chiraag

chiraag, 12 days ago

@davidaugust Except for indigenous folks, I guess.

chiraag, 10 days ago

@Flowermob @nabz123 @ViXY_DBC @mondoweiss @palestine @israel It is simultaneously true that Biden is actively supporting a genocide in Gaza and that Trump would actively be worse - not only for Gaza, but for Americans as well. Both things can be true and people are allowed to be horrified about the fact that we are forced to choose between two genocidal maniacs. The fact that Biden has done some other good stuff does not erase this.

chiraag, 16 days ago

@skyfaller @Maggie I got a Hiby R3 Pro b/c it's a Hi-Fi media player that doesn't run on Android and has a pretty long battery life. They also have Android-based models. Oh, it also uses a microSD card for files, so transferring files over is really easy and straightforward.

chiraag, 11 days ago

@skyfaller @Maggie Ran across this project by @jacqueline : https://www.crowdsupply.com/cool-tech-zone/tangara

chiraag, 18 days ago

> What Hansen didn’t know was that 3M had already conducted animal studies — two decades earlier. They had shown PFOS to be toxic, yet the results remained secret, even to many at the company. In one early experiment, conducted in the late ’70s, a group of 3M scientists fed PFOS to rats on a daily basis.

chiraag, 18 days ago

> Starting at the second-lowest dose that the scientists tested, about 10 milligrams for every kilogram of body weight, the rats showed signs of possible harm to their livers, and half of them died. At higher doses, every rat died. Soon afterward, 3M scientists found that a relatively low daily dose, 4.5 milligrams for every kilogram of body weight, could kill a monkey within weeks.

chiraag, 18 days ago

> (Based on this result, the chemical would currently fall into the highest of five toxicity levels recognized by the United Nations.) This daily dose of PFOS was orders of magnitude greater than the amount that the average person would ingest, but it was still relatively low — roughly comparable to the dose of aspirin in a standard tablet.

chiraag, 18 days ago

> “If the levels are high and widespread and the half-life is long, we could have a serious problem.” Yet Hodge’s warning was omitted from official meeting notes, and the company’s fluorochemical production increased over time.

This is cartoon villain shit.

chiraag, 19 days ago

@virtualbri Wendover has a great video about this:

Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/wendover-how-private-equity-consumed-america/

YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK8hpxR_r2Y

chiraag, 23 days ago

@br00t4c Ah yes, blame the big bad Chinese for...exploiting the penchant for businesses to cut costs by offshoring industry.

WTF is this article.

chiraag, 27 days ago

Even if you're not vegan, I think it's safe to say that we can all agree that the conditions around factory farming are abhorrent: livestock living in their own feces, pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormones, and fundamentally only as useful as their product (meat, dairy, or eggs). But these horrific practices stem from an attitude towards animals: they are factories to produce what we want and which we can "optimize" however we see fit.

(2/?)

chiraag, 27 days ago

Even free-range chickens and grass-fed cows are only as useful as their products, right? Though it may technically be more humane than the baseline, the fundamental attitude hasn't shifted. They're still viewed as factories, albeit ones we should take better care of.

(3/?)

chiraag, 27 days ago

Tackling that attitude is uncomfortable, I'm not going to lie. I grew up vegetarian and was told the lie that the dairy industry doesn't hurt the cow. No matter the fact that male calves are culled immediately because they're "useless" (there's that attitude again!) or that the cows are living in squalid conditions. Let's ignore the fact that sometimes the milking machines malfunction and the udders start bleeding. No, we're not harming any cows!

(4/?)

chiraag, 27 days ago

The fact of the matter is that as soon as cow's milk became a commodity, cows became factories. Need more milk? Let's forcibly impregnate our cows. Male calf? Useless. Female calf? Let it have the minimum amount of milk (every drop it drinks is a drop we can't sell) and impregnate it as soon as we can (needs to start generating revenue). The egg industry isn't much better.

If this is uncomfortable for you, good! It's okay to be uncomfortable.

(5/?)

chiraag, 27 days ago

It is okay to be uncomfortable with the attitudes and choices that go into that glass of milk. It means you actually care about animals. So act on it.

Don't look away just because it's uncomfortable. Don't willingly blind yourself to the suffering that goes into that milk, yogurt, cheese, eggs, and meat.

We willingly exploit mothers of others species because the product "tastes good".

(6/?)

chiraag, 27 days ago

This mother's day, make a choice to stop exploiting animal mothers. Their suffering isn't worth all the delicious food in the world.

I want to end this by saying that I know the transition is tough. Once I decided I would go vegan, it took me almost 5-6 years to actually do it. I made sure I wasn't losing anything nutritionally (main concern).

(7/?)

chiraag, 27 days ago

I could no longer eat my favorite dessert (gulab jamun), at least not in restaurants. I could no longer eat naan (they add milk to it), at least not in restaurants. Most desserts are off-limits for me (I gave up egg almost immediately, so that one has been true for a long time for me), even at other people's houses (and I don't feel good mentioning it unless it's just us coming over).

(8/?)

chiraag, 27 days ago

But it's worth it. The fact that I'm not exploiting other animals feels good, and realizing how many products have animal exploitation built in (and how embedded it is in so many cultures) has been eye-opening.

It can definitely feel very hard, but keeping the reasons in mind can make it easier. Finding a community (IRL or online) can make it easier.

(9/?)

chiraag, 27 days ago

In summary: Go Vegan!

(10/10)

(go read the rest of the thread if you got here by the group or hashtag)

#Vegan @vegan

chiraag, 22 days ago

@opethminded @Free_Press Yes, Hamas has to go. No, bombing the everloving fuck out of all of Palestine and killing tons of civilians will not achieve that and only breeds resentment.

You cannot bomb Hamas out of existence because it rose to prominence due to perceived neglect of Palestinian rights by the previous ruling party. Want Hamas out? Agitate for ending Israeli apartheid.