Fewer people contracted HIV last year than at any point since the rise of the disease in the late 1980s, the United Nations said Tuesday, warning that this decline was still far too slow.
Around 1.3 million people contracted the disease in 2023, according to the new report from the UNAIDS agency.
That is still more than three times higher than needed to reach the UN’s goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
Around 630,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses last year, the lowest level since a peak of 2.1 million in 2004, the report said ahead of World AIDS Day on Sunday.
fuck an “intended audience” how about we normalize engaging with new and unfamiliar art pieces on their own terms
ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the difference between pushing a product and creating a work of art
I can’t be bothered to find the thread rn. But there were a bunch of people talking about it, and I agree, so I’m sharing the idea here:
We need a death of the audience; lots of media gets worse because authors are too worried about a hypothetical audience. As someone engaging with media, you need to understand that you simply might not understand all of it, and that’s ok. But also I think more authors need to realize that it’s ok if not everyone in the audience will fully understand everything they’re doing.
then we should also push more for audiences not ripping authors to shreds when they do something in their art they dont like
there is a reason authors are scared. it is not a hypothetical audience anymore when they send hatemail for the author taking the media into different directions than some people want it to
“Death of the audience” is such a good term! I’m gonna hang onto that, as someone who writes about a lot of niche stuff. Sometimes a character is going to have a job or a hobby or something the reader isn’t familiar with, and you’re not always going to get context for every tiny aspect of it. If not understanding a single word (that isn’t at all relevant to the actual plot) is enough to pull you out of an entire story, that’s kind of on you.
Hey, happy Earth Day! Who wants to talk about climate change?
Yeah, okay, fair, I kinda figured the answer to that would be “ugh do we have to?” What if I told you I have good news though? Good news with caveats, but still good news.
And it’s not like we either hit 1.5C and avoid all the big scary consequences or fail to hit 1.5C and get all of them – every tenth of a degree of warming we avoid is going to prevent more severe problems like extreme weather, sea level rise, etc.
This means that climate change mitigation efforts are having a noticeable impact! This means a dramatically better, safer future – and if we keep pushing, we could lower the amount of global warming we end up with even further. This is huge progress, and we need to celebrate it, even though the fight isn’t over.
It’s working. Keep going.
That’s right. It took effort and it was a real concern, but because of that effort and many others, the ozone layer is healing, acid rain isn’t melting our statues and buildings anymore, whale populations are increasing back to pre-whaling levels.
We ARE able to change our planet for the better. We have proof. Let’s keep up the good work.
I was rambling on the issue of museums and human remains and how certain populations are more likely to have their bodies put on display to be gawked at and then went “well I guess the Pompeii casts were of Europeans. there are bones in there right?” and Googled it to make sure, at which point I confirmed that yes there are bones in there, but more interestingly DNA testing revealed that a cast of an adult holding a child everyone assumed was a mother and child were, in fact, a man and a kid entirely unrelated to him. Honestly that’s more moving to me. Maybe they were connected in a way other than blood, but maybe a stranger saw a child when the world was ending and thought the one thing he could do was hold them.
While this is very touching, I am wondering somewhat how people get the idea that Europeans are less likely to have their bodies displayed. Medical history museums exist, and they’re not just chock-full of (European) skeletons, but also of a vast number of specimens stored in alcohol, plastinated remains, wax models etc.
The point here is that poor people were more likely to end up in these collections because 1. they were more likely to suffer from ‘medically interesting’ health conditions and 2. more likely to not be able to afford a proper burial (and keeping their loved ones out of the hands of anatomists etc).
The Federal Pathologic-Anatomical Museum in Vienna, Austria with wax models on display.
However, the market of display bones is actually covered primarily by churches, particularly catholic and eastern orthodox ossuaries. And far too many skeletons and body parts are used as relics. You can’t enter any decently sized catholic church without basically falling over a few bones.
We can accuse the Europeans of many things, but that they were somehow reluctant to put their own mortal bodies on display is certainly not one of them.
This holiday season, if you know someone who likes house plants,
DON’T
get them a houseplant. DO NOT.
instead, get them a NICE, MEDIUM-LARGE, AESTHETIC, BOTTOM-DRAINING, INDOOR
POT.
that is what they want. that is what they dream of. ok? thats what will be most useful and appreciated. in fact, if you can, get them a CUTE MATCHING SET. OF POTS!!!! NOT PLANTS, POTS!!!!!!!!
they may be more excited initially about the plant. that is true. but a pot is a gift that they will go home and use to upsize one of their already beloved houseplants, and every time they look at it they will remember how much they appreciate you.
HOUSEPLANT:
– they already have so many
– needs to be watered
– takes up window space
– comes in a pot thats already too small, needs to be upsized, costing money
– can die
AESTHETIC POT
– lets them care for an existing plant they own
– they will be grateful every time they see it in their home
– does not take up window space not already occupied by a plant
– can be wrapped without dying or spilling dirt everywhere
I HAVE NEVER HIT REBLOG SO FAST
Pro Tip: look at the sizes they currently have, and get ones just slightly larger. Repotting time WOO!
amhrancas 