#NATIONAL MISSION ON FOOD PROCESSING

[devilish-cherry]

choso relationship headcanons ♡

ᨳ♡₊➳ choso x reader

ᨳ♡₊➳ crack, fluff

ᨳ♡₊➳ part two

ᨳ♡₊➳ choso nation, we rise. this was supposed to be a short list, but then i blacked out and wrote 20+ of these like my brain was fully infected with choso thoughts lmao i had way too much fun writing these and if even one person giggles, kicks their feet, or whispers ‘he’s so babygirl’ under their breath, then my mission is complete. mwah mwah enjoy the choso brainrot 🖤

₊⊹. choso is very affectionate, but he does not know how to initiate it. he wants to cuddle, but instead of asking, he just sits near you… closer… closer… until you finally sigh and pull him into your arms. mission accomplished.

₊⊹. choso lets you paint his nails. he does not react at all while you do it, but later, when he catches his reflection, he stares at them with pure admiration.

₊⊹. choso picks up on your habits without realizing it. if you always hum while making food, he will also start humming while making food. he is an imprint duck.

₊⊹. choso sees you shiver once and immediately wraps you in his scarf without hesitation, completely deadpan. you try to protest, but he just goes, "you are cold. i do not require it." end of discussion.

₊⊹. choso reacts to you putting your head in his lap for the first time by going completely still like a statue, unsure of what to do with his hands. eventually, after much contemplation, he awkwardly places one (1) hand on your head.

₊⊹. choso finds out about couples wearing matching clothes and gets very serious about it. suddenly, you have matching scarves, jackets, socks—he doesn’t even ask, he just starts handing you things to wear.

₊⊹. choso learns how to cook just so he can make your favorite meal for you. he is not good at it at first, but he is so determined.

₊⊹. choso and you watch a horror movie together, and despite his usually stoic demeanor, he jumps when there’s a sudden jumpscare. then immediately pretends that did not just happen.

₊⊹. choso wants to impress you, but he doesn't know how. one time, he tried to carry all your groceries in one trip to prove his strength, but he didn't realize how heavy they were and nearly fell down the stairs.

₊⊹. choso sees an old couple holding hands and just stares at them very seriously before turning to you and goes, "we will do that too."

₊⊹. choso sees a stuffed animal that looks like you (or reminds him of you in some way) and just. buys it. no hesitation. now it sits on his bed.

₊⊹. you fall asleep on choso’s shoulder, and he does not move for hours. his arm? numb. his back? sore. but does he care? absolutely not.

₊⊹. choso sees a mistletoe for the first time and gets very serious about standing under it with you. “it is tradition.”

₊⊹. choso and you share a blanket, and when you move even slightly, he adjusts it for you like some kind of doting grandma.

₊⊹. if you jokingly call choso “pretty boy” he will just stare into the distance, processing that for the next 3-5 business days.

₊⊹. choso doesn’t fully understand dating anniversaries, but if you tell him a date is important, he remembers. every year. without fail.

₊⊹. choso treats your interests like divine knowledge. if you mention liking a specific food, he will remember forever and bring it to you at random times.

₊⊹. choso doesn’t understand sarcasm or teasing just yet, so if you jokingly say “ugh, i hate you” after he does something cute, he will immediately go quiet like 🧍‍♂️ “...i will improve.”

₊⊹. choso learns about pet names and thinks they are deeply serious. one time, you call him “baby,” and he thinks about it for days. finally, he asks, all serious, “you called me baby. does that mean i am small and fragile to you? do i need to be handled with care?”

₊⊹. choso does not understand selfies, so when you try to take one with him, he just stares at the camera deadpan while you smile and pose next to him.

₊⊹. choso is a horrible liar. if he plans a surprise for you, you will know immediately because he looks guilty for no reason. you ask him what’s wrong, and he’s like “nothing. i definitely did not hide something for you in the kitchen.”

₊⊹. choso learns about social media. he does not understand it. one day, you find out he made an instagram solely to follow you. he has one post, and it’s just a blurry picture of you.

₊⊹. choso is overprotective in the strangest ways. he will not stop you from fighting your own battles, but if he sees you about to trip on the sidewalk, he will catch you like it’s an action movie.

₊⊹. choso is clueless about love, but when he loves, he loves completely and with his whole heart. if you need something, he is already on it. if you’re sad, he doesn’t always know what to say, but he will hold you like you are the most precious thing in the world.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

General Mills and cheaply bought "dietitians" co-opted the anti-diet movement

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in NEXT THURSDAY (Apr 11) in BOSTON with Randall "XKCD" Munroehttps://cockeyed.com/lessons/viagra/viagra.html, then PROVIDENCE, RI (Apr 12), and beyond!

Steve Bannon isn't wrong: for his brand of nihilistic politics to win, all he has to do is "flood the zone with shit," demoralizing people to the point where they no longer even try to learn the truth.

This is really just a more refined, more potent version of the tactical doubt sown by Big Tobacco about whether smoking caused cancer, a playbook later adopted by the fossil fuel industry to sell climate denial. You know Darrell Huff's 1954 classic How To Lie With Statistics? Huff was a Big Tobacco shill (his next book, which wasn't ever published, was How To Lie With Cancer Statistics). His mission wasn't to help you spot statistical malpractice – an actual thing that is an actual problem that you should actually learn to spot. It was to turn you into a nihilist who didn't believe anything could be known:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/04/how-to-truth/#harford

Corporations don't need you to believe that their products are beneficial or even non-harmful. They just need you to believe nothing. If you don't know what's true, then why not just do whatever feels good, man? #YOLO!

These bannonfloods of shit are a favored tactic of strongmen and dictators. Their grip on power doesn't depend on their citizens trusting them – it's enough that they trust no one:

http://jonathanstray.com/networked-propaganda-and-counter-propaganda

Bannonflooding is especially beloved of the food industry. Food is essential, monopolized, and incredibly complicated, and many of the most profitable strategies for growing, processing and preparing food are very bad for the people who eat that food. Rather than sacrificing profits, the food industry floods the zone with shit, making it impossible to know what's true, in hopes that we will just eat whatever they're serving:

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2003460

Now, the "nothing can be known" gambit only works if it's really hard to get at the truth. So it helps that nutrition and diet are very complex subjects, but it helps even more that the nutrition and diet industry are a cesspool of quacks and junk science. This is a "scientific discipline" whose prestigious annual meetings are sponsored (and catered) by McDonald's:

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/05/my-trip-mcdonalds-sponsored-nutritionist-convention/

It's a "science" whose most prominent pitchmen peddle quack nostrums and sue the critics who point out (correctly) that eating foods high in chlorophyll will not "oxygenate your blood" (hint, chlorophyll only makes oxygen in the presence of light, which is notably lacking in your colon):

https://www.badscience.net/2007/02/ms-gillian-mckeith-banned-from-calling-herself-a-doctor/

When the quack-heavy world of nutrition combines with the socially stigmatized world of weight-loss, you get a zone ripe for shitflooding. The majority of Americans are "overweight" (according to a definition that relies on the unscientific idea of BMI) and nearly half of Americans are "obese." These numbers have been climbing steadily since the 1970s, and every diet turns out to be basically bullshit:

https://headgum.com/factually-with-adam-conover/what-does-ozepmic-actually-do-with-dr-dhruv-khullar

Notwithstanding the new blockbuster post-Ozempic drugs, we're been through an unbroken 50-year run of more and more of us being fatter and fatter, even as fat stigma increased. Fat people are treated as weak-willed and fundamentally unhealthy, while the most prominent health-risks of being fat are roundly neglected: the mental health effects of being shamed, and the physical risks of having doctors ignore your health complaints, no matter how serious they sound, and blame them on your weight:

https://maintenancephase.buzzsprout.com/1411126/11968083-glorifying-obesity-and-other-myths-about-fat-people

Fat people and their allies have banded together to address these real, urgent harms. The "body acceptance" movement isn't merely about feeling good in your own skin: it's also about fighting discrimination, demanding medical care (beyond "lose some weight") and warning people away from getting on the diet treadmill, which can lead to dangerous eating disorders and permanent weight gain:

https://www.beacon.org/You-Just-Need-to-Lose-Weight-P1853.aspx

Fat stigma is real. The mental health risks of fat-shaming are real. Eating disorders are real. Discrimination against fat people is real. The fact that these things are real doesn't mean that the food industry can't flood the zone with shit, though. On the contrary: the urgency of these issues, combined with the poor regulation of dietitians, makes the "what should you eat" zone perfect for flooding with endless quantities of highly profitable shit.

Perhaps you've gotten some of this shit on you. Have you found yourself watching a video from a dietitian influencer like Cara Harbstreet, Colleen Christensen or Lauren Smith, promoting "health at any size" with hashtags like #DerailTheShame and #AntiDiet? These were paid campaigns sponsored by General Mills, Pepsi, and other multinational, multibillion-dollar corporations.

Writing for The Examination, Sasha Chavkin, Anjali Tsui, Caitlin Gilbert and Anahad O'Connor describe the way that some of the world's largest and most profitable corporations have hijacked a movement where fat people and their allies fight stigma and shame and used it to peddle the lie that their heavily processed, high-calorie food is good for you:

https://www.theexamination.org/articles/as-obesity-rises-big-food-and-dietitians-push-anti-diet-advice

It's a surreal tale. They describe a speech by Amy Cohn, General Mills’ senior manager for nutrition, to an audience at a dietitian's conference, where Cohn "denounced the media for 'pointing the finger at processed foods' and making consumers feel ashamed of their choices." This is some next-level nihilism: rather than railing against the harmful stigma against fat people, Cohn wants us to fight the stigma against Cocoa Puffs.

This message isn't confined to industry conferences. Dietitians with large Tiktok followings like Cara Harbstreet then carry the message out to the public. In Harbstreet's video promoting Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs and Trix, she says, "I will always advocate for fearlessly nourishing meals, including cereal…Because everyone deserves to enjoy food without judgment, especially kids":

https://www.tiktok.com/@streetsmart.rd/video/7298403730989436206

Dietitians, nutritionists and the food industry have always had an uncomfortably close relationship, but the industry's shitflooding kicked into high gear when the FDA proposed rules limiting which foods the industry can promote as "healthy." General Mills, Kelloggs and Post have threatened a First Amendment suit against such a regulation, arguing that they have a free speech right to describe manifestly unhealthy food as "healthy."

The anti-diet movement – again, a legitimate movement aimed at fighting the dangerous junk science behind dieting – has been co-opted by the food industry, who are paying dietitian influencers to say things like "all foods have value" while brandishing packages of Twix and Reese's. In their Examination article, the authors profile people who struggled with their weight, then, after encountering the food industry's paid disinformation, believed that "healthy at any size" meant that it would be unhealthy to avoid highly processed, high calorie food. These people gained large amounts of weight, and found their lives constrained and their health severely compromised.

I've been overweight all my life. I went to my first Weight Watchers meeting when I was 12. I come from a family of overweight people with the chronic illnesses often associated with being fat. This is a subject that's always on my mind. I even wrote a whole novel about the promise and peril of a weight-loss miracle:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781429969284/makers

I think the anti-diet movement, and its associated ideas like body acceptance and healthy at every size, are enormously positive developments and hugely important. It's because I value these ideas that I'm so disgusted with Big Food and its cynical decision to flood the zone with shit. It's also why I'm so furious with dietitians and nutritionists for failing to self-regulate and become a real profession, the kind that censures and denounces quacks and shills.

I have complicated feelings about Ozempic and its successors, but even if these prove to be effective and safe in the long term, and even if we rein in the rapacious pharma companies so that they no longer sell a $5 product for $1000, I would still want dietary science to clean up its act:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2816824

I'm not a nihilist. I think we can use science to discover truths – about ourselves and our world. I want to know those truths, and I think they can be known. The only people who benefit from convincing you that the truth is unknowable are the people who want to lie to you.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/05/corrupt-for-cocoa-puffs/#flood-the-zone-with-shit

[centrally-unplanned]

The trick on the whole "Israel banning UNRWA" thing is that most militaries - like say the US in Afghanistan for example - directly provision aid. American soldiers would often be handing out food packages themselves, and even if they weren't the aid organizations would be directly contracting with the US government and the Department of Defense. You have a group in the military and the government that is like, okay, how do we feed people, let's hit those targets.

So if Congress decided to ban the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan in 2006 from operating in the country or whatever, that bill would say like "we hand over its mission to USAID, which has been allocated $2.1 billion dollars in FY-2005 to do X Y Z". It would probably be a dumb move that would create unnecessary friction and cost lives for political bullshit, but that is also life, people dying for political bullshit is a universal constant. It would probably be pretty small bore in the scale of things, like switching over contractors.

That isn't how Israel does things. I might be wrong about this, Israel is deliberately opaque about these things and I just gave this the ol' half hour of googling, I am open to being contradicted here. But my current understanding of net spending by the government of Israel itself on aid to Gaza is...$0. They do not provide aid. They permit aid from other organizations, funded by other countries, to be provided! But they don't take responsibility for the provision; meeting targets, outcomes, etc, none of that is their job. (I am sure it isn't literally zero btw, but I think you get my point)

It is really telling that when you look up pro-Israel statements by say AIPAC on aid, their headlines are:

Israel Facilitates Humanitarian Aid to Gaza as Hamas Continues to Attack

And they criticize the UN because the UN trucks aren't being delivered:

The United Nations and other international agencies are largely responsible for the existing delays in aid deliveries into Gaza. The U.N. has not been able to distribute aid at the rate that Israel is processing it, causing back-ups at the border crossings after Israeli inspections are completed. On March 3, the U.N. received 234 trucks in Gaza but only distributed 131 trucks of aid to civilians in the enclave.

If this was the US military, and the UN was getting aid trucks and failing to send them, we would send more of our own trucks? That we have? Because aid is part of the military operation. But Israel doesn't do that - because it doesn't have any trucks. Because aid isn't part of the military operation.

Which is why the bill banning UNRWA that is being passed does not mention aid provision to Gaza:

The international community has raised alarm over the legislation, which was passed without a plan in place for a humanitarian agency to replace UNRWA.

Again going off news sources here, link for the actual bill is currently down, if I am wrong will correct here, but I think it all tracks. So in the article above, you get statements from the government when people ask about aid, they reply, oh yeah these other aid organizations will fill the gap.

Then you ask the aid organizations themselves and they go, no, we won't fill the gap! We don't have the resources to do that! Which is logical when you realize Israel isn't funding those orgs. They don't know or care about their funding status. Hopefully someone else will figure that out - aid is someone else's problem. Those government remarks are just off the cuff, they aren't a plan.

Which I want to loop back around to the casus belli for the ban - UNRWA having ties to Hamas. That, to me, is one of those "uh duh, and?" things - Hamas is the government of Gaza. UNRWA runs schools there? And medical clinics? You think they do that...without contact with the government? This is just silly, the UN Mission in Afghanistan obviously had connections to the US Government! Government officials, working in both, par for the course.

But, and this is far more important, it is irrelevant. I completely agree that UNRWA has many people who are sympathetic to Hamas in it, because obviously they do. You want to ban it, dumb but okay. You propose a bill outlining the $2 billion dollars and the 5 partnered aid organizations and the 400 IDF trucks that will deliver aid to replace their work, sure. Whatever man, do your small bore politics bullshit.

That is not what they are doing.

Now, Israel has in fact allowed a bunch of aid in Gaza, I don't doubt that like USAID and the non-profit community and the governments of the UK and Japan and so on are gonna pivot funding to a bunch of organizations that will do herculean work stepping up operations and interfacing with the IDF checkpoint system and get aid in. Maybe they will do such a bang-up job that the cost in suffering won't be that high. Israel did give 3 months after all, they aren't the literal worst they could be.

But I do think at a certain point, the line between indifference and malice just ceases to matter. The UNRWA bill isn't some breaking point or big policy shift - it is just a highly revealing moment in the Israeli approach, why the war there has gone the way that it has. And it is, as the kids say, not a good look.

(h/t @loving-n0t-heyting as this was initially a reblog of their post, but they mentioned getting drama in the notes so I split it off; sorry to deny you the precious +1 internet point)

[acmeangel]

♡ Help me decide on a longer fic idea! ♡

I don't know when I'll write it, but I at least want to start thinking about plot ideas for something more substantial. (And this wouldn’t mean I’d stop writing requests.) Respond or inbox me with thoughts!

☆ Option 1: Canon!Levi x Female!Reader: Paradis has just found out that the rest of the world exists, and with that, that they’re about a century behind every other nation. It’s time to form alliances. Y/N is a Princess from a neighboring nation, and her father, the King, is interested in working out a mutually beneficial arrangement. Together, they visit Paradis, and while they’re there, the King demands that the most skilled soldier in all of Paradis guard Y/N and keep her safe. That’s where Levi comes in; he’s ordered to protect Y/N at all costs (he thinks it’s a bit below him, but it’s an order). Bonus: in Y/N’s culture, royal women have to wear a veil at all times until married, so Levi doesn’t ever get to see what she looks like.

☆ Option 2: Canon!Levi x Female!Reader: The Scouts have just uncovered that Marley is their real enemy. Levi Squad is sent on an undercover recon mission to gather intelligence on Marley to see if they can gain the upper hand; they don’t have the same military capabilities as Marley, so they’ll need all the information they can get. Levi meets Y/N, the daughter of [military official person probably] who could be the key to getting the precious intel The Scouts need. Levi has to pretend to be someone else while he gets to know Y/N and tries to learn her secrets, but in the process, he might actually come to like Y/N — the enemy. Big enemies to lovers vibes.

☆ Option 3: Canon!Levi x Female!Reader: Y/N and Levi both grew up in the Underground. Y/N, much like Levi, didn't have family to count on and had to fend for herself; however, because she was just an ordinary kid, she had a hard time defending herself. Levi, who was just a couple years older, always seemed to appear and defend Y/N throughout their childhood, and Y/N would repay him with food or a place to stay. They became friends over time, and cared for one another, but Levi eventually joins the Scouts, and Y/N is left to fend for herself in the Underground. Will they reunite? Will Y/N have to toughen up and lead the life of a criminal? What will happen if their paths cross years later, as adults?

☆ Option 4: Canon!Levi x Female!Reader: This one's a little half-baked, but Y/N is a civilian woman, living inside the walls. She lives an ordinary life; maybe she's a bartender or a seamstress or something like that. One way or another, her and Levi become friendly; this is all pre-Shiganshina-Attack, so while things are busy with the Scouts, the real storm hasn't hit yet. Y/N and Levi begin writing each other letters now and then, and Y/N develops romantic feelings for Levi and accidentally sends him a rather intimate note (inspired by Atonement lol). This sparks something within Levi, but before they can do anything about it, the Titans break through the walls and Levi is too consumed with duty to be able to visit her anymore. Y/N has no clue if or when she'll see Levi again, but even despite this, she can't seem to be able to fall for anyone else. Will they ever get to see each other again? (Very Hozier singing "Do I Wanna Know?" YEARNING, LONGING vibes)

(For logistics, would have to tweak canon story things in these fics because duh.)

I clearly tend to think of ideas within the canon universe, but if anyone has any compelling non-canon ideas, I’d love to hear them!

[mariacallous]

Last month, the Trump administration placed a $1 spending limit on most government-issued credit cards that federal employees use to cover travel and work expenses. The impacts are already widely felt.

At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, scientists aren’t able to order equipment used to repair ships and radars. At the Food and Drug Administration, laboratories are experiencing delays in ordering basic supplies. At the National Park Service, employees are canceling trips to oversee crucial maintenance work. And at the Department of Agriculture and the Federal Aviation Administration, employees worry that mission-critical projects could be stalled. In many cases, employees are already unable to carry out the basic functions of their job.

“The longer this disruption lasts, the more the system will break,” says a USDA official who was granted anonymity because they aren’t authorized to speak to the media about the looming crisis.

A researcher at the National Institutes of Health who tests new vaccines and treatments in rodents says he has had to put experiments on hold; his lab is not able to get certain necessary materials, such as antibodies, which are needed to assess immune response. “We have animals here that are aging that will pretty soon be too old to work with,” says the researcher, who requested anonymity as they aren’t authorized to speak publicly about the agency. Young mice and rats that are 6 to 8 weeks old are typically used for drug and vaccine studies, but some of the animals in their lab have now aged out of that window and may have to be euthanized.

They say NIH workers have been using internal listservs to ask for reagents and lab equipment from other buildings or institutions to try to compensate for shortages, but they’re not always able to track down what they need. The NIH is made up of 27 institutes and centers, and its Bethesda, Maryland, campus is spread across more than 75 buildings. “Sometimes you need something that's really niche, and you're just not going to find it from someone else on campus,” they say.

The change comes as Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency continues to hunt for alleged examples of waste across the federal government. Late last month, DOGE announced that it was working to “simplify” the government’s largest credit card program, which issues GSA SmartPay travel and purchase cards for federal employees. Last Wednesday, the agency claimed 24,000 cards had been deactivated.

The credit card program allows federal workers to bypass the typical procurement process required to buy goods and services. A 2002 report from the Department of Commerce said that, “by avoiding the formal procurement process, GSA estimates the annual savings to be $1.2 billion.” It also enables federal employees to avoid paying sales tax on expenses that the government is exempt from.

At the FDA, labs that analyze samples to ensure that food, drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics are safe and meet regulatory standards are already facing shortages. "While we are always acutely aware of when Congress’ funding is going to run out, we are able to order supplies to keep things going in the lab. This abrupt ending felt like the rug was being pulled out from under us," says an employee at the FDA who requested anonymity because they aren't authorized to speak with the media.

The employee recently placed an order for pipette tips, an essential laboratory supply, but found that order was put on hold. "Now we are running out, asking colleagues at other offices to share what they might not be using,” they told WIRED.

In addition, workers say FDA labs now have to go through a lengthy process to order liquid nitrogen, which is used to keep ultra-cold freezers running. These freezers preserve samples of cells and other biological material that reflect years, and sometimes decades, of research. Delays in getting liquid nitrogen tanks could destroy that material. Previously, new tanks could usually be acquired the same day as putting in a request. Now, it takes a week or so to receive a tank after initiating a request.

An employee at the Environmental Protection Agency says her facility is not able to place regular orders of liquid nitrogen at the moment. “We have dozens of these freezers full of important environmental samples that are imminently at risk of being lost because we can no longer get our regular shipments of liquid nitrogen,” says the employee, who requested anonymity. These samples are used as part of research on detection and remediation methods for chemicals such as PFAS, which are found in many products and break down very slowly over time.

“Scientists are being forced to jerry-rig the connection points on these freezers to accept pressures of liquid nitrogen they were not designed to handle,” the employee says. “Divisions are resorting to bartering with each other to obtain needed items.”

The FDA and EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WIRED.

The credit card freeze also means that federal researchers who were working on scientific manuscripts can’t pay journal fees, meaning they can’t submit their work to certain journals for publication.

An employee at a federal forensics lab told WIRED that spending limits mean the lab is no longer able to pay to ship evidence back to agents, effectively halting its ability to do casework. Before a case goes to trial, defendants have the right to access and review evidence that the prosecution intends to use against them, which includes access to the evidence in their case. Defendants are able to send that evidence to an outside lab for analysis if they choose. “Cases can’t progress until we return the evidence,” says the forensics lab worker, who asked to remain anonymous. “I basically can’t do my job right now.”

NIH employees were told that travel cards could not be used at all for 30 days, forcing scientists to cancel plans to attend a major infectious disease conference next week. USDA employees at the Pest Identification Technology Laboratory have stockpiled reagents used for molecular tests in advance of the spending limits, according to the USDA official.

FAA employees who travel to work on and test aviation systems worry the credit card freeze will prevent them from completing their projects. “We are allowed to use our personal cards in emergencies but none of us trust them to pay us back now,” says one employee.

The impacts have hit the National Park Service as well. One employee was poised to go on a trip to oversee road maintenance at a national monument when the change went into effect on February 20. “Unless I want to pay for it myself, I can’t go. I can’t pay for my hotel, my rental car, fuel for the car. Now I can’t carry out the mission,” the employee says. “Today, instead of focusing on other work, I’m focused on three different contingencies on how to handle this. Do I go? Do I call my engineering team and tell them to reschedule? And if so, when? The project is on an indefinite hold.”

A memo written to staff at the National Park Service specified that “all travel that is NOT related to national security, public safety, or immigration enforcement should be canceled if it begins on Wednesday, February 26, through the end of March 2025.” A long-term decision on the travel policy, it said, will come “at a later date.” Some NPS staffers were able to travel in February despite not getting official clearance. They have now been told no travel will be allowed in March. To date, roughly 75 trips have been canceled or rescheduled, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The National Park Service did not respond to a request for comment from WIRED.

Some government employees say they were given a warning prior to the change being announced on February 20. “We went out and bought cases and cases of toilet paper the night before,” another current employee at the National Park Service says. “There’s a general acknowledgement that things are going to break.”

That employee works in the Pacific West Region, which manages federal land in California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Nevada, as well as parks in Arizona, Montana, Guam, and American Samoa. While the GSA did allow for the possibility of exceptions to the clamp-down, the employee claims there are only four purchase cards with spending limits above $1 available for the entire region.

Some of these parks pay for services like internet and wireless on purchase cards—leaving staffers wondering if their work devices could soon be cut off. “Before someone can fix a bathroom a work order has to be issued,” the current employee explains. “That happens electronically. Like any business, we rely on email, Teams, and chat to get things done.”

The spending limits reflect Musk’s belief in zero-based budgeting. After he purchased Twitter, he slashed the budget to zero and forced employees to justify every expense. He also froze people’s corporate credit cards.

“With the Twitter pausing of payments, at some point we were in a meeting at 1 am on a Saturday, and it was like, ‘Hey, let's turn the credit cards off to see what bounces, and what happens,’" explained angel investor Jason Calacanis on the All In podcast in February. (Calacanis was part of Musk’s transition team at Twitter.) “And of course, we started getting calls ... The people who come first, they're probably the ones who are in on the biggest grift.”

Employees see it a different way. “There are so many controls in place to make sure fraud doesn’t happen,” alleges the current NPS staffer. “I honestly believe the only fraud occurring is being committed by Musk, [Russell] Vought, and [Donald] Trump.”

[mutant-okuri-inu]

COD OG!MW2 OC: AUSTIN "HAWK" STEWART

General

Name: Austin "Hawk" Stewart

Age: 25 (OG!MW2)

Alias(es): Hawk

Gender: male

Birthday: January 3rd

Nationality: British

Place of birth: Westminster, UK

Languages: English

Occupation/Rank: Sergeant

Affiliation: British army (formely), SAS, Task Force - 141

APPEARANCE

Hair color: light sand - brown

Eye color: amber

Scars: bullet wound on left shoulder.

Piercings: piercing on left ear

Face Claim: Peyton Meyer

Height: 187cm

Weight:  78kg

Build: athletic

Blood type: AB+

FAMILY

Family: Unnamed mother, unnamed father (deceased)

Siblings: unnamed little sister

Personality: ISTJ He is esponsible, yet caring, and loyal. As a sniper, he is motivated to help and protect. He respects the rules.

Despite the harsh environments and brutal missions he’s endured, Hawk remains a force of calm and compassion within any unit. Known for his soft-spoken demeanor, Stewart is the type of soldier who doesn't raise his voice—he doesn’t need to, but only does on the missions. Often described as the conscience of the team, Hawk brings a sense of moral clarity and emotional steadiness that keeps his squad grounded.

FAVOURITES

Color: chestnut

Season: winter

Food: spicy food

Drink: Tea, Martini

Dessert: Sticky toffee pudding

Hobbies: Photography, Archery

ABILITIES

Fighting style: Judo, he doesn’t need a CQC weapon, he can defend himself with bare hands.

Weapons: Whatever available.

Sniping skills: Excellent at aiming, staying patient and calm is his greatest manner.

TRIVIA

Hawk sleeps without a blanket in summer season.

Sometimes a terrible driver, overthinks or spaces out when driving too fast before crashing the vehicle on the missions.

Hawk was never in love with anyone, but wishes to be.

Hawk smokes only when he’s stressed.

His secret talent is drawing. Often draws on his journal what he feels.

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Westminster, Austin’s childhood life was a normal one. When he turned 16, the terrorists attacked the aquarium when he was on vacation with his family. His father was crushed by debris when the grenade exploded.

After the incident, his mother went into depression, started smoking and drinking. At rainy night, Austin had no choice but to leave his home behind, to live on the streets. Becoming a ghost, he learned to steal, survive and encounter dangerous criminals and gangs. His sharp instincts and a keen sense of awareness, he was called by the nickname “Hawk” by street gangs, due to his ability to observe and react swiftly.

One day, while taking a shelter in abandoned building, he came across a recruitment poster for the British army and decided to join. After completing basic training, Stewart rapidly distinguished himself in deployments to the Middle East, where his precision, tactical thinking, and fearlessness in urban combat earned him commendations. His leadership under fire did not go unnoticed.

After several tours and commendations for bravery, Austin was selected for Special Air Service selection. His quiet intensity and laser focus drew the interest of Captain Price, who handpicked him for Task Force 141. Hawk was brought in to supplement the team’s recon and sniper capabilities, often partnering with Ghost and Soap during black-ops raids.

The gruelling process tested not just strength, but willpower—and for a man who’d already lost and abandoned everything, failure simply wasn’t an option.

Reblogs are appreciated!

[what-have-i-unleashed]

three cheers for your ego

hello mtt nation, i am here with my promised angsty christmas fic, as part of my defeat of my evil twin in the twinter war (i am the better twin now obviously). enjoy, and happy holidays >:3

When Sans comes back home from a tiring scouting mission, he immediately notices something is off. The food rations he’s so sure were left near the kitchen entryway are gone. That meager bits of fresh meat he’s scraped together for Gyftmas just simply… disappeared.

“what happened to the food?” he asked, already dreading the answer.

His younger brother, seated on the sofa in the living room, flinches but doesn’t look away from his intense blood red gaze. His hands twist nervously in his lap. “I… I GAVE IT TO THE BUNNIES.”

“you what?” Sans says, voice deceptively quiet. His whole body goes rigid and his fists clenches, threatening to break off the door handle he’s gripping.

“THEY NEED IT MORE THAN WE DID – THAN I DID,” Papyrus replies, his voice carefully laced with a tone of defiance that is not very helpful right now. “AND… IT’S GYFTMAS.”

Sans thunders across the room as he stands before papyrus, his teeth clenched so hard he can hear them grinding in his skull. “what does that even mean?! who the hell cares if it’s gyftmas?! that was all we had! do you understand what you’ve done?!”

Papyrus shoots up on his feet, his frame towering over Sans’ short stature. Sans unconsciously takes a step back, momentarily surprised by his brother’s reaction.

“I UNDERSTAND PERFECTLY,” Papyrus says, his voice low and steady. “THEY HAVE KIDS, SANS. LITTLE ONES. AND THEY ARE HUNGRY AND COLD. DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO NOTHING? TO TURN MY BACK ON THEM?”

“yes!” Sans snaps. “exactly that! if we starve, who’s gonna save us? who’s gonna keep you alive?!”

Papyrus’ face twists in discomfort, but he stands his ground. “I DO THINK ABOUT IT, BROTHER,” he says, his voice soft. “IT’S UNCOMFORTABLE TO THINK ABOUT. BUT, WHAT’S THE POINT OF SURVIVING IF WE’RE JUST… CANNIBALIZING EACH OTHER IN THE PROCESS, LIKE WHAT’S HAPPENING IN OTHER PLACES? IN SNOWDIN, WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE A COMMUNITY, SANS.”

“oh, spare me the sentimental piece,” Sans growls. “do you know how hard it is to get food around here? and you just threw it away to some family who wouldn’t lift a finger to help us if the tables were turned!”

“YOU DON’T KNOW THAT!” Papyrus shoots back, his voice slightly trembling. “KINDNESS STILL EXISTS! NOT EVERYONE IS LIKE YOU!”

The words hang in the air like a shotgun. Papyrus looks shocked at what came out of his mouth, but he doesn’t look sorry. Sans stares back at him, mouth open like he’s about to say something, but then he stops. Without a word, he turns on his heel and storms towards the door, anger rolling from him in waves.

“WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” Papyrus demands, rushing to block Sans’ path. Sans glares at him, irritated.

“where do you think?” he hisses, his eye narrowing dangerously. “i’m taking our food back.”

“YOU’RE GOING TO ROB THEM?!” Papyrus gasps, disbelief making way to horror. “THEY HAVE KIDS, SANS!! AND THEY HAVE NOTHING TO EAT!!”

“well, too bad then,” Sans spits. “no one steals from me. and the bunnies will learn real quick what happens when someone does. they’re gonna have a mad time.” A feral grin spreads across his face.

Papyrus stands in front of the door, defiant. “NO.”

“out of my way, paps.”

“NO! I WON’T LET YOU!”

“you think you can stop me? i can easily shortcut pass you.”

“I KNOW! BUT IT’S THE PRINCIPLE OF THE THING, AS YOUR BROTHER! IF YOU CROSS ME, I’LL WHACK YOU TIL YOU SEE SOME SENSE IN THAT CRACKED HEAD OF YOURS!!” Papyrus crosses his arms, disapproving.

“you think you’re so much better than me? you think you can survive on morals alone?”

“NO,” Papyrus replies, his voice soft. “I JUST WANT TO BE BETTER THAN THIS.”

After an eternity, Sans drops his coat and lies on the sofa, the tension in the room lessening but still palpable.

“well, merry fucking gyftmas then,” he mutters. “i hope you’re happy with this.”

The frozen streets are silent, blanketed with layers of dust and snow. The streetlights flicker weakly as Sans makes his way towards the party venue and his favorite spot in Snowdin – Grillby’s. The place is quiet and empty, but bears a feast of dusty wine bottles, cold cinnabuns, and some canned goods. Sans hums a strange, broken tune as he prepares the table.

“paps, do you think this will be enough?” he asks, holding up a container of homemade soup he made by himself. He turns to the younger skeleton lingering near the jukebox, whose face is skeptical but amused.

“I THINK THAT SHOULD SUFFICE, BROTHER!” Papyrus says. “NO ONE WOULD EXPECT MUCH FROM YOU LAZYBONES, SO NO NEED TO BE SO WORRIED!”

Sans chuckles, putting the soup container onto the table. “you’re right, paps. shouldn’t be too important how it tastes – it’s the intention that counts.”

He walks up to the jukebox to see if it still works. A bit rusty from underuse, but he can fix it in a flash, no problem.

As he works, Papyrus trails behind him, his voice teasing. “WOW, YOU’RE REALLY PUTTING IT ALL THIS YEAR OF ALL TIME, HUH? FOOD, DECORATION, MUSIC, ALL THAT JAZZ. NYEH-HEH-HEH!”

“ha, good one, paps,” Murder snorts, then in a softer tone he continues. “it’s gyftmas. it’s supposed to be a special day. i guess… i just wanted to do something different, something new, this time. something nice. for you. for everyone else too.”

The next minutes are draped in silence, but the more comforting kind as Sans tinkers with the jukebox. Papyrus’ voice breaks it for just a moment. “IT’S WEIRD SEEING YOU SO… SENTIMENTAL.”

Sans doesn’t answer, busying himself with fixing the broken machine and then with arranging cracked plates and mismatched cutlery. He tries to be as meticulous as possible, careful not to disturb the frail air of festivity he has created in this small space. It should be a wonderful day today after all.

When everything is done, Sans sits in his place, reserving the place next to him for his brother. No one has arrived yet, but he guesses he can always start the feast early, a private celebration between him and Papyrus.

He pours a glass of wine for himself, then one for his brother. Papyrus looks a bit affronted at being offered a drink, but he doesn’t complain, so that should be good enough.

“a toast.” Sans raises his glass. “to time. to the end of a year. to family. to… the ones we’ve lost.” He clinks his glass softly against Papyrus, who doesn’t pick it up but does sigh, an exasperatedly fond sound.

“to you, sans. to your newfound resolution. and holding on to your goal for once in your life.”

Sans drinks, and drinks even more. The guests start to pour in, their voices echoing around him but muffled as if he was underwater. Only Papyrus is clear in the cacophony – a beacon of light he can hold onto in this strange but joyous time. Sans laughs at the jokes coming from Papyrus, his voice bouncing off the walls of the bar. He smiles as he listens to Papyrus recount the things he can’t be sure are real in his inebriated state – childhood memories, plans for the future, a warmth that doesn’t spread to his snow-soaked bones anymore.

So, he drinks again. And again. And again.

As the nights wear on, some things start to slip through to his foggy mind. Plates that remain untouched. Wine bottles that remain unpoured. The soup he made sit alone on the table, growing colder by the second.

And yet, Sans still smiles. At his brother, who hasn’t changed at all. “thanks for staying this time,” he whispers, trying to touch Papyrus’ hand but stopping at the last moment, the distance between them so small yet so inexplicably big at the same time.

“OF COURSE, SANS,” Papyrus says, a faint grin on his severed skull. “I’M NOT GOING ANYWHERE.”

It has been raining snow a lot these past few days in the town. A normal monster would be freezing out in the snow, but, well, he’s hardly a normal monster anymore, is he? Few things phase him at this point, and the cold isn’t one of them.

He knows he isn’t supposed to get close to anyone, but he can’t help it when his friend hasn’t been here with him for months now and the light show in the snowy town is too tantalizing to pass up. So he goes in, wearing a large puffy coat and some hat and scarf to cover his whole face up – a perfect disguise. Now he looks like one of the children playing around near the big tree in the town center. Just a normal, socially awkward child standing near a building, watching his peers mess around from afar. It isn’t exactly fun, but it’s something to do to sate off the gnawing boredom in his chest.

And then, he sees them again.

A skeleton monster just like him – how peculiar. He was interested of course, but something has held him back, something nagging at him at the back of his mind. He can’t name it exactly, but it makes his SOUL pang uncomfortably in his ribs, as if warning him of something. So, he is content with just staying back, idly watching the scene play out.

The strange skeleton monster has been doing this for days – asking people around about their sibling, someone with a name that keeps slipping away from his mind. Again, how odd. Everything about this skeleton monster is odd, from the way they tower over most people yet never intimidate anyone, to the way they enthusiastically play and talk with the town’s children like it’s second nature to them. They’re an opposite of him, and yet-

Ah, whatever. It’s no use thinking about it anyway.

He watches as the skeleton monster again asking the townsfolk about their brother again. And again no one has any clue where the missing person can be. The monster looks dejected, but only for a moment. The resilience… it would be heartwarming to see if he had one.

He subconsciously takes a few steps when the monster finally stops at the giant tree with presents underneath it. He has taken some of the presents for himself, and no one seems to have noticed so far. The skeleton monster looks up at the tree, which has a star on top of it. When he gets just close enough, he can vaguely make out what they’re saying.

“-I WISH THAT THIS GYFTMAS, MY BROTHER WILL RETURN HOME! HE STILL HASN’T PICKED UP HIS SOCKS, NYEH!” the monster grumbles, then in a softer tone continues with a mournful sigh. “… I WISH I HAD SEEN THE SIGNS. HE HASN’T ALWAYS BEEN THE MOST CHEERFUL PERSON, BUT I THOUGHT HE’D TELL ME IF SOMETHING’S WRONG. I DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED… I DON’T KNOW WHY HE LEFT… I FEAR THAT- NO, THAT’S- I WOULD KNOW ABOUT IT, SURELY!”

The phantom watches the whole scene slow around him. There’s something about this monster that feels familiar to him yet fills him with dread. They’re… weak. Vulnerable. Sentimental to a fault. In this world, it’s kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. There’s no place for kindness when everyone is out to get you.

But, looking at this monster, whose eyelights sparkle under the lights, he feels an urge to avert his eyes, something clawing at his red-hot deadened SOUL. A memory flickers in his jumbled mind: his friend showing him the real stars on the surface, twinkling like their carefree eyes.

Ah, isn’t he forgetting something?

He turns away, boots crunching in the snow as he disappears into the shadows. This is just a distraction – a fun yet trivial thought experiment. But the image of the monster standing under the Gyftmas tree, wishing for something impossible, stays in his mind long after he’s gone.

[femenaces]

I may or may not be one of the anonymous sources in this article

Edit, the text of the article for those who can’t view it (under the cut):

Last month, the Trump administration placed a $1 spending limit on most government-issued credit cards that federal employees use to cover travel and work expenses. The impacts are already widely felt.

At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, scientists aren’t able to order equipment used to repair ships and radars. At the Food and Drug Administration, laboratories are experiencing delays in ordering basic supplies. At the National Park Service, employees are canceling trips to oversee crucial maintenance work. And at the Department of Agriculture and the Federal Aviation Administration, employees worry that mission-critical projects could be stalled. In many cases, employees are already unable to carry out the basic functions of their job.

“The longer this disruption lasts, the more the system will break,” says a USDA official who was granted anonymity because they aren’t authorized to speak to the media about the looming crisis.

A researcher at the National Institutes of Health who tests new vaccines and treatments in rodents says he has had to put experiments on hold; his lab is not able to get certain necessary materials, such as antibodies, which are needed to assess immune response. “We have animals here that are aging that will pretty soon be too old to work with,” says the researcher, who requested anonymity as they aren’t authorized to speak publicly about the agency. Young mice and rats that are 6 to 8 weeks old are typically used for drug and vaccine studies, but some of the animals in their lab have now aged out of that window and may have to be euthanized.

They say NIH workers have been using internal listservs to ask for reagents and lab equipment from other buildings or institutions to try to compensate for shortages, but they’re not always able to track down what they need. The NIH is made up of 27 institutes and centers, and its Bethesda, Maryland, campus is spread across more than 75 buildings. “Sometimes you need something that's really niche, and you're just not going to find it from someone else on campus,” they say.

The change comes as Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency continues to hunt for alleged examples of waste across the federal government. Late last month, DOGE announced that it was working to “simplify” the government’s largest credit card program, which issues GSA SmartPay travel and purchase cards for federal employees. Last Wednesday, the agency claimed 24,000 cards had been deactivated.

The credit card program allows federal workers to bypass the typical procurement process required to buy goods and services. A 2002 report from the Department of Commerce said that, “by avoiding the formal procurement process, GSA estimates the annual savings to be $1.2 billion.” It also enables federal employees to avoid paying sales tax on expenses that the government is exempt from.

At the FDA, labs that analyze samples to ensure that food, drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics are safe and meet regulatory standards are already facing shortages. "While we are always acutely aware of when Congress’ funding is going to run out, we are able to order supplies to keep things going in the lab. This abrupt ending felt like the rug was being pulled out from under us," says an employee at the FDA who requested anonymity because they aren't authorized to speak with the media.

The employee recently placed an order for pipette tips, an essential laboratory supply, but found that order was put on hold. "Now we are running out, asking colleagues at other offices to share what they might not be using,” they told WIRED.

In addition, workers say FDA labs now have to go through a lengthy process to order liquid nitrogen, which is used to keep ultra-cold freezers running. These freezers preserve samples of cells and other biological material that reflect years, and sometimes decades, of research. Delays in getting liquid nitrogen tanks could destroy that material. Previously, new tanks could usually be acquired the same day as putting in a request. Now, it takes a week or so to receive a tank after initiating a request.

An employee at the Environmental Protection Agency says her facility is not able to place regular orders of liquid nitrogen at the moment. “We have dozens of these freezers full of important environmental samples that are imminently at risk of being lost because we can no longer get our regular shipments of liquid nitrogen,” says the employee, who requested anonymity. These samples are used as part of research on detection and remediation methods for chemicals such as PFAS, which are found in many products and break down very slowly over time.

“Scientists are being forced to jerry-rig the connection points on these freezers to accept pressures of liquid nitrogen they were not designed to handle,” the employee says. “Divisions are resorting to bartering with each other to obtain needed items.”

The FDA and EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WIRED.

The credit card freeze also means that federal researchers who were working on scientific manuscripts can’t pay journal fees, meaning they can’t submit their work to certain journals for publication.

An employee at a federal forensics lab told WIRED that spending limits mean the lab is no longer able to pay to ship evidence back to agents, effectively halting its ability to do casework. Before a case goes to trial, defendants have the right to access and review evidence that the prosecution intends to use against them, which includes access to the evidence in their case. Defendants are able to send that evidence to an outside lab for analysis if they choose. “Cases can’t progress until we return the evidence,” says the forensics lab worker, who asked to remain anonymous. “I basically can’t do my job right now.”

NIH employees were told that travel cards could not be used at all for 30 days, forcing scientists to cancel plans to attend a major infectious disease conference next week. USDA employees at the Pest Identification Technology Laboratory have stockpiled reagents used for molecular tests in advance of the spending limits, according to the USDA official.

FAA employees who travel to work on and test aviation systems worry the credit card freeze will prevent them from completing their projects. “We are allowed to use our personal cards in emergencies but none of us trust them to pay us back now,” says one employee.

The impacts have hit the National Park Service as well. One employee was poised to go on a trip to oversee road maintenance at a national monument when the change went into effect on February 20. “Unless I want to pay for it myself, I can’t go. I can’t pay for my hotel, my rental car, fuel for the car. Now I can’t carry out the mission,” the employee says. “Today, instead of focusing on other work, I’m focused on three different contingencies on how to handle this. Do I go? Do I call my engineering team and tell them to reschedule? And if so, when? The project is on an indefinite hold.”

A memo written to staff at the National Park Service specified that “all travel that is NOT related to national security, public safety, or immigration enforcement should be canceled if it begins on Wednesday, February 26, through the end of March 2025.” A long-term decision on the travel policy, it said, will come “at a later date.” Some NPS staffers were able to travel in February despite not getting official clearance. They have now been told no travel will be allowed in March. To date, roughly 75 trips have been canceled or rescheduled, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The National Park Service did not respond to a request for comment from WIRED.

Some government employees say they were given a warning prior to the change being announced on February 20. “We went out and bought cases and cases of toilet paper the night before,” another current employee at the National Park Service says. “There’s a general acknowledgement that things are going to break.”

That employee works in the Pacific West Region, which manages federal land in California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Nevada, as well as parks in Arizona, Montana, Guam, and American Samoa. While the GSA did allow for the possibility of exceptions to the clamp-down, the employee claims there are only four purchase cards with spending limits above $1 available for the entire region.

Some of these parks pay for services like internet and wireless on purchase cards—leaving staffers wondering if their work devices could soon be cut off. “Before someone can fix a bathroom a work order has to be issued,” the current employee explains. “That happens electronically. Like any business, we rely on email, Teams, and chat to get things done.”

The spending limits reflect Musk’s belief in zero-based budgeting. After he purchased Twitter, he slashed the budget to zero and forced employees to justify every expense. He also froze people’s corporate credit cards.

“With the Twitter pausing of payments, at some point we were in a meeting at 1 am on a Saturday, and it was like, ‘Hey, let's turn the credit cards off to see what bounces, and what happens,’" explained angel investor Jason Calacanis on the All In podcast in February. (Calacanis was part of Musk’s transition team at Twitter.) “And of course, we started getting calls ... The people who come first, they're probably the ones who are in on the biggest grift.”

Employees see it a different way. “There are so many controls in place to make sure fraud doesn’t happen,” alleges the current NPS staffer. “I honestly believe the only fraud occurring is being committed by Musk, [Russell] Vought, and [Donald] Trump.”

[goodstuffhappenedtoday]

Millions of U.S. apples were almost left to rot. Now, they'll go to hungry families

NOVEMBER 27, 2023 By Alan Jinich

It's getting late in the harvest season in Berkeley County, West Virginia and Carla Kitchen's team is in the process of hand-picking nearly half a million pounds of apples. In a normal year, Kitchen would sell to processors like Andros that make applesauce, concentrate, and other products. But this year they turned her away. ... Across the country, growers were left without a market. Due to an oversupply carried over from last year's harvest, growers were faced with a game-time economic decision: Should they pay the labor to harvest, crossing their fingers for a buyer to come along, or simply leave the apples to rot?

Bumper crops, export declines and the weather have contributed to the apple crisis

... While many growers in neighboring states like Maryland and Virginia left their apples to drop. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia was able to convince the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to pay for the apples produced by growers in his state, which only makes up 1% of the national market.

A relief program in West Virginia donated its surplus apples to hunger-fighting charities

This apple relief program, covered under Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1935, purchased $10 million worth of apples from a dozen West Virginia growers. Those apples were then donated to hunger-fighting charities across the country from South Carolina and Michigan all the way out to The Navajo Nation.

Mike Meyer, head of advocacy at The Farmlink Project, says it's the largest food rescue they've ever done and they hope it can serve as a model for their future missions. "There's over 100 billion pounds of produce waste in this country every year; we only need seven billion to drive food insecurity to zero," Meyer says. "We're very happy to have this opportunity. We get to support farmers, we get to fight hunger with an apple. It's one of the most nutritional items we can get into the hands of the food insecure."

At Timber Ridge Fruit Farm in Virginia, owners Cordell and Kim Watt watch a truck from The Farmlink Project load up on their apples before driving out to a food pantry in Bethesda, Md. Despite being headquartered in Virginia, Timber Ridge was able to participate in the apple rescue since they own orchards in West Virginia as well. Cordell is a third-generation grower here and he says they've never had to deal with a surplus this large.

At the So What Else food pantry in Bethesda, Md., apple pallets from Timber Ridge fill the warehouse up to the ceiling. Emanuel Ibanez and other volunteers are picking through the crates, bagging fresh apples into family-sized loads. "I'm just bewildered," Ibanez says. "We have a warehouse full of apples and I can barely walk through it." "People in need got nutritious food out of this program. And that's the most important thing" Executive director Megan Joe says this is the largest shipment of produce they've ever distributed – 10 truckloads over the span of three weeks. The food pantry typically serves 6,000 families, but this shipment has reached a much wider circle. "My coworkers are like, 'Megan, do we really need this many?' And I'm like, yes!" Joe says. "The growing prices in the grocery stores are really tough for a lot of families. And it's honestly gotten worse since COVID."

"It's the first time we've done this type of program, but we believe it can set the stage for the region," Kent Leonhardt, West Virginia's commissioner of agriculture says. "People in need got nutritious food out of this program. And that's the most important thing." Following West Virginia's rescue program, the USDA announced an additional $100 million purchase to relieve the apple surplus in other states around the country. This is the largest government buy of apples and apple products to date. But with the harvest window coming to an end, many growers have already left their apples to drop and rot.

[fandomfluffandfuck]

Autistic Steve Rogers my beloved 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

Steve who just thought he was different. He didn’t really care too much, too worried about the fact that his body was constantly failing, the money that wasn’t there that needed to be there, the fact that his Momma was gettin’ sicker by the day. Who cares that he can’t understand most of the other kids at school.

Then, he wakes up. His baby’s gone, his life is gone. And for some reason, he still ain’t got a clue how to talk to people. He sorta thought Erskine would fix that, but… maybe be don’t need fixing?

Sometimes he hates being this way. When he does press conferences and has to wear special contacts that Tony designed so that the lights don’t get to him so much, and the earplugs (also Tony) that make it so he processes noise better. During said press conferences, he has to have Nat next to him to basically translate. He feels like he’s crazy some days. A lot of days. 

Other times, he wants to cry over the stupidest things. Why do the tags on my clothes feel like claws? Why does the taste of a certain food make him want to crawl out of his skin? Why can’t he be normal?!

Bucky comes back, and Steve clings to him. Bucky knows, Bucky understands. Bucky knows that sometimes physical touch drives him up the wall, and that sometimes he craves being hugged until it feels like he’s being crushed. Bucky doesn’t judge him when he can’t make eye contact, when he has to hole up under piles of covers because the world is too much. Instead, Bucky just makes him his favorite food, gives him his big headphones and weighted blanket, and holds him tight if he feels up to it.

Steve Rogers, who shows little kids like him that it does get better, and that they’ll be okay. 

No, but there really is something about Steve that makes so much sense when compared to the signs and experience of autism!!

(Also, generally, that's something I love so bad about Steve's arc and character. You can apply so many lenses to him and see his story as an allegory for so many different things. Queerness especially.)

"Steve who just thought he was different. He didn’t really care too much, too worried about the fact that his body was constantly failing, the money that wasn’t there that needed to be there, the fact that his Momma was gettin’ sicker by the day. Who cares that he can’t understand most of the other kids at school."

YES

I agree wholeheartedly that he doesn't need fixing. However, when he first wakes to the future, he probably just brushes it off because it's been so many years. Of course, he can't talk to people! There's nothing going on with him. It's an excuse to bury the tugging feeling of being different that he sometimes hates so much 🙃

Ooh, and that's so interesting--the contacts and earplugs. I'm always so intrigued to think about Steve's hyperattuned senses and those being affected by his autism, too, would, I can only be imagine, make shit like press conferences practically agonizing. Sandpaper against his skin. Special contacts and covert earplugs would probably do him a lot of good!

Speaking of Steve's superhero responsibilities interacting with his autism in layers, I bet those sensory overload/texture issues/clothing sensitivities get so much worse post-mission when he's adrenaline crashing. And now I'm picturing him crying and twisting violently around to rip himself out of his cap suit, and I just hurt my own feelings. Oof.

But Bucky being back, yes!

Bucky understands, and it's enough for Steve. And, maybe, if you're thinking that Steve has no idea why he works the way he does since he probably wouldn't've been diagnosed in the 20s, he could encourage him to seek a diagnosis. I enjoy the headcanons that Bucky, being a science nerd, would adapt to modern technology faster, so maybe he finds online others' experiences with autism or whatnot? And I get that being diagnosed is controversial within neurodivergent communities, but I do imagine having a formal one, as a national icon, would have profound ripple affects on Americans and Steve might seek it out, if not for understanding himself, then for the greater good and lessening of stigma. Exactly what you wrote-!

"Steve Rogers, who shows little kids like him that it does get better, and that they’ll be okay."

I hadn't read that yet when I wrote about him being an example, lol, but great minds think alike.

Anyway, yes! Thank you very much for the thoughts <3

P.S. I think you'd like these @turtle-steverogers posts about autistic Steve Rogers here and here

[beardedmrbean]

New York City Hall has announced the termination of its prepaid debit card program for migrants.

The program, in place since March, provided debit cards to migrants in city-funded hotels to help cover basic needs but was heavily criticized by conservatives and has been scrapped by New York City officials just two days after Republican Donald Trump was confirmed as president-elect.

The initiative was launched as a temporary support mechanism, part of a one-year pilot program, to help migrants by providing them with limited financial assistance for essentials like food and baby clothing.

So far, more than $3 million has been spent on the program, helping almost 3,000 migrant families living in hotels with limited resources to buy essential supplies. The cards provided about $350 for a family of four.

As the city scales back this direct support, officials say they are exploring alternative ways to assist migrants, though no specific plans have been confirmed.

In a statement emailed to Newsweek on Friday, a New York City Hall spokesperson said: "Through the immediate response cards pilot program, we were able to reduce food waste, redirect millions of dollars to our local economy, and provide more culturally relevant food to more than 2,600 migrant families in our care.

"As we move towards more competitive contracting for asylum seeker programs, we have chosen not to renew the emergency contract for this pilot program once the one-year term concludes.

"For over two years, we have provided care to more than 222,000 migrants while saving $2 billion in asylum seeker-related costs. Thanks to our resettlement efforts, intensive case management, and national-leading Asylum Application Help Center, more than 160,000 migrants have left our shelter system and taken their next steps towards self-sufficiency.

"We will continue to implement and learn from innovative pilot programs like the immediate response cards program as we care for hundreds of new arrivals every week."

The program replaced a boxed-meal delivery service, which is reported to have cost twice as much as the debit-card program, as reported by ABC News. The debit card initiative was also credited with being a way to save money by not providing migrants with food items they would not eat and instead giving them autonomy to choose their products.

Financial tech company Mobility Capital Finance, or MoCaFi, was hired to run the program for a one-year term and receives about $400,000 under the agreement, ABC News reported.

In an emailed statement to Newsweek on Friday, CEO and founder Wole Coaxum said: "MoCaFi is pleased to partner with the City to deliver emergency response efforts for communities in need while streamlining processes for asylum seekers with children.

"Our platform enabled families to access fresh food of their choice from grocery stores, convenience stores, supermarkets, and bodegas. Since the beginning of the year, more than 2,600 families have benefited from our services, while spending several million dollars in the local economy.

"This work aligns with our company's mission to ensure efficient use of tax-payer dollars."

The decision is expected to receive mixed responses from local advocates, community leaders and migrant aid groups. Partnerships with local nonprofits and community organizations could provide more targeted aid.

Newsweek contacted migrant support groups in New York City for comment via email on Friday.

New York, as a sanctuary city, has historically embraced policies that aim to protect and support immigrants. However, the scale and speed of recent arrivals have created pressure to find sustainable solutions, with about 700 asylum seekers entering the city each week.

[darkmaga-returns]

Calley Means on his alignment with RFK Jr.’s bold new mission at Health and Human Services and his fight to ban toxic ingredients in ultra-processed foods; Jefferey Jaxen breaks down the health revolution sweeping the nation, fueled by RFK Jr.’s HHS appointment; Del uncovers shocking truths about measles, questioning whether eradication was ever truly possible; Del’s exclusive with Dr. Larry Palevsky empowers any parent who has fears about measles.

Guests: Calley Means, Lawrence Palevsky, M.D.

AIR DATE: February 27, 2025

[mahoushoujo-belfast]

Hiii! can i request fic sasuke x fem half uchiha reader? sasuke meet her in his redemption, but attracted to her bcs of her familiarity. and he found out that familiarity was her chakra like other uchiha. he also find out she have sharingan, but she choose not to use it carelessly bcs her parent told her it was dangerous. thank you! hopefully my request was clear enough :D

This request have been sitting FOREVER in my inbox but I had a hard time writing Sasuke. Hope you like it!!

You finished preparing all your supplies you headed outside smelling the fresh air after last night downpour.  You were a travelling merchant from the Hidden Sand village, by whims of chance the day that the Uchiha clan was annihilated you were outside, your health was delicate, and you were staying at the hospital for the night. 

 After the horrible news arrived, you were moved to an orphanage and soon enough you were adopted by a sweet couple of merchants. When the Fourth Ninja war ended the relation between nations got established so it was less dangerous to travel the routes. 

The weather was nice, and you sold a substantial number of items, so you decided to stop and have a short break. Just as you started to unwrap your food you noticed a man leaning on a nearby tree eating onigiri, you greeted him politely and he gave you a short nod acknowledging your presence. 

You snuck a glance or two to the man, he was quite attractive and maybe it was a coincidence, but you could swear that he was looking in your direction a lot too...  

His aura was very alluring, so you decided to talk to him, maybe that was one of those fateful encounters that only happen in novels 

“Excuse me but... do I know you? I have the feeling that I have seen you somewhere...” you processed was you just said, it sounded like the lamest pick-up line ever. 

“I doubt it, I don’t meet a lot of people in my missions...” he said unfazed. 

That was weird...usually when you talked to a man he melted on the spot. Not to brag but your Uchiha features gave you an “exotic beauty” air that was quite magnetic.  

A bit taken aback you responded “I-I guess I’m mistaken but you really seem familiar to me...” 

“Are you from the Leaf?” 

“Yes, well actually I was born there but my clan was...gone so I had to move with my adoptive parents...” After hearing that the man suddenly got a lot closer to you with a surprised and stern face. 

“It can’t be... are you an Uchiha?” he said grabbing you by your shoulders, it was more of an inquiry than a normal question. 

“Oh! U-uh, yes?” now you’ve done it, you were terrified that you were in trouble now for revealing carelessly your origins. The man was speechless, but he recovered his cool demeanor easily. 

“Prove it” he said looking intensely into your eyes. “You have it right? Prove that you are an Uchiha” 

In your frenzied state you deducted that he was talking about the Sharingan, yes you had it, but you were terrified of using it. Your parent believed it was more of a curse than a gift, so you gave up on activating it. But this time was different, hoping to calm down your fellow clan member you activated it, gazing at him deeply. 

He clenched your shoulders tight to the point of hurting you. After a few seconds he activated his Sharingan too. Without a word you stared at each other, you were looking at his face with your mouth slightly agape. He had an attractive face, and his eyes were mesmerizing you. 

He then realized the grip he had in your shoulder and let you go like your skin burned mumbling an apology. 

“Sorry, I wasn’t expecting after all this time...never mind” he said shaking his head. He turned to resume his way, but you stopped him. 

“W-wait! I have a lot of questions now!” you said trying to convince him. “Please, who are you? What happened to our clan? I need to know...” the tears started to appear even with you trying your best to contain them. 

The man without looking back at you said his name was Sasuke Uchiha. 

Sasuke now was feeling troubled, he couldn’t stand people crying since he can recall. Trying to collect himself after the torrent of emotions assaulting him, he turned finally to look at you. 

In a split of a second, he tried to manage how could he tell all the truth. Maybe your parents wanted to participate in the coup d’etat, maybe telling you he will add more dirt to the memory of his brother... taking a deep breath he took a seat under the tree you were eating moments ago and beckoned you. 

Doubting, you took a seat next to him and prepared to listen to him. For his actions you could gather that he knew the very truth of what happened to your clan, this would be the most uncomfortable chat of your life for sure... 

Then Sasuke told you everything, the nine tails attack, the Hidden Leaf suspicious towards the Uchiha clan, his brother’s plan... You listened without interrupting him once, some of the parts of his story infuriated you but at the same time you felt oddly at peace knowing the truth after so long. 

“So that’s what happened...it’s weird...I always wanted to know the facts but now I don’t know what to do...” 

“Keep moving forward, you can’t change the past, but the future is always open to possibilities” 

Sasuke and you continued chatting for hours about almost everything, your childhood, training, your ways to cope with being an orphan... Until you both realized that the sun was already setting. 

“It’s almost nighttime already?!” you said dumbfounded. “What I’m going to do, I can’t reach my village until morning” 

“I’ll stay here tonight; you can sleep here if you want to” Sasuke said  

You did a double take thinking you couldn’t have heard him well, he suggested sleeping in the forest, with you, the two alone, with you?! Your mind raced from all sorts of events, most of them form romance novels that you read. Out of nowhere a handsome man asked you to spend the night with him, it seemed there wasn't any ill will, so you decided to sleep outdoor with Sasuke. 

Few hours passed and it was impossible for you to get sleepy, even if you were looking the other way you could swear you felt Sasuke’s piercing look in the nape of your neck. Finally, you gave in to your partial drowsiness and closed your eyes slowly drifting to sleep. 

Sasuke eyes didn’t stop looking at your asleep figure inside your bedroll, he couldn’t have let you make your way again to your village alone after all that happened that fateful evening. 

You could have fallen into an ambush or had an accident or maybe you two couldn’t meet ever again. He didn’t know why that sudden thought was so scary... You appeared in his life unexpectedly and now he couldn’t stand the feeling of not seeing you again...  

You turned to your other side in your sleep, now you were facing Sasuke. He unconsciously ran a hand through a stray lock of hair in your cheek. 

“I can’t sleep...” he muttered in a very low voice while he was admiring you features without taking his hand off your face. He traced your lips with his thumb wondering how they will taste. 

In a moment of awareness in your sleep, you finally woke up finding Sasuke at mere inches of your face. He froze and pulled away, he acted like a creep and had an apology ready. But he stopped him dead in his tracks when he saw you biting your lip and looking at him with glossy eyes, catching him about to kiss you set you on the mood quickly.  

During your wake-up daze and still in your bedroll you took off your panties and threw them off on the ground and patted next to you beckoning Sasuke to come inside it. 

Sasuke got into the bedroll with you and you both spent the night into a passionate lovemaking. 

The next day at dawn both of you got dressed and parted ways without a promise to meet again. 

While Sasuke was on his way to continue his mission, he thought he should pass by your shipping route more often... 

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Field of Soy Dreams in Illinois

In Illinois, soybeans are big business. The state’s farmers harvested 64 bushels per acre in 2024, producing a record 688 million bushels of the versatile legume. The plant’s protein-rich beans are widely used as food for both livestock and people, as well as for the production of biodiesel and other industrial products.

The map above depicts data from the Cropland Data Layer, an annual, geo-referenced, crop-specific land cover dataset created by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) for the contiguous United States. It uses data collected by Landsat satellites and Sentinel-2 to identify crop types. The elevation data layered onto the image comes from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Areas classified as soybean fields in 2024 are light green. Farmers in the Midwest often grow soybeans in rotation with other crops, usually corn and wheat.

The 2024 soybean harvest in Illinois was the nation’s largest, amounting to 16 percent of the total U.S. crop. A harvest of that scale supports tens of thousands of jobs and generates roughly $7 billion in economic output. Iowa trailed closely with 597 million bushels, followed by Indiana and Minnesota with 341 million and 329 million bushels, respectively.

Illinois growers benefit from having access to fertile soils, flat terrain that enables easy harvesting, and convenient transportation options and processing facilities. Soybeans are grown widely, with the exception of the Chicago area and the hilly region in the southern part of the state. McLean County, in east central Illinois, had the largest harvest of any U.S. county in 2024, producing 22.6 million bushels.

Illinois is also an important hub of agricultural innovation and research. Through the NASA Acres consortium, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is working with other universities on 14 programs designed to convert satellite data into useful information for farmers.

For instance, University of Illinois researcher Kaiyu Guan, chief scientist for NASA Acres, is leading an effort to combine satellite data with ground sampling and hyperspectral imaging to determine the optimal nitrogen levels for crops. Guan and colleagues recently released an online calculator—the Maximum Return To Nitrogen (MRTN) Tool—designed to help Illinois farmers maximize profit while minimizing environmental problems.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using Cropland data from USDA NASS and topographic data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Story by Adam Voiland.

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Outgoing special rapporteur David Boyd says ‘there’s something wrong with our brains that we can’t understand how grave this is’

The race to save the planet is being impeded by a global economy that is contingent on the exploitation of people and nature, according to the UN’s outgoing leading environment and human rights expert.

David Boyd, who served as UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment from 2018 to April 2024, told the Guardian that states failing to take meaningful climate action and regulating polluting industries could soon face a slew of lawsuits.

Boyd said: “I started out six years ago talking about the right to a healthy environment having the capacity to bring about systemic and transformative changes. But this powerful human right is up against an even more powerful force in the global economy, a system that is absolutely based on the exploitation of people and nature. And unless we change that fundamental system, then we’re just re-shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.”

The right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment was finally recognised as a fundamental human right by the United Nations in 2021-22. Some countries, notably the US, the world’s worst historic polluter, argue that UN resolutions are legally influential but not binding. The right to a healthy environment is also enshrined into law by 161 countries with the UK, US and Russia among notable exceptions.

Boyd, a Canadian environmental law professor, said: “Human rights come with legally enforceable obligations on the side of states, so I believe that this absolutely should be a game-changer – and that’s why states have resisted it for so long.

Boyd said: "By bringing human rights into the equation, we now have institutions, processes and courts that can say to governments this isn’t an option for you to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions and phase out fossil fuels. These are obligations which include regulating businesses, to make sure that businesses respect the climate, the environment and human rights."

Over the course of his six-year mandate, Boyd met thousands of people directly affected by rising sea levels, extreme heat, plastic waste, toxic air, and dwindling food and water supplies, while undertaking fact-finding missions to Fiji, Norway, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Portugal, Slovenia, Chile, Botswana and Maldives.

“Powerful interconnected business and political elites – the diesel mafia – are still becoming wealthy from the existing system. Dislodging this requires a huge grassroots movement using tools like human rights and public protest and every other tool in the arsenal of change-makers.”

On his first trip as special rapporteur to Fiji, Boyd met with community members from Vunidogoloa, a coastal village left uninhabitable by rising sea water, who were forced to relocate to higher ground. Last year in Botswana, he met with Indigenous people from the Kalahari desert no longer able to handle the worsening heat and water scarcity.

Over the past 30 years, the world has pinned its hopes on international treaties - particularly the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris accords – to curtail global heating. Yet they do not include mechanisms for holding states accountable to their commitments, and despite some progress, greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to rise and climate breakdown is accelerating.

It’s not just taxpayer subsidies propping up polluting industries and delaying climate action. The same multinationals are involved in negotiating – or at least influencing – climate policy, with a record number of fossil-fuel lobbyists given access to the UN Cop28 climate talks last year.

Boyd said: “There’s no place in the climate negotiations for fossil-fuel companies. There is no place in the plastic negotiations for plastic manufacturers. It just absolutely boggles my mind that anybody thinks they have a legitimate seat at the table.

“It has driven me crazy in the past six years that governments are just oblivious to history. We know that the tobacco industry lied through their teeth for decades. The lead industry did the same. The asbestos industry did the same. The plastics industry has done the same. The pesticide industry has done the same.”

In his final interview before handing over the special rapporteur mandate, Boyd said he struggles to makes sense of the world’s collective indifference to the suffering being caused by preventable environmental harms.

[kuramirocket]

do you have any cooking Headcanons for the Mario bros? 🤔 I’ve always thought that they’re both good at cooking and baking, but Luigi is better by virtue of having a bit more time on his hands. when they get to work together, though, I like to think that anything they make is almost godly. Peach may or may not have declared it a national treasure, lmao.

Whenever the bros team up, whether that be cooking or battling, no one can beat them! It's a cute idea that Peach would declare a dish from them a national treasure ^^

As for my own thoughts, I've always thought that the one who pretty much cooks every meal is Luigi. He's the one who usually stays at home so he has a lot more experience. Especially because he wants Mario to be well fed and happy due to the exhausting missions to save the Mushroom Kingdom and others since he will return home tired.

I like to think that Mario had no ability to cook whatsoever. Luigi was the one who inherited the ability to create anything delicious from their mother. However, that doesn't mean Mario couldn't or didn't try to learn. Especially, once he and Luigi became adults. After all, both know the importance of independence, but also helping family out. So, I can see both learning from their mother. Luigi got the hang of things pretty quickly, but Mario tended to be a disaster in the kitchen. I feel like he would eventually be hesitant to keep trying to not cause his mother more problems, work and potentially cost more money from any spoiled ingredients and also to not get any embarrassing commentary from the rest of the family. So, he would opt to wash and clean dishes and pick up groceries and necessary ingredients. Essentially, just helping in any other way he could.

Once both bros live in the Mushroom Kingdom and have the peace and privacy of their own home, I can see Luigi encouraging Mario to try cooking again. And also, with Luigi teaching Mario to cook, in this manner, he reasons that Mario can make himself something quick and simple with any natural food growing in the wild instead of spending coins in inns for dinner and relying on mushrooms for snacks once his own supply of durable snacks runs out, since he knows how much Mario dislikes mushrooms. Plus, Mario would not be able to say no to any puppy eyes Luigi may give him.

Ultimately, it would be a cute way for the bros to bond because you know Luigi will be so sweet and patient. And there is no one else in the world Mario is more comfortable or vulnerable with. If any of Mario's past fears of wasting ingredients and costing money would arise, Luigi would just gently tell him with his usual kind smile that they're doing a lot better financially now, plus, if he's really worried about it, Luigi can make room in his garden for growing their own fruits and such. It's not a big deal and okay. So, with Luigi's affection and support, Mario relents. Luigi starts by showing him how to cook easy and basic recipes.

In the end, I can picture Mario having success. Sure, a couple of times perhaps there was some mishaps with him not wanting to seem uncool or incompetent, nerves for once getting the better of him, but with luigi's guidance and love he cooks a simple and good recipe.

Though, I also like to imagine that the bros get into a small food fight with Luigi initiating it to try to get Mario to relax and just have fun and enjoy the process. Luigi knows what it's like to be anxious, hands unsteady and trembling, so to distract Mario from that he playfully throws flour or something at his hair. Luigi teases him that he looks old with the white flour in his usually brown hair and ofc, Mario instantly retaliates by chugging the closest food at hand. By the end, they're messy and laughing, both at ease.

And so the end goal has been accomplished - Mario has had fun spending time with Luigi getting the hang of cooking even if it's "beginner" recipes and has successfully cooked a meal. I can just imagine warm affection for his little bro welling up in his chest and also pride in himself for doing this. He gives Luigi a warm hug and thanks him with Luigi just laughing quietly and hugging Mario back, saying he always had confidence in Mario. Both then go on to try Mario's meal which turns out to taste fantastic, more pride rising in Mario that for once he could cook something that Luigi could eat rather than cook.

Anyways, this somehow turned out longer than I thought. Sometimes once I start an idea it just gets out of control lol