Existence

I feel like people get so distracted by the tragedy and the love stories (typical allos 😝) that they don’t see there was deliberately a hopeful result of Orpheus’ trip to Hadestown. This is something not part of the original myth, an intentional expansion of the story for this adaptation.

True, Orpheus failed in his central goal, which was to bring Eurydice back from the dead. But by just TRYING to do that, there were unintended positive consequences. The workers started to wake up and question the justice of the system they were working for. And Hades and Persephone seem to start to come to a new understanding, a possible mending of their relationship.

Of course we don’t know the full ramifications. Maybe the workers rise up, maybe not. Maybe Hades stops coming early for Persephone, maybe not. But the potential is there, and in that potential I see a central hopeful message in the story.

Osprey aka “Sea Hawk” (Pandion haliaetus), CATCH A TASTY FLOUNDER!!!, family Pandionidae, order Accipitriformes, BC, Canada

But Artsekey, what is an ergonomic chair?

They're chairs designed and tested to support the user during prolonged use. This means they minimize strain on certain areas of the body and can significantly minimize the risk of injury.

Oh, so like a gamer chair?

A lot of "gamer" brand chairs aren't actually ergonomic-- buyer beware. They look cool, but they charge a premium and don't do anything for your spine.

I just looked it up, and most of them are over $1000. No thanks!

I know, I know. They're expensive. But:

'm so serious when I say that if you are a professional working at your computer for long hours, this is not optional. It's a matter of your health and wellbeing. Source: my physical therapist after I tore a muscle in my back (agonizing!!! put me ON THE FLOOR!!!!) because I sat in the wrong chair too long.

2. They don't have to be that expensive!

If you have a Best Buy or (even better) an Office Depot in your area, pop in. They have a ton of ergonomic chairs on the floor and each has a tag that lists it's rating. I got my dinky chair for (that's rated for 12 hours of use!!!) for about $170, which would be about $220 today. That is a steal for a chair that has this rating.

You can also keep an eye out for them at garage sales + hang around universities during move-out.

If they don't have a tag, what should I look for?

Five points of articulation:

elbow height

chair height

back depth

lumbar support

backrest angle.

Mesh backing or high-quality cushion.

To be fair, my chair (that I love) does not have many of those points of articulation (which is probably why it was cheaper). However, I had access to the rating report and it has proved to be a great purchase.

You seem weirdly passionate about this...?

(via bsky)

In case anyone hasn't heard, the cyclospora outbreak affecting tons of people in the US right now is coming from Taylor Farms produce. Best to stay away from bagged lettuce and prepared salads completely right now, but especially the ones mentioned in the screenshot:

Taylor Farms Earthbound Farms Little Salad Bar (Aldi) Marketside (Walmart) Kroger House Brand Target private label greens Costco salads and greens etc Trader Joe's chopped salad kits and fresh produce Fast food: McDonalds, Taco Bell, (Yum! Brands), Chipotle, Subway, Pizza Hut, KFC, Olive Garden, Top Golf, Red Lobster, Burger King, etc.

This is not the first time I've heard about a Taylor Farms foodborne illness outbreak. I stopped eating their salads after reading a description of the conditions in their facilities. Doesn't sound like they've improved anything.

Another design is using 2 20x25x1 filters, taping them to the sides of the box fan and then to each other so they sort of make a triangle, then cutting cardboard to make a top and bottom to the triangle.

This was discovered as a more effective design during the 2020 US west coast fires.

https://tombuildsstuff.blogspot.com/2013/06/better-box-fan-air-purifier.html

Obviously, the goal of this experiment is to grow the lobsters until they’re big enough to settle to the seabed and then release them, because they have a much higher likelihood of surviving to adulthood when they’re able to hide. Ideally, captive lobster hatcheries can boost the wild population and keep things stable, so we don’t have a major crash in a decade or two.

The first year we tried this was pretty bad. We had a lot of eggs, but very few babies. It turned out that the CO2 levels in the building spiked as more guests visited throughout the summer, and that settled into the water and threw off the pH and caused a chemical reaction that prevented a lot of the eggs from hatching. I think we ended up releasing three baby lobsters (which is still better than their wild survival rate but not great).

The second year was a little better. We added a de-gasser to the aquarium and got a ton of larval lobsters, but right as they were settling to the bottom we had a disease outbreak that killed most of them. We ended up releasing four babies at the end of the season.

But this year? Oh boy. We have so many lobsters that we had to release the first round early (usually we wait till September or October so guests can see them). We just released a total of FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE baby lobsters, and we still have over a hundred who haven’t settled to the bottom yet. I genuinely don’t even have words to explain how cool this is. OVER FIVE HUNDRED. We just added hundreds of lobsters to the wild population that wouldn’t have been there otherwise.