as a member of the class of people referred to as such, i think in some ways the category of ability defined as "idiot savantism" was a useful one. the word "idiot" isnt good obviously but a less disparaging term that described the people who have developmental minmaxing seems useful as a semantic bridge. by the time i was in school the abolition of that term and concept meant that because i was a college level reader in kindergarten meant that everyone simply expected me to also be a math genius, got mad at me when i was the opposite, and then there were a lot of associated punishments and zero special education or disability accommodations lol
im currently completely losing it about the great stalacpipe organ. are you fucking kidding me they made an organ out of a CAVE???? IT TAKES UP THREE ACRES??? i legit am about to lose it
this is a comment left on a recording of moonlight sonata played on an organ that is literally made out of a cave and its making me so emotional its not even funny
[image id: a youtube comment that reads āwonderfulā¦and the moon has never shone thereā¦ā end id.]
According to Wikipedia, it works by hidden rubber mallets on the naturally-musical stalactites that tourguides have been knocking on for over a century. The guy who made the organ may have gotten the idea when his son whacked his head on a stalactite.
"Stop scrolling and please help me spread the word, because if I've landed on your page you're most likely either a black woman or someone who cares about black women and the simple phrase I'm about to share could help save a black woman's life.
Doctors are to black women what police officers are to black men. That may seem controversial but I believe it to be true and I speak from personal experience.
If you've seen this TikTok you know that a 2016 study showed that 50% of medical students and residents thought that black people couldn't feel pain the same as white people.
And we learned from this video that because of a 1999 study, to this day, there's a black correction factor for the creatinin levels in black people's kidneys, meaning we're less likely to recieve a kidney transplant if needed.
So if you go to a doctor, feel you aren't getting proper treatment or they refuse the treatment you've requested, say to them the following:
I will need you to document on record that you are refusing the treatment (or medicine) I've requested, and the reason you are doing so."
This works. I have used it in other situations. If medical staff have to document and take responsibility and be on the hook legally for doing shady shit they behave much differently.
If you werenāt already going to spread this advice because black women are at risk, then spread it because itās applicable to everyone else as well, including you reading this.
But particularly women, and especially black women.
I wanted to use what āreachā I may have here to share the Carolina Wildlife Centerās urgent plea for donations. If they are unable to raise $75,000 to cover ongoing and future care of their wildlife patients, the center will have to close July 20th, 2026. The services provided by CWC to the community are incredibly valuable, and without them, many wild animals will suffer without the care they need.
I understand the urge to comment on recent trends in which people seem to want increasingly sanitized media compared to the recent past, but when you say things like "people used to just shrug and move on when there were books and movies that made them uncomfortable" it's like...well. actually people used to convict artists of obscenity in a court of law.
I do think everyone who doesnāt know what Hays code was should look it up right now. Because this happened before. Over and over throughout history yeah but more recently in the US there was a a set of āmoral guidelinesā that all major motion pictures had to follow with rules like āall crime action has to be punishedā and ācriminals canāt be shown in a sympathetic lightā also clergy members couldnāt be portrayed as villains. This is also where the whole āmarried couples sleeping in two bedsā thing came from. There were so many absurd rules, you should really look into it but like to be clear, Psycho was a BIG deal for breaking Hays code, and thatās why the stabbing scene is filmed so creatively- itās not so much an artistic choice as it is a cinematic loophole to get around censorship. But like even the fact that there was a TOILET in that movie was a big deal because- yep thatās right- BATHROOM PLUMBING was banned from being shown on screen under this code. Please look into it this is arguably one of the most important historical events in the last hundred years of filmmaking and so many people- many filmmakers included- donāt know a thing about it. Hays code was in effect from 1930s to late 1970s btw
All the smoke in the air has been throwing off my sense of time for hours. Since like, maybe 11am or noon, it's consistently been the colour and intensity of the light you get when the sun's noticeably going down (or before an eclipse), so it constantly FEELS like "it'll be dark in an hour".
It would be beautiful, if it weren't so worrying and so inconvenient. Which, that's like fire overall.
SAME where I am. I first noticed from looking at the ground and seeing where the sunlight hit the pavement through the shadows of the trees- its orange as if itās golden hour but it has a sort of uncanny valley effect because the angle of the shadows is still high noon. Super eerie
reading this deposition that just got dropped where someone sued musk and ohhhh my god it is this funniest thing ever . i can see why his lawyer tried to keep this confidential . theyāre both maybe the biggest idiots . this is like ace attorney
genuinely first two pages he says that he thinks benās lawyer is the one who is actually suing him and admits he has no clue what the lawsuit is about .
I don't think Mark can ever top "INDEED, MR. JONES, INDEED" and "AND THAT IS HOW I KNOW YOU LIED TO ME" from the first Sandy Hook trial in Texas (not to be confused with Chris Mattei, the attorney in the Connecticut trial), but this part
MR. SPIRO: Do you give these lectures at all of your depositions?
MR. BANKSTON: I do, and you can watch them.
is ESPECIALLY hilarious to me having listened to multiple depositions Mark has had to take in the Sandy Hook case, where he has needed to lecture EVERY. SINGLE. ATTORNEY. at some point in the case about how they're violating Texas Rule XYZ, because they all, to a one, did something seriously ethically questionable during the deposition.
like, YOU CAN WATCH/LISTEN TO HIS DEPOS. HE DOES HAVE TO GIVE THOSE LECTURES EVERY TIME. IT'S NOT EVEN A JOKE.
if youre in the US (especially the northeast + michigan) i would avoid bagged salads/greens and generally wash your produce very thoroughly unless you want the diarrhea parasite
Michigan is experiencing its largest outbreak of a parasitic infection that causes severe diarrhea. Nearly 1,000 people have been diagnosed
this is not life-threatening, but also who wants weeks of diarrhea and a fucking parasite in them lol. if you suspect you've already had this and it's passed, i would see a doctor. you might need an antiparasitic anyway. if you're actively sick, see a doctor and they might be able to prescribe medication to help you get over it faster.
try to avoid eating raw vegetables, scrub fruit with a produce brush and rinse thoroughly with water. again, don't bother with premade greens or bagged salads. if you buy lettuce, remove the outer 2-3 layers of leaves.
there are UNVERIFIED rumors that the greens have been linked to a company that sources to taco bell. some locations have been actively pulling fresh ingredients like lettuce, avocado, and pico de gallo to mitigate the threat, so i would avoid any products from them just in case. considering how vast supply chains are, i'd be wary of any fast food greens in general for now.
also note this is a PARASITIC infection. most diarrhea-causing pathogens you expect to contaminate your greens are bacteria (e.g. e. coli and salmonella), which are a different domain of organism altogether. cyclospora is a protozoan, which is bigger and more complicated than a bacteria (for reference, malaria is also caused by a protozoan). bacterial diarrhea can be dangerous, but you might also expect to weather it and survive unscathed. do NOT fuck with PARASITIC contamination. you should be scared of this one!
Only high temperatures will kill cyclospora. It resides in what is like a shell, which is highly resistant to water and most cleaning chemicals. The substance it uses to cling to food is so strong we don't even fully know what its limits are. It may be best to avoid fruits and veggies you can't cook. Scrubbing only works if done hard enough and on foods with no hiding places (Like cucumbers and grapes). Peeling the skin off is your best bet at avoiding it however, scrubbing is not guaranteed.
Thank you OP for posting! Usually washing does work on most sicknesses, just not this one.
Extra note: this parasite can only be found in human feces, this food was contaminated due to a lack of bathrooms and washing stations on harvesting sites due to loosening enforcement of food safety regulations. This was more than preventable, we used to prevent it.
I can't believe home depot literally produced a wildly successful science fiction musical and we all just pretend it didn't happen. on one hand yes it had a boring white guy main character but like.... home depot just... Made it? And it had shit ton of box office sales? and no one even talks about this. this is like avatar (2009) all over again
OK so. After a lot of frantic googling I realized this was all a dream. home depot did not in fact produce a wildly successful science fiction musical. I was on allergy meds and took a nap and my brain simply prophesized this. slightly disappointed because I wanted to watch it.
it does suck that the government defunded PBS but it's also so fucking funny that now that they don't take uncle sam's slavery dollars they're running videos like "How america's foundation was built on genocide"
PBS Origins my beloved! for the unfamiliar, channel link here. they've been pointing out how fucked up USA history is for a while, but not quite that overtly.
PBS Origins is the home of history shows from PBS Digital Studios. Subscribe to dive into inclusive, intersectional history content that hel
link to the specific video from the screenshot above here:
it's part of their series "A People's History of Native America," playlist link here.
Hosted by comedian and actor Tai Leclaire, A People's History of Native America is a series that explores the current social climate in Nati
and while I'm here I'll plug some other channels because PBS does solid work. also, iirc they are (...were? I'm not actually sure what applies to them now that they've been defunded) legally required to include captions and they actually do that, so you won't run into auto-generated nonsense.
I haven't checked out PBS Documentaries yet, but they have some stuff tackling similar topics. (I am adding things to my watchlist as we speak.) channel link here.
Welcome to the PBS Documentaries channelāpresented by PBS Digital Studios and Independent Television Service (ITVS), dedicated to documentin
PBS Terra doesn't pull punches on climate change. channel link here.
PBS Terra is the home of science and nature shows from PBS Digital Studios. Subscribe to explore the frontiers of science and tech, our mind
PBS Eons has some super cool videos on the history of life on Earth, channel here, and Storied does awesome work on linguistics and mythology, channel here.
Join hosts Kallie Moore, Michelle Barboza-Ramirez, Gabriel Santos, and Blake de Pastino as they take you on a journey through the history of
Storied is the home for arts and humanities shows from PBS Digital Studios. Subscribe to explore art, culture, mythology and much more!
The
aaand while we're talking about defunded USA public media that doesn't pull punches when critiquing our history and government, I am once again going to plug a couple NPR podcasts. Throughline does deep-dives on history, culture, laws, and so on (link here); I'm especially partial to their We the People miniseries, which covers our rights from the Amendments. Code Switch covers culture, focusing on race and minority groups, and has been doing some especially good coverage on what the Trump administration's fuckery means on a practical level (link here). (these aren't the only NPR podcasts that talk about this stuff, but they're the big ones afaik.)
Throughline is a time machine. Each episode, we travel beyond the headlines to answer the question, "How did we get here?" We use sound and
What's CODE SWITCH? It's the fearless conversations about race that you've been waiting for. Hosted by journalists of color, our podcast tac
my mutual will post āi just blocked one of my mutualsā and iāll be reading it on my own dash with my own eyes directly from their blog thinking āit was probably meā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦.šā
I reeeeaaalllyy don't like how widespread gender realism is in supposedly feminist circles on this website. You are one step away from becoming a radfem.
"Woman" is a socially constructed category and "women" have nothing intrinsic in common, other than viewing themselves as whatever "woman" is defined as in their society, or being judged by the standards of whatever "woman" is defined as in their society. Gender is as "real" of a category as race or neurotype, which is to say, it's not objectively real at all. It's an artificial category created on the basis of perceived shared traits among certain people. The people came first, they were grouped into their artificial category later. There are no intrinsic differences between men or women or nonbinary or multigender people.
Watching the queer way of interacting with gender go from "Gender is a social construct that can be fun to play with but at heart is a dangerous toy because it has been used for generations to oppress and divide people." To "Everyone has a perfect crystal of true gender which you must deeply introspect to discover, and you can be wrong about its nature." Has been a disaster.
As a trans person this view I feel is deeply harmful and wrong. I do believe gender is a real and not socially constructed concept. I feel no one āgaveā me my gender and people telling me my gender is a construct is insulting to who I am and how hard I worked to discover myself. Not everyone has the same experience as I do but to say as an objective that gender is made up is extremely presumptuous and rude. In my personal spiritual beliefs I feel every personās soul comes with its own relationship to gender that isnāt given by society. Do not try to tell me my religion and my relationship with myself are made up. Thatās not your place. Believe your beliefs and let others believe theirs. It harms no one.
Gender is undeniably a social construct. Your spiritual beliefs are also a social construct. Both was created and shaped by society and people's understanding of it changes constantly. A medieval Catholic's religious beliefs and experience of church were completely different from a modern Catholic's.
Children aren't born having a full understanding of gender or religion ā they have to be indoctrinated into it. It might be inherent to people to seek out some kind of gender expression or spiritual belief, but the way we do it is not innate. We aren't born knowing that skirts are for girls and big trucks are for boys.
Money is also a social construct. That doesn't mean it isn't real or that it doesn't matter. It's just that people made it up and assigned meaning to it. We have no choice but to participate in it, so money is still important and meaningful to pretty much everyone in society because it defines our experiences of existing as humans right now. Still a social construct though, and has very recently changed from being exclusively bills & metal coins in your wallet/under your mattress to numbers in an app. Children have to learn how to interact with money and most people are pretty bad at it and it cases a lot of problems. The same could be said for gender.
The example that got my (really quite Catholic) mother to understand social constructs as both important and made up was days of the week.
There is no law of nature that proves it is Wednesday. Days are real - the Earth rotates, the sun rises and sets, thatās physics. Deciding to build our entire westernised lives around 1/4 of the moonās orbit is made up. There is no law of physics that links this moment in the lunar procession to āWednesdayā.
And yet it really is Wednesday. Mum, you need to go to work and later your choir who practice on Wednesdays will be pissed if you skip practice because āWednesday is a social constructā.
Itās also completely valid to have a favourite day of the week - Sunday for my mum since she goes to church, doesnāt work and avoids domestic chores on Sunday. And all those feelings about Sundays are completely valid in the absence of any law of nature which proves āitās Sundayā.
one of my favorite this american life segments of late is about the people who played orchestra pit for phantom of the opera on broadway and how, like, a sizeable majority of them had literally been playing the show since it opened in 1988 (on broadway. I know it opened in 86 on the west end, you random pedants, but I am specifically talking about broadway musicians) because their contracts stipulated that they'd have jobs throughout the show's entire run... but nobody anticipated that phantom would become the longest-running broadway show of all time.
and none of these people wanted to walk away from a guaranteed job, so very few of them ever quit. they just kept doing the same show eight nights a week... for twenty or thirty years... and by the time it finally closed last year most of these musicians (who had been working together for DECADES) hated each other and really really fucking loathed phantom. I can't stop thinking about it. it's indescribably hellish to imagine but also the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life.
[ID: excerpt from an article reading: One of my favorite stories, which should drive anyone who has every played in a band crazy-- thereās this bassoon player who has sat next to the same clarinet player since 1988. Sheās convinced he plays half a note4 flat on every note heās every played. He denies this. /]
The best thing about this is they all, objectively, did this to themselves. They could walk away at any time and try to get jobs like a normal musician. Not a good option, no, but an option. But they chose to stay on Mr bones wild ride for two decades, cashing that paycheck because the only thing worse than having the same job for 22 years is finding a new one. Working class legends.
BAD TO THE BONES* @badboneszone - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
