Mostly void, partially stars

Ya'll couldn't even handle HER.

Discovered last year I couldn’t look at my 2015 MacBook Air without it triggering nausea and migraines, and figured the screen died. Have been getting by on my phone, but concluded I really need a laptop again.

Saved up, realised I could afford a brand new MacBook Neo, and got one.

-And I couldn’t spend more than five minutes looking at the screen without massive eye strain, nausea, vertigo, and if I pushed it, I-need-to-lie-down-in-a-dark-room-for-hours migraines.

Looking up MacBook and Eyestrain explained what is going on. The liquid retina displays that Apple currently has uses Pulse Width Modulation or PWM. In order to give the screens a deeper depth of colour and contrast, PWM flickers between several hundred to thousand times a second.

And there is currently no way to turn it off. There are settings and apps to reduce it, but there is no way to stop the screen from flickering. Checked Apple forums, called Apple Support, and the time I could look at the screen kept shrinking. Got the laptop Tuesday, returned it Friday, today is Sunday and I’m still dealing with a vertigo migraine.

For MacBooks, it seems to vary on the computer model and the software it uses. In retrospect, the issue with my MacBook Air started after a major software update.

And it’s not just an Apple thing. Current Windows and Android screens do the same thing. There’s even a Reddit for people who are sensitive to PWM flickers to help find computers and screens that won’t trigger eyestrain and headaches.

So, yeah. This week has been a learning experience. But for those who are prone to headaches and migraines, this may be something to be aware of, cause I was not.

Happy birthday, Che Guevara! (June 14, 1928)

One of the 20th Century's most impactful revolutionaries, Ernesto "Che" Guevara grew up in a well-off family with left-wing sympathies in Argentina. As a young medical student, Guevara embarked on a trek across Latin America which would change him forever, as he came to see the plight of the poor and destitute firsthand. He was further radicalized by his experiences in Guatemala, where he witnessed the coup carried out by the United States at the behest of the United Fruit Company against progressive President Jacobo Arbenz. This event galvanized Guevara's view of the United States as the world's foremost imperial power, one which had to be opposed and fought to achieve economic and social freedom for Latin America, and cemented his commitment to armed revolution as a force for social change. To this end, he joined the forces of Fidel and Raul Castro, and became a leading figure in the Cuban Revolution. During the revolution Guevara helped to established schools and medical facilities for campesinos, and helped lead the revolutionaries to victory in the Battle of Santa Clara. After the revolution, Guevara played a major role in the new Cuban government, overseeing land reform and literacy campaigns. However, he soon felt a desire to continue his revolutionary activities, traveling abroad to support revolutionary movements in Africa and South America. While in Bolivia leading the Ñancahuazú Guerrilla, he was captured and executed by the Bolivian government.