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Things and Stuff.

@russetm

Leverage had a lot of well-researched things to say about the real world, but the one I always come back to, from The Double Blind Job:

Sophie: These are not small fines. Last year, my department handled a case where the company had to pay out $2.5 billion.

Hoffman: Oh, yeah. Everybody heard about that. But what the news didn’t tell you is that that company made $16 billion on the same drug. That fine was 14% of the profit. 14%. That’s like tipping your waiter.

But it does.

It does… one at a time.  It’d be useful to be able to select more than one. G&T but not higher, M&E only, everything but E for those who just don’t like smut. (btw I just checked and there is none of the exclusion filters showing on the search page at least in my computer)

AO3 does ‘and’ filters.

You don’t filter for M&E. You filter for not the other stuff.

You don’t filter for

M&E. You filter for

not the other stuff.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

Thank you, Haiku bot

I am eternally grate

ful for your service

Yall do NOT hop on a cosmetic surgery hate train during an ongoing campaign against trans Healthcare I am fucking begging

My tits didn't smaller themselves, fuckos. Either you believe in bodily autonomy or you fucking don't.

The sacred bond between trans people who've had plastics and cis people who have had plastics is fucking sacred and I will not tolerate anybody in the queer community trash-talking plastics no matter what it is and who is getting them and for what reason!!!

I want there to not be a line between 'costmetic' and 'necessary'. If there's a line, then insurance companies and whoever-the-fuck-else will decide everything is 'cosmetic'. That happened to me with getting my jaw rebuilt when I was A CHILD. 'oh it's cosmetic' My insurance wrangler lady and the surgeon had to write SEVERAL LETTERS to the damn insurance company detailing out just how graphically I would DIE if I did not get my face rebuilt before I was 18! If 'we won't pay for cosmetic plastics only necessary ones' wasn't a thing, that wouldn't have had to fucking happen!

So you know what? I don't want to hear the word 'cosmetic' out of anyone's mouth. it's ALL just plastics. And all plastics are still 100% the person's choice to get, I don't care what the reason is, all reasons are your business and should be honoured and that's as it should be. As Sweaterkittens said, you either believe in bodily autonomy or you fucking don't.

Signed,

A Transman who has had exclusively plastics for all FOUR major surgeries throughout his life.

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So, not only did this land on me, but then I got shit-canned today. (For something I didn't do wrong, no less!) I've filed for unemployment and made an appointment with an attorney, and this isn't too big a surprise because I just asked for ADA accommodations last month and they've been gunning for me since last year when I complained about an unhinged supervisor.

Anyway, though, until I'm able to either find other employment or get unemployment or something, I am kind of up against a wall.

If you want to help and can, my p.a.y.p.a.l is here. My ko/fi is here.

Absolutely no pressure, if you can't. Would ask for reblogs, though, if you're able.

Thanks.

im like if a girl was {undefined variable}. im like if a girl was [fragment missing]. im like if a girl was (editor’s note: the author’s invocation of the word “girl” in this context is idiosyncratic, perhaps metaphorical) im like if a girl was im like if a girl draft deleted! im like if a girl You have reached your free article limit! Subscribe now to continue reading. im like if a girl was [THREAD LOCKED] im like if a girl (ENDING EXPLAINED!) im like if a girl Unusual activity detected, please highlight all the pictures of bicycles. im like if a girl I don’t respond to prompts that could be deemed offensive, and so I am unable to carry out the request. im-like-if-a-girldeactivated03092023. im like if a girl we are unable to take your call at the minute. im like if a girl isn’t registered under that name. im like if a girl could give you her date of birth. im like if a girl oh yes we have you under […]. im like if a girl LOST CONNECTION

A couple weeks ago I was for reasons looking up info on lilacs and learned that in a famous park in my state the Arnold arboretum today is Lilac Sunday and the only day the park allows picnicking, and since my mother didn’t have to go to a union rally today since her contract seems to be resolved we went to the park for mother’s day and it was a great time, and we’re absolutely going to head back because we loved it so much. and if in the near future i’m not feeling lazy I’ll post some of the pictures I took. 

The other day, I went down the rabbit hole of "cute donkeys" and came up with my head full of things I didn't know about mules (the hybrid offspring of a horse and a donkey), and why they were once so coveted as work animals.

Brace for info dump, while enjoying this lovely photo of a trio of draft mules.

The explanation is hybrid vigour, when hybrid offspring have enhanced traits compared to its parents:

Mules are stronger, hardier, healthier, have better enduranve, harder hooves, sturdier skin and can handle extreme weather better than horses or donkeys. They are also more patient, more intelligent, and easier to handle than either of their parent species. Horses may be faster, but that's about the single thing they're better at than a mule of the same size.

So mules, being all around nicer to work with and getting you more work for the same amount of feed, and with less hassle, were preferred for just about every job purpose.

Habby du Magnou, a Poitevin Mulassier mare, and her daughter Lady du Magnou, a rare Poitevin mule

But since horses have 64 chromosomes and donkeys have 62, mules end up with 63 chromosomes, which means they are almost invariably sterile. That's because biology gets very confused when trying to split an uneven number of chromosomes neatly in half to create germ cells. There are a few documented exceptions of fertile mule mares (never stallions), but they are very, very rare. So you have to keep crossbreeding the two parent species to produce them, usually by breeding a donkey sire (jack) to a horse dam (mare). This is because it's easier for a 32 chromosome egg to incorporate a 31 chromosome sperm into a viable zygote (fertilised egg) than vice versa.

Because of this, there was (and still is) in France a breed of absolutely massive draft horses, the Poitevin Mulassier, and a breed of big-ass donkeys (pun intended, but honestly, it's arguably the largest donkey in the world, and it's shaggy like Highland cattle), the Baudet du Pitou, two breeds whose main purpose was to breed the enormous and super-strong Poitevin mule.

The Poitevin mule

This absolute unit was the must-have work-animal for all kinds of farm and industrial work for centuries, and a significant French export, until mechanisation made these magnificent creatures obsolete.

With no demand for the Poitevin mule , its parent breeds dwindled, almost to the brink of extinction. Determined conservation efforts during the last few decades are slowly bringing their numbers back up, but they're very far from their heyday, when some 20,000 Poitevin mules were born annually.

The Poitevin Mulassier

Both the parent breeds are still endangered, which means most of the current effort is directed into bringing up the numbers of Poitevin horses and Pitou donkeys. This means breeding horses to horses and donkeys to donkeys, with very few breeding opportunities allowed to produce the Poitevin mule. Only about 20 of those are born each year.

The Baudet du Pitou

ok some days being visibly homo is the most wonderful thing in the world. an old woman walking her dog stopped to say hello to me and I asked if i could say hi to her dog. she seemed really excited and told me "his name is rupert brooke. i named him after a gay poet from the era of the first world war. he had red hair just like my dogs fur". then she leans in and whispers like she's divulging some great secret and says "i don't usually tell people about the gay part"

I’ve told this one before, but: I was in a long-distance relationship in 2010. One time, after flying back into Toronto, I got a cab to my apartment. The cab driver, who was a recent Pakistani immigrant, asked where I had been travelling.

And I had to think about my safety as a passenger and a woman, but I decided to just tell him: “I was visiting my girlfriend in New York.” And he went quiet, and I was briefly terrified, and then he said, “It’s good here in Canada, for people like us.” AND THEN I FUCKING CRIED OBVIOUSLY.

It’s good to be visibly or openly queer, when you can be. There are so many more of us out there than you ever realize otherwise.

I feel like Germany really needs to draw the right conclusions from Eurovision: a) No one votes for us anyway at this point b) we're guaranteed a spot in the finale bc we're a member of the Big 5.

Conclusion: We can basically hold televisions across Europe hostage for 3 minutes and do what the fuck we like. Let some random security guy sing, elected 30 seconds before going on stage. Classical opera sung after breathing helium. Slightly sing-songy stand up comedy. Sneak in Die Ärzte under fake names and do whatever. A speed caricaturist drawing the competition while doing some half-hearted whistling. Host a drunk ballet performance.

What are they going to do? Ban us?

I volunteer to hold a lecture on java programming set to off-key flute music.

Why not make this a double-act?

AITA for seeking multiple solicitors for my business in England?

I (500M) have decided I need more than one solicitor for my business transactions in the United Kingdom, a country I am not wholly familiar with. I am already engaged with an appetizing enthusiastic agent (21M) from the Hawkins firm in Exeter. However, I feel that I should engage with other firms for the business that I have in London, and elsewhere in the country.

Is this proper for one of means to do in England?

NTA! Its completely in your right to engage with other firms if that's what you have to do in order to conduct your business. Your agent sounds like a lovely fellow! I sure hope nothing bad happens to him!

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Concept: magic school drama with one of those goofy house systems where the protagonist gets assigned to what is widely regarded as the boring house for boring people, and their central emotional conflict revolves around trying to prove they're Not So Ordinary After All™; eventually their efforts lead them to accidentally discover that the school is actually some sort of wildly unethical human experiment, and the reason their house is the boring one is that it's the control group.