#blood donation in the pandemic

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A Montana Republican is pushing a bill to bar those who have received a COVID-19 vaccine or suffer from "long COVID" from donating blood—a proposal some critics say could effectively eradicate the state's supply of blood.

Formally introduced in the Montana State Legislature on February 17, House Bill 645 proposes a misdemeanor offense for anyone who knowingly donates whole blood, plasma, blood products, blood derivatives, human tissue, organs, or bones containing "gene-altering proteins, nanoparticles, high-count spike proteins from long COVID-19, or other isolates introduced by mRNA or DNA vaccines, mRNA or DNA chemotherapies, or other novel mRNA or DNA pharmaceutical biotechnologies."

The legislation, which has yet to receive a committee vote, comes over what the bill's sponsor, Representative Greg Kmetz, described as fears from his constituents of ensuring a "safe" blood supply—even as experts assert that it is safe to donate blood after receiving a COVID vaccine or being diagnosed with COVID.

"Many of my constituents question just because we hear these two words, 'safe and effective,' a million plus times, does that make them true?" Kmetz asked colleagues in a hearing on the bill last week. "[...] These are the people that are concerned about our blood supply. These are the people that put me in this office. These are the people that I represent."

Kmetz has been backed by fellow Republicans, Rep. Jodee Etchart, who is the bill's requester, and Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway.

Many of the concerns pushed by the bill's proponents often cited uncredible or even biased information to support them.

Some who testified in favor of the bill claimed, without evidence, that friends and family died prematurely as a result of receiving the vaccine. There is currently no proof linking the COVID vaccine to premature death.

Another woman cited a Facebook post pushing claims that COVID-19 vaccines turned the blood of embalmed corpses into fibrous clots, a finding medical fact checkers have already debunked as the result of a heavily flawed study.

Others cited concerns over a spike in myocarditis cases among teens who received some types of vaccine, which U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data found to be rare.

Meanwhile, opponents of the bill, which included multiple medical professionals, said its language was overly broad and would, in effect, decimate Montana's blood and organ donor supply.

According to data from the CDC, approximately two-thirds of Montanans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while just 3% of eligible donors nationwide donate blood. Cliff Numark, the Senior Vice President of Donor Services for blood supplier nonprofit Vitalant, said the bill would cause "devastating harm" to the state's healthcare system, and potentially reduce the state's overall blood supply by as much as 80%.

Numark said there is no test available to verify whether the vaccine was in someone's bloodstream, making the bill impossible to comply with if passed into law.

In recent weeks, Vitalant has urged blood donors to come forward amid a shortage that has been worsened by adverse weather. Nationwide, the American Red Cross, which in January 2022 declared its first-ever blood crisis, says that someone in the U.S. needs blood and/or platelets every two seconds.

"Our blood is safe," Vicky Byrd, CEO of the Montana Nurses Association, told lawmakers. "Our scientists and our practitioners, we have to trust them. We know what they're doing."

While COVID-19 patients are barred from donating blood while infected with the virus—primarily because of the precondition for donors to be in "good health" when donating—all blood donation groups and the American Red Cross have maintained that it is safe to donate blood after receiving the vaccine.

"Blood donations from individuals who have received a COVID-19 vaccine approved or authorized for use in the U.S. are safe for transfusion," Red Cross officials told Newsweek in a statement.

"Similar to other vaccines such as those for measles, mumps or influenza, COVID-19 vaccines are designed to generate an immune response to help protect an individual from illness, but vaccine components themselves do not replicate through blood transfusions or alter a blood recipient's DNA."

"In summary, there is no scientific evidence that demonstrates adverse outcomes from the transfusions of blood products collected from vaccinated donors and, therefore, no medical reason to distinguish or separate blood donations from individuals who have received a COVID-19 vaccination," they said.

Though the bill's opponents said there was no evidence to support a ban on vaccinated donors giving blood, the bill's proponents said that was because studies have not yet been done.

From a practical standpoint, Numark said a ban would result in "unnecessary and unconscionable" death.

"This house bill would criminalize the act of attempting to altruistically donate blood," Numark said. "It would decimate the blood supply."

Newsweek reached out to Greg Kmetz for comment.

#us politics #news #newsweek #2023 #montana #republicans #conservatives #gop #gop policy #gop platform #blood donations #covid vaccine #covidー19 #coronavirus pandemic #coronavirus vaccine #Montana Legislature #long COVID #House Bill 645 #Greg Kmetz #Jodee Etchart #Lola Sheldon-Galloway #center for disease control and prevention #Cliff Numark #Vitalant #American Red Cross #Vicky Byrd #Montana Nurses Association

[strawburrymeadows]

hey guys is it. normal. to have the place you donated blood to, tell you the wrong blood type?

#they said ‘u have a positive blood!!!!’ #bitch i have o pos??? #like im fairly certain i have o positive #we had a whole convo about it at dinner during the pandemic #bc i think most of my family is all the same #and we’re not the universal donor but we’re the most common blood type which is o pos #maybe ive been wrong my whole life #berryspeaks #tw blood #cw blood #blood donation

[udaywaghmare]

#समाज_सुधारक_संत_रामपालजीDuring these testing times of the pandemic #many blood donation camps #body donation camps have been organized und

[fullcreationgladiator]

#During these testing times of the pandemic #many blood donation camps #body donation camps have been organized under the guidance of Social

[veryintricaterituals]

I am Jewish, what does that mean?

I was born in Colombia on the 49th anniversary of Hitler's suicide, I was raised here but I lived in Israel for about four years. I am not white, I don't look white, and my first language is Spanish. I came back to Colombia three years ago because of the pandemic.

I grew up Jewish and swallowed all the pro-Israel propaganda, I moved there looking for better opportunities and somewhere safe where I could come out of the closet. It took me less than a month to understand where I really had ended up in. It wasn't so different from my own colonized third world country filled with violence.

I did my best, I voted against the current Israeli government four separate times, I worked with and was great friends with many Palestinians and Arab Israelis (there unfortunately is a difference), I went to protests, I donated blood, I donated food and money. I fucking hate Netanyahu with all my heart.

For two years I taught English at a low income school in Jerusalem where all my students were mizrahi jews (from Arab countries) whose families had been kicked out of various surrounding countries in the 20th century. When I spoke to their parents and grandparents they talked about Iran, Morroco, Egypt, Yemen, with such longing and they brought me the most delicious foods. (Two of my students were killed two weeks ago, kids, barely 18 now, much younger when I taught them, I remember them).

My great grandmother on my mom's side was born in Jerusalem and raised in Egypt until all Jews were expelled and she had to flee with my newborn grandfather. They ended up in Colombia because she spoke ladino (Jewish dialect that is close to Spanish) they were undocumented, without a nationality because Egypt had rejected them, they had to lie and pay for falsified documents in order to get a passport, I still have a Red Cross passport in my house with my grandfather's name that determines he has no home country.

My great grandparents on my dad's side were born and raised in Bielorrusia and had to escape with my newborn paternal grandfather from the progroms after they destroyed their shtetl, they tried to make it to the US but they wouldn't take any more Jews so they ended up in Colombia.

My great grandmother on my paternal side was born in Romania, at the age of 12 she got on a boat with her 15 year old cousin, not knowing where it would take them. Her parents had both died and antisemitism was on the rise. She was so afraid that they were going to send her back that she threw her passport (that said JEW in capital letters) into the sea when they arrived at the port of a country she had never heard of, to this day we don't know when her birthday was.

My maternal grandmother is Colombian, she was born and raised here, Catholic until she converted to marry my grandfather, and yet when I went looking up our family tree I found we came from Sephardic Jews that had been expelled from Spain almost 500 years ago by the inquisition.

There are less than 400 Jews in my city that homes over 4 million people. My synagogue has been closed since October 12th, our president has equated all of Israel with Nazism on multiple occasions in the last few weeks. The kids that go to our tiny Jewish school have stopped wearing the uniform so that they cannot be identified. Ours is one of the countries with the least amount of antisemitism in the world. Someone in my university saw my Magen David necklace and screamed at me to go back where I came from. I went online and saw countless posts telling Israelis to do the same.

I am Jewish, I am latina, I am gay. My story is complicated, my relationship with my community is complicated, my relationship with my country is complicated. My relationship with G-d is complicated, my relationship with Israel is incredibly complicated. My history is complicated.

I am Jewish. What does that mean?

#this is my story #jewish people are complicated #our stories are complicated #please reblog #judaism #jumblr #jewish #israel

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week

😷 - Mask off, but guard up! Seems like we're out of the tunnel

1. Abandoned dog seen wandering Detroit streets with stuffed toy rescued, now receiving care

An abandoned dog is preparing for a new home after animal rescue groups spent days trying to find her when she was spotted wandering Detroit with a stuffed toy. Nikki's owner recently died, and she was left to wander the streets with her favorite toy. 

As Nikki receives her care, the animal workers are making sure she is ready to head to her foster home. Almost Home is collecting donations to help pay for the treatment and Niki's care. Donate here.

2. New foster care agency matching LGBTQ+ kids with queer carers to become ‘their amazing, wonderful selves’

A new foster care service has been launched to help match LGBTQ+ young people with supportive carers and families in the South East of England. Apex Q, a service from agency Apex Fostering, will help encourage more LGBTQ+ foster carers, provide training and create more placements for queer children.

Apex Fostering, which covers north and east London as well as several southern counties, including Hertfordshire, Essex and Cambridgeshire, launched in 2021 and claims to have already placed more than 60 young people with foster families. 

3. Newquay Zoo celebrates birth of rare 'warty' piglets

A pair of rare piglets has been born at Newquay Zoo in Cornwall. The Visayan warty pigs, named for the three pairs of fleshy "warts" on the boar's face, which protect it while fighting rival pigs, are part of a breeding programme at the zoo.

The species lives in the forests of the Philippines, where there could be as few as 200 animals left.

4. New Alzheimer's drug slows disease by a third

We could be entering the era of Alzheimer's treatments, after the second drug in under a year has been shown to slow the disease. Experts said we were now "on the cusp" of drugs being available, something that had recently seemed "impossible".

The company Eli Lilly has reported its drug - donanemab - slows the pace of Alzheimer's by about a third.

5. Covid global health emergency is over, WHO says

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that Covid-19 no longer represents a "global health emergency". The statement represents a major step towards ending the pandemic and comes three years after it first declared its highest level of alert over the virus.

But Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the virus remained a significant threat.

6. Doctors have performed brain surgery on a fetus in one of the first operations of its kind

The baby’s condition, known as vein of Galen malformation, was first noticed during a routine ultrasound scan at 30 weeks of pregnancy. The seven-week-old is one of the first people to have undergone an experimental brain operation while still in the womb. It might have saved her life.

Before she was born, this little girl developed a dangerous condition that led blood to pool in a 14-millimeter-wide pocket in her brain. The condition could have resulted in brain damage, heart problems, and breathing difficulties after birth. It could have been fatal. The baby girl was born healthy. She didn’t need any treatment for the malformation.

7. Lastly, watch this father stork brings a blanket to warm up mother stork

----

That's it for this week :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Also don’t forget to reblog. SUBCRIBE HERE for more good news in your inbox

#best news of last week #Youtube

[anonymouspuzzler]

it's the Fizzlebeans!!!! (and some Chandlos, sometimes.) we love the Fizzlebeans here. and by "we" of course I mean "me". I love the Fizzlebeans.

many of these and other comics I'll be posting later came from prompts from @incorrectbugsnaxquotes, thank you for unwittingly and inadvertently powering me creatively through like half the pandemic

(alt text/image IDs under cut!)

[Image 1 ID: 2-panel comic of Floofty and Snorpy speaking. In the first, Snorpy is seen from the back, with Floofty reaching out to grab his shoulder with one hand and gesturing at themselves with the other, saying, "You can trust me. Let's not forget who pulled you out of the river when we were six." In the second panel the perspective has flipped so Floofty is seen from the back, and Snorpy, grimacing, is lowering their hand away from his shoulder with one hand, saying, "Let's not forget who pushed me in."]

[Image 2 ID: 2-panel comic of Snorpy and Floofty. In the first panel, Floofty is barely visible in the background sitting at a desk around a corner, while Snorpy is in the foreground grabbing his face and looking embarrassed and panicked, saying, "I think I have feelings for Chandlo". In the second panel, Floofty leans back so their face is in view to say "Congratulations! You're the last to know." Snorpy, in the same position as the first panel, glares back at them over his shoulder.]

[Image 3 ID: 3-panel comic of Snorpy and Floofty. In the first, Snorpy is in the far foreground holding a pencil, likely working at a drafting table, glancing over his shoulder as Floofty walks in the door looking frustrated and gesticulating wildly with one arm in the air, shouting "I am NEVER donating blood AGAIN". The second panel cuts to a close shoulders-up shot of Floofty, gesturing with one hand and scowling, saying, "The second you walk in the door it's just questions". In the third panel, they've lifted both hands to make mocking quotation marks, revealing their left hand is holding a bucket full of blood as they continue, "Like, 'where did you get it?' and 'why is it in a bucket?'"]

[Image 4 ID: 2-panel comic of Floofty and Snorpy. In the first, Floofty is sitting on the edge of their bed with their legs pulled up, covering their face in shame. Snorpy sits next to them and awkwardly pats their back in an attempt to be comforting, saying, "Don't worry. Just because you opened up a little doesn't mean everyone will be less afraid of you." In the second panel, Snorpy, looking in the opposite direction looking anxious, continues, "They're all still terrified." Floofty, looking genuinely relieved, puts their hands in their lap and leans against Snorpy's shoulder, saying, "Thanks, Snorpy."]

[Image 5 ID: 2-panel comic of Floofty, sitting at a desk working on a typewriter, and Snorpy, sitting on the floor behind them. In the first panel, Floofty is facing away from the camera working while Snorpy, looking overwhelmed, clutches his head and says, "My mind is like an internet browser". In the second panel, Floofty has turned in their chair to look at him and say, "Explain". Snorpy, now lying in a heap on the floor, responds, "15 tabs are open, 7 of them are frozen, and I don't know where the music is coming from".]

[Image 6 ID: Snorpy, looking terrified, standing behind Floofty, pointing and saying, "Did you just refer to that knife as a 'Grumpus Opener'?" Floofty, looking totally nonplussed, pulling on a medical glove and holding a comically large knife, looks back at him over their shoulder and replies, "Should I not have?"]

[Image 7 ID: Snorpy, leaning against a wall with one hand and gesticulating with the other, looking nervously down at Floofty and saying, "I'm about to speak to you very vaguely about a problem that I have, and you can't ask me any questions or details about it." Floofty, sitting on the ground with their back to the wall, not even looking up from the book in their lap, replies, "Besides no conversation, this is the ideal conversation for me to participate in."]

[Image 8 ID: Three-panel comic of Floofty and Snorpy, with no dialogue, based off a scene from Lilo and Stitch. In the first, Floofty is screaming and stomping around, arms in the air, tossing papers everywhere, while Snorpy cringes away behind them. In the second, Snorpy throws a lei over Floofty's head, making them stop mid-rampage with a surprised look and arms still in the air. In the third, Floofty has fallen on their back quietly like a cat in a harness, while an exhausted Snorpy glares down at them.]

[Image 9 ID (BUGSNAX SPOILERS IN DESCRIPTION): A three-panel comic of Snorpy based on a scene in Arrested Development. In the first, Snorpy is at the open fridge with a glass in one hand, removing a paper bag with a taped-on note reading "LEFT LEG, DO NOT EAT! - FLOOFTY". In the second, Snorpy, scowling, opens the bag and looks down into it. In the third, Snorpy, looking utterly exhausted and nonplussed, says simply, "I don't know what I expected."]

[Image 10 ID: A drawing of Snorpy, Chandlo and Floofty based on a meme. Chandlo, back to the camera, is embracing and kissing a smiling Snorpy, who is holding a drink with a straw in the hand closest to the camera. Floofty, crouched behind Chandlo and looking directly into the camera, takes a sip from Snorpy's drink.]

[Image 11 ID: A two-panel comic of Floofty, Snorpy and Chandlo, based on a scene from Parks and Rec. In the first panel, Floofty, standing in a kitchen, grimaces and says, "Are you eating turkey chili off of a frisbee?" In the second, it cuts to Snorpy and Chandlo sitting on the ground in a pile of laundry, doing exactly that. Snorpy, sitting on the left cross-legged with his bangs sloppily tied up out of his face, holds one frisbee in his left paw while not even bothering to look up at Floofty. Chandlo, next to him, looks back at Floofty with a big delighted smile, holding another frisbee in one hand and their only fork in the other.]

[Image 12 ID: Puzz's fan-design for, from left to right, Chandlo's dad, Chandlo's mom, Snorpy and Floofty's mom, and Snorpy and Floofty's dad. Chandlo's dad is short and stout with light yellow-green fur, a big round red-brown nose, brown eyes, rounded teeth, and wearing an orange construction helmet and brown toolbelt. Chandlo's mom is light green, taller but strongly built with a slightly cinched waist, curly teal-gradient hair in a sloppy bun with bangs that cover one eye, tired yellow-brown eyes, a pink triangle nose, tusks, pink lipstick and a beauty mark on the right side of her muzzle. She is wearing a pink tube top, a yellow skirt with pink and purple flowers tied at her left hip, and a necklace with a swirly lavender shell. The Fizzlebean mom is purple and very tall with long legs, long dreadlock-style hair that gradients from very pale lavender to dark purple, a light purple pear-shaped nose, dark purple eyes with glasses, and upwards-pointing tusks. She is wearing a lab coat and a neck lanyard with an ID badge. The Fizzlebean dad is short with stocky limbs, yellow and pear-shaped, an orange yam-shaped nose, orange short dreadlock-style hair, orange-brown eyes with round glasses, marshmallow-shaped tusks, and a slight orange goatee. He is wearing a forest green collared polo shirt and yellowish-brown work gloves.]

#Anonymous Puzzler art #bugsnax #snorpy fizzlebean #floofty fizzlebean #chandlo funkbun #bugsnax spoilers #tw for blood and knives in a couple of these but all in good fun #Anonymous Puzzler originals #incorrectbugsnaxquotes

[stories-untold]

The plight of the Palestinians (an unfair fight against dehumanisation, and the impact of our activism)

before I start, I want to preface by saying that, I'm not writing about the Palestinian genocide because I find it fascinating in some morbid way, or for any other fucked up reason. I'm writing this because I love to write, and I want to be able to use my love for writing as a means to amplify the Palestinian cause, as everyone should with their talents or hobbies, if possible. (I know no amount of words that I've written here could be enough for the lives we've already lost, so I'll just keep writing until I physically can't anymore. my heart goes out to evey single Palestinian. ) also, my thoughts were a extremely jumbled bc the Palestinian cause is extremely important to me, so I apologise if its not the smoothest read through.*also, I have a public Palestine playlist on tiktok, with over 2000 tiktoks filled with information, ways to help, and every gofundme that I come across, and I would be an idiot to not use this post as a way to ask you to check it out (my username on tiktok angelwingsdotcom, no need to follow me just save the playlist) thank you, and free Palestine 🇵🇸‼️*

there's a very depressing pattern that's hard to miss while watching the Palestinians displaced within Gaza as well as their families outside of the country ask people to donate to their gofundmes or PayPal accounts, and it speaks to a much larger issue. they must always try to convince the viewer that they to, are worthy of living a normal life, through self humanisation as a direct pushback to dehumanisation that they face by the hour. they speak of the ages of their youngest children, the ailments and disabilities of their family members, and talk of their hobbies, jobs and likes and dislikes, and it serves as a reminder. a reminder that they are all human, as are we, the ones on the other side of the screen, safely away from the carnage that they face at the hands of the "Israeli" offense force. I find myself being disgusted at the world that they need to do this, use a love for video games, or a 10th birthday missed, or the cries of a newborn baby, to contextualise that this genocide is happening to real people, kind people, undeserving people.

the global pandemic of apathy is currently attempting to bury any sense of solidarity we have amongst each other alive, shovel in its bloody hands. the amount of people who vehemently refuse to boycott any brand, with a shrug of their shoulders and a swift "I have my own problems, and I don't live there so." stands between the space of distressing, delusional, and blood curdling. since when did the metric for whether or not you should care about the ethnic cleaning of a people, depend on your proximity to them? how can any living, breathing, feeling person watch on and see the corpses of lives that we will never be able to get back even if a ceasefire is called tomorrow, and decide to simply not care? I ask these questions rhetorically, because I don't want to hear anything from someone who does not care about the lives of others.

sustenance of the self is extremely important, that is something I acknowledge, but the acts that one can undertake in order to support the Palestinian cause are so simple, that they should not incite so much defensiveness from those who have their own internal issues. all it takes is a repost here, a comment or a follow, lending and an eye and an ear to bare witness to the atrocities that Palestinians are being subjected to the IOF and the billions given to them by the USA (a country which had many issues of its own, none that will be fixed by the relocation of money to an active genocide), boycotting pressure targets and finding alternatives of which there are plenty. all these acts culminate towards the eventual true freedom of Palestinians, and yet, people refuse. individual efforts are deemed useless, and people are able to comfort themselves in their apathy through the belief that their efforts would nevertheless be in vain. but that could not be further from the truth.

its incredibly easy to feel useless when watching the violence being inflicted by isnotreali murderers posing as soldiers on Palestinians in real time, but I want to remind you that each little action you take helps. I remember a few months ago, my brother asked what I thought I was doing by boycotting McDonalds when almost no else in the country is, and my answer was simple. I don't care what others do, I know what and who I care about, and I care about Palestinians, and they asked me to boycott, so I will. and my boycotting, however small it is on an individual scale, is made so much more impactful by people who similar beliefs, thus making my boycott significant through unity. and that is the one weapon we can wield against our oppressors, togetherness. they try to convince that you can't do it alone, and the truth of the matter is that you can't. but you're not doing it alone. I'm just a girl living in South Africa, and you're probably somewhere else in the world, and yet, your and my efforts mixed with everyone around the world, will incite change, do not be discouraged or manipulated into believing that you are not helping, because you are, no matter how small your effort may feel.

if your individual effort truly didn't matter, then zionist would simply turn the other way, and yet, they consistently parrot each other "boycotts don't do anything" "reposting a video isn't gonna help anyone" but they know the power of people standing together. they use it too, flocking to pro Palestine posts and floding the comments with the same falsified information and zionist rethoric, and if they can he united in their hate, then surely we can do the same. so keep posting, keep commenting and sharing, keep donating, and keep your eyes on Palestine, because you mean so much more to the people currently in gaza than you could ever know.

the goal of zionism is not to get people to hate Palestinians or Arabs, the end goal is disinterest. they want people to hold their tears and roll their eyes when they hear the cries of a Palestinian baby, and the current generation is already so uncaring even with no ties to zionism. its disgusting, and the attitude of "what can I do?" only works to aid the zionist agenda. its especially disheartening to Palestinians displaced within gaza right now, as they only have us to count on. they've pleaded with us to listen, and given us simple instructions, it is truly the humane thing to do to follow them. my fyp is almost exclusively Palestinian informational videos, updates, and gofundmes, and that's thanks to my personalised algorithm. but if I were to take this very platform as an example, 3 or 4 months ago, Palestine was first on trending, but now it isn't even in the top ten. people are losing interest, and it's heartbreaking.

people are even going as far as to defend others for not using their platforms to speak on the Palestinian genocide and its truly mind-boggling to witness. they deflect by asking why we put pressure on influencers and celebrities instead of politicians, but I can't help but wonder, since when were the two mutually exclusive? I've seen countless videos of protesters interrupting politicians during events and calling them out for not only being complicit in genocide, but actively defending and funding it. we can do both, and I refuse to be shamed for expecting people who have large audiences to do the right thing, the humane thing, and speak on the genocide of Palestinians. if anything, all the celebrities and influencers staying silent, whether it be for money or to keep their status within the entertainment industry, or simply because they couldn't be bothered to care, they should be ashamed.

it's obviously impossible and frankly unhealthy to be consuming the harrowing updates and videos of corpses run over by IOF tanks, the bodies of starved babies, and the blood in the hands of parents who cry for the children to wake up, and that's not whats expected of you. find a balance that works for you, that's vital. but completely taking your eyes away from the genocide, muting the word Palestine, and carrying on exactly as you were before the genocide started, isn't the answer. please, use social media to help Palestinians, it's easy, it's effective, and people are counting on you.

Palestine will be free, and having a small hand in their eventual freedom, is worth so much more than fame, or money, or a big mac, or coffee. even in the midst of a genocide, Palestinians continue to exhibit a care for others, they help those around them, use the tiktok sounds dedicated to other genocides and crisis around the world, and they always express their gratitude for people donating, liking, commenting and sharing. they show more humanity and kindness than us who are sitting comfortably in our homes, not constantly surrounded by rubble, blood, screams and cries for help, and drones flying above, remnants of what once was. they deserve to live, and we should not need convincing of that irrefutable fact. I am not in proximity to Palestine location wise, I'm not Palestinian, or Muslim, or Arab. but I don't need to be, and neither do you.

Free Palestine.

#palestine #free palestine #free gaza #palestinians #free palestine 🇵🇸 #i stand with palestine 🇵🇸 #from the river to the sea 🇵🇸 #free gaza 🇵🇸 #فلسطين 🇵🇸 #free 🍉 #palestine 🍉 #watermelon 🍉 #🍉 #donations #gofundme #free #motaz #essay #essay writing #united nations #tiktok #writers on tumblr #disney #mcdonalds #starbucks #pizza hut #gaza genocide #gaza strip #gazaunderattack #gaza

[direwolfrules]

Hey, so I always promised myself I wouldn’t do this, especially not with anything that could be traced back to my real name and stuff, but then this happened, so.

I do cat rescue. I’ve done it since the beginning of the pandemic, everything from trapping to fostering to adopting them out. A few months ago, I trapped this litter of three week old kittens and their feral mom. We got the babies weaned, got mom fixed, and focused on getting the babies socialized, fixed, and adopted out.

There were three kittens in the litter, Juliet, Francois, and May. May was the sweetest, and also the most docile of them. When we introduced two new similarly aged friends, May was the first one to accept them. She’d sit with me when I was sick and snuggle with my mom when her arthritis flared, and she tried to comfort my dog Amy when she began to become paralyzed.

Juliet and Francois grew big, and quickly. May was always rather small, and the vet always said she was just the runt, and since her mom was small we shouldn’t worry. When we were finally able to get her fixed she was slow to wake from anesthesia, but the vet said some cats just metabolize it weird.

We got her adopted out to an amazing couple. Love those guys, they’re so dedicated to their cats’ well-being it frankly restores my faith in humanity.

A few days ago, May experienced some severe disorientation and uncharacteristic aggression, so they rushed her to the emergency vet where she was diagnosed with a congenital liver shunt. Her blood is bypassing the liver, meaning it’s not getting filtered and toxins are building up in her body. The surgery to fix this is expensive even without the cost of the imaging needed, or the medications she’ll be on during recovery. We’re working on an application to this organization that’ll absorb most of the cost, but we’re not counting on it.

If you can, please donate. If you can’t, please reblog.

#fundrasier #fundraising #gofundme #go fund me #cat #cat rescue #cat illness #kitten #please help #please donate #kitten rescue #tnr #trap neuter release #donate if you can #please consider donating

[gentlelarkspur]

This is my cat Hank. He's 9 years old and I love him like the stars.

Hank was diagnosed with lymphoma this week. It took about a month of blood tests, ultrasounds, a cytology, and an oncology visit.

I adopted Hank when I was in the middle of a mental health crisis, and I just needed something to give me a reason to be here. I drove from Los Angeles to Riverside CA because I had seen a gorgeous long-haired lilac pointed kitten that was going to be at a rescue event. By the time I got to the event, that kitten had already been adopted, but I stuck around to look at the others. My sister had come out to help me choose a kitten, and she was actually the one who picked up Hank. He crawled all over my sister and I and sat on my shoulder purring, and that's when I decided to take him home.

My sister is also the one who named him. We were both watching The Vlogbrothers together, and she named him Hank because he was curious, friendly, and loved "talking". He hates being alone, and you can always find him in a five foot radius of me or mom.

It doesn't matter what you're doing, he needs to be the center of attention. Which is only fair, I mean look at him:

Hank has seen me through a severe mental health crisis, my mother's stroke, two years of treatment for an autoimmune disorder that wrecked my body, the worst of the pandemic, and my bother's suicide. He means the world to me. The fact that a bunch of imaginary numbers in a computer somewhere can determine whether he even gets a CHANCE to beat this cancer is a horrific, awful thing that is tearing my heart apart. I can't do this alone.

Please reblog this.

Please share it.

If you're in a place to do so, please consider donating.

I know he's just one small cat in a world full of people and animals in need. But I'm the only voice this little furball has, so I'm pleading on his behalf: please help me help him have a fighting chance. There's no guarantee he can beat it, but without treatment then there's no chance at all. I am doing everything I can, but I can't do it alone.

Thank you.

#please share #emergency #urgent #pet care #cats of tumblr #hank the cat #fuck cancer #lymphoma #cute cat #help me please #animal help #i need your help #viralpost #cute animals #pets #adorable #seriously I don't know what to put in the tags to get people to look at this so please help me by reblogging #I am literally begging for my cats life #I don't know what else to do at this point

[ts1depot]

Pottersville 1.0 Has Been Released

Well, I finally did it. I finally released the world that I've been agonizing over for the past three years ever since I ran into some glitches that were bound to be dealbreakers for players. It's why I spent so long trying to troubleshoot it. The irony about all the blood, sweat and tears is that I wound up learning so much about CAW that I'm now juggling several WIPs after I swore Pottersville would be my last world ever.

I'm still pretty much troubleshooting this world (and my computer), but rather than stall Pottersville any longer, I've decided to release it. It's why I'm calling it Pottersville 1.0, so I can leave room for any upgrades and fixes if needed.

Specifications:

It's very large, with 195 lots and over 120 sims.

It's very Showtime and Late Night-heavy, and requires all but University, Supernatural and Into the Future to run. It also requires Riverview from The Sims 3 store.

There might be some issues with Starlight Shores venues (Hoi Polloi, Binder Clips and Brotherhood of Fine Fellows) causing sound glitches. If any sound issues occur, maybe try importing fresh copies of those lots from SS.

If the world is too laggy from so much going on, remember, you can: kick out households, turn some lots into "No Visitors" or use Overwatch and other mods to help out.

Link to Download Here!

P.S. All feedback welcome, as Pottersville still seems to have glitches here and there. Any insight you could provide would be of great help!

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Please Consider Donating if You Like Pottersville and Want to Support TheSims Depot!

In all the years of running The Sims Depot.com, I've never asked for donations, because ads would pay for the webhosting fees. However, post pandemic, times have changed. Not only has ad revenue dried up, people are using ad blockers, which isn't fair to website owners or content creators. I know people hate ads (so do I), but remember that it's the ads that keep content free.

So, I'm asking for help. (Learn more on this page). Any amount will do; it doesn't matter. (Heck, give a penny if you'd like!) I'm not looking to get rich; it's just that I can't afford to keep hosting the site and creating content for free when it literally costs me money now.

I'm currently using paypal.me, but if people are too uncomfortable with this, I can set up a Patreon or something. Just let me know in the comments.

Thanks in advance! 💌

#create a world #pottersville #the sims 3 #sims 3 worlds #sims 3 caw

[tearsinthemist]

[nitewrighter]

A Charitable Request in the Holiday Season

Hey guys--

I’ve had a lot of trouble talking about this, because this is a blog followed by over 8000 people--lots of you beloved mutuals, lots of you readers who I may not follow but who I treasure just as dearly, people who followed me for shitposts who I also treasure but who are probably like “who are you again?,” probably a decent percentage following because my queue ensures fairly consistent updates to your dash (those last two probably have a solid amount of overlap), and porn bots and no small amount of deactivated accounts, probably---but like... because it’s 8000 people, that makes it very difficult to talk about this, because it’s something deeply personal to me, and basically... it’s one of those situations where talking about it just kind of re-traumatizes you about it. And I’m already in a big family where I have Auntie X and Cousin Y constantly asking me about this shit with absolutely no care as to how much it exhausts or fucking re-traumatizes me, because, as I tell myself over and over, it’s not about me.

My mom was diagnosed with lymphoma last year. As far as diagnoses go, it’s optimistic--and I know my mom’s a fighter and she’s got this big-ass (exhausting-ass) family backing her up. But it’s still this terrifying, awful thing that lurks at the back of your mind, a part of yourself constantly mentally preparing for shit to get worse. And while we’ve been tracking it throughout the year, we recently switched Oncologists, and our cool shiny new oncologist basically went “Oh yeah, no the last guy was good, but also? We gotta start treatment immediately” which, as you can imagine is a very hard thing to hear right before your Library Science Master’s Program graduation ceremony, let alone fucking Christmas. 

So, it is with that in mind that I ask, with the charity of the holiday season in mind, that, if you can, please donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Basically the major reason why my mom’s diagnosis was so optimistic was because there have been such amazing strides in cancer research in the last two decades, but as you can imagine, blood cancers are by nature autoimmune diseases, and that is really fucking scary in the midst of a pandemic. So I ask this not just for my mom’s sake, but for the sake of everyone who feels vulnerable in these times. Please donate. Don’t give me those silly tumblr crabs. Don’t give me another pair of checkmarks--please, please donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma society.

Also we’re all full of microplastics so it’s probably a solid investment, all things considered.

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week #049

1. First 100,000 KG Removed From the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Ocean Cleanup has been working on ridding the world of the GPGP since 2013. Its founder and CEO, Boyan Slat, said the company’s current cleanup platform, System 002, had collected 101,353kg of plastic since being deployed in August 2021. The cleanups swept a 3,000 square kilometer area of the Pacific, roughly equivalent to the size of Rhode Island or Luxembourg.

2. There are 40% more tigers in the world than previously estimated

It’s the Year of the Tiger, and a new population assessment offers some hope for the endangered species.

An estimated 3,726 to 5,578 tigers currently live in the wild worldwide — up 40% from 2015, according to a new tiger assessment from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Tigers are still considered endangered and remain on the IUCN’s Red List, which assesses endangered species.

3. Fourth patient seemingly cured of HIV

A man who has lived with HIV since the 1980s seems to have been cured in only the fourth such case, say doctors. He was given a bone marrow transplant to treat blood cancer leukaemia from a donor who was naturally resistant to the virus.

The 66-year-old, has stopped taking HIV medication. He said he was “beyond grateful” the virus could no longer be found in his body. The man is known as the “City of Hope” patient after the hospital where he was treated in Duarte, California.

4. Pennsylvania nurses receiving student debt cancellation

Nurses across Pennsylvania will begin receiving notifications next week about whether they are eligible for a share of the $55 million the state is making available to lower or erase their student loan debt.

The money for Pa. Student Loan Relief for Nurses Program comes out of state’s share of federal American Rescue Plan funds. This one-time offer will relieve selected state-licensed nurses who cared for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic at a Pennsylvania health care facility of up to $7,500 of student loan debt.

5. This beautiful blue parrot has returned to the wild 2 years after being declared extinct

After teetering on the edge of extinction, the beautiful Spix’s macaw has made its return to the wild, over two decades after the last bird was seen in nature. Eight of the bright blue parrots have been released into a protected nature reserve in Brazil.

“They’re doing absolutely wonderful. So far there is 100 per cent survival. The birds are all staying together as a group… They’re staying in around the release area. And they’re also beginning to forage on natural occurring foods,” biologist Tom White told The Current guest host Duncan McCue.

6. New research shows that signs of Alzheimer’s can be found in blood 17 years before symptoms begin.

A newly developed immuno-infrared sensor allowed researchers to discover biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease in blood samples 17 years before clinical symptoms appeared.

The goal is to determine the risk of developing Alzheimer’s dementia at a later stage with a simple blood test even before the toxic plaques can form in the brain, in order to ensure that a therapy can be initiated in time.

7. Drone lifeguard saves boy, 14, from drowning in sea in Valencia in Spain

A pioneering drone lifeguard has saved a 14-year-old boy from drowning in the sea in Valencia in Spain.

The drone lifeguard service, which has been rolled out across Spanish beaches, dropped a life vest into the sea this month that was able to keep the teenager afloat just as he started to sink, its operators have said. The vest kept the boy afloat until a physical lifeguard team arrived moments later.

...

That’s it for this week. This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

#Youtube

[vavuska]

The United States had only 12 mass shootings in the first 15 days of December

which is quite an archivement

considering that they haven't hit a number that low in the first 15 days of a

month since prior to the pandemic

But that low number means that NRA could be about to miss

one of its target for the year

That target being 730 mass shootings

because that would be a rather symbolic average of 2 per day

Now the NRA power comes from the circle of death that its funding provides

And that circle works like this

The mass shootings lead to more gun sales

More gun sales lead to greater donation to the NRA

by both gun manufacturers and gun owners

Those donations lead to more bribes given to right wing politicians

who then in turn turn that bribe money into blood money

when they release gun laws even further

leading to an increased amount of mass shootings

And the circle continues

We'll have to wait and see if the NRA hits that target of 730

But with Americans committing more mass shootings

on days where there's an increased alcohol consumption

like weekend and especially on major holidays

it definitely looks like it's a target they're going to hit on this year

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFWAJTVR/

#vavuskapakage #tiktok #tiktok repost #gun violence #gun control #mass school shooting #stop gun violence