@teddytoroa / teddytoroa.tumblr.com
I would normally never do this and I normally avoid all political posting, but the FDA has had to stop a lot of food testing due to staff cuts currently planned at least until September 30th.
This is very dangerous for certain foods and if you live in the United States, I highly recommend that you keep track of this list: https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-modernization-act-fsma/food-traceability-list
That is a (not fully comprehensive but useful) list of the high-risk foods for contamination and sickness that could result in serious harm or death. The broad strokes are cheeses, but especially soft cheeses, raw/fresh vegetables, pre-sliced fruit packages, ready to eat salads, chicken eggs, milk (bird flu), anything fermented like melons, and pet food, among others.
This is likely not a comprehensive list, so be sure to look things up yourself as well.
If you buy vegetables and plan to eat them, it is best to cook them to a safe temperature and wash their outsides well with water and light scrubbing instead of eating them raw. Treat it like chicken in that regard.
Make sure that the individual foods that you buy often are safe to eat or at risk, and adjust accordingly. This is a fundamental necessity that everyone here will need to follow. Testing is reduced or gone, and reporting on outbreaks will also likely be reduced or banned outright as well.
All you can do is stay safe, use your masks in public again, and make sure that you are clean as well as your food.
Attached below are more tips for vegetables, meat safety should be the same, just be more vigilant.
I love you all and don't want any of you hurt. Let's all support each other, thank you.
On April 16th 2025 the US federal government has proposed to change the interpretation of the endangered species act so that it no longer protects habitat.
This is open for public comment until the end of May 19th. Please comment and make your voice heard.
Wildlife need their habitat. If the ESA redefines harm so that habitat is no longer protected, the implications for wildlife would be catastrophic.
Apple Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM) 1997
the first recorded kiss—CBS8383 II.8
ne mu-ni-sub₅ / and he has kissed her
recent colored pencil drawings
#RedRumpedSwallow - week 3 of #BirdArtWekly featuring #BirdsofGreece - hosted by @migratorymay
Quercus robur, English Oak.
What they don’t tell you about getting into bird watching is that once you get into it, you do not get to decide when you bird watch. You can be on the beach of some distant tropical country with nothing planned except relaxing. But then you see a Common Fluttering Nut Buster and you’re like fuckkkkkkkk holy shit guys the Common Fluttering Nut Buster is not supposed to life this far west holy shitttttttttt
Alright which guy at the BBC do I need to pay to get Joehills on the actual Taskmaster because the world NEEDS to see that.
hi y’all i just wanted to put you onto this fundraiser for the buffalo nations grasslands alliance. they’re trying to recoup some of the funds for black-footed ferret conservation on tribal grounds that the trump/musk administration has frozen, which is impacting not only the conservation efforts themselves but the livelihoods of the people working on them. the frozen grant is 1.1 million but this fundraiser has a goal of 50,000.
the fundraiser has 24 days left and has only reached 2% of its goal with 11 donations. black-footed ferrets are an endangered lazarus taxon that was thought to be extinct from 1979-1981 before being rediscovered by accident. they’re a miracle of conservation and it would be horrible to lose them for good, not to mention (again) the impact of people working with these animals losing their jobs which is outlined in the fundraiser link. indigenous-led conservation efforts are extremely important for a wide variety of reasons and as someone in the zoology area i feel obligated to share this fundraiser to contribute to those efforts.
i know that things are hard right now and there’s a lot of people and organizations all across the world that need help, so don’t feel pressured BUT if you have extra money and you can contribute to this fundraiser or share it with people who can that would be great.
super cute black-footed ferrets ^
Boosting this here- black footed ferrets are perhaps a little more charismatic than we usually allow here, but they need all the help they can get!
Nearly at 25% of their goal!
They're now at 37% of their goal, with just 9 days left! And, as an extra incentive, I am doing donation commissions-- if you send me proof of donation, I'll do you an art or make a post about an animal of your choosing!
66%! We're almost there!!
me?? checking knitting books out both to support my library and to avoid paying per pattern??? it's More Likely Than You'd Think
update:
VOLUME ACQUIRED!! specifically for the YOU SHAWL NOT PASS pattern (pictured bottom left of the cover!!), but i'm VERY stoked to flip through the rest of this, too
ANOTHER UPDATE:
YARN ACQUIRED!!! as soon as i saw Mothy and the Squid's absolutely GORGEOUS "Inner Fire" yarn, i knew that was 100% what i needed for the Balrog-themed "You Shawl Not Pass," and after a Slight Snafu about Shades of Black, my Much More Appropriately Saturated OPAL arrived today!! i am LOCKED and LOADED and PREPARED FOR SHAWLDOM!!
(i will absolutely not be starting this right away, i've got a blanket in the works and need to do some Little Projects For The Dopamine Of It All, but it is HERE and i COULD and THAT'S WHAT MATTERS!!)
SO IT HAS BEGUN:
so the cast on for this one STARTS at 162 stitches, and then we come out swinging with some UNHINGED EARLY EDGE INCREASES, but so far so good!! we'll see how long it actually takes to Make This Thing Happen (it's a christmas present so....)
made it past "cast on and setup"!! honestly loving the big long stretch of garter in the middle, because it turns it into a Social Project (read: i can chatter instead of having to count all the way across lol). so far, so good! onward to chevrons!
okay so i shoved this to the bottom of the stack to work up a [REDACTED] real quick and then most of my mom's cowl, AND now it's nano, HOWEVER!: i picked this up again this afternoon, got to a stitch notation in the pattern, had exactly this mood:
, googled the vexing stitch, found a youtube link in my search history, and all of a sudden DID recall so. that's how this is going lmao
update!: have made it to the end of the section labeled "CHEVRONS" and now i am onto the section labeled "CONTINUE CHEVRONS" (in which she hits you with a "Read carefully through this section before beginning as multiple steps occur at the same time," which has been making me low-key nervous since the first time i read through the pattern, because it looked Convoluted and Tricky).
fortunately! her instructions for the multiple simultaneous steps are just written unhingedly! it's basically "keep working in the established pattern BUT make it bigger every 8 rows to account for the increases in said 8th row" lmao. i wrote myself out a handy cheat sheet so i have something to check off (because i've been putting check marks upon row completion but. ah. seventy-eight (78) more rows is. too many check marks, for the current printed pattern to withstand).
making good progress on the first ball of black yarn! theoretically i'll use a second one, too, and then switch to the FLAMES. i'm so glad i'm not speedrunning this all in december lmao
made it to the end of the first ball of yarn!! she is. Growing Up.
i could switch to a bigger cable to see her better but i don't wanna
anyway! just finished the fifth "CONTINUE CHEVRONS" repeat (what timing!!), so there's only four and a half left before the contrast color switch. very interested to see how much of the second ball of black yarn i need for this--i'm already going through a lot per row, but there's also only four and a half repeats of the pattern with the contrast color, and that allegedly will use one ball or less also. so! hoping to have some extra black at the end, but We Shall See.
now, onward, to Poorly Joining In The Second Ball!
behold, the fun part: COLOR!!!
finally made it to mothy and the squid's INNER FIRE yarn, and hot damn is it delightful fun!! it's way more interesting to work than the solid black, and it's gonna look cool? hot as hell when it's done!! less than four pattern repeats to go!
WAY PAST MY BEDTIME TOO HYPED TO SLEEP BAD LIGHTING PICTURES LET'S GOOOO~~
HERE'S THE SCRUNGLYASS HERSELF, FRESH OFF THE NEEDLES, AND HER POT OF STEW (TRAGICALLY POTATOLESS):
it took me 88 minutes and 10 seconds (plus or minus maybe 2 min)(i had a stopwatch going but also Family Interruptions and my stopwatch game isn't hair-trigger accurate) to bind off all 646 stitches, but i DID IT and now she is BLOCKING and i am MOST PLEASED!! i'll post pinned pictures once i have daylight and then drape pictures once she's dry, but WOW what a DAY!!
*this point on your dash without witnessing THE COMPLETED SHAWL, is what he means by "you shawl shall not pass," here
hello again world!! guess what has been BLOCKED and PHOTOGRAPHED and WRAPPED!! BEHOLD!!
she's 65 inches at her widest and 17 inches from neckline to central point! she is VERY wrappable and wingspanny and cozy!! i'm so pleased with how she turned out! she took two skeins (a skein and a half really) of OPAL and most of the INNER FIRE, and the pattern can be found on ravelry here.
thanks for joining me on this treacherous quest--i'm glad most of our fellowship made it past the balrog. now, if you'll excuse me, i'm going to go collapse in a heap and pine after second breakfast.
