Don't follow this blog, I'm just building a theme

To anyone who follows me:

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 15:03:56 -0500

This isn’t my main blog. It’s just one I set up to test a theme I was building, hence why I never post anything. :)

My actual blog is here: http://astrogasmic.tumblr.com/

Suicide reporting on the internet

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 04:46:11 -0500

Trigger warning: lots of suicide talk.

This post is not about Aaron Swartz. Neither is it about his death. It’s about some of the responses I’ve seen to his death.

You can tell people who’ve been near suicide before from those who haven’t. The ones for whom this is new are fitting it to a narrative. It’s the compassionate genius who was a little too good, or the activist hounded down by the government, or why would such a promising and beloved young person do something like this, or gosh there seems to be a link between creativity and mental illness, or some other well-meaning script.

Those of us for whom this brings back memories are, I think, a little less eager to see it as something that can be usefully explained, at least not by us.

Here’s some, well, not explanation, but context. Depression• is a top-five killer of pretty much every demographic from tweens to the very elderly. It’s especially common among people who are marginalized and lack social support, for example LGBT youth. After car accidents, it’s the leading killer of young men – above murder, above falls taken after saying “hold my beer a minute”, above testicular cancer, above congenital heart defects that no one knew about and he just keeled over, above accidentaly taking pills from the wrong bottle, above fire, above electrocution, above anything else people are scared of. (I highlight men’s greater risk because of my beef with masculinity, which I have seen prevent men from getting help in situations where I have seen women get help. But no one is out of danger.)

I’m using “depression” as a non-technical umbrella term; it’s not necessarily in line with how, say, the DSM uses it. For an expert summary of the topic, talk to an expert.

A significant fraction of the population is at high risk of suicide at any given time. We know this because of things like psychological baseline studies, but also in a more gruesome empirical way: when a suicide is reported, the suicide rate goes up for a while. It seems to be roughly in proportion to how sensational the coverage is.

Yeah. Think that over.

One thing it teaches us is that suicide is not a normal decision. It’s not something that someone does by carefully weighing incentives and disincentives, because those don’t change after a suicide makes the news. (Of course there are other kinds of things going on here as well: self-sacrifice in an emergency, euthanasia, etc., but I’m talking about “normal” suicide.) It is not, in other words, something done responsibly, that others have a responsibility to let happen.

I see this idea out there on the internet sometimes, that “if people really want to kill themselves, we should let them”. I don’t think anyone saying this has seen that kind of “want” up close. I have. It is a gibbering, shape-shifting thing from another place that knows the words “I want” but is completely unattached to any useful idea of identity and desire.

Compared to people in other times and places, we are really obsessed with our brains. This gives us some advantages. But it means that when we get a disease of the brain, or see it in another, we aren’t good at separating it from the person. People who believed in demonic possession had their own problems, but maybe they were a little better at this one mental maneuver. Suicidality impinges on the brain, but it’s no more a person’s self than a hepatitis that impinges on their liver.

We do not secretly wish that people would just get over hepatitis; we do not assume that they know best how to cure it; we do not wonder aloud what part of their personality the hepatitis comes from; we do not shrug and say that if someone apparently wants hepatitis – and, implicitly, they have it because they want it – it’s not society’s place to stop them.

Another thing we learn from suicide spikes is that we, who are lucky enough not to be suicidal, have an unasked responsibility. Whenever we talk in public, we are talking to some people who have this disease in a life-threatening stage. What we say about it, the cause-of-death-by-date statistics tell us, matters to them.

Aaron Swartz is gone now, and nothing we do can find him. One of the barbs of a suicide is that it takes away the one person we most want to explain it. We can only make guesses how to catch the next one like him.

Here’s a guess: don’t romanticize suicide.

Here’s a guess: don’t talk as if it comes from a person’s true self, because (1) it’s factually incorrect and (2) it teaches that it can’t be treated without losing identity.

Here’s a guess: don’t talk as if you know exactly what was in the mind of a victim. At least put disclaimers on your speculations about influences.

Here’s a guess: don’t suppose that because someone is very smart, they can think their way out of depression, or that because they are very kind, they can be kind enough to themselves.

Here’s a guess: don’t use suicide as a punchline, and put trigger warnings on things that might be unusually dangerous for a person dealing with it.

Here’s a guess: watch out for your friends and yourself.

If you are suicidal and you read this far, talk to someone about it right now. Like, get up from your chair now, put down your phone now, or open your e-mail or DM tab now, go to whomever you trust, or distrust least, or a professional, and say that you’ve been feeling bad. Say the words to them. It will get easier from there.

If you are not suicidal, also talk about it. Talk to your friend or co-worker at lunch. If you’re both nerds, Aaron Swartz is a great opener. Maybe your friend needs help. Statistically, they probably don’t, but statistically, you probably both know people who do, and you’re training each other to notice and care.

Why isn't Stargazing: Live on every week?

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:47:33 -0500

astrogasmic:

It should be. Just sayin’.

fuckyeahbehindthescenes: The scene in which all characters sit...

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 14:23:41 -0500

fuckyeahbehindthescenes:

The scene in which all characters sit in a circle on the floor in the library and tell stories about why they were in detention was not scripted. John Hughes told them all to ad-lib.

The Breakfast Club (1985)

british awkwardness

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 10:46:01 -0500

astrogasmic:

katswhiskers:

guys,

do you ever feel we British have quite odd specific problems

about tea and strangers

like serious disappointments

GENERAL SHAME i have done this more than once

and america they don’t get it why are you so polite are you mocking me

and apologising all the time

I swear I aplogogised to an old lady when she hit me with a handbag??

and saying thank you for everythin omg why whY

we need hELP AS A NATION

HELP

I have never done the shopping thing. I just walk up to whatever I want to browse and say ‘excuse me’; normally when they turn around and see a rather tall chap with a shaven head they tend to move out of the way.

I totally get the Attenborough thing, though. Any nature documentary is at minimum 36.3% worse by virtue of not being narrated by Sir David.

Photo

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 10:24:16 -0500

"How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, ‘This is better than..."

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 04:11:00 -0500

“How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, ‘This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant’?”

- Carl Sagan (via scinerds)

pitchfork: Death Grips’ The Money Store, featuring the track...

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 16:50:00 -0500

pitchfork:

Death Grips’ The Money Store, featuring the track “I’ve Seen Footage”, is #9 on our Top 50 Albums of 2012.

"To die your whole life. Despite the morbidity, I can’t think of a better definition of the writing..."

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 12:46:00 -0500

“To die your whole life. Despite the morbidity, I can’t think of a better definition of the writing life. There’s something about writing that demands a leave-taking, an abandonment of the world, paradoxically, in order to see it clearly. This retreat has to be accomplished without severing the vital connection to the world, and to people, that feeds the imagination. It’s a difficult balance. And here is where these ruminations about writing touch on morality. The same constraints to writing well are also constraints to living fully.”

- In his New Yorker advice to young writers, Jeffrey Eugenides echoes Henry Miller on creative death and Christopher Hitchens on writing as if posthumously.

More noteworthy writing advice here.

(via explore-blog)

"The laws of physics enable us to predict the future - an eclipse, what time the sun will rise, or..."

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 11:18:00 -0500

““The laws of physics enable us to predict the future - an eclipse, what time the sun will rise, or what time darkness descends. I don’t wield special knowledge. Physics is the profession in which prophecy is not only accurate but routine””

- Neil deGrasse Tyson (via katielainewrites)

123131

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:58:00 -0500

123131

Me: I feel like I have other websites to check other than tumblr.

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 10:23:57 -0500

Me: I feel like I have other websites to check other than tumblr.
Me: *opens new tab.*
Me: *stares blankly at new tab*
Me: *closes tab*

questions

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 10:14:00 -0500

annidoll:

I’m nominally babysitting today but she is unsurprisingly asleep because it’s kind of stupidly early. I don’t even know why I’m awake. Buuut I am.

Anyway point is I am around and bored and can answer questions. I know I have a bunch of new followers who might wonder things…

(and if not my Homestuck vol 1 came in the mail finally)

Girlfusion: Girl-fu-sion (noun)

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 10:10:37 -0500

Girlfusion: Girl-fu-sion (noun)
1. When a girl sees another girl who's so gorgeous she can't figure out whether she wants to be her or fuck her

marduktanevvel: Göbek Atmaya Giriş: 2 C2C - Happy

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 10:07:24 -0500

marduktanevvel:

Göbek Atmaya Giriş: 2

C2C - Happy

Audio

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 10:03:00 -0500

ikenbot: NASA Eyes Mission to Jupiter Moon Europa Though NASA...

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:02:11 -0500

ikenbot:

NASA Eyes Mission to Jupiter Moon Europa

Though NASA is devoting many of its exploration resources to Mars these days, the agency still has its eye on an icy moon of Jupiter that may be capable of supporting life as we know it.

Last week, NASA officials announced that they plan to launch a $1.5 billion rover to Mars in 2020, adding to a string of Red Planet missions already on the docket. The Curiosity rover just landed this past August, for example, and an orbiter called Maven and a lander named InSight are slated to blast off in 2013 and 2016, respectively.

But NASA is also thinking about ways to investigate the possible habitability of Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon. One concept that may be gaining traction is a so-called “clipper” probe that would make multiple flybys of the moon, studying its icy shell and suspected subsurface ocean as it zooms past.

“We briefed NASA headquarters on Monday, and they responded very positively,” mission proponent David Senske, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said here Dec. 7 at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

The $2 billion unmanned Europa Clipper, which could be ready to launch by 2021 or so, would also do vital reconnaissance work for a potential lander mission in the future, Senske told SPACE.com.

Intriguing Europa

Astrobiologists regard Europa, which is about 1,900 miles (3,100 kilometers) wide, as one of the best bets in our solar system to host life beyond Earth.

The moon is believed to harbor a large ocean of liquid water beneath its icy shell. Further, this ocean is likely in direct contact with Europa’s rocky mantle, raising the possibility of all sorts of interesting chemical reactions, Senske said.

The irradiation of Europa’s surface and tidal heating of its interior also mean the moon likely has ample energy sources — another key requirement for life as we know it.

NASA has long been interested in exploring the icy moon and its ocean. Several years back, the agency drew up an ambitious mission concept called the Jupiter Europa Orbiter (JEO), which would have made detailed studies of Europa and the incredibly volcanic Jupiter moon Io.

This is an example post

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 13:49:00 -0500

Just doing a bit of testing!!

Here’s some italics.

Here’s some bold.

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d-openess: Thunderstorm from the plane | Signalkuppe

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 11:18:55 -0500

d-openess:

Thunderstorm from the plane | Signalkuppe

Eddie Izzard on building an empire

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 10:57:43 -0500

Eddie Izzard on building an empire