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Joined 6 months ago
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Cake day: February 2nd, 2026

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  • Allowing continued spreading of PFAS contaminated sludge is beyond horrible because those chemicals will stay there permanently. Around 1/3 or so of USA cropland is already polluted from spreading of sludges. There is nothing in nature that can break PFAS down, so all that polluted land will have to literally be removed and stored similar to hazardous nuclear waste.

    When we finally realize the damage and start work to repair it, it will be the largest remediation project in human history.



  • So it is a pretty different situation compared to if they had been removing trash by hand, which is much less likely to cause unforseen harm. The heavy machinery will compact soil, potentially leak oil/fuel. The mechanized digging of the stream bed could disturb benthic species and stir up silt that could have negative impacts further downstream.

    Without appropriate precautions, this fellow could easily cause more harm to the ecosystem, which is one of the reasons that this is not and should not be legal. It sounds like this group did do some background work to try to make sure they were doing the right thing, but I don’t think it should be open season for anyone with a backhoe to dredge a local body of water based on their own judgement.




  • In my experience I have come across people who presented as “stupid.” I have worked with rotating casts of temps at a couple of jobs - the “stupid” people are just as common in management as in the temps.

    Usually I think it is because they are not present in their moment/don’t care about what is happening, so they aren’t really stupid but are just… vacant. Once you get them talking about a project they are actually passionate about, you can see the light of their intellect. Some folks however really do have a hard time understanding the world through logic, even when they are really trying.


  • To add to bougie birdie’s reply, a doctor would be able to actually diagnose you and determine if this is a nerve related issue, repetitive stress injury, or potentially early signs of a degenerative disorder such as arthritis, etc. The treatment for a repetitive stress injury, if that is what is causing your pain, could include things like specialized brace to immobilize certain parts of your hand so they can heal properly (especially important during sleep).

    My partner had a repetitive stress injury that she had diagnosed and then didn’t see a therapist for (at first). Her injury did not heal even though she was not using that part of her hand until she finally went to an occupational therapist and got an appropriate brace (and instructions for tendon gliding exercises).



  • I can definitely see how a race of superintelligent industrialized beavers could be a bad thing for the world, so as far as the comic goes you are right lol.

    As for real life beavers - whether beavers are conscious of it or not, the way they relate to the ecosystems they inhabit in some ways sets an example for humans to follow. We don’t need to limit ourselves to only living in North America and Scandinavia/Eastern Europe, but maybe we should try to farm in ways that intentionally promote species diversity. There could be other lessons to take as well, such as spending more effort farming appropriate locations (beavers spend considerable effort finding the right place to set up shop) - many farms around the world are located without much thought toward how they will relate to neighboring ecosystems.











  • “Miners with black lung disease, meanwhile, have had to the Trump administration’s move to roll back safety protections for the coal industry…”

    From OSMRE website:

    Each year, OSMRE transfers more than $1 billion to the United Mine Workers of America Health and Retirement Funds to support health care and pension benefits for eligible coal miners and their beneficiaries.

    The US spends billions every year subsidizing coal and paying for the toll it takes on coal workers’ health. And yet, the MAGA folks I know seem to be more supportive of coal than they were 5 years ago. Like a lot more.

    I don’t get how this plays in MAGA favor when the coal miners themselves are getting shafted and when coal energy represents a complete and total grift - exactly the same type of stuff that had these same folks so excited about Trump and Musk cutting government programs. Any argument for coal falls apart immediately because natural gas is better in almost every way.

    Why are these “coalfare kings” getting away with it?