eversoslightlybitter

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Elon Musk and SpaceX probably held back space exploration by at least a few good years by incompetently wasting billions in NASA grants to develop "reusable rockets" that keep exploding.

These billions and years of research could've been given to a competent company that isn't run by an egotistical manchild, or spent to develop a new rocket in-house.

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at this point I’m tired of putting “prefer not to answer” on my job applications when they ask me my gender. Remove the question. I will never answer. My identity is a surprise you find out at the interview when I show up appearing as gender ambiguous as humanly possible in order to disguise the fact I am thousands of bees in a skin suit. No I am not buzzing. There was no option for Hive Insects on the form. This was your decision. I am consequences.

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McKenzie is a Scottish straight (Scottish fold without folded ears). She arrived a few months ago with two other folds (Connor and Eggbert, not pictured) in extremely poor condition. :/

All three cats were matted to the skin and had to be shaved down completely, which is always a poor start to any kind of trust building. Not that these animals had any reason to trust to start with; they were all extremely poorly socialized.

I know for a fact that she's related to the other Scottish folds my rescue has taken in. Thankfully, the breeder is no longer breeding animals and has been convinced to release her remaining cats into rescue.

All three have been making great strides in their socialization. Kenzie has been greeting me with little purrups and asking for pets. She approaches my hand cautiously and headbumps it until I pet her. She asks for treats. I think she may even be a lapcat one day. Her coat feels like rabbit fur; it's so soft!

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my best tip for anyone trying to get back into reading is to remember that you can read books to avoid other responsibilities in ur life and it can become a vice if you play your cards right

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Dispelling myths about the USPS

The USPS is a government-owned corporation. The USPS is an independent government agency in the executive branch of the federal government. The U.S. government began its mail service on July 26, 1775, and the Post Office Department was created in 1792 with the Postal Service Act (PSA). In 1872 the P.O.D. was elevated to a cabinet-level position, meaning it was under the jurisdiction of the President. In 1970 the Postal Reorganization Act (PRA) turned the P.O.D. into the United States Postal Service. It's still a federal agency, but it's no longer in the cabinet. (Other independent agencies include the CIA, the EPA, the FCC, NASA, and others.) The confusion comes from the USPS being organized like a company, with managers and executives instead of agents and officers

The USPS is underfunded. Since the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 the USPS has been self-funding. It does not receive tax dollars except for the conduction of certain duties like overseas mail. That doesn't mean the USPS isn't strapped for cash, but it's not an issue of congressional funding like it is for other agencies. All of the USPS's revenue is made from the sale of products including postage and merchandise (which can be bought here)

The USPS has to pre-fund retiree benefits. This was a provision of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) of 2006. It was repealed in the Postal Service Reform Act (PSRA) of 2022.

The USPS doesn't lose money, it costs money. This is only sort of true, in the sense that it's not money lost but rather money not made. While the USPS does charge money for its services, the amount made in revenue has only recently begun to add up to the amount spent. For example, one of the provisions of the PSRA was to forgive $57 billion in debt. The sad reality is unless the USPS becomes tax-funded its financial troubles are most likely not going to end

The USPS is mandated by the Constitution. The Constitution authorizes Congress to establish a Postal Service and to build postal roads. It does not mandate either of these

I can't send a brick in the mail. You can.

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We are losing the ancient texts

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tonight i swore a blood oath to the minimum wage workers at my local subway

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GUYS LOOK WHAT I GOT AT THE THRIFT

A 1986 PUBLICATION <3

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i’ve started looking at weight and health the way i look at class and income and it really puts a lot of things into a new perspective.

let me explain: in america at least, the lower class have significantly worse health outcomes, even when accounting for other factors. just being poor is enough to make your overall health worse. we don’t know that being fat makes your health directly worse, like the data just isn’t there, but for a moment, pretend it does.

imagine going to the doctor with a health problem and the doctor looking at your chart and saying well, this problem will be less severe if you go up an income bracket. have you thought about becoming rich? it would really help. start by saving a little money every month.

ridiculous, right?? very few people successfully go from working class to rich, it just doesn’t happen on a large scale in society. maybe for a time you pick up some overtime hours, spend a little beyond your means, and appear rich. but eventually you burn out, your car needs to be repaired, and you return to being working class.

we do have this data: only some people can successfully lose large amounts of weight, and only a tiny fraction of people who lose that weight actually keep it off for more than a year. telling people to lose weight for their health is just absurd because they almost certainly can’t do it any more than they can double their income for their health.

and yet i see it everywhere. a little poster in my work breakroom tells me to improve my blood pressure by losing weight! a psa on the radio says you need to take care of your heart by losing weight! we can’t even conclusively prove that weight is the cause rather than just correlated with a lot of these problems but here it is offered anyway: have you tried being rich?

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i am so pro abortion it actually makes me mad when a character in a show is revealed to be pregnant & she immediately doesn't get an abortion

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This is my fav tweet of all time

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Thinking about that Immortals book where Daine goes to a new continent and everyone knows about her animal speaking ability (she's there to help the emperor with his birds) and that one zoologist is like "you HAVE to help me" and he just wants her to go around all his animal enclosures and ask the animals if they're happy and if they need anything

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There was a lot of stuff I was supposed to do today, but instead I've made this:

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So, yall might have seen this story-

Which....has prompted big emotions from folks.

But as I was reading it, something bothered me a little. The headlines all say "pets" but the actual animals listed were chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, and horses.

So I had a thought, and tracked down the untranslated Facebook post.

The word that all the English news sources, AND the automatic Facebook translation, were translating as "pets" is "husdyr"

And I don't speak Danish, but I had a suspicion. Because while rabbit and guinea pigs are often kept as pets...chickens and horses are not, right? So. I check.

I don't think Danish really distinguishes between domestic animal, livestock, and pets linguistically. And I think all those news sources just went with the Facebook automatic translation without questioning it.

Livestock. The zoo is asking for livestock donations. Rabbits, chickens, and guinea pigs are often raised for meat. They aren't asking for puppies.

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I have decided to participate in Fuck It Up Friday, where on Fridays we do types of art that we're bad at. Anyway here's a kittycat.