“Now that we know how positive reinforcement works, and why negative doesn’t, we can be more deliberate and hence more successful, in our cultural design. We can achieve a sort of control under which the controlled…nevertheless feel free. They are doing what they want to do, not what they are forced to do. That’s the source of the tremendous power of positive reinforcement—there’s no restraint and no revolt. By a careful design, we control not the final behavior, but the inclination to behave—the motives, the desires, the wishes. The curious thing is that in that case the question of freedom never arises."

B.F Skinner, Walden Two

Things I've learned from getting covid for the first time in 2023

I wear an N95 in public spaces and I've managed to dodge it for a long time, but I finally got covid for the first time (to my knowledge) in mid-late November 2023. It was a weird experience especially because I feel like it used to be something everyone was talking about and sharing info on, so getting it for the first time now (when people generally seem averse to talking about covid) I found I needed to seek out a lot of info because I wasn't sure what to do. I put so much effort into prevention, I knew less about what to do when you have it. I'm experiencing a rebound right now so I'm currently isolating. So, I'm making a post in the hopes that if you get covid (it's pretty goddamn hard to avoid right now) this info will be helpful for you. It's a couple things I already knew and several things I learned. One part of it is based on my experience in Minnesota but some other states may have similar programs.

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The World Health Organization states you should isolate for 10 days from first having symptoms plus 3 days after the end of symptoms.

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At the time of my writing this post, in Minnesota, we have a test to treat program where you can call, report the result of your rapid test (no photo necessary) and be prescribed paxlovid over the phone to pick up from your pharmacy or have delivered to you. It is free and you do not need to have insurance. I found it by googling "Minnesota Test to Treat Covid"

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Paxlovid decreases the risk of hospitalization and death, but it's also been shown to decrease the risk of Long Covid. Long Covid can occur even from mild or asymptomatic infections.

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Covid rebound commonly occurs 2-8 days after apparent recovery. While many people associate Paxlovid with covid rebound, researchers say there is no strong evidence that Paxlovid causes covid rebound, and rebounds occur in infections that were not treated with Paxlovid as well. I knew rebounds could happen but did not know it could take 8 days. I had mine on day 7 and was completely surprised by it.

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If you start experiencing new symptoms or test positive again, the CDC states that you should start your isolation period again at day zero. Covid rebound is still contagious. Personally I'd suggest wearing a high quality respirator around folks for an additional 8-9 days after you start to test negative in case of a rebound.

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Positive results on a rapid test can be very faint, but even a very faint line is positive result. Make sure to look at your rapid test result under strong lighting. Also, false negatives are not uncommon. If you have symptoms but test negative taking multiple tests and trying different brands if you have them are not bad ideas. My ihealth tests picked up my covid, my binax now tests did not.

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EDIT: I'd highly suggest spending time with friends online if you can, I previously had a link to the NAMI warmline directory in this post but I've since been informed that NAMI is very much funded by pharmaceutical companies and lobbies for policies that take autonomy away from disabled folks, so I've taken that off of here! Sorry, I had no idea, the People's CDC listed them as a resource so I just assumed they were legit! Feel free to reply/reblog this with other warmlines/support resources if you know of them! And please reblog this version!

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I know that there is so much we can't control as individuals right now, and that's frightening. All we can do is try our best to reduce harm and to care for each other. I hope this info will be able to help folks.

If you can't show up in person, make a phone call. If you can't call, write a letter. If you can't write a letter, an email.

In order to liberate our communities from this lovecraft country's Jim & Jane Crow violence, we have to upRoot white supremacist politics and practices from the root.

INSOUMISSION CATHOLIQUE

Le Père Gaschon est l’enfant de l’histoire.

Père Gaschon is a child of history.

Charlemagne introduced what was to become feudalism under the dual authority of his crown and the Church. Land was unified in its ownership and shared between the nobility and the church at local and regional levels. The land was worked and tilled by peasants, most of whom were serfs. They were tied to the land and could not travel or move without a permit. But the Benedictines (or black monks) were known as the engineers of feudalism because they controlled most of the libraries inherited from the Roman Empire, and as such were able to unify the legal basis of this land ownership and the status of the population into three orders: the nobility, whose role was to maintain peace and order, and protect the various territories; the secular or monastic clergy, who ensured the spiritual and ritual well-being of society; the rest of society divided between serfs working the land and vilains doing other tasks such as all the trades necessary for the expansion of this society (trade and various services).

He never broke this link with the ten centuries since Charlemagne leading to a future beyond the French Revolution.

Éditions La Dondaine, Médium.com

Welcome to the United States of America where if you want to be safe from guns you die if you want to get a safe abortion you die if you're gay you die if you're black you die if you're a woman you die if you're disabled you die if you're a kid you die if you're a POC you die if you're trans you die and no one will do anything about it because some stupid cuntrags that are two steps away from tripping on a staircase and dying cling to some dipshit beliefs from over 6 decades ago and decide to make it everyone's problem

Biden is closing the gun show loophole

No more sales without background checks, this is the biggest step forward towards better gun control in decades.

(Note: The Tweets on the left is one of of MANY like it, and Ben Shapiro isn’t the only conservative rallying behind this sentiment.)

Do y’all remember that Bojack Horseman episode that aired in 2017 about how, no matter how much leftists rallied and cried against it, the government and right-wing groups wouldn’t ban guns…

UNTIL a marginalized group started using guns to feel more safe, and a member of that marginalized group committed a mass shooting, after which there were cries for them to be controlled more almost immediately by the previous gun-rights defenders?

Life is a fucking cartoon.

*tries to organize my thoughts*

*remembers i'm not in school and therefore beholden to neither heaven nor hell nor any man's grading system*

*joyously shredding & tossing all my carefully arranged 3x5 mental notecards into the air like so much beige confetti. raising my arms in victory, cheering raucously until i accidentally inhale bits of homemade confetti*

(*coughing up itty bits of paper like a cat evicting a hairball with a firm understanding of tenants' rights*) wait wat happens next

This Wednesday, debate on political control to study energy tariffs

This Wednesday, debate on political control to study energy tariffs

Given the high cost of electric energy service in the departments of The Caribbean. This Wednesday is the Senate Territorial Planning Committee It will be the stage to fulfill a political control debate that will take place at 7:30 am. Such a hearing was convened by Senator Efrain Cepeda, from Conservative Party, who stated that the aim of the debate will be to report on the increase in the…

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Can you explain Gerrymandering? I still don't get it.

Imagine you have five people. Two of them are total idiots and want to watch "Speed 2: Cruise Control" on DVD, and 3 of them have good taste in movies and want to watch "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" on Blu-Ray. If you hold an honest vote, your quintet will rightly watch "Robin Hood: Men in Tights."

If, however, you convince the group to subdivide their votes by location and count the couch, the chair, and the bean bag as three total voting zones, when all three people who want to watch "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" are on the couch, and each of the two people on the chair and bean bag constituting the pathetic minority that wants to see "Speed 2: Cruise Control" are in their own distinct zones, then the vote will be 2:1 for "Speed 2: Cruise Control" and you will end up watching the inferior film, despite the majority of your group knowing better.

Thankfully, this type of devious and deceitful act is illegal in anything larger than deciding which movie to watch, so surely it can never happen anywhere important like politics.