Find and Replace, the entire internet, "neurodiverse" --> "neurodivergent"
cassolotl reblogged
Looking for a new crowdfunding system - know of anything suitable?
I'm exploring my options now that Patreon is phasing out their "per thing" model of crowdfunding. (They're switching everyone over to monthly payments, but my "per thing" is once per year, so monthly billing doesn't seem suitable for this project anymore.)
Does anyone know of another service online where I can have subscribers and take pledges repeatedly and on my own schedule?
What I would like to do is have people sign up to pay a pre-set amount of their choosing when I hit the big "pull in all donations now" button right before I do an annual survey, to cover my costs.
The alternative is to change my Patreon goal from however much it is annually to 1/12th of that monthly (ugh), or just crowdfund annually (mmmmmmaybe fine, but not as easy), or.... a secret fourth thing?
New zine that's free for anyone to print and distribute! Read the whole thing at newlevant.com/COVIDzine or in the rest of this post.
UPDATE 4/11/2023:
I swapped out the colloidal silver nasal spray info for xylitol nasal spray info. I originally included colloidal silver spray because of the linked study and recommendation from RTHM, but I don't want to be pointing people toward something with notable health risks. Xylitol spray (Xlear) is also cheaper and more widely available!
cassolotl reblogged
The midjourney stuff just reminds of when we were trying to find a new platform to host the ao3 donation form, and companies kept trying to tell me about all their "ai" features that would track donor engagement, and figure out the optimal pattern to email individual donors asking for follow up donations, and all the ways they suggest we manipulate people into staying on our websites. It was a great way to filter out who either wasn't listening to us when we described our ethics and donor base, or just didn't believe us.
Now granted ao3 is a unique case based on a) the amount of page views we get in any given time period and b) the fact that most donors absolutely do Not want to be identified as such anywhere, (the default "list of recent donors" module got nuked Immediately) but it surprised me some that the concept of "donors who value their privacy and would be furious at even the whiff of AI" is unique. Some of us really are just existing in different worlds.
Op's tags
#I just started dropping '2.5 Billion page views a month'#into conversations as early as possible bc they would Not believe me otherwise#it was right up there with having to say 'csam attacks' to get them to take my compartmentalization of information concerns seriously#turns out those are the magic words#otw#op
The last part was kind of insane, honestly. When we started changing platforms for the donor database, I kept telling them that yes I was aware we already had an account for the volunteer database, and no that could not be connected to the donor database. And they said yes fine sure and then connected them anyway. And I called them back and said, excuse me, I'm confused, I can see both databases. And they said, well, yeah, but it's only you, someone has to be able to see both databases to give other users access. The other users can't see both. And I said, no, we have been asking for a completely separate database. I should not be able to see both. And they said, you are one organization, one organization can't have two databases. And I said, last year someone used our volunteer email list to commit approximately one thousand felonies. Please feel free to imagine how much worse it could have been had they had a way to use volunteers' email addresses to get their legal names. We do not want this to be something anyone can do no matter how much we trust them. Let me describe those felonies to you in more detail. And they emailed me two hours later and said, you can have two separate databases.
cassolotl reblogged
Just Like the First Time.
IMPORTANT NEWS
OLD WOMEN YURI HAS REACHED MY PAGE
OLD WOMEN YURI
FUCKING OLD WOMEN YURI
I CAN DIE PEACEFULLY TONIGHT
cassolotl reblogged
I reblogged a comic the other day about a doctor watching House, MD and diagnosing toxoplasmosis, tagging it with "you're more likely to get toxoplasmosis from a salad than a cat". There's a story behind that.
I used to work in the kennel at a vet clinic. One day one of the vet techs came into the kennel in a tearing hurry, handed me two cat carriers, and said, "Find a cage for these two. Don't know how long, but you can put them together." And then she left.
This was not how that was supposed to happen. I had no cage cards--no names, no feeding instructions, no health information--they weren't on the schedule, and techs didn't usually intake boarders. Medical cases had a separate kennel, so a tech shouldn't be bringing me an animal in during office visit hours. But I had a cage in the cat room, so I tucked them in--two adult females, very friendly, apparently healthy.
Half an hour later the tech came back--with cage cards--and said, "It's okay, they're staying overnight and going home tomorrow." She slumped against the kennel wall and told the cats' story.
They had been brought to the clinic to be euthanized, to die.
These healthy, friendly, beloved cats had been brought in to be killed, because a woman's doctor, her obstetrician, had told her that they had killed her unborn baby. He told her if she ever wanted a child she had to get rid of the cats. He told her they should be euthanized before they killed any other woman's unborn child.
He said, with no evidence, that they had toxoplasmosis. He said that toxoplasmosis caused her miscarriage.
The woman was distraught. She had just lost her baby, she was dealing with the hormonal changes of the pregnancy loss, and now she had to euthanize her beloved cats. Fortunately no vet I've ever worked for will euthanize healthy animals brought in by a sobbing client without asking why!
The vet spent almost an hour talking to the woman, educating her on toxoplasmosis, telling her all the reasons her doctor was wrong.
- Not all cats have toxoplasmosis, and even when they do they only shed the oocytes in their feces--they're only infectious--for the first few weeks. Most cats are infected as kittens and are no longer infectious as adults. According to Wikipedia, "Numerous studies have shown living in a household with a cat is not a significant risk factor for T. gondii infection,[61][63][64] though living with several kittens has some significance.[65]"
- Most people get toxoplasmosis from raw vegetables, especially salad greens that grow close to the soil and are hard to clean. Raw or rare meat, raw seafood, and unpasteurized milk are also a risk.
- Toxoplasmosis can be a soil-borne disease from feces in the soil. Gardening is a greater risk than cat cohabitation.
- Toxoplasmosis infection is dangerous to the fetus in pregnancy, yes, causing birth defects and miscarriages. But only the first time the person is infected. If this this woman had lost her first pregnancy to toxoplasmosis--and the vet said it really didn't fit the symptoms--she would be at low risk in a subsequent pregnancy.
So basically the vet told the woman that 1) her miscarriage probably wasn't toxoplasmosis, 2) even if it was, she probably didn't get it from her cats, 3) even if her cats had given her toxoplasmosis, they weren't infectious anymore.
The woman kept her cats and got a new obstetrician.
Human doctors get a few lectures on zoonotic diseases--diseases transmitted from animals to humans or vice versa. Veterinarians get semesters. If a doctor ever tells you your animals have given you a disease, get a second opinion from your vet!
where's that masterpost of quotes that have no right going as hard as they do. I'd like to submit "Protagonism is best left to teens and the insane"
cassolotl reblogged
I have a thing to get to but had to get this out real quick
EDIT:
okay back from the thing
-it doesn't actually have to be a negative emotion, I have trouble-causing maladaptive responses to positive ones too
-maladaptive responses usually served the purpose of keeping you safe in a tough situation, or were the only response modeled for you, or both, so they're not Inherently Bad they're just not useful in the context of a healthy relationship
-this is a useful thing to keep in mind if you have a bad track record with relationships and therefore come up against a lot of thoughts like "no one likes the real me/my real feelings" and "I am unloveable". it's not your self or your natural feelings that are the issue, it's the way you've learned to behave in response to them (again, because you had to or you don't know any other way!). which sucks, but the good news is you can unlearn those things and practice new behaviors.
This is a water-seal stoneware crock. The design is ancient.
It is, essentially, a large ceramic vessel that you put vegetables and sometimes brine into. To prevent spoilage, you place those ceramic weights on top of whatever food is in the crock, and that keeps them weighted down, below the level of the water. Because fermentation creates gases, most crocks have a "water groove" in them. The lid sits in the groove, which allows air to escape but not come in. Because fermentation creates gas, the interior of the crock is positive-pressure, and because the gas created is almost entirely carbon dioxide, it's a low-oxygen environment that additionally helps prevent spoilage.
And all this would be pointless without lactobacillus, the bacteria that chomp down on the vegetables you put into the crock. They're anaerobic, which means totally fine without oxygen, and they produce an environment that's inhospitable to most other organisms. The main things they produce are CO2, which means no oxygen for other bacteria, and lactic acid, which makes the fermented thing sour and also decreases the pH low enough that many other bacteria cannot survive. They tolerate high levels of salt, which kill yet more competitor bacteria. It ends up being a really really good way to keep food from going off.
Our ancestors figured this out thousands of years ago without knowing what bacteria were. This general ceramic design has been in use around the world in virtually every place that had ceramics, salt, and too much cabbage or cucumbers that was going to rot if they didn't do something about it. It's thousands of years old, so old that it gets hard to interpret the evidence of the ceramics.
And I have crocks like this in my kitchen, where I make my own ferments, and I always think about how beautiful and elegant it all is, and how this was probably invented hundreds of times as people converged on something that Just Works.
(I do have pH testing strips though.)
cassolotl reblogged
To anyone who gets Personal Independence Payment (UK disability benefit) and has trouble with the types of communication they usually use (e.g. phone): I have just successfully got the DWP to promise that they will contact me by email only. If you want to do this, or need other adjustments in communication for disability reasons, email the address [email protected].
The magic formula to include in your email is:
- "I am writing to request a reasonable adjustment in communication." (that's the legal jargon for them meeting your needs)
- "I have [condition/s] and am defined as disabled under the Equality Act 2010." (that's the law that forces them to comply - you don't need specific diagnoses but can say e.g. "auditory processing issues" or whatever brief summary describes you)
- "Due to my disabilities I am unable to communicate with the DWP by phonecall [or give any other communication types of formats you can't do]." (be brief but specific, you don't need to explain exactly why this need follows from your disabilities as long as you state that it does)
- "Therefore, I need [your specific communication requirements] when communicating with the DWP." (tell them exactly what you actually need - for example, I said that I need asynchronous text-based communication such as email for both when the DWP contacts me and when I need to contact them directly. I specified that this includes assessments as well as any other contact about my PIP status or application.)
- "Please contact me to confirm that the DWP will [meet your needs as requested]." (always ask for receipts)
- "[Your full name], [your National Insurance number]." (make sure they can find your case)
And please feel free to share this info with anyone you think may need it! No need to refer to me or anything, just get it out there 👍
cassolotl reblogged
Check your voter registration status - YOU CAN REGISTER AND VOTE IN PERSON DAY OF
Voter safety and resources for domestic violence survivors - you can cast a secret ballot at the polls
cassolotl reblogged
cats will be like oh you're walking somewhere? no WE'RE walking somewhere. and i will get there first. where is 'there' btw
cassolotl reblogged
Italian guided missile cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi sails past training ship Amerigo Vespucci, 1968
The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Independence (CVA-62) underway with the Italian Marina Militare training ship Amerigo Vespucci on 12 July 1962.
When the two ships met, the American aircraft carrier USS Independence flashed the Amerigo Vespucci with the light signal asking: "Who are you?"
The full-rigged ship answered: "Training ship Amerigo Vespucci, Italian Navy."
The Independence replied: "You are the most beautiful ship in the world."
~
(fast forward sixty years)
The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush alongside the Italian training ship ITS Amerigo Vespucci, Sep. 1, 2022.
The aircraft carrier saluted the training ship and commented: "You are still, after 60 years, the most beautiful ship in the world."
#i ship it, obviously
cassolotl reblogged
We need etsy to get bought by someone who will run it like the navy i need to only see small businesses in eastern europe weaving baskets by hand and anime yaoi keychains with original fanart
Literally need someone with an serial killer level obsession with content moderation to sit at a wall of monitors sniping dropshippers. I need etsy HQ to look and sound like the nerv command center in Evangelion
if you've ever used the London Underground you might have noticed that it often gets uncomfortably hot. the reason for this is actually that its builders dug too greedily & too deep and as a result the trains are very close to the fires of hell. hope that helps.
^Real advertisement from the 20s. Normal train system.