Elliot

“That’s funny” said the child “because 2+4=6 and two pounds and four pounds is six pounds. It’s like the same as math!”

“What happens if you add 6+1?”

“SEVEN”

“What if we put one pound of mangos on the scale?” <mangos added>

“IT’S THE SAME!!”

“OK, what’s 7-4?”

“Three?”

“What if we take the four pound watermelon off the scale?” <watermelon removed>

Then you got Dungeon Meshi which is like:

ASL has many signs inspired by (and/or taken directly from) Plains Indian Sign Language/Hand Talk Except that for a long time PISL was forbidden for Native Americans to use so they were forced to use ASL

Everyone's talking about Artemis II, the first humans to travel to the moon in 50 years

Historic, right? BUT nobody's talking about the Deaf people who made it possible.

In the late 1950's, NASA had a problem.

They needed to understand what weightlessness did to the human body but every test subject kept getting violently motion sick

NASA needed to figure out FAST during the space race!

So, they went to Gallaudet University. They recruited 11 Deaf people.

Because a number of Deaf people had lost their hearing to spinal meningitis as children which also damaged their vestibular system.

Their inner ears couldn't be overwhelmed. They were immune to motion sickness.

NASA put them in centrifuges. Put them on zero gravity flights. A room for 12 straight days.

(All caps) It rotated the entire time.

One experiment on a ferry in choppy Nova Scotia waters, the researchers got so seasick they had to cancel it. The Gallaudet Eleven? They were playing cards.

Their bodies gave NASA the data and research it needed to send humans into space.

No Gallaudet Eleven? No Mercury. No Apollo. No Artemis II.

They stood on the shoulders of 11 Deaf people most people have never heard of.

If you are deemed employable (which means you can work at least 3 hours per day), unemployment money comes with duties like showing up to appointments, applying to suggested workplaces and other initiatives to find a job. If you repeatedly fail to do so, you will get the (inofficial) label of being "Totalverweigerer" (entirely non-compliant). There are roughly 16.000-18.000 of them. Under closer inspection, most of them end up having proper reasons. Not applying for jobs because they are too far away or simply not a match. Not showing up to appointments due to unreliable public transport, mental overwhelm, conflict with other duties (like childcare) and health issues.

EVERY TIME I have to drive through a city and look down on cars, changing lanes with no signal, eating/drinking coffee/smoking/putting on makeup while driving, PHONE IN HAND, going 85mph through 55mph commuter traffic, crossing 3 lanes of traffic to shove their car into the exit backup because they're too special to be in the (too slow for them) exit lane. And half the time with their kids in the car, for whom they want ME to be careful.

EVERY DAY these people make this same trip to work and back home, and EVERY DAY THEY ARE BAD AT IT.

I've ridden the buses and Underground in London, the Paris Metro 🚇, the new York City subway, and buses or light rail in other cities in Europe and then came back home to absolutely NOTHING LIKE THAT.

@ namina.forna

Imagine making life so difficult and unpleasant people don't even want to make new generations anymore

@ pynchonsdog

There was a biologist I saw the other day who said something similar along the lines of "do you have any idea how badly you have to abuse a mammal for it to stop reproducing?". And l've not been able to get that out of my head since.

In the intervening years since I last saw this post, my health has declined to the point where, even the closer bench is too far away and I just need a wheelchair part time. And folks. Cities are not fucking wheelchair accessible in any consistent way.