Stories! Other intelligences

The Great Silence: A parrot has a question for humans by Ted Chiang. Gentle and sad.

Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer. A benevolent AI is eager to help. Wouldn't it be nice if some power were tilting the odds in favor of our happiness?

One Thousand Beetles in a Jumpsuit by Dominica Phetteplace. Dystopian setting, happy ending.

A Bird, a Song, a Revolution by Brooke Bolander. The magic of music.

Story! "What the Dead Man Said" responses to climate change

“What the Dead Man Said” by Chinelo Onwualu. An ultimately hopeful take on the effects of climate change, centered on people of color. CW: past sexual abuse.

The Scars of Being Uprooted by Valeria Fernández. A response to “What the Dead Man Said.”

Related:
Who Gets to Have Ecoanxiety? by Joseph Weiss.

The Case for Climate Rage by Amy Westervelt.

Yes, climate change can be beaten by 2050. Here’s how. by Alanna Mitchell (Canada)

What If We Stopped Pretending? by Jonathan Franzen. "The climate apocalypse is coming. To prepare for it, we need to admit that we can’t prevent it."

Links: Health and disability

Lyme Disease Is Baffling, Even to Experts by Meghan O'Rourke.

In a week, or a month, or six months, I will start feeling less well. My head will get foggier, my energy level will sink. When I wake in the morning, I will have a severe headache. Sharp electric shocks will start running along my legs and arms, for minutes, then hours, then days. My older son will stop eating his breakfast as I twitch in pain, and say, “What’s wrong, Mommy?” And once again I will ask Dr. H for antibiotics.

While writing this article, it happened. I took the antibiotics. I felt worse, and then I felt dramatically better.

A Town for People with Chronic-Fatigue Syndrome by Mike Mariani. In Incline, NV, a doctor gives CFS patients access to Ampligen, a drug that puts symptoms in abeyance for some.

The Vaccine That Could Prevent Stress, Anxiety, and Depression by Shayla Love.

Inflammation seems to directly cause mental health issues, while at the same time, stress and mental health issues themselves provoke inflammation—creating a dangerous feedback loop. [...] M. vaccae could stop the neuro-inflammatory response of the brain's immune cells in rats, and the associated negative behavioral changes that came along with it.

The Power of One Push-Up by James Hamblin. "Several simple ways of measuring a person’s health might matter more than body weight." I had already been practicing plank pose for 30 seconds in the mornings. Based on this article I started doing knee pushups as well and I'm up to 5. Perhaps someday I'll be able to do a full pushup. I'm much stronger in my legs than my arms.

Enabling Participation: Research with young people on ableism (a cartoon), illustrations by Toby Morris.

From 2016 to 2018, researchers from Massey University’s SHORE & Whariki Research Centre worked with 35 young people with a range of disabilities and their whānau, and learnt first-hand about their everyday lives.

They found that the biggest barriers to living a good life were discrimination and ableist attitudes.

How Good Omens Changed My Life, Cured My Depression, and Fixed My Posture by Aira Lee.

Good Omens isn’t just brilliant entertainment. It has changed lives. Many of the fan messages that I see Neil Gaiman answer on social media are heartfelt and emotional expressions of gratitude. People say it helped them understand themselves, their gender, their sexuality, their identity, and made them feel comfortable and safe being who they are, often for the first time in their lives.