nazgul

nazgul , 2 days ago to random

Some of his people went out of sight outside, but he can hear them. He’s just waiting for them to come back.

#DogsOfMastodon

nazgul , 9 days ago to random

This is a really weird Mastodon bug/interaction. Why would one instance only have year-old stale data about a user on another instance? And I can’t reply to anything newer.

Someone sent me a link to someone else’s post on another instance. I can view that post.
But when I try to reply to it, I get an error from Mona saying it can’t find the post on the server, try again later. Using the web to reply gets a similar error.

When I go to the persons profile via Mona. I see about a dozen posts, but all from over a year ago.
When I tell Mona to load the profile from the remote server, I can see much more recent posts, including the one I wanted to reply to.

nazgul , 13 days ago to random

A little linguistic they/them humor.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Party Game https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/party-game

jerry , 21 days ago to random

I am so, so, so terribly sad that I will not be around for my employer’s migration to MS Teams 😢

nazgul , 21 days ago to random

What with crazy ass anti-vaxers and the measles resurgence, I thought I should check to see if I was actually immune to measles.

I’m not.

If you were born before the MMR (1971), especially before 1968, I recommend you check as well. (Or if your insurance doesn’t cover it, it may be cheaper just to get another MMR shot. My doctor offered both options.)

The following is US-specific, but may apply elsewhere.

1. They didn’t bother retroactively giving the vaccines to people who had been born the 50’s; it was assumed you’d been exposed (we seem to be going that way with Covid, which pisses me off, because I haven’t been exposed, and we sure as hell don’t have herd immunity).
2. One of the two early measles vaccines didn’t work. That one was used for some people between 1963 and 1967.
3. In 1989 they upped the recommended dosage to two MMR shots instead of one (it didn’t take for small percentage of kids).

So in short, you may be relying on herd immunity and not know it.

I’m fine for rubella. I’m more than fine for mumps (I got it in grade school). But don’t have measles antibodies. Getting my first MMR tomorrow. A second in another month.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/19/health/measles-vaccine-protection-age

nazgul , 23 days ago to random

❝ The Samish have a complicated history on their land located near Anacortes. For 27 years they were a people who technically didn't exist. A clerical error by the U.S. government in 1969 removed the Samish Tribe from America's registry of Indian tribes.
Finally, in 1996, they were recognized once again. By this point, however, their people had scattered throughout the region. One observer noted the tribe was going "extinct."
Now, with just 2,000 enrolled members, tribe the Samish are rebuilding who they are. And they're doing that by building houses. ❞

https://www.king5.com/article/news/regional/native-america/samish-indian-nation-calling-people-home/281-ff8bfc82-0bb3-4257-a641-c073514f7661

nazgul , 27 days ago to random

Last week we drove up from Mexico back to Washington State. We went up through the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National parks. Here are a few photos and videos. Details in the alt text.

1/4

#photography #Montana #MedicineBow #GrandTetons

Grey clouds over a long green expanse of grass, with snow capped mountains in the far distance.
The Grand Tetons, blue and white in the distance. In the foreground a river and trees just beginning to bud.
Across a lake, a mountain of sparse evergreens, rocks, and snow. The top is lost in clouds. The colors so starkly contrasted that they look black and white. The snow patterns remind me of a Beverly Doolittle painting, where she turns the mottled snow and stone into running horses.

nazgul , 29 days ago to random

When the newspaper editor just says “fuck it.”

“The bar for what is regarded as a “shitshow” in Britain has been raised substantially since the 2016 referendum”

🤣

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/26/why-travelling-on-eurostar-from-the-uk-is-about-to-become-much-trickier

nazgul , 1 month ago to random

Your “Wha….ohhhh!” joke of the day.

#Humor #Humour

nazgul , 1 month ago to random

I just re-stumbled across this classic pwn from eight years ago.

nazgul , 1 month ago to random

Here’s the story of someone who accidentally started a union.

Pulled this off of FB, original source at https://www.askamanager.org/2024/03/the-fake-union-organizer-the-lemon-zest-and-other-machiavellian-triumphs-at-work.html

In answer to the question, “Machiavellian things you’ve seen or done at work?”

Cc @jwehrle

nazgul , 1 month ago to random

This is just chilling. 20% of American companies owned by vultures like these.

——

“Consider the case of the Carlyle Group and the nursing home chain HCR ManorCare. In 2007, Carlyle — a private equity firm now with $373 billion in assets under management — bought HCR ManorCare for a little over $6 billion, most of which was borrowed money that ManorCare, not Carlyle, would have to pay back.

“As the new owner, Carlyle sold nearly all of ManorCare’s real estate and quickly recovered its initial investment. This meant, however, that ManorCare was forced to pay nearly half a billion dollars a year in rent to occupy buildings it once owned. Carlyle also extracted over $80 million in transaction and advisory fees from the company it had just bought, draining ManorCare of money.

“ManorCare soon instituted various cost-cutting programs and laid off hundreds of workers. Health code violations spiked. People suffered. The daughter of one resident told The Washington Post that “my mom would call us every day crying when she was in there” and that “it was dirty — like a run-down motel. Roaches and ants all over the place.”

“In 2018, ManorCare filed for bankruptcy, with over $7 billion in debt. But that was, in a sense, immaterial to Carlyle, which had already recovered the money it invested and made millions more in fees.” https://mastodon.online/@isotope239/112434188996715569

briankrebs , 1 month ago to random

TIL you can quickly find your own posts by including "from:me" in the search box and then a key word or phrase you're searching for. Yes, it took me this long to figure that out.

nazgul , 1 month ago to random

Via https://www.facebook.com/share/p/PjrqdyNdJBR9kB9s/?mibextid=WC7FNe/?mibextid=WC7FNe

scarecrowbar.com
r/scarecrowbar
@scarecrowbar

nazgul , 1 month ago to random

I may have just spent a minute watching a YouTube video on my phone in a dark room while simultaneously using the phone light to search for…my phone.

System overload. Too many inputs.

nazgul , 1 month ago to random

Liberated from FB and there from Tumblr

nazgul , 1 month ago to random

The phrase “the cruelty is the point” has been around a long time, but I’m not sure people realize just how literal and explicit it has gotten.

For instance, the UK Home Office policy on refugees seeking asylum is called “The Hostile Environment Policy”. That’s the actual name for it. The policy is based on the theory that if you’re as cruel as possible to refugees (holding them in hotel rooms for years, rounding some up and shipping them to Rwanda, denying them basic safety and care…) then they’ll either “voluntarily" go home, or they’ll stop coming.

The actual result is of course that refugees get raped, abused and killed, or try to go underground and get trafficked. And the workers and volunteers who deal with refugees suffer massive burnout and mental health problems.

Because there is no way, short of shooting refugees on sight, that the UK can make the odds worse than what asylum seekers have suffered in their home countries and in their journey to the UK.

But conservatives don’t care, because if nothing else, they’ve punished the people who came.

Keep that in mind when you look at US Republican policies on refugees. The cruelty is absolutely the point. The policies themselves don’t work at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Office_hostile_environment_policy

nazgul , 2 months ago to random

Last night’s #sunset #photography

Guanajuato, MX

Orange sunset with far clouds casting shadows on the sky. In the foreground the hills of Guanajuato with the houses rising to the peaks. Zoom view.
Orange sunset with far clouds casting shadows on the sky. In the foreground the hills of Guanajuato with the houses rising to the peaks. Wide view.

nazgul , 2 months ago to random

Obligatory #SolarEclipse2024 #eclipse photos, dog and colander edition.

#DogsOfMastdon #MoonDogs #MoonShadows

German Shepherd mix lies in the shade surrounded by crescent-shaped sunlight from leaves, and with some crescents on her forehead.
Crescent moons in the shadow of a colander, where each circle is now a crescent.
A dustpan with a rock on it holds up an upside down colander.

nazgul , 2 months ago to random

A bit of good news and sweetness before I head to bed.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/04/beastie-boys-paid-for-trans-womans-gender-affirming-surgery/

nazgul , 2 months ago to random

“ACLU of Indiana sued to challenge the ban on behalf of five anonymous Jewish, Muslim, and spiritual plaintiffs and the group Hoosier Jews for Choice.”

Not only did the appeals court cite Governor Pence’s religious freedom law in striking down the abortion ban, it also cited the Hobby Lobby case as a reason.

We need more reminders for the far right that they own neither religion nor even Christianity

https://lawandcrime.com/abortion/severely-decreased-their-sexual-intimacy-with-their-husbands-indiana-appeals-court-uses-mike-pences-religious-liberty-law-to-block-abortion-ban/

MikeDunnAuthor , 2 months ago to random

The history of American Union Busting and the Pinkertons go hand in hand. The Pinkerton Detective Agency, created by Allan Pinkerton in 1850, plays a prominent role in my novels, particularly Anywhere But Schuylkill. The powerful Reading Railroad, which owned most of the Schuylkill County coalfields, hired them to keep their workers in line. The Pinkertons planted spies and agents provocateur in the miners’ union. Together with the Coal & Iron Police, they stoked sectarian violence between the ethnic groups that made up Pennsylvania’s mining workforce. And their agents provided the bogus evidence and perjured testimony that resulted in the executions of twenty innocent Irishmen in 1877. John Dos Passos portrayed the brutality of both the Pinkertons, and the Coal & Iron Police, in his USA Trilogy.

Knowing this sordid history, one would be forgiven for thinking that Allan Pinkerton was nothing but a one-dimensional bull dog for the plutocrats. But his history was much more complex, and interesting. Prior to his role as a union buster, he was friends with abolitionist John Brown. He helped several enslaved people escape into Canada. He was also friends with Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War, Pinkerton created the Secret Service. He also served as a Union spy, providing exaggerated troop numbers that undermined Union war efforts. And in his youth, Pinkerton was a vandal, arsonist, and armed insurrectionist, in Britain’s radical Chartist movement. In fact, the only reason he came to the U.S. was to avoid prison.

Read the complete essay here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/04/union-busting-by-the-pinkertons/

#LaborHistory #workingclass #Pinkertons #police #civilwar #slavery #abolition #espionage #books #author #writer #fiction #historicalfiction #AnywhereButSchuylkill #MikeDoyle @bookstadon

nazgul , 2 months ago to random

Some positive news for a change.

Via that other site, on the subject of the Key Bridge.

Again, a moment to pause & appreciate the cool professionalism of those in & around the Key Bridge at 1:24 am Tuesday.
Ship’s pilot radios in that ship has lost steerage & will hit bridge.
Someone (maritime control?) transmits urgent alert to Maryland/Balt police dispatch…
—>
2/ Police dispatched with just a few crisp phrases—ship has lost steering, close the bridge to traffic—and race to do just that.
No time for confusion. No time for … ‘What do you mean, close the bridge? Who says?’
4 minutes, alert to collapse.
Bridge successfully closed…
—>
3/ That’s amazing. Again, a system worked—a government system.
All those people just ordinary frontline workers in anonymous, sometimes invisible jobs.
Maritime radio operators. Police/fire dispatchers. Bridge police & state police.
All working 11p to 7a o’night shift.
—>
4/ Cool, direct, urgent, successful.
Maybe not a college degree or a 6-figure salary among them—and they used their training & experience at the most critical, high-pressure moment to save lives.
All day, every day—that happens & we don’t see it.
That’s your ‘deep state.’
—>
5/ Just in Port of Baltimore, 45 cargo container ships come & go every 24 hours.
16,000 ships a year.
They require all this guidance all the time (and US has 8 LARGER ports).
Each ship with 5,000 containers loaded & unloaded.
Not to mention… —>
6/ The 8 construction workers on the bridge—patching potholes in the middle of the night, so the road stays maintained, at a time that reduces inconvenience to us (and yes, is easier for them too because of low traffic).
Every night… —>
7/ Every night, 5 or 6 days a wk, men & women just like them do that dangerous work on interstates & bridges in all 50 states.
Here’s the moment:
An officer who closed one of the approaches says on radio…‘Can we notify the construction workers? Can we call the supervisor?’
—>
8/ The officer was ready to drive out & warn the workers when someone on the radio — seconds later — said, The bridge is down. The whole bridge.
That unnamed officer had been immediately thinking about how to save those guys out on the bridge—workers just like him.
Thanks. —>
9/ Thanks to all these folks who make the world run, and run safely 99% of the time, and work with skill, grace, clear-headedness in invisible but essential jobs.
Even as disaster unfolded Tuesday after midnight, they were at work.
https://twitter.com/cfishman/status/1772966665531084836

breadandcircuses , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to random

Upon retiring from work at age 58 (lucky me) in 2012, I chose to leave the United States in favor of Europe, where I ended up staying in Budapest, Hungary, for six years. I rented a studio apartment near the city center, bought a used bicycle, and enjoyed a modest, inexpensive, yet comfortable lifestyle.

Since my return to the U.S. in 2018, I’ve found there are many things I miss. When I lived in Budapest, there were three different small independent bakeries within a five-minute walk from my apartment. Also in that same radius were a couple of almost literal hole-in-the-wall fruit and vegetable shops offering delicious fresh produce. And although the nearby area held no chain restaurants, it was home to several quite good local eateries.

There were clothing stores selling both new and used goods, as well as shoe stores, all of them small and independent, not necessarily carrying a wide selection, but providing high quality items at surprisingly low prices, and with friendly trustworthy service. Plus, within a five-minute walk was a practically free public transit system than made frequent stops and could take me almost anywhere I wanted to go within the city, safely, reliably, and quickly.

So I wonder, why is it that — at least in my current neighborhood in suburban Virginia — the only options for baked goods or produce or clothing or home furnishings or hardware or almost anything else are chain stores? Well, that, or freaking Amazon. Why are all other choices so limited, so few and so far between? Why does virtually everything depend upon — no, actually demand the use of a car to get there?

Most United Statesians, I suspect, have no idea that people in other countries live so differently than the way we do here. We have been sold on the idea, taught from an early age, that ours is the best way, indeed the only sensible way to do things. Anyone suggesting that a less car-centric and hyper-capitalistic culture is not only possible but desirable, that it could be much more pleasant and satisfying, not to mention safer and more friendly to the environment, well, they plainly don’t know what they’re talking about. It makes me sad and angry.

#USA #Europe

futurebird , 4 months ago to random

These farmers have smartlocks on the barn and BLE tags on each cow. So maybe we should say:

"till the cows all log back in to the barn node"

futurebird , 5 months ago to random

What is something you have learned you wish you could have told your younger self... but, you also know your younger self would never believe you?

Here are mine:

• Even if you are a smarty pants you still need to study, probably a lot.
• Brush your teeth twice a day. Not once. TWICE.
• The few things about your appearance you have (some) control over are not very important in romance.
• No, you really do need to sleep.
• Don't just study what's hard & impressive study what fascinates you.