My name is Xue Yan. I am a Ph.D. Student in Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My academic advisor, Dr. Liza Berdychevsky, and I conduct a study titled, “Sexual Justice is Social Justice: Transgender People’s Views on Sex and Sexual Health Education”.

If you are currently 18 years old or older and self-identify as a transgender person, please allow me to invite you to participate in this study.

If you agree to participate, you will take part in an individual interview (taking approximately one hour) via Zoom and during the time convenient for you.

Your permission would be asked to audio record the interview. Recording the interviews is important so we can get a better understanding of your experiences. However, no names or any other identifying information would ever be shared in any research report and only the research team will have access to the recordings and transcripts. In other words, I would like to emphasize that your responses will be held confidential.

Your participation would be much appreciated and extremely important, as it would provide valuable insights to contribute to sexual justice and effective sexual health education tailored to the needs of transgender people.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration! If you are interested in this project, feel free to email contact me via email xueyan3@illinois.edu.

They are stunning.

Their names are Dee Dee Ngozi (55), Duchess Milan (69), Helena (63), and Gloria (70).

Source: https://www.tosurviveonthisshore.com/portraits

beautiful! 

yall, click the link! it’s so dope to see trans and gnc folks who are in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s!

ALOK VAID-MENON Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness 1x03 (2022)

Alok’s book report of The Biopolitics of Feeling: Race, Sex, and Science in the Nineteenth Century by Dr. Kyla Schuller

The way Puss is followed by two dogs and one teaches him to accept death and the other teaches him to appreciate life

deadass

Puss has 2 shoulder angels, they both are on the same page on wanting him to live his life to the fullest......the catch being their method is the extreme end with each other

I think it really does speak for just how deeply there is something wrong with the online queer community that trans guys & mascs reaching out genuinely to say "we're dealing with a lot of issues that have gone completely undiscussed and it's bad enough that some of these things are killing us, and none of you even know they're happening" results in such a vitriolic response that there's been targeted harassment at every major blogger who's talked about it. like that's the immediate honest response to a plea for pain and suffering to be heard. what the hell.

I'm not lying when I say this tweet brought a tear to my eye

Thank you Jorts

do not talk to cops includes don't make casual smalltalk w any person who's obviously an on duty cop. y'know how you should treat every gun as if it's loaded? treat every cop as if they are trying to get information out of you or fuck you over. don't talk to cops don't trust cops know your rights

i feel like some of the people who are responding with "but if you are white you should talk to cops, to distract them from harassing POC/the homeless/etc." are kind of missing the point, and skipping over "treat every cop as if they are trying to get information out of you."

Yes, if you are safe to, go ahead and distract cops from harassing people. But when cops want to talk to you, they want something out of you. This is a very common tactic, especially with protests. And especially if you are white.

They will talk to you. They will be nice. They will talk about things that seem unrelated. They will try and be personable. And you may be thinking, "well, I don't like cops, so I won't be tricked."

But as shown by this story someone shared, talking to cops at all is a danger to you and your comrades. They will look for any evidence they can use. They will try and get you to talk, whether through being kind or through you taunting them. Every time I see somebody saying how they are going to talk to the cops to distract them, I think about somebody taunting the cops and accidentally letting something slip because they ran their mouth, thinking they were immune to their tactics.

The best way to not let information get into the hands of the cops is to never fucking talk to the cops. Ice them out. Make it clear they aren't getting A SINGLE THING from you. Use your privilege to protect others, sure, but while cops are very often not good at their jobs, they do spend a whole lot of time learning how to get people to rat out their comrades and destroy movements. Treat every cop like a loaded gun and an interrogator, because they are. Don't talk to the cops.

“Commander Vimes didn’t like the phrase ‘The innocent have nothing to fear’, believing the innocent had everything to fear, mostly from the guilty but in the longer term even more from those who say things like ‘The innocent have nothing to fear’.”

–Terry Pratchett, Snuff

That was explained beautifully

“Arguing that you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.”

narrator: they weren’t good people

>First, we’ve discovered that about a quarter of all the internet connection in or out of the house were ad related. In a few hours, that’s about 10,000 out of 40,000 processed.

>We also discovered that every link on Twitter was blocked. This was solved by whitelisting the https://t.co domain.

>Once out browsing the Web, everything is loading pretty much instantly. It turns out most of that Page Loading malarkey we’ve been accustomed to is related to sites running auctions to sell Ad space to show you before the page loads. All gone now.

>We then found that the Samsung TV (which I really like) is very fond of yapping all about itself to Samsung HQ. All stopped now. No sign of any breakages in its function, so I’m happy enough with that.

>The primary source of distress came from the habitual Lemmings player in the house, who found they could no longer watch ads to build up their in-app gold. A workaround is being considered for this.

>The next ambition is to advance the Ad blocking so that it seamlessly removed YouTube Ads. This is the subject of ongoing research, and tinkering continues. All in all, a very successful experiment.

>Certainly this exceeds my equivalent childhood project of disassembling and assembling our rotary dial telephone. A project whose only utility was finding out how to make the phone ring when nobody was calling.

>Update: All4 on the telly appears not to have any ads any more. Goodbye Arnold Clarke!

>Lemmings problem now solved.

>Can confirm, after small tests, that RTÉ Player ads are now gone and the player on the phone is now just delivering swift, ad free streams at first click.

>Some queries along the lines of “Are you not stealing the internet?” Firstly, this is my network, so I may set it up as I please (or, you know, my son can do it and I can give him a stupid thumbs up in response). But there is a wider question, based on the ads=internet model.

>I’m afraid I passed the You Wouldn’t Download A Car point back when I first installed ad-blocking plug-ins on a browser. But consider my chatty TV. Individual consumer choice is not the method of addressing pervasive commercial surveillance.

>Should I feel morally obliged not to mute the TV when the ads come on? No, this is a standing tension- a clash of interests. But I think my interest in my family not being under intrusive or covert surveillance at home is superior to the ad company’s wish to profile them.

>Aside: 24 hours of Pi Hole stats suggests that Samsung TVs are very chatty. 14,170 chats a day.

>YouTube blocking seems difficult, as the ads usually come from the same domain as the videos. Haven’t tried it, but all of the content can also be delivered from a no-cookies version of the YouTube domain, which doesn’t have the ads. I have asked my son to poke at that idea.

When one thinks about "ancient" Native American civilizations and ruins... the thing is that... most of them, they weren't ancient. The Inca were not fully conquered by the Spanish until 1572... for reference, the Mona Lisa was painted in 1502 and Martin Luther made the 95 Theses in 1517.. the "ancient" Aztec Empire was younger than the university of Oxford founded in the 11th century, Montezuma lived at the same time than Leonardo Da Vinci... There are castles that are younger than Machu Picchu, those cities were inhabited by millions just a few centuries ago, and some (Cuzco, México), many actually, are still inhabited today. People speak about the Ancient Maya as if it was some mysterious civilization that was lost, and while it was past its prime at the time of European conquest, the Maya still had city-states and were living in the same areas they live today.

There are still millions of people, right now, who speak Quechua, Nahuatl, and Maya in all their dialects, and I'm just talking about the three most well-known civilizations here... there are millions of Native Americans who still speak their languages and practice their culture and beliefs alive, both thriving and struggling today.

Talking about the "Ancient Inca" or "Ancient Aztecs" makes as much sense as talking about the "Ancient Dutch" or the "Ancient Swedes", and it's another way of erasing them, saying that they just aren't around anymore just like say the Sumerians, or that they just weren't relevant to world history. They were contemporaries to modernity and they're still alive today.

You can talk about the Ancient Olmecs or Ancient Chavín though. Because the Inca and the Aztecs are relatively "modern" but their cultures were just the latest from a cycle of civilizations stretching millenia before Christ.

On this day, 14 July 1896, legendary Spanish anarchist and civil war fighter Buenaventura Durruti was born. At the age of 14 he left school and began training as a mechanic in a railway yard. In 1917 he took part in a strike which was crushed by the army who killed 70 workers, injured over 500 and imprisoned 2000. He later joined the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) union, fought against the dictatorship of Miguel Primo do Rivera and was forced into exile, where he travelled to Latin America, where he undertook bank robberies in Chile and Argentina to fund the workers’ movement. Durruti later returned to Spain, and with the right-wing military rising of general Francisco Franco, he joined the fighting in Barcelona, during which the coup attempt was crushed and CNT workers took over the city. In an interview Durruti told a journalist that the working class “are going to inherit the earth. There is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie may blast and burn its own world before it finally leaves the stage of history. We are not afraid of ruins. We who ploughed the prairies and built the cities can build again, only better next time. We carry a new world, here in our hearts. That world is growing this minute.” Durruti headed a column of 3000 revolutionary militia members and travelled to the Saragossa front to fight the nationalists. He and his column later came to Madrid to defend the city which was under attack, during which he was killed. His body was transported back to Barcelona where half a million workers took to the streets to attend his funeral. Learn more about the Spanish civil war in our podcast episodes 39-40: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e39-the-spanish-civil-war-an-introduction/ https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2034128273438979/?type=3

no such thing as wasting your 20s your 20s are for recovering from whatever the fuck happened to you as a kid so that youre ready to get weird with it in your 30s

wut. I thought Wikia was good?

wikia is not good.

wikia is a hypercapitalist monopoly that's crushing independent wikis and it's an adware-infested hellscape that sucks ass and has a horrible user interface.

wikia is a for-profit corporation that does not care at all about fandom, stole and trademarked the fucking word "fandom", and is actively monopolizing the fanwiki world while either buying out or outcompeting actual legitimate independent wikis.

they manipulate google results to drive searches toward their much shittier wikis rather than towards the actually helpful and worthwhile independent wikis.

if you google the word "fandom", the top result AND the wikipedia page they suggest are both wikia.

their user interface is horrifyingly terrible for a wiki and they allow almost no customization at all to the wikis who have to use their platform. you cannot run a wiki on wikia without forcing people to see a huge, obnoxiously bright yellow WIKIA!!! banner along one side, a huge header filling up the top of the page, a massive useless sidebar, and often a fucking video above the article, not to mention the literally endless wall of completely fucking unrelated ads that scroll up under every article, and instead of talk pages they have fucking comments sections.

this is an actual wiki:

and this is the equivalent page on a fucking wikia wiki:

neither of those screenshots are edited.

you cannot see the information on the wikia page upon opening it.

but you know what you can see?

fucking ads.

have you ever heard of NIWA? it's the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance, a group of independent wikis that are each around a specific Nintendo fandom (Super Mario Wiki, Bulbapedia, etc). a couple years ago there was a huge controversy because ZeldaWiki, one of the founding members, shifted to Gamepedia, a wiki farm and possibly Wikia's biggest competitor. people were annoyed, and were occasionally making jokes like "what next? are we going to start including Wikia wikis?"

then gamepedia got bought and merged with wikia.

this is what zelda wiki used to look like:

and this is what zelda wiki looks like now:

terraria recently changed their official wiki to an independent one since Gamepedia got bought out by Wikia, which is good, but it's drowned out by the literal thousands of crappy, hard-to-navigate wikia-owned wikis. I've seen wikia wikis that have to append each article with a tag at the top saying "we're sorry about that huge video ad above the article, we can't do anything about it, wikia's in charge."

and wikia gets away with it because site hosting is expensive and difficult so many people, especially younger people, have no choice.

and nobody cares.

support independent wikis wherever you can.

The evacuation prep poster is done! This poster is designed primarily with wildfires in mind, but the tips can apply to preparing for any much any disaster.

If you share this image outside of tumblr, please link back to my website: www.Katy-L-Wood.com

[[Image ID: A poster including a layered graphic showing what items to have ready to prepare for evacuating your home based on how much warning you have that you need to evacuate. The inner, red, level is labeled “No Warning.” The next, orange, level is labeled “Less Than an Hour.” The next, yellow, level is labeled “More Than an Hour.” The final, green, level is labeled “General Preparedness.” The items associated with each level and the text are included below. /end ID.]]

———-

Evacuation Prep:

As the world changes, it is important to be prepared to safely and efficiently evacuate your home, potentially with little or no warning. Preparing ahead of time can help to reduce stress and anxiety, and help you evacuate safely if the time comes.

Red Level (No Warning): People | Pets | Keys. Human life matters most. If you can’t rescue your pets, let them out to give them their best chance. If evacuating by car, don’t forget your keys.

Orange Level (Less Than an Hour): Crucial Meds | Important Papers | Money | Paper Map | Pet Vaccination Records. Crucial meds and medical equipment. Papers including passports, birth certificates, medical records, etc.. Multiple forms of payment. Paper map with marked evac routes in case of signal loss. Phone. Most evac centers require vaccine records for pets to be allowed in.

Yellow Level (More Than an Hour): Photos | Hard Drives | Computers | Chargers | Irreplaceable Items | OTC Meds | Pet Supplies | Pet Food | Clothes | Weather Gear. Family photos. Hard drives and computers. Make digital backups ahead of time. Charging cords. Irreplaceable items such as collectibles and mementos. Over the counter medical supplies such as Aspirin and tampons. Pet supplies such as bowls, crates, toys, and litter. Pet food and treats. Clothes. If you are running out of time grab your laundry basket. Weather gear if needed.

Green Level (General Preparedness): Food | Water | Radio | N95 Masks | Multitool | Power Pack | Gas | Stove + Fuel | Flashlight | Toiletries | Emergency Contact Info | Bedding | First Aid | Can Opener. Easy prep, shelf-stable food. Water. Battery powered/rechargeable NOAA weather radio. N95 masks for smoke. A multitool. Rechargeable power pack for phones. Keep your car at least partially fueled at all times. Portable stove and fuel for cooking food without power. Flashlight and spare batteries. Toiletries including hair products, toothbrush and paste, etc.. Emergency contact info for friends and loved ones. Spare pillows and blankets. Dedicated first aid kit. Can opener.

Save yourself time and stress by preparing an evacuation bag ahead of time and keep it in an easy to access place. At the end of every season rotate out the perishable items within such as food, water, and medications. The more you can keep in the bag, the more time you’ll have to grab everything else. Remember, it is okay if you can’t do everything. Some preparation is better than no preparation.

If you are in the U.S.A. and experiencing disaster related anxiety call the Disaster Distress Hotline at 1-800-985-5990 for support and resources.

———-

If you share this image outside of tumblr, please link back to my website: www.Katy-L-Wood.comf

It’s here !! The guide for two-legged people who don’t know how to draw wheelchairs !!! 7 pages of infodump ! Disclaimer : I don’t know everything, I have one (1) experience of wheelchair user who used both bad and good chairs, and I share what I learned.

Image description :

1) Calvin in his wheelchair saying “yo” under a huge title “how to draw manual wheelchairs properly by Calvin Arium, a wheelchair user comic artist”.

2) A character says “my character self propels in a chair that was outdated in 1970 lol” Calvin says “so it looks like you two legged people don’t know the difference between an hospital chair and a chair made to be independant” an arrow point the crapppy chair, saying “we never want to see this again”

a bubble says “the hospital chair is extremely unpractical, tough considering it’s cheaper than a good custom chair a lot of us have only this”

3) a character hurt himself trying to reach the wheels of the hospital chair. Several arrows point why the chair is unpractical : “high backrest restrain shoulders movement” “huge armrest restrains wheel access” “separated footrest : amovible, cheap, bulky” “x structure, foldable but heavy” “huge front casters for stability” “heavy wheels”

4) Several arrows point an active wheelchair (the KSL by Küshall) : “usually no armrest” “a low backrest allow more movement” “light, design, ferning expersive” “special cushion to avoind injuries” “knee angle is usually 90°” “one single piece of frame, sometimes entirely welded” “weight : from 4 to 10kg” “often rigid” “center of the wheel is the center of gravity” “higher quality wheels : less spikes”

5) A hand grab different parts of the wheel, pushing harder in the second half. Bubbles says “some have gloves, some don’t. The hand must grab the biggest area possible. Less movement = more energy. This is a common but not only way to push.Calvin is on his back wheels, rolling on grass and dirt bubble says “popping a wheelie is when a wheelchair user rolls on their back wheels to roll on every complicated surface.

6) several drawings illustrate the folding frame, the ergonomic but rigid and expensive backrest, the separated footrest (only for folding frame), the handles, the folding handles, athe amovibles handles, or no handles, the cool fancy loopwheels, the pretty custom colors 

7) More Features ! The fancy rigid-foldable frame, the anti tippers (sometimes used by beginners), the motorization (wheels, smart drive) when propelling yourself is difficult Calvin says “and now vroom vroom motherfuckers”

Manual Wheelchair Tutorial by Fade31415

So... I technically drew this 3 years ago but forgot to post it. I think I was going to clean up the end and make a nice recap, but I ran out of steam and then just left it as a wip for years. I got reminded of it because I was talking to a friend about how to draw wheelchairs today.

This covers most of what I view as the most common errors when it comes to drawing characters who use manual wheelchairs. I hope it helps you a lot.

Image description is in alt text, but there is a back up image description under the cut in case that does not work for some reason

Zorayas goes to McDonald's

to the very bitter end