I was moreso referring to confinement to a small dirty space (see above), the mutilation of baby animals without anesthetic, the live maceration of baby male chicks in the egg industry, the mass breeding and conveyor belt murder of millions of sentient beings, the selective breeding that has caused a few week old broiler chicken to be equivalent to a 300 lb human toddler, etc etc.

That’s how it’s been for quite some time

Both slavery and the animal exploitation industry are institutionalized systems of oppression and violence, and both are horrific and should be eradicated. Maybe you should ask yourself why “being treated like an animal” is a euphemism for being mistreated.

“If there is meat to be eaten…” the meat isn’t just sitting there for us to eat. The animal has been deliberately raised, branded, mutilated, and killed for their meat. We don’t need to do that in the first place.

I will concede that leather alternatives suck in terms of longevity, however it’s worth differentiating between what people need leather equipment for (work boots, etc.) vs what people want it for (retro handheld case).

There’s plenty of cases that aren’t faux leather that have good durability.

Fair enough.

Slavery is also a practice that has been around for thousands of years and was also normal and extremely commn “back in the day.” We don’t need to continue systems of violence, and by normalizing the purchasing and use of animal skin, animals are having violence directly enacted upon them.

Just because a lot of people do it doesn’t mean it’s okay, or that we should tolerate the further normalization.

Frankly, it’s not normal or common to kill an animal, skin it, fully cure the skin, etc etc. Most people involved are only involved in one step of the process and completely disconnected from the horrific reality of cows being killed for their skin.

Nothing like normalizing using the skin of a tortured and flayed animal for cutesy cases.

Can confirm.

I had a minor medial meniscus tear. One surgery (small trim, not repair) and almost 2 years of post-surgery PT later and my pain is finally on a path of improvement. My ability to walk long distances was very limited, but finally it’s back. I am in my late 20s.

Only real corn wanchers know

Employed X-ray tech here, this is mostly accurate, but most relevant academic bodies, in the US at least, actually recommend not shielding patients anymore, since it usually leads to slightly higher doses depending on the particular exam.

Collimation of the beam is sufficient to reduce dose with modern equipment.

That being said, when the patient is being X-rayed, such as in surgery, the primary source of radiation for everyone else is the patient. Since that cannot be collimated, lead aprons should be worn, and should be facing the source of radiation (i.e., don’t turn your back when the beam is on, or wear a full wrap lead apron). Even that being said, the amount of radiation is low for almost everything except CT scans and IR (heart cath/embolization etc) cases.