Love being brutally called out by the British Library
Oh my gosh I went here a few days ago do you guys want to see the whole sign
I’m covered with “Librarians from Everywhere” but as a former museums professional “Tourists who think we’re the British Museum” really speaks to me on a personal level.
How to hack any hospital computer (L337 version for advanced security systems)
-Use the password taped to the back of the monitor
As a computer guy: This is what happens when you have too much security. It reaches a tipping point and then suddenly you have none.
Security at the cost of convenience comes at the cost of security.
This is true of so many things in healthcare. Example: our software is designed to automatically alert the doctor if a patient’s vital signs are critically out of range. If someone has a blood pressure of 200/130, the doc gets a pop-up box that they have to acknowledge before doing anything else. It makes sense, in our setting.
But then some mega-genius upstairs realized something: the system was only alerting for critical vital signs, but not for all vital signs that could possibly be bad. Like, yeah, 200/130 is potentially life-threatening, but 130/90 is above ideal and can have negative effects on health. Should the doctors be allowed to just ignore something that could negatively affect a patient’s health? Heavens no!
So now the system generates a pop-up for any vital signs that are even slightly abnormal. A pressure of 120/80 (once considered textbook normal, now considered slightly high) will create the pop-up. We have increased our vigilance!
Well, no, what we’ve actually done is train doctors to click through a constant bombardment of pop-ups without looking. We’ve destroyed their vigilance and made it much easier for them to accidentally skim past life-threatening vital signs.
But you can’t tell that to management, because you’d have to confess that you are a flawed human with limited attention resources. They’d tell you “well, all the other doctors take every abnormal vital sign seriously, it sounds like you’re being negligent.” And if you’re smart, you back down before you start telling the big boss all about your habit of ignoring critical safety alerts.
The end result is exactly the same as if we had no alerts at all, except with more annoying clicking.
A haunted doll mistaking a creepy android to be a bigger, stronger, haunted doll, and the creepy android mistaking the haunted doll as a smaller, sassier android.
Android: [gets hit with rain water and short circuits] Haunted Doll: H̷O̷L̴Y̷ ̶W̵A̷T̸E̷R̶ ̵W̴A̵T̴C̵H̴ ̶O̶U̷T̴
Haunted Doll, dying: N̶E̵E̸D̷ ̷S̸O̵U̵L̸S̷ Android: [opens the haunted doll’s back and replaces the batteries] Haunted Doll: A̶C̶C̷E̷P̸T̶A̷B̸L̵E̴ ̷S̴U̴B̸S̵T̸I̷T̷U̴T̵E̴
Android: [transfers their data into a better body] Haunted Doll: A̸ ̵F̴L̸A̷W̵L̷E̴S̵S̷ ̷B̶O̸D̶Y̵ ̷P̶O̵S̶S̵E̷S̶S̵I̷O̷N̴
My Closest Friend Mrs S- being the wife of the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, I have writ to her on your behalf & petitioned her to speak to her husband. Yesterday I received word from Niagara that the Gov. will be pleased to offer your Nephew the position of ensign in the Queen’s Rangers, of which he is the Col. & is presently engag’d in road-building at the newly founded town of York. He should make good on his promise to you to go to Canada & you shall be rid of him. The young gentleman will find himself in humble surroundings of great natural beauty, which should strengthen whatever Goodness is left in him & prevent him from such odious vices as gambling etc. His youthful strength he will put to good use serving his King & the community & when he may return in a few years’ time, I am of no doubt you shall find him thoroughly reform’d. You must only make sure he boards the right ship this time and all will be well. Your obedient svt., Mary Anne Burges
My Dear Mrs Burges–
How Blessed I am to have Such Friendship and Benevolence surrounding myself and my Family, whose Understanding and Forgiveness see our Follies and Misdeeds and in Turn offer Opportunities for Reflection, Improvement, and Good Works in Name of King and Country! While I am Cognizant of his Many Faults and Transgressions, and have conveyed to my Readership a Definite Frustration with his Habits and Vices, I remain Deeply Fond of my Nephew and I regret that he shall be gone from us for Such an Extended Duration. However, I as Well as Anyone can see the Merit and Necessity of his Improvement, lest he become so Dissolute and Ungovernable that he is of No Use to Any body.
I Therefore accept your Generous Offer on my Nephew’s Behalf; As he remains at Present Under my Power, though Only for a Short Duration Yet, his Wishes in this Matter are Secondary, and I am of your Mind, Madam, that a True Excursion into the Canadian Wilderness will prove Edifying to his Character and grant him Much-needed Mettle. His Unfortunate Misadventure with the Charlatan who lured him to Italy Aside, he was at that Time Truly Intent upon his New Course, and I have Every Hope that Sentiment remains Within him, thus I believe there should be no Difficulty in convincing him to undertake the Journey.
Further, I do not believe he will require an Excess of Persuasion, as he has of Late been ignoring Cards and Letters sent to our House from Creditors and Young Ladies Alike. While I can resolve the Complaints of the Former, I believe it will be in the Best Interests of the Latter Group that he is Far from England and can do no Additional Harm.
Yours &tc.,
The Editor
Supposedly when my great-grandfather immigrated to Canada at the turn of the last century he had some problems with people assuming he was some English family’s feckless younger son who’d been sent abroad to avoid a scandal.
the part in the lady from shanghai (1947) when orson welles just escaped from the courtroom where he was about to be convicted of a murder he didn’t commit, and he’s trying to figure out how he can find the gun that was actually used so that he can clear his name and be with rita hayworth, and they’re hiding out in a theatre and the police show up and rita pulls him into an embrace to hide his face from the cops and then we cut to his hand where he rests it on her handbag, and he’s confused for a moment but then he’s slipping his hand inside and pulling out a tiny pearl-inlaid pistol and while they’re still in an embrace he presses the pistol into her side and whispers in her ear “i found the gun”
I just saw a picture of musical artist Fatboy Slim for the first time in my life, and I promise you, if you haven’t seen him before, whatever you think he looks like based on his music, he doesn’t look like that.
What…the. fuck
There’s a painting of him hanging up in the background of “Weapon of Choice.”
with my school teachers it was like “omg they’re so cool i wanna be their friend!” but with university lecturers it’s like “they’re endearing and i love them like cats but are they okay because i think they know too much about 18th century german literature to survive in the world”
what, you can’t know who friedrich schiller is and also change a tire?
literally no
this would have worked better if I personally knew how to change a tire
The third Lachish ostracon (left), and a modern replica of it (right).
We have another fun Hebrew letter today, this one from Lachish, the second largest city in Judah before the Babylonian conquest. It’s part of a series of letters between a military officer and his supervisor in ~590 BCE. He refers to himself with traditional humble terms (“your servant”) throughout, which I’ve translated as “I” for readability, but his attitude is somewhat less humble. Literacy was an uncommon skill at the time, and Hoshayahu did not appreciate the implication that he couldn’t read.
By the way, “goddammit” translates a Hebrew phrase that literally means “as YHWH lives” — but it’s been shortened from ḥay yaweh to ḥayaweh by repeated use as a common epithet, just like “goddammit.”
Your servant Hoshayahu. A dispatch to inform my lord Yaush. May YHWH bring my lord news of wellbeing and joy.
Now then. Help me understand the message that you sent to me last night, because I’ve felt miserable ever since you wrote to me. Why would you say, “You don’t know how to read a letter”? Goddammit, nobody reads letters aloud to me — ever! What’s more, I can repeat back every detail of every letter that I’ve received.
I’ve been told the following: “Army commander Konyahu ben Elnatan has travelled down to enter Egypt. He has requested a transfer of Hoduyahu ben Ahiyahu and his men from there.”
Finally, I’m sending you a letter from Tobyahu, the king’s representative; it had gone from the prophet to Shallum ben Yada, and it says, “Beware!”
Mooncustafer 