(ripley)
Not today Justin

JBB: An Artblog!
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if i look back, i am lost
YOU ARE THE REASON
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$LAYYYTER
we're not kids anymore.

titsay
AnasAbdin
Misplaced Lens Cap

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@djripley
(ripley)
thinking about how novartis is running a lottery where the prize is literally the life of babies and apparently this went unnoticed
Spinal Muscular Atrophy is a degenartive disease that affects between 4-10 children in every 100k live births. For those of you unfamiliar with epidemiology, this number might not have a lot of meaning, so suffice to say it is a rare disease, but among the rare diseases, it’s a common one. When it comes down to diseases which only affect one gene, SMA is the most common cause of infant death.
I won’t go too deep on how and why it happens, or all the diffferent subtypes of the disease, but what it entails is that for the severe presentation, because the baby is lacking one gene, they’ll gradually lose the strenght in their muscles. By the age of 4, most those children are dead.
It’s not an easy death. The child loses the capacity to breathe and swallow by themselves because of muscle weakness. We provide support as best as we can, but there’s not a lot we can do about something like that. And though muscle strenght is lost, cognition is unaffected, which means the baby brain is maturing as it would regularly, inside a weakening body.
So, it’s horrific. But because it’s a single gene causing the mess, and because science has advanced this far, scientists went “hey what if we could give the kid this gene?”
And that’s exactly what they did. Enter Novartis, pharma giant. They decided to try it out: put the gene inside an empty virus, give the virus to the kid. Did it work?
to those of you who don’t speak medical: yes. yes it did. it worked really well. it worked well to a point where they ran tests with 15 kids and all 15 kids survived without need for respiratory aid, as opposed to the usual 92% death/permanent ventilation rate.
“Wow, this is good,” said Novartis. “I’m going to put a 2.1 million dollars tag on it.”
“What the fuck?” said the parents, who are regular people who do not have 2.1m sitting on their banks.
“Well, you know,” said Novartis. “You only have to take it once in a lifetime! Seems like a fair price to me. Uh, but also, do bear in mind it only works if you give it to the baby before they turn 2 years old.”
but does it end there? no! although the drug was FDA approved, Novartis needs their prized treatment to get cleared on the rest of the world. people are complaining about the price tag, too. so they have an idea. a brilliant idea!
“We’ll get the contacts of the kids who have it around the world,” said Novartis. “And then we’ll run a lottery! Because we are generous, we’ll give away a hundred doses a year for the entire population of planet Earth! Of course, that means your country has to agree my drug is legit.”
“What if I don’t get picked,” wonder the parents of the children.
“Well, you know. You can always just raise 2.1 million dollars, but remember you have to do it before your kid turns two.”
so now i sit here seething in hatred toward big pharma, watching mothers desperately trying to raise an absurd amount of money which is even more absurd if your coin is weaker than the dollar, saddled with the weight that if they don’t do it in time, they’ll have to watch their kids die
and then every once in a while one of them manages to raise the cash, and then they’ll post videos in their social media and i get to watch as the babies gradually regain strenght and starts sitting on their own, then moving their limbs, then standing up by themselves
while the other mothers share increasingly desperate videos of their kids who can no longer sit, and no longer swallow, and no longer breathe, until it all ends with a single text shared through instagram that just says “thank you all, but my child has passed, and we’ll give what we managed to raise to the next one.”
meanwhile novartis pats themselves on the back for their generosity of playing roulette with the lives of babies
… i just confirmed this. I am floored. There is no humanity in these people. It’s called Zolgensma.
The company behind a gene therapy for muscle-wasting disease SMA will give out 100 doses via lottery.
A West Bend farm says it was told to start dumping tens of thousands of gallons of milk per day because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the first case of coronavirus confirmed in Wisconsin, the impacts could extend further than just health.
This is capitalism's vast irrationality and inhumanity in action. Markets and The Economy™ matter more to capitalism than the concrete distribution of resources according to tangible human need.
Resources exist in abundance -- give them to people. Housing sits empty -- give it to people. The rules of the feast table should apply to our economic system -- no one gets seconds until everyone has gotten a plate.
We stand at a crossroads in these chaotic times: socialism or barbarism! The ruling class repeatedly chooses the latter. We need to organize and choose the former!
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
“The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth. There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”
- John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Here’s the Philly PD commissioner's email:
And heres the template for the email that I’m sending them:
Hello,
My name is [NAME] I am writing from [PLACE] regarding Philadelphia PD Officer Ian Hans Lichterman, Badge #3315. Officer Lichterman has a visible and prominent tattoo that promotes Nazi idealogy and is a member of known hate group ‘Blood and Honour’. It is highly irresponsible to allow such an individual the privilege and power afforded by a member of the Philadelphia PD.
Your mission statement reads that it is your mission to "fight crime and the fear of crime, including terrorism." I do not see how you can claim these ideals while employing someone who is known to hold, and proud of, racist and violent beliefs which directly endanger many members of your community, whether they be black, LGBT, Jewish, disabled, or another visible or invisible minority. 44% of the population of the city of Philadelphia is black and the Philadelphia metro area has the third-highest population of Jewish households in the country. If you claim to work "in partnership with the community" you cannot willingly and knowingly empower those who openly hate many members of your community.
Officer Lichterman has previously been fired and reinstated by the Philadelphia PD, who have been aware of his HIGHLY visible Nazi tattoo since at least 2016. I am calling for the immediate firing of Officer Lichterman with measures put in place to make sure that he is not rehired by the Philadelphia PD. Sincerely,
[NAME].
Watch: It’s your right to share your salary, not doing so could be holding you back.
At my last company, one day someone in accounting approached me at lunch and quietly told me I need to ask for a raise because I was way underpaid.
They gave me a number to shoot for. It was about twice than what I had been making at the time.
So I went online, did some research, found some figures backing up my claim, put it all together and went to my boss.
I got what I asked for.
If it hadn’t been for that person in accounting telling me I was way underpaid, I’d have never known. I went from barely scraping by to being able to have a savings account and getting all my debts paid thanks to them.
You should at least check sites like salary.com to start the process of seeing what you should be making.
Because this is crucially important
Except for the fact that 90% of the time you are under contract not to talk about your salary otherwise the company can sue you. Every job I’ve had I’ve had to sign that I won’t discuss my pay with other employees otherwise my employment is terminated and the company will take legal action.
It’s actually illegal for companies to forbid wage discussion, they’re just counting on you not knowing your rights.
Important
Fuck.
If you scrolled right past this - GO THE FUCK BACK UP - this is a huge PSA
jfc I’ll be having some words with some folks
People at HoAnns believe this garbage that we can’t talk about or wages, but that was how we found out about a gap in management wages, and a gap between people who were hired under the old SM and the new SM.
Seriously guys, try salary.com. I just checked it myself, and now I’m actually pretty pissed
Don’t listen to their books or statues.
West Indies: Les Nègres Marrons de la Liberté (1979), dir. Med Hondo
Don’t listen to their books or statues.
West Indies: Les Nègres Marrons de la Liberté (1979), dir. Med Hondo
Hey isnt the U.N supposed to intervene during huge signs of uhhhhhh fucking genocide???
Who is reminded of when colonizers stole kids from indigenous people just like this when they committed cultural genocide against us
similarly, this reminds me of when christians used the holocaust as an excuse to kidnap jewish children and forcibly convert them, then refused to return them to their families. this shit’s a very common factor of genocide & should set off every red flag possible
La Victoria es Nuestra (Victory is Ours)
“On the night of September 26th 2014, 43 students of the Escuela Normal Rural de Ayotzinapa were kidnapped by the local police of Iguala, Guerrero, working in cahoots with a drug cartel. To this day the 43 students are still missing and no justice has been delivered to the families and communities of the students.
This print is my own vision of a more just world represented by the calling of the rooster for a new day, empty bullet shells, 43 Mexican pesos for each one of the students and the defeated police state. This print is dedicated to the struggle of Ayotzinapa.”
- Mazatl
chelsea peretti’s opening monologue at the tenth annual tech crunchies
Dog owners please be aware.
REBLOG THIS PLEASE
This is Snopes-confirmed. Also be aware this is very common in sugar free food of many kinds. The retriever puppy who I know of who died of xylitol poisoning got hold of a pack of sugar-free gum.
Always good to remind folks - if it has xylitol, KEEP IT AWAY FROM DOGS! It induces profound hypoglycemia and liver failure and is life-threatening :(
Xylitol is also the typical ingredient in sugar free candies and some baked goods. Other names, if you’re checking labels:
What other names is Xylitol known by? Birch Sugar, E967, Meso-Xylitol, Méso-Xylitol, Sucre de Bouleau, Xilitol, Xylit, Xylite, Xylo-pentane-1,2,3,4,5-pentol.
A list of brands and products containing xylitol
Can xylitol be just as bad for cats???
A google search revealed xylitol is not toxic for cats, or at least not in the same way but it’s not good for them either so best to avoid it altogether, pet-wise especially if you have both a dog and a cat
Indya Moore wears earrings with the images of 16 trans people killed so far this year and holds a clutch bag showing the 17th.
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The life expectancy of trans feminine individuals in America is 35. The most recent person killed was just 17 years old.
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For anyone who doesn't want to or can't click through: the "fact" that trans people only have an average lifespan of 30-35 is actually a myth with no basis in actual study. Any instances you see where this is quoted will either have no source or lead to a different article with no source. Average lifespans are determined either by studying a large number of people from a certain group from birth until death or studying historical records of the births and deaths of a large number of people from the group, but to date no lifelong study of trans people has occurred and due to the fact that we aren't recorded as trans in the census historical records can't be studied either. The ONLY source anyone can find for the 30-35 years myth was a presenter at the 2014 Transgender Health Conference who got the number by averaging the age of the trans people who had been listed as murdered on the TDOR website. So this is not the average age of trans people as a whole, but the average age of trans people who get murdered, and it's pretty close to the average age of cis people who get murdered
Life as a trans person is already stressful enough, we don't need to make it more so by telling each other that we're going to die young and making us have to live with that fear hanging over our head. Rest in power to those who have died, and let's continue to fight for a better future for all of us, especially trans women of color. The fact that the statistic about the average lifespan listed here was wrong doesn't make the hate crimes and murders that our community faces any less awful, and this tribute is an incredibly powerful statement. But we should also try to stop spreading harmful misinformation which makes trans people feel hopeless about our future. We're alive, and we can fight for a better tomorrow
mutuals do this
I am dead serious: If you are a Walmart employee, at any level and in any store — like if you are a high school kid with a part time job stocking shelves — message me any question you have about unions. Like ask me "What's a union" if you want. I will explain it to you. I am a grievance chair for a white collar union whose workplace only unionized within the last five years and whose management fought as every step of the way, but in the end we fucking won. It can be done, and I can tell you how.
Our exclusive mix series continues with a very special mix from International OG champion of everything bass from all over the place and new Philly resident Ripley. Her sound, just like her location i
Two weeks ago the fine people at The Footwork Jungle released my latest mix. I went kinda wild on it, but I swear it tells a story too! A whole range of styles and genres in here, but all of it pretty bangin imo. please check it out, download it, comment on it and share it!
The Black Cat. November 1913. Cover detail.
Internet Archive
new york freakin university baby
Doxxing is illegal -_-
so is child trafficking so i guess no ones perfect
“The dataset was compiled by New York-based activist Sam Lavigne, who trawled the professional profile website LinkedIn to identify some 1,600 people working for ICE. The database included public information like job titles or profile pictures of the officers.” all public infos so not illegal lmfao