Heroes
We Use It Every Day ... Even Though It's Just About As Dangerous As Cigarettes
It's unusual to have bleeped-out cuss words in a cartoon, but I guess when you're talking about a topic like this one, it sorta makes sense.
11.14.13
So we've all heard the numbers, but what does that mean in reality? Here's one year's wages — yes, *full-time* wages. Woo.
I've written tons of things about minimum wage, backed up by fact-checkers and economists and scholarly studies. All of them point to raising the minimum wage as a solution to lifting people out of poverty and getting folks off of public assistance. It's slowly happening, and there's much more to be done.
But when it comes right down to it, where the rubber meets the road is what it means for everyday workers who have to live with those wages. I honestly don't know how they do it.
Ask yourself: Could I live on this small of a full-time paycheck? I know what my answer is.
(And note that the minimum wage in many parts of the county is STILL $7.25, so it would be even less than this).
One year of work at McDonalds grossed this worker $13,811.18.
This story was written by Brandon Weber and was originally appeared on 02.26.15
“ALL unwanted pregnancies are caused by the irresponsible ejaculations of men. Period. Don't believe me? Let me walk you through it."
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormons, are a conservative group who aren't known for being vocal about sex.
But best selling author, blogger, and mother of six, Gabrielle Blair, has kicked that stereotype to the curb with a pointed thread on reducing unwanted pregnancies. And her sights are set directly at men.
She wrote a Cliff's Notes version of her thread on her blog:
If you want to stop abortion, you need to prevent unwanted pregnancies. And men are 100% responsible for unwanted pregnancies. No for real, they are. Perhaps you are thinking: IT TAKES TWO! And yes, it does take two for _intentional_ pregnancies.
But ALL unwanted pregnancies are caused by the irresponsible ejaculations of men. Period. Don't believe me? Let me walk you through it. Let's start with this: women can only get pregnant about 2 days each month. And that's for a limited number of years.
Here's the whole thread. It's long, but totally worth the read.
\u201cThat makes 24 days a year a women might get pregnant. But men can _cause_ pregnancy 365 days a year. In fact, if you\u2019re a man who ejaculates multiple times a day, you could cause multiple pregnancies daily. In theory a man could cause 1000+ unwanted pregnancies in just one year.\u201d— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536876945
But what about birth control? If a woman doesn\u2019t want to risk an unwanted pregnancy, why wouldn\u2019t she just use birth control? If a women can manage to figure out how to get an abortion, surely she can get birth control, right? Great questions.— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536876946
\u2026 because of the side effects. And the list of side effects was about 1/3 as long as the known side effects for women's oral contraception.https://ow.ly/Hqdx30lOrKJ— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536876947
But good news, Men: Even with the horrible side effects, women are still very willing to use birth control. Unfortunately it\u2019s harder to get than it should be. Birth control options for women require a doctor\u2019s appointment and a prescription. It\u2019s not free, and often not cheap.— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536876947
If we\u2019re talking about the pill, it requires consistent daily use and doesn\u2019t leave much room for mistakes, forgetfulness, or unexpected disruptions to daily schedules. And again, the side effects can be brutal. I\u2019M STILL GRATEFUL FOR IT PLEASE DON\u2019T TAKE IT AWAY.— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536876948
Men can keep them stocked up just in case, so they\u2019re always prepared. Amazing! They are so much easier than birth control options for women. As a bonus, in general, women love when men use condoms. They keep us from getting STDs, they don\u2019t lessen our pleasure during sex\u2026— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536876948
Oh. I remember. Men _don\u2019t_ love condoms. In fact, men frequently pressure women to have sex without a condom. And it\u2019s not unheard of for men to remove the condom during sex, without the women\u2019s permission or knowledge. (Pro-tip: That's assault.)https://ow.ly/UHgP30lOse3— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536876949
So\u2026 there are men willing to risk getting a woman pregnant \u2014 which means literally risking her life, her health, her social status, her relationships, and her career, so that they can experience a few minutes of _slightly_ more pleasure? Is that for real? Yes. Yes it is.— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536876949
So it\u2019s not like sex with a condom is _not_ pleasurable, it\u2019s just not _as_ pleasurable. An 8 instead of a 10. Let me emphasize that again: Men regularly choose to put women at massive risk by having non-condom sex, in order to experience a few minutes of slightly more pleasure.— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536876950
So surely, we can expect men who aren\u2019t wearing a condom to at least pull out every time they have sex, right? \n\nNope. \n\nAnd why not?— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536876950
It\u2019s mind-boggling and disturbing when you realize that\u2019s the choice men are making. And honestly, I\u2019m not as mad as I should be about this, because we\u2019ve trained men from birth that their pleasure is of utmost importance in the world. (And to dis-associate sex and pregnancy.)— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536876951
So surely, we can expect men who aren\u2019t wearing a condom to at least pull out every time they have sex, right? \n\nNope. \n\nAnd why not?— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536876950
It\u2019s mind-boggling and disturbing when you realize that\u2019s the choice men are making. And honestly, I\u2019m not as mad as I should be about this, because we\u2019ve trained men from birth that their pleasure is of utmost importance in the world. (And to dis-associate sex and pregnancy.)— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536876951
But did you further know that men CAN get a woman pregnant without HER feeling any pleasure at all? In fact, it\u2019s totally possible for a man to impregnate a woman even while causing her excruciating pain, trauma or horror.— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536877031
No matter how many orgasms she has, they won\u2019t make her pregnant. Pregnancies can only happen when men have an orgasm. Unwanted pregnancies can only happen when men orgasm irresponsibly.— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536877057
Let\u2019s talk more about responsibility. Men often don\u2019t know, and don\u2019t ask, and don\u2019t think to ask, if they\u2019ve caused a pregnancy. They may never think of it, or associate sex with making babies at all. Why? Because there are 0 consequences for men who cause unwanted pregnancies.— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536877098
If the woman decides to have an abortion, the man may never know he caused an unwanted pregnancy with his irresponsible ejaculation.— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1536877110
Blair's controversial tweet storm have been liked hundreds of thousands of time, with the original tweet earning nearly 200,000 likes since it was posted on Thursday, September, 13.
The reactions have earned her both praise and scorn.
Most of the scorn was from men.
Men AND women both need to take responsibility for their own actions. I've said that many times. To say otherwise just isn't being realistic.— CitizenPatriot (@CitizenPatriot) 1537102869
But Blair wouldn't budge.
You are incorrect. A woman having an orgasm while with a man risks nothing and hurts no one. A man having an orgasm while with a woman risks her life. A dick without a condim is a dangerous thing and has killed more people in human history than any war or weapon.— Gabrielle Blair (@Gabrielle Blair) 1537085191
For other men, the tweet thread was a real eye-opener.
I just want you to know from a guy that your entire line of argument on this thread is 100% accurate. Thanks for taking the time to put this out there. Every adult in this country SHOULD read this.— Jarrod Broussard (@Jarrod Broussard) 1537235101
Women everywhere applauded Blair's bold thread.
Thank God for this. I have had so many arguments with men over the years about their part of responsibility for pregnancy. The phrase "she got pregnant" sends me to the moon! Blessings to you Gabrielle!— What else is possible? (@What else is possible?) 1537204198
Pulitzer, Nobel, everything else. You deserve the whole lot!— Sally \ud83d\ude97\ud83c\udfce\ufe0f\ud83c\udfc1\ud83d\udc3e\ud83d\udc15\ud83c\udfd4\ufe0f (@Sally \ud83d\ude97\ud83c\udfce\ufe0f\ud83c\udfc1\ud83d\udc3e\ud83d\udc15\ud83c\udfd4\ufe0f) 1537261201
This article originally appeared on 02.22.19
This "microgeneration" had a different upbringing than their fellow boomers.
We hear a lot about the major generation categories—boomers, Gen X, millennials, Gen Z and the up-and-coming Gen Alpha. But there are folks who don't quite fit into those boxes. These in-betweeners, sometimes called "cuspers," are members of microgenerations that straddle two of the biggies.
"Xennial" is the nickname for those who fall on the cusp of Gen X and millennial, but there's also a lesser-known microgeneration that straddles Gen X and baby boomers. The folks born from 1954 to 1965 are known as Generation Jones, and they've been thrust into the spotlight as people try to figure out what generation to consider 59-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris.
Like President Obama before her, Harris is a Gen Joneser—not exactly a classic baby boomer but not quite Gen X. Born in October 1964, Harris falls just a few months shy of official Gen X territory. But what exactly differentiates Gen Jones from the boomers and Gen Xers that flank it?
"Generation Jones" was coined by writer, television producer and social commentator Jonathan Pontell to describe the decade of Americans who grew up in the '60s and '70s. As Pontell wrote of Gen Jonesers in Politico:
"We fill the space between Woodstock and Lollapalooza, between the Paris student riots and the anti-globalisation protests, and between Dylan going electric and Nirvana going unplugged. Jonesers have a unique identity separate from Boomers and GenXers. An avalanche of attitudinal and behavioural data corroborates this distinction."
Pontell describes Jonesers as "practical idealists" who were "forged in the fires of social upheaval while too young to play a part." They are the younger siblings of the boomer civil rights and anti-war activists who grew up witnessing and being moved by the passion of those movements but were met with a fatigued culture by the time they themselves came of age. Sometimes, they're described as the cool older siblings of Gen X. Unlike their older boomer counterparts, most Jonesers were not raised by WWII veteran fathers and were too young to be drafted into Vietnam, leaving them in between on military experience.
Gen Jones gets its name from the competitive "keeping up with the Joneses" spirit that spawned during their populous birth years, but also from the term "jonesin'," meaning an intense craving, that they coined—a drug reference but also a reflection of the yearning to make a difference that their "unrequited idealism" left them with. According to Pontell, their competitiveness and identity as a "generation aching to act" may make Jonesers particularly effective leaders:
"What makes us Jonesers also makes us uniquely positioned to bring about a new era in international affairs. Our practical idealism was created by witnessing the often unrealistic idealism of the 1960s. And we weren’t engaged in that era’s ideological battles; we were children playing with toys while boomers argued over issues. Our non-ideological pragmatism allows us to resolve intra-boomer skirmishes and to bridge that volatile Boomer-GenXer divide. We can lead."
Time will tell whether the United States will end up with another Generation Jones leader, but with President Biden withdrawing his candidacy, it has now become a distinct possibility.
Of note in discussions over Kamala Harris's generational status is the fact that generations aren't just calculated by birth year but by a person's cultural reality. Some have made the argument that Harris is culturally more Gen X than boomer, though there doesn't seem to be any record of her claiming any particular generation as her own. However, a swath of Gen Z has staked their own claim on her as "brat"—a term singer Charli XCX thrust into the political arena with a post on X that read "kamala IS brat." That may be nonsensical to most older folks, but for Gen Z, it's a glowing endorsement from one of the top Gen Z musicians of the moment.
There's a man in Lithuania who speaks only English. The message is in Lithuanian. He can't read it, so he asks some locals to translate it for him.
1. He's received a message full of hate speech.
2. Translating it for him is breaking people's hearts.
There's a sudden, powerful connection between the translators and the man they're translating for. They want to protect him, telling him not to bother with the message.
They apologize for the message.
They look like they want to cry.
Most of us would never think of saying such horrible things. This video shows people realizing in their gut what it must feel like when those words are pointed at them — it's all right on their faces. And so is their compassion.
The Facebook message is horrible, but their empathy is beautiful. The video's emotional power is what makes it unique, and so worth watching and passing around.
The video's in English, subtitled in Lithuanian. Just watch the faces.
This article originally appeared on 04.10.15
30 dump truck loads and two years later, the forest looks totally different.
One of the biggest problems with coffee production is that it generates an incredible amount of waste. Once coffee beans are separated from cherries, about 45% of the entire biomass is discarded.
So for every pound of roasted coffee we enjoy, an equivalent amount of coffee pulp is discarded into massive landfills across the globe. That means that approximately 10 million tons of coffee pulp is discarded into the environment every year.
When disposed of improperly, the waste can cause serious damage soil and water sources.
However, a new study published in the British Ecological Society journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence has found that coffee pulp isn't just a nuisance to be discarded. It can have an incredibly positive impact on regrowing deforested areas of the planet.
via British Ecological Society
In 2018, researchers from ETH-Zurich and the University of Hawaii spread 30 dump trucks worth of coffee pulp over a roughly 100' x 130' area of degraded land in Costa Rica. The experiment took place on a former coffee farm that underwent rapid deforestation in the 1950s.
The coffee pulp was spread three-feet thick over the entire area.
Another plot of land near the coffee pulp dump was left alone to act as a control for the experiment.
"The results were dramatic." Dr. Rebecca Cole, lead author of the study, said. "The area treated with a thick layer of coffee pulp turned into a small forest in only two years while the control plot remained dominated by non-native pasture grasses."
In just two years, the area treated with coffee pulp had an 80% canopy cover, compared to just 20% of the control area. So, the coffee-pulp-treated area grew four times more rapidly. Like a jolt of caffeine, it reinvigorated biological activity in the area.
The canopy was also four times taller than that of the control.
The forest experienced a radical, positive change
The coffee-treated area also eliminated an invasive species of grass that took over the land and prevented forest succession. Its elimination allowed for other native species to take over and recolonize the area.
"This case study suggests that agricultural by-products can be used to speed up forest recovery on degraded tropical lands. In situations where processing these by-products incurs a cost to agricultural industries, using them for restoration to meet global reforestation objectives can represent a 'win-win' scenario," Dr. Cole said.
If the results are repeatable it's a win-win for coffee drinkers and the environment.
Researchers believe that coffee treatments can be a cost-effective way to reforest degraded land. They may also work to reverse the effects of climate change by supporting the growth of forests across the globe.
The 2016 Paris Agreement made reforestation an important part of the fight against climate change. The agreement incentivizes developing countries to reduce deforestation and forest degradation, promote forest conservation and sustainable management, and enhance forest carbon stocks in developing countries.
"We hope our study is a jumping off point for other researchers and industries to take a look at how they might make their production more efficient by creating links to the global restoration movement," Dr. Cole said.
This article originally appeared on 03.29.21