clay_pidgin

On a related note, I want to plug an app that I have had installed on my phones for a few years called Be My Eyes. People with reduced/no vision use it to ask for help from a sighted person. I recommend everyone install it to help out!

As a sighted user, my experience goes like this. I get a phone call that is simultaneously ringing to several helpers' devices. If I picked up first, I am connected to the helpee in a one-way video call. ¹ I say hi, the helpee says hi, and they ask for help. I try to help them, and the helpee ends the call. It usually takes <5 min.

Here some of are the calls I've answered:

A teacher wanted to sort "thank you" cards made by the students into piles by recipient.
"Why did my washer not finish the cycle?" - I read the LEDs and knob positions to determine that it hadn't drained, and suggested settings to run a quick drain cycle.
"What is my clothes dryer set to?" - I described the two knobs and listed their options in order, and confirmed their current settings.
"Which vitamin bottle is which, and what is the dosage?" - I asked them to move the camera and bottles so I could read the labels.

¹ If I don't pick up, it will keep ringing the other helpers until it finds someone. I assume there's some logic that picks helpers based on how often they have picked up, because once I finally answered a call in time, I started getting more.

I've only ever heard of King gizzard in the context of AdP!

I love the Quebecoise flag in polka dots. Clever.

I have no idea what this means.

Reminds me of the art project Jerry's Map. https://www.jerrysmap.com/the-map

He adds Void (black areas) sometimes to the map.

I read all of the series in one go, so they are blended together in my mind! I remember the kidnapping and the habitat ring thing. Cool setting

I've heard that about Aeronmelon!

Fascinating; I've never heard of doing that. I'll read up!

Thank you.

Tap for just the name of the reference

It's a reference to the Shock Site video "1 man 1 jar"

don't tap this or I'll tell you what that is.

A man sits on a glass jar, and it shatters in his anus. He whimpers but does not speak, and removes pieces of bloody glass from his anus with his shaking hands.

I warned you.

No, it's something much worse. Just move on.

I know that AIDS was originally called GRID, Gay Related Immune Deficiency in the U.S. Presumably research and treatment for a disease impacting (as reported) only gay men was not seen as a priority. The spread having started in non-human primates, then Africans before reaching the "first world" suggest to me that racism was probably part of it

I'm neither gay nor old enough to have been around at the time, but this is what I've read.

Using the Google Home devices to call HA scripts/scenes? I wish there was a way to use the hardware without Google/Amazon's involvement.

That's very interesting, thank you for sharing!

Fascinating! A soviet-made lens. 4.5 lbs seems heavy for a lens but I don't know anything.

Is Soviet a brand of lens, a type, or a nation of origin?

Here's a recent episode from the "99 percent invisible" design podcast about the Brannock device, its inventor, and the current state of the company. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/100-objects-011-brannock-device/

What are you using for speakers to play your announcements?

He was UNHINGED. Tons of fun to watch!

Stanley Streamer gets your home cleaner!

Damn catchy jingles.

Steam engines are very cool, but not very efficient. Supposedly the reason that trains, in the Americas at least, switched to diesel was because the fuel was more energy dense. 1000 miles worth of diesel was more expensive than 1000 miles worth of water and coal, but the water and coal refueling stations need to be staged more frequently and cost more in infrastructure and labor to keep supplied.

Very close!

Archery, fencing, pistol, sailing.

https://physicaleducationandwellness.mit.edu/about/pirate-certificate/