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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 19h

This is a fantastic article I encourage everyone to read.

The damaging effects of COVID on our immune system are not up for debate.

It’s not hypothetical.

And it’s not limited to “only the vulnerable”.

This is why many of us mask. Respirators like an N95 do a great job preventing covid.

Dr. Jen Irwin @drjenirwin.bsky.social · 21h

‘While SARS-CoV-2 does not cause HIV/AIDS, its ability to induce immune dysfunction—including T cell depletion & dysfunction, increased susceptibility to infection incl opportunistic, accelerated bio aging, neurological, & systemic damage provide parallels... .’
www.ajpmfocus.org/article/S277...

COVID-19 is “Airborne AIDS”: provocative oversimplification, emerging science, or something in between?

COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 is often compared to other pandemics for its societal and global health impact, with some commentators drawing parallels to HIV/AIDS due to the immune dysfunction caused ...

www.ajpmfocus.org

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Reposted by Patrick Samphire but for Halloween 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Isobel Gray 🏴‍☠️🏳️‍⚧️ @isobelsgray.bsky.social · 6h

The NHS is changing trans people back to birth sex on file, meaning we will not be treated appropriately for our bodies.

This is deadly, completely unacceptable, and the result of hateful far right ideology in our politics and healthcare.

Jenn @jennralize.bsky.social · 7h

Just got a call from a lovely but very nervous Dr, who advised I wouldn't be routinely screened for breast cancer because I'm not indicated as being "biologically female" on the central NHS database and my biology wouldn't indicate I'm at risk.

My records have been altered, which is upsetting.

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Patrick Samphire but for Halloween 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @patricksamphire.bsky.social · 1h

Remember when Nigel Farage had a bank account closed and the entire establishment went to war on his behalf, the chief executive of the bank had to resign, and he got compensation?

What's the bet that the same thing happens here? Anyone? Anyone at all?

Pro-Palestine activist couple have UK bank account closed without explanation

John Nicholson and Norma Turner’s joint retirement savings account was shut by Yorkshire Building Society

www.theguardian.com

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Dr. Jens Foell @jensfoell.de · 3h

Award-winning pain researcher here. This is not something that can be done. Hope this helps.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 4h

“In nursing homes, neonatal units, and ICU wards, researchers are racing to turn pain—medicine’s most subjective vital sign—into something a camera or sensor can score as reliably as blood pressure.”

AI is changing how we quantify pain

Artificial intelligence is helping health-care providers better assess their patients’ discomfort.

www.technologyreview.com

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Tasha Suri @tashasuri.bsky.social · 7h

"This shows that if Israel, with the whole world watching, can treat a well-known, white person with a Swedish passport this way, just imagine what they do to Palestinians behind closed doors."

Edvin Alpros Ⓜ️ antisocial dominans minister @edvinalpros.bsky.social · 12h

www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/25...

Greta Thunberg: “They kicked me every time the flag touched my face”

– Greta Thunberg on her days in Israeli captivity Beating, kicking, and threats of being gassed in cages. Greta Thunberg and several others from the flotilla ar

www.aftonbladet.se

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Micah @rincewind.run · 2h

yeah the hack bad actors have discovered is that if you shout “cancel culture” loud enough nobody asks what you actually did to bring the hammer down on you

or, at least, you build enough of a different (worse) audience that it doesn’t matter

Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 3h

I think the idea of "cancel culture" persists mainly because it conveniently is some outside force acting on someone rather than them torching their reputation all on their own

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Patrick Samphire but for Halloween 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @patricksamphire.bsky.social · 3h

This is such tedious shit. And it always comes from the kind of people, like William Hague, who have an absolute meltdown over true things that upset them. It's just another right wing "we'll say what we want, you'll have to listen, and you can't oppose it". The man's a massive twat.

Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 5h

Not once have I seen an explanation for why teenagers must hear things that upset them in virtue of the unspecified speech-acts being upsetting, nor have I ever seen an explanation for why teenagers will be forbidden to express displeasure with upsetting things.

William Hague: Why I’ll banish ‘safe spaces’ at Oxford
The new chancellor tells Cheltenham Literature Festival that there will be no ‘cancel culture’ and students should expect to hear things that upset them
October 14 2025, The Times
The new chancellor of Oxford University has said there will be no safe spaces for students and warned would-be undergraduates that they will “hear things that will upset and offend them”.

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ADRIAN M. GIBSON 🍄 SFF Author & Book Designer @adrianmgibson.bsky.social · 4h

🍄 MUSHROOM DAY EBOOK SALE 🍄
To celebrate International Mushroom Day, the eBook of my fungal noir novel Mushroom Blues is ON SALE for just $0.99!!! Hug a mushie, and happy reading to all the fungi fans out there.

$0.99 sale runs Oct. 15-18 (discount available WORLDWIDE on Amazon): amzn.to/3VoOBNF

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Patrick Samphire but for Halloween 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @patricksamphire.bsky.social · 3h

Body handed over by Hamas is not hostage, says Israel, as Palestinian dead ‘arrive back in cuffs’

Returning bodies in cuffs and blindfolds seems like an admission of war crimes and murder.

Body handed over by Hamas is not hostage, says Israel, as Palestinian dead ‘arrive back in cuffs’

Israel says one of four bodies handed over by Hamas on Tuesday night is not a missing hostage

www.theguardian.com

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Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 9h

If they looked at it macro they’d have to acknowledge that we had deliberately diminished our ability to cope with a pandemic to cut costs, then denied the evidence around masking and air flow, and sequentially prioritised economic gains over life and so lost both.

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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 7h

If one of my kids came home from school with this, I’d be looking for a meeting with the principal.

Luke Plunkett @lukeplunkett.com · 9h

kids teacher just sent this home as part of an assignment he's doing and i want to smash every computer at the school

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Patrick Samphire but for Halloween 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @patricksamphire.bsky.social · 6h

Released Israeli hostages give accounts of torture, torment and extraordinary danger

Descriptions of captivity suggest Hamas had a change of approach in recent weeks as ceasefire talks progressed

www.theguardian.com

Patrick Samphire but for Halloween 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @patricksamphire.bsky.social · 6h

‘Cruellest forms of torture’: freed Palestinians describe horrors of Israeli jail

Men who were held in Nafha prison say they were brutally beaten, bound at the hands and feet, verbally abused, allowed to contract fungal and skin diseases, and assaulted with loud music for up to two...

www.theguardian.com

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Thomas D. Lee @thomasdlee.bsky.social · 8h

Anyone need a good proofreader or queer sensitivity reader? A friend of mine is going through a rough time at the moment and could do with some paid work. She has loads of experience with editing & proofreading, and I've paid her to do sensitivity reads for me in the past. DM me if interested.

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𝒫𝒽𝒾𝓁𝒫𝒶𝓇𝓀ℯ𝓇 @philspeculates.bsky.social · 7h

The first two reviews for Circe's Coven, the third book in my British Bureau for the Arcane series, have been posted - both 5 stars! The comments too! Wow!
You can get your copy (and the rest of the series) here: linktr.ee/phil_parker. Each one is just 99p.

#booksky #authorsky #writer #fantasy

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Patrick Samphire but for Halloween 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @patricksamphire.bsky.social · 7h

My understanding was that they weren't de jure official languages, but it looks like Scots and Gaelic were made de jure official languages just this summer! Manx isn't, though. Looks like Irish was recently made an official language in Northern Ireland, too, so my info was a bit out of date.

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Scary Mary Branscombe @marypcbuk.bsky.social · 23h

not only is this on exactly the kind of low grade agricultural land probably just used for grazing animals who can still graze around solar panels, it also uses the connections to a coal power station that's coming down so it goes online quickly. local council didn't want it because 'ugly solar'

Adam Vaughan @adamvaughan.bsky.social · 1d

UK energy secretary Ed Miliband has approved Tillbridge solar, a major new 500MW solar farm in Lincolnshire.

It's the 10th nationally significant solar farm he has approved since taking office, bringing the total to 4.2GW.

Decision here:
infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/wp-content/i...

infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk

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Reposted by Patrick Samphire but for Halloween 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Stephanie Burgis @stephanieburgis.bsky.social · 9h

I'm checking in early today from my writing retreat to pass on great news for UK readers: you can preorder the hardcover of Enchanting the Fae Queen for 25% off at Waterstones for just the next 2 days! Use the code ORDER25: www.waterstones.com/book/enchant...

Enchanting the Fae Queen by Stephanie Burgis | Waterstones

Buy Enchanting the Fae Queen by Stephanie Burgis from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

www.waterstones.com

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Patrick Samphire but for Halloween 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @patricksamphire.bsky.social · 9h

Also, these people have a pathological need to have an audience to pay attention to them. If they have no audience, they'll change tack.

Patrick Samphire but for Halloween 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @patricksamphire.bsky.social · 10h

I do not believe that Israel (well, Netanyahu and his government) wants this ceasefire to succeed. But they don't want to be seen as the ones to blame, because they don't want to annoy Trump. So they will eat away at it until they can provoke a response that gives them an excuse/cover for ending it.

Israel limits aid into Gaza in dispute over hostage remains as ceasefire faces test

Hamas accused of breaching agreement by withholding bodies of hostages but Palestinian militants say they face obstacles in retrieving them

www.theguardian.com

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chekov's ghost light @catfort.fightins.online · 13h

The people I see advocating respirator use, including myself, are disabled and speaking from necessity and firsthand understanding of the consequences. I'm sure there are people coming at the issue from fear, but I haven't seen that.
I know people won't adopt it widely, but stigma is still injurious

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

(and i think it is a demand that stems from fear more than a rational assessment of the threat environment)

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G.M. Nair @gmnair.bsky.social · 21h

Rewatching Andor and it's amazing how the show makes you completely forget the only reason all of this is happening is because some space magicians are mad at each other.

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Caræsten 🇵🇸 @cara.city · 22h

if you actually want to understand what the struggle for trans care looks like in a non-bourgois state, here's a paper on how Cuba came to offer full trans healthcare guaranteed by the state, and how it's become a world model for gender affirming care

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Abstract
In 2008, Cuba's minister of public health signed Resolution 126, an act that assured complete coverage for Cubans seeking sexual reassignment surgeries (also known as gender confirmation surgeries), the first of any country in Latin America to do so. Ten years later, Cuba is celebrated as having one of the most open and inclusive LGBTQ public health and education programs in the Americas. As illustrated throughout this article, the Cuban state approaches sexuality and sexual identity not as rights-based issues but rather as health-based challenges. Through the case study of Cuba's understanding of transsexuals' right to health, we argue that Cuba has provided an example of how the right to health for all moves toward breaking down the barriers of stigma by improving health outcomes for those with transsexual health needs.

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Reposted by Patrick Samphire but for Halloween 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Stephanie Burgis @stephanieburgis.bsky.social · 20h

Checking in with my daily snippet and a photo from my current writing retreat!

This week's Tuesday snippet comes from Enchanting the Fae Queen, which arrives in just over 3 months. Preorder it now: stephanieburgis.com/books/enchanting-the-fae-queen

#romancelandia

The illustrated cover for Enchanting the Fae Queen, by Stephanie Burgis, shows a mischievously grinning woman with long blonde curls, a moonstone crown, a pink dress and bare feet, sitting perched in a tree teasing the uniformed general who stands before her, his expression determined and one of his hands around her closest leg while she pokes his strong nose with one finger. Vines of leaves sweep magically out from the tree around her to draw him towards her. The tagline reads: All’s fae in love and war. The text beside and below it reads: “I take it you abducted my travel trunk at the same time you abducted me?” he asked wryly.
“It was the only polite option,” she assured him. “You see, none of the men’s clothing left with me across the years would have been nearly large enough to fit. You wouldn’t have cared for it at all.”
His expression was skeptical. “And you were, of course, terribly concerned about my preferences when you chose to abduct me.”
“Of course!” Lorelei said piously. “I might be wicked, darling, but it’s never necessary to be cruel.”

A corridor painted in mint green, with a leafy green plant set on a windowsill along the way, leads to a low, round wooden door in medieval style.

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Patrick Samphire but for Halloween 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @patricksamphire.bsky.social · 21h

:Work productivity plummets:

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