Druidcrisp: Art and Various Findings

gimli:

aragorn:

gandalf:

Boromir:

Elrond:

Hi. I'm Nadi and I run this blog, the archive, and the associated discord. Below you'll find some key links to all of these places. If you appreciate the work I do, consider leaving a tip or signing up to support me monthly if you can afford to. With all the anti-public health stuff going on right now, I sometimes feel like I'm doing the work of 3 government agencies, and I'm just one lady doing this with my own time. If you want to chat with more like-minded people, hop into the discord: We don't bite.

a lot can change

made in aseprite

"Caring for a pet helps stave off cognitive decline for people over 50 who live on their own, according to a new study of almost 8,000 participants.

Researchers found that pet ownership was associated with slower rates of decline in verbal memory and verbal fluency among the older adults who were living alone.

The study included 7,945 mostly-white British participants from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing with an average age of 66.

Followed over an eight year period, more than a third of the group (35.1 percent) owned pets; about 30% of the group lived alone.

Previous studies suggested that solitary living is a risk factor for developing dementia and cognitive decline, but among those folks, raising dogs or cats was related to reduced loneliness.

Some research has found that pet ownership is associated with better verbal memory and executive function, but others failed to find any evidence.

The new research published in JAMA Network aimed to further explore the association between aging by oneself—a trend which has been on the rise over the past few decades—and pet ownership. And the results were clear.

“Pet ownership offset the associations between living alone and declining rates in verbal memory and verbal fluency,” said study corresponding author Professor Ciyong Lu, of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China.

It was “a significant modifier” in all 3 associations—composite verbal cognition, verbal memory, and verbal fluency.

“Pet ownership was associated with slower rates of decline among older adults living alone.”

But owning a cat or dog did not make any difference for older people who lived with other people.

“These findings suggest that pet ownership may be associated with slower cognitive decline among older adults living alone.”

Prof. Lu is now calling for clinical trials that could help inform public health measures to address dementia among the elderly."

“The notion that people panic and run screaming for the exits is a Hollywood fiction,” said Prof Stephen Reicher, an expert in group behaviour at the University of St Andrews.

“Characteristically, people stay and help each other,” he said. “We found this during the 7/7 attacks on the underground and the 1999 attack on the Admiral Duncan pub in London, where people looked after each other even though they feared other bombs.

“In our own research on the Leytonstone tube attack in 2015, there was an amazing level of spontaneous coordination by bystanders: some directed others away from danger. Some distracted the attacker. Some confronted the attacker. Each was able to act because of the others. Heroism was a feature of the group, not just the individual,” he added.

In the year 2000, there was not a single country in the world where they could have gotten married.

The first country to legalize same sex marriage was the Netherlands in 2001.

Now, in 2026, there are thirty-eight countries with same-sex marriage, with another two on average being added every year (x). Including three of the most populous countries in the world (the US, Brazil, and Mexico, x).

Altogether, over a billion people now live somewhere that same-sex marriage is legal. Twenty-five years ago, that number was zero.

Things are hard right now, but in so many ways they are so much better than they have been for a very, very long time.

Cosplay progress for tonight!  I’ve really gotten back into the Old Kingdom trilogy by Garth Nix, and Lirael is a character I’ve wanted to cosplay for a long time.  There are a lot of things about her outfit that involve skills that I want to learn/practice (leatherworking, casting, goldwork, possibly even shoe making?) so I decided, screw it, now’s as good of a time as any to start working on pieces for her.

Right now I’m working on a soapstone Dog!  This is one night’s progress carving with a hand knife and a dremel attachment for the area around the legs.  It’s funny because she’s described numerous times petting it like a real dog, and like… I didn’t realize soapstone would feel so nice to hold.  It’s got a nice weight to it and feels very silky - I can totally see why Lirael would want to hang on to a little figurine like this.