Notices by WesDym (wesdym@mastodon.social)

A timeless piece, maybe more relevant today than it was 60 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wY-JJs9n78&list=RD8wY-JJs9n78&start_radio=1

@Gargron I, too, have urges to act like a super-hero.

@Gargron Oh yes, very true. Bears can't operate doorknobs, but if they're already inside, that hardly matters. And most can probably just take down most internal doors, if they really want to.

Yeah, knobs are just an odd design fashion that seems to have appeared around 150 yo, and I don't know why. I guess they look nice, but they're not ideally functional.

@Gargron We have bears where I am, and it's really down to enticement more than anything else. You keep garbage in plastic bags inside sturdy bins, to reduce enticement and make it a hassle for them. You don't leave pet food outside at night, or more than necessary. In the dead of winter, one might take interest in food provided for birds.

Rarely, an individual bear might become a problem in a given small area, because they've overcome fear of humans or have trouble foraging or something.

@Gargron Bears are not dextrous enough to operate a doorknob, and unlikely to understand how they work. Any animal can press on a lever, even accidentally. But rotating a knob is not intuitive for them, and most can't do it even if they figure it out.

Raccoons, some cats, and a few other critters can figure them out, but they usually can't put enough force to them to operate them. A bear is obviously strong enough, but it doesn't have 'hands' the way we do, and can't grip it.

@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.