#know what causes that kind of thing and how it effects the genetics of the two staliens since the idea of two staliens sharing near exact

[blackbackedjackal]

What was the weirdest thing you've worked on taxidermy-wise? It doesn't have to be like an unusual species, but maybe something odd about the anatomy when you first prepped an animal, or finding an odd color morph or something (or maybe a little of everything lol since you're very into like genetics and collecting Weird Bone specimens with wry noses and extra teeth).

One that really sticks with me is the coyote that solidified my interest in doing research on pathologies seen in the species.

Notice the strange greenish stain on both the jawbone and in the teeth? I'd never seen staining like this before and at this point had been collecting and cleaning some really strange coyotes for a while.

Unless I'm the person who cleans the animal, I'm often missing vital information and clues left in the skin or tissue to figure out what caused a certain abnormality. I'm careful about cleaning every animal separately, all the while taking notes of any initial strange things I see during the cleaning process. Before the skull was clean enough to me to notice the green staining, I did see some pitch black stains where the bullet I assumed had killed the animal was stuck in the tissue. Not an uncommon thing as I'd seen that kind of staining before. These are typically perimortem injuries, around the time of death, so the injury shows no obvious signs of healing. The bullet or fragments of it break off in the tissue when the animal is killed and will still be left in the tissue by the time I get to work. Lead-based ones can stain the bones a dark color while soaking and typically whitens up after being process, but this one didn't.

Not only were the teeth this strange green color, but the surrounding bone had a lot of heavy bloodstaining. This is typically caused from brute force impact injuries, like animals hit by cars but are alive for at least several minutes after being hit. It's usually related to bruising, but in some cases is also be seen in areas where the bone or tissue around the bone is infected. It's these dark pink spots around the orbit and jaw.

I saw where the bullet had struck the animal, but before it was clean assumed this was the bullet that killed the coyote. It's not uncommon for trappers or hunters to shoot animals in the head to kill the animal quickly but there was no bullet hole in the cranium. There was however, a fragment of the bullet lodged in the right body of the maxilla, right in where the marrow and some blood vessels that supply blood to the jaw and teeth were.

This wasn't what killed the coyote. The fragment was lodged in living tissue, long enough that the coyote was suffering from lead poisoning. here's another angle where you can see where the fragment was lodged and how bad the stain was near the point of contact.

In typical Americans hate coyotes form, someone had shot at this coyote at least several weeks before the coyote was killed. Could have been a missed shot and the coyote escaped, but people are extremely cruel and disrespectful to the species, and will shoot at them to haze and injure them, but not kill them. Injuries and infections like this will greatly effect the coyote's ability to hunt, so that can cause them to become "problem" coyotes. They're too sick or injured to hunt wild animals effectively, and will be more prone to scavenging or opportunistic behaviors like attacking outdoor pets or farm animals. Again, I can't determine why the animal was shot to begin with, but I do know why it was killed several weeks later. It was sick, injured, and probably acting really strange. At that point the coyote being killed was blessing, as it would have suffered for weeks before succumbing to it's injures and infection.

When I buy an already cleaned/partially cleaned skull online, I have to work in reverse to identify potential causes of the pathologies I see. Many sellers won't take note of any shards or fragments or foreign objects in the tissue while cleaning. I often loose important clues as to the exact cause of the abnormality. When I clean them myself, I make sure to save everything I find in the tissue and take notes. That way I can refer back to them when I find strange things like this.

Though it greatly saddens me to see any animal suffer in such a way, I know it's important work because it gives me solid information I can use to educate others about coyotes. This skull was sitting in this person's freezer for at least a year or so before I happened to get it in a bulk lot of raw skulls I purchased to clean for sales and for research. It's been invaluable already as it's one of the skulls I cite a lot when doing public education and getting the people I get coyotes from thinking more critically about the species. Many of the taxidermists, hunters farmers, trappers, etc. I work with are very interested in the research we're doing, and like to know the stories of the ones they've crossed paths with. Many of them have stopped hunting coyotes in reckless ways, and no longer view them as pests. In fact, one guy I get coyotes from went from killing maybe 5 or so a month before he met me, to about 5 every 6 months. He no longer views them as pests and pays attention to their behaviors much more closely. He now culls ones he notices are sick/injured on his camera traps or ones that are actively bothering or killing his livestock. He's had far less issues with his local coyotes overall by listening to the advice I've given him, and donates the ones he does take for our group's research. It's a win for everyone, less coyotes are killed indiscriminately, we get coyotes for research that are sourced responsibly and sustainably, and not only is he interested in our research, but he shares the information with his family and neighbors so they spread the information and have really changed the culture of how they feel about the animals and wildlife around them. It's really awesome to see.

Sorry that got into a little ramble but it's the weird animals that have really made such a huge impact on me and the people around me. I'm glad that even in death they can be used as ways to educate others and essentially "save" some of their living relatives. My goal is conservation, preservation, and education about the species, and working with pathological specimens is a big part of that c:

#ask #this got long and I don't feel like editing my grammar so I sure hope this is ok lol #faq

[rabidpomeranians]

An unorthodox approach to troll reproduction

It’s blood.

Its always been blood, and we’ve all been fooled by our own preconceived notions of how reproduction works. We were given a fill in the blank riddle and got it so wrong that the thousands of fanfics that reference it stand now as a monument to our presumptuousness.

It’s the easiest bodily fluid to get a literal bucket full of quickly. It contains DNA that can be recombined with a partners and utilized by the mother grub. It keeps pairs of any sex/gender viable. And it weirdly explains why rainbowdrinkers are a thing...

First debunking the other possibilities:

From a human perspective the answers to troll reproduction that immediately come would be A) Two sexes with matched-set gemetes, B) All genetically male, or C) Hermaphrodites. Which all come with contradictions.

A) If individuals only produce sperm or eggs, than a statistically significant number of all pairs would be non productive. Given trolls have no concern over the viability of same sex quadrants, there must be a different mechanic in use.

B) If all trolls produce only sperm cells than there would be no mechanism for genetic mixing between individuals. In fact there would be no point in pairing/quadrants at all. Their social system would match ants or bees which forgo reproductive activity outside of one to one interactions with their queen.

Since its been stated that the viability of offspring is effected by the strength of a pair, we know that pairing is a crucial element. Also if trolls are all genetically male, than binary gender has little to no reason to exist (unless sex and gender are also conceptually divorced, which is another theory).

C) The hardest one to knock and the most popular for it. I guess I would pose the question why, in a strongly individualist society, would people form pairs to do what they could technically do all on their own? Or at least why would ‘self-pairing’ not be more common. Sure, pairing allows for more variety but if the gametes paired randomly, half of the resulting mix would still be self fertilized anyways. 

Ok but what does blood have to do with anything like this?

The fundamental flaw that lies over all three answers and probably several more is that we’ve applied human physiology to an alien species. Yes they look similar but their quadrants and mother grubs are vastly different from our monogamy and individually assigned reproductive organs.

Blood mixing negates sex pairing issues, allowing any two individuals to produce offspring. It allows for genetic recombination, given it contains plenty of dna and possibly beneficial hormones produced from the emotional virility of a pair. Lastly, it necessitates pairing. Mixed and unmixed blood have some kind of fundamental difference, which disallows an individual from self-pairing.

I’d chalk it up to something with the immune system. It’s like how in humans certain blood types mixing causes an immune response. Which inside of a body is horrible because it bursts the blood cells, but in an external mix, bursting cells leave exposed dna, allowing for easier recombination. The ‘dominant’ blood type (immunologically, not caste related) dismantles and assimilates the ‘recessive’ producing a viable ‘genetic slurry’ to be hauled off to the mother grub.

And there is plenty of room for the social taboo behavior exhibited by trolls throughout the comic. Trolls live on a hell planet where everything, and everyone, everywhere is looking for an opportunity to kill them, all the time. Thus advertising that you’ve recently lost a half gallon of blood and are vulnerable because of it, would be really stupid. It makes sense then, to keep talk down and hide away any evidence. This evolves pretty seamlessly into a close enough match to the typical cagey/secretive behavior humans tend to show around their own reproductive activities. Hence why we perceive a parallel even though the reasoning is different.

tldr: We all assume that trolls connect sex with reproduction because that’s what we do, but they’re aliens, they do weird alien things. If their biology worked exactly like ours, they wouldn’t have a big weird moth laying eggs for them. Also you’re welcome.

#homestuck #troll biology #theory #I like to think hussie planned that from the start and got a nice giggle out before realizing we would never let it go #i know the reality is that it was just a shock thing that gained more momentum than expected #but the image of them suffering our presumptive stupidity as much as we've suffered all the weird shit that's come of this feels cathartic

[macgyvermedical]

What is phage therapy? I heard the word somewhere and now it’s stuck in my head but I don’t know what it is. Thanks 🙌

Phage therapy is the therapeutic use of viruses to kill bacteria.

Viruses are semi-living things that use other cells to reproduce. They do this by injecting DNA or RNA into the cell, letting the cell make copies of the genetic material, manufacture proteins, assemble new viruses, and then those new viruses burst out of the cell. In the process of reproducing, the cell is killed.

We typically think of viruses that replicate in human tissue, like influenza or SARS-CoV-2. But as it turns out, where there is a cell, including a plant cell or a bacterial cell, there is a virus that wants to kill it to make baby viruses.

Theoretically, then, if someone has a bacterial infection, we can find the extremely specific virus that kills only the bacteria that are causing the infection, infect the person with that virus, let that virus replicate and kill a bunch of the bacterial cells without harming the human cells, and voila, no more infection. Once the virus runs out of bacterial cells it can't replicate any more and it dies off.

And when I say "theoretically" I mean we have absolutely, definitely done this. Like a lot. And while phage therapy is extremely difficult to do good clinical trials with, as far as we can tell it's been pretty effective, and has few side effects that we know about.

So why don't we use phage therapy all the time?

Well, probably because of how specific the phages are. The phage that kills one kind of staph probably won't work on another kind of staph. So you need giant libraries of phages in order for them to really be useful to a large number of people.

Also, there's politics:

See, depending on what you consider the start of the antibiotic age, phage therapy and antibiotic therapy kind of came into being around the same time. By the start of WWII we had a couple of each worldwide.

Then the war happened and the Iron Curtain came into being. On the Western side resources were funneled into the mass production of a new antibiotic called penicillin, and on the Eastern side, resources were funneled into further developing phage therapy.

Throughout the Cold War this pattern would continue, with the Soviet Union eventually using both antibiotics and phages, and the West using only antibiotics (honestly, it's probably capitalism's fault- making money from phages is extremely difficult because they can't be mass produced like antibiotics can). When the Soviet Union fell apart, the research on phage therapy largely disappeared with it.

The West, now saddled with the burden of antibiotic resistance after decades of overprescription and use in agriculture, is trying to rebuild some of the knowledge that was lost with the fall of the Soviet Union.

Unfortunately, there have only been a handful of people who have been treated with phage therapy in the West. This is because the way phages work makes them extremely difficult to do high quality studies on, which makes them impossible to get FDA approval for in the US. Another factor standing in the way of approval is that they tend to change over time as the bacteria they replicate in evolve. So there are potential approval problems if we approve one type of phage but not the type it becomes in a few years.

So if something needs to change itself to work, how do you monitor to make sure that the changes aren't something dangerous? Do you have to repeatedly apply for approval? It just has all kinds of legal and policy issues.

If you want more info, there is a book called The Perfect Predator by Steffanie Strathdee. The author ended up saving her husband's life using phage therapy after he ended up with a life-threatening multidrug resistant infection.

If you want something shorter than a book, I highly recommend this video by Patrick Kelly.

#whump reference #writing reference #phage therapy

[crevicedwelling]

Hey! This might be a kind of stupid (or insensitive) question but I was wondering about mosquitos. I’m actually pretty chill with most insects but they bite, spread diseases and a whole host of other things. I know there are a lot of scientists working right now to reduce mosquito fertility rates which I’m broadly supportive of, but I’m not sure what the unintended consequences are. Like….. would we as a species be okay if mosquitos were eradicated?

it’s entirely a valid question, and a point I hear raised a lot. the answer depends on on how far-reaching your question was intended to be:

an important thing to understand is that there are over 3500 species of mosquito, and of those, only 88 are known to transmit diseases to humans, with about 200 more that potentially could become human disease vectors (Yee et al.) most mosquitoes drink nectar—both males and females—but females typically (but not in all species/forms) require a blood meal from mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, or even other arthropods and invertebrates.

if all mosquitoes were “eradicated,” there would undoubtedly be some very bad effects on the environment, although in the utmost selfish view I’m not fully sure how long they’d take to affect humans.

many plants are pollinated by small flies (like cacao! you can thank biting midges for all your chocolate) and certainly some only by mosquitoes. mosquito pollinated plants likely include many in tropical rainforests, where mutualisms between tiny, unusual species are very common, and oddly enough in the Arctic, where soggy summers create a whole lot of mosquitoes.

likewise mosquitoes are likely an important part of the diets of many bats, birds, spiders, dragonflies, other flies, and fish that might eat the larvae, among many others (including mosquitoes that eat other mosquitoes as larvae, like the beautiful Toxorhynchites). the negative effect on these animals in turn could affect their predators, or all the other ecosystem. if all mosquitoes disappeared, there would probably be significant upheaval across global environments, although I don’t know enough to say exactly what the end result would be. making all mosquitoes go extinct would be a very bad idea though, so it’s a good thing humans have no reason or capability to do that.

but people probably don’t have the 3,000 other mosquitoes in mind when they’re trying to control the flies, it’s that 88 to 300-ish bunch that bite humans and transmit diseases. first off, any genetic/sterility control method that targets non-native mosquitoes is most likely to have only good effects. non-native mosquitoes are reduced, people are bitten less. good on both counts. (it’s still possible certain things might be upset, such as if native species have adapted to use non-native mosquitoes, or if the non-native ones were outcompeting some even worse species. don’t know enough to say.) In many places, this is precisely what’s happening, with Aedes being sterilized, modified, or infected with bacteria that cause some reduction in offspring where it is invasive.

as for eradicating mosquitoes in their native range… it gets a bit tricky. I’m not enough of an ecologist or mosquito biologist to give a clear answer here. I also don’t know if there’s consideration of using control methods like you mentioned on species in their native range.

your question was about making mosquitoes go extinct, though, so I’ll focus on that.

would losing a few species of mosquito that are particularly dangerous to humans result in ecological upheaval? I don’t know. ecology is vastly complicated and when people make big decisions involving pests, we can often make problems way worse, like all the times a predator was introduced and started killing off things we didn’t think they would (this has happened with mosquito control, by the way). extinction only goes one way. I’d say in a hypothetical situation where I could just *poof* away an entire mosquito species, I probably wouldn’t do it. we just don’t know enough about the world yet to make decisions like that.

that’s not to say there aren’t ecologically and human-friendly ways to solve the issue of mosquito-borne disease—reduction of manmade breeding pools, careful biological control, targeted, safe pesticides—and maybe in some cases, sterilization or genetic control are part of the solution. but if it comes down to extinction or not, we’d better consider things very carefully before swatting at entire species without knowing what might happen after.

some of the links to the articles I used to research a bit for this post. read them if you'd like, they're fascinating!

#mosquito #bugs #ecology

[aftonfamilyvalues]

so the neilman dragging in your asks a couple weeks ago, where you mention him getting pissy that some 90s feminists didn't see trans women as women, reminded me of one deeply deeply weird short story he wrote in the 90s called 'changes' in which a man called rajit (a man he needs to point out is gay and only has sex with male prostitutes cause he's such a fucking genius he can't have a social life, and whose penis neil describes as 'nutlike') comes up with a cure for cancer that reboots your genetic code, except a side effect is you change sex. whoopsie! some parts are a bit funny (mostly side comments about how inaccurate the biopics on the guy are) but a lot of it is just weird, fetishy, and transhumanist, but also weirdly prescient for current day gender politics, although probably not in the way neil thought. the first person rajit experiments on is a woman who ends up dying of pneumonia anyway. neil goes on to describe the social changes this causes society wide in detail, especially from religious groups and recreational users, but never ONCE mentions what feminist groups have to say about it, what effect this has on women or violence against women, cause this dood never even thought about it. there's a scene where a male takes the drug to change sex to go with an outfit, masturbates with his dick, passes out, wakes up with a vagina and those kind of triangle boobs girls get when they first grow boobs (and how does neil, a man, know this?), and then uses his pussyjuice as perfume. there is almost nothing about the benefits for trans people, how it's a life-saver the best thing to ever happen to them, other than a passing mention of how it makes trans surgeries obsolete. like it's clearly being abused as a fetish drug people take. there are mentions of boys being forced to take it so they'll make more money being sex trafficked, men who can't prove they weren't born women are imprisoned and raped in arab countries. taking the drug halts the aging process for some, giving the appearance of long youth. a woman who can easily tell natal sex acts as a bouncer for a club that only lets in those who haven't rebooted their sex, and is violently beaten up because of it and she learns her lesson and never does it again. rajit eventually dies of prostate cancer rather than take his own drug, hallucinating on the beach, blood dripping from his penis, thinking all these androgynous beings on his drug are angels. it is one of the weirdest things hes ever written.

i literally have no idea what to say about this. i had to look this up just to make sure i wasnt being fucked with. and people hail this guy as some sort of god of literature? jesus fucking christ

#ask

[itspkuwu]

EEnE headcanons

Double D is only nice to Kevin sometimes because he doesn’t want him to beat up Eddy. Besides for that one time when Double D thought Eddy deserved it for making him think he had an illness. And because he knows that even Double D can get aggravated with Eddy, Kevin tries to encourage him to pick on the con man with friendly interacts. So it’s kinda sorta like gaslighting. But Double D still doesn’t trust him because he knows this. He cares about Eddy too much. Not to mention that pretty much everyone in the cul de sac is nice to Double D because Double D is nice to them. What goes around comes around. Sarah is a huge example of this, she literally has a crush on him.

Plus Double D did somewhat feel bad for Eddy getting a beating afterwards.

Stuffed Pig’s Head is only a meal Rolf’s people eats when a swine has been put down from old age. They say the inner strength and soul of the dead pig will give those who consume it power to continue on. So it’s considered a tribute to the cycle of life. (And it would explain why Rolf hasn’t eaten Wilfred lol)

Marie does May’s nails.

There’s a big red and purple scar under Double D’s hat. When he was extremely little, probably just a few weeks before reaching 2, his curiosity found him in the middle of a dodgeball game with much older kids who teased him for being bad at the game. Later on, Double D built a machine that would launch dodgeballs like rapid fire. He met those same kids and again and used his invention in the next game. Something went wrong, and he, along with the other kids there were sent to the hospital, leaving him with the scar. His parents were utterly ashamed of his actions. The young genius they were raising had turned out to be a monster. Thus, they thought it was better to move to Peach Creek to try and leave this tragic event in their lives behind. Poor Double D is constantly reminded of the guilt whenever his hat is removed. And his parents, now distant and somewhat afraid of their son, community with him through sticky notes.

And yes, his mother stopped rubbing his feet with oil after the incident.

Ed is neurodivergent autistic.

So is Jonny

Rolf’s mother use to comfort him a lot when he was little, hence why he tends to shout “MAMA!” whenever he’s afraid or in pain.

Jimmy is a demi boy

Lee can retract her third eye to hide her demons powers from others. But in that sunflower field was the one time she didn’t think fast enough.

Her father Butch had some kind of demon genetic trait that if he were to repopulate, that DNA would be passed on to the child. Like… all of it… and no, he couldn’t use those demonic powers himself, that’s another side effect of the trait. And that’s also why he left, not because he didn’t wanna be a parent, it’s because he was terrified of what he had brought into the world. (And for good reason) (Also yes demonic traits and powers do exist in this universe, along with holy ones. For example: Jimmy and Sarah with Cupid powers)

Kevin and Nazz were a thing, but broke up cause it just wasn’t working out. Later, Nazz realized she was more in to girls and Kevin thought he’d just be better off single. Plus he was in love with his bike anyway

Blue is a natural hair color

Kevin was Rolf’s first friend he made in the cul-de-sac and was the one who taught The Son of a Shepard (TM) how to play sports.

Nazz is a hippie

Sarah was taught to hate Ed by their parents

Wilfred is Rolf’s emotional support animal for his ptsd towards the wolf incident he experienced as a kid.

In the actual incident, the “wolf man” tore the baby sheep’s head off with his teeth. Leaving poor Rolf traumatized.

And that’s also why Rolf keeps all the sheep in the basement, he wants to protect them.

There’s a program in Peach Creek where the elementary schoolers are allowed to visit the jr high, hence why Jimmy and Sarah are there sometimes despite their young ages.

Speaking of ages

Ed, Edd, n Eddy: 12-13 

Sarah: 7-8 

Jimmy: 6-7 

Jonny 2x4: 11-12 

Nazz: 13-14

Kevin: 13-14 

Rolf: 14-15

May: 11-12

Marie: 12-13

Lee: 13-14

Eddy’s Brother: 23

Plank: Immortal God

Yes, Plank alive. Again, more demonic powers.

If Edt3 is to be canon, which to me it absolutely is, then I wouldn’t have their relationship with each other be any other way, besides for maybe a little less violence. That’s why I like the ship, nothing needs to change to see the goodness and love they show towards each other. It already feels canon.

Eddy and Double D are bi while Ed is full on gay.

that’s all I have for now. Thanks for reading :)

go hug a chicken

#ed edd n eddy #eene #edt3 #eene rolf #kanker sisters #eene nazz #eene jonny #eene sarah #eene headcanons #headcanons #cartoon network #CHICKENS

[windwardstar]

"T will change a lot of things but you can't change your bones" don't mean shit.

Like. Starting t at nearly thirty I had resigned myself to the fact my body shape would always be a source of dysphoria bc I wouldn't be able to change the underlying structure (skeleton, bones) and you can't change bones.

I had hips wider than my shoulders bc both sides of my family apparently got their genetics from cartoon moms. My waist to hip ratio was something thought only achievable with corsets and a bustle. My shoulders (and arms) were usually the deciding factor in going up a shirt size (and now really are post top) but still were not as broad or the right shape and there was no way they were ever going to even sit equal with my hips. And so I just had to resign myself to the fact those things wouldn't change because you can't change your bones and dysphoria would reign forever.

Because the muscle and fat redistribution would do some work but it wouldn't undo the effects of e based puberty and bone growth. Because you can't change your bones.

Bullshit. Bull fucking shit.

You know what bones are connected by? Muscle and cartilage and tendons and all kinds of movable mutable things. Fat redistribution is a game changer. Even if you're going "but there's no fat on my hips it's just the bone which I will be cursed with forever to always have dysphoria hips" things will change.

It's not even been two years on T and like. The immutable castings of biology have bowed to the steady application store bought puberty. My hips have gone down and my shoulders have widened. They're actually even with each other. And in the right clothes my shoulders actually look broader.

Because yeah there's been a little slimming of my hips themselves but the bones don't change (it don't mean shit) but you know what has? The fat on the thigh that was the actual cause of the shape. We're talking shaped like a chicken drum stick. Wider a couple inches lower than the hip joint than at the actual joint (which was always just bone, which you can't change) but that's changing.

My shoulders have broadened just a bit. Gotten rid of that smooth curving line where snow would slide right off in an avalanche and they could never be wide enough to balance out the hips. They've squared up. Saw the challenge and went yeah I can't take it. And did.

The waist (the ribs that go in and the hips that go out, bones you can't change) has made the hour glass curves fade. The muscle and the fat has filled it in and smoothed out the curves into something that isn't.

You can't change your bones they say. You can't change your skeleton. You can't change the underlying structure (so don't start t after puberty because it won't work anyway) bull shit. Bull fucking shit.

Your bones are held together by soft tissue that absolutely does change. That can pull things into different alignments. (T has made my shit less elastic less stretchy, meaning my heds joint stay in place more but also my shoulders have the structural integrity now to be broad and square and get that not rounded bit at the joint. It's also shut down the cycle of hormones that made the extra hormones that allows your joints to become looser in order to let your joints shift your bones around. Bc the bones are held together by soft tissue that absolutely can change.)

And they're really really really overstating and over emphasizing how much of your body shape is actually made up of your skeleton.

You can't change your bones but it don't mean shit. You can change how they attach to each other. How the muscle grows around them. How the layers of fat sit on top of them.

The redistribution changes take a while on T. It's a slow process. But it's not even two full years and my hips are even with my shoulders when I was told that was never going to be possible (bc you can't change your bones) and like... the little table that comes with the informed consent paperwork says these changes are meant to see the biggest differences in the 2-5 year mark. I've supposedly got three more years where my silhouette is gonna keep changing (and even then it'll keep doing it because people's bodies are always changing at every age).

So yeah "you can't change your bones" they say repeating a fact (your femur ain't growing longer, your pelvic bone ain't shrinking) to mean "your skeleton won't change and you'll be stuck with a scaffolding that will always be that of the wrong" and that is fucking bullshit. Things will change if you give them time bc t really is fucking magic.

Also invest in stretchy pants and jackets with give in the shoulders if you find you need new clothes. I've had to buy new fitted pants like three times bc my butt and hips keep shrinking, replaced half the shirts in my wardrobe bc my shoulders got broader and arms muscle, gone up a shoe size bc there's a ton of soft tissue in there that got bulkier, and my tux has completely ship of theseus'ed itself because of all the changes.

Because "you can't change your bones" is a bullshit sentiment.

#monday trans ramble #even though it aint monday

[jeneelestrange]

Can we talk about how over-association of obesity with certain conditions or obesity with ill health in general makes everyone less healthy? Here’s an example. Like I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a conversation with a patient who is non-compliant with CPAP or doesn’t want to take a sleep apnea test despite displaying symptoms and just saying, “You know, it’s really common for people to have sleep apnea because of the structure of their neck—some people are just genetically born with a narrow opening and it’s more prone to collapse on some people” and it just…completely turns their attitude towards treatment around? Because when they hear sleep apnea, they think “You are saying I’m fat and I did this to myself and I just need to lose weight” and like….I don’t have time to unpack all that but like. So they’re thinking they need to just lose some weight instead of pay all this money and wear this thing on their face while they sleep. When like….without having another professional look at it, I mean, it really might not be changeable. It could just be a thing you have.

When I’ve gone to certain dentists they’re like, “Heyyyyyyy….sooooo…..how’s your sleep…..” and I tell them I’m already on a CPAP and they’re like ok cool good. Because that’s exactly why they mentioned it—my airway is just small. If you’re on my paternal family’s side and you got this side’s neck—you have sleep apnea, like half of my family is on CPAP.

And the knock-on effects of not getting sleep apnea treated have long-term consequences on your entire body because you NEED good sleep with REM. Which is exactly what you are getting cut off from. And randomly stopping breathing and cutting off oxygen to your body over and over and over again for years is not…kind on your heart. Its not the only reason people are resisting treatment, but the idea that it’s only because they’re fat and they feel shamed by it is common. Not everyone wants to even say it, but the fact that me giving any other explanation works SO OFTEN in like two sentences shows they feel shamed by the condition because of its association in the public imagination. So we have thin, fat, whatever sized people endangering their health long-term because they think there’s a 100% association with fatness causing it.

Like everyone wants to talk about how fat people are eating up disproportionate healthcare dollars blah blah blah and that’s so simplistic and fucked up. If you want to talk about that, what about patients resisting treatments that could save their health long-term and cost us less but won’t because they erroneously think it only happens to fat people? What about people resisting a diagnosis that could help them because we’ve collectively unnecessarily stigmatized it?

#healthcare #obesity #sleep apnea

[fuglyhorses]

I saw this foal while working at a TB stud farm. She couldn’t straighten her knees, and we were told to pull on her legs a bit when she was lying down (to relax her tendons I guess?). I was working nightshift at the time, and bottle fed her every few hours. She would make the cutest little “neigh” when I entered the stall. Sometimes I had to feed her lying down because she struggled a lot getting up.

She died a couple weeks later sadly, I’m not clear how because I was not there that day. IIrc I was told they had bandaged her legs as straight as they could, and that probably put a lot of stress on her.

Is this tendon flaw a common issue in TBs? Can it be cured or was this foal always doomed?

--

Oh that sucks. Contracted tendons aren’t uncommon in very fresh foals and mild cases often straighten out on their own. If it’s more severe they’ll need bandages/splints/physical therapy, which is what it sounds like they were attempting. In most cases it can be more or less corrected, depending on the initial severity. It’s impossible to say how bad it is from a photo but look at her vertical pasterns. You see that in newborns sometimes* and it generally loosens up without intervention (assuming they inherited the genetics for a normal angle). It looks pretty bad but I wouldn’t say she looks doomed when a lot of it could be just awkward posture and tightness that could self-correct at least a little. It’s certainly not usually a death sentence, there had to be something else going on.

So there are a couple of things that can cause this. The two that I’ve seen cited the most are bad positioning during fetal development, or a recessive gene that’s roughly analogous to clubfoot in people (but I would think probably that could be caused by multiple things as well). I don’t know about TBs specifically, but recessive genes are more likely to pop up regularly in populations with significant inbreeding so you’d likely see this more often in closed studbooks, and especially in intensive linebreeding. If it’s genetic. If it’s a result of positioning, it’s entirely random. In this case, because all four legs seem affected, I’d lean toward this being genetic or secondary to something else.

It’s possible that it’s a side effect of some other condition that could’ve contributed to her death. I’m not a vet and wouldn’t presume to diagnose but there are endless mutations and abnormalities and malformations that can happen with any pregnancy, and all kinds of complicated genetic combinations with unexpected results.   

Poor baby.

* you also sometimes see the opposite, foals with extremely lax tendons, flopping all over the place. 

#submission #animal death

[oddballwriter]

Dad!evan Tim Brian and Vinnie where their child encounters the operator and get slendersickness?

꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷

Warnings: mentions of HABIT, spoilers of some twists in both Marble Hornets and EveryManHYBRID, your fictional dads caring about you

I’ll shut up now. Enjoy! And don’t be afraid to request.

꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦

Tim

Tim is arguably the most devastated out of all of them

I've mentioned before in past dad!Tim posts that he kind of had raising you be something that gave him some emotional healing and that he wishes for you to live a life so far from what he lived

As soon as you start showing signs and symptoms he almost denies them. He doesn't want to think that it's finally caught up with his kid

But when you have a moment where it's clear that it's come for you and you're affected, he just gives in and accepts it and tries to make sense

Maybe you admit to "night terrors" or start being hysterical at night that he decided to quit the bullshit he's feeding himself

He knows you're not crazy since after the events of MH he knows that he's not crazy and admits that to you

It's a long talk and you might be a little upset that he never told you that this might happen at some point, and he understands. But he makes sure that you know that you aren't alone

Tim takes you to the doctors to get you "diagnosed" but really it's just a way for you to get your own pills. I mean, it's heavily implied that Tim was diagnosed with something and that's why he has his meds. Depending on if you wanna go the bio or adoption route, he says that it's most likely because of genetics for bio, and that it's just a coincidence if your adopted

Either way, once you get "diagnosed" and given your own meds he tells you how exactly it works with the thing

Don't ask him how exactly the pills keep it away, he just knows it does

As much as it hurts him to know that it's spread to you, he's at least happy that he can at least help you the best he can

Tim sticks by you because he knows how hard this is from personal experience and will be by you the entire time because the least he can do is stick by you

Brian

Idk what route to go with Brian. The pre-Hoodie or post-Hoodie route.

Let's just go with post and that he actually lived

It's a bit rough on him and he's kind of scared

His work was in luring Jay and at some point Tim towards defeating Alex and the Operator

He would help you get your own medication but I think it will be hard for him to actually talk about what's going on

Brian just tells you that you aren't crazy when you first bring everything up to him but doesn't explain why he thinks/knows that

I actually think he might get mad though, not so at you but it seems like it

"When did this start?" "Why didn't you tell me?" "What happened?" in a very stern and demanding voice

But he's not mad at you. He's more so mad at himself.

How could he let this happen? Could he have prevented it? Could he have protected you more?

Those thoughts haunt him now

He feels like he failed you

He hates to think that this would cause any type of strain on your relationship but understands

Evan

I feel like with the EMH guys it's slightly different considering the loop

I don't know if you want it that you're just another person that exists in one version of the loop or if you yourself are part of it

I've mentioned before that if Evan is aware of everything from past loops that he's already scared shitless of something happening to you

He would be scared and upset beyond belief if you caught it because it seems like operator in EMH effects people IN THE LOOP

But we could have it that regular people can get it too

Evan is very scared that you've interacted/had a run in with Slender in the first place. He knew that it might happen, but for you to experience it actually getting close to you is different

And I've had past posts talking about the Habit stuff

Vinnie

Vinnie would also be heavily shaken up by all this

If he becomes aware too then he's even more worried for you and might be upset depending on if you're just a person in this version of the loop or if you become a part of it

I'm sure that it's only just the mining town four but that actually hurts Vinnie a little because you're just a passing thing and you'll be gone one way or another when the loop starts all over, and there's a chance that he might not remember you

I do think that that would be something for Habit to use to fuck with him in a future loop with something along the lines of "You had a kid last time, Vinnie? You remember that? I do! God, you really doting on them."

You having an interaction and getting operator just means you're involved now and that you basically have a target over your head for anyone or anything in there.

Vinnie does a lot, at least as much as he can, to protect you after that

I think you'd unfortunately be a soft spot that Habit frequently uses while in this loop that you exist in, maybe even after.

#slenderverse #everymanhybrid #marble hornets #emh evan #emh vinny #mh tim #mh brian #platonic x reader #marble hornets spoilers #everymanhybrid spoilers

[aix12279]

Biological Approach in Psych!

So, you may or may not know that when studying psych, there are multiple different approaches to how you look at behaviour. By approach, we mean how you explain the why of that behaviour.

There are three main approaches (at least in IB psych lol), which are: sociocultural, cognitive, and biological approach. If a person is being very, very aggressive in a classroom, and you're looking at their behaviour through a sociocultural approach, you'd be like "oh, the thing is, this person grew up in a very violent community and so their sociocultural context has made them violent"; if you were looking at their behaviour through a cognitive approach, you'd be like "oh, no, the thing is, this person has biases in their decision making which causes them to make violent decisions"; and finally, if you were looking at it through a biological approach, well... that's what'll be explained in this post :D

WHAT IS THE BIOLOGICAL APPROACH?

The biological approach says that our behaviour is all thanks to, you guessed it, ✨EVOLUTION✨, but more specifically it's also because of the genes that you inherited from your parents, how your brain is built and the lil chemical thingies that happen inside of your brain (this is where dopamine comes in LMAO)

There are three main principles that the biological approach is based on:

Behavior is a product of physiology. By physiology here we mean like the physical structure of your brain, like, quite literally, if your frontal lobe got chopped off by a wild ass animatronic, your behaviour will change, who could've thought?. There are two ways in which physiology may be a problem: structurally and functionally Structural problems mean, for example, your frontal lobe is literally too small which is why your IQ is 10 lmao. Basically, the physical structure of certain parts of the brain is damaged and therefore the functions that that specific part of the brain that is now damaged did are not being done. You can't bake a cake if you don't have an oven, and you can't solve 2+2 if the math smarts part of your brain ain't exactly there. Functional problems mean that the structure is there, the oven is there, it's just... not doing the thing. There could be low levels of activity in your frontal lobe, so, your frontal lobe is like there, it didn't get bitten off by a wild ass animatronic, but it's not doing the thingie it's supposed to do, or maybe your hormones are all in a whack which means that even thought your endocrine gland (the organ in charge of the hormone thingies) is there, it ain't really doing anything, or rather it's doing it wrong

Behavior can be genetically inherited. This is kind of self explanatory tbh, but it basically talks about how patterns of behaviour can be inherited from one generation to the other because the structure and the function of the nervous and endocrine systems (go back to principle 1), which determine your behavior, are technically determined by your genes, which are technically inherited from your parents

Animal research may inform our understanding of human behaviour. Humans are still sort of animals, so, we share a lot of genes with other animas, and that means if we can understand the behavior of other animals, understanding our behavior might be easier

AND WHAT ABOUT BIOLOGICAL APPROACH?

There are many topics which go under biological approach, but in the IB (sorry guys I'm an IB student and this is literally the only way of studying that'll go through my brain😭) all the topics fall under four big categories: The brain and behavior, hormones and behavior, genetics and behavior, and lastly the HL topic: The role of animal research in understanding human behavior.

Here I'll make a list of all the topics and I'll link them one by one as I make the posts about them :D

Localization (Brain and Behavior)

Neuroplasticity (Brain and Behavior)

Neurotransmitters and their effect on behavior (Brain and Behavior)

Techniques used to study the brain in relation to behavior (Brain and Behavior)

Hormones and behavior (Hormones and Behavior)

Pheromones and behavior (Hormones and Behavior)

Genes and behavior, genetic similarities (Genetics and Behavior)

Evolutionary explanations for behavior (Genetics and Behavior)

The role of animal research in understanding human behavior (HL topic)

Tbh I'm doing all of this to help myself understand the concepts better; Feynman technique and all that LMAO, I'll probably be doing flashcards on the topics and the studies related which I'll then share with each topic. Hopefully this is helpful for any other IB or just psych students in the world.

Have a good life<3

#international baccalaureate #IB #psychology #psych #highschool psych #IB psych

[immortalonus]

Dani/Ellie Phantom and Swyer's Syndrome

This is probably stupid, but it's been cluttering up my brain ever since I first remembered the condition existed, so I figured I might as well post it here.

So all those clones Vlad makes in kindred spirits: I'm almost certain you could roughly match each clone's appearance to real life genetic disorders (Which has lead "terminal bone disorder-fetus" to add another tick on my secret FBI watchlist, so thanks for that.) Some on a more one-to-one real life scale than others.

I may put some more research into the other clones sometime or other, but at the moment, lets focus on Ellie.

Ellie Phantom! One of only three halfas in the show, and, somehow, a female clone of a male gene donor.

Since Danny Phantom has managed to maintain a pretty robust fanbase since it ended in ~07 or so, there are already a bunch of good answers as to how a male teenager's genes could somehow lead to the creation of a 12 year old girl, one of the most popular being that Danny is, in fact, transgender, which would cause any genetic clone of his to pop out with an XX female phenotype by default.

Supposing that Danny is in fact an XY male, however, there are still a couple of options out there that could explain how his genetic code could be used to create a female variant of himself.

Because that's the thing, you know genes? Genes are strange, and when you add irresponsible mad scientists operating outside their specialty on top of ghost powers, things get even stranger.

And for the record, a lot of this is going to lean heavily on the idea that Vlad *is* operating outside his specialty here. Dude's an ectobiologist at best and a jack-of-all-trades ectoscientist at worst. Any understanding of how living (or half-living) things work is way outside his wheel house. Honestly, the man would be lucky if debilitating genetic anomalies were the only thing wrong with these kids.

Back on topic, Swyer's syndrome is interesting because its a disorder associated with the Y chromosome which leads to a near perfect female phenotype in the effected individual. Put simply, someone with Swyer's syndrome would present as physically female, despite being genetically male, a really stark example of how genotype (the information coded in your genes) doesn't always match phenotype (your physical makeup/how those genes present.)

While Swyer's syndrome doesn't seem to have one absolutely certain cause, what usually seems to happen is that early on in a fetus's development, the Y-chromosome does a whoopsie and fails to deliver its make-a-dude manual (*usually* the SRY gene) the way it's supposed to, so the body, lacking any instructions to the otherwise, just kind of defaults to a girl instead.

Physically, a person with Swyer's syndrome would be born with non-ambiguous genitalia, normal Fallopian tubes, and even a functioning womb (so long as an egg is donated from elsewhere). So far as I know, the only problem is that someone with this condition would have is that they don't have proper ovaries. instead, they just have "streak gonads", basically the reproductive equivalent of a confused shrug where you would normally expect the girl bits to go.

Those streak gonads are the primary way most individuals with Swyer's syndrome are normally found, as these things can't do stuff like "menstruate" or "puberty" the way actual ovaries would on their own. Completing a full female puberty and achieving menses requires administration of external hormones instead.

Streak gonads are also super cancerous, BTW. We're talking tumor-licious funtime levels of cancer here, which gives Swyer syndrome's otherwise subtle presentation something of a downside. Surgically removing those streak gonads is usually strongly recommended for long term health.

Interestingly, the lack of normal ovaries (and the puberty they play a part in,) has the potential to explain another oddity between Ellie and Danny: Namely, their apparent age gap.

While it's very possible Ellie's just younger than Danny because Vlad didn't have enough of his EZ-bake growth serum or whatever for her tube, what if she actually was 15 or even 16 years old, but doesn't really look it? What if she had something, such as the streak gonads associated with Swyer's syndrome, actively obstructing her ability to mature?

Ellie was lab grown, so the length of time she's been alive doesn't match her stage of growth, anyway. She'd have no way to tell for herself, and once Vlad realized he had another imperfect clone on his hands, I doubt he cared enough to bother with something as fiddly and time consuming as getting a proper measurement of her age. I can easily see him telling her "ur twelve," based off a quick glance at her looks and calling it a day.

So yeah, those are my thoughts on "What if Ellie had Swyer's syndrome." It's kind of a cool headcannon, though I have no idea how I'd implement it in practice. It was fun to research, I guess.

#Danny Phantom #Dani/Ellie Phantom #Clone stuff #Worldbuilding #Wrote 90% of this months ago and then forgot about it #Not a scientist #Just goofing off

[lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks]

found an old folder of OC art for a comic series I never made

this bitch be THICC

thank you 16 year old Lula for putting the date on all the art in here so now I know that I filled this entire thing in less than two years

the concept was about the personal lives and interactions of the Minions and Side Kicks of a small group of heroes and villains (who you never actually see)

the focus was on their interpersonal relationships, with very little attention on the actual battles

there was also a whole worldbuilding aspect with this military drug that gave the superheroes their powers, but the creator of the drug went rogue and started selling it on the black market, which is what causes the supervillains to rise

diluted versions of the drug with more minimal effects start hitting the streets and drawing the attention of teenagers who take it in the hopes of getting cool superpowers, at best they're harmless mutations of some sort (one minor character gained the ability to unhinge his jaw like a snake), and at worst it's something debilitating that affects their daily lives

none of the main cast have any abilities, the Side Kicks are part of a controversial government training program and won't be allowed to take the serum until they've graduated from the Side Kick program and become fully fledged Heroes in their own right

the Minions have been promised the non-diluted drug in return for their service, but of course they never actually deliver on that promise (except one who was actually the daughter of the villain and ended up inheriting her father's abilities via genetics, it was supposed to be a big plot twist because no one ever knew they could be passed down, since her father was one of the successful early trial runners before she was born, she was the first child conceived by someone who had taken the drug)

there's a mystical, immortal, omnipotent being that gives information to whoever can track him down in exchange for puzzles and toys, he was a schizophrenic homeless boy who was kidnapped and experimented on, he was the very first successful (and unwilling) recipient of the drug trials, but he escaped and was never recaptured thanks to his teleportation powers, he is incredibly powerful and also completely unstable, his omnipotent abilities combined with his schizophrenia make him unable to tell which voices in his head are telling the truth and which are lying

the two main characters were childhood best friends who are surprised to find themselves facing each other in battle, they meet up in secret and maintain a friendship while pretending to fight each other on the job

so much of this folder is just artwork of the 8 main characters hanging out together, playing with costume designs, experimenting with art styles

but in this whole thing there are only a small handful of actual comics, all of them being isolated encounters between characters with no real plot

I had a lot of ideas for character concepts and worldbuilding, but very little idea on how to pull it together into a cohesive story, I would keep getting sidetracked with new minor characters with their own side plots, or background worldbuilding info

so I spent over a year building and building and building this idea and then eventually it just fizzled out and I never touched it again, kind of a shame tbh, some of these ideas still kinda slap (definitely a few things in here that did not age well though yeesh, 16 year old Lula had some real shady views and opinions she had yet to grow out of)

this was a fun romp down memory lane though, maybe I should do a redraw or two, could be fun ~

#lula's thoughts #M.A.S.K. #ocs #original concept #let me know if you actually wanna see any of the art

[kiutb]

"Never back down. Never let go. Never stop fighting. Fight... or be forgotten."

THE HUNTER / THE MARTYR (He/Her | Echoed Pathways) They are synonymous in this AU. They have arrived. A little bit about them below.

History Hunter was created genetically by NSH, but partway through his creation, NSH "deviated from the script" - effectively turning Hunter into an Android and giving him internal cybernetical enhancements. These came at the cost of increased hunger, and the Rot, but to NSH... this didn't matter. Not at the time.

Hunter was used as a messenger and a weapon by NSH, before the Iterator grew a deep bond and connection to their creation, treating them as their own and repenting for the fate Hunter was doomed to - but the slugcat themselves could care less for the inevitable end. They only pushed on, more and more. Fought more and more, against both their Rot and the cruelty of their world.

[DATA FORCIBLY EXPUNGED]

While some of his history feels like a blur, hidden to him, he feels and knows of a connection to the Iterator known as Sliver of Straw and their teachings - uptaking meditation and attempting to keep themselves in line with their karma, not just to traverse the world but to potentially give themselves some form of hope.

Soon enough, Hunter would receive the message. Deliver a pearl to the iterator, Looks to the Moon, who is currently suffering from a water deficiency as per the actions of another Local Group member, and return home intact and await further instructions.

And so he went, encountering the Saint as his saviour in what would have been an unfortunate fate, and a frustrating setback for the Hunter, and growing a close connection with the fluffy enigma, while meeting the Rivulet soon after at the troubled Iterator's can.

During his passage, a surprise encounter with the Survivor had him desperately explaining that, even if all hope is lost, ascension isn't an excuse to drown out that pain - and helped them reunite with their lost brother.

However, Hunter noticed something about the Monk. They bore scars, and the mark of a fighter, but bore no weapon. The boy had immense physical prowess - while not as much as Hunter, due to his enhancements, it was still particularly remarkable. Those marks also bore signs of natural karmatic prowess - they were a perfect candidate for what originally was [DATA INACESSIBLE]

The Hunter soon found himself mentoring the Monk, teaching him the ways of the world and how to manoeuvre it, how to become in tune with it, and how to defend himself amongst other things. Hunter's actions enabled the younger slugcat to pursue a scholarly background amongst their colony.

While Hunter did grow a deep bond with those he met, he only found himself falling further into a pit of emotions he couldn't understand thanks to the Saint. And inevitably, he boiled over... confessing what felt like the world to her.

And those feelings were reciprocated.

And the Hunter was no longer alone.

Though the future would bear a fate that Hunter would not be pleasant to meet... neither would it be the last ordeal he would go through... soon to bear a new title amongst their own.

Personality Hunter is extremely volatile, but is kind and caring to those he meet, always showing compassion if he's able to. Inherently a pessimist, he still fights regardless. His kind nature however, tends to be quite manipulatable, due to his second guessing of himself and others.

Doesn't like to talk much, but loves physical attention or affection.

However, suffers from PTSD and frequently re-experiences traumatic moments, causing him to become a rather despairing person at times.

Known Relationships Survivor - Good friends. Not much particularly of note, as they get along fine as is. Monk - Mentor. Teaches him things about the world, how to fight and meditation as well. Also friends.

Nightcat - Friends. Introverts get along well, and they appear to share a similar interest in a more technological background. Rivulet - Best friends. While Hunter is oblivious to the other's crush, they get along relatively hand in hand, and have been mistaken for partners at several occasions due to their extremely deep bond.

Saint - Lovers. Would die for, and then would die again and again if the situation called for him to do so. His love for the Saint knows no end - and has such, never once faltered, even through the toughest of times.

Inv/Enot - Can't really grasp a proper opinion on. Strange and... eccentric...? Seems to be compensating for something, but he doesn't know nor understand what it might be - just he knows that he's trying to be someone he's not.

Spearmaster- Despises. Constantly neck and neck with one another, over a deep grudge sparked from a prior rivalry that Hunter seems to have expunged from his memory, and his past - but Spearmaster remembers. Tarot [The World]

Design Inspirations Pansear's Hunter Roland Jotaro Kujo Probably others I don't remember

If you can't tell, I'm quite inspired by the people around me - especially Pansear, as they're the only one who's gone into such detail as I'm doing now. It's fun. It really is.

#rain world #rainworld #hunter #rain world hunter #kiu anthro au #kius echoed pathways #anthro au #fanart #furry #slugcat

[bi-kisses]

I wanted to thank you for the post you just made about detrans people, I really needed to hear that support right now since we don't really get much empathy these days. People just talk about us as statistics and bargaining chips and not really as people, it feels like. I won't pretend to know everything about the detrans/desist circles since I'm still new to it myself but I've experienced enough that so far anytime I see someone talking about detrans it's usually to win arguments or they only talk about misdiagnosed detransitioners, and those of us who were correctly diagnosed and are and always have been sex dysphoric get ignored. I guess we don't really 'fit' anyone's argument well enough for them to want to acknowledge us. It's a really sucky life to live for lack of a more formal wording; the only treatment that's really out there for this dysphoria is transitioning and when it doesn't work, it's a very bleak way to live. I never really understood why some people years into their transitions are still nearly as miserable as before they started or still attempt suicide, but now I do. I don't mean to vent or traumadump too much, for a little context as insight on a personal example: I had an unsuccessful transition. I was transitioned as a minor and now in my 20s I suffer from health complications, mostly regarding my heart and hemoglobin and all that (I've had heart palpitations/irregular heartbeat since I was 19 or 20), and I can no longer continue medically transitioning unless I want to see an early cardiac arrest or death from its worsening. The doctors that gave me transition treatment will not give me detransition treatment nor referrals so I'm on my own now. Not to mention I am stuck looking like a teenage boy and will never be able to look like a fully grown man which causes a lot of dysphoria and pain since the only reason I transitioned was to be a man, not to be a forever teenager. I don't regret the transition's effects of masculinizing me, if anything I wish there were more, but it's been 10 years so there's no more to be gained. At this point if I detransitioned fully I don't think I'd look like a woman either so I'm pretty much stuck suffering no matter what I do or don't do next in terms of continuing or stopping social aspects of my transition. I'm not sure if it's because I was transitioned too young or because I just have shit genes, but this is my situation and it is permanent.

Anyway, I'm sure there are many other detransitioners/desistors out there like me in similar situations. It's our lives, our realities, and it's a lot of suffering to have ignored and not have much support for. Not to mention how it's pretty much impossible to talk to friends and family about for fear of them lashing out that they think you 'betrayed' them or 'lied' or 'made a stupid mistake' so we don't have a lot of safe places to talk about this kind of thing. I even feel like I have to stay on anon to be able to safely talk about this here.

My heart goes out to you, and idk if it's any comfort but I have for sure seen several people in similar situations where they ARE dysphoric and would love to live as the opposite sex but it just isn't viable. Usually it's seen with trans women, as transitioning from male to female is notoriously luck dependent genetically speaking, but health issues have impeded trans guys I've known too.

I can't believe you aren't able to receive medical support for your detransition, that's fucking awful and those doctors should be held accountable for not providing what is, imo, a necessary service to help you live in a comfortable and healthy manor.

I'm not detrans, but I have a pretty fucking irritating health condition that makes my day to day really uncomfortable. I totally understand that helplessness. Doctors have been useless to me so far (I'm on, like, my third different specialist just hoping this one figures out what's wrong). Sometimes all we can do is figure out what works so that each day is worth getting through, even if we can't live in an ideal way.

Lots of love for you and I hope things get better soon. Feel free to reach out anytime.

#anonymous #kisstalks

[coquelicoq]

does anybody have any suggested readings on theory of magic from an inclusive, comparative perspective? i guess i'm looking for some kind of compendium of different theories of magic that show up throughout cultures and also throughout fantasy genres, but my searching is mostly turning up books for magic practitioners, and usually for just a particular kind of magic practice, rather than a rundown of all the different kinds that are out there. by "theories of magic" i mean things like

sympathetic magic (like calls to like; for example, voodoo dolls)

scientific magic both experimental (e.g., alchemy) and observational (e.g., astrology)

harnessing the power of social constructs (e.g., matthew swift drawing red parking lines around himself as a ward; a lot of urban fantasy falls under this i think)

performative speech acts (the power of certain phrases that, in being said, cause themselves to be true; think "i now pronounce you husband and wife", or the transubstantiation of the eucharist)

communion with supernatural beings, either asking nicely (e.g., prayer) or binding them to your will (e.g., the genie in the lamp)

manipulation of substances with special properties (e.g., jade in the green bones saga)

magic via the trained awareness and control of one's mind and body/meditation and martial arts as magic (e.g., xianxia)

the power of belief (e.g., the placebo effect, affirmations)

the ability to interpret subconscious or subliminal messages (e.g., various forms of divination; ESP)

magic as genetic, magic as learned; magic as energy, magic as attention; magic as science, magic as religion; magic on a macro level, magic on a micro level; magic as a force of nature, magic as manmade...

so, i guess both the logic underlying a magic system (the why) and the way in which magic functions (the how). i don't even know if "theories of magic" is the right terminology. (if i knew enough about this to write a post that made sense, i wouldn't need to ask for advice on what search terms to use, lol.) what are the different ways that magic is/has been conceptualized? surely there is tons of scholarship on this and i am just looking in the wrong places.

#magic systems #fantasy #anthropology #taxonomy #my posts