what are you waiting for?

Infrared Sauna Therapy Aids in Pain Management and Weight Loss

One of the major benefits of infrared sauna pod therapy is its ability to effectively aid in weight loss and pain management.

The various ailments such as hypertension, fatigue, cardiovascular conditions, joint pains, arthritic conditions, as well as joint pains associated with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis can be effectively remedied through the therapeutic use of an infrared sauna.

Infrared saunas are known to increase the metabolic rate and this leads to fat oxidation and consequently weight loss. This is one of the benefits of infrared sauna therapy that many users have discovered in relation to the sauna.

Many individuals are unfamiliar with how the human body works. By using the sauna, a multitude of biochemical reactions occur within the body that speed up the metabolism process and consequently cause weight loss.

This is due to the fact that the heat from the infrared rays speeds up the convection process in the skin that results in increased blood flow throughout the body.

This increased blood flow leads to the removal of toxins that have accumulated within the body and impairs the ability for the body to absorb necessary vitamins and minerals.

Another benefit that sauna pod therapy has to offer individuals looking to enhance their health is the assistance it gives to those that suffer from chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia, degenerative diseases, as well as arthritis.

The infrared rays of the sauna not only penetrate deeply into the body tissue, they also speed up the metabolism process and accelerate fat oxidation, resulting in weight loss.

Those that regularly participate in the therapeutic use of a sauna will be surprised at how quickly their chronic pain related ailments begin to disappear.

The body’s natural rejuvenation processes, enhanced circulation, enhanced nutrient assimilation as well as an increase in energy levels are all major contributing factors to the sauna’s ability to help in pain reduction.

Infrared Sauna Pod Detox Therapy

The multitude of toxins that break down our bodies from within can cause an array of illnesses and conditions, including cancer.

The best way to avoid the negative side effects that come with the buildup of toxins in our bodies is to rid them from the body using an infrared sauna.

Infrared saunas have been used for centuries to treat ailments and health conditions. In recent years, the use of infrared saunas as a detoxification therapy has increased in popularity. This type of sauna therapy involves the heating of water in an infrared electromagnetic field which heats the water in the sauna while at the same time attracting toxins contained in the body to the heat source.

One of the major benefits associated with the use of infrared saunas as a detoxification technique is the fact that it stimulates the lymphatic system.

The lymph system is the part of the body that drains waste from the cells and into the stool. By using a sauna, the toxins are broken down from within the body and therefore are removed before they are able to do damage.

Infrared electromagnetic radiation is also known to stimulate the immune system, improving the health of the entire digestive system, including the elimination of constipation and other bowel related problems.

There are numerous ways that you can incorporate the infrared sauna pod detox technique into your daily life in order to achieve optimal health. The sauna can be used to help rest the body, relax the mind, and relieve the body of stress.

It is also popular for use to treat minor illnesses and to provide relief from the symptoms of major ailments, such as cancer and arthritis. It is also effective in relieving the pain associated with the treatment of cancer and other forms of diseases.

The post 9 Benefits of Infrared Sauna Pod Detox Therapy appeared first on Infrared for Health.

source https://infraredforhealth.com/9-benefits-of-infrared-sauna-pod-detox-therapy/

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 years

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Germany demands an end to working cryptography

Germany's Interior Minister Horst Seehofer -- a hardliner who has called for cameras at every "hot spot" in Germany -- has announced that he will seek a ban on working cryptography in Germany; he will insist that companies only supply insecure tools that have a backdoor that will allow the German state to decrypt messages and chats on demand.

He's said that he'll ban any service or app that does not comply with the rule.

If this sounds familiar, it should: it's basically the rule Australia enacted in December 2018. It's also been repeatedly proposed by Rod Rosenstein in his capacity as US Deputy Attorney General; and by GCHQ's Technical Director, Ian Levy.

I wrote a comprehensive explainer about this in 2017 when Theresa May proposed it. Here it is again, because honestly, the idea hasn't gotten any less stupid over two years.

Aaron Swartz once said, "It's no longer OK not to understand how the Internet works."

He was talking to law-makers, policy-makers and power-brokers, people who were, at best, half-smart about technology -- just smart enough to understand that in a connected world, every problem society has involves computers, and just stupid enough to demand that computers be altered to solve those problems.

Paging Theresa May.

Theresa May says that last night's London terror attacks mean that the internet cannot be allowed to provide a "safe space" for terrorists and therefore working cryptography must be banned in the UK.

This is a golden oldie, a classic piece of foolish political grandstanding. May's predecessor, David Cameron, repeatedly campaigned on this one, and every time he did, I wrote a long piece rebutting him. Rather than writing a new one for May, I thought I'd just dust off a pair of my Cameron-era pieces (1, 2), since every single word still applies.

Theresa May says there should be no "means of communication" which "we cannot read" -- and no doubt many in her party will agree with her, politically. But if they understood the technology, they would be shocked to their boots.

What Theresa May thinks she's saying is, "We will command all the software creators we can reach to introduce back-doors into their tools for us." There are enormous problems with this: there's no back door that only lets good guys go through it. If your Whatsapp or Google Hangouts has a deliberately introduced flaw in it, then foreign spies, criminals, crooked police (like those who fed sensitive information to the tabloids who were implicated in the hacking scandal -- and like the high-level police who secretly worked for organised crime for years), and criminals will eventually discover this vulnerability. They -- and not just the security services -- will be able to use it to intercept all of our communications. That includes things like the pictures of your kids in your bath that you send to your parents to the trade secrets you send to your co-workers.

But this is just for starters. Theresa May doesn't understand technology very well, so she doesn't actually know what she's asking for.

For Theresa May's proposal to work, she will need to stop Britons from installing software that comes from software creators who are out of her jurisdiction. The very best in secure communications are already free/open source projects, maintained by thousands of independent programmers around the world. They are widely available, and thanks to things like cryptographic signing, it is possible to download these packages from any server in the world (not just big ones like Github) and verify, with a very high degree of confidence, that the software you've downloaded hasn't been tampered with.

May is not alone here. The regime she proposes is already in place in countries like Syria, Russia, and Iran (for the record, none of these countries have had much luck with it). There are two means by which authoritarian governments have attempted to restrict the use of secure technology: by network filtering and by technology mandates.

Theresa May has already shown that she believes she can order the nation's ISPs to block access to certain websites (again, for the record, this hasn't worked very well). The next step is to order Chinese-style filtering using deep packet inspection, to try and distinguish traffic and block forbidden programs. This is a formidable technical challenge. Intrinsic to core Internet protocols like IPv4/6, TCP and UDP is the potential to "tunnel" one protocol inside another. This makes the project of figuring out whether a given packet is on the white-list or the black-list transcendentally hard, especially if you want to minimise the number of "good" sessions you accidentally blackhole.

More ambitious is a mandate over which code operating systems in the UK are allowed to execute. This is very hard. We do have, in Apple's Ios platform and various games consoles, a regime where a single company uses countermeasures to ensure that only software it has blessed can run on the devices it sells to us. These companies could, indeed, be compelled (by an act of Parliament) to block secure software. Even there, you'd have to contend with the fact that other EU states and countries like the USA are unlikely to follow suit, and that means that anyone who bought her Iphone in Paris or New York could come to the UK with all their secure software intact and send messages "we cannot read."

This, then, is what Theresa May is proposing:

* All Britons' communications must be easy for criminals, voyeurs and foreign spies to intercept

* Any firms within reach of the UK government must be banned from producing secure software

* All major code repositories, such as Github and Sourceforge, must be blocked

* Search engines must not answer queries about web-pages that carry secure software

* Virtually all academic security work in the UK must cease -- security research must only take place in proprietary research environments where there is no onus to publish one's findings, such as industry R&D and the security services

* All packets in and out of the country, and within the country, must be subject to Chinese-style deep-packet inspection and any packets that appear to originate from secure software must be dropped

* Existing walled gardens (like Ios and games consoles) must be ordered to ban their users from installing secure software

* Anyone visiting the country from abroad must have their smartphones held at the border until they leave

* Free/open source operating systems -- that power the energy, banking, ecommerce, and infrastructure sectors -- must be banned outright

Theresa May will say that she doesn't want to do any of this. She'll say that she can implement weaker versions of it -- say, only blocking some "notorious" sites that carry secure software. But anything less than the programme above will have no material effect on the ability of criminals to carry on perfectly secret conversations that "we cannot read". If any commodity PC or jailbroken phone can run any of the world's most popular communications applications, then "bad guys" will just use them. Jailbreaking an OS isn't hard. Downloading an app isn't hard. Stopping people from running code they want to run is -- and what's more, it puts the whole nation -- individuals and industry -- in terrible jeopardy.

(Image:

Facepalm

, Brandon Grasley, CC-BY)

https://boingboing.net/2019/05/24/koenig-canute.html

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