Life-In-Progress

Sorry, I’m probably distracted.

[the-future-now-deactivated20170]

That’s Louis Rossman, a repair technician and YouTuber, who went viral recently for railing against Apple. Apple purposely charges a lot for repairs and you either have to pay up or buy a new device. That’s because Apple withholds necessary tools and information from outside repair shops. And to think, we were just so close to change.

Follow @the-future-now

[dopeluminarydreamer-blog]

Reblog if you:

Have an iPhone and are in need of repairs

Have a friend with that problem

Hate Apple and are more than happy to spite them in some way

No one will know which is it

[weaselle]

This guy inspired me to repair my own macbook. First of all, you should know that I am not… like, I have to look up HOW to look up what my computer specifications are. Tech, that ware either soft or hard, is not a subject in which I experience comfort or competence. But my puppy peed on my keyboard, and I asked the apple store, or the fucking mac cafe, or the godsdamn Computer House Chill Zone or whatever cute ass name they have for their bullshit store, and they said it would be TWELVE HUNDRED DOLLARS TO REPLACE MY KEYBOARD. I’m not even exaggerating.

So I asked the internet, well how hard IS it to repair? And I saw this guy’s video, and while I am no techie, I AM fueled by spite, so I was all “oh, they do that shit on purpose specifically so they can charge me $1200 bucks or make me buy a new computer hunh? FUCK THEM” and I bought all the tools I needed for about $25 and I bought all the parts I needed for about another $25 and I watched a few tutorial videos, and I replaced my own keyboard.

So, once you are doing the actual deed, it becomes pretty obvious that they are finding creative ways to make this much harder than it has to be on purpose. On thing that stood out to me is, instead of all the tiny screws being the same size, there are about two dozen very slightly different sizes. They could easily be all the same size, or like, two sizes at most, but no.

These mother fuckers will take a panel that screws into place and they’ll use a different size screw for each corner. They are so close that you almost cannot tell them apart visually, but they each will only screw into the matching corner. Like, it’s a pretty clear “fuck you” to anyone trying to do repairs.

anyway, this guy is also fueled by spite, and doing holy work, and I have mad respect

[dragonfox-in-a-teacup]

This is awesome. Man is doing good ass deeds 24/7 because he’s giving people control.

[dantes-infernal-chili]

How dare you not leave a link to his channel, this guy is the savior of the modern world.

[everythingfox]

Borb

[honeytuesday]

autumn is really like. i brought you some sunlight from when you were 10. didn't the world feel so bright to you then? i'll drench your hands in syrupy nostalgia, so everything you make is stained bittersweet. i'll ruffle your hair with an ice-kissed breeze--it'll be the kindest touch you've had in years. you finally feel like a part of something grander. i'm the last warm hand you hold before winter surrender.

[fatehbaz]

Tara Houska (zhaabowekwe), social media, 8 July 2021. Text reads:

This is the Mississippi River headwaters right now. Minnesota in a severe drought. Enbridge is taking 5 BILLION gallons of water from our rivers & lakes to drill Line 3 pipeline thru. […]

[wagahai-da]

fucking Enbridge is airing commercials on mpls radio claiming that everything they’re doing is accepted by native people and they’ve been listening to native people SO HARD trust us you guys and it’s SO FUCKING DISGUSTING

[thats-howthelightgets-in]

Anyone here who lives in the US needs to send messages to the MN legislature right now. I’ll get you started, here’s how you can contact the governor AND Lt. gov: https://mn.gov/governor/contact/

There’s a million reasons to defend the Mississippi: Her cultural significance, the fact she supports mifwestern wildlife, the fact we don’t want to lose a whole ass river… But if you can’t muster up enough to care about it for any of the regular reasons, consider the fact you will almost certainly starve. Please take the 5 minutes to send an email, I can’t do this on my own.

[corvida-rising]

Hi, I posted something like this before but more exposure can’t hurt. My family lives on one of the affected reservations in Minnesota. This is what their wild rice harvesting grounds (the world’s largest fyi) look like this year.

They took almost 5 billion gallons of water. They constantly fuck with the protestors. Wild rice isn’t just an economic thing for them, there is a deeply spiritual connection. Enbridge is awful, please help however you can, even if it’s just reblogging.

[midnighttrain247]

Breakfast Across the Globe

[supgina]

BY FAR THE SEXIEST POST ON THIS SITE

[thesickestsinner]

and the most important one…Jamaican Breakfast

[queenstravelingfoodie]

Followed by a Haitian breakfast

[lilhabesha]

Ethiopian breakfast 💚💛❤

[okayysophia]

Nigeria breakfast 🇳🇬

[ireallydontcare5]

The one post that everyone can agree on….that food is sexy.

[molothoo]

Lovely additions

[sirfrogsworth]

I tried.

Again.

Misinformation is also a virus and our country is just as infected with it as it is with COVID-19.

Bunk thinks he is perfectly innocent publicly posting his bad information. That he is not harming anyone. But he has influence over his loved ones and his friends and maybe even strangers that see his nonsense.

He is a potential superspreader of misinformation.

And that is dangerous.

It's clear he did almost no research. It's clear he is basing his opinions on scraps of information he heard god knows where. And yet he speaks with authority and freely spreads his thoughts without a care that what he says is actually true.

[thefrogman]

Links from the exchange...

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-vaccine/art-20484859

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa2035389

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6950e2.htm

I usually try to post fun happy things here, but I think it is important to see these conversations. Maybe you can improve upon what I did in your own personal debates. I know trying to convince people is difficult and frustrating, but we must try to stop the spread of misinformation. We need to get through to those friends and family members who have been duped by the likes of Tucker Carlson and other hucksters.

[kyidyl]

I need you guys to see the newest amusing music trend on tiktok.

Source

[memeuplift]

[mycroftrh]

Ooh ooh ooh! This looks like an excellent excuse valid reason to talk about one of my favorite topics, matriarch trees!

So, when you see trees in a forest, they stick up outta the ground, some distance from each other, and you're like 'these are unconnected critters,' right? But! The thing is! Just like the trees in the picture are connected above-ground, trees in a forest are normally connected below-ground. There's this whole complicated thing involving a symbiotic relationship with fungi, but we're gonna simplify it to this: trees connect to each other through their root systems.

And they use it to share resources, across the whole forest.

If there's a tree over here growing in soil with a lot of, like, potassium, they'll pull up more potassium than they need, and send it out through the root system to other trees that are living where there isn't much potassium.

And one of the coolest things? Trees communicate their needs. If a tree is sick or damaged or starving, they send chemical messages out through the root system that tell the other trees to send them more food and tree-equivalent-of-immune-system.

Trees will share so much of their resources, they'll even keep trees alive that are almost entirely dependent. Like this tree! The tree above is getting some energy from its leaves, but no other nutrition of its own. And it wasn't able to link up to the shared root system. So the other tree reached out and hooked up to it directly, feeding it all of the nutrients it needed!

You see it more commonly the other way around: in an old-growth forest, where the roots are well-established, you can find stumps where a tree was cut down a century ago... but if you scrape the stump it's still green wood. The tree's still alive, without a single leaf. Because all the other trees in the forest are feeding it.

I promised to talk about matriarch trees, so here's where we get to them.

In a very old forest, you have very old trees. You have some trees that are so very, very old, their own roots cover entire regions of the forest. Their leaves reach up to the sky over everyone else. And after so long, they've developed to where they can take in way more resources than they need.

So what do they do?

They feed baby trees.

Baby saplings in an old forest can't reach up to the sun. There's no light down there. And their roots are too small and shallow to dig down to the nutrients they need. So the matriarch tree will draw energy from its towering canopy, and nutrients from its massive, ancient roots, and feed them to the little trees that are too small to feed themselves. For anything she can't get on her own, she'll act as a central hub, taking in spare resources from the rest of the forest and giving them to the little ones.

And one of the best parts - she won't just do it for her own species. She'll connect to all kinds of trees, because they're all necessary for the ecosystem to work. She'll adopt the whole forest's children.

Sometimes in forests you'll find a spot where there are a lot of small trees in an open space around an old, fallen tree. People generally assume they could find more light there, or maybe the soil's more fertile from the decomposition.

But no.

They're her children, and she's spent centuries keeping the whole forest alive.

[nobodytoldthehorse]

Love logging on to tumblr dot com and seeing posts about why libraries should be Cancelled because they don’t pull problematique books

[nobodytoldthehorse]

Also let’s be real, Problematic Books are one of the strongest arguments for libraries’ continued existence?

Let’s say you need an outdated queer theory textbook that uses biphobic and cissexist rhetoric for your gender studies thesis, but you don’t particularly want to own that book.

Let’s say you need a primary source to strengthen your argument to your college as to why a certain political figure does not deserve to be a speaker at your graduation because they perpetuate hate speech.

Let’s say you and your friends want to hateread a book by your least favorite author but you don’t want to give him your money.

You deserve the ability to access that content legally without having to purchase and own it. And so does everyone else, no matter how suspicious you might be of their motives for reading a Problematic book.

[haunted-hideaway]

When I was doing my masters in library science, they reiterated over and over: there should be something in a library to offend everyone. Believe me. There are books in my library that I find offensive. But my job is to provide access. Not to question WHY people need stuff or to judge them. Libraries should function as a neutral space. We are providing information, which in and of itself is neutral. It’s what people DO with that information that matters. And even then, it’s not my place to judge.

[lyricwritesprose]

When I was in college, I was doing a paper for an African-American Studies class, and I found myself suddenly in need of info on exactly what sort of self-justification white people were using during the days of slavery.

And I found one in the college library.  An original slave-owner’s apologia from eighteen hundred or so.

Nasty stuff.  But studying the mechanics of evil is a useful pursuit.  One that has relevance in today’s world, certainly.

(My African-American Studies professor thought so too; he gave me an A.)

The point being, no matter how bad a book is, there is value in preserving it—if only to demonstrate, “This, this right here, this is a bad thing.“  Mein Kampf?  Worth picking through to note the psychology of a depraved leader.  (Did you know that Hitler framed every damn thing as a war, including farming, which he characterized as wrestling food from an unwilling land, or some such bullshit?  Might be a characteristic worth paying attention to.  Be cautious about leaders who use “war” rhetoric for things that aren’t actually wars, such as … oh, to pull an example out of a hat, how about “drugs.”)  Slavery apologia?  Leans heavily into Biblical justification, from the one I read, so maybe, just maybe, we should examine Biblical justifications very carefully.  Even the worst stuff teaches us things.

Which is part of what a library is there for.

[catchymemes]

[littlenobodys-corner]

[adrienaline-rushed-art]

ok so people are making fun of this but adding this with other anti-global warming tactics will work

This isn’t adding ice just for the sake of denial, it’s adding to the Earth’s albedo. This in turn actually makes the Earth’s climate cooler, and then more ice will be produced naturally because of this.

It isn’t a process we need to continue forever, in fact it’s one that needs to be calculated so that we don’t do it TOO MUCH. The only worry would be cooling down too much.

So yes, this is a good idea. It simply isn’t the only thing we should do because we still have gross pollution.

[the-adhd-society]

For the love of god do it . anything just do it. Give us hope.

[beatrice-otter]

Here’s the thing: Most environmental catastrophes humans have ever or are currently creating can be fixed. It’s not just a matter of “oh no, things are ruined, and maybe we can stop the degradation so that things don’t get any worse, but we’re stuck with how things are.” There are some things we can’t do, like bringing back extinct species. But there are a lot of other things we can definitely do, many of which are being done right now. The problem is that most of our willpower and effort is spent on bullshit tiny things that won’t solve the problem (individual recycling, etc.) and not on the large-scale things that can and will make a large-scale difference.

Ice caps are melting? Guess what! We know how to make ice. It’s not that hard. Designing mostly-automated robot ships to go to the poles and rebuild the ice caps is well within our current technical capabilities. We just need to fund it.

Deforestation on a massive scale? Destruction of other biomes? Guess what! We know how to plant trees. We know how to plant grasslands. We know how to take barren, lifeless land and turn it back into a viable biome. It’s not that hard. In a lot of cases, if there’s neighboring areas where that biome still exists, all you have to do is dump a few tons of biomass (plant clippings, food waste, etc.) on the barren land and stand back and wait. The biomass will provide nutrients and keep the topsoil from blowing away, and the plants and animals from the neighboring biome will move in. In two decades, even if you don’t do anything besides dumping the biomass on it, you won’t be able to tell what was the barren area and what was the still-existing biome.

Coral reefs dying? Now, coral reefs are a bit more fragile than most biomes, but guess what! We still know how to replant/rebuild them, and in fact are working on that in places affected by coral reef die-off! And we’re learning how to do it better every day.

Desertification? Guess what! We know how to turn desert back into green space. They’re doing it on a large scale in China and sub-Saharan Africa. There are several different techniques, none of which are even very technology-intensive. It takes money and time and labor, but it’s perfectly doable. We know this because we’ve done it.

Plastic in the ecosystem, particularly in the ocean? Guess what! There’s a lot of people working on this, both on “how to remove plastic from the ocean” and “how to reuse/recycle it more efficiently.” And the techniques are improving by leaps and bounds every year. This is a solvable problem. These are all solvable problems.

So if you’re crushed by the weight of the coming environmental catastrophe … don’t be. These are all solvable problems! We can stop things from getting worse, and we can fix the things we’ve broken. The issue is political, not practical.

On the political side, of course, is the need to tighten up environmental regulations across the globe. (What’s the statistic, that 90% of pollution is caused by 100 corporations?) And then of course, we need to fund these programs on a large enough scale.

In some ways the political aspect is the hardest, but consider this: we are at a tipping point. Things are changing about the way politicians talk about climate change and ecological degradation. More ordinary people are concerned about this, which means more pressure on politicians. One of the ways that things are changing is that people–even conservatives–are starting to talk about “job opportunities in new green fields” and switching the conversation so that it’s not “rainforest vs. jobs” makes political action a lot more possible. And no, it’s not going to happen on its own, but it can happen.

This is a solvable problem.

[izze-bizzle]

I *needed* this. Climate change has had me feeling SO helpless, having a list of things that can actually potentially be done is beautiful

[djlechat]

[truly-fantastic-me]

“wouldn’t you rather earn something than have it just handed to you?”

Yeah when it comes to actual awards and fancy goods, but when it comes to basic needs, basic human decency, and accomodations, those things should always be handed to people. No one should have to “earn” those things.Value people as people, not base it on how much they produce. 

[mythiass-deactivated20230515]

yeah but that creates a severe dependency that could be exploited easily, and creates a slippery slope @musical-clarity

[thebaconsandwichofregret]

Actually studies show that people who live in places with universal income (who are given money with no strings attached just for being citizens) do far better work than those who don’t and are more enthusiastic to do work.

This is because they still want nice things and will work for those but the part of their energy that was devoted to worrying about if they have enough money to pay the rent and bills this month is now freed up to do other things.

Some people will always be lazy and take advantage of the system, but they are always a tiny percentage and it seems ridiculous to me to punish the majority and severly hamstring their abilities just because a handful of people will simply live of basic income rather than work.

[keep-counting-stars]

Do you have sources? I’m trying to convince a friend

[thebaconsandwichofregret]

Providing Personalised Support to Rough Sleepers. An Evaluation of the City of London Pilot by Juliette Hough and Becky Rice (2010)  - This is a study on what happens when you just give homeless people money instead of setting up expensive bureaucratic programs. Spoilers: the vast majority of people get off the streets.

Policy Brief: Impacts of Unconditional Cash Transfers by Johannes Haushofery and Jeremy Shapiroz - A look at the new trend of charities just giving people in need money and letting them get on with it. (Case study is a charity called GiveDirectly)

Cash Transfers and Temptation Goods. A review of Global Evidence by the World Bank Policy Research Working Group - This study shows that poor people who are just given money do not spend any more than they usually would on luxury goods such as alcohol and tobacco and in some cases the spending on these items actually decreases.

“Cash Transfers for Children. Investing into the Future” An Editorial article in The Lancet - This is the study that out and out says giving people money makes them less lazy and less dependant on the state. Direct quote:

“Emerging data from cash transfers, conditional or unconditional, largely dispel the counter arguments that these programs prevent adults from seeking work or create a dependency culture which perpetuates intergenerational poverty.”

The Town With No Poverty by Evelyn Forget - A look at the case study of Dauphin Manitoba that introduced “mincome” to the poorest citizens to bring everyone above the poverty line.

Why Not Guarantee Everyone a Job? Why Negative Income Tax Experiments of the 1970s Were Successful by Allan Sheahen (warning this link is a download link, not a webpage) - Study of a similar “mincome” experiment in Denver that found that when people did stop working as many hours as they had done before the money it was because they were furthering their education or working hours better suited to raising their children. One woman who had dropped out of High School to get a job in order to provide for her children went back into education and ended up with a psychology degree and a job as a researcher.

“Daniel Moynihan and President-Elect Nixon: How Charity Didn’t Begin at Home” by Peter Passell and Leonard Ross for The New York Times - This is a look at how President Richard Nixon (Yes, that Richard Nixon) wanted to introduce basic income to the USA and was defeated by ignorant congressmen and senators that trusted their gut over the clear evidence. 

The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend: An Experiment in Wealth Distribution by Scott Goldsmith - This is a look at Alaska’s policy of using the State oil revenue to give every single citizen $1000 a year.

Relationships Between poverty and Psychopathology - A study that outlines how growing up poor exposes children to a myriad of psychological problems and mental illnesses.

Assessing the Economic and Non-Economic Impacts of Harrah’s Cherokee Casino, North Carolina - The Harrah Cherokee Casino is widely studied and a resounding success as a case study for Basic Income.

An Estimate of the cost of child poverty in 2013 by Donald Hirsch - This is a British study that estimates child poverty costs £29 billion (£44 Billion-ish). Basically child poverty is massively expensive for governments and Basic Income could essentially pay for itself by removing these expenses.

When Pundits Blamed White People for a Culture of Poverty by Matt Bruenig - Article that discusses how the idea that poor people are lazy and deserve to suffer is racist, classist and morally dangerous.

Rediscovering Poverty: How We Cured ‘The Culture of Poverty’ Not Poverty Itself by Barbara Ehrenreich - An article on how trying to improve the morals of the poor so they can work harder and get themselves out of poverty is a ridiculous waste of time and money and quite frankly an insult to the people we force into these programs. My favourite waste of money that Ehrenreich points out is the $250 million dollars that President Clinton set aside for ‘Chastity Training’ for impoverished single mothers, the US government in the 90s simply assuming that poor women were too stupid to understand where babies came from and that’s why they were poor, rather than, you know, having no money, no support structures and no affordable child care and healthcare.

In the Shadow of Speenhamland: Social Policy and the Old Poor Law by Fred Block and Margaret Somers - Speenhamland was a town in the UK where a Universal Income was introduced at the end of the 18th Century. After a few years it was declared a terrible failure and proof that poor people are evil and lazy and should be punished for being poor not helped out of poverty. Speenhamland led to the creation of Workhouses and the abolition of the Poor Laws that had worked as a form of social welfare up to that point. For 150 years Speenhamland was used by politicians and academics all over the world as proof that poor people were almost pathologically incapable of being trusted with their own money. Except the whole thing was a lie. The man sent to study Speenhamland hated the project and was unable to correctly interpret the data or factor in cultural issues that were also affecting the town. Modern researchers almost unanimously agree that Speenhamland was a success but the damage that 150 years of ignorance has done is deep and long lasting.

All of these examples and hundreds more can be found in Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman which lays out the argument for this issue far better than I ever could and also discusses issues such as raising the minimum wage and drastically cutting working hours. 

@keep-counting-stars have fun debating your friend. 

[jumpingjacktrash]

politicians will always be against universal income, because people who are anxious and exhausted are easier to control.

don’t wait for politicians to take the initiative. they won’t. it’s not in their best interests.

[the-real-seebs]

I remember the 2010 study being reported on in The Economist. Who have basically been spending quite a while saying “yes, yes, we should reduce dependency and make things more efficient and governments should be more efficient, it turns out also that people who aren’t starving and terrified work harder and better and pay more taxes, get with the program”.

[heroofthreefaces]

“people who aren’t starving and terrified work harder and better and pay more taxes, get with the program”

[passionpeachy-deactivated202312]

not that I ever trusted corporations but moomin company suing a trans person out of their money for making their content accessible to wider audiences for free after tove jansson made it a point that she didn’t want her characters associated with disney-like capitalism......depressing and angering to see

[passionpeachy-deactivated202312]

here’s what I’m referring to

and if you ever used the moominhunt drive it’d be nice if you can help him, he actually brought the company MORE money by bringing in tons of new fans (remember the moominboom of 2019?) that were very willing to buy merch as well put together rare moomin media that was impossible to find, and now he’s getting punished for it

[vicholas]

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but it has become a big conspiracy theory among teens in Tiktok the idea that Helen Keller was fraud that didn’t exist, and the main argument to back this is “how could someone be both blind and deaf and still be successful and write books”. That’s plain ableism. This entire thing is just deeply ableist and the fact that an ableist conspiracy theory like this can spread so easily among kids is just scary. 

Conspiracy theories, misinformation, fake news and bigotry are not a generational thing! It’s not a “boomer” thing, this is something that happens among all generations.

[big-gay-bird]

I think this is also an opprotunity to educate yourself about modern d/Deaf, blind and d/Deafblind activists (Haben Girma is a person to start with), culture, and accessibility! Also support d/Deaf, blind, and d/Deafblind people materially when asked for and possible!

[somecutething]

Dolphins doing cartwheels with an aquarium guest.

(via Ant.Giovanni)

[luidilovins]

I'm loving this new trend of people going to zoos and participating in animal enrichment. We use to observe large exotic animals for our entertainment, but the fact is that we are now trying to make ourselves equally as entertaining for them. It's interactive, completely parpicipatory and I would argue that eventually someone's gonna come up with something new enough that it expland ethologists understanding about how some animals think, problem solve, communicate and feel and I think its fantastic.

[thejoyfool]

5 min tutorial for trcelyne, hope it helps! 

[sushinfood]

Tried this out REALLY roughly just for fun and WOAH!?

IT WORKS WELL!!

[sushinfood]

IT STILL WORKS WELL!

[9volt-art]

Huh, that worked pretty well

[leafinsect-deactivated20201122]

v rushed but it works!!

[xedramon]

What an amazing little tutorial!!! Highly recommend!!!

[alexmey-does-an-arts]

reblogging for future reference

[divineprisoner]

“Much fortunetelling was done on this night [New Year’s eve]. A tablespoon of oil was placed on a metal plate, held over a candle until warmed, and then poured into water. The shapes were studied to determine what one’s future might be. Another method called for placing a variety of articles, such as a handful of earth, a ring, sprig of myrtle, water in a glass, keys, and rosary on a large plate. Those wishing to know their future were blindfolded and told to reach towards the plate. The handful of earth indicated a funeral; the ring, an engagement; myrtle, a wedding; water, a christening; the key, good husbandry; and a rosary, godliness.”

- Polish Customs, Traditions, and Folklore by Sophie Hodorowicz Knab.