Notices by Waldo Jaquith (waldoj@mastodon.social), page 4

NYC's chatbot tells me that you must wear long pants to the DMV, so that's good to know about.

In 2023, Pennsylvania reopened their fire-destroyed I-95 overpass in under two weeks. MDOT needs to borrow the PennDOT and USDOT folks who got that done. The scale in Maryland is far larger, but many of the underlying procurement and oversight principles are the same.

I'm getting my first colonoscopy on Monday (that goes in the baby book, I assume?), and the dietary restrictions get *really* stringent the day beforehand: an all-clear-liquid diet.

This STAT opinion piece, published yesterday, argues effectively that research does not support this need, and that this overly-restrictive diet is an obstacle to people getting colonoscopies. https://www.statnews.com/2024/03/19/colonoscopy-preparation-liquid-only-diet-data-gastroenterologists/

I’m thinking about how the human body is just a tube. Not related to anything.

Business idea: colonoscopy prep drink that doesn't taste horrific.

I will not post through my colonoscopy prep. I will not post through my colonoscopy prep. I will not post through my colonoscopy prep.

The fire alarm went off in the middle of my colonoscopy. They evacuated the building, but not me! I was one of four patients they just let ride it out. Luckily there was no fire.

At the gastroenterology facility. Imagine how cautiously this was worded, and I still laughed.

I made a new Mastodon bot! It uses three years of applications for custom license plates in Virginia that were rejected for being inappropriate (courtesy of a FOIA request by Virginia Public Media), and generates images of those plates. It posts twice daily. Some are funny, some are gross, some are weird little puzzles, and the number "69" shows up a lot. https://botsin.space/@rejectedplates/112151431401925961

There are vendors selling generative AI to create RFPs. There are vendors selling generative AI to write proposals in response to RFPs. There are vendors selling AI to review those proposals.

This will end terribly. People will die.

If you were wondering if maybe the Republican Party can be salvaged, three-quarters of Republicans say that it would be good for Trump to follow through on his promise to be a dictator "only for a day.”

A functioning democracy requires that a supermajority of its citizens actually believe in and uphold democracy. https://polsci.umass.edu/sites/default/files/January2024TrumpandGOPToplines.pdf

@anildash Relatedly, the filename is part of the file content, and should also be crated with empathy. My favorite example of this is resumes: a bad filename is “resume.pdf”, a better filename is “Dash Resume.pdf.”

An interesting use of “the” in English is as a modifier that means “the generic version of this place that I frequent, never mind the specifics.” “The gym,” “the bus stop,” “the car.” But you wouldn’t say “so I’m at the school the other day,” or “I was in the restaurant” in the same context.

We have a mental list of genericizable locations and we understand what“the” means before them. I wonder what rules we use to create that list of locations?

@emilygorcenski Romex prices are unbelievable. I’d read a 1,000 word article about what happened here.

The Chevy Bolt was the best-selling non-Tesla EV in 2023, and GM’s response was to end production of it. I'm in my sixth year of driving a Bolt—it's a great car, and fits into any parking situation with room to spare. https://mastodon.social/@tess/111972236096491166

Here’s one neat trick for increasing the value of your condo by 12.5%: remove the “TRUMP” sign from the facade. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/18/realestate/trump-condos-prices-nyc.html?unlocked_article_code=1.WU0.KQqv.JcSRAypm1Zbm&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

@jsled @emilygorcenski Yes, but why? You don’t have to get very deep in five-whys analysis to end up at “to kill lots of people.” I mean, they didn’t try to make it compatible with the USB-C ecosystem, did they?

@emilygorcenski My brain is unwilling to recognize this as a shotgun. It is so far removed from my 12-gauge, or any shotgun I’ve ever known. The intended purpose of this gun is clearly to kill lots of people.

Strangers: It’s nice that you can load CNN’s website. Please do not ask me why you can do that and why I can’t. I do not know why. Please do not tell me that CNN is bad and I should not be reading it; I know CNN is bad but that’s irrelevant.

CNN blocking the default configuration of Safari is a bold move.