[marinella-ela]

[muffinlance]

[vd: A snow leopard kitten absolutely DESTROYING pumpkins, most already conveniently hollowed and with holes pre-cut so it can shove its whole baby head in and maul and kick and maul and kick and-- End vd.]

[is-this-a-cat]

Yep, that's a cat!

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

do u agree with the phrase adopt don’t shop ?

I don’t tend to agree with any simple hashtag/blanket statements in topics regarding animal welfare.

I disagree with the premise of shaming people for where they got their dog from. Because it doesn’t actually help the dog or put backyard breeders and puppy farms out of business.

It can also make well meaning people adopt a dog they were not ready for, thinking that they’re doing the Right Thing by adopting from a shelter but being matched poorly or taken advantage of by an irresponsible rescue.

Good, responsible breeders will always have a policy of taking back a puppy or dog so that the dog they bred doesn’t end up in a shelter.

Genetics plays a massive role in dog behaviour- we have genetically selected for specific traits over thousands of years to ensure that. Yet there was this bizarre movement that came up in the early 2010’s that, in response to breed specific legislation, the message of “it’s all in how you raise them” got pushed and suddenly people decided genetics didn’t matter and it was all about training.

Nature-nurture debates always ends with the same answer: it’s both. And if you want the best chance of getting predictable behaviour in a dog to fit a specific role - whether that’s a working dog, sports or just a good pet, a good breeder who is health testing and breeding good dogs is your best bet.

A rescue will be less likely to be as predictable. That doesn’t mean the dog is immediately going to have lots of issues and be aggressive - but your expectations need to be far more tempered and reasonable.

Getting a rescue can be absolutely amazing - my rescue greyhound is a joy and I’d never change a thing. But there were certain expectations I had to lower for him. He wasn’t overly cuddly to start, very little food drive (he had to learn how to eat food on walks), he had some resource guarding issues, he’s extremely environment focused so it can be difficult to do off leash work with him and he wasn’t very interested in doing lots of training or sports. We’ve worked through a lot of that together and I’m a better dog guardian for it.

But when I got Myx, who was initially a puppy the breeder kept but then decided to find a home for, it was so different. She loves to train all the time, she loves sports, she snuggles in bed with me. All my needs were met and they both give each other confidence in different areas.

I’ve had clients take on rescues in a very well meaning way but are disappointed when the dog is far too anxious to be the cafe dog of their dreams and they have to lower their expectations. It might be a goal they can work towards over time but it’s going to be an ongoing process and needs patience.

In contrast, a friend of mine is doing puppy raising for an assistance dog program. She had this 14 week old puppy already settling on a mat in the middle of a busy cafe, relaxed and resting - with hardly any training at all.

That’s genetics - training only gets you so far.

I don’t want to discourage people from rescue either - but picking the right rescue who will match you with the right dog and provide transition support is just as important as finding a responsible breeder.

You shouldn’t bring a rescue dog into your home because you felt pressured or guilty or have some sort of moral obligation. You should bring a rescue dog into your home because you found the right match and you are able to provide for that dog’s needs. Some dogs transition just fine with no issues, others need more support. As does a puppy from a breeder, mind you.

Anyway, adopt don’t shop does very little to stop the source of the problem (puppy mills, whoops litters, backyard breeders, shitty landlords and no pets policies for rentals) - it doesn’t stop shelters and rescues filling up and can lead to well meaning people adopting a rescue they were not prepared for.

If you want to “shop” you have the responsibility to source a puppy from a responsible registered breeder who is ensuring the longevity, health and behavioural soundness of the breed.

If you want to “adopt”, ensure you are going through a rescue who is matching you to the right dog. Any rescue that lets you go in and pick a dog without any sort of matching criteria and/or home visit is a red flag. And if you do want to adopt, do it because you have the capacity to have a rescue dog and not just because it sounds nice. Make sure you have the resources to get help or have the skills required to do any sort of behaviour rehabilitation work.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t rescue dogs that immediately transition into home life with no issues, but you shouldn’t immediately be expecting that because not every dog is quite so resilient.

Basically… Get the dog that’s right for you and your home and not based on some moral superiority complex.

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

Adding @rhewkath ‘s tags because yes absolutely learning and socialisation history is massively important to consider too!

[alex51324]

My two cents: humans have been selectively breeding dogs for desired traits for tens of thousands of years, resulting in the vast array of breeds that we have today, that are adapted to different situations and purposes. It would be a stupid, careless waste to leave that project entirely in the hands of people who are churning out litters simply for a profit and/or too stupid to get their dogs fixed.

The two ethical choices for getting a dog are A) responsible rescue/shelter, or B) responsible breeder.

Good rescues/shelters clean up the mistakes made by unethical breeders and careless owners. If you're looking for a household pet, and especially if you want to bring one home soon, looking into rescues is a great option. A good rescue will have workers/volunteers who can tell you a lot about the dogs in their care, and can match you with an individual dog whose needs and personality are a good fit: no guesswork of the "this is what this breed is usually like" variety.

A responsible breeder is breeding dogs for a reason: sports, showing, work, improving the breed, something other than, "This breed is cute/popular and will sell well." They're matching carefully-selected dogs with the hope of producing offspring with specific traits--and for avoiding known health problems with the breed.

They're producing small numbers of litters--3 litters, total, is a reasonable number to breed from a given female dog, over her childbearing years; maybe 4 or even 5 at the outside, if she has an easy time of it and gets an early start. (A responsible breeder is not going to start her dogs having litters as soon as they physically can; first of all, it isn't good for them, and secondly, she's not going to make the decision that their genes should be passed on, until she's seen them succeed in the activity that they're being bred for.)

A responsible breeder with a large kennel (and circumstances that allow her to make this her full-time occupation) may have a litter almost every year, but usually it will be a lot less often than that. She'll often have people lined up before the mating even takes place, who are interested in a puppy--especially for whatever fraction of the litter come out as show/sport/working prospects, but likely also for the "pet quality" puppies, too. (No matter how carefully you plan a match, some puppies will get a bigger helping of the desired traits than others.)

Depending on how the litter turns out, once they're born and big enough to start assessing, she might have one or three available to "pet homes," which will be screened just as carefully as the "show homes" (or agility homes, or working homes, or whatever it is).

TL:DR, if somebody is advertising an entire litter on Facebook Marketplace or w/e, they are, by definition, not a responsible breeder. They could be a perfectly decent person who ended up with an "oops" litter, for entirely understandable and sympathetic reasons, but you probably don't want to be encouraging that behavior by giving them money for their oops. If you want an "oops" puppy, getting one from a rescue is how you know that your adoption fee isn't going to result in your puppy's mama getting bred again as soon as she's able.

(My late dog, Sophie, was breeding stock at a puppy mill, who was dumped when she had some kind of trouble with her last litter. The shelter was able to nurse her back to health, and I think I was able to give her a great life for the few years she had with me, but she had a lot of issues, physical and mental.

I think about her puppies sometimes. They must have been so stinking adorable. I hope they're OK, and they all found good homes. They should never have been born.)

[pandaofsecrets]

Probably the funniest take on Ozai is that he's a "master manipulator". Guys, this is the same man who thought asking his abusive father nicely to make him heir would actually work. He's got all the subtlety of a hammer; where do you think Zuko gets it from?

And yeah, I know someone's going to point out how Ozai manipulated his children, but like, that's the thing. They're his children. Manipulating someone who is entirely under your control and does not have enough life experience to see through your bullshit isn't very hard.

[muffinlance]

Absolutely correct Ozai take. Turns out it doesn't take brains to be a monster.

[murglor]

@muffinlance is so right. Except instead of a journalist, it would literally be Sokka sitting at the end of the table for a war council, wearing his fake moustache and calling himself Wang Fire.

[asquared-ohgodnotthehorrors]

I think the Leverage Redemption’s biggest stroke of genius was having an episode’s antagonist be a plagiarist professor and they immediately discovered a janitorial staff conspiracy dedicated to making his life as inconvenient as possible.

Genuinely the most cathartic and funniest bit of revenge they ever got

[romanceyourdemons]

a little obsessed with the story of how giacomo casanova was sharing a gondola with this random guy who suddenly started having a seizure, and casanova had some medical training so he stabilized the guy until the guy’s physician could be called. and then the physician bled the guy and put mercury ointment on him, which caused everything to get worse to the point that a priest was called to administer the guy’s last rites, but then casanova stepped in and washed off the mercury ointment despite the doctor yelling at him not to. and the guy recovered and turned out to be super rich and powerful and in gratitude bankrolled casanova’s debauchery for years until casanova got himself sentenced to five years in jail for blasphemy. also at one point he got shot through the hand in a duel and doctors wanted to amputate it but he said no it’ll be fine and it Was

[romanceyourdemons]

so what i’m saying is a medical procedural show where the main character is giacomo casanova and he doesn’t want to be solving these medical mysteries but goddamn if he isn’t the only fucker in this room who knows how to not kill the patient. so i guess my date with this prussian chick will just have to wait

[romanceyourdemons]

this pitch would have absolutely killed at the bbc between 1991 and 2005 btw

[aboonoor-deactivated20180121]

If you’re a Non-Muslim and you see a Muslim praying in public, could you please not pass in front of them?

Go behind them, but not in front. 👍

[marquesadesantos-deactivated201]

Oh, signal boost! I didn’t know this.

[omnistruck]

Okay, but also: if you see a Muslim praying in public and they have something in front of them, like a purse or a bag or something like that, you can pass in front of them, but pass in front of that object.

it’s called a sutrah, and it’s meant to act as a physical barrier between the person praying and someone who might happen to pass in front.

[ramentic]

Also, if you did this and didn’t know, please don’t beat yourself up over it. Now you know! Muslims aren’t supposed to pass in front of Muslims praying, either, because prayer is communication with God and you don’t want to break that connection.

[athenagray]

“So... We got the exploding diarrhea. Here's my advice for anyone who doesn't have it yet:

It's going to take a minute for the government to pin down where this is coming from, and then issue a recall, because the FDA has been gutted. But, I can tell you, without a shadow of a doubt : this is coming from Taylor Farms produce, and you will see them recalled.

You'll want to avoid all Taylor Farms produce in the grocery store. They supply McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, about any fast food place you can think of.

Raspberries, watermelons, cilantro, and the veggies you're hearing about are not causing this many people to get sick. It's the shredded lettuce, specifically, that's the problem. But, you'll want to stay away from every type of produce this company puts out, because one strand of shredded lettuce is all it takes to contaminate bushels.

Taylor Farms is the source. Taco Bell proactively pulled their produce from their restaurants. You're going to see other fast food places doing this, and probably will see that before the government names a source. The FDA knows this, but they can't come out and tell us all until there's proof, which takes resources and research, which takes manpower, but the FDA has been cut by about 20-30%

During the Biden term, onions at McDonald's had ecoli. We knew this because DNA testing was done quickly and they were able to narrow it down to one place that caused the outbreak. And, it was traced back to Taylor Farms. This isn't going to be solved as quickly though.

When you get this, make a virtual appointment to your PCP - a "same day sick" appointment. Tell them someone in your family just tested for this and was positive and was prescribed Bactrim. If you go in person, they're probably going to make you poop in a cup and wait until results come back to prescribe.

You'll know when you get this. Trust me on all of this.

You'll want to stay hydrated because this parasite damages the lining of the small intestine. Your small intestine, in turn, secretes more water into the gut, and less nutrients and liquid are able to remain in the body. So no matter how much you shit, you're going to want to drink. A day of this leads to dehydration if you don't increase your fluid intake, and a few days will land you in the hospital.

If you have headaches, weakness, muscle cramps, dizziness, or an increase heart rate - hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Go to the ER for fluids if you can't drink enough.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk. Brought to you by America's 250 birthday celebrations, workforce reduction in the FDA and CDC, and viewers like you.

Please feel free to share this.

And, MAGA - don't blow up the comment section. I argued with y'all on COVID bc I was afraid y'all would die, but I really don't care if you get explosive diarrhea.

And no, ivermectin will not help this at all.”

[alex51324]

As an update, the OP of this post did eventually clarify that they did not have inside knowledge that it was Taylor Farms; that was a conclusion they reached from publicly-available information & history.

However, per CNN and numerous other news outlets, as of Thursday afternoon, the outbreak has been at least partially traced to lettuce supplied to Taco Bell from Taylor Farms, in Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

Other states and/or businesses could have received the same contaminated lettuce, or there could be multiple simultaneous outbreaks with different sources: currently, it's not clear.

But anyway, the random guy was right.

[wizard-of-interesting-failure]

Reblog this post to cast Crumb of Serotonin on whoever you reblogged it from

[eugeniedanglars]

it’s wild to me how there is literally ZERO correlation between what a piece of media is like and what its fanworks are like. 2014 captain america fans were out there writing poetry and full-on academic papers inside of their fics. sonic the hedgehog and my little pony fandoms are both famous for drawing fetishes you’ve never even heard of. les miserables fans spent most of their energy on college aus. there is literally no consistency or observable pattern and it’s incredible

[eldriitchmurmurs]

#my theory is that fanworks reflect what people found missing in the canon#so like. sonic and mlp. obviously#les miz want les amis to be happy and alive and goofing around#and uh. mcu fans want the mcu to be well-written (via dicaeopolis)

[therighthing]

parker, dragging a tasered hitwoman away by her ankles: catering, what a business! :D

[happygirl2oo2]

Leverage textposts part 27/?

[aardvaark]

i don’t mind suspending my disbelief for leverage’s person-sized ventilation shafts bc that’s pretty standard for the genre, but that doesn’t mean i won’t laugh a bit at some of the egregiously large vents. particularly in the crowning acheivement job (lev: red s2 finale) because - well just look at this lol! harry and parker, two adults, can kneel side by side in those vents. parker can sit upright.

that museum was made for vent crawling purposes. that’s just an extra room in the museum they forgot to decorate. the leverageverse has a thief union that successfully lobbied for a better working environment. these vents double as a playground for museum-goers’ children. i was crying with laughter thinking about this and harry’s vent crisis was NOT helping me remember that there was a serious heist thing going on lol, i love this show.

[earhartsease]

hi german friends, wie schmeckt Waldmeister? we only just learned that Sweet Woodruff (Waldmeister) is a common plant flavour in germany - in sweets, and in alcohol, and we're really curious

we can't try the sweets because we're off sugar for the moment, is it in anything else? what are alcohol names with it in?

[taavicleric]

I have *heard* (but this about Sweet Woodruff, so the German flavour may be different), that it's sorta like bitter vanilla? It was also used as a bed filling and the scent and flavour are meant to be similar.

[earhartsease]

yes, it was one of the bedstraws of old, also used as a "strewing herb" for the dirt floors of old buildings to keep the place smelling good

we do want to taste it - we really dislike vanilla unless it's the really posh kind, but will reserve judgement until we can find some non-sugary Waldmeister to schmeck

[draculasstrawhat]

So, I have some in my garden. I’ve never had it in food, but I chewed a leaf of it and…

It is sweet, as the name suggests, though not very, and it tastes like a slightly herbal (bitter) hay, heavy with pollen. Like a meadow at the end of a summer day when the earth starts giving back the heat? I didn’t taste vanilla, especially. Basically how it smells, with a slightly astringent edge.

It might taste different when prepared, though.

[killerfuzzel]

I've always liked Waldmeister flavour. Growing up, I think, I saw it most often in drinks or jellies. I have a hard time describing the taste, though bitter vanilla doesn't sound right to me.

Granted, they probably put more sugar in when they make lemonade from it.

It's been a while for me, so I might try some to better attempt a description

[txttletale]

american gun culture literally has so many people convinced that the plot of Funny Games might happen to them at any time and the only way to prevent it is to vigorously defend their right to murder anybody who steps foot in their home

[txttletale]

i keep posting "its bad to kill someone with a gun, even if they're stealing from you" and getting like a dozen responses of "yeah well what if someone broke into my house to Kill Me and they'd stop at nothing until i was dead would that be okay then?" and amiguitas i dont think thats very likely to happen to be honest

[max1461]

This is what I keep talking about as "the logic of self defense". It's the same basic principle used to justify callout posts, "punching up" in a social justice context, a significant chunk of racism (in the US, mostly anti-black racism), hawkishness on the international stage, etc. etc.

"If (I judge that) there is any non-negligible probability that you will brutalize me, the right to self defense justifies me in using whatever means are available to brutalize you first, so that you don't do that."

Naturally, because it's fairly easy to construct a reason for yourself to believe that anyone you happen not to like has a non-negligible probability of brutalizing you, this line of reasoning will be widely utilized by people who just want to brutalize someone to begin with, for one reason or another. The idea that an arbitrarily harmful preemptive strike is justified by merely feeling under threat is widespread and, naturally, anathema to the goal of solidarity and friendship between all human kind.

[rosstmcd]

Once upon a time I took a handgun course at a local gun shop, which was a bit of an odd experience since I was there because I like target shooting and everyone else was there for "self-defense."

But since that was what most people were there for, the instructor talked about defending your home. He said - and remember, this was a guy who worked at a gun store - that the current thinking among experts was that you should never go wandering around your house in the dark with a gun. Far too many bad things can happen.

What you do instead is that you designate a room in your house as a safe room. It might be your bedroom, or the bedroom of your youngest kid, or whatever. If that room doesn't have a lock on the door, install one. If you really want to go all-out, install a security door.

Then, if you wake up in the night and hear a suspicious noise, you quickly gather everyone into that room and lock the door. You can make this a family drill that you practice regularly, like you should be practicing evacuating in case of a fire and other emergencies.

Once you're in the room with the door locked, you can call 911 if it seems warranted. If you do have a gun, you can cover the door.

The advantages of this approach are:

If, as is most likely, the noise was your cat, or your teenager sneaking in after curfew, or your neighbor who came home drunk and mistook your house for his, then you will feel embarrassed instead of making a tragic mistake.

If it actually is someone breaking in, then it is very likely that they're just going to grab your TV or whatever and leave, in which case you and your family have stayed safe and you call your insurance agent in the morning.

In the extremely unlikely event that they are intruders who really do mean to harm you and start trying to break down the door, then you are in a much stronger tactical position then moving around your house in the dark. And your self-defense case, if it comes to that, will be on much stronger legal footing.

But really, the final scenario is so unlikely that the purpose of this procedure is 99% about keeping you from doing something you will deeply regret.

[onsuchsmallthingstheworldturns]

Galavant (2015) Complete Series : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Sitcom, Comedy, Parody, Adventure, Musical, FantasyA musical comedy adventure featuring a knight on a quest for love who helps a childish ki

All the episodes of Galavant are on the Internet Archive!

[awakefor48hours]

Every once in a while, I wish the friendship meter from the Sims was real so that way when people tell me "I used Chat-GPT" they can visually see just how much respect I just lost for them in that moment.

[berkelbites]

One time an acquaintance told me she entered Snape's star chart into chatgpt and I could physically feel that meter dropping three separate times over the course of her sentence

[schmergo]

The summer between the end of high school and the start of college, I wrote a ridiculous play about pirates and put on a staged reading with some friends at an amphitheatre at a local park before a small audience of friends and family. It was never published or staged again. But I just got a message from an old high school friend I haven’t seen in years. He accidentally quoted the play in a conversation with friends, was asked what he was quoting, he couldn’t remember either, and wracked his brain until he finally remembered it was that silly play reading that we did one day in the park over 10 years ago. It made me happy. (The line was, “Huzzah for mercantilism!” by the way.)

A very tiny percentage of creators go on to be famous, but that doesn’t mean that people don’t remember little things you did for years and years. Who came up with most of the world’s most famous jump rope rhymes? Who coined some of the famous idioms we use in daily speech? Who made up ‘Jingle Bells, Batman Smells?” Somehow, all of these things stuck and spread around.

When I was a small child, I saw a high school put on a production of the musical HONK. In one song, the mother duck describes various dangers that her baby should avoid in the water, including fishing line, which could strangle him. A member of the ensemble played the role of fishing line, doing a maniacal laugh and over-the-top strangling motions, and I found it hilarious– and to this day, that’s an example I often think of when talking about how ensemble members can still stand out in theatre. The guy who played the role might not even remember that he did that, but I do.

I took Suzuki violin lessons as a kid. The teacher made up lyrics to some of the songs, and she let her students make some up, too. Now whenever I hear the instrumental of one of those pieces, I always remember these ridiculous lyrics about a skunk that we sang in violin class. I don’t even know which student invented them!

In middle school, I found a video about atoms parodying Bill Nye made by some kids for a school product. It probably had less than 1,000 views, but I think of quotes from that video all the time. They had a parody of “We Will Rock You” with the chorus, “Protons, neutrons, electrons” that I think about a lot.

I just love that this is part of human life. Our memories don’t just pick up quotes from great art, literature, and music, but little things, too.