Currently reading: Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

Police departments will buy anything except more training

Following Fairfax's lead, the Richmond's police department has bought into the snake oil known as BolaWrap. The tool, a sort of high-tech lasso that restrains people by shooting out thin Kevlar cords that wrap around their body, is the latest craze in policing as departments look for new ways to get "non-compliant" individuals to fall… Continue reading Police departments will buy anything except more training

Insert "special" characters in Windows slightly less horribly

Emojis are clearly so important to human discourse that there's not just one simple keyboard shortcut for them but two: and . But what about all the various international characters you might need to use every so often? On Macs you simply hold the key down and it prompts you with a tooltip to pick… Continue reading Insert "special" characters in Windows slightly less horribly

Honey is a scam

I don't know if 16M views counts as a lot on YouTube, but I hope I can at least give it a few more. The way this company operates is sleazy as hell to the point I can't believe its owners haven't been arrested for wire fraud. TL;DW: Not only does Honey track and sell… Continue reading Honey is a scam

Plastic recycling is a lie

This VPM article in their newsletter got me wasting time making a thread on Bluesky the other day. I'm reproducing it here with some changes and additions because… content! State data shows a steady decline in the Virginia recycling rate between 2021 and 2024 Chesterfield started charging for their curbside program somewhere in this time… Continue reading Plastic recycling is a lie