Notices by publius (publius@mastodon.sdf.org)

@loriemerson

How far back do you have to go, to find a time when many people would have agreed that slavery fell in the category of "family and community relationships", and was even among the most important? Technological innovation disrupted that, by separating the processing of chemical energy into mechanical work from the human body. I for one have no desire to go back.

#atomicpowertothepeople

@botvolution

The statue of Ibsen in front of the National Theatre in Bergen looks like a deranged Muppet.

@gemlog @briansullivan

And of course, having said that, guess what I'm getting ready to do!

This laptop has a pathetically tiny 250 GB SSD (gee, I can remember when that was a big size for a spinning platter!), and I'm going to replace it with a 2 TB I got on sale (thanks, MicroCenter). So I have to do a new OS install. Should go easier this time than back in November.

@gemlog

Yikes!

@briansullivan

Honestly, I am running Slackware 15 (the oldest Linux distro still around) with XFCE, and liking it just fine. I didn't have any difficulty getting it installed and set up, that I didn't cause myself by forgetting how to partition my disk. Unlike some people, I don't install a new Linux version every weekend as a hobby.

http://www.slackware.com/releasenotes/packages15.0.php

https://www.therockgarden.ca/aolsfaq.txt

@gemlog

The last time I recited poetry, it was a poem written by my dad, and it was at a funeral (not my dad's, he's still around).

@gemlog @xmanmonk @kranfahrer

I have found that this can be sung to the tune of the Irish song, "The Foggy Dew". I think I may have done that on #anonradio at some point.

@gemlog @wim_v12e @snowdusk

Don't I know it!

The first time I ever travelled internationally was a family trip to Toronto in August of 2000. I didn't think then, and I don't think now, that the differences between the two countries merited any more formalities at the border than there are when you cross between Texas and Oklahoma.

@gemlog @wim_v12e @snowdusk

I've been in a Japanese shinkansen — at the National Railway Museum in York!

Opponents of nuclear energy really will just say anything.

An official advisor to the South Korean government says that the average nuclear power reactor has five unscheduled outages a year. Based on available data, I find the correct value to be more like one every five years.

https://man-and-atom.tumblr.com/post/804902080814923776/climate-ministry-faces-heated-debate-over-new

#atomicpowertothepeople

@collectifission

@gemlog @wim_v12e @snowdusk

Akihabara isn't what it once was. 20 years ago or so you could buy artifacts from alternative futures that never happened.

(Not that anyone is surprised by what I have to say)

@gemlog @trebach @DemocracyNow_Headlines_rss

Yes, it's that requirement for diluent which leads to the anomalously low prices for fossil gas in Alberta : the "condensate" from gas wells is a light petroleum liquid which makes an ideal diluent, and that basically pays the drillers' expenses, while they sell the gas for whatever they can get.

@gemlog @trebach @DemocracyNow_Headlines_rss

Anybody who wants Venezuela's oil doesn't understand anything about oil. At least half of Venezuelan reserves are so low-grade that OPEC doesn't even consider them to BE "oil". It makes the stuff from the Athabasca mines look like West Texas Intermediate by comparison.

@gemlog

At the school I went to, we typically had Office three times a week and Mass once. (We were always a little concerned that old Father Curtsinger was going to fall asleep during his post-Communion meditation, or worse yet, die.) Any time I'm feeling wretched, I find myself recalling one of the antiphons, "we groan in pain as we await the redemption of our bodies".

@gemlog

There's a rabbinical proverb : "If I am not for me, who will be?"

@gemlog @mpjgregoire

My grandfather the fine jewelery engraver lost the sight in one eye to macular degeneration about 1970. Instead of telling anyone what was going on, he vanished, and resurfaced three years later on the other side of the country, having re-taught himself his trade, which most people could not have done with two good eyes.

His good eye lasted him about 25 more years.

@mpjgregoire @gemlog

I've unfortunately been dealing with an older gentleman who refuses to stop driving, or even let someone else drive when available, despite his macular degeneration.

@gemlog

Yeah, headlights have been making it harder and more dangerous to drive since the HID models came in about 2005. I do NOT approve. I had to drive in fog and dark last week and it was a harrowing experience.

Keep yourself safe.

Continuing to sort through photos from my trip to Britain.

#photography
#england
#esperanto
#antifascist