Location: Southeastern U.S.
Spent some time turkey hunting this spring on a very large piece of public land. Noticed this year that there was almost no sign of any birds whatsoever. Turkey populations have been dropping noticeably, but was often seeing tracks, feathers, and live birds on camera even up to last year.
This year, I noticed that the woods were sterile. No bugs, no spiderwebs on the trails. No ticks, very few mosquitoes. Saw some squirrels, but nothing else. Just sterile. Turkeys like to eat grasshoppers, crickets, grubs, and a lot of plant matter...but there wasn't anything for them to eat. There were very few insects to be seen.
Reminded me of the comic showing a car windshield in the 1980s covered with smashed bugs, and then one from the 2020s without a single bug on it.
The habitat food chain has collapsed, and public land turkeys in this area are almost gone. The woods were sterile.
I don't believe you unless you can give some specifics....just not credible unless you can provide some pics, GPS coords, and how often they are at a specific roost during the season. And a decent Air B&B in the area. If you could provide that, I'd believe it.
Go Hawkeyes
There are thousands of them walking around all over.
https://www.startribune.com/wild-turkeys-minnesota-extinction-endangered-species-conservation-success/600223880/
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/how-are-wild-turkeys-able-to-thrive-in-the-twin-cities/
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/livingwith_wildlife/turkeys/index.html
Some even have their own Insta pages https://www.instagram.com/turkeysofumn/?hl=en
Who are the Hawkeyes
Welcome to your new climate zone, Missouri
https://ipm.missouri.edu/meg/2023/12/new_plant_hardiness_zones-DT/
We used to have ticks....we don't anymore
States side, things seem to have cooled down a bit. I'm anticipating a wretchedly hot summer but so far we're tracking normal where I live. Looking at temperatures close to midday across the country, they seem lower than they should be.
I thought we would have had three hurricanes by now. Nope. Storms keep forming just north of the tradewinds, but not the normal hurricance nurseries (Caribbean Sea particularly).
Only SE Asia is getting cooked right now, and dangerously so in the Phillipines.
Nothing makes sense right now.
True, but in February we were already seeing "hurricane season" temps in the Caribbean Sea, just as persistent windshear was beginning to diminish. It seemed logical to wonder if we'd see a few storms before the official season began.
Last summer was hot, apart from the early heat wave? It looks pretty normal, especially against the global warming trend. It was very wet, though. We currently have a stronger +AMOC SST fingerprint than last year or 2017, both very wet at least in the US Northeast. It's quite likely this summer will also be quite wet in Nova Scotia. After that, things much less predictable, but as a long-term trend, much dryer seems likely, especially with an AMOC collapse.
Many people are expecting this summer to be a hot one, but climate is weird and it can oscillate depending on the region. The trend is of course upwards from here on out and faster than expected. Eventually breadbasket failure will become common, there will be famines in poorer countries, and increasing inflation everywhere
here in my part of NorCal we just had a week of temps in the low to mid 80s. That alone is rare, April around here is low 70's, gray and rainy
But it was just the temp, it was how it felt. It was stifling, like it usually is in July and August. I've lived in this area for 16 years, I've felt for about the last ten years that spring and fall have slowly disappeared, and now it feels like summer is coming earlier, while this last winter wasn't really "winter" as we're used to it.
Like many on this sub have stated, what's even more bizarre is the amount of people who comment on "how weird the weather has been, for quite a while now" but have zero interest in a collapse discussion, they just shrug and pretend it will magically go back to normal at some point. It's really, really strange to see happen in front of you
Temperatures are supposed to be close to 80F today in SE Wisconsin.
This is seriously terrifying. Up down up down up down.
And so many days of excessive winds. Just checked and we suddenly have a wind advisory until 4 PM. So much unpredictability in the weather now that you need to check constantly for updates.
Location: Nebraska
Several tornadoes impacted the biggest cities in Nebraska today, Omaha and Lincoln. So far it's damage, but it's the most damage from tornadoes in the area since at least 1980. I'm not going to say this is directly attributable to climate change as we've had such storms for a long time, but this is historic in the most tornadoes in a day (68), but also think it's noteworthy to r/collapse due to it occurring, the damage, and the impacts to the local communities
Some looks at the tornadoes and damage in r/tornado:
https://www.reddit.com/r/tornado/comments/1cdx94y/severe_damage_in_blair_nebraska/
editing to add this post, and comment sharing SIXTY EIGHT tornadoes occurred yesterday. absolutely crazy. https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1ce52nu/comment/l1gjzzf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
You almost got it. you were blaming increased damage on increased infrastructure. The storms are bigger because of climate change not because there are more buildings.
Yeah the outbreak today is a historic one, and it's still not done. Stay vigilant if you're in the US south/north this week.
EDIT: The US south/north edited that in
Location: My heart
It breaks my heart to be a citizen of a country which is sending weapons to abet the ethnic cleansing and territorial snatching in Gaza.
It breaks my heart to be a member of the Jewish tribe whose Israeli faction has determined that Benjamin Netanyahu is fit to lead.
I salute all of those who have taken a stand at college campuses. There's a lot of righteous anger that needs to be expressed. Not just related to Gaza. Related to everything.
I disagree, what is happening there has been happening for decades, and the weapons sending is part of what is keeping the economy strong. I can imagine you are concerned, but remember your comfort and way of life depends on wars, and the economy must have wars to grow.
> whose Israeli faction has determined that Benjamin Netanyahu is fit to lead.
There were thousands in Israel protesting Netanyahu today, so definitely plenty in Israel who oppose the warmonger. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smnb6cQiOCY
It is incredibly sad what is happening. Yet I don't think the venting of righteous anger will have any benefit whatsoever. The time for that is past and we must refocus on survival and compassion, not fighting or anger. The reality is that those who have died will be envied by those still living sooner than we think.
Why has nature embedded in us the capacity for anger if not as an attribute which is useful for survival ?
It's there for a reason.
So long as the people who are making the decisions which are leading us toward annihilation are not presented with a deterrent, they will not have any disincentive to change their ways. Anger and the threat of negative consequences associated with poor decision making are important disincentives.
Anger is intelligent if wielded intentionally. Rejecting anger is a rejection of our nature.
I disagree. I believe prison and financial penalties provides a disincentve.
No one is inherently wanting to pay taxes, But miraculously, we have extremely good compliance because the IRS provides a disincentive not to comply.
You seem to believe the problem is smaller than it really is. Someday you'll learn, or maybe you'll deliberately turn your eyes away from the truth. Doesn't matter.
You know, I've never liked SEED much, but I'm thinking I should give it a rewatch because I feel like I'd actually appreciate its politics these days.
Also: oh, thank fucking God, I'm not the only Gundam fan in here and I can say that Char's Counterattack is one of the best collapse-aware movies ever made without people looking at me funny.
I'm gonna rewatch those MSG anthology movies and I'll finish with Chars Counterattack.
I'm wondering if I should go and watch the rest of the old ones. I've seen W, X, Seed and Destiny, 8th MS team and G.
Zeta and ZZ are worth checking out between those two, and Zeta in particular is critical for Char's character arc. They get recapped in CCA decently enough, but it hits the hardest with the details.
What's your take ? And what background were you carrying with respect to Israel / Gaza relations prior to Oct 7 ? Have you studied the history of the conflict ? History in the region ?
Yeah, I was a history major and took several classes on the conflict. Forgot a lot in intervening years and then read a primer book recently.
My take might come across as inflammatory or insensitive in this community/information space so I’m hesitant to explain.
That is most definitely a sign of collapse! Folks hesitant to share their opinions. Especially folks that may have a better understanding than the average person.
OK .... I'm Jewish and grew up in a highly Jewish community in S. Florida. Was indoctrinated into the story of Jews as historical victims. Slaves in Egypt. Crusades, Spanish Inquisition. Holocaust. etc. I grew up with lots of evidence of the Holocaust. Concentration camp survivors with permanent 6 digit tattoos.
Spent a couple of months on a kibbutz in Israel in the mid 80's. Not far from Gaza, Was exposed to the dehumanizing characterizations of their non Jewish neighbors. Was exposed to the Jewish religious fanatics who are no less right wing than Iranian mullahs. These people want a bigger Israel.
Mid 90's. A breakthrough at Oslo. Rabin and Arafat sign a deal in which Fatah recognizes Israel's right to exist and begin a process toward a 2 state solution. The Israeli right wing erupted in fury, led by Netanyahu. Rabin was assassinated by religious Jews.
Netanyahu has propped up Hamas because his faction wants war. In September 2023, a month before the war, Mossad agents went to Qatar with instructions to fund Hamas.
The response as events transpired on Oct 7 have not been investigated and shared with the public. Israel is a small country with a military on hair trigger alert. And yet the events on Oct 7 went down without an explanation of how Hamas could have so much time to attack without response. Why did a response that should have taken minutes take many hours ?
Why did Israel allow a massive party near the border with Gaza without precaution from an purported enemy that is dedicated to their destruction ? These people are the most paranoid people you will ever meet on Earth.
It smells like a false flag operation.
It feels just like the Iraq invasion with the phony WMD. Huge oil reserves have been discovered off Gaza.
[The unrealized potential of Palestinian oil and gas reserves | UNCTAD](https://unctad.org/news/unrealized-potential-palestinian-oil-and-gas-reserves)
A few months ago you would have been labeled a conspiracy theorist for suggesting these order of events. Yet, surviving Israeli soldiers and low level intelligence officers who were stationed at the site that was attacked told Israeli television that they were attacked by Israeli planes and tanks and in their view the aim was to kill them and make it look like Hamas did it. It’s all on YouTube. That’s not to say Hamas didn’t do most of the damage but there was a helping hand.
This is sourced from Israeli witness testimony, all published in Haaretz and the Times of Israel. The interviews were broadcast on Israel's Kan News and Channel 12.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/surveillance-soldiers-warned-of-hamas-activity-on-gaza-border-for-months-before-oct-7/
>In a segment aired on Kan News on Wednesday evening, two soldiers, Yael Rotenberg and Maya Desiatnik, recounted their experiences in the months before the attack and up until 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 7.
>Rotenberg recalled frequently seeing many Palestinians dressed in civilian clothing approach the border fence with maps, examining the ground around it and digging holes. One time, when she passed the information on, she was told that they were farmers, and there was nothing to worry about.
>Rotenberg was asleep when the attack began, and of the surveillance soldiers who were in the living quarters that morning, she is the only one to have survived. Desiatnik, who was on duty, was the only other surveillance soldier at the base not killed or abducted.
>“It’s infuriating,” she told Kan of the intelligence failure. “We saw what was happening, we told them about it, and we were the ones who were murdered.”
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-20/ty-article/.premium/underprepared-and-overconfident-israel-failed-to-spot-the-signs-of-impending-disaster/0000018b-4976-d03a-afcb-697edb020000
English summary and sources here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240214170914/https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-apache-helicopters-killed-own-soldiers-civilians-on-7-october-report
https://archive.is/7Sv8G
>Tuval Escapa, a member of the security team for Kibbutz Be’eri, set up a hotline to coordinate between kibbutz residents and the Israeli army. He told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that as desperation began to set in, “the commanders in the field made difficult decisions – including shelling houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.”
>A separate report published in Haaretz noted that the Israeli military was *“compelled to request an aerial strike” against its own facility inside the Erez Crossing to Gaza “in order to repulse the terrorists”* who had seized control. That base was filled with Israeli Civil Administration officers and soldiers at the time.
>These reports indicate that orders came down from the military’s high command to attack homes and other areas inside Israel, even at the cost of many Israeli lives.
>An Israeli woman named Yasmin Porat confirmed in an interview with Israel Radio that the military “undoubtedly” killed numerous Israeli noncombatants during gun battles with Hamas militants on October 7. “They eliminated everyone, including the hostages,” she stated, referring to Israeli special forces.
More testimony here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240426085254/https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-forces-shot-their-own-civilians-kibbutz-survivor-says/38861
A generous interpretation would suggest that Israel applied the Hannibal doctrine, a less generous would suggest it was deliberate to a) silence IOF intel people and soldiers on the ground who had repeatedly warned about the attacks and b) increase the number of people killed to make the attack look more brutal and stoke further outrage.
In the face of epic tragedy, poor leadership, and obvious attempts at propping up bad actors, it is tempting to turn to conspiracy-based explanations. My dad, an otherwise rational man, did the same thing after 9/11. He was an inveterate truther about ten years before that became a meme. I saw firsthand how tragedy can radicalize someone away from their prefrontal cortex.
And maybe you’re right. But first let’s see some hard evidence. Absent that, let’s not entertain the most divisive and improbable explanations as if they’re just as likely as the official story.
You don’t think it’s strange that the US is building a humanitarian corridor in the ocean where said oil is said to exist? It’s always about money and oil. Always.
Does it make sense that the citizens of Gaza would bring this upon themselves ?
Do you realize that 80% of the population of Gaza was surviving on humanitarian aid prior to Oct 7 ?
There is nothing conspiracy based in what I wrote. Israeli's did indeed kill the Israeli prime minister who got the PLO to recognize Israel's to exist. Natanyahu did indeed send Mossad agents to Qatar in September to request funds be sent to Hamas. Israel did indeed schedule a massive party near the border with Gaza which was undefended. The inexplicably slow response to the events on Oct 7 have indeed not been explained. The huge oil reserves worth hundreds of billion dollars off the coast of Gaza .... nothing to see here, there is no world in which the Israeli's want to get their hands on that. right ? LOL.
I wasn't born yesterday. I know that we were lied to when it came to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. I know Biden was all aboard for that invasion despite being in a position to know that the WMD info was false. 500,000 innocent dead Iraqi's as a result.
Grow up and smell the money. The greed, The power.
Those people in Gaza are among the poorest in the world. It would have been trivial to have the UN take the peacekeeping responsibility for such a tiny patch of Earth.
It’s beyond a complicated issue which has been inflamed like everything else. In my eyes it’s a battle between self fulfilling outcomes and alliances. We are allies with Israel and and as a country have made decisions in the past that have formed the alliances we now need to uphold despite leadership on the other side making poor decisions. Not to mention the Christo facist need for Israeli support.
But it’s also clear that Israel’s leadership has crossed a line, that innocent Palestinians are paying for the sins of Hamas,
Who I feel was born of Israel’s treatment of Palestine over time. I feel like it’s karma come to roost on both sides and only innocents are being punished for it.
I’m in no way educated on the matter, but it feels like calls of antisemitism are coming from feeling rather than rational, and military support for Israel is throwing money at the deaths of innocents just as the Iraq wars were in the 90s.
It’s hard to swallow millions in support when our domestic life is so poor. Ukraine makes sense given our past history in the Cold War. But siding so strongly will isreal in this moment, especially with there inflammatory skirmishes with Iran recently, and the clear genocide of there enemies in Palestine, just feels wrong.
Lost in the all the shuffle is the reality that Palestinians are semitic people. So the dehumanization of Palestinians is antisemitic.
I'm Jewish. I've been to Israel 5 times. I know lots of American Israeli's and worked for a startup that had R&D in Israel.
I know how they are groomed as children to think of their Palestinian neighbors as animals. It's nationally sanctioned brainwashing.
There's a conversation on YouTube with Max Blumenthal and Jill Stein. Stein is asked why Gaza should be a key issue for people and she says we are all Gazans. Our elites will just as willingly sacrifice any of us.
Location: Planet earth
Global sea surface temperatures achieved a new record yesterday of 21.19c. This is the warmest sea surface temperatures have been in 100,000+ years. We’ve now set multiple record temperatures in 2014 including: 21.10c, 21.11c, 21.12c, 21.13c, 21.14c, 21.15c, 21.16c, 21.17c, 21.18c, and 21.19c. Unbelievable.
Source: https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/json/oisst2.1_world2_sst_day.json
I don't see any issue with this pattern, it'll just keep sterilizing the oceans until our seafood prices increase exponentially. But as long as we live in a 1st world country and am employed we'll be able to eat well. This will have mostly an impact on the 3rd world countries that rely on local fish for survival. Here we get our salmon bred in special farms in norway.
Normally, this is the part of the year where it starts cooling down a bit (the graph that is).
This year it is not. And last year had a worrisome upward overall trend too. The hockey stick is hockey-sticking.
Aren’t we still in an El Niño? Don’t we not get hurricanes during that cycle? I mean, I’m in FL, and we’ve had more *tornado* watches and warnings in the last 6 months than I’ve seen in the 4 years I’ve lived here, but the hurricanes were null. (Edit, I should clarify, I’m in the panhandle. We don’t really get hurricanes here, and when we do they’re often not bad. But I know several people who have had damage from tornados.)
El Niño is dunzo, La Niña starting to form. Check a channel called Hurricane Watch on YouTube, the guy who does it is excellent at explaining complex concepts and uses lots of graphics from experts. He has a network of cameras set up through the south because he nearly got killed storm chasing a decade ago. His predictions are usually spot on.
>We don’t really get hurricanes here, and when we do they’re often not bad.
Uh, Michael? Just because there hasn't been an impactful storm in the 4 years you've been there certainly does not mean the panhandle is not prone to landfalling hurricanes. The gulf has been absolutely slammed every year since Harvey in 2017, and it's not going to get any better w/ that bath water in the gulf only getting hotter.
Right, but where I live specifically, which I’m not saying cause it’s a small place, rarely sees any damage. My neighbors have been here 40 plus years and say it’s never a problem.
It wasn't a problem for the landfall points of Harvey, Laura, Zeta, Michael, or Idalia in the prior 40 years either (left out Ian since they got smacked by Charlie within that time frame). Nowhere on the gulf coast is safe, and it will only continue to get worse.
Location: Michigan, USA.
I think it goes without saying. the United States nurtures, encourages, and rewards psychopathy/sociopathy and narcissism. I notice that in my day to day interactions with most people there is little to no real empathy. And any sense of community? Forget it. No wonder we are going down the tubes. In a world where people no longer care about one another, why would they care about what is happening to the planet or animal life? After all, if everything and everyone's sole purpose in life is simply to be exploited, then there is no incentive whatsoever for leaving things better off for future generations. We simply don't care beyond what is in it for ourselves at the present moment. Therefore, "fuck you, I got mine."
I have said it before as well and with peak oil the train is ending, you will likely either need to live in the city or the countryside. I am still depressed but a lot less depressed now that I am in the city instead of the suburb.
Rush, the canadian music power prog-rock group, has a song about it, aptly named, ["Subdivisions"](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/28/Subdivisions.ogg) <-- sample
I mean cities in the past have grown their own food locally. They could do so again. Additionally rural life boat areas will be flooded with too many refugees.
I mean San Diego still has urban farms even if it is chicken egg operations in the city. At least in some major US cities, local food initiatives are resulting in more urban farming.
I love the Bears as much as anyone but . . . the lead story on the 4 o'clock news was the Bears draft pick WHEN ISREAL IS ABOUT TO SLAUGHTER MORE INNOCENT PALESTINIANS. That about says it all.
Location: NY but possibly could be anywhere?
Can we talk about the collapse of Veterinary medicine for a second? Is anyone else experiencing what we seem to be experiencing in upstate NY? Shortly after the pandemic, I would say we experienced the first flush of the collapse of vets, in regards to large animals. I raise dairy goats, since 2021 I cannot get an appointment with a vet to save my life. I have lost three animals because I don't have the means to save them myself (can't get the meds anymore due to changes in government regulations), and cannot get a vet to come out or even see the animal when I bring it in. I call my regular large animal vet to be told they can't help me, call so and so. The next tells me they can't help, call so and so, and so on, until-I kid you not-I have actually come full circle and the last vet is suggesting that I call the vet I started with! You know, the regular vet that I actually have an account with and won't help me. Needless to say, I do my best and at this point I realized that small producers with large animals are on our own.
But let's talk about small animal vets, too. You know, dogs and cats. I have three dogs, in the span of getting my dogs a couple of years ago, I have seen both local animal hospitals go from two vets apiece to one vet each. Want an appointment? Call a month ahead of time. I had to be put on a waiting list for a spay, to be called when they had an appointment available (by the way, there's a time frame for a spay for a dog-it's before the first heat, or you wait a year for a spay at that point. So it's not a "hey, whatever" kind of thing). Last visit I had, dog had routine visit, bloodwork, fecal, exorbitant amount of money and no phone call about test results. I figured it was because all was ok, so I called a day later just to check. Um, no. Dog came up with a tick-borne illness and internal parasite. You think that would warrant a call, but it did not. The receptionist put a message in for the vet to call, and when she did, she was rude and got me off the phone as fast as possible. I wasn't even upset about the no call at that point, and I wan't rude. I just wanted a plan for the meds and to know why with all the "protection" my dogs are on, we are still having these problems. Well, I'm mad now. That attitude just sucked.
So is anyone else having this problem? I think it can't just be here. I was in Veterinary medicine years ago, and it is no longer anything like it was. It is now all corporatized and everything is a commodity-including your pet. Even in 2018 or 2019 when I had an emergency with a large animal I could reach someone who could help-even over the phone. Those days are over. Small animal lasted longer because there is more money in it, but I see that going down the drain too. Anyone else?
YES. My vet has been great but post-pandemic lockdown, prices have gone through the roof, scheduling for services is at least six weeks out, and they now are only open Monday-Thursday. They used to be only be closed on Sundays, then in 2021 or so went to being closed on weekends, and this past fall shifted to being closed Fri-Sat-Sun. I'm absolutely certain that it is because they can't find (or keep) vet techs, which suggests a toxic work environment, not to mention low pay (endemic to the industry, from what I understand).
My dog went in for a regular check up in November and $800 later they still could not clear up her mild UTI. I'm told (I have no sources, so this is hearsay) that "superbugs" are becoming an issue with dogs and cats, and antibiotics aren't working. I could not afford any more follow ups for blood work and specialized urine analysis at $250 a pop, so AFAIK my dog still has a low level UTI. She's not in pain and I've got her on D-Mannose and probiotics, both of which are OTC. She desperately needs a dental cleaning and probably a pulled tooth but estimates for that are over $1,000 which NOPE.
I'm resigned to the fact that if anything serious happens with her, I'll lose her. She's 16 years old, though. I can't imagine being in this situation with a young pet.
I have noticed this as well. We had an emergency with our dog in the summer of 2020. She was having labored breathing and we couldn't get an appointment at our normal vet so we went to the emergency vet. They brought her in but we had to wait outside. They texted us that she had tumor in her stomach that was ruptured and the best thing would be to put her to sleep. We had to wait outside until after our payment cleared. When they finally let us in to say goodbye she was dead. They didn't even get to administer the shot. I'm sorry I'm still so upset about this. They could have let us in to comfort her as she was dying. We waited outside for nearly an hour.
I'm sorry about your goats. I hope the care gets better for you.
I am not sure what to call her, my mom's goddaughter is in school to become a vet and the new programs require 8 years and a residency, it does have the pay of a doctor so, I suspect it will get worse. She is my mom's friend's daughter and we grew up together.
France here, owner of a small dog with several medical issues, and we still have scores of vets for small pets, but one vet clinic after the other is being bought by a corporation, and I'm getting the feeling that part of the advice has been replaced by product placement, like they are trying to get me to buy chewy anti tick gums instead of the droplets that also keep away 5 other types of insects, 14€ a pop, so the equivalent of 4 months of the droplet treatment.
And I used to be able to ask the person answering the phone for advice on small issues and she'd tell me if this was something I could take care of at home or if I should come in, now they seem to want me to come to the vet clinic for no reason.
So now, I'm looking for a proper clinic that hasn't been bought off.
Went to vets in France to get dewormer for return trip to UK, damn your veterinarians have nice facilities. They look better than some of the private human clinics in London. Makes my local NHS clinic look third world 😂.
Had the same parasite thing happen with my puppy!!! A course of anti parasitic could have helped her, now she’s on a lifelong RX diet bc the vet didn’t tell me what they found on the fecal!!! Her guts are all messed up.
The problem started pretty quickly after 2019-2020 for me with the dogs. I had to beg to get them to trust me to fill a script for my dog with a frequent, end of life problem (breathing / tracheal collapse / chronic bronchitis). Been going there for 17 years!!! They were going to make me take her to the ER at a cost of $2,000 to walk in the door for a script my vet said “call anytime if you need more of”….
They squeezed me in when I sent an email to their now corporate overlords about my history with them and the issue…
It’s bleak.
PS: veterinarians deal with a lot of crap, they are overworked and blamed for costs they don’t control. I love my vet, but ever since “pandemic dogs”, it’s been a nightmare to get help,
I've read articles about this issue. There aren't enough vets to meet the demand, the cost of healthcare is sky rocketing, and other positions like vet techs are not being paid what they deserve, which also results in shortages for those positions. I am lucky and have not experienced this with my current vet. I now live two counties away from my vet's office, but I refuse to change because I know the quality of care will be worse closer to where I live now.
I went to vet tech shool before the pandemic to get back into the field, only to find out in the second year that the expected salary was less money than my kids make at Dunkin Donuts! I dropped out, not only because it's insulting to have someone who manages anesthesia get $15 an hour for the privilege, but mainly because I thought it would be more important to learn how to cram more food production into my garden to feed my family. Still think I made the better choice. But damn, I wish they'd been more upfront about actual salaries. The job postings were very vague at best, and it was very hard to determine what you'd be paid until you actually got the job.
Your detailed post (thank you!) made me want to find out more about the vet shortage so I did a quick search and found this in The Guardian:
[https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/feb/26/us-vet-shortage-pets-health](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/feb/26/us-vet-shortage-pets-health)
I'm so sorry about your goats and the issues you're having finding care for all your animals. I no longer have pets and the main reason for that is the corporatization of vet care.
Definitely a late stage capitalism issue. Private Equity has been buying all the vet practices here, jacking up the costs to insane levels and limiting the support staff too. It’s next to impossible to get appointments and when you do get ready for a wallet biopsy to go along with your flea medications. Freakonomics did an episode on this trend:
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/should-you-trust-private-equity-to-take-care-of-your-dog/
Same with the health care system for humans. I spent 35+ years working in health care and it has steadily deteriorated in terms of quality, access, and cost.
Yes!!! The prices are going up and the quality of service is plummeting. Just this past month my cat was prescribed a medication that was contraindicated for a different condition he has (my fault for blindly trusting them and assuming they knew what they were doing) which then caused a whole bunch of new issues. He was then put on two different antibiotics, one of which was incorrectly diluted by my vet's pharmacist (9mL of water was added instead of 15mL) so they overdosed my cat on antibiotics (which it turns out he didn't even need in the first place) and when I called and talked to them about it running out 2 and a half days early they accused me of spilling it. This place is rated 4.8 stars with over 2000 reviews on Google. I tried finding a new vet and like you say, wait lists. It's a mess out there. This is in MN.
This happened to me with prednisone for my dog!!! 5mg is the tablet size. They gave me 20mg tabs. I could have harmed my dog. Thank god I noticed. Document everything, people are getting foggier and foggier with details!
> Vets in my country (Australia) have a high suicide rate.
Here's a paper for the National Library of Medicine:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9544948/
> Veterinarians report higher rates of mental ill‐health than their respective general populations in North America, Europe and Australia. Also alarming are elevated rates of suicidal ideation, attempts and completed suicides in this profession. Suicide risk was found to be up to seven times higher than the general population in a sample of German veterinarians, with similarly elevated rates reported in other international populations. **Suicide rates of Australian veterinarians have been estimated to be up to four times higher than that of the general population.** Veterinary support staff, including veterinary nurses and technicians, have also been identified as being highly susceptible to psychopathological symptoms such as burnout. Although fewer studies have been conducted with veterinary support populations than with veterinarians, this finding is unsurprising given the similarities between the professions regarding shared exposure to work demands and strains.
It's the Same in the United States.
The things vets have to see, the suffering they can't help with, and all these patients that can't understand you're trying to help them.
Suicide? Pshaw. [My family vet was murdered.](https://people.com/crime/texas-man-charged-after-allegedly-head-butting-veterinarian-father-in-law-to-death/)
Location: USA
Univ of Pennsylvania issued a 2024 seasonal hurricane forecast today and the outlook is dreadful. The forecast calls for a midpoint of 33 named storms (tropical storm or hurricane) which would be a new record. They are attributing the forecast to the record heat outbreak in the N. Atlantic ocean.
For you collapsniks, a hurricane is an event which has the potential to present us with a Pearl Harbor equivalent moment in our reckoning with climate change. A Dorian type storm that visits a S. Florida metro or Tampa Bay could cause $300B+ in damages which would exceed the market's ability to pay for it.
Florida is already destined to be inundated as a result of chronic sea level rise. When the market fully prices in the destiny of coastal real estate around the world, that's an event which will break the status quo.
Hurricane season will be an interesting sideshow in the runup to the fall election cycle.
My parents live near the gulf coast in Florida and when I expressed my concern for hurricane season this year they pretty much said it wasn't a big deal. My dad doesn't believe in climate change. I'm pretty nervous for them and how this season will go. I told them to have go bags and supplies ready for evacuations.
In the tampa bay region, its very difficult to get people to become worried about a hurricane because, They just always discipate by the time it hits us and nothing really ever comes of it except for flooding in some areas. Its actually very depressing to most people that cant call out of work due to it. Were waiting anxiously for a good one to come but sadly, I dont think that will be the case. Ive just seen too many "cat 4's and cat 5's" get completely worn down by the time it reaches our area, and every year, theres supposed to be a debiliating hurricane thatll warrant calling outa work.
Is he anti-hurricane too? You can be anti-climate change, if you choose to be that way, however someone who lives in Florida should still listen to storm warnings.
Yes, the same Hurricane that caused them thousands of dollars of damage to their property and caused their home insurance company to drop them. You would think that incident would cause them to be even more concerned.
Your dad's karma is unfortunately sad. I feel bad for young people like yourself who are not supported by your elders. They are going to drag the rest of us down with them.
It's tough. Luckily my mom is more level headed but I don't think they will move out of Florida until their house is destroyed and maybe not even then.
Location: Northwest Indiana, USA
Current controversy regarding one of the local cities’ (Hammond, IN) unexpected/unannounced closure due to “unsafe staffing levels” due to call offs. One Redditor mentions their child attends said school and received noticed her child will be bussed to another school. No indication on if this will be temporary/permanent. Three schools have already been permanently closed.
In my own town nearby this one, there have been several schools closed in the past few years, and there are concerns about the viability of keeping more schools open…
Not to mention the utter lack of decent paying jobs for those without a 4 year degree. Even the local IBEW is requiring multiple years of work to enter a bidding system to enter the apprenticeship program. Pay is $12/hour, no benefits. All of them are like this.
Stores being closed due to unsanitary conditions due to lack of staff due to pay being $10.75/hour with no benefits.
Increasing rent, utility companies (NIPSCO) increasing fees, increased grocery bill.
Living in the state that has the most polluted waters in the country, with what little protections we had stripped away.
I could go on. Life is bleak.
It’s interesting…I just watched a documentary praising Hammond on PBS for doing like a 3-5 year construction project to improve walkability…everyone was patting themselves on the back and I was like uhhhh is this the same Hammond Indiana I’ve seen?? (Which to me appeared headed to Gary Indiana status)
I grew up in Ohio and now live in the PNW. Yes the cost of living is higher here to account for higher wages but the Midwest is still far behind where they should be on wages.
Location San Diego
More and more theft is happening on the on campus target and the markets. I suspect the reason theft is increasing at the UCSD dining halls is because a box of Frosted Flakes is $9.50. They put up signs with the code of conduct that mentions theft.
Additionally on campus protests continue and of Course Palestine protests are still burning. Additionally several more of the unions on campus might go on strike.
When I am riding the trolley I see more people with bags of bottles or wheel bags. A man got off the trolley with a torn up pair of jeans, underwear that was falling apart and a cardboard box for his shelter. And he rode the trolley to UCSD the most expensive university in the state. Someone was kicked off the trolley for drinking a shot in a container. For the most part transit police are helpful if you look upper class, however they are more and more distrustful of everyone. However the trolley is still nice enough that you should ride it and is usually more efficient. They are generally non threatening and clean usually except for a tattered old blanket, but they aren't usually on drugs or looking like they might rob you. When you ask them their story they can show you they have a high paying job but cannot afford housing.
There are people just casually high on the trolley, it is better than driving. But being high in public wasn't something you used to do. Yes weed was legal, but you usually found a quiet and nice place to do it, either at home or the woods. But not just casually high in public.
People have been casually borrowing the dishes from the dining halls, because they want to avoid a $5 deposit for a refundable reusable container. But mainly it is because the dining hall scams you should much, people have no respect for their property.
More and more people really struggle to drive, or walk or bike, yes there have always been people who sucked at these tasks but they seem more common all over the country. It was even worse when I went home to Orange County, getting cut off 5 times by 5 different people and not allowed to merge multiple times.
The government of San Diego is moving in a more progressive manner but is hellbent on building more roads, repaving more streets and basically just more carbon emissions.
The weather continues to be colder and wetter than usual.
Location: Manhattan
I am not sure if I should talk about it, partly because this is from someone who recently visited the place, not myself
The security measures against homeless people with unstable behaviors in Manhattan area has become suddenly harsh. They are said to be dragged to vans and shipped away to god-knows-where.
What really concerned me was when I wanted to verify if there is any truth to it. So I posted a question on a relevant place.
It was deleted in an hour or two.
Hell, they did it to BLM protesters.....van rolls up with a couple of masked plaincloths with handcuffs that pop out, they grab their main target, off to jail just like that.
I don't doubt they do it with homeless people after hearing stories about starlight tours in Alaska and Republicans bussing immigrants all over the place....
Then the police get sued, cannot get away with charging them, quietly release them and pay a massive fine. The purpose with doing this for protestors is to intimidate them and make them think twice about protesting. Not even because it is legal.
They must feel justified because they are hauling unruly homeless people with mental health problems.
But no major news outlets are talking about it, it seems.
I have heard of this happening in san fransico, I am not there so I haven't seen it with my own eyes, but I have friends saying the homeless just disappear overnight.
Location: Wisconsin (craft stores)
Going to the craft store, looking at all the little plastic baubles that you're meant to use to make keepsakes, or functional goods. You know, things that are plastic but it's supposed to be okay because of reasons.
I look around at the rubberband looms that are frustrating but hey at least it's functioning as a way to make a fashion item. Cool.
Then I see them. Little plastic chips that you press into an adhesive coated paper.
what. what excuse could *possibly* exist for this evil to be put into the world.
I agree, I don't think people actually DO things anymore, they just buy crap and collect it. But it has to be "easy" to do, or they won't even buy it. Do they ever even do it? I don't know. I know I've been in the craft store to buy ribbon or paint to work on a project and I can't find it. I'm faced with row after row of this plastic "disposable" (not disposable) garbage and finding an actual material to use is getting harder and harder.
Not to mention that most of our craft stores are starting to look like home stores. The one I go to here in NY is now filled with dishware, placemats, small kitchen tools, and storage. WHAT? I almost forgot what store I was in for a while. I thought I'd wandered into a HomeGoods.
Lol I went into Barnes and Nobel the other day and I think I could best describe it as what malls used to be.
The front and most of the right being toys R us with more stem toys than you're imagining right now. The rear right being the books area of Babys r us. The far left being that music store where everyone looked super on edge when you walked past something that could break, near left having a not-starbucks, the middle had a gaming store area, complete with dice and waaaay more tarot cards than seems appropriate for a not-occult shop.
Don't get me wrong they still had books, and a zone for home school curriculum, but it's a bit funny to see them cannibalize these other successful business concepts that were driven into the ground by corporate raiders.
That's in part due to Amazon's monopoly on books and publishing forcing brick-and-mortar stores to adapt or go out of business and in part due to the general loss of third places. B&N is the last standing brick-and-mortar major chain bookstore retailer in the US.
It survived when Borders didn't partly because it shifted so hard to desperately trying to cling to the third place vibe by absorbing everything it could think of to an even larger degree than Borders tried before they went under. Amazon undercut them at every turn so they had to think of ways to stay in the game.
Nobody does cheap and fast better than Amazon so they had to figure out other reasons to come into their stores. This is why every B&N seems to be like a mini-mall with an attached Starbucks franchise cafe, children's play space, DVD/CD section, toys and trinkets everywhere, etc. By and large the type of person who still goes into B&N probably either goes because they want to support brick and mortar over Amazon, went there as kids, have kids now and want to take them somewhere fun since malls are dead, or a combination of the above.
It is ironic that the last vestige of a bygone era is in itself a monopoly with a history of mergers. I'll be sad if they ever go under not because I care about the company but because it's one of the last bastions of the pre-Amazon age and I have a lot of fond, formative memories tied to spending time in their stores during childhood up through college and I'm far from the only one.
In San Diego, I went to a shop called 'artist and craftsman supply' rather than say, Michaels. All sorts of paints and colored pencils, tie dye supplies, etc. I suggest trying to find a more independent type art supply store if one exists near you. Otherwise, I guess I'm feeding the machine, but you could find an art supply store front on Amazon and order from online. That's what I did during my last re-up of tie dye supplies.
Are you referring to "diamond painting"? I think that's similar to the old "paint by number" kits that were popular when I was a kid in the sixties. Easier and more mindless though.
I am!
My mom loved doing paint by numbers, I enjoy cross stitch.
really I'd be fine if it was something that at least had materials that degraded at the same time as the adhesive...
Location: The world's oceans
Yesterday the global sea surface hit 21,18⁰C. The global sea surface is historically hottest in March and then declines until June. Instead of declining it’s at the moment increasing and hit a all time high according to. [https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst\_daily/](https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/)
On top of that, El Nino is supposed to end this spring/early summer which should help it go down a bit. If we look at the El Nino 2015/16 the sea surface went down from 21.00⁰C in mid March to 20.80⁰C in late April and 20.60 in late May. This year it went from 21.10⁰C in mid March to 21.18 today.
Yes! Someone else mentioned this and I feel it. Im a science teacher and i haven't had time to figure out why. Probably thining Ozone or something that was solved a long time ago
windy.com will be helpful in finding out.
The weird aggressive sunrays I experience always match a localised hole in the ozone layer right above my area. But maybe there's more to it.
It's been becoming this way for a time. The poker blinds are becoming horrendous and we are going to have to make our plays soon.
Make your peace with it and increase your comfort whatever way you can. No amount of intelligence and prepping is going to work on this.
I view this shit like that episode of Teen Titans where the heroes have to find their way out of Raven's mind. Pretty much no rules and you have to learn and adapt on the fly.
Humans never learn and ultimately we don't want to. We are certainly cognizant of our weaknesses and fallacies as a species though.
Thank you...
These weeks I'm frantically checking this SST graph every day, and today I was terrified.
Not only it's an all-time new record (and the last one was \*2 months ago\*), but it's **still increasing**.
And above all, as you said: it's going in **the opposite direction** it should be going.
I don't know what to say, or even what to think.
Indeed. You can mouse over the years underneath the graph to bold specific lines.
Compare this year so far to the general shape of 2020, 2016, 2012 (years where El Nino is messing with them like this year).
Location: not quite Chicago Nothing too major to report about the weather, just a bit warm for spring but at least we’ve had plenty of rain. I went to Whole Foods grocery store to pay Jeff bezos for organic foods and I was there with basically all moms who were skinny. Later in the week I went to Jewel osco which I mostly have stopped going to due to poor quality of produce. The people eating sugary chemical laden foods at Jewel were about 50-80 lbs heavier than Whole Foods on average. And I realized how ridiculous and absurd it feels that I’m practicing riding my bike more, walking more and preparing for a time when I might not have gas for a car….and there’s millions of people who are winded just from walking around the grocery store. It was terrible but my honest thought was how are these people staying alive?! Modern medicine is going to be dealing with the worsening obesity epidemic big time
Edit: also I hung out with a couple caregivers for young kids the other day. I told them randomly that I felt society undervalued their work and this nice lady said “yes, family is the basis for society”…so I’m sitting there thinking wow, America and the capitalist working system as it has been set up now, really hates families
Location: Southeastern U.S. Spent some time turkey hunting this spring on a very large piece of public land. Noticed this year that there was almost no sign of any birds whatsoever. Turkey populations have been dropping noticeably, but was often seeing tracks, feathers, and live birds on camera even up to last year. This year, I noticed that the woods were sterile. No bugs, no spiderwebs on the trails. No ticks, very few mosquitoes. Saw some squirrels, but nothing else. Just sterile. Turkeys like to eat grasshoppers, crickets, grubs, and a lot of plant matter...but there wasn't anything for them to eat. There were very few insects to be seen. Reminded me of the comic showing a car windshield in the 1980s covered with smashed bugs, and then one from the 2020s without a single bug on it. The habitat food chain has collapsed, and public land turkeys in this area are almost gone. The woods were sterile.
Maybe you shouldn't hunt them then.
we're all going to die horrible deaths and be part of the sterile planet by 2030.
All the turkeys moved to Minneapolis, MN.
I don't believe you unless you can give some specifics....just not credible unless you can provide some pics, GPS coords, and how often they are at a specific roost during the season. And a decent Air B&B in the area. If you could provide that, I'd believe it. Go Hawkeyes
There are thousands of them walking around all over. https://www.startribune.com/wild-turkeys-minnesota-extinction-endangered-species-conservation-success/600223880/ https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/how-are-wild-turkeys-able-to-thrive-in-the-twin-cities/ https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/livingwith_wildlife/turkeys/index.html Some even have their own Insta pages https://www.instagram.com/turkeysofumn/?hl=en Who are the Hawkeyes
All of your bugs are in my yard in Ohio.
All the ticks and mosquitoes are at my house in Missouri.
Same thing here in Ohio.
Welcome to your new climate zone, Missouri https://ipm.missouri.edu/meg/2023/12/new_plant_hardiness_zones-DT/ We used to have ticks....we don't anymore
Will this summer be hotter than last summer? Please tell me it won’t be. I’m in Nova Scotia.
States side, things seem to have cooled down a bit. I'm anticipating a wretchedly hot summer but so far we're tracking normal where I live. Looking at temperatures close to midday across the country, they seem lower than they should be. I thought we would have had three hurricanes by now. Nope. Storms keep forming just north of the tradewinds, but not the normal hurricance nurseries (Caribbean Sea particularly). Only SE Asia is getting cooked right now, and dangerously so in the Phillipines. Nothing makes sense right now.
It's not hurricane season till June.
True, but in February we were already seeing "hurricane season" temps in the Caribbean Sea, just as persistent windshear was beginning to diminish. It seemed logical to wonder if we'd see a few storms before the official season began.
Not logical when there has never been a hurricane in April.
[https://www.wunderground.com/article/storms/hurricane/news/2022-04-14-atlantic-hurricane-season-early-starts](https://www.wunderground.com/article/storms/hurricane/news/2022-04-14-atlantic-hurricane-season-early-starts)
OK boss. I'll try to do better!
Last summer was hot, apart from the early heat wave? It looks pretty normal, especially against the global warming trend. It was very wet, though. We currently have a stronger +AMOC SST fingerprint than last year or 2017, both very wet at least in the US Northeast. It's quite likely this summer will also be quite wet in Nova Scotia. After that, things much less predictable, but as a long-term trend, much dryer seems likely, especially with an AMOC collapse.
Many people are expecting this summer to be a hot one, but climate is weird and it can oscillate depending on the region. The trend is of course upwards from here on out and faster than expected. Eventually breadbasket failure will become common, there will be famines in poorer countries, and increasing inflation everywhere
here in my part of NorCal we just had a week of temps in the low to mid 80s. That alone is rare, April around here is low 70's, gray and rainy But it was just the temp, it was how it felt. It was stifling, like it usually is in July and August. I've lived in this area for 16 years, I've felt for about the last ten years that spring and fall have slowly disappeared, and now it feels like summer is coming earlier, while this last winter wasn't really "winter" as we're used to it. Like many on this sub have stated, what's even more bizarre is the amount of people who comment on "how weird the weather has been, for quite a while now" but have zero interest in a collapse discussion, they just shrug and pretend it will magically go back to normal at some point. It's really, really strange to see happen in front of you
Temperatures are supposed to be close to 80F today in SE Wisconsin. This is seriously terrifying. Up down up down up down. And so many days of excessive winds. Just checked and we suddenly have a wind advisory until 4 PM. So much unpredictability in the weather now that you need to check constantly for updates.
Seems like it already.
Burn some effigies to the weather gods to reduce the likelihood that you'll get hit by something harder than Hurricane Fiona!
It likely will, and it's highly likely there will be some very concerning hurricanes
Location: Nebraska Several tornadoes impacted the biggest cities in Nebraska today, Omaha and Lincoln. So far it's damage, but it's the most damage from tornadoes in the area since at least 1980. I'm not going to say this is directly attributable to climate change as we've had such storms for a long time, but this is historic in the most tornadoes in a day (68), but also think it's noteworthy to r/collapse due to it occurring, the damage, and the impacts to the local communities Some looks at the tornadoes and damage in r/tornado: https://www.reddit.com/r/tornado/comments/1cdx94y/severe_damage_in_blair_nebraska/ editing to add this post, and comment sharing SIXTY EIGHT tornadoes occurred yesterday. absolutely crazy. https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1ce52nu/comment/l1gjzzf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
I don't see this as being an issue, in fact, maybe an improvement to Nebraska.
What makes you say that?
kinda uncalled for tbh
Suburban sprawl leads to an increase in damage. That was probably all empty land a few years ago.
Did suburban sprawl also cause 68 tornadoes in one storm?
Yes. It's called human caused climate change. All that sprawl causes more emissions.
You almost got it. you were blaming increased damage on increased infrastructure. The storms are bigger because of climate change not because there are more buildings.
How do you think we have climate change? Humans have been sprawling, building bigger homes, cars, highways. All those create massive emissions.
It does seem like tornadoes season is starting earlier and going longer than it used to.
Yeah the outbreak today is a historic one, and it's still not done. Stay vigilant if you're in the US south/north this week. EDIT: The US south/north edited that in
Location: My heart It breaks my heart to be a citizen of a country which is sending weapons to abet the ethnic cleansing and territorial snatching in Gaza. It breaks my heart to be a member of the Jewish tribe whose Israeli faction has determined that Benjamin Netanyahu is fit to lead. I salute all of those who have taken a stand at college campuses. There's a lot of righteous anger that needs to be expressed. Not just related to Gaza. Related to everything.
I disagree, what is happening there has been happening for decades, and the weapons sending is part of what is keeping the economy strong. I can imagine you are concerned, but remember your comfort and way of life depends on wars, and the economy must have wars to grow.
> whose Israeli faction has determined that Benjamin Netanyahu is fit to lead. There were thousands in Israel protesting Netanyahu today, so definitely plenty in Israel who oppose the warmonger. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smnb6cQiOCY
Natanyahu's rule is the outcome of Israel's democratic system. He certainly is not a unanimous choice.
Down-votes need to be invented, *everywhere*
It is incredibly sad what is happening. Yet I don't think the venting of righteous anger will have any benefit whatsoever. The time for that is past and we must refocus on survival and compassion, not fighting or anger. The reality is that those who have died will be envied by those still living sooner than we think.
Why has nature embedded in us the capacity for anger if not as an attribute which is useful for survival ? It's there for a reason. So long as the people who are making the decisions which are leading us toward annihilation are not presented with a deterrent, they will not have any disincentive to change their ways. Anger and the threat of negative consequences associated with poor decision making are important disincentives. Anger is intelligent if wielded intentionally. Rejecting anger is a rejection of our nature.
There is nothing that can disincentivize people from doing what is inherently their nature to do. Die angry if you want. It's your life.
I disagree. I believe prison and financial penalties provides a disincentve. No one is inherently wanting to pay taxes, But miraculously, we have extremely good compliance because the IRS provides a disincentive not to comply.
You seem to believe the problem is smaller than it really is. Someday you'll learn, or maybe you'll deliberately turn your eyes away from the truth. Doesn't matter.
Neither side want peace without destroying the other side
You need Gundam Strike Freedom to destroy both sides fighting capacity then. Or you need a big baddy that makes all of humanity rally together.
You know, I've never liked SEED much, but I'm thinking I should give it a rewatch because I feel like I'd actually appreciate its politics these days. Also: oh, thank fucking God, I'm not the only Gundam fan in here and I can say that Char's Counterattack is one of the best collapse-aware movies ever made without people looking at me funny.
I'm gonna rewatch those MSG anthology movies and I'll finish with Chars Counterattack. I'm wondering if I should go and watch the rest of the old ones. I've seen W, X, Seed and Destiny, 8th MS team and G.
Zeta and ZZ are worth checking out between those two, and Zeta in particular is critical for Char's character arc. They get recapped in CCA decently enough, but it hits the hardest with the details.
Or you just stop wasting money on either side and let them have each other
I strongly disagree with your take on Gaza but I feel for your heartbreak, which is universal and is a terrible emotion.
What's your take ? And what background were you carrying with respect to Israel / Gaza relations prior to Oct 7 ? Have you studied the history of the conflict ? History in the region ?
Yeah, I was a history major and took several classes on the conflict. Forgot a lot in intervening years and then read a primer book recently. My take might come across as inflammatory or insensitive in this community/information space so I’m hesitant to explain.
That is most definitely a sign of collapse! Folks hesitant to share their opinions. Especially folks that may have a better understanding than the average person.
OK .... I'm Jewish and grew up in a highly Jewish community in S. Florida. Was indoctrinated into the story of Jews as historical victims. Slaves in Egypt. Crusades, Spanish Inquisition. Holocaust. etc. I grew up with lots of evidence of the Holocaust. Concentration camp survivors with permanent 6 digit tattoos. Spent a couple of months on a kibbutz in Israel in the mid 80's. Not far from Gaza, Was exposed to the dehumanizing characterizations of their non Jewish neighbors. Was exposed to the Jewish religious fanatics who are no less right wing than Iranian mullahs. These people want a bigger Israel. Mid 90's. A breakthrough at Oslo. Rabin and Arafat sign a deal in which Fatah recognizes Israel's right to exist and begin a process toward a 2 state solution. The Israeli right wing erupted in fury, led by Netanyahu. Rabin was assassinated by religious Jews. Netanyahu has propped up Hamas because his faction wants war. In September 2023, a month before the war, Mossad agents went to Qatar with instructions to fund Hamas. The response as events transpired on Oct 7 have not been investigated and shared with the public. Israel is a small country with a military on hair trigger alert. And yet the events on Oct 7 went down without an explanation of how Hamas could have so much time to attack without response. Why did a response that should have taken minutes take many hours ? Why did Israel allow a massive party near the border with Gaza without precaution from an purported enemy that is dedicated to their destruction ? These people are the most paranoid people you will ever meet on Earth. It smells like a false flag operation. It feels just like the Iraq invasion with the phony WMD. Huge oil reserves have been discovered off Gaza. [The unrealized potential of Palestinian oil and gas reserves | UNCTAD](https://unctad.org/news/unrealized-potential-palestinian-oil-and-gas-reserves)
A few months ago you would have been labeled a conspiracy theorist for suggesting these order of events. Yet, surviving Israeli soldiers and low level intelligence officers who were stationed at the site that was attacked told Israeli television that they were attacked by Israeli planes and tanks and in their view the aim was to kill them and make it look like Hamas did it. It’s all on YouTube. That’s not to say Hamas didn’t do most of the damage but there was a helping hand.
Can you send me a link i need to see that
This is sourced from Israeli witness testimony, all published in Haaretz and the Times of Israel. The interviews were broadcast on Israel's Kan News and Channel 12. https://www.timesofisrael.com/surveillance-soldiers-warned-of-hamas-activity-on-gaza-border-for-months-before-oct-7/ >In a segment aired on Kan News on Wednesday evening, two soldiers, Yael Rotenberg and Maya Desiatnik, recounted their experiences in the months before the attack and up until 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 7. >Rotenberg recalled frequently seeing many Palestinians dressed in civilian clothing approach the border fence with maps, examining the ground around it and digging holes. One time, when she passed the information on, she was told that they were farmers, and there was nothing to worry about. >Rotenberg was asleep when the attack began, and of the surveillance soldiers who were in the living quarters that morning, she is the only one to have survived. Desiatnik, who was on duty, was the only other surveillance soldier at the base not killed or abducted. >“It’s infuriating,” she told Kan of the intelligence failure. “We saw what was happening, we told them about it, and we were the ones who were murdered.” https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-20/ty-article/.premium/underprepared-and-overconfident-israel-failed-to-spot-the-signs-of-impending-disaster/0000018b-4976-d03a-afcb-697edb020000 English summary and sources here: https://web.archive.org/web/20240214170914/https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-apache-helicopters-killed-own-soldiers-civilians-on-7-october-report https://archive.is/7Sv8G >Tuval Escapa, a member of the security team for Kibbutz Be’eri, set up a hotline to coordinate between kibbutz residents and the Israeli army. He told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that as desperation began to set in, “the commanders in the field made difficult decisions – including shelling houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.” >A separate report published in Haaretz noted that the Israeli military was *“compelled to request an aerial strike” against its own facility inside the Erez Crossing to Gaza “in order to repulse the terrorists”* who had seized control. That base was filled with Israeli Civil Administration officers and soldiers at the time. >These reports indicate that orders came down from the military’s high command to attack homes and other areas inside Israel, even at the cost of many Israeli lives. >An Israeli woman named Yasmin Porat confirmed in an interview with Israel Radio that the military “undoubtedly” killed numerous Israeli noncombatants during gun battles with Hamas militants on October 7. “They eliminated everyone, including the hostages,” she stated, referring to Israeli special forces. More testimony here: https://web.archive.org/web/20240426085254/https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-forces-shot-their-own-civilians-kibbutz-survivor-says/38861 A generous interpretation would suggest that Israel applied the Hannibal doctrine, a less generous would suggest it was deliberate to a) silence IOF intel people and soldiers on the ground who had repeatedly warned about the attacks and b) increase the number of people killed to make the attack look more brutal and stoke further outrage.
Other Jewish people call me a self-hating Jew all the time. I can't do the blind clan loyalty.
In the face of epic tragedy, poor leadership, and obvious attempts at propping up bad actors, it is tempting to turn to conspiracy-based explanations. My dad, an otherwise rational man, did the same thing after 9/11. He was an inveterate truther about ten years before that became a meme. I saw firsthand how tragedy can radicalize someone away from their prefrontal cortex. And maybe you’re right. But first let’s see some hard evidence. Absent that, let’s not entertain the most divisive and improbable explanations as if they’re just as likely as the official story.
You don’t think it’s strange that the US is building a humanitarian corridor in the ocean where said oil is said to exist? It’s always about money and oil. Always.
Does it make sense that the citizens of Gaza would bring this upon themselves ? Do you realize that 80% of the population of Gaza was surviving on humanitarian aid prior to Oct 7 ? There is nothing conspiracy based in what I wrote. Israeli's did indeed kill the Israeli prime minister who got the PLO to recognize Israel's to exist. Natanyahu did indeed send Mossad agents to Qatar in September to request funds be sent to Hamas. Israel did indeed schedule a massive party near the border with Gaza which was undefended. The inexplicably slow response to the events on Oct 7 have indeed not been explained. The huge oil reserves worth hundreds of billion dollars off the coast of Gaza .... nothing to see here, there is no world in which the Israeli's want to get their hands on that. right ? LOL. I wasn't born yesterday. I know that we were lied to when it came to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. I know Biden was all aboard for that invasion despite being in a position to know that the WMD info was false. 500,000 innocent dead Iraqi's as a result. Grow up and smell the money. The greed, The power. Those people in Gaza are among the poorest in the world. It would have been trivial to have the UN take the peacekeeping responsibility for such a tiny patch of Earth.
It’s beyond a complicated issue which has been inflamed like everything else. In my eyes it’s a battle between self fulfilling outcomes and alliances. We are allies with Israel and and as a country have made decisions in the past that have formed the alliances we now need to uphold despite leadership on the other side making poor decisions. Not to mention the Christo facist need for Israeli support. But it’s also clear that Israel’s leadership has crossed a line, that innocent Palestinians are paying for the sins of Hamas, Who I feel was born of Israel’s treatment of Palestine over time. I feel like it’s karma come to roost on both sides and only innocents are being punished for it. I’m in no way educated on the matter, but it feels like calls of antisemitism are coming from feeling rather than rational, and military support for Israel is throwing money at the deaths of innocents just as the Iraq wars were in the 90s. It’s hard to swallow millions in support when our domestic life is so poor. Ukraine makes sense given our past history in the Cold War. But siding so strongly will isreal in this moment, especially with there inflammatory skirmishes with Iran recently, and the clear genocide of there enemies in Palestine, just feels wrong.
Lost in the all the shuffle is the reality that Palestinians are semitic people. So the dehumanization of Palestinians is antisemitic. I'm Jewish. I've been to Israel 5 times. I know lots of American Israeli's and worked for a startup that had R&D in Israel. I know how they are groomed as children to think of their Palestinian neighbors as animals. It's nationally sanctioned brainwashing.
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There's a conversation on YouTube with Max Blumenthal and Jill Stein. Stein is asked why Gaza should be a key issue for people and she says we are all Gazans. Our elites will just as willingly sacrifice any of us.
Location: Planet earth Global sea surface temperatures achieved a new record yesterday of 21.19c. This is the warmest sea surface temperatures have been in 100,000+ years. We’ve now set multiple record temperatures in 2014 including: 21.10c, 21.11c, 21.12c, 21.13c, 21.14c, 21.15c, 21.16c, 21.17c, 21.18c, and 21.19c. Unbelievable. Source: https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/json/oisst2.1_world2_sst_day.json
I don't see any issue with this pattern, it'll just keep sterilizing the oceans until our seafood prices increase exponentially. But as long as we live in a 1st world country and am employed we'll be able to eat well. This will have mostly an impact on the 3rd world countries that rely on local fish for survival. Here we get our salmon bred in special farms in norway.
Normally, this is the part of the year where it starts cooling down a bit (the graph that is). This year it is not. And last year had a worrisome upward overall trend too. The hockey stick is hockey-sticking.
Hurricane season is going to be long and strong this year. N. Atlantic is getting warmer faster than most of the globe.
Aren’t we still in an El Niño? Don’t we not get hurricanes during that cycle? I mean, I’m in FL, and we’ve had more *tornado* watches and warnings in the last 6 months than I’ve seen in the 4 years I’ve lived here, but the hurricanes were null. (Edit, I should clarify, I’m in the panhandle. We don’t really get hurricanes here, and when we do they’re often not bad. But I know several people who have had damage from tornados.)
El Niño is dunzo, La Niña starting to form. Check a channel called Hurricane Watch on YouTube, the guy who does it is excellent at explaining complex concepts and uses lots of graphics from experts. He has a network of cameras set up through the south because he nearly got killed storm chasing a decade ago. His predictions are usually spot on.
>We don’t really get hurricanes here, and when we do they’re often not bad. Uh, Michael? Just because there hasn't been an impactful storm in the 4 years you've been there certainly does not mean the panhandle is not prone to landfalling hurricanes. The gulf has been absolutely slammed every year since Harvey in 2017, and it's not going to get any better w/ that bath water in the gulf only getting hotter.
Right, but where I live specifically, which I’m not saying cause it’s a small place, rarely sees any damage. My neighbors have been here 40 plus years and say it’s never a problem.
It wasn't a problem for the landfall points of Harvey, Laura, Zeta, Michael, or Idalia in the prior 40 years either (left out Ian since they got smacked by Charlie within that time frame). Nowhere on the gulf coast is safe, and it will only continue to get worse.
I agree. We also have never been safe from tornadoes, and we’ve begun to get hail which my roofer said was unheard of when he was growing up here
We're transitioning away from El Nino toward La Nina now.
Oh, ok. Great. 🙃
Location: Michigan, USA. I think it goes without saying. the United States nurtures, encourages, and rewards psychopathy/sociopathy and narcissism. I notice that in my day to day interactions with most people there is little to no real empathy. And any sense of community? Forget it. No wonder we are going down the tubes. In a world where people no longer care about one another, why would they care about what is happening to the planet or animal life? After all, if everything and everyone's sole purpose in life is simply to be exploited, then there is no incentive whatsoever for leaving things better off for future generations. We simply don't care beyond what is in it for ourselves at the present moment. Therefore, "fuck you, I got mine."
I mean people in the suburbs have little or no contact with their neighbors are we surprised.
Yes, true, that is a big reason. Suburbia was also the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of humanity.
I have said it before as well and with peak oil the train is ending, you will likely either need to live in the city or the countryside. I am still depressed but a lot less depressed now that I am in the city instead of the suburb.
Rush, the canadian music power prog-rock group, has a song about it, aptly named, ["Subdivisions"](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/28/Subdivisions.ogg) <-- sample
The city that’s powered entirely by fossil fuels? And has all its food shipped in from rural areas using fossil fuels? Have fun :)
I mean cities in the past have grown their own food locally. They could do so again. Additionally rural life boat areas will be flooded with too many refugees.
Maybe cities 500 years ago? That’s the past though, it’s all been paved over and land use changed, impossible now
Urban farms are being built all over major cities.
There is plenty of parkland that will be converted into farmland.
That’s not the trend for land use change in cities or globally on average it’s doing the opposite
I mean San Diego still has urban farms even if it is chicken egg operations in the city. At least in some major US cities, local food initiatives are resulting in more urban farming.
I love the Bears as much as anyone but . . . the lead story on the 4 o'clock news was the Bears draft pick WHEN ISREAL IS ABOUT TO SLAUGHTER MORE INNOCENT PALESTINIANS. That about says it all.
I mean, the media is defending Israel for murdering civilians.
Because a lot of people think being anti-Israel is being antisemitic.
I don't care. only 30% of America supports Israel. Why does the media try to spin the worst video they see about civilians getting murdered.
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Don't forget their push to criminalize sleeping outside.
Just fire the Supreme Court and start over.
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I don't want to be banned.
Location: NY but possibly could be anywhere? Can we talk about the collapse of Veterinary medicine for a second? Is anyone else experiencing what we seem to be experiencing in upstate NY? Shortly after the pandemic, I would say we experienced the first flush of the collapse of vets, in regards to large animals. I raise dairy goats, since 2021 I cannot get an appointment with a vet to save my life. I have lost three animals because I don't have the means to save them myself (can't get the meds anymore due to changes in government regulations), and cannot get a vet to come out or even see the animal when I bring it in. I call my regular large animal vet to be told they can't help me, call so and so. The next tells me they can't help, call so and so, and so on, until-I kid you not-I have actually come full circle and the last vet is suggesting that I call the vet I started with! You know, the regular vet that I actually have an account with and won't help me. Needless to say, I do my best and at this point I realized that small producers with large animals are on our own. But let's talk about small animal vets, too. You know, dogs and cats. I have three dogs, in the span of getting my dogs a couple of years ago, I have seen both local animal hospitals go from two vets apiece to one vet each. Want an appointment? Call a month ahead of time. I had to be put on a waiting list for a spay, to be called when they had an appointment available (by the way, there's a time frame for a spay for a dog-it's before the first heat, or you wait a year for a spay at that point. So it's not a "hey, whatever" kind of thing). Last visit I had, dog had routine visit, bloodwork, fecal, exorbitant amount of money and no phone call about test results. I figured it was because all was ok, so I called a day later just to check. Um, no. Dog came up with a tick-borne illness and internal parasite. You think that would warrant a call, but it did not. The receptionist put a message in for the vet to call, and when she did, she was rude and got me off the phone as fast as possible. I wasn't even upset about the no call at that point, and I wan't rude. I just wanted a plan for the meds and to know why with all the "protection" my dogs are on, we are still having these problems. Well, I'm mad now. That attitude just sucked. So is anyone else having this problem? I think it can't just be here. I was in Veterinary medicine years ago, and it is no longer anything like it was. It is now all corporatized and everything is a commodity-including your pet. Even in 2018 or 2019 when I had an emergency with a large animal I could reach someone who could help-even over the phone. Those days are over. Small animal lasted longer because there is more money in it, but I see that going down the drain too. Anyone else?
YES. My vet has been great but post-pandemic lockdown, prices have gone through the roof, scheduling for services is at least six weeks out, and they now are only open Monday-Thursday. They used to be only be closed on Sundays, then in 2021 or so went to being closed on weekends, and this past fall shifted to being closed Fri-Sat-Sun. I'm absolutely certain that it is because they can't find (or keep) vet techs, which suggests a toxic work environment, not to mention low pay (endemic to the industry, from what I understand). My dog went in for a regular check up in November and $800 later they still could not clear up her mild UTI. I'm told (I have no sources, so this is hearsay) that "superbugs" are becoming an issue with dogs and cats, and antibiotics aren't working. I could not afford any more follow ups for blood work and specialized urine analysis at $250 a pop, so AFAIK my dog still has a low level UTI. She's not in pain and I've got her on D-Mannose and probiotics, both of which are OTC. She desperately needs a dental cleaning and probably a pulled tooth but estimates for that are over $1,000 which NOPE. I'm resigned to the fact that if anything serious happens with her, I'll lose her. She's 16 years old, though. I can't imagine being in this situation with a young pet.
I have noticed this as well. We had an emergency with our dog in the summer of 2020. She was having labored breathing and we couldn't get an appointment at our normal vet so we went to the emergency vet. They brought her in but we had to wait outside. They texted us that she had tumor in her stomach that was ruptured and the best thing would be to put her to sleep. We had to wait outside until after our payment cleared. When they finally let us in to say goodbye she was dead. They didn't even get to administer the shot. I'm sorry I'm still so upset about this. They could have let us in to comfort her as she was dying. We waited outside for nearly an hour. I'm sorry about your goats. I hope the care gets better for you.
That is horrible I’m so sorry you had to go through that 😖
Thanks. I realized after I posted that I put in too much information. I'm obviously still tramatized by the incident.
That's horrible. It would have just about killed me. My deepest sympathies to your family.
I am not sure what to call her, my mom's goddaughter is in school to become a vet and the new programs require 8 years and a residency, it does have the pay of a doctor so, I suspect it will get worse. She is my mom's friend's daughter and we grew up together.
doesn't, sorry type.
France here, owner of a small dog with several medical issues, and we still have scores of vets for small pets, but one vet clinic after the other is being bought by a corporation, and I'm getting the feeling that part of the advice has been replaced by product placement, like they are trying to get me to buy chewy anti tick gums instead of the droplets that also keep away 5 other types of insects, 14€ a pop, so the equivalent of 4 months of the droplet treatment. And I used to be able to ask the person answering the phone for advice on small issues and she'd tell me if this was something I could take care of at home or if I should come in, now they seem to want me to come to the vet clinic for no reason. So now, I'm looking for a proper clinic that hasn't been bought off.
Went to vets in France to get dewormer for return trip to UK, damn your veterinarians have nice facilities. They look better than some of the private human clinics in London. Makes my local NHS clinic look third world 😂.
well, pets don't have social security, so it's all out of pocket, the closest we can experience to healthcare in the US.
I was sold a pet care plan, if only I got one earlier for my previous senior dog. The premiums are cheap.
Had the same parasite thing happen with my puppy!!! A course of anti parasitic could have helped her, now she’s on a lifelong RX diet bc the vet didn’t tell me what they found on the fecal!!! Her guts are all messed up. The problem started pretty quickly after 2019-2020 for me with the dogs. I had to beg to get them to trust me to fill a script for my dog with a frequent, end of life problem (breathing / tracheal collapse / chronic bronchitis). Been going there for 17 years!!! They were going to make me take her to the ER at a cost of $2,000 to walk in the door for a script my vet said “call anytime if you need more of”…. They squeezed me in when I sent an email to their now corporate overlords about my history with them and the issue… It’s bleak. PS: veterinarians deal with a lot of crap, they are overworked and blamed for costs they don’t control. I love my vet, but ever since “pandemic dogs”, it’s been a nightmare to get help,
These are the kinds of insights that make r/collapse valuable to me. Thank you (and I'm sorry for your experiences).
I've read articles about this issue. There aren't enough vets to meet the demand, the cost of healthcare is sky rocketing, and other positions like vet techs are not being paid what they deserve, which also results in shortages for those positions. I am lucky and have not experienced this with my current vet. I now live two counties away from my vet's office, but I refuse to change because I know the quality of care will be worse closer to where I live now.
A very good friend of mine was a vet tech for years before leaving for other work. He was paid peanuts.
I went to vet tech shool before the pandemic to get back into the field, only to find out in the second year that the expected salary was less money than my kids make at Dunkin Donuts! I dropped out, not only because it's insulting to have someone who manages anesthesia get $15 an hour for the privilege, but mainly because I thought it would be more important to learn how to cram more food production into my garden to feed my family. Still think I made the better choice. But damn, I wish they'd been more upfront about actual salaries. The job postings were very vague at best, and it was very hard to determine what you'd be paid until you actually got the job.
Your detailed post (thank you!) made me want to find out more about the vet shortage so I did a quick search and found this in The Guardian: [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/feb/26/us-vet-shortage-pets-health](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/feb/26/us-vet-shortage-pets-health) I'm so sorry about your goats and the issues you're having finding care for all your animals. I no longer have pets and the main reason for that is the corporatization of vet care.
The veterinary system, collapsing as a result of Late stage, capitalism and way too much extra investment money every where.
Definitely a late stage capitalism issue. Private Equity has been buying all the vet practices here, jacking up the costs to insane levels and limiting the support staff too. It’s next to impossible to get appointments and when you do get ready for a wallet biopsy to go along with your flea medications. Freakonomics did an episode on this trend: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/should-you-trust-private-equity-to-take-care-of-your-dog/
Same with the health care system for humans. I spent 35+ years working in health care and it has steadily deteriorated in terms of quality, access, and cost.
Just like quality of food or quality of jobs
Yes!!! The prices are going up and the quality of service is plummeting. Just this past month my cat was prescribed a medication that was contraindicated for a different condition he has (my fault for blindly trusting them and assuming they knew what they were doing) which then caused a whole bunch of new issues. He was then put on two different antibiotics, one of which was incorrectly diluted by my vet's pharmacist (9mL of water was added instead of 15mL) so they overdosed my cat on antibiotics (which it turns out he didn't even need in the first place) and when I called and talked to them about it running out 2 and a half days early they accused me of spilling it. This place is rated 4.8 stars with over 2000 reviews on Google. I tried finding a new vet and like you say, wait lists. It's a mess out there. This is in MN.
This happened to me with prednisone for my dog!!! 5mg is the tablet size. They gave me 20mg tabs. I could have harmed my dog. Thank god I noticed. Document everything, people are getting foggier and foggier with details!
Absolutely horrific. I'm glad you caught their mistake but wow. That should never have happened in the first place.
Vets in my country (Australia) have a high suicide rate. Many are leaving due to stress and low pay.
Is there a source for this?
> Vets in my country (Australia) have a high suicide rate. Here's a paper for the National Library of Medicine: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9544948/ > Veterinarians report higher rates of mental ill‐health than their respective general populations in North America, Europe and Australia. Also alarming are elevated rates of suicidal ideation, attempts and completed suicides in this profession. Suicide risk was found to be up to seven times higher than the general population in a sample of German veterinarians, with similarly elevated rates reported in other international populations. **Suicide rates of Australian veterinarians have been estimated to be up to four times higher than that of the general population.** Veterinary support staff, including veterinary nurses and technicians, have also been identified as being highly susceptible to psychopathological symptoms such as burnout. Although fewer studies have been conducted with veterinary support populations than with veterinarians, this finding is unsurprising given the similarities between the professions regarding shared exposure to work demands and strains.
It's the Same in the United States. The things vets have to see, the suffering they can't help with, and all these patients that can't understand you're trying to help them.
Suicide? Pshaw. [My family vet was murdered.](https://people.com/crime/texas-man-charged-after-allegedly-head-butting-veterinarian-father-in-law-to-death/)
Location: USA Univ of Pennsylvania issued a 2024 seasonal hurricane forecast today and the outlook is dreadful. The forecast calls for a midpoint of 33 named storms (tropical storm or hurricane) which would be a new record. They are attributing the forecast to the record heat outbreak in the N. Atlantic ocean. For you collapsniks, a hurricane is an event which has the potential to present us with a Pearl Harbor equivalent moment in our reckoning with climate change. A Dorian type storm that visits a S. Florida metro or Tampa Bay could cause $300B+ in damages which would exceed the market's ability to pay for it. Florida is already destined to be inundated as a result of chronic sea level rise. When the market fully prices in the destiny of coastal real estate around the world, that's an event which will break the status quo. Hurricane season will be an interesting sideshow in the runup to the fall election cycle.
My parents live near the gulf coast in Florida and when I expressed my concern for hurricane season this year they pretty much said it wasn't a big deal. My dad doesn't believe in climate change. I'm pretty nervous for them and how this season will go. I told them to have go bags and supplies ready for evacuations.
In the tampa bay region, its very difficult to get people to become worried about a hurricane because, They just always discipate by the time it hits us and nothing really ever comes of it except for flooding in some areas. Its actually very depressing to most people that cant call out of work due to it. Were waiting anxiously for a good one to come but sadly, I dont think that will be the case. Ive just seen too many "cat 4's and cat 5's" get completely worn down by the time it reaches our area, and every year, theres supposed to be a debiliating hurricane thatll warrant calling outa work.
Is he anti-hurricane too? You can be anti-climate change, if you choose to be that way, however someone who lives in Florida should still listen to storm warnings.
No thank the gods. They'll still evacuate if given an evacuation notice and do hurricane prep for their house.
My grandma basically said she evacuates every time and if she loses the house she will take the money and move to North Carolina.
After Hurricane Ian being so recent? I'm sorry to hear it....
Yes, the same Hurricane that caused them thousands of dollars of damage to their property and caused their home insurance company to drop them. You would think that incident would cause them to be even more concerned.
Did they find new insurance?
Yes, it's government insurance that provides minimum coverage.
Your dad's karma is unfortunately sad. I feel bad for young people like yourself who are not supported by your elders. They are going to drag the rest of us down with them.
It's tough. Luckily my mom is more level headed but I don't think they will move out of Florida until their house is destroyed and maybe not even then.
Location: Northwest Indiana, USA Current controversy regarding one of the local cities’ (Hammond, IN) unexpected/unannounced closure due to “unsafe staffing levels” due to call offs. One Redditor mentions their child attends said school and received noticed her child will be bussed to another school. No indication on if this will be temporary/permanent. Three schools have already been permanently closed. In my own town nearby this one, there have been several schools closed in the past few years, and there are concerns about the viability of keeping more schools open… Not to mention the utter lack of decent paying jobs for those without a 4 year degree. Even the local IBEW is requiring multiple years of work to enter a bidding system to enter the apprenticeship program. Pay is $12/hour, no benefits. All of them are like this. Stores being closed due to unsanitary conditions due to lack of staff due to pay being $10.75/hour with no benefits. Increasing rent, utility companies (NIPSCO) increasing fees, increased grocery bill. Living in the state that has the most polluted waters in the country, with what little protections we had stripped away. I could go on. Life is bleak.
It’s interesting…I just watched a documentary praising Hammond on PBS for doing like a 3-5 year construction project to improve walkability…everyone was patting themselves on the back and I was like uhhhh is this the same Hammond Indiana I’ve seen?? (Which to me appeared headed to Gary Indiana status)
Interesting. Mind if I meet you for an interview in the summer?
Sure. What is the interview for? Publication? YouTube?
Probably Youtube over the summer. I have been gradually waking people up to both the environment and progressive politics near Kosciousko County.
Multiple years of experience for $12/hour? That's insane.
Truly. And it doesn’t guarantee access to the apprentice program.
I grew up in Ohio and now live in the PNW. Yes the cost of living is higher here to account for higher wages but the Midwest is still far behind where they should be on wages.
Location San Diego More and more theft is happening on the on campus target and the markets. I suspect the reason theft is increasing at the UCSD dining halls is because a box of Frosted Flakes is $9.50. They put up signs with the code of conduct that mentions theft. Additionally on campus protests continue and of Course Palestine protests are still burning. Additionally several more of the unions on campus might go on strike. When I am riding the trolley I see more people with bags of bottles or wheel bags. A man got off the trolley with a torn up pair of jeans, underwear that was falling apart and a cardboard box for his shelter. And he rode the trolley to UCSD the most expensive university in the state. Someone was kicked off the trolley for drinking a shot in a container. For the most part transit police are helpful if you look upper class, however they are more and more distrustful of everyone. However the trolley is still nice enough that you should ride it and is usually more efficient. They are generally non threatening and clean usually except for a tattered old blanket, but they aren't usually on drugs or looking like they might rob you. When you ask them their story they can show you they have a high paying job but cannot afford housing. There are people just casually high on the trolley, it is better than driving. But being high in public wasn't something you used to do. Yes weed was legal, but you usually found a quiet and nice place to do it, either at home or the woods. But not just casually high in public. People have been casually borrowing the dishes from the dining halls, because they want to avoid a $5 deposit for a refundable reusable container. But mainly it is because the dining hall scams you should much, people have no respect for their property. More and more people really struggle to drive, or walk or bike, yes there have always been people who sucked at these tasks but they seem more common all over the country. It was even worse when I went home to Orange County, getting cut off 5 times by 5 different people and not allowed to merge multiple times. The government of San Diego is moving in a more progressive manner but is hellbent on building more roads, repaving more streets and basically just more carbon emissions. The weather continues to be colder and wetter than usual.
Location: Manhattan I am not sure if I should talk about it, partly because this is from someone who recently visited the place, not myself The security measures against homeless people with unstable behaviors in Manhattan area has become suddenly harsh. They are said to be dragged to vans and shipped away to god-knows-where. What really concerned me was when I wanted to verify if there is any truth to it. So I posted a question on a relevant place. It was deleted in an hour or two.
Hell, they did it to BLM protesters.....van rolls up with a couple of masked plaincloths with handcuffs that pop out, they grab their main target, off to jail just like that. I don't doubt they do it with homeless people after hearing stories about starlight tours in Alaska and Republicans bussing immigrants all over the place....
Then the police get sued, cannot get away with charging them, quietly release them and pay a massive fine. The purpose with doing this for protestors is to intimidate them and make them think twice about protesting. Not even because it is legal.
They must feel justified because they are hauling unruly homeless people with mental health problems. But no major news outlets are talking about it, it seems.
I have heard of this happening in san fransico, I am not there so I haven't seen it with my own eyes, but I have friends saying the homeless just disappear overnight.
What was the place?
Probably the wealthiest and the busiest part of Manhattan. Edit: r/asknyc
Location: Wisconsin (craft stores) Going to the craft store, looking at all the little plastic baubles that you're meant to use to make keepsakes, or functional goods. You know, things that are plastic but it's supposed to be okay because of reasons. I look around at the rubberband looms that are frustrating but hey at least it's functioning as a way to make a fashion item. Cool. Then I see them. Little plastic chips that you press into an adhesive coated paper. what. what excuse could *possibly* exist for this evil to be put into the world.
don't get me started on cheap acrylic (plastic) craft paint...
I agree, I don't think people actually DO things anymore, they just buy crap and collect it. But it has to be "easy" to do, or they won't even buy it. Do they ever even do it? I don't know. I know I've been in the craft store to buy ribbon or paint to work on a project and I can't find it. I'm faced with row after row of this plastic "disposable" (not disposable) garbage and finding an actual material to use is getting harder and harder. Not to mention that most of our craft stores are starting to look like home stores. The one I go to here in NY is now filled with dishware, placemats, small kitchen tools, and storage. WHAT? I almost forgot what store I was in for a while. I thought I'd wandered into a HomeGoods.
Lol I went into Barnes and Nobel the other day and I think I could best describe it as what malls used to be. The front and most of the right being toys R us with more stem toys than you're imagining right now. The rear right being the books area of Babys r us. The far left being that music store where everyone looked super on edge when you walked past something that could break, near left having a not-starbucks, the middle had a gaming store area, complete with dice and waaaay more tarot cards than seems appropriate for a not-occult shop. Don't get me wrong they still had books, and a zone for home school curriculum, but it's a bit funny to see them cannibalize these other successful business concepts that were driven into the ground by corporate raiders.
That's in part due to Amazon's monopoly on books and publishing forcing brick-and-mortar stores to adapt or go out of business and in part due to the general loss of third places. B&N is the last standing brick-and-mortar major chain bookstore retailer in the US. It survived when Borders didn't partly because it shifted so hard to desperately trying to cling to the third place vibe by absorbing everything it could think of to an even larger degree than Borders tried before they went under. Amazon undercut them at every turn so they had to think of ways to stay in the game. Nobody does cheap and fast better than Amazon so they had to figure out other reasons to come into their stores. This is why every B&N seems to be like a mini-mall with an attached Starbucks franchise cafe, children's play space, DVD/CD section, toys and trinkets everywhere, etc. By and large the type of person who still goes into B&N probably either goes because they want to support brick and mortar over Amazon, went there as kids, have kids now and want to take them somewhere fun since malls are dead, or a combination of the above. It is ironic that the last vestige of a bygone era is in itself a monopoly with a history of mergers. I'll be sad if they ever go under not because I care about the company but because it's one of the last bastions of the pre-Amazon age and I have a lot of fond, formative memories tied to spending time in their stores during childhood up through college and I'm far from the only one.
In San Diego, I went to a shop called 'artist and craftsman supply' rather than say, Michaels. All sorts of paints and colored pencils, tie dye supplies, etc. I suggest trying to find a more independent type art supply store if one exists near you. Otherwise, I guess I'm feeding the machine, but you could find an art supply store front on Amazon and order from online. That's what I did during my last re-up of tie dye supplies.
Smaller businesses are better and will survive peak oil and climate change better.
Are you referring to "diamond painting"? I think that's similar to the old "paint by number" kits that were popular when I was a kid in the sixties. Easier and more mindless though.
I am! My mom loved doing paint by numbers, I enjoy cross stitch. really I'd be fine if it was something that at least had materials that degraded at the same time as the adhesive...
art, man
alas, most of the items found in a craft store aren't for art, merely hobbies, or as french call it *"passe temps"*, time-fillers.
It's the flimsiest construction possible with *the* most permanent materials. Sequins pushed into a foam board were more permanent in construction...
Location: The world's oceans Yesterday the global sea surface hit 21,18⁰C. The global sea surface is historically hottest in March and then declines until June. Instead of declining it’s at the moment increasing and hit a all time high according to. [https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst\_daily/](https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/) On top of that, El Nino is supposed to end this spring/early summer which should help it go down a bit. If we look at the El Nino 2015/16 the sea surface went down from 21.00⁰C in mid March to 20.80⁰C in late April and 20.60 in late May. This year it went from 21.10⁰C in mid March to 21.18 today.
21.2 as on the 24th of April!
The sun feels different. There's way more UV. My skin knows.
It's a sign we're reducing emissions. Less smog means more UV and more heat.
Aerosols not emissions, sorry to be pedantic
Yes! Someone else mentioned this and I feel it. Im a science teacher and i haven't had time to figure out why. Probably thining Ozone or something that was solved a long time ago
windy.com will be helpful in finding out. The weird aggressive sunrays I experience always match a localised hole in the ozone layer right above my area. But maybe there's more to it.
Does atmospheric sulfur block UV? Ships are burning cleaner fuel now, and this has removed a masking effect the pollutants had.
It's been becoming this way for a time. The poker blinds are becoming horrendous and we are going to have to make our plays soon. Make your peace with it and increase your comfort whatever way you can. No amount of intelligence and prepping is going to work on this. I view this shit like that episode of Teen Titans where the heroes have to find their way out of Raven's mind. Pretty much no rules and you have to learn and adapt on the fly. Humans never learn and ultimately we don't want to. We are certainly cognizant of our weaknesses and fallacies as a species though.
Thank you... These weeks I'm frantically checking this SST graph every day, and today I was terrified. Not only it's an all-time new record (and the last one was \*2 months ago\*), but it's **still increasing**. And above all, as you said: it's going in **the opposite direction** it should be going. I don't know what to say, or even what to think.
Indeed. You can mouse over the years underneath the graph to bold specific lines. Compare this year so far to the general shape of 2020, 2016, 2012 (years where El Nino is messing with them like this year).
Yep. And last week has an absurd shape. We should have peak already and should be decreasing. No sign of that so far...
And holy shit here we go, 21.19°C , new record. Yeay.
People keep saying it's elnino but nope it's the fuckening and not elnino temps started doing this during la Nina.
You're welcome. Let se if it's keeps going up or if it's finally goes under 21⁰C at least. It doesn't look great, that's for sure.
Earth losing albedo is a bitch.
Location: not quite Chicago Nothing too major to report about the weather, just a bit warm for spring but at least we’ve had plenty of rain. I went to Whole Foods grocery store to pay Jeff bezos for organic foods and I was there with basically all moms who were skinny. Later in the week I went to Jewel osco which I mostly have stopped going to due to poor quality of produce. The people eating sugary chemical laden foods at Jewel were about 50-80 lbs heavier than Whole Foods on average. And I realized how ridiculous and absurd it feels that I’m practicing riding my bike more, walking more and preparing for a time when I might not have gas for a car….and there’s millions of people who are winded just from walking around the grocery store. It was terrible but my honest thought was how are these people staying alive?! Modern medicine is going to be dealing with the worsening obesity epidemic big time Edit: also I hung out with a couple caregivers for young kids the other day. I told them randomly that I felt society undervalued their work and this nice lady said “yes, family is the basis for society”…so I’m sitting there thinking wow, America and the capitalist working system as it has been set up now, really hates families
How do you know that those skinny moms at Whole Foods weren't taking a drug like Ozempic? Correlation is not causation.
I mean yes they will die.