Lou Katz @lou@entropyservice.com

@augieray

A close friend who was a healthy 64 year old woman just died from Covid-induced pneumonia last week in case anyone was wondering if it's still dangerous.

#CovidIsNotOver

@SteveBellovin @mattblaze
If you want me to talk and never shut up, ask me about how a piano works! (The problem: finger pressure powers a hammer so it strikes strings, but the hammer must be free-pivoting (not coupled to finger) at the moment of the strike, and must then stop on the recoil without bouncing and not strike again until the finger releases from the key, at which point the hammer must be ready to strike again ASAP. No electricity allowed.)

Someone shared with me a really innovative site for presenting info on #Project2025. You choose what "I care about" from a drop-down list, click "Show me," and then the website describes how P25 will impact that area -- including PAGE NUMBERS from the actual document. Y'all know what to do.

https://www.25and.me/?topics=

In the media that doesn’t have wealthy execs who directly benefit from a Trump presidency by screwing over workers, the problem I see is treating Harris’ campaign like an actual normal political campaign, whilst treating Trump with the scrutiny held for entertainment news. It is a big ethical problem.

Treat them both with the rigor expected of a political campaign with policies and expectations of competency and dignity.

Stellantis is dragging its feet on reopening a shuttered plant that previously employed over 1,200 autoworkers in Belvidere, IL — undermining the deal it struck with the @UAW last year.

Meanwhile, its CEO will rake in $39M this year — a raise of 60%.

Textbook corporate greed.

TIL:

"The [tipping norm in the US] was born out of exploitation. After the Civil War, restaurant owners facing demands for higher wages from white workers instead hired newly freed slaves to work for gratuities alone."

FT

The #Holocaust decimated not only Yiddish cultures of Eastern Europe, but also Ladino cultures of the eastern Mediterranean, which had flourished for centuries.

The 1,700 Jews of Rhodes were deported to Auschwitz 80 years ago, when Allied victory was almost in sight.

Their fate reflects how genocide remained a Nazi priority to the bitter end.
https://theconversation.com/remembering-the-longest-journey-to-auschwitz-the-deportation-of-rhodes-jews-decimated-a-small-but-vibrant-community-with-centuries-of-mediterranean-history-235390
#Histodons @histodons #Jewish

In space, no one can hear you scream cause there's this really loud theramin and if you try to scream people are all like, "sorry, what? I can't hear you over the theramin"

One of the things I've been doing for the last few years when I visit a city is record an aircheck (an over-the-air recording) of a local radio station, if one exists. Sadly, the number of defunct stations in my little archive is growing, and visits to places with no local station to record are becoming more common.

I forgot this one. It still applies. I was in a mood, though? www.popehat.com/p/in-which-i...

In Which I Repent On Free Spee...

@realTuckFrumper I also think a 100% tax rate on gratuities paid to government employees would be good too.

@ernie "Please test drive our garbage. We'll start charging you for it later."

I have a very old clothes dryer reaching the end of its life very rapidly. So when the START knob broke off quite sometime back, I didn't want to spend much to replace it. But due to the panel design and such, and the age of the dryer, I couldn't find anything that would fit that wasn't insanely expensive for a dumb knob (plus shipping). I've been starting the thing with a pair of pliers.

Time to try a practical print on the new Bambu Labs A1 3D printer? This is never going to work. But what the hell.

I look around and find a knob model already created that has several versions including one that looks like it might work, but it also might not fit, might just spin, and might just break off when you tried to turn it.

But it would be an interesting experiment.

Got the model, and just sliced it in Bambu Studio using the defaults (I have this running on a Chromebook in the Linux container). I expected a complaint about lack of support, because the knob's central cylinder meant most of the knob was just floating in the air.

Yep, support warning comes up.

I click one checkbox for supports. Didn't change any values.

Yeah, the graphics show it has to create a LOT of support material to hold that thing up. But it claims only 1.25 hours to print.

So I let it print.

Finished, I pop it off the plate and it looks like a flying saucer. Heavy support material under and around it. I can't even flex it with my fingers.

I grab a pair of pliers and start pulling on the support material. It actually seems to be tearing loose around the knob body. I'm left with the knob and some support material underneath to peel off.

But the hole in the center, that is supposed to fit around switch shaft and grab it, looks too large and also is full of plastic. Lovely.

But hmm. There seems to be an almost invisible line there. I take a tiny screwdriver and pry a little bit. The entire plug of plastic pops out leaving the appropriately shaped hole. The precision involved is scary.

Eyeballing it, the hole looks too large and I expect it to spin on the shaft, and I'm already thinking of what I could stuff in there to stop the spinning.

But might as well see. I put the knob on and it seems to spin freely as I feared, then suddenly drops down into place. Huh?

And it works. First try. And it actually looks decent as well. How long will it work? Seems solid right now, and is very likely to outlast the dryer given the dryer's overall condition.

No Star Trek warp drive. But at least we have replicators now.

Welcome to the 21st century.

L

Did you know it used to be illegal for a company to buy back its own stock? It was understood to be stock price manipulation. (Because it is.)

Reagan's "deregulation" changed the rules in 1982.

Like everything else, companies now pay politicians to keep it the way it is.

#deregulation #reagan #corruption

New Israeli Road in Gaza Suggests Plan for Permanent Occupation, Analysis Finds https://truthout.org/articles/new-israeli-road-in-gaza-suggests-plan-for-permanent-occupation-analysis-finds/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

I’m from the 1900s 💀

In DNC Speech, Sanders Says Overturning “Citizens United” Should Be a Priority https://truthout.org/articles/in-dnc-speech-sanders-says-overturning-citizens-united-should-be-a-priority/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

People walked out of the trump rally in Wilkes-Barre, PA at the one hour mark lending credence to the completely legitimate theory that they were paid by the hour.

#HarrisWalz2024 (Crowd)Size matters