News from the Cave

The sequel ‘Skull Measuring for beginners’ is scheduled for 2025.

a list of factors that CAN cause poor outcomes and fatalities in blood transfusions:

A list of factors that there have no substantial scientific proof of being linked with poor outcomes and fatalities in blood transfusion:

Currently, in the UK, there via a shortage of blood donors; in particular donors from Afro-Carribean backgrounds, whose blood is more likely to be a HLA match for transfusions for sickle cell anaemia and beta thalassaemia sufferers.

I guarantee you that if you've gone into haemorrhagic shock, or are at risk of sickle cell crisis, the absolute last thing you're going to be thinking about is the sex of your donor, because without blood — no matter who donated it — you're going to die.

Blood transfusions save lives — no matter the donor's sex — to say that donor sex is related to adverse outcomes is at best, blatant misinformation with limited if any scientific backing, and at worst, modern day phrenology that's playing dice with people's lives.

(The data Rowling uses comes from 3 trials, all of which agree that a. further studies with wider sample sizes are needed, and b. the cause is likely due to an immunological factor rather than anything to do with endocrinology. Also, bias of interpretation is A Thing, folks.)

(via @thatlittleegyptologist )

Yo I spent a year working in the UK blood donation service and just want to add some things to reassure people.

Blood is always checked. Comprehensively. It doesn't matter if it's someones first donation or their hundredth. There are multiple checks before you even donate, and we send samples out to get them tested for any blood borne diseases long before the blood makes it's way into anyone. We sort the blood by group ourselves and it's always at least triple-checked on our end. Then it's checked again at the storage site, and once again in hospitals. We all have access to a massive, comprehensive database with every single donor. The bags are clearly labelled and barcoded.

If there was a single fatality linked to a blood donation, there'd be a massive outcry, and an even more massive internal reaction. Part of why the UK system is so careful is because of the mad cow outbreak, which was related to transfusions and honestly still gave some of my coworkers flashbacks. Everyone is constantly guarding against anything like that ever happening again.

The only significant difference between "male" and "female" blood is very slightly different haemoglobin levels. Donated blood with a different haemonglobin level will not kill you. It's meant to be higher than yours, because thats part of the fucking point of blood donations. Higher haemoglobin helps people your blood carry oxygen and helps your body with basically every vital function. Which is why we test haemoglobin levels on site and only accept donations from people with higher than average.

So yeah, one single difference. You know what this incredibly risk-averse, comprehensively research-led system said how trans people might affect that? That they don't. Our full training was literally "treat them like their identified gender"

So no, a donation from someone with the "opposite" sex won't kill you. You know what will kill you? Propaganda like this.

We have literal evidence in living memory of what happens when mass hysteria is whipped up over blood donations. My parents lost one of their best friends in Mexico during the AIDs crisis, because the media wouldn't stop screaming about contaminated blood and how it would kill you and your entire family. He died in his thirties from a fucking nosebleed.

JKR cares more about clinging to her transphobia than she does about the very real deaths that could come from this. She cares more about clinging to relevancy than she cares about the lives of the people who somehow still see her as worth listening to. Her morals are a joke on a cosmic level and I hope she rots.

Give blood (UK link) https://www.blood.co.uk/

It's good there are cool chairs and biscuits

im still so baffled as to how you could tell what sex the blood you got ‘actually’ was, since red blood cells DON’T HAVE DNA. of all the cells in the human body to try to ascribe the properties of a biological, intrinsic, immutable sex, the red blood cells are probably most absurd ones to pick. they have no dna! none! that’s where your chromosomes are! and your blood cells have a grand total of zero x’s or y’s! they’re physically just not built like that!!! holy shit!!!!

it really demonstrates the absurdity of terfs pretending like their cause is at all scientific, rather than a deeply superstitious and irrational misunderstanding of the human body right down to the most fundamental, basic particles. you could dissect a million blood cells for twenty years, and you won’t be able to find a scrap of gender in any of them.

but it’s easier to just lie on the internet.

To break it down further: We humans are built to be blood compatible (by type) because all of us shared blood with our mothers and half of us are potential hosts.

Because of this need to share blood, it’s pared down of information compared to other organs. To receive a piece of my liver, we’d need to be cell matched on multiple levels and you’d need to go on special anti-rejection drugs but we can share blood no problems.

Being on T changes literally ONE thing about your blood when it comes to donation, your number of red blood cells. It increases them. This CAN be an issue if you end up with too much but the solution is really easy, you just remove some (that is, you take some blood out) so arguably regular blood donation not only saves lives but is also something trans masc people on t should do anyway to keep their red cell numbers in check.

My husband has O- blood and you know what it's primarily used for? Maternity and neo natal transfusions. His blood goes into babies and women all the time becuase o- is the "oh fuck we haven't got time, emergancy blood transfusion!" stuff. We know this because the UK blood service actually texts you when they use your donation and tell you where it was used.

And this is why JK's crap is so dangerous, because if we start denying men the ability to donate blood because "ew icky man blood" then babies WILL DIE, women WILL DIE. And there's absolutely no evidence that different hormone levels in blood makes any bloody difference to outcomes. Blood is blood and if you need a transfusion all that matters is that it's a compatable type.

I nearly needed a blood transfusion after I had my second child, I lost a lot of blood in seconds. I went from fine to most definitely not fine in the snap of a finger. It's terrifying how fast that can happen. I narrowly missed needing a transfusion but had I needed it, i'm glad the NHS has a decent blood supply. When I had my eldest the woman in the bed opposite me suffered a catastrophic hemhorage 12 hours after giving birth. She was trying to a run a bath and then there was just blood... everywhere. She was in a BAD way and required multiple transfusions in the week we were hospitalised together.

Blood donation saved that woman's life. It saves a lot of women's lives.

It's frankly disgustingly irresponsible for JK to be tweeting this psudoscientific bullshit to her following and treating it like gospel truth.

Blood donation saves lives, it's a vital part of medical care. That terfs are attempting to undermine that with this bullshit is not just sickening, it's terrifying. They really are doing so much harm.

Isn't it lovely that she links to preorders for her book but not to where she found the "fact"?

i have a cis man friend here in the uk who is o-neg and his blood has for SURE saved babies of every sex and i am so damn proud of him

my favorite is when Kermit’s facial expression is simultaneously an obvious hand in a puppet but also an instantly recognizable and relatable emotion

I’ve been learning how to bind books, and this is my first - actually my first colossal failure, but it’s also my first complete success!  It’s @riotinthequiet‘s sidlink fic, A Light Down the Well! 

Keep reading

AAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAA

falling for the princess / chasing frogs 

Owls are masters of disguise, blending seamlessly into their surroundings. 

These trees appear to be judging me.

There’s no owl in that 6th pic

sneaky

a process of events

and there’s two in the fourth image.

THERE’S TWO IN THE FOURTH IMAGE WERJLNVEFLJNFVEJLN

Hey also you know the thing where a dog is determined to lick your face, but you don't want to get your face licked, so you kinda cup the dog's head between your hands, but what you failed to consider is that the dog is D E T E R M I N E D to lick your face, so they'll stretch their whole skin off their skull to make it happen like

I Want To Believe: A Sidlink Fancomic

FIRST (CH 1) | CH 2 | PREVIOUS | NEXT

Happy update! I managed this one during my spring break, which ends tomorrow, so Im unsure when I’ll be able to update again. We are slowly getting closer to the end of the series though! Thank you all for the support :) 

PATREON | KOFI

I MADE A THING