What a roller coaster for the people caring for Charlotte. She has a lump that's probably a tumor, no it's eggs, no it's a baby, no it's a reproductive disease.

Unfortunately, that it's such a widespread characteristic means society can only maintain progressive institutions by figuring out a way to protect them from being considered "enemy other" by people like that. There are selfish reasons to support safety nets - treating infectious diseases in poor communities prevents transmission to wealthier communities, for example - but those reasons haven't been sold in a way to gain traction with today's conservatives.

It's common for retirees or others who are able to cover living costs without paid work to do unpaid work with their religious congregation or for local charities. Being a valued coworker doing work recognized as making the community better doesn't require being paid.

Alaska has had their Permanent Fund for decades, and it's not been shown to be inflationary. At some (I believe much) higher amount of money distribution, UBI would be inflationary, sure, but there's a lot of benefits to be had at lower support levels.

The public service should provide a universal floor for citizens. There are quasi-medical services like massage that both have medical benefits and are also used more as a spa treatment, and people with pets are finding pet medical insurance more attractive these days. I think areas like that can make more sense to keep private.

Unfortunately our morass of a healthcare system is deeper than insurance - medical device companies, big pharma (&PBMs), venture-capital-owned hospitals, and more all take their cut. Universal health care would not end the rip-off. But it would be an excellent first step.

I occasionally lurk on patriots.win, and the comments over there have become more skeptical, and now include some laments that their kids have stopped supporting Trump. I don't see any of them flipping to vote Dem the next election, but I have some optimism they will stay home and not vote at all.

It's not possible to approve all care. Taxpayers will, through representative lawmakers, allot a certain amount of money to healthcare, and within that budget, decisions must be made. The realistic goal is not to have every possible treatment always approved, it's to have a moderately high floor of care that everyone has as a baseline.

The most satisfactory setup seems to be great indirect and task lighting that is just as easy to turn on and off as the overhead. Requires lighting purchases and maybe installation, and maybe "smart" switches if there aren't switched outlets or other readily accessible places for the controls, which is a barrier. As an intermediate step, a different colored (warmer white) and less bright bulb in the overhead can make it more tolerable.

For the first forty years of my life, I could not understand people (including my mom) who disliked overhead lighting. Now, I would way rather fumble in the dark than have that stuff glaring at me (grudging exception if I am using a knife in the kitchen). It's become a minor source of friction with my husband. I don't understand what changed.

Many applicants use an AI service to do the copy-pasting for them. Who cares if it messes up 10% of the fields, if it enables 300 applications to be submitted per day?

My (cis female) birth certificate erroneously was filled out with "male". Same error happened on the birth certificate of my mother (who is also cis female). It's never caused either of us any problems. Schools enrolled us as female, driver's licenses say female, etc.

When I was in college in the early 2000s, my dad's mother helped me get a copy of my birth certificate, and was horrified her beautiful granddaughter was listed as male. She called up the county clerk and raised Cain, and then informed me it had been corrected. I've never needed to get a fresh copy since then, so I don't know for sure, but it sounded like the word of an angry old lady was enough to get an update filed.

Growing meat cells in a lab and selling them as food is illegal in the states you reference.

What Beyond does in processing plant material into something that resembles some meat products is still legal everywhere.

The intent of the law was to have something to charge corporate fraudsters with if they destroyed the accounting records with proof of their fraud when served a warrant. Or illegal drug manufacturers destroying their chemlab. Ownership of the property doesn't come into it.

The envisioned cases were always domestic crime investigations where there was already enough evidence to get a warrant. The application at customs where they don't need a warrant is the novelty, and I really hope the government loses its case.

I mean, enough that manufacturing of homogenizers is a thing. https://improbable.com/2021/05/13/shakespeare-and-the-whole-mouse-homogenizer/?amp=1

The ad features the comforting headline: “Only the Polytron reduces an entire mouse to a soup-like homogenate in 30 seconds”

When fertile, women have significantly increased mucus volume in their vaginas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cervix

Several hundred glands in the endocervix produce 20–60 mg of cervical mucus a day, increasing to 600 mg around the time of ovulation.

If the job need is for someone to maintain Linux servers running services that have to interface with Windows servers for related services, someone unwilling to interface with Windows could be a bad fit. Might have been a good choice for both sides to not continue with the interview.

The increase in diagnosis has happened in less than one generation. Genetic drift from altered reproductive behavior would take multiple generations. The speed of the diagnosis shift rules out social changes to mate selection and childbearing rates.

But the Democrats want to tie government funding to responsible environmental practices like reducing nitrogen fertilizer runoff and manure leaks, and they might mandate slightly less inhumane conditions for animals in feed lots. The horror! /s

Recent Democrat presidents have not gone after legal immigration the way the Trump administration has. And in recent years, the only proposed comprehensive immigration reform bills - to try to make the process less broken - have only had Democrat support.

You are correct the deportation numbers are similar, but the picture is bigger than just deportations.

An appeals court blocked the rule, and Trump's FTC had argued in support of it. They haven't appealed the ruling, though. https://www.businessinsider.com/ftc-blocks-subscription-trap-click-to-cancel-ftc-rule-2025-7

Trump's FTC filed a brief in March supporting the negative option and click-to-cancel rule, writing that consumers "face unnecessary obstacles from sellers who force them to endure multiple phone calls, long hold times, and countless automated menus. Studies show that most Americans pay hundreds annually for unwanted subscriptions."

FTC's commissioner Mark Meador took a different tone last week when he wrote in a post on X following the 8th Circuit's ruling: "The FTC's click-to-cancel rule, which would have made it much easier for consumers to get rid of unwanted online subscriptions, isn't going into effect for one reason: the Biden FTC cut corners and didn't follow the law. Process matters."

This suggests that the FTC likely won't appeal the ruling...