growsomethinggood ()

I overall enjoyed reading it but you’re absolutely correct that it was very self-indulgent and smug for waaaaay too much of it.

I can recommend Dimension 20’s Misfits and Magic (season 2 just got announced yesterday!) as a much better critique that still brings the joy that people felt with the source material to the table. The cast all says fuck terfs too!

The bi-cycle!

Hello! Congrats on your plans for cat adoption! Here’s a few pieces of advice I have from experience:

1. Kittens are a lot of work. They’re really cute! But they are babies and they act like it. You have to teach them a lot of things about the world, and how to interact with people/other animals/things. And often most places will only adopt out kittens in pairs, since they benefit from having a buddy growing up. Since kittens are in high demand, they often have a bigger adoption fee, if that matters to you. Adult cats between 2-10 years are probably ideal for most new cat owners as they are well established adults that won’t need a lot of training for the most part (but definitely know as much of your cat’s history when adopting if you can!).

2. Cat breeds aren’t like dog breeds, by and large. They are mostly common cats of different colors down at the animal shelter, and cat owners will swear up and down that cat colors have personalities (torties are sassy! Orange cats are dumb but sweet!) but it’s largely just the individual cat’s personality. The important things for you are probably going to be fur length (long hair and hairless cats require a lot more maintenance or it’ll effect their health) and how well you get along with the cat individually. The one thing to note is do not adopt a bengal cat as a beginner! They are hybrids with wild cats and act like it! And also I would advise against smooshed nose cats/floppy ear cats/tail-less cats/short legged “dwarf” cats, as they have some pretty bad health issues from those genetic differences.

3. Cats in the shelter are stressed and probably not going to act exactly the same way when you take them home. If they’re very friendly, they could be more standoffish, or vice versa. You just gotta find the one that speaks to you! And be patient allowing them to adjust when you take them home. Give them a landing space with a litter box, water, and maybe a little food in opposite corners, and give them some hours to get used to the sounds and smells of their new place. Depending on how much space you have, it’ll be between a day and a week for a cat to get settled.

4. Get the very basics to start and be ready to get more stuff later. A basic litter box, scoop, and a cheap carrier will do it before you adopt. Use your own dishes for water and food before you go buying anything for the cat, you don’t know right away what needs they’ll have. The shelter should recommend you food, get small quantities (not bulk) until you’ve had your first vet check up in case that changes. My cat is spoiled with a much bigger litter box than our first pick, a water fountain, an automatic feeder, wet food on a plate (most cats like flat surfaces instead of bowls for food), and so many toys he doesn’t like anymore!

5. Have fun! Cats are great. If you learn their body language and respect their autonomy, they’ll love you so much for it.

If you’re particularly clever, you might see something before the event that makes you go, huh, that seems weird, I wonder why that is. And then the event happens and you’re like, ohh, it was the event! It was telling me the whole time!

She’s a Stan Shunpike- radicalized offscreen, leaving everyone else confused

*She. Please don’t misgender her, it plays right into these transphobes’ hands of questioning her gender.

Yeah, but are they paying any of their own money to take care of those kids for two decades?

Yes. Taxes. People without kids still pay taxes for things like education, meal programs, etc. People with kids get a tax break to compensate for the cost of raising kids. You’re asking for something already built into how we support parents and children in America.

Oh, I completely understand you’re correct here, I’m just, so, so tired of fighting to keep all the sociopolitical gains of the past 10-50 years, y’know? I know they have a lot going on, it just feels shitty considering the rest of the political climate.

Correct, I should clarify, you are likely safe brewing sun tea at those ambient temperatures because the glass of the brewing vessel will trap the sun and heat the tea higher than that, like a car traps heat on a hot day. You’ll likely hit 130F+ easily and be out of the danger zone!

And for those of you who only know temperatures based on brewing tea or coffee:

123F: Probably insufficient for even fairly delicate teas. You could probably make “sun tea” at this temperature by leaving tea in room temperature water to be heated by the sun, but this is not recommended as anything below ~130F is considered the danger zone for bacterial growth.

170F: This is the appropriate temperature for delicate or green teas to preserve flavor, antioxidants, and prevent bitterness.

200F: An acceptable temperature below boiling (212F) for black teas and coffee where overextraction is minimal.

109F: Unacceptable for tea brewing, barely above body temperature.

Sigh, ACLU, is this really that high a priority in the list of rights we need to fight for right now? Really?

Also, am I missing something, or wouldn’t these arguments fall apart under the lens of slander? If you make a sufficiently convincing AI replica that is indistinguishable from reality of someone’s face and/or voice, and use it to say untrue things about them, how is that speech materially different from directly saying “So-and-so said x” when they didn’t? Or worse, making videos of them doing something terrible, or out of character, or even mundane? If that is speech sufficient to be potentially covered by the first amendment, it is slander imo. Even parody has to be somewhat distinct from reality to not be slander/libel, why would this be different?

I think the point is, human discomfort shouldn’t play a role in scientific reporting. Humans have projected a lot of human social elements (sex and gender roles, etc) onto animals and called it science, but it’s not objective. If we are self censoring, we can’t effectively share knowledge with others and we might miss important things down the line.

I’m not seeing fried chicken on that article though, just barbecue (which could be chicken or not, but wouldn’t be fried). Judging by the company response, someone over there is definitely being an asshole, even if there are elements that are traditional.

I’m all for the humane treatment of animals, but domestic sheep need to be sheared or they end up like Baarack here. Meanwhile, wool is a sustainable textile source, unlike synthetic fibers.

If we want domestic sheep to live good lives, it requires humans embracing sustainable practices quickly to address the climate crisis.

Hello! I am a cis person who is close to the trans community. I’m happy to try to answer your questions a bit.

Question 1: Gender is a many faceted beast, but for now, let’s focus on two aspects: gender as one feels internally, and gender as outwardly expressed/perceived by others. An easy way to describe the trans experience to cis people is through internal gender, knowing that you are something other than your gender assigned at birth, turning into an externalized gender expression; wearing the right clothes, the right hair length, etc. However, not every trans person is going neatly from one gender box to another. Maybe they like a few certain things picked up from their assigned gender, maybe they’re nonbinary, maybe they’re gender non-conforming (think of feminine gay men and butch lesbians for examples of cis people like that). Trans people deserve to have at least as much range of gender expression as that! The reason you might not see a lot of people with conflicting gender expressions and gender identity, is, well, these folks don’t have to come out to everyone they meet. If you assume someone is a man and they’re not, often they won’t correct you.

Question 2: Previously (and similarly to homosexuality), being trans was categorized as a mental illness, but doctors took a closer look and found that was incorrect at least a decade ago in the 2013 update to DSM-5. Now, gender dysphoria (the diagnosis most trans people get) is described as an incongruence between the mind and body. Consider your limb example in the reverse: if someone were missing an arm and complained of feeling a phantom limb, you’d understand that to be an incongruence between the mind (expecting a limb) and the body (missing a limb). Most trans people are experiencing something like that, a desire for something positive (experiences of a “true”, or preferred, gender) rather than just something negative (removing the experiences of the gender assigned at birth). The best treatment for trans people’s mental health is to have a well-supported transition.

Not a question, but in regard to your intro, you don’t have to worry so much about pronouns, rarely are people going to get pissed at you for an honest mistake. Other people using the correct pronoun for trans people (even if it’s after correcting) can be very validating. As long as you’re trying and listening to feedback (like, not repeatedly using the wrong pronouns for someone who told you otherwise), you’re doing just fine, no need to be anxious over it!

Also, if you want to learn more in a casual setting, trans memes are 🔥, keep an eye on some of the communities around here!

If you need to use Google, I’d recommend the &udm=14 trick, as demonstrated on the linked site. It goes straight to a “web only” filter for search results. There are some tricks and tips to set that to your default search option in settings, or you can get a browser extension.

Anyone thinking that lemmy is a welcoming space to women should read through that thread first.

Edit: the current state of Lemmy and the fediverse reminds me heavily of early reddit, for better and for worse. You can curate some pretty supportive communities if you are careful picking them out, they remain well moderated, etc. But there are plenty of places where you’ll get scummy content if you wander or if posts attract too much attention.

They’ve actually slightly improved this lately, they ask about what they determine are risky sexual behaviors (ie hookups) with no gender attached now. The one thing is that you can’t be actively taking PrEP and donate because it would obscure the HIV testing results (that they ought to be doing every time, multiple times!).

Source: https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/how-to-donate/eligibility-requirements/lgbtq-donors.html

Transmission over long distances is much harder with power since you have to send it through cables that have some resistance; fiber optic cables are reflecting light that doesn’t degrade as quick.

I think this is doable, the only question is, at what cost? Losing a lot of energy is inefficient, but that’s only if you care about the efficiency more than the result (getting cleaner energy to a place that wouldn’t have it otherwise). There may be better solutions, but I appreciate the desire to get this going here.