It's hella weird around here, because I consider myself moderate-to-reasonably-left wing, but by Lemmy standards I'm probably waaaaaay conservative. Like some of the stuff I see celebrated around here definitely makes my eyebrows shoot up.

And like, I'd actually enjoy having this discussion as well in that frame, but I don't think I can honestly answer as a "conservative".

Candy Corn. Some people insist they taste like wax, and I'm like, "What?!" I will chew those things all day long.

Welp. Since Hasbro overall seems intent on running its properties into the ground, I have little doubt the next one will continue the cycle of enshittification. I'd love to be wrong, but I doubt it.

My computer turns itself on when I walk through a certain spot nearby it.

"Ah, you must have your mouse or some other peripheral set to activate it and the vibrations from walking-" Nope, I know how to disable wakeup from peripherals. "Well, then the vibrations from walking must be disturbing a loose component inside-" Nope, problem existed through a near-complete teardown and OS reinstall. Also, putting the PC on vibration isolating foam did not help.

At this point, I'm down to two conclusions:

• The wire for the wall outlet runs under the floor, and vibrations are causing adequate power fluctuations to wake the machine up. Not sure how to test for this, though it does concern me about the state of the wiring.
• The PC is haunted.

It's called the double ear mutation! It's a known recessive gene that appears in some cats.

"Mixed" art feels like you're going to be perpetually having to police how much any given submission has been modified before it becomes acceptable.

Just cut it off, period.

Specifically talking about asphalt vs. concrete:

• Asphalt is relatively cheap vs. concrete. This is partly because asphalt is a whole lot easier to recycle than concrete, which is almost un-recyclable, but also because asphalt is a relatively "simple" material - it's mostly petroleum byproducts and gravel.

• Concrete doesn't grip very well, compared to the relatively textured surface of asphalt. Especially when wet! This is why you often see concrete formed with "ridges" or "bumps" cast into it. However...

• This also makes concrete noisier and bumpier to drive over, making drivers less happy. It's why it's often used for short, low-speed uses like driveways, parking lots, or side streets.

Just about the only thing concrete has going for it is it's endurance, which it definitely wins handily.

Every few years another engineered road solution is conceived - I've seen variations that would use glass which could be 're-fused', concepts for recycling plastic waste, and many more. Most of these run into the issue that they're either less 'grippy', or that they simply cost more even accounting for the longer lifespan.

Really glad I'm not the first to come here and say this. We're "firing" programs now? Come on.

Floofy kitty? Black kitty? Check. Rolly kitty? Check!

This is a good kitty.

Back when I used to mod Reddit, starting maybe a year or so ago we'd occasionally get users who would be inexplicably targeted by the auto-filter.

The accounts weren't new, weren't shadowbanned, weren't using any filter-triggering words (that I could guess at), and an examination via Pushshift didn't reveal any kind of spammy behavior. Nonetheless, their posts would get silently removed by the site-wide filter, and frequently we wouldn't even know until they modmailed us.

Now I can't help but wonder if this was a result of a beta-test of something like this. Something they had done had invisibly lowered their "Reddit credit", leaving us as confused as them.

They don’t understand how to use a search engine effectively anymore or how to rapidly filter through large amounts of information to find answers

This bit, at least, may be at least as much a fault of the environment - the increasing awfulness of search results these days. It used to be you could search a specific issue (e.g., "borked.exe high CPU usage" or "how to partition a drive") and your first results would be relatively well-written sites run by actual tech people. More recently, though, it feels like:

• The first 5-8 results are near-identical "help" sites that are 40% introduction, 40% basic troubleshooting steps, 15% "download our app!", and 5% actually useful tips.

• There are tech site results listed... but they're from 2016, a different software version, maybe even a different OS.

• "Okay, so, to fix this problem you first need... [SIGN IN TO CONTINUE READING]

• If you're very, very lucky, you'll find a Reddit (or now, Lemmy) thread on the issue.

I'd consider myself pretty technically savvy, and even I find it frustrating to search for IT info or fixes these days. The newest problem is AI-written answers cooked up for you on the spot, which are frequently completely unhelpful yet pushed to the top of the results.

Assuming the majority of the material on it is still Radium, the good news is it's mostly undergoing Alpha decay - which can be stopped by something as simple as your skin. Depending on the decay chain, there's also probably a bit of Beta decay in there, for which a strong metal box will probably suffice.

But the real point here is that 10 uSv is the radiation equivalent of being alive for an average day, so brief exposure is unlikely to cause real injury. But here are some things you can do if you're still concerned:

• Limit time exposed to it. It's okay to take it out to show to friends and family, but otherwise keep it somewhere people aren't likely to be nearby.

• The aforementioned metal box.

• Wash your hands thoroughly after handling, and/or wear gloves. It's unlikely, especially if the radium-painted parts are under glass, but possible that radioactive materials could end up on your skin. Washing hands should prevent this.

If you've heard of the "Radium girls", the thing that really made them sick is that they were licking radium-coated paintbrushes, causing radioactive material to end up inside their bodies. Since (I presume) you're not licking the compass, you're much less at risk.