psychhound:

it’s finally published 😳😳

my 40,000 word thesis on therapeutically applied ttrpgs … featuring 82 sources with research on ttrpgs, linguistics, psychology, and more

it includes:

• introductions to major concepts in roleplay like bleed and immersion
• a study with 109 participants showing how long term tabletop roleplay fosters emotional resilience
• an analysis of the therapeutic efficacy of 5 different ttrpgs (dnd 5e, new world of darkness, apocalypse keys, wanderhome, & songs for the dusk)
• a discussion of the psychology of ttrpgs and how events and characters in-universe really impact us
• an exploration of how the linguistics of ttrpgs mirror our “real lives”
• an exploration of what a ttrpg made to help people heal from complex trauma would look like, complete with a sample player character and theoretical session

also it’s open access, so anyone can read it for free!!

you can find it published on proquest here

and if anyones interested in finding out more about spiritkeep, i’ve posted about it here and there’s a spiritkeep page on my website here!!

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abstract!!

This thesis aimed to further research on a growing method of play therapy, therapeutically applied tabletop role-playing games, and examine its users as a discourse community with shared but unmet needs. Several methods were taken to accomplish this goal. A literature review explored the current state of the research. Then, a study with 109 participants was conducted to deduce the connection between tabletop role-play and emotional resilience. Finally, five popular texts in the tabletop role-playing game genre were analyzed against seven criteria, synthesized from therapeutically applied role-playing game community experts, to determine if currently available texts fulfilled the needs of this community. The texts included Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, New World of Darkness, Apocalypse Keys, Wanderhome, and Songs for the Dusk. This research found that the benefits of tabletop role-playing games are shared between clinical use and home use, but that currently available texts are not ideal for fulfilling therapeutic purposes. Therefore, the thesis includes the foundations of a new text that is designed to be perfectly suited to the requirements of this genre: a game called Spiritkeep, designed to help players heal from complex trauma through long-term play. As the therapeutically applied role-playing field is growing in use by experts as well as in popular attention, the development of this new text has the potential for great impact in the role-playing community.

(via ladytabletop)

woosh-floosh-art:

Another comic based on a favorite post of mine, because what can I say? I love posts

Original post by @cryptotheism

(via wierdkid20)

chemicahs:

People don’t realize how much we sound like other things because we are created from the same laws of physics. “That potato in the microwave sounds like it’s screaming” is funny because it really is, air is vibrating out of a small hole which is how our throat works too. The babbling river that sounds like humans whispering, that’s because it’s a wet hollow cave with echo delivering the same functionality. The river doesn’t just sound like us, we sound like a river. They use a metal trashcan to create a lion’s roar for movie sound effects. But the truth is, not only does a trashcan sound like a lion, a lion sounds like a trashcan. Cars purr when you turn them on. Everything is like everything else. Inanimate objects are not so far away from life as it seems.

Remember the next time you feel more alone in the company of large buildings, or maybe less alone among the rocks of the river, that they are not completely unlike the parts of you.

(via portentous-offerings)

lexablackbird:

lalulutres:

NASA just dropped the closest image ever taken of Jupiter.

that’s a damn sexy planet, wow

(via wierdkid20)

marspumpkin:

btw the katy perry/bezos’ girlfriend/other four irrelevant billionaires 10 minute space stunt was not the first all female expedition no matter how much they try to market it as such. the first all female mission was in 1963 with soviet cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova, Irina Solovyova and Valentina Ponomaryova - all three of which were working class and had to pass incredibly hard exams to be chosen from 400 potential candidates. just in case we started falling for the propaganda machine again

(via wierdkid20)

snail-chores:

foldingfittedsheets:

memewhore:

This isn’t even the most like birds a plant can look! This green birdflower grows in Australia and appears to make hummingbirds except, wait, there’s no hummingbirds in Australia. So what is this plant doing.

Look at this Duck Orchid! Caleana major is found in South Eastern Australia. Look at this thing! It’s a duck!

(via ratbrick)

depsidase:

(via amberandstuff)

official-dnd-posts:

dramatic-dolphin:

who let biologists play dnd

official dnd post

thrice-the-nobling:

cungadero:

i hate viruses so fucking much. literally getting attacked by a fucking shape. a concept. consumes no energy. responds to no stimuli. its only existence is to fuck with you. like fuck offf

prev’s tags are too good not to save

catboybiologist:

clickityweasel:

flipocrite:

botanyshitposts:

scientists in the 1990s, putting a Get More Purple gene attached to a harmless plant virus into an already purple petunia: please get more purple

the petunia, sensing an apparent honest to god Get More Purple Disease, using the previously undiscovered RNAi antiviral ability to shut down all other purple genes along with it just in case: you put VIRUS in petunia? you infect her with the More Purple?? oh! oh! her children shall bloom white! jail for mother, jail for mother for One Thousand Years!!!!

Btw the thing this discovered is like. A foundational lab technique now and has revolutionized genetics

(via muse-meter)

depsidase:

(via muse-meter)

memeuplift:

(via muse-meter)

pepessilvias-blog:

(via thecraftyspyder)

straawberries:

the-final-sif:

thememedaddy:

So! This is a perfect case study in situations where you should be wary of misinformation.

Take a moment and ask yourself, a project like this requires a lot of time, money and dedication of resources, why would scientists dedicate that time to something that could just be done by a tree?

The answer is they wouldn’t. So that means this claim requires further investigation!

This project is called LIQUID 3, and it’s not meant for cities with wide open spaces, it’s meant for cities like Belgrade in Serbia. These cities are densely populated and heavily polluted, to the point where pollution actually chokes out current trees and makes creating green spaces difficult.

Liquid 3 was a PhD scientists answer to these problems. The microalgae tank is intended for spaces where you either:

1. Don’t have enough space to plant full trees, or
2. Don’t have enough time to plant trees and wait for them to grow up.

The tank is extremely efficient when you consider the amount of space needed compared to the amount of CO2 turned into oxygen. The tank can operate throughout the winter. And most importantly, it can be quickly set up in areas that desperately need relief from air pollution NOW not in 10 years when trees are done growing. Children currently suffocating on polluted air can’t wait for trees to grow, they need to be taken care of now, and Liquid 3 is one of the ways to take care of them. Depending on the species of microalgea used, a number have shown a pretty amazing capacity to pull heavy metals out of the air which is something trees can get choked up by.

The tanks aren’t just tanks either! Liquid 3 have solar panels placed on top, they have lighting and mobile phone charging, and they work as public benches. The designers of it want to encourage green spaces where there’s room, but where there isn’t room or time, Liquid 3 can step in. Realistically, this isn’t a replacement for trees. It’s replacing boring metal city benches with new, cooler benches that also clean the air (and have at least some heating during the winter).

Not only that, but the microalgea that grows is native to Serbia and all that microalgea has a ton of great uses! It makes for great fertilizer, compost, wastewater treatment, cleaner biofuels and even for helping create new tanks for further air purification. They only require a quick algae divide once a month, and the produced algae can be carted off to where ever it’s needed. This makes them effective solutions for areas that can’t sustain complex installations.

So yeah, there’s actually quite a lot of places that would like these. Lots of people currently breathing in terrible quality air would much rather have their boring city benches replaced with really fucking cool algae tanks that clean the air and can be used to help create + sustain future green spaces in cities. I dunno about you, but I’d take that over a dumb metal bench any day. Put these at every bus stop and I’d be delighted.

can ppl pls reblog this version

(via wierdkid20)

bogleech:

thesaltofcarthage:

morepopcornplease:

fthgurdy:

kosmicznacebula:

it’s always a good day to complain about English speakers

Important addition: Maria Skłodowska-Curie was born during partitions, which means Poland didn’t exist, which means her insistence that she was Polish was a significant act of defiance against the occupation, which means that you should respect that instead of arguing that ‘well she had French citizenship’. She couldn’t have Polish citizenship despite being Polish, that’s kinda the point she was making by keeping her maiden name and naming a chemical element she discovered ‘Polonium’ .

HOW TO PRONOUNCE: Skłodowska

L with a dash through it (ł) makes a “W” sound.
and W makes a “V” sound.

skwo-DOV-ska

thank you for the pronunciation guide!

I never heard her full name in my whole life but I’ll never forget it now because skwo-DOV-ska is the perfect storm of phonemes that get stuck in my head forever. It is a cool and good name.

(via thecraftyspyder)