Say it with me folks:

My uncle was one of the top surgeons in the country. He was upper middle class definitely. When he got cancer, his insurance didn’t cover all the treatments he would need and after 5 years he drained his savings on cancer treatments (while still working most of that time) and eventually died because he couldn’t afford the expensive treatments that might have saved him.

If you are upper middle class and you get sick, it will likely bankrupt your family. It’s fucked.

For all of the idiots in the notes ^

Honest to god - even if you make 6 figures a year? you're closer to poverty than true wealth. Check your shit and remember who your real allies and enemies are guys.

I think people gravitate towards the idea of the upper-middle class as being “the 1%” because to most people, that’s all the wealth they see. A five bedroom house, travelling aboard for leisure, a few pieces of designer clothing and a nice car. Not owning a yacht the size of a mid-range cargo ship and spending tens of millions lobbying for fossil fuels. We once had an assistant to a Russian mining billionaire come into the shop to buy party favours for the billionaire kid’s 10th birthday party. This guy dropped thousands of pounds on items which were to be children’s party favours, and told us they hadn’t even finished shopping yet. They literally spent half my annual income on children’s party favours. Because a few thousand quid was a literal drop in the ocean to them.   

people in the notes still don’t understand the obscene difference between a million and a BILLION ffs

Billion dollar corporations like Exxon, Shell, BP and Chevron ruin our planet, not your uncle Carl and his ugly six bedroom mcmansion.

I know the cyberpunk epilepsy thing has been talked about a lot at this point. We, as epileptics, tend to focus a lot of energy on the "what was done badly" since it has such a drastic effect on our health, and strobes are such a big problem.

I was thinking about Stardew Valley, and kinda wanted to talk about the one tiny thing that made it accessible, and why it makes this game my favourite.

It seems surprising, thinking about it, that stardew valley could trigger seizures. I didn't think it would the first time I played it, and it wasn't until I got to winter that I actually had any problems.

You see, with photosensitivity its not necessarily about flashing so much as it is the sharp contrast and the change between colours. As well as how much of your vision is taken up by that movement speed.

While the storms during the other seasons didn't cause me issues (blue raindrops on a grey blue background) the snow storms did (white on a dark ish background)

The first time I saw the snow my heart completely shattered. I'd been watching stardew as it was developing and wanted to play it so badly. It felt so unfair that I played multiple hours before even finding out the game wasn't safe. I spent the rest of the night crying about it, which may sound stupid, but photosensitivity means you can't get excited for video games, and this was one of the few I let myself be excited about.

My ex gf was the one who pointed out the snow transparency setting after looking into it themselves. This one slider bar in the settings. Something I didn't think to check for since I rarely see them.

That slider made this game for me, and it was there when the game released. I can't tell you how much that single setting has made me cry over the years because one man decided it may be useful to some people.

When epileptics make posts about a specific video game or a movie or whatever its because we have examples of how easy it is to put in these settings! My bf's modded 3 games for me so they don't give me seizures and all he had to do was like change a timer? Or set images to static????

Keep your flashing lights if you need them for your "artistic vision" just give us the settings so we don't need to be scared

There is warnings from times to times about parts of videos/games that can be a problem with epilepsy, and I always ask Why? If you know there is a problem, why do you keep it in? As a non epileptic I have yet found any of the parts that is warned about worth keeping.

It's great that they make games more accessible and adjustable at least, so that you can change it if you need to.

hot new tumblr discourse

put in the tags your opinions on wearing shoes in the house and why

#why even have a house if you’re just going to wear shoes in it?

In my country you take off your shoes when entering a private home. But due to the issues I have with my feet I need to keep my shoes on to get the support from the special insoles I have. At other people homes I always bring with indoor shoes but I my own house I just use the same one both inside and outside. The plus side, it's nice to never have to put the time to put on your shoes because they are always on your feet. Downside is that your house gets really dirty because I drag in sand and stuff from outside. 

Today’s inspirational words: If you write one sentence a day, that is like 10 words. That will in a year be 3 650 words, which is good enough for a fanfic chapter. That is a whole chapter more than you will write if you are on a writer’s block for that whole year, being stuck on the thought that a sentence isn’t worth the time sitting down to write.

Today’s inspirational words: You know, 10 words is like nothing really, this sentence is already more words than that. I bet you can make that 20 words instead.

There is nothing new under the sun.

ADHD mood

*Abbott walks in*

*I frantically spin the wheel from Byzantine Erotica to the Summa Theologica*

You know I can’t resist some scriptorium buffoonery

Medieval castle stairs were often built to ascend in narrow, clockwise spirals so right-handed castle defenders could use their swords more easily. This design put those on the way up at a disadvantage (unless they were left-handed). The steps were also uneven to give defenders the advantage of anticipating each step’s size while attackers tripped over them. Source Source 2 Source 3

Not really the best illustration since it totally negates the effect by having a wide open space for those ascending. Castle tower staircases tended to look like this:

Extremely tight quarters, with a central supporting pillar that is very, very thoroughly in the way of your right arm.

Wider, less steep designs tend to come later once castles moved away from being fortresses to simply noble family homes with the advent of gunpowder.

Oh! Pre-gunpowder military tactics are my jam! I don’t know why, but this is one of my favorite little details about defensive fortifications, because the majority handedness of attackers isn’t usually something you think about when studying historical wars. But strategically-placed walls were used basically worldwide as a strategy to secure gates and passages against advancing attackers, because most of the world’s population is right-handed (and has been since the Stone Age).

Pre-Columbian towns near the Mississippi and on the East coast did this too. They usually surrounded their towns with palisades, and they would build the entrance to the palisade wall in a zigzag – always with the wall to the right as you entered, to hinder attackers and give an advantage to the defender. Here’s some gates with some examples of what I’m talking about:

Notice that, with the exception of the last four (which are instead designed to congregate the attackers in a space so they can be picked off by archers, either in bastions or on the walls themselves) and the screened gate (which, in addition to being baffled, also forces the attackers to defend their flank) all of these gates are designed with central architectural idea that it’s really hard to kill someone with a wall in your way. In every culture in the world, someone thought to themselves, “Hey it’s hard to swing a weapon with a wall on your right-hand side,” and then specifically built fortifications so that the attackers would always have the wall on their right. And I think that’s really neat.

Ooh, ooh, also: Bodiam Castle in Sussex used to have a right-angled bridge so any attacking forces would be exposed to archery fire from the north-west tower on their right side (ie: sword in the right hand, shield on the useless left side):

These tactics worked so well for so long because until quite recently lefties got short shrift and had it trained (if they were lucky) or beaten out of them.

Use of sword and shield is a classic demonstration of how right-handedness predominated. There’s historical mention of left-handed swordsmen (gladiators and Vikings), and what a problem they were for their opponents, but that only applies to single combat.

A left-handed hoplite or housecarl simply couldn’t fight as part of a phalanx or shield wall, since the shields were a mutual defence (the right side of the shield covered its owner’s left side, its left side covered the right side of his neighbour to the left, and so on down the line) and wearing one on the wrong arm threw the whole tactic out of whack.

Jousting, whether with or without an Italian-style tilt barrier, was run shield-side to shield-side with the lance at a slant (except for the Scharfrennen, a highly specialised style that’s AFAIK unique.) Consequently left-handed knights were physically unable to joust.

There’s a creditable theory (I first read it in “A Knight and His Horse”, © Ewart Oakeshott 1962, 1998 and many other places since) that a knight’s “destrier” horse - from dexter, “right” - was trained to lead with his right forefoot so that any instinctive swerve would be to the right, away from collision while letting the rider keep his shield between him and harm. (In flying, if a pilot hears “break!” with no other details, the default evasive direction is right.)

The construction of plate armour, whether specialised tournament kit or less elaborate battle gear, is noticeably “right-handed“ - so even if a wealthy knight had his built “left-handed” it would be a waste of time and money; he would still be a square peg in a world of round holes and none of the other kids would play with him.

Even after shields and full armour were no longer an essential part of military equipment, right-hand use was still enforced until quite recently, and to important people as well as ordinary ones - it happened to George VI, father of the present Queen of England. Most swords with complex hilts, such as swept-hilt rapiers and some styles of basket-hilt broadsword, are assymetrical and constructed for right handers. Here’s my schiavona…

It can be held left-handed, but using it with the proper thumb-ring grip, and getting maximum protection from the basket, is right-handed only. (More here.) Some historical examples of left-hand hilts do exist, but they’re rare, and fencing masters had the same “learn to use your right hand” bias as tourney organisers, teachers and almost everyone else. Right-handers were dextrous, but left-handers were sinister, etc., etc.

However, several predominantly left-handed families did turn their handedness into advantage, among them the Kerrs / Carrs, a notorious Reiver family along the England-Scotland Borders, by building their fortress staircases with a spiral the other way to the OP image.

This would seem to be a bad idea, since the attackers (coming upstairs) no longer have their right arms cramped against the centre pillar - however it worked in the Kerrs’ favour because they were used to this mirror-image of reality while nobody else was, and the defender retreating up the spiral had that pillar guarding his right side, while the attacker had to reach out around it…

For the most part Reiver swords weren’t elaborate swept-hilt rapiers but workmanlike basket-hilts. Some from Continental Europe have the handedness of my schiavona with thumb-rings and assymmetrical baskets, but the native “British Baskethilt” is a variant of the Highland claymore* and like it seems completely symmetrical, without even a thumb-ring, which gives equal protection to whichever hand is using it.

*I’m aware there are those who insist “claymore” refers only to two-handers, however the Gaelic term claidheamh-mòr - “big sword” - just refers to size, not to a specific type of sword in the way “schiavona” or “karabela” or even “katana” does.

While the two-hander was the biggest sword in common use it was the claidheamh-mòr; after it dropped out of fashion and the basket-hilt became the biggest sword in common use, that became the claidheamh-mòr.

When Highlanders in the 1745 Rebellion referred to their basket-hilts as claymores, they obviously gave no thought to the confusion they would create for later compilers of catalogues…

Also, muskets had their whole “Flint and steel and gunpowder” thing on the right side so if you tried firing it lefty you’d get a face full of fire. More recently, rifles eject their spent shell casings to the right, so if you’re a lefty you get some hot metal in your eye.

good post this is a gOOD POST

@moonlitskinwalker

yes

come thru bitch

If I had legs like his I'd show them off all the time too

If I had this much ass I'd wear skin tight pencil skirts all the time

idk I just love how we Young People Today use ~improper~ punctuation/grammar in actually really defined ways to express tone without having to explicitly state tone like that’s just really fucking cool, like

no    =    “No,” she said. 

no.    =    "No,” she said sharply.

No    =    “No,” she stated firmly.

No.    =    “No,” she snapped.

NO    =    “No!” she shouted.

noooooo    =    “No,” she moaned.

no~    =    “No,” she said with a drawn-out sing-song.

~no~    =    “No,” she drawled sarcastically.

NOOOOO    =    “No!” she screamed dramatically.

no?!    =    “No,” she said incredulously.

I’ve been calling this “typographical nuance” and I have a few more to add: 

*no* = “No,” she said emphatically. 

*nopes on out of here* = “No,” she said of herself in the third person, with a touch of humorous emphasis.

~*~noooo~*~ = “No,” she moaned in stylized pseudo-desperation.

#no = “No,” she added as a side comment.

“no” = “No,” she scare-quoted.

wtf are you kidding no = “No,” she said flatly. “And I can’t believe I have to say this.”

no no No No NO NO NO NO = "No,” she repeated over and over again, growing louder and more emphatic. 

nooOOOO = “No,” she said, starting out quietly and turning into a scream.

*no = “Oops, I meant ‘no,’” she corrected, “Sorry for the typo in my previous message.”

I cannot express how strongly I absolutely love language and writing and communication but if anyone asks why I will be showing them this post from now on

this is great, but I got to “no no No No NO NO NO NO” and immediately started singing “mamma mia, mamma mia, mamma mia let me go”

no no no nO (no no no)= “No,” she said, sticking to the status quo

Abortion Clinic Employee Shares How Some Pro-Life Women Act When They Come In As Customers

I am not surprised that anti-choice zealots would hypocritically obtain abortions, but I am thoroughly fucking shocked that they wouldn’t even attempt to hide their anti-choice views when doing so. 

Read “When the anti-choice choose,” a collection of anecdotes from abortion providers about serving this kind of patient.

reblog and tag what is “your” video game, aka the game you could make an entire video essay on it, mines acnl

zeus master of olympus - just yesterday I had a really big urge to suddenly become a youtuber and do a lets play on it. The game is old, like, really old. 

Useful for explaining sensory-related eating challenges…

[ID: Image from feedinglittles.com with the writing “Why does my child struggle with fruits and veggies?” First rows of hands with orange painted fingernails hold four different blueberries, each one labeled juicy, squishy, sweet, sour. Second row of hands hold four identical crackers, labeled “The same every time”/]

Baby freaking monsters!

how dare they be this adorable!

I'm using these images as inspiration for a campaign I'm running. But you should all check out Rudy Siswanto's art. It really captures the essence of adventure.

@ereptor-tempus​

George doesn’t realize he can’t scratch his ear while lying down 

(via)

don’t worry everyone, this isn’t anything to worry about :)

This cat is LEG BOUNCING himself in the face