Alyx Woodward (obsolete) @Alyx@computerfairi.es
Alyx Woodward (obsolete)
boosted
climate change horror, garbage science, fluff journalism
someone in one of my group chats linked to some news article about
someone in pennsylvania, usa
who decided that the increased number of tornadoes
is due to all the traffic circles
...
the thing is, I think everyone has that sinking off-balance feeling that the weather is going wrong in subtle ways that we can't pin down but can feel in the patterns
and it's climate change
there's other shit going on but it's climate change
and some reputable news outlet is out there talking about someone who's blaming traffic circles as if this is newsworthy as anything bigger than an example of the intensity of that anxiety
maybe the article itself is better than the preview but I don't even ... I can't deal with that
I can deal with not thinking about it because I can't think about it myself but I can't deal with this shit
Alyx Woodward (obsolete)
boosted
so I accidentally wikipedia and learned that the eastern bloc made westerns where the native americans were the protagonists: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sons_of_Great_Bear
Alyx Woodward (obsolete)
boosted
like, I've vaguely imagined a scheme where you could make completely disposable one-use batteries exploiting the oxidation of a more or less harmless metal, like magnesium or aluminum
but it would be really cool to make a phone where you could just feed it bits of scrap aluminum and empty out the Al2O3 periodically
wish there were portable electronics devices, like phones or whatever, that you could *feed*. like, with a chemical fuel
Alyx Woodward (obsolete)
boosted
Chara sent me this image. Very funny... I know how to turn a computer off, you know! I press the button on the monitor. See, I know things about computers. 😎
Alyx Woodward (obsolete)
boosted
Sick Cat
We are really worrieds for our cat Stormy. He has never been this sick before. He is literally laying in bed with the heater blasting on him and has only gotten out of bed twice this morning. It is now 3:00PM. He usually loves being outside. Poor Stormy.
birdsite link to terrible visual math joke
just...just look at it
Alyx Woodward (obsolete)
boosted
Today I learned that MIT students built a Gutenberg-work-alike printing press, and they print books with it.
idea for a furry space opera, "Legends of the Galactic Snow Leopards"
that's it, that's the idea
Alyx Woodward (obsolete)
boosted
Yelling about cyberpunk 2077
CDPR: Ya, you see, of course megacorps would cater to trans people with advertising it's 2077 gender is accepted in this world so corps want their money
Also CDPR: No, of course you can't PLAY as a trans person trying to take down the megacorps that control everything, that's just not realistic
Alyx Woodward (obsolete)
boosted
@Sylvhem One of the truest but hardest lesson I was ever taught, by Esmeralda Weatherwax:
«If you trust in yourself...and believe in your dreams...and follow your star... you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.» #Pratchett
more chemical accident salt
oh, this one will _really_ make you love capitalism! a massive explosion at a BP refinery in Texas City, hideously understaffed and with catastrophically bad process monitoring. 15 deaths
corporations shouldn't run factories, they're shit at it
chemical safety horrors from the CSB
"oh whoops the phosgene just diffused through the Teflon hoses! who coulda predicted that" just...aaaa
a DuPont engineer recommended a hose jacketed in Monel metal but, nope, stainless steel was cheaper
imagine being a factory worker. you don't get told about this stuff. you don't know that the equipment's safe or not, they're never gonna _tell_ you
chemical safety horrors from the CSB
bleh, was phosgene really handled this casually at DuPont?
chemical safety horrors from the CSB
these chemical safety board reports are something else. gawd some of this stuff is frightening
"heh yeah we sprang a methyl chloride leak and didn't find out until it triggered a distant alarm five days later, our bad"
a flippin' miracle happened last night, which is that Organic Syntheses finally put up a new article
and it's about using sym-trimethoxybenzene to make asymmetric diphenyliodonium tosylate reagents that reliably undergo nucleophilic substitution on the desired ring, with sym-trimethoxyiodobenzene leaving
Alyx Woodward (obsolete)
boosted
climate woes, dark
@Alyx we aren't giving up either. we can't give up on anything, we've forgotten how.
maybe we're doomed to slide into the darkness no matter what we do, but we'll be fighting the whole way down with anything we can find to fight with.
Alyx Woodward (obsolete)
boosted
climate woes, dark
we could also find the courage to keep on living, of course. but, you know,
Alyx Woodward (obsolete)
boosted
climate woes, dark
if we're so keen on wiping ourselves out, we could at least have the decency to make it quick.
slowly warming up the climate until all our food sources die and the air becomes unbreathable is a pretty painful way to go, and will cause the most suffering to the least deserving, over generation after generation.
if we're trying to wipe ourselves out, surely we could do it more mercifully, more courageously.
