ChristianNov 13, 2024
Ricki Yasha Tarr

I'm going to start listing some good things that have happened in society, and I know a lot of you are going to want to say, Well, that's all over now, it will all be taken away, but remember nothing lasts forever, even the bad stuff. So, instead of giving into despair and hopelessness, think for a second, and instead of tearing down hope, add to the list.

The idea that we would have open legal gay marriage in my lifetime wasn't something I believed would happen, but here we are.

I can buy legal recreational Marijuana in my state.

The show Drag Race not only exists, but it has for a long time, and it's very popular.

AIDS is no longer a death sentence.

And to add to that, you can take a drug that will just stop you from getting it.

There is a vaccine for Malaria.

I can just go buy an electric car.

When I was a kid, parents hitting kids was the rule, not an exception.

In my teens and 20's, I never met a transitioned or transitioning Trans person, now I know lots of them.

Abortion pills exist.

There are tenant union.

There is a vaccine against cervical cancer.

Women make up more than half of the college educated work force.

Millions of people showed up to protest police brutality in 2020, I know that's not enough, but if you compare that to the past, or even Rodney King, it's a big fucking deal.

Things are rough, and we are scared, but we haven't just been treading water, and we won't just sit in misery. It's never going to be perfect, but we can be better.

Nov 13, 2024 at 2:28pmWeb
Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 13, 2024
Seriously, if you want to post about how everything is terrible and the world's ending and we should all just give up, do it on your own account. I will block you if you put it here.
Show threadWill (old/moving to beige)Nov 13, 2024
@RickiTarr There’s a alternative to Musk’s place which is much better.
Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 13, 2024
@wilpercy Hell yeah
Show threadRoryNov 13, 2024
@RickiTarr i totally agree Ricki. I mean, I’m still hurting from the results, but life goes on. Just keep the pessimism out…
Show threadOtownKimNov 13, 2024
@RickiTarr I agree! Humor is the answer! (And weed😵‍💫). It's gonna be a Loooooooong journey so let's try to be positive when we can 💗
Show threadJoe Hill 🇵🇸🇺🇦Nov 13, 2024

@otownKim @RickiTarr
I remembered I had some past “Use By:” date gummies in the fridge. Had one last night and it took the edge off nicely.

FWIW, seriously contemplating suffering the ignominy of getting an Xanax Rx to cope with the next 4 (6, 8, ? etc) years.

Show threadOtownKimNov 13, 2024
@Joe_Hill @RickiTarr Take care of yourself and your family. Ignore the News!!! Also weed is better than Xanax 🤣.
Show threadJanisNov 13, 2024
@otownKim @Joe_Hill @RickiTarr That depends.... Personally, I prefer a prn rotation. What we can't do is let either take our edge.
Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 13, 2024

Oh, and despite everything the Ozone is still healing. It's almost as if when we make laws to help the planet, it helps the planet.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/153523/ozone-hole-continues-healing-in-2024

Ozone Hole Continues Healing in 2024

The area of depleted ozone over the Antarctic ranked the seventh smallest since recovery began in 1992.

Show threadDr.UbertroutNov 13, 2024
@RickiTarr
Kind of amazing how working towards a goal has an actual effect.
Show threadJoe Hill 🇵🇸🇺🇦Nov 13, 2024
@RickiTarr
Whooda thunk?
Show threadPhil Stevens Nov 13, 2024
@RickiTarr It's more like when we make laws that allow the corporations responsible for the mess to profit from the transition, they go along with the regulation. Refrigerant manufacturers made bank from safer chemicals to replace R12, and the patents on that had expired anyway so it was merely a low-margin commodity when Montreal was signed.
Show thread@[email protected]Nov 14, 2024
@RickiTarr well as for that, let's hold off celebrations until we see how Starlink junk will impact.
Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 14, 2024
@pettter Hey, this a positive thread, trying to keep it that way, please
Show threadGayDeceiverNov 13, 2024

@RickiTarr

We have access to all the knowledge on the planet via a little piece of metal and glass that we hold in our hand.

Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 13, 2024
@GayDeceiver I cannot convey to younger people how absolutely gobsmacked that is.
Show threadMedea Vanamonde🏳️‍⚧️ ♀Nov 13, 2024
@GayDeceiver @RickiTarr MWOWM
As foretold by The Book of The SubGenius
Show threadKid ManiaNov 13, 2024

@GayDeceiver @RickiTarr
"We have access to all the knowledge on the planet via a little piece of metal and glass that we hold in our hand."

For better...or for worse.

Show threadPeter ButlerNov 13, 2024

@clintruin @GayDeceiver @RickiTarr Yeah, I think right now it would be very hard for me to consider that “a good thing”

I kinda hate it. I don’t want a phone, but I don’t have a choice :(

Show threadArchaeoIainNov 13, 2024
@GayDeceiver @RickiTarr agreed, but it would be nice to get the commercial aspect of browser searches out of the equation.
Show threadheathen skatesNov 13, 2024
@RickiTarr good things are still happening, people are still fighting for justice and equality! Science is still making wondrous breakthroughs, new things are still being discovered. Seeing the world through only what bad stuff is happening is extremely myopic.
Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 13, 2024
@heathen Amen
Show threadAdam Jacobs 🇺🇦Nov 13, 2024

@RickiTarr One bit of medical science that I find really impressive is the care we can give for premature babies. If I'd been born at 26 weeks' gestation, there is no way I'd have survived.

Babies born that prematurely today have an excellent chance of growing up to be healthy adults.

Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 13, 2024
@statsguy OMG YES!
Show threadAdam Jacobs 🇺🇦Nov 13, 2024

@RickiTarr Oh, and cancer. While it still kills way too many people, we are much better at treating it now than a few decades ago. Many people who would have died if they'd been diagnosed with cancer in the 1970s will survive if they are diagnosed with exactly the same cancer today.

Interesting to note that while journalists love to talk about "breakthroughs", there haven't really been any in cancer treatment. Just a great many incremental improvements, which over the decades add up to a lot

Show threadAdam Jacobs 🇺🇦Nov 13, 2024

@RickiTarr And multiple sclerosis. Sadly still incurable, but control of symptoms with modern drugs is vastly better than it was a couple of decades ago.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8893310/

Multiple sclerosis: two decades of progress

PubMed Central (PMC)
Show threadDB SchweinNov 13, 2024

@statsguy @RickiTarr

MS is curable, just not in the US unless you're crazy wealthy (or can get into a trial). The UK uses the less harmful but less effective version.
It doesn't reverse your current symptoms, but it does remove the disease so you no longer get worse. The sad part is it's so badly covered that people today who are getting diagnosed with few or no symptoms aren't immediately going for it because they believe when articles say there is no cure :-/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6396341/

Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in the Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disorder that typically affects young people during their most productive years, causing irreversible damage and accumulation of disability. Treatments over time have had modest effects at completely ...

PubMed Central (PMC)
Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 13, 2024
@deirdrebeth @statsguy Holy Cow!
Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 13, 2024
@statsguy This is also true for heart attacks and strokes, they are very good at stopping and repairing them now. That's why if you suspect you might be having one get to the ER ASAP, and see your doctor regularly if you can.
Show threadAdam Jacobs 🇺🇦Nov 13, 2024
@RickiTarr Oh yes, that too! And quite apart from treatment, we are way better at preventing them in the first place.
Show thread"Mediocre Bunny" EvelynNov 13, 2024

@RickiTarr @statsguy Do people even still say "as serious as a heart attack" or "as funny as cancer"?

2020s:
"My husband had a heart attack/has cancer."
"Oh, that's terrible. Do they know how long he'll have to be in the hospital?"

1970s:
"My husband had a heart attack/has cancer."
"Oh, that's terrible. Which funeral home should I send flowers to?"

Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 13, 2024
@Gorfram @statsguy Shit, that's true
Show threadPhil Thane ✅Nov 13, 2024
@Gorfram
When I was a kid near Manchester in the 1960s I'd hear my mum talking to aunties or friends about other friends or relatives and if someone said, 'she's in the Christie' there'd be a sad shaking of heads and a change of subject. The Christie is Manchester's specialist cancer treatment centre but 60 years ago few patients survived long.
@RickiTarr @statsguy
Show threadPhil Thane ✅Nov 13, 2024
@statsguy
You might have survived but it was very rare. A friend of my mother had a very premature baby in the late 1940s. She weighed less than 2lb. She had to be washed with olive oil as soap and water was too aggressive for her skin, and for 6 months she wore dolls' clothes from a toy shop. But she lived. Thanks to a new invention back then, the #NHS
@RickiTarr
Show threadChefRavenNov 13, 2024
@statsguy @RickiTarr my daughter was born in 1997 at 31 weeks. The doctors looked at me and said she will be absolutely fine. They also did stress that if she would have been born 10 years before that that she probably wouldn’t have survived. Crazy to think. And she was only in the hospital for three weeks and had a really healthy childhood.
Show threadJeff Zugale - Z FactoryNov 13, 2024
@statsguy @RickiTarr my younger son had to be induced at 26 weeks and spent his first month in the NICU. He’s almost 12 now. 😊
Show threadAdam Jacobs 🇺🇦Nov 13, 2024
@jeffzugale @RickiTarr Well there's your good news right there! Really pleased it turned out OK
Show threadTexty the BardNov 13, 2024

@statsguy Along those same lines: I was able to become a second-time parent at 51 despite complete infertility thanks to progress in science, culture and law. My daughter was part of a batch of embryos created by a gay man and his husband with the help of an egg donor. When they'd completed their family, they donated the remaining embryos via their fertility clinic, and we got one. We hired a gestational surrogate to carry her, and now our (adopted) son finally has a little sister.

@RickiTarr

Show threadAdam Jacobs 🇺🇦Nov 13, 2024
@textualdeviance @RickiTarr Awesome!
Show threadMedea Vanamonde🏳️‍⚧️ ♀Nov 14, 2024
@textualdeviance @statsguy @RickiTarr this is thr SciFi Future i am here for
Show threadGayDeceiverNov 13, 2024

@RickiTarr

You can buy a machine that uses plans from the Internet to print real-life objects at home using a variety of materials, including plastics, wood, paper, and even carbon fiber.

Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 13, 2024
@GayDeceiver That's Star Trek stuff right there
Show threadDavid Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)Nov 13, 2024

@RickiTarr I recently realised that my home Internet connection is ten times faster than the Internet connection for the entire campus network when I arrived at university. And that was amazingly fast.

A few years ago, I worked out that anyone who can afford to turn on the shower and leave it with potable water draining away while it heats up is in the richest 1% of people who have ever lived. That makes me a little bit grateful for my life every morning.

Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 13, 2024
@david_chisnall Whoa!
Show threadVivian, Venus Pirate 🏳️‍⚧️Nov 13, 2024

@RickiTarr Me! I exist, and I’m magical!

And so do my trans siblings. And they are magical, too. 

Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 13, 2024
@Willow I'm sooo happy you do
Show threadWill (old/moving to beige)Nov 13, 2024
@RickiTarr As a child in the early 70’s I remember going to the family GP with my mum and him sitting behind his desk smoking as he pronounced on my health.
Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 13, 2024
@wilpercy Omg when I was a kid people smoked in every single place!
Show threadBonnieNov 13, 2024
@wilpercy @RickiTarr At my Summer job at a bank in 1987 I had an ashtray at my desk. I was underage and no one batted an eye when I lit up! I can't even comprehend that now. BTW, I quit a little over 13 years ago. No regrets.
Show threadDavidNov 13, 2024

@RickiTarr

It's easier today to learn complex topics because it's so easy to put free teaching material on the Internet.

Internet and computers are fast enough to video chat with a bit of lag with people on the other side of the planet.

Crispr enables the microbiology that used to rely on luck and bacterial/viral recombination or was just impossible. We can now just change whatever DNA in any organism.

We have an origami space telescope and we've even taken direct pictures of exoplanets.

Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 13, 2024
@drdrowland So cool!
Show threadDavidNov 13, 2024

this article is out of date now that we have protein folding prediction with artificial neural networks. it's closing thought is that crispr therapies are too hard to design because proteins can't be engineered quickly enough. alphafold changed that.

https://medium.com/ucsf-magazine/genome-editing-before-crispr-a-brief-history-f02c1e3e2344

Genome Editing Before CRISPR: A Brief History - UCSF Magazine - Medium

Scientists began searching for ways to edit genomes in the 1960s. Working in test tubes, researchers at UCSF and Stanford bombarded DNA with various combinations of molecular widgets, all borrowed…

UCSF Magazine
Show threadMFennVT has movedNov 13, 2024
@RickiTarr Libraries still exist, and interlibrary loan is magic.
Show threadRicki Yasha TarrNov 13, 2024
@mfennvt YES!!! Libraries are resistance.
Show threadSmirk 😏Nov 13, 2024

@RickiTarr Thanks for posting this. I've been thinking the last couple days along these lines.

Humans have always been horrible creatures. Humans have also always been kind and wonderful creatures who fight for each other.

There has always been a tug of war between the two. But as a whole, over vast amounts of time, humans have made progress.

We can be the part that is kind and wonderful and fight for each other so that, over the long haul, we make progress.

Show threadWill (old/moving to beige)Nov 13, 2024
@RickiTarr Japanese scientists have sent up a satellite in a wooden case which should burn up on reentry thus reducing space debris.