[ID: tweet by trash jones @jzux:

/ end ID]

Download this easy DIY clothing repair guide (only 10 pages) from Uni of Kentucky

link to PDF

Just found an amazing website: Unrealized Histories. It’s dedicated to documenting alternative and radical theatre companies in the U.K. from the 1960s - 1980s. I highly recommend browsing—there’s already a wealth of information on the site, and they haven’t even put together pages on many of the companies they tracked down.

Hey you know what sucks is everything google has ever done.

Here's where to get firefox.

Here's how to import your bookmarks, history, passwords, etc, from chrome to firefox.

Jumping on my soapbox to once again encourage people to decouple from google. Even if it's just a few steps at a time, even just a little bit. If for no other reason than having a single point of failure for your online life is a Bad Idea.

While I'm at it, I am begging you to backup everything important to you that only exists in an online account. I had to try and help an enquirer yesterday who had lost access to their accounts (hacked/compromised) and they were devastated because it contained their whole life, the story of their kid growing from child to adult, conversations with a now deceased friend. I can't express the sheer desperation and sense of loss. I don't know if they'll ever be able to recover that history of their life; the method I found for them is hard, and it may not work.

I can't believe I forgot to link my Fuck Google pamphlet in my first reblog of this post. @leveragehunters makes excellent points and if you want further help de-googling I have written an introductory booklet on the hows and whys of getting google out of your life.

despite it all im glad i get to live in a world with weird faggots. at least we have each other.

Green Day solicit donations for HIV/AIDS organization, 1994

🚨🚨THIS IS NOT A DRILL!🚨🚨

🚨🚨I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!🚨🚨

NEIL BREEN HAS UPLOADED HIS MOVIES TO ARCHIVE.ORG!

🚨🚨THIS IS NOT A DRILL!🚨🚨

🚨🚨I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!🚨🚨

She's 100% right.

So I work I healthcare. I'm in management. I don't touch patients. Not qualified for that.

But I help make sure the hospital stays open and the lights stay on.

I'm also massively prounion, and pro-universal healthcare.

So that said, I hope they rip that fucking prick in the recording a new asshole. I hope the feds come after him for that HIPAA violation and they beat him so badly that the other hospital administrators only dare whisper about his fate after a few drinks.

Follow this lady's advice. And if they are fucking you, get help and get what's owed. No mercy.

Honestly this should trigger a full outside audit of their billing because the administrator basically admitted they are overcharging patients and is trying to cover it up.

yyyyup

I just discovered today that one of my mom’s doctors has been defrauding Medicare by billing things he never did.

Always look over your medical bills before paying.

I'm up to the "I dunno maybe children working 13 hour shifts is bad, guys" part of Capital and it feels important to inform people that haven't read it yet that capitalists in the 19th century were not by any means wringing their hands and twirling their mustaches about employing children to squeeze out profits, they were hiring "experts" to write newspaper articles for them, explaining how "well, the socialists have these big demands about an 8-hour work day, and taking Saturdays off, but it's actually just so complicated, it's too complicated for most people to understand, we just NEED to hire children for night shifts because the stamina of their strong, youthful bodies is the only way we can survive as a business! It's science, you see. Economics doesn't work like that, just ask our economics professors at Oxford. You CAN'T turn a profit only working people 8 hours! Trust the experts, they know. It's just so complicated..."

That exact infuriating cadence that you read in New York Times articles, in the Atlantic Monthly, in the WaPo and all the other bourgeois rags where "everything is so complicated, and it's actually a lot more complicated than you think.." that has been around since the beginning. It is nothing new. So the next time you see some op-ed from Matt Yglesias or any of those other guys huffing their own farts about how "complicated" everything is, and how "unrealistic" a 30-hour work week is, remember that Marx was dealing with that exact class of "intellectuals" "explaining" how working 13 hours at age 10 was "vital" to the "moral fibre" of those poor kids.

If anyone made this for me. I can’t even describe what I’d be willing to do for them

I don't understand why people are so disingenuous! I just want someone to walk with!

Dating Service [Explained]

Transcipt Under the Cut

if you wanna know what my dissertation is about, it's pretty much this!

every once in a while i learn some wild new piece of information that explains years of behavior and reminds me that i will never truly understand everything about my ridiculous adhd brain

ok what the fuck who was gonna tell me this isnt normal

what the fuck you mean to tell me that the way that i comically slide around things wasn't just me naturally shitposting

Oh no

It looks like this isn't exactly correct! I read through the articles shown in the screenshot and they weren't talking about what was shown in the video. I'm not an expert, just a guy who read a paper, so correct me if I'm wrong, but here's the quick summary:

Postural sway is how much you need to move to keep your balance while standing still. People with ADHD have been shown to have more of it, so they will sway back and forth / side to side more to keep their balance.

I read through the papers shown and poked around some related keywords (including posture sway and posture sway adhd), but I did not see any mention of the movement shown in the video. Unless I'm missing something, this really doesn't seem like it's an actual thing.

ok I do definitely do that though so what is it

[the cover of A consensus handbook by Seeds for Change, featuring the title in Orange lettering followed by an color drawing of 11 people working on the maintenance of a house]

I'm going to share this as a separate post for those that missed the ask: A consensus handbook by Seeds for Change https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/handbookweb.pdf is a free and very handy guide to how to take decisions as a group without leaders or hierarchies. I'm going to drop the chapters here to show off just how much useful stuff it has. If you work with consensus, there's almost certainly a problem in here that you recognize and wish you had some answers to!

1: Making decisions by consensus What’s wrong with the democracy we’ve got? - Why use consensus? How does consensus work? - The consensus process - Key skills and values for consensus 2: Facilitating consensus The role of meetings in group work - What is facilitation? - Facilitating a meeting – Making meetings accessible - Taking minutes 3: Facilitating consensus in large groups Meeting the conditions for consensus in large groups - Processes for large groups 4: Facilitating consensus in virtual meetings Why have virtual meetings? - The tools for the job - Challenges of facilitating virtual meetings - A consensus process for virtual meetings 5: Quick consensus decision making Preparing for quick consensus - How it works 6: Facilitation techniques and activities Starting the meeting - Regulating the flow of the meeting - Encouraging involvement - Techniques for problem solving and tackling difficult issues - Prioritisation techniques - Activities for re-energising - Evaluating meetings 7: Troubleshooting in your meetings Our meetings take a long time - Time pressure - Our meetings lack focus - Our group is large and we don’t enjoy meetings - We’re stuck and can’t reach a decision - Too many ideas - ‘Steamroller’ proposals - How can we deal with disruptive behaviour? - What to do when someone blocks - Our group is biased towards the status quo 8: Bridging the gap between theory and practice Conflict and consensus - The life cycle of a conflict - Ways of dealing with conflict - Techniques for inviting collaboration Power dynamics - Step one: What are our feelings about power dynamics? - Step two: Diagnosis – what is actually going on - in your group? - Step three: Where do your power imbalances come from? - Step four: Work out some ways to change your power dynamics Other common issues - External pressures - Open groups with changing membership - What if you’re the only person who wants the group to change? 9: Consensus in wider society So how might it work? - Challenges, questions and tensions - How do we get there? - A final thought

(source)

possibly a long-shot, but could anyone possibly point me in the direction of some resources on sewing that focus on either “mens” clothing, or more gender neutral stuff? it feels like all the beginner patterns and books i can find have skirts and dresses as their main focus, which i certainly won’t wear, and none of the women in my life tend to wear that sort of stuff either, and it feels like a waste to make a bunch of skirts for practice just for them to get chucked in the back of a wardrobe. any recommendations for online resources (youtube, blogs, etc) or physical books would be very welcome. thanks!

Going for a reblog since I couldn’t fit everything in a comment.

Look for a generic sewing book, not one with patterns; one with things like how to read a pattern, stitches, how to pick fabric, seam finishes, hemming, etc. Those will be useful no matter what you sew. I do not own it myself but I know many people who swear by vintage editions of Reader’s Digest Complete Guide To Sewing, which can be often found second hand for cheap (apparently there’s a new edition but it’s not as detailed). Check your local library if you can, they probably have some sewing books, and even if fashion changes fast, sewing tecniques mostly have been staying the same.

One book I do own and love is Make, Sew and Mend by Bernadette Banner. It’s very thorough and it features one of the best explanations of fabric types I’ve ever seen. I have been sewing for years and still I have learned a lot from it. However, it does not feature machine sewing! It also features queer people and for this it got some backlash from bigots.

For more specific books, look for David Page Coffin: his books about shirt making and making trousers. They might be more advanced though, so maybe not as first books? I don’t own them so if you think they’re interesting, go look up reviews.

Humble bundle periodically makes cosplay bundles; even if you have no interest in cosplay, there’s usually enough sewing books in there to make it worth. However the latest one has been in… April? May? So it might take a while for another to appear.

Blogs:

it’s now rarely updated, Peter is somehow active on instagram, but it’s a treasure trove of material and inspiration. His sewalong of Negroni Colette shirt is great (and most of it is applicable to any shirt!)

Duane does a lot of tailoring and he’s thorough in documenting and appreciating details. He also has documented his experience in sewing women’s pattern for a man’s body at least twice (Sienna Maker Jacket, Olya shirt)

I find Minerva’s website utterly confusing to navigate but there’s so much inspiration and information to be found there, it’s worth the effort.

Some free sewing patterns:

I’m sure there’s more to be found!

Paid patterns:

I can only think of one indie company that only makes patterns for guys, https://patronslesbg.com/en/boutique/ They’re French, but a handful of patterns are also available in English.

However I have noticed an increased availability of straight fit patterns. Also many have moved away from using “men’s” and “women’s” as categories, toward definitions like “hourglass” vs “straight cut” or similar. Which is great and I appreciate it a lot, but it sometimes makes harder to search for what you’re looking for ^^;

Finally, I am not much of a fan of the Big 4, since I do not live in the US I can only find them at full price, and I dislike their sparse instructions and way too often they add a ton of ease. However, even they have recognized that fashion has moved on from the 60s and now feature some contemporary designers (also often they have sew alongs!) https://simplicity.com/men-patterns/?brand=Know%20Me

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something but I think that’s enough infodump for today :)

1. Marxism is not a religion or celebrity cult where people "stan" Marx and the validity of his theories is proven by his exemplary personal life, it's a science of political economy that's been used, adapted, critiqued, and modified by billions of people for almost two centuries. It's called "Marxism" for the same reason it's called "Darwinism" - he's the guy that laid the theoretical foundations of a scientific theory.

2. Presuming this is about "On the Jewish Question" (one of Marx's earliest writings which predates The Communist Manifesto and indeed his own formulation of Marxism), the myth that it's a virulently antisemitic text has been repeatedly debunked (short version from Jacobin, long version from Jewish socialist Hal Draper). He was in fact arguing for the emancipation and granting of citizenship rights to Jews within the overwhelmingly antisemitic climate of early 19th century European politics.

Tumblr isn't letting me embed links right now for some reason so articles mentioned:

So You Need To Buy A Computer But You Don't Know What Specs Are Good These Days

Hi.

This is literally my job.

Lots of people are buying computers for school right now or are replacing computers as their five-year-old college laptop craps out so here's the standard specs you should be looking for in a (windows) computer purchase in August 2023.

PROCESSOR

You can get away with a Ryzen 5 but an intel i3 should be an absolute last resort. You want at least an intel i5 or a Ryzen 7 processor. The current generation of intel processors is 13, but anything 10 or newer is perfectly fine. DO NOT get a higher performance line with an older generation; a 13th gen i5 is better than an 8th gen i7. (Unfortunately I don't know enough about ryzens to tell you which generation is the earliest you should get, but staying within 3 generations is a good rule of thumb)

RAM

If you don't have at least 8GB RAM on a modern computer it's going to be very, very slow. Ideally you want a computer with at least 16GB, and it's a good idea to get a computer that will let you add or swap RAM down the line (nearly all desktops will let you do this, for laptops you need to check the specs for Memory and see how many slots there are and how many slots are available; laptops with soldered RAM cannot have the memory upgraded - this is common in very slim laptops)

STORAGE

Computers mostly come with SSDs these days; SSDs are faster than HDDs but typically have lower storage for the same price. That being said: SSDs are coming down in price and if you're installing your own drive you can easily upgrade the size for a low cost. Unfortunately that doesn't do anything for you for the initial purchase.

A lot of cheaper laptops will have a 128GB SSD and, because a lot of stuff is stored in the cloud these days, that can be functional. I still recommend getting a bit more storage than that because it's nice if you can store your music and documents and photos on your device instead of on the cloud. You want to be able to access your files even if you don't have internet access.

But don't get a computer with a big HDD instead of getting a computer with a small SSD. The difference in speed is noticeable.

SCREEN (laptop specific)

Personally I find that touchscreens have a negative impact on battery life and are easier to fuck up than standard screens. They are also harder to replace if they get broken. I do not recommend getting a touch screen unless you absolutely have to.

A lot of college students especially tend to look for the biggest laptop screen possible; don't do that. It's a pain in the ass to carry a 17" laptop around campus and with the way that everything is so thin these days it's easier to damage a 17" screen than a 14" screen.

On the other end of that: laptops with 13" screens tend to be very slim devices that are glued shut and impossible to work on or upgrade.

Your best bet (for both functionality and price) is either a 14" or a 15.6" screen. If you absolutely positively need to have a 10-key keyboard on your laptop, get the 15.6". If you need something portable more than you need 10-key, get a 14"

FORM FACTOR (desktop specific)

If you purchase an all-in-one desktop computer I will begin manifesting in your house physically. All-in-ones take away every advantage desktops have in terms of upgradeability and maintenance; they are expensive and difficult to repair and usually not worth the cost of disassembling to upgrade.

There are about four standard sizes of desktop PC: All-in-One (the size of a monitor with no other footprint), Tower (Big! probably at least two feet long in two directions), Small Form Factor Tower (Very moderate - about the size of a large shoebox), and Mini/Micro/Tiny (Small! about the size of a small hardcover book).

If you are concerned about space you are much better off getting a MicroPC and a bracket to put it on your monitor than you are getting an all-in-one. This will be about a million percent easier to work on than an all-in-one and this way if your monitor dies your computer is still functional.

Small form factor towers and towers are the easiest to work on and upgrade; if you need a burly graphics card you need to get a full size tower, but for everything else a small form factor tower will be fine. Most of our business sales are SFF towers and MicroPCs, the only time we get something larger is if we have to put a $700 graphics card in it. SFF towers will accept small graphics cards and can handle upgrades to the power supply; MicroPCs can only have the RAM and SSD upgraded and don't have room for any other components or their own internal power supply.

WARRANTY

Most desktops come with either a 1 or 3 year warranty; either of these is fine and if you want to upgrade a 1 year to a 3 year that is also fine. I've generally found that if something is going to do a warranty failure on desktop it's going to do it the first year, so you don't get a hell of a lot of added mileage out of an extended warranty but it doesn't hurt and sometimes pays off to do a 3-year.

Laptops are a different story. Laptops mostly come with a 1-year warranty and what I recommend everyone does for every laptop that will allow it is to upgrade that to the longest warranty you can get with added drop/damage protection. The most common question our customers have about laptops is if we can replace a screen and the answer is usually "yes, but it's going to be expensive." If you're purchasing a low-end laptop, the parts and labor for replacing a screen can easily cost more than half the price of a new laptop. HOWEVER, the way that most screens get broken is by getting dropped. So if you have a warranty with drop protection, you just send that sucker back to the factory and they fix it for you.

So, if it is at all possible, check if the manufacturer of a laptop you're looking at has a warranty option with drop protection. Then, within 30 days (though ideally on the first day you get it) of owning your laptop, go to the manufacturer site, register your serial number, and upgrade the warranty. If you can't afford a 3-year upgrade at once set a reminder for yourself to annually renew. But get that drop protection, especially if you are a college student or if you've got kids.

And never, ever put pens or pencils on your laptop keyboard. I've seen people ruin thousand dollar, brand-new laptops that they can't afford to fix because they closed the screen on a ten cent pencil. Keep liquids away from them too.

LIFESPAN

There's a reasonable chance that any computer you buy today will still be able to turn on and run a program or two in ten years. That does not mean that it is "functional."

At my office we estimate that the functional lifespan of desktops is 5-7 years and the functional lifespan of laptops is 3-5 years. Laptops get more wear and tear than desktops and desktops are easier to upgrade to keep them running. At 5 years for desktops and 3 years for laptops you should look at upgrading the RAM in the device and possibly consider replacing the SSD with a new (possibly larger) model, because SSDs and HDDs don't last forever.

COST

This means that you should think of your computers as an annual investment rather than as a one-time purchase. It is more worthwhile to pay $700 for a laptop that will work well for five years than it is to pay $300 for a laptop that will be outdated and slow in one year (which is what will happen if you get an 8th gen i3 with 8GB RAM). If you are going to get a $300 laptop try to get specs as close as possible to the minimums I've laid out here.

If you have to compromise on these specs, the one that is least fixable is the processor. If you get a laptop with an i3 processor you aren't going to be able to upgrade it even if you can add more RAM or a bigger SSD. If you have to get lower specs in order to afford the device put your money into the processor and make sure that the computer has available slots for upgrade and that neither the RAM nor the SSD is soldered to the motherboard. (one easy way to check this is to search "[computer model] RAM upgrade" on youtube and see if anyone has made a video showing what the inside of the laptop looks like and how much effort it takes to replace parts)

Computers are expensive right now. This is frustrating, because historically consumer computer prices have been on a downward trend but since 2020 that trend has been all over the place. Desktop computers are quite expensive at the moment (August 2023) and decent laptops are extremely variably priced.

If you are looking for a decent, upgradeable laptop that will last you a few years, here are a couple of options that you can purchase in August 2023 that have good prices for their specs:

If you are looking for a decent, affordable desktop that will last you a few years, here are a couple of options that you can purchase in August 2023 that have good prices for their specs:

If I were going to buy any of these I'd probably get the HP laptop or the Dell Tower. The HP Laptop is actually a really good price for what it is.

Anyway happy computering.