small bug big mess

Temptation

there is a very big difference i think between "i was and am a semi-public figure/niche internet microcelebrity and it felt incredibly weird and gross to have strangers speculate on my gender identity" and "my friend who i personally know joked that i might be trans and that helped me figure a lot out" and I think a lot of egg discourse happens when someone acts like these are both the same thing that should be treated the same

speculating someone is trans whether seriously or as a joke can either be helpful or harmful depending on who is doing it and who it's being done to and that's fine, know your audience and relation to a person i guess

if you are coming at this from the angle of protecting innocent cis people from the horrors of being presumed to be a trans woman then i do not care about you though. I've had enough of that "can't we just let men be feminine" coded dogwhistle shit. fix your heart or die,

Important ideas to consider when creating characters who are black and indigenous people of color. (x)

They will destroy nature and call it saving the planet.

Joshua Trees are a weird thing that stayed since the last Ice Age. They're on the decline anyways because no mega mammals eat their seeds and pop them out else where anymore. Hasen't been one around in over ten thousand years but still they persist. Sometimes they thrive in small areas and other times they die out.

Then California decides fuck the Joshua Trees and destroys four thousand of them.

Fuck California. Joshua Trees provide shelter to hundreds of different species.

Cunts.

People asking if there is anything that can be done, YES.

There is a group trying to get this halted but they need to be boosted!

When it comes to testimonies of the generations that went through the Nakba, I have compiled a small but very rich list of resources to help keep their testimonies alive.

The website Palestine Remembered has a huge archive of over 600 videos of lengthy testimonies from Nakba survivors that are grouped according to their districts and towns.

The Nakba Archive is a big project conducted by AUB which includes interviews of first generation palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Almashriq also has voice recordings of testimonies of Palestinian Nakba survivors who were internally displaced and the interviews are grouped according to the area where they were expelled to.

Israeli NGO Zochrot has a database of testimonies including video recordings of Nakba survivors that is regularly updated.

Lastly, written testimonies are equally important and photographer Anne Paq shared her series dedicated to pairing testimonies of Nakba survivors along with photographs of them and their grandchildren.

We all must be committed to keep these stories at the forefront of our discussions on Palestine, despite Israel's constant efforts to bury the truth (both literally and figuratively).

finally got some good pictures of my outfit for meow wolf denver's second recycled fashion show!! the show was themed around "bloom" so i went carnivorous plant. the show itself was a blast and i'm super happy with how the outfit turned out!

memes cats would make

[ID: a simple chart showing two captioned illustrations. the first is a drawing of a smiling person labeled "The Person." underneath are bullet points which say: "nice to me," "calls me good boy names like Dumb Sausage and Stop," "put dinner," and "holding me because i never be bad." the second is a frowning person with an angry vacuum cleaner labeled "The Person (evil alter ego???) and the bullet points read: "LOUD," "maybe possessed by Bad devil or evil etc," and "chases me except if i hide behind the ladder thats been in the living room for 6 months it can't find me."]

Videos posted by Israeli forces show them going around the Rafah crossing with their tanks just to topple installations that say "Gaza" or "I <3 Gaza" and they laugh about it.

With everything going on in our minds right now, I honestly can't help but think how this disgusting act only demonstrates how terrified these Israelis must be and how threatened they are by the mere mention of Gaza.

The fact they used tanks to run over and destroy art installations as a first course of action after taking over the only crossing in Gaza, tells me exactly that.

Just say it, admit it, Gaza will forever haunt you because whether you destroy its buildings or trees or even down to its art installations, it rises again. Aggression after aggression, the people of Gaza continue to rise despite your evil efforts.

Gaza frustrates you, we can tell.

reminder that donating just a few $ to gofundme campaigns actually helps, you don't have to donate huge amounts if you don't have the funds, every little bit is useful. give $10, $5, even $1. it all adds up. don't scroll past because you think you can't help. help in your own capacity. donate a dollar. share and speak up.

here are a few gofundme links that still need a lot of help

If everyone who reblogs this post donates $5 (which I now know is the minimum you can donate on gofundme) to at least one of these, think about how fast we can help them all reach their respective goals

Since I made this post less than 24 hours ago we've collectively raised over $2000, and a lot of those donations were in the amount of $5-10. Keep sharing and keep donating. There is strength in numbers, and if those in power won't help we still have to do what we can. Small numbers add up. Thank you all for doing what you can. It does make a difference.

Here’s a link to a petition to protect Native American land in NC from a gas station chain which poses immense environmental threats, has violated workers rights, and will destroy land with historical significance to natives. My ancestors traveled the trading path they plan to build over. Please sign if you have a moment

This is my favourite interview strategy

Inspired by this post by @alex-just-vibing. PaliRev values the contribution of all people to the liberation of Palestine, and we encourage you to share this around your schools or with others to give accessible options for us all to show solidarity for the Palestinian people.

[image id: an image with a white background, bordered on the bottom left and top right with green, corner illustrations, an olive garden branch drawing on the bottom right, and a drawing of a boy sitting down with a backpack leaning on him, looking downwards sadly on the top right. there is a low opacity palestinian flag behind black text reading "HOW DO I SUPPORT PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE IF I CAN'T DONATE?" below this is a list in smaller black text, bulleted with light green arrows. the list reads:

"- Wear shirts, pins, keffiyehs, anything outwardly pro Palestine.

below this in light grey text reads "@PALIREV.WEB". /end id.]

the cognitive dissonance from people who want the products of modern medicine but get weird about animal research. like im sorry but this is necessary for the survival of the society we currently live in. and the scientists who work on these things are not evil cackling psychopaths. anyone you talk to in animal research has incredibly complex feelings about their work and incredibly complex relationships to the animals in their care. there are regulations and oversight and penalties in place to make the work as humane as possible and scientists are overwhelmingly the ones enforcing and advocating for better care.

@velvetdemon I'm doing a full reply because I want to give this question the time and space it deserves, and I really do appreciate your curiosity about this.

The short answer: It is deeply unethical. There are nowhere near enough willing patients in the world to be able to do this, and it would be criminal to put them through this.

The long answer: The one side of the equation you're focusing on is: how much of a drug is too much, to the point where it will cause negative side effects or even death? And this is crucial to know. But it's not just a matter of finding out the lethal dosage of a heart cholesterol medication, you need to know that it can actually lower the cholesterol of any living thing. There is no way to know this without giving it first to...a living thing.

But beyond this, I need to emphasize: The goal of a drug trial is to effectively cure people who are already suffering from disease, who are living on limited time.

Drug trials don't just happen on any member of the public, they need to happen specifically on people affected by the disease you're trying to treat. There is at any time a very limited and very marginalized population of the world affected by early onset, familial Parkinson's disease. Because you cannot ethically induce disease in a human being, you are working with, speaking with, and helping patients and their families who are hopeful and desperate for a cure.

If you were to jump straight to human trials from petri dishes, not knowing absolutely anything about how the drug functions in a living, breathing animal body, it would look like this:

I could go on, and on, and on.

The vast majority of these problems can be nearly or almost entirely averted by testing other animals first.

These are all people who possibly could have waited for the normal progression from animal testing to human testing and thus received better outcomes. Some people will pass away in the time it takes to get to that point, and that's heartbreaking, and we all wish science could be faster.

But the cost of expediting science could mean a life of profoundly greater suffering or an even shorter life than the one where no intervention happens at all. And at that point, you have completely exhausted your trust, your goodwill, and your patients' hope, after you've failed to do anything or even worsened the lives of people who are already deeply suffering.

hi, i’m an animal research professional. making sure laboratory animals stay alive, healthy, and enriched has been my full-time job for several years now.

animal research is not the mad scientist wild west that PETA wants you to think it is. there are extremely strict federal laws in place to protect the well being of these animals. animal welfare organizations like AAALAC ensure that lab animals are treated with dignity & respect and are given enough specialized care & enrichment to be happy and content in captivity, just like AZA accreditation with zoos.

not a single animal from a zebrafish to a mouse to a dog to a macaque goes unaccounted for. if an animal gets moved to a new cage, paired for breeding, has a procedure performed on it, gives birth, gets sick or injured, dies, etc. it is legally required that this information is recorded and kept on file for the US federal government to access. failing to record & retain this information is very much punishable by US federal law.

let me tell you - if you abuse or kill an animal, even a mouse - you are almost certainly getting both fired & blacklisted from the industry. if you abuse or kill a more ‘advanced’ animal, such as a dog or monkey, you will likely face criminal charges. killing a monkey is as serious and disastrous as a nuclear meltdown. you are expected to reasonably explain every illness, injury, or death of an animal under your care. you must record all of this information. animals that are clearly suffering with low QOL are required to be euthanized according to AVMA guidelines.

research animals are highly expensive. yes, even the "lesser" animals like mice. the cheapest mice will run you a few hundred $ per individual, with some of the most expensive mice i've cared for being $25,000 per individual. in research we have the "three Rs" - reduction (reduce amount of necessary animals to a minimum), refinement (refine processes to ensure research is accurate and animals feel no pain or distress), and replacement (replace animals with non-living research models as they become available). i can assure you no proper research team is wasting animals (*do not* say "b-b-but elon musk--" his research team is actively being investigated for animal abuse by the government).

research methods that do not require live animals are currently being looked into & efforts spearheaded by - you guessed it - the animal research industry itself (notice how the animal rights people are strangely silent & unhelpful when it comes to this?) but current technology is rudimentary and does not compare to live animal models.

some research animal fun facts (US edition):

so yes, you can rest knowing that laboratory animals are treated with the utmost respect by their caretakers. and you can stop this awful, ignorant talk of human experimentation that will only end in the abuse of nonwhite people, LGBT people, disabled people, indigenous people, and so many others. please just take a look at this wikipedia page if you think “ethical” human experimentation can exist.

there’s an online mobilisation effort called “blockout 2024”, where people are en masse blocking influencers/celebrities who have been silent so far on palestine to make them lose followers and income. and it’s been making celebrities and streamers start posting links to gofundmes and the PCRF, which is great. But after 7 months of silence, I simply can’t look at many of these creators the same way, and the idea that these people with so much wealth and influence only started caring when something materially forced their hand and affected their social standing should disgust you too.

so accept the meager good these people are doing by posting links, but remind yourself that all of them could’ve been talking about palestine this whole time. sharing resources is truly the bare minimum. remind yourself that your faves aren’t exempt from the criticism attached to attending the met gala because they’re your faves. and never forget how many lives they could’ve saved if they spoke up sooner, and bothered to put any of their own money on the line.

This website names a person a day to mass block

6k giveaway! one copy of the ultimate guide zine + all seven scourge colour stickers - to enter follow me and reblog this post :) closes 20th!

This is my fan translation of Kairi Seidouitusei Shougai no Chiguhagu na Hibi by Tokin! I love this manga so much. It’s a wonderful autobiography about DID and a representation with a tone we don’t usually get in English. Tokin-sensei gave me permission to translate the prologue and share it with an English audience because I know so many people would want to read it! I am not going to translate the entire text, but I do really really want to encourage people to submit it in this month’s Seven Seas interest survey!! Please help support Tokin-sensei’s wonderful work!

(Submitting with the Japanese title I wrote above or a link to this post would be best for clarity, my English title is not a literal translation)

Tokin-sensei's response to the support 🥰