Mx VerdaYou should all play SSX 3.
oh yeah and for UK cat people:
Go book something to avoid a cattery, idk.
Refractive laser eye surgery types:
Mx Verda's mnemonic guide to correct your eyes! See only the holy, blink out the bad.
LASIK Flips your Lid, LASEK does "Edge then sprEad", and PRK "hurts like a PRicK".
https://eyesurgeryguide.org/clearer-vision-lasek-vs-prk-which-is-right-for-you/
"Aspect LASEK / PRK.
Initial Discomfort: Mild to Moderate / Moderate to Severe.
Protective Contact Lens: Yes, for 4-7 days / Yes, for about a week.
Visual Recovery: 1-2 weeks / 1-3 months.
Eye Drop Regimen: Essential / Essential."
I added formatting here because HTML tables will kill us all, starting with screen reader users.
A screen reader is https://lgbtqia.space/@MxVerda/114197503533845615
O'men. (Soumen? Soba. I like ramen only. Yakisoba just tastes spicy af and the wrong kind of chewy to me.)
Clearer Vision: LASEK vs. PRK – Which is Right for You?
Imagine a world where waking up with crystal-clear vision isn’t just a dream. Deciding between LASEK and PRK can feel overwhelming, but understanding the distinctions can illuminate your path to a brighter, sharper reality. Which will be your perfect clarity companion?
"While laser eye surgery has provided many individuals with a new lease on visual freedom, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. There are certain contraindications — conditions or factors that serve as reasons to avoid this type of surgery — due to the increased risk of complications or suboptimal outcomes. Understanding these contraindications is critical for anyone considering laser eye surgery.
Medical Conditions and Eye Health:
Corneal Issues: Thin corneas or irregular corneal shapes can increase risks during surgery. Procedures like LASIK require a certain corneal thickness to be safely performed.
Autoimmune Disorders: Health conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus can significantly impact the post-surgery healing process.
Eye Diseases: Those with keratoconus (a disease-causing thinning of the cornea), severe dry eye syndrome, cataracts, or glaucoma may be advised against laser eye surgery.
Persistent Dry Eyes: Severe dry eye syndrome can be exacerbated by laser eye surgery, particularly LASIK, which can sometimes result in prolonged dry eye symptoms.
General Health:
Uncontrolled Diabetes: Diabetic patients, especially those with uncontrolled diabetes, face a higher risk of complications from laser eye surgery.
Medications: Some medications can impact the healing process. For example, steroids can affect how your body heals and responds to surgery.
Lifestyle Choices Impacting Vision:
Diet, exercise, and overall health have a direct bearing on your vision, even post-surgery.
Dietary Choices: Nutrients like Omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin C and E, Zinc, and antioxidants can aid eye health. Incorporating leafy greens, oily fish, eggs, nuts, and citrus fruits can be beneficial.
Physical Activity: Regular exercise can prevent conditions like diabetes, which can adversely affect vision.
Manage Screen Time: With an increasing proportion of work and leisure happening in front of screens, it’s essential to practise the 20-20-20 rule – every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds."
https://eyelaserspecialists.com.au/eye-surgery-to-correct-vision/ Argh.
https://www.reddit.com/r/lasik/comments/pz78hv/for_anyone_concern_about_getting_lasik_heres_my/
Remember: LASIK Flips your Lid!
LASEK will Edge then sprEad!
PRK may hurt like a PRicK!
omg, someone's handle was dildo baggins.
Time for another infodump.
A screen reader is computer software, a program, app, or tool on your device to read out your screen to you.
It narrates your user interface (the menu controls) and the content -- text or media -- of your current activities.
You do not need to be b/Blind, have vision conditions, or other sensory impairments before using screen readers.
I suggest headphones to use a device's screen reader while in crowded or noisy places though.
They can help with migraines, eye treatment recovery, languages, and tech-unfamiliar people.
fucking TRY to model an LLM on me, m8. Good cunting luck.
huh. I always wondered what henna was.
https://nebula.tv/videos/notesbyniba-henna-101-designs-application-safety-how-it-works-more/
oh no. I want to watch this but I also need to shower, finish (no joke) like 10 mini-essays, and maybe learn some japanese or soemthing before chat on call tomorrow I missed like 3 gd weeks in a row.
disexual bisaster. BISASTER.
looks like Bicester tho. Also Frome is apparently "Froom" which I hate.
Edit: I did not provide the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCD-urpScJw
The Bizarre Backlash to 15-Minute Cities
Should I Stay or Should I Go Now? 30 Days Until Martial Law...? (By Jessica Wildfire • 20 Mar 2025.) https://www.the-sentinel-intelligence.net/should-i-stay-or-should-i-go-now-30-days-until-martial-law/ Salacious title, but worryingly possible.
She links (Safe Travel Trans Americans Passport Policy) https://19thnews.org/2025/03/safe-travel-trans-americans-passport-policy/
(TGNC Checklist under Trump) https://lambdalegal.org/tgnc-checklist-under-trump/
(Travel State gov page on passport help on sex marker) https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/passport-help/sex-marker.html
(Reddit thread A Guide for Americans to Leave) https://www.reddit.com/r/AmerExit/comments/urwlbr/a_guide_for_americans_that_want_to_get_out_of/
(SF Chronicle on the Insurrection Act) https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/insurrection-act-president-trump-20201819.php
"Meanwhile, corporate media asks, “Can he do that?” These stories are engineered to distract the public with technicalities. While everyone’s debating what they can and can’t do, they are doing it.
We know this administration’s pattern of loose interpretation when it comes to law and historical precedent. There’s no reason to believe he’ll stop here, instead using this act to use force against anyone his administration considers a threat, regardless of their status or what they’re protesting.
You also have to remember this country has a long, established history of censoring speech and leading witch hunts. During WWI, god help you if you didn’t buy enough liberty bonds or called yourself a pacifist.
We’re the land of moral panics.
Every single one of this administration’s actions have been building toward this moment, when the president suspends our civil and human rights. It explains why they’ve taken such aggressive action toward federal agencies, firing tens of thousands of workers and purging their ranks of anyone who might say no. They’ve already been testing boundaries, daring courts to stop them as they shut down government operations and kidnap U.S. citizens."
(some bullshit from an insecure asshole puppetted for power) https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/declaring-a-national-emergency-at-the-southern-border-of-the-united-states/
(How to move out of the USA) https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2024/11/04/how-to-move-out-of-the-us/
#politics #pol #US #USA #USA2025 #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #travel #holiday #vacation #trip #passport #getaway #weekend #Summer #USpol #USApol #USpolitics #USApolitics #policy #legislation #legislature #law #legal #contract #TipsAndTricks #tips #idea #ideas #suggestion #suggestions #GetOut #fantasticMovie #Horrifying #butFantastic
Right, so it's about social isolation, not feeling heard, transactional relationships, and lack of (FREE or LOW COST, ACCESSIBLE) community spaces and activities.
Makes perfect sense to me. We need enough stimulation to keep from going nuts, and I know I've not gotten enough of the intensity I needed the past few years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCD-urpScJw
(Living on benefits / social security is like being retired: not enough to stay healthy, then you get blamed for it, and then people use that to justify ignoring you. Despite the fact that EVERYONE will need state support if they live long enough.)
The Bizarre Backlash to 15-Minute Cities
Einstein Was a Socialist; Should We Care?
https://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/
... huh. Why does this remind me of the strong nuclear force being personal ambition and the weak nuclear force being social connection?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BKwfEenjzGwvO5uZ3SMC-lUjExAJPgy-Y0hMI3xDgd0/edit?tab=t.0
"If we ask ourselves how the structure of society and the cultural attitude of man should be changed in order to make human life as satisfying as possible, we should constantly be conscious of the fact that there are certain conditions which we are unable to modify. As mentioned before, the biological nature of man is, for all practical purposes, not subject to change. Furthermore, technological and demographic developments of the last few centuries have created conditions which are here to stay. In relatively densely settled populations with the goods which are indispensable to their continued existence, an extreme division of labor and a highly-centralized productive apparatus are absolutely necessary. The time—which, looking back, seems so idyllic—is gone forever when individuals or relatively small groups could be completely self-sufficient. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that mankind constitutes even now a planetary community of production and consumption.
I have now reached the point where I may indicate briefly what to me constitutes the essence of the crisis of our time. It concerns the relationship of the individual to society. The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence. Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate. All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.
The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor—not by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules. In this respect, it is important to realize that the means of production—that is to say, the entire productive capacity that is needed for producing consumer goods as well as additional capital goods—may legally be, and for the most part are, the private property of individuals."
"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones.
The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society.
This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature.
The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population.
Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education).
It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights." https://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/
"I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion.
A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child.
The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.
Nevertheless, it is necessary to remember that a planned economy is not yet socialism.
A planned economy as such may be accompanied by the complete enslavement of the individual.
The achievement of socialism requires the solution of some extremely difficult socio-political problems: how is it possible, in view of the far-reaching centralization of political and economic power, to prevent bureaucracy from becoming all-powerful and overweening? " https://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/
"Nevertheless, it is necessary to remember that a planned economy is not yet socialism.
A planned economy as such may be accompanied by the complete enslavement of the individual.
The achievement of socialism requires the solution of some extremely difficult socio-political problems: how is it possible, in view of the far-reaching centralization of political and economic power, to prevent bureaucracy from becoming all-powerful and overweening?
How can the rights of the individual be protected and therewith a democratic counterweight to the power of bureaucracy be assured?
Clarity about the aims and problems of socialism is of greatest significance in our age of transition.
Since, under present circumstances, free and unhindered discussion of these problems has come under a powerful taboo, I consider the foundation of this magazine to be an important public service." https://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/
I guess I'm live-blogging again.
I like how Einstein wrote about the self-preservation and group-preservation drives. Ones I also picked up on in Freud's theory of psychodynamics (the id versus superego, so says dude with Oedipus complex).
Einstein Was a Socialist; Should We Care?
"well... I don't like calling a middle schooler an ugly skank repeatedly, but otherwise yes. These were all broadly my feelings about the show. Similar vibes to The Lost Village and Goodnight World. "
The Anime That Was Too Disturbing For The Internet
here, have art.
#OortArtCloud #landscape #painting #DigitalArt #paint #pastel #LowContrast
not peer-reviewed yet but https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.24.25321092v1
Digital health app data reveals an effect of ovarian hormones on long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis symptoms
Background Long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) disproportionately affect females, suggesting modulation by sex hormones. We sought to investigate whether symptom severity is influenced by changes in sex hormones over the menstrual cycle, or by hormonal contraception. Methods We carried out a retrospective analysis of menstrual and symptom data, prospectively collected via the Visible app from individuals with long COVID, ME/CFS, or both, who had regular menstrual cycles, between 7th September 2022 and 6th March 2024. Mixed-effects models were used to examine associations between symptom severity, menstrual cycle phase and contraception type. Findings 948 users were included; 100% of users were female and 92.6% identified as women. The most tracked symptoms were fatigue (99·5% of users), brain fog (88·3%), headaches (85·1%) and muscle aches (78·6%). All menstrual cycle phases showed a modest, but significant, improvement compared to the menstrual phase, most markedly the early luteal (IRR = 0·963, 95% CI: 0·958–0·968), but also the follicular (IRR = 0·985, 95% CI: 0·981–0·990) and late luteal phases (IRR = 0·980, 95% CI: 0·974– 0·985). Crashes (sudden and severe worsening of symptoms following exertion) were significantly more frequent during menstruation than in other phases. Users of combined hormonal contraception (n=70) had a statistically significant reduction in overall symptom score (OR = 0·827, 95% CI: 0·690–0·992) and crash incidence (OR = 0·548, 95% CI: 0·350–0·856) compared to those not using contraception (n=786). Interpretation Menstruation is associated with worsened symptoms in long COVID and ME/CFS. Users of combined hormonal contraception report a lower symptom burden than non-users, suggesting a modulatory role of ovarian hormones. These findings could empower menstruating people living with long COVID and ME/CFS to anticipate cyclical changes in symptoms and plan their activities accordingly, and could also inform their use of contraception. Funding UK Medical Research Council, NIHR, Community Jameel, the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Borne, Action Medical Research, and Genesis Research Trust. ### Competing Interest Statement During the course of the study HL was employed by, and RP was a paid contractor for Visible Health Inc., the company that owns and operates the Visible app. Some of the study participants had paid for access to certain Visible features, though not access to symptom tracking or menstrual cycle tracking functionality which is free for all Visible app users. This was a study across both the free and paid user base. All other authors declare no competing interests. ### Funding Statement This study was funded by the Medical Research Council (grant number MR/W00710X/1). ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Research Governance and Integrity Team (study number 277771) at Imperial College London I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes Availability of data and materials While all data used in this analysis were anonymised, the individual-level nature of the data used risks individuals being identified or being able to self-identify if it is released publicly. However, the app data can be requested by bona fide researchers for specified scientific purposes by emailing info{at}makevisible.com. Code availability [https://github.com/AbiGoodship/effect\_of\_ovarian\_hormones\_on\_long\_COVID\_and\_ME_symptoms][1] [1]: https://github.com/AbiGoodship/effect_of_ovarian_hormones_on_long_COVID_and_ME_symptoms
Ok there were about 3 things from the MAGA fashion show I might wear, but they really need to ditch the text and stop relying on the fucking flag.
The Alt-Right are Dressing like the Radical Left
hmmmm. Ok so I got a vid from someone claiming to be a board-certified (what does that even mean?) doctor in mental health or psychiatry or whatever.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_medicine
The *idea* of looking at root causes for symptoms sounds great.
We desperately DO need complex care centres.
Clinicians need to holistically observe, interview, and suggest treatments to people with multiple conditions or unusual sequelae.
But not with more bullshit. But I completely see and agree with the need for SOMETHING to change.
anyway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxZccQ7J-XA has some whack shit in it, be aware.
Linux creaturae: "ZOMG linux is so easy you smoothen brains!"
actual linux: https://mullvad.net/en/download/vpn/linux#install-manual
TAX THE RICH! Residents Drown Out GOP Rep at Nebraska Town Hall
This Is Your Brain On Stale Air
Sabine is Wrong Again: Capitalism Would've Killed Penicillin
