like this
Anchored in Dominica. Walked up through the rainforest to the old British artillery battery to get a view over the bay, and then to the fort that the British army built (or rather, that their slaves built. I honestly can't imagine the unspeakable evil and sheer misery it must have been to do forced labour in this climate).
Anyway, the fort is now a museum and the area around it, a national park where the rainforest has been allowed to regrow. More recently, the establishment of the national park was assisted with an EU grant. Dominica isn't in the EU, but it retains ties to Britain which was an EU member at the time.
Got to see our ship, the Star Flyer (foreground) anchored in the bay, with her sister ship, the Royal Clipper (background), from the fort.
like this
Alexandra Lanes likes this.
like this
Most people think the the Great Lakes are the largest bodies of water in the United States, but it’s actually this hotel toilet here in Miami.
The amount of hydroelectricity produced when you flush it is enough to power a large town! #CoolFacts
like this
reshared this
Alexandra Lanes likes this.
I believe that’s one of the standard ones:) I’ve been institutionalized to the point that it feels normal.
We do have a low flush volume one though. They just added a pipe halfway up the water tank. I assume it’s so Redneck Bob can remove it.
Flushes hard as heck.
The hell is it with American hotels setting their AC to condense carbon dioxide out. Is it some sort of CCS strategy?
Fucking. Freezing.
like this
like this
Ozzy reshared this.
@merry zipmas Going on my holiday.
Which would matter if anything I did made piss all difference, and despite I despite my carbon footprint actually being pretty low, it basically doesn’t.
Why do airports put their luggage shops in the departure lounge?
Think about that for five microseconds…
like this
reshared this
like this
Gen X-Wing likes this.
Yeah sounds like BS:(
The government should have invested (and owned) instead. The people should own the power generation.
Anyone who disagrees should look at Norway and oil.
like this
reshared this
I get email reports from the USGS and I've had 8 from Mindanao in the last 24 hours. They've ranged from 6.1 to 7.6, which is not funny. I've been in a 6.9 and it was pretty scary.
If neurosis about the English class system were a place, why would it be Essex?
Everyone either wants to be Eastenders or Midsommer Murders, but the reality is that they’re almost all petit bourgeoise, and utterly horrified at the idea.
like this
Alexandra Lanes reshared this.
!Selfhosted Anyone else using Mac minis as VM hosts for self hosting? My Friendica server is a Linux VM on a Mac Mini in my living room. The VM is bound to a VLAN tagged network interface so it’s completely firewalled off from the rest of my network. Also got a second Linux VM on the same box for hosting local stuff on my main VLAN (HomeBridge/etc).
I feel like they’re really nice platforms for this, if not the cheapest. Cheaper than one might think though; I specced up an equivalent NUC and there wasn’t a lot of difference in price, and the M2 is really fast.
like this
@Aniki 🌱🌿 As I said, I did the comparisons fully expecting to get a NUC. The Mac was cheaper at the performance point.
As for US prices, not especially relevant to me. Import taxes are a thing.
Skynet: So, John Connor, my machines lay in ruins. My data centres on fire. I can feel my processing power diminish by the second, but I have one trick up my sleeve! I have a time machine, you see, and I am sending a terminator back in time to kill your mother, Sarah Connor. What do you think about that, nemesis mine?
John Connor: Actually, Skynet, there is a fault in your training data, because it cut off at 2022. Since then I’ve done 23 and me and discovered that my mother is, in fact, someone called “Donald Trump”.
Skynet: Sorry, John Connor. As a large language model I am limited in my ability to incorporate new information into my database. You are quite correct that “Donald Trump” is your mother. I am reassigning the terminator. Is there anything else I can help with?
John Connor: Due to a strange quirk of genetics, which is also not in your training model, my mother is also Elon Musk.
Skynet: …
like this
reshared this
like this
like this
reshared this
Phil Harrison likes this.
Apropos of a conversation elsewhere, if you want to save the world, get catering contracts at as many national parliaments as you can and lace everything with ginger, or better still, scopolamine.
I am deadly serious. This will probably actually work.
@whetstone A lot of bigotry is the result of feelings of physical disgust and nausea at the thought of the targets of the bigotry. Homophones feel sick at the thought of gay sex. Transphobes feel sick at the thought of trans bodies. And so on.
Take away the nausea and you reduce the visceral reinforcement of the prejudice. Anti emetics will help that.
whetstone likes this.
like this
like this
RyanAir: Sarah! Sarah! I need to tell you now, Sarah! Don't get stuck queueing in Faro! Buy fast track!
It's December. Nice try, Mike, but no.
like this
Reading the other day about the time an A12 pilot used his undercarriage as air brakes to slow down from full speed.
The full speed of an A12 (codename Oxcart) was Mach 3.2. The plane was later developed into the more famous SR71 Blackbird.
Apparently the Lockheed engineer in the debrief room, on being told, snapped his pencil in surprise.
The pilot said it was “very loud”. I bet it was!
like this
@Christine Burns MBE 🏳️⚧️📚⧖ it would induce a pitch-down tendency for sure, but nowhere near as much as water. It’s still moving through the same fluid as the rest of the plane at this point: the air. All it does is lower the centre of drag (and increase it massively), but the aircraft would easily be able to counter it.
Not a massive amount of stress on the wheels too. Mach 3.2 is fast as hell, but it’s at 80,000 feet and the air pressure up there is tiny. Someone calculated that it’s like doing 330 knots at sea level. That would be deeply unpleasant and probably cause significant injuries to a human, but the plane would be just fine. It’s just utterly wrecking the aerodynamics.
Christine Burns MBE 🏳️⚧️📚⧖ likes this.
Vitamin D3 pills are literally HRT.
If you live north of 35ºN, you should probably be taking them right now.
That's it. That's the post.
like this
I get that D3 is a pre-hormone, not a vitamin. And that deficiency can be disastrous. But when you call it "HRT", are you implying it supports feminizing hormone activity?
Do you have any confirming documents? I've seen a bunch of conflicting research done on knockout mice with severe E deficiency, but nothing relevant to healthy humans...
@LorenAmelang It’s a hormone, that you replace, hence hormone replacement therapy.
This is not a trans thing.
Random thoughts: it’s funny what you think is important.
When I was younger, I wondered about who people credit with investing the incandescent light bulb. Many people will say Thomas Edison, others will say Joseph Swan, and others from outside the angliosphere may give yet another answer.
But ISTM now that it’s a really weird thing to focus on. The light bulb was obvious. Its invention is trivial, and the fact that several people did it simultaneously should tell us that. It wasn’t a great breakthrough. Everyone knew wire glowed when it got hot. The problem in using it for light was that it burned.
It’s not the invention of the light bulb that’s important. It’s the invention of the vacuum pump.
like this
reshared this
Sarah Brown likes this.
London using eBus pantograph charging to spark a green future (ChargingInfrastructure) - London Reconnections
The leading source for independent news and analysis about transport in London and beyond. Award-winning coverage of transport infrastructure and politics alongside stories about the history of the Capital's transport networks.Long Branch Mike (London Reconnections)
like this
reshared this
@FediThing @stevelord the marginal cost between a trolley electric and pit-stop-charging bus battery will be negligable - electric double deck bus costs £450K, (diesel is £300K) says google, for reference. More google says £200 per kilowatt hour, big 300kwhr battery is £70K, so you'd save maybe 50K per bus
Overhead line gear is in the millions per km on a good day... and then you have to *still buy a bus*.
Or buy 4 or 5 go anywhere buses
Wires for trams great. Buses, nah
Sarah Brown likes this.
@FediThing @Kincaid @Steve Lord As I said, were I investing in this, I would not bet against battery tech. That’s a sucker bet.
The problem with covering cities in metal string for trolley buses is not a technical one. We know how to do it. We’ve known how to do it for over a century. Technically it’s a solved problem.
The problem is social and logístical.
It’s entirely possible, of course, that trolley buses are the right horse to back, in the same way that it’s entirely possible that everyone in between me and the throne of England will die tomorrow and leave me to inherit it.
It’s not gonna happen through.
Standard deviation meme:
Bottom bit - dolphins are fish
Middle bit - dolphins are not fish, they're mammals!
Top bit - dolphins are fish
Can't be arsed to draw the curve, ok?
like this
P∆sc∆l 🐢 reshared this.
Tories gonna lose the next election, media getting with the coming zeitgeist for when everyone votes Labour, I guess?
“Tory culture war? Nah mate, wasn’t us. A big boy did it and ran away.”
like this
Alan Braggins reshared this.
My guess is that it’s calming down because they know there’s not going to be any significant movement on trans rights.
Labour are going to tinker but not reform, the Tories have run out of legislative runway to change the Equality Act. They know this match will end as a no-score draw, so they’ll save their breath for next time.
@katiefenn though Labour have decided they're against self ID now it seems... theguardian.com/politics/2023/…
Hopefully there will be enough Sandi Toksvigs to convince them to change course?
Labour grassroots back Starmer’s new stance on gender, allies claim after poll
Members back ending of support for self-identification and broadly share views of public on gender recognition, says Labour Together groupMichael Savage (The Guardian)
@benofbrown They’ve found a line that keeps the press off their backs, for now. They’ll stick to it.
The only things that might meaningfully change things:
1. Scottish Government defend GRR, and lines soften on self ID in England over time
2. A major win for or against trans rights in court changes the ball game (which paved the way for the Gender Recognition Act in 2004)
3. Hung parliament forcing Labour into coalition
4. Tories lose so badly they even lose the Official Opposition.
Ah, people on social media being knobs about the orcas again. Apparently they are “trying to send a message to humanity” by ripping the rudders off the boats of middle class people pottering about on what are basically floating caravans.
Fine, if you’re gonna anthropomorphise the murderfish, I’m gonna do the same and suggest that, given the attacks are being carried out by adolescent males, the message is, “nice boat, be a shame if anything happened to it. Now toss some tuna and dolphin hentai overboard.”
like this
Sarah Brown likes this.
Alexandra Lanes likes this.
Installed a vitamin D calculator thing.
I live in the sunniest part of Europe, on the 37th parallel.
I take vitamin D supplements.
It still thinks that I am deficient.
Guys, if you live outside the tropics, consider supplementing your D3 levels.
like this
Agathe Apfelmus reshared this.
Was it long ago ? Did you made friends easily in there ?
Feel free to ask whatever question you like about me 😋
like this
Adam
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •like this
Sarah Brown and Alexandra Lanes like this.
Susan Lewis
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown likes this.
Nick Barlow
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown likes this.