nazgul

nazgul , 5 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 , 12 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 , 16 days ago to random

A little linguistic they/them humor.

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

nazgul , 24 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 , 26 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 , 30 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 , 1 month 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

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