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just saw the perforated baton rope making demonstration video for the first time and i 😲

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if you want to avoid this i have two recommendations that will not save you every time, but like 95% of the time.

strategy 1.) if you are reading fic before you are caught up with something check the publication/air date and change the filters so you're not getting fic published with more info than you have at the moment.

does this mean you're gonna miss some stuff that's spoiler free but written by people who discovered later? yeah. but you're gonna be safe from that tag because no one else knows they die either.

"but harper," i hear you saying already, "im willing to accept that risk, surely there's another way!"

yes! this brings us to the "none if my business" approach. it's honestly a specific application of the way i avoid most spoilers in media.

no, i didn't know about that character in final fantasy 7. no, i didn't know about that one character in one piece. yes, i did know about that one reveal in star wars.

anyway, strategy 2.) you see the "no beta..." and you skip over the rest of the tag. literally just make the habit of skipping over that one. it's usually a later tag towards the end anyway so if you go a little too far you're probably not missing too much anyway.

it takes some discipline, but you know how you can blur your vision by crossing your eyes? just like choose to stop processing information for a sec and get to the next tag.

basically if i see fanart or a post and realize it's not a thing i already consume i immediately stop processing the information, and go to the tags to make sure it's not original art/something i know, in which case i will go back and engage.

it also trains you to stop for a second before engaging with something which is great for not spreading disinformation too 👍

go forth and be spoiler-free my friends

the fact that I’ve actually had this happen multiple times when I’ve entered a new fandom is hilarious like what do you MEAN

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I'm at the pediatrician office watching two 3-year olds attempt to break the language barrier.

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linktober day 15: sword

oh yes, they both, oh yes, they both reached for...

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Skip Google for Research

As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse.  It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms 

As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable.  As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.

Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.

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Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

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.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

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

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truly the most american thing is Big Drink. more than late stage capitalism, more than an unparalleled cultural focus on individualism, more than 9/11 jokes

what binds all americans together culturally is Big Drink

and you might be saying "is this fat shaming" or "but mayor bloomberg outlawed Big Drink in nyc" or "gays are so annoying about their iced coffee" or some other dumb comment but no open your minds, Big Drink isn't just sugary or caffeinated beverages

every day i see one of you hydration bitches (affectionate) on the train with a water bottle so big a toddler could drown in it. that too is Big Drink. we literally invented a bigger beer can (tall boy) in wisconsin in the 60s in the service of Big Drink

anyway i never feel more american then when i have Big Drink in my hands

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went to the pittsburgh aviary yesterday and this little beast’s name is Elizabeth. the docent said she loves wheels and jewelry. Elizabeth walked up to my wheelchair & tried to eat my ring off my finger. we love a predictable queen

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by master.blaster

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Me quedas tú

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Hang in there zoro-kun

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openin’ the door to the microwave one second early because you don’t need all the hootin’ and hollerin’

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what's the BEEFIEST guy you have? herp or bird. Just. Just a BEEFY guy or gal. What does beefy mean? Up to you.

MOTHERFUCKER YOU WANT BEEF?!?!

YOU WANT BEEF!!????!!

Blotched Blue-tongue Skink (Tiliqua nigrolutea), defensive tongue display, family Scincidae, from SE Australia

photograph by JJ Reptiles

Northern Blue-tongued Skink (Tiliqua scincoides intermedia), family Scincidae, found in northern Australia

photograph by Excelsior Exotics

Common Blue-tongued Skink (Tiliqua scincoides), giving a threat/defensive tongue display, family Scincidae, northern Western Australia

photograph by robbesorre

Centralian Blue-tongue Skink (Tiliqua multifasciata), family Scincidae, Pilbara, Western Australia

photograph by Roberto Sorrentino

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HANG IN THERE BABY!! instagram | bluesky | patreon

‼️prints here

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I want to step away from the art-vs-artist side of the Gaiman issue for a bit, and talk about, well, the rest of it. Because those emotions you're feeling would be the same without the art; the art just adds another layer.

Source: I worked with a guy who turned out to be heavily involved in an international, multi-state sex-slavery/trafficking ring.

He was really nice.

Yeah.

It hits like a dumptruck of shit. You don't feel stable in your world anymore. How could someone you interacted with, liked, also be a truly horrible person? How could your judgement be that bad? How can real people, not stylized cartoon bogeymen, be actually doing this shit?

You have to sit with the fact that you couldn't, or probably couldn't, have known. You should have no guilt as part of this horror — but guilt is almost certainly part of that mess you're feeling, because our brains do this associative thing, and somehow "I liked [the version of] the guy [that I knew]", or his creations, becomes "I made a horrible mistake and should feel guilty."

You didn't, loves, you didn't.

We're human, and we can only go by the information we have. And the information we have is only the smallest glimpse into someone else's life.

I didn't work closely with the guy I knew at work, but we chatted. He wasn't just nice; he was one of the only people outside my tiny department who seemed genuinely nice in a workplace that was rapidly becoming incredibly toxic. He loaned me a bike trainer. Occasionally he'd see me at the bus stop and give me a lift home.

Yup. I was a young woman in my twenties and rode in this guy's car. More than once.

When I tell this story that part usually makes people gasp. "You must feel so scared about what could have happened to you!" "You're so lucky nothing happened!"

No, that's not how it worked. I was never in danger. This guy targeted Korean women with little-to-no English who were coerced and powerless. A white, fluent, US citizen coworker wasn't a potential victim. I got to be a person, not prey.

Y'know that little warning bell that goes off, when you're around someone who might be a danger to you? That animal sense that says "Something is off here, watch out"?

Yeah, that doesn't ping if the preferred prey isn't around.

That's what rattled me the most about this. I liked to think of myself as willing to stand up for people with less power than me. I worked with Japanese exchange students in college and put myself bodily between them and creeps, and I sure as hell got that little alarm when some asian-schoolgirl fetishist schmoozed on them. But we were all there.

I had to learn that the alarm won't go off when the hunter isn't hunting. That it's not the solid indicator I might've thought it was. That sometimes this is what the privilege of not being prey does; it completely masks your ability to detect the horrors that are going on.

A lot of people point out that 'people like that' have amazing charisma and ability to lie and manipulate, and that's true. Anyone who's gotten away with this shit for decades is going to be way smoother than the pathetic little hangers-on I dealt with in university. But it's not just that. I seriously, deeply believe that he saw me as a person, and he did not extend personhood to his victims. We didn't have a fake coworker relationship. We had a real one. And just like I don't know the ins-and-outs of most of my coworkers lives, I had no idea that what he did on his down time was perpetrate horrors.

I know this is getting off the topic, but it's so very important. Especially as a message to cis guys: please understand that you won't recognize a creep the way you might think you will. If you're not the preferred prey, the hind-brain alarm won't go off. You have to listen to victims, not your gut feeling that the person seems perfectly nice and normal. It doesn't mean there's never a false accusation, but face the fact that it's usually real, and you don't have enough information to say otherwise.

So, yeah. It fucking sucks. Writing about this twists my insides into tense knots, and it was almost a decade ago. I was never in danger. No one I knew was hurt!

Just countless, powerless women, horrifically abused by someone who was nice to me.

You don't trust your own judgement quite the same way, after. And as utterly shitty as it is, as twisted up and unstead-in-the-world as I felt the day I found out — I don't actually think that's a bad thing.

I think we all need to question our own judgement. It makes us better people.

I don't see villains around every corner just because I knew one, once. But I do own the fact that I can't know, really know, about anyone except those closest to me. They have their own full lives. They'll go from the pinnacles of kindness to the depths of depravity — and I won't know.

It's not a failing. It's just being human. Something to remember before you slap labels on people, before you condemn them or idolize them. Think about how much you can't know, and how flawed our judgement always is.

Grieve for victims, and the feeling of betrayal. But maybe let yourself off the hook, and be a bit slower to skewer others on it.

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