Random fact: Although jumping spiders can’t move their eyes, they can move their retinas to change their field of view. It’s as if they’re looking through a window.
If the spider is clear enough, you can even see the retinas moving through the cephalothorax:
80s Satanic Panic campaigner: Satan is LITERALLY lurking beneath every preschool, kidnapping thousands of children daily!
People in 2022: Haha, how silly. Who couldn’t see through that?
20s human trafficking campaigner: Gangs of Mexicans are just waiting to kidnap every well-off white lady in the suburbs. Thousands disappear every day, and the media doesn’t even mention it. You are in CONSTANT DANGER and the only way to stop it is banning all these things evangelicals hate
People in 2022: Whoa. This is so scary. I have to do something about this, the real threat of human trafficking. But first, let me threaten to get my undocumented maid deported if she reports anything we’ve done to her
Rebranding the Satanic Panic to be about “human trafficking” was the smartest move these people ever did, since no one wants to be against human trafficking victims, so they’ll be more credulous, even towards organizations that push paranoid conspiracy theories with very little relation to trafficking in practice, who stage dramatic but ultimately useless raids for the cameras (because when you’re helping traumatized children, it helps to be as loud and dramatic as possible) and show very little regard for any real victims they do rescue (for instance, releasing a bunch of rescued children after less than a week bc they had nothing at hand to help). You can be an outright QAnon guy and if you claim you’re helping “real” human trafficking victims instead of openly ranting about adrenochrome parties under pizza shops, people will treat you with kid gloves when you make a movie about how great you are, yes, this is about the organization the hit movie Sound of Freedom is about!
They’ve done all of these things, including releasing trafficked children in a matter of days bc they put all their thought into doing a big dramatic raid for the cameras and nothing into what to do with anyone they rescued. Oh, and they don’t actually verify that people are trafficked before launching a big, dramatic, violent raid to “rescue” them. And since they’re far-right, the list of things they consider “trafficking” is ever growing. All sex work, no matter how consensual, is trafficking in their eyes. No doubt soon enough they’ll be discussing “liberating” trans kids from their parents, if they haven’t already.
In the end, what these people have learned is that you can get away with McMartin-level nonsense if you just excise the Satanism from it and pretend it’s secular
Several years ago, someone was spamming fake accounts with urban legend style “look out, cops said people leave shirts on your car to ambush and traffic you at X local address” all over my state’s social media a while back. There is a false narrative and it is way too pervasive.
I don’t know what the goal of this was other than fear-stoking (unless you really believe that it’s actually worth it to IRL trafficking systems to fund this sort of thing, and not political tactics to establish that narrative for their own ends), but if you recall, there’s whole companies who dedicated themselves to social media manipulation for specific political motives so
yeah
be very careful about what people say happens, how it happens, and who’s doing what about that
Yeah, claims like that are everywhere. TikTok had a panic about “markings” being left in the snow outside houses that said “1F” or “1C” or the like - “one female” and “one child” respectively - as a message to traffickers, which revolves around a fantasy where traffickers are leaving very obvious signs with a clear, undisguised meaning where their victims can see them, and where they just…leave messages so someone can swing by and snatch them later? In snow? A medium that inherently gets covered up or melts?
And tons of people believed it and talked about how “terrifying” it was
“No doubt soon enough they’ll be discussing "liberating” trans kids from their parents, if they haven’t already.“
These people already believe that transgender is an abusive satanic practice. We can count on it.
the green peafowl is a large member of the pheasant family found in southeast asia. due to threats from the pet trade, hunting, and deforestation, the species has been listed as endangered since 2009. a diverse eater, this species feeds on primarily fruits, insects, and invertebrates. unlike the much more common indian blue peafowl, it is harder to distinguish the sexes of the green peafowl; outside of the breeding season, when the male loses the long, characteristic tail feathers, the coloration and plumage of the two sexes is very similar. they are also known for being much more difficult to keep in captivity than the indian blue peafowl.
So, this isn’t good, and it’s not normal, but this is something that can happen in even healthy snakes, with a few big qualifiers. This only really happens on ophiophagus (snake-eating) snakes, like this kingsnake, and it happens because they think they smell food and wind up biting themselves. This snake happened to bite at just the right angle to swallow their tail, and as they kept going, any pain they felt was dismissed as being from their “prey” biting them.
This snake is probably okay. As you can see in the video, they let go as soon as some hand sanitizer got in their mouth - snakes hate the smell and taste of the stuff.
Situations like this are very rare. This snake’s keeper did the right thing - it looks like they brought them to to the vet based on the table, and some hand sanitizer got them to let go with no issues.
i think also people who dont understand how “stacking some rocks sometimes” can be harmful have heard of the countless cases where “its just a little thing” has destroyed countless landmarks and parks
elafonisi’s pink sand beaches only retain 10% of the pink hues they used to retain just a few decades ago,
pig beach in the bahamas attracts people for being, well, the bahamas, and native pigs in the area can be found swimming to get around sometimes. people go nuts for the photo opportunity and forget these are wild animals- and youd expect it being the pigs killing people, but actually, people being too friendly caused a ban on feeding the pigs because seven of the poor things died after people figured “how bad could it hurt them if i give them just one?”
and these are just cases of something specific happening or being taken or given. thats not including people ruining and closing down entire tourist attractions, beaches, and parks by completely overcrowding it, disregarding rules, or trashing and littering the places.
like if someone preserving the park tells you not to do something you think is “harmless,” i swear they arent just doing it because they want to ruin your fun. maintaining these places is delicate work- its a privilege to see and visit these areas, not a right. please take care of the world around you whether youre very close or very far from home, okay?
it is not normal for grown men to find teenage girls sexually attractive. in fact, the older you get, the less attractive teenagers should become. i cannot believe people are arguing about this
humans are not “wired” to find younger people attractive. you are just poisoned by the normalization of pedophilia and capitalist ideals of beauty. your tastes are supposed to age with you.
Existing part-time workers will make a minimum of $21 an hour, if workers approve the new contract, the union said. Full-time workers will average $49 an hour. It would also end mandatory overtime on drivers’ days off, according to an outline of the contract provided by the Teamsters. UPS didn’t immediately confirm the potential new wages.
The tentative deal still faces a ratification vote by workers.
Highlights of the tentative 2023-2028 UPS Teamsters National Master Agreement include:
- Historic wage increases. Existing full- and part-time UPS Teamsters will get $2.75 more per hour in 2023, and $7.50 more per hour over the length of the contract. - Existing part-timers will be raised up to no less than $21 per hour immediately, and part-time seniority workers earning more under a market rate adjustment would still receive all new general wage increases. - General wage increases for part-time workers will be double the amount obtained in the previous UPS Teamsters contract — and existing part-time workers will receive a 48 percent average total wage increase over the next five years. - Wage increases for full-timers will keep UPS Teamsters the highest paid delivery drivers in the nation, improving their average top rate to $49 per hour. - Current UPS Teamsters working part-time would receive longevity wage increases of up to $1.50 per hour on top of new hourly raises, compounding their earnings. - New part-time hires at UPS would start at $21 per hour and advance to $23 per hour. - All UPS Teamster drivers classified as 22.4s would be reclassified immediately to Regular Package Car Drivers and placed into seniority, ending the unfair two-tier wage system at UPS. - Safety and health protections, including vehicle air conditioning and cargo ventilation. UPS will equip in-cab A/C in all larger delivery vehicles, sprinter vans, and package cars purchased after Jan. 1, 2024. All cars get two fans and air induction vents in the cargo compartments. - All UPS Teamsters would receive Martin Luther King Day as a full holiday for the first time. - No more forced overtime on Teamster drivers’ days off. Drivers would keep one of two workweek schedules and could not be forced into overtime on scheduled off-days. - UPS Teamster part-timers will have priority to perform all seasonal support work using their own vehicles with a locked-in eight-hour guarantee. For the first time, seasonal work will be contained to five weeks only from November-December. - The creation of 7,500 new full-time Teamster jobs at UPS and the fulfillment of 22,500 open positions, establishing more opportunities through the life of the agreement for part-timers to transition to full-time work. - More than 60 total changes and improvements to the National Master Agreement — more than any other time in Teamsters history — and zero concessions from the rank-and-file.
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