Hic Sunt Dracones

-Be Belgium weapons designer

-Spend lots of money to invent a totally new firearm concept

-Sleek futuristic design

-Smol and compact

-Ambidextrous

-800-1,100 round per minute

-Fires new high velocity smol cartridge that with a smol caliber bullet which can pierce body armor

-Market to militaries around the world.

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.

As of this morning I was reluctantly looking for jobs because I love my job and don't want to leave it, but see: $10k raise problem solver.

As of noon today this was no longer an issue, because my boss called me with the news that I was getting a $10K merit raise.

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. This is roughly $200 extra per paycheck. Enough to pay off debt faster, rebuild my savings, and spend a weekend a month in Milwaukee getting obscenely laid. The sex I'm going to have on $200 extra per paycheck. You can't even.

YOU CANT JUST CASUALLY LEAVE THIS IN THE REPLIES AS IF THIS ISNT A CRUCIAL ELEMENT OF THIS HARROWING STORY

Being a nature photographer seems great, maybe I should try…

Today it’s mostly famous for what it looks like on the inside.

It has an equestrian staircase though it’s so smooth it’s really just a gentle slope more than a staircase. It was build like that so our lazy bum king could ride his horse all the way to the top (king not in photo)

And naturally people have also driven cars up the tower

And held a bike race

For a while it was just sort of abandoned by the authorities and became a sloping marketplace

But today it has been restored and become a tourist spot as well as a popular destination for school trips. And yes, you can still watch the cosmos at the top.

I love you. I love you more than I love myself. I know it doesn’t say a lot but you’re the only thing I love this much.

Gloves are for jazz hands, not paper.

as always the human immune system is not beating the "overactive HOA that explodes the whole subdivision bc someone put up a basketball hoop in their driveway" allegations

I really hate that it can just be looking around and go "hmmm I don't like the cut of this guy's jib" and the guy is YOUR OWN BLOOD

I was also reminded recently about the eyes having "immune privilege" meaning your immune system isn't really supposed to Go There bc your eyeball tissue is so delicate that inflammation and higher temperatures would destroy the tissue. so your body is just like. "don't look over there. nothing to be concerned about. nothing to see here" about. your eyes. to prevent your immune system from EXPLODING THE SUBDIVISION

In fact, that's completely wrong. Our bodies did NOT evolve to endure anything remotely like the constant onslaught of viral pathogens that modern humans endure. It's the combination of few to no parasitic infections and far too many viral infections that increases the incidence of allergies and autoimmune conditions.

Unfortunately, the crunchy moms and even to some extent health authorities keep pushing exclusive breastfeeding for unrealistic periods of time, 6 months or even longer. Babies should be introduced to non-milk foods at 4 months. If they seem disinterested and shove the food back out (tongue thrust reflex) try again in a couple weeks.

Delaying to 6 months is dangerous, especially in exclusively breastfed babies. By 6 months, most babies have outgrown the milk supply, and delaying the introduction of complementary foods will slow growth. Breast milk has very little iron, and the deposits stored in baby's liver before birth will run out after a few months, resulting in anemia. Deficiencies in zinc and Vitamin D are also possible.

Also? Babies need to learn how to eat. There's a window in which their instincts will drive them to at least taste anything they see their older family members eat, but that window closes before age 2, so you really need to take advantage of it.

So, promoting exclusive breastfeeding for six months increases the risk of calorie deficiency, micronutrient deficiency, food allergies and feeding difficulties. But people still promote it because one study 40 years ago in Latin America found that in families without access to clean water and sanitation, delaying complementary foods reduced the risk of dangerous diarrhea. In first-world settings, no benefits have ever been demonstrated.

@vividaway​ Randall Munroe is an internet cartoonist who runs the ‘xkcd’ online comic series, which has run from 2006 up to today, with new comics every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Xkcd isn’t an ongoing story, just a series of funny, wholesome, depressing, or oddly scientifically informative comics.

In 2010, Randall’s fiance was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer. He didn’t share too many details at first, but things tended to bleed into his comics: sometimes funny, sometimes sad.

Often in this time, other cartoonists would write in guest comics for Randall, or he’d put in short filler pieces, to try and fill space while nonstop cancer treatments took up most of his time.

In 2012, he posted a comic called ‘Two Years’, about the time since the diagnosis. It’s the one that hasn’t yet been posted here (although parts of it are included in the other comics), and it commemorates some of the things that had happened in the two years since the diagnosis.

There are representations of Randall and his fiance being together for her treatment, worrying together, traveling the world, and getting married. It’s still depressing, but it’s a lot more hopeful, showing how they’ve still managed to have happy moments together, and things will still get better.

Themes of cancer continued in xkcd, but they increasingly became less about fear and nihilism, and more about hope, or just cool facts related to cancer.

At the top of this post is the comic posted in 2017: Seven Years. In it, Randall and his wife are traveling more, trying to have fun and continue old and new hobbies, with cancer ever-present in the background of it all. At the end, the two of them observe the 2017 solar eclipse, and despite all the uncertainty that comes with the thought of another seven years, agree to watch the 2024 eclipse together too.

There are just about no cancer comics between that one and the most recent comic, the one I posted: Ten Years, written in 2020. It’s by far the most hopeful of the three in the little series: the two of them are happy, they’re playing with rabbits and riding on handcarts and going out hiking and stargazing, together. At the end, Ten Years breaks the format with a conversation in which they talk about how unbelievable it is that it’s been so long, and share their worries as well as their hopes. It even ends on a much more lighthearted joke about immortality.

It’s a good comic. Definitely in my top two comics wherein internet cartoonists express emotions about an illness suffered by their wife.

The first time I reblogged this it was three years after large bastard's heart attack and quad bypass and one year after his transplant.

Now it has been five years since his transplant, and seven years since his bypass.