Isn't that something from a dating profile? Or is it a bra size?
It means "we are not junk, but we are only just not junk". Like Peru, say, or Indonesia.
I have to admit I have been unpleasantly surprised by the degree to which the just-barely-there R coalition is managing to hold it together when all is said and done.
NOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM
Its a better name than the "Bipartisan Infrastructure Act." At least they know how to advertise their own party.
The quality of being a Beale, I would imagine. Like width is the quality of being wide.
"Miss Beale delivered bealthy twin girls at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center."
And, of course, health is the quality of being hale.
I think I'm still fat enough that I can get the covid vaccine without my doctor having to lie.
A word which apparently has three different etymologies - bale=evil, as in baleful, from OE bealu meaning evil; bale as in balefire, from OE bael meaning a funeral pyre; and bale as in hay from Lat bala, meaning a round object (cf "ball"). Balefire is mostly used nowadays to mean fire with some evil supernatural quality - classic example of etymological leakage.
Actually 4 - "bale" is an alternative spelling of "bail" as in remove water from a boat, which comes from OF bailler, to hand over, as indeed does bail in the sense of letting someone out on bail.
Even a small balaclava can be beautiful if it prevents one from seeing Trump's face.
It's too early for thinking about dessert.
I can now run a mile in 9:30 though.
Actually - this sounds insane to me, but I'm saying it - I've started jogging wearing a weighted vest, and I kind of like it. It's exhausting but not miserable.
The weird thing now is this very heavy cart that people wheel down the hall as exercise. You have to be careful when you are at the water fountain.
There were no wheels on the veld.
There's no kettle bells there either, but people walk past the drinking fountain with those also.
29: Are you at work? I'm trying to picture this. Is this the AV Club?
If my aunt had wheels, she wouldn't be the veldt.
16: Aren't you being treated for hypertension? That should probably qualify you.
I've been trying to figure out if I can pay out of pocket for one in Canada.
You can borrow my obesity since I do have high blood pressure.
32: I don't even have an office. But I was talking about people at the JCC.
"this sounds insane to me, but I'm saying it - I've started jogging wearing a weighted vest"
-- we love you fruity heebie!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1BqQn5vAcio
Well, our local arts promotion organization just lost its annual $25K grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, one of hundreds of such grants lost by organizations across the country. They also had to refuse a possible $30K grant because it required taking a no-DEI pledge.
And WalMart just dropped its $7K sponsorship of the Pride Festival as part of a company-wide initiative.
This is economic cultural warfare.
Maybe they can fund a Shame Festival for the racists?
Nah, in the Trump era racists have no shame.
Is Unfogged now on my time but five minutes fast? That's odd.
Build Back Bigotry
Bigger Bureaucratic Bigots
39: because it required taking a no-DEI resegregation pledge
I think I'm going to try using this term more.
UK government is heading in the right direction on the Middle East - it's ended trade talks with Israel and is apparently about to recognise a Palestinian state, as are France and Canada
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/05/20/uk-joins-france-s-initiative-for-recognition-of-palestinian-state_6741456_4.html
It's going to be epic to see how this turns out to be a betrayal and eugenics by literal fascist Kier Starmer!!
46: coming to a leftist American account on social media near you soon...
American? Hell, I'm a bit pissy at the guy and it's much more important to me.
Good lord, you were serious in 46? I thought you were parodying the sort of ridiculous person on social media who thinks that Keir Starmer is a literal fascist who wants nothing more than totalitarian rule and mass slaughter.
No, I just meant I expected it on British accounts first.
TRUMP RUINED MY FORMER INTERNET PSEUD.
I see Owen Jones is furious with KIER!!! because some gun nuts shot 2 Israeli diplomats in the US and ultra-right weirdos are trying to blame the prime minister because he threatened to recognise Palestine. Somehow, whatever happened, it always comes around to personal butthurt about the 2020 leadership election.
That took real prehensile agility to come up with. You have to admire the sophistry
This looks so fucking terrible.
Also, personally kind of worried about my own job with the Medicaid cuts and automatically triggered Medicare cuts.
And the anti-mRNA jihadists could be coming for Tim's.
I am also concerned for my job, on top of the people who will actually die.
It also makes it sound like Minivet is really heavy.
56 is completely baffling and reinforces the rightness of my decision to not read Twitter any more.
New COVID variant coming around in case things weren't shit enough these days. Now there's a disease I'd rather not have my ass kicked by again...
Oh good! Have we firmed up our plans to withhold the vaccine?
In all seriousness, I saw "previous smoker" as the least verifiable preexisting condition you can acquire.
On the one hand, I wonder who is supposed to be enforcing those restrictions. If it's drugstore pharmacists.... they aren't paid enough to be enforcers.
If it's insurance companies declining to pay... well, that leaves paying out of pocket, see above about pharmacists, or having the statement as "previous smoker" in your medical record, which doesn't seem great.
Presumably, for an insurance company that has a business plan that involves retaining and providing health care for its clients, providing vaccines is cost effective.
Good thing that Covid can run up costs within a single year long health insurance policy!
It may not price out for vaccinating younger people. I'm not sure exactly the numbers involved, but I think the benefit of vaccinating the younger people is that it protects the older people. And the older peoples' medical costs are in a different program/company.
And if young people get long covid, they'll be switching insurance coverage when they turn 26 anyway.
A lot of people seem to have concluded that young people can't possibly spread Covid if they aren't affected by it at the same rates as older people, and that's why we should have just shoved old people into attics for a few months in 2020.
They should have tried for the ice bergs, in memory of mcmanus.
Oh, we've got a good supply of ICE now.
65: We're all depressed about the world. I suppose you could claim mood disorder. In 2021, before universal recommendation of a 3rd booster shot, Seasonal Affective Disorder was a risk factor that qualified you. Who, in New England, doesn't have that?
69: The group I really worry about is the 6 months-2 years, because their hospitalization rates are the 2nd highest after the over 65. In absolute numbers it's not like everyone else from 2020-2022, but it's still a high-risk group with no previous immunity. Let them have the god damn vaccines!
Most urgent cares and pharmacies won't vaccinate before age 3 for flu. CVS minute clinic in MA will do 18 months b/c it's not a pharmacist. But for 6 months to 18 months, you've got to get it from the pediatrician/family doctor. And if it's a perfectly healthy baby, you can't really expect the doctor to lie.
I figure that my husband's company will pay for it since they are a vaccine manufacturer. Hell, he doesn't get his flu vaccine through insurance. Their occ health just has all the vaccines they make - including flu options - on site and give it. They would certainly pay for it at a pharmacy for an adult, but if it isn't authorized at all for young kids, they can't do it. That's the difference between an FDA authorization and a CDC ACIP rec. insurance has to cover the latter. They can cover whatever the FDA authorizes. If it's not authorized by the FDA, I don't think you can get it in the US.
I've been trying to figure out what I could pay for in Canada and what the cost is. Travel vaccines which are not covered by provincial healthcare are certainly available to any paying customer, but there might be a limited supply of Covid and flu which they would restrict to their own residents.
But even then, plant personnel failed to accurately document how close the reactor came to a meltdown, leading the NRC to misjudge the seriousness of the event. The plant owner, Constellation Energy, did not provide public notice of the event until January 2025--nearly two years after it occurred--and likewise played down its significance.
No, although it sounds like a couple guys were sprayed with radioactive water. They sure as shit tried to cover it up though, which is concerning.
I am 90% sure I went swimming in a lake which functions as the cooling station for that nuclear plant, and the water is super warm. I went swimming in some lake near Urbana-Champagne at least, and the road trip distance fits for that.
I once ate in an Italian restaurant in Urbana that had a signed picture of Larry Linville on the wall.
I just watched The Straight Story last night. That part of the country is very pretty, or was, as depicted in a movie 25 years ago.
82 such a beautiful wholesome heartwarming film
I've considered taking classes on line from a university in Urbana-Champagne.
The one with the historic corn field?
79: There's a standard process for reporting skin contamination to the NRC which is required. Dose for skin exposure is surprisingly high, and NRC holds records for annual and lifetime dose received by radiation workers. Probably no meaningful harm to the staff (although we're about to start ignoring "no linear threshold" assumptions about safe exposure per Friday's executive order) but definitely a problem.
80: Quad Cities is at the IL-IA border. Maybe you did, but it's not very near Urbana-Champaign, about a 3 h drive.
And how close did they come to a meltdown?
this "drain down" error was resolved in six minutes, had the event not been terminated the water level would have dropped below the top of the radioactive fuel in the vessel in about 15 minutes... other safety systems remained available to mitigate such an event.
During the event, reactor water level dropped from its then steady-state level of about 184.5 inches to about 179 inches. The Low Flow Feedwater Regulating Valve opened during the event, recovering reactor water level. Top of Active Fuel is at -142 inches, therefore the lowest reactor water level recorded during the event remained 321 inches above Top of Active Fuel.
This is terrifying!
"They failed to document a reactor incident properly until ten days after it happened" is not good. But I think people who say things like "plant personnel failed to accurately document how close the reactor came to a meltdown" know perfectly well what they are doing, and that is implying, falsely, that the answer is "very close". Suppressio veri or suggestio falsi.