I used to be afraid of bats in just a general way. I guess specifically, I was afraid of them flying through my hair or something. EW.
But then I worked at a place where there were 2 adorable bats who hung out during the day near the outside door, and they were fucking adorable. I miss them!
I'll take this opportunity to note that I lived with a bat colony for about 4 years. They occupied the attic of a house I rented, and other than the occasional noise of them flopping around on their floor (the other side of my cieling), were great neighbors. They flew out from the eaves at dusk, helpfully nibbled up all the moths and mosquitoes flying around, and then returned to their "cave" and were pretty quiet the rest of each day. I imagine there was a lot of guano up there, but it never smelled. Sure, they got in the house once in a while, but they were as wary of us as we were of them, so nothing weird ever happened.
If you find a out-of-it-looking bat in your house or out and about during the day STAY AWAY AND CALL ANIMAL CONTROL!!11!!! It likely has rabies if it is acting this way, and you do not want to be near a bat with rabies.
One of my first calls after learning I’d be sharing my new home with approximately eleventy million bats (ok, probably just a few hundred) was to the health department, and the second to some department at Oregon State University (they do a lot of animal-related research). Both offices said pretty much the same thing, but also said that what I was living with were most likely “fruit bats” (they had some fancier name) which do that nice job of eating up the bugs. And we did have relatively few mosquitos at that place. So they said, basically, don’t worry unless you find one that is not properly frightened of you.
Yes. Wild bats are not snuggly with humans, so if one is letting you near that is a danger sign. I would not be afraid to have them living in my attic, though.
Madame Grumpe is deathly afraid of bats... something about waking up with a bat on her while she was pregnant. I think of them as mice with wings. They're beautiful and neato as long as they stay out of the house.
A number of times I've asked friends who say they don't really follow politics to watch one or another particular John Oliver episode. Every time so far, they've watched and were glad to say they really enjoyed it and learned a lot.
Shawn Fain is over-simplifying things by dividing people as from Wall Street or Main Street. He's saying people from Wall Street only has stocks while people from Main Street have jobs, which is sort of true. Just this morning I read an article that said Private Equity people are complaining they are being killed by the stock market crash and declares that the Government Must Bail Them Out. In as much as Private Equity is the Flesh-Eating bacteria of economics they should be allowed to die. Working people on the other hand should have their retirement funds protected.
So China has existed as a culture for five thousand years and as a nation for over four thousand years but they don’t know how to trade or make deals? China, the reason the ancient trading route was named The Silk Road? That China?
It is amazing to me that Karoline Leavitt doesn’t burst into flames from all the lies she tells.
My 16-year-old absolutely loathes Cybertrucks and makes loud retching noises whenever she sees one. As a parent, it's so nice to be able to point to an example of how she and millions like her are really making a difference in the world! Her generation also got the rest of us to finally stop wearing skinny jeans, so really, I think we owe them our gratitude.
That AI-companion article links to an article from 2022 where Elon promises [puke warning] robot “catgirls,” “in the next few months or years.” [The article defines a catgirl as “a super-heroin equivalent.” That’s fentanyl, you idiots! Not Wonder Woman.] Grimes cheers him for promising this. Jerk.
Oh, and the article calls him “Tesla’s whimsical CEO.” Whimsy!
Kevin O’Leary (Shark Tank reality tv businessman) said Tuesday “it’s time to squeeze Chinese heads into the wall now!”
He also advocated for a 400 percent increase in tariffs, while ranting about them stealing US intellectual property, not getting a fair shake in Chinese courts, etc.
For a guy who has made a living importing items from China, shipping included, for say $6, or $10, then charging US customers 10 times the original cost, he sure is a hypocritical, whiny bitch
How did all the American manufacturing jobs end up in China?! Did the Chinese sneak into our country and steal them under cover of night? Did the radical libs force companies to send those jobs to China? Or did America's corporate CEOs gleefully send the jobs to Chinese sweatshops where they could exploit people making a few dollars a day to assemble iPhones in buildings ringed with suicide nets? Such a mystery.
I’m glad if anyone gives up buying from Temu, Shein, or Alibaba/Aliexpress. Way too much slave labor and 25¢ labor is going on in those factories, and the items they’re selling are soon garbage.
Fast fashion is a hideous scourge and it’s infected our goods at every price point. But it’s particularly offensive to ethics to buy directly from somewhere a T-shirt costs $2. There is no clothing made by machines, it is ALL made by people. I can tell you as an experienced sewist that those prices are impossible, even with workers using the industrial machines, unless someone isn’t getting paid properly. There is nowhere in the world where that is being made at an acceptable wage. And we should care.
In my house, I use towels that were purchased in the US and made in the US in 1966. These towels are older than I am. They were made with union labor in union plants. When I need new towels, I thrift them, but best luck is when I can find the pre-80s ones, because they are better quality than anything newer. They will last me decades while a new towel will fall apart in a year or two.
The tariff thing is stupid and regressive and awful. But the people who speak for tariffs, though misguided, are often speaking in opposition to the enshittification of manufacturing that happened when businesses shifted to overseas factories where the management had no feeling of responsibility towards the end consumer and the workers were poorly treated. In return we got ever lower prices that have finally hit bottom and now goods are impossibly cheap with impossible wages and environmental devastation built into every purchase and the message is to keep buying more cheap goods.
Fucking consumerism, nearly every time. Do not buy from Temu, SHEIN, or their like.
I would like to subscribe to your newsletter! Seriously, we are kindred spirits on this. I HATE this consumeristic fast fashion shit, which has expanded from clothing to home goods and beyond. You cannot buy decent cotton sheets anymore.
Bat-tastic! Your hed gif source info: https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/bat-with-a-pacifier
And your meme chat: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/46c4461c-c830-45ce-9195-45f8d81f0a78?utm_source=share
"Quickly Robin! The Bat Binkie!" Whoever made that is my hero.
I used to be afraid of bats in just a general way. I guess specifically, I was afraid of them flying through my hair or something. EW.
But then I worked at a place where there were 2 adorable bats who hung out during the day near the outside door, and they were fucking adorable. I miss them!
Baby Bat with a Binky!
I'll take this opportunity to note that I lived with a bat colony for about 4 years. They occupied the attic of a house I rented, and other than the occasional noise of them flopping around on their floor (the other side of my cieling), were great neighbors. They flew out from the eaves at dusk, helpfully nibbled up all the moths and mosquitoes flying around, and then returned to their "cave" and were pretty quiet the rest of each day. I imagine there was a lot of guano up there, but it never smelled. Sure, they got in the house once in a while, but they were as wary of us as we were of them, so nothing weird ever happened.
Most peaceful roommates I ever had! ;)
I love bats! That babby fruitbat is a cutie!
BUT!
If you find a out-of-it-looking bat in your house or out and about during the day STAY AWAY AND CALL ANIMAL CONTROL!!11!!! It likely has rabies if it is acting this way, and you do not want to be near a bat with rabies.
One of my first calls after learning I’d be sharing my new home with approximately eleventy million bats (ok, probably just a few hundred) was to the health department, and the second to some department at Oregon State University (they do a lot of animal-related research). Both offices said pretty much the same thing, but also said that what I was living with were most likely “fruit bats” (they had some fancier name) which do that nice job of eating up the bugs. And we did have relatively few mosquitos at that place. So they said, basically, don’t worry unless you find one that is not properly frightened of you.
Yes. Wild bats are not snuggly with humans, so if one is letting you near that is a danger sign. I would not be afraid to have them living in my attic, though.
Young bats confront a terrifying... branch?
https://youtu.be/eS1mIWycsN4?si=rSLY73-BXjHVIYUg
What about the new-ish "torpedo" bats?
Wait, tell me more!
I love this baby Bat , and you, Martini ❣️ Thank you 🙏
"Bat With a Pacifier" sounds like a deep cut by the Smiths.
Let me add a quick shout-out for nonprofit
𝗕𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹
𝘑𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥𝘸𝘪𝘥𝘦.
https://www.batcon.org/
Luv bats. We have a couple of houses for them.
Well, at least we have adorable babby bats. For now.
Looks like my cat when he was a babby
Madame Grumpe is deathly afraid of bats... something about waking up with a bat on her while she was pregnant. I think of them as mice with wings. They're beautiful and neato as long as they stay out of the house.
The staying out of the house part is key!
Not The Bat-Tusi
https://youtu.be/bS6KWNB5NEo?si=-uY3f6ZjhVCjDeuy
https://youtu.be/47pjisXzb_c?si=fUMgnEgKT1Zr3fVt
Catch him!
The lady with her nose pressed against the glass 😂
So funny!
I had no idea that pacifiers had so many different nicknames. It strkes me as kinda batty.
Common Names:
Paci/Pacifier
Binky
Soother
Dummy: (UK/Australia)
Dodie: (Hiberno-English)
Soothie: (Canada)
Other Names and Nicknames:
Nookie: (American English)
Dokey: (informal Scots)
Chupy
Fee Fee
Hushie
Kiki
Nini
Nubby
Pip/Pippy
Plugger
Seussy
Soo Soo
Sucky
Wubby
Pon-Pon: (Spanish "chupón")
Puck
Pucka
Pucky
Sasssy
Sootie
Suce: (French translation)
Sucette: (French equivalent)
Tassy
Tay-Tay
Teetock
That-which-shall-not-be-named
Sneaky Pete
Silly, Suck Thing: (SST)
Purser
Schnoolie
Seuss: (like Dr. Seuss)
Bip
Bobo
Bubba
Button
Plug-plug
Poose
Popper
My mother apparently didn't "believe" in pacifiers. Okay... it's just a shame about the oral fixation now. Thanks, Mom!
You'll have work on that.
The use of "nookie" above sounds really odd to my ears
Holy cuteness, Batman!
On the tariff powers thing. since it has to written as a law the veto power can be misused against it. But the Constitution included an out. Congress can still pass it over his veto. https://www.americaexplained.org/how-does-congress-override-a-presidential-veto.htm tl;dr: 2/3rds in both houses. Plus some other alternates.
IMHO the decision by the Senate to delegate that "power" was unconstitutional in the first place.
Always watch John Oliver. His deep dives are never boring because he is so funny.
He is on MAX every Sunday.
A number of times I've asked friends who say they don't really follow politics to watch one or another particular John Oliver episode. Every time so far, they've watched and were glad to say they really enjoyed it and learned a lot.
I don't much care whether Shawn Fain is an idiot, or is acting like an idiot for some reason. I'm done listening to anything he says.
Shawn Fain is over-simplifying things by dividing people as from Wall Street or Main Street. He's saying people from Wall Street only has stocks while people from Main Street have jobs, which is sort of true. Just this morning I read an article that said Private Equity people are complaining they are being killed by the stock market crash and declares that the Government Must Bail Them Out. In as much as Private Equity is the Flesh-Eating bacteria of economics they should be allowed to die. Working people on the other hand should have their retirement funds protected.
I was excited for a second, until I realized that "killed" was just a figure of speech.
Here's a fun read. Trump screwing over his oil company buddy:
https://thefuckingnews.substack.com/p/trump-just-drilled-his-billionaire
The funny thing being that the oil company guy actually thought Trump was his buddy.
A more accurate term for “improper ideology” is “thought crimes.” That’s what this regime has been punishing.
BABY BAT WITH A BINKY ALERT! [cat-heart-eyes-emoji]
" long John Oliver" Original protagonist of Black Sails?
I sense the rage level of the room isn't high enough. Eat this:
https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-hegseth-trump-dei-chatfield-nato-23df15b59766458d106567ba782d2f15
So China has existed as a culture for five thousand years and as a nation for over four thousand years but they don’t know how to trade or make deals? China, the reason the ancient trading route was named The Silk Road? That China?
It is amazing to me that Karoline Leavitt doesn’t burst into flames from all the lies she tells.
My 16-year-old absolutely loathes Cybertrucks and makes loud retching noises whenever she sees one. As a parent, it's so nice to be able to point to an example of how she and millions like her are really making a difference in the world! Her generation also got the rest of us to finally stop wearing skinny jeans, so really, I think we owe them our gratitude.
Most cars look better in the real world than in pictures; the designers have a 3d model to walk around and poke at.
The Tesla FuckYouTruck manages to look even worse in person than it does in pictures.
probably because they apply some fresh Elmers under the panels before taking the photos.
That AI-companion article links to an article from 2022 where Elon promises [puke warning] robot “catgirls,” “in the next few months or years.” [The article defines a catgirl as “a super-heroin equivalent.” That’s fentanyl, you idiots! Not Wonder Woman.] Grimes cheers him for promising this. Jerk.
Oh, and the article calls him “Tesla’s whimsical CEO.” Whimsy!
https://www.thestreet.com/technology/elon-musk-says-a-tesla-catgirl-robot-is-coming
It turns out the left's boyfriend Shawn doesn't know how any of this works either.
Kevin O’Leary (Shark Tank reality tv businessman) said Tuesday “it’s time to squeeze Chinese heads into the wall now!”
He also advocated for a 400 percent increase in tariffs, while ranting about them stealing US intellectual property, not getting a fair shake in Chinese courts, etc.
For a guy who has made a living importing items from China, shipping included, for say $6, or $10, then charging US customers 10 times the original cost, he sure is a hypocritical, whiny bitch
How did all the American manufacturing jobs end up in China?! Did the Chinese sneak into our country and steal them under cover of night? Did the radical libs force companies to send those jobs to China? Or did America's corporate CEOs gleefully send the jobs to Chinese sweatshops where they could exploit people making a few dollars a day to assemble iPhones in buildings ringed with suicide nets? Such a mystery.
Radical Lib Force. I am Brig. Genl. Stedman of the Radical Lib Force, and we are going to be your government, and we will be there to help.
I’m glad if anyone gives up buying from Temu, Shein, or Alibaba/Aliexpress. Way too much slave labor and 25¢ labor is going on in those factories, and the items they’re selling are soon garbage.
Fast fashion is a hideous scourge and it’s infected our goods at every price point. But it’s particularly offensive to ethics to buy directly from somewhere a T-shirt costs $2. There is no clothing made by machines, it is ALL made by people. I can tell you as an experienced sewist that those prices are impossible, even with workers using the industrial machines, unless someone isn’t getting paid properly. There is nowhere in the world where that is being made at an acceptable wage. And we should care.
In my house, I use towels that were purchased in the US and made in the US in 1966. These towels are older than I am. They were made with union labor in union plants. When I need new towels, I thrift them, but best luck is when I can find the pre-80s ones, because they are better quality than anything newer. They will last me decades while a new towel will fall apart in a year or two.
The tariff thing is stupid and regressive and awful. But the people who speak for tariffs, though misguided, are often speaking in opposition to the enshittification of manufacturing that happened when businesses shifted to overseas factories where the management had no feeling of responsibility towards the end consumer and the workers were poorly treated. In return we got ever lower prices that have finally hit bottom and now goods are impossibly cheap with impossible wages and environmental devastation built into every purchase and the message is to keep buying more cheap goods.
Fucking consumerism, nearly every time. Do not buy from Temu, SHEIN, or their like.
And now Trump is shocked…SHOCKED!…to learn about all of this!
I would like to subscribe to your newsletter! Seriously, we are kindred spirits on this. I HATE this consumeristic fast fashion shit, which has expanded from clothing to home goods and beyond. You cannot buy decent cotton sheets anymore.
Do you listen to or read Clotheshorse Podcast? Amanda McCarty does such a good job of talking about fast fashion and what we can do to slow it down.
I thrift all my cotton sheets too - they’re softer pre-used and I’m effete in my thread count preferences.