We are living in a time of unprecedented amounts of original paleoart being produced. All over the world, throughout all social strata and in all sorts of styles. This boom in artistic output was not made possible by the development of art stealing technology and large corporations forcing it upon us but by networking, knowledge sharing and community building. That is what made paleontology more accessible and made it possible for so many people to be inspired by the fossil record to express themselves artistically.

From Natural Womanhood on Facebook:

Here are the brands that you are generally always safe to buy from, unless something has gone catastrophically wrong:

Refresh

Systane

Genteal

TheraTears

There are some other really big ones but honestly, between the first three you can find everything you need for your dry eye, your contacts, whatever. These are all manufactured by either Allergan or Alcon, two HUGE companies that make a lot of money off of making reliable artificial tears and marketing them to optometrists. The chances of them having a recall are far, far lower than whatever punky CVS or Walmart brand is cheaper.

Your eye is an immune-privileged structure, which means that your body actively suppresses the immune response in certain parts of your eye in order to defend it against the damage caused by inflammation. What this means is that if you introduce bacteria into your eye, your body won't start fighting it off until significantly later than if it had been introduced to some other part of your body, if it even provokes a response at all until it's too late.

Normally I am 100% buying generics of medications. Generic ibuprofen is EXACTLY the same as Advil, but the problem is that your stomach has a lot of defenses that your eye doesn't. Your gastric system can tolerate dodgy bacteria a LOT easier than your eye can (caveat: depending on the bacteria natch).

They don’t have the same info as above, (generic drops are sketchy as hell, don’t risk it) but they have a ton of info about whether a certain brand has had issues and whether something that looks like a Big Name Brand is actually legit.

me, an elder fandom veteran, suddenly having anne rice flashbacks:

no.

NO.

starting to rock back and fourth.

you do not understand.

you were born into an age of peace. i was there Gandalf. i was there three thousand years ago. i remember the cease and desists. i remember authors hunting fanfic writers for sport. i remember when every fic opened with a disclaimer because we genuinely thought it might protect us.

we do not charge money for the copyrighted gay wizard stories.

do not tempt fate youngling.

step away from the paywall.

that is how you summon the ancient evils.

I’m not reading the books or the comics. I’m not watching anything new. Even Korra was on thin ice for me when I was in college (a long time ago okay?) and while I enjoyed parts of it, I also don’t think we needed it. Sometimes people will be like, “oh well actually Kyoshi isn’t like that because in the books, she —“ no. No, I don’t care. I didn’t read them and I’m not going to. She’s like that in the show and that’s fine actually. I don’t need the backstory.

like without government intervention, strawberry jam would have wood in it. like it's a thing. food companies realized that they could use less of the expensive strawberries as ingredients and just use wood. there are laws you cannot legally call it strawberry jam if you do this. you have to call it a strawberry product or spread. food companies are always trying to get that shit through. they have lobby groups pushing that all the time

it is more expensive to put metal detectors in a food processing plant. companies want to cut costs. it is a legal requirement in a lot of countries to have them. so it forces companies to install them.

also to do routine inspections. that is a government requirement. so are building codes. a lot of codes are the bare minimum. like some companies will exceed the code and have more protections but a lot don't. like if it is not in the code, they don't do it. so that's why having governing bodies that regulate building safety, worker safety, food safety and product safety are crucial. because without them, your employer will not see the need to have exit doors with quick release handles, or do routine fire sprinkler inspections or have road salt for the sidewalks. some of it is basic fucking stuff.

companies when left alone do not regulate themselves. it's been historically untrue. companies want to give you a product that is cheap for them to make and that they can sell at the highest price so they can get the most profit. for everyone who loves capitalism, that's what it is. the free market will not self-regulate. if you don't have anti-monopoly laws and anti-wage theft laws and workers' protections, the open market will not fix that organically.

This homeless person is making me uncomfortable. Should I call [a man with a gun]?

My neighbor is having a loud party. Should I get [a man with a gun] involved?

There are some teenagers skateboarding. Do you think [a man with a gun] would get rid of them for me?