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IKEA PSA

Friends I don't know if you know this and whether this is a thing in your area, but IKEA will send you replacement parts for their furniture for free.

On the IKEA website, you go to the bottom where they have all the information links, and one of them is about spare parts. They take you to a page where you search for the parts you need. I am talking nuts and bolts, screws etc. On every IKEA piece that requires assembly, the pieces are given a number. You search with this number, and you can order spare parts for free!

(This has been tested to be true for Scandinavian IKEA, UK, and US. You will find it under "Customer Service" and then "Missing a Part" or "Need a part". If you can't find it, search the website for "spare parts")

If you don't know which part you need, find your product on the website and on that page you can download the assembly document

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"Love taking an 8 minute route that takes an abled 2 minutes"

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bower

noun, pronounced “BOW-er”

Meaning: Bower is a literary word that usually refers to a garden shelter made with tree boughs (branches) or vines twined together.

In a sentence: Resting in the shade of the bower was the perfect way to cool off during the hot summer afternoon.

Different uses in history: If you visited someone’s bower a millennium ago, you’d likely have found yourself at an attractive rustic cottage. A few centuries later, a visit to a bower could have involved a peek into a lady’s personal hideaway within a medieval castle or hall—that is, her private apartment. Both meanings hark back to the word’s ancient roots: it comes from Old English būr, meaning “dwelling.” Today, bower is more familiar as a word for a garden shelter made with tree boughs or vines twined together, a meaning that overlaps with that of arbor. (The adjective bowery, meaning “like a bower” or “full of bowers” is used to describe areas that resemble or are filled with these leafy pergola-like structures). Bower also features in the name of bowerbirds, any of approximately 20 different bird species native to Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, the males of which build more-or-less elaborate structures using twigs, moss, and other plant materials to woo potential mates during courtship.

Via https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day 23 May 2023

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Please return us to a world where Notp and squick are used for a ship you don’t like instead of just making up a load of bullshit about how immoral it is or w/e lol 

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Source:  PacingPixie

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THIS IS MISINFORMATION THAT HAS BEEN DEBUNKED MULTIPLE TIMES

Here’s an AAP FactCheck Article about it: https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/candle-heating-hack-claim-goes-up-in-smoke/ 

And FYI, if you KNOW something is BS misinformation, especially something like cold-weather survival techniques that could get someone KILLED bc they do this instead of getting to better shelter when their heat has gone out, you shouldn’t just link to a meme about it. 

The linked post above has a video and fucking WALL OF TEXT talking about... idek?? Something about it being a meme? That is harmful. I initially reblogged this thinking it was an earnest tip to stay warm. I expect the person I reblogged it from also thought so. And there is a large portion of the comments that continue to encourage people to use this and insist that it’s real, while only linking back to “Whiskey Hamish” like that is supposed to tell people something???? 

So, no blame if you reblogged this in good faith, thinking it was an honest tip to help people stay warm. I did the same, but now I am enraged by the behavior of people who apparently knew this was fake, but couldn’t be bothered to simply say so in a clear way. I don’t care about the history of narrow boats or Whiskey Hamish or whatever infighting is going on amongst prepper communities. Just fucking say it if you know something is false!! JFC

I dont really like making rebloggable posts but I haven’t seen anyone mention them yet: terracotta heaters are really easy and effective DYI heaters for cold emergencies and I think it might be helpful considering, you know

TDLR, place a candle of any size down, and put a terracotta pot (as large as possible preferably) over it, with something non-flammable and balanced to keep the bottom an inch or two off the ground, like bricks. 

The candle will heat the terracotta, which will put off heat, while the space underneath lets smoke out and oxygen in. I’ve used these all 3 times we had outages here in Maine during blizzards to keep my aquariums warm, the weather outside had been easily -20 F with high winds, and not only was I cozy, that shit kept the water 10 degrees above room temperature. If it can heat the aquariums, it’ll heat a small room.

They work so much better than you’d think, the heat they put off is insane. Obviously be careful because smoke and open flame, but they’re very easy to make and just need an eye kept on them on all times.

 Don’t touch the heated pot bare-handed, it’ll burn like a motherfucker, they get VERY hot. Use thick oven mitts or layered rags to remove pot, put the candle out first if you can manage. Don’t do more than one or two in a non-ventilated or closed room, it’s still making smoke and that can make it harder to breathe.

[ID: Two bricks are laid flat, two bricks are stacked on top on their sides. A candle is in a jar inbetween and is lit. A large terracotta pot is balanced on the second, higher set of bricks so it is above the candle and off the ground. End Id]

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*slams head into desk*

People have been asking this for weeks, but someone finally sent the meme version to me.

If we had a dollar for every time someone told us, "January 25th has a planetary alignment with 7 planets visible," we'd never have to fundraise again....

The truth is: that claim is completely false. 100%. It's media and meme overhype by people who don't do astronomy and don't consult astronomers.

At SSC, we stargaze in public spaces virtually every single night. All of the planets you will see on January 25th are visible in the night sky tonight, tomorrow, all next week, and for the entire next two months!

Venus is in the west. Saturn is creeping toward it. Jupiter is fairly high now. Mars is rising in the east.

You will NOT see Neptune or Uranus or Mercury on any of these dates.

There will NOT be a line of planets in the sky stacked up near each other.

SSC will tell you when "dates humanity will remember" are happening in the sky. This isn't one of them. If you see a post making that claim, do not share it.

You can witness these planets for yourself every single day until the end of February at Sidewalk Science Center. We've been showing people most of the visible planets since before the hurricanes, and all of them since early November. On January 25th, they will still be far apart from each other, not in a big line.

Help keep misinformation at bay and share this around 🙃

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When you finally find out about your ADHD.

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As promised — all freebies are now available as one big download, including backgrounds and assets!

Daggers, stars, blood, textures, and everything else. I counted everything while sorting, and there are 231 brushes for Clip Studio, and a few more for Photoshop, Procreate, and Krita. Yippee!

Thanks for your support! 🥰

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did y'all know that child-resistant packaging actually has to be tested on children like they literally go to a daycare and ask a bunch of kids to open medication packages and if they can the company has to go back and redo their packaging from scratch

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For the last fucking time jfc:

what career historians do is not the same as what your high school history teacher does

what career historians do is not the same as what hobbyist "history buffs" on the Internet do

if you're looking at sources that are 20+ years old you cannot blame modern historians for what you find, history is a fast-moving and constantly-shifting academic field like any other

the fact that the concept of sexual orientation (which includes heterosexuality!) is only about 150 years old does not mean that people we would now call LGBTQ+, same-sex romantic and sexual behavior, gender transition, etc. have not always existed. Lots of things we can now recognize have always or long existed in humans, we didn't have a concept of until similarly recently (e.g. mental illness, most forms of structural oppression).

what looks "clearly gay" to someone in 2021 isn't necessarily what looked that way in 1821 or 1521 or 21 BCE, just like it's not what looks that way to people from other cultures today. It is for the benefit of LGBTQ+ people and history to recognize this, to recognize how LGBTQ+ people expressed ourselves in the past!

a lot of historians are ourselves LGBTQ+

Stop being anti-intellectual and blaming "historians" for your inability to do the most basic research on this

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when the subject of "why do people believe things that are seriously wrong and harmful" comes up it feels like you kinda hear one of two perspectives:

"oh, that's easy! it's because they're fundamentally Bad people who want to hurt others and choose their beliefs to justify that! :) hope this helps"

or

"they just don't have access to the same information we do. look at this person who was raised in a cult! don't you feel sorry for her?"

and like, yes, fine, some people were in fact raised in cults, but what i wish people would understand is that the bulk of it is just normal human flaws, like:

they want to believe stuff that makes them feel smart and cool and like they've figured everything out (you also do this)

they want to believe stuff that makes them feel like their emotions are justified and grounded in reality, and that the people they want to hurt deserve to be hurt (you also do this)

they form conclusions before they've processed all the relevant information, and cling to that first impression even when new info comes to light (you also do this)

they pick up beliefs from the people around them because they want to be liked and fit in, not because the beliefs are good or true (you also do this)

they come up with reasons that the stuff that benefits them (and the people they like and identify with) is actually overwhelmingly best for everyone and obviously the right thing to do (you also do this)

they pay more attention to stuff that supports what they already believe and avoid looking in places that might show them otherwise (you also do this)

they listen to people who talk like 'one of them' and ignore others (you also do this)

they come up with reasons to dismiss people with conflicting viewpoints as obviously in bad faith or ignorant or a shill or evil (you also do this)

they fail to take their own beliefs seriously sometimes, and take their beliefs way too seriously other times, in a selective way that lets them do the things they already wanted to do (you also do this)

the very ways they construct the ideas of 'knowledge' and 'wisdom' and 'belief' and 'understanding' are biased so that what they don't want to believe comes under lots of scrutiny and what they do want to believe receives less (you also do this)

you, dear reader, are presumably right about everything and were correct to die on every hill you've ever died on, but the difference between you and someone who's wrong about important stuff doesn't look like "well they're inherently evil and i'm not", it probably looks like a combination of:

natural environment (they would have been exposed to different information than you regardless of their choices)

being in the right place at the right time (your particular profile of flaws and virtues happened to be what was needed to lead you to the right conclusions, they had the opposite experience)

random luck (you doubled down on what felt right to believe but wasn't, but it turned out to be inconsequential, or even right for different reasons, while they doubled down on what turned out to be a horrible mistake distorting their entire worldview)

you do less of the things in the previous list, and over time the difference between you and them adds up

and, look, i also do these things. the nicest and most thoughtful people i've ever met do these things. if you meet someone who never does any of these things, i dunno, give them a fucking medal or something.

i know you're doing your best. we're all doing our best.

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reputation

Noun, pronounced: rep-yoo-TAY-shun

Meaning: A reputation is the common opinion that people have about someone or something. Reputation can also refer to a positive position that someone or something has in public esteem or regard.

In a sentence: "She's earned a reputation as a first-class playwright."

History: An esteemed word in English, reputation rose to fame during the 14th century and ultimately traces back to the Latin verb reputare, meaning "to take into consideration" or "to think over." Reputare is itself a coupling of the well-known "again" prefix re- and the verb putare, "to reckon." Renowned celebrities of the putare family are the verb repute ("to believe or consider"), the identical noun (synonymous with reputation), the adjectives reputable and reputed, and the adverb reputedly. Other putare cousins of notoriety include dispute, disreputable, imputation, and putative, along with their kin.

From Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day, 8 May 2024

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I’m sorry, but aren’t we collectively tired of all our clothes being made of polyester?

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HOLD THE LINE!! KEEP PUSHING!!!!!

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Remember: it is not your job to make everyone merry around you this holiday season. It is not your job to keep your family or friends from being dysfunctional, it is not your responsibility to create perfect occasions no person will forget. Your responsibility is to make sure you have a good time wherever you are, feeling comfortable. The festive season is about compassion, but do remember to extend some of it to yourself.

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