wise words of the nut

I did not work at an open intake shelter. I worked at a very well funded limited-intake shelter.

But i am a huge supporter of open intake shelters and their staff. They do extremely vital and often heartbreaking work while getting shit on by lots of people. I will defend them and what they do to my dog breath.

I don't know often animals have to be euthanized for space. It's going to vary based on time of year, shelter size, funding, foster programs, etc.

Quick reminders while we are on the subject:

They provide an evaluation and medical care to every animal.

They're often where no-kills get their animals to start with! This helps with overcrowding.

They're often where no-kills take animals that need euthanization.

They take animals from the public, which no-kills frequently do not.

They prevent immense suffering because they will euthanize animals that are dying or pose a risk to humans.

Overcrowding drives euthanasia of adoptable animals. If you are in the US, spay/neuter voucher programs are the single most successful and cost-effective intervention for overcrowding. If you want to keep animals out of open-intake shelters, look up and support those programs.

This is Haolong dongi, a new species of iguanodontian ornithopod found covered in what is basically,,, hedgehog quills??

The fossil is a stunningly preserved skeleton from China that includes evidence of hard armour scales on the tail (like in the much smaller Kulindadromeus), and a coat of spines along its neck and back! The name appropriately means "spiky dragon".

Not only is a spiny iguanodont wild on its own (this individual is over 2 metres long and is a juvenile, other ornithopods with quill-like structures are much smaller), these spines also appear to be an entirely new skin structure? They're apparently not feathers or scales, but a secret third thing.

housebound doesn’t mean “cannot leave the house under any circumstances”, but in fact means “can leave the house, on the requirement of needing assistance from either a mobility aid to avoid worsening symptoms, or with the help of another person, and leaving is going to take immense effort, exhaust me, and take me a long time recover from”.

I've seen ones today including photos, dates of birth, place of birth even!

So many women feel the need to mention their young children in their cover letters and CVs. Some young people slip in that they can't drive, a sort of pre-emptive "but it's okay I have a bus pass". So many people go and shove their mental health issues with anxiety and depression in there.

I remember one girl had clearly been told that she needed to explain any gaps in employment in the cover letter (terrible blanket advice), and so had described how she had developed depression after a traumatic miscarriage and spent a year in a terrible spiral getting worse and worse before getting on a new medication that, and I quote, "seemed to be finally starting to work." There are ways she could have written that information if she was desperately wanting to include it (I cannot stress enough that she should not have included a word of it), but the way it was written was almost literally a description of how she would be a horrendously unreliable employee who could dip out at a moment's notice and would never be seen again, while also demonstrating that she cannot determine appropriate professional communication.

(And for the record, the latter is the actual issue. I have no problems at all hiring employees with mental health issues, and did several times hire people in recovery to help them get back on their feet. Only once did that not work out; all others were amazing, and two became some of our best employees - one is now a manager there, in fact. But if an employee can't be trusted not to over share personal information with customers or colleagues, particularly triggering topics... That's a different issue. She did herself no favours at all there, and nor did whoever told her employers will always need employment gaps explaining in a cover letter).

Another guy once wrote in his cover letter "I want this job because after years of messing about I now have a little girl, so I need to sort my life out for her, and if I can't do it even for her then more fool me." Which, like, I admire the drive and passion. But again. Why are you telling an employer that you're a flight risk. Why are you telling us this.

One 18 year old volunteered, unforced, that he was gay. Just right in the cover letter. That he sent to a future employer.

And then, of course, the thousands that send in CVs and cover letters that are horrendously mis-spelled. Again, as an employer, I care dick-all if you're dyslexic or what have you; but I do care that you didn't think it was important to get someone to proofread a professional document for you before submission. That tells me quite a big thing about the level of professionalism I can expect from you in the role. It wasn't massively relevant for the job I was hiring for (escape room game master), but if we'd had slightly different job duties (e.g. writing official soc med posts), that would be the difference between getting an interview or not.

Everyone is going through shit. And it doesn't make it okay for them to treat others badly, but it also sometimes makes it difficult for them to recognize that they're treating you badly, like the person on the phone with 9-11 who no longer realizes that he's telling the operator about his day and not answering questions. When your friend of ten years who has a new boyfriend suddenly starts being a massive bitch to you about your weight maybe she's just being a cunt, or maybe she's internalized some bullshit. You don't have to take that, but you Can go "Hey, what the fuck?" And that is often more helpful than you realize. It is easy to assume that someone who does something cruel is acting with intent, but especially in cases where someone's behavior changed in a short span of time, they aren't, any more than the person who is convinced the beanbag chair is going to fix them.

turned pangur into geothermal energy btw

People killed: around three quarters of a million.

So are

colostomy bags

Diapers

insulin pumps

Oxygen systems

rollators

hearing aids

compression garments

prosthetics

FREEDOM AIDS

- service animals

- noise cancelling headphones/ear defenders

- wheelchair attachments

- fidgets

IT’S DISABILITY PRIDE MONTH YALL