Precisely. If it’s dark, it’s dark for a reason. At the very least, ask whoever’s in the room if you can put the light on. When I’m dealing with a light-induced headache, putting on the light is a form of torture.

I’ve been buying more frozen vegetables than fresh lately. It lasts longer.

Though a small, personal thing I’m more concerned about is the fact that my work is still planning a potluck next week. Every trip to the grocery store is more stressful than they ever were before, as I’ve had to downsize my shopping list every month. The idea of spending money so I can be seen as a “team player” at the place that I go to make money in the first place is concerning. Most of my meals these days are simple sandwiches, because buying what I really want to buy has become too expensive. Although I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade when they’re trying to plan something fun, I might end up talking to a manager about it. I just can’t justify spending extra money right now. (I am open to advice on how to handle this.)

So many people can’t even change their shopping habits to make more ethical choices. There’s no way a sizeable population is going to forego passing on their DNA just to send a message.

As a teen, I figured I’d adopt kids when I got older. The amount of people who were dead-set on “b-b-but my genetic lineage!” was startling. As I’ve aged through my 20s and now my 30s, I’ve seen them stick true to their word and have their own babies, even with the world circling down the drain. The biological call to reproduce seems to override a lot of other matters.

Now consider how hard it is to get people to quit something without a biological imperative, like shopping on Amazon…

Anyway, I admire your initiative. I just can’t imagine people participating en masse in a protest that involves forfeiting something so dear and intimate to them as their choice to reproduce.

this country allowed the idiots to breed and there are no easy way back.

It’s even worse than that. The school system is fucked. A lot of people that could’ve wound up mildly intelligent were denied the skill of critical thinking and the benefits of well-rounded education. Instead, they were taught to game tests and to obey their authorities without protest. Don’t rock the boat, don’t “talk back” when you’re wronged, just do what you’re told and keep your mouth quiet about it.

It’s no mystery why so many people rely on talking heads to direct their political opinions.

You mean even my Steam games are actual steam? Neat.

If we’re lucky it’s furry porn. I’m more worried about the non-consensual porn of real people, including simulated CSAM.

Some aircraft engines, too. The old single-engine Cessnas I trained on were air-cooled. Though that’s pretty easy when you’re pushing cool, atmospheric air over the engine at 100 knots.

Found a strange, single, long hair growing off my chin the other day. I’m a woman in my mid-30s with no tendencies toward facial hair whatsoever.

It reminded me of when I was working in a nursing home, and such hairs would just appear, already over an inch long, on patients’ faces. It was as if they sprouted overnight.

It was a disturbing moment to find one on myself. But hey, it was still my natural color and the length made it easy to pluck. So, can’t complain. Yet.

I can’t help but wonder what exactly is going on here. Are the good contractors scared of ICE taking them away, leaving talentless MAGA hacks as the only ones participating in this project?

Or maybe they’re aware Trump never pays others for their work, and this is an example of “you get what you pay for”?

Or it could be an example of top-down incompetence, where the workers are faithfully following a boss’s orders, but the boss is such an inept loser that this is what following their words gets?

Or maybe the workers hate Trump and this is their small way of protesting/sabotaging his plans?

So many possibilities!

Plot twist: the ice cream quirk is a trick. “Nope, no body in this freezer. Just lots of uneaten ice cream. That’s all that’s in those tubs, yes sir.”

To the extent that a pet is dependent on their human, it makes sense. Domesticated animals need someone to look out for them, much as a baby does. In this light, seeing a pet as one’s “baby” doesn’t seem too bizarre.

Yes, it does work differently for different people. I usually struggle to tell people apart, but these pictures look different to me, especially the girl in the top right - she’s got different eyes and lips compared to the other two. The other two have different noses.

Now, if I were in a room with all three of them, I might have trouble telling them apart. But that’s more because I wouldn’t be able to stare at their faces the way I can at their pictures. If they were all in the same film I might struggle too, because they wouldn’t be static pictures, but dynamic video that moves along at a fast pace and I’d probably confuse one character for another.

Anyway, brains are weird.

So, the goal is to make our skin rough as a leather bag?

Even black people can get sunburnt, despite having far more melanin than a pasty old man like RFK Jr. There’s no way white people can approach that level of natural skin protection, yet even the darkest skin has its limits when it comes to blocking UV. But I guess if RFK’s ilk wants to fuck around and find out, they can have at it.

As for me, I’ll keep using sunblock. And avoiding sewage wastewater. And getting my vaccinations. And taking my anti-depressants. And washing my hands…

There are greater risks to using sunlight to treat newborn jaundice than to use the blue lights hospitals provide.

From that link:

Why Sunlight is Risky

While sunshine does contain blue light, relying on it to help jaundice in newborns comes with significant risks:

• Unpredictable Light Intensity: The amount of blue light in sunlight varies depending on the time of day, weather conditions, and location. This makes it difficult to ensure the baby receives a consistent and therapeutic dose.

• Sunburn Risk: Newborns have very sensitive skin that burns easily. Even brief exposure to direct sunlight can cause sunburn, increasing the risk of skin damage and potentially skin cancer later in life.

• Overheating and Dehydration: Sunlight can quickly overheat a baby, leading to dehydration and other serious complications.

• Difficulty Monitoring: It’s difficult to accurately monitor a baby’s bilirubin levels while using sunlight as treatment. Medical phototherapy allows healthcare professionals to closely monitor levels and adjust treatment as needed.

On the flip side, the potential side effects of the hospital blue light treatment include mild “skin rash, diarrhea, or dehydration,” which are usually temporary and resolve on their own after treatment. I’d rather a baby get a mild skin rash that goes away after being taken out of the light, than get sunburn that takes weeks to heal from and can increase the risk of cancer.

Having a new baby is stressful, I get it. But it takes nearly 9 months for the baby to arrive. Is that not enough time for new parents to learn about the medical treatments their baby will receive?

This isn’t mildly interesting. It’s interesting as fuck. It looks like waves in water or something.

Damn, I’m sorry about your friend.

It’s so wild to hear cell phones for kids being spoken of as “a right” when they didn’t even exist for some of us as kids.

I get that times change, but phones feel more like a privilege than a right. Just like driving. I remember “it’s a privilege, not a right” being hammered in during driving school, as irresponsible driving can mean having your privilege revoked. Having that expectation for phones as well makes sense.

Not everywhere does, unfortunately. My city has a food bank, yes, but if you need housing there are hoops to go through to even get a shelter bed. When I went there, they said I needed a referral (no idea from whom) or proof of eviction. I wasn’t evicted, my boyfriend just decided to move and drop me, so that was out of the question. Then the low income housing situation is literally a lottery, one that takes months if not years for a place to open up.

Then social programs vary from place to place. Some states may say I’m eligible for food stamps, while others tell me that I’d only be eligible if I had a kid. When I tried to sign up in Florida, I was straight up told that if I wanted benefits, I had to have a baby. Yeah, I’m struggling to feed and house myself, lemme bring a child into this situation, great idea.

The US truly hates the poor.

I can’t stand this one. Like, yes, I can figure out a lot of things for myself. But if I’m asking someone for help, it’s because my own resourcefulness has reached its limit and in this situation, I need assistance from others. That is, if I could figure out a solution on my own, I would’ve done so. The whole point of bringing up the issue was an attempt to get help for it.

It also sends a message that there’s no point in bringing up things that bother you. A kid raised on “just ignore them” may internalize that they shouldn’t talk about their problems, since nobody’s going to help them anyway. Then someday they may end up in a work force where they don’t bring up issues to management that could totally be resolved with a simple conversation. Worse yet, if they have a beef with someone and the other person speaks to management first, they’ll immediately be put on the defense simply because they didn’t say anything sooner.