Esme Povirk @madewokherd@computerfairi.es

Seaweeds are not plants. They’re algae, without roots or leaves, although they do photosynthesize: harvesting the sun’s energy to build themselves. BUT there are a small number of real flowering plants in the sea: the seagrasses, which evolved from terrestrial plants and grow in large meadows.  Mostly water moves pollen around, but for at least one species, small crustaceans do the job of bees and carry sticky pollen from one plant to another.  Underwater gardening, anyone?  #Ocean #Seagrass

🤭🤭

Easter eggs, rabbits and the Pagan Goddess of Fertility: the Stephen Collins cartoon.

we've also observed that for most people these seem to be based on the superficial aspects of the thing, not on a deep understanding of it, which we think is part of why a lot of the old scams work again when you add computers to them

so we've babbled a bit in the past about our concept of "cognitive antibodies" and how they're what keeps most people from falling for timeshares or traditional multilevel marketing schemes or whatever

The 10th annual international Gender Census 2023 is now open until at least 9th May 2023!

https://survey.gendercensus.com

It's for anyone whose gender (or lack thereof) isn't described by the M/F binary. It's short and easy, and results are useful in academia, business and self-advocacy.

I read a good line in a story that's helped me with imposter syndrome.

It said, remember that people are as a species used to living in groups of about 200, grouped around several campfires.

🔥Every
🔥Single
🔥Campfire

needs its own storyteller, its own dancer, its own musician. More than one, really.

So don't compare yourself to those who perform for millions.

Are you the person who can make people happy around your closest campfire? That's what's needed.

I'm thinking that I might start putting this year's survey together in the next few days, which means pulling in Patreon pledges to fund the survey software etc. is imminent.

If you would like to contribute financially to this year's annual survey of everyone whose genders defy and transcend the limited binary model, please click here:

https://www.patreon.com/gendercensus

Thanks folks! :)

https://cohost.org/mcc/post/1293738-a-thing-i-can-t-stop

There is going to be a #UK wide test of a phone-based alert system that can't be silenced normally on Sun 23 April 2023 at 15:00.

It'll be loud, about 10 seconds long, and unkillable. Phones on silent will still make a noise. This is likely to reveal the locations of hidden or secondary phones used by people in domestic abuse situations, so please help get the word out.

Refuge, the domestic abuse charity, have put together a guide showing how to turn of these alerts on Android and iPhone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2MBcHwmiy8

Non-smartphones will need to be turned off.

News article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65178240

#EmergencyAlert #DomesticViolence #DomesticAbuse

for april fools this year we should really pull a fast one and everybody tells the truth online

A hopeful message for #TDoV:

The political backlash against trans people you see in some places today is a direct consequence of the fact that the patriarchy has lost control of the flow of information and some sizable percentage of the many millions of trans people are freely showing other people that you can transition and in doing so, find happiness and even success.
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Please, please, PLEASE use a CW on your posts about gun violence.

I've seen a lot of crap being put about on the idea of parents' rights. I want to reject this idea outright.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS PARENTS' RIGHTS.

Parents do not have "rights" over their children. The children have rights; the parents have responsibilities to see that those rights are upheld.

In order for the parents to have rights, then necessarily the child does not have them. The only situation in which we have allowed one human to usurp another's rights was slavery; and I would argue children are not property.

If they're not property, then they're people, and if they're people, then they have rights. If they have rights, parents can't.

This is such a crucial distinction. The parents don't have a right to have their child educated; the child has a right to a good education. The parents don't have the right to participate in sport; the child does. And so on.

Once you reframe the idea like this, that children are human beings with their own rights, you see what a disingenous line of attack this is from the right wing.

Parents have an awesome responsibility: the care and management of the human rights of beings not able to assert them for themselves. But it must be clear that the rights belong to the children, and that they are being safeguarded, not owned, by the parents.

This simple conceptual shift shows that children should have full bodily autonomy, including consent to touch from anyone, and including the right to present as the gender they want. The right to religion, or freedom from it if they want. The rights are theirs, and the parents should have no power to abrogate those rights without due care and consideration.

Yes, by the way, I am a parent, as well as a grandparent. I stand by this. My kids are not my property, never were.