Notices by Keira (She/Her) (keira_reckons@aus.social)

A safety reminder to anyone who needs to hear it

Do NOT climb a ladder in *thongs or crocs
Do NOT climb a ladder in the rain
Do NOT climb a ladder alone, in the rain, on concrete, wearing crocs

I'm looking in particular at you, men in their 50s on up.

This PSA brought to you by a panicked onlooker who has spent months tending a patient (as a family member, I'm not a doctor) with the kind of injuries you get from doing this, and who was told by more than one neuro surgeon and trauma specialist that they'd like to see ladders banned outright.

*thongs, ie slippers, slip ons, slides, zorries, flip flops, jandals etc

It's hard to find statistics bout childlessness, rather than the birthrate.

Here are a few.

In the US, the percentage of women born in 1918 who never had children was 18%. In 2022 women who were 45-50 (so born around 1972-77) who were childless was 16.5%.

It's not a straight line, but it went *down* not up, overall. Right wingers and fertility worriers will look at the data only since the 70s and tell you it's all the fault of scary independent women.

It's bullshit.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-women-who-have-had-no-births-across-their-childbearing-years

https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/05/07/childlessness/

https://population-europe.eu/research/policy-insights/childlessness

https://www.statista.com/statistics/241535/percentage-of-childless-women-in-the-us-by-age/

#childless

I'm a little tired of hearing people confuse a dropping birthrate with increasing childlessness. They are not the same thing. And hearing that it's education and economic freedom that lead to childlessness.

Historically, in lots of places and at various times, childlessness among women has been higher than it is now.

Because of poverty. Because of a lack of men (wars). Because of a lack of health care. And for (probably) the same number as today, a lack of interest among a fairly small cohort of women.

In some places, and at various times, *lower* education and incomes have been more closely associated with childlessness. This the case right now in some places.

Because kids are expensive. Because women with low incomes and poor education are more likely to have been (historically and now in some places) working in other people's houses and unable to marry. Because poorer women can't access IVF and other fertility care. Because poorer men are more likely to be in military service or incarcerated.

#childless

@emag @skinnylatte I wonder if it's subconscious noticing. Picking up on the (mostly) uniform constants of cities. So just sort of knowing where the market probably is based on the foot traffic and shops etc.

I have a fair bit of that going on, but also, can see the actual map if I've seen it and paid attention.

@skinnylatte wow. I can't imagine that for myself.

@skinnylatte interesting!

Does the object placement thing mean it's better for you if things are always in the same place? Or does it just not matter?

Brains are so odd. I really like all the differences.

@skinnylatte what is your sense of direction like? Or your memory for object placement?

I ask because if I were to give directions, I literally look in my mind, at either a map, or the turns themselves. Same for remembering where something is in a cupboard - I look at the image of the cupboard in my mind.

And I navigate a new place by thinking, yep, I saw that red shop, where is it?

So I'm interested to know how you do those things. I'm sure your brain will just have a different approach.

@skinnylatte

I've seen the big groups in Singapore.

Where I live I don't see groups doing this much, but I swear in any sizeable park, worldwide, you can find at least one older Chinese woman wearing a visor, doing flappy arm exercises while walking.

When I was young I remember thinking I'd be too embarrassed to do it. Not now though. Now I understand, and I'd be so down for a group version.

They're definitely on to something - mobility for the win.

There's really no anglo version of it, either. Calisthenics, but I never knew many older people who did that.

@JessTheUnstill I really like my Withings one, which I chose because it doesn't have internet connection and the data storage is on my phone or in Europe, and the company is German (GDPR for the win).

It sleep tracks, although I don't know if it's any good at that. And does heart rate and steps and has a timer and a stopwatch.

The heart rate is periodical, not constant, but there may be a setting for that.

It doesn't have the weather though.

But the battery life is ~25 days.

@JessTheUnstill @dan @irene

Yep!

It doesn't tick though, and you have to set the time through the phone.

If you were a bearded white guy wearing a "wage theft" t shirt at the IMARC protest in 2019, some good people want to talk to you (in case you can help them with the court case about police misuse of force).

The guy they're hoping to get in touch with was handled by police, maybe arrested.

If you are such a guy, or know such a guy, DM me for contact details.

#melbourne #australia #protest

I have a relative who has had her credit card details stolen on so many occassions that we've lost count.

She clicks every email link. She signs up to "tarot of the day" and "spirit guide" text message scams. She buys things like the GeoCleanse. She's been in MLMs and near-cults. She's never met a grift she didn't fall for.

No amount of user training is ever going to get through to this person.

She'll lose her whole life savings before she takes a moment to imagine that an email from her own personal fairy guide *might* be some sort of scam.

It is tempting to say that if you're silly enough, you deserve what you get. But it isn't true. People who make poor decisions need protection too.

This is who I imagine when I imagine the user who needs protection.

We need regulation.

#security #scams #woowoo #infosec

@marshray @cwebber "received wisdom" it sometimes is used to suggest something is true, though, it only gets at the untested nature of the "wisdom".

I do have a better story example though. A cook who always cuts the end off the roast, says she does it because her mother taught her that way, because her grandmother taught her mother that way. They thinksit's needed for the recipe, maybe it makes it juicier? But when asked, her grandmother says, "it's because the roasts we buy from the shop didn't fit in my oven".

Just in case there are any gynaecologist practice managers on here (unlikely), I'd like to express a wish.

Please, please, please, if you have space, separate your pre and post natal patients from your infertility, non-obstetric, and childless patients.

Or at least balance up the info posters a little, so at least a few are about childlessness. Even just a gonorhea poster would be welcomed.

The usual waiting rooms are packed with babies, pregnant people, posters about breastfeeding, and happy smiling baby faces everywhere.

I find it a tiny bit upsetting even now, but I can't imagine how it must be for someone actively miscarrying, reaching the end of an unsuccessful fertility journey, or who lost a child or children, where it's all so raw.

I'm not expecting a world without pregnant people, but maybe a tiny acknowledgement that women's and gynaecological health isn't only about babies, would be great. We're ~20%.

#childless #gynaecology

@skinnylatte yeah, now I'm hungry too.ight need to change my dinner plan.

I was thinking rice paper rolls because it's hot, but now I want rendang, or tempeh.

The guy tiling my house is such chaotic good.

He:

- randomly planted a going-to-seed mature parsley plant in my garden, and a few other people's gardens, because he found them growing on a job site and was sad they'd go to waste. (Parsley doesn't transplant well, and I have a field of it already)

- fixed a hole in my driveway with tiling concrete, without asking or even mentioning it, but did a very good job.

- smokes in the back yard, puts them out, and bins them, but always puts them in the recycling (butts are not recyclable).

- says things like, "this weather is great. This is the plants time, it's their time"

- is great at tiling

@goatsarah seriously! There are a lot of parts I'm sure I don't understand, but even just the experience of sexism my trans friends have told me about are so illuminating.

Why researchers aren't begging you all for your insights is beyond me.

Interesting to hear the Cyber director calling the big outage "not a cyber security incident".

It is affecting news media, banking, economic activity, transport and other industries on a massive scale. The damage will be quite big.

I understand that it's not a "hacking" incident, but it does seem to be showing up a major flaw in connected systems.

#outage #bsod #cyber

@seanbala @LifeTimeCooking it's common, but we don't tend to have it as sweet as it is in the US, and we don't have as many peanut butter flavoured sweets (cookies, cups, candy etc).

In the 90s it was common to have peanut butter sandwiches as lunch to take to school (schools rarely provide lunch here). But it's not allowed at schools now because of allergies.

Seeing a lot of articles about women "choosing not to have children" or being "voluntarily childless" because of economic circumstances.

Just FYI, that's neither voluntary or a choice.

People who wanted children, but missed out for financial reasons, are #childless not by choice (CNBC).

With all the grief associated with that. Don't minimise it.

Same goes for those who feel compelled by environmental collapse to not have kids.