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Floral Meltdown

@floralmeltdown / floralmeltdown.tumblr.com

● My ultimate goal is to become a bog body ● [ She | They ] ● 28
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trydianth

EYES ON THE CALIFORNIA ONLINE AGE VERIFICATION BILL-AB3080

This is an ammendment to an already existing Californian law to prevent minors from purchasing items that are illegal to sell to minors, including alcohol, porn, tobacco, fireworks and the like. You can take a look at the most recent text here

Now, whats wrong with that ? It's important to protect minors!! Which is absolutely true!

However the issue here resides in the fact that websites selling such products will require adults to submit their ID to access their websites and purchase what they want.

And with data breaches being more and more frequent recently, this is a recipe for disaster.

It could also target sites such as Patreon, Fansly, Onlyfans(etc) which, people already submit their credit card to buy what they want already.

This would give a huge blow to Californian businesses and have **a ripple effect on the Internet in the US since a lot of tech companies are within California.**

There needs to be a better privacy law before any age verification bills can be actually effective and properly protect minors and privacy for everyone.

Remember the UK age verification bill ? Minors are already in danger because of having to show their ID due to data leaks.

There are also many other issues with AB3080 that you NEED to keep in mind too :

No guarantee of personal privacy when submitting for Age verification when purchasing and ID protection after purchase. Who handles the ID? What ensures it is not held indefinitely, putting it at risk of a potential data breach?

The definition of what defines “harmful to minors” is too vague and overly broad to interpretation and could be abused and exploited in case of a political party change in California.

The 1/3rd provision is another over reach. Who will define what is porn? Are sales defined as direct sales or links to another site? It’s too broad and can be abused.

Fiscal impact has the potential of a loss of online sales tax revenue and drive businesses out of California.

Which is why, I AM URGING YOU TO CALL YOUR REPS AND TELL THEM TO VOTE NO !

Use this to contact your reps, it’s fast to use and there is a script for inspiration.

Find your reps:

Send faxes to your reps with this:

Make sure to emphasize this will be bad for the economy of California, especially since California is ona tight budget this year.

If you try to contact them and it doesnt work, that must be because you’re not in Cali, that's ok, as you should sitll make posts about this using the tags #AB3080 and #NoOnAB3080

Please also note, notorious anti-LGBTQIA religious groups are behind the authoring of the language of this bill, primarily NCOSE & EXODUS CRY.

PLEASE REBLOG !

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"The coral reefs of south Sulawesi are some of the most diverse, colorful and vibrant in the world. At least, they used to be, until they were decimated by dynamite fishing in the 1990s.

As part of a team of coral reef ecologists based in Indonesia and the UK, we study the reefs around Pulau Bontosua, a small Indonesian island in south Sulawesi...

In many places around the world, damage like this might be described as irreparable. But at Pulau Bontosua, the story is different. Here, efforts by the Mars coral restoration program have brought back the coral and important ecosystem functions, as outlined by our new study, published in Current BiologyWe found that within just four years, restored reefs grow at the same rate as nearby healthy reefs.

Speedy recovery

The transplanted corals grow remarkably quickly. Within a year, fragments have developed into proper colonies. After two years, they interlock branches with their neighbors. After just four years, they completely overgrow the reef star structures and restoration sites are barely distinguishable from nearby healthy reefs.

The combined growth of many corals generates a complex limestone (calcium carbonate) framework. This provides a habitat for marine life and protects nearby shorelines from storm damage by absorbing up to 97% of coastal wave energy.

We measured the overall growth of the reef framework by calculating its carbonate budget. That's the balance between limestone production (by calcifying corals and coralline algae) and erosion (by grazing sea urchins and fishes, for example). A healthy reef produces up to 20kg of reef structure per square meter per year, while a degraded reef is shrinking rather than growing as erosion exceeds limestone production. Therefore, overall reef growth gives an indication of reef health.

At Pulau Bontosua, our survey data shows that in the years following restoration, coral cover, coral colony sizes, and carbonate production rates tripled. Within four years, restored reefs were growing at the same speed as healthy reefs, and thereby provided the same important ecosystem functions...

Outcomes of any reef restoration project will depend on environmental conditions, natural coral larvae supply, restoration techniques and the effort invested in maintaining the project. This Indonesian project shows that when conditions are right and efforts are well placed, success is possible. Hopefully, this inspires further global efforts to restore functioning coral reefs and to recreate a climate in which they can thrive."

-via Phys.org, March 11, 2024

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Pour one out for a real one.

Reading up on him, he was a pretty cool guy. He was one of the first people to stand up to John Money about his theories of gender development and position that intersex infants should receive surgery and never be told about it using his abuse of David Reimer as ‘proof’, asserting that Money didn’t have the evidence and standing his ground even when Money straight up started screaming at him. And then later he was proven right when he got into contact with David Reimer, not only discovering proof that Money was wrong but also how abusive and horrific Money had been. He then went on to write advocating for intersex and trans rights and to avoid unnecessary procedures on intersex people without full informed consent and that intersex people are part of natural human variation and that we deserve acceptance and not to be treated like a disorder.

A quote I really like from him: ‘Nature loves diversity, society hates it’

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stuckinapril

The news keeps saying that “aid in Gaza is running dangerously” low, but with Israel seizing the Rafah-Egypt crossing there is literally nothing. That was the lifeline of Gaza. Now that Israel is encroaching on Rafah full force there’s nowhere for aid to go & people are dying a slow painful death

I’m running out of words to describe how cruel and inhumane this is

This comes in tandem with Rafah closing its main maternity ward—because the IOF keeps intentionally firing in its vicinity—and Israeli settlers burning the perimeters of the UNRWA headquarters in Jerusalem. This has forced them to close.

Things in the West Bank are no better. The IOF tear-gassed and fired at Palestinians on a raid in Qalqiliya, which resulted in the hospitalization of a 15 year old. How can you look at all this and just be okay with dismissing it as “they’re just terrorists” is the 15 year old Hamas too. Are the pregnant women with no place to go a threat to the great state of Israel

Can’t even tell you how many Palestinians are wounded / got killed by this either, bc the numbers are underreported and there’s no actual way to tell. It hits me over and over again how such a massive undercount the death toll of 33k Palestinians is. This is insane. And it’s still going on

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If only there were some sort of facility where teenagers could be taught new skills.

Anyway, here's a helpful diagram. When I was hit on the temple this was one of the harder things I had to reteach myself. Don't be shamed into not asking questions, and it's alright if it takes you a while to figure it out. Don't let someone make you feel bad for learning new things, or relearning old ones.

Sometimes, unfortunately, you have to teach yourself. YouTube is a valid option.

yeah okay ill reblog that :]

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krudman

Eurovision is the absolute easiest thing in the world to boycott. It's not food owned by one of 5 food conglomerates. It's not tech that corporations have made essential. There's no "support the devs" logic to be even considered. It's literally just noise that is forgotten in a week.

This year it's noise that will be forgotten in a week that is actively supporting one state that's committing genocide to another state they're actively suppressing any discussion about.

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shorelinnes

BDS added this section to their boycott page and I think people really need to read it:

please remember, pushing unorganized boycotts without carefully fact-checking every company in the list can be actively HARMFUL to the boycott movement.

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faithdeans

hope you don't mind me adding: here's a list from the website about which companies to target our boycotts at right now:

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pointnclick

"No one wants to work anymore." Damn right brother. If I could sit in a beautiful field for 40 hours every week of my singular precious life I would

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papasmoke
This evening, Israeli residents set fire twice to the perimeter of the UNRWA Headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem.
This took place while UNRWA and other UN Agencies’ staff were on the compound.
While there were no casualties among our staff, the fire caused extensive damage to the outdoor areas. The UNRWA headquarters has on its grounds a petrol and diesel station for the Agency’s fleet of cars.
Our director with the help of other staff had to put out the fire themselves as it took the Israeli fire extinguishers and police a while before they turned up.
A crowd accompanied by armed men were witnessed outside the compound chanting “Burn down the United Nations” (see video below 👇 from Israeli media).
This is an outrageous development. Once again, the lives of UN staff were at a serious risk.
In light of this second appalling incident in less than a week, I have taken the decision to close down our coumpound until proper security is restored.
Over the past two months, Israeli extremists have been staging protests outside the UNRWA compound in Jerusalem, called by an elected member of the Jerusalem municipality.
This week, the protest became violent when demonstrators threw stones at UN staff and at the buildings of the compound.
Over the past months, UN staff have regularly been subjected to harassment and intimidation. Our compound has been seriously vandalized and damaged.
On several occasions, Israeli extremists threatened our staff with guns.
It is the responsibility of the State of Israel as an occupying power to ensure that United Nations personnel and facilities are protected at all times.
UN staff, premises and operations should be protected at all times in line with international law.
I call on all those who have influence to put an end to these attacks and hold all those responsible accountable.
The perpetrators of these attacks must be investigated and those responsible must be held accountable.
Anything less will set a new dangerous standard.

-Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of UNRWA

The US initiatied the global halt in funding of UNRWA based on flimsy allegations against 12 employees that that have not been backed up by a single point of evidence since Israel originally made the accusation months ago. While most countries have resumed UNRWA funding in the face of the Israeli engineered famine in Gaza which a fully funded UNRWA would have had a better chance at preventing, the US (which was one of its biggest funders) continues to refuse to resume funding, lending legitimacy in Israel for attacks like this.

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reblogged
The Eurovision song contest is facing intense scrunity and accusations of discrimination after it rebuked Swedish-Palestinian pop star Eric Saade for wearing a Palestinian scarf in the opening act of the semi-finals. Saade, whose father is of Palestinian origin, kicked off the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden on Tuesday evening with a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian and Arab male headdress, wrapped around his wrist. [...] In response, the organisers of the contest, European Broadcasting Union (EBU) released a statement saying it "regretted" that Saade wore the scarf. "The Eurovision Song Contest is a live TV show. All performers are made aware of the rules of the contest, and we regret that Eric Saade chose to compromise the non-political nature of the event," it said. [...] Eurovision later posted clips of the performances of the other two opening acts on its social media pages, but did not share Saade’s, prompting social media users to share the performance on their personal pages to show support for the artist.

Waving Palestinian flags, wearing traditional Palestinian garments, or if we're being honest, just being Palestinian, is now officially "too political" for Eurovision.

Literally, all Saade did was wear a keffiyeh around his wrist—while being Palestinian—and that was enough to get a statement from the EBU, and have his opening performance scrubbed from Youtube.

If you're not already boycotting Eurovision this year, then what the fuck is wrong with you?

Below are two statements from Saade. The first one, giving his reason for participating, was posted a few days ago, and the other was in response to the EBU accusing him of 'compromising the non-political nature' of the Genocide Song Contest:

Reminder again to BOYCOTT EUROVISION 🇵🇸

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i-restuff

Tara Strong is an ass, long story short.

not sure if this is the tweet you're referring too, but pretty much, yeah.

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They will destroy nature and call it saving the planet.

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uncle-mojave

Joshua Trees are a weird thing that stayed since the last Ice Age. They're on the decline anyways because no mega mammals eat their seeds and pop them out else where anymore. Hasen't been one around in over ten thousand years but still they persist. Sometimes they thrive in small areas and other times they die out.

Then California decides fuck the Joshua Trees and destroys four thousand of them.

Fuck California. Joshua Trees provide shelter to hundreds of different species.

Cunts.

People asking if there is anything that can be done, YES.

There is a group trying to get this halted but they need to be boosted!

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children existing in public spaces is genuinely like. necessary for the continuation of society. it doesnt have to be your kids you dont have to volunteer at a daycare or whatever but you need to be able to tolerate the presence of someone who is learning how to exist as a human and interact with people

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