Hey

Raised intersections! These are intersections where the road gently rises to the level of the sidewalk, acting as slight speed bumps for cars and eliminating the need for going up and down ramps with mobility aids or carts

Level train platforms and user operated bus ramps! Ramps operated by external buttons and level platforms make it so that wheelchair and walker users don’t need to speak to a driver to access transit

Moped cars/micro cars! Miniature cars often used by people who can’t use bikes. Many of them are so small that they fit in bike lanes

Frequent bench placement! A walkable street is one with places to rest.

Air conditioned bus stops! In places where it often gets super hot frequent bus stop placement combined with air conditioning can make transit safer and more accessible to more people

Cargo bikes! Who needs a car when you can haul your stuff and/or dogs around in a bike?

edit for clarification: the Deaf/HoH option includes any hearing impairment and d/Deaf people ^^

But it was just a paper and that was just a photo of a child I didn't know, so I turned in the paper and graduated and got on with life.

In 2016, @archwrites posted a link to an article by the Washington Post titled "The White Flight of Derek Black" (sorry about the paywall, Arch's post quotes some relevant parts here). I thought it looked like an interesting read: it was about a white supremacist named Derek Black and a group of campus activists at the school Black eventually attended, who set out to see if they could change his mind about race with radical kindness. In large part because of their work, Black eventually renounced white supremacy and became an antiracist.

And then I hit a photo in the article and gasped, because I recognized it. I'd seen the same photo on the Stormfront children's website. The kid I'd seen and pitied was grown up and had gotten out. Immensely satisfying to see.

But it was just a news story about someone I didn't even know, so I posted about how pleased I was to see it, and I got on with life again.

This morning, I woke to the news (sorry, it's the Daily Fail) that R. Derek Black, now 35, has just published a memoir, The Klansman's Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism. And in the epilogue, they come out as trans.

I can't imagine better news I could have heard about them -- that they're out, they're thriving, and they're embracing themself.

Congratulations, kid. It's a great new photo.

When you're talking about the design of the boat, you say "it".

When the boat is still being built, your say "it".

When the boat is nearing completion, you can say "it" or "she".

When the boat is floating in the water you probably say "she", unless there is still a lot of work to be done (e.g. no engine yet) then you say "it".

When the boat is officially launched and operating, you say "she". If you continue to say "it" at this point you are not incorrect but suspiciously untraditional. You are not playing the game.

If you are referring to a boat you don't really know anything about you may say "it" ("there's a big boat, it's coming this way"). But if you know its name, it's probably "she" ("there's the Waverley, she's on her way to Greenock").

If you are talking about boats in general, you say "it" ("when a boat is hit by a wave it heels over")

If you speak about a boat in complimentary terms, it's "she" ("she's a grand boat"). If you are being disparaging it may be it, but not necessarily ("it's as ugly as sin", "she's a grotty old tub").

If she has a boy's name, she's still she. "Boy James", "King Edward", "Sir David Attenborough"? The pronoun is she.

If it's a dumb barge (no engine), you say it. But if it's a rowing boat (no engine), you say she.

brexit passed in the UK because young people grew apathetic because they were sure it wasn’t going to pass. and it did, because old racists and xenophobes showed up in DROVES to vote.

This is so precious oh my god. There’s more under the cut. Also click HERE for full-sized pics and also a vid of a chicken screaming at the wind XD 

So back in July of 2021 we got a call from our neighbors about a random chicken that showed up in their yard, they assumed she was ours because we have a lot of chickens but I’d never seen this bird before

She’s unbelievably sweet and cuddly and we’re thinking that no way this isn’t someone’s beloved pet

So the next day I went out and drove to every neighbor to ask “hey this this your chicken?”

Nobody has any idea, my mom asks around on local pages but still, nothing

So for context my neighborhood is pretty big, not that many people but lots and lots of land. If this chicken didn’t come from any of our neighbors then she would had to have travel miles, which out here in rural Colorado where we are constantly surrounded by hawks, coyotes and raccoons would have been extremely unlikely.

She was also a bit malnourished, implying that she might have been out on her own for some time before being found. I also quickly realized something else about her, she is blind.

Not entirely blind but damn near close as her right eye is completely blind



Now the reason this has rendered her almost completely blind is thanks to a funny little quirk of chicken anatomy. Their right eyes are always near sighted and the left is always far sighted, this is the result of turning themselves in the egg so that the right eye is exposed to light through the shell, while the left is not, because it’s directed toward the body. So while she can see things far away just fine, everything that’s remotely close to her is a blur, making it difficult for her to navigate and eat

So we took her into our own flock, I named her Weah because I asked her for her name, since I didn’t know if she previously had one, and her response was “wwwwwrrraaah”. Getting her integrated into the flock was difficult, the other hens picked on her a lot and there wasn’t much she could do to defend herself, with no other options we decided to put her in the bantam coop, with it’s lone resident

This is Ash, a serama hen who we had gotten with a rooster, Cocktail, as a breeding pair. However after Cocktail’s passing she was left on her own

Now this didn’t bother Ash too much as she’d found a way to leave her coop whenever she wanted, even for a bird of her stature she was quite capable of holding her own in the main population

So here we are with two birds who couldn’t be any more different: Weah, a shy, clingy, visually impaired sex link, and Ash, a feisty, dominant, independent serama. It was the perfect storm.

Weah clung to Ask like glue pretty much from day one and Ash seemed surprisingly chill with the whole affair. In fact, she even started guiding Weah around while walking on her blind side, showing her around and helping her not get lost

Ash is very protective of Weah and will often tidbit for her and court her, Weah will call out to Ash whenever she’s not near by and will get distressed when she cannot find her

They’re both living happily in the larger special needs coop now, always together. Weah is doing much better with the help of her seeing eye girlfriend and has adjusted wonderfully!

So to conclude, if I had a nickel for every time there was a mutually beneficial lesbian relationship in my coop where one was saved by the other, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s kinda weird it’s happened twice