half-life 2 is free. all of half-life 2. go get it!

Eight-year-old Max Alexander holds the world record as the youngest runway fashion designer. He began designing at the age of four.

These dresses are honestly fire

The one made of all the different belts is awesome

This is because snow doesn't bounce sound waves like concrete does. When the world is like this it's LITERALLY quieter. The snow muffles sound

lot of you guys want to bleed to death in this photo!

THE FILLMORE EMPLOYEES TOLD ME TO LEAVE BECAUSE IT’S “NOT DECEMBER 19 YET” BUT I’M SIMPLY TOO SEATED

I hope we can all be mature adults here and agree that the Wow! signal was sent by aliens.

Seriously though…

The Wow! signal was one single impossibly strong radio signal picked up by the Big Ear telescope in 1977. We have never picked up a similar signal before or since, yet it remains the strongest possible evidence that we are not alone.

Back in the 70s computers didn’t have enough processing power to analyze all the information picked up by these telescopes, who would move back and forth across the sky 24/7. Instead SETI would get volunteers to go through mountains of printed-out data by hand and mark any numbers that stood out. One such volunteer was Jerry R. Ehman.

On the day Jerry was going through this data he’d mostly been marking 7′s and 9′s and 6′s - high numbers, likely from planets, comets, and other regular objects in space. Then all of a sudden, in-between a bunch of 1′s, there it was: 6EQUJ5. A radio signal so strong it broke the number scale and jumped straight to letters. 30 times stronger than background radiation. All he could do was write “Wow!” next to the observation.

Of course telescopes were immediately pointed in the direction of the signal, which was somewhere around the Sagittarius constellation. But it was never picked up again.

The signal was continuous in strength, and the only reason it seems to rise and fall in intensity is that the telescope was moving as it picked up the signal. When graphed it looks like this:

The observed rising and falling in intensity in time with the telescope’s movement means that the signal must have come from a fixed point in the sky. However, the fact that the signal was only heard once means that it can’t have come from a regular object like a star or a black hole, as we would’ve been able to hone in on that and pick it up again.

The signal was sent at a frequency of 1420 megaherz - the frequency of hydrogen. If you want to send a radio signal to a civilization that you know nothing about, you need to pick a frequency that the observers are likely to be looking for. You need to pick a benchmark, something that naturally emits radio waves at a set frequency, and that they will be familiar with. Hydrogen is the most abundant and the simplest element in the universe. Every scientist in the universe knows it. The frequency was and still is illegal to use on Earth because it’s considered significant to science.

Technically the signal was very slightly above the frequency of hydrogen - it was observed at 1420.4556 MHz. This could mean that the object that sent it is moving towards us (extremely slowly btw, we won’t make contact with it for another couple billion years at least). Or, more likely, it could mean that the source corrected the signal for red- or blueshift (a phenomenon where a wavelength increases/decreases due to various factors) before sending it. The latter explanation is most likely since the slight difference from hydrogen lines up with how the frequency would be corrected to line up with the galactic standard of rest.

Another reason we believe the signal was made by a civilization is that it’s narrow-banded, meaning it stays at its own frequency and doesn’t leak into other frequencies. The only known objects in space to emit narrow-band radiowaves are astrophysical masers - which, again, don’t behave like the Wow! signal did.

So in summary, this is a very powerful narrow-band radio signal that appears technological in origin and is sent at the exact frequency at which we would expect people to send a signal.

But like I said, the signal has never been picked up again. It might just have been a single burst. We still hope it might be periodic, but even if it is, we have no idea when it might repeat itself. The Big Ear was demolished in the 90s, and there are no projects exactly like it at the moment. We aren’t observing that single spot in the Sagittarius region 24/7. We simply can’t afford to.

If we can’t observe the signal, if we can’t study and verify the signal… the rule of thumb among astronomers is that it doesn’t really matter. It’s evidence of something, but it’s not proof of anything. If the signal is ever picked up again it will be proof that we are not alone. But until then, all we can do is speculate.

If the signal is extraterrestrial, it tells us that we aren’t alone. That somewhere on another planet there are scientists with a radio transmitter, who want us to know about them. Maybe the signal was their equivalent of the Voyager Golden Records or the Arecibo Message - we know no one can respond to those. But just the thought that someone else in the universe might know about us - might even be comforted by knowing that they’re not alone - is in itself comforting. All we can do is tell other people, over and over, that we share this universe, and just hope that they might one day respond.

Happy birthday to the Wow!-Signal

I don’t think any movie will make me feel the same ethereal sense of otherworldly sorrow and disembodied awe as that scene in Lord of the Rings where the loyal son is sent off into a doomed battle to please his vindictive father while Pippin sings a mourning song of his people

I was like 12 and high off this shit

These movies CHANGED ME

This is one of my favourite parts of the whole trilogy. It’s haunting.

And that Pippin takes actually a happy walking song of his people, because Hobbit songs are generally happy and about food and drink and gifts and things, and *transforms* it into a mourning song.

The song is from Fellowship, before all the heavy plot hits and they’re still in the Shire. It’s about walking, and how eventually all the bad things that scare or sadden you will fade away and you’ll be home warm by the fire.

And Pippin takes it, changes the lines, the key, and sings a song that is truly fit for Denethor’s great hall.

Knowing Billy Boyd gave his own melody to it and everyone had chills after hearing him sing it. This is how you get actors involved with the story and character, this is how amazingly well these films were cast. Fans have been singing that haunting tune in echoing halls and caves and towers for 20 years now and it never loses its beauty.

And even better: Billy Boyd composed the tune to the song and then performed it for Peter Jackson and everyone else while filming. They only did one take! That very first take is the one that’s used in the film! He’s just that good!!

Every now and then I like to pull up this video of Billy Boyd being endearing and silly and choked up about Boromir’s death scene, and then performing this song upon request:

I sing it as a lullaby to my children but I use the original “away shall fade” to make it less sad because they’re just babies. uwu

Not even my fandom and I have chills.

You know what, I’m not done. Every aspiring writer should watch that scene and keep in mind the axiom “every person is the protagonist in their own mind,” because Denethor and Pippin are having TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT CONVERSATIONS.

Here’s the translation of how it goes.

WHAT DENETHOR SAYS: can you sing, Master Hobbit?

WHAT DENETHOR MEANS: I want entertainment and you’re from far lands. That’s a novelty here.

WHAT PIPPIN HEARS: I don’t care that I just sent my son to his death. Entertain me.

WHAT PIPPIN SAYS: yes. Well, well enough for my own people. But we have no songs fit for great halls.

WHAT PIPPIN MEANS: yes. But not for you. And our songs aren’t for people who engage in such cruelty.

WHAT DENETHOR HEARS: yes, but I’m embarrassed because mine are simple folk, and you’re very grand and regal. There’s no way I could be of any use to you.

WHAT DENETHOR SAYS: and why should your songs be unfit for my halls? Sing me a song.

WHAT DENETHOR MEANS: we’re all equals culturally. I’m a benevolent ruler, I don’t think your songs are inferior to those produced by my skilled musicians. Let me engage with your culture.

WHAT PIPPIN HEARS: I have literally already forgotten about my son. I’m more interested in entertainment and food, things you normally adore and which I’m making a mockery of by my actions. So sing to me songs of those things you love, entertainment and food. My son doesn’t matter to me and shouldn’t matter to you.

And then Pippin sings.

WHAT DENETHOR HEARS: what a pretty little song.

WHAT PIPPIN IS SAYING WITH THE SONG: fuck you for doing this to your son, who I love. Fuck you for doing this to me, as I mourn. Fuck you for making a mockery of the things I love, when it’s clear you don’t care for them any more than you do for YOUR SON. Your child, who you should want to protect. If you won’t mourn in these halls, by everything I hold dear I swear SOMEONE will.

Pippin can’t say any of this out loud. But his word choices are extremely deliberate. And so are Denethor’s! He does not see himself as a bad person! I don’t know enough LOTR to know if he’s a villain or just an asshole, but the important thing here is HE THINKS OF HIMSELF AS NEITHER. He’s a good guy who’s had to make some hard choices, that’s all. It’s the editing that tells you he’s not actually that at all.

This is a MASTERCLASS in “everyone is their own protagonist” and if this is the standard the movies rise to all the time I understand why y’all love them so much, because holy shit. That’s incredible.

@lotrheritageposts

LOTR Heritage Post

this comment on a vid about elon musk was so good i had to save it

My physics professor just told the class the wildest story from when he was in grad school about building a high voltage unauthorized Tesla coil with the ability to kill a man

No I’m still not over this - this man along with two other graduate students rigged a Tesla coil and a faraday cage without a budget and the arcs of electricity that came off of it hit things in the room like exposed gas pipes. He found a thick piece of plexiglass that he sawed into smaller pieces, he found a screwdriver that he filed down to a sharp point, and he reasoned that by charging the plexiglass with a shit ton of excess electrons and striking it with the screwdriver-ice pick immediately after flipping the coil off but before the energy in the room had a chance to dissipate, they could see the physical path of the conducted electricity as it conducted through the excess electrons.

These men rigged up an empty storage closet in their lab with the faraday cage and Tesla coil and ran their little experiment. My professor ran into the room the instant the coil was turned off, grabbed the grounded screwdriver-ice pick, and stabbed the plexiglass millimeters away from the edge where he could’ve missed.

And it worked.

This man captured a god damn lightning strike in physical media. That shape is from the electricity breaking through the structure of the plexiglass. That’s literally the conduction path.

Anyway I was talking to one of the lab instructors about it and she put her head in her hands and literally groaned. “I wish John hadn’t told you that story.”

capitalism breeds innovation

Yeah that will do it.

improved

Tags via @bookdragon1811

@flammableengineering

By Talos, we found my namesake. 

So, people not familiar with electrical code may not fully understand how bad these things are. First of all, American electrical code is terrible when it comes to extension cords and power strips. Standard household outlets can handle a total load of 15 amps at 120 volts, which is 15A * 120V = 1800W. The problem is that electrical code only requires extension cords to be at minimum 18 gauge thickness (1.024 mm for those in sane measurement territory), which can only handle 13 amps at 120V. That means if you give it the full appliance load your outlet can handle, it may melt and catch fire. It gets even worse when you realize that some places, including most modern household kitchens, have 20A outlets. You can tell by the T-shaped left prong in the outlet.

Looking at the amazon listing for this thing, it has a dinky little thin cord, and as such the title says it’s only good for 900W. 900W is 7.5A at 120V. That’s only 50% of what electrical code requires, 37.5% of what you can draw from a 20A outlet.

That means if you plug in a single beefy appliance like a fridge, microwave, kettle, or toaster, this thing can catch fire. (Most of these appliances draw 1000 to 1500 watts when running.)

This thing has 56 outlets and 13 USB ports, meaning that in total, each of its 69 ports can only draw 13W each before you risk turning your Home Office Dorm Gaming Room into a fire. That’s hardly more than a basic phone charger, which usually draws 5-10W.

For extra funsies, let’s evaluate @citric-crow’s turbo fire hazard power strip, with 189 outlets and 13 USB ports. At 202 total connections, each one can only draw 4.45W before your outlet becomes outlen’t. Charging a single device from every single one of these ports will instantly draw enough power to melt the cable. Hell, you only need to plug something into 180 of the 202 outlets to hit the rated power.

Anyway, in the wise words of a post that crossed my dash earlier this week, “the first rule of load safety is have fun and be yourself.” Plug in whatever shit you want as long as you know the consequences.

So glad I decided to fact check this. I would have gone my entire life without knowing it was a Russian doll shark situation.

this was actually a really interesting murder mystery on its own even without the multi-shark eating each other situation. God damn that was a fucking wild story

Nobody mentioning the second murder???

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_Arm_case, btw

How does it feel to ask for a drink and instead you get a whole artistic experience.

so i dont usually go on reddit

but has someone on the dungeon meshi subreddit figured out more detailed recipe amounts of the pan-steamed bread that senshi makes in the orc episode?

once we run low on bread in my household I wanna make some anime-ass bread

This was gonna be a comment but it got too long.

So looking at the process, the steaming is completely incidental to the main cooking - it's the final step and I'm… genuinely not sure what it's doing. You do not steam baked goods at the end because it turns the crust rubbery.

I think what Senshi is actually doing is closer to baking - the vessel that far from the fire is as close to indirect heat as you're going to manage without an oven. I think what the writer means by "steaming," because we don't see him add any water to the pot neither in, is just letting the bread finish "baking" in the vessel. To get the finished product I think you actually want a dutch oven here.

And sure enough, if you google "campfire dutch oven bread" you get a very credible approximation of Senshi's final loaf.

You'd have to tweak it for a home oven and getting the "buns", but that process should yield you what you're looking for.

The extra bit of confusion is that the anime calls for "strong flour" in the English subs, which doesn't appear in the English dub, nor any scanlations I can find. That's broadly "bread flour" (as I'm sure you know, I'm just explaining for others), but the inconsistency is interesting. I'm also not convinced that bread flour is best for this.

If anyone has access to the original manga, they could check if Senshi says "強力粉" (strong/bread flour) or report what version of "粉" he uses.

okay so disclaimer that I'm not a professional baker first but:

gave me an incredibly close visual representation of senshi's camp bread, and the new place I've moved into has a small backyard and one of the household's miniature bbq seems to be back there.

It's winter right now but I could theoretically get some charcoal briquettes and do this as close as possible to the anime bread without having to light actual fires.

the next issue is this:

vs

now, it's not the yeast adjustment that has me, since I know by vibes at this point how to raise starters and levains to make up for volume and bacterial culture differences.

it's the milk and eggs.

one of the defining things about rolls, I find, is the softness that milk and butter add. senshi's recipe barely has any fat in it other than the olive oil from the fire trap, so I'd be losing a lot of softness. His recipe doesn't have egg either, so I'd be losing structure.

in addition to that, the liquid:flour ratio is very different. Roll recipes usually have around a 1:3 liquid to flour ratio (eg 0.5Cwater+1.5Cmilk:6C flour). I don't know what hydration level Senshi's starter is at but it looks pretty 1:1 from the comic and anime, meaning that his has around TWICE the liquid in it proportionally, since 160:250 is abouuut 1:1.5

......

you see THIS IS WHY I WAS HOPING SOME SUBREDDITOR FIGURED IT OUT FOR ME

I JUST DROPPED EVERYTHING TO DO M A T H

I sense an opportunity to pass on one of the greatest lessons my Scoutmaster taught me!

Counting coals for Dutch ovens is the normal method, but it's also really inconsistent! Different size lumps or briquettes, coals getting smaller as they burn down, etc! So here's what you should do instead: Rings!

Basically make a ring around the perimeter of your Dutch oven under the bottom, and then put the listed number of rings on the top! You'll get much more consistent heat, and better cooking results!!

This blog post goes into additional detail if you want it!

were doing this folks were making this happen

also I know @bitternest irl so we're gonna have a proper go at trying to get close to senshi bread as possible without fucking up its structure some time this week fingers crossed

Okay so, prelimnary-POC-that-I-didn't-think-would-work: done.

It, uh. Worked.

I legit cobbled this recipe together out of three separate ones, so there's a lot of room to improve, but here it is:

Ingredients

Steps (notice: if you don't have a stand mixer, I'm sorry, I'm useless at kneading and haven't done so manually in over a decade):

I think the double proof did the majority of the legwork here. The dutch oven is good for getting good steam early on, which is important for crust development and airiness, but there's no way in hell it would turn out this light and fluffy without a 2nd proof.

If others want to try variations, go nuts. Tomorrow I'll post the version of this made by a baker buddy using tangzhong, which was a "breakthrough" realization before this fucking recipe just... worked?!?!

Anyways, happy baking

wholly shit, TRULY

chino1moreno

This person is too good to do this for free.

I mean, stop motion animation is always impressive in the abstract; but it's even MORE impressive (at least to me) when we can see the person's hand holding the figure, and the figure is a poseable toy much like stuff I've played with as a child, and it's all taking place in what seems to be someone's home; that removes the distance of "oh film artists can do a lot of cool things" with its abstract respect, and brings it into the realm of "WOW this is a thing that real people are somehow able to do, with a lot of work".

Toyota just accidentally being good weapon platforms is a good ongoing meme

Just to give context for those who don’t know. Lmao.

a fucking WHAT

Hidrogen: Really Fucking Flammable™️

sorry if i’m being a party pooper but because rabies is apparently the new joke on here ??? please remember that rabies has an almost 100% fatality rate after symptoms develop so if you’re bitten or scratched by an animal that you aren’t 100% sure is vaccinated then GO TO A DOCTOR. it’s not a joke. really. 

You’re being kind when you say “almost 100% fatality”. What people need to hear is: if you get to develop rabies symptoms, you’re dead. If you get heavy treatment after developping symptoms, you still need a miracle. Like, a real miracle, you should enter some religion if you escape that.

ALSO, I don’t want people feeling confident about petting stray/wild animals because there’s a vaccine available, either. I’ll explain why from my own experience (I’m not a doctor).

I got bitten by a wild tamarin once, on the pulp of my index finger. It drew blood, there are many wild animals in the area (tamarins, possums, bats, foxes) and it isn’t that uncommon to hear about 1 or 2 rabies cases every now and again (a puppy we gave to a friend got it, for instance), so I went to an ambulatory immediately.

Because I was bitten in an ultrasensitive area, I needed fast treatment. But it was also a small area, so the usual thing they do - inject the vaccine in the place - wasn’t a choice. They told me they’d divide the shot in 5 small ones, and inject me all over my body, so the antidote would get to my entire system fast.

Please stop for a moment and think that the disease is so worrysome that they’d rather needle me all over than to give me one shot and wait until it spread through my system.

Then they said that, okay, but there was a catch first. I needed to take an antiallergic shot. “Why?” “Because the virus is devastating, and as the vaccine is made from it, but weakened (like almost every vaccine) it will still create a reaction, and it’s a strong one, and it’s veru common for people to have strong allergic reactions to it.” YOU HAVE TO TAKE AN ANTIALLERGIC SHOT IN ORDER TO TAKE THE VACCINE COZ THE VACCINE COULD POTENTIALLY MAKE YOU REALLY SICK

ALSO IT WASN’T JUST “A LITTLE ANTIALLERGIC SHOT”

IT WAS ONE OF THESE FUCKERS HERE.

It was OBVIOUSLY dripped in my body and not injected because HAHAHAHA. Truth be told I was an adult already and I’m tall so I have a lot of mass but STILL.

So after I had taken the antiallegic and was starting to feel drowsy (as a side effect of it) the doctor came with the 5 shots.

- One in each buttock

- One in each thigh

- One in my left arm

They all stung like a bitch and I usually don’t care about shots.

“Okay so can I go home now?”

“No, we have to keep you under observation for 2h so we’re SURE the vaccine won’t give you any reaction.”

BINCH I WAS GIVEN A BUTTLOAD OF MEDICINE BUT THERE WAS STILL A RISK.

I slept through the two hours and then was liberated to go home. My legs, butt, and left arm hurt all over, like I had been punched there, for a few days. I also had a fever (not feverish, a fever)

BUT DID YOU THINK IT WAS OVER?

WRONG!!!

I had to take four reinforcement shots in the next month, one a week, so I could be positively be considered immunized. Every time I took a shot, my arm would swell and hurt like it’d been hit, and when night came I’d have a fever. Because that’s how fucking strong the vaccine is, BECAUSE THAT’S HOW VICIOUS THE VIRUS IS.

So yeah. DO NOT PUT YOURSELF IN RISK, GODDAMNIT. Rabies is a rare condition all over, THANK GOD, and 1 confirmed case can be already considered a surge and a reason for mass campaigning, AND FOR A REASON.

If you like messing with stray/wild animals, don’t go picking them up and be extra careful. Or just, like, DON’T - call a vet or an authority that can handle them safely.

I must add that I live in a country with universal healthcare, so I didn’t pay a single penny for my treatment. Is this your reality? If not, ONE MORE REASON TO NOT FUCKING PLAY WITH THIS SHIT.

Rabies is 100% lethal. Period. If you are scratched or bitten by an animal you’re not positive is vaccinated, you need to find treatment NOW. And probably go through all that shit I’ve been through (also if you are immunosupressed? I DON’T KNOW WHAT’D HAPPEN)

Stay safe and don’t be stupid ffs

Guys, I know this isn’t art nor anything like that, but I’ve been hearing about this rabies thing and ???? Look I trust none of you would risk yourselves like this, but maybe you can educate someone through my experience and stuff.

Also rabies does not necessarily cause frothing-at-the-mouth aggression in animals. Docility is also a very common symptom so any wild animal that is ‘friendly’ or ‘likes to be pet’ is suspect. Literally any wild animal is a vector.

Finally, you don’t need to be bitten. All you need is to come into contact with an infected animal’s bodily fluids through a cut that maybe you didn’t notice when you were handling it when it drooled on you.

Never touch a wild animal.

Infection with the rabies virus progresses through three distinct stages.

Prodromal: Stage One. Marked by altered behavioral patterns. “Docility” and “likes to be pet” are very common in the prodromal stage. Usually lasts 1-3 days. An animal in this stage carries virus bodies in its saliva and is infectious.

Excitative: Stage Two. Also called “furious” rabies. This is what everyone thinks rabies is–hyperreacting to stimuli and biting everything. Excessive salivation occurs. Animals in this stage also exhibit hydrophobia or the fear of water; they cannot drink (swallowing causes painful spasms of the throat muscles), and will panic if shown water. Usually lasts 3-4 days before rapidly progressing into the next stage.

Paralytic: Stage Three. Also called “dumb” rabies. As the infection runs its course, the virus starts degrading the nervous system. Limbs begin to fail; animals in this stage will often limp or drag their haunches behind them. If the animal has survived all this way, death will usually come through respiratory arrest: Their diaphragm becomes paralyzed and they stop breathing.

And to add onto the above, saliva isn’t the only infectious fluid. Brain matter is, too. If, somehow, you find yourself in possession of a firearm and faced with a rabid animal, do not go for a head shot. If you do, you will aerosolize the brain matter and effectively create a cloud of infectious material. Breathe it in, and you’ll give yourself an infection.

When I worked in wildlife rehabilitation, I actually did see a rabid animal in person, and it remains one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, because I was literally looking death in the eyes.

A pair of well-intentioned women brought us a raccoon that they thought had been hit by a car. They had found it on the side of the road, dragging its hind legs. They managed–somehow–to get it into a cat carrier and brought it to us. 

As they brought it in, I remember how eerily silent it was. Normal raccoons chatter almost constantly. They fidget. They bump around. They purr and mumble and make little grabby-hands at everything. Even when they’re in pain, and especially when they’re stressed. But this one wasn’t moving around inside the carrier, and it wasn’t making a sound.

The clinic director also noticed this, and he asked in a calm but urgent voice for the women to hand the carrier to him. He took it to the exam room and set it on the table while they filled out some forms in the next room. I took a step towards the carrier, to look at our new patient, and without turning around, he told me, “Go to the other side of the room, and stay there.”

He took a small penlight out of the drawer and shone it briefly into the carrier, then sighed. “Bear, if you want to come look at this, you can put on a mask,” he said. “It’s really pretty neat, but I know you’re not vaccinated and I don’t want to take any chances.” 

And at that point, I knew exactly what we were dealing with, and I knew that this would be the closest I had ever been to certain death. So I grabbed a respirator from the table and put it on, and held my breath for good measure as I approached the table. The clinic director pointed where I should stand, well back from the carrier door. He shone the light inside again, and I saw two brilliant flashes of emerald green–the most vivid, unnatural eyeshine I had ever seen. 

“I don’t know why it does it,” the director murmured, “but it turns their eyes green.”

“What does?” one of the women asked, with uncanny, unintentionally dramatic timing, as she poked her head around the corner.

“Rabies,” the director said. “The raccoon is rabid. Did it bite either of you, or even lick you?” They told us no, said they had even used leather garden gloves when they herded it into the carrier. He told them to throw away the gloves as soon as possible, and steam-clean the upholstery in their car. They asked how they should clean the cat carrier; they wanted it back and couldn’t be convinced otherwise, so he told them to soak it in just barely diluted bleach.

But before we could give them the carrier back, we had to remove the raccoon. The rabid raccoon.

The clinic director readied a syringe with tranquilizers and attached it to the end of a short pole. I don’t remember how it was rigged exactly–whether he had a way to push down the plunger or if the needle would inject with pressure–but all he would have to do was stick the animal to inject it. And so, after sending me and the women back to the other side of the room, he made his fist jab.

He missed the raccoon.

The sound that that animal made on being brushed by the pole can only be described as a roar. It was throaty and ragged and ungodly loud. It was not a sound that a raccoon should ever make. I’m convinced it was a sound that a raccoon physically could not make. 

It thrashed inside the carrier, sending it tipping from side to side. Its claws clattered against the walls. It bellowed that throaty, rasping sound again. It was absolutely frenzied, and I was genuinely scared that it would break loose from inside those plastic walls. 

Somehow, the clinic director kept his calm, and as the raccoon jolted around inside the cat carrier, he moved in with the syringe again, and this time, he hit it. He emptied the syringe into its body and withdrew the pole.

And then we waited.

We waited for those awful screams, that horrible thrashing, to die down. As we did, the director loaded up another syringe with even more tranquilizer, and as the raccoon dropped off into unconsciousness, he stuck it a second time with the heavier dose. Even then, it growled at him and flailed a paw against the wall.

More waiting, this time to make sure the animal was truly down for the count.

Then, while wearing welder’s gloves, the director opened the door of the carrier and removed the raccoon. She was limp, bedraggled, and utterly emaciated, but she was still alive. We bagged up the cat carrier and gave it to the women again, advising them that now was a good time to leave. They heeded our warning.

I asked if I could come closer to see, and the clinic director pointed where I could stand. I pushed the mask up against my face and tried to breathe as little as possible.

He and his co-director–who I think he was grooming to be his successor, but the clinic actually went under later that year–examined the raccoon together. Donning a pair of nitrile gloves, he reached down and pulled up a handful, a literal fistful, of the raccoon’s skin and released it. It stayed pulled up.

Severe dehydration causes a phenomenon called “skin tenting”. The skin loses its elasticity somewhat, and will be slow to return to its “normal” shape when manipulated. The clinic director estimated that it had been at least four or five days since the raccoon had had anything to eat or drink. 

She was already on death’s doorstep, but her rabies infection had driven her exhausted body to scream and lunge and bite. 

Because, the scariest thing about rabies (if you ask me) is the way that it alters the behavior of those it infects to increase chances of spreading. 

The prodromal stage? Nocturnal animals become diurnal–allowing them to potentially infect most hosts than if they remained nocturnal. 

The excitative stage? The infected animal bites at the slightest provocation. Swallowing causes painful spasms, so they drool, coating their bodies in infectious matter. A drink could wash away the virus-charged saliva from their mouth and bodies, so the virus drives them to panic at the sight of water.

(The paralytic stage? By that point, the animal has probably spread its infection to new hosts, so the virus has no need for it any longer.)

Rabies is deadly. Rabies is dangerous. In all of recorded history, one person survived an infection after she became symptomatic, and so far we haven’t been able to replicate that success. The Milwaukee Protocol hasn’t saved anyone else. Just one person. And even then, she still had to struggle to gain back control of her body after all that nerve damage.

Please, please, take rabies seriously.

This has been a warning from your old pal Bear.

I knew how bad it was, but I had never read anything like the raccoon story.

I am not exaggerating when I say that is literally terrifying.

Y'all please read this. That is absolutely hideous. That’s literally like something from a horror movie.

Do not fuck around with wildlife. Or weird strays.

TFW Rabies education comes across your dash because some fuck up calls themselves Rabiosexual.

Rebloggin’ for that raccoon. o.o The original post I can pretty much guarantee is a troll, but it’s useful to know just why rabies is such serious shit. 

Education right here

Extra reminder: If you see any animal other than a dog who’s been attacked by a porcupine? It’s rabid.

Dogs are dumb, friendly fucks who will investigate anything; everything else in the animal kingdom knows better than to mess with a porcupine, unless their brain is being ravaged by something beyond their control.

If you see a non-dog animal that has porcupine quills sticking out of it? Don’t try to help it yourself. Call animal control.

@talesfromtreatment @is-the-cat-video-cute tagging you to spread the word? Apparently people have forgotten that rabies is a brain disease, terrifying, is fatal if not treated immediately, the treatment is horrid, and the treatment is very expensive

Also I heard that in the USA, human rabies pre-exposure vaccines are not widely available and cost something like $900

Get your pets rabies vaccine every year, folks. Aside from everything else - and that’s a lot of everything - the test for rabies involves the brain, so the animal will be killed first.

And that is a kind end. The videos of rabies seizures are nightmarish

This is also why you’re not supposed to sleep outside without cover (ie a CLOSED tent) if there are swooping bats in your area. Apparently it can be very hard to realize you’ve been bitten by a bat (vs a bug, I guess it’s very small). Some students from my university were on a trip where they came into contact with bats, taking lots of selfies holding them etc, in the area they were supposed to be sleeping and the professor lost it when they saw some of the pictures. The students were housed elsewhere and the university had everyone vaccinated at the school’s expense- the pre-exposure vax may be expensive, but the number of shots you get post-exposure can vary (as demonstrated above) and it was ASTRONOMICAL.

When I looking for places to move to when I can finally leave the states, I looking to laws and procedures to bring my cat with. Any place that had eradicated rabies, intense policies and quarantines for any animal entering the country, unless you were coming from a different place that had also eradicated it. Some of would put your animal down if they were symptomatic at all. I remember thinking “what can’t rabies just treated?” No it can’t be, putting your pet down is the humane option if there symptomatic.

[image: a sixty-milliliter syringe, with human hand for scale. the syringe barrel is likely around five inches long and likely has an inside diameter of an inch or more.]

When I talk to my students about Louis Pasteur and the development of vaccines, I *have* to talk about rabies.

Do you know why “dog catcher” was such a serious occupation? Because in the late 1800s rabies ran rampant in urban street dogs. Because people who got bitten by street dogs… had probably just gotten a death sentence.

As a child, Louis Pasteur watched a man from his hometown die slowly, painfully, and unstoppably from rabies from a rabid wolf bite and it stuck with him so hard that when he grew up he put his own life on the line studying and working with rabid animals to develop a treatment. (Louis Pasteur’s wife, Marie Pasteur, was also a talented, passionate scientist who worked uncredited by his side. Many of their daughters also took up research.)

When Louis Pasteur did his first human test of his rabies vaccine, it was because a mother came to him desperate. Her 8 year old son had been bitten 14 times by a street dog. Doctors were certain he was going to die. She’d heard what Pasteur was working on and begged him to try to save her son.

He tried.

It worked.

This made national news. This made GLOBAL news.

And in the small Russian town of Beloi, locals read about this miracle cure. Their town had been attacked by a rabid wolf and twenty two people had been bitten. They knew these people were going to die. So the bitten people set off walking, carrying the most injured. They walked for weeks to get to France, where Pasteur was based.

When they arrived, the only French word they knew was “Pasteur.” Their cases were dangerously far along, possibly too far. Pasteur began treatment anyway, pushing with the most aggressive dosages he dared.

This also caught global attention. The world waited on tenterhooks.

Pasteur’s vaccine saved 19 out of 22.

The world was awed.

And when those Russian villagers returned home, to their families, it would have been like seeing the dead return.

Vaccinations changed our world.

Rabies is such a terrifying and serious threat that it has shaped our cultures for centuries. The rabies vaccine is quite possibly the most important human invention since agriculture.

Vaccinate your pets.

Don’t touch wildlife.

Of lesser importance, read Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus by Murphy & Wasik.

Reblogging because rabies is bloody terrifying. 

Also reblogging to remember Louis Pasteur, the nineteen lives he saved then, and the many others since.

Reblogging this because apparently the antivax brainrot has started to extend to pet owners wondering if their pets really need rabies vaccines, because they’re now concerned their pets are going to get autism as well. (I wish I was joking, but according to an Ars Technica article, 37% of polled pet owners are genuinely this stupid.)

Get your pets vaccinated, and if you know any pet owners who are antivaxxers, maybe keep your pets away from theirs.

oh for fuck’s sake. DO NOT FUCK AROUND WITH RABIES.

(Source)

A chance meeting of Julien Cohen and the 10-year-old prodigy Yeonah Kim at an airport. Magic happens.

cant stop thinking about this video

For context this was in response to someone saying their cybertruck was heavy duty

oh no no NO no no I am sorry my dear @thebirdtm you are NOT underselling one of the most seminal pieces of television of my entire childhood like that on MY watch.

"How is claiming they drowned a Hilux possibly underselling it" GREAT question.

To start with a little disclaimer, Top Gear's Hilux did not start off, as in the video above, in pristine condition. It started off with nigh-on 300k kms (for you yankees, that's about 8.4 million Boeing 737 wingspans) and a condition to match.

And it's only once careless driving around town yielded zilch in given shits...

(look, I found a local newspaper picturing it being driven around!)

...that they decided to drown it. Now, the underselling part: if you told me that they drowned a pickup the first place my mind would go to would be "driving it through a river a bit too deep for it, perhaps as deep as its height, until it stalls and then tugging it back out". You will concede that's rather different from tying it down on the seashore with the second highest tide in the world...

...and leaving it there until it engulfs the whole truck...

...only for the ropes to snap...

...and for the truck to be lost to the tides for FIVE HOURS.

(and for those wondering, yes, just as promised, well within an hour and the mandatory limits of basic tools and no spare parts, up the mechanic made the thing fire and away the presenter drove it - I must imagine doing a number on his clothes in the process.)

Oh also I would have mentioned the caravan.

Or at least the wrecking ball.

But hey, at least the fire was mentioned.

Still, I feel it's criminal to leave out how they celebrated it surviving all it did: by parking it at the top of a 23 story building for all to see! :)

Wait NO-

Well, that was uncalled for. Given what it survived, it deserved to rest in a museum instead of being unceremoniously cleared out with the other chunks of public housing that buried it.

Or at least, given that buried it wasn't...

...to be tumbled down from the rubble utop which it sat...

...and be fueled up.

"be fueled up", pfft, what for?, I hear you say. And you are right.

Look at that thing, you say.

Let's be serious now, however pretty of a story it would be that's not a truck that will do anything remotely in the ballpark of firing up, let alone running.

And again, you are right.

The battery was disconnected.

Sorted that, tho

"You can't be serious." Oh darling I sure can! "Well the presenters can't then" no no, I assure you, it lived. Go see it for yourself! It's at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieau, England!

I grew up watching Top Gear and it shaped me in many ways. My adoration of old Toyota Hiluxes is one of them.

Reach Hilux Through Violence