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As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse.  It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms 

As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable.  As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.

Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.

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Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

If you know someone in TX, pleeeeease make sure they see this.

What's so worrying about this is that it's specifically targeted at younger people.

"I'm not handing someone a piece of paper.... wtf"

"Mail? As in... put a stamp on it? Where tf would I get a stamp??"

"FAX???? You have got to be joking rn."

Younger people statistically vote more liberal than conservative. By tricking younger and "more online than not" people into using a fake registration service, the state of TX makes sure that fewer liberal votes are counted.

Add on all the school shootings in the US, inaction on climate change, and a pandemic that was allowed to rip through schools unchecked, kids and young adults have a deep sense that their lives are disposable. And they're right! Our society is systematically hostile and abusive to children in so many ways! However, the only child abuse society gets riled up about is pedophilia. Adults act like pedophilia is the only kind of child abuse that counts as abuse.

And that's why I think we are seeing kids stretching the meaning of pedophilia. They are looking for language that encompasses all of the kinds of abuse that they're experiencing. All of the emotional abuse of children is normalized, quite a bit of physical abuse is normalized, and the lack of privacy, agency, and bodily autonomy is all socially enforced. The truth is that all of these other forms of abuse can and do lead to sexual abuse, too. These kids are on to something, but it's getting deflected and warped by the fact that they still live in the dangerous environments they've been abused in. I think more specific language will be empowering here and will also bridge the gap between the current generation of young people and other anti-violence movements.

So if you are a child or young adult who resonates with any of the above, I want you to know that as a child abuse survivor, I believe you when you say that you've been abused. I think the anxiety about fandom websites and queer people and kink is misplaced because strangers don't usually have the structural power and access to you to hurt you but I know that there are people in you life who do have that power and I'm worried about you. I think ao3/queer/kink are just the issues that you feel safest speaking up about. I see you speaking up and I think there's more going on.

So what I can do for you, as a random stranger on the internet, is give you some resources and language so you can start to articulate your experiences and find solidarity with others.

Some terms you might find helpful:

Here's a copy of the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child. The US has refused to sign this but it's still a good idea of what the rest of the world believes you deserve and what we know will help you thrive.

Here's a copy of the power and control wheel for child abuse. Power and control wheels are commonly used in many forms of victim advocacy to help map abuse. To be clear, we count these things as abuse because we know from research that they are traumatic. Many laws have not been updated to include all these forms, so you'll notice that many of the things on this wheel are completely legal even though we know they are harmful.

Additionally, I'm including a zine I found on peer support for suicide ideation. I know that growing up, my friends and I were always told to tell a trusted adult but we didn't have one and ended up trying to help each other through some really awful shit. This is a guide written by someone with a similar experience and it details ways to informally support someone who is feeling suicidal.

"lmao antis, amiright? 🙄🤪"

"Gen Z is sooo stupid because they're too privileged to know what ~real~ pain & abuse is!"

"Gen Z is sooo stupid because TikTok brainrot mental illness otherkin China mindcontrol cummunism virus 10,00,0000,000 dead!" or

"hey king. I saw your tumblr post about how Gen Z are trash and I just wanted to let you know that I agree. although I myself am a zoomer (i know ugh) i am on your side. 'one of the good ones' as some may say. btw I never even noticed how big your brain is till now but its awesome"

This is a real problem with real causes. Things don't just happen for no reason because a group you don't like is inherently worse than you or incapable of making good decisions.

We toss out over 80 pounds of textiles each year. These textiles are often made of plastic materials (polyester, nylon), made in unethical conditions, dyed with harsh dyes that often get put into the rivers, etc. Even a single cotton shirt releases carbon emissions and uses tons of water. 

So the best thing to prevent the unsustainable growth of the fashion industry is to make sure that your clothing lasts as long as possible. To do so, mending clothing is a must. So here are some resources to help you learn how to do various things, such as sewing a button, to tailoring clothes, or even upcycling old clothing into new styles. 

* How to sew on three different types of button

* How to hand sew on a patch on a torn pair of jeans

* How to sew up a hole in an old shirt

* How to sew a simple T-shirt

* How to upcycle old clothing into new clothing

* More upcycle and sewing techniques

* How to repair a damaged sock

* How to do an invisible stitch

* 3 different stitches to work with for different results

* How to make a T-shirt smaller so it fits you better

* How to make repairs to your shoes

These are just a few of the things that you can do in order to make sure that your clothing lasts for a long time. Nobody wants to keep buying new clothing, as it is expensive and wasteful. 

Greetings bugs and worms!

This comic is a little different than what I usually do but I worked real hard on it—Maybe I'll make more infographic stuff in the future this ended up being fun. Hope you learned something new :)

If you are still curious and want to learn more about OCD, you can visit the International OCD Foundation's website. I also recommend this amazing TED ED video "Starving The Monster", which was my first introduction to the disorder and this video by John Green about his own experience with OCD.

The IOCDF's website can also help you find support groups, therapy, and has lots of online guides and resources as well if you or a loved one is struggling with the disorder. It is very comprehensive!

Reblog to teach your followers about OCD

I was diagnosed with OCD in December 2021, and it was a living hell. It's nothing like the pop culture representation of it. It was, without question, the worst experience of my life. OCD is a nightmare to have.

Those feelings you have when something horrible happens? Imagine having those feelings day in and day out, because in your mind, those horrible things are being constantly thought about as a very real threat. Your mind tells you to do the compulsion, or they'll come true.

The compulsions aren't something we like doing. The comic is so right about this. You could be rearranging your room a hundred times to get it exactly right because it makes you happy, and still not have OCD. The compulsions are born out of fear, that started rational and then devolved into things that don't make sense at all.

Because I was a psychology student and I'm someone who pays close attention to my mental state, I noticed the horrifying change in my behaviour and forced my family to take me to see a psychologist within a couple of months of symptom onset.

It's been more than two years of medication and therapy, and the OCD doesn't paralyse me anymore the way it used to. Most days, I barely remember it's there, sleeping in my brain and dormant. Treatment is possible, and I'm proof of it.

This is because I saw something was wrong and got help.

But even being a psychology student, until I got the diagnosis, I didn't even consider it might be OCD. I just knew something was off.

Why didn't I think of OCD? Because of the sheer volume of misinformation that's spread about this disorder.

CFR Title 14, Chapter II, Subchapter D, Part 382, Subpart E, Section 382.67, Subsection (e)

“As a carrier, you must never request or suggest that a passenger not stow his or her wheelchair in the cabin to accommodate other passengers (e.g., informing a passenger that stowing his or her wheelchair in the cabin will require other passengers to be removed from the flight), or for any other non-safety related reason (e.g., that it is easier for the carrier if the wheelchair is stowed in the cargo compartment).”

Source

Now that you know, speak up.

The defeat of the wizard who made people choose how they’d be to be executed

The woman who raised the changeling alongside her biological child

Cinderella finding Araura (and falling in love)

The God of Arepo (graphic novel 1 / 2 / 3) (ebook)

The Monster of Sentan

The Witch’s Cat

Raise Both Children

Stabby the Roomba (honorable mention)

Cinderella Marries the Prince (comic)

My Arch Nemesis Cynthia

Pirates and Mermaid

Eindred and the Witch

The Demon King

The Cornerwitch

Grandmother Beetroot

Apocalypse Daycare Worker

Grandmother Accidentally Summons a Demon

New Year Saga

A Story About Changelings

Ranger in the King’s Forest

The Difference Between a Hare and a Rabbit

24. The Queen with Three Cursed Children

25. Tiny Dragon with one coin hoard

26. Haunted house

27. Shark hero was about to go rogue

28. Grandma lives in the woods comic

29. A Different Aftermath comic

30. Battery (microstory but I love it so much)

31. It’s A Date comic

32. Supervillian kidnaps rival’s kid and they want to stay

33. Narrative Town

34. I have been hired to clean the wizard tower comic

35. Robot Apocalypse

36. The Statues That Do Not Weather

37. Kushiel

38. Tooth Fairy

39. Alien abduction

40. Felonious wish-granting

41. When humans met actual space orcs

The screenshots aren't accessible to blind people or people with low vision, and if you transcribe them then the post contains the same information twice for no reason and is longer than it at all needed to be—which is inaccessible to people with pain in their hands, especially if they're on mobile.

Here's the quote from the article, book, or essay. Indent it to improve readability, especially if it takes up multiple lines.

— Author of the article, "Title of the article." Date the article was published, if it's a news story where that kind of thing matters. Publication that published the article, if you think that matters.

Put a link to the article's source as hypertext over "Title of the article." This is especially helpful since screenreaders allow you to jump around on a page to find links, and a link that reads off the title of the article being linked to is a lot more useful than a link that just reads off something like "link," here," "source," or "[x]." A larger 'target' to aim at when clicking a link is also useful for people with motor control issues.

Here's some more of your text analysing that quote or introducing the next one or whatever it is that you want to do.

Here's the next quote that takes up multiple lines.

— Author, "Title" [with link], date, publisher, if this quote is from a different source.

Repeat as necessary. There's no need for any screenshots. If there's something you really want to screenshot because there's a relevant image, make extra sure that you link to the source page (if it's a large publication, the image probably has alt text) and note for the benefit of anyone using a screenreader that there's an image there, at least. Better yet, provide an image description, which should look like this:

[ID (this stands for "image description"): Description of objects in the image, people in the image, and what they're doing, especially whatever about the image makes it relevant. Transcribe any text in the image. end ID]

https://sweetgrasstradingco.com/ https://nativeharvest.com/ https://byellowtail.com/ https://www.salishstyle.com/ https://trickstercompany.com/ https://hutxh.com/ https://www.thentvs.com/ https://urbannativeera.com/ https://www.oxdxclothing.com/ https://kotahbear.com/ https://www.totemdesignhouse.com/ https://ginewusa.com/ https://eighthgeneration.com/

In the remote Arctic almost 30 years ago, a group of Inuit middle school students and their teacher invented the Western Hemisphere’s first new number system in more than a century. The “Kaktovik numerals,” named after the Alaskan village where they were created, looked utterly different from decimal system numerals and functioned differently, too. But they were uniquely suited for quick, visual arithmetic using the traditional Inuit oral counting system, and they swiftly spread throughout the region. Now, with support from Silicon Valley, they will soon be available on smartphones and computers—creating a bridge for the Kaktovik numerals to cross into the digital realm.

Today’s numerical world is dominated by the Hindu-Arabic decimal system. This system, adopted by almost every society, is what many people think of as “numbers”—values expressed in a written form using the digits 0 through 9. But meaningful alternatives exist, and they are as varied as the cultures they belong to.

From the article! For anyone struggling, the placements go 1’s, 20’s, 400’s, 8,000’s, 160,000’s, etc. Take each placement and multiply it by 20 to get the next one! (The Hindu-Arabic system goes 1’s, 10’s, 100’s, 1,000’s, 10,000’s, 100,000’s, for reference)

How they got 24,516 from here really confused me until I broke it down, so I’ll do the same for others!

The first numeral represents 4, and it’s in the 8,000’s place, which means it represents 24,000. This system doesn’t have a dedicated 10,000’s place, which means the amount of individual numerals will be smaller. Next we have the numeral representing 1, and it’s in the 400’s place, meaning it represents 400.

This means so far we have 24,400, meaning we still have 116 left to write. We can’t put 400 into 100 without using fractions, which we don’t want in our integer system by definition, so we instead look to the 20’s place. The most amount of 20’s we can fit into 116 without fractions is 5, which is why the symbol for 5 is there. This just leaves 16 for the 1’s position!

We can look at it in terms of “number we write”(place value). 24,516 = 3(8,000) + 1(400) + 5(20) + 16(1)!

My adaptation of the God of Arepo short story, which was originally up at ShortBox Comics Fair for charity. You can get a copy of the DRM-free ebook here for free - and I'd encourage you to donate to Mighty Writers or The Ministry of Stories in exchange.

basically, in 1688 hans sloane, a british naturalist and physician who spent some time in jamaica practicing medicine and collecting cultural and ecological artifact, hired a "mr. baptiste" (who may have been a black and/or mixed race freedman) to attend a festival of black musicians and note down the music they played. being european musical notation, the resulting records aren't perfect, but the results published by sloane in 1707 are some of the best records we have of music in the early african diaspora