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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 24th, 2023

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  • Short answer: racism. Long answer, racism and colonialism.

    Yes, it’s definitely a problem. Folks are working on it. Lots of great new authors out there to read if you look hard enough. Ask your local librarian or bookseller for a hand finding stuff, they are great at this sort of thing. When I was looking for stuff for my kid a local bookstore turned me on to Rick Riordan Presents. The author of the Percy Jackson series made a publishing imprint that solely focuses on underrepresented mythologies and so far everything I’ve read from it has been great.

    If you want something a bit more adult, Nnedi Okorafor has some really fantastic adult and YA novels that are based around Nigerian mythologies.

    There’s lots more out there, this is just what’s at the top of my brain. I’ll try to edit if I remember any other authors or series. I’ve been on more of a sci-fi kick lately so that’s what’s in my brain right now (ps go read Murderbot Diaries if you haven’t already).


  • Well, shoot. Here I was going to say it wasn’t such a bad one to get wrong but the world goes and proves me wrong. That’s just heinous.

    It’s entirely possible her baby died due to Chernobyl-related pollution from her inhaling radioactive dust after the blast, but it sure as hell wasn’t made worse by her caring for her husband. She was probably safer inside whatever isolation unit they had him in than outside, since it was cleaner. I can forgive the nurses in 1980s Ukraine for not knowing that but a TV series written in the 2020s should really not be furthering that misunderstanding.

    It’s a shame because plenty of the other radiation-related stuff in the show was fine but that one was just so off base and clearly has had extremely negative real-world consequences.


  • I hate to say it because so much of this show was actually really excellent and accurate but in the Chernobyl miniseries they totally did the “radiation is contagious” thing and it is just not true.

    Things and people that are irradiated/hit by radiation in a situation like a reactor failure or contact with radioactive waste do not become radioactive. They can have radioactive particles on their clothing/skin or inside their body if they have ingested/inhaled radioactive material, but they are not emitting radiation themselves. Furthermore, a thin sheet of paper or cloth will stop the kind of radioactivity that would be emitted by such material, if it is on the outside of a person’s body.

    Anyways the point is that the woman whose husband was dying of radiation poisoning and then she went in and spent time with him did not lose her baby because she spent time with him. That’s just not how it works.

    Lots of environmental contamination-related stuff in movies is inaccurate but that one is the most recent I can think of.


  • Letting kids (and kids at heart) go wild with their imagination and dress up.

    Meeting/seeing neighbors.

    Eating candy.

    I feel really sad for all the folks on lemmy having a bad/frustrating Halloween. I think it doesn’t have to be that way, but it does definitely take neighborhood-level effort. We’re really lucky to live in a big Halloween neighborhood in a walkable area. We saw all our favorite neighbors and met some new ones, and enjoyed all the creative decorations and costumes we saw while we were out.

    But the best part of the night is always getting to see people light up when you recognize their costume. Every time I see a kid dressed as Batman and go “whoa there’s Batman!” or compliment a princess on their beautiful dress, you can just see them stand up straighter or strike a pose and it’s awesome to see everyone dressing up and enjoying themselves. I probably saw a dozen Marios tonight from age 2 to age 20 and every single one of them was over the moon when I complimented their costume.


  • Awww I’m sorry it sucks to be prepared and get no one. We’re in a big trick or treating neighborhood but on a side street and last year we only got like 5 visitors. This year we just took candy over to our neighbor on the more popular street and didn’t hand any out at our house. One street over from our house and the entire sidewalk and street was mobbed with under-10’s. I think it’s highly neighborhood- and street-dependent.

    Ask your neighbors where the good trick or treating spot is. It may be far away from you and people are just driving there instead of sticking around the neighborhood. Or it’s possible if you’re in a less walkable area that people might do more “trunk or treat” instead where they coordinate and go to a parking lot to do trick or treating.







  • Acetaminophen (Tylenol) if I can’t get it under control without meds but I agree with the other posters about trying to figure out the root cause! For me, the main causes of headaches used to be hormones from the pill until I switched to a different form of birth control (IUD). Nowadays my headaches are mostly dry eye or allergy related so I keep eye drops on hand and take allergy meds and I’m down to headaches once every week or two. Staying hydrated and taking fish oil supplements has also helped my dry eyes.


  • Lolol what kind of fantasy world do you live in? Salaried worker here and although my job isn’t 9-5 strictly if I don’t work at least 40 hours a week my pay will be docked. So I get to choose between 8-5 or 9-6 or I can work while I eat and get that cushy 9-5 life. Or if I miss work I can make up those hours by working at night. It’s a real luxury to be able to do that compared to shift work, but the hours are still being counted.

    Also stop being so entitled. Most of your life necessities come from industries (groceries, power plants, gas stations, hospitals, etc) where people work on a timecard/shift basis so don’t you come out here and pretend timecard or shift work isn’t a “real” profession.


  • Kind of like the other poster, I can figure out how most simple mechanical things work by looking at them and can usually cobble together a solution to mechanical problems out of random stuff from the hardware store. I’m also really good at fixing simple mechanical and electrical things like bicycles, flashlights, hair dryers, fans, office chairs, etc. I’m also quite handy with a sewing machine and can fix most clothes.

    More complicated things like appliances, software, etc I can’t do as quickly or easily but I’m still pretty good at hacking together solutions with the help of YouTube and online forums.

    Has probably saved me thousands of dollars over my lifetime in keeping things running and not having to buy replacements, but also I lose a lot of time and space to all my “I can fix this” projects.



  • Oh, they totally do. That’s why I’d suggest not punching a Nazi in front of the cops, even if they 100% deserved it. The cops will arrest you much quicker than they will a fascist even if you do the same exact thing.

    And also definitely YMMV on whether this works at all, I’m in Massachusetts where the cops have to at least pretend they’re doing their jobs so they will typically detain Nazis if they take an actual swing at someone. Other states this might not work at all.


  • Nazis get worse if you don’t actively oppose them. That can look like punching them, but it can also look like actively ostracizing them by taking away their jobs, denying them participation in community events, or just straight up shaming them in public.

    Pacifism only works if the other side isn’t willing to kill you. These jackasses fantasize about genociding people as a hobby, so if you think pacifism is going to work for you then go right ahead but I’ll be over here working on my defensive skills.

    In many situations nazi-punching is not your best tactical decision, especially in the presence of cops. Using your words to hurt the poor Nazi snowflakes feelings works just as well and has the added benefit of potentially provoking them into getting themselves arrested if there are cops watching.