Bub

Mine was buried even deeper, under Devices -> Typing -> How AI has helped you.

Since the holiday toy drive post is circulating again, I figured this would also be helpful! Food insecurity is such a massive problem in America, in general, and if you have the means to help feed others, I think you should take that opportunity. Here are some other tips:

1. If you’re planning on donating items from your own pantry, please check the expiration dates on the packaging. Think of your donations as gifts to bestow, not castoffs to be rid of. It’s awful to think of people feeling like they got scraps someone else just didn’t want. Everyone deserves dignity with their meals.

2. If you’d rather give money to a food bank, that’s also great since they buy food in bulk and know what items are most wanted/needed!

3. Not everyone has access to appliances like stoves or microwaves or hot plates so if you can donate items that don’t need to be heated up, that would also be greatly appreciated!

The voice of truth for every Palestinian 🇵🇸

An Israeli soldier is seen firing randomly toward civilian homes and displacement tents in Gaza, describing the act as “for entertainment.”

At a time when civilians are being killed daily by stray bullets coming from the eastern areas of the Strip, violence is treated as a game wituhout accountability, and without humanity.

This is not an “isolated incident.”

This is not a “mistake.”

It reflects a reality where civilians are dehumanized and treated as targets.

Documenting these acts is a duty.

Silence is complicity.

After the ceasefire !!

Airstrikes targeting displacement tents in Gaza despite claims of a ceasefire and narratives that the war has “ended.”

For civilians on the ground, there is no post-war reality. There is no safety. Only changing methods of the same violence.

A ceasefire on paper does not stop bombs in the sky.

And declarations of peace mean nothing when tents are still being bombed.

Donations for GAZA!!

This donation campaign is for ANAS family. Not for strangers, not for a cause I'm distant from but for the people who raised me, the people I love, the people I'm terrified of losing.

They are in Gaza, trying to survive something no human being should ever have to endure. Constant bombardment, displacement, hunger, fear, and the feeling that tomorrow is never guaranteed. Every day is about staying alive one more night.

If you choose to help, you are not donating to an abstract crisis. You are helping real people with names, memories, and lives that matter to me more than anything.

—-This is a verified Chuffed campaign to support family:

CALL YOUR SENATORS!!!

Medical diagnoses - this is nobody's business but yours. You don't owe anyone an explanation for why you are the way that you are

Trauma - same reason as above

Triggers - people can use these against you! Don't give people tools to hurt you. No one has to know what tags you block. Just block tags to stay safe!

Age - age is okay for adults to include but is iffy when you're a teen. Predators want this information, don't give people more than they need. Just state that you're a minor, that's all that anyone needs to know.

In general: stay safe. If you're not comfortable with every stranger out there having access to this information, you shouldn't post it on the internet.

The golden rule of information sharing on the internet is: What would happen if someone saw this who wanted to hurt me?

I recall asking her whether this was a good thing or not, and she affirmed it was. Her body felt like hers, and she could only see herself as a girl, regardless of such things. She had simply admired her reflection for what it is, shaved, and moved happily on.

I think why it stuck with us for so long, was that it was the first time I had heard a trans woman talk about herself in such a way. I was in a few lgbt groups at the time, identifying as a gay man, and had interacted with them a number of times, finding them good company and relatable for reasons that needed another few years to come out. They had always couched such things in disappointment, as though any incongruence with femininity had snatched all the joy it brought them.

a quick background to the incident: a fire broke out in the housing estate of wang fuk court and caused the burning of 7/8 blocks in the estate. so far a total of 128 deaths have been reported with around 200 more missing and 79 injured. the fire burned for a total of 43 hours. the housing estate was undergoing a renovation project that cost 330 million HKD (around 42mil USD) when the construction material of one block caught on fire and subsequently spread to the rest of the buildings. around 4.6k people live there and majority of them are elderly.

a lot of the media is blaming the bamboo scaffolding for the cause of the fire's spread. that is not true and is a distraction from the actual problem of corruption that caused this avoidable tragedy.

for starters, bamboo scaffolding is a centuries old practice that is a recognized cultural heritage in hong kong. everything in hk, including the iconic skyline, was built using bamboo scaffolding. centuries of cantonese opera shows hosted in bamboo theatres had hot food stalls with no issues of burning. it is not because it's cheaper or from an inflated sense of nostalgia but a factual thing you can easily confirm by looking up any heat test with bamboo. but the most obvious proof you can find is that the site itself shows the scaffolding mostly in-tact while the safety net is almost completely gone.

which brings me to my next point about the nets. they have been proven again and again by residents own tests to not meet standards of being fire-retardant. there have been complaints made an entire year before that were dismissed as inflammatory rumors aimed at hindering the renovation. this is a test from TVB news showing how a net with fire-retardant properties vs a net without would react under fire. but if that's not enough, here are multiple videos showcasing how the fire's spread was completely accelerated by the nets flammability.

video showcasing the start of the fire (with jumpcuts showing the spread within a 10 minute window)

video showcasing another block of the estate that ignites into a chimney of flames within 30 seconds

rather conveniently as well is that construction sites across hk the day after have begun removing the safety nets. i know of people working in construction who can corroborate as well.

as always, the incentive for such corner cutting is money. fire-retardant nets cost 6-10 times more than regular nets. among this was the use of styrofoam boards as opposed to metal for blocking out the windows within the construction site, which as another factor in aiding the spread of the fire.

this renovation project was the most expensive out of the 3 proposed for the estate. it was in part paid by the residents, with each tenant required to pay 16k for the project. i would also like to add that as wang fuk court is a part of the home ownership scheme, they are owned by the housing authority, which is an agency of the hong kong government.

330 million in funds yet they could not even afford the bare minimum of fire proof materials? their greed and corruption is what turned the housing estate into a death trap for the thousands living there, NOT the bamboo scaffolding.

another tragic (and suspicious) factor in the deadliness of this incident is that the fire alarm system for all 8 buildings failed to sound, which likely caused the deaths of many more as most people reported not even knowing there was a fire until either the smoke reached them or they could see the flames.

the government's response to this has been to immediately roll out policies to switch to steel scaffolding as opposed to addressing the real issue of corruption involved. likely because of the election coming up next week (which has still not yet been cancelled despite the tragedy) where there are candidates directly involved or connected with district councilors that allowed this to happen by denying and shutting down resident's concerns. people are also concerned that this is just another method of streamlining the process of outsourcing labor from mainland, as their standard is using steel scaffolding and their labor is far cheaper. this would also allow the mainland industry of providing steel scaffoldings to break into hk.

majority of the relief effort has been funded by or provided the citizens of hk themselves. volunteers have poured in from across hk as well as the bordering shenzhen to help deliver supplies for displaced residents. if there is one feel good thing to take away from this incident is that we fucking care about each other, far more than this shit ass government. the initial relief funds offered by the government was a mere 10k per family, a whole 6k less than what residents paid for the renovations that took their homes and just plain disrespectful when they've lost their everything. (as of right now it has been raised to 50k, likely due to backlash)

i mostly wrote this post as a half rant and half psa to let people know from a hkgers pov the blatant display of greed and negligence that allowed for something like this to happen. this is not a tragic accident but a situation so preventable that all the people involved should all be charged with murder. this is the deadliest disaster hk has faced in the last 70 years, and the death toll is only expected to rise as the fire brigade actually starts breaking into flats individually.