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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 5th, 2023

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  • Great. Awesome. This way our regulatory agencies can be hamstrung just like prosecutors going after crooked cops with qualified immunity. Unless the law specifically states what is to be regulated and how, then agencies can’t do shit.

    Just like how if the law doesn’t specifically state that a police officer can’t do a thing, it’s fair game!

    This is such a disastrously stupid ruling, further curtailing our ability to combat climate change and all but dismisses any authority the EPA and other agencies were once afforded.

    conservatives have such a boner for the vagaries of the second amendment, squeezing in as many assault rifles as they can into something original drawn up with fucking muzzle loaded muskets in mind. But as soon as anything vague in law is used to do good, they’d rather throw out democracy than risk doing the right thing.


  • I seriously almost did this. I visited the Netherlands, and fell absolutely head over heels for their way of life. It’s so damn peaceful and free! You don’t have to worry about getting shot when you’re running errands. You don’t have to worry about going bankrupt through medical expenses. You don’t have to worry about going to jail over weed or mushrooms. You don’t have to buy a car, because bicycling infrastructure and public transportation is AMAZING.

    While I was there I met a lovely chap who is originally from England. He told me that he spent a holiday in Amsterdam, and broke his leg. So he stayed at the hospital, and afterwards, just didn’t leave. He’s been working/living there ever since.

    When it came time for me to leave, I had accidentally missed my train, and it was going to be some extra money to switch around my flight/train to get back home, and a part of me was seriously considering just being like “fuck it” and staying. The only thing stopping me from moving there now is the knowledge that I’d have to continue paying taxes to the U.S. if I wanted to keep my citizenship while living and paying taxes in the Netherlands. 😑

    If anyone can tell me a way around this… please do, because I want to move to the Netherlands.


  • From the study itself:

    These (UPFs) products are characterised as industrial formulations primarily composed of chemically modified substances extracted from foods, along with additives to enhance taste, texture, appearance, and durability, with minimal to no inclusion of whole foods.

    What is a “whole food?”

    I looked further into the paper they used to classify UPFs

    A practical way to identify an ultra-processed product is to check to see if its list of ingredients contains at least one item characteristic of the NOVA ultra-processed food group, which is to say, either food substances never or rarely used in kitchens (such as high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated or interesterified oils, and hydrolysed proteins), or classes of additives designed to make the final product palatable or more appealing (such as flavours, flavour enhancers, colours, emulsifiers, emulsifying salts, sweeteners, thickeners, and anti-foaming, bulking, carbonating, foaming, gelling and glazing agents).

    So I guess a “whole food” is a food that doesn’t contain High fructose corn syrup or additives. But if they are making this direct link between ultra-processed foods and increased mortality, then surely it’s these specific substances that are responsible for it? So why aren’t we banning high fructose corn syrup and these additives?

    Surely it doesn’t need to be more complicated than that?

    “What happens when we eat these substances?”

    “we tend to die more quickly then if we didn’t eat them.”

    “so let’s ban these substances.”

    “OK.”








  • Friday marked 5 years of sobriety from alcohol for me, which was nice. Then on Saturday I went to my city’s pride parade. I asked a friend to come with me, and another friend if they wanted to play a round of disc golf afterwards, but both cancelled. This usually means I wallow in self-pity, but instead I got geared up in my gayest outfit, and enjoyed the festival anyway! it was like 100 degrees, but I was proud to see so many happy people having a great time in one of the most welcoming, accepting environments ever.






  • In Europe, they do a much better job at recycling, because they drive home the importance of sorting the material you recycle yourself. There are multiple bins for different types of recyclable materials, whereas in the US it all goes into a big blue bin. Glass, tin, aluminum, paper, and every kind of plastic, all in one bin. Conventional recycling, that involves shredding the plastic into pellets, and then reforming them into a usable container, is 55-85% effective.

    I feel like all we really need to do is advance recycling at the community level, with different bins. Subsidize mechanical recycling while regulating/limiting use of new plastic in packaging. If your product needs plastic packaging in order to ship, then a regulation should require that packaging be at least a certain percentage recycled. Additionally, they can enact rules around the right to repair your own devices, that could pave the way for legislation aimed at curbing “planned obsolescence” and the production of single-use electric devices like vape pens.


  • When I was in medical school, I had my lab scheduled before lunch time. Which meant that I went straight from dissecting people, to eating. I’d get a big salad, and asked the cafeteria workers to heat up the slices of chicken breast I’d get on the salad. They didn’t like that I asked for it heated up, because it was extra work for them. But after they told me they wouldn’t do it anymore, I said “man, I was just dissecting a person, and this chicken is just way too similar looking to human for me to eat cold, ya feel me?” They ended up heating my chicken.