there's our catastrophe

Oct 7

ayiman:

meandrous:

andysar:

sanityscraps:

wonderbraforyourdick:

You are the worst person.
You can be a vegan and whine at people, thats hurting nobody but when you tell people to not take vaccines, you’re endangering public health.
If YOU mixed mercury, aluminium phosphate, ammonium sulfate, formaldehyde and viruses and injected it into someone, you’d kill someone because you have no pharmacological experience.
If someone in a lab mixed those together, they know how they work, they have medically assessed and peer reviewed evidence and strict guidelines to follow to create a safe and effective product. Why is it legal? Because they know what they’re doing and know how to spell “phosphate” and “ammonium”.
Why don’t YOU educate yourself instead of subscribing to the notion that all scientists are evil and want to poison you are your natural, vegan lifestyle. I say this as a fucking IMMUNOLOGIST, you are single handedly responsible for the skyrocketing resurgence of deaths caused by TB, measles and the worrying prospect of smallpox returning.
Let’s break this one down and give you some education.
Mercury is an element in the compound thiomersal which was part of many vaccines. It has been claimed with NO tangible evidence other than a multifaceted correlation that thiomersals cause autism. This has been investigated thoroughly and no causal link has been found.
Aluminium phosphate is an aluminium salt which is used as an adjuvant in vaccines. An adjuvant is a compound which causes an immune response to be higher and stronger, so that the immune system comes into contact with the attenuated virus more, so that it can recognise the antigens of the virus and provide immunity. They are a necessary part of the vaccine if you want it to work well.
Ammonium sulfate is used in the process of purifying the proteins in the synthesis of a vaccine. It is also found in bread and flour, so you’d better learn to enjoy rice if you want to avoid it.
Formaldehyde is used in the treatment and purification of vaccines and stops contamination. Most of this is removed before the vaccines is shipped, although some remains.
In my personal and scientifically backed opinion, the war against disease is a hundred fold more important than the mum-led war against vaccines. Do you want your child to die a slow, painful, agonising death? If not, then shut the fuck up with your so called “facts” you got from Yahoo Answers and get your kid vaccinated.
I am going to sound derogatory, but if you don’t have formal education in at least biology, you have no role to talk about the way vaccines should be done. You have no idea of the actual function and mechanism in which they work, and you have is a vague knowledge that mercury used to make people mad, formaldehyde is used in embalming and that ammonium sulfate and aluminium phosphate sound scary.
Vaccinate your kids if you want them to live. End of. If you don’t then you clearly don’t love your kids and would prefer to see them die of completely preventable diseases.
This has been a rage filled, alcohol induced response from a scientist.

Antivaxxers who link the vaccines to autism especially piss me off. Even if it WERE true and not falsified at all—after all, Andrew Wakefield completely falsified his data for his supposed vaccines-autism study and got his medical license revoked for it—so fucking what? These people act as if autism is more of a death sentence than measles.

There is a reason infectious diseases are no longer the first cause of death among children in developed countries.
Vaccines are that reason.

The anti-vax people are literally saying they’d rather have a dead child than an autistic child.

HERD IMMUNITY
“hey I don’t want my kid to become autistic based on some horseshit”
which is fine. whatever, you’re a shitty parent.
except what you’re also saying is
“…I also don’t give a shit if my unvaccinated kid transmits deadly illnesses to other kids”
when was the last time you knew someone who died of polio?

all this, plus a lot of people can’t be vaccinated for reasons outside their control — maybe they have an autoimmune disorder, or the vaccine’s not free and they can’t afford it, maybe they’re a kid and have a shitty anti-vax parent, whatever.
these are the people who most need herd immunity; not only in that they don’t get to choose whether or not they’re vaccinated, but also in that poverty, autoimmune disorders, extreme youth, etc make infectious diseases more deadly.
if you can be vaccinated and you choose not to be, you are endangering these people. your choices affect the people around you. the choice not to act is still a choice. ultimately you have to make your own choices based on what you think is best, but you better be really fucking sure of the science behind your decision before you choose not to be vaccinated or not to vaccinate your kids.

meandrous:

andysar:

sanityscraps:

wonderbraforyourdick:

You are the worst person.

You can be a vegan and whine at people, thats hurting nobody but when you tell people to not take vaccines, you’re endangering public health.

If YOU mixed mercury, aluminium phosphate, ammonium sulfate, formaldehyde and viruses and injected it into someone, you’d kill someone because you have no pharmacological experience.

If someone in a lab mixed those together, they know how they work, they have medically assessed and peer reviewed evidence and strict guidelines to follow to create a safe and effective product. Why is it legal? Because they know what they’re doing and know how to spell “phosphate” and “ammonium”.

Why don’t YOU educate yourself instead of subscribing to the notion that all scientists are evil and want to poison you are your natural, vegan lifestyle. I say this as a fucking IMMUNOLOGIST, you are single handedly responsible for the skyrocketing resurgence of deaths caused by TB, measles and the worrying prospect of smallpox returning.

Let’s break this one down and give you some education.

Mercury is an element in the compound thiomersal which was part of many vaccines. It has been claimed with NO tangible evidence other than a multifaceted correlation that thiomersals cause autism. This has been investigated thoroughly and no causal link has been found.

Aluminium phosphate is an aluminium salt which is used as an adjuvant in vaccines. An adjuvant is a compound which causes an immune response to be higher and stronger, so that the immune system comes into contact with the attenuated virus more, so that it can recognise the antigens of the virus and provide immunity. They are a necessary part of the vaccine if you want it to work well.

Ammonium sulfate is used in the process of purifying the proteins in the synthesis of a vaccine. It is also found in bread and flour, so you’d better learn to enjoy rice if you want to avoid it.

Formaldehyde is used in the treatment and purification of vaccines and stops contamination. Most of this is removed before the vaccines is shipped, although some remains.

In my personal and scientifically backed opinion, the war against disease is a hundred fold more important than the mum-led war against vaccines. Do you want your child to die a slow, painful, agonising death? If not, then shut the fuck up with your so called “facts” you got from Yahoo Answers and get your kid vaccinated.

I am going to sound derogatory, but if you don’t have formal education in at least biology, you have no role to talk about the way vaccines should be done. You have no idea of the actual function and mechanism in which they work, and you have is a vague knowledge that mercury used to make people mad, formaldehyde is used in embalming and that ammonium sulfate and aluminium phosphate sound scary.

Vaccinate your kids if you want them to live. End of. If you don’t then you clearly don’t love your kids and would prefer to see them die of completely preventable diseases.

This has been a rage filled, alcohol induced response from a scientist.

Antivaxxers who link the vaccines to autism especially piss me off. Even if it WERE true and not falsified at all—after all, Andrew Wakefield completely falsified his data for his supposed vaccines-autism study and got his medical license revoked for it—so fucking what? These people act as if autism is more of a death sentence than measles.

There is a reason infectious diseases are no longer the first cause of death among children in developed countries.

Vaccines are that reason.

The anti-vax people are literally saying they’d rather have a dead child than an autistic child.

HERD IMMUNITY

“hey I don’t want my kid to become autistic based on some horseshit”

which is fine. whatever, you’re a shitty parent.

except what you’re also saying is

“…I also don’t give a shit if my unvaccinated kid transmits deadly illnesses to other kids”

when was the last time you knew someone who died of polio?

all this, plus a lot of people can’t be vaccinated for reasons outside their control — maybe they have an autoimmune disorder, or the vaccine’s not free and they can’t afford it, maybe they’re a kid and have a shitty anti-vax parent, whatever.

these are the people who most need herd immunity; not only in that they don’t get to choose whether or not they’re vaccinated, but also in that poverty, autoimmune disorders, extreme youth, etc make infectious diseases more deadly.

if you can be vaccinated and you choose not to be, you are endangering these people. your choices affect the people around you. the choice not to act is still a choice. ultimately you have to make your own choices based on what you think is best, but you better be really fucking sure of the science behind your decision before you choose not to be vaccinated or not to vaccinate your kids.

Mar 12

Reading, writing and politics//Jewel Topsfield//The Age

Autism is estimated to affect one in every 160 students in Australia. The number of students with autism in Melbourne’s western suburbs alone has jumped from 391 in 2006 to 6855 in 2010. But the western suburbs is one of the few regions in Melbourne without a dedicated autism school for students from prep to year 12. This means families with children at the Western Autistic School are forced to make the difficult, sometimes agonising, decision about where to send their child after year 3.

A review of autism education in Melbourne’s western metropolitan region last year found families want the choice of a local mainstream school where their children can socialise and learn with their peers. This is what is known as ”inclusion”, an educational philosophy that students with disabilities should not be separated from other children.

However, the independent report, commissioned by the Education Department, found many families believe mainstream schools are unwilling, or unable, to cater for students with autism. They worry their children will be bullied and unable to cope with the sensory overload of big groups, particularly given the trend towards larger, open-plan classrooms.

Almost half the students at Western Autistic School end up going to a special school that caters for students with intellectual disabilities. But to get in, students must have an IQ lower than 70. Inevitably there are some who fall through the cracks.

”Many parents report a perceived lack of choice when their child leaves Western Autistic School,” the review says. ”They express concern that they will be unable to access appropriate and intensive support for their child without an (autism) specific school.”

Mar 6

Hearing loss hits NT indigenous inmates//Farah Farouque//The Age

in 2010, a case cited was that of an Aboriginal man convicted of murder in the NT who was later diagnosed by an audiologist as being clinically deaf. He had been through the court process basically saying two words - ”good” and ”yes”.

Since then, Dr Howard and co-researcher Troy Vanderpoll began testing the hearing of 134 indigenous inmates aged 20 to 60 in jails in Darwin and Alice Springs.

The study - covering 13 per cent of the Top End Aboriginal inmate population when done last year - determined that 94 per cent suffered ”significant hearing loss”. Widespread hearing loss among Aboriginal adults arose from endemic childhood ear disease, Dr Howard, a psychologist, said.

The research, to be published in the Indigenous Law Bulletin, comes as the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services complains of severe underfunding by the federal government for indigenous interpreters. With hundreds of tribal dialects spoken in remote and regional areas and many Aboriginal accused not fluent in English, this added to communication woes when facing police and courts, said the legal service’s chief executive Shane Duffy.

”It becomes a miscarriage of justice when our people fail to understand the language used in the courts,” he said.

Sep 26

“

What is it like to “hear” a hand?
You have to be deaf to understand.

What is it like to be a small child,
In a school, in a room void of sound —
With a teacher who talks and talks and talks;
And then when she does come around to you,
She expects you to know what she’s said?
You have to be deaf to understand.

Or the teacher thinks that to make you smart,
You must first learn how to talk with your voice;
So mumbo-jumbo with hands on your face
For hours and hours without patience or end,
Until out comes a faint resembling sound?
You have to be deaf to understand.

What is it like to be curious,
To thirst for knowledge you can call your own,
With an inner desire that’s set on fire —
And you ask a brother, sister, or friend
Who looks in answer and says, “Never Mind”?
You have to be deaf to understand.

What it is like in a corner to stand,
Though there’s nothing you’ve done really wrong,
Other than try to make use of your hands
To a silent peer to communicate
A thought that comes to your mind all at once?
You have to be deaf to understand.

What is it like to be shouted at
When one thinks that will help you to hear;
Or misunderstand the words of a friend
Who is trying to make a joke clear,
And you don’t get the point because he’s failed?
You have to be deaf to understand.

What is it like to be laughed in the face
When you try to repeat what is said;
Just to make sure that you’ve understood,
And you find that the words were misread —
And you want to cry out, “Please help me, friend”?
You have to be deaf to understand.

What is it like to have to depend
Upon one who can hear to phone a friend;
Or place a call to a business firm
And be forced to share what’s personal, and,
Then find that your message wasn’t made clear?
You have to be deaf to understand.

What is it like to be deaf and alone
In the company of those who can hear —
And you only guess as you go along,
For no one’s there with a helping hand,
As you try to keep up with words and song?
You have to be deaf to understand.

What is it like on the road of life
To meet with a stranger who opens his mouth —
And speaks out a line at a rapid pace;
And you can’t understand the look in his face
Because it is new and you’re lost in the race?
You have to be deaf to understand.

What is it like to comprehend
Some nimble fingers that paint the scene,
And make you smile and feel serene,
With the “spoken word” of the moving hand
That makes you part of the word at large?
You have to be deaf to understand.

What is it like to “hear” a hand?
Yes, you have to be deaf to understand.

”

Written at 1971 by Willard J. Madsen, professor of journalism at Gallaudet University. This poem was translated into seven different languages and reprinted in publications, including DEAF HERITAGE, p. 380.

Internet Source

(via fydeafies)

(via seeingloveisbetterthanhearingit)

Jul 19

Anonymous asked: I recall you posting about Ludwig Wittgenstein a few times so I thought you might find this interesting:

autisticsymphony (dot) com (slash) wittgenstein (dot) html

oh yeah this is heaps interesting! (clickable link) it’s about whether wittgenstein was possibly autistic, and the impact of this on his early work. especially into this: “The Tractatus is more revealing as a work of abstract autobiography than it is as a treatise on symbolic logic or language.” I’ve often thought that the Tractatus is of more literary than philosophical interest, which is a shame because you need such a high level of maths/logic knowledge/skills to understand it, thereby closing it off to the vast majority of the people who would find the most interest in it (full confession: I have never managed to read the Tractatus cover to cover.) if anybody reading this is autistic, I’d be keen to hear your thoughts on the article. thanks anon!

Mar 9

Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL) is a sign language once widely used on the island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts, U.S., from the early 18th century to the year 1952. It was remarkable for its use by both deaf and hearing people in the community; consequently, deafness did not become a barrier to participation in public life. Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language is also notable for the role it played in the development of American Sign Language.

The language was able to thrive on Martha’s Vineyard because of the unusually high percentage of deaf islanders and because of the fact that deafness was both a hereditary trait and a recessive trait, which meant that almost anyone might have both deaf and hearing siblings. In 1854, when the island’s deaf population peaked, the United States national average was one deaf person in 5728, while on Martha’s Vineyard it was one in 155. In the town of Chilmark, which had the highest concentration of deaf people on the island, the average was 1 in 25; in a section of Chilmark called Squibnocket, as much as a quarter of the population of 60 was deaf.

Hearing people sometimes signed even when there were no deaf people present: children signed behind a schoolteacher’s back; adults signed to one another during church sermons; and farmers signed to their children across a wide field, where the spoken word would not carry.

wikipedia.

I’ve been learning Auslan (Australian sign language) lately. there’s nobody I know well who’s Deaf but there’s a lot of good reasons to learn it anyway and I think this sums up a lot of them. it’s useful for communicating in environments where sound doesn’t travel, plus it’s an issue of creating a more generally accessible society. I’m pretty critical of the way accessibility is framed on the blogosphere but I get sick of just being a critic; I thought I should quit carping and have a think about what I think would be useful. the more people sign, the more reason hearing people have to learn to sign, hopefully the less hassles Deaf people have. There’s so much more I/you could do and I will likely never become truly fluent but either way it’s still fascinating, useful, and probably good for my brain.

Colin Firth interviewed by head of British Stammerer's Association on The King's Speech

CF: I had vocal problems in my 20s. I had an injury on my vocal chord which had to be dealt with surgically. It wasn’t a stammer but it meant I couldn’t be heard properly. And I remember a voice therapist I was talking to said “don’t underestimate how debilitating it is”. People appreciate the problem of blindness and deafness and so on. Not being able to speak properly to people - in the way they expect - I think it’s underestimated the psychological damage it does. I like to talk, and I had a voice that sitting here, like this, I could get away with it but if there were more than 3 people in the room or there was music playing I just couldn’t be heard. I couldn’t cut through the way I wanted to, I couldn’t express myself, my identity was completely stifled. So in some ways there’s an insight there I think.

NL: There’s just been some research done in Australia where they worked with a stammering child in a pre-school setting. Every kid was given a rucksack. The stammering child had a microphone in there, and his interactions with other children in the break time were filmed. And the number of times the child got negative responses to communication - and it’s often just a fraction of a second, a child turning away when the child stammers - or even the teacher turning away. And it’s just the constant drip drip drip-feed of “You’re a bad communicator”, “You’re a bad communicator”, and that starts at that point. And it just builds up. And you could see how the King could become this figure rigid with terror….

CF: I think what we don’t get is a cure of course.

NL: That’s really important to us.

CF: Absolutely. Tom Hooper (the director) was insistent about that. Otherwise it’s a lie.

i just saw this, there is a big part of me that’s like “oh geez pity party for the bloody royals again — oh look the larrikin white australian” but I really liked it anyway. it was absorbing + witty + I thought it had kind of great disability politics.

Mar 6

upmountains:

here is some back brace fash. this thing is so hard to style! it’s a bit like an alien goth corset. i am really tempted every day to wear my showering brace out, which is white and way strappier and pretty amazing. i’m definitely gonna rock it when my back is healed but i think i should stop fucking around for now and just like, let my bones heal instead of making up mad outfits and wearing the wrong brace out. also—- dancing is so fucking hard without moving my hips! but on the upside my thighs are getting way better at squats because i’ve gotta lift anything i pick up totally with my knees and i’m not allowed to bend at all. ok i guess now you’re all up to date with how hard life is with a broken back (ie: fashion issues, dancing issues)

caitlin have you read this post at threadbared on medical accessories, fashion, and cyborg feminism? I think it is relevant to your life/interests

Mar 3

Long-Term Care for Queer Radicals

Last night I had dessert with a dear, fairly young, queer punk friend who posed the question: “Will any of us last?” Once I figured out that the “us” she was referring to was the queer, anarchist scene, I answered, “Some, yes. Many, no.”

The trouble with young radical queer community is that it is often based in youth culture, able-body, able-mind privilege, and a damn all lack of care for security and comfort. While I appreciate the energy and the enthusiasm of all these youthful, queer, punks, unless they (and we to a fading extent…I guess I’m still benefiting from a ton of that privilege) have a way of taking care of each other and those who have come before as our bodies and minds change, our alternative political projects cannot be sustainable.

Sometimes it feels like anarchists are fighting for a romantic lack of comfort rather than an equal access to the joys and perks of living. It often seems folks who believe in challenging capitalism are more interested in demanding an unsustainable asceticism contingent on the wastes of industry.

Instead of fighting for access to healthcare and quality public housing for the sick, the broke and the elderly, anarchists often prefer celebrating an untenable culture of risk entitled to a few healthy people.

So the question we’re left with is how the hell do we change this attitude, make this project of liberation from capitalism and the state a lifelong, sustainable reality? How do we build infrastructure to care for our queer elders and to ensure that we have care as we get older?

Building viable care options for older radicals and queers is a long-term strategy for radical social transformation.

really agree with this. been thinking about this stuff a lot since I quit squatting, and also thinking about the immense amount of time and effort that goes into maintaining lifestyles picking up the waste of the current system. it takes so much time, my god.

I’m really grateful I was able to spend time living on the fringes, it saved me at a time when I didn’t have a lot of options, plus learning how to live independently for more or less free has given me a lasting faith in my capacity to take care of myself. but in the end I couldn’t do anything else, my life was so unpredictable that I couldn’t really study or work or have any ongoing projects. this wasn’t okay with me.

what would happen if every squatter or dumpster diver or serial scammer who was able to just started…like, paying for things? and spent the time they would otherwise spend on that on broader work for social change? I feel like we would all probably be better off.

(via so-treu)

Feb 14

Cut disabled pensions to pay for floods: business//ABC news

The Business Council says cuts to disability services and foreign aid should be considered as alternatives to the flood levy.

…Council president Graham Bradley says all current spending should be reviewed and disability pensions may not be the best use of government money.

“It is one of the large budget items,” he told ABC Radio’s AM.

“And if you look at what countries overseas are doing in this regard … for example in the United Kingdom, they are taking a really hard look to make sure that there aren’t people currently incentivised to be on disability pensions who really would be much better off going back to work, even if it is only part-time or less rigorous work.”

HATE EVERYTHING

(via josh polyglamorous)