the blood platelet factory is (STILL!) in business

While I was in Beirut another doctor told me the story of a child from Gaza, who, after coming to Lebanon, learned that a man had died a natural death. This child did not understand. He did not know that death could come this way. It had to be explained to him, that people die of old age. The only cause of death the child knew was Israel. And he knew it well.

But. Well! Simply feeling unsafe/insecure/scrutinized/etc for prolonged periods inherently messes you up. Even if it’s with good intentions.

I will also be at various UK pride events this summer either walking around with a sign handing out flyers or having a stall where people can come get measured in person! Come say hi :)

*tucks hair behind ear* complimenting my methodology, shucks! why thank you, I ran trans support groups for 3 years and work as a data professional lmao (also again I have to stress, I am not officially affiliated with any of the groups they're referring to, any support is informal and the uni funding we received is seed funding from an incubator programme, not actual research funding)

Obviously Robin is about punching clowns and telepathic gorillas, so whatever. But it betrays certain attitudes about children that are really pervasive in our culture—that children are definitionally innocent, and that innocence is a product they produce and perform for adult consumption. If that innocence is lost, damaged, or imperfect, their value is lessened and the need to protect them becomes a need to protect other children from the contamination they might spread. The Un-Child becomes a sort of contagion, a threat to the harvest, who is conditionally allowed access to childhood if they can convincingly pretend at innocence.

A Makeship plushie has a bigger carbon footprint than a thousand LLM queries but it is seen as an acceptable environmental impact, because it has been deemed socially acceptable to contract low wage factories in the Global South to make toys to sell to customers worldwide at a 3000% markup, with all the profits staying in the Global North. Not many people think of that environmental impact

Then the seasons come and the seasons go And the worms of wisdom always know The worms of wisdom always know What will die and what will grow The turning of the universal night Into light, into dark, into day

mapping our way out