It is *insane* that IUD insertion isn’t done under mild sedation. I was in a car accident a couple years ago, where I broke 3 bones and had a bone-deep laceration that required dozens of stitches. Getting my IUD replaced was MORE painful than that cut or the broken bones - and for those, the ER gave me morphine and a…

The strength/centralization of government in a political philosophy is quite tangental to the left/right wing divide. Many right-wing political philosophies - such as fascism, theocracy and Nazism - support strong central governments to forcibly impose their ideologies on the public, and some left-wing political philos…

I used to be able to do these as a kid, and apparently can still a little? The first, I see an outline of a face with a ponytail - maybe Carol? The second, the outline of a person’s body, but I don’t know who it was supposed to be. The third I got nothing. The fourth was a face with pointy ears, I guess a Skrull. The…

Fascist and authoritarian are not the same thing. Fascism describes a particular flavor of right-wing authoritarianism that focuses more on militant ultranationalist cultural conservatism, xenophobia, misogyny, etc rather than pure capitalism. There are other forms of authoritarianism that appear on the left, but they…

Yeah, that’s my thought as well. The AIDS crisis forced many many thousands of gay/bi men to come out (edit: even if only posthumously in many cases), and forced straight people all across America to confront the fact that homosexuality wasn’t a couple of weird perverts having sex in a back alley somewhere - it was…

FWIW, even if you have full coverage, they may not pay out enough to replace your car, or pay in a timely manner. In my case, I got a check for <$2000 weeks after I had to buy a replacement car because my rental coverage ran out. That was less than helpful. Fortunately I was in a financial position to handle it. Not…

I wonder if the folks whining about her GoFundMe because “she should’ve had better insurance” are similarly critical of the 1456783 dudes on Twitter who beg for GFM/Ko-fi/Patreon donations because they’re broke Lyft drivers trying to break into writing or whatever.

Yeah, when my car was totalled, my full coverage policy sent me a check for less than $2000, 3-4 weeks after the accident, and they only covered a rental car for 1 week. So that was about as helpful as another broken rib. Fortunately I was in a financial position, with some help from my family, to cover a downpayment…

Just FYI, from my own experience, your full coverage may not come through for you in a timely manner, so make sure you also have enough saved up to make a downpayment on a new car. My insurance covered 1 week of rental, but didn't mail out the check for the value of the car for 3 or 4 weeks, so I had to pay for the…

And then you can't get to your job and you definitely won't be able to pay for insurance, or anything else.

Even if you have full coverage, you can still end up needing money. When my car was totaled, my full coverage policy didn’t send out the check for 3 or 4 weeks, but only covered a rental car for 1 week. So I had to pay for the downpayment myself. Fortunately, I was in a position to do so, but not everyone is.

Even if you have full coverage, the insurance may not cover all costs or in a timely manner. When my car was totaled in an accident, my insurance covered, IIRC, 1 week of rental coverage, but took 3 or 4 weeks to send me the check to reimburse me for the car. Fortunately, I was in a position where I could make a…

Women can definitely be stalkers as well, but in geek spaces, at least, male stalkers w female victims is much more common. Male stalkers are also much more likely to take it beyond harassment into kidnapping or murder. Any of it is disturbing, criminal behavior that should be stopped, but there is a difference in…

I actually don’t understand why we don’t find more remains in the US. The smallpox epidemic the conquistadors brought killed 90% of the population of the Americas. Shouldn’t there be a skeleton in the bottom of any deep hole? Or is there something about the soil conditions in North America that don’t preserve…

IIRC, I read that our modern burial practices became popular in the US during the Civil War. People back home wanted to bury their loved one’s body, so the slain soldiers were pumped full of preservatives and put in boxes to keep them from decomposing and falling apart on the trip home.

Well, my second scenario was based on the self-preservation motivation. Because, yeah, I don’t think it’s terribly likely that we’ll see enough of a wide-scale change of feelings about race to just naturally counteract racial suppression & white supremacist violence. But a fear of arrest may help curb at least the…

I heard a podcast episode about the Sun King’s surgery.... IIRC, the surgeon experimented on prisoners first, to make sure he could do the surgery. And in the US, a doctor who’s name I forget discovered how to close vaginal fistulas caused by childbirth, by experimenting on slaves. I doubt any of these early test…

I’d guess it’s a surgery for bladder stone, or prostate tumor, and she’s holding the family jewels out of the way while the surgeon is.... something?

I like the idea, but I feel like the metal container would get really hot in the summer, and radiate a lot of the heat out of the house in the winter? You’d have to build a frame inside the container and do a lot of insulation, I guess. Which is true of any house, I suppose, but siding doesn’t conduct heat as well as…

TBH, and maybe this is a bit of a tangent, but I don’t think the 9% is really a terribly relevant figure, because there isn’t really global solidarity between people of the same race (or at least, not enough to overcome the bounds of one’s own nation). People in Africa and South America aren’t going to take action…