If you have the time and flexibility, you can also try out libreoffice.

Just did this on November 14th, 2024, so this is very current!

The mutuals were so right. Reading On Self-Respect by Joan Didion DOES stop you from losing your fucking mind

Starting my morning off w a whole liter of water and this essay is what’s keeping me sane right now btw

Full text

Honest question: Why do pop culture references work and get a laugh in things like Shrek, but in others they just come across as just being lame and forced? What makes a pop culture reference work? 

I think the thing with references in general is that they need to either a) work on their own even if someone DOESN’T understand the source material and/or (preferably and) b) are brief enough that someone who doesn’t understand them most likely won’t notice them, instead of stopping the story shut in its tracks for a minute so you can wink at the viewer and say “geddit? eh? eh?”… metaporically speaking.

Example: in Shrek 2, Shrek sees an old poster in Fiona’s old room in the castle.

When I was a kid, I genuinely didn’t recognize that this was supposed to be Justin Timberlake, because I wasn’t that up on celebrity stuff (and he already wore a full beard at this point). But I still smiled, because even if you DON’T recognize the celeb it still is a solid joke even without that, narrative is still easy to recongize that Fiona as a tween had a crush on some male celebrity, and it ties into character development of Shrek feeling insecure because he’s not human - so it fullfills point a).

And in addition to that: that shot? It lasts for THREE SECONDS. It’s a quiet scene (except for music), noone makes any mention of that poster, there’s no dialog or callback or anything. If you don’t get it, you miss absolutely nothing. So it fulfills point b) at the same time.

True, and even the longer references (like the scene in Shrek 2 where Fairy Godmother sings “I need a hero” and you get that whole Godzilla Cookie bit) don’t actually impede the story, because there’s still stuff going on. Most of the time, when a reference falls flat, it’s because the movie stops in its tracks or doesn’t advance the plot, which tends to get on the nerves of viewers :P

another example: in Meet The Robinson’s, when Wilbur says his dad looks like Tom Selleck and we’re given this picture for a fraction of a second among a bunch of pictures of goofy cartoon characters:

now as a kid this was hilarious bc come on, thats not a cartoon character, thats just a man!!! and it’s absurd and only there for a second. and then i learned later that his dad is actually voiced by Tom Selleck and GOD THATS HILARIOUS

pop culture references usually just fall somewhere on a spectrum from “funny” to “obnoxious,” with “boring” smack dab in the middle

I’d say that’s also why the Genie worked so great in Aladdin. It wasn’t until I was in my 20’s that I understood most of his references and impressions. But they are all so rapid fire that even when I don’t understand in my mind he’s just a silly man doing silly voices.

New chapter of 50s AU is up, and it's a long'un! I hope y'all like this one.

These are suggested for serving to recovering alcoholics, but I think they’re just fun and cool anyway? I like a fancy beverage, it doesn’t have to have booze. That cucumber Collins sounds refreshing AF

There are many benefits to being a marine biologist

Finally an actual good use of cryptozoology.

The danger zone for perishable food is between 40F and 140F or 4C and 60C. If your food is in that range for more than an hour, do not try to refrigerate it again, but you can still eat it safely. If it has been in the danger zone for over two hours, you do not eat that. You throw it away.

This is why you do not let things thaw out in the open sitting in the sink. The outside of it is in the danger zone while the inside is still thawing. Defrost things in the fridge or run cold water over the packaging for a bit.

Also it is not best practice to put covered boiling hot food in the fridge. That will make the inside of it be in the danger zone for longer. Let your food cool off uncovered at room temperature for about half an hour first or place it in its container in an ice bath for about ten minutes. Whichever you’d rather do.

For the record for anyone worried, it won't kill you if you don't strictly adhere to this but you will absolutely have tummy troubles. If you've got issues with IBS etc, maybe try adhering to these rules and see where it gets you. You do have an immune system for a reason but it's best practice not to test it too far

You increase your risk for food poisoning every time you break food safety rules. Food poisoning is usually not deadly but it can still be dangerous and still has a chance of causing damage to your system. And food safety can absolutely save your life or save you from permanent injury under the right circumstances. I sustained permanent damage to my digestive system and lost my ability to fully absorb vitamins from a bacterial infection and I have to take vitamin supplements for the rest of my life now. I spread this information to reduce the risk of something similar happening to others.

While not everything will be this extreme, a healthy 20-year-old man's body literally shut down after eating spaghetti left at room temp for a couple days. Follow these rules because they may save your life.

helen “trans people are perpetuating gender steriotypes” joyce is now upset that the scientific american is writing about how women were hunters too back in the day, not just mothers and caretakers. feminist win!

I think I found the article!

Read it if you have the time, it's very interesting.

Reading the article I see why TERFs are mad about it; it explicitly makes the distinction between gender as a social entity and sex as a biological category, and defines biological sex having multiple factors, both of which are anathema to TERF philosophy.

It also includes these fascinating paragraphs about the role of estrogen in different types of physical activity, directly debunking the widespread notion that estrogen is the weak human's hormone and only does weak human things:

The article also talks about sexual dimorphism in different species, concluding that "Modern humans have low sexual dimorphism compared with the other great apes," and that overemphasis on averages obscures the wide dispersal of individual traits, which is what I keep saying.

I also thought this part was cool :)

PLEASE read this article, this information is incredible for everyone looking to unlearn bioessentialism

Things suck right now. Who wants to join me in making paper crane chains? You don't need any special tools or artistic talent, it gives you something to do with your hands, and you end up with a pretty chain of paper cranes that you can either hang up, or throw away without feeling too wasteful. And if you do join me, post pictures in the reblogs! :)

Tools you will need: needle and thread, a pad of post-it notes, and sharpies/markers/crayons/etc. of your choice.

You can design your post-it any way you like - you can even draw a picture or write out a text. I usually make a simple pattern with around 6 colors. Start by just drawing a pattern - it can be simple or detailed, random or symmetrical, cured or angled - then add each color, line by line, until you fill the post-it.

How to fold a paper crane: https://savingcranes.org/learn/origami-cranes/

Additional pictures and commentary from me below the cut (skip if you already know how to fold a paper crane).

The first set - more to come tomorrow. :)

My army grows...

I have decided that I am going to make a crane "bead" curtain to cover the awkward little half-window that I never open. This will be frivolous and time-consuming and serve no purpose, other than the idea makes me happy.

Coping by turning feelings into paper cranes.

A side effect of this project is that I am going to accidentally find out how many unique sharpies I own. (For each crane I used a different color to draw the initial design, and I am slowly cycling through my whole stock.)

You can see someone else also using the devices' second seat, and I think that's so cool. Mobility devices help everyone, here other employees also get a chance to sit while they're working. I just love mobility aids, man. It's like the cut curb effect

Will humanity ever be free of the influence of Edna Mode? Can any of us so much as consider the character design for a hero or villain without her manifesting in the room, fully aware of our sins?

You know what, another layer of difficulty is when you’re thinking about villains, and the wise words of Megamind come into your head. You don’t just want your child to be just a regular villain. But how do you make your villain a Supervillain with no cape? Where is the drama? But Edna says no capes, you must deny them the flair. It is impossible to please them both, and it’s tearing this family apart.

you. you get it.

(tags via @jeremiahsmysteriosotouch)

Counteroffer: Big dramatic cloak to protect your identity that you drop on the floor before every fight

#there are two wolves inside you #one is edna mode #the other is megamind  (@remnantofahero) 

I can’t believe the compromise is Obi-Wan Kenobi

“No capes!”

“Game on, then.”

Okay, but I love that Gandalf is just dropping his cloak to reveal another, slightly smaller cloak underneath it.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: it's more important to know and understand fully why something is harmful than it is to drop everything deemed problematic. It's performative and does nothing. People wonder why nobody has critical thinking skills and this is part of it because no one knows how to simousltansly critique and consume media. You need to use discernment.

This is ultimately why propaganda is going to work on you. Because you never learned how to think for yourself and the actual ideology behind things. You simply rely on group think and the bare minimum explanations to tell you what's good and bad.

ily, menswear guy

Now is a good time to check if you need to renew your passport or get one for the first time.

Not even as an alarmist thing, but because you want to do it NOW before any requirements change and your get distracted by the world. It's just a good thing to have.

The full passport book is pricey ($130), but the card ($30) has all the same benefits as identification and can be used at land borders.

Just to make it clear, because I've also seen this (good) advice going around on other platforms and being challenged:

The main point of having a Passport in the times to come is NOT to emigrate or have the ID to claim asylum, and I pray we don't need it for that.

The point is that Upcoming Administration wants to deport people. They will almost certainly not have the federal staff for the plans they espoused. The Passport is proof of citizenship in ways that other IDs in the US are not.

Additonally, beyond the travel book - which you should keep in a safe place similar to your Birth certificate when not traveling- you can get a wallet card. Immediate proof, right there.

This may be especially important for POC and Latine people soon.

Be safe, friends.

Skip Google for Research

As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse.  It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms 

As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable.  As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.

Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.

⁂

Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free

this and also; your local libraries

If you're feeling anxious or depressed about the climate and want to do something to help right now, from your bed, for free...

Start helping with citizen science projects

What's a citizen science project? Basically, it's crowdsourced science. In this case, crowdsourced climate science, that you can help with!

You don't need qualifications or any training besides the slideshow at the start of a project. There are a lot of things that humans can do way better than machines can, even with only minimal training, that are vital to science - especially digitizing records and building searchable databases

Like labeling trees in aerial photos so that scientists have better datasets to use for restoration.

Or counting cells in fossilized plants to track the impacts of climate change.

Or digitizing old atmospheric data to help scientists track the warming effects of El Niño.

Or counting penguins to help scientists better protect them.

Those are all on one of the most prominent citizen science platforms, called Zooniverse, but there are a ton of others, too.

Oh, and btw, you don't have to worry about messing up, because several people see each image. Studies show that if you pool the opinions of however many regular people (different by field), it matches the accuracy rate of a trained scientist in the field.

--

I spent a lot of time doing this when I was really badly injured and housebound, and it was so good for me to be able to HELP and DO SOMETHING, even when I was in too much pain to leave my bed. So if you are chronically ill/disabled/for whatever reason can't participate or volunteer for things in person, I highly highly recommend.

Next time you wish you could do something - anything - to help

Remember that actually, you can. And help with some science.

And let me tell you, from one scientist to you, it is SO HELPFUL!!

Massive data sets like these take a really long time to work through. Heck, my own tiny data sets take forever for me to work through.

Your help helps IMMENSELY. It allows scientists to focus on the more intense data analysis and paper writing part, and to analyze much more than they otherwise could.

And Zooniverse is coming out with new projects all the time—two new projects showed up this morning in my email!

It makes a difference!!!!

And let me tell you,

from one scientist to you,

it is SO HELPFUL!!

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

I am pleading once again for white liberals to read The New Jim Crow and see how racist policing and law enforcement is 1) bipartisan and 2) the key to how people of color (Black people specifically) are systemically, violently, and purposely kept in check in this country. Begging y'all to see that someone doesn't have to say a slur to be antiblack in the entirety of their belief system, that the status quo you live under is maintained by the suffering (both current and potential) of millions

The New Jim Crow (PDF)

Potato do not be playing with y'all lmao, get this free education!