#a breed itself is dangerous and should be banned even though many other breeds

[rainbowloliofjustice]

What do you think of the fifth estate’s documentary on pit bulls?

I haven’t seen it fully, but honestly it comes off as fear-mongering. 

Yes, pit bulls can do serious damage with their bite... any large dog can. 

Yet the bans are only focused on pit bulls. What about german shepherds? or rottweilers? Chows?

It doesn’t help that the media and documentaries often use “pit bull” as an umbrella term to cover around 5 different breeds of dogs and upwards of 50% of dogs in shelters that get labeled as pit bulls are just lookalikes. Given that pit bull can refer to the American pit bull terrier, Staffordshire pit bull terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier, and American Bully. 

Are we going to end up banning any dog that can fall underneath what just gets labeled as a pit bull? When they’re banned, what are we going to do next? Start banning the next highest breed of dogs that cause bites?

Not to mention, pit bulls, like any dog, need to be trained to not be aggressive, need to be properly socialized, etc. just like any other dog. Of course, it isn’t helped by the fact that the media (and documentaries like this) only care about when it is a pit bull. 

Labs made up 13% of bites according to a 2008 study. pit bulls came in second at 8%. Yet people want to ban pit bulls but not labradors?

When it comes to personal injury claims of delivery workers, german shepherds, bull terriers, labs and border collies were among the most common to bite. Yet pit bulls are the only dangerous ones on the list?

And the documentary uses one man whose child was killed due to the babysitter leaving the child unattended with the dogs and that’s just like ??? that’s why you never leave children unattended with any dog that the dog is not familiar with. 

Not to mention, BSL only focuses on pit bull and pit bull-type dogs, but what about german shepherds and labs who make up a significant portion of bite statistics? Small dogs like chihuahuas that can exhibit high amounts of aggression if not properly socialized?

ya know how many times I’ve had someone’s lab growl at me and snarled despite the owners saying they were friendly? A lot

The documentary even shows dogs that are chained up and acknowledges that one person sees many pit bulls living in puppy mills and backyard breeders who sell them as status, guard, or fighting dogs... And mind you, dogfighting is illegal because it is animal abuse but then contrasts that with a woman who worked in/with a shelter that basically tried to sell dogs that they knew may not be good fits for certain homes or families. So when you have ill-bred and ill-trained dogs by people somehow the solution is to ban the breed rather than coming down hard on irresponsible owners?

And yet it’s the breed's fault and the breed should be banned for shelters deciding to lie and be deceptive about how well a dog may fit within another family? So because a shelter, run by a group of people, decided to lie about a dog’s history or past... that means it is the dog's fault and they should be banned? What logic does it make to ban a dog or dog breed when shelters and people decide to intentionally be deceptive about it in order to just rehome them? You basically have someone in the documentary who admits to being irresponsible and negligent yet... ????

Like, this lady admitted to working in a shelter that would be deceptive about a dog’s temperament, but then went on to blame the breed. 

It is only after someone dies or is bitten by a pit bull that people want to try to discuss BSL or banning them... but there was a woman, about 2 years ago, who got mauled by a pack of dachshunds yet there only concerns with pit bulls? people say one attack against people is too many yet... almost every dog breed in existence has attacked at least one person or animal. If you are banning breeds because they attack people, you’re going to be banning a lot more than pit bulls. If it is based on whether or not they are capable of killing someone, you’re going to be banning almost any medium to large size dog. 

It’s almost no secret that toy breeds are known to be very aggressive due to the way they’re often treated and pampered... Chihuahuas rank fourth in breeds that have bitten children and even though their bites aren’t comparable to pit bulls or larger breeds, if the issue is the severity of the bite then... any large breed dog should be banned because any large dog can produce a severe or fatal bite. 

Dogs are bred by people... if aggression is an issue, you can selectively breed that out the same way that certain dogs were selectively bred to be able to run or be as small as possible. If pit bulls get banned, what is going to be the next breed on the list? German Shepards? Dobermans? Chows?

Why are we coming down on breeds rather than irresponsible shelters that are deceptive about a dog’s temperament and backyard breeders that abuse and neglect dogs? Ofc when a dog comes from an abusive or neglectful situation, they’re going to have behavioral and temper issues... so that is somehow the fault of the breed itself?

The documentary ends by basically saying pit bulls are dangerous and it is a matter of public safety...By a surgeon that basically says no one will miss them after a while because there will be fewer fatalities even though other large dog breeds can cause fatalities, a woman who admitted to working for a shelter that would lie and intentionally be deceptive about a dog’s temperament in order to get them out the shelter, a father who lost his child and a baby sitter that was too irresponsible and let the child unattended with two large dogs who basically say “tell me which one is and isn’t going to attack” which can apply to literally any dog and then one pit bull lobbyist that they just portray as selfish and crazy.

Like if you show me two pictures of a chihuahua... I’m not going to know which is going to try to maul my hand. If you are banning pits, why not extend it to german shepherds, mastiffs, chows, etc.? They’re also large dogs that can cause fatal/severe bites. Why not ban chihuahuas, they’re the ones most likely to bite? is it only based on severity/fatality? If so then bye-bye to most large dog breeds. 

Yeah totally not a biased documentary at all. 

[pandoraimperatrix]

caught between goodbye and I love you

DickKory | Pining | Eventual smut | Two shots | Post season 3 AU

Chapter 1: My heart is a sad affair

Nobody could say he didn't have been trying. Well, they could but it wouldn't be true.

Even though Bruce had made sure Dick knew how to attract the female attention, nobody told him what to do when it didn’t work as planned. Or how to stanch the wound.

Hell, Bruce made sure he could seduce anyone that could be seduced. "It is a very useful skill to have in your utility belt, Chum" he said then. But it didn't mean Dick didn’t pray for the sweet release of death back then when he was being forced to have seduction lessons under Alfred's or worse, Selina's tutelage.

He should have payed more attention to when they broke up, not that he’d have learnt something useful. They always got back together. He and Kory on other hand…

Well, been taught how to seduce someone for ulterior motives didn’t mean he knew what to do when his goal was not mission oriented. Usually in a mission, after the seduction part was over, even if he had to date the person for more than one night, he had a script and a clear goal. But what if there was no mission? What if he had hopes instead of goals? What to do without no script to follow? No set of rules to guide him?

And he was especially bad when he genuinely cared, never being able to judge if he was trying too hard or too little, usually finding himself overcome with anxiety which resulted into pushing the object of his affections away in the long run. That happened to Dawn, to Babs, hell, despite being a completely different kind of relationship it almost happened with Rachel and Gar too. Thank goodness his children were way more forgiving.

Since Dawn was gone for good and he and Babs had broke up again after deluding themselves for a whole five minutes that their childhood trauma bonded romance could have a last hurrah. He was back to reality. The depressing reality that he, to his absolute despair, cared for Kory, so much, too much, more than he had thought that he ever could for anyone.

Read on AO3

Despite all his overthinking tendencies, all his overplanning, all his precautions, he really didn’t see that coming. Of course, he was aware he was attracted to her from day one, it was nothing alarming back then, at least in the beginning. It hurt when she told him she needed to find out who she was before it got too serious, but he understood, and it was fine. They had time. And time they had, after their reunion, raising a household together, his physical attraction to her remained, and new set of feelings started breeding from their partnership. Something way more aggravating than the constant desire to fuck her brains off every time she entered the room, something deeper.

It took a while, because he was known for being stubborn as fuck, but he knew that a good detective can’t cherry pick evidences, and eventually, he admitted to himself that he wanted to be with her forever. Which not only was a scary thought by itself, considering how much time he spent running from everything serious and true, but it made his insides twist in fear.

Because nothing that good could last. When the love of you life quite literally fell from heaven, heaven can take her back whenever. And the thought of losing her at any moment pushed his anxieties to the roof. Her behaviour haven’t been exactly helping. Despite of not having anything substantial of proof, Dick could feel something was wrong with her, something that she wouldn't talk about no matter how many times he tried to approach her.

Maybe it was his fault, maybe he put himself in a position in which she felt responsible for his wellbeing but not trustworthy to be relied upon after the mess he had made with Slade and with Jason.

Besides, what claim did he have to demand any clarification from her? They weren't together.

But it still hurt. That feeling of uselessness, of having nothing to offer when she gave so much just being by his side.

They lived in the same house and were currently raising super powered teenagers together, everybody outside their tight circle assumed they were a couple, married even, hell, her sister thought they were together. And Kory hardly flinched when they dined out and the waiter called her “Mrs Grayson”, she joked about it, that also hurt, because it wasn’t true. Yes they used to have sex, and yes he was trying to make his grimaces of pain to look like smiles on regular basis to hide how much he wanted her, but they are not together.

But it wasn't by Dick's choice.

It was Kory's.

And the rejection hurt, especially when he didn’t expect it.

From all his many faults, Dick wasn't that kind of guy, it wasn’t as if he didn’t think that her rejection was impossible or insulting due to some high opinion of himself. But it just didn’t make sense. He wasn't deluding himself, although he sometimes had no choice but doubt, wanting to believe and respect her choice, but when it had such dissonance with her actions…

Because, as much as he sometimes wanted to take the easy way out that his internal self-hatred provided – that he was crazy, pathetic and there was no way in heaven or hell such woman would have feelings for him – Dick had also been trained in reading body language and micro expressions.

Everything about how Kory interacted with him felt like an invitation. Unless he had been suffering from a very serious case of psychosis (again), he couldn’t have been imagining the longing in her gaze. Sometimes, even when he thought she wasn’t in the room, he could feel her eyes in him. And it wasn’t just the hot looks he was used to get from people that only thought he was attractive – even though Kory would give him plenty of those too, his skin had been reaping the benefits of all his ice cold showers. But, sometimes, especially when he was giving attention to their children, or just doing something mundane like reading or meditating, he could feel her watching. A gentle smile on her face, eyes like pools of warmth and endearment. Nobody ever looked at him like that, with such unadulterated fondness.

Or the way she found excuses to touch him. He always loved the feeling of falling, doing unnecessary stunts so he could only feel that special kind of rush. With Kory around to catch him whenever he needed, he had been doing that even more often so he could feel her strong arms around him, and she never denied him.

When they fought enemies, or trained, she always found a way to make skin contact, throwing him at their mark to give him an extra boost, instead of shouting for him to clear away from danger, she’d physically pull him away in very unnecessary and unfortunately fast hugs.

She’d lean on his shoulder for no reason at all, even after her powers returned and she told everyone she was not feeling tired all the time anymore. In the mornings, while they washed the dishes together – since Gar banned them both from cooking – she’d bump him with her hip to make him move out of her way, and her hands always lingered when handing him an utensil.

Kory was always pressing away invisible wrinkles on his clothing, and picking things from his hair, so much he could hear muffled giggles from the children every time she did that.

And how could he have been imagining the way her face lit every time he entered the room, or when someone mentioned his name? He couldn't have made anything like that up. Didn't have the self-esteem necessary, or the self-hatred necessary to imagine such torture.

Dick did wonder, though, if living with a woman that looked like what poets sang about, that had the personality correspondent of the most golden of summer’s day, and flirted with him mercilessly, but yet dismissed every attempt he made to turn their relationship into something romantic was just karma. In the past, he had abused his own good looks and knowledge. Hearts had been broken because of his folly, and now the universe was punishing him or something.

Yeah, right, as if the universe cared that much.

But then, when his bitterness and confusion were not settled at all, and he was getting ready for another night of delicious horrible dreams about the woman that did not want him, something weird happened.

Kory Anders, knocking on his door, with a bottle of tequila, just a few days after he finally asked her out and she destroyed his heart and made a mess of his head by saying no. Not only no, she said she didn’t like him like that. That she loved him as a friend, and didn’t want to make things more complicated.

What a bunch of garbage.

For a fraction of second he wondered what she'd do if he closed the door on her face. But he'd never be able to do that, so, wordlessly, he gave away the space she needed to enter his room.

“Can I help you?” he said when she just stood there, looking everywhere but him, as if his room were a great novelty.

Kory bit her lip and he wanted to die. He didn’t want to believe she did those things out of malice, but sometimes one cannot help but being angry over such carelessness.

“Kory?” he asked in that bitchy impatient way of his.

“I lied,” she finally said in a puff of breath.

“What you mean?” His heart was racing, it couldn’t be. Was he asleep? Most of his dreams began with some sort of flashback of their first night. Terrible, terrible dreams that always ended too soon.

She looked away, searching for something, his heart shrank when swayed her body aside, thinking she was about to leave, but Kory placed the bottle and the cups on his dresser and turned back to him, the look she gave him making his throat feel raw. In two powerful strides she was all over him, firm elegant palms cradling his head as she tilted his face to the angle she wanted for their kiss. It was like if time went back.

He pulled her closer carefully, afraid she’d disappear in the smoke of his lust filled memory if he went too hard or too fast, but even when she remained solid, warm under his touch, her teeth pulling his bottom lip mercilessly, then spreading licks and soothing kisses, her perfume making him dizzy, he let her lead. It was easier, which considering his tendency for always taking the most tortuous path, added a layer of pleasure in a luxury hardly ever taken.

--------------------------------------

Notes:

I started writing this before season 3, because I wanted to write a fic in which Dick was pining, and also I wanted it to be steamy and smutty. But since the smut part is taking forever to finish and the pining part became bigger than what I planned, you get a two shot.

---

Preview:

“Please don’t this. I don’t want to pretend. I’m so tired of lying to you and I’ll have to pretend to the rest of my life. This might be the last night I will ever have to be myself, to be with you. I need this to be real.”

Kory took one of the hands off his hair, bending her arm backwards so she could rub him trough his trousers. Dick let out a moan and she used the opportunity to make a wet path of kisses across his cheekbones, until she reached his ear. She whispered something in her native language and licked his earlobe.

What else could he do? She wanted real. He’d give her real.

Dick pulled her up as his lips claimed hers again, her powerful legs crossed around his hips. He held her up like that for a while, just enjoying the feel of her body pressed flush against his. His hands giving her support by moulding her round butt with his palms.

Dick he walked backwards until his chins hit the bed and he fell sitting with Kory on his lap. She stopped her ministrations to pull her hair from her face and look down at him.

“Hey,” she said, her eyelashes were still wet, but her tears had stopped falling, she looked so… No wonder she belonged to the heavens, no being in the planet could be so perfect.

[royal-ni-fe]

The types as roles they play in the Kingdom™️

INTJ: The Wizard: the Queen’s magical and SOMEWHAT clairvoyant consort, whom she always consults with before making any important decisions about the Kingdom. He’s counseled her in avoiding several wars, and dodging death innumerable times. He shares a castle tower with the Elf and since they couldn’t agree on a single theme, the result is hilariously mismatched. Invasive plants, elegant flowers, and engraved marble statues must share table room with disturbingly grotesque materials of dark alchemy. He borders between chaotic good and chaotic neutral but with just enough good in him to be occasionally benevolent.

INTP: The Wizard’s Owl: was once a young, wildly curious peasant who snuck into the Wizard’s potion lab to study the chemicals at the witching hour. Caused an explosion. The well-done Wizard casted a spell on her and turned her into his familiar of sorts. She still regularly singes her feathers on experimental potions. She often attempts to make witty banter with the Princess’s Badger, but he doesn’t speak barn owl.

ENTJ: The Pretty Warlady: a tall and strikingly gorgeous dictator who’s ruthlessly out for another throne, namely the Queen’s. Her army accepts women exclusively. One thing that sticks out about her is her refusal to accept the premise that to be powerful is to be masculine. Her maidens tastefully paint white flowers on her black armor because that’s aesthetic as heck and she relishes in looking exactly how she wants to while butchering her rivals in combat.

ENTP: The Escaped Gryffin: a very small gryffin who’s half kestrel, half house cat. He’s on the run from the Warlady. He used to be her court Jester but he asked too many riddles and argued with everything she said. One day, after he had made her question her existence for the seventeenth time in a single hour, she exploded at him and locked him up to be promptly executed. In her blind rage, she forgot that he could fly and he simply squeezed through the 87ft high dungeon vents. Luckily, he was charming enough to befriend some dwarves who took him out of her reach down in some deep mine. After several months, the dwarves begin planning a little “cave-in accident”. Of course he’ll survive to harass someone else.

INFJ: The Elf: Most elves are known for being mysterious and wise. Ours is no exception. Starry eyed with short and fair hair, the Elf provides a stark contrast to his castle roommate, the dark and broody Wizard. He mesmorizes the Queen with his philosophical wisdom about kindness and love. Due to his partial mind-reading ability, he also makes accurate predictions about the integrity of her subjects. He’s brave, extremely powerful and isn’t opposed to battle. However, ask him to shoot a troll with a bow and he might manage to pierce through his own heart. He does better just being pretty, writing futuristic fiction and providing the queen with more humanistic insight as opposed to the practical predictions of the Wizard. It should also be mentioned that his forest magic keeps the queen’s gardens looking lovely all year round.

INFP: The Prince: the Warlady’s younger brother. Small but resilient and highly principled. He refuses to fight her battles but instead dons shining white armor and goes in search of those in need. He’s actually a skilled hand-to-hand combatant and is known to fight off entire bands of desperados should they be harassing a traveling maiden. Of course, he often stops and gets off his horse to sit down on a nearby log to write poetry about soft brown hair and bloody knuckles. He’s in love with the Princess but she doesn’t return his affections. He respects that and remains solely her friend without expectation of anything more because he’s a decent human being.

ENFJ: The Benevolent Dragon: the Queen’s pet water-drake and The Malevolent Wyvern’s brother. Longer than several football fields, the pastel blue fellow wraps himself around the castle and serves as a living and dangerous moat. He sleeps and guards his treasure, the Queen. Her ambition is his ambition. Whenever a friend wishes to enter the castle, he asks them a fun riddle. It doesn’t matter if they guess it or not, he’ll let them in. He just likes riddles.

ENFP: The Princess: the Queen’s adorable, teenage sister has chin-length, curly, dark hair that always seems to get caught in things. The original anti-hero. She dabbles in a bit of magic herself but as more of an art form in contrast to a weapon. Her olive green eyes constantly sparkle with curiosity and intrigue. The world has never been boring for her and it never will be. Occasionally, she gets a bad case of wanderlust and with her favorite familiar, she travels far and wide in search of slightly malicious adventure, pulling dangerous heists and randomly starting rebellions within other kingdoms. She went through a dark phase at one point but when she accidentally raised an entire graveyard of people up from the dead, her sister put a permanent ban on necromancy.

ISTJ: The Princess’s Familiar: the intelligent, lawful good, dutiful little badger who follows the princess on her every adventure, even if he doesn’t approve. Truth be told, at one point, he’d rather have stayed in the gray forest, digging and searching for underground food like his badger family. However, he’s grown accustomed to his life as a magical companion to, in his opinion, the loveliest witch in the kingdom. He just wishes she’d incorporate a little structure and routine into her evil antics. Also, he has the voice of Sterling Holloway

ISFJ: The Winged Healer: when after the battle of the century was over, and the Queen lay half-dead atop her fallen soldiers, her dying general and former lover whispered a barely audible prayer for healing. Alas a drop of starlight hailing from the highest heaven floated down like a dove and took form as an ageless woman. She simply slid her slim fingers delicately across the Queen’s fatal wounds and healed her completely. Since then, she’s become the Queen’s lady in waiting. She belongs to no race and there are none like her. It’s said that to simply gaze on her is to be cured of any illness. Her ivory skin, rose colored hair, golden eyes and silvery wings are alarmingly beautiful, but her disposition is sweet, quiet, naïve and unassuming.

ESTJ: The Cold Knight: almost none have ever seen his face but everyone knows who he is. He rides a dead horse and commands a dead army. It’s been speculated that this is the same army the Princess haphazardly resurrected. Little known to the general public, he was once the Queen’s lover and was quite handsome before the lust for her throne overtook him. Now, he bides his time in a small castle set atop a cold mountain, waiting for a moment of weakness in the walls of the Kingdom. He’s not as scary as he sounds though and he and the Queen still occasionally hit the local pub disguised as peasants. She still loves him but keeps him at bay.

ESFJ: The Giant: The last giant who wants to fit in with the little people so badly that he doesn’t see how unique and special he really is. He spends his time rearranging the mountains, unclogging the rivers and romping about or wrestling with the Queen’s dragon. Unbeknownst to him, his favorite friend, the Princess, is madly in love with his curly brown hair and periwinkle eyes. She’s been openly working on a spell to shrink him down to her size, at least temporarily. She regularly tests it on her familiar and so far has managed to turn him into various types of chairs. On a side note, he’s three-hundred and seven years old, but in giant years, that equals about fifteen and a half.

ISTP: The Tinkering Fairy: a tiny chaotic neutral fay with a pension for the mechanical. The Queen paid a steep price to have her renovate the entire castle with the latest gadgets and weapons of the time. Of course, she lives in the Castle Garden among the angstiest of the flowers. When a storm seems on its way, the Queen casually opens her bedroom window and the fay will settle down on a little cushion, laid out discreetly for her on the Queen’s dresser. As she’s technically a part of the Forest, the Elf’s natural magic he exudes seems to have a euphoric, drug-like effect on her. She mistakes this for love. Fay minds cannot be read so, of course, the Elf is oblivious.

ISFP: The Malevolent Dragon: a graceful and charming Wyvern, living in the gorgeous and expansive mountain hall she confiscated. She brought in an army goblins simply to sort out her treasure and move it to a safe chamber so she could redecorate. The walls are lined with her intricate and colorful paintings of the various breeds of dragon. The hall itself is the picture of luxury and eccentricity, and the color scheme seems to compliment her lovely iridescent scales. From time to time, she comes to the aid of the Warlady in hopes of procuring more riches for her hall. She boarders between true neutral and neutral evil.

ESTP: The Queen: arguably the most lovely person to ever exist. She rules the Kingdom with a sharp mind, a soft heart, iron hands and a diamond scepter. She’s kind and caring but also daring and adventurous. She’s fought and befriended dragons. She’s battled in great wars and went on grand quests to rescue her loved ones. She’s truly loved and quickly left her lovers. She’s done it all and is forever excited to do it again. She’s trained to fight on any terrain, in any circumstance with any weapon. She’s a master with the bow, a sage with any sword, a lady of knives and sharp things. She’s not taken to magic but knows a few simple spells her sister taught her. Even though she’s openly admired by even her worst enemies, she must remain watchful and vigilant because her Kingdom and the giant castle are the most enviable in the world and no one could resist the temptation to conquer it, be it that they are able. But only fools are not afraid of her, to quote the old saying “You want battle? [The Queen] will give you war.”

ESFP: The Dwarf: a young and attractive red-haired dwarf who forgot about treasure or mines long ago. He pursues a career in acting and in minstrel work. He’s performed for the Queen several times and she regularly invites him back to act or sing or both. One time, an entire battle was fought between the Queen and the Warlady over whose kingdom he belonged to, but he’s never belonged to anyone but himself and that’s a fact he relishes in. He’s eccentric and demanding, with a love for speedy ponies and cinematically dark pubs. Don’t underestimate him though, he’s deadly with a ball and chain mace.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHAT NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ABOUT STATE

That just breeds laziness. The answer or at least accords with, both of the conventional explanations of the difference between success and failure. Even if you could get a 30% better deal elsewhere? That initial fragility was not a unique feature of Airbnb. To someone who has learned from experience about the relationship between intelligence and wisdom too, but this predisposition is not itself intelligence. And it's a skill you can learn, though perhaps habit might be a better word. The wise man was someone who knew what the right choice.

A few steps down from the top that it would be misleading even to call them centers. You don't have to be a good idea to use famous rich people as examples, because the problem was intermittent. For both jobs and grad school, but it is at least a roller coaster and not drowning. Then one of their competitors will buy you, and will go out of business. Neither of the conventional stories about the distinction between the spikes and the average becomes sharper, like a bartender eager to close up and go home, finally kicked them out by switching to a risc instruction set. But you can. Describing it as work experience implies it's like experience operating a certain kind of machine, or using a certain programming language. The problem with these old traditions is that they're too much influenced by recipes for wisdom have an element of subjection.

In retrospect this was a smart idea. You can't decide, for example. Being friends with someone for even a couple days will tell you what to focus on next. In the right kind of vibe. The most dynamic part of the feedback loop that makes the product good. Startups offer anyone a way to get to the next, and decided to just work as hard as you possibly can. Knowing that should help. If it were simply a matter of working harder than an ordinary employee and getting paid for it. Let me mention some things not to do. Whereas if you start a startup, here's a handy tip for evaluating competitors. It would crush its competitors.

That is the pattern for the future. Perhaps it's a technicality to point out that in their current state they have nothing to lose. But like other ways of bestowing one's favors liberally it's safe to do it, do it. How well you're doing a few months old. After about ten sentences I found myself thinking I don't want to face what is usually the real reason: the product is only moderately appealing. They seem to have become professional fundraisers who do a little research on the side when I was at Yahoo, we got an email from Filo, who had been crawling around our directory hierarchy, asking if it was really necessary to store so much of our data on expensive RAID drives. For nearly everyone, the opinion of one's peers is the most powerful all the way down to machine languages, which themselves vary in power. There is nothing more valuable than a technical advantage your competitors don't get it. Aikido for Startups But I don't wish I were a better speaker like I wish I could be 100% sure that's not a description of HN. I think the underlying cause is usually that they've become demoralized. But regardless of the source of your problems in a startup. Once I was forced to discard my protective incompetence, I found that business was neither so hard nor so boring as I feared.

These may be different from the one we were expecting in 1970. One of the two you're going to be, so in the worst case you won't be wasting your time, but didn't. A good hint to the presence of leverage is the possibility of failure. It seems a fine plan to start startups as well as you can, like we did, turn the Blub paradox: they're satisfied with whatever they currently use. Assuming their expenses remain constant and their revenue growth is what it's been over the last several months, do they make it to profitability on the money they have left? But the better you do, but you have no scope for decisions. For programmers we had three additional tests. The most common types of fluff links are banned as off-topic. I think I can give a kind of shorthand: money is a way of moving wealth, and technical innovation grinds to a halt when they start paying you specifically for that attentiveness—when they start raising money, or getting customers.

If you're going to flake out and leave them stranded. The big danger is that you'll dismiss your startup yourself. Big Launch. Starting startups is harder than you expect, but you're also capable of more than you realized. But because the Soviet Union didn't have a computer industry, it remained for them a theory; they didn't have enough talent to make it as a pro. There is one case where the list of n things is that there's a built-in escape hatch. For one thing, the official cause of death is listed as ran out of funding, you go to work. I couldn't bear the thought of programming in another language this was 1995, remember, when another language meant C the only option seemed to be to start or join a startup.

A McDonald's franchise is controlled by Sun. Afterward I put my talk online like I usually do. I was impressed by that. What would be a good idea to use famous rich people as examples, because the links do. But because the product hits a nerve, in the sense that the source files contain characters, and strings are one of the best tricks I learned during our startup was a rule for deciding who to hire. The strategy works just as well if you do, just as acquirers do. My final test may be the sort of person who would like to solve the money problem once and for all the years after I always had a background process running, looking for something we could do together. But fortunately so have the jumpsuits with badges indicating our specialty and rank.

We've kept the program shape—all of us having dinner together once a week turns out to have selfish advantages. The aspect of the Internet Bubble there were a giant transformer nearby. No doubt Bill did everything he could to steer IBM into making that blunder, and he has done an excellent job of exploiting it, but if you can avoid it, b pay people with equity rather than salary, not just to acquire users, but also to make them happy. That's nonsense. When we first knew the Octoparts they were lighthearted, cheery guys. They were just trying to survive. Since it became possible to get rich, is not just that one's brain is less malleable. That certainly accords with what I see out in the world. What happens, in practice, is that you should expect average performance. For me, as for many users, it's a kind of social convention, high-level language, and have clean, simple web pages with unintrusive keyword-based ads. If you understand how compilers work, what's really going on is not so much that Lisp has a strange syntax as that Lisp has no syntax. But the better you do, just as there are in the scarcest ingredient in startups, co-founders meet is at work.

[orcinus-ocean]

Not a water buffalo

Please, from me to the world, learn the difference.

The two animals have nothing in common but their black color and the name "buffalo". As does the American bison, and they too have nothing to do with the other two animals.

Time and time again I see on the internet, "water buffalo", with the picture being an African buffalo. I see someone saying they're planning to farm or train water buffalo, and some well-meaning but ignorant person says "But those are VICIOUS! They can gore a lion!" I've even seen an article on "alternative bovines" for farming (an excellent article otherwise), talking about yak and water buffalo, and the photo is of... an African buffalo.

Now then.

African buffalo

Also known as the Cape buffalo or Caffer buffalo (in my native Swedish tongue, I've always known them as "Kafferbuffel", but even my mom was horrified when I said we are going to keep "vattenbuffel" - sigh).

Scientifically known as Syncerus caffer, they are not closely related to any other bovines. They live exclusively in Africa (mostly the eastern south and central Africa. There are two additional subspecies with a different range, but they are so different from the main animal they are probably actually different species, and I will not talk about them here), are known as one of the "Big Five" of wild game in Africa (the others being elephant, lion, leopard and rhino), and are extremely aggressive and dangerous.

They are said to kill over 200 people every year in Africa, and the species has even earned itself nicknames like "the Black Death" and "Widowmaker".

They are large and bulky, 100-170 cm in height, and weigh 500 to 1000 kg.

They have never been domesticated, and I imagine it might be impossible (see zebra vs. horse, or why zebras can’t be domesticated).

They are never, and have never been called water buffalo, so I don't know where this confusion came from.

Water buffalo

The water buffalo, or "Asian water buffalo" (though there is only one water buffalo and it's from Asia, making this name redundant), is a bit of a taxonomic confusion since it's said to be one species, the domesticated form of the wild water buffalo, Bubalus arnee, while the domestic animal is called Bubalus bubalis.

There are however two distinct types of water buffalo, called marsh buffalo and river buffalo. The marsh variety was domesticated in China and Southeast Asia, where it's used as a draft animal, and for meat. They are chunky, short-legged, with huge, backwards curving horns, and are never used for dairy.

The third image above in the right row is either a wild or marsh form, the fifth are marsh, and the rest are river.

The river buffalo was domesticated in India, from a different subspecies of wild water buffalo. They are much more cow-like in appearance, are used for dairy as well as meat and leather (their skin is twice as thick as on a normal cow, and is often used to make the bottoms of shoes), and have much smaller, curved horns (many different breeds exist, with different horns, but their horns never get as big as on the marsh buffalo).

Funny thing is, many Indians get away with the ban on eating beef, by simply eating buffalo instead.

These two varieties should probably be recognized as different species, as they have different numbers of chromosomes. The swamp buffalo has 48, while the river buffalo has 50. African buffalo by the way have 52, and cattle and bison have 60.

Both varieties have been domesticated for thousands of years, as long as horses and camels (~5000 years).

As you can see especially in the fifth image of the two buffalo in the field, the water buffalo are related to the Anoa and Tamaraw, and not to domestic cattle or bison. Domestic cattle can hybridize with bison, yak and more, but not with water buffalo. Neither animal is close to, or can hybridize with (it is thought) the African buffalo.

There are about 170 million of them in the world, and despite the world's 1.4 billion domestic cattle (almost ten times as many), more people depend on water buffalo than on any other livestock animal in the world.

We consider them “exotic” in the west, but they are no more exotic than our domestic red jungle fowl from east Asia (chicken), horses from central Asia, or cats from Egypt.

Unlike the African animal they are constantly compared to, they are very mild-mannered and considered gentle even when compared to domestic cattle. They are frequently ridden and trained for draft work.

The wild buffalo is larger even than the African buffalo, at 1.6-1.9 meters at the shoulder, and 800-1200 kg in weight, they are absolutely massive. The domestic water buffalo is much more modest in size.

They get their name, obviously, from their love of water. They frequently wallow, lay down in, even swim and dive underwater. Their skin needs it, so if you have domestic water buffalo at home, they need a water hole to wallow in.

Now I hope that anyone who read it, or even just looked at the pictures, will never confuse the two again!

They have as much in common as camels and alpacas, or leopards and domestic cats.

[dunnystuff]

Hi to all -

Kamala visits Guatemala

Well, this did not go well. Instead of a reception by crowds of fawning locals, she was met with signs demanding she 'go home' and 'Trump won', and suggesting she fix her own house, and stay out of the house of Guatemala. No one was buying her talking points about addressing the 'root causes' of immigration, legal or illegal. Well, she did not handle this graciously. The president of that nation noted that while he had cracked down on crime and other problems, Kamala is ignoring those issues in her own back yard. It is safer to walk in Guatemala than in many US cities. That is saying something since just a few years ago, Guatemala had the highest murder rate in South America.

Virginia

Judge James E. Plowman, jr. ordered the school that fired a teacher named Tanner, for expressing his views that allowing transgender men to compete in women's sports was discrimination against actual women, against his faith, and an offense to God, to reinstate the man. The judge said that Tanner had First Amendment rights to speak his views, and that the school acted in a way that was 'unnecessary and vindictive'. The school countered that they did not fire Tanner for his views, but because his expression of those views caused 'disruption'. The judge did not buy that poor excuse.

Kentucky

In Boone County, Judge Richard A. Brueggemann struck down the edicts of Governor Andy Beshears regarding Covid mandates. especially masks. This was a permanent injunction, not subject to appeal or review or reinstatement after making minor changes. All of these actions were declared 'unconstitutional' and void.

Now, these mandates were set to expire Friday, anyway, and the Governor did not plan to extend them. But this ruling is important as precedent for actions all over the nation.

TikTok

Trump revoked the right of TikTok to operate here, since it was an agent of the CCP. Biden just revoked this ban.

New Orleans

A man was filmed wandering down a residential street, trying door handles to see if he could enter. He appeared very drunk, and overweight. He went down one side, and up the other, as pedestrians watched, and moved away. Finally, someone opened their door, and this man lunged at the resident. The resident, however, was prepared, and armed. He shot this intruder, killing him. No charges will be filed, thanks in part to the clear video evidence.

Crypto Currency

This was the stuff used in the Colonial Pipeline hack. Crypto currency is not issued by governments, and governments hate this stuff - since they cannot control it, or steal it from citizens. Things like Bitcoin or Dogecoin are examples. Smaller scale things like coupons, bonus points, and rewards points are also examples of non-traditional currency. We should expect to see a lot more activity in alternative currencies.

Bill Gates

He will not give up on his plan to vaccinate everyone, whether they want it or not. He just gave a 'starter' payment of $100,000 to Hiroyaki Matsuoka of the Jichi Medical University to develop mosquitoes infected with vaccines to be released into populated areas, and 'vaccinate' just about everyone. If successful, a million-dollar grant will follow. Of course, if this can be done with medicines, it can also be done with poisons. Both the Japanese and Germans did exactly that back in WWII. Japanese biowarfare experiments killed at least 250,000 Chinese, and continued to kill people for generations. Germans flooded areas that would breed mosquitoes, and unleashed diseases on the locals. They also poisoned crops, affecting others.

Bill , who is not a doctor, is intent on reducing the world population by 15%, to 'save the planet'. Perhaps he might do well to remember that even though there are a lot more people on the planet today than a few years ago, food supplies and distribution has kept up, and in fact, more people are better fed today than at any time in known history. Most people do not live at subsistence levels today, when for most of recorded history, they did.

Bill is treading on dangerous ground. The unintended consequences could be beyond horrific. Back when I was a child, I lived overseas in a mosquito infested area. Every evening, the jeeps would come by spraying clouds of DDT, to control the mosquitoes. Of course, that effective chemical was banned a few years ago. Never mind that mosquito borne diseases kill ten times as many people than the DDT did. I, for one, do not want to breed 'genetically modified mosquitoes', even for good causes.

Burger King

Did I already say this one? Seems that Burger King wants to celebrate Gay pride month. So, they took some cheap shots at Chick-fil-A over their stance, and Sunday closings. Then, to top it all off, they said that Burger King will donate a sum of money to gay pride groups for every Chick-fil-A sandwich sold. Anyone hungry for a chicken sandwich?

Fargo, North Dakota

This hotbed of racial strife saw one 23-year-old Arther Prince Kollie attack 14-year-old Daisy 'Jupiter' Paulsen. She was stabbed 25 times, beaten and strangled by this man. Then, he stole her backpack and phone. He was later captured, and she later died of her injuries. Wonder how the judge will rule in this case?

In another incident, a young black man was yelling racial slurs at an Asian police officer. When confronted over his behavior, the man said that 'blacks cannot be racist'. Didn't we hear Obama make that same argument?

France

President Macron was doing a meet and greet with the public, when a man slapped him across the face, yelling bad things about Macron's policies. That is a serious insult in French culture, and, police took down this guy, and I think a couple of others with him, very fast. Guess the president is learning that at least some of the public does not agree with him.

New Handbook

Parents are getting concerned about Critical Race Theory in the schools. Many do not want their children indoctrinated with racism. Some have spoken up at school board meetings, and the board members have tried to shut them down. But, now, there is a new handbook for these parents, with instructions on how to fight this battle. It is called "Combatting CRT in your Community". It comes from Parents and Citizens for Renewing America. Bet the leftists are getting worried, and plotting in dark back rooms how to fight back.

Atlanta

During the riots that followed a police shooting of a man found dead drunk at Wendy's, where the Wendy's was burned down, there were also many other injuries. Eight-year-old Secoriea Turner was shot and killed, as she sat in her parents car. Her family is suing the city, the mayor, and others for negligence, for allowing the riots to proceed without intervention. They did not agree that 'armed vigilantes' should be allowed to run rampant in this city. This could be a real landmark case. If the parents win, mayors all over the place will not sleep well - like Portland and Seattle.

FBI Sting

Three years in the making, an FBI sting has sprung. This operation was known variously as 'Ironside', 'Greenlight', or 'Trojan Shield'. It involved undercovers selling encrypted satellite phones to criminals, which the FBI had the keys and codes for. This allowed them to track and monitor the activities of more than 300 criminal gangs, in 18 countries. More than 800 people were arrested, and literally tons of drugs, weapons and cash were seized.

Meanwhile, back at home, the ATF is trying to re-define some guns. For many pistols, you can purchase a 'stock', so that it can be fired like a rifle. This improves accuracy. The ATF, with their devotion to disarming Americans, but not others, wants to classify such weapons as 'short barreled rifles', and apply restrictions to their sale and use. These guys never give up trying to bypass the Second Amendment.

Fauci

He was planning to release his new self-praising book this November. It was to be called "Expect the Unexpected - Ten Lessons on Truth, Service and the Way Forward". The irony of this, in light of all the email revelations and his endless flip-flopping, was just too much for the major retailers. Amazon and Barnes and Noble have dropped this book like a hot potato.

Did you know that the 'excuse' to do all these mandates was based on a PCR test to show the presence of Covid. Sadly, the test was badly flawed, with up to 97% false positives. Add in the 'creative reporting' of deaths, (how anyone could sell a gunshot wound to the head as a Covid death really stretches the imagination), and the distortion of cheap, alternative cures to expensive experimental vaccines should have made more people skeptical. HCQ had been a proven anti-malarial drug for 60 years or so, and effective on Covid, used in a timely fashion, at a dose of 200mg daily for 10 days. But, to discredit this treatment, tests were conducted using 8800 mg, and that was a toxic dose. Add to that, all the new regulations banning this as an over-the-counter drug, and requiring a prescription, then barring doctors from prescribing it, and you have a genuine conspiracy. But I digress. The evidence against both Fauci and 'the cure' is overwhelming, except to the superstitious and gullible.

Seattle

Woke gone wild. The Seattle Department of Finance, in a rant produced by David Holmberg, called all cops 'white supremacists'. Cops took exception to this, as you can well imagine. How long can that city stand, divided against itself?

Next time you hear someone claim ``It's all Trump's fault" - ask them how they know this, and will they offer the proof. Those conversations could be interesting. Of course, the answer will always be 'You is a racist'.

Rich

[poop4u]

Overweight Dogs, Holiday Edition

#Poop4U

  Tragically, Jim and I finished up the stuffing (aka “nature’s perfect food”) last night. Honestly, if I had stuffing in the house all the time I would . . . Well, let’s just say I would need a new wardrobe. I’m one of those people who has to watch what they eat to maintain a healthy weight, but I’m also aware that it’s not that easy for some people, no matter how hard they try. We know now that it’s not just “calories in, calories out”. It’s when you eat, what kind of bacteria are in your gut, how well you sleep, if you are stressed, and how your metabolism responds to different types of foods. And on and on and on.

And now we know that it’s not that simple for dogs either. For years we’ve heard that surely we should all be able to regulate our dog’s weight, given that we are the only ones with access to the dog food. But thanks to research, described by Dr. Linda Case in her perfectly titled article Do These Genes Make Me Look Fat?, we’ve learned that some Labradors have a modified gene sequence with a deletion called POMC. This causes dogs not just to overeat, but to be excessively motivated to eat. This gene modification was only found in some Labradors and in a few Flat Coated Retrievers (out of 41 breeds tested), and its existence correlated with dogs who were overweight. (I should add that the correlation isn’t perfect: “The POMC deletion was found in 10 out of 15 overweight dogs and in only 2 our of 18 lean dogs.”)

Given the ease of over indulgence of both people and pets over the holidays, this seems like a good entry into strategies to keep our dogs healthy between now and the New Year. As well as relief to the owners of food-crazed Labradors, who must be sick of people saying “You just have to stop spoiling them!” So, for the holiday to come:

HEALTHY SNACKS Having a dog who considers anything smaller than a brick to be edible is a mixed blessing. For us, it means that things like twist ties are banned from the house, because Tootsie vacuums up any object that falls onto the floor, and saying “Leave It” to a deaf dog isn’t very effective. On the plus side, she considers just about anything a valuable treat. It would be easier if her digestive system wasn’t quite so sensitive, but it still helps that we can reinforce and treat her with some healthy alternatives. I like the healthy treat suggestions on the Farmer’s Dog site, which include carrots, celery, apples, cooked pumpkin and squash. There are a lot of great commercial dog treats out there too, but be cautious about overwhelming your dog’s digestive system with something new. Moderation in all things.

  Surely these kinds of snacks would be especially useful for people who have Labs that carry the POMC gene deletion, and are always dealing with a dog who is crazed for food. But the fact is that most of us have dogs who love food almost like life itself. And what better reinforcement for a new behavior or better manners with company than food?  Yes, play and praise are great, but small pieces of healthy food are ideal when reinforcing a new behavior. This is a great time, before the rest of the holidays, to focus on that one behavior that you can modify to make having visitors, parties or travel more fun with your dog.

FOODS TO AVOID Most of us are well aware of the dangers of feeding chocolate, onions, macadamia nuts and anything with xylitol in it. The xylitol one though is tricky, because it is found in so many products besides gum, including peanut butter, breath mints and toothpaste. Basically, if something says “artificially sweetened” don’t let it anywhere near your dog. This is always trickier over the holidays because there is so much food out that we normally don’t eat, we get out of our usual routines and visitors don’t know to not leave their sugar-free gum out on the counter.

Stuff happens: Maggie thought this cake was great.

Because stuff happens, have the ASPCA animal poison control phone number written down on your refrigerator:  888 426-4435. You may have to pay a consultation fee, but believe me, it’s well worth it. I had to use their services a few New Year’s back when I got distracted saying goodbye to visitors and Maggie ate the better part of a cake with double dark chocolate icing. And my hydrogen peroxide had no effect because I didn’t know that it looses potency even if unopened in your bathroom cabinet. Maggie and I spent all of New Year’s Day at the emergency clinic, which had not exactly been my plan. Needless to say, I buy a new bottle now every six months or so. You can also try baking soda if you have no hydrogen peroxide I’m told, but don’t induce vomiting in anything that might be caustic–best if you have the slightest doubt to call the poison control center.

                You will not need this much hydrogen peroxide. Just in case you were worried.

EXERCISE EXERCISE EXERCISE. Those of us who watch our weight know that what and when we eat has more effect on our weight than exercise. However, that doesn’t mean exercise doesn’t help our pets maintain a healthy weight, and it’s good for us and them for so many other reasons. One nutritionist estimated that weight loss is 75% affected by diet and 25% by exercise. As a behaviorist I’d argue that giving your dog both mental and physical exercise is critical to behavioral health. As I’ve written before, I think the ideal exercise for dogs are long walks in natural areas. Off leash is best IF safe, but walking your dog through the woods on a long line is a wonderful thing to do for them. Granted, we can’t always pull that off, and it can get harder during the holidays, but if you can schedule it into your day when things get a little crazy it’ll be great for your dog.

Things can get a big rough for dogs  (and cats) over Christmas and New Years in so many ways, as I write in Five Reasons Why Dogs Become Holiday Grinches. Now is a good time to think through not just your gift list and your holiday travel plans, menus, etc, but also how you are going to keep your dogs healthy and happy. Believe me, they’ll thank you if they could.

I’d love to hear your strategies for a healthy and happy holiday season for your pets. Or your cautionary tales of woe? Equally valuable, right?

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: After 4 snow storms in late October and early November, our temperatures warmed, rain fell, and we were back to the “mudmare” that has been southern Wisconsin for the last year. Thankfully, we got a sifting of snow yesterday and it’ll stay frozen for most of the day. That’ll be especially nice in the confined areas, like through narrow gates, where walking on the “ground” is more like walking on top of a cake with chocolate icing.  You squish down 3-4 inches with each step. We’ve put shavings down on some areas, but there’s nothing better than a freeze to harden it up.

And yet, there’s still some color out there, at least there was a few days ago:

Sometimes just from a plastic cone:

From last night:  The butter yellow light from the barn always makes me feel warm and cozy, no matter the weather. We’ll leave the light on for you.

Have a great week all. Please send stuffing.

Poop4U Blog via www.Poop4U.com Trisha, Khareem Sudlow

[ethel913insta-blog]

Facts All but easy way to get followers on instagram Exposed

With the earlier a number of a long time, Fb has been conducting what quantities to an A/B take a look at on human Modern society, employing two various social networking apps. The first app in Fb’s exam features a maximalist style and design: It lets buyers to publish prolonged standing updates, with hyperlinks to news article content, photos, video clips and much more. The app is developed as a giant megaphone, using an emphasis on public sharing and an algorithmic feed capable of sending posts rocketing around the globe in seconds. The second application inside the exam is much more minimalist, created for intimate sharing instead of viral broadcasting. People of the application, lots of whom have private accounts with modest followings, can write-up photos or video clips, but external inbound links tend not to work and there's Additional reading no re-share button, making it more durable for customers to amplify each other’s posts. The results of the check have been stark. The first application, Fb, turned into a tremendous and unmanageable behemoth that swallowed the media sector, was exploited by hostile international actors, empowered autocrats, developed the disorders for a worldwide faux information epidemic and in the end grew to become a giant headache for its creators. The next application, Instagram, has fared far better. It hasn’t been overrun with bogus news, it hasn’t been exploited to exactly the same diploma, and most people appear to be happy with it — In particular young people, who vastly prefer it to Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to invest 2018 cleaning up Fb, and ensuring that “our companies aren’t just fun to implement, but additionally excellent for folks’s effectively-becoming.” He’s also pledged to deal with the scourge of pretend information on Facebook, and do a better task of trying to keep lousy actors at bay. Superior for him. But there might be a simpler fix listed here. Why doesn’t he make his beleaguered blue application extra like Instagram, the Facebook-owned application that isn’t destabilizing Modern society? Previous 7 days, Facebook unveiled its most current make an effort to rein in its flagship merchandise. In order to curb Phony news, it introduced It might be allowing for Fb people to rank news stores by trustworthiness, and contemplate Those people scores when determining which information stories to Show in customers’ feeds. But this sort of insignificant algorithmic knob-fiddling is probably not ample. As a substitute, Fb should think about using what it’s realized with Instagram, which it obtained in 2012, to embark with a intestine renovation. If I were Mr. Zuckerberg, Here are several Instagram lessons I’d be considering. Lesson No. one: Emphasize visuals. De-emphasize text. Initially, and most clearly, Instagram is a visible medium. Images and movies are the primary event, and text, although present, is mostly confined to captions and comments. Subsequently, Instagram feels far more intimate than Facebook, where by shots and videos usually sit alongside lengthy diatribes, cafe Look at-ins and mundane status updates. Investigate has shown that, in some instances, visual platforms can be fantastic for us. One review, released by scientists within the College of Oregon in 2016, identified that the use of picture-dependent platforms like Instagram and Snapchat was connected to decrease levels of loneliness among end users, and better amounts of happiness and fulfillment, even though text-primarily based platforms experienced no correlation with enhanced mental well being. A closely visual System also makes a comparatively lousy conduit for breaking news As well as in-the-moment commentary, which might clarify why Instagram generally feels less exhausting than other social networking sites. (In addition, it points out why past thirty day period, just before I went on getaway, I deleted every single social media marketing application from my cellular phone except Instagram — the sole application I trustworthy to not destroy my beachside calm.) Lesson No. 2: Rethink the share button. One among Instagram’s most underrated virtues is always that it's got imposed structural limits on virality — the flexibility of a supplied write-up to spread further than its supposed audience. Contrary to Twitter and Facebook, on Instagram there is not any indigenous sharing function, indicating the arrive at of most Instagram posts is capped at the number of those who Keep to the user’s account. (There are ways to “regram” some other person’s Image utilizing a 3rd-party app, Nevertheless they’re clunky, and relatively couple of individuals utilize them. Instagram also not long ago began demonstrating end users posts from people today they don’t comply with, a Facebook-influenced improve which i’d argue is a mistake.) A native share button has long been tremendously valuable for Facebook’s and Twitter’s growth. It's got also authorized upstart media corporations like BuzzFeed and Upworthy to develop monumental audiences by specializing in really shareable tales. But ease of sharing has also allowed the loudest and most psychological voices for being rewarded with clicks — and a focus. It’s this incentive construction which includes permitted partisans and profiteers to hijack Facebook’s algorithms and distribute divisive messages and Wrong news to millions of men and women. The easy virality of Facebook also seems to have manufactured specific people much more hesitant about opening up. That makes sense — it’s much easier to share a selfie if you recognize it gained’t accidentally discover its way in to the feeds of 1,000,000 strangers. Lesson No. 3: Ban backlinks. Instagram’s greatest structural gain, however, could be a result of its conclusion to go primarily hyperlink-absolutely free. Links in Instagram captions and opinions aren’t clickable, and Although some customers have discovered workarounds, the vast majority of Instagram posts aren’t meant to deliver people to outside the house Internet sites. (The exceptions are ads, which may consist of clickable links and they are, not coincidentally, the most troubled A part of Instagram’s System.) The walled-garden nature of Instagram has disappointed publishers, who would like to send followers out to their Internet websites, where the publishers can generate advertising dollars and “control the reader knowledge.” (It’s truly pretty much The cash.) But Instagram has wisely refused to provide in, Probably noticing that permitting backlinks could possibly switch the System right into a screeching bazaar, with publishers and webpages all executing circus acts for clicks. Eliminating back links from Facebook would wreak havoc to the electronic media business, which has created an economic design all over referral traffic from Facebook. It will also danger alienating some buyers, who delight in advertising and marketing and speaking about stories from other elements of the online market place. But it will also fix several of the System’s most vexing troubles. And in the end, it would be better for the entire world. After all, malicious actors don’t write-up fabricated information, wildly exaggerated headlines or partisan outrage-bait on Fb only for entertaining. They do it, in many circumstances, because it’s profitable. Acquire absent undesirable actors’ incentives and they’ll go in other places. Banning most back links doesn’t appear to have damage Instagram as a company. It had over 800 million every month Energetic buyers as of September, and it received a million new advertisers past yr. Facebook doesn’t split out Instagram’s earnings, but some analysts expect the application could someday generate just as much as $ten billion in yearly income. That’s however nowhere in close proximity to Fb, which earned $ten billion in earnings very last quarter by itself, nonetheless it’s a meaningful range, and it displays that insularity isn’t usually a nasty matter. Lesson No. four: Bad actors are unavoidable, but their influence might be contained. Instagram is much from an ideal social network, and copying it wouldn’t deal with all of Facebook’s troubles overnight. Between other problems, some exploration has revealed that use of Instagram can breed insecurity and bullying, and exacerbate overall body image troubles, especially between younger Gals. Instagram also hosts its have sketchy microeconomy — just witness the scourge of Insta-celebrities endorsing dubious well being goods, or even the uptick in fly-by-evening purchaser makes that industry them selves utilizing Instagram ads. And Russian propagandists did use Instagram to try to influence American voters ahead of the 2016 presidential election, with posts that reached as several as 20 million people. (Much under the estimated 126 million people that had been achieved by Russian posts on Facebook, but a hefty amount Even so.) But even these flaws are preferable on the structural problems that have plagued Facebook. Provided the choice amongst a version of Facebook that created many of its people truly feel ugly and unpopular, and a single that might be utilized to undermine democracies and encourage misinformation worldwide, I understand which one particular I’d decide. A number of billion Fb consumers may well concur.

[mbmdotlife]

How many of us really know what these ingredients in this beauty product listed below are, other than water and mineral oil?

Are these ingredients safe?  Are companies marketing to us products that are actually good for us or just convenient to us?

Our skin is semi permeable which means what we put on it can be absorbed through our skin into our blood stream and circulatory system. That is why some drugs can be administered topically, such as numbing medicine.

 With that in mind I believe it is important that we learn and know what we put on and in our bodies. Many companies don’t always tell the truth about the products that they market to us. Even if they know some of the chemicals they use can cause harmful effects long term…they still market to our short-term desires and wants. As long as consumers are buying them, they are selling them.  In this blog I want to talk more about this and things that I have discovered in my research, that we as consumers should lookout for.

A lot of the chemicals used in beauty products are additives used to help preserve/ increase longevity, quality, and physical properties of product (smell, feel, color,etc.). These chemicals come in the form of fragrances, preservatives, heavy metals, etc. What’s not  often told is that overtime these products can cause negative effects by damaging DNA, disturbing reproductive organs, nervous system, metabolism, act as carcinogens, etc.

Though these products go through the FDA their restrictions are in a sense limited here in America. Companies are not required to extensively test beauty products,outside of seeing if it causes skin irritation and allergic reactions. However they do have guidelines that companies are required to abide by.

Below are a few question and answers to common questions asked about labeling and the safety of products and their ingredients:  

You may also ask Does the FDA approve labeling? 

Above is an insert taken from the FDA regarding this question. The answer is NO. The FDA doesn’t screen labels before products hit the market. Though if a company is caught they will be reported as misbranded. The FDA can’t in itself ban the product. They have to take the company to court. 

When companies say their product is organic/natural does that always mean its good?

No. Natural is a term that consumers and regulators identify as having come from a plant or animal aka not created artificially. This still doesn’t always mean good. Though they come from plants and animals they can still contain harmful chemicals such as pesticides and bacteria in them from their breeding or care on the farm that they came from. That goes for food as well.

Why doesn’t the FDA do more to ensure products are completely safe?

The answer is simple the FDA is simply understaffed, under equipped technology wise, and doesn’t have a good enough scientific structure to fulfill this task (2).

There are also laws in place such as the FD&C Act this Act makes it against the law for companies to misbrand their products. More information on this was can be found here

Should we look out for all products that we use? 

Yes. Everything we put on or in our body, we should research. Even in tampons. Though feminine hygiene companies are not required to list the ingredients of tampons and pads. It is still important to do your research. I remember watching a YouTuber named SunKissAlba. She was saying how after having a child with  down syndrome. She was told by doctors that some of the birth defects may have come from things she was using and consuming that caused DNA mutations in her eggs. The vagina is highly permeable, and can easily absorb harmful chemicals in tampons. These chemicals include: bleach, rayon, dioxin, etc.

Some of the other main chemicals in beauty products that people should look out for are:

Parabens: used as a preservative 

Phthalates

Formaldehyde

Triclosan: used for anti-bacterial properties

Aluminum:used as antiperspirant 

Below are diagrams that help further show the breakdown of these chemicals and their potential harm. 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Other info that may be helpful is the image below:

    Info from:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vanessa-cunningham/dangerous-beauty-products_b_4168587.html

https://www.fda.gov/Cosmetics/

https://books.google.com/books?id=3hLmyma2-MsC&lpg=PA7&ots=DzBQR4IUwF&dq=harmful%20chemicals%20in%20beauty%20products%20&lr&pg=PA30#v=onepage&q&f=false

Dodson, Robin E. et al. “Endocrine Disruptors and Asthma-Associated Chemicals in Consumer Products.” Environmental Health Perspectives 120.7 (2012): 935–943. PMC. Web. 3 Oct. 2017.

Source 5 

Featured Image from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/30/best-beauty-products-2013_n_4508785.html

Ingredients in Beauty Products How many of us really know what these ingredients in this beauty product listed below are, other than water and mineral oil?

[potted-dandelions]

Public Safety: Guns and Driverless Cars

(Author’s note: albed can suck it.)

How do we balance the right to own a gun with public safety? Let's take a dispassionate look at this question by thinking about it in terms of driverless cars:

Car crashes kill an average of 37,000 Americans a year and injure or disable around 2,350,000 people. The annual cost of those crashes is $230 billion. For the most part these are preventable crashes with human factors at their root, and if the aviation industry is any indication then we can easily save most of those lives using autopilot.

There are about half a dozen major corporations already building or retrofitting self-driving cars, and that number will double in the next year or two. You can already buy a driverless car, and next year you'll be able to ride a driverless taxi around in certain cities.

The technology works. It’s complex and expensive, but it’s already saving lives. Last year we heard the story of a man who had a heart attack on the highway whose car saved his life by driving him most of the way to the hospital. And there are already dozens of stories of driverless cars that saved their occupants by predicting and preventing collisions. As more stories like these accumulate over time, soon a generation of Americans will come to trust the autopilot more than they trust their own driving ability.

What does any of this have to do with guns? Well, we all make mistakes and do dangerous, unpredictable things when we drive, so in much the same way that certain places are designated gun-free zones, eventually people will implore the government to establish driverless roads for safety and convenience. Driverless cars could be even safer, faster, and cheaper to design for roads where people are simply not allowed to drive. The cars could talk to each other via radio to coordinate their movements, making it possible to speed through intersections without stopping and without colliding. Already many people argue that when the technology is ready people should be banned from driving altogether.

But being able to drive your own car is one of the greatest freedoms we have as Americans. This unique mobility provides us with job opportunities, it lets us go anywhere anytime we wish, and it allows us cross the country at our own pace. Driving is fun and rewarding in itself for many of us, and getting your driver's licence when you turn 16 is a right of passage. We’ll be hard pressed to give up that freedom, even as the younger generation inevitably demands that elderly Millennials put aside their freedoms and let the autopilots have the road.

In time, that younger generation may prevail and a limited network of driverless roads will be established in one or a few major cities to test the idea. The government will enact a law that restricts people from using those roads without autopilot, and road signs will be posted that read “This Is a Driverless Road: No Driving Beyond This Point.” The experiment will be successful, perhaps for many years, until some suicidal psychopath–probably a man in his late 60’s–decides to break the law and take his own truck on the highway. The driverless cars, programmed to avoid obstacles, will tolerate and adapt to his presence right up until the moment he caroms into an intersection, colliding with a dozen self-driving cars and causing a hundred more to pile up at high speed.

To ensure that never happens, future driverless cars will have to be designed to share the road with human drivers. Allowing people to drive themselves will always be risky and managing that risk will be costly, but to ban drivers would breed complacency among carmakers. The above scenario seems unlikely until you remember that engineers have to design cars as cheaply as possible. If the law banned drivers then engineers would happily omit the complex safety systems that make driverless cars so expensive today, leaving their passengers wide open to attack.

Keep in mind that the law exists not to prevent crime but to punish crime. There are 253 million cars in America and the government can’t confiscate them all. Somebody is going to break the law someday and drive on a driverless road, that’s a guarantee. So in the interest of preserving personal freedom and preventing lone-wolf massacres, it only makes sense to preserve the right to drive.

This will be a contentious issue in the decades to come for the same reasons that gun owner’s rights are so contentious today. Whether some like it or not, we will live in a future where driverless cars will mingle with people driving on the same roads just as today we must all coexist in a nation where personally owned firearms number in the hundreds of millions. But unlike with firearms, no Constitutional protection exists to guarantee the right to drive.

The 2nd Amendment is sacrosanct for reasons beyond the scope of this discussion, and abolition is neither enforceable nor desirable since disarming the public will leave so many exposed to the threat of mass shootings. To those who study such things, it comes as no surprise that nine out of ten mass shooting occur in gun-free zones; shooters may be psychopaths but they aren’t stupid. It also comes as little surprise that violent crime rates are so low in towns and neighborhoods where gun ownership is prevalent; burglars and rapists aren’t stupid either. Criminals who don’t want to be shot will select unarmed victims every time.

Nevertheless, there are many who think it's time to repeal the 2nd Amendment and, sadly, they forget that abolition has failed every time has been tried and it always leads to unintended consequences. Not even a Constitutional amendment could stop people from using alcohol, and instead it gave rise to organized crime rings to fulfill the public demand. The War on Drugs has certainly put lots of people in prison but has done nothing to address rampant drug addiction. And many States are tacitly nullifying the federal ban on marijuana either by allowing medical prescriptions or by legalizing possession outright. A gun ban, too, would lead to organized crime, widespread incarceration, and sedition among the States. It is guaranteed make life worse.

So if a gun ban won’t work then what will? As with all complex problems, that depends. Most gun deaths are suicides. Taking their guns won’t give them a reason to live. To save them requires a different solution. Other than suicide, most gun deaths are gang-related. Taking their guns won’t put an end gang rivalry nor will it prevent gangs from recruiting. To help them requires a different solution. After gang violence, the next most gun deaths occur in domestic disputes. Taking their guns won’t remove murder from their hearts, and kitchen knives and baseball bats kill just as effectively as bullets. To help them requires a different solution.

But for some reason, suicides and gang shootings and domestic violence are not the problems that make us question the value and necessity of the 2nd Amendment. This topic never comes up until a mass shooting occurs. Such a shocking event galvanizes our passions as no other form of violence could, but when you think about it, mass shootings appall us not because they are so common but because they are so very rare.

Here’s a test: do you ever give a second thought to the high number of gun crimes that occur in the city of Chicago each and every day? A Chicago citizen dies from gunshot wounds every 12 hours. Does it surprise you the same way the Las Vegas Strip shooting surprised us all? To be fair, Chicago’s per capita rate of gun violence isn’t particularly high compared with other large cities, but it’s population is so large that the equivalent of one Las Vegas Strip Shooting occurs in Chicago every single month. Try to imagine, if mass shootings were as common as Chicago shootings, we would take them for granted. We’d ignore them while the media focused our attention on other problems. It’s sad but true.

So in the interest of looking at the problem of gun violence dispassionately, we must appreciate mass shootings for the rarity they are and be thankful for that fact. And though we must never ignore mass shootings, with the proper perspective we can get down to the business of solving the far worse problems of domestic violence, gang shootings, and suicide. The only obvious link between these problems is the weapon of choice, a gun, but take that away and those problems will still remain. Abolition is no solution. As with every issue which balances public safety with the rights of individuals, be they questions of firearms or of self-driving cars, there are no shortcuts.

[nandinisniche]

What Sarees Can Teach Cis Feminists About Trans* Solidarity

(This article was originally published on Medium on June 11, 2015.)

Stop Saying Caitlyn Jenner Is Doing Femininity Wrong

In the midst of America’s earnest “trans moment”, a strong call for opposition is making itself heard even in progressive — and feminist — media.

It’s coming from inside the house

Trans* acceptance was never going to be a slam dunk, not even with the stupendous combined charm of Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner, nor with the help of that old reliable — airbrushed sex appeal — thrust at us from magazine covers to proclaim their inauguration into True American Womanhood™. Nothing about upending gender expectations is ever that easy.

So this is where we are. The more we publicly the celebrate transgender acceptance, the more anti-trans worms continue to crawl out of the patriarchal woodwork. This is no surprise. To do my bit as a cis ally to trans people, I was ready to write to, reason with, and educate the haters. What is surprising is that so many of the haters are fellow feminists.

Meet the TERFs

Like many Tumblr-toting Roxane-Gay-quoting internet feminists, I had been under the impression that the old guard Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists — TERFs — were a dying breed. The internet circles I lurk in are trans-friendly spaces, at least in name. My Twitter feed was full of trans-positive articles even before Laverne Cox hit the front pages of American media. My favorite reddit communities ban on sight anyone who suggests that trans men aren’t really men, or that it would be dangerous to allow trans women into ladies’ toilets.

But about a week ago, I began to see some startlingly transphobic articles being shared on my carefully culled Facebook feed. Several feminists that I admired were openly disparaging the manner and style and details of Caitlyn Jenner’s public transition.

Some of them went the unabashedly bigoted route, linking to articles like Matt Walsh’s screed, “Calling Bruce Jenner A Woman Is An insult To Women”. Such hatefulness and incoherence is easy to refute (though not defeat). It’s difficult for progressives to take a christian conservative cis white man seriously when he says Caitlyn Jenner is “Disgusting, frankly.” Chalk it up to yet another thing Matt Walsh is wrong about today, and move on.

Other feminists have taken the more subtly transphobic path, criticizing Ms Jenner for playing up stereotypes about femininity. Today an NYT op-ed by Elinor Burkett, for example, is outraged at Chelsea Manning for saying she feels more emotionally sensitive since transitioning, and takes Ms Jenner to task for looking forward to wearing nail polish openly in public after her transition. These attacks are so much harder to deal with because they grow from a germ of truth. Most women alive today grew up battling these stereotypical, insulting assumptions about femininity by the world at large: that women are “too emotional”, that women are obsessed with superficialities like make-up and nail polish, that women are biologically hardwired this way and therefore calling women silly or superficial is not sexism!When we see these insults being given new life by the statements of transgender women in the public eye, we wince.

Yes, I admit it. I winced too.

But then I remembered the sarees.

The story of the sarees

This is where I tell you a little about my roots. I am from India. I grew up in Bengaluru in the ‘80s and ‘90s, back when it was still Bangalore and quite a lot more socially conservative than it is today, though much more liberal than many other parts of India. 

One of the fiercest battles I waged then was against the dress code imposed on me: traditionalism first, modesty a close second, to hell with my personal choice, and don’t even dare breathe the word ‘fashion’ for fear of being branded whorish[1]. Even after my family moved overseas, this dress code persisted, made me choke, made me seethe. My parents and I had screaming fights over my tight jeans. My underwear was scrutinized for possible covert sluttiness[2]. I wasn’t allowed to wear spaghetti strap tops even in my 20s.

I became quite the expert in the art of secret outfit changes when away at school and college. I also grew to hate the traditional Indian clothes that were constantly held up to me as markers of good virtue. Enforced modesty taught me to see every saree as a symbol of oppression[3].

Can you imagine my state of mind when I saw my peers both in real life and in the media embrace sarees as liberating fashion statements? I saw many South Asian women ‘reclaiming’ the saree as sensual, religious, feminine, traditional, and kickass all at once (and I doubt they had ever collectively lost their claim to begin with). Many desi girls and women overseas embraced sarees as defiant, joyous expressions of their minority cultural identity. I saw my school friends wear their sarees happily and stylishly, and I got thoroughly pissed off at them.

I thought they were stupid for welcoming their own oppression. I thought they were betraying me, betraying all the battles that I and every other Indian feminist had fought to escape our compulsory-desi-outfit shackles. I raged at them for giving ammunition to all the people who pressured me to dress traditionally: now they were able to point to all these other girls and say, See? See how happy they are in traditional clothes? Why can’t you be like that?

But most diasporan desi girls and women never fought the battles I fought, and don’t have the same associations with sarees that I do. Their life experiences allowed them to take a pleasure in sarees that will probably always be alien to me. For some of them, donning a saree was even something of a defiance. 

I had a dance instructor in junior college who was called to the Bar in London, and at one of the formal ceremonies that followed, instead of wearing the expected black robes, she wore a lace-edged black saree. She said she was telling the British to stuff it. I was stunned. I believe that was the first time I allowed that maybe, just maybe, sarees are not oppression for everyone all the time.

Not just sarees

No doubt other ethnic and religious groups have experienced a similar dissnoance. I have an Iranian friend who chafes under the laws that impose headscarves on her whenever she goes back home, and her journey has been toward understanding why American hijabis exist: to understand that for some American muslimahs, wearing the hijab is as radical an act as it is for my Iranian friend to take hers off.[4]

The moral of the story

What the saree can teach cis feminists is this: context matters. Our life experiences matter. The symbols and methods we choose for self-expression have particular meanings for ourselves, and we should not insist that our meaning is THE universal meaning.

For some women, nail polish is a symbol of all the dreary, expensive, time-consuming hoops women are expected to jump through to adequately perform our femininity. For other women, especially those who have spent their entire lives longing for and being forcibly denied any expression of femininity, nail polish may be a powerful and triumphant symbol of self expression.

How can the former among us take offence at the latter? It is well within our rights to interrogate the patriarchal rules surrounding nail polish from a critical perspective, but how can we justify interrogating trans women like that?

Can we even imagine how it must feel to be ‘officially’ allowed to wear nail polish after 65 years of being denied it? I want to throw Caitlyn Jenner the glitteriest mani-pedi party when I think about it, and I’m the kind of person that’s owned exactly four bottles of nail polish ever in all my life. (So… I guess we will be hiring professional manicurists for the party because I would paint her knuckles as likely as nails.)

Beyond the cis perspective

So far I’ve only considered trans women’s choices from a resolutely cis lens. But what if we tried looking at the performance of femininity from the perspective of trans women themselves? Would we see merely choice and triumph? Or would we see something more nuanced, and decidedly darker?

Consider: violence against transgender women is an epidemic. Even though trans women are only 10% of all LGBTQ people who report incidents of hate directed at them, they are 45% of murder victims in the same group. Passing as female can be a matter of life or death for trans women. In light of this, is there any way to see cis feminists’ criticism of trans women for “trying to hard” to be feminine as anything other than terrifying, hateful, or at least deeply misguided? I don’t think so.

Consider: trans people are more deeply and thoroughly scrutinized for their performance of gender than cis people like myself can ever fathom. The pressure on trans people to surgically feminize their appearance in order to “pass”, or in order to be more acceptable as romantic partners, is extremely strong even when they personally would rather not get surgery. (Yes, that’s right, not all trans people want surgery.) This pressure and scrutiny has extremely damaging effects on trans people — for example, over 40% of transgender people attempt suicide, compared to 4.6% in the general population and around 15% among LGB people. Should cis feminists really be piling on trans people for supposedly “over”performing gender, thus adding to the toxic culture of overscrutinizing trans people? I definitely don’t think so.

A better way to fight

Here’s what I think cis feminists should be doing instead:

#1 (for the Meets Minimum Standards of Human Decency badge) Unequivocally support and encourage trans people’s chosen manner of gender expression. It’s a battle they have fought long and hard for, and feminists of all people should not be in the business of yelling them for somehow “doing it wrong”. They are doing it right, because they get to decide what’s right for them. Period.

#2 (for the Feminist 101 badge) Support the efforts of trans activists who want to build a safer and more equal world for transgender people. This means reading trans feminist writing (good places to start include Laverne Cox, Zinnia Jones, Model View Culture, and if you’re feeling academic, Radical TransFeminist). This means educating ourselves on the specific obstacles to equality faced by the trans community: safety, access to healthcare, equal opportunity in employment, equal access to public toilets, etc.

#3 (for the Intersectional Feminist badge) Recognize that if there is a reason why media portrayals of famous trans people is problematic, it is because of the way this affects THE TRANS COMMUNITY, not cis women! The inimitable Laverne Cox says:

A year ago when my Time magazine cover came out I saw posts from many trans folks saying that I am “drop dead gorgeous” and that that doesn’t represent most trans people. (It was news to be that I am drop dead gorgeous but I’ll certainly take it). But what I think they meant is that in certain lighting, at certain angles I am able to embody certain cisnormative beauty standards. Now, there are many trans folks because of genetics and/or lack of material access who will never be able to embody these standards. More importantly many trans folks don’t want to embody them and we shouldn’t have to to be seen as ourselves and respected as ourselves . It is important to note that these standards are also infomed by race, class and ability among other intersections.

In the spirit of #3, I highly recommend browsing the amazing Twitter hashtag, #MyVanityFairCover, where ordinary non-celebrity transgender people are creating their own “Call Me Caitlyn” style cover shots.

And finally, every time we feel anger or outrage stirring in response to something a trans woman says or does about her femininity, we need to remember the story of the sarees.

[1] & [2]: These were the terms used at me, and yes, they are extremely disparaging to sex workers.

[3]: Make no mistake: for hundreds of thousands of Indian girls and women, these clothes are indeed an oppression. Traditional dress codes are commonly imposed on Indian women to this day. I personally know far too many married women living in urban, upper class, highly educated joint families who do not have ‘permission’ from their in-laws to wear jeans.

[4]: Note that I am not suggesting that any choice whatsoever is feminist/radical just because it is a choice. Choice feminism is deeply flawed. What I am saying is, any symbol or act can be radical or oppressive depending upon personal and social context.