Mike

The phrase “healing herbs” as it’s generally used in advertising really bothers me.  This is mostly because it’s got that central advertorial language problem: it could mean everything or nothing.  But that’s a little more crucial than usual in this context.

Look, I write about herbal medicine and magic for (part of) a living.  I make salves, I make soaps, I use tisanes instead of cough syrups.  I wildcraft.  I have a pretty multi-point view of the fact that healing comes from skill; the plants are tools.  Overuse of the concept of “healing herbs” contributes to an over-simplified “plants good; chemicals bad” mindset that can and does hurt people.

Furthermore, this meaningless use of “healing” as a concept contributes to the idea of health as a monolithic thing that’s the same for everyone and has one definition – an idea that’s undiscerning, ableist, and laughably untrue.  

Users of traditional medicine systems are looked to as an alternative to the industrialized, model-organism methods of “modern” medicine.  Users of traditional medicine systems thus have a basic responsibility to understand that “healing” is different for different bodies – and to know that the virtue that lies in the plants is brought out by the minds and hands of the knowledgeable, not inherently present in any commercial product made from “six healing herbs!!!”

By the usual definition, foxglove is a “healing herb.”  Digitalis will still kill you.

Is this a soild enough base to sue companies for false advertisement?

And There It Goes!

$1.45 Million Taxpayer Dollars for Trump’s PR Stunt!

+ Social anxiety and bustling RPG towns with important supplies. The longer you stay, the higher your anxiety goes. Areas with tight crowds are worse than quieter streets. The level of people noise adds to the stress. Some days you get stressed faster than others. The only way to recuperate is to seek out quiet places but it might not be enough to get all your supplies, if only because you either don’t dare to speak with the cashier anymore or are too tired (the higher the anxiety, the faster your the mental energy depletes) to continue.

+ Mental energy and you. Again, some days are worse than others. You have to clean your room because it’s gathering dust - each set day the layer grows - and you want to because it makes you unhappy (your mood is a separate meter). Being in the clean room also boosts your mood. But you don’t have the energy or you have to manage it for other purposes, so the dust stays and you grow unhappier.

+ When something inconveniences your friends or they need something, you gain a boost of mental energy for that and only that task.

Feel free to add your own examples!

What’s less intuitively obvious is that it’s not just a matter of mass: it’s also a matter of surface area. In order to push or strike a target, you need to generate enough friction with the ground to counteract the equal and opposite force that your target exerts upon you. If you don’t, you’ll simply be pushed away. While mass is a contributing factor here, an equally important one is contact area with the ground. Even a very heavy object can be displaced with relative ease if its ground contact is minimal.

In short, if you wish to avoid being sent skittering along the ground every time you hit something with your cartoonishly large sword, beyond a certain point it’s not sufficient to wear very heavy shoes: you must also have very large feet.

“Films always have the ability to anger us, divide us, shock us, disgust us, and more. Usually, films that inspire controversy, outright boycotting, picketing, banning, censorship, or protest have graphic sex, violence, homosexuality, religious, political or race-related themes and content. They usually push the envelope regarding what can be filmed and displayed on the screen, and are considered taboo, "immoral” or “obscene” due to language, drug use, violence and sensuality/nudity or other incendiary elements. Inevitably, controversy helps to publicize these films and fuel the box-office receipts.“

There are many reasons books get banned: sexual content, offensive language, supporting LGBTQ+, etc.

No book should be banned from being read. People should have the freedom to read what they want to read. I’ve read so many banned books I’ve lost count (wasn’t counting anyway).