Some of you are reblogging because you think its funny that programmers would talk to ducks. I’m reblogging because I think its funny picturing a programmer explaining their code, realizing what they did when they explain the bad code, then grabbing the strangling the duck while yelling “WHY WAS THE FIX THAT SIMPLE!? AM I GOING BLIND!”
AS A PROGRAMMER I CAN TELL YOU THAT THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU FUCKING DO WE HAD TO BAN THE DUCKS FROM MY CLASSES BECAUSE EVERYONE WOULD FLIP THE DUCK OR THROW IT AT A WALL OR SOMETHING WHEN THEY FIGURED OUT THE PROBLEM IN THEIR CODE
so that’s the function of a rubber duck
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I work at a startup and part of the onboarding package you get when you first start working here now includes a rubber duck. We also have a bigger version of the duck for the extra hard problems. Sometimes one duck doesn’t cut it and you need to borrow your neighbors to get more ducks on the problem. One time we couldn’t figure out why something wasn’t working right so we assembled the counsel of ducks and by the grace of the Duck Gods were we able to finally come to a solution. These ducks have saved many lives and should be respected for the heroes they are.
I use this for writing, actually. Explain what I’m doing and what I want to do and the different ways i can get to point B from A, as well as the different problems, amazingly working them out as I explain why I could or couldn’t the different things. I love the Rubber Duck theory.
Former programmer, can confirm. We didn’t have a duck in our office so our other programmer, who I shared a space with, used me as a duck proxy. (For the explaining, not the throwing.)
There was more than one day where I’d casually hear “Hey can you be a duck for a minute?”
As a writer I can also vouch for rubber duckies
I’ve known too many programmers not to know about the anaticular tendencies.
I feel like i now need to get one when I’m writing.
This is such a good idea .
My partner used a plushie cat, when he didn’t have any real cats around to hold and explain things to. Still keeps it on the desk 😹
can you believe female hysteria was considered like an actual medical thing… god
mary louise moneybags in 1880: im horny all the time and also sad and i feel dissatisfied with my shitty life i dont want kids i hate my dad and my husband
dr mis o’geny: i diagnose you with WOMAN
fun fact if you’re a man you’re not allowed to laugh at this joke bcus i don’t go a day without hearing about how girls are all overemotional unstable and crazy so you all still think like this you’ve just gotten better at phrasing it in a way that doesnt seem like bullshit at first glance
You can still get diagnosed with hysteria, they just changed the name to “somatoform disorder” which means “patient is more emotional then the doctors think they should be about being sick”.
Oh and for the record I got slapped with that, and when my therapist called the doctor up angrily because I have testing proving I am actually sick? The doctor said “even a cancer patient can have somatoform if they are overly concerned with their illness”. If that doesn’t scare the shit out of you it should because it means they can prescribe cbt for a terminal illness and prioritize that over the cancer treatment.
It was medical neglect for scientists to think they could extrapolate from cis, menopausal women to trans women as each has their own particular medical needs, glad this new study exists. Glad also that the scientists behind this aren’t stupid enough to state that these risks mean that trans women shouldn’t get hormone therapy— but rather that trans women, especially populations at higher risk of embolism or stroke (older populations and/or black trans women), ought to familiarize themselves with symptoms and insist on proper medical care, to the extent that they can given what assholes doctors generally are and how difficult it is to access competent care.
My best friend died when she was 20 from pulmonary embolism— in part because she dismissed her symptoms and didn’t go to the ER. If you ever have sudden, extreme chest pain, shortness of breath, or cough up blood please insist on a chest X-ray, especially if you take high estrogen pills.
This is a good post but I’m just going to add a few things:
Chest pain that gets worse when you breathe in is characteristic of PE. Any sudden shortness of breath should be treated as a potential serious medical emergency, but if you take a deep breath in and get sharp pain in your chest that’s particularly indicative of PE.
If you have an injury to your leg and have your leg immobilized with a cast, you’re at a particularly high risk of PE.
Probably the most important thing I have to add on to this is that you need to ask for a CT-PA or CT pulmonary angiogram, not a chest x-day. Chest x-rays may diagnose a PE, but might not. A CT-PA can definitively diagnose a PE, as well as definitively rule it out.
Pulmonary embolisms are nasty and one of the worst cases I’ve been involved in that has affected me the worst was a PE. Everyone should be aware of the symptoms, but especially anyone taking estrogen (which includes people taking oral contraceptives), or if you know someone who takes estrogen.
holy shiiiiit every time I think I’ve seen it all in terms of biology there’s still always something new! Look at DENDROGASTER.
These are parasites found only inside of starfish and they are CRUSTACEANS.
There are many parasitic crustaceans who lose all arthropod anatomy as they mature and come out like just a glob of flesh but I’ve never seen one this ornate!
It’d be cool if there were scientific papers explaining these that didn’t cost $50 to access but I have pieced together that these are related to copepods and what we’re seeing are the females, while the males remain in microscopic larva-like forms inside of their mates.
These are all typical characteristics of many other parasitic crustaceans who reduce themselves down to just fleshy masses. There really are LOTS of those.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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