btw now feels like a good time to plug the organizations that the kissinger death tontine accepted donations-as-submissions from!
☞ Cambodian Children's Fund ☞ Desafío Levantemos Chile ☞ East Timor and Indonesia Action Network ☞ Guatemala Forensic Anthropology Project ☞ The Halo Trust ☞ Yemen Relief Project
It is probably the dirty story of history: that Catherine the Great (1727-1796), the lusty ruler of Russia, was so wild with sexual desire that one day she was screwing a horse when the harness broke and killed her. It's simply not true. Catherine liked officers of the Imperial Horse Guard, not the horses. Yes, Catherine also liked sex - one of her favorite toasts was "God grant us our desires and grant them quickly." This ruler of a vast empire had a dozen documented lovers (really, male mistresses) over her thirty-four years in power. But she had them one after another. This level of sexual consumption would hardly rate a footnote for most male monarchs; in fact, their virility might have been questioned. What was unusual about Catherine was how organized she was in selecting her lovers. She had a lady-in-waiting sample the man's prowess in bed and then she had a British doctor examine him for diseases. The young officer would soon be given 100,000 rubles and a country estate. No doubt what roiled foreign diplomats was that this woman, who was pretty when young, grew stout and gray, and at age sixty-two was still taking the likes of twenty-one-year-old Platon Zuboff to bed. That bred jealousies and rumormongering, and tales of horses. Actually, Catherine was one of the greatest and toughest female monarchs of all time: this German-born princess plotted the death of her dotty husband, Czar Peter III, she expanded the borders of Russia, crushed rebellions, built gorgeous palaces, and was a generous patron of the arts, corresponding personally with Voltaire and Diderot. How did she die? Catherine suffered a stroke on her way to the water closet and died on a straw mat three days later, with eyewitnesses there.
- "Catherine the Great and the Horse" from An Underground Education by Richard Zacks
In the instances when POC say shit like ‘Oh I can’t stand white folk’ or ‘Damn white people’, they aren’t saying ‘Oh I think they are inferior, I want to humiliate them, abuse them, enslave them and wipe out their people!’, they’re saying ‘Damn, after a couple hundred years of white people thinking I’m inferior, humiliating me, abusing me, enslaving me, and trying to wipe out my people, I don’t wanna deal with them.’ The context is completely different.
Briana
“but u guise reverse racism is real!!!1!!one!! im realy prejusidse against bcus im white every1 hatez me”
(via grrrlfoxxx)
THANK YOU.
(via theoceanandthesky)
A Palestinian girl holds a candle in front of her home during a power cut at the Jabaliya refugee camp, Gaza. Electricity is reported to be cut for 12 hours every day as part of a mains power crisis as a result of political and economic instability on the Gaza Strip. @Ali Noureldine
When Europeans discuss America:
Via Charles Augustus
COVID/SARS-CoV-2 basics
It is NOT seasonal, like the flu is.
Spreads through air, like smoke.
The 6 feet apart rule is no longer great prevention advice.
Handwashing is a great hygiene practice, but transmission via surfaces is unlikely.
Vaccines do NOT prevent transmission. They reduce symptoms and severity for some.
You can transmit [COVID] while completely asymptomatic. Around half of transmission is as asymptomatic or presymptomatic. Everyone's immune system is different.
Being indoors increases risk of transmission, but you can still get it in crowded outdoor spaces.
What is Long Covid?
Long Covid is a set of health issues after someone has COVID-19
New health issues, ongoing issues, or worsening of previous symptoms and conditions.
It is a biological disease that affects hundreds of millions of people globally. It is a mass disabling condition and crisis.
It can cause significant disability and can be fatal.
Anyone can develop it, and up to 10% of people with COVID will.
Severity of initial infection doesn't correlate to potential to develop Long COVID.
It can be very hard to get a diagnosis and proper treatment or care for Long COVID.
Every time you get COVID infection, you increase your chances of developing Long COVID.
How do we prevent Long COVID? Layers of protection
Masking.
Air filtration.
Ventilation.
Vaccines.
Testing (right now Aug 2024, rapid tests are only about 20% reliable. Try to test two times in 24-48 hours).
Nasal sprays before and after exposure. (little data on these being effective against COVID but some are choosing to use them until more research comes out)
Mouthwashes with CPC (Cetylpyridinium Chloride) before and after exposure. (Must be used for at least 60 seconds)