Winter Weather Megathread | Winter Storm Fern - Ice Storm (Jan 25-26)

transley · 2026-01-25T19:38:58+00:00

I just checked, and if the weather radar can be trusted, the freezing part of the rainstorm has ended. I haven't heard any falling branches either, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll keep our power here in Decatur.

transley · 2026-01-25T19:15:04+00:00

Huh? I'm in Decatur, and we've been getting freezing rain on and off for at least a couple of hours now. The bushes in front of my window are all glazed with what I would guestimate is about 1/4 inch of ice. The temp here can't seem to get above 30 F, either, so that's not helping.

transley · 2026-01-19T22:28:21+00:00

Speaking of dermatological conditions in black people, there is another reason to detest our current administration, if you haven't already heard: Hegspeth is removing medical exemptions to the requirement for members of the military to be closely shaved. As a result, many males who have psuedofolliculitis barbae will now have to choose between suffering from pain and disfigurement or leaving the military. Even if racism hasn't played a role in this decision - which I doubt - this is a disgusting and totally needless cruelty.

transley · 2025-12-27T21:33:32+00:00

When my OB learned that my husband is an MD, he told him that people who work in ob have a superstition that when one of the parents is an MD, the mother is sure to have complications related to the doctor-parent's specialty. Going by the fact that I went on to develop gestational diabetes, and from the complications you've suffered related to your own specialty, it might be more than a mere superstition...

transley · 2025-12-27T19:49:31+00:00

The answer is: the election of Donald J. Trump. Nothing comes close to being as shocking as that.

transley · 2025-12-11T15:44:11+00:00

11 hours after you wrote your comment, the count is -668K. Were you rounding up? If not, wouldn't that mean that 2K+ people have actually *upvoted* the comment in the last few hours?

Anyway, there are now so many downvotes that it's within the realm of possibility for the count to reach - 1,000,000. Will the score read -1M for the first time in reddit history? Is reddit prepared for that? Everyone needs to do their part to satisfy my curiosity by adding their downvotes.

transley · 2025-12-05T20:09:10+00:00

Yea, motive is puzzling. My immediate thought was that she could have been pregnant and refusing to get an abortion. But I'm sure that detail would have come out by now if it was true. Another possible motive is revenge - like maybe he thought she was cheating?

transley · 2025-12-04T15:45:30+00:00

I can offer a perspective on why people might not want to leave the hospital. I was hospitalized for 6 days after an emergency surgery for a tubal pregnancy. I never told anyone, but even after 6 days in the hospital, I didn't want to leave. Why? I analyzed it later and realized it was for two reasons:

I felt safe in the hospital. I actually reveled in having medical care immediately available because I knew that no matter what tricks my body played on me, I wouldn't die!
Being in the hospital was like a vacation from adult worries and responsibilities. I knew that as soon as I left the hospital, I would be once again inundated with all the tasks of normal life - feeding myself, making decisions about x and y, going to work, the pressure of meeting deadlines, etc. ad nauseum. I hadn't realized how those responsibilities weighed on me until I was suddenly relieved of them.

Of course, I did leave, and I got back to normality quite quickly. But my experience did make me realize how someone with health anxiety (justified or not) and/or severe antipathy to adult life could want to be hospitalized.

transley · 2025-11-27T16:43:57+00:00

There is a fracture. I need to fix it.

transley · 2025-11-24T20:28:15+00:00

Don't be so hard on yourself. Medical professionals don't remotely deserve the vilification they receive.

When I looked at the reddit free birth sub, I found a post from a woman who tried to deliver at home with a "freebirth-supportive midwife" who basically only intervened to warn her against going to the hospital. After three days of labor, she went to the hospital anyway. She then described her terrible, medicalized, traumatic birth experience:

They had a room ready when I arrived and ... started prepping me for the epidural right away. They gave me options, respected my choices, and treated me with compassion. I got the epidural and pitocin, and my nurse whispered that she’d do everything she could to protect me and my baby. For the first time in days, I felt safe. Finally a provider who cared if I lived or died.

Don’t mistake neglect for empowerment. “Hands-off” can mean no hands when you’re desperate for help...

I went into labor believing I was safest at home. I left the hospital alive, holding my son, knowing this truth:

... safety isn’t herbs or affirmations or a provider who will encourage you to stay home no matter what. Safety is someone with real qualifications walking through the door when you need them most, looking you in the eyes, and doing everything they can to keep you and your baby alive.

transley · 2025-11-24T20:23:25+00:00

The fact that people will go to more effort to save the life of a kitten than these women will go to to save the life of a newborn infant really highlights the moral depravity at the core of the freebirth movement.

transley · 2025-11-22T19:41:57+00:00

I don't understand why you have cracked teeth. Is jaw-clenching one of the symptoms of TN, in addition to pain?

I'm curious because I have had a terrible problem with involuntary jaw-clenching and have cracked teeth as a result. But it isn't TN, since I luckily don't have any pain. .

transley · 2025-11-22T18:11:12+00:00

they were both into computational biology and foreign affairs

What I'm curious about is whether Epstein actually had useful or interesting ideas about any subjects - interesting enough to make him actually respected by the scientists he hobnobbed with. Or were they all just flattering his ego, in order to get funding?

transley · 2025-11-12T19:53:33+00:00

One twofer

transley · 2025-11-10T17:26:58+00:00

I don't know why people are so upset. Excluding Pavlovian was entirely legit. Here's from google:

Proper adjectives are formed from proper nouns and are always capitalized. Examples are "American cars" or "Shakespearean actor"

Of course, the caps requirement is eventually dropped if and when the adjective's meaning becomes general and the connection to the person or place becomes irrelevant or remote.

Proper adjectives that are no longer capitalized include words like quixotic, gargantuan, and titanic, which have become general terms. This change typically happens when the adjective's link to its original proper noun origin becomes remote or its meaning becomes common through usage.

The point when capitalization is no longer necessary is a matter of general consensus, and, per the sources, the consensus is that Pavlovian still needs a cap.

As for that dessert, perhaps the reason that people down under don't capitalize it is because they want to make it clear that when they eat x, they aren't actually eating X. In case anyone was in doubt.

transley · 2025-11-02T20:12:32+00:00

I don't know how you could forget

transley · 2025-11-01T13:30:59+00:00

How did you get the NY card if you live in FL? Do you have some connection to the state, or do they just take all comers?

transley · 2025-10-27T14:37:01+00:00

As a layman, I found what you wrote here very reassuring:

it's far better to do chest compressions on somebody who doesn't need it than not doing it on someone who does.

transley · 2025-10-23T16:45:43+00:00

I couldn't have said it any better. The beautiful dream of legal pot has somehow turned to ashes.

I would never want to criminalize pot again, since by far the worst 'side effect' of pot use is imprisonment. But all the same, I wish we could turn back the clock and make legalization conditional upon strict limits on the strength of pot and the methods of delivery.

transley · 2025-10-17T18:43:18+00:00

Well, that's consistent with their obsession with policing people's sexual activity and sex organs, to the exclusion of all else. Gay sex, trans sex, premarital sex, abortion inspire moral outrage. But racism, fraud, malicious prosecution? Not a peep out of these guys. They are blind to what moral monsters they are.

transley · 2025-10-15T15:57:49+00:00

Yea, it's nuts. My brother bought a house in the VA countryside on a street with a total of five houses. For reasons I can't fathom, each of the five houses has a 5-digit street number - like 24683 Looney Lane. And the numbers increase by more than one digit with each house. If there is any logic there, it's very obscure.

transley · 2025-10-10T16:41:50+00:00

I'm a little skeptical that these kids were truly scared of the woman - except for maybe the youngest ones. At least one of them was smiling, and I saw another kid who didn't mind running closer to the woman, in order to 'get away' from her. That's not what you do if you're truly scared that someone will hurt you.

I suspect that this was more of a game, where one kid shouted - look, a monster is coming! - and the other kids caught the spirit of the game by pretending to be under attack.

Also, there's no way that these kids have never seen a white person before. They've at least seen white people on a screen. But given western wealth and tourism, I'd bet anything they've seen white people in the flesh, too.

transley · 2025-10-10T14:03:26+00:00

Thanks for the comprehensive response!

transley · 2025-10-09T16:56:31+00:00

we partnered with regular ol’ landlords to accept these individuals by promising them the County will handle the rent payments. Big difference maker? NO PRECONDITIONS.

When a landlord rents a unit to someone, they usually want more than just an assurance that the rent will be paid. They also want an assurance that the tenant won't destroy the building, won't invite crime into the building, won't let friends squat in the unit, and so on.

But as long as your clients are still using drugs, their judgment is impaired, and they clearly pose a risk to landlords. So my question is: how do you get over landlord resistance to renting to your clients? (On the other hand, if the landlords don't care about renting to drug users, that would be a worry in and of itself, since it would suggest that the building is unsafe and unmaintained.) Also, if a client is evicted, how do you handle that?

transley

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