Steam auto accepts the request if you use the friend link afaik so we should be friends now :)

Thank you to Tolstoy :)

I generally agree with the article, but think you have a point when you say that it's hard to argue for self defense for a premeditated action. However, I don't think that the author was trying to make the point that self defense law was failing women, but more trying to illustrate that "self defense" as a legal concept is a bit flawed.

Unfortunately, DV laws in the US kind of suck and that doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon. I read an article not too long ago about how even when women try to use DV resources and go to the police, they can often face legal repercussions for failing to protect their children from the abuse. All around horrific situation that I wouldn't wish on anyone

The "gay panic" defense is still valid in most states. Truly tragic

https://slrpnk.net/post/13020804

Link to gift article.

I did actually! I wouldn't call it a milk replacement. It's definitely got a really peculiar taste that I can only describe as lactose free milk if it tasted like it had aspartame in it. I don't really drink much milk to begin with, so the only thing I was doing with it was just sipping straight but I feel like it would taste nice in coffee or tea. Wouldn't put it in cereal or cook with it tbh.

I appreciate a lighthearted longread!

Hope my answer doesn't get buried and I hope you don't feel too overwhelmed by all the responses you're getting. But something I found really useful is frozen veg. If you're struggling to plan healthier meals that are higher calorie, frozen veg is a game changer. It doesn't go bad, it's cheaper than the fresh stuff, and the most important thing is you can add it to your existing diet. I have a soft spot for ramen and box mac and cheese for example, and it's so easy just to throw handfuls of whatever I've got in the freezer into a pot of pasta or ramen to make it just a bit healthier. Hell, you can even forget the ramen altogether and just use the soup base (it's just stock!) to make lazy soup. Add a chopped onion if you're feeling fancy and that's that.

You also list a lot of protein sources that you can't afford to add to your diet. Protein is a necessary nutrient, but it's not the end all to a healthy diet. I say that as a lifelong athlete. It's very easy to get an appropriate amount of protein from plant based sources, and they tend to be a lot cheaper. Plus, they tend to be higher in other macros and nutrients. Soy milk, for example, has the same protein content as dairy milk (but might be more expensive depending on your area). Beans and other legumes are fantastic and tasty. Chickpeas are my favourite. If you have a blender or food processor, you can make hummus very easily. Lentils are also amazing if you are able to cook. Cheap as hell if you buy them in bulk and insanely filling. Indian dhaal is a lentil stew that's fairly easy to make and very tasty. If you can afford it, snack on nuts and seeds. Add peanut butter (look at labels to find some that doesn't have sugar in it) to your diet. Both those things are higher in calorie while also being high in nutrients. If you eat rice, try getting brown rice instead of white rice. It's higher in protein and fiber and will likely keep you full for longer. Potatoes and other root vegetables are also awesome. Versatile, cheap, relatively high calorie, easy to cook, and keep for a long time if stored properly. I like to make a huge pot of potato stew with beans and frozen vegetables and keep it in the fridge for easy meals for like a week. If you're looking for animal protein, check your local grocery for frozen fish. Its usually half the price of the fresh stuff.

I'm not your doctor, but personally, 800-1000 cal/day was terrible for my health. Yeah, it'll make you lose weight, but for me it made me really lethargic and gave me brain fog. It just wasn't enough to keep my body going. Maybe try slowly lowering your calorie intake and see how your body feels. I've also found that in the past, calorie counting was actually counterproductive to my health because what ended up happening was it became a "game" to eat fewer and fewer calories a day. Luckily I saw that and stopped counting calories before it turned into an eating disorder. My point here is just that it'll take some work figuring out what works for you and don't get discouraged if a method doesn't fit your body or your lifestyle.

In terms of exercise, I know it's not a satisfying answer, but it's really going to depend on your body and what type of exercise you're doing. If you're exercising, you should definitely be eating more than 800-1000 cal/day unless you're like, a toddler. It's dangerous in my non-professional opinion to exercise when you're under eating by that amount particularly if you're lifting weights or doing high impact cardio.

I wish you luck on your journey and I hope it all works out for you :)

That's a good point about the delicacy. I didn't think that maybe it's a status thing

I appreciated how the author took the time to learn about and appreciate their culture beyond just the cannibalism thing

Yeah the way the author points out the connection between their destruction myth and the realities of what's going to happen to their culture was really poignant

I'm obviously not an expert but I thought prion diseases took a long time to develop. Maybe prion diseases just aren't a concern cos their lifespans are already so short to begin with. I'd think bloodborne diseases would probably be more of a concern

Hey! Not sure if anyone's still here, but here's a serious answer:

TL;DR: everyone perceives swear words differently, and swearing can be used for purposes other than to insult someone directly

Swear words serve a purpose in language just like every other word. People, or at least many English speaking people that I've encountered, tend to consider rude language/swearing to be superfluous speech, words that can and in some cases should, be removed from the language. That's a misconception. The point and purpose of swear words is to be taboo and rude. If these words didn't exist, they would likely be substituted by something else, because from a sociolinguistic perspective, our society right now has evolved to need a linguistic way to express the things that are conveyed with swearing, even if it's really bad things like racism, disdain, threats of violence.

Now, one of the interesting things about swear words and rude language in general is that everyone perceives these words with a different severity. Some people feel comfortable with saying "cunt" for one reason or another. For example, Australian and British English speakers tend to be more comfortable with that word than American English speakers. For other people, even minced oaths can be considered rude, such as saying "darn" instead of "damn" or "fiddlesticks" instead of "fuck". It could also have to do with background or identity, like women calling each other "removed" can be considered less severe than a man calling a woman a "removed". Or someone who's deeply religious could object to the use of "hell" while someone who isn't might not even consider it rude.

Lets get back to the purpose of swearing. Swearing can have many different uses, such as showing you're part of an in group. Imagine a group of women working in a auto body shop together for example. In order to signal to each other that they're comfortable around each other, they might refer to each other as their "removed". But that doesn't mean that a customer can come in and say "hey removed I need new headlights": they're not part of the group, they haven't earned that privilege. Swearing is also a rite of passage. Adults get to swear, but we consider a sign of a good upbringing in the English speaking world as a child that does not swear. Throughout all these uses, there's a through line of flaunting social expectations. Swearing can be used to damage and berate and humiliate, of course, but a lot of swearing is done with subtext. "Hey, you're my friend, this is a relaxed environment, of course you're not going to think when I say a rude word that I'm insulting you" or "I'm feeling such a strong emotion right now that the only words that fit that are very rude".

I also think that as our society moves away from more structured and rigid social roles, swearing is getting more acceptable since we in general are more tolerant of deviations from the norm.

Edit: I've obviously only scratched the surface, since this is a broad and complex topic.

The most interesting thing in the article to me was the dress code. Sources interviewed for the story say there's a culture of preventing women from "tempting" men, but at the same time women are banned from wearing pants or tights (they have to wear pantyhose instead). Like it's the women's fault they're getting ogled but God forbid they cover their legs cos that's too manly or something

TL;DR: swear words like "shit" usually emphasize the mood of a sentence rather than add new meaning, which is why "shit" seems to change connotation across your examples. Think like the word "very".

Traditionally in most European languages, the cycle of what is considered most offensive shifts between bodily functions (shit, piss), genitalia and sexual acts (cunt, cock, fuck) and religious profanity (hell, bloody), particularly against the Christian God. Some scholars define us as moving into a new cycle, where the most offensive words are slurs based on race, sexuality, or gender. These scholars speculate that this results in more willingness to experiment with already existing swear words of the 'traditional' categories since they are considered less offensive in comparison.

Swear words are almost always used euphemistically and in set phrases. Some scholars go as far as to argue that swearing is only euphemistic and words used literally do not count as "swearing". In fact, much of swear word usage can be classified as an intensifier, which is a word or short phrase that sort of heightens the already existing mood of the sentence but doesn't explicitly change the meaning. Using shit as an example, "Shit, the bread's gone stale again." In this example, you can also see shit being used as a sort of mood marker, since it is reasonable to assume out of context that the bread going stale might be desirable to the speaker. In this case, the "shit" marks the stale bread is actually bad as well as intensifying the mood as compared to, say "oh darn, the bread's gone stale again."

This part is a bit of speculation on the origin of set phrases like "ain't shit" or "the shit" and I haven't actually read any scholarly literature on this topic specifically. You can see similarities between set phrases like "this is the shit" and "this is the stuff" and "that's the spot". It seems like this is a construction common in the English language to express that something is pleasurable. Whether this is what caused the "this is the shit" set phrase or whether the "this is the shit" set phrase caused the construction remains to be seen. "Ain't shit" is definitely somewhat different because it probably comes from African American Vernacular English (AAVE). While I would argue that "the shit" could be AAVE in origin as well, I do think it has roots in non AAVE English, whereas "ain't shit" is grammatically AAVE.

If you're interested in reading more, I recommend The F Word by Jesse Sheidlower and Holy Sh*t by Melissa Mohr.

From a roleplay/world building perspective, I really like the fact that Fallout New Vegas has an extremely limited radio and I do think the atmosphere would be seriously damaged if they had added more songs. I haven't played the other Fallout games but I reckon this is probably applicable there too. I understand that people get bored of the same songs over and over again, but that's a feature not a bug. If you were living a hard scrabble life a post-apocalyptic wasteland where no one has the means or resources to be writing, recording and distributing popular songs, yeah you'd probably get bored of listening to the same music over and over again. And then when you turn the radio off, all you can hear is the creepy horror sounds of the Mojave and suddenly listening to Jingle Jangle on repeat doesn't seem so bad after all. The repetitive, upbeat soundtrack is super effective at making you feel like you're stuck between two not so great choices, one awful and one somewhat better but severely lacking. And that really reflects what it's like to live in the Mojave--you often don't have the luxury of a completely satisfying choice because you and everyone else is fighting for survival. Specific to FoNV, it really drives home the political climate of the harsh, brutal Legion versus the comforting but stale and ineffective NCR. Honestly FoNV is the first game that really made me think in depth about the music choices in a video game and I'm really really glad they made this choice.

I am pretty sure though that the Big Mountain DLC added a new radio station.

Oh wow what a cliffhanger

I saw lab grown milk at the grocery store the other day! It's still pretty pricey and there's only whole milk but I'm excited that accessible lab grown milk is on the horizon

Yeah it gave me a good laugh at how sudden it was 😆

Yeah for sure. It's a shame that so much of forensic science is just vibes. There's been a big push though recently to actually do the science part of forensic science, which I appreciate. They did also interview the dentist that testified in the case, who admitted that his methods were less than airtight and that in this day and age he would only use bite mark analysis to rule out suspects rather than secure guilt.

Also catch the prosecutor convincing the jury about the evidence not ruling out that he was at the scene. Innocent until proven guilty my ass.

Glad you enjoyed it! Really gave me the heebie jeebies

I actually work in this field and it's a lot more complicated than it sounds. When you're training AI to recognize products in a store, you have a set list of products it needs to be trained on. A person might go to many different stores which increases the possible variation of products exponentially. Amazon's model is also much more complex than just cameras, involving weight sensors in shelving, pressure detection, facial recognition. A store where everything is laid out in predictable, well lit, organized rows is already a nightmare. A fridge, even if it's way smaller, is way, way less predictable

That's the beauty of DND, you can play however makes you happy :)

I don't think shoving someone is going to end up in court unless it's a super unfortunate situation where you shove someone and they trip and fall and hit their head and die or something.

The article doesn't go into detail what specifically defendants alleged when invoking the law, but it does say it's similar to a temporary insanity plea. So "I was so enraged by the fact that a gay came on to me that I killed them". Which is a little extreme. Imagine every woman that's ever been hit on by a man they didn't like just attacking with the intent to kill. Just unreasonable all around to allow that as a defense

I know this is just a meme and a pretty funny one at that, but my autistic ass with a science degree simply must mention that behaviour observed in captivity is not necessarily indicative of behaviour in the wild.

Go read the study though it's a very cool read and easily found online.

https://youtu.be/6tRUvtyAMOg?si=J2eB_S3nz3ZmhIYX

^ this dude has a theory that the monster was likely a barn owl feeling threatened by the witnesses. I thought it was pretty plausible and cool. He has a longer video about it too

Disclaimer: idk anything about his qualifications but as someone in a tangentially related field to anthropology/history he seems to know what he's talking about

Keep in mind I'm speaking from the perspective of someone with fairly sensitive and dry skin. I also prefer heavier moisturizers with no fragrance which I know may be different from your preference. Personally, I haven't found any premium moisturizers that have worked for me better than drugstore but ymmv. Theres no shame either if you want to use a premium product just because it's premium or because you like the smell, skincare is all about self care. Different things also work for different people, so if the First Aid Beauty one really worked for you, I'm glad you liked it!

That being said, I swear by the CeraVe stuff. The Walgreens generic dupe is exactly the same too and slightly cheaper (although CeraVe is already pretty affordable). If you like a lighter moisturizer, LaRoche Possay has a couple nice ones. I don't buy it anymore just because I go through moisturizer suuuuuper fast and it's just too expensive. I also like Eucerin a lot but that's a brand that's sort of geared towards people with problematic skin or skin disorders. Cetaphil is alright, but I just feel like CeraVe goes on smoother and leaves my skin feeling moisturized for longer.

In terms of premium moisturizers I've tried, I liked the Tatcha rice one (yes from the Sephora birthday sample). It smells really good but again, I didn't feel like it did a lot more for me than any drugstore moisturizer and the price tag was hefty. I've tried something from Paula's Choice but that was ages ago and I don't remember which one it was. I've also tried that one The Ordinary moisturizer and I quite liked it and the price was good. The only reason I went back to drugstore was because it was more readily available.

Sorry for the rant lol I have opinions

And slugging was a trend at some point a few years ago where people would cover their whole face in a thick layer of Vaseline after doing their nighttime skincare routine. It made me break out and felt super gross haha

Sorry if I came off as patronizing. You're right, that's definitely a problem and it's a shame life saving treatments can't get made because they're less profitable than gaming our broken system

Oh man, I've got a bunch. I keep a list so that I don't make the same mistake twice lol

• Hyaluronic acid: used it for about six months as a serum, have tried moisturizers with it since then, I feel like it does nothing for my skin.

• First Aid Beauty: I swear everyone swore by them a few years ago, I tried the makeup remover and the moisturizer. Makeup remover didn't actually take any of my makeup off and the moisturizer was alright, just not worth the price.

• Foundation/tinted moisturizer (just broadly, lots of different brands): tried one and then the other, with all the different powder/primer combinations and techniques. My skin just feels way better without it, nowadays I just do highlighter and blush right on top of moisturized skin.

• lip oils: I don't get it??? It's like a worse lip gloss???? Just get tinted chapstick?????

• Any eyeliner that isn't drugstore: idk what it is about cheap liquid liner, but it always applies way better and lasts way longer than fancy liquid lliner. I believe I've tried the Too Faced one and the KVD one from before The Rebrand.

• Revolution brand: I think this may have just been in the circles I knew in the UK where people loved this brand, but not a single Revolution product I've tried has been good, even for the price. Maybe it's just my skin. Eyeshadows were super chalky and patchy straight out of the box and irritated my skin.

• Slugging: look, I've got real bad dry eczema prone skin, flakes, peels, cracks if I don't moisturize immediately after the shower sort of skin. I don't really think slugging did any more for me than a well formulated, heavy moisturizer did.

• Laneige sleeping masks: felt amazing for the first few minutes of application but I feel like it did nothing otherwise. Smelled really good though.

• (this one's just a personal preference don't take it too seriously lol) nude lipsticks: I mean fuck it why not just do something more fun than skin tone when you're putting product on amirite?

More exams=better!!

The point is that a TB vaccine wouldn't be administered much in the US, but mostly to people in extreme poverty in South Africa and Eastern Europe. The article says that the organizations most likely to buy the vaccine would be local governments and non-profits, which can afford to pay a much lower price than insurance companies in the US. That's why a TB vaccine is a lower priority than shingles, because the market for a TB vaccine would be people living in extreme poverty in developing countries, while shingles is mostly a concern for affluent people with insurance in the US, even though a TB vaccine would save many more lives.

I learned a lot! Glad you enjoyed it too

Yeah it's definitely more about the UNESCO application process and the ramifications for the indigenous community than the archaeology on site. But it was still a very informative read because I'd never thought about that side of historical preservation before

I just copied the original title. Yes, it's definitely because they're not as visually impressive

Saw these guys live once, it was amazing

Just to add on, since it's a stimulant, it has to be taken before a certain time every day. Unlike something like antidepressants, which if you miss a dose you take it as soon as you can, if you miss a stimulant, you can't take it again until the next day

Played it for the first time a few weeks ago, loved it

Tbf, the article itself calls it a conspiracy theory

Sounds like dyslexia