On character limits, mh-ish. 

I get annoyed by the 500 character limit on this instance, since i find it very limiting.

On the other hand writing longer posts overwhelms me in practice and I know from experience that I'd struggle to actually do it (I've though about using Dreamwidth for longer posts but don't/can't for exactly that reason).

I sort of appreciate the limitation in that sense.

re: Tangential socialist musings on the "cyperpunk discourse"; real world capitalism and imperialism. 

In particular acknowledging the people of the periphery nations which, in the real world, are hyper-exploited to pillage and pollute their own environment to mine, manufacture, and transport for an endless stream of disposable technology going to the imperial core.

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Tangential socialist musings on the "cyperpunk discourse". 

I'd rather see technological progress depicted in materially realistic, sustainable, and democratic way, based on genuine advancements instead of slick marketing and planned obsolescence, and for the benefit of everyone in the *world* and future generations.

Food 

I'm really happy with the improvement in my diet since moving here to live with my close friend, I've been eating more, more consistently, and healthier.

Recently I've been proud of making rice topped with roasted potatoes, carrots, "sweet potatoes", mushrooms, capsicum, onions--cooked with various herbs and spices--then uncooked raisins, walnuts, and Brazil nuts, and finally lettuce on top of everything; with microwave steamed broccoli around the side; and soy sauce over the top.

Kinky clownfish? 

This description of the social and reproductive dynamics of clownfish groups really sounds like something out of kink erotica:

"The small social group of clownfish consists of a single mating pair; a dominant female and small male, as well as several smaller, subordinate non-breeders. Loss of the dominant female results in protandrous sex change of the small male, and maturation of one of the subordinate non-breeders to replace the breeding male."

From: sciencedirect.com/topics/bioch

Portal (game) trivia. cw: "enhanced interrogation". Transcription. 

Portal: "The symptoms most commonly produced by Enrichment Center testing are superstition, perceiving inanimate objects as alive, and hallucinations."

KUBARK: "The symptoms most commonly produced by isolation are superstition, intense love of any other living thing, perceiving inanimate objects as alive, hallucinations, and delusions."

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Portal (game) trivia. cw: "enhanced interrogation". 

The iconic companion cube was inspired by what writer Erik Wolpaw called a "declassified government interrogation thing". This turns out to be the CIA's 1963 "KUBARK" interrogation manual, which was declassified in 2004 in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Here's part of the Portal script side by side with the relevant section from the manual, highlighting the identical parts. Makes the whole thing less funny and more just plain dark.

SIHSF. cw: heteronormativity and intersex erasure. 

This chart is fascinating to me. Note: A is Money's theory, while B is what the author favors. Note at least the following:

a) That this concept of "physchosexuality" (basically both gender and sexuality) is clearly shown as a spectrum, and

b) That social and cultural factors play a role in imposing limits on this spectrum.

Diamond, M. (1965). A Critical Evaluation of the Ontogeny of Human Sexual Behavior. The Quarterly Review of Biology

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SIHSF. cw: casual homophobia. 

@OCRbot

Here's a 1948 lecture describing a natural basis for homosexuality. Interesting especially for referencing the presence of homosexual behavior in other mammals.

BEACH, F. A. 1948a. Sexual behavior in animals and men. Harvey Lect. Ser.

Quoted in:

Diamond, M. (1965). A Critical Evaluation of the Ontogeny of Human Sexual Behavior. The Quarterly Review of Biology

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SIHSF. cw: old term for "intersex", nb erasure. 

@OCRbot

Actually that's the same author who introduced to the world the idea of a distinction between "sex" and "gender". Well, here he is later explaining the reasoning behind this distinction. I suppose we have the "strain" on the "etymological stem" of "sex" to thank for it?

Money, J. (1973). Gender Role, Gender Identity, Core Gender Identity: Usage and Definition of Terms. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis.

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SIHSF. 

@OCRbot

Here's a section from a 1957 paper explaining the five different biological aspects of "sex", based on studies of intersex people.

Interesting because I often see people treat this as if it's recent knowledge, when it's not. In an earlier paper the author even treats it as well known to experts, but to my annoyance I cannot access that paper anymore.

MONEY, J. (1957). Imprinting and the Establishment of Gender Role. Archives of Neurology And Psychiatry.

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Some interesting historical "sexology" fragments (SIHSF). 

Reading old scientific papers about sex, sexuality, gender, and so on, in light of contemporary understandings and debates is fascinating to me. I'll share just a few of the quotes that I find quite interesting.

Content warning for the sorts of casual prejudice and insensitivity you might expect from cishet male doctors and scientists in the 1950s writing about these topics.

I'm back. 

That's all for right now.

Hi again to the handful of people that ended up following me.

I'm back, political. 

Since I was always sympathetic to socialist ideas because of my class background, as well as, you know, having sympathy for other people, now I say I'm something of a "scientific socialist". Which means not being interesting in adopting a "political identity" beyond that.

I have little interest in getting involved in the dreadful "heated online political discourse", just something worth sharing as background on the way I think about things.

I'm back, political-ish. 

I also ended up learning more about real history, you know not the blatant propaganda I got taught in high school.

That made me, finally, actually want to learn about Marxism. And I discovered that I had been approaching it as a resolution to my intellectual discontent with my "native" liberalism anyway, e.g. as someone trained in biology I was approaching a "dialectical materialist" understanding of biological phenomenon, embracing complexity and change.

(cont.)

I'm back, mh(~) 

What happened in the over a year since I stopped interacting?

Not much, truth be told. Most of the year was spent cowering in anxiety.

Personal feelings crystallized in a more complete way after overcoming years of repression and so I'm comfortable just calling myself a non-binary lizard now, which was always the obvious truth anyway.

I moved in with a close friend who I love very much and I'm much happier because of that, closer to family now also.

I'm back, mh(~) 

I decided to finally try and interact on Mastodon again.

I gave up because I gave into anxiety, although I still kept an eye on it from time to time.

We'll see how it goes, I have lower expectations on myself now so I might not be that active. Social media still makes me dreadfully anxious for whatever reason.

Thyme boosted

Sleeping is always a struggle between laying on my back for good posture and curling up into a ball for comfort.

Our chickens are spending the night in their intended enclosure for the first time, and they have decided to perch themselves together atop the ~2 metre high barrier surrounding it. It's both impressive and adorable.

Computer Fairies

Computer Fairies is a Mastodon instance that aims to be as queer, friendly and furry as possible. We welcome all kinds of computer fairies!