“the Submarine Trip Was Stupid And Rooted In Classism”, “it’s Absolutely Hideous How Much More

Just to be clear:

My advocacy for the preservation of minority languages has nothing to do with the fact that they are interesting/fascinating/any other adjective of that nature

Minority languages deserve protection because they are important, and they are valuable

The worth of a minority language is not determined by the entertainment it can provide to outsiders

While I believe that all languages are beautiful and unique, it shouldn't matter that a language is ugly, or boring or "useless"

Yes, Celtic folk music is beautiful, but that is not the reason for preserving Celtic languages

Tea set

the fact that "Last Jew/One Of Last Remaining Jews" in a specific geographic location is a type of profile unto itself sure is something.

like. think about that for a second. it is SUCH a frequent occurrence that Jews are driven out of places until there's none left/only a handful left that someone can say "i swear every time they profile one of the last remaining jews anywhere they are always A Character in true jewish fashion" and no one even blinks at that. just. i'm tired

(this is the post I'm referencing. OP's tags made clear she wanted it to be a spot of Jewish joy and I want to respect that so I made my own post to be sad and a downer. and the man in question sounds lovely. But then I started thinking about how common it is for there to be The Last Jew in any given locale and grief hit me.)

https://www.change.org/p/tumblr-remove-neo-nazis-and-white-supremacists-from-tumblr?recruiter=22942984&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial

Since reporting Nazi blogs doesn’t seem to work…

Shrimp Sandwich Nothing

Half of all US food produce is thrown away, new research suggests

The demand for ‘perfect’ fruit and veg means much is discarded, damaging the climate and leaving people hungry

Americans throw away almost as much food as they eat because of a “cult of perfection”, deepening hunger and poverty, and inflicting a heavy toll on the environment. By one government tally, about 60m tonnes of produce worth about $160bn (£119bn), is wasted by retailers and consumers every year - one third of all foodstuffs. 

But that is just a “downstream” measure. In more than two dozen interviews, farmers, packers, wholesalers, truckers, food academics and campaigners described the waste that occurs “upstream”: scarred vegetables regularly abandoned in the field to save the expense and labour involved in harvest. Or left to rot in a warehouse because of minor blemishes that do not necessarily affect freshness or quality. 

When added to the retail waste, it takes the amount of food lost close to half of all produce grown, experts say.

Retail giants argue that they are operating in consumers’ best interests, according to food experts. “A lot of the waste is happening further up the food chain and often on behalf of consumers, based on the perception of what those consumers want,” said Roni Neff, the director of the food system environmental sustainability and public health programme at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future in Baltimore.

“Fruit and vegetables are often culled out because they think nobody would buy them,” she said.

But Roger Gordon, who founded the Food Cowboy startup to rescue and re-route rejected produce, believes that the waste is built into the economics of food production. Fresh produce accounts for 15% of supermarket profits, he argued.

“If you and I reduced fresh produce waste by 50% like [the US agriculture secretary] Vilsack wants us to do, then supermarkets would go from [a] 1.5% profit margin to 0.7%,” he said. “And if we were to lose 50% of consumer waste, then we would lose about $250bn in economic activity that would go away.”

The farmers and truckers interviewed said they had seen their produce rejected on flimsy grounds, but decided against challenging the ruling with the US department of agriculture’s dispute mechanism for fear of being boycotted by powerful supermarket giants. They also asked that their names not be used.

“I can tell you for a fact that I have delivered products to supermarkets that was [sic] absolutely gorgeous and because their sales were slow, the last two days they didn’t take my product and they sent it back to me,” said the owner of a mid-size east coast trucking company.

“They will dig through 50 cases to find one bad head of lettuce and say: ‘I am not taking your lettuce when that lettuce would pass a USDA inspection.’ But as the farmer told you, there is nothing you can do, because if you use the Paca [Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act of 1930] on them, they are never going to buy from you again. “Are you going to jeopardise $5m in sales over an $8,000 load?”

Massive food waste is based into capitalist agriculture. If the vast majority of the food produced in America’s farms was brought to market, it would drive prices down rapidly, threatening the profits of retailers. Less than 1% of this surplus food ever reaches the mouths of the hungry. 

Kings & Beggars - Breve regnum (15th century student son from Krakow)

Breve regnum erigitur, 

Sublimatum deprimitur 

Et depressum elabitur 

 Transmutato tempore.

Puerilem militiam,

Perargutam peritiam,

Regentium industriam,

Hanc eduxit in opere.

Cracoviensem filium,

Fulgentem velut lilium

Ac de numero milium

Cunctis praeferendum

Octo dierum spatium

Hoc sustinet solatium,

Post hoc regis palatium

Plagis feriendum.

Namque regis electio

 Fit studii neglectio

 Ac desolatur lectio 

 Tota septimana

i love it when ancient historians give descriptions of locations and include folklore about them. :)

"The name of the local river is Bodincus. Apart from these facts, various tales about this river are familiar to Greeks, especially the legend of Phaeton and his fall, with its weeping poplars and black-clad river-dwellers (who still today are said to dress like this out of grief for Phaeton)" (polybius, histories)

bodincus is the po, on which I guess there were 'river-dwellers' who wore all black in Polybius day? probably not for that reason tho

Snake mantis, Kongobatha diademata, Nanomantidae

Photographed at Airlie Beach in Australia by Steve & Alison1

Shared with permission; do not remove credit or re-post!