People Agree With Like Every Criticism Of Capitalism Until You Actually Use The Word "capitalism"

Hello! I would like to warn everyone of an experience my roommate and I have just had, in case I can prevent it happening to anyone else. Or, you know, if anyone knows a lawyer who could advise us.

My roommate has a queen size Nectar mattress. Friday night, she spilled some water on the bed and took the cover off to air dry. She unzipped the cover, and a flame retardant sleeve (that we hadn’t known was there to begin with) made of woven fiberglass began shedding small fiberglass particles. They were airborne. The whole room and everything in it is contaminated, and there are few surfaces elsewhere in the apartment that don’t have at least a little. Nowhere on the mattress’ tags or on the Nectar website does it say there is a fiberglass sleeve. In fact, it makes a big deal of how there are five components: top of cover, three layers of foam, bottom of cover. Nothing about the flame retardant sleeve there. The label on the cover doesn’t say you can’t take it off, just that they suggest you don’t. It does not mention fiberglass as a material found in the mattress at all. The website even has a page explaining that you CAN take off the cover and wash it, if you must, just that they suggest you don’t. No real reasons given. No mention of fiberglass.

Our apartment is sparkly with fiberglass. We have had to drop money on a HEPA filter vacuum that could safely remove some of it, and on new non-permeable mattress covers to contain the worst of the source. We have had to garbage-bag up almost everything in her room. No amount of runs through the laundry seems to get it all out of clothes, and we have to thoroughly wipe out the washer and dryer drums every load. All her pillows were ruined, the chair in her room, her clothing, some expensive bras, a nice area rug, and I’m sure there will be trouble on the horizon with our landlord regarding the carpet, even if we do vacuum it as well as we can.

Lilly has been having nosebleeds, before the mattress was unzipped, but the worst one I’ve seen yet was the one that evening. She’s been sleeping on it almost a year, and it could have begun coming through the fabric cover. Nosebleeds are a sign of fiberglass inhalation.

We have contacted the company, and their response was honestly insulting. We were told that we shouldn’t have taken the mattress cover off to begin with, and that it can no longer be covered by the 365 night guarantee, despite us having had it for under the full year. I have just now, after three days trying, finally spoken to someone willing to look into our case, so here’s hoping we’ll get even a fraction of what we are, frankly, owed.

It really feels like there could be some sort of lawsuit here.

In fact, there is one, with a situation nearly identical to ours but with a different company. This was the first hit when I searched our problem online.

https://topclassactions.com/…/zinus-class-action-says…/

Anyway, if you have a Nectar mattress, don’t ever open the easily accessible warning-label-free zipper! If you have had it under a year, and it’s in its original condition, it can still be returned. If you were planning to get one, maybe don’t! A lot of the foam-mattress-in-a box types have the fiberglass, though most of them disclose the presence of the fiberglass rather than hiding it like a dirty secret. Make sure you do a search for mattresses WITHOUT fiberglass as a flame retardant.

“You are responsible for the minors in your fandom!!!”

No, I’m fucking not. I’m not your parent. My past-times do not automatically sign me up to act in loco parentis. If you need someone else to monitor your own content consumption online, go get mommy and/or daddy to set up a content blocker on your computer.

1700's medical illustrators be like "hey boss can I put a rhinoceros behind this anotomically correct sketch of the human skeleton" and the boss be like "only for the books being published in these specific european countries" and then they high-five and go out for drinks

Support railroad workers. #RailWorkers

Getting Involved Masterpost

I’ve been compiling links to resources and organizations that are doing important work to support the most vulnerable people during this pandemic. If you’ve been feeling helpless to fight all the awful things that are happening, here’s some ways you can help. Do what you are able to - donating, volunteering, protesting, joining a union, contacting your government representatives, and simply spreading information are all good actions to take right now.

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief - resources for getting involved in mutual aid efforts. https://mutualaiddisasterrelief.org/collective-care/

Mutual Aid Hub - map for locating mutual aid resources and groups in your area that you can donate to or get involved in. https://www.mutualaidhub.org/

Never Again Action - organization fighting against ICE detention centers. https://www.neveragainaction.com/

Feeding America - all food banks are in desperate need of support right now, donate or find your local food banks here. https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank

Black and Pink - organization for prison abolition and support for incarcerated ppl who are LGBT/HIV+. https://www.blackandpink.org

Movimiento Cosecha - organization for undocumented immigrants, in need of donations. https://www.lahuelga.com/

Indigenous Mutual Aid Directory - resource for indigenous-led mutual aid groups. https://www.indigenousmutualaid.org/

Covid-19 Resources for Undocumented Immigrants - google doc spreadsheet of resources for uncoumented immigrants. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18p9OSlLpSYanIoUC-gEbhVbRMYVUfw4wyrixa9ekGdc/htmlview?fbclid=IwAR0euDbk5OiWd7EgBPKUPm01wCjCb-Z8-KiZK4EBlR53J0VNpVvQYTJy4eY&sle=true#gid=0

COVID-19 Sex Worker Harm Reduction Resources (U.S. Based) - google doc of resources for sex workers. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GpmUbu7UDCKtbnsBwImFLQtXzHLlZ6FYPY_NjJvyiFs/edit

It’s Going Down - information, news, current actions, and resources about anti-capitalism and mutual aid. https://itsgoingdown.org/

Detention Watch Network - coalition against ICE detention camps. https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/covid-19

Amnesty International - campaign to end human rights abuses. https://www.amnesty.org/

Food Not Bombs - organization providing food and supplies to people in need. http://foodnotbombs.net/new_site

General Strike 2020 - information about the general strike that is being organized in many places on May 1st, as well as other labor and rent strikes. https://www.genstrike.org/may-day-guide/

IWW - International Workers Union https://iww.org/

ResistBot - service that makes it easy to contact your representatives (USA) about important issues. https://resist.bot

Please reblog this, and if anyone has more links to share, please add on!

BBC News

The crash dummy aimed at protecting women drivers

Researchers in Sweden are close to completing an industry-first average female crash test dummy.

Since the 1970s, crash test dummies - mechanical surrogates of the human body - have been used to determine car safety.

The technology is used to estimate the effectiveness of seatbelts and safety features in new vehicle designs.

Until now the most commonly used dummy has been based on the average male build and weight.

However, women represent about half of all drivers and are more prone to injury in like-for-like accidents.

The dummy that is sometimes used as a proxy for women is a scaled-down version of the male one, roughly the size of a 12-year-old girl.

At 149cm tall (4ft 8ins) and weighing 48kg (7st 5lb), it represents the smallest 5% of women by the standards of the mid-1970s.

However, a team of Swedish engineers has finally developed the first dummy, or to use the more technical term - seat evaluation tool - designed on the body of the average woman.

Their dummy is 162cm (5ft 3ins) tall and weighs 62kg (9st 7lbs), more representative of the female population.

So why have safety regulators not asked for it before now?

"You can see that this is a bias," said Tjark Kreuzinger, who specialises in the field for Toyota in Europe. "When all the men in the meetings decide, they tend to look to their feet and say 'this is it'.

"I would never say that anybody does it intentionally but it's just the mere fact that it's typically a male decision - and that's why we do not have [average] female dummies."

Several times a day in a lab in the Swedish city of Linköping, road accidents are simulated and the consequences are analysed. The sensors and transducers within the dummy provide potentially lifesaving data, measuring the precise physical forces exerted on each body part in a crash event.

The team record data including velocity of impact, crushing force, bending, torque of the body and braking rates.

They are focused on seeing what happens to the biomechanics of the dummy during low-impact rear collisions.

When a woman is in a car crash she is up to three times more likely to suffer whiplash injuries in rear impacts in comparison with a man, according to US government data. Although whiplash is not usually fatal, it can lead to physical disabilities - some of which can be permanent.

It is these statistics that drive Astrid Linder, the director of traffic safety at the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, who is leading the research in Linköping.

"We know from injury statistics that if we look at low severity impacts females are at higher risk.

"So, in order to ensure that you identify the seats that have the best protection for both parts of the population, we definitely need to have the part of the population at highest risk represented," she told the BBC.

Dr Linder believes her research can help shape the way cars are specified in the future and she stresses the key differences between men and women. Females are shorter and lighter than males, on average, and they have different muscle strengths.

Because of this they physically respond differently in a car crash.

"We have differences in the shape of the torso and the centre of gravity and the outline of our hips and pelvis," she explained.

But Dr Linder will still need regulators to enforce the use of the average female she has developed.

Currently there is no legal requirement for car safety tests for rear impact collisions to be carried out on anything other than the average man.

Although some car companies are already using them in their own safety tests they are not yet used in EU or US regulatory tests.

Engineers are starting to create more diverse dummies, including dummies that represent babies, elderly and overweight people.

The average female dummy in Linköping has a fully flexible spine, which means the team can look at what happens to the whole spine, from the head to the lower back, when a woman is injured.

US company Humanetics is the largest manufacturer of crash test dummies worldwide and is seen as the leading voice when it comes to the precision of the technology.

CEO Christopher O'Connor told the BBC he believes that safety has "advanced significantly over the last 20, 30, 40 years" but it "really hasn't taken into account the differences between a male and a female".

"You can't have the same device to test a man and a woman. We're not going to crack the injuries we are seeing today unless we put sensors there to measure those injuries.

"By measuring those injuries we can then have safer cars with safer airbags, with safer seatbelts, with safer occupant compartments that allow for different sizes."

The UN is examining its regulations on crash testing and will determine whether they need to be changed to better protect all drivers.

If changes are made to involve a crash test dummy representing the average female, there is an expectation that women will one day be safer behind the wheel.

"My hope for the future is that the safety of vehicles will be assessed for both parts of the population," Dr Linder said.

*doctor voice* hmmmm…..have you tried this revolutionary method called painmaxxxing? it is where you do not bother me and adjust to being in agony all the time and we do nothing to resolve the root cause or treat the symptoms. you don’t wish to try painmaxxxing? you’re being non-compliant with the treatment plan I have just provided you?

It's almost incredible how every single sexist stereotype men throw at us isn't just patently untrue but also straight up projection. Like the bad driver stereotype, projecting so hard that even insurance companies recognize it, or the stereotype that women talk more, when every single studies show that men talk more, they just perceive women as talking more as soon as they do 1/3 of the talking.

So here's a new one. As a woman you might have observed it already, I'd say it's especially glaring in split finances couples with children, most that I know the guy's income is just for him but the woman's is hers and the kids'. So here, confirmed.

(the extract is from The Cost of Sexism / The Double X Economy by Linda Scott, and the mentioned report can be found in Gilman and Lawson, The Power of the Purse)

Thank you 💙❤️

NBC News

This 33-year-old made more than 1,000 Wikipedia bios for unknown female scientists

Jessica Wade began writing Wikipedia biographies about women and minority scientists who never got their due — from employers, from other sc