EchoCranium

I remember this happening, and the pet food scandal just before it. Melamine was being added to pet food and milk powder to falsely increase their protein values. Enough to cause kidney failure and sometimes death. I used to do protein analysis for food products, and could see how easy it would be for food companies to cheat like this. The percent nitrogen content in a sample is used to estimate the protein value. Melamine powder contains a lot of nitrogen, so it’s blended in to bump up the final protein values. Really shitty thing to do, knowing that it’s toxic.

Quality control chemist testing pharmaceuticals. Most of what we do is for clinical trial use and research purposes. It’s been a good job.

Commodore basic on the PET computer, back around 1981-1983. My grade school had three of them in the library, and since my mom was a teacher, she would sign one out for summer break and bring it home if any were available.

I bought a couple Sceptre TVs six years ago, been great.

Starblazers episodes used to air randomly on one of the local UHF channels when I was around 11 years old. For some reason I remembered it recently, and some quick online searching found that it was an edited and English dubbed version of Space Battleship Yamato. Binge watched the original subtitled episodes. It was nostalgic seeing the characters that I remembered from decades ago, but good to see the entire uncut story all the way to its end.

Next generation stealth plane: going back to basics.

I’d probably sit and play Unreal, or maybe Riven if I was feeling more chill. Could easily burn through 12 hours like that. Just need to be able to take a case of Jolt, a few bags of chips, and some Skittles along and I’d be set.

Fluffy death from above!

No, not criminal prosecutions for what should be a minor issue, but definitely civil suits. SLAPP suits have been a problem, where the plaintiff doesn’t necessarily expect to win. They just want to punish people by making their lives miserable through drawn out litigation. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UN8bJb8biZU

Only if you can get through the years of litigation, harassment, stress, and have the money to weather it out. Truth and justice are more easily attainable for those who can afford it.

Josta soda. A guarana cola drink Pepsi put out in the 90’s before energy drinks became a big thing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Josta_drink.jpeg

For the love of god! My anus is bleeding! (-Yay! Hooray!-)

Always look on the bright side of life - Monty Python

Came across one in a consignment bin a few weeks ago. Aww, nope, not even for $2.

The Dirtbag Diaries, The Moth, This American Life

None of these are programming related. I think quite a few people know about the last two, but Dirtbag Diaries probably less so. If you enjoy the outdoors, hiking, climbing, biking, whatever, it’s worth checking out.

It’s a dual drive redundant setup. Unless something catastrophic happens, I doubt both drives will go out at the same time. I could do an offsite backup as well, but just haven’t.

Been using a Synology NAS for the past year for automatic photo backups. Take a photo, it gets copied to my drive at home so long as there’s internet access available. No issues so far. Turned off my backups to Google.

I remember back in grade school (early 80’s) we had lessons about how to use a phone book. Now I’m surprised if I ever see a new one dropped off at the front door.

Bro Hymn by Pennywise is playing right now. Listening to the punk channel on XM.

I don’t think Phizer did anything to make the vaccine better, just more available. Their size makes it possible to do things at larger scale. Phizer has pretty much given up on doing any R&D and now just buys up smaller innovative companies. They extract out any patents and other IP they want, and move on. I work in pharma, and everyone I know who’s worked for them in the past has a story about how Pfizer came in, bought their facility, then shut the doors within a couple years. Definitely didn’t make the lives of all those workers better, who had to uproot their families and find new jobs elsewhere.