sick as frick

“In the same way that your heart feels and your mind thinks, you, mortal beings, are the instrument by which the universe cares. If you choose to care, then the universe cares. If you don’t, it doesn’t.” - Brennan Lee Mulligan, Dimension 20

[cutecipher]

i am glad that lol has survived through trends and turmoil

[freiherr-von-naarenburg]

[flannelunderpants]

[fiollaigean]

[only-tiktoks]

[xmagnet-o]

Spread this video

[kick-a-long]

spread this video for awareness.

to me it's counter intuitive that little person and dwarf are more acceptable so it's really helpful to know.

also spread this video to appreciate the fucking killer mustache on that one guy in the suit. holy shit, it's like a work of art.

[crippled-peeper]

if you’re a baby trans and you haven’t started smoking cigarettes or vaping yet don’t. it’s actually not that hot or interesting. It will just cause you ungodly frustrations and suffering and cost you a bunch of money and be next to impossible to quit

[upset-to-dead]

Just tagging on like. Your lungs work just fine. Don't change that.

[sleepyfishboy]

If you want to look hot and mysterious just chew on toothpicks, it implies good dental hygiene and an immaculate vibe

[what-even-is-thiss]

Smoking rates are stupidly high in the queer community but especially with trans people and especially trans men. It’s common to feel peer pressured into smoking in trans spaces. And man I love this community but don’t smoke. Don’t try to encourage others to smoke. Whatever you want to get out of it there’s something else that’ll help that’s cheaper and won’t fill your lungs with tar and dried blood. Caffeine, lollipops, adhd meds, chewing on pens, dying your hair, sex, therapy, an appointment with a dietician. Try any of these things and more before even looking at nicotine.

[probablyasocialecologist]

New Study Validates Gender Affirming Care for Adolescents

A Utah-commissioned study finds gender-affirming care for trans youth is safe, effective, and backed by extensive evidence, despite politica

A comprehensive new report commissioned by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services provides one of the most detailed and exhaustive assessments to date on the medical safety, effectiveness, and long-term outcomes of gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary youth. And despite recent political rhetoric suggesting otherwise, the findings are clear: gender-affirming medical treatment, when guided by evidence-based protocols, helps transgender adolescents thrive. The report “Gender-Affirming Medical Treatments for Pediatric Patients with Gender Dysphoria” was produced by the University of Utah’s College of Pharmacy Drug Regimen Review Center and submitted to the state in August 2024. It arrives in the wake of Utah’s controversial Senate Bill 16, which placed a moratorium on gender-affirming medical care for minors and tasked health officials with conducting a review to determine whether the ban should remain in place. Rather than validating the restrictions, the 900-page report systematically debunks the narrative that these treatments are experimental or dangerous. Instead, it affirms what many healthcare professionals, families, and transgender individuals already know from lived experience: that access to gender-affirming hormone therapy and puberty blockers reduces psychological distress, improves quality of life, and is supported by decades of research. The Utah report is among the most thorough reviews conducted by a state agency. It draws on more than 270 clinical studies from the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, and Europe, spanning observational studies, randomized controlled trials, and long-term descriptive research. These studies examined the mental and physical health outcomes of transgender youth who underwent gender-affirming medical care, including puberty blockers (GnRH analogs), cross-sex hormones (testosterone or estrogen), and related medications. Key findings include: Significant mental health improvement in adolescents undergoing gender-affirming care, including reductions in depression, anxiety, suicidality, and eating disorders. Improved quality of life and self-image reported by TGNB youth after starting hormone therapy. Low rates of regret or treatment discontinuation, especially when care is delivered through comprehensive, multidisciplinary teams. No serious long-term health risks found in monitored populations receiving hormone therapy, including studies with follow-ups as long as 40 years. The authors conclude that there is more evidence supporting gender-affirming care than there is for many high-risk new drugs approved for children in the U.S., including recent gene therapies.

23 May 2025

[idiosyncraticrum]

Red-billed Oxpecker (Buphagus erythrorhynchus) on a rhino, sound asleep.

In South Africa by Zaheer Ali: Zali_Photo

[turquoisefleur]

"Oh Rhino, we are really in it now..."

[samreich]

the man contains multitudes

[ka-72]

[intelligentchristianlady]

A bus may have only a couple of passengers, especially at the beginning or end of its route. But let's also take fuel efficiency into account.

[foxoftheasterisk]

If there's one person on a bus because that person cannot or doesn't want to drive, the bus is succeeding.

[luckyladylily]

I read a study once on the fuel efficiency of various types of commuter vehicles (car, bus, train) on a per person basis and the number of people needed riding public transit to match the "efficiency" of cars is shockingly low. A bus needs to carry like 3-4 people to be fuel efficient, and trains require 2-3 per train car. Both often carry two dozen or more during peak hours, more than justifying any perceived requirements for efficiency for the train or bus to provide service the entire day.

[brightlotusmoon]

[hiveswap]

Everyone say thank you american indigenous people for cultivating corn, potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, cacao, pumpkin, squash, and anything i missed. Makes life more meaningful globally

[xiaguangmagpie]

Yes actually I will not shut up about how these foods are from the Americas/cultivated by the people there, and did NOT exist in Asia, Africa or Europe before the 1490s, there was an absolute food revolution going on in the 1500s. Whatever you think is traditional food for your country? Check again, you’ve maybe only been using that ingredient for maybe 500 years. Here is the full list of crops, it is very interesting :))

[lennyjamin]

spoke deeply to me.

[joint-hurty-juice]

Life-changing OCD hack is learning that you can literally call poison control to check if you fucked up and took medications wrong in a way that could kill you instead of having a panic attack while reading reddit and quora threads for an hour. They won't even be mad at you. Like obviously don't do it every day or something but genuinely you can do this if you need to

[moorishflower]

as people turn more and more towards the internet as a first choice for information, poison control (which has rebranded as poison help? i think?) is seeing fewer and fewer callers

part of this is because the USAmerican birth rates have slowed, and the number 1 culprit for why you'd call poison control is kids under 5 put shit in their mouths all the time

but part of it is BECAUSE people are turning to the internet first

and you don't have to! poison control is FREE and available in EVERY US STATE AND TERRITORY

they are staffed 24/7 365 days a year! they do everything they can to minimize wait times and they have an ENORMOUS database of medications, household cleaners, chemicals, pesticides, and MORE! and not only information on JUST those things, but how they interact with other things! they can even give you advice on if your pet ingests something they shouldn't!

but poison control isn't federally funded! they're a frankenstein mishmash of state funded, federally funded, and a couple of other weird ones (like organizations helping with funding) just for flavor. poison control NEEDS you to be politically aware. keep a finger on local and state politics; if your state is voting to shut down their poison control center, make sure your reps hear about how pissed you are!

poison control saves lives, but even more than that, it keeps people out of emergency rooms and walk-ins when they don't have to be. when Louisiana closed its PCC in 1988, people who called the PCC hotline were instructed to call their local hospital instead. the number of medically-treated poisonings rose by 42%...meaning ERs and walk-ins were flooded with people who'd taken, say, one extra pill of ibuprofen by accident, or got a bit of rubbing alcohol in their mouth, or got their dog's flea medicine on their skin. stuff that was SCARY, sure...but wouldn't have needed medical care at all if there had just been someone to tell those people you can just wash your mouth out, or wash your skin, or refrain from taking any more ibuprofen for at least 24 hours!

anyway help ur local PCC, put the pressure on your political reps, and if you ever have questions like "hypothetically what would happen if you inhaled iodine," you can call 1 800 222 1222 and speak with a real live reassuring person any time day or night!

[mikkeneko]

Do you feel shy about "bothering" emergency personnel with problems you don't know are serious or not? Let me tell you a story.

When I was in college, there was an on-campus emergency line, including on-campus poison control. I was doing the usual student thing -- stressed, sleep-deprived, in a new environment, generally just floundering to establish a structured life. My dorm was noisy so I slept with earplugs, but not well. One night, around 3 AM I woke up, realized I had something in my hand, thought "ah, this must be medication I should take," and swallowed them.

Reader, I swallowed my earplugs.

In retrospect this was not a serious problem, but at the time it was 3AM, I was young, sleep deprived, away from home for the first time -- I panicked. Sat bolt upright and thought OH NO. I SWALLOWED MY EARPLUGS. WHAT IF I CHOKE? WHAT IF THE CHEMICALS IN THEM POISON ME? WHAT IF THEY CAUSE A BOWEL OBSTRUCTION AND I DIE?? I paced around a little bit hysterically and eventually decided to call campus poison control. Just in case.

Now, I want you to switch perspectives a bit. Imagine you are a dude working a poison control hotline at a university. A panicked young woman calls in at 3 AM and says she took something she thinks she shouldn't have. You are bracing yourself for the worst -- party drugs, meth, cocaine, tide pods, it could be literally anything, you've seen all sorts of shit in this job. You are grimly preparing a dispatch to this young woman's dorm and the possibility of an obit in the news.

And then she says, in a quavery voice, "I swallowed my earplugs."

I remember there was a distinct pause. I remember that the young man in poison control very politely did not laugh at me, but there was definitely a supressed smile in his voice when he came back on the line, and told me that I would probably be fine, to just monitor my digestion for a few days and go to urgent care if I felt any abdominal pain.

No disasters tonight, no hospital visits, no catastrophe; everything will be fine.

So in conclusion: Call poison control. Even if it's not serious, they won't be upset to hear from you. If anything, hearing a nonserious story will brighten their night.

[dragon-in-a-fez]

there's a fine line between being wary of manipulation and becoming completely paranoid because you get very close to the realisation that pretty much all human interaction involves doing things we hope will lead to a result we like

[dragon-in-a-fez]

this post is about a lot of things. it's about my ex saying it was manipulative to talk to them in a cute voice because that influenced their emotions. it's also about someone on this webbed site saying being funny is "engagement farming". like yeah every single conversation you have is going to be "manipulative" if your standard for that is "did something with the goal of eliciting a response". if that bothers you go live in a hut in the forest and speak only to the trees. I'll be over here manipulating my friends into being happy by giving them compliments

[pilgrimattinkercreek1974]

Oh ok so it turns out ive been borrowing grief from the future ! it turns out ive been preparing to lose the things i love rather than basking in the light of them while they last. Maybe i should nt do that

[cometwise]

I'm trying to change it for years. Did not get there yet, will keep trying.

[girl-mercury]

On one of the routes I sometimes drive home, I see this be-leggéd fellow. He is extremely tall, excessively tall, and every time I sit in traffic contemplating him, I think, @elodieunderglass would appreciate a look at those legs.

[elodieunderglass]

I really do. Thank you.

[pomrania]

Major human pastimes:

frying dough

classifying things and then arguing about the classifications

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]