YOU GUYS! My friend Nikki just did this post for Book Riot, and it’s fantastic! If you’re looking for some summer reading material, this is a good place to start. And it’s not just 100 books, it’s 100 authors too. There are some really great reads on here :D
I haven’t read everything on this list, but everything I’ve read was good! Some great recommendations here.
oh, that is a good list. I also have not read all of it, but everything on it I have read is pretty amazing. (THOUGH, I feel I must caveat, if you read #21 (which is gorgeous) don’t read the rest of the series? So much better by itself.)
Basically, you don’t need a doctor’s prescription to get self-administered birth control (pills, patches, injections and vaginal rings) in California anymore. You go down to the pharmacy, fill out a questionnaire and get your blood pressure taken. There’s no age limit, either. Methods that require doctor-performed insertion, like the implant or IUDs, do still require a prescription.
This is pretty great for people who can’t afford the doctor’s appointment to get a prescription or have other reasons not to go to a doctor, making birth control more accessible than before.
REBLOOB TO SAVE A LIFE!!!
Do bear in mind one thing: If you go on the pill or similar and get horrid side effects, go back to the pharmacist.
There are several different “types” of hormonal birth control with different hormone ratios, and a medical professional can’t always pick the right one for your specific biochemistry first time.
That said, this is the way it should be. This is going to make life much easier for teenagers who’s parents refuse to let them go on birth control because they think it somehow incentivizes them to have sex, for example.
Lay your arm on a flat surface and push
your thumb and pinky together. If you
don’t see a raised band across your
wrist, you are a product of evolution.
If you do, you’ve got a useless extra
muscle in your arm that is slowly being
erased from our genetic code. Source
I just did some research on this and apparently this muscle actually helps you hold a spear (something we as a majority haven’t needed to do much of in recent times, thus it is a mutation that is neither harmful nor helpful to lack this muscle) But I’ll see you all in the post-apocalyptic world with my genetic advantage to hold and throw spears~
Looks like you’re going to have to do all the spear throwing for me.
tag yourself im a spearholder
*walks up to couple*
so which of you is evolved and which is the spearholder
spearholder, both me and my SO.
XD
Is anybody… is… is anybody gonna… No? Okay. I’ll do it then.
Okay, see, this is like 94% bullshit. I mean, it’s about 6% science, yes, but it’s also 94% bullshit.
First things first, “you are a product of evolution”. What. Every organic thing on the face of the planet is a product of evolution. Evolution kicked off somewhere around 3.8 billion years ago with the first appearance of life and it hasn’t really stopped since. Everything that came before you was “a product of evolution”. That phrase doesn’t mean anything special.
But Bear, you say, it means people without the thing are just more highly evolved than those who have it!
Bullshit, I say. There is no such thing as “more highly evolved.” Evolution is not some kind of mad rat-race to see which lineage makes it to the top of Darwin Mountain first. Evolution is about creating an organism that can survive and reproduce as effectively as possible to fill a particular niche or role in its given ecosystem.
How good are you at burrowing in the dirt and eating leaf litter? You probably suck at it. But roly-polies (aka, sowbugs, pillbugs, or terrestrial isopods) are great at this! Is a roly-poly less evolved than you because it doesn’t drive a car and use the internet… or are you less evolved than a roly-poly because you can’t break down leaf litter into small, usable particles? The answer is neither–you’re both beautifully evolved organisms filling different niches in the ecosystem and doing it very well.
Now, so far as this “muscle” (it’s actually a tendon) being “slowly erased from our genetic code”… no.
Let me start out by saying something that really should have been said in the first place, because it’s a cool bit of knowledge to have and it’s fun to say: The tendon shown in the picture is called the palmaris longus. Palmaris longus! Say it out loud!
The palmaris longus is what is known as a vestigial tendon. When something is vestigial, that means that it’s no longer needed by the organism, but isn’t doing enough harm by being there that it impacts the organism’s ability to fill its niche and reproduce. A vestigial organ or body part neither helps nor hinders the organism; it’s just kinda there, a relic of eons past.
(For example, the tail of a bear. A tail is utterly useless to a bear–it is too short to provide any kind of stability while in motion, isn’t prehensile, and doesn’t play a role in body language–but they still have ‘em.)
Now, it’s true that vestigial traits have a tendency to disappear over time, but not because they’re being erased from the genetic code.
Evolution–hell, natural selection–depends on there being inherent variation among the population. If one individual has a variation that gives it an advantage, and said variation is genetically determined, there’s a slight chance their offspring will inherit that useful variation. Slight. Conversely, if one individual’s variation is a disadvantage, it may hinder its chances of reproducing, and thus prevent it from passing that unhelpful trait to the next generation.
But a vestigial trait, which confers no advantage or disadvantage, is sort of stuck in limbo and is only passed along by pure chance.
I’ve heard people say, for example, that wisdom teeth are “evolving out” of the human species, and it makes me want to throw mine–which were surgically removed when I was 18–at their faces. That’s not how evolution works. In order for a trait to “evolve out” of a species, it has to be selected against. It has to be obvious so that other members of the species can notice it and find it unsexy enough that they won’t mate with the individual displaying it.
Do you only date people who never developed wisdom teeth, in the hopes that any offspring you have with them will also never develop wisdom teeth? I’m thinking not. There’s no active selection against the wisdom tooth trait. If anything, there’s selection for the more refined, narrow jaw structure that separates our skulls from those of like every other ape on the planet (which coincidentally is why most people don’t have space in their jaws for a third set of molars to properly develop and erupt, and need their–frequently deformed–wisdom teeth extracted), and that may in turn be linked to whether or not wisdom teeth form.
Wisdom teeth, like the palmaris longus, are a vestigial trait that is being passed along purely by chance.
Oh but Bear! you say. The spear-holder argument! Our ancient cavemen ancestors who had this palmaris longus tendon could better grip and throw their spears. Wouldn’t being a better hunter make them a more desirable mate for cavewomen?
No. No it wouldn’t. And let me tell you why.
The palmaris longus is a vestigial tendon, has been for eons, and hasn’t conferred an evolutionary advantage on those who have it since we lived in trees.
Yeah. A well-developed (aka, not vestigial) palmaris longus tendon is really only found in arboreal animals, like monkeys. Found there, it does give an advantage by augmenting grip strength, and thus making those tree-dwelling monkeys a little less likely to fall out of the tree. But among humans, who are terrestrial apes? The palmaris longus is not needed and is nothing but a relic. It’s been a relic since, like, Australopithecus.
Studies show that there is no difference in grip strength between those who have the palmaris longus and those who do not. Which should surprise no one because, again, the tendon is vestigial.
Now, to make up for me crushing your hopes of being a better spear-holder, let me share with you some great facts about the palmaris longus tendon!
It’s found in roughly a quarter of the population.
It has a ridiculous amount of variety in how it presents. In some people, it’s just a tendon running from A to B along the forearm with no associated muscle. In others, the muscle (which is also poorly-developed and vestigial) is found in the middle of the tendon. In others, the muscle is at one end of the tendon. Also, in some people, it’s only present in one arm and not the other–so if you see it in one wrist, check if it’s on the other side as well. I have it on both arms.
Because it’s vestigial and is not “needed”, it is the number one choice for use in reconstructive work. Surgeons will use it to repair or replace tendons just about anywhere in the body, because they can remove it without any ill effect!
This has been your daily dose of science. Bear, out.
YEAH I WAS GONNA SAY that’s a tendon not a muscle – but I did not know the rest of that! thank you bear!
Here’s a lil cute 3 min video for you white folk on how white privilege is real, and how you can use it for good :)
“My sister-in-law, who’s half black half white, but looks white. Blue eyes, whiter than most white folks. Very white. Uh, she and I you know, we kind of grew up together, we raised our children together, so they’re first cousins, and we you know, it’s wonderful- very very multicultural family.
So we’re going into Safeway one day. And Kathleen, my sister-in-law, is in front of me. And she’s uh, you know, writing a check for groceries. And my daughter who at the time was 10 years old was standing with me, and I was directly behind her, getting ready to get my groceries. So Kathleen comes up, and the checker, who’s a strawberry blonde, um freckled, very delightful, warm um…. you know, the checker, this young woman. she’s talking to Kathleen, [cheery voice] ‘Hey how you doing? Isn’t it a nice day today?’ you know they’re just chatting up, so Kathleen writes her check and she steps to the side with her groceries, cause she’s waiting for me. Of course again, Kathleen looks white, right?
So I come up. No conversation, she looks up at me, absolutely no.. just little chatter, and I write my check. My daughter however, is 10, notices immediately the difference in how she responds to me. So I write my check, and she goes [stern voice] ‘I’m gonna need two pieces of ID.’ At which point my daughter looks at me, and she gets very very embarrassed, and tears are kind of coming up in her eyes, like ‘mommy, you’re not gonna let her do this, why is she doing this to us?’ right?
So I’m trying to figure out what I should do. Cause behind me are two elderly white women. [chuckles] Right? So I’m thinking ‘so then I become the ‘angry black woman’ [chuckles] right? And they’re gonna be- I’m just trying to second guess all the drama. So then I just give her the two pieces of ID, I said you know some things you just gotta choose your battles, right?
And then it gets worse. She pulls out the ‘bad check’ book. [laughs] Right? So this is the book that shows people who have written bad checks. So she starts searching for my licence in the bad checks. At which point, it’s just out of control now.
Just as I’m standing there, um, trying to decide what to do, and it’s really, deeply humiliating, now my daughters in- full blown emotionally upset- who’s 10. My sister-in-law walks back over. and she steps in and she says ‘Excuse me. Why are you doing this?’ and the checker goes [defensively] ‘Well what- [stutters] what do you mean?’ ‘Why are you taking her through all these changes? Why are you doing that?’ She goes ‘Well this is our policy!’ She goes ‘No it’s not your policy, because you didn’t do that with me.’ [dismissively] ‘Oh, well I know you, you’ve been-’ She goes ‘No no, she’s been here for years, I’ve only lived here for three months.’
And so at this point the two white elderly ladies go [disgusted scoff; slightly southern, white lady voice] ‘I can’t believe what this checker is doing with this woman, it is totally unacceptable!’ At which point, the manager walks over! And so the manager walks over and says ‘Is there a problem here?’ and then again my sister-in-law responds, she says ‘Yes, there is a problem here. Here’s what happened.’
So you see, she used her white privilege. And even though Kathleen is half black half white, she recognizes what that means. And she made the statement, she pointed out the injustice, and she as a result of that one act influenced everyone in that space. But what would have happened- I can’t know for certain- had the black woman said ‘This is unfair! Why are you doing this to me?’ Would it have had the same impact? But Kathleen knew that she walked through the world differently than I did. She used her white privilege to educate, and to make right a situation that was wrong. That’s what you can do. Every single day.”
I’m assuming by “he was a Nazi” you meant he played a PARODY of Hitler in a MOVIE and in that same movie he also plays a barber who disguises himself as said Hitler parody and delivers one of the greatest anti-fascist speeches of all time.
It’s okay. It’s an easy mistake to make.
Literally where does someone come up with the idea that a Polish immigrant with heavy leftist leanings is in any way a Nazi
In fact, Chaplin was harshly criticized by the American far right for being very anti-Nazi in the period leading up to America’s entry into World War 2, and many lambasted his film, “The Great Dictator,”–in which he parodied and ridiculed Hitler–as “anti-German” and “war-mongering.” The Nazis themselves, as well as the Nazi sympathizers and supporters of the American far right, hated him.
Chaplin’s films were banned in Nazi Germany, and Nazi propaganda smeared him constantly. (Part of the smear was claiming he was Jewish–which he was not, but calling someone Jewish in Nazi Germany was guaranteed to inflame public sentiment against them.)
Chaplin was concerned with social issues like homelessness, and was a liberal and an anti-Nazi at a time when to be either one (let along both) was to be accused of being a Communist–which at the time was pretty one of the worst things you could call someone–and indeed “anti-American.” (Because, again, American conservatives loved them some Nazis–right up until the time Hitler’s forces started invading other countries–and even then, the bulk of the US thought we shouldn’t “interfere” in what they saw as a strictly European affair.)
Even after the war, and even after the world realized the despicable things the Nazis had done, Chaplin couldn’t shake the “Communist” and “anti-American” accusations from conservative American “journalists,” politicians, and others on the far right, who were still angry with him for his pre-war anti-Nazi sentiments.
And when he refused to participate in the McCarthy’s “Red Scare” Communist witch-hunts of the early 1950s, he was banned from re-entering the United States, while on a trip to England.
In short, Chaplin’s ANTI-NAZI leanings made him so many enemies in the US that they set off a chain of events that eventually saw him kicked out of the country. Oh, sure, the US finally issued a formal apology and invited him back, but by that time, his response was pretty much, “Yeah, too little, too late.” And justifiably so.
Chaplin stood against everything the Nazis stood for, and was smeared and punished for it.
So don’t you fucking dare call Charlie Chaplin a Nazi.
Dishonor on you. Dishonor on your family. Dishonor on your cow.
When the Nazi concentration camps were liberated by the Allies, it was a time of great jubilation for the tens of thousands of people incarcerated in them. But an often forgotten fact of this time is that prisoners who happened to be wearing the pink triangle (the Nazis’ way of marking and identifying homosexuals) were forced to serve out the rest of their sentence. This was due to a part of German law simply known as “Paragraph 175” which criminalized homosexuality. The law wasn’t repealed until 1969.
This should be required learning, internationally.
You need to know this. You need to remember this. This is not something to swept under the carpet nor be forgotten.
Never. Too many have died for the way they have loved. That needs stop now.
Make it stop?
I did a report on this in my World History class my sophomore year of high school. It was incredibly unsettling.
My teacher shown the class this. Mostly everyone in the class felt uncomfortable.
I have reblogged this in the past, but it is so ironic that it comes across my dash right now. I a currently working as a docent at my city’s Holocaust Education Center (( I say currently because I’ve also done research and translation for them )) and out current exhibit is one on loan from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ((USHMM)). This is a little known historical fact that Paragraph 175 was not repealed after the war and those convicted under Nazi laws as a danger to society because they were gay were not released because they had be convicted in a court of law. There was no liberation or justice for them as they weren’t considered criminals, or even victims for that matter. They were criminals who remained persecuted and ostracized and kept on the fringes of society for decades after the war had been won. Paragraph175 wasn’t actually repealed until 1994. And it was only in May 2002, that the German parliament completed legislation to pardon all homosexuals convicted under Paragraph175 during the Nazi era. History has forgotten about these men and women — please educate yourselves so this does not happen again. Remember this history. Remember them.
The only universe in which Donald Trump would be wearing a pink “Kindness” shirt is if he lost a $2 billion bet with Elon Musk and was forced at knifepoint to do it or something. And then he still wouldn’t do it, probably, and if he did he would lecture you about how he actually won the bet and how Elon Musk is a loser because his rockets have blown up more than they’ve been successful.
Also, Canada, your PM is cool.
Justin’s a boxer
an actor
Justin’s influential council of economic advisers is the first where women outnumber the men.
He’s also the first to have the most diverse cabinet and completely gender equal. 50/50 men and women. “I wanted my Cabinet to look like Canada.”
And he gets 15 months, only 15 months!!! for years of “mistreating” these boys, and however many others who haven’t come forward, and however many years this trauma affected them, years of therapy they hopefully got to help build themselves back up again to be strong enough to come forward about their experiences. How many years they had to bury the memories in their mind, to compartmentalize to emotionally protect themselves, avoid thinking of what happened to them because it just hurt too much to think about it, because thinking about the memories would just tear the boys back down, destroy the little amount of inner strength they were able to regrow over time. 15 months is a slap in the face. And people wonder why rape victims don’t immediately come forward about the crimes committed against them.
To be clear, his sentence was NOT for molesting these kids. The statute of limitations had run out on all of these cases. The only thing they could nail him on was lying to the FBI last year.
He got ZERO months for the actual crime, because the actual crime could not be prosecuted. It’s like getting Al Capone for tax evasion. The judge spent thirty minutes in court SEETHING into the record that he had no way to give Hastert more time behind bars.
The anti-trans bathroom and locker room initiative being headed up by a campaign called Just Want Privacy is offically beginning the long slog of collecting signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Because that’s what this initiative would do—it would override the existing protections for trans folks under the state’s nondiscrimination language by requiring that they use not the restroom which best fits their identity, but rather, which fits their sex at birth.
This, of course, represents a basic misunderstanding/ignorance about trans individuals—not to mention in direct contradiction with, you know, medical science—but that’s sure not stopping these alleged humans from creating marketing materials like this:
LOLLLLLL I CAN’T EVEN TELL YOU ALL THE WAYS THIS IS AWFUL.
Anyway, despite only having about two months and change to gather close to 300k signatures (GOOD LUCK), a feat which will likely take literal millions of dollars (which they are not exactly raking in, even with the help of all these bigots!) and may still not end with a spot on the November ballot.
As we have warned about before, this is 100% not actually about the safety of women and children (it, for example, would not have done anything to thwart this recent incident of bathroom grossness at SeaTac airport!). It will protect no women. What it will do is make trans and non binary folks in our community less safe, and will essentially legalize transphobia by business owners, patrons, and schools.
It’s a bad initiative. Don’t sign it. To help, we’ve updated out What to Sign guide:
Do you live in Washington? Are you going to any festivals or street fairs this summer? Print out this handy guide so you know which signature gatherers are worth you time and which you can ignore!
