i hate when i send someone a meme in another language and they're like "uhm... translate? 😒" fucker i sent you a meme where 90% of the words have an english cognate and/or you don't need to know what they're saying to find it funny. can you at least TRY

World Bank: Stop Funding Factory Farming

International development banks are funding disastrous factory farming -- poisoning our planet and leaving corporations in charge of our food. Nitrogen pollution from U.S. mega-farms has already created gigantic 'dead zones' in the Gulf of Mexico, and it's happening in Europe too. Now development banks are investing hundreds of millions into the industry to build more factory farms around the world.  But a new global campaign to end funding of industrial animal agriculture is ramping up, and helped persuade the Inter-American Development Bank to drop a $200 million beef industry loan. Now it's time to target the World Bank -- the biggest and most influential development bank of them all. Bankers and finance ministers are meeting April 17-19, and can set the bank onto the right path if we make them: Tell the World Bank: stop funding industrial animal agriculture Once we gather 100,000 signatures with our partners, we'll present them to the World Bank President at the annual spring meeting in Washington DC. It's a rare opportunity for us all to be heard.While many of us try to reduce our meat consumption for climate reasons and animal welfare, our governments indirectly fund the global expansion of monstrous factory farms. According to research by World Animal Protection, leading development banks, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, IDB Invest, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC, World Bank Group), invested $4.6B in the sector between 2010 and 2021. But we're not starting from zero: World Bank shareholders voted in October 2023 to update the Bank's mission statement to explicitly include a commitment to addressing climate change, stating it will work “to create a world free of poverty on a liveable planet.”  Now it's time to push the Bank further -- to make the World Bank's actions match its words.

the humble "like" is oft mocked despite what it does for us. "like, three people" is a vastly different statement from "three people". "and i was like 'what the fuck'" is vastly different from "and i said 'what the fuck'". i love you "like" and anyone who says you make people sound stupid will be killed on sight

The conversations with Sovereign and Vigil are still the best moments in Mass Effect 1. Sovereign is the first time you really get a sense of just how terrifying of a threat the Reapers are. And Vigil just gives this sense of awe, I suppose. You're talking to the last remnant of a dead civilization. A civilization who, in their last act of defiance, attempted to give the next civilization more of a chance than they had. It's a powerful moment

"Here are your tortured poets. All from Mahmoud Darwish to Dr. Refat Alareer to Khaled Juma, these are tortured poets. Tortured by longing for a home they can never return to, tortured by the world they were born to for BEING BORN. Palestine, home to the tortured poets department." [@/folkoftheshelf on X. April 20th, 2024.]

Today I exist in theory.

I breathe. I walk. I swallow. I sneeze. I eat. I drink. I go to the toilet.

I keep myself alive, but just in theory.

Chronic pain is so fucking weird because when I say "I have back pain today" what I mean by that is that my back pain is worse than it usually is. I have back pain every day. It's just a little ✨extra✨ today.

If you don’t care enough about animals to be a vegan that’s fine. But just admit it. Don’t make up bullshit excuses about how you’re allergic to soy or your parents won’t support it or other shit like that. If you don’t care just admit you don’t care

As someone with serious OCD that makes me quail at the idea of leaving home barefoot, I salute your strength and confidence.

Haha, thanks, that's very kind of you to say. It gives me a lot of joy, I'm sorry to hear it would be otherwise for you.

Living with OCD must be challenging at times, so I salute your strength and confidence as well!

I went outside today. It was 10°C out, so I figured I'd put on my scarf and jacket. It's a very light jacket. It's red, because if I can pick a colour, I pick red. It's the best colour.

I was on my bicycle - no shoes of course - and it was quite windy and raining just a little bit. And I got so sweaty. I was so hot. I see people out in this weather with scarves and big winter coats and I wonder how they don't all melt.

If you'd like your body to get better at thermoregulating I recommend barefooting. My blood is the champion of circulation.

That whole "how do you pronounce Miette" post is very funny to me, because pronouncing it in the French way makes that meme a 100% more enjoyable

This feels like a really silly thing have to post but it has become quite clear to me that an awful lot of people I encounter online do not know this (or are at least pretending they don’t) so I’m going to spell it out as if we’re all five.

People seem to treat veganism as some sort of exclusive choice that means you don’t choose anything else. ‘Eating local is much more sustainable than eating vegan!’ This isn’t true, but even if it were, how is this an argument against veganism?

Think of it like this - a checklist where you can select more than one option. Ticking ‘go vegan’ doesn’t magically grey out all of the other options. You can both wear vegan clothes and avoid plastic, you can eat vegan food and support local farmers, you can be vegan and support Fairtrade.  We don’t all have the same options available to us, but choosing one doesn’t take away any of the others. I can’t afford to buy all organic or local, for example, but I can afford to be vegan and buy at least mostly Fairtrade coffee, chocolate and fruit.

You need to all stop pretending that being vegan means you’re buying ‘child slave quinoa’ (again, not even true), or that it means you’re wearing plastic jackets, or that all your food is imported. These are lazy, fallacious, intellectually dishonest false dilemmas that don’t serve your argument and do absolutely nothing to help workers, animals or the planet.

To produce the honey found in supermarkets, beekeepers harvest the honey made from bees in artificial hives. This process is a widely debated topic. How does keeping bees impact honey production, the environment and the bees themselves?  Bees can produce more honey than they need to sustain their colony over the winter period, according to the Journal of Agricultural and Food Information. So, many beekeepers believe that using the excess for human benefit causes little harm to the bees' welfare. Others claim that the bees are overworked as they have to make up extra volumes of honey to replace what's taken, according to the Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation. In addition, when bees' honey is taken and replaced with a sugar alternative, bees aren't getting the same nutrition as wild honeybees. As bees search for nectar, hairs on their bodies brush flowers and pick up pollen. When flying between plants, the bees transfer the pollen and help flower species to reproduce. This is why it is beneficial to protect bee populations. Harvesting honeybees increases the number of bees in an area, but because these domesticated bees compete with other native bee species, flower resources become limited and can eventually cause other bee species to die out, according to the University of Cambridge. Different bee species target specific flowers, and so a balance of honeybees and other species is essential in the long–term survival of plant and insect species.

From livescience.com (my emphasis)

As you might imagine having all that honey and resources will make you a target. Honey bees have to be ready to defend their stash of honey from any honey-loving bears, badgers, or other large animals that might want to satisfy their sweet tooth. How do bees do this? They usually do not bite. Instead they sting. Honey bee workers will sting to protect their sisters and colony from danger. Honey bee worker stingers are barbed. These barbs allows the stinger to remain in the victim and continue to pump venom at the site of the sting. However this barb also means the stinging bee will likely damage its body and internal organs and later die.

from askabiologist.asu.edu (my emphasis)

sure sounds like they love their honey being taken 🤔

And since we're on that topic - beekeeping essentials include:

Beekeeping Suit: You’ll need a protective suit made of thick fabric, like canvas, to cover your body and mask before opening a beehive. This comes with a beekeeper’s hat and veil to protect your head and face. Smoker: A smoker is a handheld metal device with a bellow filled with combustible material. It helps to create smoke which will calm the bees and prevent them from attacking.

from beekeepingtrove.com (my emphasis)

why do you need to protect yourself from their attacks if it's a mutually beneficial relationship and they are consenting 🤔

If the claim is that bees consent because they stay with the beekeeper, there sure are a lot of pages on the internet on how to avoid bees from swarming 🤔

Ah yes, they swarm when the bee colony becomes too big. It's also natural behaviour aimed at reproduction and the forming of new colonies. It's basically, very roughly, a bee colony splitting in two. So why do beekeepers want to prevent that from happening?? What's so bad about that?

When a colony swarms you lose the majority of the workforce. Therefore honey production will be significantly reduced. You’re unlikely to get a surplus from the swarmed colony. Of course, honey might not interest you but propolis and wax production are also reduced, as is the strength of the colony to provide efficient ecosystem services (pollination).

from theapiarist.org (my emphasis)

that sure sounds like preventing swarming is an action taken for the well-being of the bees ...

One way beekeepers can prevent swarming, is by clipping the wings of the queen. That sure sounds like they have faith in their bees loving their home so much that they won't leave and are therefore consenting ...

Look, I don't think that bees swarming is caused by them trying to get away from the beekeeper who takes their honey. I don't think they make that connection. They will leave if the conditions are terrible of course, but in general, swarming is related to the growth of the colony and their natural instinct to reproduce.

So claiming that bees consent because they stay is fucking wild to me. Bees are very intelligent beings but they don't have the capacity of logical reasoning and understanding of cause-and-effect that that would imply.

But claiming bees consent because they don't leave is also wild because swarming very clearly shows that they do leave and that beekeepers are willing to take drastic measures to keep that from happening. NOT for the sake of the bees (since swarming is a healthy and natural behaviour for a beehive), but for the sake of their own profit.

Lastly:

It’s a beekeeper’s responsibility to ensure that their bees have enough to eat after removing the honey. In some practices, only a modest amount of honey will be harvested, leaving enough honey for the entire colony to feed on throughout winter. On a commercial level, bee farms, will remove all of the honey and substitute it with sugar for the bees to eat. Sugar isn’t as nutritious for the bees as honey — it could cause a decline in productivity and overall well-being. These practices only exist because of human consumption and demand. This doesn’t mean that people should never harvest honey. Instead, opt for organic or locally produced honey rather than commercially produced. Not only will it be better for the bees, but it will also reduce your footprint on the environment.

from beehivehero.com (my emphasis)

Obviously I disagree with the last paragraph, but I'm sure all 350,000 of you are buying organic, locally produced honey and not commercially produced honey, right? right???

vegans make peace with honey

no shut up do it

how to find literally any post on a blog in seconds (on desktop)

there are so many posts about ~tumblr is so broken, you can’t find any post on your own blog, it’s impossible, bluhrblub~

I am here to tell you otherwise! it is in fact INCREDIBLY easy to find a post on a blog if you’re on desktop/browser and you know what you’re doing:

url.tumblr.com/tagged/croissant will bring up EVERY post on the blog tagged with the specific and exact phrase #croissant. every single post, every single time. in chronological order starting with the most recent post. note: it will not find #croissants or that time you made the typo #croidnssants. for a tag with multiple words, it’s just /tagged/my-croissant and it will show you everything with the exact phrase #my croissant

url.tumblr.com/tagged/croissant/chrono will bring up EVERY post on the blog tagged with the exact phrase #croissant, but it will show them in reverse order with the oldest first 

url.tumblr.com/search/croissant isn’t as perfect at finding everything, but it’s generally loads better than the search on mobile. it will find a good array of posts that have the word croissant in them somewhere. could be in the body of the post (op captioned it “look at my croissant”) or in the tags (#man I want a croissant). it won’t necessarily find EVERYTHING like /tagged/ does, but I find it’s still more reliable than search on mobile. you can sometimes even find posts by a specific user by searching their url. also, unlike whatever random assortment tumblr mobile pulls up, it will still show them in a more logically chronological order

url.tumblr.com/day/2020/11/05 will show you every post on the blog from november 5th, 2020, in case you’re taking a break from croissants to look for destiel election memes 

url.tumblr.com/archive/ is search paradise. easily go to a particular month and see all posts as thumbnails! search by post type! search by tags but as thumbnails now

url.tumblr.com/archive/filter-by/audio will show you every audio post on your blog (you can also filter by other post types). sometimes a little imperfect if you’re looking for a video when the op embedded the video in a text post instead of posting as a video post, etc

url.tumblr.com/archive/tagged/croissant will show you EVERY post on the blog tagged with the specific and exact phrase #croissant, but it will show you them in the archive thumbnail view divided by months. very useful if you’re looking for a specific picture of a croissant that was reblogged 6 months ago and want to be able to scan for it quickly 

url.tumblr.com/archive/filter-by/audio/tagged/croissant will show you every audio post tagged with the specific phrase #croissant (you can also filter by photo or text instead, because I don’t know why you have audio posts tagged croissant) 

the tag system on desktop tumblr is GENUINELY amazing for searching within a specific blog! 

caveat: this assumes a person HAS a desktop theme (or “custom theme”) enabled. a “custom theme” is url.tumblr.com, as opposed to tumblr.com/url. I’ve heard you have to opt-into the former now, when it used to be the default, so not everyone HAS a custom theme where you can use all those neat url tricks. 

if the person doesn’t have a “custom theme” enabled, you’re beholden to the search bar. still, I’ve found the search bar on tumblr.com/url is WAY more reliable than search on mobile. for starters, it tends to bring posts up in a sensible order, instead of dredging up random posts from 2013 before anything else

if you’re on mobile, I’m sorry. godspeed and good luck finding anything. (my one tip is that if you’re able to click ON a tag rather than go through the search bar, you’ll have better luck. if your mutual has recently reblogged a post tagged #croissant, you can click #croissant and it’ll bring up everything tagged #croissant just like /tagged/croissant. but if there’s no readily available tag to click on, you have to rely on the mobile search bar and its weird bizarre whims) 

My period is misbehaving.

It usually starts slowly, but lately, it has been introducing itself with a loud and bright HELLO! HERE I AM!

Last month it was kind of light, but then I had a UTI, so I forgave it.

It must have taken that as a sign, because it practices inconsistency again this month. It is day three and I have menstrual cramps, usually a day one kind of thing. This afternoon it's been building up to its heaviest flow, but that ought to have happened on day two.

Its calendar is off and I am worried. For years now my period has been a steady companion. Stable. Reliable. Never a surprise. An every-30-days event I could put a clock on.

It has changed before, of course. It's only natural. But never this erratically. Not this wildly, from all directions, with no regard for the worries that come with a disobedient body.

Please. I beg you. Be normal.

You can’t be anti-capitalist and anti-ableism if you base someone’s worth off of whether they can work or not.

As a wheelchair user I'm trying to reframe my language for "being in the way."

"I'm in the way," "I can't fit," and "I can't go there," is becoming "there's not enough space," "the walkway is too narrow," and "that place isn't accessible."

It's a small change, but to me it feels as if I'm redirecting blame from myself to the people that made these places inaccessible in the first place. I don't want people to just think that they're helping me, I want them to think that they're making up for someone else's wrongdoing. I want them to remember every time I've needed help as something someone else caused.