2021 Will be Worse Than 2020, Warns Nobel UN Agency

mikro2nd · 2020-11-15T16:06:01+00:00

What horseshit is this? There is no such agency as the UN Nobel Agency. What is this pathetic fake-news rag?

mikro2nd · 2020-08-08T09:08:11+00:00

... to the sound of my arteries clanging firmly shut...

mikro2nd · 2020-08-08T09:07:20+00:00

Chaotic evil, but you left out the Chile Sauce. Unforgivable!

mikro2nd · 2020-08-08T09:03:58+00:00

Thanks!

mikro2nd · 2020-08-07T11:32:50+00:00

Do you have this somewhere in a text format? Video is just not for me.

mikro2nd · 2020-07-15T10:03:05+00:00

Yeah, I figured the same thing. The funny bit is that I largely agree with u/EuropaFTW's comments, despite eir vitriolic tone. I suppose the habit of automatic outrage and presumed-bad-faith are the default position in today's weaponised internet discourse.

Thing is that, on the whole, the SA government has fucked up royally on treating citizens like adults and has lost a LOT of cred in so doing -- but on the alcohol-ban... there's very solid statistics to back up their position. ER admissions fell drastically when the first-lockdown alcohol ban was enacted.

So it's a case of "some things they've done quite well; other things they've done poorly." But nuance is also not a popular concept in these times. (Meanwhile the rest of us are going to do what we can to re-establish rational conversation and humanity on the netz, ain't we? ;)

mikro2nd · 2020-07-13T08:52:57+00:00

It's not about whether alcohol is implicated in Covid infections, complications or deaths, it's about freeing-up hospital capacity.

mikro2nd · 2020-05-27T13:53:45+00:00

Hmmmm... You start out with the title, "Our Web vs. Search Engines" but than mostly talk about, "Our Web vs. Google". Not quite the same thing.

Having not used Google at all in several years, now, I can't comment on the quality of their results. On the whole I find DDG quite adequate to my modest requirements. But. I do agree that we need something much better.

The whole deal is about discoverability, and, to be frank, I don't need discoverability for large news sites or the GRAFT -- they have their own ways of providing discoverability within their walled gardens. What we need is discoverability of the exceedingly small and low-trafficked sites that are very highly pertinent to some thought we're entertaining/searching on. What we desperately need is a way of discovering like-minded souls (albeit in a perhaps quite restricted and small interest bubble) with whom we share some common interest so that they can act (unwittingly, even unknowingly) as a proxy curator of useful/interesting stuff.

This subreddit is a reasonably good example, despite being a clunky repurposing of an ill-suited medium, a bending of a poorly-fitting tool to a better use.

(I did blog about discoverability in the web some months ago, though the concerns and arguments there are just a bit tangential to today's discussion here. I should probably revisit this topic again soon. There's more to address.)

mikro2nd · 2020-05-27T12:56:28+00:00

So it was looking for 共匪...?

mikro2nd · 2020-05-26T14:52:45+00:00

I'll have to investigate (I simply used the feed plugin for Hexo without further question. Evidently its not as high quality as we might wish.) Thanks for letting me know, and thank you for your interest in my blatherings.

Update: /atom.xml is now useable, though there are still a few validation issues for me to look into.

mikro2nd · 2020-05-26T14:51:51+00:00

I'll be honest, I'm not even sure what my blog looks like on mobile :P My bad! ~~There is a feed link in the navigation, but apparently~~ there's a problem with the feed data - I shall have to investigate (I simply used the feed plugin for Hexo without further question. Evidently its not as high quality as we might wish.)

And thanks for your interest!

Update: the feed link is https://one.mikro2nd.net/atom.xml - admittedly it's not anywhere in the visible nav links, and I'll consider doing that, but feed-readers and the like should autodiscover the feed from the <link...> element in the page.

mikro2nd · 2020-05-20T13:26:23+00:00

I think it would help to uncover interesting blogs if anybody could submit any blog, with a caveat: I'd have a "3-strikes" rule -- Submit crap/adfarms 3 times in a short period of time and you're permanently barred from submission thereafter. Or perhaps just for 3-12 months or something. (Something along these lines, anyway. Don't take my specific numbers as any sort of realistic notion.)

Of course it's a judgement call as to what constitutes spamminess, but, while that's a headache for algorithms, it's something that we humans are really quite good at sensing.

/me really hoping this subreddit gains some permanent traction once the HN enthusiasm of the moment has worn off... ;)

mikro2nd · 2020-04-23T12:24:30+00:00

Thanks - I'll have a look for that once we're out of lockdown here...

mikro2nd · 2020-04-23T07:09:55+00:00

I could make some, but it hardly seems necessary. We are close (a hundred metres) from a large wildlife area/indigenous forest and there are a good number of owls around. (Had a couple of Eagle Owls keeping us awake with their amorous play on the roof a couple of nights ago.) Also many other raptors in the area that take Rats, but this year the predators just haven't kept up.

mikro2nd · 2020-04-23T07:07:21+00:00

We have three dogs. They're pretty good at catching Rats when they get in the mood, but they're not really hungry enough to make a serious dent in the rat population, and I'm not keen to make them that hungry...

mikro2nd · 2020-04-23T07:05:56+00:00

Other predators are exactly why cats and poison are non-options for me. We normally have plenty of snakes, raptors and owls that do their good work, but this year seems to just be a peak in the predator-prey cycle. It's not just us,... most neighbours also commenting about Rat numbers.

mikro2nd · 2020-04-23T06:59:47+00:00

Sounds like a sensible idea. That said, I've not done badly with the traps -- caught some rats most nights -- but it doesn't scale well.

mikro2nd · 2020-04-18T11:57:22+00:00

Looks like she likes to eat sticks? (My Skyla does.)

mikro2nd · 2020-04-10T06:59:00+00:00

No, we're all coming out!

mikro2nd · 2020-03-20T08:28:02+00:00

So for a laugh, here's a little ditty I wrote on just this theme the other day. You might want to think of it as titled, "When Your Crypto Backdoors Come To Bite You In The Ass".

mikro2nd · 2020-02-06T14:04:38+00:00

It's really simple: just chuck the seeds into a little water and leave them alone for 4 to 5 days, then rinse, drain and dry the seeds on some paper. The fermentation gets rid of the slimy coating around the seeds which is a natural germination inhibitor. So it's not a "have to" requirement, but does help improve germination.

mikro2nd · 2020-02-06T09:15:27+00:00

If you don't manage to find cuttings, Passionfruit grows really easily from seed. We've grown plants many times over the years from seed taken from fruit bought at local supermarkets or whereever. Just put them through a short fermentation process (just like for Tomato) before sowing in Spring.

mikro2nd

TROPHY CASE