Tumgik
#educational
liberaljane · 12 days
Text
Women's Not So Distant History
This #WomensHistoryMonth, let's not forget how many of our rights were only won in recent decades, and weren’t acquired by asking nicely and waiting. We need to fight for our rights. Here's are a few examples:
Tumblr media
📍 Before 1974's Fair Credit Opportunity Act made it illegal for financial institutions to discriminate against applicants' gender, banks could refuse women a credit card. Women won the right to open a bank account in the 1960s, but many banks still refused without a husband’s signature. This allowed men to continue to have control over women’s bank accounts. Unmarried women were often refused service by financial institutions entirely.
Tumblr media
📍 Before 1977, sexual harassment was not considered a legal offense. That changed when a woman brought her boss to court after she refused his sexual advances and was fired. The court stated that her termination violated the 1974 Civil Rights Act, which made employment discrimination illegal.⚖️
Tumblr media
📍 In 1969, California became the first state to pass legislation to allow no-fault divorce. Before then, divorce could only be obtained if a woman could prove that her husband had committed serious faults such as adultery. 💍By 1977, nine states had adopted no-fault divorce laws, and by late 1983, every state had but two. The last, New York, adopted a law in 2010.
Tumblr media
📍In 1967, Kathrine Switzer, entered the Boston Marathon under the name "K.V. Switzer." At the time, the Amateur Athletics Union didn't allow women. Once discovered, staff tried to remove Switzer from the race, but she finished. AAU did not formally accept women until fall 1971.
Tumblr media
📍 In 1972, Lillian Garland, a receptionist at a California bank, went on unpaid leave to have a baby and when she returned, her position was filled. Her lawsuit led to 1978's Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which found that discriminating against pregnant people is unlawful
Tumblr media
📍 It wasn’t until 2016 that gay marriage was legal in all 50 states. Previously, laws varied by state, and while many states allowed for civil unions for same-sex couples, it created a separate but equal standard. In 2008, California was the first state to achieve marriage equality, only to reverse that right following a ballot initiative later that year. 
Tumblr media
📍In 2018, Utah and Idaho were the last two states that lacked clear legislation protecting chest or breast feeding parents from obscenity laws. At the time, an Idaho congressman complained women would, "whip it out and do it anywhere,"
Tumblr media
📍 In 1973, the Supreme Court affirmed the right to safe legal abortion in Roe v. Wade. At the time of the decision, nearly all states outlawed abortion with few exceptions. In 1965, illegal abortions made up one-sixth of all pregnancy- and childbirth-related deaths. Unfortunately after years of abortion restrictions and bans, the Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022. Since then, 14 states have fully banned care, and another 7 severely restrict it – leaving most of the south and midwest without access. 
Tumblr media
📍 Before 1973, women were not able to serve on a jury in all 50 states. However, this varied by state: Utah was the first state to allow women to serve jury duty in 1898. Though, by 1927, only 19 states allowed women to serve jury duty. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 gave women the right to serve on federal juries, though it wasn't until 1973 that all 50 states passed similar legislation
Tumblr media
📍 Before 1988, women were unable to get a business loan on their own. The Women's Business Ownership Act of 1988 allowed women to get loans without a male co-signer and removed other barriers to women in business. The number of women-owned businesses increased by 31 times in the last four decades. 
Free download
6K notes · View notes
courtingwonder · 9 months
Text
Tumblr media
Visual Comparison Of Bird Beaks And Their Uses
17K notes · View notes
sleepy-bebby · 2 years
Text
Tumblr media
Reddit • YouTube
104K notes · View notes
robot-pup · 1 year
Text
the ribbon seals most defining feature, their stripes, take 4 years to develop!
here is a short timeline of their development 🦭
adorable white coat ribbon seal pups. this baby fur is called lanugo.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
after around 1 month pups will start shedding their baby fur to reveal a grey and silver coat
Tumblr media
young seals with their grey and silver coat
Tumblr media Tumblr media
then, the juvenile seals with start to develop their stripes over the next 3 years. they grow stronger with each moult, females can reach sexual maturity before they have fully developed stripes. this mothers stripes aren’t fully there yet.
Tumblr media
once they’re 4 years old a ribbon seals stripes will have fully developed.
male and female are easy to tell apart by their coat colour, the males will have bold black and white stripes
Tumblr media
whereas the females have more brown/beige/silver stripes
Tumblr media
9K notes · View notes
aiweirdness · 4 months
Text
learn the berries with the help of dall-e3!
the berries
Tumblr media
the berries in swedish
Tumblr media
more
2K notes · View notes
disease · 2 months
Text
Tumblr media
MOVING X-RAYS [1938]
732 notes · View notes
viridianriver · 9 months
Text
The Titan Sub - An Engineer's Hot Takes
I know this is the millionth Titan Sub post but I honestly have to throw my thoughts in the mix because it's my area of expertise
I'm an engineer, and I've got experience with...
System safety engineering for exactly this kind of "move fast break things" startup. And dealing with the "personalities" you meet there lol
Safe and reliable controls for robotic systems
Life-critical roboticized vehicles
Plus my dad's a submariner and took me on sooo many submarine tours when I was young, explaining the system design principles.
And if you thought that Titan Sub was negligent? Yeah. Fuckin horrifically so, to be honest. I've seen some scary shit in my career, to the point where I've quit a job over it. I've got friends and colleagues who've done the same. And this? Worse than any of that.
Most times I've seen a big safety issue? You can tell the company was trying, and there was one thing they missed or didn't understand. Maybe two. But here? There's just so much wrong. But to name a few things:
"It's got one button. And that's it."
Tumblr media Tumblr media
See a difference between that and a real submarine control room? A couple hundred extra buttons? Those are pretty important.
In well-designed submarines, there's redundancy - multiple ways to do any essential submarine-control task. I've heard at least 3 is industry standard for submarines, where the loss of an essential function will be deadly. It's even common to have multiple control rooms!
And the mechanical & electrical bits that make those 3 options possible? They're physically separated so that if something like a fire damages one? The other two will be fine.
And for any high-level task, that is broken into multiple smaller ones? There are controls to accomplish each small sub-function individually in case of emergency.
One button? One? ONE? I literally thought that was satire when I first saw it. For fucks sake.
"So we run the sub with this game controller"
Tumblr media Tumblr media
You've probably heard about this one.
But using a game controller for robotic applications, even safety critical ones, isn't unusual! Though it usually takes a multi-million dollar engineering effort to make a system that uses them reliable for a safety function. Exhaustively going through every possible way it could malfunction, and finding a way to address each and every failure mode.
I'd be surprised if they did that - they look like they're violating a few best practices.
First, a wired connection is standard, because it's less likely to drop. Titan's off-the-shelf Logitech controller was using 2.4 GHz WIRELESS tech. It's not impossible to do safety critical communication wirelessly, but that involves specialized safety-rated radio equipment. Just taking a look at what I believe are Logitech's specs for their 2.4 GHz wireless stuff... Uh oh. This ain't it.
Tumblr media
Using the same frequency band as Bluetooth and Wifi? Like other devices might be using, and creating interference in that band? I'm reminded of a railway radio failure I saw, where a manufacturer's radio frequency band overlapped with a country's cell signal band. The trains would shut down on major holidays because the airwaves were overwhelmed! Luckily they were engineered well enough to just stop in place, not crash.
Tumblr media
That's... Also bad. For safety-critical controls, you want to send the signal right away. TDMA means "Time Division Multiple Access" - AKA "Every user takes turns (time division) so we all can use the same airwaves (multiple access)"
You don't want YOUR FUCKIN SUBMARINE CONTROLS taking turns with anything. They need a dedicated and reliable communication channel. Another safety engineering principle? Isolate your important shit from your unimportant shit. That way your unimportant shit can't fuck with your important shit.
This Whole Damn Lawsuit (pdf link)
This is a lawsuit about the company firing an employee for raising safety concerns. Really valid safety concerns, IMO.
Tumblr media
This guy seems really qualified. I'd trust his assessments.
Tumblr media
Acoustic monitoring for the kinds of sounds that usually only come shortly before a catastrophic failure? Great - they basically made a "You're going to die now" bell. Too little, too late. Lochridge was right - the hull needs to be tested beforehand!
And flaws in the carbon fibre hull material? A famously brittle material? That isn't generally used for pressure vessels? And they kept on using that instead of any of the industry standard materials?
Invisible or barely visible tears might not seem like a big thing, but they're scary to an engineer! They're often the warning alarm that your material isn't holding up and is losing structural integrity.
I just don't understand the choice of carbon fibre at all - For a vessel subject to high forces, you'd want a material that allows for "elastic deformation" - or the ability to "spring back" to shape instead of break. For example, metal, which is what every submarine I've ever seen is made of. "Carbon-reinforced plastic collapses "catastrophically", says Professor Brizzolara."This is because the material is not ductile like metal alloys and therefore it 'catastrophically' implodes."
Tumblr media
Out of everything here - this terrifies me the most. I have no words.
Ok, I do have some... It's bleak when "hazardous flammable materials in a submersible" is the least worrying thing on a page.
As for the viewport window, there's this thing called a factor of safety. When you engineer something, you don't just make it strong enough, you make it several times stronger than you think it needs to be.
How many times stronger depends on the industry and application. "Pressure vessels use [a factor of safety of] 3.5 to 4.0, automobiles use 3.0, and aircraft and spacecraft use 1.2 to 3.0 depending on the application"
PRESSURE VESSELS USE 3.5 TO 4.0. That window, going 4000m deep? Should have been rated to 14,000 meters at least. They went with 1,300!?!?! That's UNDER ONE TENTH of what it should have been. And I'm not sure if it was ever replaced.
[Correction - Assuming the manufacturer of the window added in an appropriate factor of safety themselves when rating their part - which is a reasonable assumption to make - OceanGate was "only" at around 1/3 of the reccomended strength - not around 1/10th of it. Still not OK lol!]
Fuck anyone who doesn't realize safety standards are written in blood.
And I mean that very literally - In the US, safety regulation almost never gets enacted until people die, and those deaths are proven in court, beyond a reasonable doubt, to be due to corporate negligence. Sometimes a lot of people have to die before that standard of proof is met, as companies will dodge culpability for as long as possible. It's one of the ugliest truths about my industry. And for a company to ignore those regulations that came at the cost of people's lives? I'd say they have blood on their hands.
Tumblr media
Yeah, in my professional opinion, fuck these guys. They fired their safety guy for doing his job, they didn't work with the certification agency. I hope they're held responsible.
Loooong story short?
I'm genuinely having trouble finding much this company did that wasn't horrifyingly negligent. I'm ending the examples here, but honestly I could keep going.
It's fuckin terrifying they were allowed to do this in the first place. And while I kinda get the "lol rip billionaires" reaction - A company should never be allowed to put people's lives at risk like this. Because if engineering negligence can kill billionaires? It sure as hell can kill any of us with far fewer consequences and far less media attention.
The warning signs were there for years before the accident, and that's the saddest part to me. This was so easily avoidable.
I feel for the guy who tried to warn people - it's a nightmare situation, to fear something you worked with is dangerous, and see your employer (or ex employer) go ahead with it anyway.
What do I figure happened, in the end?
My top guess is a hull failure, resulting from repeated stress of compression and decompression of the carbon fibre material, leading to internal tears or fractures that compromised it's structural integrity, and resulted in a sudden and catastrophic implosion. (An implosion is the opposite of an explosion - it is when something very quickly collapses in on itself, like a can being crushed. Deep underwater, the high pressure of all the water above can cause an implosion.)
Second guess? That window, if they never changed it, could have failed. Same sudden implosion in the end. But I'm waiting for a forensic accident report to say for sure.
Other Posts:
Part 1 - Systems-Engineering Negligence
Part 2 - Human-Factors Negligence
Part 3 - Corporate Negligence
Part 4 - Detailed Timeline & Technical Breakdown of Disaster
Ask: How a small submarine can be done right
legal disclaimer below the cut.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author's employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.
This text is for entertainment purposes only, and is not meant to be referenced for legal, business, or investment purposes.
This text is based on publically available information, sources may contain factual errors. The analysis provided in this text may contain factual errors, miscalculations, or misunderstandings.
1K notes · View notes
prokopetz · 1 year
Video
youtube
3K notes · View notes
sunny-haven · 2 months
Text
A reminder to hypnosis subjects and those interested in hypnosis
I've been thinking about this for a while now, especially because I had to explain it to a subject who was new to being hypnotized recently. It's something not often acknowledged in the hypnosis community, at least from what I've seen.
As much as hypnosis is often portrayed as mind control, and as much as I often like to lean into that fantasy that I control my subjects' will and body, you the subject are in control at the end of the day. You are lending control to the hypnotist, and how much you lend is up to you! Many people enjoy the idea of the hypnotist having complete control over them, but it's just that: an idea, a fantasy.
Now, that isn't to say you aren't easier to convince while hypnotized. I like to think about it like being in a really good mood - you're happy to do things you normally wouldn't do, but you're still you, and you won't do anything that you really wouldn't want to do no matter what. Because of that, I always recommend being hypnotized only by those you trust, someone who cares about your well-being. But that means if a hypnotist is making you uncomfortable for whatever reason, you have the power to reject what they're telling you, no matter what they say. They're called "suggestions" for a reason, and hypnotists are more of a guide than someone who controls your every whim.
You might also find that when you're hypnotized, you're still "aware" of what's going on, and it might feel like you can stop it at any time. And that's okay! That usually is a sign that you're being hypnotized, not the other way around. You are in control and you can stop at any time, but the fun of hypnosis is that you won't want to stop listening to the hypnotist's words, their suggestions will feel like there's no harm in following them (provided it's something you're okay with). You're in control, but you're choosing to let go and let the hypnotist guide you into doing things that you might not normally do and you might enjoy.
As I said earlier, I like leaning into the fantasy of controlling my subjects almost completely, but I make sure they're okay with that sort of thing before I ever hypnotize them (and a lot of the time, people are). We talk about our limits and boundaries, what we want out of a session, and I do my best to make sure my subjects feel comfortable and safe around me. Ideally, anyone trying to hypnotize you will do the same! This allows those who really like the idea of handing control to me to do so in a safe space.
Hopefully this helps someone out there, and I hope y'all have a good day. ^w^
434 notes · View notes
retrocgads · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media
USA 1997
500 notes · View notes
courtingwonder · 7 months
Text
Tumblr media
Guide For The Geological Time Periods In Order
9K notes · View notes
thankstothe · 5 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
"Drop It is one of the top 6 most important dog training commands that keep your dog safe."
511 notes · View notes
mimi-0007 · 7 months
Text
Tumblr media
Bessie Stringfield (born Betsy Beatrice White; 1911 or 1912 – February 16, 1993), also known as the "Motorcycle Queen of Miami", was an American motorcyclist who was the first African-American woman to ride across the United States solo, and was one of the few civilian motorcycle dispatch riders for the US Army during World War II. Credited with breaking down barriers for both women and African-American motorcyclists, Stringfield was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame. The award bestowed by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) for "Superior Achievement by a Female Motorcyclist" is named in her honor.
767 notes · View notes
Text
Tumblr media
Romain Malfliet (Belgian, 1910-2006) Female Nude, n.d.
574 notes · View notes
disease · 2 months
Text
Tumblr media
ULCER AT WORK [1957]
500 notes · View notes
viridianriver · 9 months
Text
Vengeful Consumption Part 1: A Step Past Ethical Consumption
Tumblr media
Y'all asked for it on my last Ethical Consumption post! Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to do some ~economics talk~ to make this one make sense.
Isn't it dumb for a company to sell something at a loss? You'd think - but it's not always that simple!
There are two big reasons companies sell things at a loss that I like to exploit - and I'll use Uber and Amazon as case studies to explain! This post will focus on Uber, and exploiting an understanding of startup business models and long-term economic trends, and my next post will be on Amazon, and the exploitation of short-term price fluctuations due to large-scale algorithmic pricing models.
But the shit those two companies are doing - and the ways you can exploit that? Is pretty standard, and you can apply this knowledge to any company!
UBER'S Business Model : Disrupt -> Replace -> Monopolize -> Profit
Disruption - Startup founders love to talk about the disruption they're doing. To "shake up old industries" or "bring customers better prices / service." But that's only step one of their business model - and the benefits to consumers are short lived. The rest? The CEO's don't brag about as much - at least in public.
Replacement - After disruption is replacement, where the company aims to put the competition in that market out of business. Uber did this with the taxi industry.
Monopolization - This is the end goal of any tech startup - to control the majority of the market - or as close as possible. Uber currently has 72% of the ride-hailing industry market share, and to put Uber and Lyft together? 98% of the American ride-hailing market.
Profit - After eliminating competition, the company (monopoly or duo-opoly in the case of Uber and Lyft) raises prices to higher than they were ever before, and finally starts turning a significant profit.
How Can A Company Operate At A Loss For Years?
Investors, babey!! Basically, finance bros throw millions or billions of dollars at companies that are currently losing money, making a bet they'll someday start making hella money, and pay them back later (plus more) with a "return on investment". It's a total gamble though - 90% of startups fail.
And how do these finance bros have billions to throw around? Well, they're being invested in by an even bigger fish (who's probably playing with some of your money right now if you use a bank, or have any retirement savings) But that's a whole other LongPost.
That way, the Disruption / Replacement / Monopolization stages of the startup are paid for by insanely rich people who are gambling that they'll become insanely richer off you, the end user, if they succeed.
So what do Uber's finances look like?
Tumblr media
(data src)
The blue line, Operating Cash Flow, is what we usually think of when we talk about business finances. The money made off the product or service being sold, minus the money spent to operate the business. And up until 2022? Uber was consistently hemmoraging billions of dollars a year. Usually you'd think of that as a failure, but no - things are working as intended. Let's see the other lines.
The yellow line, Financing cash flow, is what Uber was being given by venture capitalists investing in it. Up until 2020-2022, they were pretty consistently raking in billions a year here.
The red line, Investing Cash Flow, is money spent or made when Uber is investing in other companies. So just like how the venture capitalists are putting money down now, hoping for a return later? The red line is Uber putting money into other companies now, hoping for payback. So far it's been negative, but unless they made some damn stupid investments, I'd expect it to go positive eventually.
And the green line, Net Cash Flow, is the total of all the above revenue (money in) and expenditures (money out). They were making bank (while also losing bank) before the pandemic, but that ole global infectious disease screwed up their ~infinite growth mindset~ oh no.
So to summarize all that nerd talk? Uber's been propped up for years by rich guys gambling that it can succeed at monopolizing the market, so that once it does, and hikes prices, they can get even richer.
What's that mean for the rest of us?
Tumblr media
Well, Uber doesn't share its current pricing algorithm let alone historical ones. But to get a feel of price, I plotted the relative frequency of Google seaches for "Uber Expensive" in Pink.
And to note a few trends? A dip in 2020 when nobody was riding for obvious reasons. But more importantly?
A huge spike in 2021 and 2022 - Just as Financing Cash Flow tapered off and Operating Cash Flow became positive. And this is NOT a one - off or coincidence, this was exactly what I expected to see.
Because the low prices at the start? Subsidized by investment money, and with the sole purpose of obtaining a monopoly (Or as close as they could legally get)
But when that dries up? They need to increase fares to increase their Operating Cash Flow, aka the money they make off all of us. Now that they own the market, they can set prices as they please.
I'm always a bit saddened when I see people going to corporations to complain about prices, as if they're doing anything but wasting their breath. We are nearly entirely beside the point in their business model. I've worked in this field - all these startups consider themselves answerable to their venture capital investors, not their users. All they need to provide for you, is the bare minimum level of service to not drive you away. And that's not hard to provide in a monopoly.
So we're getting fucked.. Are you finally gonna tell me how to fuck em back?
First off, don't fuck startup bros, it ain't gonna be pleasurable. But yes, I'll tell you.
Basically, if a company is in it's Disruption / Replacement phases, they're going to be throwing around insane discounts to work towards monopolization. Go ahead, hop on the latest trends. Take that 4 dollar Uber ride. Take that $20 off coupon. Take that free trial (Just remember to cancel!) They're losing money to gain a monopoly.
Just don't stop supporting the businesses the startup is looking to replace either - they'll need your support! But if you take a couple free perks too? No shame IMO.
But keep an eye on the company's financing / investment cash flow. You can track it here. And when it starts to dry up? They're either close to monopolizing a market, or close to going bankrupt. Either way - know their first cash cow's been bled dry, and you're the next cash cow.
So that's your time to bounce! Delete the app and tell your friends to do the same - play your part in screwing them out of that monopoly - and move on to grift the next grifter!
I promise you as an insider in this world, nothing you say or do will make these companies sweat as much as just deleting the app when they need your money most.
(legal disclaimer below the cut. because these bitches are litigious.)
(It's just my fucking opinion bro)
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text
belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the
author's employer, organization, committee or other group
or individual.
This text is for entertainment purposes only, and is not
meant to be referenced for legal, business, or investment
purposes.
This text is based on publically available information.
sources may contain factual errors. The analysis provided
in this text may contain factual errors, miscalculations, or
misunderstandings.
769 notes · View notes