#Visual diagram

[reasonsforhope]

Given the misinformation that's been going around and will be going around, thought this might be helpful to some people

For a lot of reasons, I'm very good at this/at searching, to the point where I have worked as a professional fact-checker for two different publishers. So, here goes:

My Article Fact-Checking Protocol

Thorough Version

Read the full article. Keep an eye out for emotionally loaded words, and all-or-nothing language

Keep an eye out or anything that sounds too good to be true, and in contrast, anything that sounds so awful it must be true

Run the website/source through the amazing Media Bias/Fact Check. They'll tell you about a publication's bias and history of accuracy

Go to the website's home page and read through the headlines. Look at what topics they cover/prioritize, sensationalist headlines, and whether they're framing anything in a way that feels odd/off to you

Do a search related to the topic. This can be keywords, a question, or even just copy-paste the article title (Recommended: use DuckDuckGo so the results don't change based on what Google thinks they can sell you)

If multiple highly credible sources that say the same thing pop up, and there's no major societal biases that might affect the coverage of the topic in those sources (e.g. anything related to the Israel-Palestine conflict/Palestinian genocide, no matter which side), then I'm done!

If there are major societal biases, or I can't get a consensus of sufficiently credible sources, then I do some combination of:

(1) search the topic again + the words "controversy" and/or "fake"

(2) search the opposite of the topic, or do some sort of other filtered search

(3) look up a sufficiently credible news outlet with the opposite point of view of my source, and see what they have to say

(4) if it's a big enough topic, start by looking up 2 of the top national papers and 1 major paper for your region (I usually do the ones in the US, because that's where I am In the US: the LA Times, the Washington Post, and the NY Times)

Adjust "news" to "relevant type of source, e.g. tech, environmental" as relevant for all of the above options

If no red flags come up, and it's a topic I understand enough to smell huge bullshit,

Then I'm usually done!

If there are red flags, or I actually need a certain amount of detail/understanding, then it gets more complicated, but that would be a whole other thing to break down and such

or

tl;dr

Quick Version

Read the full article. Keep an eye out for emotionally loaded words, and all-or-nothing language

Keep an eye out or anything that sounds too good to be true, and in contrast, anything that sounds so awful it must be true.

If I don't know the website:

Run the website/source through the amazing Media Bias/Fact Check. They'll tell you about a publication's bias and history of accuracy

If I trust the source, but something else pinged my radar:

Do a quick web search to verify anything that sounds suspicious or too good/bad to be true (Recommended: use DuckDuckGo)

[623-74x]

autopsy report

—

an old hannibal painting i never finished turned collage

[lunacias]

(Silence. CARPENTER tries to rally HAYWARD's spirits. She's afraid she's going to lose him.)

"All three of us - we can all go on living, Hayward. Just like you said."

[cubbihue]

Would the Hazel puppet we see in a few of the shows episodes be a kind of very basic changeling? Its obviously made out of way less unwishes than Chimmy but the similarities are too striking to be ignored.

YES! YES IT ISS.

Hazel's puppet is a very basic changeling. So basic, that it's only purpose is to complete one specific set of actions. When those actions are done, it disappears! It's quite literally and physically a sock puppet.

The differences between Hazel's changeling and Timmy's changeling is that their lifespans and construction is different. They serve different purposes.

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

More information about changelings that's ultimately just world building ramblings. Lotsa paragraphs.

Hazel's changeling is short lived, low on unwishes, and more specific to the job.

Her changeling is a one-and-done tool. It only has to do one thing. "Distract the Teacher." "Distract the Mother." So it doesn't need a lot of unwishes, it just needs enough to do its job! As a result, it is made of low quality cloth, it can't verbalize, and it doesn't make its own actions.

Hazel's changeling favors Perceptional Magic. This is why Mr. Guzman doesn't recognize that Hazel's changeling isn't Hazel. He can't see that it's made of felt and sticks. It's constantly pooling out perception magic to warp how its being viewed.

For this reason, the changeling doesn't actually need as much connections as Timmy's does. It can exist by itself, or with Hazel, so long as it has just enough Unwishes to keep it alive. Maybe not stable, but, alive.

By contrast, Timmy' changeling is on the opposite end of this spectrum.

Timmy's changeling is a continuous tool. It must persist and adapt and grow. "Go to school" "Get a job" "Find a partner". It needs many unwishes to face many situations and scenarios. So the changeling has a more difficult build.

The magic it favors is different. Timmy's changeling requires Environmental Magic. People see it for how it looks. It has human skin and can speak the human tongue. But what it requires is a suitable environment. Otherwise, people will know it for what it is. Wooden and hollow.

The more developed and high-tech the Changeling is, the less it's recommended for it to see it's real counterpart. The bigger the amount of Unwishes, the more you want it to be stable and calm. Especially when that changeling's job is "Be Human".

[martianbugsbunny]

this is part anatomy reminders for myself and part trying to explain my headcanon

so basically the gills and the like mouth/nose airways are both connected to the lungs, there's like a sub-skull (?) or at least sub-skin connecting system from the gills to the windpipe and through that to the lungs, those two are basically complimentary systems that can operate independently of each other but use some of the same hardware

and then the really out of left field thing I decided Kit is gonna have is oxygen-absorbing skin. it's the backup system, it's separate from the other two, but in an emergency where neither the gills nor the rest of the respiratory system can provide oxygen the skin can absorb oxygen directly and give it to the cells (for a limited time)

[skittikyu]

non-sentient Carnival!Stiltikyu was basically functioning like a slightly more advanced discord soundboard

[uncanny-tranny]

Another bonus to learning a fiber art is being able to speak to others in a Lovecraftian language that nobody else understands...

...and also being able to read things like THIS:

[pourablecat]

A promo sketch! It was going to be pencil and watercolour - but I left them all in Glasgow so, scribbles instead.

So a couple of months ago I was proposing the Monstrous Regiment stageplay at Edinburgh and we didn't get a slot, but reproposing will happen next semester! Fingers crossed!

Also, un-updated promo sketches under the cut! Needless to say, they leave something to be desired...

[rna-world]

Iterator Speculative Biology: Aerobic Respiration

Considering as we know it, iterators use neurons similar to our own. Neurons need oxygen to survive. And a lot of it. Perhaps these neurons use another way to metabolize ATPs without oxygen, but the energy produced by these methods would not be enough for the sheer amount of energy required, and also its a whole lot easier to go off what we already know about cellular respiration rather than trying to create a whole new system.

Why am I making this point? Living things need oxygen of course. But this oxygen would need to be transported somehow. This is what this post is about.

Iterators do not have red blood cells, as that would require a bone marrow or like for the cells to be produced in, and functioning at such a small scale would not be enough to account for their large bodies.

Rather, I believe hemocyanin is saturated throughout their lymphatic systems or in fluids between neurons in their arrays or other organs (similar to cerebrospinal fluids).

While not being able to carry as much oxygen as hemoglobin, hemocyanin can float freely in extracellular fluid (this term doesn't work AS well with iterators, considering they contain entire organisms on their own rather than individual cells. But bear with me for a moment and think of these zooid organisms as cells within the iterator, as they basically serve a similar function)

Essentially how this would function is that oxygen is produced via some other organ or colony within the iterator, which is then picked up by hemocyanin and transported through (or alongside) the lymphatic systems to areas with a high anaerobic metabolism

[nemfrog]

Chart people. Composicion social. Ministry of Agriculture, Cuba. 1949.

Rumsey

[smidgen-of-hotboy]

This episode was great! What's driving me up the wall is this line

Because Juno says square but Nureyev uses three strokes and- Juno baby. Three straight strokes sounds like a triangle.

[oc4everything]

Ok, I’m new to the Fate Fandom but I think I’ve got this cracked.

[bubbloquacious]

How do you guys like this very convoluted proof of the Pythagorean theorem I just made

[amordei-k]

basically just looking up at the sky during the day

[cordspaghetti]

i think learning to sew would fix me…

[garadinervi]

Dick Higgins, Intermedia e altri scritti teorici, Edited by Patrizio Peterlini, «Carte d'artisti» 212, Abscondita, Milano, 2024, in collaboration with Fondazione Bonotto [© Dick Higgins]