Things I learned on the internet: apparently the country where a deranged tantrum-prone egomaniac fascist with dementia is leading the polls has a problem with its public education system.
This analogue landline turnoff at the end of this year is going to be a disaster for older folk. Less than nine months to go and the only official advice is "you may need to buy extra new equipment" *mic drop*.
No advice as to the equipment, nor where they've planted the magic money tree.
Yes *I* know what to do, and yes, *I* can afford it.
Sorry for making this a reply to your unrelated toot. It was supposed to be top-level. Not saure what happened: I guess I just forgot what I was doing!
Cis people on Reddit be like, "a trans woman would never need a gynaecologist, and they'd never ask if you might be pregnant because they could tell, and anyway, it will be in your notes, which they will have read".
And I'm like, "literally everything you just said is wrong"
it’s when the nurse says “ well, it’s better to just have the pregnancy test, just to be sure” that you know they are not really listening to what you’re saying
@rachel I once said “well someone didn’t read my file”. She had a quick look and said “oh”! She then asked if she could read it for self education. I said yes.
@NatalyaD This. I'd been seeing my retina specialist* for over a year & he'd done 3 surgical procedures before a light dawns one day & he says "you're amblyopic! why didn't you mention this before?" (It was literally in my intake notes before the first [emergency] surgery.) _ *I love the guy, don't get me wrong, I can see out of that eye thanks to him.
@FeralRobots I had over 40 surgeries as a child. My mum's constant bugbear was not reading notes.
I think one sign of NHS issues is the notes-reading has deteriorated further. Even if I ask them too, sometimes just too busy and want to babble at me which as a deaf person is hard to process. Or you can see clinicians are info overloaded and can't retain info (which I don't blame clinicians for in a designed to fail system).
@NatalyaD I'm super super lucky with my GP. She seems to have an eidetic memory or something; she will say things like "I wouldn't normally recommend X but given your history of Y and that you're taking Z, I think it's appropriate".
(this is not calling you a liar; I've had waaaay too much healthcare in my life, and the majority are definitely the sort you describe. And I guess GPs are a different kind of thing in terms of having a long-term relationship with their patients.)
covered this in passing in psych 111 circa 1981. Dunning-Kruger may not hold up mathematically, but this is a great example of a case where it's an empirical reality.
well, here's hoping you have a really good night. I'm hoping for the same after a bottle of retsina (which is about half a bottle more than I meant to drink when I started).
Dear angry driver in the yank tank SUV/Pickup/Boeing 747 crossover: I get that you are ANGRY that an electric hatchback is in front of you, traveling at the speed limit on the link road to the autoestrada; so angry, in fact, that you're going to tailgate it without any regard to the road conditions. However, there are things that I, the driver of said electric hatchback think you should know about electric cars.
First, they are heavy out of proportion to their size, because of the battery, and they carry that weight low. This means that when you tailgate me into the 270º bend on the entrance ramp, which has a speed limit of 40kph, and I decide to have a little fun with you by continuing at my previous 80kph, I will stick to the road as I go round the bend.
The sight of you weaving all over the place as you scrubbed off your speed moments after the realisation that you had made something of an error of judgement was very amusing! Thank you.
Secondly, on exiting the cloverleaf and joining the autoestrada, you should know that electric cars tend to go like an F
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Dear angry driver in the yank tank SUV/Pickup/Boeing 747 crossover: I get that you are ANGRY that an electric hatchback is in front of you, traveling at the speed limit on the link road to the autoestrada; so angry, in fact, that you're going to tailgate it without any regard to the road conditions. However, there are things that I, the driver of said electric hatchback think you should know about electric cars.
First, they are heavy out of proportion to their size, because of the battery, and they carry that weight low. This means that when you tailgate me into the 270º bend on the entrance ramp, which has a speed limit of 40kph, and I decide to have a little fun with you by continuing at my previous 80kph, I will stick to the road as I go round the bend.
The sight of you weaving all over the place as you scrubbed off your speed moments after the realisation that you had made something of an error of judgement was very amusing! Thank you.
Secondly, on exiting the cloverleaf and joining the autoestrada, you should know that electric cars tend to go like an F16 with the afterburner activated, and the Leaf is no exception. While your ridiculous parody of a road vehicle made screaming noises as it struggled to change gear and locate its power band, I was pressing my accelerator about half way as you got smaller and smaller in my rear view mirror.
Yes, you passed me at 160kph, eventually. Well done. I'd been at my cruising speed for some time by then.
The Nissan Leaf, model of 2018 I guess, of the local car sharing organization here can do 160kph - but I guess because general speed limit in .pt, one should not do that there, also it's not economic. I do like leaving other cars behind when starting from traffic lights though. Especially those that look like their owners need to compensate something. Sometimes I'm a bit sad I don't often have a need to use a car...
Yep, but they probably shouldn't have... Well, my point was, you *could* probably have done 160kph too, but you didn't, because of no need to compensate something.
Reminds me of somebody I knew in the 1980s with a 2CV being tailgated by a BMW. He went over a speed bump at the full speed limit which the 2CV didn't notice, of course, but the BMW did. No actual damage as far we know (unfortunately) but he did see the BMW driver holding his head.
Watching discussions of cross border rail ticketing in Europe on my TL while living in Portugal and being like, “you guys have trains that go to other places?”
The other day I asked for transit directions between Lisbon and somewhere near Mont-Saint-Michel and holy shit no wonder people fly everywhere and rent cars locally. Even inside France it kinda sucks, since they built the TGV as a star centred in Paris, so you always need to go through Paris if you’re travelling between two different places. The only viable option to leave Portugal by train was Vigo which turns into buses as soon as it reaches Vigo. Lisbon-Madrid is badly needed…
@TimWardCam Spain and Portugal use the Iberian gauge (not sure what the historical reasons are). However, the AVE (Spanish high speed network) was built using the standard gauge so the trains can continue to France without interruptions. The Portuguese high speed network will be built using the same standard gauge but of course we have been debating it for several decades instead of building it, per fine Portuguese tradition.
@TimWardCam Likely bollocks. Although I haven’t read it fully, the determination of the gauge was made in this 1844 doc, based on technical criteria (allows narrower curves which was handy given the local orography, faster trains and less wearing out). They recommend 6ft, which seems higher than the current Iberian gauge, but that can probably be explained by the feet as unit of measurement being shorter in Spain in 1844 than it is today in the imperial system. agrupament.cat/documents/Infor…
@TimWardCam According to what I’m seeing, a feet at that time in Spain would be approx 278.6mm, which results in 1671.6mm, very close to the original Spanish gauge (which was then slightly reduced to be compatible with the Portuguese one).
I see another cis investigator has decided that there should be no consequences of any kind for any kind of transphobia, even if the trans person dies, again.
I think I’ve seen the perfect example of why enshittification is a thing. I downloaded that “Royal Match” gave that keeps getting advertised. No ads, free to play. Whatever. I like a bit of colourful match-3.
But they have to make their money somewhere, so they try to get you to buy stuff for in game tokens.
Now when you fail a level, you are given the option of spending in game tokens to continue with a few extra moves or dropping out.
Most of the time you want to drop out. In game tokens are limited and you want to save them for when it matters.
But the button you’d normally click for the default “carry on with expected behaviour” is actually the one to click to spend the in game tokens (scarce resource), and the default “I want to quit and try again” button is a small red X off to the side.
This is objectively terrible user interface design. They do it on purpose because they WANT you to waste your tokens by accident.
Because then you might spend real money to buy more.
They made their int
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I think I’ve seen the perfect example of why enshittification is a thing. I downloaded that “Royal Match” gave that keeps getting advertised. No ads, free to play. Whatever. I like a bit of colourful match-3.
But they have to make their money somewhere, so they try to get you to buy stuff for in game tokens.
Now when you fail a level, you are given the option of spending in game tokens to continue with a few extra moves or dropping out.
Most of the time you want to drop out. In game tokens are limited and you want to save them for when it matters.
But the button you’d normally click for the default “carry on with expected behaviour” is actually the one to click to spend the in game tokens (scarce resource), and the default “I want to quit and try again” button is a small red X off to the side.
This is objectively terrible user interface design. They do it on purpose because they WANT you to waste your tokens by accident.
Because then you might spend real money to buy more.
They made their interface bad and confusing on purpose.
Do cis people in the UK actually think there has ever been a point at which transgender medicine was widely and routinely available on the NHS?
Guys, it never has. When they exist at all, the services are chronically underfunded with waiting lists that literally stretch for decades.
To a first approximation, if you want to medically transition in the UK, you are on your own, unless you want to fight a war of attrition for years.
TERFs like to pretend that you can easily access NHS gender identity services as if it were just a thing people do.
It appears some people have believed their fairy tales. However badly you think trans people are treated by the medical establishment in the UK, I promise you that the reality is worse, and always has been.
“Children on puberty blockers”. Fucking state of it. There are no children on puberty blockers. Not because they’re trans, anyway.
Totally endorse your summary of the lies, but there is a difference between underfunded and an exercise in bloody-mindedness on the one hand and wholly unavailable on the other. Many of us have no choice but to grit our teeth and grind through the system. Which is as bad as you say.
@Isabel Ruffell I transitioned with a lot of people who tried and were unable to access it.
Even at the peak of trans acceptance in the UK, being able to access ANYTHING depended on your postcode at least, and probably a few other things. Some PCTs as we’re basically refused to refer anyone for anything at all.
At which point, you either had the money to go round them, or you found ways to get it 😞
yes, my first attempt at transitioning was without any guarantee that the local health authority would pay for anything but hormones (and having to persuade the local shrinks to refer me to a GIC at all). I am now in my ninth year of a second attempt. Now that I am relatively close to finishing, I am in a position to make other arrangements, but that wasn't the case earlier. And it is awful that I feel fortunate to have made it so far, but then I conside whatr other folk face.
This entry was edited (Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 8:14 PM)
I basically had to self fund treatment to a certain extent but was incredibly lucky, combined with have a great GP, and being in Wales where they didn’t have a GIC at the time, that surgery was referred directly so I was one of those rare people who went to Heywards Heath. My partner did not so I used what I had saved, expecting I would have to pay, to pay for her. I know plenty who did the exceptionally slow NHS grind. I was just lucky with my circumstances.
This entry was edited (Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 8:37 AM)
I would love to ask a TERF to summarise their achievements in removing healthcare from trans people, and then summarise how easy it is for trans people to get it now. They know, of course they do. It's all doublethink.
If you think the NHS was ever actually giving trans children puberty blockers, then I’m afraid you have fallen for a TERF fairy tale. The NHS has never actually done decent treatment for trans children. news.sky.com/story/children-to…
The decision follows a review after a sharp rise in referrals were recorded at the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which is closing at the end of March.
One of my best friends has a trans daughter, who is just on the point of being prescribed blockers after a battle of about five years. We don't at this point know whether she's sufficiently far along that this will 'only' make it harder to find a sympathetic GP, or a final last-minute defeat after so long waiting.
So yes, even within an awful system, this will make things materially worse for some trans people.
@David Matthewman they’ve always given these drugs to adults. They gave them to me in my 30s.
The issue is that they have pretty much never, as far as I know, given them to trans children for the purposes of arresting puberty.
I think the media narrative of referring to GnRH agonists as “puberty blockers” here is probably not helping any attempt at comprehension. It makes people think that’s all they do. They’re gonadotropin inhibitors, and they are useful after puberty for transition to allow HRT to work unopposed by endogenous hormones.
Now trying to stop them being prescribed for that is their next target, and without invading the privacy of the person you mention, you say it’s been a five year battle.
There’s no point prescribing these drugs before the initial onset of puberty because … well, they don’t do anything.
So five years … puberty is mostly done by then, and you’re
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@David Matthewman they’ve always given these drugs to adults. They gave them to me in my 30s.
The issue is that they have pretty much never, as far as I know, given them to trans children for the purposes of arresting puberty.
I think the media narrative of referring to GnRH agonists as “puberty blockers” here is probably not helping any attempt at comprehension. It makes people think that’s all they do. They’re gonadotropin inhibitors, and they are useful after puberty for transition to allow HRT to work unopposed by endogenous hormones.
Now trying to stop them being prescribed for that is their next target, and without invading the privacy of the person you mention, you say it’s been a five year battle.
There’s no point prescribing these drugs before the initial onset of puberty because … well, they don’t do anything.
So five years … puberty is mostly done by then, and you’re looking at a young adult transition type situation.
For reference, the daughter in question turns 13 soon. And it's not that anyone was trying to give puberty blockers to an eight-year-old, but the battle was to get her the possibility of having them when they would help.
@David Matthewman Ok. Credit to her parents for fighting that battle, and maybe the Tavistock might have considered possibly doing it on a trial basis at some point (“maybe” is doing a lot of work there), but they basically don’t do that, and never have. Their standard mode of operation is to just keep talking until people age out of their service and can join an adult GIC waiting list.
The headline is literally just a reaffirmation of the way the NHS has always behaved. It’s giving the impression that it’s ending a practice of medical intervention for trans kids.
But to end something, it has to have started in the first place.
Portugal is in the news after the "success" of Chega, the Portuguese far-right party. A lot of friends are talking about this.
Now I'm not deeply embedded in Portuguese politics the way I was in the UK, but I do have some observations as someone "observing" (I can vote in local elections, but not national ones yet).
Chega is the personal vanity project of Andre Ventura, a former TV pundit who ragequit the centre right Social Democrat Party (ignore the name, there are historical reasons it's called that). His entire thing is that he is an adult man throwing a temper tantrum against "the system".
This may sound very familiar, but Ventura is not, to my mind, any kind of Trump. He's not Farage either. He is riding a wave of discontent about the state of the Portuguese economy, and a population that has real grievances about housing and wages, which he is blaming on the usual suspects (immigrants, but not the rich sort, ethnic minorities, LGBT people, etc).
He is portrayed as "far right", but frankly he's probably slightly to the left of the Tories in the UK rig
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Portugal is in the news after the "success" of Chega, the Portuguese far-right party. A lot of friends are talking about this.
Now I'm not deeply embedded in Portuguese politics the way I was in the UK, but I do have some observations as someone "observing" (I can vote in local elections, but not national ones yet).
Chega is the personal vanity project of Andre Ventura, a former TV pundit who ragequit the centre right Social Democrat Party (ignore the name, there are historical reasons it's called that). His entire thing is that he is an adult man throwing a temper tantrum against "the system".
This may sound very familiar, but Ventura is not, to my mind, any kind of Trump. He's not Farage either. He is riding a wave of discontent about the state of the Portuguese economy, and a population that has real grievances about housing and wages, which he is blaming on the usual suspects (immigrants, but not the rich sort, ethnic minorities, LGBT people, etc).
He is portrayed as "far right", but frankly he's probably slightly to the left of the Tories in the UK right now, or would be if he were a serious politician, which he is not.
Chega just came third on 18%. This is disturbing, but it's in-line with what you would expect for a "protest party" after the fall of the previous government due to a corruption scandal (and the details of said corruption are such that, again, were the Tories doing it, it wouldn't even register as something they were supposed to cover up, but the previous prime minister resigned over it anyway), and I suspect most of the people voting for Chega don't actually want or expect them to be in government. They're angry and they want people to know that they're angry.
Now Brits know first hand how dangerous this can be, after our own little electoral temper tantrum in 2016 resulted in us imposing economic sanctions on ourselves, but as I sad above, I don't think Ventura is any kind of Trump, or Farage, or Johnson. I don't think he has some sort of long term plan. He's a man child throwing a tantrum who likes to see his face on big billboards proclaiming himself some sort of knight fighting "the man".
If he actually got into government (and PSD are saying they won't work with him, but I don't see how they could form a government otherwise and we may be seeing a new election sooner rather than later), I don't think he would know what to do with it. Unlike Trump, I don't think his personal "angry man throwing a tantrum" brand would survive the transition to power. He'd end up like the Liberal Democrats did who, after getting 22% of the vote in 2010 (4% more than Chega just got), entered coalition and promptly destroyed themselves because they could no longer be that idealised opposition party that people protesting against the system felt able to vote for.
Chega and Ventura (and let's be honest, Chega is Ventura) are repulsive stains on civil society, but they are not indicative of a collapse in Portuguese democracy and a slide into fascism, nor is Portugal about to go the Hungary route.
This is not to say that we should be complacent, but I don't think that the sky is falling.
Anyway, that's what I think. I could be wrong, and frequently am when it comes to my read on politics, so this analysis is probably worth what you paid for it 😉
thanks for this pithy description of Brexit: "imposing economic sanctions on ourselves". I have a feeling this will be my go-to description for recent UK political history
When Costa was speaking last night he was basically saying that Chega was a protest vote and it’s worth looking into the reasons for that, but ultimately it’s just a protest.
There was something on the election coverage about the President’s discretionary powers but I didn’t quite follow it.
@Alexandra Lanes I mean he’s right. The Lib Dems were in 2010 too, but unlike Chega the Lib Dems actually had real policies and real politicians. Still got shafted.
World press: Far right surges on Portugal elections!
I mean, yes, as someone who lives in Portugal, it's scary as hell, but in the ongoing love affair that the western press has with fascists, let's not lose sight of the fact that this "surge" is actually them coming third, and not a particularly close third either.
What's worrying is that there's no stable coalition without either them, or the centre right and centre left joining forces.
Every election so far people have been saying it’s their high water mark and then they triple or quadruple their voting. I’m not optimistic. 1.1M people voting for these fuckers… I’m still in disbelief. And some of the regions I love the most and the worst. The world is really turning to shit.
@Miguel Arroz They’re a receptacle for angry people to project anything they want onto. They can do well as a perpetual party of opposition, but they are, ultimately, bullshit merchants with nothing to offer beyond that piece of shit, Ventura, ranting about “gypsies” and nebulous “corruption” (presumably he’s angry that any potential backhanders aren’t coming to him).
Thing is, while parties of protest can do well when people are disillusioned with mainstream politics, if they do well enough to get any kind of power (say as a junior coalition partner), it’s … difficult to maintain that vote when people can no longer believe that you can be whatever they want you to be.
I was a member of the Liberal Democrats in the UK. In 2010, we picked up 22% of the vote as a party of protest, although unlike Chega we were coming at it from the centre left.
And it got us into coalition.
And ever since, the party
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@Miguel Arroz They’re a receptacle for angry people to project anything they want onto. They can do well as a perpetual party of opposition, but they are, ultimately, bullshit merchants with nothing to offer beyond that piece of shit, Ventura, ranting about “gypsies” and nebulous “corruption” (presumably he’s angry that any potential backhanders aren’t coming to him).
Thing is, while parties of protest can do well when people are disillusioned with mainstream politics, if they do well enough to get any kind of power (say as a junior coalition partner), it’s … difficult to maintain that vote when people can no longer believe that you can be whatever they want you to be.
I was a member of the Liberal Democrats in the UK. In 2010, we picked up 22% of the vote as a party of protest, although unlike Chega we were coming at it from the centre left.
And it got us into coalition.
And ever since, the party has been stuck on about 7%.
If PSD and PS form a grand coalition, then Chega can keep their status as “the plutonic opposition party” and will probably go higher.
It will be uncomfortable as fuck if they end up in some sort of power sharing arrangement with PSD though. As you so rightly note, they are fuckers.
But I think it will basically end them. Trump and Johnson managed to pull off the “plucky outsider” con while still being in power, but I don’t think Ventura has that in him. I don’t think he can survive his fans seeing him become everything he claimed to hate.
Or at least I hope so. The alternative is scary as fuck, and I already had to flee one country where these arseholes got unchallenged levels of power (although even in their case, it’s about to destroy them. Still, the damage is done)
I’m not sure if PS and PSD will form any sort of coalition. The history on that isn’t great. I’m not sure how long the next government will last but my guess is, not much. I’m still hoping the emigration ridings will repeat the result of last election, causing a tie in MPs and (hopefully) more votes for PS, forcing the president to invite the left-wing “majority” to power.
honestly, I’d rather have news media freaking out and overreacting about fascists than their usual normalization and hagiography of extreme right politicians
Oh. Light bulb moment. I thought I'd managed to catch an atypical cold despite all the making and hand washing. This makes more sense; I'm 11 days in and been feeling off for about the last 5.
@Alisdair Calder McGregor I guess it depends which way it initially tumbles. Could generate a pretty violent lift vector taking it either towards or away from the tail.
“So sometimes my roommate, with whom I’ve been paying a mortgage for 10 years and looking after a herd of cats, does me against the wall with a strap on. Do you think I should risk telling her I have feelings for her? I’m pretty sure she’s straight.” reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpd…
Dental surgeon just tried to fit my new crown to the implant.
Turned out it has to go back to the lab because it's too big, but it took 3 attempts with a bit of on-site drilling before he gave up.
Screwing it down deforms the gum and crushes it between the crown and the bone, which hurts. He told me to tell him when it got too much and he would pause, which I did, but a long time after he seemed to be expecting me to.
He's like, "waiting for your feedback..." and I just gave him a thumbs up, and his face is kinda like, "This should be hurting. Why aren't you yelling?"
I think trans women get kinda messed up pain thresholds, you guys.
Anyway, it has to go back to the lab for a resize, because it's too big. Also the wrong colour, because they did not account for UK and Ireland levels of tea consumption.
Today was uncomfortable but it didn't last long. Having the implant put in is a bit of a slog, but it didn't hurt. Hope all goes well. It's a bit of a process.
Exactly 4 years ago today I had what can only be described as an utterly brutal extraction of half an upper molar by a dental surgeon (the other half had been removed by my regular dentist 2 weeks prior).
My plan was to replace the tooth, which had died from an internal crack, just a freak accident from biting something hard, with an implant.
And then the world went into lockdown.
On Wednesday, 4 years and 2 days since the original was removed, I get my new tooth installed.
Here’s why the NHS were happy to vaccinate me with MMR the other day. From UK govt advice from 2019:
• individuals born between 1970 and 1979 may have been vaccinated against measles and many will have been exposed to mumps and rubella during childhood. However, this age group should be offered MMR wherever feasible, particularly if they are considered to be at high risk of exposure.
• individuals born before 1970 are likely to have had all three natural infections and are less likely to be susceptible. MMR vaccine should be offered to such individuals on request or if they are considered to be at high risk of exposure.
Tl;dr: younger GenX and older Millennials in the UK were likely given inadequate protection against measles and none against mumps and rubella: vaccinate on sight.
Older GenX and boomers: just give them the vaccine if they ask for it.
I recall that you had whooping cough many months ago, which I was reminded of because I also got it last autumn. Somebody on here told me recently that it was included in the tetanus booster. Research done some years ago shows that people don't need to the tetanus boosters, but I guess whopping cough wasn't part of the study? Anyway, I haven't had that shot in 20 years now and I'm guessing virtually no others adults have either.
PC
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •It’s a finely crafted attempt at destroying education for all but the affluent.
We have great education here, just not uniform in distribution or access. My daughter is off to teach as I write this!
kæt
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •This analogue landline turnoff at the end of this year is going to be a disaster for older folk. Less than nine months to go and the only official advice is "you may need to buy extra new equipment" *mic drop*.
No advice as to the equipment, nor where they've planted the magic money tree.
Yes *I* know what to do, and yes, *I* can afford it.
kæt
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •