Esme Povirk @madewokherd@computerfairi.es

please boost for reach! 🙏

I'm volunteering at my daughter's elementary school by teaching a "coding club" for 5th graders during their lunch and afternoon recess.

It mostly went great, except I left nearly in tears...

One of the kiddos that joined is blind, and I discovered that the coding programs for kids don't appear to be accessible *at all*.

First we tried Swift Playgrounds, but that didn't seem to work with VoiceOver. Then, he said that he's liked ScratchJr. in the past, and he got frustrated with that because he couldn't get his cat to move.

I'm kinda at a loss for how to help him. He left crying because he thinks that he can't get it, but I'm sure he can. Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks!!

#coding #swiftplayground #blind #accessibility #apple #ipad

We now know how cats purr—why they purr is still up for debate

Studies of excised cat larynxes reveal role of connective tissues embedded in vocal folds

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/10/we-now-know-how-cats-purr-why-they-purr-is-still-up-for-debate/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

Reminder that the Emergency/Presidential Alert everyone in the US got today is easy to spoof because it's part of an unauthenticated cellular broadcast your phone will trust no matter who it comes from.

Here's the paper that details the attack, "This is Your President Speaking: Spoofing Alerts in 4G LTE Networks": https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10150578

Also malicious parties *have* begun taking advantage of this, see the recent attempts at disrupting the federal elections in the Philippines via fake emergency alerts.

Everybody's always like, "I'd tell my 20 year old self to buy bitcoin", or "I'd tell my 20 year old self that she's a trans woman", but honestly I'd try to find my 20 year old self a good therapist and a means to pay for it. Developing a reasonably healthy sense of human relationships and social interaction is like 🤯

Say what you will, but what is really the most optimistic thing about TNG, more so than the poverty-less and money-less utopia, is when somebody goes to the captain and says "this weird, unbelievable thing happened to me" and they believe them.

Reg says he sees a creature in the transporter beam and rather than saying "Reg, you well-known anxiety haver, you're imagining things!", they take the transporter apart, twice, to find out.

Beverly says she hears voices at night and has an overwhelming sense of deja-vu, and the captain doesn't say, "my, what an overactive imagination you have! Sleep more and do yoga!", he instructs the crew to sweep the entire ship with sensors, from top to bottom and starboard to port, until they've figured it out.

THAT is a world I'd like to live in.

#StarTrek #TNG

My mum would spend hours ironing clothes when I was a kid. I dont think I’ve ever seen an ironing board at any of my friends houses. A whole generation just said “fuck ironing” and we did. Good work everyone.

Folks sometimes point out my comfort with vulnerability, which often feels like it's missing the point

Being queer and coming out taught me that agency is the only way to deal with trauma

Trauma doesn't get better by ignoring or repressing it. And repeated trauma doesn't get worse — *as long as I change how I deal with it*

#rb to make a #biological #essentialist mad <3

“This collapse is a telltale sign of a problem known as publication bias. Small, early #studies which found a significant #sex difference were likelier to get published than #research finding no male-female #brain difference.”

😸

https://theconversation.com/you-dont-have-a-male-or-female-brain-the-more-brains-scientists-study-the-weaker-the-evidence-for-sex-differences-158005

https://doi.org/10.3310/hta14080

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-23976-1

Why are autistic people so cool and relatable wtf

#ActuallyAutistic

A question and poll for my fellow autistics. Please boost to expand reach.

In Temple Grandin's book, Thinking In Pictures, she describes her development of her compression machine or a hug box, which she used to self administer deep compression therapy and it helped to calm her.

But I'm wondering if any autistics in the fediverse have ever tried wearing corsets, because it seems to me that some of us might find they provide therapeutic stimulation.

Have you worn a corset?

Become ungenderable