this place is not a place of much going on

apparently your HRT prescription only runs through the one endocrinologist you are currently seeing. a while ago, a friend of mine had her endocrinologist move office, presumably to someplace outsite of her network, without a notice, and without having her be referred to another endo. she can't get her medicine now.

when my friend was still transitioning, she was so happy. happy about the changes, happy about being authentic. and now that she can't follow her HRT regimen, she's become resigned. the whole situation has left her justifiably exhausted, and she has started considering detransitioning out of desperation. (NOTE: this is not to demonize detransitioning! some folks try out HRT, find out it's not for them, and stop, and that is perfectly fine! but my friend knows how much good HRT has done her, but has recently decided to stop because her situation has started seeming that so hopeless to her.)

it is maddening how at the mercy of the whims of your provider you seemingly are at all times. and it does real damage.

If you stopped masking, it’s time to start again, today. I’m not asking you to stay home, just to mask as well as possible, and do hand hygiene.

In multiple communities all over the USA and Canada, every pediatric hospital bed is full, mostly with babies and toddlers who have severe respiratory infections. It seems to be a combination of flu, RSV and COVID, sometimes more than one at a time in the same child.

We can sort out why this happened later. Right now, there’s an emergency that should be front page news, and isn’t, and the best way to stop it is to reduce the circulation of all respiratory viruses in our communities by masking everyone who can mask, before babies start dying because there isn’t enough care to go around.

Get your current flu shot and bivalent COVID booster if you haven’t already, but also please mask now.

This is a “do it for the children” post I can get behind because I am seeing this firsthand. I work in a pediatric hospital. The ER has had to take over other areas of the hospital because the beds are full, and the kids aren’t getting better. It is worse than it was at the height of Covid.

And it isn’t being broadcasted from the fucking rooftops. I don’t know why. I can only speculate about “economy” and probably something about it affecting midterms because the fucking GOP politicizes viruses now. And a million other things that make America the dystopia it is.

Blender is an excellent freeware 3D renderer,possibly better than After Effects

Lightzone to replace Lightroom

Inkscape to replace Illustratr

Audacity to replace Audition (I also received a free version of Pro Tools with my Scarlett Solo audio interface)

- Medibang Paint and Fire Alpaca for more cartoon style illustration

- Krita for painting

- Clip Studio Paint (not free, but often on sale and cheap even at full price) is better than PS for art and I’m about to cut adobe entirely. Even does some photo editing.

- Paint Tool SAI (again, not free but cheap) old but good, there’s a ton of hacked copies around too. Not hard to get for free.

Also, heads up to anyone using it,

As of July 5th 2021, Audacity is now considered a potential spyware security risk,

Unfortunately, according to the CSP team, any versions beyond 1.x will be barred behind a monthly/annual subscription fee, rather than the one-time payment model.

What this means is that without a subscription, you'll still be able to access the 1.x version you made a one-time purchase for, with bug fixes being released until version 3.0 is released. However, new features that would be released in the future in version 2.0 are inaccessible unless you do get a subscription.

Make sure everyone on Twitter knows her name: Tweet now

If you live in Texas, call D.A. Saenz and urge him to withdraw the execution date: 956-300-3881 If you live in Texas, contact Gov. Abbott now: 956-446-2866 Or click here (If you’ve never called an official before and don’t know what to say, don’t worry! We’ve provided an example of what you can say, but elected officials always take notice of personalized messages, so we encourage you to make it your own.)

#GazaUnderAttack

radioactive waste from oil and gas: eh whatever bro just dump it in fucking landfills and rivers, who give a shit

well, that is the case. some rocks have radon gas trapped in them which leaks out over time. if you build a house from or on such rocks it might have dangerous levels of radon gas in it. however, fracking essentially crushes rocks underground to release trapped gas. if that includes radon then it gets into the wastewater (called "brine") from the fracking well so... sometimes the ground gives you radiation poisoning, but fracking is basically digging that poison up to make cancer juice.

the fracking might not have poisoned your grandma but even if they didn't they probably hurt someone else. you can read about some cases in this article

In the summer of 2017, Siri Lawson noticed a group of Amish girls walking down the side of a dirt road near the horse farm where she lives with her husband in Farmington Township, Pennsylvania. The girls, dressed in aprons and blue bonnets, had taken off their shoes and were walking barefoot. Lawson was horrified. She knew the road had been freshly laced with brine.

Radioactive oil-and-gas waste is purposely spread on roadways around the country. The industry pawns off brine — offering it for free — on rural townships that use the salty solution as a winter de-icer and, in the summertime, as a dust tamper on unpaved roads.

Brine-spreading is legal in 13 states, including the Dakotas, Colorado, much of the Upper Midwest, northern Appalachia, and New York. In 2016 alone, 11 million gallons of oil-field brine were spread on roads in Pennsylvania, and 96 percent was spread in townships in the state’s remote northwestern corner, where Lawson lives. Much of the brine is spread for dust control in summer, when contractors pick  up the waste directly at the wellhead, says Lawson, then head to Farmington to douse roads. On a single day in August 2017, 15,300 gallons of brine were reportedly spread.

“After Lindell Road got brined, I had a violent response,” reads Lawson’s comments in a 2017 lawsuit she brought against the state. “For nearly 10 days, especially when I got near the road, I reacted with excruciating eye, nose, and lung burning. My tongue swelled to the point my teeth left indentations. My sinus reacted with a profound overgrowth of polyps, actually preventing nose breathing.”

The oil-and-gas industry has “found a legal way to dispose of waste,” says Lawson, 65, who worked as a horse trainer but is no longer able to ride professionally because of her illnesses. Sitting in her dining room, surrounded by pictures she has taken to document the contamination — brine running down the side of a road, an Amish woman lifting her dress to avoid being sprayed — she tells me the brine is spread regularly on roads that abut cornfields, cow pastures, and trees tapped for maple syrup sold at a local farmer’s market.

“There is nothing to remediate it with,” says Avner Vengosh, a Duke University geochemist. “The high radioactivity in the soil at some of these sites will stay forever.” Radium-226 has a half-life of 1,600 years. The level of uptake into agricultural crops grown in contaminated soil is unknown because it hasn’t been adequately studied.

Source

Want more info? Here ya go: 

This Biology Teacher Disproved Transphobia With Science 

ALSO:

Sex redefined

“The idea of two sexes is simplistic. Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that.”

Dorohedoro MUD AND SLUDGE and the Sketchbook

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou Book of Paintings and the Postcard Book

The Witch Hat Atelier Artbooks that came with the special edition of Volume 2 and Volume 6 of the manga

BLAME! and so on Miyazaki-Moebius-exhibition catalog

NieR Art – Kazuma Koda Art Collection Design Works of Dark Souls 1

Berserk Illustration Book "Der Mond" Neon Genesis Evangelion Artbook

And last, but most certainly not least:

April 6, 2022

LAPD show up in riot gear to a climate protest against JPMorgan Chase to arrest 4 climate scientists.

LAPD receives $8,000,000 of public money a day.

senshi stock

croquis cafe

line-of-action.com

quickposes.com

posemaniacs

clip studio paint models

pexels.com

sketchdaily

eggazyoutatsu atarichan drawer

designdoll

Freeimages: You can use the images in digital format on websites, blog posts, social media, advertisements, film and television productions, web and mobile applications. In printed materials such as magazines, newspapers, books, brochures, flyers, product packaging for decorative use in your home, office or any public place or personal use. The rights granted to you by FreeImages.com are: Perpetual, meaning there is no expiration or end date on your rights to use the content. Non-exclusive, meaning that you do not have exclusive rights to use the content. FreeImages.com can license the same content to other customers. Unlimited, meaning you can use the content in an unlimited number of projects and in any media. For purposes of this agreement, “use” means to copy, reproduce, modify, edit, synchronize, perform, display, broadcast, publish, or otherwise make use of.

Stocksnap: Every single image on StockSnap are governed exclusively by the generous terms of the Creative Commons CC0 license. Specifically, that license means you can do any and all of the following: Download the image file.Publish, revise, copy, alter, and share that image. Use the image (as-is or as you’ve altered it), in both personal and commercial contexts. Moreover, you can put StockSnap CC0 images to any of these usages without buying the right to do it, acquiring written permission from the image’s creator, or attributing the work to the image creator. In other words, there’s no fee to download or use these StockSnap images in accordance with the CC0 license. They’re free to download, free to edit, and free to use - even in a commercial project! You don’t even need to attribute the image to the creator, the way you do with other CC or traditional copyright licensing schemes. (However, even though it’s not required, we here at StockSnap do encourage you to include an appropriate attribution. It’s a nice thing to do.)

Burst.Shopify: Burst is a free stock photo platform that is powered by Shopify. Their image library includes thousands of high-resolution, royalty-free images that were shot by their global community of photographers. You can use their pictures for just about anything — your website, blog or online store, school projects, Instagram ads, facebook posts, desktop backgrounds, client work and more. All of their photos are free for commercial use with no attribution required.

Pixabay: Images and Videos on Pixabay are released under Creative Commons CC0. To the extent possible under law, uploaders of Pixabay have waived their copyright and related or neighboring rights to these Images and Videos. You are free to adapt and use them for commercial purposes without attributing the original author or source. Although not required, a link back to Pixabay is appreciated.

Viintage: All images hosted by Viintage.com are considered to be public domain images, each image is presumed to be in the public domain. It may be distributed or copied as permitted by applicable law. Viintage.com assumes no ownership of the images and they may be downloaded and can be used free of charge for any purpose. They may be downloaded and used for commercial and personal use. Understand “public domain” as the permission to freely use an image without asking permission from the photographer or the illustrator. Thus, the creator of the work will not sue you for violating his/her copyrights. It is your responsibility to make sure, displaying the image does not violate any other law. Viintage.com assumes no responsibility for how or where you use the images found on the site.

Morguefile. Big old free photo archive from the dawn of the web. “We are a community-based free photo site, and all photos found in the Morguefile archive are free for you to download and re-use in your work, be it commercial or not. The photos have been contributed by a wide range of creatives from around the world, ranging from amateur photo hobbyists to professionals.”

Open Access at the Met. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York: “Whether you’re an artist or a designer, an educator or a student, a professional or a hobbyist, you now have more than 406,000 images of artworks from The Met collection to use, share, and remix—without restriction.”

Smithsonian Open Access. Download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images […] from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.

Posing Sites and Apps:

Adorkastock. Stock photos for pose refs. DeviantArt gallery started in 2007.

FreePhotoMuscle.com. (translated page link click here) Japanese stock photo pose site that includes buff people, but in funny poses and costumes.

CroquoisCafe. (NSFW, nude model poses warning) A stock photo pose site. You should be aware this org has been linked as pro-Trump. I leave it to y’all to decide if you want to use the resources or not. I highly encourage not financially supporting them and trying to support the individual models if you can.

Line of Action. Fantastic site that includes posing refs, community discussions from other artists, figure study, anatomy, etc. So much stuff in here.

PoseSpace. Extensive library of poses. Some free resources others are paid. I’ve not fully evaluated both, but you should be able to use this all mostly free and get great use out of it.

SketchDaily. This one is one of the better ones out there. You can time yourself, search by pose, clothing options, body type, perspective, etc. All real models.

JustSketch.me. A pose app for any device. Has apps for most devices and a webapp. Customize and pose models/props/scenes.

Quickposes. Pose site that gives you timed challenges to become more proficient at poses.

POSEMANIACS. Ref site with anatomical poses. All the ref pics are of 3D models with only the bones and muscles. Can be helpful for seeing how muscles behave in certain poses. limited to two body types tho.

MagicPoser. A wonderful app that’s great on mobile. Lets you choose size of models, number of them, style, etc. Significant features are use of snap point with the physics engine, adjustable lighting, multiple perspective, 360 angle, articulated hand posing.

Clip Studio Paint Modeler. Free 3d tool that works with Clip Studio Paint. You can import your own data or other models you find online. Not quite an alternative to Blender, but the integration with CSP is very nice.

Egg a Zyoutatsu Atarichan Drawer. (requires enabling flash player or downloading and using standalone flashplayer) Drawing tool for pose practice. The developer is working on an html5 version.

DesignDoll. One of the best pose tool apps out there. You can customize so many things. They also have an extensive collection of ready made poses here. You can use the free or pay once for life and have the poses integrated into the client as well as the ability to export your obj to other programs like blender or smt.

Stock Photo Sites:

Unsplash. Giant free stock image site.

freeimages.com. Another stock photo site, less features than some others.

StockSnap.io. Stock photos with a creative commons CC0 license, which essentially means you can use the photos however you want and don’t have to attribute to them. (though its nice if you do attribute)

Burst.Shopify. Tons of royalty free high quality images. Similar licensing to StockSnap.

pixabay. I feel like most people know about this one, but it features entirely free CC0 licensed Photos, Videos, and Music. No attribution required, but still nice to support a giant site with all this content.

Viintage. Big collection of public domain vintage photos.

Gratisography. For commercial or personal use. They specialize in odd, quirky, wild stock photos.

pexels. Great free stock photos and videos. Only a few stipulations of what they don’t allow, but their license info can be found here.

Faestock. An artist and model with a huge amount of fantasy and fae and other types of photos available. Their terms for use are here.

MorgueFile. Old stock photo archive that’s been around a long time.

Museum and Institution Open Access sites:

USA National Gallery of Art. Over 50k works available for download.

New York Metropolitan Museum open access. 490k works to browse. Even codes for Animal Crossing New Horizons patterns.

The Smithsonian Institution open access. Probably one of the largest open access collections available online. Around 3.9 million items available to view.

I'm bisexual, I'm Muskogee Native American, and I'm mentally ill. If you can spare me anything, please consider doing so.

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