Notices by Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social), page 10

@takosix @FlockOfCats I watched (the original) Snow White when I was 5 or so. Nightmare stuff. I think I let my kids get to 8+

" Damage to remote Alaska villages hammered by flooding last weekend is so extreme that many of the more than 2,000 people displaced won’t be able to return to their homes for at least 18 months, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a request to the White House for a major disaster declaration."

https://apnews.com/article/alaska-typhoon-flooding-7e6e6b72c5587c3a00b82982ffab56bd

FEMA update on Alaska coastal flooding, so they are aware of it; notably missing is any mobilization of FEMA resources, or any approvals for FEMA assistance.

#AKwx #Alaska #disasters #TyphoonHalong #FEMA

Don't need/trust AI in searches so have been turning off AI features in DDG settings, but they kept turning themselves back on. Not sure, but could be an after-effect of a Firefox or DDG automatic update. Annoying.

Today, found DDG had announced a specialised URL (https://noai.duckduckgo.com/) that "automatically enables the image filter, disables AI-assisted summaries, and hides Duck.ai chat icons"
https://techbriefly.com/2025/07/21/duckduckgo-says-no-to-ai-images-if-you-want/

Better than using garlic to keep creeping AI intrusion at bay?🎃

Computer Space (1971)

👾 Behold the alien-like Computer Space, the first commercially produced arcade game! 🌌 Released in 1971, this machine paved the way for the gaming industry we know today. Its futuristic design still looks out of this world! 🚀 Who’s ready for a space battle?

#ComputerSpace #ArcadeOrigins #Retrogaming #GamingPioneer #Computerspielemuseum #Berlin #SciFiGaming #ClassicGames #Spacewar

"1981 Defence White Paper... was a major... defence policy [review] brought about by the Conservative govt under PM Margaret Thatcher [aiming] to reduce expenditure during the early 1980s recession. It was ultimately [seen to have been] one of the contributing factors that led to the outbreak of the Falklands War [by downgrading UK interest in peripheral regions]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Defence_White_Paper
🔸Beats me why LDP's Sanae Takaichi see Margaret Thatcher as a role model.

Infection status
Released Oct 17, 2025.
- As of period from Oct 6 - Oct 12, 2025 -

No. of patients per medical facility (nationwide) 3.72
Change from prev. week -1.1
[Source: Health-Labor-Welfare Ministry weekly report]
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001580214.pdf
🔸Week 17 of 13th wave
Saga at 3.46, Tokyo at 2.37, Akita at 4.12, Hokkaido at 3.24, Okinawa at 2.67, #Miyazaki at 5.32

#Influenza (nationwide) at 2.36
Change from prev. week +0.8
#Okinawa at 14.38
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001580118.pdf
#CovidIsNotOver #Japan

For some reason whilst watching news clips re political manoeuvring to decide Japan's next PM, I remembered watching on a black-and-white CRT TV an intriguing, guitar-playing character (who turned out to be a vampire) in one episode of Gegege no Kitarō (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎). Pattern recognition, perhaps?
https://gegegenokitaro.fandom.com/wiki/Vampire_Elite

Software update bricks some Jeep 4xe hybrids over the weekend
Jeep has pulled the update; owners are advised to ignore it if it already downloaded.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/10/software-update-bricks-some-jeep-4xe-hybrids-over-the-weekend/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

@brezelradar @Noortjevee @itsfoss
I Linux Mint-ed my two Win 10 laptops a couple of months ago so all moot to me. Plus I have a chromebook.

Windows 10 users... it’s time. The penguin is calling! 🐧

#windows #linux

Windows 10 users... it’s time. The penguin is calling! 🐧

#windows #linux

Found the GIMP manual.
https://docs.gimp.org/3.0/en/index.html

Still a chore, but now have more of a handle on how to change the paintbrush settings and how the "clone" and "heal" functions work, thus dealing with pin-point blemishes after the rough photo-bomb erase with the GIMP Resynthesizer Plugin.
https://github.com/bootchk/resynthesizer/blob/master/README.md

Fortunately original image was postcard-size resolution, so newbie edit attempt isn't too glaringly obvious.
It will do.🙂

Needed to erase part of the background of a photograph, so installed editing software purchased online eons ago; but the photo-bomb removal button kept opening a link for monthly subscriptions to gain access to the function. No sale.😡
Promptly uninstalled software and replaced it with Gimp.
Was warned about the steep learning curve, but found enough info on the web to get the job done, albeit with much gnashing of teeth and time expended.
#Gimp

Infection status
Released Oct 10, 2025.
- As of period from Sep 29 - Oct 5, 2025 -

No. of patients per medical facility (nationwide) 4.82
Change from prev. week -1.05
[Source: Health-Labor-Welfare Ministry weekly report]
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001576994.pdf
🔸Week 16 of 13th wave
Saga at 5.71, Tokyo at 3.282, Akita at 5.08, Hokkaido at 3.62, Okinawa at 3.93, #Oita at 8.38

#Influenza (nationwide) at 1.56
Change from prev. week +0.52
#Okinawa at 12.18
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001576812.pdf
#CovidIsNotOver #Japan

I'm with Mark on this being stupid because (a) launch costs (coming down fast but still ridiculously high), (b) energy (PV cells, yes, but you need to put them in orbit first), and (c) waste heat, which is THE killer problem for data centres on Earth, where we have these heat sinks called "rivers" and "the atmosphere". Vacuum's a thermal insulator!

(No need to get into the weeds and talk about latency. Whole idea's stupid.)
https://eigenmagic.net/@NewtonMark/115332884441287733

@1a1nC Oceanic ones make more sense: much cheaper to get to for repair/maintenance, and it's a great heat sink.

Phone company texted yesterday to say they're raising the price of the minimum plan by about 11% but will chuck in an extra 1GB monthly data use (which I don't need) begging understanding re rising costs, price of fish, etc.
Only got a mobile for emergencies as phone boxes were being culled, but with the increasing noise of spam & scams, wondering whether it's well nigh to ditch the mobile and track down the remaining public phones🤔
#UnnecessaryInflation

@ai6yr
It feels that we've been hearing about bear attacks in Japan like twice or even 3 times a week this summer.

"On YouTube... slick "explainers"... outshine legacy media professionals. On X... opinions far outpace any fact-checking"
"[This] has implications for... traditional journalism [and] Japanese #democracy"

"What breeds distrust in #Japan's legacy #media most [is that] it often does not correct #misinformation it has disseminated" says manga artist Mayumi Kurata who "sees a worrying trend in which people want to grasp only key points rather than the entire discussion"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20251007/p2g/00m/0na/054000c