When I got mine in they gave me local anesthesia, and it was still the most painful experience of my life. Turns out rummaging around in your innards produces a type of pain unlike anything I’ve ever felt. I truly can’t imagine how awful it must be without any anesthesia.

It varies based on local legislation, so in some places paying ransoms is banned but it’s by no means universal. It’s totally valid to be against paying ransoms wherever possible, but it’s not entirely black and white in some situations.

For example, what if a hospital gets ransomed? Say they serve an area not served by other facilities, and if they can’t get back online quickly people will die? Sounds dramatic, but critical public services get ransomed all the time and there are undeniable real world consequences. Recovery from ransomware can cost significantly more than a ransom payment if you’re not prepared. It can also take months to years to recover, especially if you’re simultaneously fighting to evict a persistent (annoyed, unpaid) threat actor from your environment.

For the record I don’t think ransoms should be paid in most scenarios, but I do think there is some nuance to consider here.

Per Careless People, the recent memoir that this article pulls from & facebook has been trying to kill, this was one of the many unethical advertising schemes that ultimately traces back to Sheryl Sandberg. A woman who didn’t allow her own children to use fb because she knew she was making it a toxic capitalist hellscape.

I mean vaccines aren’t always 100%. If you’ve been vaccinated you’ll have a much stronger immune response, but it is still possible to get measles if you’ve been vaccinated. 2 doses of the MMR vaccine is on average 97% effective in preventing measles infection (per Mayo Clinic https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/measles/expert-answers/getting-measles-after-vaccination/faq-20125397).

The bigger issue (like with Covid shots, flu shots, and everything else) is that there are elderly & immunocompromised folks who can’t get vaccines. Their immune systems aren’t strong enough to handle the small dose in the innoculation. So the only way those people are protected is through herd immunity, relying on the rest of us to protect ourselves and our community.

Real talk, do you chomp it raw like chips? Or do you like . . . suck on it until it softens??

I’m a ho for orecchiette, I just love how toothsome it is. Maybe not the absolute #1 for sauce retention but I’m all about that texture.

Absolutely this! Octavia Butler literally wrote a fascist American president with the slogan “Make America Great Again” in 1993.

No one rejected them! Although I can’t confirm whether everyone ate them lol. None of my neighbors reciprocate with baked goods, so can’t comment on that, but I am satisfied with the trade even just for good will for me and my barky dog.

But I can confirm that I have baked for years, and have passed out enough goods around the building that no one has cause to mistrust me. I definitely wouldn’t have gone this route if I wasn’t a competent baker.

Personally I love to bake, so when I first moved into my current apartment I made a bunch of small coffee cakes and just cold knocked on the doors of all my neighbors one evening. Some folks weren’t home, but for the people I did meet it broke the ice and set us up to chat more when we ran into each other in the hall. And I was lucky enough to even make 3 good friends who I trade pet/plant care and favors with!

This exercise also quickly identified some people that I would not be friends with and that was valuable too.

I actually have a related question that I’m curious to hear takes on. I’m a leftist, and I own a 1-bed apartment where two good friends of mine rent the apartment right next door. Their landlord is planning to sell next year, and they don’t have the ability to buy it. So depending on who does buy the place, my friends could be out of a home. My sister and I could combine finances to buy their unit (with a mortgage), and ensure that my friends could stay where they are. This would be a bit of a financial burden but doable, and we would need to charge rent to pay back the mortgage.

Would this be a net good or a net evil? I feel very conflicted about potentially being a landlord (especially for friends) but also don’t want them to need to move.

I love how women “often” dying in childbirth is the ideal situation

Hey! Just so you know “eskimo” is actually a slur used to refer the Inuit people (https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2017/11/commentary--edmonton-eskimos-is-a-racial-slur-and-its-time-to-stop-using-it.html).

The way this man goes from maniacally driven to bring the monster to life to immediately swooning with disgust and horror once he succeeded is wild. He truly refused to think about the consequences of his actions. Victor Frankenstein is a shortsighted coward. Justice for the wretch!

Per the article ‘Four of the detained Americans have admitted they brought the ammunition — but by mistake.’