turn up that fucking hurdy gurdy

So, thanks to President Biden’s Infrastructure Bill, remote locations on the Navajo Nation Reservation will be receiving electricity for the first time — ever.

Also, water treatment devices are being developed to help the tribe access clean running water. After decades without.

#controversial opinion: the infrstructure bill was one of the most important bills passed in the past decade (or even... longer)#the fact that biden got it passed can never be understated. that bill sat in congress for YEARS.#we're fixing problems that have been problems for decades because of this bill

Besides all the money to fix all the shit that's broken in the last forty years since we haven't been maintaining things properly and/or replacing them as they wear out, it also includes

$39 billion to modernize transit and improve accessibility--you know how a lot of public transit is not usable for people with disabilities? Here's $39 billion to fix that! And you know how a lot of public transit isn't actually very well designed so it's cumbersome and inefficient to use? Here's money to fix that!

$66 billion for passenger and freight rail--rail is by far the most environmentally friendly and financially efficient way to move people and freight. And we're actually investing in it for the first time in a century.

$7.5 billion to build a national network of electric vehicle chargers to make electric vehicles more practical.

$73 billion to overhaul the nation's power infrastructure, clean energy transmission, and overall energy policy--you know how leftists have been saying for years that renewables are ready to go, why aren't we moving in that direction? Well, that takes money to transition the infrastructure, and here is the money to do it.

$65 billion for broadband development--bringing broadband to rural places where the big corporate ISPs aren't going to bother because they're not profitable enough. With today's economy, a lack of broadband access leaves people isolated disconnected. This is fixing that.

It also MASSIVELY ramps up what the US is doing to make sure everyone has clean water

$15 billion for local governments to replace lead water pipes

$9 billion to address emerging contaminants such as PFAs

$3.5 billion to build water and sewer systems on Indian Reservations

$7 billion to FEMA for handling climate change-related disasters

Many of these line items are orders of magnitude more money than the US has spent on these things before. This is transformational. But the thing is, the Infrastructure Bill was not a one-and-done thing. It's designed to work over several years, because major infrastructure work doesn't just start on a dime. If Trump gets re-elected, all of this goes away.

I have friends who live in Puerto Rico, where the infrastructure is...not great, and this bill gave the island 950 million, which is more than the value of the entire current infrastructure. My friends say since the bill passed they've seen crews out constantly fixing roads, bridges, electric, all the things.

Tree stuff

Also!! If you're cleaning up limbs from wind damage or a dead tree you've cleaned up, try to designate a brush pile! All kinds of small animals (mice, wrens, snakes) use those to hide from predators and they can be a great place for bugs to gather and be snacked on by said small vertebrates.

guys please 😭 from Samba's instagram

you. american adult with a drivers license. can you tell me who has the right of way at a 4 way stop

The strongest

Information Wall (with Hat)

this is by far my favorite safety/warning sign btw. they really went off with this one

No cuz I fucking love this sign. It’s not an actual barrier so it’s not like some sort of challenge it simply says “fuck around and you will find out”

Ohohoho I LOVE “fuck around and find out” signs, especially the really dramatic and ominous (but true) ones

(Context for the last one: it’s a WWII era sign posted around the soldiers’ washroom mirror, warning them to never discuss military plans in places where civilians could hear them and report back to the enemy, e.g. in restaurants and pubs in the country. “Loose lips sink ships”.)

I also love these two, which I would place in the category of “You already fucked around, now you’re about to find out.”

Aerated water is fucking scary. It's water that has a fuckton of gas in it, which reduces the buoyancy to the point where you will immediately start to sink if you fall in.

ive been collecting these recently and wanted to add some of my favorites

Official ominous signs

the wii is considered a retro console now.

THE WII IS CONSIDERED A WHAT.

unsung benefit i think a lot of ppl are sleeping on with using the public library is that i think its a great replacement for the dopamine hit some ppl get from online shopping. it kind of fills that niche of reserving something that you then get to anticipate the arrival of and enjoy when it arrives, but without like, the waste and the money.

bonus it ALSO fills that dopamine hit of in-person shopping. “oh I didn’t go in looking for this but hmm, I’m tempted… I can’t resist… oh ho ho I have made some irresponsible decisions at the library today [carrying my stack of ten random books]” and then it doesn’t even matter if you don’t like them because a) free b) you’re gonna give them back anyway

Rereading the Lord of the Rings series recently, and it's so fascinating to me how much the series is a denial of the typical juvenile power-fantasy that is associated with the fantasy genre.

Like, the power-fantasy is the temptation the Ring uses against people It tempts Boromir with becoming the "one true king" that could save his people with fantastic power. It tempts Sam with being the savior of Middle Earth and turning the ruin that is Mordor into a great garden. It tempts Gandalf and Galadriel with being the messianic figure of legend who brings salvation to Middle Earth and great glory to herself.

The things the Ring tempts people with are becoming the typical protagonists of fantasy stories that we expect to see. and over and over we see that accepting that role, that fantasy of being the benevolent all-powerful hero, is a bad thing. LotR is about how power, even power wielded with benevolent intent, is corrupting.

And its so fascinating how so much of modern fantasy buys into the very fantasy LotR denies. Most modern fantasy is about being that Heroic power-fantasy. About good amassing power to rival evil. But LotR dares not to. It dares to be honest that there is no world where anyone amasses that power and remains good.

I guess that's one of the reasons its so compelling.

I think I've said this before, so, sorry about that. But I was taken aback when I read LOTR because I'd heard that it's a foundational work to the fantasy genre, and I was expecting it to be somewhat basic and cliché. I got the opposite experience. It read to me like a thoughtful and detailed deconstruction of the modern fantasy genre instead of the thing that spawned it. Mostly it's because Tolkien took things through to their logical conclusion where many of his imitators did not (the scouring of the shire, the lasting irreparable psychological damage to frodo, the fact that frodo actually can't bring himself to throw away the ring, etc)

good sensations can sometimes be extreme, and i know i personally enjoy a good few of those, so i wanted to know which of these types of pain are the most commonly enjoyed :)

basically my question is. am i such a touch deprived weirdo that i'll enjoy fucked up sensations no one else likes or am i normal

Girls will be like “oh I’m just running quick some errands” and then spend all day in the wetlands appreciating the unique flora and fauna

if I forgot your favorite subgenre or misclassified a band feel free to argue in the replies 👍

If a flaming old queen in a cape wants to kill off racists in power I say have at it

That wasn’t even his plan!! His plan was to make the senator a mutant, so he’d have to advocate for mutants or be destroyed by his own policy, and tbh. It’s the best villain plan I’ve ever seen. The goo was the plan unexpectedly failing. 9/10 only bc he was going to kill Rogue. Next time use someone willing to sacrifice herself for the cause, pls. No further notes

I like how his plan in like real world terms, was to turn desantis gay but instead he exploded

like to charge reblog to cast tbh

making my own picky eater poll

New IWTV Season 2 commercial spot!

“Are you schizophrenic Louis?”

god I fucking love strawberries

ooghhh ohgg stummy hurty too many strawberries

With God as my witness, if this gets 10k notes I will add Strawberry to my legal name

Strawberry as a name would suit you, methinks