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forsakeofabetterusername · 1 year ago

Text

I made a zine about adjusting cheaper wheelchairs, after adjusting my NHS wheelchair.

Notes: Your wheelchair ‘service manual’ is a good resource for adjustments! You can often google them. Also, with the wheel adjustments, be prepared to move the breaks. Google how to measure for a wheelchair to find your seat width, and if you want to get extra, look at seat depth. Leg length is usually done by adjusting the footplate height.

Image description and printable version under the ‘read more’ .

Image Description:

An 8 page zine. Both images have the same content but the first one is arranged to be read on a computer. I am going to describe each page.

First page reads “A cripple’s guide to.. making a cheap(er) wheelchair work for you” and in smaller writing “by Sock - who uses an Invacare Action 2NG”. There is a drawing of a wheelchair in the centre.

Page 2 reads “Choosing a wheelchair. Look for adjustability (can you change wheel height? COG?), seat width (as close to your size as possible), and arm rests that can be lowered/removed.” Each item has a small drawing illustrating the point.

Page 3 reads “Adjusting a wheelchair. You will need… Allen key set (bike ones are good!), Pliers (for holding bolts) and Phone (for access to manuals, taking photos at each step.” Each item has a small drawing of it.

Page 4 reads “1. Adjust Wheel height. This can be done where the wheel “plugs in”. Your fingers should touch the wheel hub centre. If you can, move the wheel forward too (centre of gravity adjustment).” There is a small drawing of the wheel base, an arm reaching down to touch the centre of the wheel and a wheel base with an arrow pointing to the right showing it being moved.

Page 5 reads “2. Arm rest adjustments. Get your armrests as far down and as far back as they go. I keep mine on because of muddy weather/to protect clothes from spokes but you can also just remove them!” There is 2 drawings of a rounded and straight arm rest.

Page 6 reads “3. Modding castor wheels. Adjusting the height will change the seat angle. Smaller castor = easier turning, but makes rough pavements harder.” There is a drawing of a tilted chair with big castors and a straight chair with small castors, with a double pointed arrow between, with the caption “Play around!”

Page 7 reads “4. Footplates. You can take the footplates off and toe propel. You can make a foot sling out of a belt/luggage strap/paracord.” Both have an accompanying illustration. Then there is a note saying “if you have poor circulation, weakness, etc. oh might just want to keep the footplates on”.

Page 8 reads “5. Cushion. You need a cushion for your chair. Depending on how long you sit/how bony you are, you might need to spend a little more” then “£: Foam. ££: pressure relief cushion. £££: EBay/second hand for jay, invacare, low zone etc.”

End.

Printable version:

#forsakeofabetterarttag #hope this helps someone #wheelchair #nhs wheelchair #hospital wheelchair #cripplepunk #physically disabled #heds #spoonie #potsie

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amaryllis-3 · 1 month ago

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Word count: 2.1k

Pairing: John Price × Reader

Infos: Pregnancy, afab reader, mild possessive behavior near the end, mature and slightly dark themes

Based on this idea

As a member of Task Force 141, you'd dedicated your whole life to your team, to the Crown, and to the protection of international security. Going from home to work and from work to home had become the normality you'd learnt to accept.

It was nothing too tragic, truly.

When you were on duty, you didn't have time to worry about your decadent social circle, and when you were off deployment, you could always hit a pub with one of the lads. None of them would ever turn down an opportunity for a little distraction. Hell, you'd even started spending more time in the barracks than in your flat, to the point where the landlord questioned whether you'd died in action and he merely hadn't been informed about it.

Everything had been fine until, well, it no longer was.

Shrouded in the silence of your one-room apartment on a grey autumn day, you'd wondered what would be left of you after you inevitably ceased to be useful to the military. You'd probably be discharged with a respectful handshake, a few medals, and a good amount of money to spend the rest of your life doing... what exactly? Rot in loneliness?

No, you couldn't stand it, not anymore at least.

Those same circumstances you had considered acceptable and fulfilling suddenly seemed not to be enough. Perhaps you could have borne it in your early years of service, when your sole concern was coming home in one piece and making sure your comrades did the same.

But at the moment you had other needs. You were aware of it.

You'd wandered for a while in the dark searching for something that could help you feel complete — a sort of homemade spiritual journey with more failures than successes and the revelation you were seeking at the end.

You wanted a baby, desperately.

You'd never thought about motherhood before, and yet it had only taken the slightest nudge to turn it into the entire centre of your attention. It was as if a switch had been flipped in your head, triggering that innate and basic instinct to bring another creature into this world.

Shit, you had nothing ready to welcome your little angel.

The house you lived in was too small and in a part of town not ideal for easy access to schools.

Not to mention your job.

You clearly had to take a leave of absence. No matter how accustomed you were to injury, you wouldn't have tolerated the slightest chance of jeopardising your pregnancy.

You absolutely had to notify the higher-ups, or things were bound to get ugly. Money wasn't an issue with all you had saved, but it was possibly worth looking for a part-time job to support yourself in the meantime. All in all, it was better to be safe than sorry

Maybe, just maybe, you were moving things a smidge too fast. No, starting to buy baby clothes and toys was not a good idea because in your euphoric frenzy you'd forgotten a rather important detail.

You weren't in a relationship.

Now, that could have been a problem.

Your lifestyle wasn't helpful in keeping anything steady in the romance department. You could go on a mission and disappear for the next few weeks, if not months. You'd tried in the past (albeit, you must admit, with not too much effort), but balancing your various obligations had proved so stressful that you'd proudly declared yourself out of the market. Your new-found desire to start a family, though, would have forced you to return.

As resourceful as you may have been, it was going to be difficult to conceive a baby without a man to, you know, knock you up.

At that point, instead of getting on some dating app or throwing yourself into a classic blind date like a normal person, what had you done? Obviously, you'd gone to your captain, the man who had saved your life more times than you could have counted, dropping the bombshell he wouldn't have expected.

⎯⎯⎯ 「 𖤓 」⎯⎯⎯

"I want a baby," you announced the minute you entered his office, barely giving the door time to close behind you before you placed yourself in front of his desk. John's hand, which had been working on paperwork, froze in its movement, and his sterling blue eyes lifted to give you his full attention.

"Pardon?" His voice came out gruff and deep, words slipping out in a rush, as if his mind was not quite ready to digest what you had told him.

"I want a baby, Cap," you repeated unperturbed, shoulders squared, legs slightly apart, and back straight as a board. You were almost as confident in your stance as you were in your conviction.

Price's eyebrows furrowed, lips curled into a grimace that bordered on mockery. "Yeah... I heard that."

He hesitated, absentmindedly drumming his fingers on the wooden surface of the desk. "I was just wonderin' why you felt the need to share the ... news with me."

The man struggled to follow on which train of thought your brain had derailed.

What was this nonsense?

As far as he knew, you weren't in a relationship and didn't seem interested in one. At least, that was the reply you had given Soap when the Scot had pointed out your dry romantic situation.

Going from 0 to 100 wasn't anything foreign for you; he had learnt to deal with it, but this... was excessive even by your standards.

Had you met some bloke who had made you fall at his feet with honeyed words and pretty promises? No, you wouldn't have been fooled by it. Not his soldier. You were too mature for that shit, but John couldn't help the feeling of jealousy growing in the pit of his stomach.

"I'm telling you this because..." Your statement was enough to snap him out of the tunnel vision his stubborn self had coerced itself into; "...I need your help, to get one I mean."

The silence that spread through the office following your declaration was suffocating. You had mentally prepared for every possible reaction from him, yet seeing it actually happen was in no way comparable.

It wasn't the first time you had stood under Price's intense glare, not with how your relationship was set up. As much as he was your superior, you hadn't failed to make your opinion heard if something didn't sit well with you. You had never come close to insubordination, never really questioned his authority, but you certainly hadn't simply responded with a mere "aye, Cap'n" and carried on with your day.

It was an odd partnership, but it worked for both of you.

If John had to be honest, he viewed it as refreshing and somewhat fascinating. He was aware of how deep your loyalty ran — you'd have followed him down to hell if it had been necessary — so he could overlook your more colourful comments. Still, that didn't mean that he would spare you any of his warning stares.

He wasn't sure if you were playing a nasty prank on him. It wasn't like you, not about such personal matters anyway.

You probably weren't, if the determination and sheer earnestness flashing in your eyes could serve as an indication. That, though, led him to another, bigger problem: seriously consider what you were asking of him.

To state that, after all the years you had spent working shoulder to shoulder, Price had never thought of moving things to another level with you would have been a lie. He clearly found you attractive, and the chemistry between you two was undeniable. But hell, you worked so well in his team that he didn't feel like fucking it up simply for some of his urges.

Blurring the lines between work and love life could prove to be a minefield, a dangerous territory where it was difficult to venture.

You, however? Seemed more than willing to dive in like a suicidal maniac.

"You sure are somethin'." He exhaled, with a hint of exasperation. He was way past the age to keep up with you; that much was clear.

John hadn't even entertained the idea that you might see him as more than a trusted friend (he refused to believe that your relationship was purely professional), and now you were begging him to impregnate you? A whiplash wouldn't hold a candle to what this whole affair had become.

He would have wanted to plant his hands on your shoulders and shake some sense into you, to bombard you with questions about how you came up with such a plan, to remind you, in a perhaps overly patronising way, that this was not a decision you could take lightly: it was one that would change your future in the long run, one that you appeared to be handling far too casually.

His tired and burdened body rose from the chair in all its might, strong legs leading him directly in front of you. You owed a lot of explanations to your Captain, who had no intention of letting the matter go without first securing the info he was seeking.

"Why are you proposin' this to me?"

There was no malice or accusation in that, only a curiosity that bordered nearly on morbid. John felt shameful in that moment. Of all the vastly more important issues he could have raised, that was the only one his mind had focused on.

In a twisted manner, you had chosen him.

The knowledge that you'd handpicked him of all people to 'help' you was enough to rub his ego in all the right places, but he needed to know why.

Did you realise who you were offering this to? The consequences that would have followed?

His gaze never left your face, refusing to miss any possible change in your mannerisms. He made you feel like a rare species under a microscope, as if you couldn't hide anything from him, not when he had already scoured the innermost depths of your being in search of answers.

"You're the first one I thought of," you mentioned, finding it almost difficult to get the words out. Your limbs had suddenly become tense, making your posture stiffer than it should be. "Besides, I couldn't trust anyone but you with this."

John regarded himself as a stable person, capable of maintaining a cool and detached mind even in the most absurd and stressful scenarios. Yet in that moment, you had really managed to catch him off guard.

For fuck's sake, he had enough.

Did you want his cock to bully your pussy so badly, to fill it with cum again and again until there was no doubt left about the life he had planted in your womb?

He wasn't going to stop you.

Noticing his impassive expression, you hastened to assure him that, should he accept, you would ask nothing in return: no support for the baby, no parental responsibility, and no emotional attachment.

At that he merely snorted, shaking his head as if trying to chase away an annoying bug.

If you thought he would leave both of you, you and YOUR child, you obviously had still not fully understood the kind of man he was.

John could already imagine it.

A small cottage surrounded by nature, his beautiful wife waiting for him at the door, open arms and sweet smile, the laughter of children in the distance, and a warmth to finally caress his tough skin.

He wouldn't have let you resume your military career after; it would have been too dangerous and pointless.

Not that you had to know.

You would have so much to think about that you wouldn't even notice it. Your little angels would need the steady presence of a mother, and you certainly wouldn't be the one to deprive them of that, would you?

Don't worry; he would take care of it, putting his life on the line for the safety of your little family.

Family.

He had struggled to believe he could ever have one of his own, and now you were offering it to him on a silver platter. How lucky.

"Alright." His calloused hand rose to meet your cheek, thick thumb being passed over the soft pad of your lower lip. His face lowered enough to be exactly before yours. "I'll help you, just... don't come cryin' later for bitin' off more than you could chew."

Tag list: @nova-willow-541

✎There will definitely be a part two in the future.

#call of duty #john price cod #john price #price x reader #price x you #john price x you #john price x reader #call of duty x reader #call of duty x you #cod #cod x reader #cod x you #task force 141 #fem reader #cod fanfic #john price call of duty #tf 141

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enbycrip · 2 years ago

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One common experience of disability all across the board - relating to everything from learning/intellectual disability to neurodiversity to physical impairment to chronic illness - is the way that “one little thing” can make everything - work performance, school performance, ability to communicate etc - go right off the rails and collapse.

This is an issue I frequently see abled doctors, therapists, psychologists, teachers, social workers etc speaking about in terms of “poor flexibility”, “need to teach resilience” etc etc, focusing on this as an issue *with the disabled person.*

And that illustrates absolutely *perfectly* why a) disabled people are the experts in disability, not abled “specialists”, and b) why the social model of disability *needs* to be taught and centred.

The issue in such circumstances is not some sort of “innate preference for rigidity” (you may laugh, but that’s a phrase I sadly *still* see used about autistic folks far too often) or even “innate widespread lack of capacity” in the disabled person. It is a symptom of a system - in this case, a disabled person’s *life* - that is under immense strain and operating without spare capacity available to be used to respond to unforeseen circumstances.

Disabled people are, almost universally, *master* adapters. Incredibly adept at adaptive thought; incredibly resilient and incredibly dogged. We are that way because we *need to be* to survive in a world that is incredibly ill-adapted for our needs. The reason we are *perceived* as “inflexible”, “rigid”, “fragile”, “incapable” etc etc is because we are, very very frequently, *already* operating at the limits of our capacity just to survive in a world that is incredibly hostile to our needs and to our existence.

The medical model of disability judges all people to exist in the same world under the same circumstances, and thus judges the disabled person to be “lacking” when we struggle. Thus the onus is put on *us* to “correct” this “lack”. “You need to build resilience”.

It is the exact same mindset that blames people living in poverty for their lack of available resources, and suggests “budgeting classes” or “stopping spending money on avocado toast and Netflix” instead of recognising the need to raise wages to liveable levels in low-paid work and provide genuinely affordable housing. Focusing on, and *blaming*, the individual rather than recognising the systemic injustice and the desperate need for systemic change.

“Resilience” as long-term quality more or less means “having the resources to put into dealing with unexpected difficulty while still maintaining other functions.” Whether those resources are time, energy, money, family or community support - if a person does not have access to enough of them, the system - in this case, their life - *will* become overstretched, and they *will* fail on one, or, very often, on multiple points.

That does not represent a personal or moral failure. It represents having access to insufficient resources to meet needs. It is genuinely that simple. And that is what needs to be addressed for disabled people to live and thrive.

#disabled #disability #disableism #ableism #chronic illness #chronic pain #chronic fatigue #autistic adult #adult adhd #learning disability #physically disabled #systemic disableism #intersectional disability

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mostlysignssomeportents · 9 months ago

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AI is a WMD

I'm in TARTU, ESTONIA! AI, copyright and creative workers' labor rights (TOMORROW, May 10, 8AM: Science Fiction Research Association talk, Institute of Foreign Languages and Cultures building, Lossi 3, lobby). A talk for hackers on seizing the means of computation (TOMORROW, May 10, 3PM, University of Tartu Delta Centre, Narva 18, room 1037).

Fun fact: "The Tragedy Of the Commons" is a hoax created by the white nationalist Garrett Hardin to justify stealing land from colonized people and moving it from collective ownership, "rescuing" it from the inevitable tragedy by putting it in the hands of a private owner, who will care for it properly, thanks to "rational self-interest":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/04/analytical-democratic-theory/#epistocratic-delusions

Get that? If control over a key resource is diffused among the people who rely on it, then (Garrett claims) those people will all behave like selfish assholes, overusing and undermaintaining the commons. It's only when we let someone own that commons and charge rent for its use that (Hardin says) we will get sound management.

By that logic, Google should be the internet's most competent and reliable manager. After all, the company used its access to the capital markets to buy control over the internet, spending billions every year to make sure that you never try a search-engine other than its own, thus guaranteeing it a 90% market share:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Google seems to think it's got the problem of deciding what we see on the internet licked. Otherwise, why would the company flush $80b down the toilet with a giant stock-buyback, and then do multiple waves of mass layoffs, from last year's 12,000 person bloodbath to this year's deep cuts to the company's "core teams"?

https://qz.com/google-is-laying-off-hundreds-as-it-moves-core-jobs-abr-1851449528

And yet, Google is overrun with scams and spam, which find their way to the very top of the first page of its search results:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security

The entire internet is shaped by Google's decisions about what shows up on that first page of listings. When Google decided to prioritize shopping site results over informative discussions and other possible matches, the entire internet shifted its focus to producing affiliate-link-strewn "reviews" that would show up on Google's front door:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

This was catnip to the kind of sociopath who a) owns a hedge-fund and b) hates journalists for being pain-in-the-ass, stick-in-the-mud sticklers for "truth" and "facts" and other impediments to the care and maintenance of a functional reality-distortion field. These dickheads started buying up beloved news sites and converting them to spam-farms, filled with garbage "reviews" and other Google-pleasing, affiliate-fee-generating nonsense.

(These news-sites were vulnerable to acquisition in large part thanks to Google, whose dominance of ad-tech lets it cream 51 cents off every ad dollar and whose mobile OS monopoly lets it steal 30 cents off every in-app subscriber dollar):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

Now, the spam on these sites didn't write itself. Much to the chagrin of the tech/finance bros who bought up Sports Illustrated and other venerable news sites, they still needed to pay actual human writers to produce plausible word-salads. This was a waste of money that could be better spent on reverse-engineering Google's ranking algorithm and getting pride-of-place on search results pages:

https://housefresh.com/david-vs-digital-goliaths/

That's where AI comes in. Spicy autocomplete absolutely can't replace journalists. The planet-destroying, next-word-guessing programs from Openai and its competitors are incorrigible liars that require so much "supervision" that they cost more than they save in a newsroom:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/29/what-part-of-no/#dont-you-understand

But while a chatbot can't produce truthful and informative articles, it can produce bullshit – at unimaginable scale. Chatbots are the workers that hedge-fund wreckers dream of: tireless, uncomplaining, compliant and obedient producers of nonsense on demand.

That's why the capital class is so insatiably horny for chatbots. Chatbots aren't going to write Hollywood movies, but studio bosses hyperventilated at the prospect of a "writer" that would accept your brilliant idea and diligently turned it into a movie. You prompt an LLM in exactly the same way a studio exec gives writers notes. The difference is that the LLM won't roll its eyes and make sarcastic remarks about your brainwaves like "ET, but starring a dog, with a love plot in the second act and a big car-chase at the end":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/01/how-the-writers-guild-sunk-ais-ship/

Similarly, chatbots are a dream come true for a hedge fundie who ends up running a beloved news site, only to have to fight with their own writers to get the profitable nonsense produced at a scale and velocity that will guarantee a high Google ranking and millions in "passive income" from affiliate links.

One of the premier profitable nonsense companies is Advon, which helped usher in an era in which sites from Forbes to Money to USA Today create semi-secret "review" sites that are stuffed full of badly researched top-ten lists for products from air purifiers to cat beds:

https://housefresh.com/how-google-decimated-housefresh/

Advon swears that it only uses living humans to produce nonsense, and not AI. This isn't just wildly implausible, it's also belied by easily uncovered evidence, like its own employees' Linkedin profiles, which boast of using AI to create "content":

https://housefresh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Advon-AI-LinkedIn.jpg

It's not true. Advon uses AI to produce its nonsense, at scale. In an excellent, deeply reported piece for Futurism, Maggie Harrison Dupré brings proof that Advon replaced its miserable human nonsense-writers with tireless chatbots:

https://futurism.com/advon-ai-content

Dupré describes how Advon's ability to create botshit at scale contributed to the enshittification of clients from Yoga Journal to the LA Times, "Us Weekly" to the Miami Herald.

All of this is very timely, because this is the week that Google finally bestirred itself to commence downranking publishers who engage in "site reputation abuse" – creating these SEO-stuffed fake reviews with the help of third parties like Advon:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/03/keyword-swarming/#site-reputation-abuse

(Google's policy only forbids site reputation abuse with the help of third parties; if these publishers take their nonsense production in-house, Google may allow them to continue to dominate its search listings):

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2024/03/core-update-spam-policies#site-reputation

There's a reason so many people believed Hardin's racist "Tragedy of the Commons" hoax. We have an intuitive understanding that commons are fragile. All it takes is one monster to start shitting in the well where the rest of us get our drinking water and we're all poisoned.

The financial markets love these monsters. Mark Zuckerberg's key insight was that he could make billions by assembling vast dossiers of compromising, sensitive personal information on half the world's population without their consent, but only if he kept his costs down by failing to safeguard that data and the systems for exploiting it. He's like a guy who figures out that if he accumulates enough oily rags, he can extract so much low-grade oil from them that he can grow rich, but only if he doesn't waste money on fire-suppression:

https://locusmag.com/2018/07/cory-doctorow-zucks-empire-of-oily-rags/

Now Zuckerberg and the wealthy, powerful monsters who seized control over our commons are getting a comeuppance. The weak countermeasures they created to maintain the minimum levels of quality to keep their platforms as viable, going concerns are being overwhelmed by AI. This was a totally foreseeable outcome: the history of the internet is a story of bad actors who upended the assumptions built into our security systems by automating their attacks, transforming an assault that wouldn't be economically viable into a global, high-speed crime wave:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/24/automation-is-magic/

But it is possible for a community to maintain a commons. This is something Hardin could have discovered by studying actual commons, instead of inventing imaginary histories in which commons turned tragic. As it happens, someone else did exactly that: Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom:

https://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/elinor-ostroms-8-principles-managing-commmons/

Ostrom described how commons can be wisely managed, over very long timescales, by communities that self-governed. Part of her work concerns how users of a commons must have the ability to exclude bad actors from their shared resources.

When that breaks down, commons can fail – because there's always someone who thinks it's fine to shit in the well rather than walk 100 yards to the outhouse.

Enshittification is the process by which control over the internet moved from self-governance by members of the commons to acts of wanton destruction committed by despicable, greedy assholes who shit in the well over and over again.

It's not just the spammers who take advantage of Google's lazy incompetence, either. Take "copyleft trolls," who post images using outdated Creative Commons licenses that allow them to terminate the CC license if a user makes minor errors in attributing the images they use:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/24/a-bug-in-early-creative-commons-licenses-has-enabled-a-new-breed-of-superpredator/

The first copyleft trolls were individuals, but these days, the racket is dominated by a company called Pixsy, which pretends to be a "rights protection" agency that helps photographers track down copyright infringers. In reality, the company is committed to helping copyleft trolls entrap innocent Creative Commons users into paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars to use images that are licensed for free use. Just as Advon upends the economics of spam and deception through automation, Pixsy has figured out how to send legal threats at scale, robolawyering demand letters that aren't signed by lawyers; the company refuses to say whether any lawyer ever reviews these threats:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/13/an-open-letter-to-pixsy-ceo-kain-jones-who-keeps-sending-me-legal-threats/

This is shitting in the well, at scale. It's an online WMD, designed to wipe out the commons. Creative Commons has allowed millions of creators to produce a commons with billions of works in it, and Pixsy exploits a minor error in the early versions of CC licenses to indiscriminately manufacture legal land-mines, wantonly blowing off innocent commons-users' legs and laughing all the way to the bank:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/02/commafuckers-versus-the-commons/

We can have an online commons, but only if it's run by and for its users. Google has shown us that any "benevolent dictator" who amasses power in the name of defending the open internet will eventually grow too big to care, and will allow our commons to be demolished by well-shitters:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/09/shitting-in-the-well/#advon

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Catherine Poh Huay Tan (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/68166820@N08/49729911222/

Laia Balagueró (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/lbalaguero/6551235503/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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txttletale · 2 years ago

Note

Hi! Do you think you could link me to some resources about the problems/ evils of the EU? Would love to find some but it's hard to know what's reliable when I have no base knowledge in this area + you seem very well informed :)

sure. let's start with what the EU does to its own member states--in 2009, the EU bailed the greek government out of severe debt on the condition that they establish brutal austerity measures, cutting public spending and welfare. these measures served to immiserate and destroy the lives of thousands of greek people:

Greek mortality has worsened significantly since the beginning of the century. In 2000, the death rate per 100,000 people was 944.5. By 2016, it had risen to 1174.9, with most of the increase taking place from 2010 onwards.

[forbes]

Since the implementation of the austerity programme, Greece has reduced its ratio of health-care expenditure to GDP to one of the lowest within the EU, with 50% less public hospital funding in 2015 than in 2009. This reduction has left hospitals with a deficit in basic supplies, while consumers are challenged by transient drug shortages.

[the lancet]

The homeless population is thought to have grown by 25 per cent since 2009, now numbering 20,000 people.

[oxfam]

the most brutal treatment, however, the EU of course reserves for migrants from the global south. the EU sets strict migration quotas and uses its member states as weapons against desperate people fleeing across the mediterranean. boats are prevented from landing, migrants that do make it to land are repelled with brutal violence, and refugees are deported back to countries where their lives are in lethal danger. these policies have led to many, many deaths--and the refugees and migrants who do survive are treating fucking inhumanely.

After a perilous journey across the desert, Abdulaziz was locked up in Triq al-Sikka, a grim prison in Tripoli, Libya. Why? Because the EU pays Libyan militias millions of euros to detain anyone deemed a possible migrant to Europe [...] A leaked EU internal memorandum in 2020 acknowledged that capturing migrants was now “a profitable business model” [...] in Triq al-Sikka and other detention centres, “acts of murder, enslavement, torture, rape and other inhumane acts are committed against migrants”, observed a damning UN report.

[the guardian]

Volunteers have logged more than 27,000 deaths by drowning since 1993, often hundreds at a time when large ships capsize. These account for nearly 80% of all the entries.

[the guardian]

Refugees and asylum seekers were punched, slapped, beaten with truncheons, weapons, sticks or branches, by police or border guards who often removed their ID tags or badges, the committee said in its annual report. People on the move were subject to pushbacks, expulsion from European states, either by land or sea, without having asylum claims heard. Victims were also subject to “inhuman and degrading treatment”, such as having bullets fired close to their bodies while they lay on the ground, being pushed into rivers, sometimes with hands tied, or being forced to walk barefoot or even naked across a border.

[the guardian]

In September, Greece opened a refugee camp on the island of Samos that has been described as prison-like. The €38m (£32m) facility for 3,000 asylum seekers has military-grade fencing and CCTV to track people’s movements. Access is controlled by fingerprint, turnstiles and X-rays. A private security company and 50 uniformed officers monitor the camp. It is the first of five that Greece has planned; two more opened in November.

[the guardian]

i could go on. i could cite dozens more similarly brutal news stories about horrific mistreatment, or any of the dozens of people who have killed themselves in the custody of border police under horrific conditions. the EU is a murderous institution that does not care about the lives of refugees and migrants or about the lives of the citizens of any member state that is not pursuing a vicious enough neoliberal political program

#ask #sa mention

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nenelonomh · 2 months ago

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guys,, don't forget to do your research (AI)

researching ai before using it is crucial for several reasons, ensuring that you make informed decisions and use the technology responsibly.

it actually makes me angry that people are too lazy or perhaps ignorant to spend 15ish minutes reading and researching to understand the implications of this new technology (same with people ignorantly using vapes, ugh!). this affects you, your health, the people around you, the environment, society, and has legal implications.

first, understanding the capabilities and limitations of ai helps set realistic expectations. knowing what ai can and cannot do allows you to utilize it effectively without overestimating its potential. for example, if you are using ai as a study tool - you must be aware that it is unable to explain complex concepts in detail. additionally! you must be aware of the effects that it poses on your learning capabilities and how it discourages you from learning with your class/peers/teacher.

second, ai systems often rely on large datasets, which can raise privacy concerns. researching how an ai handles data and what measures are in place to protect your information helps safeguard your privacy.

third, ai algorithms can sometimes exhibit bias due to the data they are trained on. understanding the sources of these biases and how they are addressed can help you choose ai tools that promote fairness and avoid perpetuating discrimination.

fourth, the environmental impact of ai, such as the energy consumption of data centers, is a growing concern. researching the environmental footprint of ai technologies can help you select solutions that are more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

!google and microsoft ai use renewable and efficient energy to power their data centres. ai also powers blue river technology, carbon engineering and xylem (only applying herbicides to weeds, combatting climate change, and water-management systems). (ai magazine)

!training large-scale ai models, especially language models, consumes massive amounts of electricity and water, leading to high carbon emissions and resource depletion. ai data centers consume significant amounts of electricity and produce electronic waste, contributing to environmental degradation. generative ai systems require enormous amounts of fresh water for cooling processors and generating electricity, which can strain water resources. the proliferation of ai servers leads to increased electronic waste, harming natural ecosystems. additionally, ai operations that rely on fossil fuels for electricity production contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

fifth, being aware of the ethical implications of ai is important. ensuring that ai tools are used responsibly and ethically helps prevent misuse and protects individuals from potential harm.

finally, researching ai helps you stay informed about best practices and the latest advancements, allowing you to make the most of the technology while minimizing risks. by taking the time to research and understand ai, you can make informed decisions that maximize its benefits while mitigating potential downsides.

impact on critical thinking

ai can both support and hinder critical thinking. on one hand, it provides access to vast amounts of information and tools for analysis, which can enhance decision-making. on the other hand, over-reliance on ai can lead to a decline in human cognitive skills, as people may become less inclined to think critically and solve problems independently.

benefits of using ai in daily life

efficiency and productivity: ai automates repetitive tasks, freeing up time for more complex activities. for example, ai-powered chatbots can handle customer inquiries, allowing human employees to focus on more strategic tasks.

personalization: ai can analyze vast amounts of data to provide personalized recommendations, such as suggesting products based on past purchases or tailoring content to individual preferences.

healthcare advancements: ai is used in diagnostics, treatment planning, and even robotic surgeries, improving patient outcomes and healthcare efficiency.

enhanced decision-making: ai can process large datasets quickly, providing insights that help in making informed decisions in business, finance, and other fields.

convenience: ai-powered virtual assistants like siri and alexa make it easier to manage daily tasks, from setting reminders to controlling smart home devices.

limitations of using ai in daily life

job displacement: automation can lead to job losses in certain sectors, as machines replace human labor.

privacy concerns: ai systems often require large amounts of data, raising concerns about data privacy and security.

bias and fairness: ai algorithms can perpetuate existing biases if they are trained on biased data, leading to unfair or discriminatory outcomes.

dependence on technology: over-reliance on ai can reduce human skills and critical thinking abilities.

high costs: developing and maintaining ai systems can be expensive, which may limit access for smaller businesses or individuals.

further reading

mit horizon, kmpg, ai magazine, bcg, techopedia, technology review, microsoft, science direct-1, science direct-2

my personal standpoint is that people must educate themselves and be mindful of not only what ai they are using, but how they use it. we should not become reliant - we are our own people! balancing the use of ai with human skills and critical thinking is key to harnessing its full potential responsibly.

🫶nene

instagram | pinterest | blog site

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canon-in-too-deep · 3 months ago

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Tumblrary Directory

Imprints: in_D Press (main)

This directory is ongoing and updated as needed. Everything listed as Free is indeed free to use (for personal use only), just please leave credit and consider liking/reblogging or following this blog. Any errors found, feel free to let me know. (づ◕⩌◕)づ For free access to my files/library, click the link and request access (and send a sworn oath written in blood to never violate the sanctity of the library).

Note: I do not use AI to make these. Just my own mediocrity ᕦ(◕⩌◕)ᕥ

Free Typesetting Resources

Font Book

Dingbat Book for Dinkuses

The Blue Fairy Book (Font Sampler Edition) edited by Andrew Lang

Typesetting Template (Affinity, Letter Folio): Notes for Typesetting Template and Tutorial for Typesetting Template

Font Recs

Typesetting Tips

Free Public Domain Typesets

[Books listed in order of upload date. Previews and details of each typeset can also be found in their original posts.]

Persuasion by Jane Austen (Letter Folio)

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (Letter Quarto)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Letter Folio)

The Merry Adventures of Robinhood by Howard Pyle (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie (Letter Folio)

Dracula by Bram Stoker (Letter Folio)

The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft (Letter Quarto)

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (Letter Folio)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells (Letter Folio)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Letter Folio)

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (Letter Folio)

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (Letter Folio)

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

The Odyssey by Homer (Letter Folio)

Tales of Space and Time by H. G. Wells (Letter Folio)

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (Letter Folio)

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

The Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare (Letter Folio)

Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Letter Folio)

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (Letter Folio)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

Leave it to Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse (Letter Folio)

Lord Peter views the body by Dorothy L. Sayers (Letter Folio)

The Room in the Tower by E. F. Benson (Letter Folio)

Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse (Letter Folio)

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (Letter Folio)

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (Letter Quarto)

Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie (Letter Folio)

Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (Letter Folio)

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (Letter Folio)

Andersen's Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen (Letter Folio)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (Letter Quarto)

Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare (Letter Folio)

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe (Illustrated) (Letter Octavo)

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (Letter Folio)

A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne (Letter Folio)

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (Letter Folio)

Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo (Letter Folio)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (Letter Folio)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Letter Folio)

The Blue Fairy Book (Font Sampler Edition) edited by Andrew Lang (Letter Folio)

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Letter Folio)

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (Letter Folio)

Emma by Jane Austen (Letter Folio)

Paradise Lost by John Milton (Letter Folio)

Moby Dick by Herman Melville (Letter Folio)

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (Letter Folio)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (Letter Folio)

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (Letter Quarto)

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (Letter Folio)

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (Letter Quarto) (Illustrated)

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (Letter Folio)

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Armin (Letter Folio)

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (Letter Folio)

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Letter Folio)

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (Letter Folio)

A Modest Proposal by Dr. Jonathan Swift (Letter Octavo)

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit (Letter Folio)

The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle (Letter Folio)

White Fang by Jack London (Letter Folio)

The Call of the Wild by Jack London (Letter Folio and Letter Quarto)

The Republic by Plato (Letter Folio)

Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Letter Folio)

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (Letter Folio)

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Letter Folio)

Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter (Letter Folio)

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally composed by Captain Grose (Letter Folio)

Utopia by Thomas More (Letter Folio)

A Room with a View by E. M. Forster (Letter Folio)

The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar by Maurice Leblanc (Letter Folio)

The Aeneid by Virgil (Letter Folio)

Don Juan by Lord Byron (Letter Folio)

Lamia by John Keats (Letter Quarto)

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (Letter Quarto) (Illustrated)

The Trial by Franz Kafka (Letter Folio)

Gorgias by Plato (Letter Folio)

Phaedrus by Plato (Letter Folio)

The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton (Letter Folio)

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (Letter Folio)

The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie (Letter Folio)

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (Letter Folio)

Free Calendars/Planners

2025

Personal Typesets (My Fics)

The Flowers We Pick

Free Graphics

Dividers

Headers

#master list #typesets #in_D Press #tumblrary

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yaksha-lover · 1 year ago

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cw: vampires, blood drinking, gn but reader wears feminine clothing, making out, suggestive/implied content, 16+ please

Vil said he hated to share, but he seemed to make an exception for Rook.

The vampires caged you in, Vil in front and Rook behind. Where else would Vil be, but where you would be forced to look directly at him, to worship his every move? Rook was satisfied in the back, watching the two of you but keeping his arms around your waist. He didn’t have to be the centre of attention like Vil, but that didn’t mean Rook was willing to step aside completely.

Vil’s hand holds the back of your neck, keeping your lips locked with his. The kiss is needy and desperate; you think he’s trying to put on a performance of sorts, in front of Rook. To show him that no matter what, you’ll always be his first.

Rook is unbothered, content to hold you on his lap, hands drifting from your waist to your smoothing over the top of your stocking-covered thighs.

It was Vil’s idea to dress you up, but Rook was equally as delighted for you to play doll. They’d both agreed; white was your colour. You wondered if it was because of their vampirism; the desire to corrupt something pure, to see you as something opposite to their darkness.

That’s how you’d ended up dressed in this fancy lace. Between Vil and Rook’s resources, no expense was spared on your little outfit. The scarlet silk robe they’d given you had already come off as soon as Vil insisted you move from the couch to the bed.

Vil finally pulls away, giving you time to breathe. The reprieve doesn’t last long, as he demands Rook shift so he can have better access to your neck.

Rook moves you off his lap to sit in between your legs on the edge of the bed. Vil gently pushes your shoulders so you’re laying down.

He leans in close to your face, dropping a kiss on your cheek and whispering, “Are you alright, my dear?”

You look between Vil and Rook, both awaiting your confirmation, before nodding.

“Stop us if you need to, mon ange. I’m afraid vampires have a difficult time realizing we’re being too rough when dealing with such an adorable human.” Rook, still sitting by the edge of the bed, bends down to kiss your ankle cheekily.

“Not just adorable.” Vil says, a hint of something unidentifiable in his tone. “Someone we love. Have I ever told you that? This part…it’s different when we care.”

“You’ve mentioned it,” you reply. “Tell me more?”

“Perhaps we can save this discussion for later. I’m sorry, darling, but I feel I must have you now. Only if you feel the same, of course.”

Your cheeks flush, and you mumble an affirmation of your enthusiasm for what he desires.

Vil brings a silk pillow and uses it to prop up your head comfortably. You close your eyes as he begins to press gentle kisses along your throat.

You feel Rook settle between your legs. He turns one of them onto its side, giving him access to the inside of your thigh.

“May I taste your blood as well, MC? Two vampires biting you at once is quite the sensual experience but, of course, we will not take too much at once.”

“I’ll make sure of it,” Vil adds on.

“Please,” you breathe.

With your closed eyes, you miss the invigoration that lights their faces at your words. They return to peppering kisses onto you; Vil on your neck, Rook on your thigh.

When they can’t hold on much longer, Vil pulls away, breath hot on your skin as he mumbles into your throat: “Ready, darling?”

At your confirmation, the two place one last sweet kiss on you before they finally sink their fangs deliciously deep into your flesh.

The pain and pleasure swirl in your head - all you can think about is them. The way their fangs are nestled into you like they belong there. They hold you tightly to them, eager to feast on every part of you. There’s a sense of urgency and desperation, as though they’ll never be able to satiate the hunger that draws them into your flesh.

You writhe beneath them, unable to stop quiet breaths and moans from spilling from your parted lips. The feeling of two vampires having you at once is almost unbearable, but instead you find it utterly intoxicating.

Vil moans shamelessly against your neck, too engulfed in pleasure to be able to remain prim and proper like he always insisted on being.

Rook’s arms shift, circling around your waist from below and pulling your entire lower body closer to him as he continues to drink passionately from your thigh.

Once the pain fades, all that’s left is the rush. It washes over you like a wave, pleasure rolling down your body from where Vil feeds from your neck to where Rook drinks from your thigh.

It’s not just the physical feeling, either.

There’s a pleasure of sorts that comes purely from the thought of two beautiful men drinking your blood. Your men. Your vampires. Their voracious appetites left no doubt about their love for you.

You wouldn’t have it any other way.

#definitely didn’t start this early october and not even finish it before halloween 🤡#twst x reader #vil schoenheit x reader #rook hunt x reader #vil x reader #rook x reader #vil schoenheit #rook hunt #twst vampire au #twst #twisted wonderland #16+

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noneatnonedotcom · 11 days ago

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decided to roll on the celestial dojo spreadsheet for jaune. the following is what he managed to roll (the first two rolls didn't require paying the cost for this one)

Beautiful: (free) "You are very beautiful, guaranteed to be beautiful enough make the majority of the opposite sex think you are hot. This won’t shift your appearance to something you find ugly."

Worthy: (800) "Once every few centuries, someone special is born. The sort of person that you just know will be something great as soon as you see them, even as a child. In these times, that person is Arturia Pendragon, the future king of Britain. But what if there was another like her? You’ve been found worthy of the favour of the World now and been blessed for it. Your path is one of great destiny, paved with many gifts and prizes, leading to truly incredible feats. And all it takes from you is to take the first step to adventure. So long as you pursue great feats and pursuits, you’ll find yourself surrounded by advantages. Mentors and teachers of incredible skill and fame appear to teach you skills, spells and abilities. You’ll find yourself involved in many stories in favourable ways, gathering friends, allies and resources without even trying to gain them.

As you attempt to improve yourself, so long as it is in the aim of accomplishing great things later on, you’ll find no end to the breakthroughs and leaps of progress you achieve.

While on this golden path, you’ll be protected from many minor dangers and risks, never needing to fear dying or failing because of accidents or the threat of unimportant foes in your story. Finally, this blessing of the World has ensured your natural charisma has skyrocketed to immense heights.

Even if you act as an emotionless robot, you could gather a small army of devoted and powerful retainers over just a few years. It has it’s limits though, don’t expect people to stick around forever if you never show them a smile. Whatever path you take, it is one where you are assured to reach the centre stage of the story."

the rules are as follows for every thousand words written jaune gets 100 points, I've elected to say that he only gets new powers at the end of an arc he can however learn to utilize any powers he has gained throughout the arc, so for instance if he'd have gained the Sharingan he'd have access to it and it's abilities but could not roll for the evolved versions of it until the end of the arc, however any jutsu or other techniques he copied using it would be fair game. so how do you all think the story would change with jaune starting with these two powers?

@howlingday @weatherman667 @heliosthegriffin @thatorigamiguy

bonus points if you use prose but honestly i'm more interested in how you think this would effect jaune's character and the characters of those around him. to say nothing of the story shifting.

#rwby #jaune arc #rwby au #celestial dojo #writting practice

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reasonsforhope · 8 months ago

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"An international research team has found almost a million potential sources of antibiotics in the natural world.

Research published in the journal Cell by a team including Queensland University of Technology (QUT) computational biologist Associate Professor Luis Pedro Coelho has used machine learning to identify 863,498 promising antimicrobial peptides -- small molecules that can kill or inhibit the growth of infectious microbes.

The findings of the study come with a renewed global focus on combatting antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as humanity contends with the growing number of superbugs resistant to current drugs.

"There is an urgent need for new methods for antibiotic discovery," Professor Coelho, a researcher at the QUT Centre for Microbiome Research, said. The centre studies the structure and function of microbial communities from around the globe.

"It is one of the top public health threats, killing 1.27 million people each year." ...

"Using artificial intelligence to understand and harness the power of the global microbiome will hopefully drive innovative research for better public health outcomes," he said.

The team verified the machine predictions by testing 100 laboratory-made peptides against clinically significant pathogens. They found 79 disrupted bacterial membranes and 63 specifically targeted antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.

"Moreover, some peptides helped to eliminate infections in mice; two in particular reduced bacteria by up to four orders of magnitude," Professor Coelho said.

In a preclinical model, tested on infected mice, treatment with these peptides produced results similar to the effects of polymyxin B -- a commercially available antibiotic which is used to treat meningitis, pneumonia, sepsis and urinary tract infections.

More than 60,000 metagenomes (a collection of genomes within a specific environment), which together contained the genetic makeup of over one million organisms, were analysed to get these results. They came from sources across the globe including marine and soil environments, and human and animal guts.

The resulting AMPSphere -- a comprehensive database comprising these novel peptides -- has been published as a publicly available, open-access resource for new antibiotic discovery.

[Note: !!! Love it. Open access research databases my beloved.]"

-via Science Daily, June 5, 2024

#superbugs #bacteria #viruses #microbiology #antibiotics #medicines #public health #peptides #medical news #antibiotic resistance #good news #hope #ai #artificial intelligence #pro ai #machine learning

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djuvlipen · 6 months ago

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Every hour, a woman in Afghanistan loses her life during childbirth

It was midnight when another wave of pain struck. Begum, 35, thought it was finally time for her child to be born, but there were no signs of the baby coming.

“I woke my husband and told him to get a car to go to a hospital. He rented one from our neighbours,” Begum said.

The mother of four travelled while in labour from Ridkhord area in Badakhshan’s Zibak district to the Shahid Ustad Burhanuddin Rabbani Hospital in the provincial capital Faizabad.

Her fifth child, struggling to be born, did not survive the journey.

Begum lived, but many mothers in similar circumstances do not.

Abdullah is currently waiting to hear if his wife will survive their child’s birth.

He and his wife, residents of the province’s Yafta-e-Bala area, came on foot to the central hospital in Faizabad when their baby was due to be born.

“In Yaftal-e-Bala, there are four health centres. However, because of inadequate medical facilities and no doctor available, we had to walk for four or five hours to Faizabad for delivery,” Abdullah said.

“We encountered many challenges along the way, but I couldn’t do much until we reached the hospital.”

Doctors said that because his wife had walked a long distance, it led to severe bleeding and possibly harmed the baby in the womb.

“The mother’s condition is not good and there is little hope for the baby to survive,” Abdullah said doctors told him.

Afghanistan’s deadly statistics for mothers

According to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) report, each day 24 mothers and 167 newborns in Afghanistan lose their lives due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth.

It’s the highest rate in the world.

“The condition of mothers is highly alarming, particularly for those who travel from remote areas and cover long distances,” a specialist at the Shahid Ustad Burhanuddin Rabbani Hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

Having worked in Badakhshan for 22 years, the doctor said that the shortage of healthcare services, especially in remote areas, leads to significant health risks for women.

He recalled a patient who arrived at the hospital from Darwaz district about a month ago after travelling for three days.

“Due to the long journey, the patient’s womb had ruptured along the way, leading to the loss of the baby. The doctors only managed to save the mother’s life with great difficulty,” he said.

Discrimination leading to more deaths

There are concerns the situation is only getting worse as the Taliban place more restrictions on women’s mobility and access to support, and the weakened economy sees healthcare facilities struggle to deliver services.

The WHO reported that in 2023, about 428 health centres were closed because of budget constraints.

Dr Suraya Dalil, WHO’s Director of the Special Programe for Primary Health Care and former Minister of Health in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2014, said that Afghanistan has become one of the most perilous countries for mothers due to insufficient healthcare resources.

Dr Dalil told Rukhshana Media that the Taliban’s discriminatory policies make women more vulnerable in accessing healthcare.

“There is a regime in Afghanistan that systematically discriminates against women. For instance, a few months ago, a directive was sent to the central hospital in Ghazni province stating that women without a male companion would not receive treatment,” she said.

“Similarly, in Herat, a directive was issued prohibiting ultrasound services for women at the central hospital.”

She said that ultrasound examinations are crucial for diagnosis and timely treatment decisions, services that have unfortunately been restricted for women.

Recently, the Taliban supreme leader issued an order for all female employees to receive a reduced monthly salary.

“Recently, we’ve witnessed female employees being allocated a monthly salary of only 5,000 afghanis (US$70), disregarding their rank, experience, and job responsibilities solely because they are women. This is systemic discrimination,” she said.

“The impact of the Taliban’s actions on women extends beyond just health issues. It has multidimensional implications.”

Health professionals strike over reduced salaries

This month several doctors, nurses, and midwives in Kabul hospitals staged a strike in protest of this decision by the Taliban leadership.

At least four female doctors and staff from hospitals such as Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan, Shaikh Zahid, and Sehat-e-Tefl, speaking to Rukhshana Media, said they cannot meet their basic living needs with the salary recently set by the Taliban for all female employees.

Homa*, a physician at Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan hospital, said their protest lasted only three hours after the hospital’s Taliban-appointed director dispersed them with threats.

Orphaned children left to raise each other

Hanifa, 21, a resident of Sarjai area of Panjab district of Bamyan province now takes care of her two younger sisters and two younger brothers after the death of their mother.

She said that there are no clinics in their village or nearby areas, which is why her mother had to give birth at home.

“My poor mother cried in pain, clutching her back, yet she continued to bake bread. With my father and two brothers away working on farmlands, there was no man at home. My mother, assisted by our neighbor, who was a local woman, gave birth at home,” she said.

“She always delivered her children at home and was used to it, but this time, one of the twins didn’t come out, and her bleeding was so severe that the entire house was stained with blood.

“After giving birth, my mother survived only two hours. Despite our efforts, we couldn’t deliver the second twin because there was no accessible vehicle, and my father wasn’t home to help us.

“When my mother realized her bleeding wouldn’t stop, she urged us to take good care of her daughter, who was a baby girl. She remained conscious for two hours, growing weaker with each passing moment until she eventually lost consciousness.”

Karima Sadiq* a gynecologist specializing in obstetrics in remote areas, said stories like these are increasingly common.

“Sadly, since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, I have witnessed a rise in maternal deaths during childbirth, particularly in villages and districts. Every 24 hours, 24 to 26 mothers are losing their lives during childbirth, highlighting a disturbingly high maternal mortality rate.”

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently reported that one-third of women in Afghanistan give birth without access to essential healthcare facilities, and only around 67 percent of deliveries in Afghanistan are supervised by healthcare professionals.

According to UNICEF’s report, it is recommended that pregnant women visit a doctor at least four times before delivery, but only a third of women in Afghanistan adhere to this recommendation.

UNICEF stated that that if a mother gives birth outside of a healthcare facility and without access to a skilled health professional, her life is significantly endangered.

Note*: Names are changed due to security reasons.

#afghanistan #gender apartheid #sex apartheid #radfem safe #radical feminism #radfems do interact #radfems please interact

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parasupport · 5 months ago

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Para / 🥄 Support Resources (and intro)

emoji code used: here I am always looking for more resources, please send them in, especially if they're non-🗺️ resources

Generally Applicable:

⤸ Find a helpline ⤸ Your closest help centre ⤸ Find therapy ⤸ 🥄Carrd ⤸ 🥄Disorders

🗺️

⤸ Therapy tips for 🗺️s and here (applies to other paras too)

⤸ Other 🗺️-focused organisations, websites, and services: B4U-Act, Path2Prevention, StopItNow, ASAP International, VirPed, Global Prevention Project ⤸ B4U-Act also has a forum: bB4um ⤸ 🗺️Support Club - Prostasia Foundation

⤸ A 🗺️'s Journey (podcast) and 🗺️Accuracy (blog) specialised episodes: (1) benefits and challenges of therapy, (2) age dysphoria, (3) female 🗺️s, (4) transgender 🗺️s, (5) recovery after offending, (6) recognising and stopping grooming, (7) parenthood as a 🗺️, (8) working with children as a 🗺️, (9) supporting minor 🗺️s

⤸ 🗺️resources.info (support groups, guides, research, volunteering, etc. Also has help for🗺️CSA survivors, minor 🗺️s, P-OCD, and more) ⤸ further resources ⤸ and more resources ⤸ 🗺️Misconceptions

Personal Intro

Hello, you can call me Wraith (no pronouns or he/him if you must)

I'm a psychology and counselling graduate, panpara / omniphile, and non-contact 🗺️tivist and para activist. I have experience volunteering for 🗺️ organisations like the ones I've listed and providing peer support for fellow -philes, which I'd love to do here if Tumblr so allows it

I also have experience with receiving therapy as a minor and young adult for a para disorder. I've since gotten a lot better and no longer meet the critera for said disorder, but still receive therapy because it's tough being in this situation when society sees you as a danger

I use transids and identify as transeverything myself - currently looking into dissomei identities but not sure about switching yet I have schizoaffective disorder and experience delusions

Tags do not necessarily reflect my identity, I'd just rather this post access the people it needs to

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