Random Things I Find Interesting

me: lol we learned that in science class 20 years ago 🤣 prick

apparently, cats' kidneys tend to be the thing that takes them down, something about their bodies being unable to self-clean their kidneys, and the vaccine is supposed revitalize the body's ability to do just that. It would be very VERY fucking cool to have cats suddenly reaching 30 years of age be the normal thing.

dude cracked the case about WHY kidneys fail, across the board as far as i can tell. turns out there's a specific molecule whose job it is to attach to waste and signal macrophages to come eat it. it remains inactive in cats for some reason, but the molecule is still there. basically what he's done is found the switch to activate them. this will be profound not only for our domestic babies, but for big cats too - especially cheetahs!

although his research was focused on cats, it's already being used to develop drugs for humans too!

on top of that, since these molecules are tags for waste, this could also dramatically lower the rate of fatty liver disease, liver cancer, urinary crystals, rheumatoid arthritis, and even some neurological cases! like, they're hoping it may have an impact on parkinson's and alzheimers, but it DOES have an impact on stroke recovery. like. holy shit.

furthermore, he's insisting that the feline drug be affordable if and when it rolls out onto the market. he wants this to be something anyone can get for their cat!! idk how much sway he'll have over the human drug, but hopefully enough that it, too, won't be that expensive.

annnnnd in his research that he's still doing for the human side of things, he's found a potential link between this molecule and estrogen. in the 20,000 samples he's tested, women between ages 10 and 29 had the highest amount of this molecule present in their blood (a higher amount means Something Fucky is going on, essentially. There's a higher amount of waste the body is trying to clean out) but it drops down to be almost equal amongst men and women after menopause. it hasn't been looked into yet, but fuck, just the fact it's noted and known and probably WILL be looked into soon??? imagine if this is what leads to figuring out all the various ways the ovaries and uterus fucks with people and how to fix it. or even like, maybe there's something about estrogen that makes it work better. who knows! but it's rad the link is there to be researched :D

As for the study itself, the 360 day follow up on stage 3 kidney failure kitties showed that the control had a survival rate of about 20%, while the test group had a survival rate of 80%

not on purpose, of course, and I never want to sound like I'm blaming students for their own feelings of isolation. there are a lot of factors that make it hard to socialize, ranging from a very full class/work schedule to various neurodivergences to the majority white attendance at many campus activities to the fact that many of these students spent some formative years in quarantine.

but man, it's hard when students talk about feeling hated and unwanted by a club because no one there talks to them, only to drop that they never even try to initiate any conversation themselves. or when a student complains that they're not making any friends on campus, but when asked where they're going to meet people outside of class they seem confused and say they hardly leave their dorm for anything but class. we're currently administering an anonymous survey to assess student satisfaction with our programs, and one person wrote that they'd like to attend more of our events but don't because they don't know anyone there and don't know what the vibe will be. the solution to both of those problems feels very obvious, to me, and it's frustrating to see mild uncertainty be such a hurdle.

and while this phenomenon is 100% due to a myriad of intersecting and compounding factors, i will note that i think a lot of this starts at home. in high school, my parents encouraged me to go out and meet new people. they were happy when i started going to shows, concerts, book clubs, events, etc on my own. they wanted me to acquire a level of independence that allowed me to go to a new place, where i didn't know anyone, and still manage to find someone to talk to.

in my experience, a lot of these people who feel extremely isolated and also don't know how to make small talk at a little mixer, were not able to go out in these ways as kids. either because of controlling/over protective parents or it was unsafe for them to attend the shows and events they really wanted to.

i am asked by my peers not infrequently how i manage to make friends, how i'm "so good" with talking to new people, how i always have weekend plans. because they're nervous that they'll be awkward or embarrassing or that no one will like them. and it's really hard to explain to someone that you just have to suck up the fact that you'll be a bit awkward sometimes and do it scared. and that "being good" at talking to people is a skill you have to work for! because that's not what anyone wants to hear! but it's the truth.

Big things are only the result of a summary of a bunch of small things. If you don't have actual moments of being in a space with other people and even trying to talk to them, you cannot summarize what you are like with other people in that space. You can't do math on zero. You shouldn't do math on a low sample size either. (Yes, I know you CAN. But this is about trying to figure out how to do better, I think?)

So I'm going to try to say things that are SPECIFIC. "Fake it til you make it," is FINE, but WHAT are we faking?

I was going to order this in steps but that felt silly. I have no idea how I acquired these behaviors or in what order. Also Tumblr is actively removing my ability to move text around. So!

Let go of "good time" vs. "bad time." It's just time.

Don't duck and cower. If you are in a public space and want to, project a mild interest in folks by not mimicking an armadillo.

Remember that interest doesn't mean you have to say yes to anything, ever. But say yes when you are invited and your only hesitation is, "wait, me?"

If you're not going where people can be in proximity to you and speak to you, you aren't doing anything in this direction. You can have so many reasons for why this is hard. But. Talking to strangers requires strangers. I'll be your stranger if you want me to (I'm AWFUL at internet connection and great at everything else, maybe you will all put me through the ringer).

Let go of specific, "I want to make a friend who is this type of person who blah blah." If you go out once, and you don't, you won't. If you go out twenty times, you maybe will, and if you don't, you'll have twenty times you've bolstered your people observation skills and met other people.

Ok, the specifics. Get close enough to someone that they know where you are and wait for them to orient toward you. Say a little hi. When they know you're there, ask an open ended questions. "What brings you here?"

If someone set up space for you, it's for you. Imagine someone saying "sorry" and "is this ok?" one zillion times in the space you set up for them vs. "oh thank you so how does this work I like what you did with X" who do you like more?

Crush the shame until it can't crush back.

Fuck, just put the fun back in. My friends and I in high school talked about "good people watching" and sought out situations for that. You're not a little lamb, you're a big primate watching other primates. Be open to the weirdness.

"Go out" is an inclusive act that means chatting to anyone. I learned a lot from chatting up nurses and facilities guys at my college.

Pick ephemeral situations as testing grounds. Standing in line for coffee, groceries, whatever. Waiting for a bus. Sitting down or slipping out of class.

For longer attempts, pick open social situations like clubs, sit down coffee shops, the cafe, libraries, bars. Subjective which is why:

Mimicry is your friend.

Figure out: What the heck is happening in this space? Are people in little groups? How are they greeting each other? How is a new person welcomed? To be clear, break from standard if needed. If everyone is sitting and reading, and you want a coffee, go get a coffee. Don't assume your tiny snapshot is enough to understand everything.

If someone is being social in way you like, watch and learn and do.

My dad used to wait humbly as other folks would move through a (museum, restaurant, historic area) before he'd greet them. Then he'd ask questions: "how did you get into this? do you have a favorite thing? I liked to see this, what are your thoughts on it?" Be kind to folks.

@themenacewhowrites

and then I saw one where the scammer's angle is, help them raise money to buy their sick sister four boxes of smallpox medication.

I was watching Starships, as you do, and had the thought that surely someone must have made a similar style fanvid for horses.

Many fruitless searches later, I found myself here.

Uber is a fucking shell game of a company designed to leech investor capital and output bootleg cabs.

Nvidia posted a profit in 2023 of $4.37 billion. This is like someone stealing less than a penny from me.

And they lock this kid in a prison hospital for LIFE?

--Arion was sentenced by a judge. Not Rockstar.

--he'd already been deemed mentally unfit to stand trial for other charges when this happened. That was not Rockstar's doing.

--while he was out on bail, he physically injured people and committed random property damage. This is a large factor in him being considered dangerous to the public.

--he committed blackmail.

--he hacked into the London Police CCTV. You may wonder why this is a big deal. Easy answer: imagine what a stalker could do with one of the most comprehensive surveillance systems in the world. That footage is heavily restricted for a reason.

--he is not in "a prison hospital." He is in a psychiatric rehabilitation center that's designed for detention. I know that probably sounds like splitting nails to make tacks to some people reading this, but there's actually a very big difference between the two--psych rehab aims to actually help people get better while keeping other civilians safe, rather than just tossing somebody into lockup.

--a fellow hacker who was only involved in the Rockstar hack, and who is autistic as well, got 18 months in youth social rehab.

In doing so, the charge actually changed from 'hacking with criminal intent' to 'hacking'. Because he admitted to having intent.

He also hacked into BT (our largest broadband provider), and EE and Orange, two large mobile data networks, and stole customer data.

Reuters article with additional information.

He was sentenced by a Judge.

"The court heard that Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage."

He hacked Rockstar while on bail, using an amazon firestick, his hotel TV, and a mobile phone. He is highly skilled.

In the same period of time in September 2022 he hacked Revolut and Uber

He broke into Rockstar's slack messaging system and threatened to release source code if they did not contact him.

He'd previously been convicted of hacking BT Group, EE, and Nvidia.

He previously admitted to an offense related to the hacking of London Police cloud storage.

Doctors deemed Kurtaj unfit to stand trial due to his severe autism so the jury was asked to determine whether or not he committed the alleged acts - not if he did so with criminal intent.

A jury found that he commited 12 offenses, including three counts of blackmail, two counts of fraud and six charges under the Computer Misuse Act

The 17-year-old who worked with him on the Nvidia and BT/EE hacks was sentenced to a youth rehabilitation order with 18 months supervision.

I cannot find any article claiming he was sentenced to anything but "life in hospital prison". Furhter research does seem to indicate that means a "high-security psychiatric hospital"

As someone who is active in the cybersec world: the 10M number is not "stolen money" as much as it's the cost of overtime hours and hiring security companies to a) make sure he's out of the system and b) all the leaks are fixed, possibly the purchase of new software and/or overhauling the security infrastructure. For big companies with a lot of network infra this gets real expensive real fast. It's also the combined number for Uber, Nvidia and Rockstar so I can't call it super unrealistic. A bit inflated, maybe.

@prismatic-bell is mostly correct. The physical injury and property damage were in custody, not on bail. The hacking was on bail. He hacked into london police cloud storage, not live CCTV cams.

Cutting - in my opinion, the most labor intensive part of the process. The amount of time/effort needed varies depending on the pattern and if seam allowance is included or marked separately, but no matter what this process can not be done by machine. Each and every panel and piece of fabric that goes into a garment must be cut by hand by a person.

Pinning/clipping - pinning (or clipping) is the stage at which you align the pieces you are going to be stitching together and hold them together with — you guessed it! — either pins or clips. This can not be done by machine.

Stitching - the actual sewing. This can be done by a sewing machine, but that machine still needs to be operated by a human being.

Ironing/pressing - two words that mean the same thing. The iron itself is a machine, but once again, it needs to be operated by a human being.

Finishing - depending on the technique you use, there are certain finishing techniques that can only be done by hand. But, let’s assume we’re talking about fast fashion, which is usually just finished with a simple overlock/serger. Once again: these machines need to be operated by people.

These are just the basic steps to making a garment, and don’t include textile arts that I am not as knowledgeable about, such as weaving, knitting, and crochet. Also, it is important to note that there are a lot of things that can only be done by hand, such as certain stitches and decorative techniques.

Also, the machinery being operated in textile factories is not equivalent to a domestic sewing machine. We’re talking about one of these guys:

See that gray cylinder under the table, behind the knee pedal? That’s the motor. These machines can sew through your fingers bones and all and not even stop. The people in these factories and sweatshops are operating heavy machinery, and are subject to all the risk that comes with that in addition to all of the work I mentioned above.