[-] Fondots@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago

If you were able to target it properly to the right species, depending on where you are in the world, there's a good chance that the rats and sparrows you're thinking of are invasive.

I know around me in the US I see a whole lot more house sparrows (native to Europe, Asia, and some parts of North Africa) than I do any native Sparrows.

And the two most known rat species- the black and brown rats, originated in different parts of Asia and more-or-less spread around the world with human trade and migration.

So getting rid of those would probably be a good thing to reduce competition for native animals.

[-] Fondots@lemmy.world 56 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I remember seeing a comment somewhere wishing they would reboot Xena, but lamenting that they would probably make it "too woke" if they did

I don't think there's much they could do to make Xena more "woke" if they tried.

[-] Fondots@lemmy.world 60 points 4 months ago

don't use colloquialisms, or soft language.

Honestly, part of the problem with the current crop of right wing assholes, is that a lot of them are so fucking brainwashed that they don't even realize that what they're supporting is just outright fascist/Nazi bullshit, so if you ask them point-blank "Are you a Nazi/fascist" they're going to answer "no" and truly believe that, even as they're supporting rounding up immigrants into concentration camps and "ironically" making Nazi salutes.

They have absolutely mastered 1984-style doublethink and duckspeak. They'll prattle on about being free speech absolutists while wanting to remove books about trans people from libraries or banning people with different opinions from their social media sites. They'll talk about being fiscally conservative while absolutely fucking the economy. They'll rant about draining the swamp and eliminating the deep state while they give some unelected goon unprecedented power to do whatever the hell he wants in the government with no consequences.

And they see absolutely no contradictions there.

So you kind of have to play fucking word games with them if you want to actually sus out what their actual thoughts are.

14
submitted 5 months ago by Fondots@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

This is gonna be a bit of a weird one, try to keep an open mind.

I went to a nudist resort with a couple friends a few times last year, it was a good time, we're hoping to go back a few times this year once the weather warms up again.

It's not a sexual thing, it's just nice to hang out without pants, no laundry to do when you get home, etc. There are some swingers who frequent it, but they're very respectful about it, they'll ask if you're "in the lifestyle" but if you're not they don't pressure you and let it drop. None of my friends involved in this story are swingers.

I've been kind of floating the idea to a few other friends I thought might be interested. It's a mixed bag, some are open to it, others aren't, not really surprising there, my own wife isn't interested, and I get that it's not everyone's thing.

Two of the people I floated the idea to are a married couple. We'll call them Will and Janet (not their real names.) Will wasn't interested, but Janet was open to it.

The resort posted their event schedule for this year recently, so I've been talking with the friends I went with last year to figure out when we want to go. We narrowed it down to a couple events we're interested in, and I've been letting my other friends who were interested know so we can figure out our plans.

Janet messages me back after I tell her what weekends we're planning on. Said she asked Will and that he wasn't comfortable with her going so she's going to pass.

And that just kind of rubs me the wrong way. Every relationship has a different dynamic of course, but personally I have a hard time imagining telling my wife that "I'm not comfortable" with her doing something she wants to do unless it is something outright dangerous.

Little extra context, we're all in our 30s, we're all mutual friends, it wouldn't be particularly unusual for any of us to go hang out with anyone else in this group. I've hung out with with just Janet before, we have spare keys to each other's houses, and I'm pretty sure my mom regards them as basically extras of her own children, in short we're all close and trust each other.

The other friends I went with last year are similarly close, a couple, we'll call them Erin and Steve. Will's actually known Erin longer than I have, and probably worth mentioning, went skinny dipping with her and some other friends once back in their teens or early 20s. They never dated or anything like that, she's just kind of "one of the guys" the dudes there were gonna jump into a frozen creek naked so she joined them. And Steve is a very chill dude.

Will is also not a controlling guy. This is the first time I've ever heard anything like that from him (albeit second-hand through Janet) very much a live and let live kind of dude. He's maybe a little prudish and old fashioned in his own tastes, but accepting that his tastes aren't for everyone.

I'm not really planning on pushing the issue, for all I know Janet got cold feet and is using him as an excuse, and unless I see any other sign of him getting weird, I'm just gonna chalk it up to their relationship dynamic being different from my own. But I just kind of wanted to see if that rubs anyone else the wrong way.

54

The other day I saw a post somewhere on Lemmy, it seems to have been taken down or at least I'm unable to find it again, by some dickwad asking, pretty clearly it bad faith, why people felt like they needed the day off from work or school after the election. It was full of him bitching about basically people being too soft if they couldn't handle their feelings being hurt and that sort of garbage. This was basically going to be my reply to that.

I work in 911 dispatch, that should tell you that I'm the kind of person who can handle stress well, i've dealt with some crazy shit both at work and in my personal life, I don't think anyone is going to claim I'm someone who's easily rattled.

And still, despite all of the things I've seen, done, heard, and been a part of, I have never felt as physically sick from stress as I did watching the election results coming in Tuesday night.

I was at work, and in the midst of it as it was becoming clear that Trump was going to win, right around 2AM, I got one of those really insane calls, the kind of thing that makes the evening news and that they make true crime TV shows out of, that normally leaves even a hardened tough guy like me a little bit shaken-up, and all I felt was relief because something finally came along to wrench my mind from the election.

I woke up the next day still feeling sick to my stomach. My wife woke up in tears. I spent the day feeling like I was lost in a fog, and by the next day the fog lifted giving way to a simmering rage that I'm not sure will ever go away entirely. Luckily Wednesday and Thursday were my scheduled days off this week, I genuinely don't think I could have worked Wednesday night feeling like I felt.

I'm an old boy scout, I took the scout motto of "be prepared" to heart, I believe that most people don't really rise to the occasion but instead they fall to their level of training, and all the other sayings and such about preparedness and self-reliance and all of that, and I've prepared myself so that I am rarely at a complete loss of what to say or do in any given situation, I have plenty of training and life experience to fall back on.

No one ever trains you how to watch democracy die.

Or how to handle something like ¾ of your country turning their back on your most deeply-held values either by actively voting against them or by not even caring enough to bother showing up to vote.

And nothing prepares you to look around you in a 911 dispatch center, surrounded by people that people are supposed to be able to trust to stand for justice, safety, law, order, security, fairness, equity, compassion, basic human decency, who are supposed to stand up for and provide assistance to vulnerable members of our community when they need it most, who like to pat themselves on the back for being the "calm voice in the night" or the "thin gold line"...

... And realizing that most of them either don't care or are actively rooting for a man who stands for the exact opposite of all of those values.

For the first time I can remember I feel well and truly lost. I tend to be the guy people turn to when they have a problem because I know how to fix it or I at least know how to find someone who can. I don't know how to fix this, and I certainly don't have a guy for this. I'm gonna keep on soldiering on until I figure it out or I guess I'll die trying, but I really don't know what my path forward from here is going to be. And if I need some time to figure this shit out. I certainly won't think less of anyone who needs the same.

And everyone deals with different kinds of stresses differently and more or less successfully than anyone else. Despite the crazy shit I've managed to deal with, there's other more mundane situations that some people can handle just fine that I can't hack. Put me in a regular office environment with reports, paperwork, deadlines and presentations, and I'd probably be burned out in a week. It's like the old saying about trying to judge a fish by its ability to climb trees.

It's ok to not be ok right now, honestly I think anyone who says they're ok right now is either faking it or a psychopath. Don't be afraid to ask for help, if you have it in you, try to check in on others to make sure they're doing ok and getting what they need too. The only way we're getting through this is together.

[-] Fondots@lemmy.world 138 points 10 months ago

I remember maybe a year or so ago, overhearing some of my coworkers who seemed to genuinely believe that schools were installing litter boxes for alleged students that identify as cats.

These idiots will believe absolutely anything, and it doesn't need to be even remotely anchored to reality.

[-] Fondots@lemmy.world 107 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Call 911, tell them where it is, explain that you found a trash bag somewhere and you're concerned it has a dead body in it, don't disturb it any more than you already have

I work in 911 dispatch, from my end of things this is a very straightforward call. Verify your location, one or two short lines of notes, send a cop out to check it out.

I've taken a few calls like this, luckily it's always just been trash or at worst a dead animal.

One time the responding officer found some bones in the bag and was pretty sure they weren't human, but called out our on-call coroner to be sure who confirmed that it was just a deer or something.

Similarly I once had a call from an off-duty coroner reporting a "strong smell of decomp" from the woods near a gas station or something. I guess if anyone would know it would be them. Sent a cop out, sure enough, it was a dead deer.

It's very rare that anything like this is ever as exciting as your imagination makes you think it might be. Still, always better to call if you're unsure.

[-] Fondots@lemmy.world 58 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

One of the interesting things that sticks out to me personally that lends credence to the idea that the Bible is just kind of a bunch of half-remembered stories all mashed together is Barabbas- the guy that Pontius Pilate supposedly pardoned instead of Jesus.

In some versions, Barabbas is given the first name "Jesus"

And "Barabbas" could potentially come from "bar abba" in ~~Hebrew~~ Aramaic (although Hebrew "ben av" or "ben aba" is not far off) meaning "son of the father"

He was imprisoned and sentenced to execution due to taking part in an insurrection against the Roman empire.

The two characters- "Jesus, son of the father, and sentenced to death for sedition" and "Jesus, son of God, sentenced to die for claiming to be king of the Jews" sound a hell of a lot like they're referring to the same dude to me.

That's either one of the biggest coincidences in all of history, or someone heard two different versions of the same story and mashed them together.

Or maybe it's just sort of a 1st century version of the saying that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom-fighter."

[-] Fondots@lemmy.world 110 points 2 years ago

The actual sprayer nozzle sits towards the back of the bowl and sprays up at an angle so any dripping is going straight down into the bowl not landing on the sprayer nozzle.

It's getting fresh water, not recycling bowl water, I suppose there could be some small risk if Larry has explosive diarrhea all over the nozzle, but its probably no worse than if you have any splashback after using a regular toilet after him. Most of the models I have used also have a self-cleaning feature that will have the nozzle rinse itself (they still do need to be actually cleaned periodically of course)

There is a little bit of splashing, unless you're abnormally small and skinny though most of it is probably just going to get your butt and staying in the toilet, once in a while I'll get a couple drops on the front of the toilet seat and I'm pretty sure that's just over-spray shooting directly between my legs, not poop water splashing off of my ass

[-] Fondots@lemmy.world 83 points 2 years ago

ThatsTheJoke.gif

[-] Fondots@lemmy.world 67 points 2 years ago

Teeth have always kind of struck me as something we could eventually not just replace or regrow and make as good as new, but actually replace with something better.

Teeth are, by their nature, subject to a lot of wear and tear, corrosive environments, have a lot of nooks and crannies that need to be cleaned regularly, etc.

How fucking cool would it be to have some sort of cyborg teeth made of some material that won't wear down, is more corrosion resistant, stronger than your natural teeth, etc? You could use your teeth as a bottle opener with impunity, or do everything else your parents always warned you not to do with your teeth.

I'm certainly no doctor or material scientist to suggest what the ideal tooth replacement material would be, but imagine having some kind of titanium alloy super teeth that would never wear down, corrode, or get cavities no matter what kind of neglect or abuse you subject them to, and are purposely engineered for easier flossing, may e even more efficient biting and chewing. Sure, the Jaws look isn't everyone's aesthetic, but some of us might consider it a worthwhile trade-off.

In the meantime though, this is damn cool if it pans out.

[-] Fondots@lemmy.world 113 points 2 years ago

I find this kind of interesting after Naomi Wu (also known as SexyCyborg) recently had a run-in with the CCP and has largely gone silent online.

For anyone not familiar with her/her situation, she's a tech/maker YouTuber. She has a pretty radical look with enormous fake boobs and skimpy outfits, but she does have some genuinely interesting content. She had been calling out some security vulnerabilities that recently got some attention so that's likely why the Chinese government, in her words, clipped her wings, but she had a bit of a target painted on her back regardless because of her appearance, being a lesbian, and because her girlfriend is a Uyghur.

[-] Fondots@lemmy.world 72 points 2 years ago

People always chime in with stories about how chiropractors helped them with XY and Z problem they were having.

And overall I don't doubt them. There's a lot of things that can go wrong with your spine or other joints, and I'm certain that some of them can be addressed by physically manipulating and adjusting it.

But the basic premise of chiropractic treatments is that basically all human ailments can be fixed in that way, which should sound like total bullshit to anyone with half a brain. And that's before you get into all spiritual nonsense that pervades a lot of the field.

Now some of them understand that that's a load of bullshit and may even be realistic about the things they can treat, but it can be pretty damn hard to sort them out from the ones who think that your pancreatic cancer is caused by ghosts in your spine and they know how to get them out or some bullshit like that.

Now if you have a good idea what your issue is and what needs to be done to fix it, take the time to carefully vet your chiropractor to make sure they're not going to try some crazy bullshit on you, you very well may be able to get a decent treatment from them. Maybe you'll even be able to save some money going with that.

But for most of us who aren't doctors and so only have kind of vague ideas what exactly the issue is and that the treatments we're doing actually make any sense, and don't necessarily have time to do all of that research and carefully vet that the person treating them isn't secretly a quack, you could just get the same sort of treatments from actually physical therapists, orthopedists, physiatrists, etc. with the added benefit of them actually understanding the issues and how to fix them properly.

Chiropractors are kind of like the rednecks of the medicine world. Some of them know exactly what they're doing with that harbor freight welder, they may not do things by the book but they know for certain what works and what doesn't and more importantly know when something is beyond what them and their buddies can accomplish on a free Saturday with a case of beer and when they need to suck it up and limp their truck to the shop and let a professional deal with it. Others know just enough to be dangerous and while they can get the job done 90% of the time or at least not make things worse, that 10% of the time something is literally going to blow up in someone's face. And still others are just meth heads looking to make a quick buck and it's a miracle they're not behind bars. And when you see them hanging around the local watering hole, it may not be totally clear which is which until it's too late.

[-] Fondots@lemmy.world 76 points 2 years ago

The Roman Historian Sallust once said "Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master"

I remember posting that quote on Facebook once probably about 12 years ago. An older guy I worked with at the time chimed in that he was one of the few and how important liberty was to him.

Few years later he was spewing Trump bullshit.

21
submitted 2 years ago by Fondots@lemmy.world to c/aww@lemmy.world

Sunny is, as far as we know, a purebred Malinois, she's almost 4 years old, and is a strong contender for being the Laziest Malinois in the world (which still means she has more energy than any other dog I've ever known)

Some Malinois like to catch frisbees, run up walls, chase bad guys, parachute into hostile territory, etc. Sunny just like to wait for you to get up so she can steal your chair.

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Fondots

joined 2 years ago