Odonata Anisoptera @odonataanisoptera - Tumblr Blog

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that’s actually a very thought-provoking question. i believe in the power of change, so i am perfectly comfortable collaborating with ex-cops or veterans who show a genuine interest in combating the systems they participated in. i suppose that would take some effort, from SOMEONE, to try and get them to realize the harm of their participation in said systems. however, the end goal would still most likely result in the cop quitting or, what’s more likely, being fired for doing the right thing (not brutalizing marginalized people). so even then, you wouldn’t be accepting them for being a cop.

on the other hand, i wonder how much people in cops’ environments are able to influence the way they think about their jobs. most radicalization for cops and veterans comes from traumatic experiences forcing them to come face to face with the realities of the system.

That’s definitely fair. Thinking back on my ex- neighbor, I do feel like my level of influence on him would have been subtle at best - just exposing him to people he might not normally be associating with socially. And I really haven’t known enough cops personally to claim I recognize typical patterns in their personalities in a social setting.

On the other hand, I’ve known a lot of people who have been brutalized or otherwise traumatized by cops, with plenty of examples of where they seemed to do it just because they could, and even reveling in it. I can guarantee you I wasn’t feeling very hopeful about the power of change for those specific cops when I learned about those incidents!

I watched a video by someone claiming to be an ex- black panther a few months ago who created a series about how can we bring our culture back from the current dark times we’re in, and he talked about befriending cops in one’s community as a way to start creating positive change. I think the theory behind it is, if it is safe for you to talk to a cop in your community, then start showing them care so you can start building social capital with them. I don’t think he used that phrase, but that seemed to be the implication. It was 100% coming from a strategic point of view, and not some naive rose-colored-glasses view that being nice to cops will solve all our problems. I think maybe that’s what bubbled to the surface for me here.

decompose1

ohhhh shit. target is recalling their up & up baby wipes (fragrance free & fresh cucumber scented) because they're contaminated with Burkholderia cepacia complex and Burkholderia gladioli, multiple people are reporting discoloration & infections. i just got a call about it cuz i had purchased those but i've already gone through them 😅 so no refund for me. but im fine. if you have these they're saying you need to immediately stop using them and bring them back to target for a full refund. this bacteria can cause life threatening infections in children/infants and people with compromises immune systems (ESPECIALLY cystic fibrosis!!) and i know lots of other chronically ill people follow me!!!!

decompose1

Hold on i should've been more specific.

First: THIS RECALL IS NOT STATE SPECIFIC. IT IS NATIONWIDE.

here are the specific products and dates:

FDA page on this:

Target is voluntarily recalling Up & Up Fragrance Free and Up & Up Fresh Cucumber Scented Baby Wipes following customer complaints of produc

dr-otter

If you use baby wipes go check them NOW. A lot of Burkholderia bugs are antibiotic resistant so infections can be really difficult to treat.

i think you are having the american tendency to think of things at an individual level. cops can be perfectly fine people as individuals, but all of that goodness is inherently soiled by their role in a greater collective. a collective that protects the wealthy and keeps marginalized people under their boot.

You’re right about that - and thank you for the thoughtful response! I do tend to blend together the collective and the individual, and I like to imagine what happens in the gray area between them.

As a follow-up question, though, can we help the individual within that collective get turned against and subvert the collective mindset by allowing these relationships to happen where there is an opportunity to do so? This is where I feel like I, as an individual, have the power to make change, even if it is slow and incremental.

interestingmistakes

Reblogging this manually. Op doesn't want credit for fear of being terminated.

bebsi-cola

actually pigs shouldn't be at pride even outside of uniform. fuck those guys

bebsi-cola

if you decide to become a police officer then that outweighs any other marginalised identity you can rustle up like. not sorry, who asked you to willingly become a pig

pekkhum

I have heard of black people warning their kids that the race of a police officer is cop and you should not expect solidarity from them. The same applies to other types of minorities.

The sexuality of a police officer is cop.

The gender of a police officer is cop.

When you become the enforcer and protector of capital, you are making the deal to be slightly favored by the system over others like you, in exchange for being its servant. Your solidarity is with the system that you serve, even if it hates you.

If you want solidarity with those the system hates, you cannot be the system's servant and defender.

odonataanisoptera

So this is interesting to me, and I’m not sure how to think about it. As far as cops go as a broad category, I went from pro- by default/socialization to anti- due to mostly observation and a little lived experience in my 30’s. Everything said above I believe is more often true than not whenever dealing with a cop on the job.

But at an individual level, I’ve also known at least one cop, and I also feel like getting to know individual cops outside of their work as a cop is an opportunity to change minds and hearts for the better. The one cop I did know was on a task force focused on violent outlaw biker gangs who engaged in human/sex trafficking among other things. I live in the territory of a gang like that now, and although direct encounters are very rare, they can be scary AF when they happen.

Anyway, this cop was my neighbor and a good guy in my interaction with him, and he had to retire early after being shot in the line of duty. If I had brought home a girlfriend and introduced him to her at the annual chili cook off in our neighborhood, in my mind I would have been introducing her to a neighbor and not a cop.

At the end of the day, doesn’t our shared humanity do more to advance the cause than reductionism?

I think about things like this a lot now that I am a tiny blue dot in a red state. I’d rather change the minds of my neighbors as I get to know them better, slowly over time, than start out by assuming they will always be my enemy and treating them as such. Not everyone is in a safe position to do that, but those of us who are can make a difference one neighbor at a time.

Curious to hear the counter-arguments. I am sure I am missing something. And I’m not trying to discount previous reblogs, because I agree they are relevant and true in many contexts… only trying to add to the discussion.

#cops #humanity #pride month

necronatural

Compiled some basic information I know about drawing fat characters for beginners since I've been seeing more talk about absence of really basic traits in a lot of art lately.

Morpho Fat and Skin Folds on Archive.org (for free!)

paper-mario-wiki

do not forget the patron saint of these weeks that we celebrate ourselves proudly and openly in the streets

her name was Marsha P Johnson, and we have her to thank for so much.

remember, the first Pride was a riot, and she was one of the brave souls who endured it to help carve the path which so many of us walk today. she helped found several activist groups regarding LGBT safety and wellbeing. and she was absolutely radiant, too.

thank you, Marsha. we remember you.

just-another-cat-blog

pride month!!!

lemonsharks

Is that a miette?

jeanjauthor

Pride for you! Pride for a thousand years!!

lost-and-cursed

you COME OUT to miette? you come out to her as queer? oh! oh! pride for mother! pride for mother for One Thousand Years!!!!

creature-wizard

Reminder that:

The Christianization of Europe and the witch hunts are two completely separate things.

The witch hunts took place in the early modern period, well after Europe was Christianized.

The witch hunts were driven by conspiracy theories. It's literally a predecessor of QAnon.

Many conspiracy theories of the witch hunts were repurposed antisemitic conspiracy theories. (For example, blood libel and Satan worship.)

Lots of Christians practiced folk magic. They didn't usually call themselves witches.

Witchcraft was associated with polytheistic religions by Christians. Polytheists didn't call themselves witches. Whatever they were doing, they had their own words for it.

Modern witchcraft is a modern construct. It is not a revival of a genuine pre-Christian tradition of any kind.

Modern witchcraft cannot be "colonized" because it's literally a modern creation made by white people. However, modern witches are capable of doing colonialism, such as when they promote pseudohistory about other cultures.

breelandwalker

Hey. Hey you. Yes you. Reading this right now.

Just in case you need it today....

Shit's rough all over right now. You are doing the best you can. And I'm really proud of you.

Keep going. I'm going to. And I hope you do too.

One day at a time. 💜

aropride

please god let chatgpt die out like nfts did. With a fast and graceless fall into irrelevancy

bladespark

Like to charge, reblog to cast.

atwotonedbird

This spell has a very low hit ratio, so we need a lot of us to do it.

kawuli

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)

yomikoreadsbooks

Keeping a list of Google alternatives just in case…

saxifraga-x-urbium

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

agayworthfightingfor

On Dentists

So I can’t brush my teeth. Like, it’s the worst kind of hell. I went to the dentist for a cleaning today and I told the hygienist this, and she was wonderfully helpful.

There are some incredibly soft toothbrushes available- namely, post-surgical brushes. Running them under hot water makes them even softer.

She told me that you don’t really need to use toothpaste- it’s mostly marketing. The foam gets to me, so that is really reassuring.

She gave me two particularly soft brushes and some xylitol gum. Trident is a market brand of xylitol gum, which helps with your teeth and can make your breath smell better.

The whole purpose of brushing is to disrupt plaque buildup. You don’t need to brush twice a day, every day with toothpaste if you brush correctly- little circles, focusing on near the gums (where most plaque builds up). So if you’re having a bad sensory day and can’t brush at all, it’s not the end of the world.

Hell, you don’t even need a toothbrush if even the post-surgical ones are too harsh. Going over your teeth with the same motions using a washcloth is enough.

She wants to find a fluoride rinse that has a taste I can stand (peppermint is the only mint I can stand) but she’s not particularly worried about it.

I go to Dr. Barr in Chicago. If you can get to the State St. Macy’s, his office is nearby. He’s very kind and patient and really understanding of my needs as an autistic person. The hygienist, I don’t know her name, announced everything she was going to do before she did it, and stopped frequently to see how I was doing.

This is really the only positive dentist I’ve ever had- past dentists have been too rough and not bothered to help find ways I can actually brush.

Basically this is a glowing recommendation for Dr. Barr’s office if you’re autistic, afraid of dentists, or have sensory needs. This is a recommendation even if you don’t have any of those things.

huhnerkopf

Im actually crying i feel like this post was reblogged for me oh my god oh my god oh my lord thank you

lascapigliata

You can also dilute your mouthwash and use it to swish around if it burns. My dentist does this so consider it dentally approved

spoonie-living

If you were feeling guilty about your brushing habits, either due to sensory issues, pain, allergies, executive dysfunction, or just plain fatigue, here’s what you need to know about what is and isn’t necessary if your dental care!

charismat1c-megafauna

Post-covid, I got really horrible shit going on with my gag reflex where for some reason the mint flavor of toothpaste (and only toothpaste) would make me gag so hard that I’d throw up. Then I found a kids toothpaste that’s like strawberry flavored or something, but it has the proper adult amount of flouride, so it works for me and I don’t gag much anymore. Here’s an article with some options if you’re like me lol

Dr. Gemma Wheeler lists best non-mint toothpaste options for adults. The list includes those that are truly non mint, without oils or aromas

Also for the people who can’t stand foam, the ingredient you’re looking to avoid is called SLS.

bisexualbaker

I share this frequently, but I had a very difficult time making myself floss because I hated the way that standard floss digs into my fingers when I use it. I switched to floss picks, and boom: A hated activity instantly became entirely neutral. Much easier to convince myself to do! If you have the same problem with standard floss, this might be worth a try.

Also, my most recent trip to the dentist, I was told that xylitol is a very effective treatment for dry mouth! And also that dry mouth is bad for your teeth, because it can disrupt the PH balance in your mouth, making your teeth more susceptible to cavities. While you want to be very careful to keep any xylitol products away from dogs in particular and probably pets in general, if you have dry mouth, you can try checking for products with xylitol in them.

bisexualbaker

Of note: My brother endorses the OraNusre brand of flavorless toothpaste; he says it “tastes like toothbrush”. My mom, meanwhile, is a fan of the Hello brand, which comes in different fruity and sweet flavors. Both of these are listed at the non-mint toothpaste link above.

If you prefer a toothpaste or a mouthwash for dry mouth, I use Biotène; it’s not cheap, but brushing once a day with it, a tube of Biotène toothpaste lasts me around four to five months. As far as I’m aware, it’s only in mint flavor.

stahsm

Overlock Stitch by @clothes_reetzy

thatisuseful

Damn, that's useful

fluidstatick

Finally a hand sewing tutorial on a hemline that isn't just the ladder stitch! the ladder stitch disappears when you tighten it, but it's not meant for hemlines because it breaks really easily! The overlock stitch is more stable, so it holds much longer, and it won't pucker or warp the fabric!

odonataanisoptera

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for!

#sewing tutorial #overlock stitch

musubiarte

The other day I was surfing the internet and I found this specialized painting colour wheel, it shows how real paint colours relate to each other.

Outside: the purest/brightest colours.

Inside: naturally muted or earthy colors, like browns and ochres.

The Center: dark neutral tones used for mixing shadows.

The Lines: the lines connect colors that are opposites, if you mix them you neutralize the tone creating clean grays or browns instead of muddy puddles.

I want to share this with you because I think it is really illustrative!

Reference: “Quiller Wheel” by Stephen Quiller

#paint colors #painting