@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

shuttersparks

@shuttersparks@qoto.org

So. Cal. engineer (hardware/software, retired, he/him), born at 313 ppm, musician, chef, now living in West Virginia. KW2P ham radio (the original social network), father of three, grandfather, astronomy, solar dynamics, photography, writing, birding, birdwatching, eBird, fountain pens, cats and dog, reader of banned books, Chairman of the Charcuterie Board, Whisk Manager, Compuserve refugee, founder of The Church of The Unwarranted Assumption. Crypto is short for cryptography. Blog: shuttersparks.net

#HamRadio
#Morse
#MorseCode
#Birding
#BirdWatching
#eBird
#wv
#WestVirginia
#food
#cooking
#astronomy
#physics
#engineering
#photography
#FountainPens

"To hold a pen is to be at war." --Voltaire

"I never understood wind. You know, I know windmills very much. Gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous amount of fumes and everything." --Donald Trump

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

shuttersparks, to internet
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

This tracking stuff on the Internet is past ridiculous. I notice that when I pull up my Orders page on Amazon, uBlock blocks 133 items. When I pull up Accuweather for my town, it blocks 273 items.

Here on Mastodon, both uBlock and Privacy Badger read zero. Funny how that is.

#Internet #privacy

knittingknots2, to random
@knittingknots2@mstdn.social avatar

Texas doctor who said nine-year-olds can safely give birth appointed to maternal mortality committee | Texas | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/23/texas-anti-abortion-activist

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@knittingknots2 You can't make this stuff up. Fiction has to be believable at some level. Reality has no such limitation.

cerebrate, to random
@cerebrate@schelling.pt avatar

My lovely wife and editor sent me this meme...

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@cerebrate Hence the "fabric of spacetime".

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

The New York City Police Department is preparing to revoke ’s license to carry a gun

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/05/politics/trump-gun-nypd-revoke?cid=ios_app

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@CStamp @GottaLaff I expect he obtained the guns and permit simply because he could.

Almost everything he does he tries to turn into a badge of honor and privilege to make up for his lack of actual achievements.

skykiss, to Ukraine
@skykiss@sfba.social avatar

Latest United Nations report on Russia's war crimes in #Ukraine reads like the worst horror film imaginable. Women & young girls viscously raped by drunken Russian soldiers & rape/sexual assault used as punishment for any pro-Ukraine sentiment. The inhuman torture of Ukrainian prisoners, both soldiers & civilians is beyond words.

We can not look away, Ukrainians need us to speak up for them against Russian barbaric torture, rapes, killings. Let the world know what russians have done & are doing now as you read this.

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/03/ukraine-un-commission-concerned-continuing-patterns-violations-human-rights

#StandWithUkraine #supportUkraine
#warcrimes #warcrminal #arrestputin #RussiaIsATerroristState

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@skykiss Sounds like typical Russian behavior. My grandmother told me about this too.

Perhaps the most important thing we must do is to not forget. As this war winds down, the pressure to bring justice must increase.

The Russians assume that the world will move on and forget. This is what usually happens. We must not allow this to happen. We didn't allow it to happen with WW2 Nazis. We have to repeat that here.

The thing is, to bring justice, Russia must not only be stopped but defeated. The Rus have been plaguing their neighbors for hundreds of years. It's time for it to stop.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Maybe I try to look for the sunny side of the street too often, but this is just funny to me. Many of the January 6th Insurrectionists now have felony records, and can no longer own a firearm. THEY TOOK AWAY THEIR OWN GUNS! LOL

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@ang6666 @RickiTarr Right. It doesn't. And in red-states, small towns, for Jan 6 convictions, they'll look the other way. Selective enforcement is real once you get out of the big cities.

shuttersparks, to Birding
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

Birdwatchers Unite!

Do you participate in Cornell University's ornithology programs? Do you use the eBird database? Do you use the eBird or Merlin apps? If so I want to follow you and build a list of fellow eBirders so we can share knowledge, experiences, photos, etc.

#eBird #Merlin #ornithology #birding #BirdWatching #BirdInventory #Cornell

ai6yr, to random
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

New York Times: Paxlovid Cuts Covid Death Risk. But Those Who Need It Are Not Taking It. "With Covid deaths rising to about 1,500 per week, researchers question why Paxlovid use has remained low among high-risk patients." (GIFT ARTICLE) https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/health/paxlovid-covid-treatment.html?searchResultPosition=1 #GiftArticle #covid19 #CovidIsNotOver #pandemic #paxlovid

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@ai6yr BTW, I'm in the middle of my second round of Covid. Had it two years ago. I'm fully vaxxed and boosted with the lastest as of 30 days ago so I'm guessing it's the JN.1 variant.

shuttersparks, to random
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

Astrud Gilberto has died. One of the musical styles that defined my generation was bossa nova. The most famous song in that style is The Girl from Ipanema. The song was written by Joao Gilberto, who is considered the father of bossa nova. Astrud was his wife.

The Girl from Ipanema is sung by Astrud, a girl who is not a professional singer. How did this happen? On the day the song was recorded, the intended singer didn't show up and Joao asked Astrud to have a go at it. The result is epic because the song benefits enormously from her innocent, ordinary, non-flashy singing.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/brazilian-astrud-gilberto-sang-girl-ipanema-dead-83-rcna87910

shuttersparks, to politics
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

Here's the latest rumor that's spreading like wildfire among the right-wing rubes here in West Virginia. They're certain they're "in on the scam".

"Electric cars pollute just as much as regular cars because all the pollution from cars comes from the brake pads. Electric cars have brake pads like every car so they pollute just as much."

Sigh. This is, of course, ridiculously wrong in two different ways but it's the latest "the liberals are scamming everyone" rumor here in West Virginia.

#politics #USPol #ConspiracyTheory #RWNJ

shuttersparks, to chicago
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

Some good videos at this link of the tornados that hit Chicago a few minutes ago.

https://wgntv.com/weather/weather-blog/severe-weather-updates/gallery-severe-weather-leaves-damage-around-northern-illinois-northwest-indiana/

shuttersparks, to random
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar
shuttersparks, to fountainpens
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

I've been very happy with the Jinhao fountain pens I have in my pen collection. Working on them and with them I've collected some information that's useful to me and put it in a blog post.

https://shuttersparks.net/jinhao-fountain-pens/

#FountainPens #FP #FPs #Jinhao #nibs #feeds

shuttersparks, to movies
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

An exact replica of the surreal bedroom in "2001: A Space Odyssey"

https://mossandfog.com/an-exact-replica-from-the-surreal-bedroom-of-2001-a-space-odyssey/

#film #movies #kubrick #2001

shuttersparks, to politics
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

Hmm. Over the past two days I've noticed a change in rhetoric used in the news media regarding Trump, Giuliani, election fraud, and the insurrection. Softening words like "alleged" and "supposed" have disappeared suddenly. Putting things in quotes has disappeared. Now it's just words like illegal and false with no softening-words.

I wonder what this means. Are they done harvesting income from scandal-generator Donald Trump and cutting him loose? Have they come to the realization that the court proceedings will not go well for Trump and his minions and are getting on the side of reality, truth, and the majority of voters so they don't end up looking stupid? What's Fox going to do when the people they've supported for years end up in jail?

Amd what's wrong with Giuliani? He's a lawyer and should know better. He just got hit with a $148 million judgment so he declared bankruptcy. Does he not know that you can't declare bankruptcy in order to avoid paying an obligation? And he comes out of court after the judgment and runs his mouth some more, so the lawyers who won the $148 million judgment just sued him again. Senility?

#USPol #politics

Sherifazuhur, to egypt
@Sherifazuhur@sfba.social avatar

From #Egypt to #Syria, ‘water cancer’ ( ورد النيل ) chokes waterways @egypt @syria

https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/from-egypt-to-syria-water-cancer-chokes-waterways/

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@Sherifazuhur @egypt @syria Oh, man. I know this plant from when I lived in Guatemala. It's very bad.

rightardia, to random
@rightardia@mastodon.social avatar

Trump’s Social Media Company Posts Massive Loss

The company reported less than $1 million in income and nearly $328 million in losses.

https://politicalwire.com/2024/05/20/trumps-social-media-company-posts-massive-loss/

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@rightardia Remember, this is the guy who failed at the casino business.

There are only two ways to fail in the casino business: 1) fail to attract enough customers, 2) embezzle the lifeblood out of the business.

EricKHoward, to random
@EricKHoward@mastodon.social avatar

Steve Bannon Issues Warning to Donald Trump's Enemies—'We Want You to Fear'
https://www.newsweek.com/steve-bannon-warning-donald-trump-enemies-fear-1903830
#uspol

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@EricKHoward Oh, Steve. The best I can do is laugh.

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@EricKHoward @BikeyBike Yes, followers that are just him.

Free_Press, to news
@Free_Press@mstdn.social avatar

1 US Bradley vs. Shitload of Russians......

Shitload of Russians lose!
#AureFreePress #News #press #headline #Ukraine #Russia

SENSITIVE CONTENT 18+

video/mp4

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@Free_Press I like the Bradley. It has a good mix of capabilities.

A .50 cal (12.7 mm) machine gun shooting FMJ bullets will ruin your day. Firing a .50 BMG at thick steel plate is an eye-opening experience. Now imagine a 25 mm chain gun firing explosive rounds. Yeah. Don't be the target.

hanse_mina, to Ukraine
@hanse_mina@mastodon.social avatar

Inside the White House, a Debate Over Letting Shoot Weapons Into

After a sobering trip to , Secretary of State Antony J. is urging the president to lift restrictions on how Ukraine can use American arms.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/us/politics/white-house-ukraine-weapons-russia.html

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@kavo3 @hanse_mina Not for the Russians.

I understand the Ukrainians are very good at gathering intelligence on enemy troop movements. They presumably have F-16s now and know how to use them. An F-16 can carry four Mk84 bombs. Being anywhere near one of those takes the fight right out of you. It's a relatively inexpensive munition and we have thousands of them. Turn them loose.

Leaves a 50 foot crater. Kill radius is 1000 feet. Quite unforgettable. Observe the shockwave.
https://youtu.be/oiZTGHU3KkU?feature=shared

shuttersparks, to random
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

The silence from Second Amendment / gun rights people during Hunter Biden's trial is interesting.

br00t4c, to space
@br00t4c@mastodon.social avatar

NASA finds more issues with Boeing's Starliner, but crew launch set for June 1

https://arstechnica.com/?p=2027053

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@br00t4c I have a bad feeling about this.

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

I didn't anticipate middle school students might be little grossed out by the images of the ant larvae, "ew maggots!" but I explained to them the difference between larvae and maggots.

"We think of fly babies, called maggots, as gross because they eat decaying things, but they are also an important part of ecosystems. Ant babies are called larvae and are fed nectar and insects by their sisters."

I tried to improve their view of larvae without slandering maggots too much.

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@futurebird Well, and not to belabor the topic of maggots, but they are useful. They have certain skills that are useful to medicine. I'm sure you know this.

Maggots, like alligators, prefer rotted meat. This is because rotted meat is already partially digested. (The fact that we humans consider this "gross and disgusting" is irrelevant.)

Maggots are terrific tools in cases of gangrene. They have the seemingly miraculous ability to clean out a gangrenous wound. Perfectly. They leave the wound absolutely clean. This is because they will not eat healthy tissue, only rotting tissue.

GayDeceiver, to random
@GayDeceiver@mstdn.social avatar

He must be spitting mad. People of color and women are showing everyone what foolish weak man he is.

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@GayDeceiver We already know that. The problem is that Trump is polling higher than Biden and that's unlikely to change. His followers were prepared for a guilty verdict and it doesn't bother them a bit.

Here in West Virginia it's all in for Trump. After the verdict I listened to a woman say the whole thing is ridiculous because every man cheats on his wife. (I plan to speak with her and point out that the case is not about him cheating on his wife.)

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