Welcome to Talking Points for Life
https://www.talkingpointsforlife.com/
“Talking Points for Life is a library of ready-to-use messages for challenging social situations”
It's time to get a Real ID
“Starting on May 3, 2023, U.S. travelers flying domestically will no longer be able to show their standard driver's license when boarding a plane. Instead, they'll have to provide a Real ID, or another Transportation Authority Administration-approved form of identification.”
It will get worse
https://theweek.com/covid-19/1017715/no-its-not-over
“A flood of disinformation and conspiracy theories provokes troubled minds to turn to violence.”
Urban Dictionary: spoonie
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=spoonie&defid=7554996
“It originates from Christine Miserandino's Spoon Theory story, in which she explains what it's like to live with chronic illness to a friend, and uses a handful of spoons to demonstrate.”
The Reproducibility Crisis in Science - These Researchers Have a Fix
“A team from USC’s Information Sciences Institute has developed a novel method for using AI and knowledge graphs to assess the trustworthiness of scientific research. ”
You’re Living In The True Golden Age Of Television. Enjoy It, Because It’s About To End.
"Streaming television is going through an existential crisis, involving the people who make it and the viewers who watch it. Its revolutionary zeal has naturally faded, as that initial wave of near limitless expansion, boundless creative opportunities and vast archival choices crashes ashore, after a spate of megamergers and a drop in new subscribers."
The TSA Is Hot Garbage. And We Will Never Be Rid Of It.
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/09/08/the-tsa-is-hot-garbage-and-we-will-never-be-rid-of-it/
“The terrorists won. And it wasn’t a small victory.”
Urban Dictionary: late-stage capitalism
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=late-stage%20capitalism&defid=15964266
“We have reached late-stage capitalism. This is the era where businesses, investors and even the layperson will try everything they possibly can to capitalize on literally anything and every situation. The increasingly diverse stock industry and the booming crypto mining industry can be seen as one of the many aspects of late-stage capitalism. There is no single way to define late-stage capitalism, as the effects are most often seen on a micro scale and the scope is very broad as a result of the plethora of industries.”
How Much Pee Is in Your Pool?
https://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/behavior/how-much-pee-is-your-pool.htm
Alternate title: Why I’ve stopped swimming in pools.
Furries and litter boxes: how conservative fearmongering over public schools expanded to include fake news about children “identifying” as animals.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/05/furries-republicans-lgbtq-midterms-schools.html?via=rss
"Old lies and false impressions die hard, and other forms of discrimination tend to reemerge in moments when LGBTQ people are targeted by lawmakers and media personalities. Conservative fearmongering about students seems particularly unlikely to abate for a while."
Plastic Recycling Was a Myth. We're Living the Consequences
https://time.com/6173859/plastic-recycling-big-oil-damage/
“The plastic we put into the world will be with us for hundreds of years, floating up on shores and circulating through our bodies—and those of our children, and our children’s children.”
The No One Should Die Alone Foundation
The No One Should Die Alone Foundation was founded in 2012 after seeing so many patients in hospice care essentially dying alone—without family or a support system. Our foundation was created to raise money for families who are unable to be with their loved ones; it allows us to hire a caregiver to be with them and hold their hands so they don’t die alone.
A few moving hints
- Be sure to contact your internet provider to find out what is required to move your service to a new address.
- To get some free sturdy boxes, contact a big grocery store near you and see if they give them away. At our local Meijer store if you call the Produce manager around 5am they can plan to save some for you, and produce boxes are typically very strong (which mean you may not be able to break them down for easy transport).
- If you can afford it, I’ve found that Lowe’s medium-duty medium-size boxes are great for moving. It’s nice to buy them flat and assemble them yourself (a single piece of tape will do it), and there’s just something about having them all the same size and in good shape that helps me feel less stress during a move.
- Be sure to write the room it’s from/for on the box.
- When you’re done moving, you can easily get rid of the boxes by posting them for free on Craigslist, or donating them… in my area I’d recommend Shelterhouse Resale Shop, or Midland Recyclers.
- Moving companies often won’t handle delicate items… I would plan on moving lamp shades, electronics, fancy glassware/china etc. yourself, in your own gently-driven vehicle (rather than a big bouncy moving truck).
- Dust stuff as you pack it to keep the new place as clean as possible.
- Save back all the cleaning supplies you need to clean up your old place. The worst thing for me was always the tub/shower enclosure, until I discovered the wonder of blue-cap Easy Off the oven cleaner: spray it on the dry surface, let it sit for at least 4 hours, moisten it with water (spray bottle or handheld shower), and clean it with a wet dishrag/washcloth, rinsing often, and it will pretty much wipe clean with a single pass. The blue-cap stuff is much less stinky, but you may want to close the bathroom door and put the fan on for the first hour anyway, if someone’s going to be there.
