Slashdot -> Digg -> Reddit -> Lemmy. I used to spend lot of time on TheEnvironmentSite.org some time before Slashdot, but I cant recall whether anything else came in between those two.

They disrupt the trailing edge eddies - which is what causes any noise - and so make them quieter. They are often fitted in areas where sound might be a particular issue.

Should you try going to the cinema? It's not a big deal, but I'd say yes at some time in your life. If not, you will always be askign this question.

Alone or with friends? Whichever you prefer.

emergency repairs don’t consider shit water backing into your shower an emergency….

The local water authority would probably take a different view, so you could give them a call - or let the HA know that you feel duty bound to...

When I left IT and changed careers, I became a tree surgeon for a while and then a wildlife ranger, which I stuck with for 20-odd years.

It has to be said that you need a particular motivation to work as a ranger though - at least in the UK. You certainly don't get into it for the money.

Total drive space is probably something like 40 to 50 TB.

Around three quarters of that is in use, mostly my Plex libraries: film, TV, music, spoken word.

Yes, they are. They are stylish and pacy and all the rest. They are also very much of their time and, as well, are a completely different beast to the movies: they are spy stories primarily - not action adventures (though both of those are still there), and are much more low key overall.

Any interest that I have in this is entirely due to Paul King and his work on the Paddington films. It could be good as a result.

Meanwhile, of course, The Great Glass Elevator is sitting resentfully in the lobby, tapping it toe.

Not upside down - this is a juvenile, and they have these markings. Females may retain them, but adult males will lose the darker markings.

Slow worms are legless lizards rather than snakes. They have eyelids, unlike snakes, for example.

Thanks for the update and for the work in building the new instance!

I'll be keeping my eyes open for further news.

I am not a dog lover. I find them needy, melodramatic and hierarchical: some of the features that I try to avoid in humans.

I work in an office around one day a week which often has more dogs than humans - since one of the regular staff has two dogs. In general, however, they aren't much of a problem. One frequently nudges people's elbows to get attention and howls whenever a phone rings. Another gets in the way of the door an awful lot - resulting in the owner installing a child gate at an inner doorway, and another has been traumatised in the past and needs to be taken out whenever a fire alarm test is due. However, this is not more that the needs and quirks of other people, really, and is fairly easy to work around.

I am glad that I do not have to work in that office all the time, but overall it is not a big deal.

Right now Strange New Worlds which has been extremely good this season following the merely OK first episode; Foundation which seems to have improved the weakest arc - the actual Foundation arc - from the first season; and Futurama which, on the evidence of the first episode, I can best characterise as being 'back'.

I bought some garden furniture. It rained within the hour.

I have a day off on Friday to go dormouse monitoring - assuming that it is dry then. Dormice don't like the rain and disturbing them when they will get wet is not something we want to be doing.

That's a really difficult one. The book Bond is a snob in a way that doesn't really translate to the later culture in which so many of the films are set. Plus, I stopped watching the movies after Quantum of Solace - and had only been slightly interested from around Licence to Kill onwards, until Casino Royale.

If I had to say then perhaps a mix of Craig in Casino and Connery in the very early ones. Book Bond was a bit rough around the edges and definitely not dropping 'witty' one-liners all the time.

I am pleasantly surprised that it got through. However, I think that the devil is in the detail:

Immediately, politicians started voting on more than 100 amendments to make the plan more flexible.

We'll have to wait and see how much value is left following this teeth-pulling exercise.

It was a Sinclair ZX81, which I built from a kit with my brother. I was astonished when it actually worked.

It came with a tape which included about 6 games in BASIC - all extremely simple since they had to fit in 1k of memory, of course. I can't actually recall what they were exactly though.

I have had both of those experiences and being among peers wins hands down.

The entire cast begins to chant “You can’t dream if you don’t fall asleep” over and over again.

It's "You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep" surely?

And that has a very different meaning.

Personally, I saw the film - and a good deal of the rest of Anderson's work as a study of the nature of authenticity: the contrast between authentic commitment to the path one has chosen in life (which most of the character demonstrate) and the existentialist authenticity that comes from the realisation that one could make completely different choices at each and every moment - which the compressed, expressionless delivery of most of the lines throws into sharp relief: it becomes so easy to see these characters as being trapped within their chosen roles.

Of course, I am saying "chosen" here, when it seems clear that to Anderson, there is little choice: his characters and worlds are dominated by an external locus of control: they accept their roles - but authentically? Or in an abdication of authenticity?

Most of the bird deaths are not actually physical strikes - it is a result of the massive change of air pressure as the blades pass at speed. Evidently painting one of the blades black - or some contrasting colour - keeps a lot of the birds well away.

Suffolk. Detectorists country.