TrickJarrett.com

Reddit: what's the scariest science fact that the public knows nothing about?

Scientists were trying to study the effects that microplastics have on the human body and brain but were unable to draw any reasonable conclusions because they could not find a control group.

Not exactly surprising.

In response to the above.

Something similar happened when they tried testing for lead back in the day. The ultra clean labs we have today were originally designed so for this reason. Also, the investigation into lead also led to the discovery of the age of the Earth

I have not researched these claims yet. They are easy enough for me to believe, but I'll be curious for supporting research.

Reddit Blackout - Day 1

The Reddit blackout is upon us... what do we do?

Reddit had truly become the frontpage of the Internet and I am certain if I looked through access logs, I regularly visit it double-digit times daily.

Thankfully, for me, I have a robust RSS feed which feeds me hundreds of articles each day. It's not the same as Reddit, but it wasn't curated to be.

I'll be turning more to Mastodon to see what gets shared on my feed, and perhaps I'll just log off a bit more.

I am about to start tackling my collection management project, so that will take up a fair bit of time as well.

Edit: According to The Verge, over 6,000 subreddits have joined the protest.

Here comes the Reddit blackout

In preparation of Reddit's blackout, I added it to my home firewall as a blocked domain. I understand Reddit's position, but their stance and handling has been absurdly bad. There has to be a protest to change things and get them to rethink how it can be done and especially how it can be handled.

Redditor shares his own story about prison in reply to post discussing death penalty

Redditor Limp_Vermicelli_5924 shares his story of prison:

I did 14 years. A LOT of people (me included before my sentence) say, "If I ever got that much time, I'd kill myself!" SOME people DO carry that out, often before GETTING to prison, in County Jail usually. I myself attempted just that while I was in jail. They do it because they're dealing with an extreme adjustment disorder; they are usually massively depressed and despondent. They can't, in the short-term, wrap their brains around what they've lost. The consequences they will face.

Most people, however, don't kill themselves, and they end up putting one foot in front of the other, moving forward, and adjusting, because they are human, they are mammals, and they want to live.

There are times I miss prison. I met my husband in prison. He's still there, I talk to him every day. I had a ton of friends in prison. I had respect. I enjoyed my life there. Getting out was the hardest thing I ever had to do. WAY harder than going in.

I've been out a decade almost. Ended up, along the way, taking in a mentally disabled young man, homeless with no one to care for him; I met him while I was a manager at a drug rehab. He floated from rehab to rehab because it was the only way he could have a home and people to care for him. He could not take care of himself. He ended up at my rehab; I was given the task of looking after him, getting his documents in order, making sure he wasn't picked on, etc. After 18 months, it was time to move on for me. He asked me to be his dad. I accepted. He's been my son ever since, and from that day forward never called me anything but "Dad." It sounds like a wonderful happy ending, and in many ways is. Thank the stars for him, I love him as my own son, unconditionally. But it's not easy. He's bipolar, I still struggle on and off with addiction. People, when they find out about your criminal past, look at you differently. You never really get close to people. People are interested in you, in your story, but you're always a "danger" of some kind; you're perceived as different in their minds, damaged goods when you get to the bottom of things. That's always where relationships go to die in the end. Rarely do I get respect. If I'm lucky, I get tolerance.

Prison is a life. Maybe not the best, but certainly better than some. There are always people who have it worse than you, in places all over the world. I was lucky to be in a "good" state, prison-wise. Some states are MUCH worse, with their racial politics, gangs, and violence. I correspond with people in those states; even they carve out a life, have people they love as friends, and have things they enjoy. Even the sunshine on your face is a treat some days, a reason to live.

I'm offended by this bullshit question. There is no worse penalty, outside of unending physical torture, than death. MURDER is actually the proper term, whether it's a governor or a thug. Often, they're interchangeable.

The death penalty is BARBARIC. No ifs, ands, or buts. Shame on anyone who advocates it. Murder is a terrible crime. Committing another murder to avenge the first is even more barbaric, in a way, because it comes at the hands of the people who must be morally responsibile and humane; merciful, just, and compassionate. Any human being in a position of power and care over others, yet kills someone, is more reprehensible in the same way that a person in a position of trust who abuses is more morally culpable.

Marcus Tullius Cicero: “While there's life, there is hope.”

It is simple. It is truth.

Reddit thread: What is a fact or statistic that seems fake but is real?

Lots of interesting trivia, many I had already heard. But I found this insight about trilobites particularly interesting.

The thing that fucked me up was realising that trilobites, which are an entire class of animals onto themselves, like mammals or reptiles, and these beings were not just extinct before the first dinosaurs existed, they were even fossilised before then. Meaning that any trilobite, which is a very common type of fossil that can be found at most shops that sell them, has existed in fossil form for longer than the entirety of the existence of the dinosaurs up until now.

But wait, there's more. Because the reason I picked trilobites specifically is not just that they are such a common fossil, though it is related to it. Because there's a reason they're so common today. Trilobites were around for 270 million years before they went extinct. For reference, the first dinosaurs emerged 230 million years ago. Meaning that trilobites, which were already fossils by the time the first dinosaurs showed up, were around for longer than the time from when the first dinosaurs emerged to the present day.

We as humans cannot even begin to comprehend such lengths of time.

Redditor dives deep on every team in Serie A which got relegated and never made it back into the top league

Redditor /AntajaSW has these amazing super long posts (they've also done posts about Bundesliga, post 1 and post 2) and they are fascinating reads for soccer fans to learn about these clubs. Economically, a team getting relegated is going to be in dire straits unless their owner(s) pony up cash to cover the shortfall in income until they can get back up.

Specifically to the Serie A post I linked above, they came out with Part 2 of it today.

Redditor explains the Gamestop Wallstreet phenomenon, in meme/edgelord fashion