are you guys hearing about this dude working to developing a vaccine for cats that he's hoping would like. theoretically double their lifespans?

turns out i wasn't making that up, his name is Dr. Toru Miyazaki! he also wrote a book called "The Day Cats Live To Be Thirty", so cats are kind of his thing.

apparently, cats' kidneys tend to be the thing that takes them down, something about their bodies being unable to self-clean their kidneys, and the vaccine is supposed revitalize the body's ability to do just that. It would be very VERY fucking cool to have cats suddenly reaching 30 years of age be the normal thing.

whoa wait i actually read the articles and it's so much cooler than just that!!

dude cracked the case about WHY kidneys fail, across the board as far as i can tell. turns out there's a specific molecule whose job it is to attach to waste and signal macrophages to come eat it. it remains inactive in cats for some reason, but the molecule is still there. basically what he's done is found the switch to activate them. this will be profound not only for our domestic babies, but for big cats too - especially cheetahs!

although his research was focused on cats, it's already being used to develop drugs for humans too!

on top of that, since these molecules are tags for waste, this could also dramatically lower the rate of fatty liver disease, liver cancer, urinary crystals, rheumatoid arthritis, and even some neurological cases! like, they're hoping it may have an impact on parkinson's and alzheimers, but it DOES have an impact on stroke recovery. like. holy shit.

furthermore, he's insisting that the feline drug be affordable if and when it rolls out onto the market. he wants this to be something anyone can get for their cat!! idk how much sway he'll have over the human drug, but hopefully enough that it, too, won't be that expensive.

annnnnd in his research that he's still doing for the human side of things, he's found a potential link between this molecule and estrogen. in the 20,000 samples he's tested, women between ages 10 and 29 had the highest amount of this molecule present in their blood (a higher amount means Something Fucky is going on, essentially. There's a higher amount of waste the body is trying to clean out) but it drops down to be almost equal amongst men and women after menopause. it hasn't been looked into yet, but fuck, just the fact it's noted and known and probably WILL be looked into soon??? imagine if this is what leads to figuring out all the various ways the ovaries and uterus fucks with people and how to fix it. or even like, maybe there's something about estrogen that makes it work better. who knows! but it's rad the link is there to be researched :D

man just think, not only could our kitties start living longer, healthier lives, but just maybe dialysis will become as rare and obsolete as the iron lung is for people. what a badass Dr. Toru is!

"But I don't want to turn people into dinosaurs. I wanna cure kittie kidneys!"

Censoring words like "abuse," "rape," "sex," "molest," etc. has never helped a single survivor in the history of ever. It is nothing more than a concession to a puritanical culture that wants to silence survivors. Do not give this culture a single inch. Stop censoring scary words.

Did you know that you can waste your free time by not knowing which activity to do so you do none of them

You know every show that the premise is like “people find out ghosts/monsters/demons are real and are charged with stopping them” appeal to me way more now as a post-graduate not because I believe in ghosts more or whatever but because can you IMAGINE just being handed a job that you don’t even need to apply for? Like just being told “basically there’s this bad thing and all you do is make sure it doesn’t do what it wants” that’s just customer service baby and I worked that for 6 goddamn years! Just TRY getting past “I have a job to offer you” before I can jump down your throat agreeing.

some idiot with a dumb ghost-hunting name who joined the Cause because they love the paranormal: oh fuck oh shit this is really scary guys I’m having second thoughts

me, who knows that if we run away I have to apply to like, a real actual Jobbe again: wakey wakey demons it’s this or retail so guess who’s got nothing to lose

the world needs trans men more than it needs miserable cis women and the world needs trans women more than it needs miserable cis men and the world needs nonbinary people more than it needs miserable binary people

The world actively benefits from people living the lives they want to live.

Food stamps may stop in November if the shutdown continues. This may be a good time to look into food banks, kitchens, meal trains, and discount markets and programs for outdated foods if you are depending on SNAP.

As it stands, SNAP benefits end October 31st.

There's at least one regional org where we live doing a massive food drive in response, so we'll be participating. I'm openly asking anyone who can help out to do the same for your local communities.

findhelp.org is a resource that can help you find food banks/pantries in your area

Find your local free fridges as well! I would say all large cities have multiple now, most have instagram pages, but googling "city/state free fridge" works.

Find where they are and take your leftovers to them (unopened/not eaten from) like canned items you won't eat, drinks, snacks you didn't want, extra soup from your batch, extra oatmilk if you made too much, etc. Someone will eat the pack of Ramen in the flavor you didn't enjoy, and they will be glad they found it.

And if you own your home OR have a driveway/curb that's yours and a spare shelf/fridge/freezer make your own!

As well, if you won't have access to food you like or know how to cook use websites like:

Selfshippers who ship with weird/unappealing characters. I love you. Like hell yeah you go get with Mr Crocker. Go get with lord faarquad

ALT

Rare occasion where twitter elevates something beautiful

Smh you guys can't just leave out this amazing addition that op made

ALT

Totk dlc but it's about the sages from Rauru's time and how they all joined the fight against Ganondorf and when to get to the original sage of lightning instead of like, redoing Nabooru where the vibes are kind of "don't worry, I'm one of the good ones" the reason she's rebelling against Ganondorf and teaming up with Rauru is that she's yet to see a Hylian or a Zonai with bad hair.

Sonia: Why choose to fight against your own people?

Sage of Lightning: I choose to fight for my people, to save them from the Demon King. Truly, the worst ruler we Gerudo have ever had.

Rauru: Surely he wouldn't mistreat his own people so--

Sage of Lightning: Excuse me. Have you seen a Gerudo woman lately? Have you noticed they all have this haircut? That's a state mandated haircut. Ganondorf makes people get that haircut under penalty of death. A mohawk and a ponytail. A high ponytail. That haircut is an affront to every god, and will be the fate of any surviving Hylian if Ganondorf succeeds. I for one refuse to get this haircut, and will fight the Demon King with everything I have, so that one day my sisters may get their hair cut however they please.

ALT

Sonia: (faints from shock)

Age of Imprisonment can still redeem itself in my eyes by having this be the Sage of Lightning’s backstory. Like everyone else is like “he threw a bunch of molduga in our backyard and hadn’t even invented the exploding monster thing yet do you know how hard it is to clean up a corpse of that size” and “he’s the source of the ancient evil that literally ruined my life and destroyed my civilization” or some shit and the lightning sage is just “Yeah no your kingdom is boring and lame I just don’t want that stupid haircut”

It's so funny to me how Ford is so morally gray and has probably killed so many aliens and has almost brought about the end of the world and worked with demons and is wanted in every dimension. Yet he hangs out with his sweet and simple family - an old man and cute kids whose misbehavior is just stuff like shoplifting. I love it when only one character feels like like they're from a show with a very different genre and target audience.

He's such an unintentionally hilarious character. Almost all of the problems the characters face are a direct result of his mistakes, and yet he's still seen as the serious, straight man who fixes the problems, lol. He is only seen that way cause he's standing next to Stanley of all people.

Originally posted by cheffynnlee

@itsacruelsummerwithyou2 don’t leave this in the replies!!

GenAI v. not GenAI round up.

So you can avoid them stealing things from you, the artist/writer, etc.

Pro GenAI websites/Programs:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• X/Twitter (Remember, Grok gives people cancer)
• Threads
• Pro Writing Aid
• Grammarly
• Duolingo
• Google Docs
• Microsoft Word/all Microsoft products Takes from and will feed their machine.
• Youtube (taking advantage of people who are hearing impaired. ==;;)
• Adobe Products. All of them. If you HAVE to use them (Some businesses require it), save offline because there is a film of at least some privacy protections there, so if you have to sue, you can say it violates US privacy law. Remember, contracts do not circumvent US law.
• Corel won't feed the machines, but still uses AI stolen from other artists. Which sucks since Corel Draw is the second best overall for vector programs. (Plus I love Painter, but I bought the offline version to avoid AI). (Canadian company)
• Canva Takes and feeds their machine.
• Deviant Art Not only supports AI, but put a tool in and said they are going to steal your work if you like it or not for their machine.
• Sketchup went Pro-GenAI. The thing is that you can do the same thing in Blender these days with precise measurements.
• Autodesk has stated they are Pro-Gen AI here. It is not clear if they will use your models to feed their machine. But be on guard. They make Maya and 3Dmax. You can replace it with Blender.

Neutral ground:

• Tumblr (there is a way to opt out [Link] and they don't have an active AI machine.) https://www.tumblr.com/dookins/743519550598987776/heres-how-to-disable-third-parties-like-ai
• Etsy allows GenAI, but still has some (minor) restrictions. I'd still be cautious. (Also be cautious of drop shippers). Complaints about too much AI and AI images+patterns made by Ai still exist on the website. They lean slightly more pro-AI, but still won't let it run completely amok, say like Facebook. They won't feed your work into a machine, but also don't ban it through robots.txt.
• Bluesky They don't use an AI algorithm except for in the "Discover" section of their website, but while they are anti-GenAI strongly, they don't seem to block the Gen AI bots from entry, so you'd still have to use Nightshade or Glaze (links below). There is no opt-out because they don't need an opt out. (Leaning towards strong position on AI, but I wish they would block GenAI bots).
• Searxng- If you super want to screw over Google, in general, and have some tech savvy, you can set up your own search engine through searxng. It's easier on Windows and Linux than it is on a Mac. (Mac you need Docker), but if you're determined on privacy, Searxng adds a layer of privacy. Some of it sometimes uses bits of AI, but most of it doesn't and you can fuss with the settings so it doesn't spit out AI results. At sheer minimum Google will stop spitting out weird videos on Youtube at you because in your private browsing, you searched for the origin of ball bearings while not logged in for a book and Google likes to break privacy laws.

Strong positions against AI:

Scrivener (Creator vowed against AI) Writing program. There is an active forum, and versions for Mac, Linux and PC. It is paid, but at ~60 USD, it's cheaper than most programs. There is usually a holiday sale around Christmas. It has a learning curve, but with an active forum with the programmer of it there to ask obscure questions it's not a dead zone. They often take suggestions and implement them over time. (Especially if you rank the importance, applications, etc) US company.

LibreOffice Open source and free Spreadsheet and Word processor program that can replace Microsoft Word. Some people might have seen older versions where it was called Neo Office (now extinct) and Open Office. LibreOffice is still populated, plus the forums are super helpful if you get stuck. The UX is pretty intuitive if you've used Microsoft Word. Scrivener, BTW, supports exporting to odt (the native file) as well as .doc, and this can open both. The slight thing is that sometimes it doesn't export to .doc smoothly. And I DO wish more magazines, and agent (big clue here) supported .odt files since it is free. Part of the reason .odt isn't as supported is because Microsoft and Adobe have a deal with the devil with each other, so Adobe's Book formatting program InDesign doesn't support ODT. (BTW, if you have a good open source replacement for InDesign that supports ODT, let me know.)

Dabble (as suggested by SF stories, see reblog) is a writing program. Similar to Scrivener. Has vowed against AI and to resist it. 108 dollars a year for Basic. It is almost twice the price of Scrivener who lets you update for fairly cheap. 29 dollars a month, v. 59 dollars for the whole program (Scrivener) for the same features of Premium. You choose.

yWriter is a free Writing program and like Scrivener, and has vowed against AI Last I looked it had some UX issues, but some people swear by it. The learning curve is higher than Scrivener which is saying something.

Ellipsus is an online writing program and vowed against AI. The main feature I like (which Scrivener doesn't have) is the ability to change spellcheck based on region/language. It is a requested feature of Scrivener, but lower priority. So if you have a Brit, you can get the spelling for the character. They are a British-based company.

Cara.app (The creator of the website sued GenAI there is no chance they'll convert) is an artist website. Cara is trying to institute an auto Glaze/Nightshade into the website if given enough funds. People see it as a soft replacement for deviant art. (which went fully AI) If you believe in human art, please donate if you can. Zhang Jingna, the Creator,is Chinese-Singporean. She lives in Singapore.

Clip Studio Paint added AI, but saw the light and decided to protect artists instead because of protest and removed it. There are tutorials and a good forum if you get super stuck. Based in Japan, so the UI and UX is really clean.

Davinci Resolve Pro is a film editing software that's super good. There is a free version and a paid version. The forums are responsive. The programmers aren't always present. There is a healthy group of tutorials. US company. Clean UX. It does take a little bit of time to remember the shortcuts.

Tahoma2D is anti-AI and open source animation program. Takes a little getting used to, but is good for animations and doesn't crash as often as Animate. Programmers are in the forums and some bugs are fixed within hours. The forums are super responsive and helpful.

Krita open source and free, no AI. I'd rank it secondary to Clip Studio Paint (which is paid) I haven't tried the forums, but it's pretty intuitive and can stand for a lower level replacement for Painter, and do a lot of the basics of Photoshop. It's usually ranked higher than the equally open source Gimp.

Writer P AKA Writer+ (app for when you're on the go) is a simple word processor app for your phone that doesn't use AI. The original programmer stopped updating, so Writer+ person took over and isn't out to make a profit since it's free in the spirit of the original app. It has subfolders you can use. Since it was programmed before GenAI it doesn't have AI. Intuitive, easy to use. Fairly easy to upload the files through three dots->share. The files can save to your card or phone with some settings fussing. Simple word processor.

Inkscape is a free vector program and no AI. It is harder to use than illustrator and has less features. But if you're doing smaller vectors for one-offs with less complexity, it'll do you after some learning curve. Best of the lot. I hate Affinity Designer which is the same thing, only paid. (Neither Affinity program was worth the money paid)

Affinity (Designer, etc) swore to be AI-free and does Vector and Photos. The UX is messy, I dislike the program and regret paying for it. Inkscape and Krita are better UX and do the same thing. The forums aren't as friendly since there has been an onslaught of people seeing it's supposed to be a replacement for Photoshop and Illustrator, but the programmers aren't present. The people on the forums are often on edge about this assertion. And the capabilities of the program don't outshine basically Krita or Inkscape capabilities (both free). What is usually intuitive is not. UK company. If you're going to pay for a program, go for Clip Studio Paint which rivals Corel Painter.

Blender is a 3D art program and does not use GenAI. It can do 2D animation, but Tahoma is easier to use in this regard. It's open source and free. Plus there are plenty of tutorials. The forums can be touch and go sometimes, but there are plenty of sub Blender communities that might be responsive. It can also do animation.

Handmade vowed against AI and promised to never sell itself for stock prices to prevent AI (as a replacement for Etsy.)

Proton (to replace Google Suite) as suggested by SF Stories (see reblog) Vowed against AI. They are missing a spreadsheet, but have online and offline capabilities, plus a built-in VPN.

But you need a pro website...

• Look up robots.txt and AI bots: https://www.cyberciti.biz/web-developer/block-openai-bard-bing-ai-crawler-bots-using-robots-txt-file/
• Use cloudflare:

• Use Nightshade:

https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html

which will poison the algorithm

• Use Glaze:

Take Away:

The thing is you think you doing it alone will do nothing, but the more AI feeds on itself, AI images, the worse they become, and the less detailed so, denying it the images, adding poison or not being able to read the human text is eventually going to lead to an AI collapse.

And why not help that along?

I don't want to give cancer to poor people [Link] or make the planet burn faster [Link]. So GenAI collapse is everything I dream of. GenAI apocalypse is not.

You can add Procreate to the anti AI list. They have vowed time and time again when people ask that they will not use AI in their software.

The eco fash and eugenicist leftists (yes, whether you admit it or not, you exist) aren't going to like this but I rank the invention of plastic as one of the top 5 best inventions to ever happen to medicine, along with soap, insulin, vaccines, and rehydration salt fluids

Absolutely! People who want to eliminate plastic production in its entirety ignore how it is used in *countless* ways medically. You know how surgical instruments stay sterile? Plastic packaging to keep them that way. How subdermal implants can be lightweight and comfortable as the body moves (to the point of being unnoticeable) and still disperse the medication for even years before needing to be changed out? Plastic bodies! Do you know what many modern stitches are? Plastic! Bc it has the ability to be fully sterilized and stretchable enough to move without snapping or tearing the skin while keeping the wound closed and in a position to heal.

If you wanna go after plastic: go after the consumer culture that puts ridiculous amounts of kids toys in dumps and clothes made by fast fashion. But this is a strong case of the ironic "all generalizations are bad" truism. I am all for reducing plastic waste and it's damage on the environment, but don't even *look* at the medical industry, let alone blame it until youve "solved" about ten other industries, cos this one improves and saves lives.

fuck a "secret recipe" it should be standard practice to write out a little notecard with an ingredients+allergens list when you bring something to a potluck

God the 11 year old girls you put on this earth to climb trees and play with plastic animals are buying foundation at the drug store

for a second i thought you meant foundation like, a building foundation. not makeup

God the 11 year old girls you put on this earth are building something great and terrible on the edge of town