Y’know Lamb’s Quarter? A common weed throughout the continental US, tolerant of a wide variety of soil conditions including the nutrient-poor and compacted soils common in cities, to the point where it thrives in empty lots?
These plants are close relatives, and produce extremely similar seeds. Lamb’s quarter could easily be grown across the US, in people’s backyard and community gardens, as a low-cost and local alternative to quinoa with no sketchy geopolitical impacts. You literally don’t have to nurture it at all, it’s a goddamn weed, it’ll be fine. Put it where your lawn was, it’ll probably grow better than the grass did. AND you can eat the leaves – they taste almost exactly like spinach.
This just… drives home, again, that a huge part of the appeal of “superfoods” is the sense of the exotic. For whatever nutritional benefits quinoa does have, the marketing strategy is still driven by an undercurrent of orientalism. You too could eat this food, grown laboriously by farmers in the remote Andes mountains! You too could grow strong on the staple crop that has sustained them for centuries! And, y’know, destroy that stable food system in the process. Or you could eat this near-identical plant you found in your backyard.
so true – another example is acai berry, which is just about the same for you as any other berry. +lots of plants we deem weeds or invasives are incredibly hardy and nutritious! look out for dandelion, wood sorrel, and Japanese knotweed
Merlin, Buckley, and Prairie
Merlin was the first to hatch, but he is TINY. Buckley was second and is pretty normal, very round. Prairie was last to hatch but is the biggest and already has feathers growing in. All three are strong and acting normal for chicks their age (less than 24 hours).
How about animal shelters stop publically shaming people for surrendering their animals.
A sudden job loss can mean being suddenly homeless.
Not everyone can care for their late spouse’s or their late parents’ pets, for a variety of reasons. I can tell you right now that God forbid something happens to my parents, but if they had to go to a nursing home or died, I would not be able to nor want to keep their pets.
The new baby could have health issues that take precedent over the care of the dogs. Babies have sensitive lungs. An allergy or breathing disorder triggered by pet dander could kill them.
The sudden loss of a home could mean that now you’re stuck having to move… but no one in your area has pet friendly housing. Or if they do, good luck getting through the pet size limits, number restrictions, and breed restrictions. Or a massively unreasonable pet deposit.
Shaming people does nothing except reflect poorly on your shelter and deter people from giving up their pets to you, which increases the likelihood of the animals being dumped somewhere.
“They could have found a home privately or gone through a rescue!”
That takes time and rescues are often very picky about what they will take in.
Yes, many animals are surrendered because people are irresponsible or ignorant. But calling out the owners on social media is not going to benefit anyone in any way, shape, or form.
This, so much. This is the reason I hate the term ‘forever home’ when rescues use it – because there are things you cannot predict or prevent from occurring, no matter how proactively you plan for emergencies. Life sometimes throws random nasties at you, and sometimes those result in needing to give up a beloved pet. That is hard enough without having the words “forever home” hovering over your head, guilting you for not being able to be forever for your animal. Or, god forbid, seeing your pet’s successful adoption being posted on the shelter’s social media, rejoicing that they’ve finally found their “forever home.” Unlike the one they had, it implies. Unlike you, who couldn’t be forever.
The current animal rescue / humane activism trend is to shame people who give up animals and praise those who take them in. It’s unkind and unhelpful and often motivated by profit and media visibility. Please don’t contribute to it, and above all, be kind. If someone genuinely has to give up a pet because of something they can’t prevent or predict, don’t make that any harder on them.
Admitting “I cannot properly care for this animal” when the situation calls for it is vital. It’s not shameful to no longer be able to keep something happy.
Buying chicks for Easter and then dumping them because you wanted props, not baby chickens, is shameful.
Keeping a dog for several years and then being forced to give it up by circumstances beyond your reasonable control is not.
In the vast world of comics, I wonder if there have been heroes with a “Groundhog Day,” type power. By that I specifically mean a hero who, if they die, immediately finds themselves waking up at the beginning of that day again. If they don’t die, they just continue forward through time.
I’m just thinking of how crazy it would be to have that hero on your super hero team. Like, you go to headquarters in the morning, and it seems like everything’s normal. But then you go to fire off a one liner, and they say it at the same time as you. And suddenly you know. Something went wrong.
And then one day you come in, and your heart drops as you see that their every move looks rehearsed. They answer questions before asked. They are totally aware of everything that’s about to happen. Imagine how scary that would be, realizing you’re starting a day that you’re team mate has failed to survive maybe dozens of times.
“triggers are always super serious and not just little things” two of my Big Triggers r the lullaby ‘go to sleep little baby’ and the goddamn veggietales jonah movie. sounds p dumb and made up right? they’re both heavily related to specific memories of abuse. general discussion of abuse doesn’t always trigger me, but the mind’s a funny thing, and chooses to latch onto seemingly inane things to keep memories. you ever smell perfume and suddenly remember being 9 and sitting in a car having a certain conversation? or hear a song and remember being in middle school doing homework? it works the same way w traumatic memories. when ppl have “ridiculous” triggers, they’re not saying “oh this thing offends me tag it” they’re saying “this thing brings back a specific memory of my trauma so I try and avoid it”
Apparently people have been adopting dogs and either killing them themselves or dropping them to a kill shelter (and one even said they were flying them to poor Asian areas to be eaten) under the Twitter hashtag #pitbulldropoff
This is completely cruel and evil and word needs to get around about these demons so everyone knows what these demons are planning to do to dogs once they get ahold of them.
If you know someone or if you yourself is planning to give away a pitty by craigslist soon, DONT and wait for awhile!!!! They act like they’re going to adopt them and act all nice then they get rid of them, don’t be fooled!!
BettSplendens Tumblr Evac 