I'm One Of Those Long Covid Cases From This Summer, And It Was My 4th Time Catching It (twice From Hospital

I'm one of those long Covid cases from this summer, and it was my 4th time catching it (twice from hospital trips), and I've had all of the vaccines released so far.

Please protect and care for yourself and others.

PBS News

What to know about this summer’s major surge in COVID infections

As summer winds down, much of the U.S. is seeing the biggest COVID wave in at least two years, and hundreds of people are still being killed

TAKEAWAYS:

We are in the biggest Covid surge in the US in at least two years

Time to wear a mask in crowded spaces (personally, I'd recommend one in all indoor public spaces and crowded outdoor spaces)

Immunity has waned and the new variant is 'distinctly more challenging to our immune system'

Updated boosters should be available the week of September 1st

The US needs to invest more in nasal vaccine programs, and should have already - this is the thing that could help actually get us out of the woods.

We are continuing to see more folks develop Long Covid even from mild infections

You should just read the article it's not that long but that's the run down

Me Editorializing: Let’s protect and care for ourselves and each other!

heys......

*gets scared*

Toad origami, one square of paper

Towards the whole "pronouns hurt people's feelings" topic. Am I REALLY the only person on the planet that thinks people are becoming far to sensative? Nearly to the point that they shouldn't leave their little home bubbles in the case that a bird chirps next to them in a way that sounds like a mean word. Maybe, JUST MAYBE, we're becoming a little TOO coddling and people need to learn to deal with simplistic shit like words. And yes, I've been insulted and made fun of. I got over it. So can you.

Supposedly invented by the Chinese, there is an ancient form of torture that is nothing more than cold, tiny drops falling upon a person’s forehead. 

On its own, a single drop is nothing. It falls upon the brow making a tiny splash. It doesn’t hurt. No real harm comes from it. 

In multitudes, the drops are still fairly harmless. Other than a damp forehead, there really is no cause for concern. 

The key to the torture is being restrained. You cannot move. You must feel each drop. You have lost all control over stopping these drops of water from splashing on your forehead. 

It still doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. But person after person, time and time again—would completely unravel psychologically. They all had a breaking point where each drop turned into a horror. Building and building until all sense of sanity was completely lost. 

“It was just a joke, quit being so sensitive.”

“They used the wrong pronoun, big deal.”

“So your parents don’t understand, it could be worse.”

Day after day. Drop after drop. It builds up. A single instance on its own is no big deal. A few drops, not a problem. But when you are restrained, when you cannot escape the drops, when it is unending—these drops can be agony. 

People aren’t sensitive because they can’t take a joke. Because they can’t take being misgendered one time. Because they lack a thick skin. 

People are sensitive because the drops are unending and they have no escape from them. 

You are only seeing the tiny, harmless, single drop hitting these so-called “sensitive” people. You are failing to see the thousands of drops endured before that. You are failing to see the restraints that make them inescapable.

Global access to good things and good patterns would be cool.

Good News Network

This Startup Is Using Dead Leaves to Make Paper Without Cutting Trees

The company already produces 3 million paper carrier bags per year from 5,000 metric tons of leaves from their headquarters in Paris.

"Businesses like to talk about the concept of a closed loop or circular economy, but often they’re trying to close small loops. Releaf Paper takes dead leaves from city trees and turns them into paper for bags, office supplies, and more—which is to say they are striving to close one heck of a big loop.

How big? Six billion trees are cut down every year for paper products according to the WWF, producing everything from toilet paper to Amazon boxes to the latest best-selling novels. Meanwhile, the average city produces 8,000 metric tons of leaves every year which clog gutters and sewers, and have to be collected, composted, burned, or dumped in landfills.

In other words, huge supply and huge demand, but Releaf Paper is making cracking progress. They already produce 3 million paper carrier bags per year from 5,000 metric tons of leaves from their headquarters in Paris.

Joining forces with landscapers in sites across Europe, thousands of tonnes of leaves arrive at their facility where a low-water, zero-sulfur/chlorine production process sees the company create paper with much smaller water and carbon footprints...

“In a city, it’s a green waste that should be collected. Really, it’s a good solution because we are keeping the balance—we get fiber for making paper and return lignin as a semi-fertilizer for the cities to fertilize the gardens or the trees. So it’s like a win-win model,” [Valentyn] Frechka, co-founder and CTO of Releaf Paper, told Euronews.

Releaf is already selling products to LVMH, BNP Paribas, Logitech, Samsung, and various other big companies. In the coming years, Frechka and Sobolenka also plan to further increase their production capacity by opening more plants in other countries. If the process is cost-efficient, there’s no reason there shouldn’t be a paper mill of this kind in every city.

“We want to expand this idea all around the world. At the end, our vision is that the technology of making paper from fallen leaves should be accessible on all continents,” Sobolenka notes, according to ZME Science."

-via Goodd News Network, August 15, 2024