As protests start ramping up and violence escalates please remember:
DO NOT PUT MILK IN YOUR EYES FOR PEPPER SPRAY OR TEAR GAS.
It can and will cause infection due to bacteria. Flush with water, distilled if possible, and never EVER wear contact lenses to protests where there may be police retaliation.
Please reblog. It may save someone's sight.
I'm going to either find or make my own post about this but I'm a street medic, I was trained by the Black Rose organization medical branch during Occupy and have since done my own research with papers written for and by the cops and military about treating chemical agent exposure. this is correct, please do not use milk. I'm not sure about distilled water because I haven't seen it used in any papers or ok the ground, but my suspicion is that while it is probably not harmful, the osmotic qualities of distilled water may hurt or cause contact damage to the mucus membranes of the eyes. in addition, riot control chemicals are mostly designed to be water-activated and plain water will make the exposure sites hurt worse with minimal benefit besides flushing out any particles that aren't glued on with the oil medium they use for these agents.
in at least one study, the research on tear gas and pepper spray exposure showed that plain water was so painful that most cops who volunteered to be test subjects for treatment trials refused to use it, opting instead to just wait until they could shower or for the chemicals to degrade on their own. this is a pretty important indicator of both cops being mega pussies, and that plain water isn't very effective at treating riot control chemical injuries.
the substance that tested best in multiple trials was sterile buffered saline solution. in other words, the same stuff that comes in the squirt bottles for cleaning your contact lenses. this is a useful tool to carry into a protest because the squirt bottle makes it easy to direct the flow of water over the surface of the eyeball. trials also showed that putting this solution into your eyes prior to exposure cut down on discomfort quite a bit. in practice, this looks like putting in some clean eye drops from the drug store before you are exposed to riot weapons.
remember, if you are injured in a protest, call "medic!" out loud and street medics will find you. this has been standard protest practice for decades.
onions and milk and vinegar should not go in your eyes. I've seen all three recommended for tear gas treatment and I do not think they are a good idea or that they will work. stick to sterile saline or LAW (liquid antacid + water).
consider carrying an osha-approved eyewash bottle for easier application
also, please wear a helmet and buy a gas mask
Just to reiterate: prevention is ideal. Full-face respirator masks are great. I’ve literally walked through clouds of tear gas with one on & was able to help people who didnt have masks on (& who were therefore blinded) get to safety.
Another benefit of a full-face mask w/ rubber gasket seal is that it more fully protects your eyes from pepper spray, whereas most safety goggles and any sunglasses have space on the sides where pepper spray gel or liquid can get in.
Ideally you want to get a mask that is also rated for impact resistance. Lots of people lost eyes from 40mm rounds during the 2020 BLM protests.
in my experience, bandanas, kufiyas, surgical masks, and N95 masks offer basically no protection against tear gas or pepper spray.
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* * * News Interruption * * *
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As a result of the climate crisis, global warming is driving up temperatures around the world—and bumblebees, like humans, are struggling to cope with homes that can't beat the heat. In a new article published in Frontiers in Bee Science, scientists identify rising heat as a potential culprit for the decline in bumblebee populations worldwide, compromising bumblebees' ability to construct livable nests in which healthy larvae can develop. "The decline in populations and ranges of several species of bumblebees may be explained by issues of overheating of the nests and the brood," said Dr. Peter Kevan of the University of Guelph, Canada, lead author of the article.
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I don't believe in the inherent talent of nepo babies or whatever but I do think we're going to see a hilarious side effect of people who are medium famous and have massive RPF followings & have to bar their children from the internet entirely as a result which is that they will be having the most logged off well adjusted children of all time and those kids are definitely going to get a competitive advantage over the leagues of ipad cocomelon reared children of rich unfamous adults in their immediate social circles. "why is this 12 year old so good at spatial reasoning" -> it's because their dad is a heavy hitter in Ao3's top 100 most used ship tags of all time and therefore the only thing they are allowed to interact with are wooden blocks that cannot connect to bluetooth
also medium famous is one thing imagine the really reallly famous ones. thinking about how the children of one direction are going to be reared in an X men style facility where the word "google" is considered a swear word and where they will be reading tolstoy by age 7
To be clear i’m not talking about just any kind of famous parents. It’s the RPF angle. Thousands of people have to want your dad to fuck his friends in detailed romantic scenarios to merit this level of shutdown. I hope the hockey players & musicians of the world have a Montessori-equipped bunker ready
Okay so I know that this is kind of a joke but my mom is a master teacher in the Waldorf tradition (like Montessori but with religious trappings and 1000x more strict) and apparently there's new schools being built every year in Silicon Valley and LA because tech bros do not want their kids to know what a technology is until they're 16 and celebrities do not want their kids on the internet at all period. She keeps getting personally invited by various schools to come design their curricula for shit tons of money because the people that created the monster are realizing that maybe they don't want it to eat their children, actually.
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Ah, I see we've got to the point of Dracula Daily where people are realizing Vlad's welcoming speech at the party in Phangs is a bastardization of Dracula welcoming Jonathon into his home.
Excellent. I look forward to more incoherent yelling.
“Friends,” Vlad called, throwing his arms wide in welcome. “Esteemed guests! And those of you who somehow made it past the doorman! It is my great pleasure to welcome you all here tonight, on this, our most unholy of nights: Hallows’ Eve! On behalf of my family, welcome to our humble abode. Enter freely, dance, drink, be merry, and in due course, though ‘twill pain us to see you go,” he said as he pressed a hand theatrically to his heart, garnering a ripple of laughter from the crowd, “depart safely and in good cheer. All we ask is that you leave some of the happiness you bring… and preferably the silverware.”
He lacks the brevity and gravitas of his grandfather but makes up for it in theatrics and sass.
Wait other people didn't pick up on this? Does this mean I'm a Dracula nerd? I thought it was obvious that Vladdy-pie was riffing good old Dracs
Judging from the number of people who are just now reading Dracula in their emails and subsequently coming into my inbox to yell about the parallels, apparently not!
Also, to the people just now making the connection between Vlad's Elizabeth and Elizabeth Bathory, well done. I'm glad the bath "joke" finally landed.
Congratulations, you’re the first person I’ve seen spot that one!
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Rumple + textpost memes [Part 1]
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A new study has revealed for the first time the vital role carbon dioxide (CO2) plays in determining the lifespan of airborne viruses—namely SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It clearly showed keeping CO2 levels in check helps to reduce virus survival, and therefore the risk of infection. The research, led by the University of Bristol and published today in Nature Communications, shows how CO2 is a major factor in prolonging the life of SARS-CoV-2 variants present in tiny droplets circulating in the atmosphere. Lead author Dr. Allen Haddrell, Senior Research Associate in Aerosol Science at the University's School of Chemistry, said, "We knew SARS-CoV-2, like other viruses, spreads through the air we breathe. But this study represents a huge breakthrough in our understanding of exactly how and why that happens, and crucially, what can be done to stop it.
Source: phys.org
xkcd fans are the only fandom I've had direct experience with where people do the stereotypical nerdy fan thing of referring to installments of the thing they like by their release order numbers instead of their titles
like I've never heard anyone just say "the simpsons season 7 episode 21" without also saying the episode title but I have heard people say "xkcd 2501" without also saying the title of the xkcd
Yeah, we shouldn't expect everyone to know every comic by heart. The average internet user probably only knows 1053 and 936.
and 2501, of course.
Of course!
sigh
hold on
xkcd 1053:
xkcd 936:
and of course, xkcd 2501:
TIL XKDC strips have titles.
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modern social media should stop offering "sync with your phone contacts to follow them" options and start offering "block all your phone contacts so they never see your account" options
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"But why do you let your disability stop you?" Because that's.... what disabilities... do. That's... literally the basic definition... of being disabled... A disability impairs your ability to function. That's what the term means. That's the main thing