@sjbagels / sjbagels.tumblr.com
Schools: don’t teach those skills anymore
Stuff: is made to not be repairable
Tools & Materials: are priced as a luxury
Working Hours: have expanded to take up a lot of people’s whole day and weekends
Wages: have stagnated so that everyone has to work full time
“News” media: Your dad is better at DIY than you, ya dick!
Who could have possibly foreseen that organizing the entire service economy around low-wage workers without sick leave or reliable access to a doctor might someday backfire.
If you wear glasses, you might have noticed that they’ve been getting steadily more expensive in recent years, no matter which brand you buy and no matter where you shop.
That’s because a giant-but-obscure company called Luxottica bought out Sunglass Hut and Lenscrafters, then used their dominance over the retail side of glasses to force virtually every eyewear brand to sell to them (Luxxotica owns or licenses Armani, Brooks Brothers, Burberry, Chanel, Coach, DKNY, Dolce & Gabbana, Michael Kors, Oakley, Oliver Peoples, Persol, Polo Ralph Lauren, Ray-Ban, Tiffany, Valentino, Vogue and Versace); and used that to buy out all the other eyewear retailers of any note (Luxottica owns Pearle Vision, Sears Optical, Sunglass Hut and Target Optical) and then also bought out insurers like Eyemed Vision Care and Essilor, the leading prescription lens/contact lens manufacturer.
Controlling the labs, insurers, frame makers, and all the major retail outlets has allowed Luxottica to squeeze suppliers – frames are cheaper than ever to make, thanks to monopsony buying power with Prada-grade designer frames costing $15 to manufacture – while raising prices as much as 1000% relative to pre-acquisition pricing.
It’s even worse for lenses: a pair of prescription lenses that cost $1.50 to make sell for $800 in the USA.
LA Times columnist David Lazarus wrote a column about skyrocketing eyewear prices and was approached by Charles Dahan, who once owned one of the largest frames companies in America, Custom Optical, which supplied 20% of the frames sold at Lenscrafters prior to the Luxottica acquisition. Dahan describes how Luxottica cornered the horizontal and vertical markets for eyewear and pushed out or bought out every other company (Oakley refused to sell or lower prices, so Luxottica boycotted it from its retailers, forcing the company into such a precarious position that it Luxottica was able to buy it for a fraction of its peak book-value just a few years later).
This is a good example of how decades of far-right ideologically driven antitrust malpractice has hurt everyone. After all, glasses aren’t just a fashion item: they’re a necessity for people with poor vision, a prerequisite for driving, walking, cycling, reading, getting an education or doing your job.
Luxottica grew through acquisition, by buying up its competition. This was banned under classic antitrust law, until the Reagan years. This pattern has been repeated in many other domains: beer, whiskey, retail pharmacies, and so on. In every one of those domains, we are getting screwed, as are small businesspeople and the families they serve.
Roughly 15 years ago the International Olympic Committee did the research, and found that after a period of 1 year on HRT there is absolutely no calculable advantage of trans women over cis women. In 2003, trans women were officially allowed to compete in the Olympics. This is the Olympics. A tier of competition where tenths of a second can make all the world of difference, and they still couldn’t find an advantage inherent to being a trans woman.
The stink was relatively small, and subsided relatively quickly because there were no trans Olympians. There were, and are, many barriers to trans athletes other than just the simple rule of being theoretically allowed to compete in the Olympics.
Recently a grand total of one (1) trans woman has excelled in one sport. Not even at the Olympics itself. And now cis people are absolutely losing their shit.
Over a decade later, cis people are now wanting to walk back something that got decided quite some time ago.
“I suppose you can compete, it’s not like any of you are going to excel WAIT ONE OF YOU WON SOMETHING SCRATCH THAT walk everything back this is an attempt to destroy true wombyn’s sport!”
Like it’s so transparent.
Hey mother nature i love you and shit but like….what the fuck my good bitch
Goodness!
Okay. I’m Canadian so I know a shit ton about staying warm if you’re new to the cold there here are some tips!(add more if you know more!)
1. Wear grippy shoes, nothing is worse than snowmelt freezing on your skin.
2.Do not wear jeans as your outter layer. wet denim is the most body heat siphoning mother fucker known to man or god
3. Have a warm drink with you. It will help. Even just some hot soup broth or boiled water will help keep you warm.
4. Wear a moisture wicking layer close to your skin so you don’t get cold from your own sweat. You will sweat. That is fine and expected.
5. If you start feeling too warm even though you were cold and like you have to take your clothes of DO NOT. Call 911. You are suffering from hypothermia.
6. Bring a blanket and a heat source that needs no electricity with you in your vehicle. You do not want to be stranded with no heat in the case that something happens.
7. If you are struggling on ice as you’re walking, stop. Get your balance and penguin shuffle to a less slippery patch of ground. There’s usually less ice on one side of the walk and it’s better to walk in the snow next to the sidewalk than it is to eat dirt when ya slip
8. STAY THE ABSOLUTE FUCK AWAY FROM FROZEN BODIES OF WATER. Ponds are deceptive as shit even with the “solid blue tried and true” thing. Go around.
9. Keep kids warm. They run at a higher body temperature and will feel the effects of the cold worse than you.
10. Huddling is your best friend. Even if you don’t know the person, remember you’re both cold, especially if they don’t have the right clothing for the weather.
11. Pay attention to windchill. That is how cold it feels. Dress appropriately please. I know it’s tempting to dress for style, but there’s nothing stylish about losing your toes to frostbite
12. Don’t touch metal if you can avoid it. It will sap your heat and likely freeze to anything wet. Like tongues. Don’t fucking lick a pole.
13. If someone licks something metal, pour warm water over their tongue to get them free. If they yank, they will bleed. A lot.
14. Keep your ears, noes, fingers, and toes warm. You’re extremities will get cold first and are the most likely parts of your body to get frostbite.
15. If you see someone who may not have a place to be in the cold, offer to help them find a local shelter or library. The elements, especially the cold, are some of the largest threats to those who cannot avoid them.
16. If you find yourself stuck outside for a long time, sleep during the day when it is warmest, and avoid sleeping on the ground. Stay awake as much as you can at night so you have a better chance of staying warm.
Also, look out for your local animals. Cats will sleep on car wheels where you can’t see them - it’s elevated, rubber is warmer than the ground, and it’s a little hideyhole where they feel safe. Check your wheel wells and under your car before you go driving off, you might save a tiny life.
You can also, if you’re so inclined, make a little winter shelter for cats and small animals fairly easily and cheaply.
[Here] is a great (if lengthy) text guide to building shelters for local cats. [Here] is a video from the Ontario SPCA. [Here] is an even simpler (ad possibly cheaper) version of basically the same thing. As long as you smooth out the opening (so the lil guys don’t injure themselves on it), insulate, and line it, and then put it somewhere where it’s not going to get flooded or the animal snowed in, you’re grand. It might not seem like much in the face of subzero temperatures, but it’s damn well better than nothing.
Everyone, look through the notes for other information too!
Math proves that capitalism sucks and that capitalists are greedy.
So he gave millions and you gave $40 and feel like you’re doing more?
Guys, guys, let’s get back into Animorphs!!!
They are all free to read with Applegate’s permission on the animorphs website!
Oh yeah babey
Listen i support this but we just can’t be telling adults/older teens to “read animorphs” that shit’s dark, and anyone old enough to get how dark it is needs some fuckin warnings
Yeah honestly younger kids handled Animorphs just fine but older people who’ve had more relevant life experiences probably need more warning before diving into a book series full of SO MUCH graphic death, slavery and war crime.
wtf this is real bad
disaster capitalism wrecked nearly every facet of new orleans post-katrina, this is the latest in a long line of things that have broken this city. half the black population gone, gentrification in final stages, underemployment is rampant, harsher enforcement of ancient drug laws, corrupt politics, Airbnb, and now a fully for-profit school system designed to funnel those with the best access and privilege to the top, and those without on the school to prison pipeline as early as goddamn Pre-K. New Orleans ain’t New Orleans anymore, and hasn’t been for a long ass time.
I just saw that people have cut down some of the Joshua trees during this shutdown and I want to cry
The what trees? Someone explain? I want to be appropriately sad. I mean, I’m sad either way because trees are better than people. But why are these trees more special than usual?
They’re a rare species, and one that is very stunning, and also one that is very vulnerable to habitat loss and climate change.
And if I ever get my hands on one of the people who did this, I will be hard pressed to not kill them.
Did you see WHY they cut them down? They cut them down so they could go off roading in closed off areas of pristine desert.
Some fucking people should not be let out of their cages.
I take what I said back.
I would ABSOLUTELY have to kill them.
These are Joshua trees. They can be 300 years old (and at tallest, 15 meters).
Their range isn’t confined to the national park, fortunately. They are found in spots throughout southern CA, NV, and AZ.
This news makes me absolutely furious.
Read those articles. A lot of people think that you can’t “damage” the desert, because they don’t realize it’s not “just rocks and sand”, but an extremely delicate ecosystem that takes decades to grow even a little bit. Once damaged, it probably won’t repair itself in these assholes’ lifetimes.
And this is exactly the kind of thing that the national parks were established to combat – the mindset of “what does it matter if I cut down some of these trees, there are lots more right over there; what does it matter if I go off-roading, there’s more desert than anyone really needs”. It’s a profoundly selfish and wasteful mindset.
Just this week I went googling around – hesitantly – to see what the latest news is from Yellowstone. All of the parks are in danger of poachers coming in while the rangers are understaffed, but I feel like Yellowstone is especially vulnerable, because its wildlife is famous, and in cases like the wolf reintroduction there, infamous amongst exactly the same kind of people who are committing vandalism throughout the parks.
Fortunately, at least so far, I haven’t found any news reports of poachers targeting the wildlife. There are apparently a lot of local businesses (probably near many of the parks, but particularly Yellowstone) that are chipping in money for cleaning and upkeep and, one expects, security, because those businesses depend on visitors to the parks for their own survival. (Which is why the shutdown affects far more than just the 800k workers who aren’t being paid.)
Some people are absolutely awful, and the only thing I can take comfort from at the moment is that there are also many people who love the parks, know the danger they face right now, and who are trying to help protect them.
Sorry to chime in on the post, but I wanna add that Zion National Park is also partially staffed thanks to local businesses. To anyone visiting these parks right now, PLEASE be respectful. With the current level of staffing, try to pack your trash out with you even if there are garbage cans. They won’t be emptied as often. (Also, please pick up trash you see along popular trails. Now especially but also in general, it’s good hiking etiquette to leave a trail cleaner than you found it.)
Don’t go into restricted areas (i.e., in Zion, don’t poach canyons; just because the permit system is down doesn’t mean you’re allowed in—besides the fact that it makes you an asshole, it’s also incredibly dangerous because there aren’t enough rangers to help field SAR calls). Don’t fuck with the wildlife or plants. Be kind to any rangers you do see. They’re all struggling right now.
Even though I’ve just had it very helpfully explained to me I’m still utterly confused
How do you exist convinced that a perfectly logical policy is more important than alleviating human suffering? I don’t think I’ll ever ever be able to understand it
i think someone i follow just turned into a bot???????? like since last night all they’ve posted are reblogs of fishy linked posts titled “Hot Girl Online” originating from the same deactivated blog and reblogged via another obvious bot blog. i’m losing my mind. they were a real person a day or two ago. what happened
I’ve been seeing this a lot, like a post that’s clearly a bot post shows up in my recommended posts and I go to the blog to report/block in and the first couple of posts are the spammy bullshit…and then the rest is…pretty much what you would expect from a typical Tumblr blog…
yeah someone else reblogged this and said in the tags they’d noticed bot posts on their dash too… so it’s obviously a thing. i already knew bots regularly seize deactivated urls for use, but these blogs don’t appear to have been deactivated before being seized, which is somewhat concerning. part of me wonders if the massive droves of people leaving for other social media in wake of the 17th have just left unprecedented numbers of urls open for swiping, or if something more sinister is happening here. it seems possible that they’re actually taking over active and/or archived accounts, but it’s unclear how they’d go about that, so i’m not jumping to any conclusions yet.
definitely unsettling though. i hope this mystery gets solved soon. i’ll be keeping a much closer eye on my archived blogs in the meantime
basically it’s what happens when people end up giving permissions to fishy linked accounts and services like “2mblr” promising to back up their blog or give them unfollow notifications or whatever, which inadvertently gives the service permission to make posts and hijack the user’s account for bot shit. if this happens to you, it’s actually a relatively easy fix as long as you still have access to your account
essentially you just need to remove the linked service and you should have full control of your blog again. to be super safe you could also change your password after regaining control of the account, but i don’t think that should be necessary.
anyway, if you (like me) don’t have any linked 3rd party accounts, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about at the moment. if anyone you follow starts posting bot shit, try to contact them to let them know what’s happening and how to fix it. always be wary of giving your info to any 3rd party services!
“here are some alternates to tumblr! like newgrounds or pixiv" yall just, straight up stopped suggesting sites even remotely similar to tumblr and are just saying random shit now. guys lets all move to the comments section of youtube
you’re not thinking big enough. time to move to target dot com product reviews.
Despite all the law enforcement resources expended, empirical research on the dangers or benefits of erotic services ads has been sparse. But a new study provides strong evidence that when law enforcement closes down sites like Craigslist or Redbook, women die.
The September 2017 study, authored by West Virginia University and Baylor University economics and information systems experts, analyzes rates of female homicides in various cities before and after Craigslist opened an erotic services section on its website. The authors found a shocking 17 percent decrease in homicides with female victims after Craigslist erotic services were introduced.
The data does not provide a single clear explanation as to why female homicide rates drop so steeply, Scott Cunningham, one of the paper’s authors, told ThinkProgress. It’s possible, for example, that when Craigslist opens erotic services ads, some women in abusive domestic situations decide to become sex workers, move out, and so escape violent homicide at the hands of their spouses or boyfriends.
The most likely explanation, though, Cunningham says, is that sex workers simply make up a huge percentage of female homicide victims. When sex workers are safer, female homicide rates drop significantly.
[…]
Once sex workers move indoors, they are much safer for a number of reasons, Cunningham said. When you’re indoors, “you can screen your clients more efficiently. When you’re soliciting a client on the street, there is no real screening opportunity. The sex worker just has to make the split second decision. She relies on very limited and complete information about the client’s identity and purposes. Whereas when a sex worker solicits indoors through digital means, she has Google, she has a lot of correspondence, she can ask a lot of questions. It’s not perfect screening, but it’s better.”
[…]
In theory, closing down advertising is supposed to reduce exploitation of women. In practice, when resources are taken away from people living on the edge of poverty, they have fewer options and are less able to protect themselves.
For all these reasons access to the Internet can transform the experience of sex work. Young women who have been able to screen clients using sites like Craigslist, “almost feel like this is a safe job because they have these tools,” DiAngelo said.
Sex workers report that free online advertising makes them safer. There is now data showing that erotic services ads significantly decrease female homicide rates. So, will law enforcement back down and allow these sites to operate again?
(Click the link for the full article, quotes posted for brevity)
friendly reminder that Tumblr Staff has all the resources and time to do elaborate trivial web coding for this website for April Fool’s Day annually but never did shit to remove cp in this website, ban nazis, and clean the porn bots. meanwhile, they are punishing its userbase by banning all adult-related content using a flawed “automated” system or machine to do it. as a result, non-nsfw blogs got terminated wrongfully, and even non-nsfw content are getting flagged and blocked. ladies and gentlemen, this is how staff doesn’t give a damn about its user-base and how this website is so broken
EAT HIM ALIVE
That’s my girl
They also aren’t “hopping in front of anybody” what the fuck does that mean? If you don’t have your papers in order you’re not taking up a slot in some queue. You’re doing virtually the exact opposite. You’re not taking anything from anybody.
XKCD’s excellent presentation on historical global temperature and anthropogenic global warming.
[After setting your car on fire] “Listen, your car’s temperature has changed before.”
For the “Earth’s climate has changed before” crowd.
My brother saved this document and everytime he gets angry at our neighbours for being loud he prints it to their wireless printer and you can hear the wife shout “Why the fuck would you print this AGAIN?!” to her son.
every time we serve chicken at work i think of this post
1. If you were wondering, you can type the numbers in the works cited into google and they appear to be medical journal articles about using medical imaging to detect and diagnose a rare form of Gastritis.
2. Please enjoy the offical powerpoint presentation of this paper at an academic conference by the original author, complete with Q&A:
THIS IS GOLD
oh m god please watch the video it’s some of the most contagious laughter on the planet
When I saw this cross my dash tonight, I smiled and thought “yess, the chicken chicken chicken post, I get to reblog it again and inflict it on all of the people that have followed me since last time”, and then I scrolled down more and to my utter delight there was A VIDEO, needless to say my night has been made
Yessss
I can’t believe that actually happened, oh my god. The best.
