For folks who’re interested in 3d printing whistles: printables.com/model/417238-lo… is the best I’ve found.

They’ve been tested on canyoneering trips — we use whistles to communicate over the sound of waterfalls; nothing else is piercing enough to cut through the thunder. These work as well as the gold standard Fox 40 classic.

I print it florescent orange PLA, with an 0.6mm nozzle and 0.3mm layer height, and make lanyards out of orange paracord.

North Dakota Monitor: North Dakota law accidentally lists fake critical minerals based on coal lawyers’ names

"...A landmark North Dakota law approved this year accidentally lumped in two fake names in a list of critical minerals that appear to be inspired by coal company lawyers who worked on the bill.

The inclusion of fictional substances is being called an embarrassment by one state official, a possible practical joke by coal industry leaders and mystifying by the lawmakers who worked on the bill.

The fake minerals are friezium and stralium, apparent references to Christopher Friez and David Straley, attorneys for North American Coal who were closely involved in drafting the bill and its amendments. Straley said they were not responsible for adding the fake names. ..."

northdakotamonitor.com/2025/12…

#legal #coal

The Alaska Department of Health recently published a report about deaths in the state over 3 years beginning in March 2020. About 1 in 500 people in the state died of COVID during that time.

“Seventy-four percent of those who died and were eligible for COVID-19 vaccine had opted not to receive it‚" states the report, published earlier in December by the state’s Section of Epidemiology.

Summary at adn.com/alaska-news/2025/12/19…

1 in 500 Alaskans died from COVID-19 during pandemic, state reports

The comprehensive Alaska Department of Health report examined how the state fared between 2020 and 2023, noting successes and failures in the public health system.

^{Zachariah Hughes (Anchorage Daily News)}

(Woman carrying a salad past my table)

“Did you know a cow died so you could eat that steak?”

“If you weren’t eating its food, it might have lived.”

Some cats exude complete and utter confidence. Some cats emanate a certain mystique. Some cats radiate refinement and elegance. This is Chip.

cdhs.net/meet-the-pets
#sheltercat #adoptdontshop #cats #caturday

If you are traveling or expecting visitors this holiday season, remember that Marriott hotels do not want your money. They have all the business they need housing the terrorists from ICE and Border Patrol. Take your business elsewhere.

(Note that the flyer mentions Southern California, but this is not just a local issue).

See:

wiki.icelist.is/index.php?titl…

azact.net/actions/marriott-ice…

marriott.com/brands.mi

A rube named Karoline Leavitt, who holds the title of White House Press Secretary, recently said that Cher's activism is " .. irrelevant, outdated and rooted in a world that doesn't exist anymore." #Cher #Trending #KarolineLeavitt with #AltText

CHER'S RESPONSE:

Today in Labor History December 20, 1790: The first American cotton mill began operation in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The mill, owned by Samuel Slater, employed children aged 4-10. He also hired entire families, forcing them to live in his company housing and buy all their living necessities from his company store. Ann Arnold, aged 9, was Slater’s first employee. In 1810, he introduced the power loom, which was too much for young children to handle. So, he started hiring the next cheapest labor: young women. By 1835, 55% of all millworkers in the U.S. were children. In the New England mills, the children worked 12-hour days, 6 days per week in the winter. In the summer, they were forced to work 16 hours per day. On Sundays, he forced them to attend his Sunday school, where he indoctrinated them in “Christian values” like hard work and subservience to one’s masters. The children spent twice as many hours in the mill than kids spend in the classroom today. Kids were fined for not working hard enough. But they resisted the abuse whenever they could, sabotaging the factory, setting fires, and stealing property. In 1814, the mill owners petitioned the state to organize a police force to subdue the increasingly rebellious child workforce. 30 years later, on May 26, 1824, 102 young women and children at Slater’s mill initiated the first factory strike on U.S. soil. They, along with sympathetic community members, blockaded access to Slaters mill, shutting down operations and inspiring workers at other nearby mills to join their strike. They also went to the homes of the mill owners, shouting insults and breaking their windows. In early June, the mill owners and the workers came to an agreement, the details of which have been lost to history, and the workers returned to the mills.

Congress tried several times to enact child labor laws in the early 20th century, eventually passing the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which prevented bosses from employing children during school hours, and in dangerous tasks. This law, and some of the earlier attempts, came in the wake of active organizing to protect children, including Mother Jones’s famous March of the Mill Children, in 1903, when she led a contingent of children and supporters from Philadelphia to President Teddy Roosevelt’s summer home, on Long Island, to “ask him to recommend the passage of a bill by congress to protect children against the greed of the manufacturer. We want him to hear the wail of the children, who never have a chance to go to school, but work from ten to eleven hours a day in the textile mills of Philadelphia, weaving the carpets that he and you walk on, and the curtains and clothes of the people.”
Another important contribution to the movement to end child labor came from photograph Lewis Hine, who published a series of photographs of children doing dangerous work in coal mines, glass works, and textile mills. I used his powerful photograph of colliery Breaker Boys for the cover of my first novel, Anywhere But Schuylkill. My protagonist, Mike Doyle, started work in the colliery at age 13. If interested, please send me $25 via Venmo (@Michael-Dunn-565), along with your mailing address, and I will send you a signed copy!

The U.S. never actually protected all children from exploitation. For example, the child labor laws always had exemptions for agricultural labor. And bosses often violated the existing laws, without consequence, including today. Meanwhile, growing numbers of states have passed new laws over the past five years that make it easier for bosses to exploit children and employ them in dangerous jobs.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #children #childlabor #mill #exploitation #cotton #childexploitation #childabuse #lewishine #motherjones #strike #union #books #fiction #novel #writer @bookstadon

Tow truck driver who hauled away an ICE SUV found not guilty, to have massive set of balls

nbclosangeles.com/news/local/m…

#politics #hero #LosAngeles

Man accused of towing ICE SUV during LA immigration operation found not guilty

A Los Angeles tow truck driver accused of towing a government SUV during an immigration enforcement operation was found not guilty by a federal jury Friday.

^{Missael Soto, Bill Feather (NBC Southern California)}

Today, I bought an old used car that was made in Prague.

The Czech engine light keeps coming on.

#funny #jokes #dadjokes

the UNIX v4 tape reminded me of this story by Ali Akurgal about Turkish bureaucracy:

Do you know what the unit of software is? A meter! Do you know why? In 1992, we did our first software export at Netaş. We wrote the software, pressed a button, and via the satellite dish on the roof, at the incredible speed of 128 kb/s, we sent it to England. We sent the invoice by postal mail. $2M arrived at the bank. 3-4 months passed, and tax inspectors came. They said, “You sent an invoice for $2M?” “Yes,” we said. “This money has been paid?” they asked. “Yes,” we said. “But there is no goods export; this is fictitious export,” they said! So we took the tax inspectors to R&D and sat them in front of a computer. “Would you press this ‘Enter’ key?” we asked. One of them pressed it, then asked, “What happened?” “You just made a $300k export, and we’ll send its invoice too, and that will be paid as well,” we said. The man felt terrible because he had become an accomplice! Then we explained how software is written, what a satellite connection is, and how much this is worth. They said, “We understand, but there has to be a physical goods export; that’s what the regulations require.” So we said: “Let’s record this software onto tape (there were no CDs back then—nor cassettes; we used ½-inch tapes) and send that.” Happy to have found a solution, they said, “Okay, record it and send it.” The software filled two reels, which were handed to a customs broker, who took them to customs and started the export procedure. The customs officer processed things and at one point asked, “Where are the trucks?” The broker said, “There are no trucks—this is all there is,” and pointed to the tape reels on the desk. The customs officer said, “These two envelopes can’t be worth $2M; I can’t process this.” We went to court, an expert committee examined whether the two reels were worth $2M. Fortunately, they ruled that they were, and we were saved from the charge of fictitious export. The same broker took the same two reels to the same customs officer, with the court ruling, and restarted the procedure. However, during the process, the unit price, quantity, and total price of the exported goods had to be entered—as per the regulations. To avoid dragging things out further, they looked at the envelope, saw that it contained tape, estimated how many meters of tape there are on one reel, and concluded that we had exported 1k to 2k meters of software. So the unit of software became the meter.

❓Has anyone had a group chat on an iPhone where someone *outside the chat* somehow was able to post in the chat?

Okay, so I am in a group chat with some friends, and we all have iPhones. Last night, my friend got a text from her brother-in-law in the group chat—problem is, he isn't part of the chat group and never was. Even stranger, I couldn't see the post, only she could. She sent me a screenshot as proof she wasn't wrong.

Anyone have something like this happen? Anyone know *what* happened?

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If you're thinking, "I want to get into photography, but I have no idea what to shoot."
Literally anything. As long as it's interesting. Here's a shot of a few controllers on my desk and a Minecraft coffee cup.
You don't need a lot to make something fun.

#photography
#foxwithacamera

The emperor was sitting in his bed when the assassin came in through the window.

"Welcome, old friend."

"Wait," the assassin wheezed.

The emperor waited for him to catch his breath.

"I'm too old for this," the assassin said at last.

The emperor smiled. "It's been over sixty years since the first time you came to kill me."

"Mm. And a dozen times more. Yet you are still alive. You always were persuasive."

"I hope I still am. I would ask you to do it now."

"What?"
1/2
#TootFic #ShortStory