Work vacuum died. This is the fifth one since I started working here five years ago.
The first one died because my coworker vacuumed up rocks.
The second one died because my coworker vacuumed up rocks.
The third one died because my coworker vacuumed up rocks.
The fourth one died for unknown reasons that involved my coworker vacuuming up rocks.
The fifth one died a few minutes ago and it was a big mystery and my coworker was like “oh I don’t know what happened it just overtaxed for some reason” so I looked inside the hose and—get this—it was jammed with rocks.
He keeps buying bigger and more expensive vacuums and complaining about how shitty and faulty the last ones were and every time I suggest something like “what if you didn’t vacuum up rocks” he’s like oh no it is the vacuums who are wrong.
I did a quick google search to confirm, and it turns out Catherine Murphy(who took this video) is the president of Townsville Bat and Wildlife Rescue, which is a charity/not-for-profit org registered with the Australian government.
So i think it’s pretty safe to say she knows what she’s doing.
Here is a news article that interviews Catherine. Apparently Townsville had a heatwave and the baby bat was trying to get a sip to drink when she fell in. The bat was kept for monitoring before being released again.
my mum has severe knee problems and needs a replacement. Today she was told she’s too fat to be operated on and the knee specialist suggested she gets a gastric band – which also involves surgery. So my mum was like first of all you didn’t read my file because it explains that I’m not fat because I eat too much second of all you said it’s impossible for me to get surgery and then suggested I get a surgery about it? He then asked her her weight and height, didn’t believe her answer, and made her prove it to him because she “looks fatter than that”. So she was like so you also just entirely based this on looks instead of actual numbers?
My mom went through something similar. She needed a knee replacement and her doctor wouldn’t okay it until she lost weight, which was difficult given the whole knee problem preventing her from walking thing. He told her she was too dangerous to operate on and that there were just too many risks.
My mom tried to lose weight in vain for months before she finally gave into my begging her to get a second opinion. The first doctor she saw next scheduled her for surgery the same day she met him. When my mom asked about the risk of operating on her he told her that there was some minor risks for complication and that all she would need to do to alleviate the risk was spend an extra night in the hospital so that they could keep a look out for any complications.
There were zero. There were also zero complications when she had her other knee done, her hip replaced and her gallbladder removed.
Almost like the first doctor was entirely full of shit and just trying to coerce his patient to lose weight by scaring her for fucking nothing, even when she was living day to day in excruciating pain and desperately needed a surgery.
The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.
The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months.
Under any circumstances, a migration of this size and scale would be a massive undertaking, experts tell WIRED, but the expedited deadline runs the risk of obstructing payments to the more than 65 million people in the US currently receiving Social Security benefits.
“Of course, one of the big risks is not underpayment or overpayment per se; [it’s also] not paying someone at all and not knowing about it. The invisible errors and omissions,” an SSA technologist tells WIRED.
Anyone interested in this topic should read Recoding America by Jennifer Pahlka. It’s not like people don’t want to update ancient code used for government databases. It’s just not easy if you want to do it well and without breaking crucial systems in active use.
ALT
amhrancas 