Notices by WesDym (wesdym@mastodon.social)

@Gargron Joking aside, however, I've long suspected that modern-style smooth doorknobs are at least partly conceived with small children in mind, to promote their safety. Small kids and some pets can understand their principle, but have a hard time operating them.

@Gargron Through most of history, most doorknobs were textured in some way to make them easier to manipulate. Check out the knurled metal jobs in great old buildings, or the decorative 'crystal' designs in many older homes. Some of the oldest ones aren't even knobs, but rotating levers. Modern smooth ones are only about a hundred years old, if that, and are apparently the product of 'modernist' sensibilities by psychos.

Xtians misled by a different false god than usual.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/manipulated-and-misled-christian-voters-torn-apart-for-worshipping-trump/ar-AA29Oes9

@ProPublica I'm guessing that "Nebraska" is a big part of the reason.

@gamingonlinux When you consciously choose to be friends with fascists, you consciously choose to facilitate fascism.

For shame, Mozilla.

I'm not saying that every single fatal incident involving ICE/CBE is their fault. Basic probability would argue against that assumption. But try to think of ANY case you ever heard about like this before last year. I'm sure there were a few. Probability, again, and sheer numbers. But obviously rare.

It's not that people assume it's always true. It's that they're generally good at assessing odds heuristically. Until we know more, I'll also make that assumption.

https://www.bangordailynews.com/2026/07/13/politics/state-politics/biddeford-maine-ice-shooting-investigation/

"A narcisssist obsessed with a reflecting pool is the peak of life imitating mythology."

~ guycurtis10 (Threads)

@pdcawley Your implied analogy doesn't hold water for me.

Did your employer somehow prevent you from having access to any other laptops on Earth?

Also, I've NEVER been required to provide my OWN laptop for any job I've had. Would you prefer that? Because I don't believe I would.

"Your own tools" is a flabby, vague concept here that's not transporting well in this analogy. A hammer is one thing, a computer quite another.

@WarnerCrocker Same for me. I used to deliver talks on US Flag ettiquette, the history of the US Flag and Code, and more. (Flags in general are kind of a hobby for me.) Some years back, I got a nice new all-weather US Flag, and my dad and I worked up a list of days to put it out, and reasonably stuck to it.

I don't remember the last time we actually put it out, but I'm sure it's been well over a year. I don't know if we'll ever put it out again. Time will tell, but a lot has to change.

I don't know why so many webmasters have to be told this, but if you put your permissions pop-up ahead of any chance to translate your site, a lot of people are just going to walk away and never look at your site.

@arstechnica "My Targus is rugged and reliable, but I hate that it doesn't fold in half and doesn't cost 3-4 times as much."

The USA fatality share has held around 4.5 since I started checking a couple years ago. For reference, default deviation is 0, meaning Sf=1. So 4.5 means that we lost four and a half times as many people as the global average for population. How/why is for various experts to sort out, but those are the numbers.

If you wonder how that's possible, just listen to how typical Mur'c'ns respond to being told they're too sick to go out and play with the other kids.

https://www.npr.org/2026/05/21/nx-s1-5827015/american-passenger-order-hantavirus-quarantine

I've got to give Republicans credit. They told me that if I voted for Harris, we'd end up in terrible wars, the govt would commit crimes, we'd have to watch out for govt spooks, corruption would spike, prices would soar, the economy would crash, the country would lose standing worldwide, and we'd enter a period of turmoil, confusion, and fear.

And by gosh, they were right.

The US had a Half Cent (half-penny) from 1793 to 1857. It was discontinued for lack of value. But during its 64-year run, it consistently had more buying power than the US Dime (10 cents) has RIGHT NOW.

All these small coins are worthless. Only quarters are worth anything, and even they're not worth very much anymore. We're being stupid, as usual.

@WarnerCrocker Yeah, I've had a lot of very stupid ideas while shit-faced, too.

@bmacDonald94 Problem is, he's arguing against the nature of humanity itself. And he did so with courage and just cause, but also in ignorance. We now know that these habits are instinctive, very deeply embedded in our evolved neurology. And we know why: They served evolutionary ends when we were hunting and gathering on the Serengeti a quarter million years ago.

They frustrate civilization, though, and that's a modern challenge. But it's much harder than RAH seemed to believe.

@bmacDonald94 Simple reduction, while emotionally satisfying or intellectually tidy, cannot solve such complex problems. RAH was right in his purpose, but wrong in his approach. You can't cure an addict by insulting them. And if you want them to recover for YOUR sake, then it's self-defeating to use that tactic. You must understand greed and religion as pathologies which CAN be mitigated, but not through primitive emotional brutality.

@bmacDonald94 Heinlein had a lot of witty things to say, but many were just condescendingly snotty, like this. In his defence, he grew up in a time when men were also blamed for alcoholism as 'weak'; so he was accurately piping the thinking of his time in this, and many of his contemporaries would have agreed. I don't hold it against him, but it's outdated thinking.

Religion is in fact more like an addictive drug, and it is more effectively regarded and treated the same way.

@fesshole Technically a parody, so covered under Fair Use.

Womp womp, bitch.

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/pro-trump-journalist-deported-immigration-crackdowns-1792165