Making Beautiful Bras for the rack'o'doom

I just received this book today, Making Beautiful Bras by Lee-Ann Burgess, and after reading the first half of it, it's no wonder women have such a difficult time finding bras that fit well. I bought the book because it tells how to take a bra that fits you well and draft a pattern from it. Not only that, it tells you the best way to put on your bra so that your breasts sit in the cups properly for the right amount of support, how to find the right cup size when searching for a bra, how to find the right band size, and more.
Unfortunately, as all too many of us have found, bra manufacturers don't compare notes on sizing, so the size that fits you in one style of bra may not fit in another style of bra even if it's the same brand/manufacturer. The fitting problem is increased when you add in different brands/manufacturers, none of whom rely on a sizing standard (which is definitely not news to those of us who have shopped unsuccessfully for years, looking for a bra that lifts, separates, and supports without cutting us in half or giving us the deep indentations on our shoulders). And since breast sizes/shapes can vary so much from woman to woman, I don't know if it's even possible to have standardized sizing charts for bras.
Since Goddess has quit carrying/making the only style of bra that I've found that even comes close to fitting my rack of doom, I'm going to take a shot at making my own bras. I have one that the cups are fine (they fit the way they're supposed to, according to what I've read in this book), the straps are fine, but the sides/back are totally stretched out of shape. That bra is going to be taken apart, and using the guidelines in this wonderful book, I'm going to attempt drafting a pattern and making a bra that finally does what it's supposed to do.
I don't have a clue what the book is going to end up costing me, as I ordered it from Australia with my debit card and that charge hasn't hit the bank yet (cost of the book and air mail came to $71.45 in Australian currency, don't know what that comes out to in American dollars, probably somewhere around $45 - $50). To tell you the truth, I don't care if it costs the same in American currency as it does in Australian currency. If it gives me the ability to make a bra that really fits, is comfortable, and supports the rack of doom, it's well-worth every damned penny and will definitely pay for itself just in the money I save by making my bras myself instead of having to travel to some big city in search of someone who can custom-fit bras and have them made for me (I can't afford $150 for a bra, and I know the custom-made bras can be much more expensive than that).
I will also have all kinds of options for colors/fabrics/prints/decorations/laces that I don't have now (my Goddess bras came in basic black, white, and nude, the leopard print was discontinued a couple of years ago in the style I really like).
I'll be able to make camisole bras with fancy lace inserts for those tops I'd like to buy but show too much cleavage. My options are only limited by my imagination. I'm excited, and can hardly wait until my check gets here and I can go looking for fabrics and notions and laces and more.
And on another sewing note, Butterick is carrying a line of patterns by Coni Crawford that go up to a 68" bust/72" hip. When I do my shopping for the bra-making supplies, I'll be looking for those patterns, as I've found several that I like. My biggest problem will be finding the fabrics I like in the colors/prints I like at a price I can afford. I'm looking forward to making slacks that actually fit the way they're supposed to (instead of having the waist in front hit me just under my bra band) and that I can add pockets to (have to have pockets for cell phone and car keys, I don't carry a purse very often).
Here are the pics of the patterns by Coni that I'm looking at purchasing (if there was a picture of the pattern made up and on a live model, I included it after the pattern picture):










My favorite thing about these patterns? The artist's conception drawing on the pattern may not be a fat woman, but the pictures on the website where I found the patterns are definitely fat women and that gives me a really good idea if these clothing items will look the way I want them to when I'm finished making them. Granted, not all of the patterns have fat models showing the finished item, but enough of them do, for now.
If you want to see more of Coni's patterns, they can be found here.

Gene research to end obesity?

Gene research? More like brain surgery. As was said here by Artemis, brain surgery. Brain surgery for "obesity". I can see having brain surgery for Parkinson's disease, or similar diseases that affect one's quality of life drastically, but not for weight loss.

The treatment is similar to Professor During's gene therapy to the brain for Parkinson's disease, given under local anaesthetic, which is being used in phase 2 human clinical trials.
The genetic material is injected into the part of the brain called the hypothalamus, after boring two holes through the skull. It is carried in a harmless virus whose genetic material has been replaced by the therapy.

No, just no. Being fat may affect one's quality of life, but it's not the fat itself that is the biggest factor in that quality of life, it's the attitudes of the fat-phobic asshats who make fat peoples' lives miserable by calling them names, giving a lowered quality of medical care, making clothing less available in a wide range of sizes/styles/colors, assuming that one-size-fits-all means everyone fits within a certain range (which is usually smaller than even someone who is considered "normal" can fit in), and a whole slew of other discriminations too numerous to list.

The main active component is part of the human gene that causes the production of a substance called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This is a protein involved in weight regulation. It is coupled with genetic material that triggers auto-regulation of the BDNF to control the weight loss once the process is well under way.

Genetic material that triggers auto-regulation of weight loss? I'm not too sure I believe that's as possible as they seem to think it is. Do they really know how this is going to work in human beings? Since they've only been able to experiment with mice. I'm not a mouse, my physiology is different than that of a mouse, and I'm not so enamored of being thin that I'm willing to play guinea pig for them. Especially considering the following -

A third genetic component was developed for a subsequent neurosurgery injection, if needed, to knock out the introduced BDNF gene as a rescue device that halts the weight-loss process.

So if this auto-regulation doesn't stop the weight loss once a person gets to what is considered a "suitable" weight, they're going to drill more holes in someone's skull, and do more injections to stop the weight loss? How many times is a person supposed to expose themselves to the risk of stroke, stroke-like syndrome, depression, memory problems, psychiatric and/or behavioral problems, and possible infection (thank you, Artemis, this wasn't mentioned at the site where I read about this) in order to be thin? This seems to be another surgery like all the WLSurgeries that have led to so many horrible, life-threatening/ending complications for far too many people already.

In one of the trials, the body weight of obese mice reduced by 20 per cent in three weeks and stabilised for the remainder of the 11-week experiment.

One of the trials? What happened to the mice in the other trials? How many of them died from this operation? How many of them suffered from the risks listed above? What were the percentages of mice for whom this worked, compared to how many mice died or had adverse complications? How many mice got by with just one injection/brain surgery? Do we really want to apply those unknown percentages to human beings?
I realize that the fat-phobes out there are willing to do anything to get rid of the fatties of the world, but as one of those fatties, I'm not willing to risk my life a second time just to be thin (once was enough, thank you very much). Those possible complications? Living with any one of those, not to mention a possible combination of them, and being thin, is NOT better than living fat. This seems to be another case of the cure being worse than the "disease" (especially since being fat isn't a disease, no matter how much the medical community wants us to think it is).
ETA - Those people who are willing to go through this in the Stage Two clinical trials must be a lot more desperate than I am, and I really feel for them. I wish they didn't think something this drastic was necessary to have a quality life.

ETA - Check out Sandy's post at Junkfood Science on the DBS (deep brain stimulation) for weight loss in "obese" people. Electrocute your brains and lose weight, people (and line up for some horrible side effects that they don't want you to know about, because you might change your mind if you knew the real odds of getting one or more of them).
Doctors/researchers pushing this kind of shit need to be tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail.

WTF?! Way to go, New York mag, fat stereotypes out the ass.

Somebody at New York Magazine should get a fucking clue. This article about the bailout of Citigroup has nearly every fat stereotype in the first paragraph.

You know those really, really fat people you hear about now and again? The kind of people who are so huge, they can't leave the house or even get off their couches, and unless someone does a major medical intervention, their parts cease to function and they die horribly, with their skin grafted into the terrible chintz material, and walls need to be knocked down to move the body out?

Yeah, I think there are probably more financial institutions who meet this criteria than there are fat people who exist in the above-mentioned state.

That's what Citigroup has been reminding us of lately. The bank is so gigantic, it can't even see its feet, and even though it has been aware it is dangerously obese, it has never really stopped eating Doritos because that's what it's used to because no one ever taught it about nutrition.

Fail, massive fucking fail, asshats. Not all of those massively fat people you seem to think exist get fat because they eat junk food and know nothing about nutrition. But all of the financial institutions in need of a bailout got that way because of their greed for more and more money and they didn't care how they got it.

As for the $350 billion the government gave to it — that was just like a relative of the fat person coming in to rotate its limbs: Yes, it prevented bed sores, but it didn't really resolve the fact that dude weighs 1200 pounds. But now, the government, like Richard Simmons, is stepping up, and putting Citi on a serious liquid diet.

Jeebus, I want to see the person whose limbs can be rotated. Arms moved to where their legs go, legs moved to where their arms should be? Or are they rotated like the tires on your car maybe? If you're going to use a metaphor, you should at least be accurate. And if I recall, Richard Simmons didn't have a liquid diet, it was one of those Deal-A-Meal plans, which was supposed to be a fairly well-balanced diet, coupled with his Sweatin' To The Oldies video work-outs (not that you would know anything about that, since you obviously don't know how to research anything, and are just pulling myths out of your ass to make a point).

As the inspirational theme song to the Biggest Loser says, "It's never too late to try."

If that's an inspirational tune, I don't even want to know what you would consider a musical abomination. The Biggest Loser isn't an inspirational show, it's televised torture that does more harm than good to the health of anyone desperate enough to sign up for it. Come to think of it, maybe Citibank needs to sign up for The Biggest Loser, put all of its executives on a monetary diet and exercise regimen. Diet = lower pay/perks, exercise = researching investments to ensure that they're safe and won't falsely inflate whatever market and then burst when that level can't be maintained (just like the exercise that contestants on BL can't maintain when they're off the show and have to go back to leading a real life that entails working a job, taking care of house/kids/spouse/etc).