Notices by Bruce MacDonald (rationaldoge@hachyderm.io), page 3

I don't know about you, but I'm glad to have a break from the #drought
https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap.aspx

"The agreements were reached quietly as clashes with law enforcement and arrests soared at Columbia University, UCLA and other schools.

"Meanwhile, at the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus and at the other schools, demonstrators ended their protests, allowing for finals and commencements to be held without any drama."
https://www.minnpost.com/national/2024/05/university-of-minnesota-deal-with-pro-palestinian-protesters-would-serve-as-model-for-other-strife-torn-schools/

@inthehands This reminds me: whenever I listen to Wagner I think he could have made a bundle composing film music.

That is to say, John Williams deserves everything he's earned.

Repaired, 46-year-old spacecraft radio equipment responds.

"A radio signal takes about 22 ½ hours to reach Voyager 1, which is over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, and another 22 ½ hours for a signal to come back to Earth. When the mission flight team heard back from the spacecraft on April 20, they saw that the modification worked: For the first time in five months, they have been able to check the health and status of the spacecraft."
https://blogs.nasa.gov/voyager/2024/04/22/nasas-voyager-1-resumes-sending-engineering-updates-to-earth/

@inthehands @other_ghosts I liked this graf: "Saunders enlisted his partner for brainstorming help for each bench's theme, he said. He's been heartened by help from a loose affiliation of friends and acquaintances he's unofficially officially dubbed the Minneapolis Public Seating Authority."

"It's not a very appealing place at the moment," Saunders said. "There was more life, more people on the streets. It was more welcoming to people, and right now it's not." #Minneapolis
https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-man-behind-mysterious-wooden-benches-wants-folks-downtown-to-take-a-load-off/600360677/

Tiered. Wired.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/04/10/xcel-energy-charging-more-electricity-peak-hours-time-of-use-rates-utilities

"And for what? For a little bit o' money. There's more to life than a little money ya know. Don't you know that? And here ya are. And it's a beautiful day."
—Marge Gunderson, Brainerd, Minnesota
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hL-fpCsGR8

I want to believe that many, many people are smart enough not to believe everything they read on the Internet!

And, of course, it should go without typing that there are many, many valid online sources about this topic.

Go to the local library or interlibrary loan and check out "Our Bodies, Ourselves."

Hell, there's even a website for that fine tome; it taught many of us several things in pre-Internet times.

https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/about-us/our-history/

People are capable, TikTok and whatnot notwithstanding.

"But in the fall, Miller took a human sexual biology class taught by a family physician who had spent decades counseling women on how to choose the right birth control. …

"After learning that her understanding of the risks was skewed by social media, Miller said she worries about her generation of women facing a lack of accurate information — and choices. Abortion is banned in Wisconsin after 22 weeks of pregnancy."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/03/21/stopping-birth-control-misinformation/

'The internet is filling up with "zombie content" designed to game algorithms and scam humans.

'It's becoming a place where bots talk to bots, and search engines crawl a lonely expanse of pages written by artificial intelligence (AI).'
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-02-28/twitter-x-fighting-bot-problem-as-ai-spam-floods-the-internet/103498070

'“Nextdoor taught me that my neighbors are bad people,” said one former subscriber online. “I really would have preferred not to know that.” It’s not entirely the fault of the people who run Nextdoor. They’ve got all kinds of reminders to be kind, to not be racist, to not overreact. But its very existence fosters exactly that. It’s like owning a roadside bar and telling people not to drink and drive.'
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/02/05/nextdoor-suspicious-neighbors/

"If shortening the trip became an important enough goal (and money was no object), fast links between hubs could make a difference. We have one example. The Red Line BRT is really fast (35 mph) on its journeys from Apple Valley Station to Mall of America. Not well patronized, but fast."
https://streets.mn/2024/01/23/transit-in-the-suburbs/

Sure, we have pond hockey on Lake Nokomis in #Minneapolis but what about elephants on ice skates? H/T Mark Seeley:

"The BBC features an interesting article about Frost Fairs that used to be hosted on the frozen river Thames in London occasionally during the harsh winters of the Little Ice Age (especially in the 17th and 18th Century). The ice was so thick on the Thames that carnivals were hosted with elephants on ice skates, food and drink booths, and bowling matches."
https://www.bbc.com/weather/features/67964531

Good Afternoon from #Minneapolis, where it's 55℉ on Christmas Eve Day.

Tough sledding here in Lesser Minnesota! Maybe we'll avoid an ice storm. Reduced heating bills are always welcome. #mnwx #fog #rain #wind #Hinterlandia

Bemidji in the news. #Minnesota #Hinterlandia

"But it wasn’t the buck hunt delaying the mail in Bemidji, a tiny town 100 miles south of the Canadian border where welcome signs are written in both English and Ojibwe and statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox tower in downtown. Since early November, Bemidji has been bombarded by a sudden onslaught of Amazon packages — and local postal workers say they have been ordered to deliver those packages first."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/28/amazon-missed-mail-rural-towns/

"Newton said that media companies, including The Post, that continue to pay to advertise on the site are funding Musk’s hate campaigns. “Publishers have to look themselves in the mirror and ask, why did they get into this business in the first place?” he said. “Didn’t it have something to do with speaking out against oppression and bigotry and standing up in the face of oppression?”

"A Post spokesperson declined to comment."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/19/antisemiticism-internet-elon-musk-israel-war/

"The new report is the most recent showing that heat pumps don't just cut greenhouse gas emissions relative to fossil fuel heating, but often save money. …

"The report assumes that a cold-climate heat pump would need a backup heat source, adding an additional cost. Heather McDiarmid, a climate and energy consultant who prepared the reports for the Ontario Clean Air Alliance, questioned whether that would be necessary across Canada."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/heat-pump-cost-savings-1.6975426

In my humble opinion, if you're going to subject "seniors" to this kind of thing, you should subject everyone to it.

Improving driver education—if only to "remind" people what stop lines at crosswalks mean—would be a good thing.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-10-07/column-for-drivers-70-and-older-the-road-rage-over-dmv-test-questions-continues

Not only that, air travel is terrible for the environment!

Does anyone other than line writers routinely use "ire"? Maybe!

Meta-journalism coverage in the news:

New York Times writer draws ire for blaming Biden’s economy for $78 airport meal
After David Brooks posted a photo of his burger and whiskey, many pointed out the cost of the drink probably pushed up the tab
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/sep/22/airport-meal-david-brooks-new-york-times-newark