fuck with me

Does the dog die has a filter/tag for fat jokes

I wasn't sure how many people knew this so thank you to the hard working crew at DTDD and the community that helps them.

If you can reblog for bigger sample

the first priority of houselessness advocacy should not be housing (although this is an important option for those who want it) but the right to free movement and the right to camp. every culture in every period of human history has had itinerant individuals, and in many places those individuals made up the bulk of human beings. in our society houselessness is incredibly difficult, but it doesnt have to be. as a houseless individual my biggest concern at all times was police harassment (being told to move along or having my shit tossed for being too conspicuous), and without that i would have been able to aquire a lot more agency and self subsistence with things like a semi-permanent camp, and growing and catching my own food (meaning: existence outside of wage slavery and property ownership. this is what scares them!). the fact is that privatization of property and vagrancy laws have been making the lives of houseless individuals infinitely more difficult over the past few hundred years. and until housing is wrestled from concepts of property ownership and rental fuedalism, "housing" the homeless is effectively a matter of bringing "free elements" out of the wild and into capitalist control. besides, there will always be people who slip through the cracks bureaucratic initiatives, and these people are left out in the cold because a man in an office did not dain to imagine them when he wrote his legislation. if you actually care about quality of life for the houseless and not just unsightliness, deprivatize unused property, create more robust welfare systems that dont require documentation to access, give people the right to roam and plant and gather, and who knows- maybe in ten years the tent cities will be places of color and joy and life lived in connection with nature. and because people dont have to struggle to find a place to lay their head, instead of desperation our streets will be full of artisans and musicians and laughing people.

"A team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a real-time air monitor that can detect any of the SARS-CoV-2 virus variants that are present in a room in about 5 minutes.

The proof-of-concept device was created by researchers from the McKelvey School of Engineering and the School of Medicine at Washington University...

The results are contained in a July 10 publication in Nature Communications that provides details about how the technology works.

The device holds promise as a breakthrough that - when commercially available - could be used in hospitals and health care facilities, schools, congregate living quarters, and other public places to help detect not only the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but other respiratory virus aerosol such as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) as well.

“There is nothing at the moment that tells us how safe a room is,” Cirrito said, in the university’s news release. “If you are in a room with 100 people, you don’t want to find out five days later whether you could be sick or not. The idea with this device is that you can know essentially in real time, or every 5 minutes, if there is a live virus in the air.”

How It Works

The team combined expertise in biosensing with knowhow in designing instruments that measure the toxicity of air. The resulting device is an air sampler that operates based on what’s called “wet cyclone technology.” Air is sucked into the sampler at very high speeds and is then mixed centrifugally with a fluid containing a nanobody that recognizes the spike protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. That fluid, which lines the walls of the sampler, creates a surface vortex that traps the virus aerosols. The wet cyclone sampler has a pump that collects the fluid and sends it to the biosensor for detection of the virus using electrochemistry.

The success of the instrument is linked to the extremely high velocity it generates - the monitor has a flow rate of about 1,000 liters per minute - allowing it to sample a much larger volume of air over a 5-minute collection period than what is possible with currently available commercial samplers. It’s also compact - about one foot wide and 10 inches tall - and lights up when a virus is detected, alerting users to increase airflow or circulation in the room.

Testing the Monitor

To test the monitor, the team placed it in the apartments of two Covid-positive patients. The real-time air samples from the bedrooms were then compared with air samples collected from a virus-free control room. The device detected the RNA of the virus in the air samples from the bedrooms but did not detect any in the control air samples.

In laboratory experiments that aerosolized SARS-CoV-2 into a room-sized chamber, the wet cyclone and biosensor were able to detect varying levels of airborne virus concentrations after only a few minutes of sampling, according to the study.

“We are starting with SARS-CoV-2, but there are plans to also measure influenza, RSV, rhinovirus and other top pathogens that routinely infect people,” Cirrito said. “In a hospital setting, the monitor could be used to measure for staph or strep, which cause all kinds of complications for patients. This could really have a major impact on people’s health.”

The Washington University team is now working to commercialize the air quality monitor."

-via Forbes, July 11, 2023

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Holy shit. I know it's still early in the technology and more testing will inevitably be needed but holy shit.

Literally, if it bears out, this could revolutionize medicine. And maybe let immunocompromised people fucking go places again

Also, for those who don't know, Nature Communications is a very prestigious scientific journal that focuses on Pretty Big Deal research. Their review process is incredibly rigorous. This is an absolutely HUGE credibility boost to this research and prototyp

on a serious note regarding the wga strike and (as of 1:50 AM PST 7/13) upcoming sag-aftra strike, dsa-la has a fundraiser called The Snacklist which provides snacks and water on the picket lines here in LA. right now the funds they have will not last through the end of the summer, especially given the current and upcoming heatwaves necessitating more supplies. if you have a couple of dollars to spare it's a great way to directly support the writers (and potentially the actors) during this difficult time!

happy first sag-aftra strike in 60 years to all who celebrate.

if you are an enjoyer of media (which i will guess based on your presence on tumblr that you are) please consider donating to the snacklist (linked above) or to any of the following mutual aid funds that directly support striking actors/writers, IATSE and teamster union members who are also out of work and by and large refusing to cross the picket lines, and nonunion PAs and assistants (like yours truly) who are directly impacted by the work stoppage. everyone in this industry works unbelievably hard to bring you the shows, movies, webseries, and variety programs that you enjoy and every worker deserves a fair contract. any support you can give is extremely meaningful.

The Entertainment Community Fund provides emergency financial assistance to anyone in the entertainment industry who is unable to pay their immediate basic living expenses such as housing, food, bills, and healthcare.

The Union Solidarity Coalition has been formed by members of the wga, sag, and the dga to help cover the cost of healthcare for IATSE and teamsters who will not get enough work hours to qualify for their coverage this year due to their refusal to cross a picket line.

The Hollywood Support Staff Relief Fund (also run by the Entertainment Community Fund but separate from the above link which supports all film and tv workers) offers assistance to tv and film support staff and assistants who are not protected by a union and have been displaced from low or entry level positions.

Drive 4 Solidarity is an IATSE organized event in August raising funds for all union and guild members. Tickets are available for those in socal but donations are being taken as well.

Humanitas Groceries for Writers fund provides WGA members with grocery gift cards.

Green Envelope Grocery is a grocery fund for all workers in the entertainment industry regardless of union status.

Change my meme (a replacement 'Change my mind' template) - template post - Imgur

Who is Steven crowder????

Steven crowder is an American right-wing talking head. He’s well known in some circles as a major factor in the YouTube alt-right pipeline.

TL;DR: If you are able, could you email your senator and tell them that you support the Fresh Produce Procurement Reform Act? They will actually give a shit this time I promise, they just need to know you care*. Email is fine! All you have to type is “I support the Fresh Produce Procurement Reform Act”. You can tell them Tumblr sent you if you want.

HERE’S WHY: In my day job I help administer paperwork for one of the best government programs you’ve never heard of, the Local Food Purchase Agreement. This program:

• Buys produce from small sustainable farmers with an emphasis on supporting BIPOC farmers
• Pays those farmers good money
• Gets local businesses to pack that produce
• Delivers the produce to food aid programs in schools and community organizations to be distributed for free without conditions
• Broke people get extremely nice fresh fruits, vegetables, milk, meat, eggs
• A lot of the products are heirloom and culturally important foods. No generic government potatoes here.
• Also there are huge funding carve-outs for indigenous food sovereignty products
• People send in notes about how this is what they’ve always wanted to feed their families but they usually can’t afford it. I love this program so much. 

^ This is a stock photo but the produce genuinely looks like this. I have both worked in and lived off food aid programs in my lifetime and if you ever have you know that “brown bananas” and “fun game! find the squash that isn’t moldy” is usually the best it gets. Produce that is actually fresh and high-quality and tastes nice and is heritage varieties of culturally important foods is basically asking for the moon. Except they might actually give us the moon this time. It turns out that the moon only costs, like, twice what my small town spends on police every year. Let’s get the moon!

*Here’s the thing, no one hates The American Farmer. Farm stuff is almost always bipartisan. This makes it easier to get food to people! Let’s do the thing!

watch out girl she'll chew u up

btw, so like I'm barely breaking even as the only fulltime employee at my drag bar's kitchen. If anybody was interested in sending tips, I made a kofi. Any gratuity helps me take care of myself and others <3

just for posterity, I'm a transfem living n working in Florida. I'd love to stay here bc we should be allowed to stay here without threat of being run out, wanna hold out as long as I can, but I do consider it in my interests to have a 'get the hell out of here' fund set aside in case I urgently do need to 'get the hell out of here'

if you had asked me as a child what colour the sky was, i would have confidently said blue and yellow. because i grew up on the baltic coast next to one of the most travelled ship routes of the world, and the unfiltered sulfur pouring out of the exhausts of nearly a hundred cargo ships every day turned into a thick layer of sickly yellow laying over the horizon. especially on sunny summer days, it settled of the sea like the cheap imitation of a sunset, out of place during the bright daylight.

then, from one summer to the next, the yellow slowly but surely faded away. because a new legislation passed - one which heavily penalised airborne ship emissions in the area. and while the silhouettes of ships across the passage never became less frequent, their backdrop was now such a pure blue that its hard to imagine that it was ever different.

i think about this everytime someone tells me that climate legislation doesn't work, everytime a new media story declaring our helplessness in the face of certain environmental doom makes the rounds. don't get me wrong - the situation we are facing in terms of climate change and environmental destruction is certainly terrifying. but everyday, people are working tirelessly to implement law and policy that could change that fact. and because of those people, a newly bright blue sky touches down over the baltic sea. and that has to count for something, i think.

• Perform the Disengage action against the Ragebait miniboss.