happy never again?

Jun 10 2023

Covid Kills One Person Every Four Minutes as Vaccine Rates Fall →

probablyasocialecologist:
Covid is still a leading killer, the third-biggest in the US last year behind heart disease and cancer. Unlike with other common causes of death such as smoking and traffic accidents that led to safety laws, though, politicians aren’t pushing for ways to reduce the harm, such as mandated vaccinations or masking in closed spaces.
“The general desire in the world is to move beyond the pandemic and put Covid behind us, but we can’t put our heads in the sand,” said Ziyad Al-Aly, director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System in Missouri. “Covid still infects and kills a lot of people. We have the means to reduce that burden.”
[…]
Long Covid, estimated to affect around 10% of infected people, is considered one of the biggest post-pandemic medical challenges. The economic costs are also significant.
In the US, long Covid was estimated to cost around $50 billion a year in lost salaries as of late 2022. In the UK, the Institute for Fiscal Studies last year estimated that about one in 10 people with long Covid have to stop working as a result. The number of people with those symptoms, including brain fog, breathing difficulties and fatigue, are rising even as infections are decreasing.
It’s particularly scary for high-risk people, who’ve had to return to work and public spaces where masks are sparse and the dangers are invisible. A family wedding can still turn into a super-spreader event, and a flight can be catastrophic.
I am the 1% debilitated with Long Covid (ME/CFS). My life is over as I knew it.
Please wear a mask.

Jul 23 2023

jawlipops:

actually how it feels sometimes to see really good art

Jul 22 2023

purpleminte:

itwashotwestayedinthewater:
these are the most early 2000s nu metal motherfuckers i have ever laid my eyes on, and exactly what i would expect from the people who voiced ed edd n eddy
#they look like what smashmouth sounds like

theshitpostcalligrapher:

sashayed:
ruckuscauser:
da-boy-o-kultur:
prokopetz:
prokopetz:
A thing that bothers me about wizard schools in popular media – outside of the magic-grade-school stuff, anyway – is that they’re typically depicted as being basically magic universities, but their actual curricula and pedagogical approaches look much more like those of a technical institution. Like, buddy, that’s not a wizard university, that’s a wizard trade school. You can’t just slap university student culture on top of trade school pedagogy. It doesn’t work like that – the one emerges from the other!
“Well ACTUALLY wizards are” wizards are made up. They can be analogous to whatever real-world class or vocation the author wants. Wizard-school-as-university and wizard-school-as-technical-institute are both perfectly fine; what I am grumping about is wizard-school media that doesn’t seem to have a clear picture of how different sorts of educational institutions actually operate.
Okay but now I really want to know what a Wizard technician would look like. Would he wear magical overalls with all kinds of reagents and magic tools sticking out of his numerous pockets?
A guy like that walks into your tower with a toothpick in his mouth, takes one look at your summoning circle and goes
“I see yer problem. You used chalk B12 instead of S3. B12 is only for transmutation circles. Gimme a sec I think I have a piece somewhere here.”
He fixes your circle, test summons an imp and goes.
“There ya go. Fit as a fiddle.”
“It’s the chalk.”
“The chalk? I always use that chalk, it’s never been a problem.”
“Ah - yes. This stuff will work just fine for most circles, but, uh - here, take a look with my loupe. You see the off-color flecks? Can’t hardly see them with the naked eye, but those are impurities. Silicates, might even be some iron in here, to be honest. Usually won’t cause a problem, but - you said you hadn’t tried this particular summons before?”
“First time trying a 5th level, yeah.”
“Those silicates will make your scribing a little fuzzy when viewed from the astral plane. You see, for example, these three fine lines here? With this chalk, on the astral that looks like one thick line with fuzzy edges. They can’t tell exactly what you want, and they’re picky lil’ critters so they just won’t do anything in response.”
“Really? Oh. I always thought the expensive chalk was just fancy to be fancy.”
“Making pure chalk is difficult, you need a dedicated production line or dust gets in the finished product. To be honest, you don’t need to bother with it for most things, but 5th and up, 5th level and up, it actually is necessary. Anything with lines within about two millimeters of each other.”
“So I need to start over?”
“Unfortunately yes. You’ll have to erase all this, but with some good chalk it should work just fine. Next new moon your summons should go off without a hitch.”
“Dang. At least it’s not my sigils, I was worried it was my sigils.”
“Nah Your sigils look good. Even and balanced. You know what you’re doing, it’s just an equipment problem.”
“Thanks for the help, sorry to make you come all the way out here.”
“No problem! It’s my job.”
#scene from moonstruck with vincent gardenia explaining the different types of pipes but it’s metallurgy ores #there’s the kind of ore you have— which is garbage. then there’s steel which is pretty good. unless something goes wrong. #and something always goes wrong. #and then— there’s copper. which is the only kind of ore i use. #it costs money. it costs money because it saves money. (@macklesufficient)
oh my god they’re installation wizards

headspace-hotel:

headspace-hotel:
ms-cellanies:
modern-politics111:
‘People need to be riled up’: meteorologist names US heatwaves after oil and gas giants
Guy Walton has christened two previous heatwaves this summer Amoco and BP in attempt to name and shame fossil fuel firms
the Guardian
CHEERS TO GUY WALTON FOR “OUTING” THE FOSSIL FUEL COMPANIES
From the article:
Walton has devised his own criteria for named heatwaves in the US, based on duration and extremity, on a one to five scale similar to hurricanes. Heatwave Chevron is classed as a four and is “historic”, Walton said. The meteorologist said he has a list of 20 oil and gas companies – including Exxon and Shell – for upcoming heatwaves and will turn to coal companies if he runs out of names.
OUTSTANDING MOVE
Y'all know what to do. Use Walton’s naming system. Make it catch on.

ali3nboyfriend:

ali3nboyfriend:
ali3nboyfriend:
ali3nboyfriend:
worst relationship status to have w someone is “objectively they’re a fine person who is nice but i don’t enjoy their company as much as they enjoy mine”
second worst relationship status to have with someone is “objectively they’re a fine person but they Bother You”
secret third technically more harmless but in practicality more frustrating relationship status is “objectively they’re a fine person and they like so many of the same things i do but they like them in a fundamentally different way that is harmless but reads wrong to my brain and it has made attempts at forming an actual bond with them aggravating more than anything”
tbh i think stuff like this is why so many people, especially younger people, fall into this trap of “well if i don’t like a person or thing, they must be bad”. it would be so much easier if you could dismiss them as bad and move on. but it’s like, no, Objectively Fine people or things can just not mesh well with you for totally subjective reasons. and sometimes when they’re people you mesh much better with their brain than they do with yours. and sometimes you have to live with that.

neil-gaiman:

neoretrobibliomartini-x:
rhp162:
When my kiddo finally decided (at age 20) that it was time for (most of) his enormous Lego collection to go, it was a gut-wrenching moment for me (goodbye childhood!). However, we used this service, which was simple and hassle-free.
This is wonderful to know.

awkwxrdapple:

Are you ok with someone using they/them pronouns for you if they’re unsure (either online or irl)?
yes, I use they/them anyway
yes, I don’t use they/them but it doesn’t bother me
no, I’d prefer they guess with she/her or he/him because it’s obvs how I present
no (another reason)
My mind wandered and I got curious… please reblog if you want to so it can get a bit further <3

pseudomantis:

What the fuck

escuerzoresucitado:

catchymemes: