The only acceptable casting for a remake of “The Birdcage”

For visual reference:

Why are agriculture classes the first time I’ve learned extremely basic info about nutrition and how digestion works. Why isn’t this stuff in health textbooks or any easily accessible resource about healthy eating.

I dont want to talk in excessive depth about it because i’m not an expert, but it’s like…the agriculture textbooks go into detail about what the nutrients do for the body and how they are broken down, in the animal agriculture class talking primarily about how to feed your animals, the plant agriculture class talking about why certain crops are grown and how the agriculture system has to meet human needs.

The animal agriculture class was the first time I experienced each macronutrient (fats, proteins, carbohydrates) being discussed in depth from the point of view of being needs that MUST be met, rather than things it’s “okay” to eat “in moderation.”

My college health class actually used the word “macronutrient,” but it still mostly described fats and carbohydrates in terms of their calorie content and didn’t go into the same amount of depth about them.

My animal agriculture class on the other hand, was the first time I’d been taught in a class that the amount of nutrition absorbed from eating food varies depending on genetics, environmental factors, what the digestive system is accustomed to processing and what it was conditioned to process during development, and mechanical aspects of the digestion process like how much it is broken down by chewing (!!). Of course it was discussing these things from the point of view of like, cows, but it was really striking to me that I’d never been taught about human digestion from this point of view, where digestion is a complex process that can be affected by various biological and environmental factors.

At the beginning of the class we did a lab where we went over feedstuff analysis, and this was the first time I’d learned about where the numbers in nutrition labels come from, the kind of tests that are done to break food down to its components.

The class discussed how the digestibility of food was analyzed by testing the food, feeding animals the food, collecting the feces, and doing the same tests on the fecal matter to determine how much of the starting nutritional content was literally just going out the other end.

This raised a lot of questions for me: I don’t think Pop-Tarts are analyzed by confining a human volunteer to a small room and feeding them only Pop-Tarts, then doing lab tests on their poop. Does that mean we know even less about feeding humans than we do animals? At any rate, nutrition labels would have to be rough estimates to begin with, and then accounting for the variability in the way bodies process food, it’s even less descriptive.

Now i’m in plant agriculture, and I’m learning about the different types of proteins and fats and what plants and/or animals they come from. There are different types of protein with different sources. There are…nine? I think? different amino acids that have to be consumed in the diet, and different foods contain different ones?? The reason combinations of grains and legumes are so common as staple diets throughout the world, is that this is closest to being nutritionally complete for humans???

And also protein supplements are mostly useless unless you’re an Olympian or something, because the body doesn’t have a way to store protein for later. If you eat protein and your body doesn’t have an immediate use for it, it just gets taken apart in your liver and you pee it out. Sports greatly increase your need for energy far more than they increase your need for protein, but everyone thinks you should eat a ton of protein as an athlete and that carbohydrates are unhealthy.

I learned from the same chapter WHY fiber is important to help digestion (having texture to the stuff in your gut stimulates peristalsis which is the muscular movements that push things along).

I feel really weird and resentful about health textbooks and classes now, because it feels like they didn’t want us to have the facts on how our bodies work, and instead just taught us to see certain foods as “good” or “bad,” as though it was more important to be afraid of “unhealthy” food than to understand why food is needed. Health classes barely teach why food is needed.

Like, vegetables are seen as the quintessential “healthy” food, but what is traditionally seen as “vegetables” are mainly important because they provide micronutrients, fiber, and water (the water content in food is actually a big deal). There’s a reason they aren’t staple foods. You need carbohydrates and fats to live. Period.

I say “what is traditionally seen as vegetables” because it’s an incoherent category nutritionally. Beans, sweet potatoes, and spinach are doing very different things for your body. Are beans even a vegetable? Clearly “comes from a plant” isn’t the main criteria since grains, nuts, and fruits aren’t considered vegetables.

So like, the “myplate” graphic (and the “food pyramid” that came before it)? Total bullshit basically.

It’s really frustrating how writings on healthy eating assume you are probably already eating too much or are at risk of overeating. I learned very young about the harms of being “overweight” and eating too much of a certain nutrient. But I just realized from my reading in the plant agriculture class that I had never read a resource that teaches in the same detail about the harms of undernutrition.

It’s so easy to fail to get the nutrients you need, holy shit. Particularly protein, because it isn’t one thing, it’s a bunch of different types of molecule pieces that are found in varying amounts in different foods. People who eat animal products or soy don’t have to worry about it very much, since they are essentially complete in terms of protein, but if you are a vegan who doesn’t/can’t eat soy as a staple, you HAVE to be careful to eat a variety of foods that complement each other in terms of what they’re lacking. There’s something called the PDCAAS that rates each food by the amino acids they contain, but generally the best idea is to eat a bunch of grains and legumes.

I’m not saying that people can be “scared straight” out of developing eating disorders. But I am saying that young people can benefit from being exposed to scary information when they have the power to possibly encounter situations where that information is applicable. And the horrifying realization of what starvation is and does is such an information.

My plant agriculture text explained that carbohydrates and fats are the basic sources of energy under normal circumstances, and that it takes around 1,600 kcal per day to run your internal organs. Protein is only used for energy in unusual circumstances. When fat reserves are exhausted and there isn’t any food, the body starts breaking down proteins for calories—and the first ones to go are the ones that are already all throughout the bloodstream, found in YOUR ANTIBODIES. That’s right, when you run out of fat to burn off, your body starts EATING ITS OWN IMMUNE SYSTEM.

The plant agriculture book also says that digestion and energy needs vary from person to person, like literally when different people eat the same meal their blood sugar rises different amounts, and that how the body decides to store energy or use energy stores is determined by complicated feedback loops controlled by hormones. Meanwhile the average person thinks that it’s a matter of “eat too much = get fat and unhealthy, eat less = lose weight and be healthier” and even the college health class I took used more or less this model.

Like people are walking around with this completely wrong idea of how their bodies work and making AWFUL decisions based upon it because the resources they have to educate them think it’s more important to…make people afraid of food? I don’t think it’s even common knowledge that the body burns most of the calories you consume just from existing. I want to chew concrete.

Why don’t we teach everyone in school why staple foods are staple foods?! Not even getting into people who are so deep into eating disorders they think carrots have too much sugar, it’s so normal to do things like “cut out bread” or “cut out carbs” (????!??!) and to perceive hunger as an innately untrustworthy thing, when genuine success at dieting like this is a great way to Corn On The Kill Yourself.

I’m just kind of reeling right now at how much research and monitoring it would take to safely diet in the ways people constantly attempt to diet with NO research NO supervision NO medical testing, 100% believing that they are doing something good for their health.

If people aren’t taught what a macronutrient is and why you will die without it, they will think celery sticks are a “healthy” substitute for a chocolate chip cookie, and then not understand why they feel like shit.

Also… this is slightly different, but it’s connected to the problem of “people not understanding what food does to the body”. In the animal agriculture class, it was surprising to me how in livestock animals, things like muscle and fat composition are strongly genetically determined. All the modern breeds of cattle, pigs, chickens, etc. used in corporate farming have been bred to be very lean and have very little fat while having huge amounts of muscle tissue, because that’s what the modern consumer wants in meat.

With pigs, a lot of older heritage pig breeds were bred to store most of what they ate as fat, because pigs were used to change food waste into lard that could be added to cooking for flavor and calories. And most of these breeds either went extinct or dwindled severely to be replaced by “meat” breed pigs that don’t put on very much fat at all.

With humans, “everyone knows” that the amount of fat and muscle in your body comes from what you eat and how much you exercise. But a feedlot-finished beef cow that spends the last several months of its life doing nothing but gorging itself on carbohydrates will stay lean and put on muscle because it’s genetically predisposed to.

It violates common sense and yet a multi-billion-dollar industry revolves around cramming animals into a small area without much room to do anything, feeding the animals whatever crap has the most calories in it, and ending up with a lean, muscular carcass.

The post is very good, important, and informative.

But I can’t help but focus on what Corn On The Kill Yourself is supposed to mean; by context I know it’s ‘suicide by starvation’, but I seriously can’t get how 'Corn on The’ [] adds to it!

It’s a reference to a tumblr post where someone says “I’m going to corn on the kill myself”

world's brainfoggiest girl trying her absolute hardest to complete a simple task

that was the best thing I have read in about 10 years.

October 14, 1977, Anita Bryant is pied for her antigay bigotry at a press conference in Des Moines, IA by Thom Higgins.

Everyone reblog this. Mandatory.

[Image ID: Tweet from such nerve! (@/ suchNerve) reading: "you think you're smarter than elon musk" no, i Know i'm smarter than elon musk. i'm also funnier and hotter. hope that helps /End ID]

If you’re living in the US and reading this right now, I need you to know that if republicans take over office this next election, human rights are as good as dead.

The Heritage Foundation, a major Republican think tank, has published a 1,000 page document detailing how they want conservatives to take over the government and what they think should be done as soon as they’re in office. It is, in a nutshell, a call for fascism.

If you’re trans, know that one of the things it includes is basically banning trans people from having our existence acknowledged and it’s worded in a way where you could reasonably understand it to mean that being trans and going out in public is enough to get you put in jail for exposing minors to porn.

If you’re an immigrant, sanctuary cities are also going to be dead under this plan as district attorneys who don’t enforce the federal laws they plan to implement will be charged with crimes as well and they’re banking on them not being willing to pay the fines they’d be charged with in order to protect you.

If you care about climate change and safety regulations, kiss the regulations goodbye and prepare to watch the environment slowly get destroyed.

Here’s a link to the video I watched on this

Here’s a PBS article on it

Here’s where you can read the whole thing if you’re so inclined

Hey. Hey guys?

Do us all a favor and

you need to be explicit on this because there's a hell of a lot of dumbfucks who want to be the smuggest, purest person on the train to the death camp:

i don't care how much it hurts your feelings that you need to vote for... god forbid... a LIBERAL 😰 instead of your favorite little meow meow green party activist. the rights of marginalized people and democracy in the most powerful country on earth are in the balance, and complacency and smugness is how we all lose. i don't care if you're in the bluest part of california or the deepest red bumfuck nowhere in montana, if you don't like fascism it is your moral obligation to vote blue.

yes, i am voter-shaming you, dear hypothetical green voter, in the same way as i would murder-shame you if you went and shot your neighbor. your vote is a tool that affects countless people, even outside your country, not some righteous reflection of how cool and hip and progressive you are.

in 2016, i begged people to vote. i talked about the supreme court, about roe vs wade, about healthcare, about climate change. people told me i was overreacting, that hillary was as bad as trump.

now, with the supreme court packed with lifetime unqualified hardline republican judges, with roe vs wade dead, with obamacare saved only by a single dissent from the late senator mccain, with untold amounts of damage done to regulatory government agencies, with hundreds of thousands of people dead from the worst possible handling of covid,

i have still seen people claim that it's better - fucking better - to have someone like trump as president than someone like biden, because leftists are energized under a republican and complacent under a liberal.

i need all of you to understand that the only reason the usa even still resembles a democracy is because trump was stupid and preoccupied with running scams. if he's reelected, he will focus on dismantling every single rule and boundary that kept him in check last time.

if trump or one of his fascist cronies makes it back into the white house, free and fair elections will cease to exist in this country.

read that again, and really fucking think about it.

do not take for granted the fact that you have the ability to vote. do not take for granted the fact that the person in power will allow themselves to be voted out. don't take for granted the idea that your protests will have any effect under a dictatorship. don't take for granted your right to protest at all. don't take anything for granted.

i don't care how alarmist this sounds, because you should be fucking alarmed.

Sex ed books don't groom kids and teens. They protect them.

Of course, that's part of what the right wing is trying to prevent. If kids can speak out about the abuse they experience, Mom and Dad can't pretend everything is awesome as Jesus intended.

I think that we should take both states down with one hit

anarchy

If this takes them all down, I would be so happy.

full offence but it should be illegal to use flashing or strobing images in adverts like straight up if a company has paid to force strobing shit in front of people then they have paid to directly hurt and potentially kill disabled people and whatever company they paid was fine with it. go to fucking jail and rot there.

You are granted a time machine and the ability to prevent one birth (or commit a murder up to you), don't worry about the butterfly effect, we want the butterfly effect that's part of the point. Your actions will prevent them from ever rising to prominence. No he's not here, because it'd be too much of a sweep, pick your second choice if you're wondering where he is

"Isn't it weird that [thing humans commonly eat] is poisonous to literally every domesticated animal" I mean, there's a pretty good chance that [thing humans commonly eat] is at least mildly poisonous to humans, too. One of our quirks as a species is that we think our food is bland if it doesn't have enough poison in it.

Humans have a really weird mix of mundane superpowers.

We're not fast and don't have a lot of natural weaponry but we're bizarrely tolerant to a broad range of toxins to the point that one toxin is considered a morning necessity for some to perform at work. Gotta love us.

Humans, like many species of bear, are generalists. The thing about being a generalist is that you can't minmax your poison resistance to specific poisons. You might need to eat mint, you might need to eat chilli, you might need to eat partially fermented food or lots of salt or new, strange sugars. Many animals are more resistant (or even immune) to specific toxins than humans, but will be instakilled by others. What we have is pretty decent resistance to a very wide array of toxins, as well as resilience to things like wild fluctuations in sugar intake. Because we're generalists.

HEY CALIFORNIA PEOPLE!

HURRICANE ADVICE FROM A FLORIDIAN!

Make sure you've got shelf-stable food and water for everyone in the house, including pets. The rule of thumb is a gallon per person per day. Freeze water bottles if you want cold water.

Make sure you have enough meds!

Make sure you have batteries, candles, flashlights, and a manual can opener. 

Make sure your electronics, including backup batteries, are charged. Unplug things you don't want fried in case of a power surge. 

Don't tape your windows, it doesn't help and you'll just be stuck scrubbing goo off of them later.

Put a mug of frozen water in it in your freezer with a quarter on top of it. If your freezer defrosts, the ice will melt and the quarter will sink and tell you you need to throw things out.

Get everything that's not nailed to a foundation out of your yard. That dead branch hanging on by a thread? Time to get it down (it was probably time to do that three days ago, but now’s better than never).

Park away from powerlines and trees if you can. Rain makes the ground soft and then trees fall over.

Have an evacuation plan to a shelter. Evacuate if they’re telling you to.

If you start to flood, don't go in your attic. You'll get trapped if the water rises too high and you can't hack through your roof. This happened to a lot of people in Texas and Louisiana. Get ON the roof.

Be safe, be well <3 

What the fuck?

???? WHAT???

Ngl, "tropical storm in death valley" was not on my 2023 bingo card.

Drainage on our roads is shitty in SoCal, don't attempt to drive through water deep enough to touch your bumpers and don't attempt to walk across moving water, water only as deep as your ankles can knock you down and sweep you away.

Predicted wind speeds are similar to strong Santa Anas, so lock things down like you would for that, though keep in mind that yeah the combination of heavy rain and wind leads to more felled trees than just wind.

Take photos of the inside of your home now; flood insurance fucking sucks here and if you're in a possible flood zone you want as much documentation of your home and belongings as possible in case you need to make a claim.

Freezing water bottles also means you've got a lot of ice in your freezer if power goes out, and safe potable water once it thaws, so freeze bottles of water to have something to keep your fridge and freezer cool and store more water regardless of if you want cold water.

fill your bathtub/ large containers/ buckets with water so you can flush the toilet if the power goes out. you can check the water level by popping the top off the tank

don’t walk through any standing/flood waters afterwards. they’re nasty and can hide downed power lines

unless there is an emergency do not drive through floodwaters. your car will stall

hey don't cry, ‘large’ creature with 20 arms found lurking in Antarctic sea, okay??

Antarctic strawberry feather star

You're on a train in the alps with a beautiful boy,

not for long you aren’t