#bridge communication gaps
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In the modern educational landscape, technology plays an integral role in bridging communication gaps and enhancing the learning experience. School management apps have emerged as powerful tools to keep students and parents engaged, fostering a stronger connection between home and school. These applications streamline communication, provide easy access to information, and create a cohesive environment for all stakeholders involved. This blog post delves into the various ways school management apps achieve these goals, emphasizing their importance in today's educational framework.
#bridge communication gaps#School Management Apps#School Management Application#communication between schools and parents#parent-teacher communication app
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Imagine if he started getting scared of bridges too
#idk man these are so half-assed but i spent way too much time for it to only rot in my gallery#and i literally have 0 energy to finish this or like add more sketches for context#aa#ace attorney#aa4#seven year gap#ace attorney fanart#I THREW THE CONTEXT IN THE TRASH BIN FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELVES UEFHHHHH#the bridge didnt snapped if you cant tell#he was just reminiscing the fall after it creaked#anyways#fml#fanart#art#ace attorney art#aa art#phoenix wright#miles edgeworth#this is hurt/comfort but i threw the comfort as well#i hate this#DELETING IF IT FLOPS IM GONNAKMS#“we as a community should make him cry more” i have never nodded so hard ever in my life
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Eventually the cringe energy within me will start bouncing around at such a high speed it will only be comprehendable as a tone. This tone will, of course, match the resonant frequency of reality (comparable to the resonant frequency of an orange) which will cause the laws of physics to be shaken apart violently, allowing me to perform ACE (Asexual Code Execution) and run Doom on every Chrysanthemum on Earth simultaneously. The combined satanic energy from this (identified by the Catholic church) will activate a sleeper agent gene in every therian in the world, causing us to all immediately transmogrify into our true selves.
When will this happen? Uhh idk I'll have to get back to you on that.
#shitpost#if i make shitposts about enough things at once i can bridge the gap between many communities and destroy the walls that restrict us#resonant frequency#arbitrary code execution#asexual#doom#therian#this is my ultimate plan. it is already underway as we speak. for i am becoming more cringe by the second.#i am cringe but i am POWERFUL
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habitual be is my favourite dialect feature of all time ever, bc it originates in BOTH hiberno-english (specifically scots-irish dialects) and AAVE, and while we don't know for sure if one influenced the other or not, the prevailing theory is that they evolved completely independent of each other. the irish language, and many caribbean languages, have native habitual markers!! there's no direct translation in english, so it's natural to use the verb "be"!! it's literally translating the conventions of a bunch of different native languages onto english to fill in a gap!!!
#it's like the ulster irish 'yous' which fills in the gap of english not having a plural 'you' like irish does#people look down on these dialects and call them 'uneducated' and 'not proper english'#when in reality they're incredibly clever!!#they make up for important features that english lacks and construct those features from the closest english counterpart!#frothing at the mouth evolution of language and building linguistic bridges to communicate ideas i love you#aave#hiberno english#linguistics
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Ok I bit the bullet and made an Ososan OC and his full name is Len Kanemaru.
He's the so-called perfect guy, pretty boy barista type turned up to 11, who might as well have manifested from thin air, who has genuine fanboys and fangirls, and most of the Matsunos want him fucking dead. He's oblivious to both of these aspects of the public opinion and seems kind of empty headed for the most part. He is also struggling just as badly as them but literally no one would believe him if he told them.
He also wants to kiss the oldest DESPITE the fact that his brothers are so jealous of him for being so perfect. Shenanigans ensue.
If you want a more detailed write up about him read the cut.
OK SO . Len is a guy trying his best to pretend to be an adult despite wanting to be anything but it. Unlike the Matsunos who dont pretend to be an adult and are anything but it, Len is trying to push through adult life while wanting to return to childhood when things were easier.
Sure he has a job as barista, but he's poor with money, spending it like he's still a teenager, struggles to maintain contact with people he’s befriended outside of work, DESPITE thinking people hating him is the end of the world, and surprisingly, still lives with his parents.
The thing is that he's REALLY good at pretending to have it all together. He has quite a few fanboys and fangirls and is often described as a prince. (It’s because of his charmingly good customer service skills that is his only real social experience post highschool.) But, despite being in his mid twenties, hes kind of poorly equipped socially and is unable to pick this up, despite it being clear to literally everyone.
(Like he thinks he’s being bad at pretending to be a well put together adult, and then turns around and can handle rush pretty well understaffed, not make any mistakes, and still keep a pleasant demeanor that his admirers swoon over. Anytime someone does act like a fan trying to get his love it’s met with confusion and just. “Huh.” more than anything. He doesn’t even reject them because he doesn’t realize so many people are in love with him)
This includes quite a few Matsunos who are jealous of him for being so popular (and admittedly kind of cool), find his princely yet oblivious attitude almost annoying, and somewhat creepy because of how much he knows about them from highschool. And those who aren't irritated by him are relatively apathetic towards him.
The only reason theyre so aware of him is the fact that he and Todomatsu worked at the same cafe before the latter quit. It was after he quit that Len properly met the sextuplets, having a chance encounter with the boys sometime after. Todomatsu was already irritated by him, by again, seeing above, but also because he already seemed intimately familiar with Totty during his highschool years.
It's like they had a whole classmate just manifest into being while skipping the "actually go to class together" part.
(They did actually go to school together but literally no one knew he existed during then. Not to their fault though, Len was basically that one vine that's like "I can't I have so much to do tomorrow" *fucks around on the keyboard. Because of that Len ended up being bad with people by the time he graduated and was ushered into the work force by his parents. As a result he can't really keep friends, often times contact dying off on accident. A lot of the time spent working is him TRYING his best to maintain relationships as an adult but it never really works out. Deep down Len wishes he could redo highschool, so he could not only get this skills but also find some memories that he so clearly missed out on. Because he willingly opted out of making those therefore other people don’t remember him. As far as he knows he hasn’t really had a friend since middle school.)
But like after the two and Totty's brothers encountered each other in public a whole bomb got dropped and nothing was the same.
Despite generally not liking him the Matsunos keep him around, mostly due to Totty's insistence saying they can use him (so they cant kill him yet!) but because Len is kind of bad with people in general outside of having a fandom (that, again, came with his customer service skills), and the Matsunos are the Matsunos, this never ever goes well.
Despite this and how much shenanigans the Matsunos end up dragging him into, he considers them friends since its the closest relationship he's maintained outside of his house. On top of that, he almost admires them for being NEETs. He's kind of ashamed of it, because he knows they have to be an adult, but because he's struggling so much as an adult, he wants nothing more than to be like them. He wants to stop being an adult and return to highschool.
It's why he takes to Osomatsu so much, since he seems most open about how shitty he is and how much he doesnt want to grow up. Like weirdly enough, his man-child behavior is what makes Len likes him so much. Sure he also has a big heart and loves his family, and Len can acknowledge Oso’s best aspects, but it’s the worst parts of him that loves.
And that admiration for having his character laid out flat and embracing his childishness despite his age and situation, how he practically will just grow up when he wants to rather than when he has to (unlike Len), makes the perfect man fall for the loser guy.
The more he hangs around the Matsunos the more they encourage him to tap into his evil side, and may end up making him worse, but for now he's Mr Perfect and most of them hate him for that. He doesn't get the message though so he's just kind of hanging around them for now.
Anyways he and Osomatsu are literally I'm Glad You're Evil Too to me . And also look at these sketches of him .
#txt#ososan#osomatsu-san#osomatsu san oc#Len Kanemaru (OC)#my ocs#my art#lenoso#oc x canon#when i think more in depth into his individual relationships with the sextuplets i will probably do a better write up on that#i think the sextuplets are ultimately conflicted on him but because of that conflict#especially given their opinions before they learned more about him#it comes out in hostility and jealousy#mainly from Todomatsu#and maybe choromatsu i think#ichimatsu and len actually relate to each other a lot#especially since len is kind of struggling with what ichimatsu was going through in highschool (except as an adult)#but because they dont really communicate well either they cant really have their :handshake: moment until much later#i think osomatsu is the one who bridges their gaps though and helps clear the air on both sides mutual jealousy#with len and oso having a heart to heart over some drinks (that the former paid for by blowing an entire pay check)#(Len being horrible with money moment)#but again thats much later . and i think since ososan is a bit focused show anyways#the inherent bit of Len pining for Oso while he has better suitors trying to get his attention.#all while the brothers are wishing the worst upon him#is very funny#its like nyaachan and just dont except for the part where everyone liked nyaachan because none of them like him#(osomatsu might be a bit more conflicted on him though . something something oso might have actually remembered him then. again ill think)#but theyre all kind of oblivious to everyones exact feelings going on so they just kind of hang out and hope#len will hook them up with someone (he will not)#if u want to hear more about him or have questions send me asks... i would love to share and think more about him.
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I'm thinking of starting a Substack for posting my silly little hobby essays on food and disability advocacy. Would anyone be interested at all?
#for clarity it is NOT paywalled#ill probably post like#cooking tips and techniques#and science communication#kinda explaining the impact that different disabilities actually have on a person#cuz you can say youre autistic; but how many people really know what that means?#very few unless they have direct experience themselves#you can be in a visible wheelchair cane etc mobility aid#but most people dont really get how that changes the little things in life#and the way all disabilities affect how you interact with others#i think itd be nice to bridge some gaps in that way. most people ive met are very nice#about mobility aids and whatnot#but theyre uneducated and will trip overthemselves trying to help sometimes#when really its counterproductive and they could do another possibly easier thing instead
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i truly can't articulate just how much strong, supportive friendships have changed me from being a very un-chill, suspicious, angry, scared, mistrustful person to someone who is secure, calm, trustful, and very willing to take risks. i want to be that sort of presence in other people's lives too. and the best part about having healthy friendships is that i know that i am a good presence in my friends' lives.
#it's the way we all went from nervous anxious teens just emerging frm their parents' grasps#and absolutely blossomed in each others' company#even through shitty relationships#through abusive relationships#friendships have been so strong#i'm so glad we all matured well??? there's barely any petty drama#like there's drama for sure and bad blood that i have to skirt around#but even through that every party involved in the 842983 strains of drama wants there to be some sort of reconciliation#they want to communicate instead of running away#and i grew up knowing them as some extremely avoidant people!!#also i can say for sure that the drama isn't petty#and there is a great deal of understanding and willingness to bridge gaps frm everyone involved#like we're still nowhere close to any of this drama being resolved#bcs some of these fights have left deep wounds#but i see my friends trying
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Can I just say something? Okay, so, I think the funniest live bloggers are the Brazilians. They are so funny, and for what? I can almost always find something to laugh at in their live blogging for each day and I am just sitting looking through my tags and nearly laughing in the middle of one of my classes. Thank you, so so much Brazilians. You guys and your CCs are so dear to me. I can almost always find enjoyment in the live streams even if I can't understand a word they are saying(I can pick up little things here and there and it honestly makes me so happy) and it is so awesome coming on here and looking at the QSMP live blogging tag and figuring out through the live bloggers.
Other English speakers that are fans of the QSMP need to realize that the Spanish speakers and Brazilians are a part of our community and without them, we wouldn't have some really cool content. I am tired of seeing people make fun of or generally being awful to the CCs or even fellow fans. Do better.
Again, thank you Brazilian fans and also thank you to the Spanish speaking fans. You guys are awesome. Keep doing you and I hope other English speaking fans start appreciating you more, or even as much as I do and that they try to understand even a little bit, whether it's through learning one of the languages, even just watching the Brazilian and Hispanic creators and finding the cognates and understanding even a little bit, or even just interacting with fans who don't speak English as their first language and taking the time to even put their words through google translate(honestly, as someone learning Spanish, it isn't great but if you have a reading level over that of a first grader then you should be able to figure it out even then) just to help it reach more people as most social media sites are more English friendly than they are to any other language.
Feel free to translate this post so it can reach more people. I don't really care for credit but it would be really nice because we need to start crediting people more in not just this space but also in other spaces. Credit artists and writers, they are the back bones of many fandoms, especially ours. The museum in the QSMP itself credits the artists. Give credit where credit is due.
#qsmp#I am so tired of English speakers using their privileges for bad#do better#these people are important to our community and Q wanted to bridge the gap and you are stopping that from truly happening#also#remember to not make fun of people for their bad English!#English may be one of the most spoken languages in the world but that doesn't mean everyone knows it or has the ability to learn it!#qsmp brazilians appreciation#qsmp hispanics appreciation
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i mean i should probably stop saying shit just to be mean
#on the other hand....#the social environment cultivated on here almost demands it lest i let people walk all over me#definitely one of those skills i picked up in childhood to survive social situations back then#not a great skill. not even one i particularly like using. in fact i hate this part of me that feels the need to be judgemental#the logical part of me- the more ~~evolved~~ part of my spirit you could say knows its stupid and has hated doing it since forever#i completely stopped for a while. and then my abusive ex did all the shit they did so i felt like i had to dig that judgemental asshole sid#back up to defend myself bc ik thats the level they operate on. but it also started being the level a lot of ppl on here operated on soon#after (and im not entirely unconvinced they weren't an influence as to why people became more of an asshole on here)#(them or twitter. probably a mix of both but mostly twitter users coming here lol. also had to be an ass on twitter to survive)#so now i feel like i have to cling on to this side of myself i was more than happy to let rot in the dirt bc if i dont then people are gonn#use my vulnerability and niceness and lack of desire to use ad hom n shit against me so they can bully and abuse me and say whatever#and i have to keep this image up of being unphased and happy all the time and then i snap and then its a whole problem to people#so basically be nothing ever bc ppl on here will think thats you forever moral of story i guess im not sure.#best advice i can give: dont exist online publicly in any significant way. if you wanna be a pfpless. bioless account that is your god give#fuckin right okay. never are you obligated to be part of this shit and im personally telling you its hell and if i knew then what i knew#now i would have never started coming on to tumblr in the first place. its cool i learned about all this queer stuff or whatever but it#sucks otherwise#tumblr. twitter. insta. any social media where the point is to make posts and write posts more than anything else#dont bother. so much is lost in text-style communication. bridging gaps is nearly impossible. you will always be misunderstood#i think thats the case for most vocal communication but ESPECIALLY digitally
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VAUTRIN DRABBLE; BREAKING NEWS
The news was quick to break across Fontaine. Captain Vautrin, right-hand to the Iudex, has been arrested for murder.
Aurélie was not one for gossip, and often disregarded the sly whisperings passed between her neighbours should it reach her own ears. Gossip was unsavoury, its intentions usually to slander, to sully. Therefore, it was not worth her time. There were, however, certain key words that would draw her attention without fail – and one of those was the name of her son.
She had barely taken three strides from the gates of her home before she felt the gazes of many upon her, heard the blanket of whispers descend around her. This in itself was nothing out of the ordinary for her. A star upon the stage since her girlhood, possessing of both great beauty and talent, she has spent a lifetime in the spotlight, for better and for worse. But there was an air about Fontaine this morning that filled her with a sense of building dread. And then… she heard it.
Captain Vautrin… arrested for murder.
Vautrin.
Vautrin.
The blood drained from her face in an instant. No… no it cannot be… this must be a cruel rumour… Yet now she could see the heavy presence of gardes in the streets, the unusual liveliness at what is typically a quiet hour of the morning. And the looks her neighbours were giving her… pity, she recognised, and judgement. The spotlight has often weighed on her shoulders before now, but this is something else. She has never been looked at with such… negativity.
It takes but a few seconds for her to turn on her heel and flee back into the sanctuary of her home.
"Évariste! Évariste!" She dashes through the spacious hallway with none of her usual grace and poise, until she all but stumbles into the concerned arms of her husband. She lifts her gaze to his, sees the surprise, the question that lingers there, and her eyes fill with tears. It is an effort to make her lips move, to force the words out. "Something terrible has happened…"
--
Évariste, at first, refused to believe it. With an insistence that it was a misunderstanding, or some deliberately spiteful lie, he left her cowering behind closed doors whilst he sought answers. She begged him not to go, to stay with her here, but he would not listen. So she lingered, alone, pacing the rooms that were once filled with life, but now feel empty. She drew the drapes over every window, lest the entirety of Fontaine come to peek at the disgraced family, surrounding herself with a darkness that matched the one in her heart.
Time ticks by without her acknowledgement – so lost is she in her thoughts that she finds herself standing in a room she has not entered in many years, quite without realising her feet were taking her there.
Everything is just as it was.
Neither of them could ever bring themselves to move a single thing, and so it remains like a museum display of what once was. She stands amidst the last echoes of her son – a bed still neatly made by his hands, a stack of books left behind on his bedside table, clothes that no longer fit him still hanging in his closet. He had taken some items on his departure, but he had not taken them all, and neither had they sent them to his new place of residence. Perhaps, she mused now, they had hoped he would return for them, would return to them. But he never had.
The room beside this one is similar in its state of preservation. Two children they'd had, and two children they'd lost. Where did we go wrong in life? What did we do to warrant this agony?
There is only one thing out of place here, an addition she has made herself: a book, sitting in pride of place on the empty desk by the window. It is to this that she moves towards, her hands smoothing over the soft leather cover before carefully opening it to the first page. Her fingertips trace over an old flyer, affixed to the page with great care, for a production long since retired: but it is her son's name that features in big, bold letters. His debut on the stage. Oh, how they'd had such dreams for his future.
She turns the page as painful memories rear their ugly heads. Such talent he'd had… he had moved with such grace, such elegance. She had wept every time she watched him dance, and now she weeps for what could have been. She flips carefully through page after page of memories, of recorded achievements and awards, of performance advertisements and playbills. She cannot bear to look at them for long. After a time, the playbills and awards stop, to be replaced instead by notices and clippings from newspapers, many of them bearing headlines:
Notorious Thief Apprehended At Last By Rookie Garde Young Garde Saves Drowning Children Special Security Officer Uncovers Hidden Nefarious Plot! Remarkable Garde Becomes Youngest Special Security Captain In History Captain Vautrin: Right Hand To The Iudex?
She lingers upon this last clipping, her gaze resting heavily upon the image that accompanies it. The Iudex of Fontaine, standing as elegantly and imposing as ever, beside a handsome young man in a pristine uniform. There is no colour to the image, but she can picture the vibrant wine of his hair, the soft hazel of his eyes. Her boy, her beloved boy, achieving greatness in his own way, just as he had promised he would.
It is here that Évariste finds her. He stands at her back, hands upon her shoulders – hands that long to comfort, but cannot, for he brings only dire tidings. It is no lie. Their son has indeed been arrested for murder, and a murder most atrocious at that. He has stained his name, tarnished his previously pristine reputation. He has thrown everything away, yet again. Yet again, it is in the name of a cause he believes in, a cause he will not falter upon.
Amongst the agony of this terrible truth, there is a flicker of something fond: he may have grown, may have changed from the boy that walked away from them without looking back, but at heart… he is still the same. Still their Vautrin.
But the flicker cannot survive for long amidst the smothering dread – for they have well and truly lost their last remaining child. He will be sentenced to a life beneath the sea, never to return. He will go beyond their reach for the last time. Tomorrow's paper will bear a new headline, but one that will never make it into this book:
Captain Vautrin: Guilty Of Brutal Slaughter
#( personals DNI do not touch this post )#;here we go again i will not give in (about; vautrin)#( this idea poked at me and wouldn't go away )#( bc his parents may have made some bad decisions regarding him in the past. but they weren't bad parents )#( and the idea of them keeping tabs on his life from a distance bc they still love him and are still proud of him )#( but he didn't & will never know this. is so tragic )#( both sides too uncertain to reach out and bridge the gap between them. until it's far too late )#( i'm fine. i'm okay )#( vautrin never getting to talk things over with his parents is painful in all the best ways )#( the fact i hc he wrote letters but never sent them...... man. MAN. )#( vautrin: they haven't made contact. they haven't visited me. message received )#( his parents: if he wanted us in his life he would have made contact. he won't want to see us. )#( reasons why communication is so important guys- )
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Been grappling with the internalized idea that art needs to be seen by someone else in order for it to be of value. I logically know that art can Just Exist in the same way that people Just Exist and the way that plants Just Exist and everything that exists can Just Exist, but whenever I'm making something whether it be a painting or poem or a sculpture I am constantly just thinking about how it needs to be good so I can show someone.
And it's not even about justifying the time I spent on it; I've gotten to a point where I don't feel a lot of guilt about leisure activities or "wasting time". I just have this deep internal need to be validated for every creation.
Part of it is that art is about communication, about taking the abstract concepts of life, emotion, and experience and turning them into something tangible that someone else can look at and say, "I understand this." So when I'm creating I am thinking ahead about how I will communicate with others through art.
But sometimes I make something that I know no one else will see and I still feel the pressure to make it good so I can show someone. And this is real annoying because it kills the creative spirit and makes hobbies into chores. So then I can't make art for fun or profit.
And so then I start thinking that maybe the real enemy is a fear of communicating with myself. Because being alone with your own thoughts is pretty scary when your entire stable identity is built off of reflecting other people like light off a mirror.
(A.k.a. a lot of words to justify that one fanfiction I haven't updated since 2020).
#ramblings#vent#yes I've been watching CJ the X why do you ask#art is hard#but so is all communication#bridging the insurmountable gap between souls and all that
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if you cast speak with animals and talk to a forest gnome who's speaking as if to a bird would you understand them or does the magic behind those processes work differently enough that they'd slide right off each other
#the gnome would understand you of course because you're (I've always imagined) speaking common or whatever#but I've imagined gnomish beast speech to consist mostly of actual attempts on the gnome's end to communicate on the animal's level#with subtle inherent magic bridging the gaps in both cognition (like speak with animals does) and what's physiologically possible#does innate gnome Snow White Animal Friends Magic apply outward to a listener who is not actually an animal#does Speak With Animals work on a creature that isn't actually a beast but is talking like one#what's the mechanic behind the magic#thinkin like a wizard again#'yes yes yes the spell works but HOW does it work it makes a DIFFERENCE'#gnome stuff#worldbuilding#I guess lol just needs 'so I can find it again' tags
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thinkgin about genly and estraven again
#<- guy who is unwell about the nature of communication being unwell about characters slowly bridging a communication gap#cae speaks
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Ohhh!! i love this idea, umm, what about bloodthirst for the sorting?
This one is a lil tough to convey! Peipre is in pale and ashen with both those guys, and also acts flush with marrow still some of the time, so I was a bit uncertain on where entirely to put that dot, but I think falling most into pale works!
Dexter is from @skull-exe teehee! I like that guy :3
#peipre is the clubs that makes it work tho. marrow is shit at communication and lashes out when hes shaken and that can really hurt when#its your boyf lashing out. and hes a stubborn ass about having feelings sometimes. peipre bridges the gap when that happens. and if she ends#up soso fucking pale for dex along the way... well. aint that something.
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One of my roommates voted third party (and honestly I think he may have said that to save face but he definitely didn’t vote for Harris) and we had long conversation yesterday about his opinions and it’s crazy how much ppl will contradict themselves on this type of stuff. I don’t want to recap the conversation because it was exhausting and I’m still reeling from it but I don’t understand how if your complaint about one of the two viable candidates is that you don’t know what their deal is you don’t just….go find out more. Like there’s information available for you.
#like he complained she didn’t have an economic plan and I was like#oh interesting you say that because she put out an 82 page plan! where Trump only has ‘concepts’ of a plan#he said he would’ve been more likely to vote for walz than Harris bc walz was more about community#bridging the gaps between parties#I’m like ah again funny you say that because Harris spent a lot of time talking about bringing ppl together and specifically having#republicans in her staff at the White House#where walz’s thing was calling maga supporters weird#and then he said idk if we really know what trump’s character is because i think he puts on a persona for the cameras#and I’m like ok what do you think about the secret ‘grab them by the pussy’ recording#and he was like well yeah that’s everything you need to know right there#AND IM LIKE OK CLEARLY IT ISNT THOUGH FOR YOU!!!!#but it really is like. At the end of the day ppl just make decisions based on subconscious beliefs#and then they try to rationalize those beliefs to the best of their ability#and that’s how a lot of ppl think about this stuff. and it’s frustrating.#ughhh there’s so much I didn’t even type out about this. it really was very shocking to me
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How climate change will impact outdoor activities in the US
New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/how-climate-change-will-impact-outdoor-activities-in-the-us/
How climate change will impact outdoor activities in the US
It can be hard to connect a certain amount of average global warming with one’s everyday experience, so researchers at MIT have devised a different approach to quantifying the direct impact of climate change. Instead of focusing on global averages, they came up with the concept of “outdoor days”: the number days per year in a given location when the temperature is not too hot or cold to enjoy normal outdoor activities, such as going for a walk, playing sports, working in the garden, or dining outdoors.
In a study published earlier this year, the researchers applied this method to compare the impact of global climate change on different countries around the world, showing that much of the global south would suffer major losses in the number of outdoor days, while some northern countries could see a slight increase. Now, they have applied the same approach to comparing the outcomes for different parts of the United States, dividing the country into nine climatic regions, and finding similar results: Some states, especially Florida and other parts of the Southeast, should see a significant drop in outdoor days, while some, especially in the Northwest, should see a slight increase.
The researchers also looked at correlations between economic activity, such as tourism trends, and changing climate conditions, and examined how numbers of outdoor days could result in significant social and economic impacts. Florida’s economy, for example, is highly dependent on tourism and on people moving there for its pleasant climate; a major drop in days when it is comfortable to spend time outdoors could make the state less of a draw.
The new findings were published this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, in a paper by researchers Yeon-Woo Choi and Muhammad Khalifa and professor of civil and environmental engineering Elfatih Eltahir.
“This is something very new in our attempt to understand impacts of climate change impact, in addition to the changing extremes,” Choi says. It allows people to see how these global changes may impact them on a very personal level, as opposed to focusing on global temperature changes or on extreme events such as powerful hurricanes or increased wildfires. “To the best of my knowledge, nobody else takes this same approach” in quantifying the local impacts of climate change, he says. “I hope that many others will parallel our approach to better understand how climate may affect our daily lives.”
The study looked at two different climate scenarios — one where maximum efforts are made to curb global emissions of greenhouse gases and one “worst case” scenario where little is done and global warming continues to accelerate. They used these two scenarios with every available global climate model, 32 in all, and the results were broadly consistent across all 32 models.
The reality may lie somewhere in between the two extremes that were modeled, Eltahir suggests. “I don’t think we’re going to act as aggressively” as the low-emissions scenarios suggest, he says, “and we may not be as careless” as the high-emissions scenario. “Maybe the reality will emerge in the middle, toward the end of the century,” he says.
The team looked at the difference in temperatures and other conditions over various ranges of decades. The data already showed some slight differences in outdoor days from the 1961-1990 period compared to 1991-2020. The researchers then compared these most recent 30 years with the last 30 years of this century, as projected by the models, and found much greater differences ahead for some regions. The strongest effects in the modeling were seen in the Southeastern states. “It seems like climate change is going to have a significant impact on the Southeast in terms of reducing the number of outdoor days,” Eltahir says, “with implications for the quality of life of the population, and also for the attractiveness of tourism and for people who want to retire there.”
He adds that “surprisingly, one of the regions that would benefit a little bit is the Northwest.” But the gain there is modest: an increase of about 14 percent in outdoor days projected for the last three decades of this century, compared to the period from 1976 to 2005. The Southwestern U.S., by comparison, faces an average loss of 23 percent of their outdoor days.
The study also digs into the relationship between climate and economic activity by looking at tourism trends from U.S. National Park Service visitation data, and how that aligned with differences in climate conditions. “Accounting for seasonal variations, we find a clear connection between the number of outdoor days and the number of tourist visits in the United States,” Choi says.
For much of the country, there will be little overall change in the total number of annual outdoor days, the study found, but the seasonal pattern of those days could change significantly. While most parts of the country now see the most outdoor days in summertime, that will shift as summers get hotter, and spring and fall will become the preferred seasons for outdoor activity.
In a way, Eltahir says, “what we are talking about that will happen in the future [for most of the country] is already happening in Florida.” There, he says, “the really enjoyable time of year is in the spring and fall, and summer is not the best time of year.”
People’s level of comfort with temperatures varies somewhat among individuals and among regions, so the researchers designed a tool, now freely available online, that allows people to set their own definitions of the lowest and highest temperatures they consider suitable for outdoor activities, and then see what the climate models predict would be the change in the number of outdoor days for their location, using their own standards of comfort. For their study, they used a widely accepted range of 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) to 25 C (77 F), which is the “thermoneutral zone” in which the human body does not require either metabolic heat generation or evaporative cooling to maintain its core temperature — in other words, in that range there is generally no need to either shiver or sweat.
The model mainly focuses on temperature but also allows people to include humidity or precipitation in their definition of what constitutes a comfortable outdoor day. The model could be extended to incorporate other variables such as air quality, but the researchers say temperature tends to be the major determinant of comfort for most people.
Using their software tool, “If you disagree with how we define an outdoor day, you could define one for yourself, and then you’ll see what the impacts of that are on your number of outdoor days and their seasonality,” Eltahir says.
This work was inspired by the realization, he says, that “people’s understanding of climate change is based on the assumption that climate change is something that’s going to happen sometime in the future and going to happen to someone else. It’s not going to impact them directly. And I think that contributes to the fact that we are not doing enough.”
Instead, the concept of outdoor days “brings the concept of climate change home, brings it to personal everyday activities,” he says. “I hope that people will find that useful to bridge that gap, and provide a better understanding and appreciation of the problem. And hopefully that would help lead to sound policies that are based on science, regarding climate change.”
The research was based on work supported by the Community Jameel for Jameel Observatory CREWSnet and Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab at MIT.
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