In Australia there’s a tree called Gympie-Gympie.
“Gympie” is a powerful swear-word in the local aboriginal language (like “Fucking cunt!”) and in that language, repeating a word twice is like amplifying it 10x. They named this tree the most aggressive swear they could come up with.
The tree is covered in tiny hypodermic needle-like hairs. Brushing against it leaves you coated in these hairs which inflict a pain that has been described as like being burned with fire, except with fire, your nerve endings are eventually destroyed. Not so with the Gympie-Gympie.
Pain from an encounter has been known to last for months or years. There is a story of a soldier on patrol who used it’s leaves as toilet paper. He committed suicide after a few weeks. There’s a report of a horse which brushed one of these trees, and it went mad and ran nonstop until it found a cliff and ran right over the edge to its death.
Gympie-Gympie leaves would make the most cursed glitter imaginable
New fear unlocked Jesus Christ
Those leaves remind me of stinging nettles… I’m sure Gympie-Gympie is worse, but my first time being stung by nettles scared the shit out of me as they got me clear through my jeans.
If somebody inhales an irritant you could kill them, don’t do this.
Sure would be a shame if an ICE agent walked through a cloud of aerosolized toxicodendron oil.
The risk of collateral damage is too high, rejected, buy a gun.
Punching holes in poison ivy leaves sounds like a good way to get a rash.
This is my superpower because I generally don’t react to poison ivy.
To us it’s just Ivy
Obviously you buy a hole punch for this particular activity instead of your communal one.
it’s kind of hard to take off the stick, though
Some of us are immune. I have no idea why other than I got it from my mother, who has really bad allergies.
I recently realized I’m not affected by it either, for nearly 40 years I just thought I was great at identifying it and just careful. My wife got into it a few years back and it was horrible for her (big welts and oozing stuff, pretty gross), when she went to the doctor they were like, “Yep, that’s poison ivy, here is some cream and a shot, be more careful”; so I went out and cleared all of it I could find and learned how to properly identify it.
I still try to wear gloves because I’ve heard that you can eventually start having a reaction but I have debated the idea of using an aerosolized form of the oil as an emergency oh shit button if an unidentified masked person tries to pull me out my car.
…I should ask my mom if poison ivy affects her. pretty sure it does, though, and my allergies are worse. maybe I’m first in the line. too bad I don’t have a kid to find out.
I remember at some summer jobs way back as a teen that I would literally sit in patches of poison ivy at times to eat lunch, because I didn’t care to check and just found a spot in the ditch that looked comfy
now, wild parsnip blisters after getting sap on you and not cleaning it before exposure to sunlight… that shit is gross
I’ve heard people with Native American ancestry tend to have immunity to poison ivy, but I’m not sure if that’s backed by science.
Also, if you got burned by wild parsnip… that was hemlock, a poisonous lookalike…
oh, no, it was definitely parsnip. it’s a big issue in Ontario
Interesting, I’ve never heard that. Is that the same plant as wild carrot/Queen Anne’s Lace?
I’m not exactly a botanist but as I understand it, hogweed / Queen Anne’s Lace / hemlock are all similar plants, and parsnip is a less similar plant
I don’t know if other colours are possible, but one differentiating feature I am aware of is that parsnip has yellow flowers and all the others have white. and only Queen Anne’s Lace is not harmful
but yeah they all generally look very similar
https://www.ontario.ca/page/giant-hogweed
https://www.ontario.ca/page/wild-parsnip
https://www.ontario.ca/document/weed-identification-guide-ontario-crops/wild-carrot
https://www.ontario.ca/document/weed-identification-guide-ontario-crops/spotted-water-hemlock
also I just want to point out that do I ever love having a provincial website with resources like this
That’s interesting, I did not know wild parsnip was a separate plant. We must not have that where I’m from.
And yeah, clearly Ontario is doing something right
Gloves?
Long sleeves
Not sure how long it takes, but I hear tell there’s biodegradable glitter.
There are many, I believe the best ones are TUV certified water-biodegradable (‘OK Biodegradable Water’ cert). It’s means it’s 100% biodegradable and non-ecotoxic to a high standard, with at least 90% fully biodegrading in fresh water in 56 days or less, and confirms it does not biodegrade into microplastics - which some ‘bioplastics’ do.
‘BioGlitter’ is one example, a British invention now owned by a German company and made in Germany. From quick research it seems to be made primarily of Eucalyptus (leaf?) cellulose and wood pulp.
https://www.discoverbioglitter.com/what-does-ok-biodegradable-water-certification-mean/
Everything is technically biodegradable given enough time. Except lead maybe
There is, but to what standard does the manufacturer consider their product “biodegradable”.
All natural biological warfare
warfarewarcrimeIf people or animals breath it in they could die.
Extracting urisol for entirely legitimate purposes
urushiol, isn’t it?
I just searched it, urisol is a bladder drug of some kind. I guess you could weaponize it if you really tried.
I’m pretty sure purchasing a glitter bomb-worth of glitter does not determine whether that same amount will be subsequently manufactured. the glitter has already been made. might was well make the most of it.
This is the same silly argument people have for eating meat - doesn’t hold water
it’s absolutely true, but if you object, point out whatever said that’s wrong.
When you buy something, you add yourself to the demand for the thing.
and when you buy something, the supply shrinks
What do manufacturers do when the supply shrinks?
they’re agents with free will. they can decide anything at all, including to destroy their existing inventory.
Okay but realistically what is going to happen? You seem smart, you don’t need to be walked across the line, you know that in this world that we live in, they are going to manufacture more. Because there is no force that is going to stop them from doing it. And until there is, that won’t change. So while that force does not exist, it is a near certainty that you purchasing glitter or meat contributes to its continued production.
so the price goes up. that doesn’t cause more production, though.
One single bag of glitter may not make a big difference, but each bag makes an equal contribution. Sure, regulation would be more effective, but in its absence the best way to prevent glitter production is to not buy any.
This is absolutely causal btw. More glitter purchased -> shelves empty -> stores order more glitter -> producers make more glitter
this is story telling. give me data
here’s another story, you can believe this one because it JUST happened:
user posts stupid take -> I respond patiently -> user unveils their stupidity is astronomical and no amount of reason will help -> I feel dumb for wasting my time
Doesn’t it? More people buying -> more being manufactured?
that’s not causal
wdym
if I press the power button on a computer, it boots up following a set of causal events. it’s not like there are little people inside the machine deciding how much power to let through or how many pixels to make white.
but human manufacturing and market systems are rife with people who can decide if or when or how much or how long. my decisions don’t cause their decisions.
It does indirectly; if there is a trend of glitter bombs that causes the sales of glitter to go up 100% over a sustained period, then those people will likely decide to manufacture more, because making decisions that way is their job. Are you trying to say that their decisions have moral weight here while the consumer’s decisions do not? Or are you trying to say that how much glitter is purchased literally does not impact how much is produced? I could see how someone might argue for the former even though I disagree, but I’m pretty sure the latter is just not the truth.
people will likely decide
so: not causal, and still subject to free will
Mate, you’re making commies look bad by failing to understand supply and demand.
supply and demand is a theory about price discovery
… Annnd what does it mean when you buy a big bag of glitter, and then the price is the same tomorrow, and in a week… And in month?
It means your demand has not outpaced production, nor reduced a finite resource - your purchase of stock has simply been replenished by a supplier.
Purchases inform supply - more will be made to continue meeting demand. If this is not the case, the market price will change.
https://qoblex.com/blog/the-law-of-supply-and-demand-complete-guide-to-market-economics/
buying something does not cause production continue though.
It does ensure a non-zero amount ends up as pollution though
once it is manufactured it is pollution, no matter what happens to it
Do you have a preference between burying nuclear waste in a designated disposal site and scattering it randomly over waterways?
sure. do I get to make that decision on behalf of glitter retailers?
Just use biodegradable glitter like mica
Let’s make sure it stays on the shelves
