Cats and Characters

Floor Treasures

Most found on various floors, especially sweeping

we need gynecological care. we experience higher rates of medical discrimination that effect access to gynecological care. our ability to get abortions is effected by this, as is it effected by abortion being made illegal. some medical providers deny birth control to trans people on testosterone hrt. forced pregnancy is commonly used to detransition us.

neither trans nor cis women face this in the way that we do.

“systemically there is no real patriarchal oppression trans men face that trans women do not.” 

period stigma. the financial burden of menstrual products. female class genital mutilation. female class infanticide. stunted development encouragement as children due to sexist bias. in some countries we cannot leave without the permission of a cis man due to being classed as female. 

this is real, systemic, patriarchal oppression, that those shoved into the class of 'female' at birth face, and trans women do not.

“the treatment of transfeminized people by society is inherently different. inherently worse. not just socially or interpersonally but systemically.” 

socially: trans men have higher rates of sexual violence, one in two trans men have been sexually assaulted. we also have higher rates of domestic violence, and intimate partner violence. we have higher suicide attempt rates. as well as being more likely to be in severe psychological distress and depressed. while less likely to be generally happy and thriving. we are more likely to be harassed or discriminated against in restaurants, hotels, retail stores, and bathrooms. and have higher avoidance rates of public bathrooms. 

systemically: we are less represented in political office. we are more likely to have negative experiences with law enforcement. we overall are found to make less money. we are more likely to be harassed when we present incongruent identity documents. testosterone is a controlled schedule III substance that can result in criminal charges without a prescription. it is more common for us to be denied insurance coverage of hrt. due to our higher rates of medical discrimination we are also much more likely to avoid receiving necessary medical treatment due to fear of harassment and discrimination. we have higher rates of being in poor health. and avoiding healthcare due to cost. and are also more likely to be harassed or discriminated against by government agencies. as well as have negative experiences with airport security.

we also have comparable violent victimization rates with trans women. and trans boys are just as likely to be homeless.

this reads to me as a very clever sort of semantic trick that’s main purpose is obfuscating the axis of oppression that those assigned the female sex class inhabit, by making it impossible for us to talk about it. and of course once it’s impossible to talk about it, it’s impossible to fix.

until someone can actually explain to me in the tangible and material, how what has been listed is not unique to transmasculine people, outside of hypotheticals they treat as more real than the millions of real flesh and blood trans men and mascs living through the things listed, i will be considering this a tactic for imposing silence.

Green sea turtles have been an iconic endangered species since the 1980s, mostly due to bycatch in fishing nets and taking adults and eggs for food. I have core childhood memories of watching Steve Irwin talk about sea turtle conservation in front of a beach full of nesting green sea turtles.

After 45 years of conservation efforts, their population now meets the IUCN criteria for Least Concern rather than Endangered.

For a species with such a slow life history (it takes green sea turtles decades to reach sexual maturity) and a nearly global population, this is a Really Big Deal. This is the kind of long term conservation victory that many of the amazing humans who started working on green sea turtle conservation back in the 80s didn't live to see.

Billionaire land ownership is back in the spotlight after an Instagram post mapped the spread of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates' farmland across the United States.

What's happening?

In a collaborative post with Localize (@localize.food), Grant Stoll (@GrantOnSoil) described Gates as the largest private owner of U.S. farmland. The biggest concentrations are in Louisiana and Arkansas, and there's notable acreage in Nebraska and Arizona.

Using a state-by-state map, the post presented Gates' farmland as a nationwide portfolio stretching across several major agricultural regions.

Stoll wrote, "Bill Gates owns more American farmland than any other private individual, spread across nearly 20 states."

Why is this concerning?

Farmland shapes food production, water use, and wildlife habitat.

When a small number of owners control large tracts of land, that raises understandable questions about stewardship, leasing, conservation, and access for working farmers.

Ownership patterns can influence what grows, how people manage land, and whether smaller farmers have a fair shot at expanding their operations. In states like Louisiana, Arkansas, Nebraska, and Arizona, those choices can also intersect with flood risk, drought, and water demand.

Better transparency can help people understand where their food is coming from. And they may even be able to advocate for legislation that regulates land in a way that doesn't favor billionaires.

What can I do?

Consumers can support farming models that keep more value in local communities. Shopping at farmers markets or joining a community-supported agriculture program can help smaller operations remain viable in an increasingly expensive land market.

And while any one landowner can attract attention, local policy often has the bigger day-to-day effect. Taking action in your community by doing things like attending local meetings could shape policy for the better.

it's pathetic that there are some supposed "progressives" who dismiss the issue of bill gates' monopolization of farmland as "conspiracy theorism" from "backwards hicks" when it's so obviously a serious issue.

It's never done that before so I looked it up and turns out Roku TVs have added all sorts of creepy things in the privacy section since I last checked.

One of which being they take screenshots from what you're watching and send them to third parties to identify it.

Fucking hell! Remember when every fucking device in your life wasn't a spy implanted in your home and working against your interests to try and sell your data? Remember how nice that was??

Remember when the TV was just a tool that would play the things you plugged into it?

I'm just gonna slide this on in here for anyone that is interested in preserving old games. They take it very seriously too, they want an archive of every single game. Like, they have lists of every game ever released for a system, and once that system gets old enough, they add it to their archive and start collecting. Their latest addition was the Xbox 360, they opened that vault up in September 2022, and proudly announced they'd finished their collection of games for it back in April.

Also, while their game archives are almost entirely complete, they've got another project of archiving the manuals that came with those games, and that is... considerably less well filled out. Their collection of Xbox 360 manuals is especially rough, they've only gotten manuals for three games. So if you've got some Xbox 360 games kicking around, and the manual's still with them, please consider scanning them and submitting them to the site!

Before I could even process that, another officer dropped the big surprise: they’d actually been tracking me around town for days via Flock cameras. But they kept losing the trail, so when a camera alerted them that the Range Rover had been spotted turning into Kohl’s that morning, they quickly set up their ambush and waited for me and my wife to walk out of the store and get into the SUV.

[…]

One of the officers pulled out his phone, opened the Flock app, and showed me two photos: a wide shot of the Range Rover going through the intersection and a zoomed-in shot of the New Jersey license plate, which clearly reads 34 10 DTM and says VEHICLE MFR along the bottom. Critically, the number 10 is in a much smaller font than the rest of the tag, which is the non-standard structure New Jersey uses for manufacturer plates.

[…]

The New Jersey plates that were allegedly stolen from the LA dealer were 34 03 DTM, not 34 10 DTM. But when the police report was created and the plate was entered into Flock’s system, it was just recorded as 34 DTM. Just the five large characters, no little number in the middle. And Flock’s AI tech wasn’t registering that non-standard little number when it began picking up the Range Rover around town. It just saw 34 DTM in large type and started alerting the local police.

As we all stood there shaking our heads, including my wife, who was finally allowed to join me, I connected the final dot. A lot of vehicles in JLR’s media fleet have a New Jersey manufacturer plate with the same alphanumeric structure—34 ## DTM—and Officer Ganshyn observed that meant it was now a nationwide issue. Anywhere a police department has a partnership with Flock, any other JLR-owned car with the same plate structure is going to get flagged as stolen. In fact, four other 34 ## DTM cars were being tracked around Minnesota that week, according to Officer Ganshyn. I was just the first one to get nabbed. The only way to stop it would be for the LAPD to correct their initial report and update Flock’s system, which Jaguar Land Rover was now racing to make happen following the phone call.

Still, he warned me to drive straight home, park the Range Rover, and leave it there. If I were to cross into the neighboring town, I’d probably get flagged again and go through this entire ordeal again with a different set of officers. His parting words were ominous: “You’re lucky we’re in Plymouth. If you were in Minneapolis, they definitely would’ve come at you with guns drawn.”

One of the most photogenic tornadoes in history