tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103kengrkengrkengr2022-09-06T18:27:49Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1171495Help!2022-09-06T18:27:49Z2022-09-06T18:27:49Zpublic1Trying to access my DW mail/comments gets a "Are you human" test that is in an infinite loop.<br /><br />I get the same thing if I go to the DW homepage. So I can't even figure out how to *report* the problem!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1171495" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1168522Now we're acting like the Taliban...2022-07-08T17:34:26Z2022-07-08T17:34:26Zpublic1<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/us/georgia-guidestones-explosion.html?action=click&algo=bandit-all-surfaces-time-cutoff-30_impression_cut_3_filter_new_arm_5_1&alpha=0.05&block=more_in_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=500804911&impression_id=8fcc7d10-fee2-11ec-a178-9b0e54149702&index=3&pgtype=Article&pool=more_in_pools%2Fus&region=footer&req_id=871016086&surface=eos-more-in&variant=0_bandit-all-surfaces-time-cutoff-30_impression_cut_3_filter_new_arm_5_1">Explosion Destroys Mysterious Monument in Georgia, Authorities Say</a><br /><br />Somebody bombed the Georgia Guidestones. <br /><br />I don't recall hearing about them before <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://fayanora.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://fayanora.dreamwidth.org/'><b>fayanora</b></a></span> pointed me at an article about this.<br /><br />But since the most likely explanation is that somebody set the bomb(s) because they thought the Guidestones were "satanic" then they are behaving *exactly* the same way the Taliban did when it destroyed those ancient Buddist statues.<br /><br />Blowing something up because it is not approved of by *your* religion is never justified. <br /><br />Also, it violates the freedom of religion that keeps *your* religion safe from others. <br /><br />So this is not merely illegal, it's also *stupid*. Your religion is not "special". It doesn't deserve (or get) special consideration. That's the whole *point* of that part of the First Amendment.<br /><br />doing this sort of thing "justifies" burning churches and bombing temples. You don't get to have it both ways. Either all religions deserve respect, or none do. And I don't think you really want the latter.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1168522" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1167709Bleeding *what*?!2022-06-28T16:31:01Z2022-06-28T16:31:01Zpublic1I was busy making food when an ad popped up on youtube It was for some dental something or other.<br /><br />I was mostly ignoring it when after listing various gum problems they said "bleeding *teeth*"<br /><br />Say WHAT!!???<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1167709" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1164721You'd think they'd have better things to do.2022-06-10T20:49:36Z2022-06-10T20:49:36Zpublic1<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10891021/Texas-State-Rep-Bryan-Slaton-says-file-legislation-BAN-drag-shows-presence-minors.html">https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10891021/Texas-State-Rep-Bryan-Slaton-says-file-legislation-BAN-drag-shows-presence-minors.html</a><br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/AnthonySabatini/status/1533980818791604224">https://twitter.com/AnthonySabatini/status/1533980818791604224</a><br /><br />I just *love* some of the comments. And the protesters. <br /><br />"Men in thongs"? That ain't a drag show, honey.<br /><br />Also the comments about "grooming" and "sexualizing" children.<br /><br />Ever take a look at kids beauty pageants?<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1164721" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1163296lousy interfaces2022-05-04T23:46:58Z2022-05-04T23:46:58Zpublic4The Storage company I deal with has a website you can make payments thru. Or rather, it has one you *used* to be able to make them thru. It hasn't worked for several months at this point.<br /><br />I made a payment over the phone last month. Did it by talking to the manager. <br /><br />This month I got hit with a phone menu. A horrible one.<br /><br />I had to enter my credit card number using the phone keypad. Yeah, 16 digits with no possibility of erasing if you mistype. You doi get prompted for confirmation that you entered it right. Except the audio keeps fading in and out, so I had to reenter it because I missed a prompt. Then you enter the card expiration date. Then the zip code pof the address the card is associated with. then the security code.<br /><br />All this on a tiny keypad on the phone.<br /><br />yerg...<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1163296" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1155541Authors need to think things through2022-01-26T22:03:25Z2022-01-26T22:03:25Zpublic0So I'm reading this story. Setting seems to be somewhat medieval. Guards carry swords, that sort of thing. Palace, queen, etc.<br /><br />So We're in kingdom A. Queen receives a messenger from neighboring kingdom B. After various back and forth messenger relectantly tells Queen of A that Queen of B is demading...<br /><br />... one hundred tons of food.<br /><br />Queen of A complains that this would be *half* of their reserves.<br /><br />Cue record scratch in my head.<br /><br />Ok, lets think this through (which the author obviously didn't). Just rough calcs to get ballpark figures.<br /><br />A ton is 2000 pounds (~1000 kilos). So they are asking for 200,000 pounds of food.<br /><br />Say a person needs a pound (half a kilo). Say there are only 1000 people in Kingdom B (a ridiculously low figure).<br /><br />That'd mean they'd need 1000 pounds a day. So that food would last for a whole 200 days.<br /><br />Note that they are demanding the food because of a drought. So they may need food until the harvests come in (if they do).<br /><br />So this is outright ridiculous. It was so far off that I knew it was stupid *before* I double checked by running the calcs above.<br /><br />Please folks, stop and *think* before you throw around numbers in a story.<br /><br />Also during negotiations, the messenger was talking about sending bread, and maybe a bit of meat. Arrgh.<br /><br />Before modern times (and I mean the last century or two) you did *not* send bread any great distance. At *best* it'd be stale and like a rock. At worst, it'd be moldy and inedible. <br /><br />Yes, hardtack will "keep" longer, but its a pain to make, and not commonly prepared.<br /><br />Meat wasn't shipped except "on the hoof" because it spoiled even faster. <br /><br />There are *reasons* why butcher and bakers were *neighborhood* businesses.<br /><br />Fresh food was *not* shipped. It was brought in from *local* (very local) farms or grown in the city.<br /><br />Preserved meats (salt, jerked, dried, smoked) are more transportable but...<br /><br />Again, failure to consider the milllieu.<br /><br />Yeah, yeah, you don't need to be an *expert* about these things. But try to avoid things that will jerk a reader out of the story.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1155541" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1153688needed skills2022-01-11T12:44:58Z2022-01-11T12:44:58Zpublic1Been reading a lot of Tales from Tech Support, as well as other videos about Reddit posts.<br /><br />I've noticed a ubiquitous problem that I first noted in second or third grade. People can't read something out loud. <br /><br />Oh, they can "read" it. But what they say is *not* what the text says. They change words. Usually to some other word that they *think* is the same thing, but isn't. Other times it's a *completely* different word that only shares a few characters.<br /><br />Some people go as far as "hearing* things this way. That it's, they are told X, and "hear" Y.<br /><br />An example from one of the tech support stories was the tech telling the guy he needed to clean out his mailbox and the guy hearing it as "wash the computer". "Clean" and "wash" do *not* mean the same thing!!<br /><br />More commonly this sort of thing comes up when the tech asks the person what the error message on the computer is. What they tell you is paraphrased, usually *badly*. <br /><br />Now, I don't expect end users to know all the "technical terms" (though they really should know the difference between a monitor and a computer for just one example). Details *matter* with many, MANY things in modern life.<br /><br />But people *really* need to be able to read back the *exact* wording on an error message. And to read the *actual* instructions on the screen or on a page *without* rewording them.<br /><br />Yet even back in grade school I noticed folks misreading stuff when asked to read a passage from a book aloud. And the teachers rarely said anything about it.<br /><br />Yeah, being able to get across the gist of something in your own words usually (but not always!) indicates that you understood what you read.<br /><br />But we *really* need to start teaching people that young that details matter. When asked to *read* something aloud, you need to read what's written. Not give your interpretation odf the text. If you are asked what it *means* that's a different situation.<br /><br />The concept that *details matter* needs to be taught. As well as the concept that there are times when you should *not* paraphrase things. Especially when some asks you to read back something that they can't see but you can.<br /><br />Maybe also spend more time on the concept that different words really do mean *different* things. They don't exist just to be fancy or something. Synonyms *do not* mean the same thing. They have *similar* weirds, but they aren't the same.<br /><br />Crimson and burgundy are *not* the same color even if both can be called "red".<br /><br />these skills would prevent *(so* many problems and misunderstandings...<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1153688" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1140623tele-spammers2021-05-09T01:21:10Z2021-05-09T01:21:10Zpublic5Ok, this is ridiculous.<br /><br />I got something like 16 calls in a 48 hour period. They were rather obvious too.<br /><br />My number is (AAA)BBB-xyzt<br /><br />The spam calls were all supposedly from numbers of the form (AAA)BBB-xxxx where the xxxx was different every call.<br /><br />I'm told this is common pattern for these sorts of calls. The dumbest part is that since these were made with a predictive dialer (dials several numbers at once and hangs up the others when one answers) they were often hung up before I could have gotten to the phone anyway.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1140623" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1133058Perspective2021-01-06T01:22:16Z2021-01-06T01:22:16Zpublic2The population of the Us is about 330 million. The number of Covid-19 death, is more than 330 thousand.<br /><br />That means that more than one out of every thousand people in the Us has died from Covid-19.<br /><br />Yet we still have folks trying to say it isn't serious or that sensible precautions are "government overreach"<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1133058" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1129031Two steps forward and one step back...2020-11-06T08:58:38Z2020-11-06T08:58:38Zexhaustedpublic1(to give you and idea how messed up I'm feeling, I origianly had the subject line backwards. Oy)<br /><br />Any, the new SSD arrived today, about the time I'd beaten the computer into submission with its temporary drive C:. In the process, I'd found that I actually *had* an image backup of the system that was only 2 days old. I hadn't realized that the Windows image backups were still working If I had, I'd have done pone more before tearing things apart.<br /><br />So I got the new drive in, booted for the Windows install DVD and told it to repair the computer. Since I could point it at image backup, this was merely time consuming. I don't want to think abut how long it might have taken with a normal drive.<br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://kengr.dreamwidth.org/1129031.html#cutid1">Read more...</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1129031" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1117827Freedom to be stupid2020-06-17T01:12:51Z2020-06-17T01:12:51Zpublic3In Union county, Oregon, they went from 22 Covid-19 cases last week to 224 this week. this in a rural, low population area.<br /><br />It appears that the increase is mostly due to *one* church there. Even though the county was in phase 1, which means no large gatherings they had a service with several hundred people in attendance. There was a video of it up on their website (which has since vanished, but people saved copies) <br /><br />Said video shows nothing remotely resembling social distancing. Doesn't show any masks either.<br /><br />I'm sure they felt they were exercising their rights. Freedom of religion (which hasn't actually been restricted), freedom of assembly (which *has* been restricted and quite *legally* restricted)<br /><br />What they actually did was exercise their right to be stupid. And exercise the *non*-right of endangering other people.<br /><br />Oh yeah, about that freedom of religion bit. It'd only be a restriction on that if church gatherings were restricted aand other types weren't.<br /><br />Since *all* gathering above a certain size are restricted there is *no* religious component to the restrictions.<br /><br />the protests that it is infringing their freedom of religion are just another case of people thinking that their religion (almost always Christianity in the US) is somehow "special" and deserves to be exempt from the rules.<br /><br />Sorry doesn't work that way.<br /><br />And I trust the jump in cases demonstrates the idiocy of "god will protect us".<br /><br />We've got free will. And that means god *has* to let us suffer the consequences of making bad choices.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1117827" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1112156Religion vs science2020-04-01T14:43:22Z2020-04-01T14:43:22Zpublic0I came across this in a news article (they are referring the *country* Georgia, not the state)<br /><br /><em>In Georgia, while the church has told worshippers not to spend long periods of time in churches and not to come if ill, it has rejected calls to abandon the reusing of spoons, claiming that as communion is a holy ceremony it is not possible to get ill during it.</em><br /><br />I find their faith touching. I also find it very disturbing.<br /><br />Like a number of sects in the Us, this sort of thinking is going to get people killed.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1112156" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1112016This is why statistics are important2020-03-31T20:28:35Z2020-03-31T20:28:35Zpublic0<br><a href="https://bit.ly/2WQotwN">How Panic-Buying Revealed the Problem With the Modern World</a><br /><br />The false "efficiency" they talk about is due to misuse of statics. they are planning for "average" usage. <br /><br />Trouble with that is that it means half the time they have enough to cover usage. and half the time they *don't*.<br /><br />What they need to do is use z scores. Using those you can take the data and determine what levels will cover 50%, 80%, 90% etc. <br /><br />For stores 80-90% ought to be ok. for medical and other ctritical services, 99% or higher would be better.<br /><br />Incidentally, this is the kind out stuff that's done to come up with "10-year", "100-year" etc values for storms and floods. <br /><br />Which brings up another factor. You have to *keep collecting* data and revise values as usage changes. That's why the estimates for storms and floods aren't doing so good these days.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1112016" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1084749Ableds are weird2019-03-31T19:47:58Z2019-03-31T19:47:58Zpublic1If you are on Twitter check out <br /><a href="http://twitter.com/search?q=%23AbledsAreWeird" title="#AbledsAreWeird">#AbledsAreWeird</a><br /><br />My friend Fayanora has posted a bunch of links from there that are *so* educational.<br /><br /><a href="https://t.co/4q3N4KtP69">https://t.co/4q3N4KtP69</a><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/A_Silent_Child/status/1108166798858469377">http://twitter.com/A_Silent_Child/status/1108166798858469377</a><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/DarkGemini88/status/1108695834084999172">http://twitter.com/DarkGemini88/status/1108695834084999172</a><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/2KarenRr/status/1109943603412025349">http://twitter.com/2KarenRr/status/1109943603412025349</a><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/samhalls3/status/1108518145591898112">http://twitter.com/samhalls3/status/1108518145591898112</a><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/ArtistOn_Olden/status/1109205874554355713">http://twitter.com/ArtistOn_Olden/status/1109205874554355713</a><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/Barb_Crofts/status/1108282762841206784">http://twitter.com/Barb_Crofts/status/1108282762841206784</a><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/Esperink/status/1109346880058613760">http://twitter.com/Esperink/status/1109346880058613760</a><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/Brooke_Waffles_/status/1109595625006473216">http://twitter.com/Brooke_Waffles_/status/1109595625006473216</a><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/OnTheAspieSide/status/1108530409082634240">http://twitter.com/OnTheAspieSide/status/1108530409082634240</a><br /><br /><br />My comment on the "ripping people" one:<br />"I was just joking" is *never* a "real" response. It's an attempt to avoid admitting that you *were* picking on (bullying) someone. And indicates that you knew so at the time.<br /><br />It ranks right up the with "apologies" along the lines of "I'm sorry that you took it that way"<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1084749" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1074851Yes, people actually say this stuff..2018-11-17T21:12:07Z2018-11-17T21:12:07Zpublic0<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/kansas-official-tells-black-woman-hes-member-master-race-dont-ever-forget-1216506?fbclid=IwAR24Iis7I1UErVf_6mkjassGpz0ygdf7MYpyTzxEmUdM_pU7FQeQnYh5FIs">https://www.newsweek.com/kansas-official-tells-black-woman-hes-member-master-race-dont-ever-forget-1216506?fbclid=IwAR24Iis7I1UErVf_6mkjassGpz0ygdf7MYpyTzxEmUdM_pU7FQeQnYh5FIs</a><br /><br />I guess he's too young to remember that Washington and Lincoln *both* had federal holidays. When they started moving holidays to Mondays, it was felt that February was too short to have two in it. So they combined the two to make "Presidents Day".<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1074851" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1064104This isn't even "reaching"...2018-04-03T23:23:41Z2018-04-03T23:23:41Zpublic3The Multnomah County Republican Party is claiming that the local school district is "brainwashing" kids against the second amendment.<br /><br />Why? Because of the student walkouts about the Parkland school shootings.<br /><br />They are claiming it wasn't the kids idea, but that teachers and staff set it up.<br /><br />They are talking about a lawsuit, and filing public records requests to try to "prove" this.<br /><br />I'm with the school district on this one. It was the kids idea and teachers and other staff may have helped the kids with planning, but they didn't talk the kids into it.<br /><br />This is beyond "grasping at straws".<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1064104" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1057414The CDC gag rule is worse than you may have heard2017-12-17T23:26:27Z2017-12-17T23:26:27Zpublic0Quote from a Washington Post article:<blockquote><br />“In some instances, the analysts were given alternative phrases. Instead of “science-based” or “evidence-based,” the suggested phrase is “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes,” the person said. In other cases, no replacement words were immediately offered.”</blockquote><br /><br />The critical bit? "<b>in consideration with community standards and wishes</b>"<br /><br />That's not science, that's admiring the emperor's new clothes.<br /><br />Community standards are all too often *wrong*, and "wishes". Get real.<br /><br />The whole *point* of agencies like the CDC is to find out *and publicize* instance hen "community standards" are wrong. As well as point out times when wishful thinking is doing harm.<br /><br />Banning the terms on the list suggested a not good political (and anti-science) agenda. The "suggested rewording" *proves* that it's even worse.<br /><br />Pity they can't issue a statement saying that "inn accordance with community standards and wishes we recommend that the Entire Trump administration be removed as a danger to the health of the United states and its citizens".<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1057414" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1056635reactions to accusations2017-12-10T20:28:30Z2017-12-10T20:28:30Zpublic3<i>Sat, 18:44: quixylvre: aphobic-soundwave: aphobic-soundwave: “if somebody becomes panicked when you accuse them of... <a href="https://t.co/U6ETGhyIz2"><br />https://t.co/U6ETGhyIz2</a></i> (read it, it makes a lot of good points)<br /><br />The reverse happens too. I shared a room with another kid in a foster home. I hadn't really paid attention to him messing with the wall with a key. I just wrote it off as being pretty much the same as kids at school idly gouging at the wood of the desks (in lower grades anyway, and he was a bit "slow").<br /><br />Anyway, turns out he'd been using the key to "drill" a hole through the plasterboard to the girls room on the other side.<br /><br />We both got accused of it, and I got special attention because I *didn't* get all panicky at the accusation.<br /><br />Hey, I knew I didn't do it. so why would I panic?<br /><br />But nooo the fact that I *didn't* panic was "evidence" of guilt.<br /><br />Basically, this sort of thing is used to "confirm" what the person already believes about your guilt.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1056635" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1037167It's that time of year again...2017-06-10T22:34:27Z2017-06-10T22:34:27Zpublic0Friday I went to run some errands. Mostly a trip to the hardware store to get a nut for the grabber thingie I bought a while back. I need that to get stuff off the floor without having to bend over, or worse kneel down.<br /><br />I'd been picking up some recycling that'd spilled from the bag it was in, and all of a sudden "Spung!" one of the two suction cup shaped things was gone.<br /><br />After some search I found it,but not the acorn nut that had held it on. Since I'm trying to get the place presentable in anticipation of the "annual" inspection (I use quotes because this is the one by the management company, there's another one by HUD later in the year, and sometimes others) I needed to get it working again.<br /><br />Getting the 71 to the Parkrose transit center was easy. But once there, texting the Tri-Met info number with the stop ID said the next 21 was "scheduled" for half an hour from then. When it says "scheduled" instead of how many minutes that either means the bus in question doesn't have GPS (so they don't know exactly where it is) or (rarely) that there's problem.<br /><br />The time came and went. Finally the *next* bus (which also showed "scheduled" (WTF?) showed up.<br /><br />Note that the driver of the 71 had said there were some sort of problems, including one lane of I-84 being close. and there'd been an insane amount of traffic on Sandy.<br /><br />Any, t was only a few minutes to the hardware store.<br /><span class="cut-wrapper"><span style="display: none;" id="span-cuttag___1" class="cuttag"></span><b class="cut-open">( </b><b class="cut-text"><a href="https://kengr.dreamwidth.org/1037167.html#cutid1">Read more...</a></b><b class="cut-close"> )</b></span><div style="display: none;" id="div-cuttag___1" aria-live="assertive"></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1037167" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1035419Humans and the Earth2017-06-03T15:22:50Z2017-06-03T15:22:50Zpublic0Trump's stance on climate change made me dig up this old comic<br /><br /><a href="http://humoncomics.com/mother-gaia">http://humoncomics.com/mother-gaia</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1035419" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-06-18:410103:1031536Stupid writers2017-04-27T11:53:55Z2017-04-27T11:53:55Zpublic3On Criminal Minds tonight they they had someone poisoning people with an "irradiated poison". <br /><br />I was willing to accept that, though it was kinda silly. and it apparently *swiftly* (like within a couple of minutes) induced symptoms of a heart attack. Then, besides radiation poisoning it was cause multiple organ failures. The radiation was short half-life so it was "harmless" with in a day or two.<br /><br />Turns out the perp had been stealing the stuff for six years or so from various hospitals radio-medicine units.<br /><br />Which just plain *doesn't work*. <br /><br />If it has that short a half-life it'd not be capable of causing radiation poisoning within *days* after it was stolen.<br /><br />Also, nothing these used for radio-medicine is *remotely* that toxic. Nor would it do the "induce a heart attack" bit.<br /><br />Also, they evacuated a neighborhood because the perp had dumped some down a sink. Yet at the same time, the perp who *worked* with this stuff and thus knew how to safely handle it, carried a container around in her *pocket*<br /><br />Basically, if it can be safely carried in a pocket, even for a short time, it winding up in the sewer isn't a big deal.<br /><br />So, essentially, the writers did *no* research.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=kengr&ditemid=1031536" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments