Hi, I don't know what this is supposed to do, but I get pretty bad migraines and loading the page made me feel extremely strange almost immediately so I closed it.

I would check to make sure this can't trigger migraines or seizures. Maybe it's just me, but also, please double check.

I don't usually have headache migraines but do have strong visual auras from time to time.

Looking at this it first looked fun: "whoa, that's cool, this fovea thing is really smaller than I imagined"

After a minute or so playing around I closed the window and then I noticed a form of retina persistence that looked eerily similar to an onset of a visual aura, as well as some faint but clear ear ringing, both typical symptoms of the migraines I experience.

I immediately walked away from the computer and although dwindling it's still in effect 10min out.

Yes. Occasional migraine sufferer with aura here. Don't look at this unless you want to spend the next 15 minutes worrying "am i getting an aura or not".

How would someone possibly “check” that? What method are you proposing?

there are a lot of papers on this (some made by inducing seizures in people under lab conditions). The most seizure causing things you could display are simply bars or a grid with moving details, sizes, or alternating in colors.

Basically if it gives you a headache to stare at or just has this sucky attention grabbing feel to it when you look at it its likely to cause seizures. I CBA to dig up the papers on this but there are a bunch if you want to really get into this.

You should be arsed to dig it up because your parent comment is insinuating disbelief or sarcasm with quotation marks.

Here is the study that came to mind: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)...

However as the above study iirc doesn't directly state that these patterns cause discomfort and doesn't contain any examples I suggest reading chapter 10 "Photosensitive Epilepsy and Visual Discomfort" of "hierarchies in neurology (1989)" on page 70-71 which proposes this AND contains an example you can look at yourself.

No, I’m quoting with quotation marks.

Its supposed to show you how big of a radius your eye can focus on at a time, as we age the radius shrinks.

Edit: seems like there isn't enough research to suggest the latter. Apologies

Yes, immediately felt weird and a bit uncomfortable. I can almost see, or kind of sense, all those parts moving in the image even though I can only see the movement clearly in the center. I can easily imagine getting a headache from watching that for a longer time.

Interesting, I wonder.. have you ever tried a VR headset? Does that cause you migraines as well? or maybe any other discomfort that'd prevent you from using it?

Not op but, VR is no problem, but this microsoft ar/mr glasses gave me an instant crazy headache in places I did not even know I had matter (back of the head), apparently thats the visual processing part of your brain. Terrible experience that lasted an hour or so.

I also don’t think it is downvote worthy.

The first part of the comment is very valuable. “I looked at it and it made me feel extremely strange almost immediately“. That is very good to know.

The second bit I’m less sure about. What do they mean by “check to make sure this can't trigger migraines or seizures”? Like what check are they expecting? Literature research? Or experiments? The word “check” makes it sound as if they think this is some easy to do thung, like how you could “double check” the spelling of a word using a dictionary.

I interpreted it loosely, as "be aware of the possibility, and stop looking at it at the first signs of issues".

That seems to me to be a VERY generous interpretation of:

> I would check to make sure this can't trigger migraines or seizures. Maybe it's just me, but also, please double check.

It's a layered approach. There's not one silver bullet. But sending kids to school without clean air upgrades is criminal.

Long Covid is a spectrum. It's everything from silent damage to severe functional impairment. Each subsequent infection makes noticeable damage more likely.

Yeah, decluttering is torture.

I don't think the problem is the paper losses so far. The problem is the entire social contract...or I don't know what to call it -- governmental contract? Financial world contract? Is on fire.

What are some good European ETF providers? Do you have to be physically within Europe to use them, or can you use them as long as you have an EU passport?

It's an ETF, so it boils down to whether you have access to a particular stock exchange. European brokers support trading on US stock exchanges, so I'm sure it works the other way around too. I use Amundi and Xtrackers because they have large fund sizes, low TER, and that's what's available at the brokers I use, though not all of my brokers have Amundi, for example. The availability outside the EU shouldn't be a problem, since most funds are also at the London Stock Exchange in either USD or GBP.

I think too that one thing that's important is to decide beforehand -- what can I do? What would I be willing to do?

That is to say, some people really are willing to be activists. They will organize protests and boycotts and things like that.

Other people are in marginalized communities and are trying to get a feel for whether they should move to a different region or even a different country.

Some folks don't really have a plan but they want to stay informed. If at some point a magical line is crossed, they might suddenly say, "That's IT! I can't take it anymore! I have to DO SOMETHNG!" and that's when they'll become activists.

But some folks are realistically never going to lift a finger to help themselves or anybody else. They'll just bitch online and/or be stressed.

What I'm working on is figuring out in what ways I might, in the right situation, be moved to contribute. If things get really bad (and they will), what will I realistically be doing? I'm disabled, so I can't be out in the streets. If things get even worse, I might write about the niche public health / politics topics I've accidentally become an expert in. And if something happens where medicare and medicaid are shut off, well then all hospitals everywhere will basically be non-functional. This will be a crisis for all but most immediately for the chronically ill -- any of us at that point who are able to will be leaving the country ASAP.

In other words, I need to know enough to keep writing (which I would do anyways) and I need to know when things are hopeless enough that a person with a messed up spine should travel out of the country anyways. That is currently all I need to know because it's all that is actionable for me.

There is a massive temptation to doomscroll into infinity, but that merely serves the enemies of sanity. I know what happens next because I've read Sarah Kendzior and Hannah Arendt. It's not good. But I also know that one of the first things that happened during the anti-semitic purges in Nazi Germany was that a ton of Jews got appendicitis from stress. Sometimes the body wants to align with power so badly, it aligns even with evil power and against its own interests. We have to be very careful not to poison ourselves and make evil's job easier.

I have OCD and sadly one of the ways I've dealt with it is to drown it out by being on social media and, before that, just playing NPR nonstop all day. I basically chose a new, louder voice to drown out the other voices in my head.

Unfortunately, in this day and age it's like choosing between two different forms of torture. Social media is so toxic and fries the nervous system so much - it's awful. The news is awful. And being alone with OCD is awful. (And yes I've tried various treatments - so far, nothing's worked great. B12 shots did help a bit and so did prednisone accidentally, but I can't stay on that long term.)

Have you tried giving meditation a try? I have no idea if it helps for OCD, but for me it gives space around all the thoughts that’s floating around in my head. That space gives me a bit more freedom to select which thoughts to listen to.

If you're feeling sick in a building, you can't leave out mentioning mold. Mold will really destroy you.

Also ozone machines, when used properly and safely (no occupants), can sometimes help to speed up the offgassing process. If you're interested in doing this, please read up on it so you don't do it wrong or dangerously. It can also in some cases cause new, worse VOC's to form, so...user beware.

Thank you, you just said what I was trying to say in 2% of the words.