Here are 5 things you should know.
1. Ocean creatures you may encounter on pools on a beach or the shallows can be risky for your health if you touch them. Don’t pick them up for your IG photos.
Don’t touch unless you are a scientist or otherwise properly trained and have equipment.
Examples of marine life that can dangerous for you:
- Sea Lion (bite can cause serious infection)
- Seal (a bite can cause necrosis of the flesh)
- Blue-Ringed Octopus
- Box Jellyfish
- Cone Snail
- Stone FishVarious Rays etc.
https://www.diveoclock.com/blog/Risks_of_touching/
https://differentdive.com/touching-marine-animals-an-unforgivable-act/
2. Any citizen of a Commonwealth nation can seek consular assistance at the British Embassy, and even be granted a British Emergency Passport.
An admittedly niche bit of information, however, if you ever did need it, it could literally save your life one day. It’s also just useful if you’ve lost your passport and can’t get home.
For instance, say you are stuck in Kabul right now and your home nation either never maintained an embassy in Afghanistan or has already evacuated. You can go to the British Embassy to ask for help as if it was your own. They can set you up with an emergency passport, and they can help you leave the country and get back to yours.
3. If you’ve attached your bank account to Venmo/ Robinhood/ Betterment, a company called Plaid is recording all your bank account activity.
When you attach your account to these services using Plaid, they store your bank account password and log into your account periodically to download your entire activity. They know how much you make, how much you spend, etc.
Why now? On August 9th, Plaid settled a $58M lawsuit over data sharing: https://finledger.com/2021/08/09/plaid-settled-58-million-lawsuit-over-alleged-consumer-data-sharing/
The lawsuit makes it clear that Plaid does not explain what kind of data it collects and how frequently it collects it.
They’ve also been sued by banks: https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/td-bank-files-lawsuit-against-plaid-accusing-it-of-trying-to-dupe-consumers-1.5145326
How do I stop them?:
- Simple: Change your bank account password.
4. If you have restless legs at night and nothing seems to be working, it might be because you’re eating too close to bedtime.
RLS can be triggered by low blood sugar even if you are not diabetic. Eating before bed, especially refined carbs can make it so that once you’re waiting for sleep you end up in a period of low blood sugar, which can contribute to RLS. Even once you fall asleep, you can continue to kick and fidget in your sleep and you’ll be more tired the next day.
So if you’re trying everything else — iron, electrolytes, hot showers — and you’re still getting RLS, your eating habits might be the culprit.
5. Adoption through foster care usually has no cost for the family and includes classes/certifications/background checks to make sure the child will be safe and parents set up for success.
So many families believe adoption is cost-prohibitive or sometimes less expensive than fertility treatments or surrogacy when there are more practical options.
Everyone is obviously entitled to their own belief in the right way to grow your family – my personal belief is to not proactively create new life when there is life already here in need of a loving home. It’s okay if you disagree, to each their own.
Fostering isn’t without its challenges though. Most foster care systems describe situations to foster parents before they accept a placement, including whether or not the child’s case goal is reunification or adoption.
Things still come up, just as they would through an agency or sometimes surrogacy, but you have a built-in support system to help and assist you and the child.
If you are open to adoption but are afraid it will be too expensive, call your local foster care programs and see what options they have. The adoption fees are usually covered/waived through the family court system.
