Weekend #Plankton Factoid 🦠🦐
The polar vortex has caused a cold snap here, and the Great Lakes are rapidly forming ice. Under this thick ice, algae are growing. These are normal diatom phytoplankton, which change to form thick chains, attaching to the underside of the ice where light is optimal. We clearly see this brown ice and water in the wake of our icebreakers. This occurs near the pole…
I don't think I'm ever going to enjoy gifts.
I can get why people would give them to children. After all, children don't have their own budget. However, I'm talking about occasional gifts, not a new toy every second week, because "we must outcompete the other grandparents". But to adults?
Once I've heard that you should gift people with what they won't buy themselves. Well, that's won't work for me. I'm a minimalist. If I don't need something, I don't want to have it. Unnecessary junk is only emotional burden to me.
I can get why you'd enjoy something handmade. But something people bought? If I need something, I can buy it myself, when I need it. And I definitely don't need people to prove to me that they never cared to learn who I am, and just buy whatever they like or whatever is "fashionable"; which usually means exactly the opposite of what I'd prefer (i.e. something minimalistic). Or even worse, I don't need people manipulating me through gifts.
Sweets? Besides my diabetes, I don't really enjoy expensive shit that people generally buy because it's what's advertised. For the money they waste on it, I'd buy three times as much sweets I'd actually enjoy.
Gift cards? Oh yes, "you aren't supposed to give money, so let's just give the equivalent of money that's actually worth less than money". Actual money? And here we reach the true nonsense; we exchange the same amount of money, so it's just pointless gesture. Unless one of us gives less money…
What I'd really like, as a gift? Maybe that people would finally bother accepting me as who I am. The absolute minimum of caring that I hate consumerism, and not fueling it "for me".
#AntiCapitalism #minimalism #ActuallyAutistic
Medical device firm UFP says backup data systems deployed following cyberattack https://therecord.media/ufp-technologies-medical-devices-sec-filing-cyberattack
Wooo, the new computer chair should be delivered day-after-tomorrow and I'm pretty stoked. The old chair is kinda falling apart, but for a cheap chair it did a great job...however, the "new" Aeron should be a significant upgrade. Also, the rollerblade wheels will be moving from the old Office Depot chair to the new one...
RE: https://mastodon.nl/@bert_hubert/115950515667611524
Filling level of Dutch gas storages now down to 32%, with a fair chunk of the heating season to go. That's not a lot.
...I don't care for the term 'mechanistic'. The word 'cybernetic' is a lot
more apropos. The mechanistic world-view is falling further and further behind
the real world where even simple systems can produce the most marvelous
chaos.
-- Peter da Silva
Conversation on BlueSky convinced me to add the following clause to Article I, to clarify that the addition I'm considering making to Article II wouldn't be exclusive:
https://github.com/cooljeanius/w_Constitution/commit/b9c017249cb547ac4e5b3f5bf123ac18ba72fbe5
Sources: AI chipmaker Cerebras confidentially files for a US IPO after withdrawing a previous IPO last year, and a listing could take place as soon as April (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/exclusive-cerebras-files-confidenti…
Merry Xmas to all fediverse. I hope all of you are with your family in these days. 😊
A huge hug! 🫂
#fediverse #christmas #xmas