Had to get a part from Spain for my car the other week because it had sprung a worrying leak (and the aprt from Mitsubishi was an eye-watering cost). The part? A plastic bag. My vehicle - designed for at least some off-road use relies on a plastic bag to work.
One of those cases where alt text would help even somebody with reasonable eyesight. I haven't got a clue what I'm looking at here beyond some sort of tool and some sort of fixing on some sort of wood-effect surface.
@Ed Davies @Mona app anyway, it’s a plasterboard expansion bolt and deployment tool for countries where it’s too much bother to build houses out of actual house.
I couldn't find any tools to check this, so I built one myself.
This is a little site I built: the Defederation Investigator defed.xyz. With it, you can get a comprehensive view of which instances have blocked yours, as well as which ones you are federated with.
The tool is open source and available on GitHub. Hopefully someone will find it useful, enjoy.
Is there any urban wildlife as dangerous and aggressive as the British Herring Gull?
It will absolutely fuck you up for a chip.
Apparently Sydney, in Australia, is having problems with aggressive gulls and they’ve employed dog walkers to scare them off. I saw a picture.
In England, the gulls would take the dog. Easily. It was not a big dog.
The Herring Gull would totally win in a fight.
Don’t mess with them. They remember you, and after making you bleed, will make a point of shitting on you every time it sees you afterwards.
If it wants the chip, give it the bag. Honestly, not giving it the chip is risking you getting into some serious “I just killed John Wick’s dog” type shit.
They're not urban but there's a species of Tasmanian parrot that is absolutely not to be fucked with. They're like crows joined the mafia & got elected mayor.
@Uraael An old girlfriend who spends a lot of time in Venice refers to the Venetian gulls as "the Gabbiano* crime family." @goatsarah _ *'Seagull' in Italian
In March of 2018, 18 years after being banned from the Empress Hotel in British Columbia, Novia Scotia resident Nick Burchill wrote them a letter and asked f...
@Inken Paper Thing is (and we have Canada geese in the UK too), they’re basically bluffing. You can run screaming at geese and they will usually flee. Geese are colossal bullshitters who only follow through if they think you are intimidated by them (see also swans).
A seagull, however, will bear a grudge on you and your descendants for generations if you cross it.
@Inken Paper It knows how to make your life a misery and it will fight a war of attrition against you literally for years. Every time you leave the house, it will shit on you. It will dive bomb you with its mates. It will learn your habits and lie waiting in ambush. They are basically mafia.
@Keith Edkins🔶🇪🇺 🇺🇦🏳️🌈 Perhaps something akin to Speed (1994), where there’s a bomb in your genitals and if you go less than 55 strokes per min… no, I got nothing.
Both the UK and US Chess governing bodies have rejected FIDE's transphobic bullshit. You know you're out there when even TERF Island and DeSantisland go, "steady on a bit, guys!"
I can find a quote that the German chess body said they will be ignoring this rule, and are doubting its legality, is there an official statement and policy by the US and UK bodies as well?
@ajlanes @shinydan FIDE classical ratings are so important (because they get you titles like GM) that no-one plays non-FIDE classical, but no-one cares about rapid/blitz ratings.
All online chess is faster than classical, so no-one cares about ratings, so no reason to register with FIDE, so online tournaments (which make a *lot* of money from sponsorship and streaming adverts) are entirely beyond FIDE's control.
I'm not sure if sport is in some way exempt from the Equalities Act in the UK and if so if chess counts. I would imagine it must need to be be for physical sports since otherwise sex categories would trigger legal action, I'd hope chess is not like that.
@Wufflekins there aren't tournaments that are only open to men, afaik. Generally, tournaments are either open to everyone, or have specific qualifications (like rating, title, or winning a qualifying event).
There are, however, tournaments that are only open to women. Ostensibly, these exist to encourage participation, although many have suggested that it is actually to shield women from rampant misogyny in the chess scene that institutions are unwilling to handle properly.
@triplenineteen That's a weird one for me. I absolutely understand the need for a safe space for women, and, as a man, I have no experience of the issues women face but, to me, it feels like that should be a refereeing issue. If men and women (and whoever identifies as whichever) can't participate on an even footing, regardless of gender, that's a fundamental problem with the way the sport is being supervised, isn't it?
@Sarah Brown “The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon” is an amusing way of putting it.
Got some gum soreness. Usually I’d dab hydrogen peroxide on it, but it’s strangely difficult to get here (in Portugal every supermarket sells it).
So instead I got chlorhexidine. Went and did a bit of Googling for scientific papers, which resulted in finding out that, and I quote, “chlorhexidine is more effective than povidone iodine and hydrogen peroxide for treating diseased or inflamed gums, but less effective than sodium hypochlorite”
SODIUM HYPOCHLORITE! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?
Talk about using a sledgehammer to crack a nut!
I have no plans to use sodium hypochlorite as a mouthwash.
Oh, they've really reduced it! No plans to try any time. Got my scare from that stuff when I made about 10x more than I thought I was going to. Still not much, but more than I was willing to be around.
@@pndc You're right that Amiga power supplies are generally bulletproof even 30+ years on. A1200s (and 600s & 4000s) often suffer from leaky surface mount electrolytic caps though which left untreated can cause damage to the motherboard, unfortunately. At least you don't have to worry about a leaky varta battery though, most RTC options for the 1200 used a coin cell.
@acf close enough, but no thank you, I already have one of each 😀. Everyone's already recommended the museum so on the (likely) chance that they don't take them either, try your local community marketplace or freecycle.
Apropos of another conversation, if progressive/left wing people got our ideal world, we would be happy.
if the hard right got their ideal world, they'd be miserable as fuck, because their worldview is centred around constant outrage at the state of the world and having an "out group" to rant about.
I don’t think the majority of them would be miserable in a sensible socialist ideal world, as the goal isn’t to make one group miserable but rather make everyone happy.
That’s the difference for me, anyone who needs to make others miserable to feel joy are terrible people who shouldn’t be in charge of anything anywhere.
@Alisdair Calder McGregor Removing the block feature from twitter. Thing is, with no ability to control trolls in their mentions, the left wing "prey" will leave the website, leaving only the right wing "predators", who will get pissed off because there's nobody to hunt for sport any more.
A few years ago, Cambridge City Council became the first of many local authorities in the UK to start dismantling its trans equality policy. Here, today, they are flying the progress pride flag from their offices.
This is basically ground zero for the assault on trans people’s equality, fronted by then councillor Ann Sinnott of Cambridge Labour, founder of the transphobic hate group, “LGB Alliance”
i’m of the opinion you’re allowed to take down undeserved pride flags and decorations but I totally get you’re probably not interested in the local media storm a former councilor doing something like that would cause. But maybe someone else reading this could.
@Paul100 If your job is to provide a service to the public, then you don’t get to decide some people don’t get to receive it, ESPECIALLY when you’re funded by their taxes.
@pseudomonas I do like our old microwave: it has two proper dials on it: how much and how long. It has fortunately been saved the ravages of progress.
Our old one at work used to have all kinds of things: buttons marked chicken which if you pressed twice said "turkey" and three times "goose"; buttons which seemed to accumulate seconds p-adic-ly; a terrifying north-south-east-west yew-hedge maze of heating settings; and all of it discouraging experimentation by each press loudly, gratingly beeping like a church bell being fitfully dragged along a concrete floor.
Quite why we need to set flaps ten, turn packs off, arm autothrottle, and keep N1 below the red line, all for a machine which exists to rotate food while heat is applied -- a task previously given to small, dim-witted children ensconced in inglenooks -- is quite beyond me.
My favorite line from a tv show is from Trying when Jason only has 24 hrs to teach Tyler everything a dad can teach a son. Amid everything else they do/see together that day, Jason points ti the microwave and says, “Don’t waste time trying to understand a microwave’s panel. Every button does the same thing.”
@aurochs I thought I was a fan of clockwork timers until one got stuck reheating a whole Christmas pudding. It had six neat, charred holes drilled through it, which were begining to smoke when it was noticed.
@sparrowsion @pseudomonas Timers are great: I need to get another for our kitchen. At the moment I look at the kitchen clock and do maths, which is often disastrous, especially when there's multiple things to time.
Defrosting I'm more sceptical about. I have a metal stick which I prod ours with, and if it goes in crunchy, put it in for a bit more. Results seem variable enough that I'm not sure I'd dare delegate. But it would simplify things a bit if it's reliable.
@Veronica🏳️⚧️ :inanna: There is a rubber gland where the propeller shaft goes through the hull. It’s lubricated by sea water, but needs a millilitre of grease inserting once a year to keep it watertight. This can only be done when the boat is dry docked.
The seal between the gland and the shaft is very narrow, so a plastic drinking straw, which can slip between the two, and then squeeze the grease in, is the ideal way to get it in. If you try with paper, the straw explodes from the pressure.
I’ve heard it can be done with a hypodermic needle too.
I just want all TERFs who hate read me to know that earlier this week, I used a communal changing room. I was naked. There were other women in there. Nobody gave a shit.
Since Brexit, the lack of a proper trade agreement means I will have to pay import VAT on my little sailboat when I take her to France.
I asked on a UK boating forum for some recommendations for a tax advisor to assist with the process. The overwhelming answer was, “just do tax evasion. You probably won’t get caught”.
This may provide an insight into the mindset of British exceptionalism.
Avoidance and legal, in the case of using a British company to register a vessel. I did note, the use of the Polish flag (what they call a grey registry) is a question mark but commonplace in Spain and Portugal for both tax and licensing reasons.
And, for precision, I'm suggesting them as avenues to explore (as I did when I re-registered my own boat as British, Part I, as a not-resident-anywhere Australian).
@wrack AIUI, where the vessel is flagged is irrelevant for VAT paid status. I’m resident in Portugal. I can’t claim temporary import. The boat is not VAT paid in Portugal. They will want their money.
I'm not being clear. If the boat is registered to a British shell company, it is not *your* boat but belongs to a British-based entity. Your status as a resident has no bearing. So the company can claim it a temporary import. I'm sorry if I'm being annoying. I shall stop here.
@wrack Except a few months ago there was a story in the local press where they impounded and boat and fined the owner for exactly this sort of pissing about with shell companies.
Stopped at an M&S food place on the way back from working on the boat yesterday. Very knackered and verging on hypoglycaemic, and the only fizzy drinks they had in were sugar feee ones.
And I’m like, cut the moralising, you pricks. Sometimes you really fucking need sugar.
O, ja! We always do it at the end of season before it is stalled in a hall. Sad thing is that we have not sailed a meter yet this year. Maintenance, new auto pilot installed and very bad weather. On Thursday we give it another try😎
A cautionary tale for doctors and those training to be doctors: The story of @Zoe O'Connell
About 15 years ago, Zoe was in the army reserves and very fit, She left, and around that time started to put on weight. The weight gain continued even as she stayed fit (and by stayed fit, I mean we were climbing actual mountains in the Alps and suchlike).
Around 10 years ago, Zoe's health started to suffer a lot. She started getting increasingly fatigued. It was sufficiently bad, that she started looking for medical advice.
Lots of tests done. None of them turned up anything conclusive. Maybe Lyme disease? maybe now? Zoe was getting to the point where she was thinking of having to stop work.
Then, around 6 years ago, a friend happened to say, "you have western Irish ancestry. Have you been tested for coeliac disease?"
She had not. Zoe asked her doctor for a coeliac blood test. It came back positive. A biopsy subsequently confirmed that Zoe ha
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A cautionary tale for doctors and those training to be doctors: The story of @Zoe O'Connell
About 15 years ago, Zoe was in the army reserves and very fit, She left, and around that time started to put on weight. The weight gain continued even as she stayed fit (and by stayed fit, I mean we were climbing actual mountains in the Alps and suchlike).
Around 10 years ago, Zoe's health started to suffer a lot. She started getting increasingly fatigued. It was sufficiently bad, that she started looking for medical advice.
Lots of tests done. None of them turned up anything conclusive. Maybe Lyme disease? maybe now? Zoe was getting to the point where she was thinking of having to stop work.
Then, around 6 years ago, a friend happened to say, "you have western Irish ancestry. Have you been tested for coeliac disease?"
She had not. Zoe asked her doctor for a coeliac blood test. It came back positive. A biopsy subsequently confirmed that Zoe had coeliac disease.
"Ah-ha!", said the doctors. "We now understand why your health has been deteriorating! You have coeliac disease! Adopt a strict gluten free diet and all will be well":
This was 2019. Zoe adopted a strict gluten free diet. There was some small improvement, but overall her health continued to deteriorate.
Zoe started paying for private blood tests to find out WHY. The coeliac was under control. her gut was recovered. Her numbers were good. But she was getting more and more unwell.
Finally the tests started to show something. Her prolactin was off.
The NHS sent her to an endocrinologist. He confirmed her prolactin was off, but decided it was not worth treating.
Frustrated, Zoe paid to see a private endocrinologist. An MRI subsequently confirmed that Zoe has a 14mm wide benign tumour in her pituitary: a prolactinoma.
Based on the size, it probably started growing around the time her health started to deteriorate.
Zoe has been on drugs to shrink the tumour for a month now. She is seeing the most rapid health improvement in years (she doesn't think so, but to an external observer the improvement is very very obvious).
Doctors: beware of diagnostic overshadowing. Yes, she had coeliac disease, but that was not why her health was so utterly screwed.
The bit of middle age where you fall asleep on the sofa because you’re too tired to get up and then randomly awake fully clothed feeling like arse at 2am … hate that.
@Charles ☭ H I am a creature of simple tastes, Charles. I know what I like, and self parodying unpleasant arseholes making fools of themselves in public and showing the world what an utter joke they are is one of those things.
@Susan Lewis They broadcast their daftness with complaints roughly of the form “Miss! Miss! Sarah said I was a pubic louse and Jeff laughed please put him in detention.”
By the way, I know you're reading this because you can't help yourself, so I have a message just for you, Ms H, and I know you're reading it from my profile, so the formatting will be preserved. I have a message for you:
Interesting question just came up re driving in the UK on Reddit. Someone wants to go from the M11 to the A3 and asks which way round the M25 they should go. These roads are pretty much equidistant regardless of whether you go clockwise or anti-clockwise round London.
That’s the route we take to Scarlet, so I have opinions on this. Go clockwise from the M11 and you encounter the Dartford crossing. This is a toll crossing, and is often very congested.
Go anti-clockwise and you pass the Heathrow section.
For me, there is no contest. Pay the damn toll. It may be annoying to have to put up with the Dartford crossing, but the Heathrow section of the M25 is the very arsehole of hell and to be avoided at all costs.
@Pyroéaon 🏳️⚧️ in reverse I still choose Dartford. There are usually queues for the tunnels, but Heathrow is still Satan’s very arsehole and I just can’t be doing with it.
This post is addressing a specific TERF. I’m pretty sure she hate-reads me, and I think it’s important to note that, and I want to be very clear on this:
I still think you’re akin to a bedbug or a pubic louse.
You come at the queen or her friends, you better not miss, asshole.
Pretty sure that, while this server is hosted in the European Union, were it in the uk, my view that TERFs are akin to bedbugs and public lice would be a protected belief, thanks to the outcome of Forstater v Centre for Global Development Europe.
@Sarah Brown @Sylvia Knight I assume most Americans aren’t terrified by this state of affairs and would think it’s us who are weird for not waving lethal weaponry about.
I see your smirky sailor, and raise you a smirky stageworker / theater lighting tech.
It's definitely one of those skills when you see someone doing it wrong it's a hard fight not to fling yourself across the room and tackle them "NO NO NO NO NO! WRONG WRONG WRONG! GIMME THAT"
BoneHouseWasps🔶🇬🇧🇪🇺
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown likes this.
Ed Davies
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown
in reply to Ed Davies • •@Ed Davies I definitely posted it with alt text in @Mona app
Mona, had it started losing alt text in friendica posts? If certainly used to work.
Sarah Brown
in reply to Sarah Brown • •Ed Davies
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •@MonaApp Thanks for the explanation. No alt text visible on this Mastodon instance or when I click through to the web interface on The Goatery.
Yes, two minds at best, about plasterboard.
Mona app
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown
in reply to Mona app • •