[–] 37 points 2 days ago (1 child)

For [Monroe County [Michigan] resident Brian] Clare, a grain and beef farmer, coping with the illness has required bringing rolls of toilet paper with him atop his tractor. And if the moment calls, "pop a squat in the middle of the field".

So he's just admitted that he's furthering the spread of this disease? Can anyone sanction this fucking idiot?

  • source
  • [–] 131 points 3 days ago (4 children)

    "We've got to tighten up the policy and make sure everyone is aligned and then turn [the Los Angeles camera system] back on," [Flock co-founder and CEO Garrett] Langley said.

    Sucks to be you, then, doesn't it.

    "The technology is really simple," he told ABC7. "A car drives by, we take a picture. It's a static picture of a car, and then we read the license plate. That's what the technology is -- it's actually not that complicated, it's pretty simple."

    Sure. Just the license plate. Which is why the ACLU says that you collect "make, model and color of a car, other identifiers like scratches and dents, and anything else they can see." It can include items "such as trailers, toolboxes, bumper stickers, or bike racks." That's why your cameras have audio detection hardware. That's why your cameras are on biking trails, where no cars will be found.

    Then using data analysis like that in Finding Paul Revere reveals a bunch of information about your habits, your friendships, and your associations. But, sure, you have nothing to lose :/

  • source
  •  

    This place is usually crammed with patients, with lots of confusing background noise - it's an extremely tiring experience. My experience isn't helped by the fact that I'm not a morning person and usually get one of their last appointments for the day.

    This time I got stuck with an appointment at 8.15am. That's half an hour before then officially open, but I thought that maybe they used the time to dilate everyone's eyes. And I figured that at least this time I'd be out of the office fairly quickly, instead of having my appointment take a couple hours while they go through the queue.

    So I get in this morning, 8.10am on the dot. They say their internet is down and everything is a bit slower as a result. I'm like, that's fine -- and after all, I got one of the first appointments of the day, so I can't be delayed that much, right?

    Nope. It's now 9.15, a full hour after my "early" appointment, and I still haven't been called back - though lots of other people have been called back already.

    The nice thing is that the waiting room is less chaotic and noisy than usual; the annoying thing is that I have no idea when I'll be called back to do the eye dilation thing, much less when I'll see the actual doctor.

    Update: brought in for eye dilation at 9.30, saw the doctor at 9.45 (the bare minimum time for the drops to work). Since I've torn both retinas in the past, they usually spend like ten minutes telling me to look in all sorts of directions; this time it was like "look up. look down. you're fine, bye". Finally left around 10am.

    The waiting room was absolutely crammed with people when I left. As I passed some of the folks in standing room only, I mentioned that my appointment was for 8.15, which was met with a collective groan for the wait they were going to have.

    I'm glad I had an early appointment, I'm glad I got my eyes checked, I'm ecstatic that they're fine, and I'm delighted to be home in my nice dark bedroom for the rest of the day.

    Franksgiving (en.wikipedia.org)
     

    In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the Thanksgiving holiday to the next to last Thursday of November, one week earlier than its traditional observance. This change was intended to help boost the economy by providing an extra seven days for Christmas shopping.

     

    Like many others, when the reddit APIcalypse happened, I moved to the fediverse. Like many, I wasn't sure what it really consisted of, how it worked, or what instance to move to. Eventually I decided to sign up with kbin.social. Ernest was welcoming, the instance was friendly with a nice mix of topics, the community was great, having access to both threadiverse and microblogs was great, and I loved it.

    And then Ernest started having health issues and the instance became unstable. Eventually I moved to fedia/mbin, which I enjoy a lot, but I just haven't quite felt that same sense of belonging - I don't know, maybe the new job just kept me away a bit too much, or I'm getting old, or just been through too many changes. But I've kept kbin on my launch page, and sometimes I find myself a bit wistful for it.

    I poked at the internet, and the kbin.social domain expires in a few days, on 10 September, which I suppose will be a formal end to the project. In memory of kbin, I'd like thank Ernest: wherever you are, I hope you are well and enjoying your life. Thank you for the concepts behind and your work on kbin; I love the bridging of the microblogs and threadiverse. And thank you for making the transition to the fediverse less confusing to this old redditor. I wish you the best in life, and thank you again.

    view more: next ›