cogogo

I got a new samsung smart tv in April and never connected it to the internet. Just noticed (likely because if the DST change) that the date and time was all wrong when it turns on. Could not unnotice it. I was very pleasantly surprised I could manually set it and no internet was required. I expected to be annoyed at it forever or to go down a rabbit hole like this and fail.

Never heard that framing before. In New England the practice is associated with blue-blood wealth.

I thought I was the only one. But there is a really good video linked at the bottom of the page that has the two images and a summary of the work to build them.

I also loved the analogies of reading the date of a coin in LA from NYC or seeing a tangerine on the moon. But they kept talking about how surprisingly small black holes are. I wanted that described in relative terms. Maybe I just did not read carefully enough but are they the size of a pinhead? The solar system? I know I can look this up.

Yes, it is terrible.

I am not so optimistic. 80 years is one life-span. It feels absurdly short and quite possibly attributable to luck.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_close_calls

No retirement benefits. The next evolution of unlimited vacation. No really, it benefits the employee.

The downvoters must have missed Airplane!! For a second I thought about how to escape the ! to make it clear it’s part of the title… but I haven’t had any coffee.

I picked the wrong week to stop drinking coffee.

A huge portion of the US is covered by purely volunteer fire departments. Communities pay for equipment and training and that is it. Response times are slow but it is really the only viable option in rural areas.

Regularly happens to the same pile of mulch at a lot in Boston. No idea why they have been allowed to keep storing it.

https://www.universalhub.com/2026/mulch-fire-brings-all-jake...

You suggested the journalist use drone footage as part of their piece. They may have been aware of the restriction. Either way they would likely end up with at least a fine if and when the NPS caught wind of it.

“Who is going to stop you?” is such a great exercise in entitlement. One of the worst and most visible bits of American culture in my opinion (Who knows if you are American, I am. And the National Parks are a beloved and shared resource). Toxic individualism.

It is not permitted to fly drones on National Park land without permission - which to my knowledge they rarely give.

If you do not have a garage and live in a cold weather climate they are fantastic. Heat up almost instantly when the engine might not warm up entirely to get the heat going for a good 15 min.

I am assuming but as far as I am aware that would be some separate app/service. You need a number that is locally registered so it routes to the correct dispatcher.

I kind of like the idea of this for a home phone replacement and a good way for our family to communicate as we get more comfortable with leaving the kids home alone. But it won’t be able to call 911 and I do not trust it.

Makes me even happier I just installed a red wall phone with an armored cable and signed up for ooma’s cheap plan. 911 access and we have no need for whitelisting. Always have outgoing and default to ringer off. Can turn it on (satisfying slider) if we are leaving the kids for a bit and they can have fun hanging up on any spam while we are out.

About 10 years ago somebody found an unexploded shell/cannon ball from the war of 1812 in Boston Harbor while poking around during an astronomically low tide. The bomb squad detonated it on the beach in my neighborhood (most likely a training exercise hard to know how dangerous it was). Still upset I missed it. At the time I lived in an apartment where I could see the detonation site.

It’s a joke. Parent mentioned wife and girlfriend.

My wife’s vibration pattern for a call is SOS in morse. No side-piece for me though. Very happily married, just know if she calls it is important.

The other perk is they charge “mandatory” insurance fees. It is easy to opt out if you prove you have insurance but at least the facility I am using makes it seem like it is hard.

Busy beaver problem?

It is pretty much the same. You are legally required to have the card with you at all times. The practical issues you refer to are non-trivial. Inability to travel is a non-starter for many. Think ICE will be friendly? They repeatedly show they do not care about legal technicalities.

I am referring to renewals. Not initial applications.

It is only a matter of time before this administration does this to green card applications and renewals too. A permanent green card is not permanent. It needs to be renewed every 10 years. I am also worried about policies eventually directed at naturalized citizens. I sincerely hope I am wrong.

Agree. This is the first time I had thought about it this way and the clock representation seems fine.

Oddly the year is the only thing where I think I have a good 3D mental model without really thinking about it. Not sure if this makes sense to others but right now we are about 11/12ths of the way to the autumnal equinox and you can imagine the Earth’s tilted axis almost perpendicular to the arriving sunlight. I think of this as if I were observing from the sun so the axis is pointing up (north) to the left.

I bought a gatorade today after a run and it was 28oz. Pretty certain the big ones were 32oz for decades. I probably think this is a better size for me but pretty clear that is not why the change was introduced.

Over the years I have seen a few threads on tinnitus. I have it very mildly and doesn’t bother me much. On the other hand I have had “floaters” in my eyes since I was a teenager (probably just when I noticed them). Until I saw a doc I thought I was going blind but apparently they run in my family. They are like visual tinnitus and my god do they drive me crazy. I find wearing sunglasses helps me ignore them but they can be brutal. I am a big skier and in flat light they drive me bonkers. Not sure I have seen these discussed here but maybe I missed it.

My GE microwave has a whole damn button the same size as the start button for AM/PM. Has to be one of the dumbest design wastes I have seen. I have always wished the 24 hr clock had taken off in the US. I use it on any clock that supports it.

I adore our local boys and girls club, our kids are there every weekday and they adore it too. We have donated a little bit of money monthly for almost a decade. I do not love the big money vanity donors but they are what make the place tick.

This is another level… I would be so angry if this clown were running our metro area. I feel obligated to write letters to all of those donors even though we are on the other coast.

My wife kept up her english via friends. And I am always surprised how much US cultural exports help people learn the language.

A French accent in English is easy to mock but it actually sounds pretty good. My American accent in Spanish sounds atrocious and sadly our bilingual kids have pretty American accents too. But honestly who cares?

Speaking another language is the best effort I have ever made (I am lucky not to do it out of necessity). Totally changed my world view and how I think, speak, read and dream. Though please do not make me listen to a recording of my own voice…

I have always been worried about self driving cars (even privately owned) being ad platforms. Guess we are getting there faster! Slate auto is not open source but at least they have no screens and I believe no driver tracking.