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Heard some important information on Twitter today, and thought I’d post it here for anyone who may not have heard it. This is actually a thing, devised by human rights organisation called Karma Nirvana.

Reblog to save a life?

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DO NOT SUPPORT SALVATION ARMY 

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Can I please get a new nurse?

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Before I start this little spiel, I need you all to know: I’m not hating on people who don’t vaccinate their kids, and while I know for a fact BASED ON facts that vaccines don’t cause autism or other “defects”, I’m all for continuing research to make them even better and safer.

But you know what really, really scares me about the anti-vax movement? As a future Public Health Professional, the thing that scares me most about this is the fact that our cultural mindset has become so CHILL about vaccine-preventable/”childhood” diseases that there is even room for such a movement. Let me explain.

Do y’all know what an R0 is? The R-naught, as it is called, is the basic reproduction rate of a disease. It tells you how many new infections can come from one existing infection. For example, an R-naught of 3 (R3) means that, on average, one sick person will infect three other people. Every disease has an R-naught, some greater and some lesser.

Do you remember when everyone was freaking out about Ebola? Everyone was terrified of catching it, because it’s SOOOOO contagious and deadly, right? Ebola has an R-naught of 2. That’s it. R2. One person with Ebola, on average, will get 2 more people sick. And we were freaking out about that.

Well guess what? Measles is the most contagious disease known to mankind, and it has an R-naught of 18. 18. One person with measles will give it to 18 new people, and those people will give it to 18 new people EACH, and so on. That’s what happened with the Disneyland outbreak; it’s so ridiculously contagious that just ONE sick child was enough to start an epidemic.

And yet very few people are as scared of measles as they are of Ebola. Why is that? One reason could be the nature of the disease, sure; Ebola is terrifying in its progression and symptoms. But I would suggest that a major reason is that measles has been so well-contained by vaccination that people no longer fear it. It’s not a part of every-day life anymore; this disease is no big deal because nobody gets it, because so many people are vaccinated against it. Let’s put this another way.

What are the diseases that scare everyone the most: Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and SARS are pretty high on the list of terror diseases. But let’s look at the R0s, shall we: Ebola-R2. HIV/AIDS-R5. SARS-R5. 

Now let’s look at diseases that people are voluntarily rejecting vaccinations against: Measles, Pertussis, and Diphtheria are the major ones. Their R0s? Measles-R18. Pertussis-R17. Diptheria-R7.

Everyone focuses on the former set of diseases– rightly so, I suppose– because they’re more dangerous at the present time. What makes them more dangerous? Not their R0; it’s the fact that there is no viable treatment, and NO VACCINE. Seriously, that’s why the medical community is worried about them. There’s no way to treat or PREVENT their spread biologically. Well guess what? There’s no viable treatment for Measles or Pertussis, and only limited treatment options for Diphtheria. That’s why the medical community doesn’t focus on them as much, because we can prevent them at the biological level, safely and effectively.

But now that the Anti-Vax movement has taken hold so firmly, the medical community is now being forced to once more worry about diseases it had almost eradicated. And not only that, it’s endangering herd immunity for the people who can’t receive their own vaccines due to compromised immune systems. I’m allergic to eggs, so I can’t receive the flu shot, but I’m also asthmatic so I can’t get the inhaled vaccine. I rely entirely on the people I associate with to keep me safe from the flu by getting their yearly shot. This made public school a living nightmare, because almost NOBODY got their shot. They caught it, and while it didn’t affect them TOO terribly because they were generally healthy, when I caught it, it was very dangerous because of my asthma. And then there’s that time when I caught the flu, and then right after because of my weakened immune system, I caught Whooping Cough from someone who hadn’t been vaccinated. I HAD been vaccinated, but my body was so fatigued from the flu that it couldn’t keep up with immune demands. And so I caught it.

Have you ever had Pertussis (whooping cough)? It’s hard enough on someone with full lung capacity; it can break ribs, it makes you cough so hard. You cough until there is literally no air in your lungs, and you have to inhale so forcefully it makes the “whooping” sound that gives it the name. It’s painful beyond belief, and it can last for weeks. Some people will survive it. But add that to asthma, or to a young child, or to an elderly person, and you are looking at either permanent damage or death, no exceptions. When I had it, I was about 6 years old, and asthmatic; I spent 81 hours awake because the coughing was so violent I physically couldn’t sleep. I tore abdominal muscles. I vomited during coughing fits and aspirated the vomit. I was actively dying. The doctors could barely suppress the cough enough for me to breathe at all. My inhaler wasn’t helping, none of the cough syrups or breathing treatments were helping; I was getting pneumonia on top of the virus. It was Hell. I was LUCKY that I didn’t die.

Who would wish that on their child? Nobody, I hope. And if you KNEW you could keep your child from ever experiencing that, wouldn’t you do whatever it took to ensure their safety?

Or would you look at the safeguard and say, “Nah. I’ll take my chances with my child’s life.”?

That is what the anti-vax movement is doing. Perhaps not purposefully, but that’s the end result. These aren’t just names on syringes designed to make a child cry; the diseases are real, and real threats to health and life, and the vaccines are how you prevent them. Yet we are so far removed from the impact and effects of these diseases BECAUSE of the peace brought to us BY vaccines that people now feel no qualm about refusing vaccines.

That’s what scares me about the anti-vax movement; people have become so complacent that they no longer worry about these very real, very deadly diseases. They’d rather risk their child’s life than get a shot? The side effects of vaccines are unproven (nonexistent), but the efficacy of vaccines are very much proven.

When the pertussis vaccine first came out, people jumped on it right away. They were so grateful to have it, and for a while everything was smooth sailing, and whooping cough was on the decline. Then, in the 70s, some groups started claiming the pertussis vaccine was causing brain injury in young children. Less than 50 in 15 million cases were reported, but it was enough to scare people away from the vaccine. And children began dying again. It was later discovered that it was NOT the vaccine, but the result of infantile epilepsy, that caused the brain damage. People began once more vaccinating their children, but not before hundreds if not thousands had died.

And that’s what’s happening now. A falsified claim scared just enough people that time-tested, lab-tested, fully-proven, totally safe vaccines are being rejected, and we’re already starting to pay with lives. And I’m scared it’s going to get worse. People don’t really grasp the full import of these diseases and the necessity of the vaccines until they have experienced the disease. I’m scared that it’s going to come down to new epidemics before people will realize the mistake of not vaccinating.

Right now we’re still in the semi-safe zone. Enough of the population is immunized that we could probably keep most pandemics of these diseases at bay. But if this movement keeps gaining momentum, there might come a day when measles and pertussis could once again destroy thousands of people yearly. Imagine if some terrorist group weaponized Ebola and used it against this country; so many people would die, because we have no vaccine for it, no way to prevent it. That is what could happen with diseases like mumps, rubella, measles, pertussis, Diphtheria, and polio. Except it wouldn’t be terrorists using a disease as a weapon; it would be some kid in your child’s class, or your neighbor across the street, or the guy who delivers the mail to your office. That’s how life used to be, and if someone from the pre-vaccine era could see us now, they’d weep for joy at the idea that we can prevent these horrific diseases; and then they’d weep in sorrow at the idea that people are voluntarily turning down that safeguard.

It’s true, vaccines aren’t always 100% effective; I was immunized, but still got Whooping Cough (lowered immune function, if you recall). But you know who didn’t get it? My baby sister. My big sister. My cousins. My mother and father. My classmates, the other kids at my doctor’s office. The nurses at the hospital. The pharmacy workers. Their children. The kids my mom taught at school. All those people were safe because of vaccines. And you know what else? When I was in India, I was exposed to polio. Didn’t get it. Know why? I was vaccinated. I was exposed to chicken pox in 5th grade. One unvaccinated kid got it, and the other 4 kids in our class who weren’t vaccinated got it. But you know who didn’t? The rest of us who WERE vaccinated.

Vaccination may not be perfect, and the only way we will improve them is by continuing research. But the fact remains that as they are now, vaccines cause no lasting side effects (injection site pain goes away), and are extremely effective at preventing dangerous, painful, debilitating, often deadly diseases. Let’s keep researching, yes, but in the mean time, PLEASE vaccinate. It’s not worth your life, or your child’s, or anyone else’s. Vaccines save lives, not destroy them.

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I don’t actually remember writing this, but it was sitting in with the other disjointed snippets in my Current Projects doc so I obviously did so at some point. It’s not finished and I have no idea where I was going with it but *shrug* I’m gonna lob it up here anyway. Tell me what you think:

“He did what?” Iris half-asked, half-demanded as she stared incredulously at Prince- King Noctis.

Her old crush – and she was glad that had died, now – just stared back at her, his confusion not quite hiding the grief in his eyes. “He left so that he could get stronger.” He said steadily, as though he’d accepted it, as though it made sense.

And it didn’t.

Why would her brother leave his King? How could he abandon him and everything that their family stood for? Leaving Noctis – leaving him unprotected, outside of Ignis and Prompto who were good but not Shields – just to get stronger.

How could he leave when Noctis obviously needed him?

Shame burned low and bright in her chest, twin to the anger that raced through her veins, and it hurt because never had Iris been so ashamed of her brother.

“He left,” she said flatly, fists shaking at her sides in rage, and while Noctis and Ignis just nodded – as if this was normal – Prompto was more timid in his response, looking over her carefully and understanding that something was wrong even if he didn’t know what, but still he nodded and Iris seethed.

How dare he?

Gladdy- Gladiolus had abandoned his King, had betrayed everything that their line stood for, gone against everything that they had been trained since birth for, everything that their father had died for, and in that moment Iris decided.

She would not let her brother shame their line like this.

If he wouldn’t be a Shield, wouldn’t be what Noctis needed to be, then she would – she who was as much blood of Amicitia as he was. She will not fail her Prince, not leave him unprotected like Gladiolus had.

Iris would be the Shield that Noct needed if it killed her.

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IM LAUGHING SO HARD I DIDNT THINK SEXUAL DESIRE WAS A REAL THING LIKE I ALWAYS SAW PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT HOW THEY WANTED SEX BUT I THOUGHT THEY WERE JOKING OR EXAGGERATING OR SOMETHING THATS WHY IT WAS SO HARD FOR ME TO REALIZE I WAS ACE BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WENT WITHOUT SAYING SEX ISNT THAT IMPORTANT IM 19 YEARS OLD I CANT STOP LAUGHING LITERALLY 99% OF THE POPULATION EXPERIENCES SEXUAL DESIRE AND I THOUGHT IT WAS A JOKE

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help what were those little graspy hands that held stuff people used to wear on their skirts called

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Writing Advice - On Arrow Wounds

I have a couple pet peeves in fantasy novels, but nothing gets me more riled up than how authors treat arrows. People seem to think that arrows were nuisances rather than deadly weapons, when, no they were one of the most strategically useful weapons in all of history. You could kill people from far away without getting hit yourself, until of course in the later medieval eras, plate armor was produced. Then arrows evolved into bullets that could pierce through armor, and it was all over for both sides. I wanted to give you guys a couple of facts I’ve learned about arrows because they’re a lot cooler than people think.

- Arrowheads usually require surgery, with functioning tools, to remove. This is because of the arrowhead’s shape:

On the left, we see the most painful, and what I argue to be the most deadly, types. See how the bottom of the arrowheads prods out below them? Imagine pulling that backward, the way it came, and pulling the flesh with it. Hence the “tearing flesh” statement. Of course, not all arrowheads are like this, with some with thinner shapes (seen on the right) are designed to puncture armor more effectively. Some of these are from traditional arrows while others are from bolts from crossbows. When writing fantasy, try to be familiar with the potential time period you are referencing the armor from, since that’ll change the types of arrowheads that were used by the enemy, and when one of your characters are wounded from these, it’s a great way to show your immersion when you use the proper arrowhead. With the arrowheads on the far left, removing them simply with your hands is risky because there’s still a high chance that you will still tear the flesh out with it. Having tools that can easier part the flesh out of the way to proud it out is a better option. Doctors were sometimes forced to push arrowheads deeper into the body until it went out the other side since there was more damage done pushing it in than pulling it out.

- Doctor Joseph Howland Bill, a Civil War doctor who wrote a book called “Notes on Arrow Wounds,” gives a comprehensive list on the damage of arrow wounds.

Bill states that arrows “ inflict wounds with a fatality greater than that produced by any other weapons — particularly when surgical assistance cannot be obtained.”

Arrows were designed very well in his day, where the arrowhead would loosen from the shaft when connected to anything wet –*cough* blood *cough* – so if anyone grasped onto the shaft and tried to pull it out, the arrowhead would be left in the body and the doctor would be forced to search for it. I don’t know if this was used in medieval times, but certainly it was used in the 18th century.

He also stated that arrows were sometimes deadlier than bullet wounds, which is a feat since bullets were often made of lead in the 18th century and poisoned a soldier’s bloodstream

The tissue around an arrowhead will not be able to heal and will cause infection if not removed quickly. This would often lead to fatal amputations.

He also states that when lodged in bone – and they often were, hurtling at intense speeds when shot by a 100lb bow – surgeons had to use “great force,” as well as tools, to pry the arrowhead out.

Now for their ability to heal:

- If the arrow went through a limb, they were easier to heal since they only made a small incision. Bill stated he would apply “cold or evaporating lotions” to the wounds and, providing there was no infection, the wound would heal in a mere week. If the wound WAS infected, then he would apply bandages, compresses, and “an early evacuation” of any drainage.

- If the arrow severed an artery, good luck. Doctors, especially in those times, were not able to staunch the bleeding before the patient died from blood loss.

- Arrows also caused severed nerves, broken bones, and fractures. These often weren’t fatal, but they often affected the soldier’s range of motion thereafter.

- Another interesting occurance is when an arrowhead scrapes NEAR a bone, the muscles will contract to such an extend it will bend the arrowhead, making it resemble a fishhook. If this is the case, pulling out the arrowhead would cause even more damage because, as I said, it would tear flesh. Bill had to practice a specific tactic, which you can read at the bottom of this post.

- If the arrow hits the trunk of the person, good luck once again. Bill states that arrowheads are more dangerous than bullets for three main reasons: bloodloss, infection, and emphysema. 

Arrows cut clean slits in someone’s flesh, which provide clearer passage for blood to flow out of.

Arrows usually stay in their targets, which result in infection until a surgeon can successfully remove it.

Emphysema is more of a nuisance than a fatality, but it is caused by irregular breathing from the lungs when struck.

- For this reason, if the arrow hits the LUNGS or any other vital organ, they’re almost always gone. Surgeons cannot staunch the blood at this point, especially on a battlefield, so they often bleed out. As Bill states: “Arrow wounds of the abdomen are generally fatal. An arrow can scarcely pass through the abdomen and fail to open a vessel or wound an intestine.”

Source: 

https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/05/battle-wounds-never-pull-an-arrow-out-of-a-body/

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The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk. Pass it on.

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one of my favorite things about the pokemon universe is how the humans are esp. the bad guys 

like mob boss giovonni can pull out a glock and waste my 10 y/o ass but he doesn’t he just accepts that i knocked out his cat and hands me money

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Beautiful! thanks for letting us use these!

Back again! This time with some requested flags: an asexual flag, philadelphia’s new gay pride flag, a butch lesbian flag, and an agender flag! Hope you all like them!

💖 Free to use, if ya want to! 💖 

Part One , Part Two , Part Three (you’re here!)

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Yeah and Rogers is totally the one who ‘looks after the little guy’ but the bastard never looks at the carnage he causes because ‘in war there’s casualties, we save everyone we can but its not our fault if we can’t save everyone’.

fuck Rogers.

Tony’s the only one of the two of them with a fucking soul

Tony Stark showing care and consideration for the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, while trying to subdue the Hulk. Tony’s primary concern is mitigating loss of life and damage; afterward, he personally funds the recovery effort.

+ Bonus:

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“world of averages” - composite images culled from thousands of individual portraits resulting in symmetrical average faces. 

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From the mouth of a One Percenter -

Abigail Disney

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i love how edward elric dresses like the typical anime protag (all black, red cloak w/ huge emblem, tight leather pants, always puts skulls or spikes on everything, huge belt with a chain on it, etc. etc.) but literally everyone else dresses like normal fucking people so he just constantly gets berated for his Shit Awful Taste

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I just. I don’t like this view of “millennials vs Gen Z”. This is NOT supposed to be a competition of who got fucked over the most and who’s “actually fighting back”.

Millennials are fighting back just by surviving in a job market where the minimum wage doesn’t cover the living cost. Millennials are awesome at “killing” the diamond, golfing and napkins industries. Millennials are using the internet to make sure things that corporations want to keep in the dark are exposed. They’re open LGBTQIA-friendly business, they’re supporting each other with online donations so everyone can survive this shitty economy.

And the Gen Z kids? The Gen Z kids are rad. I remember a post about something like the millennials making a collective promise to never become a disenchanted generation that only criticizes the next one and I want to point out that this “millennials vs gen z” trend is trying to do exactly that: split us apart. Prevent millennials from being the older siblings that teach the younger siblings to throw a good punch and turn them into the annoyed adult complaining about “those kids” on their lawn. We are the two groups that grew in a connected world of information. We are two very unique generations.

I think that it’s our duty for us millennials, as a disrespected, underpaid, very angry generation to stand up by our younger siblings, and fight together the oppressive systems that brought us all to this point.

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I hadn’t seen any English reports on this but its too good not to share.

So right now there are pretty crazy right-wing nationalist sexists in Japan. They’re dressing up in WWII military outfits, they’re standing outside of Korean schools (in Japan) shouting that Koreans should be killed, and just generally being horrible human beings. For reasons unknown, the Japanese police haven’t done anything to stop them, and when people get physical with the right-wingers and a fight breaks out, it’s not the right-wing people who get punished.

Enter: the Yakuza.

Yakuza, for those who don’t know, is the name for the world of Japanese gangs, commonly known for being covered in tattoos. A few retired yakuza members (most of whom are notoriously and vocally conservative) got tired of this extreme right wing BS. They believe that picking on people who are weaker than you, like the children at the Korean schools or refugees, is embarrassing, and not something to be proud of. They want these right wingers to man up (the group is almost entirely men) and shut up.

These old retired yakuzas start showing up at the right wing protests and intimidate the hell out of these guys. When they feel like it, they’ll use physical force too. The police don’t mess with the yakuza so these right wing protesters become human punching bags. All their talk of killing Koreans or their superiority to just about everyone flies out the window when these gangsters roll up.

It started with only one or two yakuza who were bored and fed up, but more and more started to come. They started training in boxing and street fighting, and wouldn’t you know it…the number of right wing protesters got less and less.

Then, people of other walks of life joined in too. With the yakuza throwing the police off, professors could join by writing about the issues profusely. Suddenly a ton of otakus joined too, using their art and community to protest. They’d show up in droves and stand behind the muscle (yakuza) and make a ton of noise. They literally staged an “otakus against racists” rally.

Slowly, the protests have seen the right wing attendance drop more and more and I am living for these “manly men” being trashed by retired gangsters and fans of Love Live.

In conclusion:

First, I’d like the extreme right wing to gtfo

Second, I’d like a manga, then an anime, about these yakuza who befriended professors and otakus to fight neo-nazis. K? cool.