I divide witchcraft into three levels - beginner, intermediate, and advanced, but they often coexist. You are rarely at just one level at a time.

Beginner Witchcraft: the What of magic. This is where you learn the basics, the procedures, the associations, the methods. (When it comes to most divination, I'm here!)

Intermediate Witchcraft: the Why of magic. This is where you question what you have learned to understand it.

Advanced Witchcraft: the How of magic. This is where you take the information you have learned from the previous two categories and learn to use it in your own way.

Example

Beginner Witchcraft: use salt to cleanse.

Intermediate Witchcraft: salt cleanses because it has multiple functional capabilities, including scouring, disinfecting, and absorption.

Advanced Witchcraft: salt is sodium. All forms of sodium have cleansing capabilities. The most absorbant form of sodium is sodium bicarbonate. This box of baking soda has been in my pantry for a few months so, even while closed, it has absorbed some of the protective essence of my home. Therefore I can open the box of baking soda and use it to absorb the negative energies out of my suitcase from this terrible trip. The home energy will capture and negate the away energy. I can then combine the baking soda with vinegar, which is effectively opposite on the pH scale, and which has strong banishing energy, to render both the energies and the chemical composition of the baking soda inert and I can dispose of it safely down my sink.

HowStuffWorks is full of slop written by ai. Not a good source.

hello, could your provide any sources? I haven't been able to find any sources suggesting that it isn't reliable, and MBFC still rate it very high for factual reporting. you're the second anon to message about this, so it's clear that you aren't the only person who doesn't believe HSW is reliable, but I do need to find a reliable source before I start removing this source from my fact checks

Here's some uhhh "fun?" info about how deeper wounds work (unfortunately based on experience bc I am so clumsy lol) for your whump writing knowledge.

TW: mention of wounds, stitches, somewhat detailed description of stitching procedure, scars

So when you get a deep cut that goes past the surface of the skin (ie. needing stitches) there are a few things that need to happen to help it heal correctly and without infection. Depending on what caused the laceration, you may need a tetanus shot if it was some sort of metal (even if it wasn't rusty metal, this is usually done to play it safe). Then, they'll have to numb the area, and let me tell you -NOT FUN. Remember that open wound? Yeah, they inject the local anesthetic directly into the wound. IN to it- not near it. So that's really not fun, and it's even worse if you're able to watch it happen because the area swells up from the medication. So very unpleasant. From there, honestly the worst part is usually over. The stitching itself is scary to watch (caretaker said not to look for a reason!), but the most that's usually felt is some pressure from the needle- IF it is numbed completely.

What's worse though- is if you DON'T get stitches when you need them. So after a deep laceration, there is generally a 24 hour window (maximum) to get it stitched. Usually it's ideal to be done within 4-6 hours of the injury. If this doesn't happen, the wound cannot be stitched because the body has already started healing the wound as it currently is, and won't be able to heal back together and close. So this means: much longer healing process (sometimes can be a month or more depending on the laceration), the wound should stay covered with gauze for most of the beginning of healing to prevent infection which is a bigger risk with an open wound. This will additionally create a different looking scar than a wound that was stitched. They can look similar, but are obviously wider and flatter than a stitched wound which can heal with a raised and much thinner scar. Sometimes you can also see scarring from where the stitches were too! I think that's kind of cool, though.

This is just what I remember from the situation and doctors, I am not a professional.

Have fun patching up your whumpees! Or ya know.. Not

Can’t cohost a podcast called Shop Talk and not post this cool BTS video showing how the crew runs the shops for the show, y’know? 🚓

For some reason this post was sitting in my "drafts," and whenever I originally typed it all up (..and there's a lot of it, hence the "keep reading" doohickey that I rarely use) I just kinda... never posted it?

Not sure why.

Anyway...

It bugs me when I see people talking about clones and assume that if someone made a clone of you, it would be exactly like you and it'd be very difficult (if not impossible) to tell the two of you apart.

No. Unless you're talking about a "magical duplicate" type scenario, that is not how it would work at all.

The biggest difference, of course, is that a clone created through scientific methods wouldn't have your memories and life experiences. The clone might have some of the same phobias or mental disorders as you (since those, or the predisposition toward them, tends to be at least partially genetic), but fears and insecurities you've developed as a result of bad experiences in your life would not be present in the clone... and fears that you had at a younger age but have since gotten over might still be more of an issue for the clone. Experiences that have lead you to enjoy certain things more than you used to also wouldn't have happened to the clone... so your clone might not like the same foods or drinks or music as you, for example. The clone might share some of your basic personality traits (or at least have a predisposition toward them), but most people change a lot throughout their lifetime. Your clone wouldn't have the "muscle memory" for certain things like typing, using certain tools, riding a bike, driving a car, or playing certain sports unless they were specifically trained to have those skills. Your clone wouldn't know that one random obscure bug/dinosaur/shark/etc. fact that's been stuck in your head since you were 7 years old. Your clone wouldn't have picked up the phrases and mannerisms you did, because they never met the people/groups you picked them up from. Heck, your clone might not even have the same accent as you or speak the same languages, depending on who created and raised the clone. Your clone wouldn't use the same slang as you, wouldn't get the same references, wouldn't understand the same inside jokes. Mentally and in terms of behavior, your clone would not be "like you" in any real way at all. The two of you would seem more like siblings separated at birth than like two copies of the same person; you might look very much alike but you would be very obviously two different people.

But that's not all! Even in a purely physical sense, a clone would not be exactly like you. A clone created by purely scientific methods would only be "exactly like you" in one way, which is their genetics. And even that isn't 100% guaranteed because you never know when some random burst of radiation, fluctuation in temperature, or even just a glitch in the mechanism of cells dividing could lead to a mutation. Possibly a very small one that will be barely noticeable, but possibly something more significant.

A few other ways a (non-magical) clone might be noticeably different...

Scars, injuries, dental work, lingering issues from disease, etc. A clone did not suffer any of the injuries or ailments that the original person experienced growing up. A clone of me would not have that scar through my right eyebrow from a fall when I was 2 or 3 years old, or the one on my right hand from 5th grade. His big toenail on the right side would grow in differently than mine, because he never had that toenail get so severely ingrown that a doctor had to cut parts of it out. He would not have my surgical scars from when my gallbladder was removed. He would not have any of the fillings I've gotten in various teeth that had cavities back in the days when I drank way too much soda and hadn't started flossing yet. A clone of anyone who's had broken bones in their lifetime could be told apart from them on an X-ray if you looked closely enough, especially if the original person's bones healed back slightly "off" in one way or another (like how my dad's legs were never quite even in length ever again after he fell and broke his hip later in life.) A clone of a medieval longbow archer would have very different bone structure in the arms unless they were also trained to use a bow. A clone of Louis Braille wouldn't be blind, because he would have never suffered the childhood eye injury that damaged his vision. A clone of Franklin Delano Roosevelt wouldn't need to be in a wheelchair, because his legs wouldn't have been paralyzed by the long-term effects of polio. And so on.

Sun tanning. A clone has not had the lifetime worth of sun exposure that the original person had, so they would either be paler all-around or have a different degree or pattern of tanning than the original. This is probably the easiest thing on this list to "fake"... but even then, whoever's making the clone has to know what parts of someone's body are more or less tanned than others, since most people get tanned by being out in the sun with at least some clothes on (hence patterns like bikini lines, "farmer's tan," etc.) rather than exclusively by way of nude sunbathing or a tanning bed.

Tattoos, piercings, implants, etc. Okay, this is probably the easiest one on the list to "fake," for obvious reasons... but it's also the easiest one for the maker of the clone to "miss" if they didn't know about something like, say, a nipple/genital piercing or a tattoo in a place that's usually covered up by the original person's clothes.

Height and weight. A clone of someone whose bad living conditions or illness growing up led to stunted growth might turn out an inch or two taller than the original. And vice versa, a poorly-treated or malnourished clone of someone who grew up in good conditions might turn out a bit shorter than the original. And while there are definitely genetic factors involved in your body's tendencies toward gaining or losing weight (and how much), external factors are also involved. A clone of an overweight person might very well be skinnier than the original, while a clone of someone who's severely underweight is likely to be plumper than the original. And weight isn't just from fat of course! A clone of someone who's built a lot of muscle over their lifetime isn't going to just get all that muscle for free without going through a similar amount of training and exercise. Heck, what kind of exercise and training someone's gone through makes a difference too -- a martial artist, an Amish farmer, and a basketball player are all likely to be "more muscular" than the average person, but each one is going to have certain muscle groups that they've used more than others. Unless you put the clone through very similar working conditions, they won't be equally muscular in the same areas when compared to the original person.

Sexual orientation and possibly gender. We don't have a complete understanding of how either of these features of a person comes to be just yet, though thanks to what research has been done it's pretty obvious that they're complex things that have multiple factors involved (not as simple as a single "gay gene," and definitely not a mere "lifestyle choice" like the anti-gay/anti-trans people often like to claim.) From what I've read here and there, it seems pretty widely agreed upon that there are both genetic factors (probably several different genes involved) and others such as hormone levels in the womb; all stuff that's determined before you're even born, but originating from several different sources. Anyway... my point is, while the clone will have all the genetic factors that lead toward being one way or another, the other factors aren't necessarily going to be the same (or present at all.) Hormone levels in the womb, for example, aren't going to be a factor that's easy to replicate in the cloning process unless whoever made the clone has been monitoring your parents since before you were born specifically to keep track of every possible condition that could have influenced your development. And since this is something we don't have anywhere near a complete understanding of yet, it's especially likely that whoever's making the clone might goof up somewhere along the line... so depending on exactly what factors are involved and which parts of someone's orientation are more hormone-level-influenced vs. gene-influenced, you could end up with gay clones of someone who's very straight (or vice versa!), asexual clones of someone who's not even on the ace spectrum, and so on. And of course, cloning a trans person who's undergone any medical transition procedures is going to result in a very different-looking person than the original for obvious reasons! Even someone who hasn't had any surgical procedures, only hormone therapy, would look drastically different than their clone in most cases... even beyond the obvious stuff, HRT affects a lot of different areas of the body such as bone structure, hair growth rates and patterns, and so on.

So... yeah. Unless they're a magically created copy of the original person, a clone is never going to be an exact duplicate in every possible way.

And heck, in some cases even a magical copy might have some quirk to it that gives away which one is the clone. Whoops, turns out the cloning spell that the evil wizard used was mirror-themed so the clone's features are all "flipped" relative to the original! Look to see which one is right-handed and which is left-handed (...and hopefully you know which hand the original person actually used), or check to make sure scars/tattoos/birthmarks are on the correct side.

I read this entire article, and I was surprised to find that they actually admit sexism against men is a thing. 

But they don't call it "misandry" and focus almost exclusively on misogyny, of course.

How Refrigerators Work --- Source: "The Book"

colour clouded

“Rainbows are formed when light shines through water. The light is bent and reflected, often leading to the formation of the colors of the rainbow.” – How Stuff Work Its appearance unexplainable in words and a spectrum visualised within view 😘 mostly grey’d Another take “too” right through Final one for the journey that started soon😊 elongated Related posts: rainbow i #Photography:…

View On WordPress

for anyone that doesn't know, i recently started school again! (that's why ive been so mia) so ill be posting class projects whenever i finish them,,, this was a figure drawing assignment :)

you can get a print of this here!

follow-up from antimatter anon: the article on handwriting analysis you sourced was written in 2006 by a self-described "generalist freelancer". there are some sources listed but most of them are no longer available to be checked. handwriting analysis is bullshit though so ultimately no harm done

hi! you can still access all but one of the sources, either directly or via the wayback machine. You can read the ones with the expired links here:

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

I do always read more than once source, and then select one or two to link based on reliability but also readability (sometimes I choose a news article over a scientific paper, for example, because the news article quote is much easier to understand out of context). Even the most reliable sources can be wrong, so it's always get to get another opinion!

(I won't comment on the generalist freelancer bit because uh. any criticism I make would sound a bit hypocritical, considering I'm not an expert in much of anything)

It's fun reading writers who clearly grew up in suburban/urban environments as someone who grew up on a farm because they're always like "oh it was so creepy, woods at night, eerily breathtaking, something was living in there..." and it's like yeah that'll be the deer.

Possession PSA.

Thank you @ferronickel for giving me this crack head idea.

hes thinking real hard about eating a yummy sandwich

one with no crazy filters cause why not zzzz

Delivering mail to the furthest corners of the server ✉✈

Please, if you can, take a moment to read and share this because I feel like I'm screaming underwater.

NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) stigma is rampant right now, and seems to be getting progressively worse. Everyone is using it as a buzzword in the worst ways possible, spreading misinformation and hatred against a real disorder.

I could go on a long time about how this happened, why it's factually incorrect (and what the disorder actually IS), why it's harmful, and the changes I'd like to see. But to keep this concise, I'll simply link to a few posts under the cut for further reading.

The point of this post is a plea. Please help stop the spread of stigma. Even in mental health communities, even around others with personality disorders, in neurodivergent "safe" spaces, other communities I thought people would be supportive in (e.g. trans support groups, progressive spaces in general), it keeps coming up. So I'm willing to bet that a lot of people on this site need to see this.

Because it's so hard to exist in this world.

My disorder already makes me feel as if I'm worthless and unlovable, like there's something inherently wrong and damaged about me. And it's so much harder to fight that and heal when my daily life consists of:

Laughing and spending time with my friends, doing my utmost best to connect and stay present and focused on them, trying to let my guards down and be real and believe I'm lovable- when suddenly they throw out the word "narcissist" to describe horrible people or someone they hate, or the conversation turns to how evil "people with narcissistic personality disorder" are. (Seriously, you don't know which of your friends might have NPD and feels like shit when you say those things & now knows that you'd hate them if you knew.)

Trying to look up "mental health positivity for people with npd", "mental health positivity cluster bs", only to find a) none of that, and b) more of the same old vile shit that makes me feel terrible about myself.

Having a hard time (which is constant at this point) and trying to look up resources for myself, only to again, find the same stigma. And no resources.

Not having any clue how to help myself, because even the mental health field is spitting so much vitriol at people with DISORDERS (who they're supposed to be helping!) that there's no solid research or therapy programs for people like me.

Losing close friends when they find out, despite us having had a good relationship before, and them KNOWING me and knowing that I'm not like the trending image of pwNPD. Because now they only see me through the lens of stigma and misinformation.

Hearing the same stigma come up literally wherever I go. Clubs. Meetings. Any online space. At the bus stop. At the mall. At a restaurant. At work. Buzzword of the year that everyone loooves loudly throwing around with their friends or over the phone. Feels awesome for me, makes my day so much better/s

I could go on for a long time, but I'm scared no one will read/rb this if it gets too much longer.

So please. Stop using the word "narcissist" as a synonym for "abusive".

Stop bringing up people you hate who you believe to have NPD because of a stigmatizing article full of misinformation whenever someone with actual NPD opens their mouth. (Imagine if people did that with any other disorder! "Hey, I'm autistic." "Oh... my old roommate screamed at me whenever I made noise around him, and didn't understand my needs, which seems like sensory overload and difficulty with social cues. He was definitely autistic. But as long as you're self-aware and always restraining your innate desire to be an abusive asshole, you're okay I guess, maybe." ...See how offensive and ignorant that is?)

Stop preventing healthcare for people with a disorder just because it's trendy to use us as a scapegoat.

If you got this far, thank you for reading, and please share this if you can. Further reading is under the cut.

NPD Criteria, re-written by someone who actually has NPD

Stigma in the DSM

Common perception of the DSM criteria vs how someone may actually experience them (Keep in mind that this is the way I personally experience these symptoms, and that presentation can vary a lot between individuals)

"Idk, the stigma is right though, because I've known a lot of people with NPD who are jerks, so I'm going to continue to support the blockage of treatment for this condition."

(All of these were written by me, because I didn't want to link to other folks' posts without permission, but if you want to add your own links in reblogs or replies please feel free <3)