Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalWhy it costs money to get your own money
Banks are in the business of making money, and a lot of it — even if that means charging you to deal with money that’s yours.
From ATM fees to overdraft fees to maintenance fees, banks have all sorts of ways of extracting funds out of consumers. You go to an out-of-network ATM for cash and wind up paying a few extra dollars. You don’t have a ton of money in your checking account and notice your bank is charging you each month just to hold onto your (dwindling) funds. Maybe you screw up, accidentally try to spend money that isn’t in your account, and you get slapped with a $35 overdraft fee. Or you don’t have a bank account, need to cash a check, and the place where you do it winds up keeping a cut.
The whole thing can feel a little gross. Sure, banks are private businesses beholden to shareholders. At the same time, it’s hard not to look at the ways big and small they’re scooping up extra cash and think wait, what? Banks made $279.1 billion in 2021, up $132 billion from the year before.
“One might want to question whether the amount of fees that are being charged are necessary to cover the costs, given those levels of profit margins,” said Brian Shearer, senior adviser to the director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which recently launched an initiative to look into what it describes as “junk fees” from banks and financial institutions. “One, they add up and they really can have a substantial impact on consumers’ pocketbooks, and, two, we’re concerned that they distort the competitive process and have hindered overall competitive forces in banking.” The concern is that consumers aren’t able to effectively comparison shop because of practices such as drip pricing or hidden pricing that hide actual costs. Basically, if you’re looking for a new bank and on the back end there are all sorts of fees you don’t notice, you might not make the best choice for yourself — and banks won’t have to compete as hard for your business.
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22969273/bank-fees-overdraft-atm-postal-banking
Doctors learned how to save premature infants' lives. They forgot about pain.
When Mats Eriksson was just starting off as a nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit in the 1980s, he truly hated one part of his job. To draw blood for the daily metabolic test, he had to prick the babies’ heels with a tiny lancet and squeeze their heels to collect enough blood for analysis. It was hard to do, and hard to watch.
“The children were crying; the mothers almost fainted,” he says. “I was sweaty all over. It was a really tough job for everyone. And we had nothing to offer.”
By anything to offer, he means drugs to treat the infants’ apparent pain. Strong drugs like morphine can be dangerous for such young bodies. Even everyday drugs like Tylenol and Advil can be harmful to use in infants because of their potential impacts on the liver and kidneys.
But a bigger reason why was more frustrating. “In those days, we did not believe that they could feel pain,” Eriksson says of infants. “We could see it, of course, but science said ‘no.’”
The NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) is where infants who are born prematurely — meaning infants born before 37 weeks of pregnancy — and full-term infants (who are born around 39 or 40 weeks) with health issues spend the first weeks and, often, months of their lives. Every day, they encounter painful pricks and prods from hospital staff to monitor them and keep their frail bodies alive. Eriksson recalls that even when the children needed invasive procedures like open-heart surgeries, they were done without any anesthesia or pain medication.
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/22949159/nicu-babies-pain-treatments-podcast-unexplainable
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It's not just preemies. When I worked in neonatal, they treated full-term infants the same. And if a baby was born with something like Down syndrome, they were even worse. "Babies don't feel pain," they insisted. Wanna bet?
Recipe for Ukrainian Anti-Drone Pickled Tomatoes and Plums
By now we will have all heard the story of the woman who was enjoying a smoke on her balcony when a Russian drone came drifting by. She picked up the nearest object at hand, a jar of pickled tomatoes and plums, and with a well-aimed toss, took out that little bugger. Moral of the story: Don't bother a Ukrainian woman who is trying to enjoy a moment of peace and quiet on her balcony. She may be in possession of tactical pickles.
Anyway, here's a recipe for Ukrainian pickled tomatoes and plums. Apparently you can make it with cherry tomatoes and those teeny plums, or Roma tomatoes and regular sized plums. It's a Twitter thread, so you'll have to follow the whole thing.
https://twitter.com/jengolbeck/status/1501022764274180097?s=21
Bottles, cans, batteries: octopuses found using litter on seabed
Whether it’s mimicking venomous creatures, or shooting jets of water at aquarium light switches to turn them off, octopuses are nothing if not resourceful. Now, an analysis of underwater images suggests octopuses are increasingly using discarded bottles, cans, and other human rubbish as shelter or as a sanctuary for their eggs.
The study – the first to systematically evaluate and characterise litter use by octopuses using crowdsourced images – analysed hundreds of underwater photos posted on social media platforms and image databases, or collected by marine biologists and diving interest groups.
The research, published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, documented 24 species of octopus sheltering inside glass bottles, cans, and even an old battery; burying themselves under a mixture of bottle tops and seashells; even carrying plastic items around while “stilt-walking” on two tentacles, to conceal themselves from predators.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/08/bottles-cans-batteries-octopuses-found-using-litter-on-seabed
A former sheriff's deputy, accused of raping a 14-year-old girl, makes a deal for no jail time
A former Tennessee sheriff’s deputy who was charged with raping a 14-year-old girl has accepted a plea deal, meaning he will not go to trial and face jail time or have to register as a sex offender, court documents show.
Brian Beck, a former deputy with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, pleaded guilty last week to a lesser charge of aggravated assault — a felony — nearly four years after he was indicted on two counts of rape and two counts of sexual battery by an authority figure, according to the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said the “sexual activity” occurred over a 20-month period starting in 2016, when the victim was 14, according to a 2018 statement from the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office, which was obtained by Law & Crime. In Tennessee, the age of consent is 18.
Beck, 47, of Germantown, Tenn., was sentenced to three years of probation, which includes 150 hours of community service, random drug testing and refraining from contacting his victim, according to the probation order. If he violates his probation terms, he could serve four years in prison. Felony aggravated assault in Tennessee typically carries a prison term of 2 to 15 years.
https://wapo.st/3sRvnBu
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This si so wrong on so many levels I don't even know where to start.
I got the recipe!
For the Ukrainian pickles that downed the Russian drone! Seems it wasn't cucumbers at all, but a peculiarly Ukrainian thing, tomatoes pickled with plums. I will be glad to share but it's far longer than 4 paragraphs and I don't have a link to it. How may I best publish it here?
'World-first' heart-thymus transplant success for Easton
US doctors say a young boy called Easton has made medical history by becoming the first person in the world to receive a combined heart and thymus transplant.
The pioneering procedure was done to save his life, but could also revolutionise the field of organ transplantation, they hope.
The donated thymus tissue should help stop his body rejecting the new heart.
Months on from the surgery, tests reveal Easton is progressing well.
The thymus tissue is working, meaning his body is building critical immune cells which might ultimately reduce or even eliminate the need for him to take lifelong anti-rejection drugs.
One of his doctors, Joseph Turek from Duke University Hospital, said: "We are very excited about it. This concept of tolerance has always been the holy grail in transplantation, and we are now on the doorstep.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-60648869
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The part about possibly not having to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life is particularly amazing.
Pussy Riot Founder Says More Russians Are Against Putin's War Than We've Seen
The founder of the anti-Kremlin punk activist group Pussy Riot said Sunday that she has been encouraged by seeing Russians risk jail time and beatings for publicly opposing President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, saying it indicates that far more people in Russia oppose the war than what has actually been seen.
“One thing we need to understand about Russians opposing the war in Ukraine is the numbers of people who are against war are actually much higher than those you can see on the streets, because the price of participating in protest activity is increasingly high, especially became incredibly dangerous over the last week,” Nadya Tolokonnikova told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday.
“You can go to jail for up to 15 years. And, by going to streets, you’re actually exposing yourself to a greater danger,” said Tolokonnikova, who served more than 21 months in prison for participating in a 2012 protest against Putin.
Citing an example of the police brutality that she said is occurring daily, Tolokonnikova said that a 14-year-old friend of her daughter was beaten by police for attending an anti-war protest last week. The child’s father confronted the officers at the protest, she said, and he was then beaten and ultimately hospitalized.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pussy-riot-nadya-tolokonnikova-russians-oppose-putin-war_n_622513d6e4b012a2628c4b47
My pregnancy complications were described in sexist terms, unlike male infertility
“Your cervix is in danger of effacing. You’ll be tremendously lucky if your baby makes it to 24 weeks.”
I was staring at the doctor who had just delivered this news, but I was having trouble processing what she was saying. She nonchalantly added something about my “incompetent cervix.” A wave of devastation swept over me and my face flushed with humiliation. My first thought was, “Did I somehow cause this?”
Just the day before, I had been standing in front of an ornate mansion in New York City admiring an abundance of yellow daffodils when I felt a sharp pain in my lower belly. I was four months pregnant and hardly showing my baby bump. My husband and I had been walking around for hours, and I thought perhaps I had overdone it.
On the ride back to our Hudson Valley farmhouse, the pain persisted, so I called my OB-GYN. The nurse dismissed me outright, telling me that aches and pains were normal and that I should wait for my scheduled appointment the next evening to address any concerns. By the time I walked into the doctor’s office, it felt like a stack of bricks was bearing down on my uterus.
An emergency sonogram showed that I had three unusually large fibroids — noncancerous tumors made up of smooth muscle cells — and one was pressing against my cervix, causing early effacement (meaning my cervix was shorter than normal and not strong enough to stay closed during my pregnancy as it needs to).
Just the day before, I had been standing in front of an ornate mansion in New York City admiring an abundance of yellow daffodils when I felt a sharp pain in my lower belly. I was four months pregnant and hardly showing my baby bump. My husband and I had been walking around for hours, and I thought perhaps I had overdone it.
On the ride back to our Hudson Valley farmhouse, the pain persisted, so I called my OB-GYN. The nurse dismissed me outright, telling me that aches and pains were normal and that I should wait for my scheduled appointment the next evening to address any concerns. By the time I walked into the doctor’s office, it felt like a stack of bricks was bearing down on my uterus.
An emergency sonogram showed that I had three unusually large fibroids — noncancerous tumors made up of smooth muscle cells — and one was pressing against my cervix, causing early effacement (meaning my cervix was shorter than normal and not strong enough to stay closed during my pregnancy as it needs to).
After the doctor delivered her devastating diagnosis, she told me to spend the remaining five months in bed, keep my hips elevated and stay that way until the baby started to crown. With no other information forthcoming, my husband, my incompetent cervix and I all drove home in silence.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/women-face-sexist-medical-terms-when-dealing-pregnancy-it-s-ncna1291025
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When I got pregnant at 34(!!!) it was described as a "geriatric pregnancy", FFS!
Canada's wild pigs risk 'absolute destruction' if left unchecked
The Canadian city of Edmonton may soon be hogtied with a problem that it won’t be able to barbecue its way out of.
Wild pigs have been spreading across central Alberta’s prairies and if left unchecked, could soon find themselves in the river valley of Edmonton. According to Ryan Brook, a University of Saskatchewan professor studying the pigs, the creatures are an “ecological trainwreck” and would cause “absolute destruction” if they make their way to the river valley, which is abundant in water and forest cover.
“They tear up the forest floor, native grasslands get destroyed, wetlands, water systems. They feed on anything where they can, and will kill any pets, for sure,” Brook told the Edmonton Journal.
“Wild pigs are the worst invasive wild mammal on the planet – I don’t think there’s any debate about that.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/07/wild-pigs-feared-absolute-destruction-canada
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They are also a problem in parts of the US. There should be year round open season on these things.
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Gender: Do not displayCurrent location: Virginia
Member since: Wed Jun 1, 2011, 07:34 PM
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