Having lived in New Hampshire for way, WAY too long, I regret that I cannot support calling it the taint of New England. THAT would be some of the less tourist happy parts of Maine. New Hampshire is actually a bit further back.
New Hampshire, the taint of New England, has accidentally done something hilarious. While attempting to pass a fetal homicide bill, the state senate actually voted to allow pregnant women to commit murder with impunity.
You think our galaxy is special? Ha. Our boring pinwheel of gas and dark matter might be a nice hangout for humans. But 750 or so million light years away, there’s an elliptical galaxy, Galaxy 0402+379, whose two supermassive black holes are orbiting each other from a distance of only 24 or so light years. Their…
Sorry for the long post, but Republicans are seriously trying to say that it’s not “civil” to point out the fact that their healthcare bill will cause millions of people to lose their insurance, which will cause thousands of preventable deaths.
Talk about it. Make noise about it. Tell the truth about what it’s going to do.
If they can make you seem irrational and rude, they can silence you. This is deliberate to make sure nobody who opposes this bill will be taken seriously. If you’re being accused by the Republican party of being uncivil and rude, you’re probably doing the right thing.
They’re abusive af, and they simply don’t care. As long as the wealthy get their tax cuts, it’s all good.
This is such a perfect piece of propaganda for so many reasons. No one besides the most indoctrinated neoliberal would read that and not do a double-take. I smash the reblog button when I see this, every time without hesitation, but really we should be duplicating this and spreading it in our communities.
I’ve been saying for some years now that we’re teaching science terribly wrong in schools, and quite possibly the wrongest thing we’re doing is making no distinction between “facts about the universe that we have observed” and “categories and models that we have constructed in order to organize the facts we have observed”.
Essentially, kids are being taught that “cats are mammals” is the same kind of scientific fact as “cats give birth to live young,” and it isn’t. At all.
Which is why we get discussions like the one linked above. Or like the ones about Pluto being declared a dwarf planet instead of a planet, where people assert that the change in nomenclature is because “we understand better now what a planet is” and not because we’ve chosen to narrow the definition to (disputably) better organize our constructed categories of Things In Space. Or, for that matter, like the ones that call out “scientific error” in the Bible by citing references to calling a bat a “bird,” or calling a whale a “fish,” as though the classification system we use today is objective scientific fact instead of constructed model.
Because nobody is teaching kids how to tell the difference, or even that there is a difference.
@fredweasleyfreak said: i am very confused. giving birth to live young is a criteria for being a mammal? so what is wrong with teaching them both as scientific fact?
What’s wrong with it is that the definition of mammal isn’t scientific fact, it’s nomenclature. Which is to say, a thing we made up as a way of organizing scientific facts.
“Does/does not give birth to live young” is observed data. “Mammal” is a name we attached to a particular collection of observed data.
They’re both facts, but they’re not the same kind of fact at all. And in most grade-school science classes, they’re taught as though they are. To the point where it can be really difficult for most of us who were taught that way to get our heads around the difference.
Also, giving birth to live young is NOT a criteria for being a mammal. There are egg-laying mammals. We thought, at one point, that all mammals must give birth to live young; then we found mammals that didn’t. Our understanding of the natural world is constantly changing, because of discoveries just like this one.
Some people think that they're need to make fun of and belittle people is more important than the well-being of the people around them. Some people can change if you point it out to them. Some won't. You really just don't need those people in your life.
I think one of the fears that comes up when you talk about setting and respecting very firm boundaries is that someone is going to game the system. That they’re going to claim that every one of their dislikes is an absolute hard limit, and find ways to argue that they have a boundary against not getting their way in everything. And every time you try to make some kind of argument about which boundaries are unusual-but-reasonable and which are just them being a tiny dictator, they’re going to say “so you’re deciding which of my boundaries you’re okay with violating?”
In my experience, this fear is… totally well-founded and the only solution is to stop being friends with people who do that. Sorry.
(I could add something here about “it’s not spite, this is to help both of you be safe since you clearly have incompatible needs,” but it’s totally spite.)
I think people often underestimate the potential educational value of senseless memes. For example, thanks to Spiders Georg, literally every teenager on Tumblr has a reasonable grasp of what a statistical outlier is and the sorts of problems that outliers can introduce into a naïve
analysis. There are grown adults who don’t get that - I deal with them on a daily basis.
“Memes have educational value” actually statistical error. Average meme teaches 0 facts. Spiders Georg is an outlier adn should not be counted
See also “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell”
Directed By Tomás Whitmore Produced by Kimberly Stuckwisch, Melora Donoghue Executive Produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Robert Rodriguez, Kimberly Stuckwisch, Ian Blair Production Company Diktator Director of Photography Drew Bienemann Production Designer Spencer Graves Editor Tomás Whitmore, Alexander Aquino Costume Designer Christina Flannery Casting Director Michael Beaudry Visual FX by Giant Propeller Color by MPC LA Post Sound provided by Unbridled Sound
no, but really: flytraps use up a LOT of energy closing their traps. You know a lot of other plants that move that much? Tricking them into closing when there isn’t food there is indeed mean.
B-but… they’re plants… they’re devoid of sentience, right? They don’t “feel,” they’re more like little wind-up machines. Right? They don’t act on instinct, they’re… well… traps. You can’t actually be mean to a plant. Right??
I’m of the opinion that meanness is about the nature of the action, not awareness on the part of the target of the action.
Tricking them into closing their traps is actually harmful to them, since the energy expended in closing and then re-opening the trap isn’t replenished by having a tasty insect to digest.
I’m of the opinion that meanness is about the nature of the action, not awareness on the part of the target of the action.
Reblogging for that sentiment…and also because fly traps are one of the funnest things ever.
Probably not, but I came home sick from work to a comfortable apartment and a cat who's carefully watching over me (she disapproves of me getting sick); found probably the closest thing to a "soul-mate that actually exists, and I'm actively, consciously working on being a better person. So I'll take it.
“
ask yourself what you were.
ask yourself what you wanted to be.
ask yourself what you’ve become.
now ask yourself:
was it worth it?
”
- all prices seem fair until you have to pay them | m.a.w (via isanah)
Me, at an art store: I need a paint marker with low toxicity and a delicate tip.
Employee: What kind of project are you working on?
Me: It's for a research project. I just need bright colors.
Employee: What medium are you using? Canvas or paper?
Me: uh....spiders.
Employee: Plastic or felt?
Me: ....live spiders. Like, from the forest.
Employee: ....
Employee: I have to get back to the counter.
You can see exactly how Jon goes from attempting to reason to utterly horrified when the asshole opens his mouth about Dr. King…
I also feel pretty sure that had he been there back in the day, Mr Ward would have been among the sort of citizens SHOCKED, SHOCKED I SAY that a minority would ~*resort to violence*~ and look at this as just another indication that they really were the problem here.
I want to write a fic where Lilo goes to college and her roommate is Boo from Monsters Inc. Boo is the first person to think Stitch is adorable and cuddly, and Lilo is the first person not to act like “Mike Wazowski” was a weird name for a goldfish. They get on like a house on fire which is kind of bad for Nani’s blood pressure.
But then one night they wake up in the middle of the night because something is in their closet. And the door starts to creak open so Stitch tackles whoever (whatever) is in there. They fall back into the closet, the door slams shut… and when Lilo runs over and opens it there’s nothing but an empty closet.
Then Boo tells Lilo all about this weird thing that happened to her when she was a kid, and how no one ever believed her but she knows it was real.
And cue Lilo and Boo busting into the Monster world to rescue Stitch and wreaking mad havoc in the process.
SEE THIS IS A WORTHY SEQUEL
This needs to happen
Petition for the movie to be hand-drawn in Lilo and Stitch’s style when they’re in the human world, and computer animated once they go through the door into the monster world.
Every professional training I go to includes a section on burnout and self-care. My thought is always the same: just pay me what I’m worth. Pay me what I’m worth. Pay me what I’m worth. And give me enough paid time off.
That’s it. I don’t need bubble baths and chocolate and massages and silly TV. I need more money. And I need more rest.
Module 3, how to cope with the unhealthy lifestyle that we force on you. Learn the secrets of EFFICIENT enjoying yourself in your few moments of free time!
I like how having issues with a broken system of healthcare and not wanting your child to die are somehow conflicting interests to this guy.
I mean, when there are perfectly good systems used throughout the developed world that adequately provide care for people’s children without forcing them to turn to GoFundMe for the chance at some charity, maybe it’s worth supporting them?
I guess forgoing care you cant afford or bankrupting yourself and your kids is a nice alternative though. Definitely worth holding to shitty principles over.
I don’t know, the idea that people are required to beg for healthcare on the internet in the richest country in all of human history will never make sense to me. Ever. Healthcare will always be a right in my eyes, plain and simple.
Stop making McConnell smile. Every time that man smiles, a cheetah-puppy eats a baby.
Donald Trump summoned all Republican Senators to the White House yesterday so he could use his Extreme Deal-making Power to bring the Republican health care bill to a successful close. Only … not one word of that is true.
First, Mitch McConnell set up the meeting. Second, it was clear the bill wasn’t going to pass any time soon. Third, no one—no one—expected Trump to do anything about it.
Mr. McConnell, who kept the president at a polite arm’s length while he oversaw negotiations over the bill, asked Mr. Trump to arrange the meeting with all 52 Republican senators during a morning phone call, in part to show senators the White House was in fact fully engaged, according to two people with knowledge of the call.
The problem for Trump is that Republican Senators have met him. They’ve learned already that he’s not Donald Trump, as seen on TV. He’s Donald Trump … as seen on Twitter.
When asked by reporters clustered on the blacktop outside the West Wing if Mr. Trump had command of the details of the negotiations, Mr. McConnell ignored the question and smiled blandly.
Donald Trump, expert deal maker, is a television creation. He was competent and commanding because that’s the way the scripts were written. Real life Donald Trump is the guy who has declared bankruptcy, not the four times he admits to, but six times. Real life Donald Trump is the guy who not only failed in the casino business, he only kept it going for a year with an infusion of $7.5 million from his father … and borrowing another $9 million from his father’s trust … and by doing so much money laundering that he had to pay a massive $10 million fine. Real life Donald Trump is the guy who only climbed out of the hole with the help of Russian crime bosses eager to use his real estate business to launder their stolen funds. In real life Donald Trump couldn’t close a door without someone to help him out behind the scenes.
Real life Trump—Twitter Trump—is mostly upset that people are seeing behind the TV creation, and he’s complaining about it, where else, on Twitter.
