“‘The data on extreme human ageing is rotten from the inside out’ – Ig Nobel winner Saul Justin Newman”

https://theconversation.com/the-data-on-extreme-human-ageing-is-rotten-from-the-inside-out-ig-nobel-winner-saul-justin-newman-239023

> Regions where people most often reach 100-110 years old are the ones where there’s the most pressure to commit pension fraud, and they also have the worst records.

I'm surprised. This is my surprised face.

‘The data on extreme human ageing is rotten from the inside out’ – Ig Nobel winner Saul Justin Newman

Saul Newman’s research suggests that we’re completely mistaken about how long humans live for.

^{The Conversation}

One thing that is vitally important as a moderator is being able to identify what I think of as "plausible deniability techniques."

These are patterns of behavior that give the speaker some degree of plausible deniability while allowing them to threaten or demean someone else. It's a variant of the JAQoffs and in just as poor faith.

I have numerous examples from decades of moderation experience, and it all follows about the same patterns.

1/

I keep circling back to a thought:

That over the past twenty years we've invented a whole bunch of technologies that I thought would be cool when I was a teenager reading science fiction, but which in almost every case are fundamentally compromised because the only companies vast enough to be able to build them are - by their sheer size - companies that cannot be trusted to control them.

#GretaThunberg :
"We are never going back to normal again because ‘normal’ was already a crisis.

What we refer to as normal is an extreme system built on the exploitation of people and the planet.

It is a system defined by colonialism, imperialism, oppression and genocide by the so-called global North to accumulate wealth that still shapes our current world order.

If economic growth is our only priority, then what we are experiencing now should be exactly what we should be expecting.”

Before you go out without a mask during this COVID-19 wave, look at what it takes to get disability allowance in your country,
and compare the small amount
that usually takes years to get
to what it costs to live.

Oh, and you're usually not allowed to have savings.

Not even for your child's education.

Not to save up for a wheelchair or other mobility aids.

Disabled people don't have marriage equality.

Immigration? Forget it.

Masks are nice.

⚠️Why should customers bail out #water💧 companies for their mistakes? THEY built up £60 billion in debt rewarding banks & investors, & now want us to fix their problem. Sign the #petition and tell Ofwat: no bill hikes to bail them out! 😤 👇

@TheWelshLeftAlliance https://38d.gs/ra4v

Water companies should pay to fix their own mess, not rely on customers to bail them out

Why should customers bail out water companies for their mistakes? THEY built up £60 billion in debt rewarding banks and investors, and now want us to fix their problem. Sign the petition and tell Ofwat: no bill hikes to bail them out.

^38d.gs

RIP YOUR DVD COLLECTION FOLKS

Wanted to watch Aliens, the disc plays OK but makes a horrible grinding sound. "OK fine," thinks I, "I'll watch it via other means," well my friends the other means are really really bad

"Oh cool there was a remaster this year" yeah they overexposed it and washed it all out, and as if that wasn't enough they AI'd it and everyone's got weird plastic skin

"Well butts, how about the blu-ray release from the early 2010's," well they didn't AI it yet but they did bollocks up the colours and made it all green because that was a thing in the 2010's

Rip your own DVDs folks 'cause if that DVD starts having problems you might not be able to find a copy amid a sea of gradually deteriorating versions

I want a "pay what the fucking sign says" bill for America:
- Tax is included, ALWAYS, everywhere. Local, national, everything
- NO expected tips. NO tip workflows, for ANYTHING. Ban even ASKING for or suggesting one.
- No junk fees, no blah blah, one price, and ONE shipping fee if it's online. And you show me BEFORE checkout or you're shut the fuck down.

Sick of this. Just show me the fucking price! FUCK.

wanna give a shout out to one of the most useful websites in the world: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com

gotta be one of my favorite genders

Finished the second round of watercolors this week! This one is for @thumper!

#furryart #watercolor

While reading German folk tales, I am repeatedly struck by the notion that "random encounters" in typical #dnd -type #ttrpg settings are assumed to be _combat_ encounters. While direct attacks by supernatural creatures _do_ occur in folk tales, it is far more common for them to appear, frighten the bejeezus out of a witness, and then vanish again without lasting harm.

Yes, that huge cat with the glowing eyes is scary, but as long as you don't attack it, it won't bother you. A headless horseman might travel along the road, but that doesn't mean he will necessarily try to run you down. And if the Wild Hunt passes overhead, just throw yourself on the ground and you will be safe. And that "little grey man" might shout "Heh! Heh!" and then simply scuttle off into the undergrowth.

This goes even more for more "natural" creatures. Attacking a full party of armored adventurers is a decidedly odd action, if you think about it - creatures who have co-existed with humans will usually have learned to be careful around them, or go extinct. Even if they _do_ attack humans for food, it's more likely they will go after lone stragglers than an entire group of people. So if they attack an adventuring party, they must either be _really_ confident about their success, or too aggressive or stupid to care about their odds.

So if a predator comes across an adventuring party, it needs a reason to attack them outright. If it is defending its territory, it will likely make some threat displays first, since combat is always risky. If it is hunting for food, it will likely follow the party for some time and observe if there is any specimen that might get separated from the herd - but it might give up if the party shows no obvious weaknesses.

So what I am trying to say is: Some random monster charging the PCs in the wilderness is an option, but it should be less common the monster observing or passing by the PCs without actual violence.

Might have to hand some of these out at #emfcamp in 2026

From: @best_of_mltshp
https://mefi.social/@best_of_mltshp/113131388578902205

Best of MLTSHP (@best_of_mltshp@mefi.social)

Attached: 1 image https://mltshp.com/p/1QDBL “Permission Slip”

^mefi.social

PSA: if you're not regularly reading the alt text people put on images here, you should!

I say this in part because I see a lot of folks asking questions that are already answered by the OP's alt text, but also because folks tend to put interesting details or context in there that you'd otherwise miss.

I've seen the Ursula K LeGuin quote about capitalism going around, but to really appreciate it you have to know the context. The year is 2014. She has been given a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Awards. Neil Gaiman puts it on her neck in front of a crowd of booksellers who bankrolled the event, and it’s time to make a standard “thank you for this award, insert story here, something about diversity, blah blah blah” speech. She starts off doing just that, thanking her friends and fellow authors. Allis well. Then this old lady from Oregon looks her audience of executives dead inthe eye, and says “Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximize corporate profit and advertising revenue is not the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship* She rails against the reduction of her art to a commodity produced only for profit. She denounces publishers who overcharge libraries for their products and censor writers in favor of something “more profitable®. She specifically denounces Amazon and its business practices, knowing full well that her audience is filled with Amazon employees. And to cap it off, she warns them: “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words” Ursula K LeGuin got up in front of an audience of some of the most powerful people in publishing, was expected to give a trite and politically safe argument about literature, and instead told them directly “Your empire willfall. And | wil help it along"

#writer #LeGuin

Happy Fursuit Friday! Otter wiggles caught on film! 🎥 🦦

8mm color, shot on a Kodak Brownie II

📸 @fanosaurus.bsky.social
🧵 @poeproductions

#FursuitFriday #Fursuit #Furry #Otter

ALL major cities should have a parking lot around them. If you’re driving to a city, you have to leave your car at the outskirts and then get on public transportation.

Cities should be car free zones.

Random fursuit photo from the archives.

It’s @Swifty on the dancefloor during ConFuzzled 2022.

Content warning: medical fact, not gory, but creepy. Reveal/hide

'In a country with £15 trillion of financial wealth of course there is money available to fund the NHS.
And cuts are not needed.
Nor is privatisation required.
All that is necessary is sufficient financial imagination to permit the raising of the NHS to make good the shortfall the Tories left.'

The NHS need not die: Rachel Reeves just has to permit more government borrowing and we could have the health service we need https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/09/12/the-nhs-need-not-die-rachel-reeves-just-has-to-permit-more-government-borrowing-and-we-could-have-the-health-service-we-need/

The NHS need not die: Rachel Reeves just has to permit more government borrowing and we could have the health service we need

According to the FT this morning: England’s NHS is in “critical condition” after years of underfunding, an official review into the health service has warned.

^{Funding the Future}