“Symptoms of obesity.” Isn’t that phrase interesting, “symptoms of obesity.”
Sumo wrestlers eat up to 7,000 calories a day and weigh 300 to 400 pounds[.]
…Normally, people with obesity store a portion of their extra fat deep inside the abdomen, where it wraps around the pancreas, liver, and other vital organs. We call this visceral fat. It pollutes the blood with molecules that can cause inflammation, and this is why obesity can lead to health issues like high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, and heart attacks.
But sumo wrestlers don’t usually suffer from these symptoms. So what’s their trick? CT scans reveal that sumo wrestlers don’t have much visceral fat at all. Instead, they store most of their fat right underneath the skin. That’s why scientists think sumo wrestlers are healthy. They have normal levels of triglycerides, a type of fat in their blood, and unexpectedly low levels of cholesterol, both of which lower their risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.
So how did they hit the jackpot on fat? …Studies show that intense exercise may prevent the buildup of visceral fat. Basically, it has to do with how exercise increases a hormone called adiponectin. Adiponectin guides glucose and fat molecules out of our blood stream, where they could build up as visceral fat, and instead puts them underneath the skin.
It’s almost as though “obesity” itself is only representative of a person’s weight, and not of their actual health.
It’s almost like people can be fat, active and healthy all at the same time. That fat people can actually have lower risks of heart disease, heart attack and stroke than the average. That someone’s appearance does not inherently depict their health.
Huh.
I wonder if super-heavyweight weight-lifters are similar?
Why does tumblr keep telling me “Since you’ve been gone” gone from where? I’m still on this site at least once a day! And, yes, I have seen this post before, thank you for showing me again, since I’ve been gone? Since the last time I saw it? a day ago?
Over a decade ago when I first started getting into fanfiction, the term Alpha was used more frequently. A writer had the option of finding either an Alpha or a Beta to help them with their writing.
A Beta is for all the basics like grammar, but when it came to an Alpha, they did so much more. Alphas almost co-wrote the story with you, but not quite, and it was such a fun and interactive process.
What an Alpha Does:
Proofreading (like a beta)
Bouncing Ideas (email, chat, phone ideas back and forth)
Discussion (ideas, plots, problem points, or even just a pick-me-up)
Editor (small and large instances, often marked in red in your document)
Story Structure (does it flow? does it follow the format writer wanted?)
Canon vs Fanon Advice (distinguishing and suggesting)
Consistency (e.g. character has same color hat from beginning to end)
Major Rewrite Suggestions (an entire chapter doesn’t work? help!)
Cheerleading Through an Entire Fic (not just chapter by chapter)
Presentation (help in picking out everything from cover art to the tagline to the finished product structure, maybe even creating the PDF or HTML page for the writer)
And more that I’m not even thinking of right now
An Alpha would get credit for this (most of the time right underneath the author’s name on the cover art and in the story info), and people looked to alphas like they were special, they were very much appreciated, and if you found one, you would do pretty much anything for them.
I’ve been on both ends of this, and I really miss it being a more widespread thing. I’ve got my own alpha in the form of a friend who has been with me from the beginning of Alpha House, and she’s still a HUGE help. It wouldn’t be the fic it is without her, and I wish more writers could experience this.
How Using an Alpha Works
First you find one, and you get their email/chat ID/phone number. You tell them the ENTIRE idea for your fic (spoiling it all), where you want it to go, how you want it to feel, what the characters’ motivations are, etc. Then you send the alpha what you have so far, which can be part or all of the fic.
Once the alpha reads it, they mark in red any suggestions, but instead of just marking mistakes, the document looks like a professional editor from a book publishing company got a hold of it.
You’d either email back and forth or (more often) chat online or talk on the phone with them while you both went over it, each making different suggestions. It wasn’t just a one-day/one-sitting thing, and from then on there’s emails back and forth with cheerleading and ideas and chunks of fic from both the writer and the alpha, so that by the time the fic is done, anywhere from 1% to sometimes 49% of the writing is from the alpha (with your fic in mind, not their own way they wanted the story to go), and the rest of it was at least helped along by the alpha.
It was very rewarding to do this for other writers. I enjoyed it a lot. And having an alpha myself was such a treat. I can’t even explain it to you. It’s an awesome experience, and one I’d love every writer to experience.
What it Does for Beginners
New writers are vulnerable and don’t know their way around. An alpha would take them under their wing and help them along, helping them find where and how to post, how to use warnings, summaries, tags, etc. If a writer got bad feedback, the alpha was there to listen and encourage. If they got good feedback, an alpha was there to celebrate right along with them.
In my opinion, it made for more confident writers, because they were prepared for some of the shit writers get, and alphas stopped them from ever making newbie mistakes in the first place that get some writers flamed and ridiculed. Not that I’m condoning flaming, but the truth is it happens.
All in all, I’d love for the concept of Alphas to come back.
From 2011, the first link doesn’t work but parts 2 & 3 are still good to go.
“A punk-rock / hardcore music mixtape for those who hates police institution. Dedicated to the victims of police violence everywhere.”
“Police, the ones who beat Rodney King, who gunned down Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo and Oscar Grant, who murdered Fred Hampton in his bed. The ones who enforced Apartheid in South Africa and segregation in the United States. The ones who broke Victor Jara‘s hands and Steve Biko‘s skull, who disappeared dissidents from Argentina to Zaire, who served Joseph Stalin. The ones who interrogated Black Panthers and Catholic Workers, who maintained records on 16 million people in East Germany, who track us through surveillance cameras and phone taps. The ones firing tear gas and rubber bullets whenever a demonstration gets out of hand, who back the bosses in every strike. The ones who stand between every hungry person and the grocery shelves stocked with food, between every homeless person and the buildings standing empty, between every immigrant and her family.
In every nation, in every age, you tell us you’re indispensable, that without you we’d all be killing each other. But we know well enough who the killers are. You won’t fuck with us much longer.”
“Police everywhere, justice nowhere.” – Tremor (Dani a.k.a Tremor is a vocalist from Bandung’s hardcore-punk unit Milisi Kecoa, former-vocalist of Rajasinga & editor of Beyond The Barbed Wire fanzine.)
