Beets and Ink

This tumblr is a stream of sketches and artwork by Brett Leeper, who is based in Springfield, MO.

[jmfenner91]

[fladurblegon]

[modern-politics111]

[sioltach]

"The Protector", a mother centipede pendant designed and glass blown by Jessica Tsai

[loamsome]

@onenicebugperday

[lions-online-library-deactivate]

Fairy Tales are a necessity because they dare speak the truths that the world never wants to hear;

That adults are cruel to children.

That you will suffer injustice, but that doesn't give you the right to be unjust to others.

That there are negative consequences to indulging vices.

That upholding moral principles is always the better path, even in the face of hardship.

That you will die someday.

And that inspite of all the bad in the world, it is worth persevering and finding the love and joy that is out there.

[apilgrimpassingby]

"And I think it possible that by confining your child to blameless stories of child life in which nothing at all alarming ever happens, you would fail to banish the terrors, and would succeed in banishing all that can ennoble them or make them endurable. For in the fairy tales, side by side with the terrible figures, we find the immemorial comforters and protectors, the radiant ones; and the terrible figures are not merely terrible, but sublime. It would be nice if no little boy in bed, hearing, or thinking he hears, a sound, were ever at all frightened. But if he is going to be frightened, I think it better that he should think of giants and dragons than merely of burglars. And I think St George, or any bright champion in armour, is a better comfort than the idea of the police."

C. S. Lewis, "On Three Ways of Writing for Children"

[anexperimentallife]

Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.

-G. K. Chesterton

[gaynfl-moved]

y'all it's about to get really fucking humid and hot

[gaynfl-moved]

you are so right so let's go over this shall we -

change in mental state: confusion, agitation, slurred speech, irritability, delirium, seizures

skin may feel deceptively cool or dry. you may also stop sweating entirely.

nausea and vomitting

extremely flushed skin - whole body!

rapid breathing/heart beat

headache

dry, swollen tongue

stay vigilant of yourself and others!!

[birdpal]

hi, i’m a workplace safety person and i would like to further emphasize:

even if you’re used to heat, please understand that high humidity changes things drastically. your body’s ability to thermoregulate (cool itself down) is largely dependent on sweat evaporation. this is an interaction of physics; when a liquid evaporates, the surface it evaporates from is cooled down by that state change. when it’s very humid, sweat doesn’t evaporate as efficiently, so your body isn’t able to manage your internal temperature very well.

in occupational safety, we consider both the temperature and humidity together in a measurement called the heat index. basically, as the humidity rises, the “temperature” rises to reflect the added danger from the increased difficulty of thermoregulating. here is a chart from the national weather service:

the top axis is the measured temperature, and the left axis is the humidity. so if it’s 90° out and the humidity is 75%, the heat index is 109— or, put another way, if humidity weren’t a factor, it would effectively be 109°.

do not underestimate the heat. if you start feeling sick or light-headed, immediately get out of the sun, get somewhere air-conditioned (if possible), sit down, and sip cool water. if at all possible, do not get up again until you’ve been feeling better for 10 full minutes, and take it slow after that. if you don’t feel better, or if you start to feel worse, seek medical attention immediately.

when you’re dealing with heat stroke, minutes matter. your brain is starting to cook inside your skull.

[ms-demeanor]

When I took these, it was about 109 with 37% humidity (which is EXTREMELY humid for the desert) and I had been walking around for a couple hours when my friends noticed that I was bright red and not sweating. I felt fine, until I sat down in an air conditioned car and realized that I was dizzy and shaky and felt like I was going to throw up.

If you are going to be exposed to dangerously high temperatures, set a timer for yourself once an hour to check in. Look in a mirror, take your pulse, feel your forehead, MAKE SURE YOU'RE STILL SWEATING (if you're not sweating in temps like this you're potentially dangerously overheated or dangerously dehydrated) - basically pause for a few minutes to verify that you still actually feel okay because when the heat index is super high you *already* feel so miserable that you might miss the fact that you are showing symptoms of heat exhaustion.

Some things you can do to reduce your chances of experiencing heat exhaustion in a heat dome event are:

Stay hydrated

Keep electrolyte powders, chews, or capsules handy to supplement lost electrolytes. Make sure that whatever electrolyte supplement you're using includes sodium and does NOT include B or D vitamins (you're going to have to take multiple doses if you're outside for hours and you don't want to have to worry about limiting your sodium based on how much Vitamin D you've taken)

Plan downtime - give yourself a few minutes to recover and rest as best you can every hour you're in the heat

Wear lightweight, loose, breathable clothing

Spend time in the shade, carry an umbrella to make shade if there is no available shade where you're going to be

Avoid activity during the hottest parts of the day

Make use of a cooling towel; these work by soaking up water that cools by slowly evaporating, they are less effective in high humidity.

Use high SPF sunblock - this won't prevent heat exhaustion but a bad sunburn can make it harder to recover from heat exhaustion

Make it a point to check in on people around you as well as checking in on yourself.

If you interact with your local unhoused population, make sure that you know where your local cooling shelters are. If you are able to, get a case of water bottles and stick them in the freezer now so that you have bottles frozen and ready to hand out to people who don't have a place to cool down.

[aurorepeuffier]

During my move, I broke a clay pot. I decided to engrave frames on it.

[lionfloss]

'Under Monet's Pond' by Eiko Jones

[beardedmrbean]

Good addition to the list of words here

[transman-badass]

I can't do much but maybe this will interest someone. This cookbook is by a classically trained autistic chef, made for people with sensory issues. It's sold 1/6th of its initial run because apparently no one wants to have an autistic person interviewed on TV.

Apparently it's also very funny.

Color Taste Texture by Matthew Broberg-Moffitt: 9780593538593 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

An accessible family cookbook that offers solutions rather than tricks to empower the food-averse, autistic, and picky eater, with 46 recipe

Spread this around! I bet someone here can use this.

[reasonsforhope]

More info from the link:

"An accessible family cookbook that offers solutions rather than tricks to empower the food-averse, autistic, and picky eater, with 46 recipes. This much-needed cookbook combines tips and techniques with a dash of understanding about food aversion and how to help your kids—and yourself—cook beautiful meals in an empowering way, and is a groundbreaking resource for anyone who has ever been called “picky” or “discerning.” Learn how to alter the texture or taste profile of a dish, or even fit it within a specific palette with a unique color-coded guide. Delicious, nutritious, and easily tailored recipes (including for gluten-free and vegan eaters) include:

the perfect smashed cheeseburger

Italian sausage and potato soup

the best omelet

stuffed focaccia 

chocolate pinwheels

and dozens more

Professional chef Matthew Broberg-Moffitt’s advice is broken down by category (The Five Tastes, Texture, Color, Aroma, Presentation, and Plating) in order to address each and every aspect of food aversion, and a Food Preference Profile and Worksheet is included for you and your child to quickly identify and summarize their preferences. Instead of leading to mistrust by disguising or slipping in foods your kids don’t want to eat, this cookbook supports caretakers in a way that maintains a healthy relationship with food, and a joyful, less stressful experience around the table."

[palaeosinensis]

[pangur-and-grim]

it is weird that celiac stuff has become part of the 'culture war'. because it's literally just a medical thing.... I get super anemic unless I cut a certain protein out of my diet, because it bulldozes the villi in my intestines. but if I post about it, right-wingers send me gore images. I guess you can't expect shitty people to be logical, but I've even heard lefty people make fun of gluten stuff, and it's like why are you mad about this??? why are you pissed off that I'm eating bread that doesn't taste as good so that I can have blood in my body? it's so morally neutral.

[ms-demeanor]

I'm sorry, I know you weren't actually looking for an explanation but I always have a rant about this locked and loaded.

As far as I can tell the reasons that this happens are:

The interpretation of disability accommodation as wokeness - a lot of the same people who are shitty about food limitations are also shitty about sign language interpreters and ramp requirements (also building regulations relating to the latter) because they view any accommodation as capitulation to a group they think should "suck it up and deal with it" (quietly exist without named or obvious accommodations). The conversations around peanut-free or milk-free classrooms to accommodate children with allergies are similarly unhinged and possibly more horrifying.

Conflating specialty diets as a result of proximity in the popular consciousness - you're a lot more likely to see something described as "vegan + gluten free" or to see vegan/vegetarian/g-free options grouped on menus than you are to see keto/vegan/gfree options so the "lefty" animal-free diets get grouped with gluten-free (it's also interesting that there are right-wing diets, and I wonder how many of these people remember when you used to be able to find "atkins-friendly" symbols on casual dining restaurant menus)

Gluten free diets became a fad fifteen years ago; tons of people read "Wheat Belly" and stopped eating wheat as a weight loss hack and when they went back to eating wheat because it's actually pretty difficult to get around a major staple grain they didn't experience any negative consequences; people saw this and basically think that it's a trend, that people are faking medically necessary diets as part of a fad. When questioned about this they always go "but, I mean, it's okay if you REALLY need to skip the wheat because you have a condition but most people are doing it because it's popular" when g-free diets haven't been a major trend for quite a while now. TO BE QUITE FAIR, I think that things like "Gluten Aware" cookies and beer and such, which contain a little gluten but not NO gluten contribute to this perception (these have annoyed me forever for two reasons: 1. They make people without celiac think that a little gluten is fine for people with celiac, which it is not; 2. fucking commit, companies. *I* want the cookies and beer and it's deeply annoying that these business will go to the lengths to create products with minimal gluten but won't actually make g-free foods - this is often because of the risk of cross contamination, they won't claim to make g-free things because they won't work with a dedicated g-free facility)

Anyway, in conclusion: it sucks, I'm sorry.

The fun flipside of this is that I've seen people who are more right wing become aggressively pro regulation and pro accommodation when they or their family members have to suddenly take on the individual burden of making up for a society that doesn't include them by default.

[ms-demeanor]

US specific:

Is your ham made with vinegar? Does your ham have the generic word "spices" on the ingredient list? Does your ham include "smoke flavoring"? Does your ham include caramel coloring?

Because malt vinegar has gluten in it. "Spices" may include wheat products in a mix. Smoke flavoring may be made with barley flour. Caramel coloring may be made with wheat or barley syrup.

If the label says "gluten free" that means that the "spices," caramel coloring, vinegar, and smoke flavor are certified to contain 20ppm or less of gluten.

If the ham is cured in any way, it may include gluten. If the ham was marinated, it probably includes gluten. If the ham was prepared in a facility that processes wheat in any way, it might be cross contaminated with gluten.

There's a company out there called "Gluten Free Water" that makes water in plastic bottles, poking fun at the idea that too many things have a gluten free label. I fucking hate that company. Because that company is functionally saying "lol, people are so sensitive and over the top about this, let's be a little silly and laugh about how crazy people can be with their 'gluten free' nonsense."

Did you know that there are sustainable food containers and straws that contain wheat? And that you don't have to label them? There are definitely people with celiac who have been sickened by biodegradable plastic straws in their "obviously water is gluten free there's no risk here" water.

"It's over-labeled so it looks trendy" just means you don't know how foods are made or what foods contain gluten. Gluten is ridiculously common in foods in general, and also in packaged meats.

Your ham has to say gluten free because it distinguishes it from the hams that do contain gluten, which is a fucking lot of them. And you're annoyed that your ham has to say gluten free and I'm annoyed that I'm standing in the grocery store calling a ham company to figure out where they source their caramel coloring so I can figure out if the damned ham is safe to eat.

"lol, oats don't have wheat in them, are people so stupid that they have to be told what is and isn't wheat? why does this oatmeal have a gluten free label?" Cross contamination; gluten free oats are not grown near wheat and are not processed in facilities that process wheat.

"lol, rice doesn't have wheat in it, why is this rice labeled gluten free, all rice is gluten free" Cross contamination; the rice isn't processed on equipment that processes wheat.

"lol why does this turkey breast say gluten free, it's just fucking turkey" read the ingredients on your "just" turkey, lots of packaged meat is packed in broth, some of which contains modified food starch, which may contain wheat.

"lol why are these strawberries labeled gluten free? they're fucking strawberries" WAX, BUDDY. SOME FRUITS ARE COATED IN PRESERVATIVE WAX FILMS BY THE MANUFACTURER AND SOME OF THOSE FUCKING FILMS CONTAIN GLUTEN.

I think that part of the reason that people are so irritated by g-free labels is because it exposes them to just how vast and alienating their food systems are.

"Ham should just be meat from a pig, maybe with sugar and salt; what on earth is happening that there might be wheat in that process? Nothing in that process should involve wheat." And then you might have to think about it for a second, might have to wonder what "sugar" and "salt" mean when someone is producing a million hams to be delivered thousands of miles away. It's not just sugar and salt; it's preservatives and nitrates and batch cooking and getting corn syrup instead of sugar and getting smoke flavoring instead of smoking the ham and turning your "whole food" into all the ingredients that make up the ingredients that make up the ingredients.

A "gluten free" label says "you can eat this" to somebody with celiac disease, who has already pounded their skull against the shittiness of the medical system and the food system.

But to someone who doesn't have to worry that their food is going to disable them, a "gluten free" sticker on ham takes a known quantity and turns their sandwich into a hyperobject that contains animal agriculture and industrial additive production and shipping pollution and the ongoing assault on regulation.

If it doesn't have the label, you can just eat your lunch. If it does have the label, you are haunted by the specter of RFK junior imploding the FDA.

Turns out that everyone in the US with celiac is already constantly haunted by the possible implosion of the FDA because food regulation is an up-close and personal part of our daily lives that most people would rather not think about.

[anexperimentallife]

[artofmaquenda]

Foggy cold day :>

[aipng]

Goodbye Mermay. Can you believe June is already upon us?

[theprofessional-amateur]

For no reason here is a library story

[theprofessional-amateur]

There will be millions of actions like this over the coming years. An important thing to remember is that for them to work (anywhere, not just libraries) is people absolutely can’t announce that this is what they are doing.

Not seeing constant acts of resistance doesn’t mean it isn’t happening all around you all the time. Some very effective methods require silence and secrecy.

Something to keep in mind.

[snommelp]

[gaanata9]