I babysat my cousin’s 3 kids under 5 for the year I lived in their basement (free rent trade)

And above all the noise and hassle and all, the day I knew kids definitely weren’t for me… was the day the parents went out for one of their “be home tomorrow, probably” nights, knowing full well at least one of the kids had the flu.

It ended up being all three of them. All I did all night was give baths, sooth crying, change bedding, and clean up vomit.

I managed to keep them alive and relatively comfortable, but I don’t ever want to do anything even close to that ever again.

I want science to win so that’s a good option anyway.

This is really catchy and upbeat :)

I have a collection of over 80k ebooks. I got most of them in huge download packs decades ago, and removed duplicates. it’s a surprisingly small folder.

I did the math on it long ago and it would take more than 200 years, reading an average of one full book a day, every day, to get through them all.

So I’m happy just knowing that if I get through some of them, it’s better than none of them. Time is limited, make the most of it by doing what sparks joy, and not worrying about what you didn’t get to.

You absolutely must, if you own such a gem, refer to it as the peamobile. Both because it is gloriously whimsical, perfectly matching the aesthetic of the vehicle, and because it just sounds fun in that funny innuendo sort of way.

And a little light ball, like a reflection off a watch face, that sometimes appears that just randomly moves around and, importantly, can be “caught” (as in has a physical presence, sometimes).

What I don’t get is how anyone can sleep with anything other than blackout curtains. Even the ambient light from street lights and stuff is too bright for me.

I mean I know people do it, I just don’t understand how.

I never said it wasn’t low. It’s low, but 14 million people is still a lot of actual people, people just like you, under a different circumstance.

14 million people looking for work means there are a lot of potential scabs, because our social safety nets are fucking laughable. They don’t even exist for a lot of people, such as those with no work history yet (can’t get unemployment if you’ve never been employed, for example, and if you only have a couple years employment history, unemployment in a lot of places doesn’t cover shit).

Having been one of the underemployed, you often take what you can get because you don’t have the luxury of finding the “right job”.

Or you and your family become homeless.

Those are basically the options these days and I’m not willing to say that’s not the case just because unemployment (which does not include underemployment, nor those who left the job market) is low by some economists standards, because it absolutely is for millions of people.

So sure, many of those people might be looking for “the right job”, but in the interim, they find and take “the right now” job. And that might be scabby.

All good friend; we do agree and it really sucks that it’s so difficult to get people to support their own best interest if it costs them in a tangible way (even if the benefits are exponentially more impactful).

This is an education thing and we are fighting a lot of anti-union propaganda, here and everywhere. We see people lose their jobs over joining.

Who can blame them not wanting to sign up?

Union leaders need to fight fire with -water-. They need an unyielding stream of information to fight the fanned flames of disinformation and anti-union propaganda going out to perspective members, and that’s… unfortunately just not generally practical.

I don’t really have a solution, I’m sorry, but I am absolutely behind yours and every other union. I will support you all with every breath in my body, for whatever that’s worth.

Ahh, I wish it were that easy, but 4.1% of 350 million is like 14 million people (I’m willing to accept that my math is wrong but I double checked it 4 times including using the internet… and idk if I mathed it wrong or if that’s just an accurate number… I really kinda hope I’m wrong…)

That’s a lot of people either way… and you can’t fault them for looking out for themselves or their family.

I’m really sorry to hear that. Genuinely. We all need better.

I am a firm believer in unions and collective action, despite never having the opportunity to be part of a union myself. And like they don’t have a lot of power here… they got most of it removed by law years and years ago.

But it doesn’t stop us trying at least, I suppose. And the general vibe is to support the unions. I’m sure there are tons of scabs here, but… they aren’t winning social favor being scabs at least.

Even if they are largely toothless, it’s better to be toothless together; A pack of starving wolves with one tooth each is enough to do a lot of damage if they attack together often enough.

The real problem is getting them to be part of the pack. I mean each wolf is toothless anyway, so getting them to join the pack is super important for their survival too.

You certainly aren’t wrong, but… at least in my area (and this is with state-level laws that fucking decimated union power), unions are relatively well respected by the population at large, because most of us have some experience with them (big trades area), and they are growing, rather than shrinking, despite having their legs cut off at the knee.

Despite being a super conservative and heavily gerrymandered area, our major trade unions (pipefitters, construction, metalworkers, electricians, etc.) never went away, much as the state (for the past 15 or so years) would have liked otherwise. And it’s making a big resurgence; there are tons of manufacturing plants near me and a lot of them are part of or bound by the unions (not just their workplace, but like regional unions)

I hope the trend continues! We need more collective action in our society. We need unions for non-tradespeople, and we don’t have any of those… but at least the trade unions are unshakeable, and that’s a good gateway for the rest of us.

Only scabs cross the line.

I come from a union family and walked way further than I thought it would be to see sanders speak at a union hall. Worth it.

The strike that happened a week or so before the event would have had me staying home, had it extended, though. Even tho I only ever saw one single person on the picket line. Only scabs cross the line.

So they don’t have ranked voting, then?

Well, good for them for working together to hopefully sidestep the worst of it. I hope it works.

I’m a bit unclear here; how does withdrawing from the next set of runoffs help prevent the problem? This article really doesn’t say.

I know nothing about their system, but wouldn’t that mean the people still running won by default? Or is this more to only give people two options instead of 3+ which dilutes the vote maybe? Does France not have some sort of ranked voting?

The nice thing about it is that this isn’t actually heating an area, it heats you and the mattress/blankets around you, basically making a microclimate in your sleepy cocoon. Very very efficient, even if your electric rates aren’t great (mine really aren’t either, but it still barely touches it, they just don’t use a lot of electricity). I put my heated pad under a padded pad to help retain and even out the heat, and it helps a lot.

Happy to help either way! So here’s some more info!

https://electricado.com/how-much-electricity-does-heated-mattress-pad-use/

Most of the below comes from that link-

60-100 watts is roughly average energy use, but you can get lower, and smaller pads will use less.

Energy Cost = (Wattage x Usage Hours) / 1000 x Electricity Rate

For example, let’s assume your heated mattress pad has a wattage of 75 watts, you use it for 8 hours per night, and your electricity rate is $0.12 per kWh. The calculation would be as follows:

Energy Cost = (75 watts x 8 hours) / 1000 x $0.12 = $0.072 per night

For one mattress pad for a 30-day month with the above assumptions, it would run you a whopping $2.16/mth.

Yeah, I’m basically built for tropical environments. I’m cold at 75 unless I have a sweatshirt on. And I still wear that big fuzzy bathrobe through most of summer (I don’t have AC, and never have, but I do have dehumidifiers for when it’s really warm, and that’s generally enough).

Heated mattress pads on my bed and couch, mostly. And a heated chair pad when working. They cost a ton less to run than filling a drafty space with gas-warmed air, and are mostly sufficient. A month of both of the big pads being constantly on, on high, barely touches my electric bill, but my gas bill for heat… I keep it that cold because that’s still around $200 usd/mth. If I bump it to 65/18.3, it shoots up to the $350-400+ range. And since I’m not actually comfortable at 18.3 either (26-33/80-90 is about my sweet spot), might as well just keep it at 15.6 and save the money :)

So those, and fuzzy socks, fuzzy pajama pants, and a fuzzy bathrobe. Maybe a high-heat pad here and there, if I’m feeling luxurious or my back hurts. A friend of mine does something similar, but uses heated vest and socks to take the warm along with (rechargeable ofc).

I really enjoy coconut oil as a rough weather gauge.

I cook with it a lot, but prefer it to be in liquid form for easy measure (which only happens in the warmer bits of summer here), so in winter, I keep a jar of it on top of a particularly warm heat vent.

I keep my place at 60f/15.6c in winter or it costs a fortune to heat. When it’s relatively warm out, the heat doesn’t kick on often enough to melt it, but when it’s real cold/windy the entire thing will be liquid.

I saw him speak the other day and he was totally with it. Like that super old person who lives to be 120 and is sharp as fuck right until their body gives up, but until then they are firy and physically fit.