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laikiirnodel

@laikiirnodel

(they/them, ze/zem, xe/xem, or thon) ~ Non-binary ~ Fae ~ Neurodiv ~ Animist ~ Tabletop gamer ~ Geek ~ Anthropologist ~ Folklore ~ Demi-ace ~ Panromantic ~ Polyamorous ~

But they aren’t documented so they wouldn’t be pa…..nvm

This is a huge misconception for regular Americans. When the government uses the phrase “undocumented” they’re using it incorrectly because if they were truly undocumented then they would’ve be in system. However these immigrants are in the system and they pay taxes, file tax returns and get no benefits that citizens and legal residents get. They also get to see ICE showing up at their doors because the government has their addresses. Fun fact. “Undocumented” workers pays $12 billion dollars every year in taxes. https://www.google.com/amp/www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2016/10/06/how-much-tax-do-americas-undocumented-immigrants-actually-pay-infographic/amp/

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Reblogging for info.

“Undocumented” just means “without papers,” i.e. a social security card, valid visa, etc. They’re still on databases and whatnot, they just don’t have the documentation that allows them to reap the benefits.

so if it didn’t click- the government is aware of their presence and gladly taking their money under the table while simultaneously promoting the idea that undocumented people are a threat and encouraging hatred and distrust of them it’s super messed up, literally the scheme of an evil villain, and it’s really happening

🗣 undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles contribute more to the GDP than the state of Montana and like 5 other states

New queer rights around the world : 2023 edition 🏳️‍🌈✨️🏳️‍⚧️

Finland : adopted a law to facilitate transition, no longer requiring sterilization or psychological evaluations

Hong Kong : ruled in favor of the change of one's gender identity without requiring surgery

Spain :

  • no longer requires a medical advice to transition
  • lowered the minimum age required to transition to 16 (12-13yo will need a judge's authorization and 14-15yo will need to be accompanied by their parents)
  • banned genital mutilation on intersex children
  • banned conversion therapies
  • provided state support for lesbians and single women seeking IVF treatment

South Korea : ruled in favor of a gay couple demanding equal health insurance rights with heterosexual couples, recognizing the legal status of gay couples for the first time in the country

Slovakia : no longer requires a chirurgical procedure to transition

Cook islands : decriminalized homosexuality

Portugal : passed a law banning conversion therapies and reinforcing gender identity self-determination in schools

France : HIV positive people can now enlist in the army

Taiwan : opened adoption to same-sex couples

Mexico : issued its first non-binary passport

Cyprus : banned conversion therapies

Namibia : supreme court ruling recognizes same-sex mariages contracted in other countries

Estonia : legalized same-sex marriage

Nepal : legalized same-sex marriage

Eating toast for dinner instead of cooking is better than not eating anything at all.

Using mouthwash instead of brushing your teeth is better than not taking care of your teeth at all.

Wiping yourself with a damp cloth or baby wipe instead of showering is better than not bathing at all.

Doing only one out of five assignments you need to turn in is better than not submitting anything at all.

Talking to a loved one on the phone is better than not talking to anyone at all.

Playing your favorite video game, listening to good music, or reading a book instead of "grinding" is better than not doing anything at all.

Don't beat yourself up for not being "productive enough". A little productivity is still productivity.

Yes! This! So much this!

I don't agree with the last one, only in that sometimes not doing anything at all actually IS better.

REST COUNTS AS DOING SOMETHING IMPORTANT!

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Anonymous asked:

i think some people aren’t realizing the mulch works because the mulch BECOMES the soil, that’s why it’s so universal. rot is just incredible, shout out to the forces of decomposition. can’t wait to meet ‘em.

Back when I worked at a greenhouse I heard some people complain that they had to buy more wood chip mulch or straw every year to re-apply it.

And yes! Good! It's working! The soil microbes and fungi are Feasting and turning that wood into humus! That humus is now becoming soil full of bio available nutrients for your plants...and the things in the soil...to feast on! Go to the county landfill they chip up trimmings into FREE woodchips stop buying the stuff here that costs $2.99 a bag! Talk to some tree care companies they'll be delighted to dump waste chips in your yard for you!

If your neighbors are Fools and rake up and discard leaves, grab that shit and use that too! And their grass clippings! Steal all that sweet sweet plant matter and let it rot into YOUR soil and enrich it! All Hail Rot, the one true god, which makes life on this ball of rock possible!

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If you REALLY wanna give your plants a treat, when you're planting them dig the hole extra deep and plop some leftover chicken bones in the bottom of the planting hole. Cover with some compost. Plop your plant in it. Watch your roses go apeshit as they feast on all that tasty phosphorus and calcium!

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Removing this tool from their toolbox will result in substantially less data that can be associated with you in the wild. It is not only beneficial to your privacy, it also makes the surveillance advertising industry less profitable. And don’t take our word for it: Facebook has said that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature would decrease the company’s 2022 sales by about $10 billion.

Noice. Very easy and such a relief.

You ever invite your coworker to watch you give birth just to spite a racist

Okay howmst the fuck has a ship doctor in the far future never handled a birth without the father present? Are sperm donors and gay couples and trans women no longer a thing in the bajillionth century CE?? :/

I while understand the frustration with erasure sometimes it helps to look at things through the cultural context of when something was made. Star Trek the Next Generation was made in 1987, this particular episode I believe aired in 1988 a time when a future where the husband was always present for the birth would have been amazing to many of the people watching the show as men had only been allowed to be present for the birth of their children for 10/15ish years at that point in the US.

Women (and many men) fought for decades with hospitals to even have men allowed in the delivery room during the early stages of labor, which can last for several hours, and hospitals only began to give in to their requests in the 1960s but even then they would be kicked out of the room by hospital staff before the actual birth took place. So many of the couples watching the show would have had to go through labor without having/being allowed to support their spouse regardless of their wishes. Having the child’s father present for the birth only began to happen in the 1970s and 1980s. Which means most people watching this show either went through birth without the support of their spouse, were not allowed to support their spouse during the birth of their child, or their own mother’s went through that during their birth.

A future where the husbands were always present for the birth was still a little crazy to consider in the late 1980s. A good kind of crazy for the people living in that time, it showed a future where the wishes of the couple were finally consistently listened to by medical professionals as a result of the actions of people during their or their parent’s lifetimes. And it does that by also subverting it in allowing Data to step into the role of the father when the father was unknown and/or unwilling/unable to fill that role (I’ll be honest my knowledge of Next Gen is a bit spotty and I have not seen this whole episode, just a piece of it at family Thanksgiving). The woman’s desires as to how she would give birth are listened to and respected, something that still doesn’t happen in many hospitals now and would have been seen as even more revolutionary then. So while it isn’t perfect I think this scene was actually fairly impressive for its time and cultural context and shows a future that many people of that time would have seen as ideal.

I think this kind of contextual understanding and analysis is really important because things that look antiquated now were revolutionary then. I remember reading that the mini skirts in Star Trek TOS were legot just in fashion (about 64’ ish), one of the actresses (the one that played Rand) requested they be in the show and both her and Nichelle Nichols said they didn’t see them as demeaning but liberating in that time and context. Where as NOW it looks like ‘sexy male gaze’ but then it wasn’t.

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Miniskirts are comfortable and easy to move in - unlike longer bulkier skirts, which had previously been required for “modesty.” And unlike the approach of “we’ll just put them in pants,” miniskirts made a statement that women crew-members weren’t being treated like men. Miniskirts were a way to say “I can be an attractive woman, wear comfortable clothes, and still look professional and do a serious job.” 

The clothing for that message today would be different. 

This is also why the bridge crew of TOS may seem “tokenistic” today. When it came out, the Cold War was in full swing and “Soviets” were maligned and hated, Black people could not count on their right to vote being honored, and mixed-race people (like Spock) were called horrible things like “half-breed” and “zebra.” A white man was in charge of the ship, but Gene Roddenberry was fully aware that a chunk of the viewership read him as queer, and did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DISCOURAGE THAT READING, at a time when “homosexual activity” was illegal in the United States!

By today’s standards, “one of everything? How tokenistic.” In 1966? “A Black woman, a Russian, a man from multiple cultures, and a man who loves differently, all top of their fields, all working together and finding common ground to learn, grow, and help where they can? What a wonderful future!”

Also I’m sorry but like. A show also featuring a Japanese man who isn’t a stereotype but part of the crew, having a Scottish character be a part of the central cast (idk if I need to get into why this is important, but considering how England has continuously tried to erase Scottish culture and identity, and the stereotype of Scots as bumbling bumpkins, etc, its kind of nice to see a Scotsman who’s the best of the best at his job).

Moreover, a lot of kids watched this show. MLK himself contacted Nichelle Nichols and asked her to stay on the show when she was considering leaving, because “you don’t have a Black role, you have an equal role,” and there wasnt many Black role models on tv. I can only imagine how Black kids, Asian kids, and mixed race or mixed culture kids felt seeing people like them on tv. Hell, seeing Uhura on screen is what inspired Whoopi Goldberg as a little girl.

Also, yeah, its easy to look back and say ‘damn, fathers weren’t there in the delivery room? What assholes’ but no like they legitimately were not allowed in there.

Tiny correction: while George Takei is Japanese, and while Sulu thus looks like what we in the 20th-21st century consider to be an ethnically Japanese man, Hikaru Sulu was Pan-Asian by design. His last name is not Japanese. And Roddenberry designed him like that intentionally, because while there was a lot of anti-Japanese sentiment in the US at the time (I mean, hell… George Takei himself spent years in Japanese internment camps during WW2), there was also a lot of other anti-Asian sentiments, and Roddenberry intentionally put ALL of it on the character of Sulu.

Like, all the years of anti-Chinese racism in the US? Sulu. Anti-Japanese sentiments left over after WW2? Sulu. Korean War in 1950-52? Sulu. The Vietnam War, with Johnson in 1965 (a year before TOS started airing) choosing to start sending American troops into the conflict? Sulu.

Sulu was Roddenberry’s desperate attempt to show all Asian people as inherently worthy, inherently human, and yeah, he probably put kind of too much on Sulu’s shoulders, but it was the 1960s and Roddenberry fucking cared about representation, so he did what he could.

Just, you know… a little bit more historical Star Trek context

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Also to hammer this home?

Scotty was third in line for the captain’s chair. The only non-Kirk who had the con more then him was Spock.

He was smart, he was a *ranked* crewmen, he was a gentleman, he wasn’t a skirt chaser, and he was capitol L loyal. The only time he got into a fight was when someone both went after his Captain, AND his Ship.

And he was Scottish. 

That’s so above and beyond the typical Scottish stereotype even TO THIS DAY.

Dr Polaski was coded as something of an arse just so they could make their valid points about equality and bigotry using her as a foil. Yes it was kind of clumsy from a modern perspective, but it was also kind of groundbreaking (not least because you didn’t usually get arses being played by women)

I am hard-coded to put this on any post that mentions MLK and Nichelle Nichols.

Also, it’s very worth noting that the “token minority character” label doesn’t apply in any way to these characters.

Tokens are there to present the appearance of diversity. Whereas Roddenberry created a diverse cast in an era where there wasn’t even a need for the appearance of diversity. Roddenberry didn’t put these characters in because he wanted to look diverse– he put them in to BE DIVERSE.

Was at the art museum earlier and i have a new favourite painting

Is this not the cutest??? Its called ”Me and Brita” and this guy in 1895 was like ”i love this kid so much imma do a painting of us having fun so the world will always know how much i loved her and what a good time we had”

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the painting in the background is looking at them like “my word what a cool pair”

More specifically that is Carl Larsson with one of his 8 children.

He came from a extremely poor and abusive background but worked his way into fine society, where he fell in love with fellow artist Karin Bergöö, and his works shifted to painting his home life.

Painting titled "My Loved Ones"

[in reference to his career] "the most immediate and lasting part of my life's work. these pictures are of course a very genuine expression of my personality, of my deepest feelings, of all my limitless love for my wife and children."

OMFG I used to work at Carl’s house which in now a museum in Falun, Sweden, and now his art is on my dash! 

I could tell so many stories about this family, but to sum it up they lived the definition of what we would call a cottagecore life where both Carl and Karin worked as artists in their dream house that they designed and built together. It really was an artist’s home built with pure love, and also a big contrast to what a typical Swedish home looked like at the time. The late 1800s trend was to have a dark home with gothic vibes and brown and dark red colours. The Larsson’s home though is bright and colourful with big windows and homemade textiles sewn by Karin.

I also wanted to tell a bit about Brita, the cute little girl on her father’s shoulders in the painting in the original post. She was the fifth child of seven and felt sometimes like she didn’t get enough attention from her dad as a middle child in a big family. To get more time with her dad she would ask him to paint only her as often as possible since then she could talk to him without any of her siblings annoying them. This is how she became the most painted of all the children with hundreds of portraits made with her as the model. She was 89 years old when she died in 1982 and loved to talk about her childhood and those many, many painting sessions with dad.

This is one of my favourite paintings of Carl Larsson, A Viking Raid in Dalarna. Here we have all the children in a boat during a cool summer’s eve (from left, Pontus, Brita, Lisbeth, Ulf, Kersti, Esbjörn, Suzanne).

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I reblogged this post too quickly before checking the notes and seeing this fantastic addition. I love how Brita came up with a solution to her problem -- wanting some undivided attention from her father -- in a way that worked for both of them.

The group of new humans who just joined your ship begin to act weird about the humans already present…they keep mentioning something call the uncanny valley? Maybe this is a place on Sol?

reblog the money pigeon for a financially stable future

I reblog  the money pigeon because I love him.

Capitalism is fake, this pigeon’s money is as valid as anyone else’s.

Good Pigeon.

Okay, you say pigeon, but it clearly has a bill.

Are you sure that’s not a duck?

I dunno, but it's offering $20 to Not throw a bucket of water on it, so I'm not gonna test the theory.

Ive seen multiple posts from reddit refuges that go like "im queer and its so welcoming here!" Or "im nonbinary and dont get quized on my gender here!" Or "im autistic and i can be weird here and yall like it!" And its so fuckin cute its like yes hi hello welcome this is the gay ass autistic website we love special interests we love weird genders we love just saying random shit and the just happy surprised tone of those posts is so wholesome to me like yes! hi! you are in fact the target audience! welcome home

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Your OPSEC is Bad and You Should Feel Bad

Okay so one of the many things that drives me absolutely nuts about most TV shows and (some) books that involve secret or classified information or secure facilities is how absolutely not secure everything is, so these are a few basic things that people get wrong:

You can't carry around classified information. There are, I assume, exceptions in specific cases, though they are assuredly very carefully managed, but random intel agent #12 cannot legally just take home classified information so they can work on it at home. That's incredibly illegal. And that's for a reason--secure facilities are, as the name suggests, secure. Everywhere else is varying levels of not secure. Even for people working with regular business or government materials on their work phone or laptop, there are varying levels of strict rules about where you can leave it, how to report a lost device, and not keeping it in checked bags.

Badges should be innocuous and limited in visible information. Any sensible security system doesn't have badges that are numbered/colored/otherwise identified by access level, because that is a really easy way to identify targets for thieves/people who want to break in. American federal ID cards (CAC for military, PIV for civilian) have really specific layouts. Some companies distinguish between full time employees, interns, vendors, etc in their cards.

Badges shouldn't be displayed outside of the office. This is not really followed by real people (if you get on the metro on DC you will see a wide variety of visible badges), but displaying a badge is not security-wise because 1) it makes them easier to steal, and 2) it can make you a target.

Names/access level/information shouldn't be openly announced. I'm looking at you, MCU Spider-Man fanfiction. Just. Don't.

Confidential/classified information shouldn't be openly discussed. Stop having your characters talk about confidential or classified information in front of people who shouldn't know it, or even just out in the open at all. They shouldn't be telling their parents, their friends, their spouses, etc. Even businesses or government buildings that deal with sensitive information, there may be spaces where certain things can or can't be discussed, and employees/contractors will go through approximately 8 million trainings on where you can't discuss certain information. This also involves erasing whiteboards, locking computers, etc.

You can't have cell phones in certain secure facilities. People shouldn't be having their cell phones with them in SCIFs. This prohibition extends to all things that can be recording devices, including furbies.

I live in an army town that has a lot of military intelligence and electronic warfare development stuff going on. The end result of this is that I’ve known a lot of people who deal with classified stuff in some nature. This means that I’ve had a lot of experiences of watching TV with someone, only for them to pause and start ranting about this kind of thing, as well as just kind of living in this environment with these people.

So, I have some further things to mention (keeping in mind that this is coming from someone on the outside)!

  • I have occasionally asked someone a question (about current events, technology, or something along those lines) and been told, “I can’t talk about that. I don’t think it’s classified, but it’s something I heard in a room with classified information.”
  • If someone works in one of these jobs, they will occasionally lie to every single one of their friends and family members. This doesn’t generally bother those friends and family members. Assuming that the nature of their job isn’t classified in and of itself (like claiming to work at a department store when you actually work for the CIA), you just kind of accept it. Sometimes you realize that you’re being lied to, but I suspect most of the time you don’t. But if someone goes on a work trip to a place that’s allegedly a three-hour plane ride away and doesn’t call to tell you they’ve arrived until ten hours later, and then only calls you at 10pm in the time zone they’re allegedly in... maybe there’s something going on that you’re not aware of, and maybe you keep your mouth shut about it.
  • On a practical note (and due to many rants from someone I know), no one is going to drop a classified file and have stuff come spilling out. When they are transported, they are kept wrapped up in multiple layers. This not only keeps someone from dropping it and allowing any passersby to read what’s on those papers, but it also acts as a tamper-proof seal. If someone receives a file with torn packaging, you know something’s up.
  • Another thing I know, courtesy of a rant from someone who accidentally did this: duress codes and keypads! If you have a location that requires a coded entry, first of all you cannot do a cool trick with a mirror to see what the code is while someone else puts it in. You cannot see it on the camera. IIRC, you will likely stick your hand in a little opaque box to put in the code because the people who design these things are not idiots. Secondly, you will have a duress code. This code will likely still give you access to the room/building/whatever, but it will alert security that you are doing so under duress. This may be by putting in the actual code backwards, or by using a previous code, or something else entirely. In this case, be sure to keep track of which codes are which, so that you don’t leave the lab on a regular day of work to find the hall lined with very concerned (and very armed) security personnel prepared to shoot whoever “forced you to let them in the room” (this story is definitely based on a true story, and we still mock him for it).
  • Secure locations are more secure than you think. The previous post mentions things like cell phones and furbies (and yes, everyone in town laughs about the furby thing), but this extends to a lot of other security measures. For example, cable management. In secure computer labs, there are likely to be extensive rules about how close cables can run to each other. You need to know exactly what is doing what, and it needs to be clear that nothing else is there. A mess of cables could easily hide something that’s not supposed to be there.
  • For the love of God, learn what a closed network is. If you have a bunch of classified materials that do not actively need to be shared, you cannot hack in from the outside to get access to them. Those computers are not connected to anything outside of that room or facility. Also, if you have a mystery thumbdrive you do not plug it into your network, holy shit what is wrong with you, this is what non-networked devices are for you idiot. There are plenty of computers on hand that completely lack the hardware necessary to connect to another in any way, shape, or form. Your virus can’t turn on the computer’s wi-fi to send information to you because there is nothing to turn on.
  • There are a lot of security measures. A lab may have things like thermite grenades on hand. In the event that you need to destroy everything inside, you put the grenade on top of a file cabinet and set it off. It won’t explode, it’ll just melt through the file cabinet, setting everything inside on fire. And yes, that sounds super badass and I kind of want to see this happen.
  • Sometimes a person with this kind of clearance is just going to go silent. It may be when you’re watching the news, discussing current events, or when you’re talking about a cool article you just read about some new developments in technology, but it’ll happen. If they’re good at it, you won’t notice. If they’re not, you’ll smile to yourself and keep your mouth shut.
  • Also I’ve kind of touched on this, but this is not going to be strange to the people around the person with clearance. The things that I’ve described here are pretty mundane when this is a part of your life. You may joke about it with other people (a friend and I will laugh about her dad’s late night calls that are followed by “I’m leaving town. I’ll be back eventually.”), but this isn’t odd to you. It’s like joking about any other aspect of someone’s job, like a weird fast food uniform or an eccentric boss.
  • Kind of connected, but no one who’s been married to someone in one of these jobs for any decent amount of time is going to be mad that their spouse is “keeping secrets” and the next time I see this trope in media I’m going to punch someone. Keeping secrets is literally part of their job and you know that. They will keep those secrets or they will go to jail, and you do not want your loved ones in jail. Depending on the nature of their job, you may worry about them, but you will not be mad at them for not telling you every detail of their day at work. If this kind of thing is a problem, it will be a problem from the start and is just generally a sign of incompatibility.

And finally, and most importantly:

  • When doing chair races in the halls, you need a spotter at the end of the hall to alert you when a colonel is approaching so that you can look like serious people who can definitely be trusted with classified information
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Just wanted to add:

  • UK cabinet minsters are known for displaying confidential information when leaving number 10.
  • Our work DC door system has a duress code, we found out because security sauntered up to someones desk the two days day to check everything was ok. When someone discovered it by accident.

My friend’s dad worked at the Pentagon. He couldn’t talk about anything. One time he told his family he’d won an award. “For what?” Can’t tell you. “When did you win it?” Can’t tell you. “What’s the award called?” Can’t tell you. “Did you have an award ceremony?” Oh, yeah. We had cake. “Who presented the award?” Can’t tell you. “Can we see a picture?” Nope.

reblog the money pigeon for a financially stable future

I reblog  the money pigeon because I love him.

Capitalism is fake, this pigeon's money is as valid as anyone else's.

Good Pigeon.