I read something different re: the cause.
It’s difficult to say how they made it past the Darien Gap, but there are several possibilities, Earl said. Monitoring and surveillance for screwworm was relaxed due to the COVID-19 pandemic several years ago, and an increase in illegal cattle trafficking in the region might also be helping to spread animals infected with maggots. The increase in human migration northward may also be playing a role, Earl said.
Good news: In America, there are currently lots of opportunities to go to prison (not an American? It’s even easier!)
Bad news: it’s not the kind of prison with gym and art.
It’s worse than that, it means hand bags (手袋)
FYI, reusable produce bags exist!
This meme so old, 50" TVs ain’t shit anymore
I always feel like a total dweeb using “contemporary,” but my desire for accuracy wins out every time.
Or rural experience. Wages are still shit but ever since covid rural housing and food costs have gone through the roof.
This. What is a hospital visit going to do about chronic migraines?
I can’t tell if you’re being humorous here, but historically babies were baptized shortly after birth out of fear that anyone who died without being baptized would be unable to get into heaven.
In the middle ages* in Europe, baptism was usually scheduled a few days after birth, and often the historical record includes baptism dates and death dates for individuals, so historians estimate birth dates to be a few days prior to the baptism date. Babies that died pre-baptism were thought to go to purgatory instead of heaven, and considering the high infant mortality rate pre-modern medicine, there was a bit of a rush to get your offspring baptized pronto to save their itty bitty souls. Generally this is no longer believed, at least not by most mainstream Protestant sects, and many Christians nowadays opt to wait until their children are old enough to “appreciate” the event more.
*Not sure exactly when, and maybe this was mostly a Catholic thing? Again, this is not my area of expertise.
I don’t know if I’d call it “easy” reading, but this is a well-regarded college textbook that’s popular in “Christianity 101” religion classes (so at least it’s entry-level and doesn’t assume prior knowledge on the topic):
For something much lighter, Extra Credits did a video series on early Christian schisms that mentions the circumcision debate:
I’m far from a religious scholar (just someone who enjoys history from time to time), so I’d be curious if other folks have additional recommendations.
Actually there was a huge debate among early Christians whether circumcision was still required because Jesus never spoke on the issue (or if he did, there was no verifiable record of it).
To crudely summarize:
The earliest Christians were primarily Jews, so they were already circumcized as required by Judaism so it was a non-issue. However unlike Judaism where you’re almost always born into the religion, Christianity actively encourages adult conversion, so as more non-Jews (e.g. Greeks) began to identify as Christians, the circumcision issue became a conundrum. Some felt Christianity was a branch of Judaism and as such Jewish practices like circumcision were still required, whereas others objected because they saw Christianity as a new approach to Judaism, or even as a separate religion altogether (circumcision specifically was hotly debated due to such issues as adult circumcision being more, shall we say, unappealing than infant circumcision, plus getting circumcized would “out” non-Jews in nude spaces like bath houses, which was at best awkward and at worst deadly).
The earliest followers of Jesus thought Jesus was going to return in their lifetimes, so these types of issues were not discussed (or at least not resolved) by the original founders and proselytizers (researchers have determined the Gospels weren’t even composed until well after everyone involved was dead), but as generations passed it became clear that the Second Coming actually may not happen anytime soon, so practical issues of “how to establish a new religion (is it even a new religion or just a Jewish sect???)” turned into gigantic internal debates for the community. That’s what much of the New Testament is: letters back and forth trying to interpret the words of Jesus to resolve doctrinal conflict. In other words, the New Testament is basically four different versions of the story of Jesus (Mark, Matthew and Luke which were based on Mark and a lost “Gospel X”, and John), followed by a curated back-and-forth commentary section debating issues of the day such as circumcision and women’s role in the church, and controversially capped off by the (theorized) hallucinations of a hermit tripping balls off donated moldy bread.
The history of the New Testament (how it was written and later compiled, early texts that were lost or discarded, and all the doctrinal conflicts that boiled over into variously incidents of geopolitical chaos) is fascinating and seriously worth exploring.
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For urban environments I 100% agree, but e-bikes and public transport can’t help farmers* get their produce to market. I don’t know much about this truck, but if it can fill a similar niche as the Japanese kei truck, I think it’s great to provide people who actually need a pickup with an alternative to the F-150+ behemoths currently available stateside.
*Yes there are some urban farms that totally could operate via ebike/other form of micro mobility, however most farms, even small ones, are located >10 miles outside urban centers, usually in areas only accessible by roads and highways that are currently very dangerous for non-motorized transportation modes. Fixing this problem would take decades and hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars even if the government were fully on board with the transportation network and/or land use changes necessary to allow for a true car-free society (which of course they aren’t). I’m not such an idealist as to poo-poo a significant short-term improvement to the “oversized working vehicle” problem.
I remember back when there were, like, five yuri titles total, half of which were from the 70s, and they were all subtle as fuuuuuuuck (blushing at another girl was basically the yuri equivalent of third base).
Watching the yuri explosion over the last few years has been insane. It’s practically neck-and-neck with BL now in popularity.
There’s also a severe shortage of medical professionals ever since covid in all fields all over the country (but especially in rural and rapidly-growing areas). Good luck actually getting a medical appointment, and even if you can swing one standards have been weakened so that what would normally be a visit with a doctor (or the field’s equivalent) is now a nurse practitioner or other less-educated title. If you want a “real” medical professional you need a referral, and again, good luck getting that appointment scheduled. Everyone working in medicine is overworked and burned out. Unless you’re actively bleeding out, seeking medical attention, especially routine checkups and preventative screening, doesn’t feel worth it anymore.
I’m not too surprised to see cancer deaths being one rare area that’s decreasing; besides strides in treatment, most cancer sufferers are older and thus wealthier and also have Medicare, plus they also probably already have a primary care physician from pre-shortage. The hardest-hit in the medical care shortage are the young and people who have recently moved, and find themselves running into the wall of “no one is taking new patients.”
Original tweet quote translation:
“After inserting the giant butt plug, the [strained back/slipped disk] pain disappeared”
Check pharmacies; most have been replaced by chains, but some independent pharmacies are still around, and will have a number of home staples.
Ethnic markets in general are a good option for finding locally-owned shops, but they’re going to differ in terms of what staples they actually carry.
“Just chewing on plastic, what’s going on with you?”
Yes, most chewing gum is literally made of plastic, because of course it is.
Whenever I see this I think “wow, cool idea, wish we had something like this in the US.” And then I think “it’s just asking for a discrimination lawsuit so unlikely.” And then I think “well we should be making public transit free for everyone anyway.” And then I think "until we get our housing affordability and mental health crises resolved, free transit proposals just becomes a fear magnet (“roving homeless shelters!!!” “crime train!!!”). And then I get sad.
Disability protections are generally a great thing, and the US is significantly more accessible than many countries for them, but I’ve watched a lot of cool, creative ideas get torpedoed because of them. Instead we’re stuck with car dominance because “everyone can drive, not everyone can walk/bike/take the bus” (inb4 “wtf that’s not remotely true” … I know, but car brain doesn’t).