Mildly Interesting Dump #5

I have a hereditary gap in my eyebrow

These three ceiling fans run off of one motor

The picture of the Japanese movie advertisement is printed on two sides of the newspaper, so the full picture could be seen under light 

The perfect symmetry of this plant 

Shadow and slope makes it look like he’s floating

This tiny ceiling tile at my house

My broken antenna on my car looks like a half sunken boat.

The shower in my hotel has a little cutout so you can turn it on before getting in.

I drew poppy outlines for my class to cut out - they look like they overlap but don’t.

The golf balls at the mini golf on this pier are biodegradable and fall into the sea at the 18th hole 

Our refrigerator has revolving levels so you can reach everything easily

This window that makes my back yard look like it’s in 4 different seasons 

This one dude in the crowd in a neon shirt. 

The way this picture of a frozen puddle in my backyard looks like a landscape from the perspective of a plane.

Modern tomato vs one grown from 150yo seeds 

My neighbors are moving their entire house back 200ft.

This door in my hotel bathroom can close off either of 2 doorways.

Our dog’s paw looks like a mini-version of him 

This dead straight line of bubbles in my beer 

This “where are you from” map at The Aurora Museum in Reykjavík Iceland 

You can see the number eight between the diamonds on this 8 card.

I made a piano shelf

This purely golden bee landed on my car today 

This was so satisfying 

Everyone should know the international sign for Help Me. Let’s make this famous!!

Interesting; I didn’t know this was a thing.

It’s apparently a thing, but it’s a very new thing, so it may need some help being known.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_for_Help

The Signal for Help (or the Violence at Home Signal for Help) is a single-handed gesture that can be used by an individual to alert others that they feel threatened and need help over a video call, or in-person. It was originally created as a tool to combat the rise in domestic violence cases around the world as a result of the self-isolation measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic…

The Signal for Help was first introduced in Canada by the Canadian Women’s Foundation on April 14, 2020, and on April 28, 2020 in the United States by the Women’s Funding Network (WFN). It received widespread praise from local, national, and international news organizations for helping provide a modern solution to the issue of a rise in domestic violence cases.

The signal has been recognized by over 40 organizations across Canada and the United States as a useful tool to help combat domestic violence.

Addressing concerns that abusers may become aware of such a widespread online initiative, the Canadian Women’s Foundation and other organizations clarified that this signal is not “something that’s going to save the day,” but rather a tool someone could use to get help.

Elevated Bus That Drives Above Traffic Jams

if this fucking thing started training over me while i was driving i’d slam the breaks and kill everybody behind me

ooh, innovative transportation

we are all just sitting in our own little bedrooms all across the world with our headphones in listening to our little songs aren’t we

sorry if i’m being a party pooper but because rabies is apparently the new joke on here ??? please remember that rabies has an almost 100% fatality rate after symptoms develop so if you’re bitten or scratched by an animal that you aren’t 100% sure is vaccinated then GO TO A DOCTOR. it’s not a joke. really. 

You’re being kind when you say “almost 100% fatality”. What people need to hear is: if you get to develop rabies symptoms, you’re dead. If you get heavy treatment after developping symptoms, you still need a miracle. Like, a real miracle, you should enter some religion if you escape that.

ALSO, I don’t want people feeling confident about petting stray/wild animals because there’s a vaccine available, either. I’ll explain why from my own experience (I’m not a doctor).

I got bitten by a wild tamarin once, on the pulp of my index finger. It drew blood, there are many wild animals in the area (tamarins, possums, bats, foxes) and it isn’t that uncommon to hear about 1 or 2 rabies cases every now and again (a puppy we gave to a friend got it, for instance), so I went to an ambulatory immediately.

Because I was bitten in an ultrasensitive area, I needed fast treatment. But it was also a small area, so the usual thing they do - inject the vaccine in the place - wasn’t a choice. They told me they’d divide the shot in 5 small ones, and inject me all over my body, so the antidote would get to my entire system fast.

Please stop for a moment and think that the disease is so worrysome that they’d rather needle me all over than to give me one shot and wait until it spread through my system.

Then they said that, okay, but there was a catch first. I needed to take an antiallergic shot. “Why?” “Because the virus is devastating, and as the vaccine is made from it, but weakened (like almost every vaccine) it will still create a reaction, and it’s a strong one, and it’s veru common for people to have strong allergic reactions to it.” YOU HAVE TO TAKE AN ANTIALLERGIC SHOT IN ORDER TO TAKE THE VACCINE COZ THE VACCINE COULD POTENTIALLY MAKE YOU REALLY SICK

ALSO IT WASN’T JUST “A LITTLE ANTIALLERGIC SHOT”

IT WAS ONE OF THESE FUCKERS HERE.

It was OBVIOUSLY dripped in my body and not injected because HAHAHAHA. Truth be told I was an adult already and I’m tall so I have a lot of mass but STILL.

So after I had taken the antiallegic and was starting to feel drowsy (as a side effect of it) the doctor came with the 5 shots.

- One in each buttock

- One in each thigh

- One in my left arm

They all stung like a bitch and I usually don’t care about shots.

“Okay so can I go home now?”

“No, we have to keep you under observation for 2h so we’re SURE the vaccine won’t give you any reaction.”

BINCH I WAS GIVEN A BUTTLOAD OF MEDICINE BUT THERE WAS STILL A RISK.

I slept through the two hours and then was liberated to go home. My legs, butt, and left arm hurt all over, like I had been punched there, for a few days. I also had a fever (not feverish, a fever)

BUT DID YOU THINK IT WAS OVER?

WRONG!!!

I had to take four reinforcement shots in the next month, one a week, so I could be positively be considered immunized. Every time I took a shot, my arm would swell and hurt like it’d been hit, and when night came I’d have a fever. Because that’s how fucking strong the vaccine is, BECAUSE THAT’S HOW VICIOUS THE VIRUS IS.

So yeah. DO NOT PUT YOURSELF IN RISK, GODDAMNIT. Rabies is a rare condition all over, THANK GOD, and 1 confirmed case can be already considered a surge and a reason for mass campaigning, AND FOR A REASON.

If you like messing with stray/wild animals, don’t go picking them up and be extra careful. Or just, like, DON’T - call a vet or an authority that can handle them safely.

I must add that I live in a country with universal healthcare, so I didn’t pay a single penny for my treatment. Is this your reality? If not, ONE MORE REASON TO NOT FUCKING PLAY WITH THIS SHIT.

Rabies is 100% lethal. Period. If you are scratched or bitten by an animal you’re not positive is vaccinated, you need to find treatment NOW. And probably go through all that shit I’ve been through (also if you are immunosupressed? I DON’T KNOW WHAT’D HAPPEN)

Stay safe and don’t be stupid ffs

Guys, I know this isn’t art nor anything like that, but I’ve been hearing about this rabies thing and ???? Look I trust none of you would risk yourselves like this, but maybe you can educate someone through my experience and stuff.

Also rabies does not necessarily cause frothing-at-the-mouth aggression in animals. Docility is also a very common symptom so any wild animal that is ‘friendly’ or ‘likes to be pet’ is suspect. Literally any wild animal is a vector.

Finally, you don’t need to be bitten. All you need is to come into contact with an infected animal’s bodily fluids through a cut that maybe you didn’t notice when you were handling it when it drooled on you.

Never touch a wild animal.

Infection with the rabies virus progresses through three distinct stages.

Prodromal: Stage One. Marked by altered behavioral patterns. “Docility” and “likes to be pet” are very common in the prodromal stage. Usually lasts 1-3 days. An animal in this stage carries virus bodies in its saliva and is infectious.

Excitative: Stage Two. Also called “furious” rabies. This is what everyone thinks rabies is–hyperreacting to stimuli and biting everything. Excessive salivation occurs. Animals in this stage also exhibit hydrophobia or the fear of water; they cannot drink (swallowing causes painful spasms of the throat muscles), and will panic if shown water. Usually lasts 3-4 days before rapidly progressing into the next stage.

Paralytic: Stage Three. Also called “dumb” rabies. As the infection runs its course, the virus starts degrading the nervous system. Limbs begin to fail; animals in this stage will often limp or drag their haunches behind them. If the animal has survived all this way, death will usually come through respiratory arrest: Their diaphragm becomes paralyzed and they stop breathing.

And to add onto the above, saliva isn’t the only infectious fluid. Brain matter is, too. If, somehow, you find yourself in possession of a firearm and faced with a rabid animal, do not go for a head shot. If you do, you will aerosolize the brain matter and effectively create a cloud of infectious material. Breathe it in, and you’ll give yourself an infection.

When I worked in wildlife rehabilitation, I actually did see a rabid animal in person, and it remains one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, because I was literally looking death in the eyes.

A pair of well-intentioned women brought us a raccoon that they thought had been hit by a car. They had found it on the side of the road, dragging its hind legs. They managed–somehow–to get it into a cat carrier and brought it to us. 

As they brought it in, I remember how eerily silent it was. Normal raccoons chatter almost constantly. They fidget. They bump around. They purr and mumble and make little grabby-hands at everything. Even when they’re in pain, and especially when they’re stressed. But this one wasn’t moving around inside the carrier, and it wasn’t making a sound.

The clinic director also noticed this, and he asked in a calm but urgent voice for the women to hand the carrier to him. He took it to the exam room and set it on the table while they filled out some forms in the next room. I took a step towards the carrier, to look at our new patient, and without turning around, he told me, “Go to the other side of the room, and stay there.”

He took a small penlight out of the drawer and shone it briefly into the carrier, then sighed. “Bear, if you want to come look at this, you can put on a mask,” he said. “It’s really pretty neat, but I know you’re not vaccinated and I don’t want to take any chances.” 

And at that point, I knew exactly what we were dealing with, and I knew that this would be the closest I had ever been to certain death. So I grabbed a respirator from the table and put it on, and held my breath for good measure as I approached the table. The clinic director pointed where I should stand, well back from the carrier door. He shone the light inside again, and I saw two brilliant flashes of emerald green–the most vivid, unnatural eyeshine I had ever seen. 

“I don’t know why it does it,” the director murmured, “but it turns their eyes green.”

“What does?” one of the women asked, with uncanny, unintentionally dramatic timing, as she poked her head around the corner.

“Rabies,” the director said. “The raccoon is rabid. Did it bite either of you, or even lick you?” They told us no, said they had even used leather garden gloves when they herded it into the carrier. He told them to throw away the gloves as soon as possible, and steam-clean the upholstery in their car. They asked how they should clean the cat carrier; they wanted it back and couldn’t be convinced otherwise, so he told them to soak it in just barely diluted bleach.

But before we could give them the carrier back, we had to remove the raccoon. The rabid raccoon.

The clinic director readied a syringe with tranquilizers and attached it to the end of a short pole. I don’t remember how it was rigged exactly–whether he had a way to push down the plunger or if the needle would inject with pressure–but all he would have to do was stick the animal to inject it. And so, after sending me and the women back to the other side of the room, he made his fist jab.

He missed the raccoon.

The sound that that animal made on being brushed by the pole can only be described as a roar. It was throaty and ragged and ungodly loud. It was not a sound that a raccoon should ever make. I’m convinced it was a sound that a raccoon physically could not make. 

It thrashed inside the carrier, sending it tipping from side to side. Its claws clattered against the walls. It bellowed that throaty, rasping sound again. It was absolutely frenzied, and I was genuinely scared that it would break loose from inside those plastic walls. 

Somehow, the clinic director kept his calm, and as the raccoon jolted around inside the cat carrier, he moved in with the syringe again, and this time, he hit it. He emptied the syringe into its body and withdrew the pole.

And then we waited.

We waited for those awful screams, that horrible thrashing, to die down. As we did, the director loaded up another syringe with even more tranquilizer, and as the raccoon dropped off into unconsciousness, he stuck it a second time with the heavier dose. Even then, it growled at him and flailed a paw against the wall.

More waiting, this time to make sure the animal was truly down for the count.

Then, while wearing welder’s gloves, the director opened the door of the carrier and removed the raccoon. She was limp, bedraggled, and utterly emaciated, but she was still alive. We bagged up the cat carrier and gave it to the women again, advising them that now was a good time to leave. They heeded our warning.

I asked if I could come closer to see, and the clinic director pointed where I could stand. I pushed the mask up against my face and tried to breathe as little as possible.

He and his co-director–who I think he was grooming to be his successor, but the clinic actually went under later that year–examined the raccoon together. Donning a pair of nitrile gloves, he reached down and pulled up a handful, a literal fistful, of the raccoon’s skin and released it. It stayed pulled up.

Severe dehydration causes a phenomenon called “skin tenting”. The skin loses its elasticity somewhat, and will be slow to return to its “normal” shape when manipulated. The clinic director estimated that it had been at least four or five days since the raccoon had had anything to eat or drink. 

She was already on death’s doorstep, but her rabies infection had driven her exhausted body to scream and lunge and bite. 

Because, the scariest thing about rabies (if you ask me) is the way that it alters the behavior of those it infects to increase chances of spreading. 

The prodromal stage? Nocturnal animals become diurnal–allowing them to potentially infect most hosts than if they remained nocturnal. 

The excitative stage? The infected animal bites at the slightest provocation. Swallowing causes painful spasms, so they drool, coating their bodies in infectious matter. A drink could wash away the virus-charged saliva from their mouth and bodies, so the virus drives them to panic at the sight of water.

(The paralytic stage? By that point, the animal has probably spread its infection to new hosts, so the virus has no need for it any longer.)

Rabies is deadly. Rabies is dangerous. In all of recorded history, one person survived an infection after she became symptomatic, and so far we haven’t been able to replicate that success. The Milwaukee Protocol hasn’t saved anyone else. Just one person. And even then, she still had to struggle to gain back control of her body after all that nerve damage.

Please, please, take rabies seriously.

This has been a warning from your old pal Bear.

I knew how bad it was, but I had never read anything like the raccoon story.

I am not exaggerating when I say that is literally terrifying.

Y'all please read this. That is absolutely hideous. That’s literally like something from a horror movie.

Do not fuck around with wildlife. Or weird strays.

After reading this, I realized just how lucky I was to make it past 14.

It obviously didn’t have rabies, but I took a chipmunk away from one of my outdoor cats years ago and it bit me. Didn’t think anything of it.

I don’t know if you all are aware, but farm animals can get rabies. And, you haven’t known terror until you’ve seen a rabid cow. Rabies is deathly serious. If an animal is abnormally docile, bail. Get out of there and contact animal control.

if you’re having a bad day, here’s a cute little marching band

this actually made me cry with joy also one of them is eating noodles

It just keeps going and getting better. *^^*

Me two minutes ago: “cry with joy? an animation of cats playing instruments made someone cry with joy?”

Me now: (sobs into a tissue) “OH MY GOD THAT ONE IS PLAYING TWO RECORDERS AT THE SAME TIME” (blows nose)

CAT PARADE IS BACK

I just saw the duck for the first time :’) 

PETITION HERE

what the FUCK

HOW MANY FUCKING HERITAGE SITES DO THEY WANT TO DESTROY THIS YEAR?

Please, please, PLEASE help sign this petition! You can sign even if you’re outside the UK!

WHY IS THIS A FUCKING OPTION?! FUCK EVERYONE INVOLVED WITH MAKING DECISIONS LIKE THIS.

Its like bulldozing the pyramids for a stripmall

There's only 24 hours left on the petition as of today, November 12, 2020

So you know those mutant strains of radiotrophic fungus they discovered in Chernobyl?  The ones that feed on gamma radiation?  Those fungi, the radiation-eating fungi?  From Chernobyl?  They brought some on board the International Space Station and took some measurements.  Here is the paper, titled:

A Self-Replicating Radiation-Shield for Human Deep-Space Exploration: Radiotrophic Fungi can Attenuate Ionizing Radiation aboard the International Space Station

Space is full of high-energy radiation, and radiation shielding is a big engineering challenge for Martian habitats and deep-space missions.  What they figured out is that an 8-inch thick layer of mutant Chernobyl radiation-eating fungus in the walls of the spacecraft or habitat would serve as a self-replicating, self-sustaining radiation shield for long-haul missions.

This sounds like such a good and normal idea!  Let’s do it!

MUSHROOM SHIELD

Reblog if..

You think bisexuals who end up with the opposite gender are still valid bisexuals.

i swear if i catch yall not reblogging this-

ceramic cats by @/studiomimmiceramics on instagram!

these bring me joy

idk what shit-eating truscum needs to hear this, but your rhetoric directly harms people with culturally-specific genders. i’m native and two-spirit, that label describes my gender and my attraction. i use they/them pronouns and your “nonbinaries and cringey stargender trenders aren’t valid” bullshit is getting old. our languages were demonized and erased, our gender and attraction labels along with them. my experiences with dysphoria exist because of colonialist ideas of gender. we have been forced into arbitrary ‘male’ and ‘female’ categories by colonizers for centuries and truscum rhetoric perpetuates racist colonialist violence against natives.

your experiences are not universal, you’re not forwarding justice for trans people, and you’re definitely not an ally to natives or other people of color. you’re just a fucking colonizer. 

non-natives, reblog this post

I’m reblogging this again because the comments are absolutely disgusting and a perfect example of how little transmeds value non-Western cultures, communities, and traditions.

Someone in the notes says “no one is like this in real life and if they are it’s just a confused phase.”

Bullshit! I know Two Spirit Nêhiyaw and Métis elders in their seventies. 2S activism has been around my city for decades. Do some fucking research. If you don’t come from a place with an indigenous 2S tradition, accept that you’re ignorant, not that it “isn’t a real thing”

I’m Jewish.

Our book of holy commentary, the Talmud, lists six genders.

The Talmud is older than Jesus.

And I assure you, as old as that might sound, Native communities in the Americas make that number sound minuscule. 2500 years is nothing compared to ten thousand.

(Yes, Native cultures and communities predate the so-called “cradle of civilization.” BY FAR.)

We have always been here. You reading a single high-school textbook and deciding that was all you needed to know is the problem. NOT US.

In 2016, over 75,000 mail-in ballots were left uncounted and discarded because they were received after  mail-in voting deadlines, which all vary by state, according to CBS news. 

Some states like California allow you to check with the Registrar of Voters on-line to verify both if a ballot has issued and if it was received to help prevent voting errors.

Remember, the most common forms of voter fraud are 1) gerrymandering, 2) voter suppression and 3) foreign participation through both lobbying and online misinformation. 

OCTOBER 13. IT’S BEING DELIBERATELY SLOWED. OCTOBER 13.

Psst that’s my birthday- October 13th all I want from y’all is to vote. Please.

October 13th, people!

Yemen is facing the worlds largest hunger crisis and the world is too quiet.

And it’s the children that pay the highest price. An estimated 85,000 children have lost their lives to extreme starvation alone. Every 10 minutes, a child under 5 dies of preventable causes in Yemen. When choosing what charities or goals you want to support during the last few days of Ramadan, I urge you to keep the children of Yemen in mind. And if you’re not celebrating Ramadan, or are not religious.. you’re still human.

These are a few of charities that I know of that you can donate to:

Remember, it’s the smallest donations that build up or even just rebloging/sharing would help. May Allah smile upon us all, and relieve the children of this world of their heartache.

The entire population of Yemen is expected to die by the end of this year.

If Yemen was 100 people:

80 need aid to survive

60 have nothing to eat

58 have no access to clean water

52 have no access to health care, however since Covid-19 their healthcare system has effectively collapsed

But Yemen is not 100 people

It’s 30.5 million humans

Guys this is a whole country that’s about to be EXTICT. Let’s not fail them

Prioritize this site https://www.muslimglobalrelief.org/yemen-appeal (100% donation policy)

As the UK has a long history of supporting Saudi Arabia

We Need to Talk About Engagement

No, I don’t mean that step you take in the pursuit of marrying someone.

I mean interaction. Messages and reblogs.

A couple months ago, there were posts circulating about how the like to ratio reblog was unfair because likes do not give writers the opportunity to be seen where reblogs do. Once enough people reblogged this or added to it, engagement went way up and the ratios were better and people were sending messages and replying to fics about how much they loved them!

Then, it seems, everyone went “I did my part” and gave up on it.

Engagement seems to be at an all-time-low; the like to reblog ratio seems to be gapped even wider now, people are hardly sending messages in, and heck people are even reading fics without even LIKING them.

I thought it was me at first and that everyone grew bored of my writing, but then my friends said they weren’t gaining much attention either or they were no longer receiving many asks. And then posts about it started popping up about how engagement was down 50%.

Why? What is so bad about reblogging a fic or replying to it? We write for ourselves, but the sweet comments and messages make it worth putting out there for people. Seeing people simply like it or pay no mind to it is very discouraging.

Here are some things you can do to help engagement go up that are barely any effort on your part and are very appreciated:

I agree. Just a small note or even keyboard smash is appreciated. Yeah sometimes it’s difficult to write when you don’t think your fic is good enough and with no feedback you tend to go down a spiral of ‘not good enough anymore’ and so the love for your art or writing becomes dislike at first and soon indifference settles in and we’re left with less content creators

!!!!!!! So so glad this apparently isn’t just me / my work

the endorphin rush when you find a new hyperfixation

wanting to talk to my mutuals 🤝 being scared to talk to my mutuals

Ah yes, the 5 love languages: