[miametropolis]

this polycule is in fucking shambles (part 1)

[victusinveritas]

[black-crested-jaybird]

I always think of the description I saw years ago: Self-imposed deadlines don't help me, because I know the person who set them, and they're full of shit.

[makingtrouble]

Give yourself the treat before you start. I'm serious. And ideally during the task and afterwards too.

Executive dysfunction comes from a lack of available dopamine. Common advice is wrong. You need to provide your own dopamine before you can start. Otherwise you're trying to run your car on empty.

"But what if I still don't do it" well you already weren't getting it done anyway. Now you have a little treat. Try again later.

You deserve kindness and care even when you aren't being productive.

(Also read How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis)

[twwings]

I give my students a LOT of techniques for starting writing when it feels overwhelming or daunting, but one of them is exactly this: dopamine load BEFOREHAND. It may sound weird to people on tumblr dot com, but a lot of people seriously struggle with executive dysfunction when it comes to writing literally anything, to the extent that it can cause such symptoms as panic, depression, and AI chatbot use.

I usually suggest this technique as a "Reverse Pomodoro." In the original Pomodoro, you work for 25 minutes and then take a break for 5 minutes (the times vary, but that's the essential ratio). People with executive dysfunction often find this insurmountable, and they get even more frustrated, and then the task seems even more difficult. So instead, flip those times.

FIRST, spend 25 minutes doing something energizing and engaging that you like to do. Not scrolling social media passively, not watching tv, not napping. Try something like colouring, doing yoga, running/walking around the block, talking about your favourite tv show with someone in real time, playing with the dog or cat, making and eating a lovely sandwich, hula hooping, something active. Having a little treat absolutely falls in this category!

(on the subject of little treats: refusing yourself food until you do work is for fucking Puritans and you can be kinder to yourself)

Then, after 25 minutes (or however long it takes to eat the sandwich or finish the yoga routine, it doesn't have to be exact), spend 5 minutes writing (or doing whatever you're struggling to start). Most people can coax themselves into doing something they find difficult for five minutes, if they have already filled up the joy/energy/engagement bucket. You can put a timer on for the 5 minutes if you want, or if you find that annoying, just work for as long as you like.

The other key is: don't push yourself to keep going when you're frustrated or tired—that will just reinforce the negative belief that you already have, which tells you that this task is painful to do, and needs to be avoided. If you've commonly had to force yourself to do this kind of task, that's likely part of why you think of it as painful and have trouble starting it now. Also, you should just, at a basic level, try not to put yourself in pain for the sake of productivity. So just do it till the good feelings run out. Then start hula hooping or colouring again for another 25 minutes. When the tank's refilled, try another 5 minutes of work, if you can. Adjust times to taste.

Not every technique works for everyone, but I've seen this one work for many students who are genuinely and seriously disabled by executive dysfunction. And many people find themselves getting more and more excited and engaged in the "difficult" task—because the good feelings from the hula hooping carry over, and because they're suddenly able to do the task without feeling pain, and feel accomplishment without feeling pain.

[southernsolarpunk-deactivated20]

Original

[chicorystreetcoffee]

[tuulikki]

It’s weird how there are some American crops that I think of as wholly integrated into the world such that I occasionally (ungratefully) forget they’re American (potatoes, tomatoes, hot peppers). But then there are other American crops where I’m lightly surprised the rest of the world grows them or is even into them (sunflowers, maize/corn, peanuts).

The real point of this post being that, while obviously I’m kinda stupid, those indigenous American agricultural bioengineers were fucking geniuses. Endless series of absolute culinary bangers. We owe them everything.

[iamthetruenhaz]

That moment when I, as a Bulgarian, realized that tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, sunflower (oil) and corn are in fact not native to my country and were imported from the Americas. I remember that day. My heart shattered. Oh, and the irony of our nationalists accusing Turkey of "stealing our cuisine". My brother in Boiko, when did Europeans discover America and what empire were we under during that year and would continue to be under it for 4 more centuries?

[da-boy-o-kultur]

I'm just imagining Italians seeing a tomato for the first time, they gently put olives away, tenderly grasp the Tomato and whisper to it with love

"You are my new best friend." Same happening with Poles and potatoes XD

[tuulikki]

And much of Asia responding similarly to peppers. I think the peppers loved Asia back just as much. A true love story.

[tuulikki]

#wait potatoes are native to America???? i thought they were Irish????

@disasterpenguin

Nope! Not Irish. The potato just produces a lot of calories per square foot of soil for growing it. So it was a big hit. (Note that it’s not more nutritious than bread, it just takes less land and labour than bread.)

Other things from the Americas:

Cocoa and chocolate

Beans (except soybeans, fava beans, chickpeas, mung beans, lentils, and peas)

Squash (except inedible Eurasian gourds)

Avocados

Sweet potatoes

Vanilla

Tobacco

Pineapple

Cassava/manioc

And some American critters:

Chipmunks

Raccoons 🦝

Hummingbirds

Skunks

Turkeys

Guinea pigs

Llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, etc.

Turkeys

On the flip side, things that are not native to the Americas include:

Rice

Horses, donkeys, mules

Cattle (so also dairy), pigs, sheep, and domesticated goats

Chickens

Large dogs

Cats

Rats

Earthworms

Pigeons, house sparrows, starlings

Wheat

Onions and garlic

Citrus

Bananas

Honey

Sugar

People always forget that every horse in the Americas came from Eurasia. Which may come from some idea that indigenous people in the Americas were… static, unchanging cultures? As opposed to the reality, which is tribes like the Lakota taking one look at these weird new animals and going “oh hell yeah” and doing horses so good it would make Genghis Khan shed tears of awe

[gatheringbones]

“Life after menopause is exceptionally rare in animals. It can evolve only in creatures where grannies help younger family members survive. Only human, killer whale, and short-finned pilot whale females routinely live for substantial periods after they stop breeding. Like humans, killer and pilot whales have roughly twenty-five to thirty childbearing years, then can live another thirty or so. And as Ken’s just explained, some live a lot longer. Up to a quarter of the females in a group are postreproductive. These whales are not waiting to die; they are helping their children survive. As human children often benefit from their grandmothers’ attention, killer whale grandmothers boost their grandkids’ survival. A rather bizarre twist of killer whale society is that killer whale mothers remain crucial to the survival of their adult children. When older killer whale females die, their adult children start dying at high rates, especially males. Male killer whales who are under thirty years old when their mothers die suffer a tripling of the annual mortality rate compared to males in their age group whose mothers are still alive. Male killer whales who are more than thirty years old when their mothers die face death rates more than eight times as high as males in their age group whose mothers are still living. Daughters under thirty show no mortality increase after their mothers’ death. But daughters older than thirty when their mothers die have more than two and a half times the death rate of same-age females whose mothers are alive. Males’ handicaps of the extra drag of their huge dorsal and pectoral fins and the extra food required for their immense size (at around 20,000 pounds, males can be one-third more massive than females) seem to make them reliant on their working mothers for food. Females don’t have the males’ impediments, but while raising young, females may rely on food shared by their no-longer-breeding mothers. Adult females share essentially all the fish they catch, and more than half goes to their children. Adult males share their catch only about 15 percent of the time—usually with their mothers. While no one fully understands their strange death pattern following the loss of a mother, extreme parental care is likely at the root. Toothed whales are the world’s champion nursers. Short-finned pilot whales continue to produce milk for up to fifteen years after the birth of their last calf, likely nursing other females’ young. In bottlenose and Atlantic spotted dolphins (further study might reveal others), some females never give birth. Denise Herzing dubbed them “career females,” because their role in society does not include motherhood. They might be infertile. They might be gay. But their contribution is crucial: they do a lot of babysitting. When Herzing entered the ocean with a visiting nine-year-old girl, “White Patches, the eternal babysitter herself, had never seen me babysitting a young human before. Her excitement vocalizations were audible and electric and she continued to swim around us, eyeing the human youngster attached to me.” (Researchers sometimes call babysitters “aunts.” That’s precisely who they often are.)”

— Beyond Words, by Carl Safina

[depsidase]

[the-dragon-hearted]

It is amazing to me how many people in comics or shows discover a superhero's secret identity and then REVEAL it! Like???

If I found out my nice neighbor who helped me jumpstart my car at the god awful hour of 5am was Superman? NOBODY'S GETTING SHIT FROM ME I KNOW NOTHING!

a) bro can shoot lazer eyes

b) bro is minding his own business, I can do the same

c) The moment I start blabbing I get involved and I DO NOT want to be involved with the day to day life of a fuckin superhero. So I don't know shit, okay?

My lawyer's some vigilante. Sounds like a conflict of interest but what do I look like? A cop? My trash collector is a superhero? Anyway, thanks buddy, have a great one, say hi to the kids for me. I watched my waiter at McDonalds absolutely throw hands with a supervillain. That's crazy, anyway here's a 30% tip in cash. Good luck with those student loans.

Like I am not getting involved with ANYYYYY of that. Uh uh, no way, I don't see shit. I am just trying to make it to the end of the day without being kidnapped, held hostage, tortured, or interrogated and the best way to do that is keep. My. Damn. Mouth. Shut.

[theonion]

[homunculus-argument]

If Ratatouille mechanics were real, there would be a whole market of businesses offering the services of operating rats to people who want them, and it'd be like how bees produce honey. People in the rat business would be so exhausted of having to explain over and over again that no, the rats aren't being exploited. If the rats didn't like how they're being treated, they would simply not return. There's no goddamn way to force a rat to be so passionate about playing the saxophone that they'll figure out how to puppeteer a human to do it for them. All that the business does is finding a way to put that specific rat in the hair of someone who's about to go on stage.

[terrie01]

The rats 100% think the businesses are being run for their benefit and worry about the humans being exploited.

[homunculus-argument]

A rat manager who is a rat and deals on their end of the deal is exhausted of having to explain over and over again that look, an average fully grown adult human being is like 200 times your weight, their hands are very fast and they can throw things better than you want to imagine. If one of them things didn't want you in their hair, you're not going to stay there for long. You'd be yote out the window in two seconds flat.

[zeiat]

reblogged a post with a correction about spray sunscreens (they work way less well than you think) but then decided the very small number of people who might see my reblog wasn't worth the likelihood that people would read it as me discouraging sunscreen use and come to yell at me so i deleted it.

but FYI, here in my own post:

spray sunscreens don't work very well

neither do (most) sunscreen sticks

in general, michelle wong (a.k.a. lab muffin beauty science), a chemistry PhD who is very passionate about sunscreen and spends a lot of time debunking sunscreen misinformation, is a useful resource for learning about sunscreen! both the above links go to videos she made. here is another: many many sunscreen questions answered

and yes, use sunscreen!!!

[liberalsarecool]

Children are capable of understanding more than we give them credit for. Teaching kids to be kind is important, but so is teaching them to recognize patterns of unfairness.

#constructs

[ellynneversweet]

Darcy’s introduction in Pride and Prejudice is really ‘what if you had just had the worst month of your life because your ex-bestie tried to lover boy scam your baby sister out of her share of your dad’s life insurance and your friend dragged you to a shitty party in a dive bar in the neighbourhood where he’d just signed a short term lease, and you decided to let your bad mood show because you were never going to see any of the assholes in this stupid shitty bar EVER again. And your friend ended up making out with a girl he’d just met there while you were stuck talking to her sister who was less cute and then her mother appeared and started trying to matchmake and started saying how if she was twenty years younger she’d clime you like a redwood and ooooh is that a black Amex, guess the next round is on you hahhahahahaha, while her other sister (how many fucking sisters does she have?!) flashed an obviously fake ID at the bar and ordered six vodka-diet red bulls and no one in her family except the less-cute sister even tried to stop her. And you went home and consoled yourself that you would never see any of these people again but then you met them over and over again because they live next door and your friend and the cute sister keep meeting up to make out but not actually date and then. You fall in love with the less-cute sister because it turns out she’s really witty and charismatic but she already knows and remembers and resents the fact that on a day when you were in a shitty mood you called her mid out loud in a dive bar.’

[robertreich]

Abolish ICE.

[comeonamericawakeup]

😕😕😕

[quasi-normalcy]

Trump has already become the worst President in American history, but i genuinely believe that another few years could make him one of the most disastrous leaders that any empire has ever had, so who's up to see some history in the making?

[elbiotipo]

Basically, if you say "this historical thing is a human universal", ask yourself, did it also happen in the Americas? Because the Americas developed thousands of years of civilization completely independent from Eurasia. Many of those broad claims about earliest "human" history and civilization are based on the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Not even China or India are considered most of the time, let alone Africa or the Americas or Oceania, which had multiple different independent origins of agriculture and social organization.

[elbiotipo]

As a practical example, any theory of the origin of writing cannot only study the Sumerians. You need at least to consider the origin of writing in China and India. Even if you operate with the assumption (highly debatable) that writing from the Middle East influenced them, you cannot just assign the same factors to it.

And you ESPECIALLY have to take into account the invention of writing (Maya scripts) and proto-writing in the Americas. These were created completely differently from other writing systems, sometimes radically differently (Andean quipus). You cannot ignore them.

This is the same with everything: the origin of agriculture, cities, social organization, warfare, anything you consider a "human universal". You cannot only work with Eurasia. You cannot ignore Africa and you cannot ignore Oceania. But America, in particular, is the key to understanding history in a complete picture.

[jordanbolton]

To The Person Who Was Sitting Near Me On The Train - Jordan Bolton

My first book ‘Blue Sky Through the Window of a Moving Car’ is out Nov 7th and is available to pre-order here - https://smarturl.it/BlueSky

[scottbaiowulf-deactivated201805]

Male writers writing female characters:

“Cassandra woke up to the rays of the sun streaming through the slats on her blinds, cascading over her naked chest. She stretched, her breasts lifting with her arms as she greeted the sun. She rolled out of bed and put on a shirt, her nipples prominently showing through the thin fabric. She breasted boobily to the stairs, and titted downwards.”

[m1ssc0mmun1cat10n]

‘ She breasted boobily to the stairs, and titted downwards’ is the greatest fucking sentence I have ever read.

[silly-activites]

THE ORIGINAL??

[dduane]

(smh) Never thought I’d see it in the wild. Yet here it is. :)

[browniejeane]

always gotta reblog the ‘breasted boobily’ post