Writer, sexducator, psychologist (no really) and general fandom enjoyer. Wanna queer and kink-positive, found family, vampire, gaslamp fantasy? I got you: https://housedraculesti.com/
Warframe is wild for not only outright confirming that the primary, most personal antagonist for the player, the closest thing we know in this universe to an actual literal god, can be defeated by the actual literal power of love
but also that the example they use to confirm this is the toxic old man yaoi workplace situationship between unethical science georg who prepared for his time travel to 1999 by dressing up as a pokemon trainer and his pathetic failtwink Ygor
Innu Nation cancels cultural exhibit, alleging executives of The Rooms provincial museum told them to remove reference to Innu presence in L
The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is contradicting accepted historical knowledge and oral history that Innu have lived in Labrador for thousands of years.
In response, the Innu Nation, which represents Innu in the two First Nations communities of Natuashish and Sheshatshiu, has cancelled a much-anticipated cultural exhibit that was set to open at the Labrador Interpretation Centre in North West River on June 21, National Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Innu Nation Cultural Guardian Jodie Ashini, a lead organizer of the planned public display, says she was instructed by executives of The Rooms provincial museum and archives to change the historical timeline and artifact details slated for presentation as part of the Innu Pakassiun exhibit.
Ashini says Innu and staff from the Labrador Interpretation Centre were unpacking artifacts on Tuesday, June 16 when she was asked to join a call with executives from The Rooms, a crown corporation which operates as a museum, art gallery and archives in St. John’s and runs satellite museums in other parts of the province, including the Labrador Interpretation Centre.
“We developed an Innu timeline to go with the exhibit and they told us that we can’t use it, that it’s not what the province believes is archeologically correct,” Ashini recalls.
Ashini says she was told the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador believes Innu were not present in Labrador prior to the 1700s and had only been on the land for 300 years. All the stone tools found on traditional Innu sites weren’t allowed to be labelled as related to Innu, Ashini says, adding she was told the new timeline is accepted by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and could not be changed.
“We were just really taken aback and heartbroken,” she says. “This is their stance — that it’s not allowed to be presented, and they really said, ‘You can show whatever you want in your own building on your own land, but not in ours’ — and that was their words.”
Ashini says this was going to be the first ever Innu-led exhibit, and that the staff at The Rooms and Labrador Interpretation Centre worked incredibly hard to help Innu hold consultations and prepare the exhibit.
So this is a thing that is happening here in Newfoundland.
The provincial government has decided, contrary to both oral history and archaeological evidence, that the Innu people have only been in Labrador for a few hundred years.
"She says the province said the changing tools over thousands of years are evidence they belonged to different Indigenous groups. Ashini says Innu tools evolved and changed over time as her ancestors learned new methods and refined their technologies."
This is their evidence. Changes to stone tools over time, as though that is not a thing that happens kind of everywhere.
Clearly these were made by different cultures.
So why is the province doing this? Well, not to don my tin foil hat here, but there is a lot of potential wealth in Labrador, of the resource extraction kind. By undermining the innu's claim to the land, the provincial government might be trying to do an end run around Indigenous consultation and rights. How can they claim a historic connection to the land when they've been here for less time than Europeans? Which given this is the same government that is merrily approving oil and gas development while ignoring the very real effects of climate change, is entirely possible.
alright I've got to do some quick math to explain attitudes towards AI to my boss.
we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)
please rb for larger sample size!
Question 1/3
What is your age, and do you feel AI is a net positive or net negative in our lives today?
random PSA, I know a lot of people use duckduckgo as a Google alternative search engine, but it always kind of annoyed me when I was using it because it felt like No Name Brand Google
I have switched to using Startpage.com and vastly prefer it. for one thing, instead of displaying an "AI summary" at the top of the search results (unless you turn it off, yes I know), it displays the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article, with link, whenever it finds one that's relevant.
also a waaayyyyy better sense of design than duckduckgo
also private, European based, least annoying search I've used lately (RIP old "don't be evil" Google)
i have one of those, scraped from multiple different rec posts:
Search Engines
Infinity Search is an alternative search engine with a special focus on privacy
DuckDuckGo is a popular search engine for those who value their privacy and are put off by the thought of their every query being tracked and logged. Uses bangs, ![site] for in-page search (sells your data to microsoft and draws from fucking bing)
WolframAlpha is a privately owned search engine that allows you to “compute expert-level answers using Wolfram’s breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase, and AI technology.” A data search engine.
Boardreader is a search engine for forums and message boards. It allows you to search forums and then filter down results by date and language.
Based in France, Qwant is a privacy-based search engine that won’t record your searches or use your personal details for advertising. Uses “&” as a bang search.
Another privacy-based search engine is Search Encrypt, which uses local encryption to ensure that users’ identifiable information cannot be tracked. Metasearch across multiple engines.
Offering unbiased results from several sources, SearX is a metasearch engine that aims to present a free, decentralized view of the internet. Can be self-hosted.
Gibiru’s tagline is “Unfiltered private search” and that’s exactly what it offers. Requires AnonymoX Firefox add-on for privacy.
Disconnect allows you to conduct anonymous searches through a search engine of your choice.
Swisscows provides fully encrypted searches to protect your privacy and security. Built-in violence/porn filter cannot be overridden.
MetaGer offers “Privacy Protected Search & Find” through its anonymised search. A plugin will allow it to be made a default.
Gigablast is a private search engine that indexes millions of websites and servers real-time information without tracking your data, keeping you hidden from marketers and spammers. Variety of filtration and refinement options for searching.
Oscobo is a search engine that protects your privacy while you search the web. By not using any third-party tools or scripts, your data is protected from hacking and misuse. Has a Chrome extension to allow use in toolbar.
https://search.marginalia.nu/ an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed. Use old-school searching rather than query-based for the best results.
https://www.mojeek.com/
https://wiby.me/ - It’s goal is to index as many personalized websites as possible, and NOT commercial sites.
https://4get.ca/ it works a lot like SearX, but honestly better. It doesn’t have its own index, but pulls from many others. I think it’s the best for research, since it allows you to search for answers from different indexes, is easy to configure, add free, and avoids censorship as much as it can.
https://www.searchenginemap.com/ for more on how search engines relate to each other.
https://yep.com/ is a crawler
https://www.etools.ch/ retrieves from Google, Mojeek, Bing, and Yandex, like Searx
https://www.dogpile.com/
https://searxng.org/ (next gen Searx)
https://luxxle.com/ - possibly conservative?
https://presearch.com/ - good for academic?
https://kagi.com/smallweb - free/randomised Kagi.
Other Searchers
www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.
www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.
https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.
www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.
http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.
www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.
www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free.https://cosine.club/ is an electronic music similarity search engine
People do realize that most of us Homestucks are on this hellsite, right? People understand that we have very specific opinions about sexy and playing card suits, right?
over a quarter of those polled says they'd rather die horribly of hypothermia than get a little sweaty and i really really try not to go here but yeah i dont have trouble believing this is the celibacy website. extremities rotting and falling off like "yeah but i can always put another layer on"
Yesterday it was 16F. I walked about twenty-five feet from my front door to my car and briefly cleared some snow flurries off my windshield with the brush, without gloves (forgot them upstairs, decided to be macho about it, regretted it immediately).
Less than two minutes outside and my hands were so cold it HURT the way scalding water hurts. At that was 16F -- thirty-eight degrees warmer than -22F. Thirty-eight degrees is also the temperature difference between 16F (painfully cold hands in 2 minutes of exposure) and 54F (light sweater weather, could go barefoot to take the trash out; Minnesotans are wearing shorts; the first time this temperature happens in March, I desperately go sunbathing to get some Vitamin D).
86F is hot and uncomfy, I admit, but stay hydrated and take a few breaks in the shade and you will not die.
All of you southerners are so whiny. Northern Canada for several years resident here. -30 is what I walked to uni to, up a steep hill, for about half to three quarters of an hour, because walking is doable. What you absolutely the heck don't want to do is standing still.
So a day of errands, sure, can do. Remember to put the snowplow on the buses and that your breath will freeze on your nose hairs but otherwise, nothing some standard Canadian gear can't deal with.
Or you know, errands, when the mall has absolutely everything inside the same building so you hardly even are outside.
+30, with the humidity we get... that is actually killing people every single year.
If you die from the cold you didn't dress right. At dangerous heat + humidity, there is nothing you can do but AC and that's not portable.
Demon-ish SQH Moshang AU. More accurately, SQH with a demonic transformation for his time in the northern desert.
When Shang Qinghua starts first visiting the northern kingdom, every single demon who encounters him gets pissed the fuck off and tries to murder him.
This, of course, leads to every few hours SQH having to summon MBJ to save his ass. Which his king gets annoyed by VERY quickly, and demands SQH find a solution.
SQH takes this seriously, deciding to find a magical amulet that can transform you into a demon while you are wearing it. It was initially used in some old wife plot, where a human wife used it to disguise herself as a demon and sneak into LBHs demonic court to try and kill a retainer who killed her family or something, and LBH ends up sweeping her off her feet and adding her to the harem.
This goes... Surprisingly well. The amulet matches you to the type of demon that makes most sense for your location and personality, and SQH gets turned into a lemming demon while he is in the Northern Kingdom.
(I picked lemming demon bc 1. They look like hamsters but are arctic critters, 2. The lemmings jumping off cliffs myth and SQH LAUNCHING himself off maigu ridge to try and save MBJ, and 3. They're adorable LOOK AT HIM)
His cheeks become puffy and he starts storing melon seeds in them like a hamster, he gains a soft layer of fluff on his arms, legs, back, and around his new little tail. His legs twist into a more digitigrade configuration, and his skin gains some calico spotting.
And, most crucially, he gains demon instincts while in this form. And this instantly sends Mobei Jun spiralling, because Shang Qinghua has finally started responding to his courtships, but... Weirdly? And afterwards seems to freak out? And also doesn't seem to really understand completely either??
When he whacks SQH around for the first time in demon mode, SQH responds, instead of with pleas and whimpers, by growling and clawing at his arm, leaving small scratches. He's weak enough that he doesn't even break the skin, but he's responding, and it excites Mobei-Jun enough that he tries to trigger a whole courtship fight.
Growling, Mobei-Jun leaps at SQQ, who instinctively dodges and goes to bite MBJ, his eyes lighting up in excitement.
Then confusion.
Then horror.
And in a moment, SQH's knees hit the ground and he starts desperately kowtowing and begging, leaving MBJ wondering where he went wrong.
---
Demons don't stop challenging SQH, all that changes is how he responds to it. He may be a lot weaker than MBJ, but he easily outclasses most of the common demonic servants, beating respect into them quickly.
After they start to understand and respect SQHs role in the hierarchy, something strange starts happening. Some demons begin starting fights with SQH again, but in a... Gentler way.
SQH begins to pick up that this is demonic play fighting, something commonly done with people of a similar rank to you. While SQH does technically outrank most of the servants, he is the head of household for MBJ and essentially their first level above superior, so some of them consider him close enough to start play fighting.
SQH... Decides to give it a try. And it's fun! He never enjoyed sparring as a peak lord, and screamed and cried every time Liu Qingge tried to spar him, but this feels different, somehow. The stinging blood dripping down his body feels more like a love tap than a grievous injury in this form, and he heals quickly. The blood pumping in his ears during a fight is exhilarating.
He remembers a bit of lore he had written, something about demons needing higher cortisol levels in order to function, and fighting each other for fun to regulate. Hm. It was meant to make them scarier, but really this is a lot of fun!
MBJ seethes as he watches SQH play with a couple random snow demons from the cleaning staff. He's tried starting regular play-fights along with his courting fights, and SQH refuses both! But he can see in his eyes he wants to play! What the hell is going on!!
---
One day, SQH has returned from a long day of negotiations in the northern palace. He's tired, irritable, and stressed, and just wants to relax. Maybe he could seek out the head chef and see if she wants a quick brawl? That might make him feel better.
He stumbles across someone on his way to the kitchens, quite literally. He stumbles into the man, causing him to reflexively hiss until the scent of cool winter air and pine hit his nose.
Ah. He knew that scent. A friend. He grinned, letting out a snarl, and reaching out to slash across the man's chest, before darting backwards, inviting them to play.
And he looks up, to see Mobei-Jun's bewildered face. Well, bewildered for MBJ. All it really is is a slight widening of the eyes and a shift in the posture, but SQH can tell he's confused.
Fuck. He's just about to start desperately apologizing, when MBJs face settles and his slitted pupils widen into wide saucers, and then MBJ leaps at him, sending a slash at his wrist.
Nonlethal starting attack. His posture is open, and he's using teeth and claws rather than demonic energy.
...This is a game. Mobei-Jun is playing with him.
He only has a moment to be baffled before a reflexive grin splits his face, and jumps back into the fray.
No, no, you don't understand. In Norway we love these little guys because they will fight you if you stumble on them in the wild. This little thing, not even the size of a potato, will scream and jump and bite at you no matter that there is no way it can win. And those screams are loud and insanely angry.
There was a whole meme going around before phone videos were common when NRK (the Norwegian TV channel) had their cameras on them while confronting one. Here's the video of the Angry Lemming: https://www.nrk.no/video/illsint-lemen_19102
The 12th annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 30th August 2025.
It’s short and easy, for most participants it takes 5 minutes or less.
After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.
If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks. Every share is extremely helpful!
Survey URL: https://survey.gendercensus.com
The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.
If you can't wait for survey numbers, you can click here for a public spreadsheet of non-secret info with graphs as it comes in, updated manually a few times per day.
use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.
use firefox instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).
use mega or proton drive instead of google drive.
get rid of bloatware
use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite
use vetted sites on r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH for free movies, books, games, etc.
use trakt or letterboxd instead of imdb.
use storygraph instead of goodreads.
use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions
use ground news to read unbiased news and find blind spots in news stories.
use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp
make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge
use search for a cause or ecosia to support the environment instead of google
use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)
use flashpoint to play archived online flash games
find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books
burn your music onto cds
use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe
use unroll.me to clean your email inboxes
use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, tuta, or proton mail instead of gmail
remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X
remove bloatware on samsung X
use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta
use NCH suite for free software like a file converter, image editor, video editors, pdf editor, etc.
feel free to add more alternatives, resources or advice in the reblogs or replies, and i'll add them to the main post <3
When Shang Qinghua is finally embracing some of the more harsh demon customs (using them as negociation tactics to get better trade deals out of other demon clans), Mobei Jun falls in love all over again.
All of linecrosser's Moshang is pure beauty (in all forms thereof...) but this one is an emotional rollercoaster from whooping in triumph for itty bitty Hamhua getting his shite together and then dying of laughter at our ice king being stupid with love. Gods, so much emotion in this one!
Linecrosser doing a daily art challenge this month has greatly improved my wellbeing. No heart demons here.
While your average joe may recognize the Big Eye from the 2001 films, our favorite dark lord has been many things in his time, from magic furry to goth temple priestess, and has reinvented himself more times than is probably reasonable. If you've ever looked at that fiery pupil and gone "man, what the hell is that guy's issue", well let's look into that. (tldr: a heaping stew of religious guilt, sunk cost fallacy and homosexuality). This is more of a creative writing project than a uquiz at this point Share image credit: FireForge by Marjan Mahdjoubi
Nothing 'woke' in a game about Mongolia... has anybody told this man about the fact that Mongolia was among the most gender-egalitarian empires? (go read up about Mongolian women and especially Genghis wives and daughters, you won't regret it)
But also, being caught doing 'gay stuff' was punishable by death so that should make him happy.
the post surgery compression binder is more comfortable than youd think but it still gets pretty itchy. so dont be afraid to take benydryl, itll help you rest and stop the itch
sounds weird but try not to flex your pecs… watched a horror game play through and every time there was a jump scare my whole body tensed up including my pecs which hurt like a bitch
you might be numb in some areas affected by the surgery. especially if your surgeon does any liposuction along with just cutting your boobs off. right now my armpits are numb which makes cleaning them weird. less of a tip and more its normal for early in recovery
about a week in stuff starts to feel like pins and needles. i thought that meant my one nipple was falling off. turns out its the opposite and its them coming back to life. the post op compression binder while annoying does help the tingling feel less weird
you surgeon may be ripped to hell and back like mine and put the compression binder on super tight. ITS OK TO LOOSEN IT A LITTLE.
its there for compression to keep the swelling down but same rules apply as a regular binder: it might be a little uncomfortable and feel tight but you need to still be able to BREATHE
invest in a long pair of tongs or one of those claw grabber things. i just made ramen that was in a cabinet above the microwave. how? tippy toes and tongs.
You can buy little hair net looking guys at some major pharmacies that include shampoo and can be used to wash your hair in bed if you’re having trouble in the shower
(This is a general surgery tip but all my disabled friends swear by ‘em post surgery it makes your life much easier and you can feel properly clean)
top surgery tip 12) it’s okay to sleep on the couch or in a chair if it’s too difficult or painful to get in and out of bed. My couch plus a pile of throw pillows on either side of me was the perfect place to sit and simmer as I recovered.
I also recommend getting one of those airplane pillows that go around your neck. very useful if you end up sleeping sitting up and don’t want your neck to crick.
when it comes to scar care. anything is better than nothing. and you dont need to shell out hundreds of dollars for fancy scar creams. to massage your scars as long as everythings properly closed you can just grab an gentle unscented or naturally scented lotion and use that. shea butter, cocoa butter, bio oil the like. youre just looking for something for sensitive skin and thatll keep them hydrated.
The day you go to get the tubes out, take a painkiller before you go if you have strong healing. Tissue already healed tight around the drains when they pull them out stings like a bitch and there's utterly no reason to hurt.
Top surgery tip 16)
If you did a regular workout before the surgery, it's okay and says absolutely nothing about your [insert gender of choice] to lower the intensity of your chest exercises down. But it's also okay to go at it within a few weeks like before if your body feels good doing it. There's no singular right or wrong, listen to your body, not a strict 'by week so and so'-recommendation. (confirmed by my physio therapist and surgeon)
