bluenoo42

[bluenoo42]

Today I found out something wild.

So there’s this band I like who make kind of stone/bronze/Iron Age themed music (the band is called Heilung for anyone interested), they are known for using human bones as instruments in their music.

Of course this naturally sparked the question of where/how one legally procures human bones. Some questionable incognito browsing later I discovered you can just BUY THEM ONLINE (plain: buy them online)! Some of them are under like £100! The website even has a page where you can sell them bones.

Here is an excerpt from the ‘sell your bones’ page from a website: “Sell Us Your Bones. Well, not yours specifically. Whether you’re an avid bone collector or you’ve just stumbled upon a family heirloom and are looking to give it a new home, please reach out to us. JonsBones is committed to responsibly sourcing and protecting human osteology.”

So that then prompted the question, whose bones are these? According to my research, many of them are decades or centuries old sometimes from grave robberies or war casualties (someone was saying their skeleton was a woman from the Vietnam War). Some of them are modern and are (speculated to be) people in developing countries who couldn’t afford a funeral, Political prisoners from China, ‘retired’ anatomical specimens etc.

Basically, this is wild and completely legal and reasonably popular in the UK (and many other countries) and I had no idea until today.

In case you’re wondering my views on this, I think that if a person gave permission for their bones to be used like this while they were alive, then it’s fine. If not, then it’s super unethical.

Did any of you guys know about this?

[bluenoo42]

And we won’t speak to anyone else on your behalf because of data protection!

Shoutout to my audiologists who are only contactable by phone.

Call now to recieve help with the inability to make phone calls!

Fill out this forum to receive assistance with your difficulty filling out forms

Come on down to our center thats two hours away so we can give assistance with your inability to walk or drive

There's help out there! You're just not trying hard enough!

[bluenoo42]

If you would like to donate to an established charity to support people in Palestine or the Middle East in general. Here is a link to a list of charities recommended by humanrightscareers.com: https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/charities-helping-civilians-in-palestine/

Share below how you like to support important causes:

[bluenoo42]

I personally am on team Scelidosaurus, but alas the crowds seem to have decided to let the long but sparse spines of the Kentrosaurus prevail over the more numerous spikes of the majestic Scelidosaurus.

Art by me

[bluenoo42]

This is me.

Day 4 of Auctober!

Music is such a big part of my self regulation! It has a way of tickling my brain in just the right way!

My favourite genre is probably power metal, with my favourite band being Sabaton!

The song Honeydew is singing is one of my favourite Sabaton songs, Night Witches!

[bluenoo42]

Terrible tattoo idea: a picture of a Scelidosaurus with the text Rib of Beef Lizard.

[bluenoo42]

I love this trope too!

One of my favourite hyperspecific art tropes is birds interacting with dinosaur remains. Like that right there is PEAK SYMBOLISM!! Every time I see a depiction of the world after the asteroid impact, showing the mass destruction, death everywhere, dust clouds hiding the sun and snow covering the ground, and then you zoom in to one of those skeletons and in the hollowed-out skull there's a tiny bird taking shelter from the cold!! I want to scream. The great tyrants that ruled the world may be gone, but in their death they will support those who remain, so that their legacy may carry on.

That right there is ART.

[bluenoo42]

So far it’s pretty much a 50/50 split.

Vote now so we can achieve an official scientific consensus on which is the spikiest dinosaur./j

Also nobody has suggested any alternate nominees. Does that mean we are in agreement that it is between these two? If you know any more impressively spiky dinosaurs that deserve to be in the running please nominate them in the comments, bear in mind, we’re looking for SPIKY not armoured./gen

(For my fellow autistics, the joke is that this is not an official scientific consensus).

Art by me

[bluenoo42]

Art by me

[bluenoo42]

I think one reason why some folks get so pissed about how much more often autism is getting diagnosed these days is that they don't want to know, much less admit, that there is an actual reason why other people are "weird" and that they shouldn't bully those people for it

[bluenoo42]

During this International Week of Deaf People and in Deaf Awareness Month, I would love to bring attention to Basem, a deaf journalist in Gaza who has been reporting on news in Palestine in sign language. He works to keep information accessible not only to Palestinians, but to the deaf community globally.

There isn’t a lot of discussion about how Israel’s attacks on Gaza affect the over 15,000 deaf Palestinians, but Basem has been continuing to raise awareness and highlight the challenges deaf people face during this genocide.

You can donate to Basem’s evacuation gofundme for him, his wife, and his young daughter here.

[bluenoo42]

where do you live ?

South Coast of England

[bluenoo42]

What's your favorite dinosaur?

I like thyreophora which is the clade that includes both ankylosaurs and stegosaurs and also more basal members such as scelidosaurus. within that clade it's hard to choose, but if I had to pick, I'd probably go with Polacanthus which is from the early cretaceous wealden group (Wessex formation) and is known from the type specimen found on the Isle of Wight in 1865 by William Fox (which is where it gets its species name foxii. It is known from relatively few remains, some of which have now been reassigned to Vectipelta. There is part of a Polacanthus specimen coming out of the cliff at Brook Beach at the moment and one of the guides who does the fossil tours with me found a piece of Polacanthus armour recently on the beach!

[bluenoo42]

I’m deaf with a cochlear implant myself (I became deaf as an adult and decided on a cochlear implant for myself, I also use BSL to ensure full access). This post explains it so well.

Hearing devices aren’t an alternative for sign language, they are an imperfect tool for making it easier to communicate with people who don’t sign and provide awareness of environmental sounds.

I still can’t hear like a hearing person, and I shouldn’t have to, but unfortunately society is so prejudiced against deaf people that on a weekly basis I usually end up having to explain that being able to speak (with a very minimal deaf accent) doesn’t make me ‘one of the smart ones’ and pointing out how much more ‘normal’ I seem compared to another deaf person you know is not in fact a compliment.

Yes I have a cochlear implant, yes I benefit from it, but in a perfect world where everyone could sign, I wouldn’t have bothered to get one. My family doesn’t sign, I’m a pretty mediocre lip reader, and I have almost 0 residual hearing so I can’t benefit much from hearing aids, so an implant was pretty much my only choice.

It’s not perfect, the sound quality is pretty awful, everything still sounds like an out of tune radio from the 1930s even after having it for 3 years. Some people find the sound extremely natural after a while though so my experience isn’t universal. I have to take regular breaks from hearing (maybe more than average because I’m autistic and easily overwhelmed). But in perfect conditions (no background noise and clear loud speech with a neutral familiar accent) I can hear ~80% of speech as opposed to <10% with high powered hearing aids.

Hearing devices are not alternatives to sign language and Deaf community, but they do offer utility to many people and should be freely available for those who want them. The medical profession should push sign language access as the primary approach for deaf kids with speech therapy and hearing devices as a second modality to be used in conjunction with sign language.

Thank you for reading my essay if you got this far, basically my point is that I agree with everything wheelie sick says and I have an implant myself.

I wanted to ask if I could get your personal opinion on cochlear implants as a deaf person? I'm writing an essay for my ASL class and it's really hard to find opinions about them from the deaf community. I'm very sorry if asking this is rude, you have every right to decline responding to this. Thank you for your time

okay finally getting to this ask

I have a really complicated opinion because on one hand I think the technology is really freeing for a lot of deaf people but on the other they are killing the deaf community.

cochlear implants in and of themselves are neutral technology. in a perfect world there would be no controversy because they would truly be neutral. unfortunately that is not this world. cochlear implants are used to rip deaf people (and in particular, deaf children) away from their community.

all deaf people have a right to the Deaf community, by being deaf they belong to our world.

when a baby is born deaf the first thing an audiologist will suggest is a cochlear implant. they give the suggestion in a way that implies, and sometimes outright states, that a cochlear implant will give the baby a "normal" childhood. they focus on how easy it will be for the people around that baby. no one will have to learn a sign language, no one will have to adapt their life to fit this deaf baby inside of it. the first problem comes in when cochlear implants are not magic devices that allows a person to be just like a hearing person. with a cochlear implant someone will still need a deaf life because cochlear implants are imperfect.

no one with a cochlear implant will ever live the exact same life as a hearing person. when a child grows up with parents who act like a cochlear implant is a perfect fix that child grows up traumatized by a world of people they cannot keep up with. that child grows up feeling like they are the problem for not having the same experience of hearing as everyone around them.

cochlear implant surgeries are serious surgeries which carry risks like meningitis. cochlear implants cannot be given to toddlers with consent. a toddler can't decide whether they want to risk the extensive number of complications because they are 9 months old (the age at which cochlear implants can be given to a child) parents are rarely informed of these risks and when they are they are told over and over again that this will give their child a "normal" life, an "easy" life. I have less of an issue with cochlear implants when it is a teenager or adult making the decision for themself. cochlear implant surgeries are optional, they are not medically necessary. why are we doing risky surgeries on unconsenting toddlers without a medical reason?

with all that said, cultural genocide is the true heart of the issue. audiologists push cochlear implants instead of sign language and connection to the Deaf community. they encourage parents not to raise their child in the community. they discourage Deaf school, they discourage connection with other deaf children, audiologists want an end to the Deaf community and Deaf culture. these children are not being raised bilingual-bicultural they are being denied their rightful place within the Deaf community. they are being damned to a life of isolation, a life of constantly falling behind, a life where they will never truly be accepted because society hates a deaf person with a cochlear implant just as much as they hate a deaf person without.

if that child ever decides later in life that they want connection with the Deaf community? they are behind. they once again cannot quite keep up. oralist childhoods created isolated deaf people, deaf people who have no home in either world.

the Deaf community may welcome second language signers but it is not the same as being a native signer. it is not the same as having the deep rooted connections with the community that are created by growing up within it.

I still respect the decision of deaf teens and adults to get cochlear implants. they are capable of making a choice for themself. deaf teens and adults often already have the social safety net of the Deaf community. I believe bi-bi upbringings for children can be beneficial though I have my own issues with giving any toddler a cochlear implant. I think that bi-bi childhoods are a good compromise and give deaf children access to both worlds. I don't have a problem with deaf children living in both worlds because they still have access to the Deaf community. I wish cochlear implants existed in a world that valued Deaf culture. I wish cochlear implants existed in a world where they were not a tool of cultural genocide. cochlear implants are not the problem, society is.

[bluenoo42]

Hello, this is a picture of a Polacanthus I made.

[bluenoo42]

Behold, my new favourite item

[bluenoo42]

Has anyone figured out a polite way to get people to stop talking to you? Like my dude, you sound like Charlie Brown’s parents and I’m way too tired to read your lips.

I’ve already told you I can’t hear you, but that didn’t work.

My next step is to tell you not to talk to me right now unless it’s actually important, but if I do that then you get offended.

(Please bear in mind this mostly happens with my family members so there’s really no excuse, they know I’m deaf and autistic).

Could any of you guys help me find a script to navigate this social situation delicately? Today I have struggled to resist the urge to throw my cochlear implant processor at my dad’s face and shout at him to learn BSL.