Don’t threaten me with a good time.

We don’t deserve dogs, but we can be grateful that we have them anyway.

If there were any trust in the DNC to preserve, this would be a different discussion. They look after the interests of Democratic incumbents, not Democratic voters. Hogg is doing the right thing and I hope he succeeds.

Yes. Things will get better. We don’t know how quickly that will happen, but it will happen. Meanwhile, take care of yourself and do what you can to take care of the people around you. The whole MAGA movement is based on fear and hatred. Being decent and doing good may be the most effective way to resist and, eventually, overcome it.

You got here ahead of me. Meshtastic has some limitations, but in a relatively populated area it works surprisingly well. GPS trackers using Meshtastic require far less power than their cell-phone equivalents, which means they ca be smaller, longer lasting, or some of both. They can also be a good bit less expensive. Meshtastic takes a bit of learning, but it isn’t difficult and there are plenty of resources.

Ignore the self-righteous advice and take are of yourself first. We can’t fight back against oppression by sacrificing ourselves when it accomplishes nothing. That just means one less person is available to fight back when it does matter. The stakes do matter. They’re not asking you to kill people.

In the middle- to long-term you should think about how to deal with the larger problem. To avoid situations like this you may need to develop new contacts, find similar wok in other sectors, or even find another kind of work. Those are things that will take time and planning, so work on them while you do what’s needed to keep yourself going.

Always do what you can and look for ways you can do more, but make sure any sacrifices you decide to make are worth the likely results.

Once I’ve gotten myself out of the immediate situation I tend to sit down and shake for a while. My system always wants to do that when coming down off an adrenaline surge. After that I think through what happened and come to terms with it as best I can. Finally, I find a friend to talk with, get it out of my system, and move on to other things that are more interesting to talk about. If no one is available, I engage in some activity that I find relaxing (reading, watching a movie, walking in the woods, etc.).

I’m the same way. I tried Twitter several times, and I am occasionally on Mastodon, but the format just does not suit me. Different people have different styles of engagement and that one seems to work well for some. I was primarily a reddit user and now I use Lemmy and kbin in a similar way.

I’m not happy about it, but based on what I’ve seen, and what other journalists have said, Bezos has not generally interfered with the Post’s editorial decisions. They still publish stories that are critical of their boss, which is encouraging.

NPR and PBS are always where I start, but the BBC is also good. I also have an electronic subscription to the Washington Post.

American people are not living two years longer thanks to ‘war on science’.

I use an insulated Contigo Autoseal bottle that I’ve had for at least ten years. It keeps water cold for quite a while. Its big virtue is that it closes itself automatically if I let go. I’m not all that clumsy, but I have dogs that sometimes decide to poke my hand unexpectedly.

I was disappointed. Nolan usually does a good job of grounding his “concept” movies in human personalities and relationship. I understand how he was trying to do that in Tenet, but it just didn’t work. The result was a movie full of action set pieces without anything to hold them together.

I understand the cynicism, but it’s worth looking at the details. This is not the most powerful phone on the market, but it looks very good. The price is reasonable. It is easier and less expensive to repair than anything else on the market and it comes with a much longer warranty. They appear to be serious about both minimizing their environmental impact and being fair to the workers all the way down their supply chain. Those are all significant achievements.

I don’t need a new phone right now, but I’m still tempted, just to encourage the effort. We tend to complain about all corporations being basically evil. We should do everything we can to support the ones that really aren’t.

That was my first though too.

Also, I understand why they just talk about “strength”, but it would be nice to have some real idea of which properties they really mean. Is it harder? Does it resist impact better? Does it resist lateral torsion better? Steels cover a wide range and almost always involve tradeoffs.

I liked them better way back when they were Royal Robbins, but the 5.11 cargo pants are still good. I wear them every day and they have proven surprisingly durable. They also offer a good set of carry options for small gear.

I was an early adopter of Swype and I’ve been using it for ages. I can probably hit 25-30 wpm with it on a good day. An average typist will hit at least 60 wpm and I can get over 100.

In addition, Swype is just more work than typing. Making tiny motions that require fine motor control is a lot more tiring than the broad movements needed on a keyboard.

I joined Mastodon a few years ago, mostly out of interest in the concept. I never did much with Twitter, so I didn’t do much with Mastodon either, but I liked the idea.

I’ve been a heavy user of reddit for more than decade. During the runup to the recent blackout I was reading everything I could find about alternatives. I created several Fediverse accounts during that time and when the blackout started I quit using reddit and never went back. That gave me the incentive to start really using Lemmy and kbin, which have been a pleasant surprise.

The technological part of this is very cool. But after the last few years I can’t help but think, “I wonder how much damage the inevitable solar flare is going to do?”

That was a great show. With some flaws, but still a great show. That bit was an example of why it worked so well. They said a lot of things that no one was willing to say, but were perfectly true.