A writer's workspace

Middle-aged history teacher with way too many plot bunnies in her head. FF and AO3: writer314

[profeminist]

"If you're a man upset at being lumped in with rapists, attackers and general arseholes just because of your gender, maybe take it up with the men who give us a bad name instead of women who have to be on guard 24/7 because of them."

Source: https://x.com/Billablog/status/1008209354384760832

[porterdavis]

[todaysdocument]

Affidavit of Donald S. Mackenzie

Record Group 220: Records of Temporary Committees, Commissions, and BoardsSeries: Records of the Kent State University Investigative Team

When I saw the Guardsmen turn

and fire my reaction was to turn

around and run away. I was running

and ["listening to" struck through and initialed with D.S.M.] hearing the shots. I had

run only a few steps and had

the sensation of being hit.

I remember thinking as I

ran that they probably were

shooting blanks. I remember in

the split second after being hit

they aren't shooting blanks.

My back was turned as I ran

from the Guard. I was hit with

what at the time felt like a hard force

on the rear of my head. [Illegible words struck out and initialed D.S.M.] I fell on

my knees from the impact and

my left hand in a reflex action

came to my face. I saw blood was

coming from my face.

I regained my balance

enough to get to the other side

of ["the" printed by hand] wood bordering the parking lot.

I was treated at the

KSU Health Center and later

at St. Thomas Hospital, Akron

Ohio. D.S.M.

Richboro Pa

September 15, 1970

I, Donald S. Mackenzie, Bustleton

Pike, Richboro Pa. make the following statement

to Charles E. Stine who has shown me his

credential as an investigator, President Commission

on Campus Unrest.

I am a senior in the School of Business,

Kent State University, Kent Ohio.

On May 4, 1970 I was shot while

in the Prentice Hall parking lot in the

area farthest away from Taylor Hall.

Immediately prior to being shot

I was watching the Ohio National

Guardsmen proceed from the football

practice field toward the Commons.

They seemed to be retracing their

steps.

As they climbed the hill

near Taylor Hall almost as they

got to the top of the incline I noticed

one Guardsmen turn to his right

and fire his weapon. It was a

rifle held at his hip, rather than

at his shoulder.

The other Guardsmen in the

same formation also turned [illegible letter struck through and initialed D.S.M.] and

fired. D.S.M.

I have a small scar on my

neck and another on my cheek. My

jaw was broken from the shot which

pierced my head.

I have always associated my

wounds with the Guardsmen; their

turning toward the [illegible word struck through and initialed D.S.M.] general

area where I was and their shooting

have convinced me that I was shot

with one of their bullet.

I HAVE READ AND INITIALED

THE TWO PERVIOUS [sic] PAGES AND ALL

CORECTIONS [sic], THIS STATEMENT IS THE

TRUTH. DONALD S. MACKENZIE

Witness

Charles E. Stine

Presidents' Commission

on Campus Unrest

Richboro Pa

September 15, 1970

[regina-bithyniae]

[alex51324]

In a totalitarian state, anything you can find to do that is neither forbidden nor compulsory is an act of liberation.

In a totalitarian state, wasting the authorities time and resources is a positive good.

My fellow Americans, act accordingly.

[thepromiscuousfinger]

[chaifootsteps]

#Please little bird

[meriwetherwrites]

I love that the modern-day tumblr post equivalent of chain emails only requires me to reblog a relatively pleasant image instead of forward an email to a bunch of my friends and family members to quell my raging anxiety.

[awriter314]

Ray Ban Sunglasses Official Charity Event!

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The official charity event of Ray-Ban sunglasses, all styles of glasses are only $24.99! We will donate 50% of the profits to the COVID-19 epidemic prevention department. Every purchase is your support for charity, thank you!

Click to buy>>>Official flagship store

[digsdigsdigs]

Repeating my COVID surge PSA: there is a major surge underway in many places right now. In the US, estimates are that we're seeing higher covid levels than 90% of the pandemic, with 1 in 35 people currently infected, so eg a gathering of 20 people has a 45% chance of having an infectious person present (source, posted 12/18/23 so they're already a couple days old and expected to rise through early January). It's common for people to be infectious without/before becoming symptomatic, and rapid tests miss a lot of cases.

You can protect yourself and your loved ones by declining invites for overly risky situations, wearing a well fitting high quality mask when you're sharing air with others (kn-94, N95), and following the People's CDC safer indoor gathering guide as much as you can

[boo-cool-robot]

These will probably not come in time for Christmas, but Metrix tests are home NAAT tests that are considerably more accurate than rapids (but not quite as accurate as PCRs). They cost $25 each, require a reader, and take half an hour to run, so not as easy or affordable as rapids, but I like these for special occasions now that it's very difficult to get an affordable PCR test in the U.S.

[wilwheaton]

Y'all, it isn't on the national news, but check your local news and local community groups. There's a MASSIVE Covid surge happening right now. Please mask up when you're out and in public spaces. I really don't want you to get sick.

[saywhat-politics]

Russia bans anti-war candidate from challenging Putin

A former TV journalist is barred from standing by officials due to "mistakes" on her application form.

A former TV journalist who announced she would challenge President Putin in Russia's spring election has been barred from standing.

Independent politician Yekaterina Duntsova wanted to run on a platform to end the war with Ukraine.

But the electoral commission voted unanimously to reject her candidacy three days after her application, citing 100 "mistakes" on her form.

Ms Duntsova said she would appeal the decision at the Supreme Court.

The presidential election, which will be held in March 2024, is Russia's first since President Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.

The immediate slap-down of a Putin critic will be seen as evidence by some that no dissent will be tolerated in the campaign.

The head of Russia's electoral commission, Ella Pamfilova, said Ms Duntsova would not be allowed to progress to the next stage of gathering thousands of supporters' signatures.

[gg-selvish-deactivated20250602]

the worst thing that could possibly happen to ao3 is it being put on the app store so please stop asking for it because you don't understand what would happen if that went through. ao3's whole deal is it archives EVERYTHING, while the apple app store's whole deal is keeping everything clean and safe. so if ao3 were to have an app all of the 'bad' stuff, including nsfw in general, would have to be censored at best or would be purged at worse. the google play store is more lax but who fucking knows what GOOGLE would police if they got their hands on the archive. do not ask for an app. do not use third party apps. it's on mobile browser functioning perfectly, just fucking use that before you ruin everything for everyone please.

[saywhat-politics]

Wisconsin Supreme Court orders new legislative maps in redistricting case brought by Democrats

The Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned Republican-drawn legislative maps on Friday and ordered that new district boundary lines be drawn.

[reasonsforhope]

US Sets Policy to Seize Patents of Government-Funded Drugs if Price Deemed Too High

NIH funding contributed to research associated with every new drug approved from 2010-2019, totaling $230 billion, a research paper found.

"The Biden Administration last week [early December, 2023] announced it would be seizing patents for drugs and drug manufacturing procedures developed using government money.

A draft of the new law, seen by Reuters, said that the government will consider various factors including whether a medical situation is leading to increased prices of the drug at any given time, or whether only a small section of Americans can afford it.

The new executive order is the first exercise in what is called “march-in-rights” which allows relevant government agencies to redistribute patents if they were generated under government funding. The NIH has long maintained march-in-rights, but previous directors have been unwilling to use them, fearing consequences.

“We’ll make it clear that when drug companies won’t sell taxpayer funded drugs at reasonable prices, we will be prepared to allow other companies to provide those drugs for less,” White House adviser Lael Brainard said on a press call.

But just how much taxpayer money is going toward funding drugs? A research paper from the Insitute for New Economic Thought showed that “NIH funding contributed to research associated with every new drug approved from 2010-2019, totaling $230 billion.”

The authors of the paper continue, writing “NIH funding also produced 22 thousand patents, which provided marketing exclusivity for 27 (8.6%) of the drugs approved [between] 2010-2019.”

How we do drug discovery and production in America has a number of fundamental flaws that have created problems in the health service industry.

It costs billions of dollars and sometimes as many as 5 to 10 years to bring a drug to market in the US, which means that only companies with massive financial muscle can do so with any regularity, and that smaller, more innovative companies can’t compete with these pharma giants.

This also means that if a company can’t recoup that loss, a single failed drug can result in massive disruptions to business. To protect themselves, pharmaceutical companies establish piles of patents on drugs and drug manufacturing procedures. Especially if the drug in question treats a rare or obscure disease, these patents essentially ensure the company has monoselective pricing regimes.

However, if a company can convince the NIH that a particular drug should be considered a public health priority, they can be almost entirely funded by the government, as the research paper showed.

Some market participants, in this case the famous billionaire investor Mark Cuban, have attempted to remedy the issue of drug costs in America by manufacturing generic versions of patented drugs sold for common diseases."

-via Good News Network, December 11, 2023

[phantom-of-the-memes]

The far right have started serious riots in Dublin in response to a stabbing by an immigrant.

I don’t even need to go into how him being an immigrant is fucking irrelevant, and making this about your fascist opinions is taking away the attention from the actual victims. You guys are smarter than to fall for that.

Gangs of white Irish men are destroying the city; setting cars, buses, and shops on fire. They’re posting videos of them laughing as they smash out the windows of buses and shops and loot the place.

This is the right wing’s politics. “Immigrants are destroying Dublin”… says the people actively smashing the place to bits.

Please stay inside if you live in the centre. Especially for immigrants/ people of colour/ trans people / queer people/ any group that white supremacists target.

[sadhoc]

hey if you're not a mobility aid user, and you want a simple way to make public spaces more accessible to those of us who are, i have a tip for you:

push in your chairs when you get up from tables.

when people don't push in their chairs, people with bulky aids like wheelchairs and rollators can't get through. also a lot of people who use canes have wider gaits than able bodied people, and having a chair in the middle of their walking path is a real obstruction. while some of us are able to push chairs out of our way, a lot of us are not, and wind up boxed in/out because somebody didn't push in their chair.

so if you want to do something simple that can make a big difference in terms of like. navigating an outdoor food court or a cafe or what have you. push in your chairs.

[badwolf-timeandspace]

Not many people here or on any social media know or care about this and that's a shame. But maybe, instead of reblogging one of the hundred posts again of people begging US Americans to go vote and also not vote for the orange rapist wannabe-dictator next year, we can reblog this.

Today (Dec 11th), it's finally decided, Poland will get a new government. The current ruling party PiS failed to get enough votes in parliament to continue their governing coalition. Instead a new coalition of opposition parties under Donald Tusk now gets the chance to form a government.

Polish people did that! They showed us that it is possible to stop the spiral into authoritarianism.

On October 15th they got up and voted, over 74% of them, the highest voter turnout (for free elections) in Polish history.

People realized where their country was heading, and a huge number of them mobilized and organized and said this has to be stopped. They said no to their current reactionary, misogynistic, anti-abortion, xenophobic, anti-european, anti-democratic, right-wing government.

The majority of the people voted yes for change, for progress, for democracy.

Barely anyone outside of Poland is paying attention to or talking about what is happening there and that's a great pitty and also pretty frustrating.

Especially since so many countries in Europe see a rise of right-wing, populist parties (recent example the Netherlands, like, really wtf?) - which is deeply concerning, alarming even.

And it makes what the Polish people achieved even more astonishing and admirable.

All countries, but especially those where democracy is threatened or seems lost already, should take note and take it as an example. There's still hope.

[socialjusticeinamerica]

[serial-unaliver-deactivated2024]

someone: hi

me: did you know the narrative that school shooters in the US are all bullying victims is false and originates from inaccurate coverage of one of the most infamous school shootings, the columbine shooting? in reality the columbine shooters were reactionaries who isolated themselves deliberately and followed an ideology that positioned them "above" the rest. so, a lot of school shooters are actually ideologically motivated rather than revenge motivated. no one knows this and the media paints these murderers as victims. do you want to know what the columbine effect is? also I have a lot to say about "stranger danger" as a conservative fear campaign to promote the isolated nuclear family

[nicosraf]

As per my last post, if yall arent aware — Cait Corrain, the author of the upcoming Crown of Starlight made a bunch of fake accounts on Goodreads to review-bomb other debut authors, almost entirely BIPOC, with 1 star while 5-starring her own book. She also added traditionally published debut authors to a list derogatorily labeling them as "self-published" hacks. She went after random books that are Greek mythology retellings, like her own is, and again targeted BIPOC authors. She even targeted my good friend RM Virtues, who is an indie author who writes queer Black Greek myth reimaginings.

Many of those she attacked were people who considered her a colleague and friend. She's tried to spin a lie about how she's being framed by someone from her Reylo fandom days, but Reylos have disproven that already.

Cait allegedly liked to brag about how her publisher treated her like royalty, and she had a massive Illumicrate deal. Her book was also getting favorable advanced reviews and had a beautiful cover, so she had nothing to be jealous of. She's potentially destroyed her career due to racism alone. Do not buy her book and do not support her.

Here is a thread if you want specifics and here is the 31-page doc of evidence.

[shivasdarknight]

Considering what happened, it's a major oversight to leave those impacted by Corrain unmentioned. It leaves them nameless victims and we ought to be supporting them.

So Let Them Burn - Kamilah Cole

The Poisons We Drink - Bethany Baptiste

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods - Molly X. Chang

Voyage of the Damned - Frances White

Mistress of Lies - K.M. Enright

Gods of Hunger series - R.M. Virtues

Xiran Jay Zhao coverage: pt1, pt2, pt3.