You know that Mr Rogers thing of ālook for the helpersā? How many times has someone, facing the end, done something tiny and fragile and maybe hopeless just to try and help someone else? Whether it works or not. How many people went to their graves at least trying?
That has to say something about us. As a people. As monstrous as we sometimes (perhaps often) are, so many times we were also ā¦
Whoever saves one life, saves the whole world.
And sometimes you canāt save one life, sometimes it doesnāt work, sometimes thereās no getting out of this for anyone, but ā¦ try anyway. Because it matters anyway.
And maybe no one will ever know. But maybe also some day more than a century down the line, maybe some idiot will be crying into her coffee because of what you died trying.
Not because of the vet wrap, it's great stuff and I keep some at home myself for first aid purposes.
But because that colour is considered euthanasia green in a lot of vet clinics here including mine and we ONLY use it for animals we are euthanising. We will literally continue restraining a squirming dog or cat while someone restocks the drawer if we open it to find only the euthanasia green vet wrap than use this because we consider using it for a healthy patient to be a bad omen...
Oh my fucking God. They completely demolished the entire east wing. The whole thing is rubble now. Trump just tore down half of the White House.
(picture from the article linked above)
This was supposedly done in preparation for construction of his self involved ballroom project, but he had claimed before that no changes would be made to the existing building structure. And now half of this unbelievably historic building is gone.
i'm reblogging these pictures because...yeah, in the most literal way possible, one-third of the White House, the USA's most famous, iconic and symbolic historic building, was just completely fucking obliterated
Guys, it got so much freaking worse. KOSA is bad, but SCREEN is even worse, somehow.
Text for S.737 - 119th Congress (2025-2026): SCREEN Act
"Sen. Mike Lee has introduced the SCREEN ACT, a bill that applies the "harmful to minors" standard used to ban LGBTQ+ books and resources in schools and libraries and apply it nationally to the internet.
Any site that has any amount of material "harmful to minors" would be forced to employ surveillance tech (biometric scans, ID uploads, background checks) to prevent minors from accessing "pornography."
You will not be surprised to learn that this is backed by the Heritage Foundation.
Unlike some of the state age-verification laws, many of which are being challenged in court, SC will be enforced by the FTC, which has the ability to levy fines, raid business and freeze bank accounts. Yes, meaning that even non-for-profits like Ao3 will suffer.
This is something for all US users to keep on their radar. Call your reps, call your senators, and spread the word to protect our archive!"
- When talking with Republicans play up the fact that this would force Elon to implement age verification systems on X (yes do call it X during the call). Elon's been threatening to primary Republicans who stand in his way so there's fear of him. Also play up concerns about "Liberals" doxxing people or Chinese hackers.
- When talking with Democrats, play up the connections to Project 2025 and suggest voters will not be happy to see Democrats siding with it.
Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia - Phone: (202) 224-6472
Cynthia Lummis, Wyoming - Phone: (202) 224-3424
Democrats:
Maria Cantwell, Washington (Ranking Member) - Phone: (202) 224-3441
Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota - Phone: (202) 224-3244
Brian Schatz, Hawaii - Phone: (202) 224-3934
Ed Markey, Massachusetts - Phone: (202) 224-2742
Gary Peters, Michigan - Phone: (202) 224-6221
Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin - Phone: (202) 224-5653
Tammy Duckworth, Illinois - Phone: (202) 224-2854
Jacky Rosen, Nevada - Phone: (202) 224-6244
Ben Ray LujƔn, New Mexico - Phone: (202) 224-6621
John Hickenlooper, Colorado - Phone: (202) 224-5941
John Fetterman, Pennsylvania - Phone: (202) 224-4254
Andy Kim, New Jersey - Phone: (202) 224-4744
Lisa Blunt Rochester, Delaware - Phone: (202) 224-2441
SCRIPT
Hi, my name is [], and I am one of Senator []ās constituents. I live in [city, zip code - leave your full address if leaving a voicemail].
I am calling in regards to a bill that was recently introduced in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transport: the SCREEN act.
I am asking Senator [] to either take no action or vote against this bill because of its implications for freedom of speech. [insert one of the other concerns listed above]. Thank you for your time and for listening to my concerns.
The US is crazy bc like so many people have intense conspiracy theories about the government like "I think there's a secret elite group of people who control everything" and you can tell them "actually you're not completely wrong, it's just not a secret group of people, it's a bunch of rich people and lobbyists who are doing it all out in the open" and they'll be like "hmmn I don't think it's THOSE people though. I prefer my racist & antisemitic theories"
They'll be like "I heard there's a powerful ring of pedophiles who are influencing the country" and you'll tell them "I mean yeah that's what the Epstein files are about" and they'll say "no I'm pretty sure this has to do with The Queers actually"
When you're a kid you just take trees for granted. Then when you get to be an adult you realize that a fully mature tree cannot be created in an amount of time that fits in a convenient landscaping timeframe for love nor money nor all the powers of science. Then you realize that people are very very very cavalier about chopping them down
truly wild how driving really does become like piloting a mech after a while. like it sounds so car-bro-y but the car genuinely does become like an extension of your body. your muscles are simply making the correct micro-movements to perfectly manouvre a giant piece of machinery through a constantly moving maze while your brain is busy singing karaoke. you can physically feel when a gap is too small for your car-sona to fit through, like a cat putting its whiskers into a crevice. your brain is suddenly able to do on-the-fly s=d/t calculations in a milisecond and tell you exactly how quickly you need to move to avoid an oncoming vehicle while turning across the road. why does driving unlock the unused 89% of my brain
Is that what driving is for most people? I looked in the notes expecting to see a bunch of bewildered reactions but everyone is agreeing with OP and it's not that I don't believe you, but like.
I drove for years and hated every second of it because I was constantly aware of the fact that I was in charge of a massive chunk of speeding steel and glass capable of causing death if I sneezed at the wrong moment. Not for a single second did the car feel like a part of me. Driving always felt deeply unnatural and highly dangerous. It is indeed Wild to think that the vast majority of people apparently smoothly mind-meld with their car.
No wonder I hate driving so much. Everyone else is having a fun Carsona drift experience while I'm strapped into the pilot seat of a complicated memory game whose penalty for losing is dismemberment.
#mental health 101#oof to copper#but yes#most people use music memory#our brains are designed#for tool use in a way#that permits physical mapping#to anything attached to our bodies#whether it's a sword#a prosthesis or#entire ass vehicle#I will wince or duck#if I veer too close#to things with my llv#because that's my head or shoulder#not the roof or mirror arm
This post came up in conversation once and I tried to google and find it but every variation on the caption I typed in made google hit me with their "hey man, maybe stop searching for racist memes" followed by 10,000 explicitly racist memes and, crucially, not this post. While I am glad this is a feature google has, it definitely did not help me find this post (which is not racist) but it did show me a lot memes (that were on purpose racist)
In the late 1970s a glowing orb appeared in the sky. Every day at about 5:00 Greenwich standard time, the orb would go somewhere new, shoot out something similar to a laser, and kill one person. Every day, always at the same time, always exactly one person.
The person killed by the orb seemed completely random, with almost fifty years of studying it we've been able to find no rhythm or reason to who it kills. It kills the old, the young, the rich, the poor, the urban, the rural, anyone. Every human on earth seems to have an equal chance of being killed by the orb. It's a headline the few times someone of note is killed by the orb: Britain famously lost a Parliament member to the orb, Brazil to this day remains the only country where a head of state was killed by the orb while in office, there was a short lived sitcom in the 1990s called Freinds that ended halfway through its first season due to the orb killing one of the main actors on set. However, these are outliers, on any given day the person who dies via orb is very likely to be someone you never heard of. There are billions of people on earth, and only one is killed by the orb every day. In almost fifty years only a little over 18000 have died because of the orb, which is nothing in the face of the sheer amount of humans that exist.
When the orb first appeared people were horrified. Both the US and USSR thought it was a weapon from the other side. Almost every religion made some claim of it being proof of their beliefs, oftentimes claiming it was divine punishment. Atheists claimed it was proof no loving God could exist. People were so very apocalyptic and horrified by it, they thought of it as part of the end times, because when it was new that's really how it looked.
However, it's been long enough so that's changed. Most people have lived their entire lives in a world where the orb exists. The orb isn't that scary a concept. People know their odds of being killed by it are low and that it's not going to end the world or anything. The orb has become normal, and we've accepted that the orb is just something that kills people the same way cancer, or heart attacks, or natrual disasters, or car crashes kill people. In the nineteen eighties there were efforts to find a way to stop the orb, but it's since proven to be extremely difficult, and it's as distant and nebulous as finding a cure for cancer. When a community is struck by the orb you'll see that community in mourning, but it's not a global thing anymore.
So people grow up learning about the orb, as part of science, like anything else. A lot of gen z remembers learning about the orb from Magic School Bus. It's just something normal. There are a few people with an orb hyperfixation, and a few cults that give the orb importance but it's not most people's concern. The orb is how we first confirmed that interdimensional objects existed and are possible. A lot of people theorize dimensional studies wouldn't exist without it, meaning without the orb we might not have thermitizers or grand drives, we might not even have a moon base without the orb. Some have even rather tastelessly claimed that the orb has saved more lives at this point that its taken with all the knowledge it's given us.
Which is why I regret to inform you, that just last week, without warning, the orb killed two people in one day. And for the past seven days it's been killing two people instead of just one. Nobody knows why.
just overheard my dad on the phone going āyeah, iād be more than happy to buy her daughter off of you, how much would you be willing to trade her for?ā and got Very Worried for a second before remembering that he manages dairy farms for a living. surely thereās gotta be a better way to word that man
