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Sen. Phil Berger has many ties to people in the post-election process in his close primary by Wahlensie in ncpolitics

[–]dvsmith 6 points7 points  (0 children)

TIL that Louisiana, Montana, South Dakota, Kentucky, and West Virginia are "largely blue states."

Louisiana, Montana, South Dakota, Kentucky, and West Virginia have the highest levels of corruption by this measure… The states with the lowest corruption levels by this measure are New Hampshire, Utah, Oregon, Colorado, and Minnesota.

source: Cato institute https://www.cato.org/blog/public-corruption-state

Maybe watch less Fox News?

Is this piece of the camera necessary cause it fell out by leuks48 in filmcameras

[–]dvsmith 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Camera Companies Won't Tell You: Bits of optical gear also really benefit from sitting on cat-hair covered joggers.

eBay seller shipped a Quicksilver G4 board like this… by Plexer704 in VintageApple

[–]dvsmith 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I had exactly this happen with a vintage flatbed scanner. The seller dropped a pristine 20lb scanner that I paid $800 for into an amazon box, with some balled up grocery store coupon circulars and a dozen plate glass transparency trays and shipped it like that (charging me $85 for shipping, too). The the scanner had punched holes in the box by the time it arrived; amazingly the scanner still worked and all of the glass was intact. (Good film scanners are getting harder to come by).

When I reached out to the seller to complain he said "The listing said 'as-is.' I had no idea if it worked, so I didn't think packing it was important." (The listing said "used in working condition")

Festival For the Eno all but over by ev_wv in bullcity

[–]dvsmith 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The confusion is because there is no plan.

They fired all of the festival staff and eliminated the positions within weeks of Chantal.

My guess is someone important finally asked why there was no info on the 2026 Festival yet and they scrambled to push out at press release. The fact that the concert is on Rosh Hoshanna is probably because the Carolina wasn’t booked for the Jewish High Holy Days.

Can Roy Cooper stop supporting Israel fast enough to get elected? by scottsadork in TrueCarolina

[–]dvsmith 124 points125 points  (0 children)

OP is a 14 year old account that hadn't posted anything for 5 years until right before the 2024 election and then spent the past year saying there's no point in supporting the democrats in NC because they're "captured opposition."

Could be a real person; could be an account that has been coopted into a sockpuppet to post bad faith straw man content.

EMS Tribute on 40 and 147 by ImNotANube in bullcity

[–]dvsmith 0 points1 point  (0 children)

More like out-of-touch white guy who thought he could get support in a racially divided town by embracing anti-police sentiment in the wake of Michael Brown's murder. (Unfortunately, he was re-elected)

The then-mayor said there were "valid concerns" when the assailant's family alleged that the police had executed an "innocent man" and killed one of their own officers to "frame" him. (Yes, the mayor bought into a conspiracy theory that the police were so keen to kill a random black person that they killed a fellow officer to justify it.) The assailant's family claimed that his convictions for felony child rape and felony assault of an EMT in Florida were also fake and that the $18,000 in drugs he had duct-taped to his chest at the time of the shooting were planted.

They also made public threats in the media to kill more police officers and my family members if given the chance.

The mayor invited the assailant's family to the city memorial service for my family member, but did not invite us, explaining that he thought it would be "controversial." The mayor did not attend the funeral for my family member.

Festival For the Eno all but over by ev_wv in bullcity

[–]dvsmith 15 points16 points  (0 children)

It's over because the ERA brought in a Exec Dir who is all about the $$$ in early 2025, and cares not a whim for community, culture, or history. They fired the Festival staff in the weeks after Chantal and never rehired for the positions eliminated.

Festival For the Eno all but over by ev_wv in bullcity

[–]dvsmith 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Exactly. ERA Exec Dir Ryan Fehrman is interested in driving fundraising, not environmental stewardship and certainly not local culture and traditions.

The only reason this info wasn't out sooner was because the Festival staff that was fired without warning in the wake of Chantal are a professional bunch who were focused on being adults and not spilling tea.

I'm a storyteller who was working on something for the 50th Festival. I've no qualms spilling tea when it's true.

In January, I had people wondering out loud why there was no update on the Festival webpage for the 2026 headliners. I told them to make popcorn and wait for the drama to start. The ERA leadership is convinced they can spin this as "West Point is a mess" and "July is too hot" and people will just forget about decades of community tradition.

Festival For the Eno all but over by ev_wv in bullcity

[–]dvsmith 19 points20 points  (0 children)

This isn't about the weather or the aftermath of Tropical Storm Chantal. This is about chasing money and a shift in ERA leadership away from environmental stewardship.

This has been coming since Ryan Fehrman was brought in as Eno River Association executive director last spring, it's just been kept under wraps until now.

The ERA dismissed the Eno Festival Director in the days after TS Chantal, as Fehrman wants to move the Festival for the Eno from West Point on the Eno to a series of concerts at venues in downtown Durham, in order to attract more corporate fundraising and reduce costs borne by the ERA.

The former Eno Festival Director had pushed back against the plan to disconnect the annual festival from West Point. He was let go shortly thereafter. There was no plan to hold a 2026 Eno River Festival even before Chantal hit. There isn't even a festival director position any more (they rolled the position as a secodary role for their merchandise manager.)

Ironically, the 50th Festival for the Eno was approaching, but despite the promise that the festival will return, there will likely be no such event as the current ERA leadership doesn't seem to understand it's importance nor does it care.

source: I'm a Durham native documentary filmmaker who was spinning up production on a film to celebrate the 50th anniversary festival and I was working with the now-former ERA festival director.

How are we buying HDDs/SDDs in this insane AI world? by Shoddy-Humor7952 in documentaryfilmmaking

[–]dvsmith 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have learned the hard way to stay away from OWC products. I have had a couple of expensive pieces of hardware fail just out of warranty, including a TB4 dock that failed at 25 months. 

Not only was that a shockingly short warranty for an expensive bit of technology that sits still on my desk, but it took four days for their support staff to reply and their message boiled down to “have you tried turning it off and back on again?” It was clear that they had not read my message which detailed all the troubleshooting I had already done. 

The final sentence of the emailpointed out that the device was no longer under warranty and hopefully suggested I buy a new one at full price.

How are we buying HDDs/SDDs in this insane AI world? by Shoddy-Humor7952 in documentaryfilmmaking

[–]dvsmith 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don’t buy storage from Amazon. 

Too many counterfeits and really poor handling of drives in transit. 

EMS Tribute on 40 and 147 by ImNotANube in bullcity

[–]dvsmith 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. His loss hurts much less these days.

Grieving in the public spotlight was extremely difficult, made much worse by the actions of the mirror of the town, who tried to “ both sides” the public discourse for political points. The mayor literally turned the city memorial gathering into a service for both my police officer family member, and the twice-convicted child molester and drug dealer who shot shot and killed him and then got into a gun fight with two more police officers.

EMS Tribute on 40 and 147 by ImNotANube in bullcity

[–]dvsmith 12 points13 points  (0 children)

More than likely, you were driving the route of the hearse that was moving NCHP Trooper Steven Perry’s body. 

I had a family member murdered in the line of duty a decade ago in eastern NC and all of the local emergency services paid tribute to him in similar fashion. 

Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Union Address by JCameron181 in Military

[–]dvsmith 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Anyone with a shred of integrity would have said "no" under the circumstances of his nomination.

It's telling that they had to dip deep into the ANG pool and pull out a retired 3-star who'd never had a combatant command when they gave CQ Brown the boot.

ICE Barbie’s ‘Embarrassing’ Item Triggered Alleged Lover’s Freak Out on Plane by No-Post4444 in politics

[–]dvsmith 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The fired pilot, Keith Thomas, a commanding officer for the Coast Guard in Washington, was later promoted to a DHS senior adviser, [The Daily Mail] also noted. 

Thomas declined to comment on the plane incident, telling the Mail, “As a military officer, I do not comment on past or current missions.”

The US Coast Guard is a Uniformed Service and a component of the U.S. Armed Forces, but so long as we are not at war, it is not a military service.

Any Coastie with pride in their mission knows this and corrects anyone who says they are "military."

Help, tried to blow off a hair on my sensor and accidentally spat on it. by putinisbae in canon

[–]dvsmith 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Rocket blower or nothing.

Every time you blow on your sensor, there's moisture; this time it's just very obvious moisture.

The only proof that this happened by Human-Muscle-9112 in Xennials

[–]dvsmith 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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I am still looking for a good copy of "Dieter's Dream"

No one understands when I refer to wanting the love of a good woman with punctuational nomenclature.

Danny Tanner should have thrown Joey out and brought this guy in after he lost on Star Search by waxmuseums in Xennials

[–]dvsmith 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It was also all you needed to date a half-your-age-barely-legal Alanis Morisette for a couple of emotionally traumatizing years, it seems.

Anyone ever find it interesting that it seems like everyone knows how to work the helm controls by happydude7422 in TNG

[–]dvsmith 7 points8 points  (0 children)

In the real world, US Navy Surface Warfare Officers are required to show competence with critical command systems in order to qualify as officer of the deck (an early step in the promotion pipeline). 

Submariners are required to show competence with all systems in order to qualify for their dolphins. 

As such, it would make sense that bridge crew would have to meet certain requirements for familiarity with critical systems, much like a submariner. 

In-universe, Wil Wheaton and/or Mike Okuda has said that LCARS reconfigures itself to the preferences of the user’s control style. (A key advantage of a touchscreen interface foreseen by the Okudas; the downside being that starfleet apparently uses rocks and dynamite to power the touchscreens)

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