Mostly Void, Partially Tau

It can also be found on Google Drive here and on Bluesky here.

#my old phone looks like this on my shelf lmao #im too scared to touch it to throw it away #idk what trash this even goes into when its at this point

The pillow-shaped object here used to be the phone’s battery. It’s not a battery anymore. Now it’s a balloon full of corrosive, pyrophoric chemicals and hydrogen gas and it’s one puncture away from burning your house down. I am 100% serious. You should be scared to touch it.

But you gotta touch it, because you gotta get it out of your house before the pressure builds up to the point where the balloon pops. This isn’t going to happen soon – there is no need to panic – but it will happen eventually.

And, indeed, it doesn’t go in the ordinary trash. You put this in the ordinary trash and you’re gonna set the garbage truck on fire. Don’t do that to the garbage collectors, their job is hard enough already.

The first thing you need to do is get a fireproof container. The most common household item that qualifies as a fireproof container is a cast-iron cookpot with a cast-iron lid – often sold as a “Dutch oven.” Any other cooking container that’s unreactive, has a very high melting point, and has a lid made of the same materials will also work: enameled or stainless steel, Pyrex with glass lid, etc.

However: Do not use a pot with a PTFE-based non-stick coating. If the battery does explode, the fire will probably be hot enough to degrade a PTFE coating, producing toxic smoke. (Not that you should breathe the smoke from the battery fire either, but PTFE breakdown products are worse.) Do not use a pot made of aluminium or copper. The fire might even get hot enough to melt those.

Whatever container you use, you might have to throw away along with the phone, so don’t use your good Dutch oven for this. Go to a thrift store and buy a cheap one.

Once you have the fireproof container:

Gently pick up the phone and put it in the fireproof container. If possible, gently tape the phone to the bottom of the container to prevent it from bouncing around. Don’t put any padding in there, that’ll just make a fire worse if it does happen. Put the lid on and tape it shut.

Put a label on the container, something like “DEFECTIVE LI-ION BATTERY – FIRE HAZARD”.

It is now reasonably safe to move the container around. However, if the battery does explode, the container is very likely to leak smoke and get hot, so keep it in a well-ventilated area and away from things that will be damaged by heat. Don’t leave it exposed to the weather, either.

You need to find either a hazardous waste disposal site, or an e-waste recycler that will accept defective Li-ion batteries. I can’t help with that because I have no idea where you live.

However, your local fire department, if you have one, will probably be happy to help. Call their non-emergency number. Nothing is on fire yet, so this isn’t an emergency, but things that can easily start a fire are still within the fire department’s responsibilities. Tell them you have a phone with a bulging lithium-ion battery, you put it in a fireproof container, and you want to know how to dispose of it safely.

If the fire department tries to tell you this isn’t dangerous or it’s okay to throw it out in the regular trash (with or without fireproof container), hang up on them and write a cranky letter to your local government representatives, then keep looking for a proper disposal site.

"Here's an entire systematic review finding that the pain box from Dune has literally no effect on anything related to detransition."

"Well it's important that we don't make people do things they regret"

But the gatekeeping model isn't just not helpful to detransitioners. It isn't just ineffective in preventing detransition. It's counterproductive.

What's less traumatic? What's less frightening and humiliating? What's less likely to lead to despair in that small fraction of patients who decide they need to stop/go back?

Option A: "You can transition if you want. Try HRT and see if you like the effects. If you're not sure, you can try a lower dose and ramp up gradually. If you want to stop, you can stop at any time. Some effects will gradually reverse themselves as your body readjust. Some may be permanent. But either way, you'll be fine. We affirm your right to make all decisions related to your transition, and we trust you to protect your own emotional wellbeing throughout this process. We're here to support you."

Option B: "You're about to make irreversible changes to your body, so we need to make sure you're making the right decision. What if you're delusional? Or immature? Or just a pervert? What if you haven't fully considered the potentially catastrophic effects of transition? You know this is mutilation of a healthy body, right? So are you sure? Are you sure? Are you really really sure? You can never go back! Point of no return! Last chance! Final countdown!"

Like, the point of this is obviously not to protect the dignity and peace of some hypothetical patient who got all the way through transition and then is like oh oops.

If that were the case, the emphasis would be completely different. It would not be stuck on let's make sure you're not about to fuck your life all the way up.

If there were any empathy or actual concern, any intrerest in detransitioners or their actual relationship to this gatekeeping process, the problem with this approach would be immediately clear. The problem with treating patients like they're not competent would be clear.

The spectre of transition regret exists to torment trans people and justify external (cis) control of transition. It's brutal because it's intended to brutalize. It's meant to create learned helplessness through shame, to punish everyone who transitions for the sin of self-determination.

All day the stars watch from long ago my mother said I am going now when you are alone you will be all right whether or not you know you will know

galadriel's been around since the beginning, like, for pretty much all of middle-earth's history you understand, she has Seen it all and despite what you may have been led to believe is at all times this close to snapping. also the reason lothlorien is so chill is she has this magic ring that makes it so the whole place exists slightly outside normal time

i can't emphasize enough how much of a post-apocalyptic horror story thranduil lives in. homeland destroyed and half his people massacred. has fucken sauron in his backyard and the spawn of the primordial beast that eats light puttering about on his lawn. a dragon lives next door. does NOT have a magic ring and is therefore obliged to rule over his murderforest in normal time

just so we're all on the same page here, legolas' day job before joining the fellowship was to hunt the spawn of the primordial beast that eats light and it's not like, a big deal or anything. he just has to do it. he's used to it.

Winter Night Glow

BUT