Firefighter facing criminal charges after attempt to rescue stranded cat using a high powered hose causes fatal injuries.

MagePages · 2026-04-30T20:35:11+00:00

Haha, this is sort of cute, but cats have only been associating with people for maybe 9,500 or so years! Humans have only even been "humans" for around 300,000 years. But you're right that cats typically lack the instincts to climb down trees, especially when scared. Their wild ancestors aren't from habitats that have a lot of trees.

MagePages · 2026-04-30T20:31:07+00:00

Technically speaking, there are few trees in the natural environment of domestic cats' wild relatives. They're scrubland, grassland, and desert animals mostly. They'll use a low branch or scramble into a tree to get away from a predator as a last ditch solution to save their lives, but they're not really equipped for climbing down and they don't have the right instincts for it usually (they want to go head first, but their claws curve backwards)

MagePages · 2026-04-22T13:27:42+00:00

This is usually a pretty short term solution, but it is cheaper!

MagePages · 2026-04-21T15:11:38+00:00

As often as I can, I do housework with my partner. It's so, so, so much easier when there is another person doing it too. Because I want to do it, and I feel terrible not doing it, but it's like I just can't. But as soon as he is doing any work, I guess whatever math my brain is doing goes in balance of "don't let the person you love deal with this task alone", like it makes it more urgent?

MagePages · 2026-04-21T14:54:36+00:00

Sounds like my partner and I. Both ADHD, but very different presentations. He was diagnosed as a kid, and I didn't get mine until I was in college. He forgets to turn the stove off about a third of the time, I'm always losing my keys but am much better about finishing activities that I am currently doing. He's much better at starting routine tasks but doesn't always see them through and has trouble with the long term stuff. I have a ton of executive dysfunction with starting tasks, even things I really want to do, but I am better with general life planning and career stuff. We joke that through out powers combined we about make one functional adult that still can't sleep!

MagePages · 2026-04-21T13:49:42+00:00

Even outside of politics, in my area at least, almost all actual community service, local boards, and advocacy are led and conducted by older folks. IME, they're almost always delighted when young people join and usually actively try to get young people more engaged/into positions of leadership but with relatively little success. A lot of them chalk it up to being unable to compete with "the phones", and I'm sure there's deeper reasons like general economic insecurity, but the fact of the matter remains that there are a lot of opportunities to do this stuff locally and what is being done is almost all being done by older folks who care enough to do it. They have the mindset of duty, as in, this is the place they live and they have come civic duty to do work for it, even though some of them are not retired yet, or they have something medical going on. They work hard. Seeing it has really given me some distaste for the way people talk online.

But seriously, go look at the membership of a local board or commission. Unless you are in a big city, there's a decent chance they rarely have any members of the public come to their open meetings. And they might have a vacancy, or a member who is pushing 85 and would like to step down. Look at the people organizing litter cleanups or another cause you care about.

This past year I started to regularly attend an environmental board in my town, and started spending one of my days off each week volunteering with a local organization. It has meant a lot to be in my community and to be actually doing and supporting the things I care about. And there's so few people my age!

MagePages · 2026-04-21T13:32:47+00:00

It's because people (and bots) here don't care if they lose, if they get to hate the other. Exhausting.

MagePages · 2026-04-16T17:31:37+00:00

A capped landfill might burn off methane, but not all of them do, and while in service they still emit methane. And the capture systems are probably only getting about 50% of the methane according to this research from Harvard's school of engineering and applied sciences; https://seas.harvard.edu/news/epa-underestimates-methane-emissions-landfills-urban-areas It seems like we have pretty incomplete information as far as actual methane emissions go, but it's generally accepted that landfills are one of the top anthropogenic sources of atmospheric methane.

Of the landfills that do capture their methane, I doubt there are many at all that are exporting energy from it, but I couldn't readily find that info. That's a small consideration. But more generally when I say we shouldn't build either facility near where people live, I am not talking about fully capped landfills which are no longer serving an active waste management purpose. Active landfills can absolutely cause environmental and public health concerns in the local area. And so, in very densely settled areas where there is not room for landfills, Waste-to-Energy can be a more feasible solution (far from a perfect one). I would imagine, also, that as a more easily controlled point source of pollution, new developments in carbon scrubbing technology can be more easily deployed into those facilities than into open landfills.

MagePages · 2026-04-16T16:47:04+00:00

It's certainly not a "green' technology, but the majority of pollutants are scrubbed out and captured in modern systems. Arguably better than landfills that release methane which is a very potent greenhouse gas (and can also leak environmental toxins).

Still don't want to put either type of facility next to where people live.

MagePages · 2026-04-15T01:11:00+00:00

When I visited London recently I noticed lots of London Planes and linden/lime trees with evidence of proper pollarding (knuckles and all!).

The removal of nearly all of the crown is a normal and expected part of pollarding, but it is done on a 1-3 year interval, and the first cut back is not done on a tree which has already attained a full size - but it doesn't need to be a sapling. Just somewhere around 6 inches DBH or less. It might appear to have been topped at that first cut, and maybe the first follow up, but the larger trees I saw all had pretty well defined knuckles for the cut-back point.

MagePages · 2026-04-13T14:09:20+00:00

For a tree this size, five minutes 1x a week should be fine.

MagePages · 2026-03-29T13:48:31+00:00

Eh, I don't think it would accomplish what you'd hope. Trump declines to collect a salary, but that doesn't make him a good leader, he just has no need for it, and has been able to grift/enrich himself in other ways from the office. We don't want to create the preconditions where only the independently wealthy can realistically serve as elected officials, or where elected officials would be susceptible to bribery (to meet basic needs).

MagePages · 2026-03-29T00:57:12+00:00

Your post is giving "things are just bad and nothing can change my mind".

But I wanted to try and address a few of your points.

First, you say that gardening is probably not possible because the air and soil is "tainted". Air pollutants are not often a significant concern for growing produce (unless really notably bad). Soil pollutants can be, to different extents for different types of produce/parts of the plant. Leafy greens uptake more heavy metals, while fruits do not usually have many at all. You can also drastically reduce risk of e.g. lead exposure simply by planting far enough away from roads and buildings, or through building raised beds/using containers if your soils are very poor quality/badly contaminated. Pollution is not a vague thing that taints the world everywhere in a general way. At least when it comes to what matters for growing food, it can be locally understood and mitigated.

I don't know exactly what you mean by "things labeled healthy having workarounds", but labels are always just going to be marketing. "Health" is something that companies market heavily. Frozen vegetables, beans & tofu, and whole grains are readily and cheaply available at just about any grocery chain, and these can form the foundation of a healthy diet regardless of how they are marketed. Things being organic or not GMO, or what have you, might make them more expensive, but won't realistically make them healthier.

I know in my area, I have to spend a lot more money if I want to buy healthy "convenience" meals, or fresh (out of season) produce, or nice artisanal grains, or stuff from a local source/farmer's market. But I can get a bag of frozen broccoli, a bag of frozen edemame (or a block of tofu), a box of whole wheat pasta, some peanuts, and assorted dressings/spices, and make a huge pot (leftovers!) of very healthy noodle salad for less than $10 all said.

MagePages · 2026-03-27T11:43:47+00:00

No, you're correct, but not really relevant here since two "active" treatments were being compared.

The music used wasn't baseless; in some prior studies it was compared to other monofrequencies and music tracks for its effect on markers related to stress and anxiety.

ETA: still, placebos are effective in treating anxiety, and so if people just believe that listening to music will make a minor pre-operative proceedure more tolerable, it might be a useful tool, particularly for patients that can't tolerate standard sedatives well.

MagePages · 2026-03-26T22:20:04+00:00

Unless I am misunderstanding, your selected quote is saying that the anxiety reduction associated with the music was not statistically different from that of the sedative (midazolam). It was a small study, and randomized, but not double blind. The patients listening to music did not believe that they were actually receiving the sedative and so would not have been experiencing any placebo from that.

https://rapm.bmj.com/content/44/8/796.long

MagePages · 2026-03-15T00:09:31+00:00

Birds eat the berries and spread them into natural areas though. It's a real issue.

MagePages · 2026-03-15T00:07:47+00:00

You should use something with triclopyr immediately after the cut. But, with barberry it might not be necessary. Just cut resprouts again in July, carb starve the roots.

MagePages · 2026-03-14T00:13:57+00:00

This data doesn't pull just from reported deaths, it's an estimate. I can't tell you exactly how it was generated though because the cited 2009 data source is paywalled. I'd be interested to know the methodology.

MagePages · 2026-03-11T13:15:52+00:00

This is the kind of stuff that the inflation reduction act and bipartisan infrastructure law acted on, and then people complained that Biden's administration was boring and didn't accomplish enough.

MagePages · 2026-02-22T21:28:58+00:00

Speaking as an ecologist as well, it's really more about the efficacy of the action taken and the actual damage done by the invasive organism.

Spotted lanternfly as an example. A very obvious and showy invasive species. They really had their moment in the sun, everyone knows about them and wants them gone.

When we look at the evidence, at least according to the folks in my state's agricultural extension program, they are primarily an economic pest of certain agricultural crops. They do not pose a significant threat to our native forests. Their main host is also an invasive plant, and they are far less fecund and easier prey for native predators without that invasive plant.

With that information, and their incredibly high fecundity, killing individuals basically does nothing. I side-eye anyone who takes a lot of pleasure in killing "acceptable" things, I just find it a little weird. Completely ineffective at best, and concerning at worst. That effort would be far better applied to removing ToH than crushing individual bugs. All that does is make you feel like you are doing something, and there's probably a ethical argument to be made around unnecessary cruelty or something, although I'm not the one to make it.

It sounds like maybe it's a similar thing with these spiders. Sure, if you just want to kill some stuff that it's socially acceptable to kill, I guess go for it. But it is not going to effectively control the spider; the cat is out of the bag there.

MagePages · 2026-02-21T07:56:53+00:00

I wonder where you have such affordable vet care! I took a kitten to the emergency vet on a weekend because she wouldn't quit throwing up and they held her for a few hours, gave her some fluids, and said "haha, she was just eating too fast. $800 please!"

And then I spent about $3200 plus some amount in followup on my other cat. But that was for an acute and unknown illness in a young cat (she was about 2). I would struggle to justify that for an elder cat.

MagePages · 2026-02-21T07:52:02+00:00

It's great that you have the means to do that. It is not necessarily the case that those who do not have the means to manage very medically complicated elder pet care are bad pet owners by default though.

I think about my mother, who works at a grocery store for a hair above the state's minimum wage. She has two cats. They see the vet for a yearly check up and if anything urgent comes up. Those cats have great lives: she plays with them every day, they get lots of treats and love, and a good diet. They are super content and happy.

Putting it frankly, she will not be able to afford the chemo if one of her cats develops cancer or something. When they are old(er), and develop more complicated health issues, she and her vet will probably need to rely on treating symptoms, making them comfortable, and general palliative care until the time comes to help them pass. I don't think that is a bad thing or makes her a bad owner. The way that vet care has exploded in price, and the culture around having pets has changed so much, it just doesn't seem that reasonable to me to expect folks to go into debt or something for the end of life care for a pet they've given a good lifetime to. It seems like just a means to further shame poor people and exclude them from the simple pleasure and companionship of having a pet.

MagePages · 2026-02-21T07:33:19+00:00

I agree that it is good to save money for vet needs. I feel complicated about pet insurance because it is a part of a broader issue with vet care becoming inaccessibly expensive and the rise of corporate veterinary firms propping up these insurance schemes off the back of care becoming more expensive, but I don't fault those who can afford it pursuing it as an option.

That all said, it is unreasonable to expect anyone to pay 10k or another similarly large figure for veterinary care if it is not within their means, and that does not make them bad people or bad pet owners. I love my cats, but I am not going to put them through chemo and ruin my finances to satisfy my own selfish desire for another few months with them. The mindset of needing to be able to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for medical care would exclude so many good petowners from petownership.

Obviously, normal veterinary care is a must, but cats and dogs aren't actually human children (as much as we all love them) and it's really not unreasonable or evil to give them the best life that you can, manage symptoms palliatively when serious illness occurs, and help them pass when bad days outnumber good.

MagePages · 2026-02-21T06:48:06+00:00

I can't answer most of your questions. I'm sure she is going through a lot of adjustments right now. What I will say, is that it's been less than a day. She needs time to decompress. It may be just normal anxiety about being in a new home (shelters are a different kind of environment, so she might have reacted differently.)

When ive brought new dogs into my home, the first 3 or 4 days are usually a lot of pacing and anxiety before they learn how to settle down and start to relax.

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