In medieval times, within the arms race of ever more demonic torture devices, some sadistic genius came up with the idea of the Little Ease.
This was a prison cell built so small in every dimension that a grown man could not stand upright in it nor lie down at full length nor properly sit.
The pain is relentless and without relief and inflicted by one's own body. Prisoners were known to go insane within a few days. A stay at the Little Ease was considered even more cruel than the rack, the thumbscrew, and the other ghoulish machinery of the Tower of London.
A breeding pig will spend her whole life in a version of that box.
These are social, roaming creatures (more intelligent than dogs) who will never leave this corset of steel.
They have been selectively bred to be bigger than their frames can support. Yet we put them in cells so confined that they cannot comfortably sit, and their attempts to do so (for example, by sneaking their limbs into adjacent stalls) reliably lead to fractures and sprains.
They cannot sweat, yet have nothing to roll around in to cool themselves off. Except their own manure, which (contrary to the common misconception) they are so averse to (thanks to their strong sense of smell) that new sows will often suffer from constipation to avoid soiling the space from which they eat and sleep.
Here is how the writer Matthew Scully described what saw at one of Smithfield’s “gestation barn”:
> “Sores, tumors, ulcers, pus pockets, lesions, cysts, bruises, torn ears, swollen legs everywhere. Roaring, groaning, tail biting, fighting, and other “Vices,” as they’re called in the industry. Frenzied chewing on bars and chains, stereotypical “vacuum” chewing on nothing at all, stereotypical rooting and nest building with imaginary straw. And “social defeat,” lots of it, in every third or fourth stall some completely broken being you know is alive only because she blinks and stares up at you … creatures beyond the power of pity to help or indifference to make more miserable, dead to the world except as heaps of flesh into which the [insemination] rod may be stuck once more and more flesh reproduced.”
—
The Save Our Bacon Act is trying to unroll the few state protections we have against this barbaric cruelty - for example California’s Prop 12 - which banned the sale of pork from pigs kept in gestation crates.
It’s incredibly important we don’t end up with this sort of federal preemption.
SOB will not only kill the most important animal welfare related laws in the US of the past decade, but more importantly, it will also restrict ALL future legislative progress (aka how the animal welfare movement has gotten its biggest wins).
The Senate is currently deciding whether to add the SOB Act to the Farm Bill.
With relatively little money now, we can discourage the most pivotal senators in the Ag committee from backing this amendment.
Defeating this bill is even more important given the amount of philanthropic funding I expect to come online in the next year or two.
It will plausibly be over 10x more expensive to repeal SOB than to prevent it from passing in the first place.
All that money that could be spent transforming our society's relationship to mass animal suffering will instead have to be spent just getting us back to where we are right now.
That's why money spent now fighting this bill (and I mean right NOW) is so effective.
If you’re in a position to donate six figures, please DM me.
@GonzoMcFonzo@DrStrangelove34@slackkejakke There’s a gate closing time and a departure time. They’re both clearly listed. In airports they also make it very clear on the signs and sometimes audible announcements that the gate is closing.
@BenLiddicott@IanCutress That does not have 2 ducts?… I know they’re hard to get because I just resorted to modifying one in the end to make it dual duct.
@andyhennie I’ve been using https://t.co/KUhdp4yja3
I think the default mac taskbars are horrendous as well. Not sure why people are telling you it already exists when the stuff they show are clearly missing the point.
@solipsnitsyn@Mascobot But at the very least it does seem to actually look at the app to make decisions even if it doesn’t have to pick the pixel coords of where to click.
@solipsnitsyn@Mascobot I’m thinking you just confused because MacOS locks the clicking and typing behind their Accessibility permissions. It really does seem to properly use the apps.
@RavePigeon@CRYPTOCEL00@Noahpinion Why does “brick hut lasting hundred + years” have any merit?
What British weather? I’m guessing the height of your thinking here is somewhere where rain can’t get you? I’m going to assume you don’t mean the thermal battery that makes summer miserable and the heating lag.
@SheHorrid@CRYPTOCEL00@Noahpinion Well yeah none of you are but you all have strong opinions on it and when pushed you fall back to “yeah don’t care”. Why even pretend? Makes no sense.
@SheHorrid@CRYPTOCEL00@Noahpinion See you can’t even comprehend a timber frame. You’re all tapped. “Our shitty brick houses which are commonly ravaged by mold with no insulation, ridiculous thermal lag making summers miserable and hard to work on are clearly the better solution.”
@SheHorrid@CRYPTOCEL00@Noahpinion I’m not that sort of person + would require huge public perception campaigns. There is a standard called Passivhaus it’s not like I’m the only guy to ever be intrigued by this.
America is the closest as far as I’m aware as they have widespread hvac in houses.
@SheHorrid@CRYPTOCEL00@Noahpinion I was born here. I actually quite like it here but the UK and Europeans as a whole really are actually braindead with what they think is the correct way to build and heat/cool houses. “New builds are terrible quality” so are all the other brick huts we call houses here.
@RavePigeon@CRYPTOCEL00@Noahpinion You’re right the solution is to not build god awful houses with technology from the stoneage so you have one very efficient system both cooling and heating the house. Stop doubling down and just admit we build houses like retards. Tear the bastards down.
@SheHorrid@CRYPTOCEL00@Noahpinion > We build homes to retain heat.
The only way you can do that is via insulation which works the other way around. Everyone in the UK is retarded on the subject of “How do we make our homes comfortable and liveable”. Spoiler alert it doesn’t involve gas boilers and radiators.
My wife mentioned a nice private school over dinner this week
She said the campus was beautiful
I asked what's the tuition
She said we should look at it as an investment in him not a cost
I made a note
She said don't make a note
I said I always make notes
She said this isn't a deal
I said everything is a deal
She closed her eyes
She said we'd discuss it Saturday
I agreed
Saturday 7:02am
She came downstairs in her Saturday robe
Coffee in hand
I had my cargo shorts on
The dining room had been cleared
The projector was on
The analyst was at the head of the table
Quarter zip on, three iced coffees, a legal pad, and two laptops
He had been there since 6:44am
I texted him at 11:14pm Friday
The text said dining room 6:45am bring the model
He sent a thumbs up
My wife stopped in the doorway
She said what is this
I said you said you wanted to discuss it
She said this is not a discussion
I did not respond
She sat down anyway
The analyst stood
He said good morning ma'am
She did not respond
He sat back down
A printed deck in front of each seat
A fourth copy in case
Slide 1 Tuition Schedule
$38,500 per year
Thirteen years
$500,500 nominal
Before escalators
The school has raised tuition 4.2% per year for a decade
With escalators $648,000
My wife said okay
I said I'm not done
Slide 2 Opportunity Cost
Even before escalators
$38,500 invested annually
10% nominal return
S&P long-run average since 1928
By his eighteenth birthday $944,000
My wife said we can afford it
I said I know that's not the slide
Slide 3 Terminal Value at Age 65
$83 million
She was quiet
The analyst slid the sensitivity tables across the table
8% return $31 million
10% return $83 million
12% return $222 million
She did not look
She said this isn't about money
I said it's always about money
She said no it isn't
I said then what is it about
She did not answer
She said you can't put a dollar value on his teachers his classmates his environment
I said I can the analyst already did slide 6
He flipped to slide 6
She did not look
She said the school is the best in the city
I said best is a feeling
She said it produces the best students
I said the students were already the best before they got there
She said our son deserves it
I said our son deserves $83 million
My son walked in
He is five
Dinosaur pajamas
He looked at the projector
He looked at the open deck on the table
He looked at slide 3
He said are we modeling pre-tax or after-tax
The analyst opened a new tab
My wife looked at the ceiling
He said what's the discount rate
The analyst set down his pen
She closed her eyes
He said is this the same return assumption from the 529 conversation
The analyst stopped typing
He looked at me
I did not say anything
She stood up
Sat back down
He said dad can I help
I said yes
He pulled up a chair
The analyst handed him a printout
He started reading
My wife watched him read
She watched him for a long time
She said his name
He looked up
She said do you like school
He said the work is too easy and the kids don't ask questions
She did not respond
She looked at the ceiling
She walked out of the room
The analyst started packing up
He said should I follow up Monday sir
I said no follow up needed
He'll be fine
Sent from my iPhone