[fuckthesememories]

[justmelagain]

[posttexasstressdisorder]

It would be nice to be able to actually see the night sky again.

[expiredcheese]

[russiawave]

[dancinbutterfly]

*GASPS* Are you goddamn kidding me??? I fucking hate the lack of infrastructure in my country. God.

[lyricfrost13]

Dude if I could take a train 400 miles anywhere I would pay 14 dollars just for a seat, never mind all those amenities. Jeez.

Reasons I remind myself I don’t like my country number who knows what

[cappucino-commie]

While this is super cool in and of itself, I’d also like to remind people that modern high speed rail (most of which is in China these days) operates at around 200 miles/hour (China’s fastest train actually operates at 370+ mph but that’s an absolute state of the art maglev, the 200 mph number is average rail speed). If we actually invested in these train systems, you wouldn’t even need an overnight ticket to make a 400 mile trip. To put that in an American context, it would allow you to get from New York to Los Angeles (the famous Cannonball Run taken by car enthusiasts for decades) in about 15 hours, which is 10 hours better than the current Cannonball Run record. With that kind of speed, you could take an evening train halfway across the country (Boston to Chicago would be ~5 hours) for a weekend trip.

Trains are not just more convenient (no driving!), but technologically superior to cars.

[sosuperawesome]

Colibri Workshop Store on Etsy

[babyanimalgifs]

Sweetest thing I’ve seen in a while 😍😘 

(Source)

[echo-2-1]

someone: hey can i ask you a personal question?

my oversharing ass already bursting to answer the question: moi?

[naonic-blog-deactivated20230221]

John Oliver Buys $15M of Medical Debt for $60K and Forgives It All, Because He Could

Once again John Oliver proves that you can do anything with money and lawyers

[partisan-by-default]

Oliver then proceeded to detail how with $50 and knowledge of the law he was able to successfully apply online to create a debt buying company named “Central Asset Recovery Professionals,” or as Oliver put it, “CARP” named after “a bottom-feeding fish.”

After setting up a rudimentary website for CARP, the satirical, but still real company was offered a $15 million package of medical debt for $60,000.

Oliver explained that the debt was out of statute, which means it is the kind of debt that a collector can only continue to collect, but not sue the debtor for.

Then, instead of chasing down the 9,000 debtors in the debt package as a normal collection agency would, Oliver decided to stage the largest one-time giveaway in television history and work with the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt to forgive the $15 million with no consequences for the debtors.

[helloquirks]

Okay but now I know what I want to do of I get rich?

[beabaseball]

You dont have to be rich to do a bit of this actually

RIP Medical Debt is a charity (and therefore takes donations). They buy the rights to medical debt and then forgive them. So far they’ve forgiven over 1B in medical debt.

So a little ray of hope for someone out there today.

[shayvaalski]

Donating $10 buys $1,000 of medical debt. This is real, it works, and we’ve done it ourselves. You can too.

[otter-byte]

The whole "oh fast food workers are quitting because they aren't paid enough" really ignores that fast food work is the most dogshit job you can have. Like McDonalds in Aus pays above minimum wage in a lot of places and still struggles for good staff because it's just an awful place to work. People want living wages but they also want clear scheduling, more rights in the workplace, better equipment and managers that aren't weird sexist boomers.

[ryanthedemiguy]

It also ignores how many fast food workers got covid and, you know, died.

[disgustingplants]

Oh this is just fucking fantastic

[manicpossumdreamgirl]

[hocotate]

NONE of this would be happening in the Berenstein universe

[wakingfromthewater]

Habitable zone

[thebibliosphere]

You need to stop fearmongering and giving out false information about covid. You also need to stop giving out medical advice in general. What you’re doing is dangerous and wrong. Stop.

…what?

When have I given out fear-mongering over covid? Or do you mean the ridiculous steps the CDC took over saying vaccinated people could go without masks but are now desperately walking back because they realized what a catastrophe their advice is going to lead to? Because I stand by the fact that how the CDC is handling Covid is Bullshit.

[autumnlovesotome]

As someone who got vaccinated, stopped wearing a mask in public (at work, mostly), and NOW HAS COVID, I agree w/ Joy.

We never should have stopped wearing masks. I am so disgusted by the way they’re handling things right now.

[thebibliosphere]

Oh no, I didn’t know you were ill :( I hope it passes quickly for you without compliation <3

[autumnlovesotome]

It just happened over the weekend. People in my area hate “being told what to do” and so most of the people at work aren’t vaccinated. Five of my coworkers tested positive for Covid over the last few weeks, but *no one told us*, and I found out last Saturday. So I started wearing masks again on Monday.

Thursday night I got sick. Friday I got swabbed. Got my positive result yesterday. Guess I’m out for a few weeks.

Since I *did* get the vaccine, my symptoms so far emulate a severe head cold. My most uncomfortable symptom right now is a v bad headache that won’t go away.

So I’ll be fine… but how many people did I pass it to before I got symptoms and stayed home?

[thebibliosphere]

Ugh, I am so, so sorry. This is the terror I’m currently dealing with over ETD being back in the office. He’s vaccinated and masked up, but hardly anyone else is and I’m still waiting on my vaccine (first dose this week!!) and I don’t think I’d survive covid a second time.

I hope it stays mild for you and you get to rest. 

[fallenstarworkshop]

Wait a minute. Not to derail but….you can get the vaccine if you’ve had covid??

[thebibliosphere]

Yep! It’s also highly encouraged that you do so to better boost your long-term immunity and prevent the spread of mutations like the delta variant. 

The data is now also starting to show that the vaccine helps limit the severity of any breakthrough infections you might catch, including that of the more contagious delta variant (X) as well as shortening your infectious period if you do catch the more virulent delta strain (x). And no, the irony of me linking to the CDC is not lost on me, but in this instance, they are walking back their mistakes and giving sound advice regarding the necessity of proper mask use and the utmost importance of vaccines.

So if you’ve had covid and didn’t know if you could get vaccinated? Go get vaccinated! You’re helping to protect yourself and others. The only reason I haven’t been vaccinated yet was because of other medical concerns that I’ve now been cleared for, nothing to do with my previous covid infection :)

[nova-of-avalonia-deactivated202]

Okay so, this is how science works.

Scientists guess based off evidence then they test their guess a few times then make more guesses.

It isnt “bad science” or bad information it is literally how science WORKS!

Evidence suggested people vaccinated wouldnt get COVID so CDC suggested those vaccinated wouldnt need masks.

Then NEW evidence was introduced. (Also the virus mutated)

It isnt thr CDC backing out because they realise it is a clusterfuck they are changing their answer based on new evidence.

This is the first time the public has been introduced to the scientific process in real time so it has caused confusion. Scientists cant magically know things without first making a guess based off current understanding.

Also, I am sorry you got covid after thr vaccine. I hope you get better quickly

[thebibliosphere]

(Note: I consider this a discussion, not an argument! I am fully open to discussions about this.)

Yes, I agree that is how science works.

And perhaps in a few more months, this reasoning and proclamation would have been sound. But when they KNEW they were dealing with a large population of unvaccinated people in a climate of anti-mask, anti-vaccine sentiment, and they had the data to show that the US vaccine rate was slowing and we didn’t have the herd immunity for it to make sense, that’s when they threw the baby out with the bathwater. Also, asking people to “trust” each other about going mask-less during a pandemic caused by aerosol transmission is just plain reckless. So no, this isn’t just people not understanding how science works, though I will also agree there is an alarming amount of that too. 

My inbox is currently filled with people begging me not to get the vaccine with a level of reasoning that might a well hinge of planetary alignment and star sign ascendency for how much sense it makes.

And maybe I’m just too tired and worn down by all of this, but I fully believe they did what they did with lifting the mask mandate early to appease the Biden administration—just like how they bowed to pressure under the Trump administration. (link) Biden’s whole “we’re not going back!” regarding masks and lockdowns and “this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated!” is equally reckless in my eyes. By referring to it as a pandemic of the unvaccinated, they are shifting the blame from “we need to be doing more” to “look at these Bad People not getting vaccinated look how Bad they are.” And like, yeah, anti-vaxxers feel free to f*ck off into the sun. I’ll help you. But not everyone who is unvaccinated is a bad or even misinformed person.

Some are immunocompromised or have weird conditions like mine that make the vaccine potentially life threatening. (Still doing it! Just load me up with benadryl and prednisone!) 

Devastatingly, most are children.

And the plain truth is not enough has been done in the US on a government level to provide aid and support during a once in a hundred year pandemic to keep people both a) safe or b) informed, and the CDC is who we are supposed to rely on for both these things. So forgive me for calling it a walk back, but when they’re doing a bunch of blatant ableist shit with one hand and this kind of thing with the other, it’s hard not to look at this as another sign that the CDC has been compromised and isn’t entirely reliable atm. God knows I want it to be. I’m so f*cking tired.

[all-pacas]

god the way people talk to their pets

like i’m calling myself out here but i just uttered the words “you did the stretch and now the rare and powerful double pets” (two hands at once!!) to my cat without a trace of irony

like i do not believe my cat understands a word of what i am saying but he absolutely knows my voice and i think also my tone? but also all day i’m just randomly looking over at him like “good boy!” or “are you fluffy?” or singing little songs about his current fluff levels. to an animal. a wonderful animal but a creature who absolutely does not speak english and probably only vaguely is like “this creature is communicating with me” when the strange noises come from the person’s mouth

like i just think about this sometimes

i never wanted to baby talk this cat, i dislike the whole “i am a cat mom and this is my baby” thing, he is a cat, i am a person, and yet i just spend all day talking at him. while typing this he rolled over to show off his tummy and i had to restrain myself from saying “you got a tummy?” aloud. and then i did it anyway

(he is indeed in possession of a tummy)

[thisisahugemistake]

Ok here's something I just found.

You can get any book you want to read for free at b-ok.org LITERALLY ANYBOOK. I JUTS FOUND THIS AND ITS FREE

You don't even have to have an account to download a book. THEY ALSO HAVE TEXTBOOKS!!!! I REPEAT THEY HAVE TEXTBOOKS!

You can even add the books to your kindle directly but you have to have an account to do that but again, ITS ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!

It's a free electronic library and they have numerous articles, textbooks and ebooks 😭

Save lives guys😭

[theabigailthorn]

I have a zero tolerance policy for transphobia in my youtube comments: if someone is maliciously transphobic even once then I not only remove their comment, I mute that user across my entire channel and add the transphobic term they used to the list of words that automatically mutes the comment. Since I started doing this I've noticed a MASSIVE improvement in my comments: like, the first video after I came out there was loads of transphobia, the second one less, the third one even less, and now it's been almost 24 hours and there's been like 10? This leads me to two related conclusions:

1) Transphobes aren't very original: they keep using the same stock phrases so it's very easy to filter them out

2) There aren't that many of them. It's just the same few hundred assholes every time.

[40ouncesandamule]

This would also imply that even the most basic level of moderation would fix these platforms and the fact that these platforms haven’t invested in these basic reforms is on purpose