hanging my tomorrows on the bones of yesterday

MIT materials scientists created a material that is stronger than steel and as light as plastic. Your next phone might not be a Nokia 3310, but soon it could be equally indestructible. Also be on the lookout for people to start talking about space elevators again, now that we are one step closer to efficient space exploration.

Speaking of space: we now have preliminary images of the black hole at the center of our galaxy. We can now do collaborative imaging put together from telescopes all over the world, which could also make astronomy and astrophysics open up in new ways. I am hype, y'all!

I made a SoundCloud playlist! It's all relaxing lo-fi to calm your nervous system and get rid of your internal boss-fight anxiety music.

For the second year in a row, rapper and songwriter Travis $cott donated $1M in scholarships to young people attending historically Black colleges and universities.

ADHD Relief Music: Polyrhythmic Music for Focus and Studying for anyone who needs stuff going on in the background to concentrate.

Cuyahoga National Recreation Area was a toxic waste dump and is now a thriving, bio-diverse wetland. This proves it is possible to reclaim other such sites.

Time to call your congresscritters! There's a bipartisan bill to repeal some of the worst SSI bullshit, though sadly not all of it.

The SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act, introduced by U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman on Tuesday, updates Supplemental Security Income (SSI) asset limits for the first time since the 1980s. Current SSI asset limits prevent individuals who receive the modest benefit from saving more than $2,000.

A reminder that you absolutely should not use sci-hub, no matter how useful piracy is. I know it exists and is a thing, but you should not use it to read scientific papers for free. That would be wrong. Very bad. Yeah.

In other news, I'm gonna go read another literature review on trauma and autism.

That friend of a friend now has a kickstarter pre-order up for their book, since it's a small publishing press. The kickstarter is fully funded, but if you want to pre-order a copy of some seriously cool-sounding leftist fiction, here's your chance.

All of JRR Tolkien's maps and paintings are now available online.

US House passes bill that caps out of pocket insulin costs at $35/month.

Cellular Housekeeping Process May Protect Against Atherosclerosis, gives rise to new strategy for heart and vascular health, drugs are currently being tested in mouse model.

Latest Science Shows How to Reduce Loneliness. According to the researchers, reduced loneliness is associated with engaging in enjoyable activities that require both concentration and skill. The happiness boost is temporary, but the long term effects of boosting your happiness and not feeling lonely as often are substantial.

SCayos x Barnes Blvd. – Ocean Planet - drifty underwater lofi on Youtube

"Artificial Pancreas" Is Revolutionizing Diabetes Treatment in England. "It’s not a totally automated system, in that the amount of carbohydrates eaten at meals has to be entered into a smartphone app to ensure the insulin levels don’t go too high." But it is an efficient system that takes stress and worry out of a diabetic person's day. Sweet.

Fortnite players raised $144 million for Ukraine relief in 2 weeks.

when you have to finish your homework in less than 1 hour (a playlist) high energy classical music via youtube

A spinoff from MIT, Frequency Therapeutics, has a new drug candidate that stimulates the growth of hair cells in the inner ear. We can now regenerate some kinds of hearing loss, and that sounds awesome.

Americans donated more money during the pandemic, despite economic instability. "Our large-scale longitudinal datasets provide real-world evidence that people exhibited greater generosity during a time where some theories and experts predicted the opposite due to the economic downturn associated with the pandemic. While our analyses consider various levels of threat, we found that only the presence (vs. absence) of threat was associated with greater generosity. Our findings contribute to economic and psychological theories of social preferences, suggesting that people come together in the presence of a shared threat and demonstrate a willingness to support others, despite the uncertainty surrounding their own health and financial well-being."

Incarcerated men get ‘second chance at life’ by training dogs for adoption Atlanta nonprofit Canine CellMates expands its dog-training program for incarcerated men to include a sentencing alternative: training dogs for adoption.

For the first time in its history, architecture's top award goes to a Black African architect.

Angola decriminalized same-sex relationships last year, and I hadn't even heard about it because of all the Covid doom-scrolling. And then the month after that, Japan's high court ruled that their same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional. Fantastic!

This month, the US's highest-ranking transgender official, Dr. Rachel Levine, has been named USA Today's Woman of the Year.

Mariah Carey, Pharell, and the Isley Brothers are being inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame this year.

Los Angeles is starting to try out painting it's streets with a special white paint to reflect sunlight and break up the heat island effect. So far, it is working. Expect white streets near your hot city in the next 10 years.

Senate UNANIMOUSLY passes the Sunshine Protection Act to make Daylight Savings Time permanent. No more hour switching could be in our future! USians: call you Representatives.

US Women's Soccer won a $24 million lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation concerning equal pay. The settlement includes backpay for previous World Cup prize money and commits that men and women players will be paid at an equal rate on all fronts including World Cup bonuses moving forward.

The Postal Service Reform Act has passed both the House and Senate and is set to become law as soon as Biden signs it. No more pre-funding $5.6 billion of pensions per year - for no reason, instead the Postal Service can get back to paying their employees living wages NOW.

The giant panda conservation and breeding program turns 50 this year!

A CollegeHumor video in defense of all things Basic, like yours truly.

And some Ukranian classical music to listen to in the background, if you want to provide some passive income to a few channels who could probably use it right now.

( Cut for whining )

To counterbalance this mood, I am going to go practice some LovingKindness meditation. I have a lot of people in my circles to extend compassion towards, for which I am grateful. Wish me luck with that.

Today I am grateful for thrift store silk shirts that don't set off this recent resurgence in sensory issues. I am grateful for lap-monsters and their furry kitty warmth. I am thankful for naproxen and the people who developed it. I am thankful for the internet and it's ability to connect people and information.

(At this point we are hoping that my return of symptoms are caused by medication resistance. We are still testing things and changing medications. We'll see how stuff turns out.)

I am grateful that my friends lives are so rich and interconnected. We all have different interests and strengths to share. Our connections create a network of support that helps us all to thrive. We distribute our abilities to handle different kinds of adulting and teach each other life skills that parents assume are "common sense" - even though they were taught those things explicitly.

I am grateful for our similarities for bringing us together, and for the differences that make us useful and interesting to each other. I am grateful for diversity and neurodiversity. I am grateful for my ability to belong and for the chance to feel useful.

I am grateful for my friend T who will be buying my business and taking a major source of worry and anxiety out of my hands. I am grateful.

After my first day at the Irving Farmer's Market I am doing well! Minor headache, but that's as much from the heat as anything. None of my horrible anxieties came to pass, and after expenses I made $59 for about 5 hours of work. Not too shabby for my first time out.

reformulate Roses and Vitamin C Bar to 2/3rds scent strength. One lady recoiled at how strong it was, not the reaction I'm going for.

learn how to attract people to my table and get them to come in and try the samples.

formulate a face bar for boys with no fennel and no shimmer.

caffeine free Mocha Massage Bar

LOTS of sample sizes, people loved those.

make several push up tubes of unscented Basic Bar, which was a hit.

I am grateful for stationery that is pretty, for bright colors that feel cheerful, and for being able to use bright paper to make beautiful things. I am grateful for having friends to make beautiful things for, and for the goodness of the friends that I have. I am grateful for bullet notebooks which are greatness, for empty things to fill up with yourself, and for thoughts and events worth writing down.

Today I am grateful for rescue animals and the people who rescue them. I am grateful for insurance and the lives it saves. I am grateful for matcha even if I don't know how to make it very well yet. I am grateful for gardens and for knowing how to tend them and for the people who taught me how. I am grateful for immune systems and the road to recovery, no matter how slow.

I am grateful for headache medicine. I am grateful that numb3r_5ev3n is a compulsive baker. I am grateful for Netflix, and BPAL, and people who will forgive me if I am not always up for the activism I have planned. I am grateful for fandom as a way for people to connect. I am grateful for fanfiction as a way to tell the stories of the under-represented (including me). I am grateful for coffee, for air conditioning, and for cell phones.