From the OP: "If you sit at a desk or stare at your phone all day, this is for you. Here's how to undo the damage:
- Banded Chin Tucks - Strengthen your neck flexors and fight forward head posture
- Banded Pull-Aparts - Target your rotator cuff and improve shoulder stability
- Banded Abduction - Activate the midline of your scapula for better posture
- Lateral Deltoid Raises - Build shoulder stability and control
- Banded Up-and-Overs – Boost scapular mobility and range of motion
These simple banded drills will help you stand taller, move better, and feel stronger - even after hours at a desk."
Some of these are the same or similar to the exercises my physical therapist taught me.
If you're feeling anxious or depressed about the climate and want to do something to help right now, from your bed, for free...
Start helping with citizen science projects
Public participation in science is increasing, and citizen science has a central part in this. It is a contribution by the public to researc
What's a citizen science project? Basically, it's crowdsourced science. In this case, crowdsourced climate science, that you can help with!
You don't need qualifications or any training besides the slideshow at the start of a project. There are a lot of things that humans can do way better than machines can, even with only minimal training, that are vital to science - especially digitizing records and building searchable databases
Like labeling trees in aerial photos so that scientists have better datasets to use for restoration.
Or counting cells in fossilized plants to track the impacts of climate change.
Or digitizing old atmospheric data to help scientists track the warming effects of El Niño.
Or counting penguins to help scientists better protect them.
Those are all on one of the most prominent citizen science platforms, called Zooniverse, but there are a ton of others, too.
Oh, and btw, you don't have to worry about messing up, because several people see each image. Studies show that if you pool the opinions of however many regular people (different by field), it matches the accuracy rate of a trained scientist in the field.
--
I spent a lot of time doing this when I was really badly injured and housebound, and it was so good for me to be able to HELP and DO SOMETHING, even when I was in too much pain to leave my bed. So if you are chronically ill/disabled/for whatever reason can't participate or volunteer for things in person, I highly highly recommend.
Next time you wish you could do something - anything - to help
Remember that actually, you can. And help with some science.
Yup, these are actually *really* important. And a small bit of work helps, so it’s doable even if you’re snowed under with survival work or in too much pain to concentrate for longer periods.
It’s multiply-checked by more than one person, so don’t worry about fucking it up because your concentration is fucked. Your input is valuable but not the only input.
I find Zooniverse very good, and it does Citizen Historian work too - I spent time digitising concentration camp records because a) families still don’t know what happened to some of their loved ones b) this makes the records available for historians without travelling to archives in person, which I can testify is *invaluable* for disabled historians and helps cut the need for overseas travel to do vital historical work.
It unexpectedly helped me with learning how to decipher premodern handwriting too, which proved really useful in my academic stuff. You *will* pick up valuable skills doing this. Put it on your CV.
Other places you can go to do citizen science, from the notes
(Thanks to everyone who left these in the notes! If you know more, put them in the notes, and I might add them! And ty @enbycrip for the fantastic addition that covered a bunch of details I didn't get to)
MapSwipe (collaboration between several Red Cross organizations and Doctors Without Borders, update vital geospatial data)
Smithsonian archives (transcriptions, many subjects)
Cornell Bird Lab (birds)
FoldIt (folding proteins)
Fathomverse (sea animals)
Project Monarch (butterflies)
In person
Bioblitz (nature)
Species watch (species)
Audobon Society (birds)
Also:
Even if you don't have time to spend, but do have some processor cycles to spare, check out the projects available at BOINC's Compute for Science: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/
Hey guys, these projects make a HUGE difference for science. For example, I run bplant.org and iNaturalist is the #1 source of images in ID guides and articles and other educational materials I develop. The plant observations are also helpful for assessing plant ranges and how these ranges are changing with climate change. And it also helps me identify local seed sources for use in restoration plantings. Use of iNaturalist, even casual use like a random person uploading pics of plants they see growing in their yard, or a random parking lot they were in, or a random vacant lot, those observations are MAJORLY helping in (1) education (2) science (3) conservation.
This stuff makes a huge difference.
Also, if you want to make the biggest impact on these sites, release any material with the more permissive licenses, like CC-BY. If you add a NC or ND clause, for instance, your photos cannot be included on Wikipedia or bplant or a number of other educational sites, because those license restrictions are incompatible with combining with copyleft material.
I thought I'd go back and repost this because there are probably a lot of people out there who, like me, reallllyyyyyy need something to distract them right now
So, hey. You. Stop doomscrolling. Take a deep breathe. And if you want, try doing some citizen science or citizen history instead
I'm also going to especially promote MapSwipe, for those who want to do something tangible to help people now.
Volunteer from your phone. Make a difference worldwide.
From their website:
Data Everywhere
In today's technology-filled world, we have access to vast amounts of information at our fingertips. This includes geospatial data, which helps us understand places and the “where?” of things - a vitally important piece of successful humanitarian programs. It is important for getting from point A to point B as well as for coordination, understanding needs, tracking impact, identifying gaps, and a multitude of other concerns. For responsible use by humanitarians, this information must be assessed, refreshed, and validated as populations, infrastructure, and the surrounding environments experience the inevitable changes that occur as time, conflicts, and disasters unfold...
MapSwipe is a free open source mobile application available on iOS and Android that empowers anyone with a smartphone to make a meaningful impact contributing to global mapping efforts. MapSwipe crowdsources the review of satellite imagery to:
A thing I love to do is telling prepper dudes that one of my disaster readiness skills is making stuffed animals. They never get it. Like, my dude, when things get very bad and we're all sharing overcrowded shelters, you're gonna want the power to comfort children. Trust me.
Then you might be interested in a database with hundreds of free plushie sewing patterns of just about any animal, as well as dinosaurs, pokemon, etc:
https://craftresource.fandom.com/wiki/Plushie_Sewing_Patterns
& If that's a little overwhelming, here's some easy beginners plushies:
- Manta Ray https://cholyknight.com/2021/05/14/manta-ray-plush/
- Whale https://craftresource.fandom.com/wiki/Whale_Plushie_Sewing_Pattern_(Lacey)
- Simple dino: https://welivedhappilyeverafter.com/diy-long-neck-dino/
and a little more chalenging but my personal favorite:
- totally not that one shark from a Swedish furniture chain store that everyone loves: https://freesewing.org/docs/designs/hi
After more than a year I’ve finished the letters of my cross-stitch. It was mostly stitched on the subway during my commute. It’s been my constant companion for months. I don’t want to let it go, but also I’m not sure how to continue yet.
I was powered by spite about how often astr*l*gy comes up in my circles, and I’m not sure a different project would entertain me as much. Though I do love the feeling of cross-stitching.
Over 60% of people with down syndrome have completely normal intelligence, with the only developmental delays being from social barriers. Even those who are developmentally disabled are still capable of having fully functional lives.
like this is so important yet yall keep hyping up the most basic hockey guys I have ever seen. please for the love of god support women’s hockey and help ensure these women can keep going.
recap for those who don’t know/weren’t aware WHY this league is so important and why we should support it — this is the first season of the professional women’s hockey league (pwhl) in which these female athletes (olympians, former u18, and college stars, ect) are being properly compensated for their skills — AKA making enough to not have to work two jobs while also playing hockey — it’s not millions but it’s enough — starting at 35k, average at about 55k, and each team will carry a minimum six players signed to three-year contracts paying them $80,000 annually. The highest salary is rumoured to be at 120k. The league already has a collective bargaining agreement as well that covers the next eight years. There have been successful women’s hockey leagues in the past, but none began with the kind of staying power this one has.
it has 6 teams
Toronto
Boston
Minnesota
Ottawa
Montreal
New York
The first season began on Jan. 1, 2024, with each team playing a 24-game schedule, 12 games at home and 12 away. All games are be streamed FOR FREE on the pwhl’s youtube channel. In Canada you can also catch the games on sportsnet, cbc, and tsn depending on the day. Link to the schedule.
This is so big for not only women’s hockey, but women’s sports in general. This league was crafted together as a labour of love by women’s hockey alumni like Jayna Hefford and other female athletes such as Billie Jean King. People who love the sport, and women’s sports in general and want to see it develop and succeed so little girls can have a dream and goal of playing professionally like boys do.
you can click on this button once daily to help palestine and support other causes in the middle east for free. it takes literally 5 seconds and could help save lives so please take the time to click and share this link.
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