ragged, reeling

cal, 28, dene, she/they "till human voices wake us, and we drown"

[arcticgothic]

anyway i genuinely cannot live with myself

[disengaged]

southern alberta, june 2026

[paper-wounds]

[arcticgothic]

hey quick question how does anyone maintain their will to live while job hunting

[pintsandparapets]

A scrapped illustration for Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892).

[windowgaze-blog]

[thesituation]

open tumblr, see something that pisses me off, write a snarky post, delete it, write a slightly more earnest post, edit it for 5 minutes, delete it, close tumblr

[arcticgothic]

stupid people??? on my tumblr???

[sevaria]

Perverts

[arcticgothic]

i hate it when i try to correct someone on something (especially something i have some level of expertise on) and they come back with "oh you were right actually!" as if i was heretofore unaware of that fact. i assure you i knew i was right the whole time <3

[prokopetz]

The whole "the brain isn't fully mature until age 25" bit is actually a fairly impressive bit of psuedoscience for how incredibly stupid the way it misinterprets the data it's based on is.

Okay, so: there's a part of the human brain called the "prefrontal cortex" which is, among other things, responsible for executive function and impulse control. Like most parts of the brain, it undergoes active "rewiring" over time (i.e., pruning unused neural connections and establishing new ones), and in the case of the prefrontal cortex in particular, this rewiring sharply accelerates during puberty.

Because the pace of rewiring in the prefrontal cortex is linked to specific developmental milestones, it was hypothesised that it would slow down and eventually stop in adulthood. However, the process can't directly be observed; the only way to tell how much neural rewiring is taking place in a particular part of the brain is to compare multiple brain scans of the same individual performed over a period of time.

Thus, something called a "longitudinal study" was commissioned: the same individuals would undergo regular brain scans over a period of many years, beginning in early childhood, so that their prefrontal development could accurately be tracked.

The longitudinal study was originally planned to follow its subjects up to age 21. However, when the predicted cessation of prefrontal rewiring was not observed by age 21, additional funding was obtained, and the study period was extended to age 25. The predicted cessation of prefrontal development wasn't observed by age 25, either, at which point the study was terminated.

When the mainstream press got hold of these results, the conclusion that prefrontal rewiring continues at least until age 25 was reported as prefrontal development finishing at age 25. Critically, this is the exact opposite of what the study actually concluded. The study was unable to identify a stopping point for prefrontal development because no such stopping point was observed for any subject during the study period. The only significance of the age 25 is that no subjects were tracked beyond this age because the study ran out of funding!

It gets me when people try to argue against the neuroscience-proves-everybody-under-25-is-a-child talking point by claiming that it's merely an average, or that prefrontal development doesn't tell the whole story. Like, no, it's not an average – it's just bullshit. There's no evidence that the cited phenomenon exists at all. If there is an age where prefrontal rewiring levels off and stops (and it's not clear that there is), we don't know what age that is; we merely know that it must be older than 25.

[website-com]

related to this, previously we thought creating new neuronal pathways (neuroplasticity) and neurons (neurogenesis) was impossible after a certain age (cant tell you what sorry. i didnt study the old lit). the more current research suggests that, while young you can do it faster and more effectively, you are still able to form new parts of your brain your entire life. that alone is indication that you dont have a 'final adult brain' but before that research was substatiated it makes sense that people were looking for a 'final brain'. it's a comforting thought that one day you're fully there and you'll never leave. old age is always treated like a failure that needs to be obscured when it happens and not like a normal part of how life works by the general public. the brain changes significantly in old age, and it's not all breakdowns. reliably people are less flexible in their thinking, but their concrete knowledge only grows. you might know how to be happy more reliably.

paper 1

paper 2

[heavensghost]

Leaf zine! Words from candles by daughter

[glowpart2]

Did you guys know that this isn’t your grave and you can get out of this hole? I just found out

[huariqueje]

Birds    -     Alice Brasser  , 2010

Dutch,b.1965-

Oil on canvas,120 x 90 cm.

[circusheart]

I do think the post that's like "when they torture you to insanity and then torture you for being insane 😂🤣" is one of the most succinct and foundational analyses of interpersonal violence and conflict that had ever been written

[pogphotoarchives]

Original courthouse and county seat, Puerto de Luna, New Mexico

Photographer: Ray Robinson Date: 1958 Negative Number 056332

[lepidopteragirl]

deadbeat group chat member