found out another friend has Long COVID of the "full symptoms" variety that is not abating and has gone for 3 weeks so far.

fuck this society for convincing people COVID is no longer a problem. we are intentionally disabling people. #COVIDIsNotOver

Still thinking of the tidbit that the piece of popular wisdom that says human brains finish developing at 25…

… apparently comes from a study that found human brains were still developing at 25, but didn’t study people older than 25.

Masks keep you safe.

Vaccines work.

Never Again means Never Again, no matter who does it.

Global Warming is real.

Billionaires are an existential threat to society.

This is just your periodic reminder that you are sane and the gaslighting isn't working on you.

Me, replying to a facebook group where a local football club has been offered money for a mobile tower on its land. The land isn't "beautiful" so won't be spoiled. A win/win, right?

No, because unscientific cretins are claiming the usual old shit about "health effects of 5G" and are trying to get it stopped.

I've obviously left out "duty cycle", beam forming and such. But still. I really think people go "ooh tower, scary" and totally forget their HANDSET causes far higher dose.

Me:

One way sexism appears in the workplace is when maternity leave is considered some sort of holiday or break by male colleagues....

So, I love this graphic telling it how it really is (which is circulating on LinkedIn).

Next time, a colleague make the mistake of think maternity leave is a holiday, print this out & stick it on their desk.

#women #pregnancy #feminism #workers

Pre-chopped fruits and veggies make it possible for so many people with various disabilities to prepare healthy meals and maintain their energy.

#disabled #spoonie #chronicillness #mecfs #longcovid @disabled @spoonies @chronicillness @mecfs @longcovid

I've noticed a big shift toward, "We should be teaching kids how to cite AI."

That's antithetical to citations. A citation points you to the original source. Citing AI is effectively erasing original sources in a misguided effort to "teach students how to responsibly use AI tools."

Responsible use is teaching people that AI tools are plagiarism machines. Period.

Light ya up! ✨😋

📸 QuickshotCoyote 🤍💜🪇

#EAST #FursuitsEveryday

huh, this makes a lot of sense and is kinda cool

so, I was wondering why mahjong tiles use all the standard numerals for digits except five, which uses the "financial" version

backing up a bit, in latin scripts, we tend to write out numbers in full on financial documents like checks to prevent them from being altered. it's very easy to change a 1 to a 7 but much more difficult to change one to seven

but in chinese and languages which use chinese characters, the numerals are the words. with extremely simple numerals it's trivial to change them by adding in extra lines:

一二三四五六七八九

so, there are "financial" versions of the numerals that are much more complicated and can't easily be changed to match each other:

壹貳參肆伍陸柒捌玖

out of these numerals, one stands out as being much more similar to its original: five (五). in particular, it's the same character, but with a "person" radical next to it: 伍

it's also the only character which uses its financial version on mahjong tiles instead of the original

so, it turns out that apparently, this is to ensure it has a different tactile feel from three (三), which differs from five by two lines, assuming that this reddit comment is accurate: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/16liu0b/why_is_%E4%BC%8D_used_on_mahjong_tiles_instead_of_%E4%BA%94/

since mahjong tiles are small and harder to hold/hide, a lot of people rely on feeling the tiles instead of looking at them to determine which tile they are, and this makes the tiles feel more different. (unlike playing cards, mahjong tiles are pretty much always engraved)

which is a cool case of a game being made more blind-accessible even if it wasn't necessarily the intention originally

Just saw this headline under "positive news": "9-year-old sells lemonade to help pay for dad's kidney surgery"

This is not fucking positive or heartwarming, it's dystopian!

It's utterly horrible that we've decided that allowing people to become billionaires is more important than universal access to lifesaving medical care.

I've lost count of how many studies have shown that the government just doing the obvious thing like paying to give people healthcare, homes, UBI, or whatever is ultimately more cost effective and beneficial to everyone than punishing people for being poor.

But punishing people for being poor is foundational to our society so, you know.

I worked with an academic back in the early ‘00s in the UK who looked into the mental health benefits of playing with LEGO.

Great to see this story about how it helps with childhood trauma and PTSD.

I’ve always loved LEGO - particularly the space variety! The combination of imagination and physical play is very therapeutic.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/how-lego-is-being-used-to-reduce-stress-combat-childhood-trauma-and-manage-ptsd/

How LEGO Is Being Used to Reduce Stress, Combat Childhood Trauma, and Manage PTSD

The root of LEGO's tremendous, and proven, psychiatric benefits lies in the ability to help individuals zone out while playing with them.

^{Andy Corbley (Good News Network)}

i wish PC tech reviewers (and the market at large) gave more of a crap about power efficiency

twice the power consumption for being 10% faster than a competing part is criticised in passing, but ultimately treated like no big deal; a new generation bringing just a 5% performance uplift at 33% lower power is a "missed opportunity"

We've been hearing an increasing number of reports of trans people's GPs refusing to prescribe their HRT to them - even if they have a letter from an NHS gender clinic requesting that they do. That's why we're created our new My GP is Refusing to Prescribe My HRT resource: https://transactual.org.uk/medical-transition/my-gp-is-refusing-to-prescribe-my-hrt-what-can-i-do/

Has your GP recently refused to prescribe you HRT? Let us know at https://tinyurl.com/TransActualHRT

#Trans #Transgender #Nonbinary #Queer #TransHealth #HRT #Testosterone #Oestrogen #MTF #FTM #MTX #FTX

Sunset my love – @inkrrred on Tumblr

https://www.tumblr.com/inkrrred/758759978956914688/sunset-my-love

#centaur

inkrred

Sunset my love <3

^Tumblr

It's been ages since I've been through my photos and thought it was high time for me to post something new.

Here we have a photo of Capo the maned wolf (https://www.furtrack.com/index/character:capo) taken at a Manc Furs meet last year. While he is striking a 'no nonsense' pose, it's hard to look menacing with those deep eyes and fluffy mane.

#Furry #Fursuit #Fursuiter #Fursuiting #FursuitEveryday #MancFurs

Apparently I have two types of friends right now: Those with covid and those with a bad cold/allergies who won't test for covid.

If you're one of the latter, be responsible and test. I'm sorry if it ruins your weekend plans, but you could literally save someone's life by being responsible.

Content warning: Transphobia Reveal/hide

Don't. Ever. Publish. Stuff. That. ONLY. Supports. Dark. Mode.
I mean, I know a LOT of people love dark mode, and given the benefits that darkening interfaces provides... I get it.

But there are some people (like me) who may be visually impaired. Astigmatism, for example, can make reading text that is white on dark a real PITA. An effect known as "halation" occurs, where each letter behaves as if it were a flashlight, gaining its own halo of light and making all text read more blurry than normal.

No matter how good your glasses are, astigmatism still causes you to see a little blurry—it's something you get used to. But this damn effect makes all the text read as if you don't have your glasses on, or even worse, leading to much more tired eyes or even pain.

For everyone's sake, if you really care about accessibility, respect user preferences. If you want a dark interface by default, offer a light version if the user specifies it (in web design, this would be prefers-color-scheme: light). The same goes for light interfaces.

Then:

"Grandma, why are you saving those bits of twine and pieces of used foil? You can just go to the store and buy new stuff."

"Grandson, I grew up during the Depression"

Now:
"Dad, why are you collecting all those DVDs and saving files to disk and all that? You can just go to the Internet and find that."

"Kids, I grew up during the Great Ensh*ttification..."

#informationhoarding

Moving is going fine, why do you ask?

(With apologies to Tom Gauld.)