I Don't Know

This big sparkly girl with the bottle green, glassy appearance is vivianite, a rock which is just as fragile as it looks!  Vivianite has some really cool properties.  It begins as a colorless mineral, but as soon as it’s exposed to light, it undergoes a chemical reaction that turns it this blue-green color.  As long as it’s exposed to light, this chemical reaction will continue, and the crystals will turn darker and darker until they’re completely black.  Another cool thing about vivianite is that it exhibits pleochroism, meaning the crystals look more green or more blue depending on the angle you view them at.

This funky-shaped sparkly girl is a scepter quartz!  Scepter quartz occurs when a younger crystal begins growing on the tip of an older one, resulting in a big crystal perched atop a skinny one, like the jewel atop a scepter!  This scepter is a smoky amethyst with some really cool stuff going on inside.  My favorite detail is those red spots, which are caused by needle-like crystals of hematite growing inside the quartz!

This is the third meteorite to join my collection!  This piece fell to Earth about four to five thousand years ago in northern Argentina.  Its melted appearance is because the heat of entering Earth’s atmosphere actually caused it to melt!  Campo del Cielo meteorites are iron-nickel meteorites, made from a metal alloy called meteoric iron.  (Ok, so, not to go off on a tangent but meteoric iron is really cool stuff, historically.  See, iron doesn’t occur on planet Earth in its native, metallic form.  It’s always bound up in ores and has to be processed.  But native iron does occur in the vacuum of space, and sometimes that iron falls to Earth as meteors, so the only iron that Bronze Age people had access to before the advent of iron smelting was from meteors.  They made some really cool stuff with it.  Did you know that Tutankhamen was buried with a dagger made from meteoric iron?)

This fossil boy is a slab of turritella agate!  It comes from a fossil deposit in Wyoming called the Green River Formation.  Those white shapes are the fossilized shells of turritella sea snails encased in chert.  These shells were once buried at the bottom of an ancient ocean!  Because of the cool patterns their cross sections make, turritella slabs like this one are used by lapidary artists to cut cabochons for jewelry.

Speaking of cool agates, here’s a neat little fire agate!  This piece came from the southwestern United States.  That metallic, rainbow iridescence (or “fire”) is caused by alternating layers of goethite and limonite, which form as botryoidal bubbles encased in translucent chalcedony.  Fire agate is one of the coolest forms of agate, because it’s so incredibly rare!  The only place in the world where it’s found is an area from central Mexico up through California and Arizona, where it was formed during ancient volcanic activity.

Here’s another cool agate!  This is Aztec purple lace agate, which comes from Mexico.  I don’t think they’re mining it out anymore (actually, it hasn’t been mined for a long time), so this is pretty scarce stuff!  It doesn’t photograph well, so trust me when I say that this piece is much purpler in person.  Other than that, I don’t know much about it!

Also very purple and also from Mexico is this Coyamito agate!  Note the super cool hexagon shape.  Coyamito agate is known for its pseudomorph formations: it replaces other minerals and grows in their shape.  That’s rare in agate, but super common in the Coyamito agate deposit!  In this case, the agate was growing in the hollow left behind by a hexagonal crystal.

Here’s something I’ve been wanting to add to my collection for a long time!  This dignified boy is royal imperial jasper, possibly my absolute favorite kind of jasper. (And unlike most of the rocks the crystal healing crowd likes to slap the word “jasper” on, he’s actually a real jasper!)  We’re seeing in cross-section what’s known as an “egg” formation, the result of a jasper nodule which started small and then grew outward in uneven layers.  Changes in the environment during the formation of each layer resulted in all these different colors!  This piece is also from Mexico.

And finally (drumroll please), it’s time for opals!  As is tradition, I came home from the show with three brand new Ethiopian opals.  Here they are!

Opal number one!  Beautiful!  Subtle and refined!  10/10!

Opal number two!  Stunning!  A style all her own!  Her birthmarks really add warmth and color to the overall presentation.

Sex ed/gender/relationships post for people who grew up conservative Christian

by someone who was homeschooled in the Bible Belt and surrounded by that kind of thing.

I've had to have these conversations with people irl and it's become a list of things in my head, so here

The girls who are dressing "immodestly," wearing super short shorts, showing cleavage? They are probably not trying to attract male attention or thinking about what other people think of them at all. The clothes you were raised to see as "immodest" do not, to 90% of people, belong in a distinct category, nor do people usually make clothing decisions based on the amount of "showing skin."

Men aren't "visual beings" or otherwise so different from women that they need women to cover their legs and stomachs to avoid some sort of uncontrollable sexual response. Some men in leadership roles in churches are just creepy perverts.

Masturbation isn't inherently linked to porn. I don't know why people think this. People masturbate using nothing but their own imagination.

Most people do not feel like shit after they masturbate. If you do, it's probably because you're dealing with a ton of anxiety and guilt over it.

Masturbation has a ton of health benefits, it's relaxing, it's fun, it allows you to explore your body and what feels good to you, and it absolutely is not mentioned in the Bible anywhere. Even if you weren't ever outright taught it was bad, you might be anxious about whether it's okay. It is. It's normal.

If you have a vagina: you don't have to put your fingers up in your vagina to masturbate, and plenty of us don't. You'll probably get better results by just rubbing the clitoris or around it.

I know you might have been told that The World will laugh at you for being a virgin, but in actual "liberal" "progressive" social circles, no one cares.

Men don't necessarily want sex more than women, or have a higher sex drive than women. (Throughout ancient and medieval times it was widely thought that women wanted sex more, and were more vulnerable to sexual temptation.) Libido just varies from person to person. Some people (male and female) have a very high sex drive, others (male and female) are not, and will never be, interested in sex at all.

Men can be raped. Women can be rapists.

Skills you have in relating to the same sex also apply to "opposite" sex relationships. 99% of the time, when people think they can't understand their partner because they're not the same gender, it's just that they don't talk to each other.

Sex isn't supposed to hurt. The hymen is a real thing and it can "break" the first time a person experiences vaginal penetration, but many instances of blood and pain during sex are not because of this, but instead because the penetrating partner tore delicate tissues by being too rough or because you weren't ready. You DO NOT have to just force your way through this, and in fact you should definitely stop if this is happening to you. The vagina lubricates itself with slippery fluid when you're aroused. Being comfortable and aroused also helps your muscles relax.

If you have a vagina, I totally recommend putting a hand-held mirror between your legs so you can actually see everything.

The great majority of people with a vagina have been penetrated with fingers before they tried it with a penis, and have had their vulva rubbed and touched before they tried sticking anything at all inside their body.

That is to say: If the most intimate thing you have ever done is kiss someone, it probably isn't a good idea to try penetrative sex your "first time" doing something sexual, as in the way your "wedding night" is supposed to go. There are usually multiple steps before you're ready for that, both mentally and physically.

I don't mean "when you have sex, do these things first" (though that's a good idea). I mean that people often try a lot of touching each other over their clothes and putting their hands down each other's pants and pleasuring each other with hands before they try penetrative sex, and sometimes they get naked but don't have Actual Penetrative Sex, and sometimes they take off some of their clothes but not all of them.

None of these things necessarily creates a slippery slope to anything else. Sex doesn't "just happen" because you took off your bra or let someone put their hand in your pants. Your partner HAS to make sure you're comfortable with doing a new thing, no matter what you are currently doing. If you "ended up" doing something you didn't want to do, it wasn't your fault, no matter what you were doing beforehand. I promise.

Penetrative sex isn't the best way to feel pleasure for everyone, and it isn't something that everyone wants at all. There's really no "default" way to have sex. There's no act that feels good for everyone.

People sometimes feel silly or embarrassed their first time having sex, and trying a new thing can always make someone a little bit nervous, but you're not supposed to be scared or feeling dread or anxiety.

You will have to talk to your partner about sex. It is a part of a healthy sexual relationship. People that have good sex, talk about sex. If you literally can't imagine yourself doing this, idk what to say except you've got to get past it somehow. Mortifying ordeal of being known is mortifying.

You will have to get comfortable with referring to your own, and your partner's, body parts in some way, or it will be a struggle. You can use whatever words you and your partner are cool with, but there isn't anything inherently wrong, bad, or degrading about saying "pussy" or "dick" or "cock" or other more blunt-sounding terms.

Wanting to do things with nipples is common and okay and normal, wanting to do things with butts is common and okay and normal, and that thing you want that seems a little weird is also okay and probably very common and normal. Seriously, I PROMISE almost everyone has desires outside of "penis goes into vagina in missionary position," and it's perfectly fine to want to explore them. Make sure your partner is comfortable with it if you want to give it a try, and you're good.

I know there are others and I'll add them if I think of them, but these are the things that I see the most bad information about and/or the things that have come up in conversation with people with a similar background to mine.

I would like to add that the point of this post is not to be a comprehensive sex ed post (I'm not knowledgeable enough for that!) but to address misconceptions and harmful things that are particularly pervasive if you come from a fundamentalist background, or that reputable resources may not even think to mention.

Some of the things I or my fundamentalist friends genuinely did not know weren't discussed in the many sex-ed resources I sought out. Because the writers of those resources didn't know the types of misinformation and misconception we were exposed to.

With that said, here are some other things:

Abstinence until marriage does not guarantee you a healthy relationship, and having sex before marriage will not ruin your life. It's perfectly fine to want to wait for a committed relationship before you want to have sex! People do that! However, statistics are clear on the fact that roughly 95% of people do not wait until marriage; this was true of the Boomers and it's true today, and plenty of them do have healthy relationships. On the other hand, couples that firmly cherish the idea of abstinence until marriage can and do end up in incredibly toxic, destructive, abusive relationships. The people in my life that cherished sexual abstinence did not end up with less trauma and baggage to carry into their adult relationships, and many, many others who have written about abstinence concur that intense shame about sexuality is itself a form of baggage that will follow you into adult relationships. If you feel guilty or sinful when you have sexual feelings and thoughts, it usually continues when you are in a committed relationship.

Value of "commitment" is alone a terrible indicator of whether someone would make a good partner. The right one for you might be a person who values commitment, but so is an abuser who wants to make it as hard as possible for their victim to leave.

There is no such thing as a special chemical that bonds you to people you have sex with. That's just a complete lie. Oxytocin is released during sex, but also when you hug your friends or pet your dog.

There's also nothing inherently traumatic about having sex with a person and then breaking up with them. Neither is the pain of a breakup evidence that dating itself is bad. To be clear: romantic heartbreak can be excruciatingly painful, but treating it as a unique kind of pain obscures what it is: grief. People also grieve the loss of friendships, communities, and past selves, and it is painful, but it does not mean it was wrong to form those relationships or cherish those seasons of life in the first place.

Already addressed it above, but I didn't emphasize it enough: putting a penis in a vagina is not the "best" way to have sex for everyone, and forms of sex that don't involve a penis entering a vagina are not inherently less pleasurable, neither are they 'unnatural' or inherently degrading. The human body can give and receive pleasure in a wide variety of ways. You may think about a specific sex act and not be able to understand why it would be enjoyable for anyone. That just means that you're... probably not into that thing. You might think, "I can't understand why anyone would want to have someone's penis in their mouth. That sounds horrible." It is IMPORTANT to understand that the answer is "I guess people enjoy different things," and not, "I guess no one should do this thing." And it is REALLY IMPORTANT to understand that the answer is not, and never, ever should be, "I guess sex is just horrible sometimes."

Performing oral sex, on either configuration of genitals, actually is intrinsically fun and rewarding for some people. It isn't innately degrading or disgusting. But if it feels degrading or disgusting to you, that's you, and your partner ought to respect you for you.

Here's one that I haven't seen talked about enough, at all, anywhere: The human body can respond during a sexual assault with what seems like signs of sexual arousal. The vagina will automatically try to lubricate itself when penetrated with something. It is possible to have an orgasm when being raped. It is a physical response of the body that does not mean the victim wanted it or enjoyed it. It is possible to get an erection in response to unwanted sexual contact, again, because it's a physical response that doesn't necessarily indicate that the person 'wants' it. Being forced or coerced into penetrating another person's body is possible and is indeed rape. A person who experiences any of these things is not at fault for anything that happened to them.

It is also extremely common to shut down or 'space out' during an assault instead of fighting back or trying to escape. This can happen even if you think you physically could escape or fight back. "Freeze" is one of your instinctive responses to danger, even if you have no history of trauma, and abusers tend to be very, very skilled at making sure "Fight" and "Flight" don't go off. This response can trick you into thinking what happened must have been "not that bad," but really it means that your brain was so overwhelmed by the event that it can't process it normally.

Men's attraction to women is not innately objectifying, aggressive, uncontrollable, or possessive. Men do not have an innate tendency to constantly think of women as sexual objects. Men do not innately wrestle with the temptation to be sexual predators. If you meet a man that thinks this, RUN. Even if it's your pastor. ESPECIALLY if it's your pastor.

Masturbating while in a committed sexual relationship is not wrong and it's definitely not cheating?? There is no biblical justification for this that isn't insane. Like I know that in the Bible, there's a verse that says when you get married your body belongs not only to you but also to your spouse (which I would be Very Careful with) but if you can read, you'll notice the word ALSO. Your body and your sexuality belongs to you. It does not stop belonging to you. (So many fundamentalist Christians writing about marriage talk about differing sex drives as being this massive relationship-cracking strain. As if one of you masturbating occasionally is worse for your relationship than...one of you being pressured to have sex even when you don't really want it, and the other being sexually frustrated for no reason?)

(On that note, masturbation is not "selfish." Some things, in giving you pleasure, do not take anything away from anyone else. You might as well say that opening the window for a fresh breeze when you're home alone is selfish because it makes you happy and doesn't affect anyone else. At best, it gives a future sexual partner no benefit whatsoever for you to forbid yourself from masturbating, and at worst it means that your early sexual experiences are scarier, more uncomfortable, and less pleasurable for you, and that you ultimately have to spend the first couple years of your relationship unlearning internalized shame about pleasure instead of actually experiencing any.)

No, "consent" doesn't mean "you have to formally ask every single time you want to kiss your partner!" If you're okay with spontaneous kisses, you can just...say that.

Consent is just about making sure your partner is comfortable with what's happening and wants to keep going. Even if you say "Yes, I'm okay with this" at the beginning of something, your partner is supposed to keep communicating with you throughout and ask if you're still okay if you don't seem to be into it. You know, like a decent human being.

“Playtime with Mom”

“My friend got her old cat a kitten! They really love each other”

February 1, 2022

I’m so so sorry for the long post but please please please pay attention and spread this

WHAT IS THE EARN IT ACT?

The EARN IT Act has been roundly condemned by nearly every major LGBTQ+ advocacy and human rights organization in the country. This is a bill that will make children less safe, undermine online safety and security, and trample free expression, because it carves out another exception to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA 230), which the ACLU describes as “foundational to modern online communications.” This has been the law that has let the internet grow into what it is today, we’ve had this law since the 90s. (For context, Trump wanted to get rid of this law because he knew it would lead to mass govt surveillance and censorship of minorities online.)

The EARN IT Act will lead to online censorship. Platforms will be incentivized to scan their users’ communications and censor all sex-related content, including sex education, literally anything lgbt, transgender or non-binary education and support systems, and sex worker communication according to the ACLU. All this in the name of “protecting kids” and “fighting CSEM”, both of which the bill does nothing of the sort. In fact it makes fighting CSEM even harder.

If this bill passes, we're going to see most, if not all, adult content and accounts removed from mainstream platforms, for fear of the liability that could come with ever accidentally hosting CSAM, as well as the erasure of end-to-end encryption on messaging platforms.

This is really not a drill. Anyone who makes or consume anything “adult” online has to be prepared to fight Sen. Blumenthal's EARN IT Act, brought back from the grave by a bipartisan consensus to destroy Section 230.

EARN IT will open the way for politicians to define the category of “pornography" as they — or the lobbies that fund them — please, (Right now, right wing organizers are catgorizing books about racism as ‘porn’ to ban them from schools) which is a cherished goal of organizations that seek to reintroduce obscenity prosecutions for content now protected by Free Speech jurisprudence. This will 1000000% be used to eradicate anything LGBT online.

What this bill says it does on the surface is make platforms liable for their users’ activity if that activity involves sex and minors. However, because of 230, platforms are not liable at all about their users' activity. This has allowed platforms to grow and thrive and many niches online to as well. The bill also creates an unelected commission to create “best practices” to combat online child sexual exploitation. While these recommendations are nominally voluntary (so Americans have no decision on who gets to be on it), platforms that refuse to comply will be liable for criminal prosecutions and lawsuits should the government decide any of their users is engaging in online child sexual exploitation.

This is already a nightmare enough. But the bill also DESTROYS ENCRYPTION, you know, the thing protecting literally anyone or any govt entity from going into your private messages and emails and anything on your devices and spying on you.

This bill is going to finish what FOSTA/SESTA started. And that should terrify you.

Senator Blumenthal (Same guy who said ‘Facebook should ban finsta’) pushed this bill all of 2020, literally every activist (There were more than half a million signatures on this site opposing this act!) pushed hard to stop this bill. Now he brings it back, doesn’t show the text of the bill until hours later, and it’s WORSE. Instead of fixing literally anything in the bill that might actually protect kids online, Bluemnthal is hoping to fast track this and shove it through, hoping to get little media attention other than propaganda of "protecting kids" to support this shitty legislation that will harm kids.

The entire EARN IT act is based on *multiple* misunderstandings of the law and reality. It's a really really really bad policy that will do serious harm. But because Senator Blumenthal wants headlines, he'll pretend that it "helps protect the children." It won't. It'll do real damage. It will make CSEM much much worse.

One of the many reasons this bill is so dangerous: It totally misunderstands how Section 230 works, and in doing so (as with FOSTA) it is likely to make the very real problem of CSAM worse, not better. Section 230 gives companies the flexibility to try different approaches to dealing with various content moderation challenges. It allows for greater and greater experimentation and adjustments as they learn what works -- without fear of liability for any "failure." Removing Section 230 protections does the opposite. It says if you do anything, you may face crippling legal liability. This actually makes companies less willing to do anything that involves trying to seek out, take down, and report CSAM because of the greatly increased liability that comes with admitting that there is CSAM on your platform to search for and deal with. This liability would allow anyone for any reason to sue any platform they want, suing smaller ones out of existence. Look at what is happening right now with book bans across the nation with far right groups. This is going to happen to the internet if this bill passes.

(Remember, the state department released a report in December 2021 recommending that the government crack down on "obscenity" as hard the Reagan Administration did. If this bill passes, it could easily go way beyond shit red states are currently trying. It is a goldmine for the fascist right that is currently in the middle of banning every book that talks about race and sexuality across the US.)

NCOSE, the far right anti-LGBT hate group behind the global anti-sex legislations, is pushing the idea that any form of sexual expression, including talking about HEALTH, leads to sex trafficking. Their goal is to eliminate all sex, anything gay, and everything that goes against their idea of ‘God’ from the internet and hyper disney-fy and sanitize it. This is a highly coordinated attack on multiple fronts.

The reason these bills keep showing up is because there is this false lie spread by organizations like NCOSE that platforms do nothing about CSEM online. However, platforms are already liable for child sexual exploitation under federal law. Tech companies sent more than 45 million+ instances of CSAM to the DOJ in 2019 alone, most of which they declined to investigate. This shows that platforms are actually doing everything in their power already to stop CSEM by following already existing laws. The Earn It Act includes zero resources for proven investigation or prevention programs. If Senator Bluementhal actually cared about protecting youth, why wouldn’t he include anything to actually protect them in his shitty horrible bill?

The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) along with a coalition of 26 civil society organizations urged the United States Senate to reject the EARN IT Act. Groups on the left and right, including the ACLU, Fight for the Future, EFF, and Hacking // Hustling oppose it. Because it threatens free expression online and will threaten marginalized people’s safety while being totally unnecessary and failing to fix the problem it claims to address. The EARN IT Act empowers states to give law enforcement access to users’ private conversations and force companies to create encryption backdoors for law enforcement. This is totally unnecessary. Platforms are already handing over CSAM to the federal government. It’s actually likely to make prosecuting child molesters more difficult since evidence collected this way likely violates the Fourth Amendment and would be inadmissible in court.

I don't know why so many Senators are eager to cosponsor the "make child pornography worse" bill, but here we are.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

EARN IT Act was introduced yesterday! And it’s already scheduled to get marked up, which is the first step post-introduction. Most bills never go to markup, so this means they are putting pressure to move this through. IF YOU LIVE IN THESE STATES (IL, VT, CA, RI, MN, DE, CT, HI, NJ, and GA), CONTACT YOUR SENATOR AND HOUSE MEMBERS NOW. THIS IS URGENT. This is who gets first crack, and folks in all have Senators who are on the Judiciary committee.

I'm guessing this month or March is when the bill would be passed if there is no opposition 😭 The bill was re-introduced yesterday, already set for markup this Thursday. This feels like an attempt to fast track it this month. Additionally the current makeup of Congress favors those who want it passed. Back in 2020 it was mostly Senate republicans and democrats who are basically republicans (just like now, check the sponsors) pushing it with Ron Wyden using the filibuster to stop their efforts. The house dems didn't want to give Trump a win and needed to appear as pro-privacy/free speech for the 2020 election. Now the dems have the presidency, both chambers of Congress and if you've noticed have spent a few years repeatedly demanding social media censorship and desperately want to give Biden victories. biden isn't like obama who opposed sopa/pipa to appeal to younger voters. This is similar to how FOSTA passed with the group who made it happen last time back again. Far as I'm aware Wyden hasn't spoken about new earn it yet but even if he does oppose it, it's very possible there will be enough Senate democrats to join the republicans in passing it beating a filibuster. Then pelosi's band of house idiots pass it and we have to choose between breaking the law because they can't stop us from using encryption or being obedient sheep to a group who consider themselves above laws.

It already has a fifth of the Senate cosponsoring it. There is a very very very real chance this bill becomes law. This is an uphill battle that's going to happen fast and quick. PLEASE, FIGHT NOW.

202-224-3121 connects you to the congressional hotline.

This website takes you to your Senator / House members contact info. EMAIL, MESSAGE, SEND LETTERS, CALL CALL CALL CALL CALL. Calling is the BEST way to get a message through. Get your family and friends to send calls too. This is literally the end of free speech online.

More sources to read about this bill:

https://cathyreisenwitz.substack.com/p/the-earn-it-act-is-anti-evidence

Fight for the Future’s Statement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=678EW8v09z8&t=1s

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20220131/22423648395/senates-new-earn-it-bill-will-make-child-exploitation-problem-worse-not-better-still-attacks-encryption.shtml

EARN IT Act treats Myths as Facts.

https://surviveearnit.com/what-is-the-earn-it-act/ From 2020, but little has changed about the bill.

https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/earn-it-act-back

Center for Democracy and Technology’s Statement

The girl in the video is Sámi. The Sámi are an indigenous people from the region of Sápmi, which encompasses northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

The traditional clothing of Sámi people look different depending on which area tradition they belong to. This girl is north Sámi and she’s wearing a Lyngen dress (ivgu gákti in the north Sámi language), which means her family/ancestors came from Lyngen, Norway. Lyngen’s proximity to the sea made fishing a common means of livelihood for the Sámi living there, which earned them the name “sea Sámi”.

every time i hear that quote, i think about how i got this light-up pen

so this guy behind her, whom no one was talking to, for some fucking reason says “wathing your weight? but what about the wait for your watch?“ (which is a completely unhinged response. like just complete Mad Hatter nonsense)

anyway this lady gets really uncomfortable and of the five people (me, him, her, the other checker, and the customer at the other register) who were now sucked into the uncomfortable silence, i decided that i should alleviate the tension by saying “you can’t wait for a watch; you don’t have the time”