Click below to see more of them!

Keep reading

Matt created an important update. 

[ Matt Bors ]

People in the notes are saying they’re not sure if this is satire or not.

It very much is, and if you haven’t seen it before, it’s also referencing the famous ‘Gotcha’ comic by the same artist that riffs on obnoxious argumentative fallacies:

Kudos to the artist for making this asshat so fucking punchable that I actually want to yeet my phone to smash his face

this is impenetrable armor

It was forged with love

Enchanted armor

My wish for everyone is to love and enjoy something as much as this ER doc loves and enjoys Neopets.

the fact that chickens, who produce eggs for families and are fairly low-cost pets after initial expenses, are not allowed in many areas due to noise but dogs, who are considerably noisier and considerably more a risk to people are, is kind of ridiculous

The banning of chickens in cities has definitely helped contribute to the creation of food deserts in said cities.

HOAs disallowing people to grow their own food is another example.

I recently read an article that argued against allowing chicken ownership in cities due to the fact that urban chicken owners might be more “ignorant of husbandry needs of chickens” and anyone could decide “on a whim” to purchase chickens 🙄

This is an absurd argument considering the VAST collection of extremely high-maintenance and fragile species that are freely available as pets without any concern for their husbandry requirements. It is incredibly easy to purchase a sugar glider or a chameleon on a whim, and both of these animals are far more difficult to keep happy than the sturdy chickens that humans literally domesticated thousands of years ago. Chickens are useful and personable animals that make great pets, and if you’re worried people won’t know how to care for them the solution is to improve education rather than thoughtlessly banning an animal that is actually a great option as a pet for low-income families. I would much prefer to see people choosing chickens as a pet over the dozens of high-maintenance and non-domesticated animals available at the corner pet shop.

there’s nothing barring you from bringing an endangered parrot into your home or even apartment that yells at <100db all day every day

However we had to convince my town that our 6 hens weren’t going to ruin our well (???) lmao. don’t worry you can dump pesticides on the same lawn and they won’t care.

I feel like its taken a pandemic to make some people (re lawmakers)  realize being able to grow your own food is absolutely necessary and that its absurd its illegal to do basic things like Have A Garden vs a lawn. or have backyard hens

anyway if you live in texas tell your representatives to vote yes for Texas House Bill 1686, which would make it legal for those on single family lots to grow fruits and veggies, and have 6 or less domestic fowl and/or 6 rabbits and/or 3 beehives EVEN IF they live under an HOA or municipality that doesn’t allow it

read the above again. you currently aren’t allowed to grow veggies. at your own home

One of the things I learned about in perinatal nutrition related to food scarcity caused by social and legal barriers for childbearing families, who more than even need a nutritious, safe diet.

This is one of those barriers.

Fuck: The Holy Spirit. 

Marry: The Son. 

Kill: The Father. 

I’m laughing cause this is hilarious, they turned of messaging after I called them out. But for those of you not in the know let me explain how gift card scams work.

If someone is offering to give you money, great!! There are a few ways to stay safe. Apps like PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay Cash, and internal banking transfers are all safe ways to do this although PayPal is generally a good way since you don’t need to give any personal info other than an email.

A scammer will ask you to purchase a gift card for them, and this is your first clue there is something phishy going on. If some one is genuinely trying to give you money they will not ask you to purchase something in order for that money to get to you.

If you purchase the gift card, they’ll ask you for the number on the card so they can refill it for you and give you the promised money. In a scam they will take all the money out of the card you purchased and then disappear.

I deal with this a lot at work. People calling folks and telling them their online accounts are locked and they need to purchase a gift card so they can pay to unlock them. It’s all bullshit. Please do not get wrapped up in the promise of money or in the fear or your accounts or devices not working. Think rationally, and if someone asks you to buy something so they can give you what they promised (money, unlocking your account, return of digital property) don’t do it.

Stay safe friends.

Adding another example to this post because this is a VERY common scam going around right now. Be safe out there!

Hey I wanna add to this!!

Just today my dad got a call claiming they were our bank's security people, they had the last 4 digits of our savings account number, my mom and dad's cell phone numbers, and my dad's email address and sent verifications to all of these. The scammer said there'd been a $200+ charge from a Walmart in Florida and my dad was thinking it was legit, until he heard a child make noise in the background.

He called the scammer out on it and his excuse was "oh I work from home" my dad's thought was "working with security? With private info? Like hell you work from home" so he let the guy go on for a bit, then the scammer texted mom some access numbers and asked my dad "can you read those numbers to me? I'll then be able to access your account and can delete the charge!" Dad said he wasn't comfortable with that and asked if there was some other way to handle the situation and the scammer hung up.

Dad immediately called the bank, who put a hold on our accounts. When my mother called the bank again a bit later the lady said, "yeah it's a common scam and I'm glad you figured it out, with the numbers he would've had access to your bill pay and probably would've started a very inconspicuous and legit looking autodraft. It's usually a while before people notice it."

Please if you're ever unsure if something is a scam or not, get out of whatever you're seeing/hang up and contact that business directly. The lady we called went ahead and checked to see if there was a fraud alert on our account and that wasn't technically her job. The businesses don't want you to be scammed either and are gonna be happy to help you out!

What if we started actively disincentivizing landlords letting real estate stay empty rather than renting at reasonable prices? Like, give them a maximum of three months to get a new tenant in, and then they start accumulating fines for the unused space.

And some similar system to disincentivize the ridiculous airbnb market as well. Make it unprofitable to have homes sitting empty in a city where people with jobs find themselves living in tents. Hell, make it unprofitable to have homes sitting empty anywhere that has a homelessness problem.

The fine? The full rent amount they’re asking for. You think $1700/month for a studio apartment is reasonable? Well, until you get someone into that apartment, you’re going to be fined that same sum every month.

For Airbnb, a lower cost, but still based on how many nights/month the space is unused, and the fine will be based on the asking price per night.

This is… really, really sensible.

literally email this idea to your local city council representative or similar lowest level government person. if there are meetings that are open to the public, go speak your piece there. an idea like this is very sensible, and this is an issue they are thinking about.

there will be traction. I’m not saying you can get it to happen, the owners of large complexes have a lot of control over your local government. but it’s not complete control, and good ideas are powerful.

Vancouver slaps $10,000 a year tax on empty homes. Lie about it and it’s $10,000 a day

https://financialpost.com/real-estate/property-post/vancouver-slaps-10000-a-day-fine-on-empty-homes-to-fix-rental-housing-crisis

Thanks for the link, and fuck yeah! This is exactly the stuff I’m talking about.

Milwaukee and San Francisco are also looking into policies like these. These ideas are out there and being explored, and I think that’s pretty neat.

My city passed an ordinance requiring airbnb rooms to be registered with the city and they get a certain number of allowed rental days depending on whether it’s owner occupied.

We had to fight a huge marketing campaign from airbnb, but we won. Definitely write to a city council member. You can use Jersey City as a test case. They will be able to find news stories.

I’m pushing the vacancy tax idea on our most progressive councilman, too.

This was such a formative movie

This shit was revolutionary for the mid-90s. Among other things it helped me understand that transgender and cross-dressing were completely separate things.

To this day, I am in awe of the fact that Patrick Swayze not only campaigned hard to get the audition, not only auditioned in dress and makeup, but spent most of the day leading up to the audition walking around LA in dress and makeup.

This was a man who could sing, dance, act, ride a horse, fight, and walk in heels, he had nothing to prove to anyone, and he is MISSED.

Okay, I’m not done feeling about this.

If you’re younger, you may not know Patrick Swayze; he was Taken From Us in 2009. But Patrick Swayze was an icon of masculinity. Men were willing to watch romantic movies because Patrick Swayze was in them.

Patrick Swayze was fucking beefcake.

And this man didn’t just agree to do a movie where the only time he’s not actually in drag is the first three minutes, which involve stepping out of the shower, doing make up, and getting Dressed. He has ONE LINE that is delivered in a man’s voice, and it’s not during those three minutes.

And if you watch those three minutes, you see a stark difference between his portrayal of Miss Vida Bohéme and Wesley Snipes as Noxeema Jackson. (I am not criticizing Snipes’ performance. They were different roles.) Noxeema was a comedy character. Chi-Chi was a comedy character. But Miss Vida Bohéme was a dramatic role, played by a dramatic powerhouse.

When Vida sits down in front of the mirror, she sees a man. And she doesn’t like it.

Then she puts her hair up, and her face lights up.

“Ready or not,” she says. “Here comes Mama.”

And while Noxeema is having fun with her transformation (at one point breaking into a giggling fit after putting on pantyhose), Vida is simply taking pleasure in bringing out her true self. And when she’s done, she sees this:

And you can FEEL her pride.

All of this from an actor who, up to this point, walked on to the screen and dripped testosterone.

It matters that this happened in 1995. It wouldn’t fly today, wouldn’t be the right choice, we’ve moved past it, but it mattered and was important that it happened the way it happened today. It’s one of the stepping stones.

This is worse. Looking at these you can tell they have no significant monetary value. They were confiscated as a fear tactic. Nothing more.

This picture breaks my heart everytime it appears in my dash. It’s a fear tactic, alright but—

The first one in the left corner: It’s a first communion rosary, and it’s not cheap.

The black one in the first line: That’s a widow rosary and it’s old.

The white one in the second line:  is a commemoration rosary. It has a miniature picture in the round part. I haven’t seen that since the 70′s.

In the third line, multicolor one: It’s an Anima mundi, I have only seen those in the hands of Rosary ministery’s old ladies. The oldest ones are from the 80′s after Juan Pablo II came to Mexico for the first time. It’s one of the old ones, I know because the crucifixes are different.  The third one on the fourth line: Red and gold. The style is old, the metal is dark, that’s a 50′s rosary, probably a quinceañera one (or it’s maybe older, from the 40′s when the brides carried red roses with their offerings).

The fifth one on the fourth line: It’s a quinceañera rosary with Ignatius’s tear. The style is old and in my part of Mexico is orphan girls who used it. At least it was when I was young. The third one of the fifth line: the blue one with the anchor. That one I have only seen in Veracruz and it doesn’t look new. The fifth one on the fifth line: That’s a 90′s wedding rosary. Black and white patterns were popular on that date. The fourth one on the last line: That’s a first communion rosary from the 30′s. It’s delicate and most probably silver. The rest wrench my heart too, the humble everyday rosaries with wooden beads and knots. Those are cheap and bear the wear and tear of their user handling. But those  I described are much more.

Those are mother’s rosaries.

Those are not just rosaries. Those are mementos, that’s the proof of their families stories. They are taking from them the only portable things they can carry to feel the connection to their families. It’s not a fear tactic. Call it like by its name. It’s dehumanization.

Just want to remind everyone that the DHS janitor who saved these rosaries and photographed them started his project in the latter years of the Bush administration and finished during the latter days of the Obama administration.

Just in case anyone reading naively believes this atrocity began on November 8 2016

Did she just tell an alligator what to do? 😳

This is one of those things that looks cool and funny but it’s really not. Granted, I don’t work with large reptiles. But I do work with large dangerous animals. You don’t turn your back on a creature like this, especially when they know it’s feeding time. it doesn’t matter if they were raised in captivity or not. They’re still wild animals, and can bite and attack, even if they aren’t meaning to hurt you specifically. There should always be separation between the keeper and an animal that could rip your arm clean off. Those tongs also don’t look long or sturdy enough, but again, not a large reptile expert.

I have even more bad news. I looked up this facility, and shockingly it's not AZA accredited /s. It also appears to be a fancy roadside zoo, as it offers all sorts of hilariously dangerous excursions where you can hold and pet reptiles and amphibians. They started as an exotic pet store and changed their name to make people think they are a legitimate educational facility, but even on their own website they have pictures of their employees and guests holding gators and komodo dragons. Don't follow them on Tiktok or give them money; they are not caring for these animals responsibly and admit to breeding "world's first" animals which means they are not even trying to support legitimate conservation efforts.

Yeah, this is honestly what I expected.

My brother works at the Dallas Zoo, has a degree in zoology, and has been working in zoos for about 5 years. And his biggest advice for animal enthusiasts?

CHECK THAT YOUR ZOO IS AZA CERTIFIED

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums exists to provide education, resources, conservation funding, and most importantly, best practices for zoos and aquariums. The AZA is The leading governing body for zoos and aquariums in the world, providing guidelines for everything from animal enrichment to animal/human interaction safety. If a zoo is not AZA certified, IT IS NOT A GOOD ZOO PERIOD. Their habitats can be dangerous, their diets could be inappropriate, and their facility can be, and is probably is, unsafe for people and animals.

Patronize AZA certified zoos, and stay the hell away from private, non certified, or shady zoos.

I'd like to point out that there is another common zoo certification entitled ZAA, which is easy to mix up with AZA but is not the same thing! ZAA was created by a zoo director that didn't meet the standards on AZA. Please only support AZA zoos; it's easy to check because they will always state their certification somewhere on their website.

All of this! There are other AZA associated memberships such as WAZA, BIAZA and EAZA (World Association of Zoos and Aquaria, British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquaria, and European Association of Zoos and Aquaria) so if a zoo talks up their membership, it's not a shady attempt to look certified. They represent zoos in different regions and facilitate communication and cooperation between different zoos, while still working towards AZA's goals of conservation, research and improving the care of their animals.

Please do not let debt collectors play in your face.

I am super busy so I honestly don’t even know if I should be taking the time to write this, but hopefully this will help those of you who may find yourself in a similar situation.

Earlier this year I received a letter of notice from a debt collector stating that they had acquired a debt supposedly belonging to me and that, per law, I have 30 days to dispute the debt. I immediately drafted a letter and sent it to both disputing the debt and request validation of the debt as well as possible settlement arrangements had they actually been able to validate said debt

I sent this letter via certified mail. Always certified mail.

About a week after the 30 day period for them to respond expired, I received a Phone call very specifically crafted in a way to invoke urgency and panic and suggest legal action. So, naturally, I called this number only to discover this was a different company that had only just recently acquired said supposed debt. I reiterated to them that I was disputing this debt and required validation in writing.

The initial conversation went smoothly, they then called me back the next day and became aggressive. They accused me of lying and did everything under the sun to try and trick me into validating this debt as mine so that they would not have to legally send me that validation. I, knowing my rights, insisted that I was disputing the debt and that they were required to send me validation despite them claiming that they were not and that they already had and many other number of lies. I refused to continue the conversation until someone had sent me validation to which they continually responded that they would be forwarding this to their legal department and blah blah blah blah blah.

Surprise surprise, I get a phone call today from yet another company, this one claiming to be in the process of forwarding my account to the county clerks office. That was an immediate red flag as the county clerk does not handle debt disputes. They would have to hire a lawyer in my state to handle this case. I asked what company this was as they had not stated initially, and when they told me I realized this was now another company who had purchased said alleged debt and we’re trying to collect on it. this one outright illegally threatening to take me to court knowing they weren’t.

Beyond that, he tried to lie to me and tell me that a debt validation was not what I thought it was and that a validation was actually just a notice that they had purchased a debt so when I received a letter stating that they had purchased this debt that would be a validation.

That is not true! Debt companies are legally required to send you notice of an allegedly acquired debt in writing and you have 30 days to dispute and request that validation. The company then has 30 days themselves to respond and validate your debt or the debt is forfeit. This man tried to lie to me and tell me that a notice was the same thing as a dead validation in order to trick me into paying a debt that he cannot validate that I am actively disputing.

This is now the fourth company that has attempted to collect on a debt they cannot validate. They know they cannot validate this debt and instead have relied on trying to trick me into paying it. These tactics would absolutely work if I did not have a sales background and or know my rights.

And this ladies and gentlemen is why you always always always dispute a debt. The last debt I disputed was immediately pulled from collections and that allowed me to get back in contact with the original creditor and work out a payment plan so that it would never hit my credit and keep my account with them current. This debt is invalid and therefore they cannot hit my credit with it nor can I collect on it or I will sue them.

If you guys have any questions about dealing with that collectors please ask me.

I honestly have no aspirations anymore other than i want to be able to do my silly little hobbies, treat myself every now and then and love my friends and my cats

IF THEY CAN DO IT WE CAN DO IT TOO

I’d want to talk to Sam Smorkle too

Like, people who identify as Queer know the word is used like a slur. Trust me, we know.

So when we say “queer is a slur” was started by terfs, maybe use some critical thinking and try to understand what we mean. That is, if you actually care about queer people and the damage terfs do, rather that just screaming “queer is a slur!” and ignoring the actual point.

Terfs did not like that queer was reclaimed. End of. This is a fact. Queer was too broad, too accepting, and embraced all the people they wanted gone. And I know y'all exclusionists feel the same but get pissed when we point it out so you deny it, but sit down and listen for a minute.

Queer was the preferred term for poc. For bisexuals. For trans people. For people with multiple identities. It neatly encapsulated everything, and was a friendly community to those who felt thrown under the bus by mainstream LGBT activism. It was a political and social statement, “you treated my like I was different and weird, and guess what? I am and that’s something to be proud of.”

So the response? “You can’t use that word. Its bad. Its a slur.”

And at the time, a lot of people rolled their eyes. Everyone knew why they didn’t like the word and brushed that off. It was fine.

So they started more subtly. “Just so you know this word is very harmful and is a slur so be careful how you use it :))) in case you didn’t know :)))) its a slur :))) friendly reminder :))) for the sake of other people of course :))))” type shit on every post involving the word, including and especially posts simply mentioning self identification.

Always worded in friendly, concerned ways, like the derailment was meant to be nice and considerate, and not about normalizing their rhetoric.

And what happened because of that was a younger generation of community kids growing up with these statements being thrown at them and absorbed on every. Single. Post. That. Mentionioned. Queer.

The result? That same generation of kids cutting it all short, removing the meant-to-be-palatable niceness, to just say “queer is a slur.”

Exactly how it was originally intended. “Queer is a slur.” People drop on posts where young queer people talk about it being a self identifier that actually fits them. “Its a slur,” they comment, with nothing else, on posts they clearly didn’t read past that word, written by people twice their age who had reclaimed it before they were even born.

Its nasty. Its disgusting. It’s plain old bigotry, whether the people saying know it or not. It is a terf tactic, plain and simple.

And no one wants to deny that it is indeed used as a slur (right along with all the rest of our identities.) No one wants to be insensitive and force it on people who haven’t reclaimed it.

But invading queer people’s posts to spit “queer is a slur” is flat out queerphobic. You do the dirty work of terfs, of cis straight oppressors, by saying in one simple sentence: “its a dirty word, there is no pride in it, you haven’t/can’t reclaim(ed) it.”

And regardless of your actual intentions, when you do this, that is EXACTLY what you are communicating and doing.

“Queer is a slur” is a terf movement. Stop fucking supporting terfs just because you want to pretend like it isn’t.

This is why I block people who say ‘Queer is a slur.’ 

You quack like a terf, I block you like a terf. 

This thing was so weird to me when I first encountered it on tumblr, because like… in academia

queer studies

 is a thing. Queer Theory is a thing. If I search my Uni’s library for ‘queer’ I get 138,481 results. Here are some of them: 

Do those look like queerphobic texts? And do you think that most of the writers writing about queer theory are straight? Lols. If you don’t want to be personally be called queer, that’s cool. You don’t get to stop other people using the word though. It’s ours now and we’re keeping it.

Did I reblog this already? If I did, doesn’t hurt to blog it again. I usually unfollow people who use the tag (or the equilivant) q-slur. Because fuck you, I’m queer. Have been since like 1986.

queer was mlm slang/code in the 18th and 19th centuries, turned into a slur in the 20th century

when we say it was reclaimed, we mean it was reclaimed 

^^^^^^^^^^^^ ALL OF THIS

(source)

This looks like a shitpost but it’s actually solid advice, like, if you want to achieve a goal you have to pace yourself and be patient instead of expecting too much too soon and then giving up

I love desire paths. There's something so wonderous about seeing an echo of humanity. Depending on it's location, a desire path can mean so many different things.

In a city, like the pic above, they represent rebellion, and efficiency. The messiness of humanity. We like to imagine we're oh so logical and neat so we design our cities to be logical and neat an then real humans literally trample on that idea. The ego required to think you can design something perfect that checks every box. Life is all about compromise and patching stuff when some new problem arises. Though people have certainly tried! Ohio state univeristy let students carve their desire paths, and then paved them over. It looks pretty artsy.

Some people will try to discourage desire paths, but this is almost always going to fail.

Eventually, people just have to accept them. Humans are too dang stubborn.

Certain desire paths are just adorable. A 0.5 second time saver. You just can't design for maximum efficiency, humans will always find shortcuts!

Though on occasion a desire path can actually be the least efficient way...especially if you're superstitious.

In a wilder area, such as below, they show us the curiosity of humans. A desire path somewhere natural often tells you there's something interesting just ahead. (Though remember some ecosystems are fragile and will suffer if trampled! Stick to paths in these sorts of areas)

And how about desire stairs? I always think these look so cool. We get see humans determination to climb, to traverse every kind of terrain.

And for something really crazy...a desire path used for centuries will create a 'holloway'

All of these pics are off the Desirepath subreddit, check them out for more examples! And many thanks to the users who submitted these photos.