Can someone pls reply w that comic of the women watching TV that makes sense here, I can’t find it

Nina Nijsten (2009)

PSA that if you live in the US, you should absolutely sign up for the FDA recall alerts via https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts and USDA FSIS (Food Safety Inspection Service) alerts via https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USFSIS/subscriber/new

ive got people quoting my posts during sex

I took calculus my senior year of high school, and I really liked the way our teacher framed this on the first day of class.

He asked somebody to raise their hand and ask him when we would use calculus in our everyday life. So one student rose their hand and asked, “When are we going to use this in our everyday life?”

“NEVER!!” the teacher exclaimed. “You will never use calculus in your normal, everyday life. In fact, very few of you will use it in your professional careers either.” Then he paused. “So would you like to know why should care?”

Several us nodded.

He picked out one of the varsity football players in the class. “You practice football a lot during the week, right Tim?” asked the teacher.

“Yeah,” replied Tim. “Almost every day.”

“Do you and your teammates ever lift weights during practice?”

“Yeah. Tuesdays and Thursdays we spend a lot of practice in the weight room.”

“But why?” asked the teacher. “Is there ever going to be a play your coach tells you use during a game that requires you to bench press the other team?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then why lift weights?”

“Because it makes us stronger,” said Tim.

“Bingo!!” said the teacher. “It’s the same thing with calculus. You’re not here because you’re going to use calculus in your everyday life. You’re here because calculus is weightlifting for your brain.”

And I’ve never forgotten that.

THIS.

When it’s taught right, learning math teaches you logic and how to organize your brain, how to take a problem one step at a time and make sure every step can bear weight before you move to the next one.  Most adults don’t need to know integrals, but goddamn if I don’t wish everyone making arguments on the internet understood geometric proofs.

Scientific concepts broaden our understanding of how the world is put together, which does not mean that most adults ever really understand how light is refracted through a lens or why spinning copper wire creates electricity–and they don’t need to.  But science classes in general are meant to teach the scientific method: how to make observations and use them to draw conclusions, how to test those conclusions, how to be wrong and grow stronger from it.

History isn’t about dates and names of battles, it’s about people, patterns, things we’ve tried before and ought to learn from.  It’s about how everything is linked, how changing one circumstance can lead to changes in fifty others, cascading infinitely.  Literature is about critical thinking, pattern recognition, learning to listen to what somebody is saying and decide what it means to you, how you feel about it, and what you want to do with it.

Some facts matter: every adult should know how to read a graph, how global warming works, some of the basic themes and symbols that crop up in every piece of fiction.  But ultimately, content is less important later in life than context.

The good thing is, students who learn the content are likely to pick up at least some of the context, some of the patterns of thinking, even if they don’t realize it.  (The unfortunate thing is how the current educational system prioritizes content so much that a lot of students, and a lot of adults, don’t see the point in learning either, and teachers are overworked and held to standardize test grading scales such that it’s hard for them to emphasize patterns of thinking over rote memorization, etc etc etc, but that is a whole different discussion.)

I would also add that giving as broad an education to as many as possible gives everyone the opportunity to follow a career that might use calculus. Or colour theory. Or electromagnetism. Or [insert specialism here]. If we gatekeep specialisms, those careers are only available for the ones who were privileged enough to have the background training. That’s why Classics as a degree subject is full of private school kids: it’s not offered in state education.

The absolute fear in his voice climbing over the course of the clip, peaking when he says "THIS IS SO MANY DIFFERENT DAYS!!!!!"

History and related historical professionals straight up not having a good time right now.

@historicity-was-already-taken

If there's one person on a bus because that person cannot or doesn't want to drive, the bus is succeeding.

I read a study once on the fuel efficiency of various types of commuter vehicles (car, bus, train) on a per person basis and the number of people needed riding public transit to match the "efficiency" of cars is shockingly low. A bus needs to carry like 3-4 people to be fuel efficient, and trains require 2-3 per train car. Both often carry two dozen or more during peak hours, more than justifying any perceived requirements for efficiency for the train or bus to provide service the entire day.

Daily reminder: Transphobia actively contributes to sexism. If you don’t fit the beauty standard and are seen as masculine in any way shape or form, you are seen as transgender and as a “problem”

I think it's incredibly important here to not overlook the fact that she is a Black woman. Transphobia, racism, and sexism overlap significantly because of the incredibly eurocentric beauty standards women are judged on.

It's several weeks from the initial setting out of Sock Quest. I have knitted two pairs of socks!

The first pair I made (gray) are knitted with wool, held together with a strand of silk for the heel and ball-of-foot areas.

After a few weeks of wear they broke - which is sad, but it's all data to do better next time. They wore through in an area that had silk reinforcement, so I've learned that a silk strand does not a durable sock make.

They've been darned (see pics below for before and after) and are back in normal rotation.

ALT

The second pair (purple) was knitted with a BFL/silk blend yarn. I've read that BFL has very long staple fibres and is particularly strong because of this.

On my previous post @nessiemonster88 left a comment recommending a particular method of sock reinforcement, and linked me to this video by the excellent Sally Pointer:

...So that's exactly what I did. See below for in progress and finished pictures of some ball-of-foot reinforcement. Doing this on such a fine knit was extremely tedious, but the fabric of the sock does feel much stronger as a result so I think it was worth it and I'll be repeating on all future socks.