Silver Teal
Distinctive, but rather local and uncommon in Chile (more common in Argentina and elsewhere) in grassy wetlands, reedy marshes, and on lakes. Associates with other waterfowl, but usually is not out on open water and is easily overlooked. Readily identified by small size, dark cap, pale cheeks, and blue bill with yellow patch at base. Range does not overlap with the larger and more boldly patterned Puna Teal.
Link: https://ebird.org/species/siltea1
Photo Location: Argentina
Trans rights rally at Te Whanganui-a-Tara | Wellington today was so full of positive energy. Everyone rallying for trans rights was there out of love for our whānau and even the couple of anti-trans activists were met with chants of “Love, not hate”. Proud to be a Wellingtonian!
One year after Paris had built 52 kilometers of coronapistes (“corona tracks”), 60% of users were new to cycling, and the proportion of women riding increased 14%.
Now, with 62% public support, €250 million will be invested by 2026 to make those pop-up lanes permanent, add 130 kilometres, and build 130,000 bike parking spaces. #urbanism
Why is the world silent on SARS-CoV2-19?
It isn’t really, but the media and health agencies are. What do we know?
1. This is an airborne virus that lingers for hours in the air. Improving air circulation with proper filtering can help this.
2. This is a vascular virus, meaning the cardio-vascular system of your body. Because the cardio-vascular system touches every part of your body, and this virus can infect ANY part of your body, it means it can infect everything. It can infect your blood, your skin, your brain, your lungs, your liver, your kidneys.
3. Damage caused by this virus is cumulative, and the cumulative damage it causes can lead to long term health issues, varying depending on what was infected, referred to as Long Covid.
4. Covid has been shown to impact and damage your immune system, making people infected more vulnerable to not just Covid reinfections, but any other virus that your immune system normally protects you from. A cold or flu after Covid infections will be worse than prior to the infection, as your body loses capacity to fight those infections.
5. Because of all this, the more infections you fight off, the more likely you end up being immunocompromised, and potentially disabled to some degree. Covid is a virus that can kill you but is much more likely to give you a lifelong disability. Instances of other diseases also rise with Covid infections – people who’ve had Covid are more likely to be diagnosed with heart conditions, brain conditions, diabetes, and high levels of blood clots in your system that can hamper organ function, even cause heart attacks and strokes.
6. The risk of long-term symptoms and disability is high and increases with each infection. Suggestions from doctors and scientists who’ve been studying this suggest as high as 10% (1 in 10) on a first infection, with that rising with each subsequent infection. (depending on where you look, the first infection number will vary, but regardless appears to be significant enough to warrant concern, especially with subsequent infections.)
Note that while guidance on these things may change over time, and as more and more people are infected, we’ll have a much better understanding of percentages and odds, this is all well known and clear. We know that mask wearing (Quality N95 or better respirators), proper air circulation and filtration reduce the chances of transmission, and vaccination reduces the chances of death or disability. Also note that reduces does not mean eliminates. The smart way to deal with Covid-19 is to avoid infection, as even a single infection is likely to be life altering, More so than a previous infection, with each infection increasing the likelihood more than the last.
Another worthwhile consideration is the rate of mutation. Coronaviruses are well known for rapid, massive mutation – there are thousands of variants running around that we know about. Some are less deadly/disabling, some are more so, some are less transmissible, and some much more than others, and some are less affected by vaccine protections. We’re currently in a situation where without proper precautions and mitigation, we’re going to see a gradual economic downward trend, since the number of people who can’t contribute to the workforce is growing, and with them, the number of people who participate in the economy shrinking. This is a trend that will continue for as long as we continue to ignore the dangers.
At some point we may find a sterilizing vaccine, proper prevention, but until we do, this is going to remain a pandemic – one that has killed countless people. In the US alone, officially Covid 19 has killed more people than wars. Not A war, all wars, foreign and civil.
If we want to save the economy, we must save people. Little known fact, people ARE the economy. The more people we have that are healthy, working, and participating in the economy, the stronger the economy.
#COVID19 #LongCovid #InfectiousDisease #CovidIsNotOver #CovidIsNotMild #StaySafe
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a43391877/oxygen-ion-battery-could-change-energy/
Ceramic oxygen-ion batteries aren’t made from any materials that damage the planet in their extraction, they are completely flame-resistant (so no surprise fire), and they don’t degrade. According to the team, an oxygen-ion battery is basically infinitely rechargeable without ever getting worse at holding that charge.
I remember warning all my white friends in 2016 that Nazism was our future. They all thought I was crazy and told me to "take a break" from all of that "political stuff."
Anyways, 7 years later: we're having weekly Nazi rallies and the Republican Party announced a Holocaust against transgender and non-binary people last week, while Nick Fuentes announced one against Jewish people. This footage of armed Nazis in uniform is from Ohio at a drag show— happening RIGHT NOW.
🔗: https://twitter.com/FordFischer/status/1634647746811506689?s=19
"Most of what I loved about Drupal the product can still be found in Backdrop and Backdrop keeps getting better with each release. I'm happy that Drupal 9 exists and I wish it a long and prosperous life, but my personal commitment is in meeting the needs of the small organizations and businesses that I believe Drupal 9 has left behind."
https://www.triplo.co/blog/backdrop-cms-providing-soft-landing-drupal-7-sites
"Fun" fact - white supremacy is really bad for (most) white people!
Here are some things white people lost out on because of racism:
-Walkable cities (because white flight post Civil Rights mean the [EDIT: rapid expansion and doubling down] of the suburbs)
-Good, cheap public transit (because they didn't want Those People to go to the newly created suburbs
-Universal single-payer health care (because You Know Who would be "welfare queens")
-Police who are accountable to the public (need to keep Wink Wink Nudge Nudge in line)
-Progressive taxation (because white people can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, just like Elon Musk, and not like I Bet You Can Probably Guess Who)
Eh pá, a ser verdade, isto é muito baixo nível...
It’s amazing how businesses want to run on data, but when presented with the successfulness of a 4-day work week, that’s not the data they want
I've advocated for this for a long time, and it's good to see some progress on this front.
If you use much more electricity than others connected to the same grid, then you have to pay more than the others - not only, but your electricity usage is likely to be throttled to prevent starving off other users of the grid.
Similarly, if most of the content that travels on optical fibers comes from your servers, then you have to pay a premium for the share of bandwidth that you're taking away from other users.
A more sustainable and scalable Internet needs to raise awareness on the hidden costs of moving data from A to B. Big Tech can't get away with pushing more and heavier content to users assuming that the distribution network has unlimited resources.
There's something functionally and morally wrong with having simple mobile app that weigh 100 MB (as much as the whole core of Windows 95 used to weigh). Or ads that start playing videos without any user input. Or webpages that do 20 different requests to data brokers, analytics providers and ads platforms for one simple original page request. Or JS projects with a 300 MB node_modules folder created even if the project is just empty. Or simple text shared on social media as images, making the difference between a few bytes and something within the range of 100 KB - 10 MB.
Forcing people to pay for pushing this crap down a wire, or wasting the limited space on people's devices, is really the step zero to achieve anything that resembles sustainability on the Internet.
Here's a fun thing:
telnet mapscii.me
Click the mouse to pan, use A and Z to zoom in and out
At last night's #Python tutorial, some code was presented which had been part?largely created by GPT.
The person was unable to walk-through the code to explain it to colleagues.
It used enums which the trainee couldn't figure-out.
It implemented an FSM to read an XML file, line-by-line, tag-by-tag.
The coder was incapable of correcting or extending the code.
The code basically worked.
The UX was terrible.
Is this 'the way of the future'?
GoDaddy says it suffered a breach where unknown attackers have stolen source code and installed malware on its servers after breaching its cPanel shared hosting environment in a multi-year attack.
The company says that previous breaches disclosed in November 2021 and March 2020 are also linked to this multi-year campaign.
GoDaddy also found evidence linking the threat actors to a broader campaign targeting other hosting companies worldwide over the years.
Periodic reminder that this #NZOSS #Mastodon instance (along with a lot of other #FOSS services - https://nzoss.nz/services) are available to the Aotearoa NZ community for active use and demonstration purposes - all onshore, here in Aotearoa, owned by NZers - *all at no cost for users*, thanks to volunteer system admin & the generous sponsored cloud service provided by https://CatalystCloud.nz: many thanks for your many years of rock solid, cutting edge, fully #FOSS, tech services and support!
Fairly impressed with missing.style/ (from the makers of htmx and _hyperscript). If, like me, you enjoy somewhat dull-looking websites and hate CSS, it might just be for you.
Did you know you could use Mastodon as a comment platforms on your blog? I blogged about this 2 years ago https://carlschwan.eu/2020/12/29/adding-comments-to-your-static-blog-with-mastodon/ but since there has been a lot of newcomers recently, it might be a good idea to share it again 😜