The creation of the saxophone was revolutionary. It is a fusion of wind and brass instruments. It is spectacular and so was the inventor. Today I confirmed the fact that Adolphe Sax (born Antoine-Joseph Sax in 1813) is underrated. I started researching him for the main portion of this post, but now I’m even more interested because he was so much more than a just good musician or a good inventor. He pissed off everyone and survived everything. I play the saxophone. I love the saxophone. It turns out, I’m lucky it even exists because... Note: Not in exact chronological order.
After all of that, Adolphe Sax died at peacefully at the age of 79 (1813-1894), thankfully, after inventing the saxophone among many other achievments. Cleary, Tom. “Adolphe Sax Almost Died 6 Times Before Inventing the Saxophone.” Heavy, 6 Nov. 2015, https://heavy.com/news/2015/11/adolphe-sax-photos-pictures-google-doodles-saxophone-almost-died-near-death-childhood-accidents-belgium-france-bio-children-invention/.
Smallwood, Karl. “The Surprisingly Badass Life of the Inventor of the Saxophone, Adolphe Sax.” Today I Found Out, 15 July 2019, http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2019/07/the-surprisingly-badass-life-of-the-inventor-of-the-saxophone-adolphe-sax/.
4 Comments
A million seconds is about 11 days. A billion seconds is more than 32 years. It’s easy to forget just how different a million dollars and a billion dollars are. When people talk about getting rid of billionaires, they are not flippantly hating on the rich. They are talking about a handful of people who have more money (and therefore power) than any one person should have. More money than they can spend in their lifetime. What could they ever buy that worth more than their humanity? Because they are activly choosing to not help people when they have the resources to. There’s no such thing as a “self-made billionaire.” Whether or not they start with a fortune, none of them make it there without stepping on and hurting countless other people. Bezos (Amazon; net worth of $109.7 billion) is one of the grossest examples, in my opinion. Workers are being traumatized and over-worked in Amazon warehouses Bezos didn’t acquire his money alone (sources at bottom of post).
Try this article about it: Here’s how much America’s billionaires give to charity, in one chart - Dylan Matthews (Vox). Our capitalistic economy and the laws that shape it allow billionaires to exist. I think they should pay taxes. Everyone hates paying taxes, but they are the reason we have schools and roads and safe drinking water. They serve a critical purpose. Wouldn’t billionaire’s be paying their proportion? They can pay so much more because they have so much more. If they can’t afford to pay taxes, maybe they should be more careful with their money. You know, learn to budget. Elon Musk (Telsa and Paypal and more; net worth of $22.8 billion) could do so much good, instead, he spent billions sending this car into space for fun. Amazon, a company worth more than a trillion dollars (Money.com qtd. Forbes), paid $0 in federal taxes in 2018 and 2019. Other taxes such as state taxes and income tax were paid (Why doesn’t Amazon pay corporate tax? Read more: Forbes). You might have heard that Bezos recently paid $98.5 to help the homeless. Let’s break this down before we get too happy about it...
There's always strings, but when it comes to donations, they can be less than helpful. Homeless Services Network will need to manage the stock over the next five years to maximize its value. It was not immediately clear if there is a limit on how much of the gift can be cashed in each year. (Orlando Sentienal) I’m all for taxes. I mean, I’m not excited to have to pay them and I know they are often mismanaged. But, there are people who depend on government assistance. We all do. I believe everyone deserves food, shelter, water, and safety. There is not a lacking in the amount of resources in this country or in the world. The corrupt distribution of our resources is the problem. This isn’t a complete summary of the problem or and end to my commentary on it, but it’s a start. Thanks for reading. When we say ‘tax the rich,’ we mean nesting-doll yacht rich. For-profit prison rich. Betsy DeVos, student-loan shark rich. Trick-the-country-into-war rich. Subsidizing-workforce-food-stamps rich. Because THAT kind of rich is simply not good for society, and it’s like ten people. - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez |
One thing that helps most people with gender dysphoria is being able to express themselves. This can mean starting to dress on the outside to match what they are feeling on the inside and/or changing their name and/or pronouns. Everytime someone uses my correct pronoun naturally, I die from happiness inside. It seems small, but it feels big. |
All major medical organizations in the United States recognize that living according to one’s gender identity is an effective, safe and medically necessary treatment for many people who have gender dysphoria” (National Center for Transgender Equality, FAQs).
“You didn’t cry yourself to sleep because you couldn’t figure out why you had no tail. You didn’t feel an inexplicable sense of shame at your lack of claws. When you looked in the mirror, in a dinosaur costume, you weren’t upset about all the non-dinosaur bits you could still see. When others saw the costume, you weren’t brought to tears by them treating you like a child-wearing-a-costume instead of a real dinosaur.”
“If a child told you that they were hearing voices, you wouldn’t care that they were too young to understand schizophrenia.”
“Being transgender is not considered a medical condition [however] many transgender people [still] need to deal with physical and mental health problems because of widespread discrimination and stigma. Many transgender people live in a society that tells them that their deeply held identity is wrong or deviant. Some transgender people have lost their families, their jobs, their homes, and their support, and some experience harassment and even violence. Transgender children may experience rejection or even emotional or physical abuse at home, at school, or in their communities. These kinds of experiences can be challenging for anyone, and for some people, it can lead to anxiety disorders, depression, and other mental health conditions. But these conditions are not caused by having a transgender identity: they're a result of the intolerance many transgender people have to deal with. Many transgender people – especially transgender people who are accepted and valued in their communities – are able to live healthy and fulfilling lives” (National Center for Transgender Equality, FAQs).
A paradigm is not just an idea or a method. A paradigm is a set of fundamental assumptions or principles, a mindset or frame of reference that shapes how one thinks about and talks about a given subject. A paradigm shapes the ways in which one interprets information, and determines what sort of questions one asks and how one asks them. A paradigm is a lens through which one views reality.
Substantial change for the better will only come from abandoning the pathology paradigm and making the shift to the neurodiversity paradigm.
Today I was being nosy and was watching my mom while she did stuff on her laptop. She watched this video on immigration (I watched it too). I was upset. I knew about illegal immigrants and visas and everything but... I didn't realize, I don't know, I guess how bad it was. I talked to my mom and learned more about immigration and the Dream Act. There are so many people, kids, living in fear of getting sent back to a country they might not even know. If they lived in the US, they could have been brought over by their parents when they were babies. Some don't even know they don't have papers until they need their social security number or something. I wrote a letter to the congressmen of Virginia. You can send them a letter too. They have people whose job it is to read them. They will start to consider something a problem if they start getting lots of letters on the subject. You can look up how to send a letter (it will be different depending where you live), but you some sort of return address (even if you don't ask for a return answer), a name and a letter (doesn't have to be long). It's easy, and important.
If we allow the president to abuse his or her power, then our society will rot from top to bottom. We will turn into a banana republic, where people in positions of power — from the president all the way down to the traffic cop — will feel it’s O.K. to abuse their power with no consequences
| The video about how to survive a school shooting should have felt jarringly out of place in a list of mundane, routine announcements. Content warning: no blood, it is not graphic, but it is still a reenactment. |
“As of September 1, which was the 244th day of the year, there have been 283 mass shootings in the U.S., according to data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive (GVA), which tracks every mass shooting in the country. The GVA defines a mass shooting as any incident in which at least four people were shot, excluding the shooter.”
All
"Advice"
Feminism
Mental Health
Notices
Other
Physical Healing
Politics
Queer
Some Good
Writing
April 2021
August 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
August 2017
July 2017
May 2017
January 2015
November 2014
October 2014
August 2014
May 2014
April 2014
January 2014
July 2013