Calamansis - Plant Biochemist

Octopus filmed changing colours while sleeping.

Sea of clouds over Mount Yoshino.

Nara, Japan.

UK Trans Rights

WHAT'S THE CURRENT PROCESS FOR LEGAL TRANSITION IN THE UK?

Currently, if you wish to legally change your gender in the UK, you must:

-get signatures/letters from 2 doctors, usually your GP (general practitioner) and your psychologist at a GIC (gender identity clinic) who has diagnosed you with gender dysphoria

-Live as your gender for at least 2 years AFTER diagnosis

-Undergo a rigid mental health background check to rule out mania or psychosis (rather ableist in itself; mentally ill trans people are still trans!)

-Go in front of a panel of strangers and prove you are "trans enough".

WHAT HAVE THE UK GOVERNMENT DONE TO CAUSE OUTRAGE?

There were recently plans in place to repeal this process and allow trans folk to self-identify their legal gender (to change it without doctors and the panel). Today (20/9/20), the government announced they will scrap this plan this week, despite a survey saying 70% of people are in support of repealing the current process.

This process is severely taxing for us. It ends lives, it ruins lives. It's not acceptable. We need a change to the process, and we need it now.

WHAT'S THE ISSUE WITH THIS PROCESS?

-It is extremely difficult to get a diagnosis under the NHS (the UK'S mostly free healthcare system). Due to chronic underfunding, waiting lists for an initial assessment are 2-5 years long a lot of the time, particularly in Northern Ireland where there is only one doctor who can diagnose GD. This is just for an initial appt, let alone future appts to diagnose and determine the right course of action. Furthermore, if your GP is transphobic, they may not vouch for you being trans.

-Most trans people have lived as their true gender for many many years before being able to legally change their gender. This only adds usually unnecessary waiting time, likely worsening many's gender dysphoria as they will still legally be being referred to as the wrong gender.

-Again, mentally ill trans people are still trans. In rare cases, serious MH issues may be the reason someone believes they are trans, e.g. we see many people with body dysmorphia mistaking this for dysphoria. However, to say disorders like psychotic disorders and bipolar disorder usually mean the person is not really trans is both ableist and transphobic.

-You know yourself better than anyone. These people will be looking for signs of distress and suffering in childhood, which is not present for many trans people. You do not have to know young to be trans, or be miserable. Strangers will NEVER know you better than yourself; to allow them to play such a huge role in a pivotal, life-changing (and possibly life-saving) moment is absurd

Source:

UK trans rights

UK trans rights

what's happening?

UK followers please i urge you to sign this petition so this issue can be debated in parliament. Non UK followers please DO NOT fill this out but share it. Parliament will use outside interference as an excuse to make the petition invalid.

Petitions - UK Government and Parliament

Petition: Reform the Gender Recognition Act.

Reform the GRA to allow transgender people to self-identify without the need for a medical diagnosis, to streamline the administrative proce

Attention people who don’t have horses:

Sorry to break in with this on a very much Sherlock-only kind of blog- I promise not to make a regular thing of this, but this is something that’s happened TWICE now. 

This is Beyli. He’s a two-month old foal and he’s adorable. He belongs to a friend of the family. 

So adorable, in fact, that a member of the public spent a nice afternoon feeding him. You feed the ducks and that’s ok. right? It’s a nice thing to do. 

They fed him turnip. He choked and gave himself a stomachache as a result.

The problem is that horses can’t really burp and horses can’t vomit. Their digestive systems are fine-tuned and when they go wrong, they go really wrong. Colic in horses is difficult to treat and in Beyli’s case, like many others, proved to be insurmountable. With pain medicine not working, after 4 hours of doing their best with no improvement, the vet called time on his suffering rather than let him go on to a very slow and painful end. 

A horse needlessly suffered and died because someone fed him the wrong thing. They weren’t necessarily malicious, they were just hugely ignorant. And worse, they were hugely entitled. There were already signs asking people not to feed the animals. As I said, this has now happened TWICE to the same family, and they’re by no means alone. 

PLEASE Don’t feed horses that don’t belong to you. 

Horses can have disorders, diabetes, allergies and dietry requirements and you have NO IDEA if what you’re giving them is acceptable or not. Even ‘safe’ things like carrot and apple could be ‘wrong’ for this particular horse. Grass clippings? Not okay. Grain? Not okay for a horse that hasn’t been regularly eating it. 

Don’t assume. i have seen walkers pull up random plants and offer them over the fence INCLUDING TOXIC, DEADLY weeds like ragwort. I’ve seen horses offered dog-biscuits and bread. I’ve heard of horses being regularly fed by strangers thinking they were being under-fed, when the horse in question was on a vet-given diet to control weight and other conditions. 

Don’t feed horses that don’t belong to you even little treats and things like sugar cubes because it gives them bad manners. They start biting and harassing people. It’s bad for their teeth and too much sugar is terrible for them.

In some places if the owner has liability insurance, if you can be identified, YOU will be legally responsible for the vet’s bills. And if you’re thinking ‘well, they’d never identify me’, then that’s besides the point. 

Please. You wouldn’t feed someone’s dog without asking, I hope. You definitely wouldn’t feed someone else’s child. 

TL;DR: Don’t feed other people’s horses. You can make them SERIOUSLY ill. Treat animals in fields like animals at the zoo: you’re welcome to look, but don’t meddle with their care. 

PLEASE DON’T FEED OTHER PEOPLE’S HORSES. 

Once my friend Henry was accused of wearing wireless headphones by a substitute so she said for him to hand them over so he took them off and handed them to her. Then later on she asked him a question and he didn’t respond so she said it louder and he still didn’t respond. She asked why he was not responding and he said “I can’t understand you ma'am, you took my hearing aids.”

here’s a studyzai ✨ reblog for an easy and peaceful start to the school year!

Tilda Swinton risked arrest waving a rainbow flag in front of the Kremlin in violation of Russia’s new homosexual propaganda bill. And she wants everyone who can to reblog it in solidarity.

Guys please reblog this, it won’t ruin your blog, this is important

Dr. Salima Ikram talks about cemeteries at Amarna (Akhetaten).

miss athena