Interesting Links for 04-11-2025

[andrewducker]

1. Dungeons & Dragons is great for brain health (particularly the elderly and people with disabilities)

(tags:dungeonsanddragons mentalhealth entertainment )

2. NHS threatens GP practice over trans care

(tags:transgender UK bigotry healthcare OhForFucksSake )

3. Cambridge University's oldest women-only college, Newnham, stands firm for trans inclusion

(tags:transgender Cambridge university GoodNews )

4. Novel peanut allergy vaccine shows promise to transform allergy care

(tags:allergies vaccine )

5. Petition to make schools in Scotland safe for pupils with allergies

(tags:allergies scotland school petition )

6. 20% of US UTIs are caused by contimated meat

(tags:usa meat food infection )

7. When Stick Figures Fought (A history of the stick figure combat flash animations of the early 200s)

(tags:history fighting animation web Flash )

8. The password for the Louvre's Video Surveillance System was "Louvre"

(tags:art museums security epicfail france )

Comments

[cmcmck]

2.

If the NHS are threatening a kid at Tanner stage 5 when all that is left to do is GC surgery with removal from treatment that would have to be consided cruel and unusual punishment as by that stage a lot of the development would be irreversible and you'd force a kid who'd already been through puberty to go through it again- they'd be forcing a young woman though male puberty.

This would be akin to someone telling me on the 7th May 1978 that I wouldn't be getting GC surgery the next day after all!

[andrewducker]

Yeah, it's fucking awful.

You may legally make a boy into a woman, but it is illegal to delay him becoming a man ?

[bens_dad]

2. I'm confused. I thought blockers would stop male puberty but that she would need some other action to start parts of female puberty ?

There are many natural and man-made substances which can do the later, so I can see that banning them may not be practical.

So we seem to have the ridiculous situation where the effect that the antis want to stop (creation of a woman) is allowed, but something which is reversible and doesn't produce the result, is illegal.

Put another way, you may legally make a boy into a woman, but it is illegal to delaying him becoming a man ?

---
What are the other uses of hormone blockers ? There is "precocious puberty", but I imagine that that could not be given as the reason for these children to take them, as they are too old. Is there any other medical reason for blocking hormones that could be given as a way around this ban ?

Re: You may legally make a boy into a woman, but it is illegal to delay him becoming a man ?

[andrewducker]

Alas, I don't think so. It's just awful bigotry.

Re: You may legally make a boy into a woman, but it is illegal to delay him becoming a man ?

[cmcmck]

She's at Tanner stage five as is mentioned in the piece without explaining that this means she's now on hormonal treatment- the blockers will not have promoted breast growth or the onset of female puberty. As I know fropm personal experience only female hormone treatment will do that.

You are right about blockers being used in cases of precocious puberty- also other hormone imbalances and to treat prostate cancer.

Re: You may legally make a boy into a woman, but it is illegal to delay him becoming a man ?

[bens_dad]

It has taken me a while to remember that hormone blockers only block production of hormones, and thus there is still a place for them while taken female hormone treatment, until an orchidectomy which stops the body producing substantial quantities of male hormones.

I had been thinking that they would block the effect of female hormone treatment if you took both at the same time.

[foms]

About 1983-4, I was involved in an attempt to run RPGs and other games in retirement facilities, hospitals, schools, and possibly prisons. I remember that we had somewhat similar studies that we presented as part of our pitch.

[andrewducker]

Oh, that's cool. I assume you didn't get a lot of traction? (Based on how people were about such things in the 80s)

[foms]

It was kind of during and maybe a bit before the major peak of the Satanic Panic, as I recall. I think that the organization is no longer but the umbrella organization is still going and had offices in the Montreal Olympic Stadium for decades. I am not sure how much came of it. I ran one session, at a library, and that was not under the auspices of that group.

It was a time of several odd and subcultural projects. Some of us went on to found a cooperative corporation to do historical renovation of historical buildings. We had financial support to rebuild the rear 2/3 of a burned building that was to be offices of the Société immobilière du patrimoine architectural de Montréal (the historical architecture preservation group) but it fell through and I had to get a job-job, which was dispatching taxis, on the overnight shift, at a small company owned by the mother of one of our carpenters.

[andrewducker]

Life definitely takes us to strange places sometimes!