It is Disability Pride month and I think it’s time to bring this comic from April back
this comic reminds me of the sentiment that “everyone is gay now” but you know what else is on the rise? left handed-ness. and do you know WHY? because we have started to allow kids to write with whatever hand feels comfortable. we’re not taping people’s hands to desks or other horrible stuff.
it’s not that there are “more” people who are queer or autistic or whatever nowadays, it’s that people are actually being allowed to write with their “correct hand” (if you catch my drift)
As a left-handed AuDHD dad who never got diagnosed until he was 52 this explains a hell of a lot
Me seeing this for the 14th time in my 5 years on tumblr and seeing more notes and comments but still reblogging it since it’s literally a World Heritage Post
Sometimes Brits forget that a massive portion of America has A LOT OF HEAT. There is no question if you live in the south you need cold drinks, and I know the weather is getting hotter over there too- maybe try the iced tea my good dudes.
If I’m remembering my geographic minutiae correctly, I’m pretty sure that even the northern-most latitude of the continental United States is still further south than the southern-most latitude of the United Kingdom.
Okay but back to the original comment - these things are meant for groups. It’s not (usually) one person eating like a hundred nuggets and a gallon of sweet tea. It’s catering.
Given the summer temps down here, I submit this nectar of the gods!
One very important note on the immense value of the Internet Archive that I haven’t seen mentioned yet:
It crawls major newspapers like the New York Times multiple times per day.
For anything other than one of those scrolling updates breaking news pages, you can access it from the Archive usually within an hour or two of it being published. No paywall. You want international news? You got it. Opinion? That too. Recipes? It’s all here. Page not yet archived? There’s a button for that and now you got it.
There are various paywall-evading extensions and tricks out there, but they don’t always work. This does.
Go forth and read the newspaper.
This also came in incredibly handy when Helsingin Sanomat (Finland’s major national newspaper) tried to pull some shady shit by editing their online articles without marking what was changed as per proper journalistic practice.
This is such an important and genuinely terrifying post. I could completely go off on the rise of anti-science, but for now I’ll just add: it isn’t just boomers that get deceived. This is a warning to all of us.
Pay ATTENTION to what you are being told. If you think you cannot be deceived, you leave yourself open to deception. Question, doubt, research research research. Learn about your personal biases, dig up any subconscious cognitive dissonance. Keep an eye on your mind.
It needs to be stressed that biases, not a lack of intelligence, is very much the issue here. Being aware of the need to fact check yourself is key: Intelligence won’t protect you from bad or unhealthy mental states, or keep you safe from cults of any sort. Intelligence will just make it easier for you to rationalize and attempt to justify the malformed tools you’ve taken/been given to yourself and others. You need to be wise enough to challenge yourself.
KOKOBOT - The Airbnb-Owned Tech Startup - Data Mining Tumblr Users’ Mental Health Crises for “Content”
I got this message from a bot, and honestly? If I was a bit younger and not such a jaded bitch with a career in tech, I might have given it an honest try. I spent plenty of time in a tough situation without access to any mental health resources as a teen, and would have been sucked right in.
Chatting right from your phone, and being connected with people who can help you? Sounds nice. Especially if you believe the testimonials they spam you with (tw suicide / self harm mention in below images)
But I was getting a weird feeling, so I went to read the legalese.
I couldn’t even get through the fine-print it asked me to read and agree to, without it spamming the hell out of me. Almost like they expect people to just hit Yes? But I’m glad I stopped to read, because:
What you say on there won’t be confidential. (And for context, I tried it out and the things people were looking for help with? I didn’t even feel comfortable sharing here as examples, it was all so deeply personal and painful)
Also, what you say on there? Is now…
Koko’s intellectual property - giving them the right to use it in any way they see fit, including
Publicly performing or displaying your “content” (also known as your mental health crisis) in any media format and in any media channel without limitation
Do this indefinitely after you end your account with them
Sell / share this “content” with other businesses
Any harm you come to using Koko? That’s on you.
And Koko won’t take responsibility for anything someone says to you on there (which is bleak when people are using it to spread Christianity to people in crisis)
They also use the data they gather from users to conduct research and publish papers. I didn’t find them too interesting - other than as a good case study of “People tend to find what they are financially incentivized to find”. Predictably, Koko found that Kokobot was beneficial to its users.
So yeah, being a dumbass with too much curiosity, I decided to use the Airbnb-owned Data-Mining Mental Health Chatline anyway. And if you thought it was dangerous sounding from the disclaimers? Somehow it got worse.
(trigger warning / discussions of child abuse / sexual abuse / suicide / violence below the cut - please don’t read if you’re not in a good place to hear about negligence around pretty horrific topics.)
There are young people on tumblr that actively seek support from KokoBot right now, if you check the tag for recent posts. Those people did not get paid to promote it, so do not harrass them. If you can, direct them towards resources about Kokobot (like this post) that are more transparent about what this company is up to.
![Wikipedia screenshot reading: Regarding the subsequent interaction, occurring on September 9, 2002, witnesses came forward to the police with jurisdiction, the Beverly Hills Police Department, stating that "Mr Sibrel... lured Mr Aldrin to the hotel under false pretences in order to interview him." By Aldrin's account, he went to the Beverly Hills hotel on that date under the pretext of an interview on space for a Japanese children's television show. At the time, Aldrin was aged 72 and Sibrel was aged 37. Sibrel attempted on-camera to coerce Aldrin to swear an oath on a Bible that he had been on the Moon. Witnesses came forward to the police indicating that "Sibrel had aggressively poked Mr Aldrin with the Bible". When Aldrin refused Sibrel's request, Sibrel followed him, saying: "You're the one who said you walked on the moon when you didn't". The BBC reported that "Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Ratinoff told Reuters... [the] videotape shot by a cameraman hired by Mr Sibrel had shown the film-maker follow Mr Aldrin, calling him a 'thief, liar and coward'." Still being recorded by Sibrel's camera crew, Aldrin responded with "Will you get away from me?" and then punched Sibrel in the jaw. On the day following [text ends]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/e0f680dadde099f49038d40d7f43668b/3ebaa2fcfe19505b-6e/s500x750/66d8d916a0669f76374d75d3bcaeef6f4d67c7ce.png)
