that’s a beautiful tabby kangaroo! 🤩

for double reference points, you can go by temba wide-arm 😎

they’ll spend money on anything except fixing the housing crisis or cost of living crisis, it seems.

which is something that in turn would cut down on “keyboard warriors” as they put it, because when people aren’t priced out of living their lives, they have other things to do!

i really worry about what spaces kids online are going to be pushed into, with all these bans. so many people my age were groomed on internet forums when we were kids; i imagine social media bans are going to push kids into spaces like that, where it’s not technically considered a social media site, and there’ll be little to no adult supervision from anyone who’s not in the inner circle of the forum.

more cute li’l black cats for the rest of us! 🥳

the two i’ve had are both the sweetest softest babies. 🤩

i never said you said that either; i was just attempting to tie the conversation back to the research there, apologies for my clunky writing!

i’d be fine if the researchers had asked the nonbinary people in their study whether they consider themselves trans or not, then the researchers would have learned new things about transness & what it means to individual people! 💚 but disappointingly, the researchers seem to have excluded them from transness by default, without asking. 🥀😮‍💨

The printer running out

i agree that people can call themselves whatever they want, they know themselves best!

these researchers don’t have the right to make that decision for others, though.

yeah, it’s v weird & ill-informed of them to not count nonbinary people as trans. even the way they shove these two sentences into one paragraph, as though being nonbinary is somehow detransitioning:

One thing to consider is that this study began almost a decade ago, in 2013, and the way we frame transitioning and “detransitioning” has been evolving. When the researchers started the study, no one they interviewed identified as nonbinary or used they/them pronouns, Olson told NBC News.

i’m pretty sure nonbinary people were trans before 2013, but those researchers also had plenty of time to, y’know, do research on it in the meantime 😬

i’m sorry to hear that ❤️‍🩹

i hope you can get your hands on some paxlovid, and that you can rest as much as possible. if you think you’re resting enough, rest some more for good measure!

even occasionally masking is better than nothing, it’s breaking those chains of transmission! 💪

unfortunately, the covid vaccine only really prevents the worst outcomes (hospitalisation & death) for about 4-6 months, it doesn’t prevent transmission or long covid.

i’ve got my fingers crossed for a vaccine that does prevent transmission or long covid, but in the meantime, wearing a well-fitted mask really does work!

between measles and covid, there are a lot of people walking around who are immuno-compromised now & don’t even know it yet, beyond a vague idea that they don’t remember being sick so often before a few years ago.

i really hope that the us swings away from fascism & eugenics and moves towards things like free healthcare asap, because it really doesn’t have to be like this.

the huge cheers from all sides for the death of a healthcare ceo really shows that there are basic needs like healthcare & housing & UBI that have broad support, far beyond what culture war BS would have people believe, imo.

clay/earthen/cob houses might be the way to go in your neck of the woods! they used to be the go-to house here in central & eastern ireland, which isn’t a million miles away, climate-wise.

they’re surprisingly warm in winter & keep out the damp easily (i assume because they’re more porous than bricks-and-mortar).

the main obstacle here in ireland is getting planning permission to build anything that’s even slightly out of the norm. 😅

use photo editing software to copy & paste the character onto whatever backgrounds you want.

shitposts made with ai are generally downvoted into oblivion, btw. meanwhile, people appreciate the effort of diy shitposts. with human-made artisanal shitposts, the time & effort taken to make them is visible! 😚👌

in case anyone isn’t sure what this is for, it’s going to be used to train ai.

the contract they want you to sign also has some waivers (pasted below), which i assume are to pre-empt lawsuits about using your likeness to train ai, and all without really explaining that’s what the photos & videos are for.

excerpt from their linked contract/agreement:

10.2 Class Action Waiver. Independent Contractor and Company mutually agree that by agreeing to arbitrate any dispute, each waives its right to have any dispute or claim brought, heard or arbitrated as a class action or collective action and that the arbitrator will not have any authority to hear or arbitrate any class or collective action (“Class Action Waiver”). 10.3 Representative Action Waiver. Independent Contractor and Company mutually agree that by agreeing to arbitrate, each waives its right to have any dispute or claim brought, heard or arbitrated as a representative action and that the arbitrator will not have any authority to arbitrate a representative action (“Representative Action Waiver”).

“The simplest thing is to send an F-16 to put out the fire,” Kreuzer added.

All three justified the idea of summary killings on the grounds that burning waste “constitutes terrorism”.

According to Israel, dropping 2000lb “bunker busters” on people in tents isn’t terrorism, but people burning rubbish in order to cook food & generate heat is.

the legends say that toby’s still napping now, and on a quiet night like tonight, you can hear him snoring contentedly 😌💚

that’s the film logo from this year, saying “he mr gay”

the stars on the title of the 2007 game “super mario galaxy” are what spell out “u r mr gay” / “you are mr gay”

then the stars on the title of the sequel game in 2010, “super mario galaxy 2” spell out “u r m i a y”, which spelled backwards supposedly says “ya i m, r u?” / “yeah i am, are you?”

so idk, i think he might in fact be mr gay. we might need a film sequel to be sure, though.

https://gaming-urban-legends.fandom.com/wiki/U_R_MR_GAY

right! broombas should always be operated while sitting, for witchy flight safety :D

yeah! there are plenty of single-use plastics that are unavoidable at present (like all the plastic packaging keeping things sealed & sterile in hospitals); it’d be so great to be able to swap those out for something that can then biodegrade once they’re done with it! 🥳

there was no mention of shampoo. there’s research going into using fungi to biodegrade microplastics in soil, like here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9330918/