introduction, belated
I'm usually a grumpy geek, & a lot of my posts reflect the grumpiness. I try to keep everything grumpy behind a CW.
if it's not tech (since I'm on a tech instance), it's usually behind a CW.
prone to rambling about weird things I've seen people do 10+ years in the past.
among other things, enjoys cats, nature, photos, languages, music, history, people watching, gardening, typical geek things, weird-ass corporate dynamics.
tries to encourage people to be kind to each other & themselves.
twitter vs musk
nice long-read about how dumb musky baby is and how he appears to be trying to clown his way out of the twitter purchase https://www.techdirt.com/2022/08/08/elon-musk-still-wants-everyone-including-the-judge-to-believe-his-fight-with-twitter-is-about-spam-its-not/
"Innovation" has become a curseword, thanks to...innovation. Some of the world's most imaginative, best-funded sociopaths have spent decades innovating ways to fuck you over. While the whole tech sector likes to get in on this game, no one "innovates" like inkjet printer companies.
Printer companies are true fuckery pioneers: the tactical innovations they've developed in the war on their customers would make Otto von Bismarck blush.
1/
music, lyric quoting, thinking about how easy it is to be lonely
my spouse "won" a CD tonight. small town musician, pretty good.
the first track is about how they clearly miss their ex, and wonder if their ex misses them too.
*sigh*
🎶 all the lonely people, 🎶
--personally I don't wonder where they come from. being a human is complicated.
Saudi Arabian new city design
"A tall and narrow stripe of a city more than 105 miles long, teeming with 9 million residents and running entirely on renewable energy — that's the vision Saudi Arabia's leaders have for The Line, part of a "giga-project" that will reshape the kingdom's northwest."
...sounds like it's still in the concept phase, but it's hard to tell from this article.
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/26/1113670047/saudi-arabia-new-city-the-mirror-line-desert
lizard visiting the home
I found a baby lizard in the house yesterday and moved it outside.
me to my spouse: do you want a picture of this?
my spouse, totally over me finding and relocating baby lizards to safer or more appropriate spaces: nope!
we met a couple last week whose adult offspring have a wild lizard which visits them a few times a week. they have water out for it and feed it a grub from the grub composter, so that probably helps encourage this.
What's the oldest item you own that still gets regular use?
Houses don't count for the purposes of this question, though cars do. I'm looking for personal property.
Additionally, if your oldest item was previously owned by someone else for an extended period of time, what's the oldest item you bought or received new?
Also, if either item sat in storage more than half of its lifespan, was there an item that has seen more continuous use?
beagle rescue, USA, update 24 July
"Rescue groups begin work to rehome 4,000 beagles bred for research"
pictures of adorable beagles looking healthy. some look happy, some look worried:
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/24/1112756300/envigo-beagles-research-rescue-groups-rehoming
monkeypox, info, USA cases + map
NPR link with info:
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/24/1113197119/monkeypox-symptoms-prevention-vaccines-what-to-know
CDC Map & case count (as of 22 July):
https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/response/2022/us-map.html
Two decades of Alzheimer's research may be based on deliberate fraud that has cost millions of lives: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/22/2111914/-Two-decades-of-Alzheimer-s-research-may-be-based-on-deliberate-fraud-that-has-cost-millions-of-lives
I remember seeing an item on the TV not long ago where the presenter was puzzling over why drugs that successfully targeted amyloid plaques did not seem to have any effect slowing or stopping the development of Alzheimer's. I guess now we know 😕
re: last boost, racist, religious discrimination
infiltrators can happen over things you wouldn't expect, btw.
like wanting to go to your non-Christian place of worship.
there's a "This American Life" podcast from several years ago that talks about a former FBI informant who started hanging out with people who were not white Christians, and then started suggesting they do violent things. which they didn't like, and so reported him to the FBI. which also didn't work out the way one would expect.
6. Be aware of infiltrators, informants & agent provocateurs. Whether police agents or civilians, infiltrators & informants are important sources of human intelligence and can also severely disrupt organizations. They can help police neutralize movement members, as well as provoke incidents inviting police repression.
If you're in San Francisco and would like to meet some bats, the SFPL has three opportunities for you tomorrow:
"A Bit About Bats", presented by NorCal Bats
Meet live bats and learn how they fly, echolocate and catch insects.
Tue., July 19, 10:30 a.m., Marina Branch
Tue., July 19, 1 p.m., Park Branch
Tue., July 19, 3:30 p.m., Portola Branch
geek, nerd, etc.
pronouns: they/them or whatever seems appropriate.
additional note: my view in the realized world is different, but here where most of us will never meet, does it matter? I get that for most people, it does indeed matter.
I'd quote The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks for a nice write up on the use of gender neutral pronouns, but my copy is out on loan.
mood: minimal spoons in the household.