Unpopular Opinion But Literally Not One Person In The World Should Have Their Human Rights Violated

if you are seeing this, you are going to prosper. you are experiencing a new part of your life where you will bloom into a better version of yourself and flourish. abundance is coming your way; love is coming your way; peace and clarity are coming your way. you have nothing to fear and even less to worry about. the darkness around you has been the soil and you are now getting ready to sprout. you are going to prosper

When you realize Inktober starts in like 3 days and haven’t mentally prepared

like i'm sorry but we as a fandom have to stay firm on our anti-AI values. we cannot suddenly start giving AI a pass when it's something we "want to see" like destiel kisses. it's not suddenly fine. we're not going to start using AI to make fanfic scenes come to life or audio AI to make characters "say" stuff we want to hear. you have GOT to be firm on your anti-AI stance. if you start making exceptions then suddenly anything will fly. fandom is for real art and creations made by real people. no AI fanfics. no AI art. no AI rendered "bonus" scenes. no AI audio. none of it has a place here.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but it has been a central Republican strategy in the final week before an election to claim that the polls are breaking their way, that a red wave is coming, that Republicans are engaging in victory tours at least since the presidential election of 2000. (That's when I stopped watching CNN regularly, as the network promoted this line despite the fact that Gore would go on to win the popular vote.)

Given that Republicans have, in fact, only won the popular vote once in this period (2004), this is a strategy, not a statement of fact.

Don't sweat the narrative. Vote. Turnout wins, not news stories.

CNN

Scientists find huge trove of rare metals needed for clean energy hidden inside toxic coal waste | CNN

Millions of tons of coal ash leftover from burning the planet’s dirtiest fossil fuel sit in ponds and landfills across the US. But this wast

From the article:

Scientists analyzed coal ash from power plants across the United States and found it could contain up to 11 million tons of rare earth elements — nearly eight times the amount the US has in domestic reserves — worth around $8.4 billion, according to recent research led by the University of Texas at Austin. It offers a huge potential source of domestic rare earth elements without the need for new mining, said Bridget Scanlon, a study author and research professor at UT’s Jackson School of Geosciences. “This really exemplifies the ‘trash to treasure’ mantra,” she said. “We’re basically trying to close the cycle and use waste and recover resources in the waste.”

we seriously need to bring back the concept of “despite its flaws i still enjoy it” instead of ‘cancelling’ every fuckin thing in sight 

Do something small. Do something actionable.

Also, I am just going to say it:

If your CEO is so inconsequential to the success of your company that he can be gunned down in the street like a dog and it has absolutely no impact on your company whatsoever, maybe he doesn't actually need to be paid several hundred times as much as your median employee.

Maybe you could get away with, like, ten to fifteen times and spend the extra tens of millions of dollars you save on something else.

Just thinking out loud.

“You must never give in to despair. Allow yourself to slip down that road and you surrender to your lowest instincts. In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength.”

ATLA

Good News Network

Man Lives for 100 Days with Artificial Titanium Heart in Successful New Trial

In the United States, there are around 3,500 donor hearts made available every year for more than 4,400 people who join the waiting list. 

"In Australia, a man was kept alive for 100 days on an artificial heart made of titanium while a donor heart was eventually found.

This is the longest-ever period that a man has been kept alive by an artificial heart, giving its developers encouragement that it can play a major role in supporting waiting list patients whose hearts are failing.

5 months ago, a man in his forties received the BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart (TAH) after experiencing heart failure. The TAH has no pumps, valves, or other moving parts susceptible to wear. Instead, magnetic levitation permits a single rotor to pump blood to the body through both ventricles.

He was able to leave the hospital even, before a donor heart was found that was transplanted successfully.

In a statement, BiVACOR, St. Vincent’s Hospital where the surgery was carried out, and Monash University which provided the grant funding for the development of the TAH, said that the result is a sign the artificial heart could potentially offer a long-term option for people suffering from heart failure.

BiVACOR’s founder, Australian bioengineer Daniel Timms, who invented the device, said it was “exhilarating to see decades of work come to fruition.”

“The entire BiVACOR team is deeply grateful to the patient and his family for placing their trust in our Total Artificial Heart,” he said in the statement. “Their bravery will pave the way for countless more patients to receive this lifesaving technology.”

In the United States, there are around 3,500 donor hearts made available every year for more than 4,400 people who join the waiting list.

The TAH has already been tested in an early feasibility study in search of eventual FDA approval. 5 patients received the device, CNN reports, with the first being last July, when a 58-year-old man suffering end-stage heart failure received the implant during surgery at Texas Medical Center.

The four others also received it successfully, and organizers hope to expand it to 15 patients."

-via Good News Network, March 18, 2025