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Max Wolf (of Wolf 359 fame) and E.E. Barnard (of Barnard's Star fame) were "lifelong correspondents, competitors, collaborators and friends. Wolf wrote a long obituary for Barnard upon his death in 1923."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Wolf

#Wolf359 #BarnardsStar #Space

We're so used to this, but I would like academics to take a moment and look at how much of the official and unofficial discussion around university is about despair, imposter syndrome, stress, harassment, etc.

What I often see in these discussions, especially the official ones, is discussion of coping mechanisms and "self-care".

What I rarely see in these discussions is questioning why we've built an education system that treats people this way in exchange for this education. @academicchatter

@maartjeoostdijk @academicchatter
Coming in to agree with those recommending that you push back *and* to defend the passive voice, especially in places where you want to focus on the something like an experimental apparatus, not the person using it. Modulating voice can also be a useful rhetorical strategy. Passive voice has a place in good writing, IMO. Against dogma.

If you oppose genocide Republicans will accuse you of working for Hamas while Democrats take the far more nuanced approach of accusing you of working for the Russians.

Apparently the discourse is set on the same half-assed autopilot as the genocide.

rollingstone.com/politics/poli

Do you use and/or read via #rss, #rssfeeds ?

Boost is good karma. Thank you.

CHINA CAMERA RISKS:

#China -made surveillance cameras, widespread in #Ukraine have been used by #Russia to guide strikes against Ukrainian targets.

The cameras are banned in the U.S. due to security concerns.

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@seachanger Once upon a time there was a knock on the door. I opened it to find a neighbor wearing baggy shorts and striped leggings.
neightbor: Pardon me, would you possibly have a cup of soy milk to spare?
me: Sweetened or unsweetened?
Thus a friendship of 20+ years was born. She is still one of our (@Kleen & my) dearest friends. #SocialTech

Just a periodic reminder that being an extremist and being a dick about it will get you blocked. Want to transition to #EV? I'm on board. Do we need to drastically reduce consumption? Yes. Do billionaires need to exist? No. But when people talk about abolishing cars, you're talking about destroying peoples' livelihoods. I live in a rural area, and you can't make a living without being able to go from point A to point B. I've seen numerous revolutions fail b/c the farmers were not on board.

web browsers are emacs clones
- basically an OS
- eight hundred megabytes and constantly swapping
- you can execute a script in a special language
- extremely zealous users who complain about the other camp(s)

I am still looki g for top notch programmers and data scientists to hire for 100% remote. Hit me up. Open source contributors get top consideration.

It has become clear to me that there are some people who will . If you and work in a public facing job, please read this advice from people who are hard of hearing. We need your help: (, Please share)

How many accounts do you have on the fediverse?

if you're interested in how other people answer this question, please boost.

@freemo@qoto.org Also election year. Media isn't going to run stories that threaten the Democrats. And conservative media is racist and hates black people so they aren't going to say shit either.

Alright so toasters

Few years back my toaster failed, and like a total muppet I went "Eh, it's a toaster, it's not worth fixing, new ones are like twenty bucks or whatever," and we had either a new baby or a baby on the way I can't remember so I went "Oh we're a FAMILY now" and (muppet mistake 2) I bought a fancy four-slot one.

Because I didn't do the maths! There's only fifteen amps to go round, and now it's gotta go through two sets of elements, so the only way to square that circle is to chop the power in half (this is in America, land of slow kettles and feeble electricity).

So I ended up with a toaster where the elements don't glow. It didn't get hot enough to actually toast the bread, unless you left the bread in for so long that it dried out all the way through. You'd stick the lever down and go "Is it broken?" because the elements wouldn't even get to dull red until the timer was nearly done. Crap. Infuriated me every single day.

So I was at a thrift store and saw an amazon basics two-slot one for six bucks and went "Right, I'll have that," and it's THE DAMN SAME. It works so slowly that it dries the toast out all the way through before it starts to get golden, never mind brown. Crap brittle toast is the result.

Is there a modern, purchasable toaster in America whose elements glow orange to yellow within, say, ten seconds?

(I have one of those 1940's sunbeam toasters that the youtubers wet their knickers over, no need to tell me about those. Can't do bagels or pop tarts so it's in the attic)

[MAN CEO: “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs](electrek.co/2024/01/19/man-ceo)

"The whole thing is a sham. Green H2 only makes sense with excess grid capacity, and if you have decent distribution and still have fossil fuels on the grid, you can't really say you have excess capacity, can you? Any renewable electricity used to generate green H2 is NOT displacing fossil fuels from the grid, is it? So how is it green?"

Finally, the CDC allow people with hearing impairments and anyone speaking with them to remove their mask to talk even in circumstances where mask are required. No you can't see my in ear hearing aids under my hair and I should not have to show them to you to get and read out the exact CDC / State Health Department guidelines to you. No one with any other disability would put up with that behavior.

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Understand when I make choice to help me communicate: If I have a choice I'm going to interact with a person who is not masked because I have a far better chance of hearing what they say. If I don't come to your window when I'm in the front of the line, or choose a checker with a longer line or automated self-checkout it is not about you. In some circumstances I may ask for written instructions even if you think they are easy to understand. (Medical folks this means you every time no matter how simple.) I also might bring my wife into the conversation.

Just say it again, don't get frustrated: I will have to ask you to repeat yourself. Please just say exactly the same words again, and maybe do some of the other things to help me hear as well. Don't try new words, I probably caught half of what you said and now I can try to catch the other half. Yelling does not improve our situation, and I am not doing this to you because I'm trying to same you for wearing a mask. I just can't understand you.

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Don't talk to your self: There is nothing more frustrating than having someone mumble something at their computer that I think may be for me. I then ask them to repeat it. They tell me that they weren't talking to me, but they never look away from their screen so I can't hear that either. Now I have to ask them to say it yet again, and they yell "I'm not talking to you!" To which I tend to yell "I can't tell!"

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