I started laughing my ass off at this and then my wife wanted to see what was so funny and now I’m not allowed to do this.

Makes me sad.

What denomination, primarily, were you? Did you manage to get anyone out with you? (I was unable.)

The 12 horse noxious fume generator got me.

I’m in these pictures and I accept it.

This is what happens when you don’t use crypto as god intended: purchasing medication from India and subscriptions to indexers.

Purchase Bitcoin right before purchase. Watch the spare change left over go up and down and imagine all the millions you could be winning or losing.

Just a note on the efficacy of activist messages in FOSS.

In the Aughts, I was learning to play with microcontrollers. PIC microcontrollers were free as well as the JAL language. I ordered a hardware programmer from the Dutch guy who created JAL: Wouter van Ooijen. Probably my first purchase online. There was a statement in the license, to the effect of, the language could not be used to develop arms.

Looking back, that was a turning point for me. I was machining arms for a living and continued to do so for years. It got me to thinking about what it was that I was producing with my hands. Weapons for killing people.

I thought about it a lot. All these things I was making with blood and sweat being used to kill people. Running machines on night shift gives you time to think.

His statement was, at minimum, at least partially responsible for me changing my mind. I grew past the bad religion and far right ideology that I was taught.

I’m going to send him a thank you note.

Okay, but where is the instance that is trying to model itself after slashdot? (I feel old)

Excellent response.

I’m trying to limit myself to watching for actual threats to my family. Basically a couple of things. Watching for the same stuff that tipped us off on COVID and watching for camps actually being setup on US soil.

Trying to ignore all the ragebait and most of the news. I think I see manipulation similar to what I saw on the first trump election now targeted left. So, pants on head crazy.

Heads down and try to only pay attention to the important stuff.

Yeah, dogs have much stronger sense of self, however. They feel insult, shame, sadness, guilt, and unfairness. I think cats view the laughter as more of aggression/dominance thing than the emotions humans or dogs would map to.

I have a cat that can call birds. We had a gap under the garage door, and she called sparrows in under the door before I adjusted the hang. She murder-a-lized them all over the house.

Had another, even more sadistic, cat that was very aggressive towards other people. I always had to warn guests not to believe her and not to pet her or they would get cut. She would call people to her and let a little petting happen before ripping a finger or arm. Same cat enjoyed scaring children, one time she jumped through the air and barked in a child’s face just to watch the fun. She had to be put down, I was the only person that was safe around her.

They use these instincts on us to get what they want. They often want petting, treats, or attention so we don’t notice.

This applies to cats of average or above intelligence. There are a few dumb cats that have about as much awareness as a tater.

I’ve never had a shelter or bred cat. Instead, they just appear from the outside, get found in a parking lot, or sometimes materialize and no one knows where they came from. They get cleaned up and shots, chip, and fixed.

Some cats will get their prey/play drive mixed up and snap on you unexpectedly. Almost like they’re startled but it’s internal, they will often be ‘apologetic’ or confused afterwards. Some cats are worse about this than others and you shouldn’t wrestle or play rough with this kind using your hands, toys only.

And, yes. Cats are absolutely aware of the size and power differential. They’re always watching it at some level. Trust must be earned and often slowly built. Had one cat knock down a stack of pans and run behind me for protection. Some cats dislike being laughed at and it can cause aggression or cause retreat.

A cat’s love is transactional to a high degree, they’re lazy psychos that can learn friendship through trust. They love the comfort of you as much as they actually love you. They mimic affection and scheme a lot more than most people would like to think.

All cats are bad, it’s what makes them so great to have in your life.