David Megginson

Former medieval philologist (Ph.D, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, 1993). Living on unceded Anishinabe Algonquin territory.

Header picture: Large reddish-orange letters spelling "Hintonburg", some lying flat on the sidewalk for use as benches.

Me: #tea #gardening #classicalGuitar #vegetarian #language #disabled #aviation #flightSim #slideRules #tech #Linux #Ottawa

Society: #socialJustice #nonViolence #aid #urbanism #accessibility #transit #standards #FOSS

Public Key

npub1fdcr5780akdmzh82k8lvgs746pd3ssu7j6phk7kq66eau8clcees7qvx56

NIP-05 Address

david_megginson@mstdn-ca.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsykup60rh7mxa3tn4trlkyg02aqkccgw0fdqmm0tqddv77ru0uvucpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds37gvhj

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1fdcr5780akdmzh82k8lvgs746pd3ssu7j6phk7kq66eau8clcees7qvx56

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-10-13 13:53:13 UTC

My harvest centrepiece for last night's family Thanksgiving dinner, all from the garden.
#gardening #ottawa #thanksgiving
https://cdn.mstdn.ca/media_attachments/files/117/433/895/532/375/226/original/51492d467c234454.jpg

2026-10-10 11:13:28 UTC

1996: little awkward mistakes in online posts show that you're not fluent in a foreign language.
2026: little awkward mistakes in online posts show that you actually know a foreign language (rather than relying on machine translation).
#language #AI #bilingual

2026-09-20 17:21:02 UTC

First ever butternut squash: many more to come. I've included my largest teapot (6 cups / 1.5 litres) for size comparison.
#squash #gardening #ottawa
https://cdn.mstdn.ca/media_attachments/files/117/304/507/059/904/026/original/400efcd4462bdda5.jpg

2026-08-22 20:43:30 UTC

On the day Canada finally walked away from so-called "trade talks" with our dysfunctional southern neighbour, I'm celebrating with a very local tomato sauce. Everything here (except 1 tsp of salt) grew within 20m of the pot.
#gardening #Ottawa #CanadaStrong #food
https://cdn.mstdn.ca/media_attachments/files/117/141/101/299/673/388/original/807416e29d6232f5.jpg

2026-08-10 12:32:02 UTC

If you see an em-dash ("—") online, it means you're reading
a post from someone who cares deeply about typography and effective communication;
copy that went through an editorial-review process at a publisher; or
text generated by an AI-model that was instructed to recognise an em-dash in its training material as a sign of more dependable, authoritative writing.
It's a shame that no.3 has drowned out the others in ignorant "How to spot AI !!!" influencer posts—the em-dash is a useful bit of punctuation.
#punctuation #AI #emDash

2026-07-30 12:03:57 UTC

In the The Bridge on the River Kwai, the filmmakers had the POWs whistle the "Colonel Bogey March" because the actual lyrics British soldiers sang to the melody in WW2 were considered too offensive for 1957 cinema audiences:
Hitler has only got one ball,
Goering has two, but they are very small.
Himmler has something similar,
But poor old Goebbels
Has no balls
At all.
#history #cinema #music #WW2

2026-07-28 17:28:13 UTC

I'm disappointed in Tim Hortons for running a major Harry Potter sponsorship promotion with J.K. Rowling.
It's a deep betrayal of their trans customers, employees, and the whole Canadian trans community. If you buy anything at Tims, you will be helping to fund Rowling's anti-trans foundation, in which she's invested millions.
"TERF Hortons," indeed.
#transphobia #TimHortons #Canada

2026-07-26 10:57:18 UTC

#TIL (actually yesterday) from my adult kids about the #sadBeigeMom hashtag, to describe influencers places like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube who design their homes only in shades of cream and grey (even children's toys and ornaments on Christmas trees).
I'd noticed that "design" approach on TV home-improvement shows as well, even to the extreme of painting over wood trim or exposed brick in bland colours, and putting grey tiles over hardwood floors. "Sad" isn't half of it.
#hashtags #design

2026-07-10 12:08:26 UTC

FWIW, Mussolini didn't "make the trains run on time." He just ordered the Italian press to write that the trains were running on time.
That's how authoritarianism works. Fascist sympathisers in other countries fell for it.
#authoritarianism #hegemony #history #Italy

2026-06-11 02:04:53 UTC

Reminder: if you're a secondary-school teacher, and want to give your students a hands-on activity for learning logarithms, my site
https://cardboard-computer.org/
is free (libre and gratuit) and has no ads, analytics, or tracking cookies. You can download templates to build your own sliderule, and there are instructions and interactive exercises for using it.
(Tell them it's a steampunk calculator.)
#slideRules #teaching #math

2026-06-10 10:33:37 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…rnn3 There's always AOSP, but point taken — pure AOSP is a rounding error in Android deployments.
in hindsight, something like this was always going to happen if a Linux variant became wildly popular: it's not as if the corporate jackels would ignore a money-making opportunity. The FOSS ethos isn't as scalable as the software. 😒
My approach is to prefer mobile websites over apps (via Fennec with privacy add-ons), download FOSS apps from F-Droid when possible, and use DuckDuckGo's App Tracking Protection for the rest. I almost never see an ad on my (unrooted) Android phone. And there's Termux for when I want a more typical Linux experience.
#Linux #Android #FOSS

2026-06-10 02:54:51 UTC

Probably the weirdest thing that happened during my tech career was seeing Linux become the world's most-popular consumer OS (via Android), far outpacing commercial OS's from Microsoft and Apple.
30+ years ago, we all dreamed of something like that happening, but I doubt many of us would have bet much money on it.
#Linux #Android #technology

2026-06-06 23:52:28 UTC

82 years ago, on the last day called #DDay (they retired the term after that), the Normandy landings were truly a multinational effort:
Canadians landed on Juno Beach
Americans landed on Utah and Omaha Beaches
Brits landed on Sword and Gold Beaches
The Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy handled most of Operation Neptune, getting the troops from all the allied countries across safely
The French Resistance prepared the way by sabotaging transportation and infrastructure links (they weren't protected by the Geneva Convention if caught)
War is a terrible thing, and 6 June 1944 was a terrible day, but I have great respect for the people who took those enormous risks.
#history

2026-05-15 22:00:16 UTC

The latest high-performance tech often isn't the right tech.
Fast, heavily-armed Royal Navy Sea Hurricane and Seafire fighters launched from an escort carrier in WW2 could patrol ahead of a North Atlantic convoy for an hour, max.
The Fairey Swordfish, a 90 mph open-cockpit biplane covered in fabric, could patrol for 3 hours without refueling, and was slow enough to stay over a U-boat and force it to dive deep while the convoy steamed safely past with badly-needed food (and other cargoes) for the UK.
p.s. Canada may be about to make the same mistake by investing billions in flashy American F-35 fighter jets, which also have short endurance and are all but useless for patrolling the Arctic.
#technology #WW2 #history #aviation
https://cdn.mstdn.ca/media_attachments/files/116/580/784/536/373/577/original/e2ee9d86694cf09c.png

2026-05-07 13:45:01 UTC

twenty per cent of everybody Zoë had ever heard say 'espresso' said 'expresso' instead, and here it was, up on this blackboard: 'expresso coffee.' But now she discovered that maybe she'd been wrong all this time, because whatever they gave her, it wasn't espresso.
— from Mick Herron, The Last Voice You Hear (2004)
#reading #language #coffee

2026-04-21 21:03:49 UTC

I love playing #classicalGuitar
I love #gardening
I love #tea
I love #publicTransit
I love #emacs
I wonder if just these 5 interests in combination are enough to identify me uniquely in the fediverse. 🤷

2026-04-15 11:03:34 UTC

The U.S. rulers carried out 47 human sacrifices last year in the hope they'd be blessed with public safety.
Whenever the sacrifices seem not to be working, the rulers frantically increase the number.
They keep nearly 2m humans in crowded holding pens — sometimes for decades — and choose the sacrificial victims from among them.
(If someone wrote about the west the same way the west wrote about colonised people.)
#colonialism #capitalPunishment #USpolitics

2026-04-15 10:49:41 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…pfuj That's my worst graph of 2026 so far. I wonder if anyone can top it.

2026-04-03 22:49:46 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…pfuj Plus, their toilets don't work and their laundry rooms catch on fire. 🤷

2026-03-28 18:03:35 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…wwlr Yes, I grew up on a quiet residential crescent, and it was no problem for me as a non-disabled child and teenager.
It's a very different experience in a wheelchair or walker, when you know it will take you 10 seconds or more to vacate the road and make room for a car, and sometimes can't move easily to the side without risk of falling or getting stuck.
All it takes is one inattentive driver: you really have no opportunity to save yourself.

2026-03-27 11:56:04 UTC

"This a quiet residential neighbourhood, we don't need sidewalks," said every non-disabled, non-elderly, non stroller-pushing, car-owning resident. 😕
(Ottawa's Manor Park neighbourhood at the moment, but it happens all over. And shame on Counsellor King for pandering to them )
#Ottawa #ableism #accessibility

2026-03-21 00:22:24 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…52nc linked to an article saying
It will have been more than three weeks since the US and Israel first attacked Iran when the first British warship finally arrives off the coast of Cyprus, a belated defensive deployment that has highlighted the lack of military capacity available to the UK.
And meanwhile, the most advanced aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy was limping back to Crete, defeated by a laundry fire and clogged toilets.
The huge gap between hawkish politicians' chest-thumping rhetoric and the drab, depressing reality on military deployment isn't limited to just the UK.
#nonviolence #military

2026-03-08 11:47:17 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…59kg Part of the problem is that we set the expectation that the fedi would work just like a monolithic social media site. If we reduced that expectation just a little, the demands would go down a lot.
Users already accept (or fail to notice) that Mastodon's search and hashtag features aren't really global across the fedi.

2026-03-08 11:34:12 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…59kg Yes, lots of details to work out for our use cases, but the pull model is what makes RSS so crazy powerful and scalable. Push models are resource hogs that approach exponential growth in a large network like the fediverse — the medium-sized site that hosts my account is constantly struggling to stay one step ahead of the fedi's surging resource demands.

2026-01-14 15:22:36 UTC

In 1948, a team of mostly-female German construction workers built Berlin Tegel Airport in the French Sector in only 90 days, after Tempelhof and Gatow were overwhelmed by the Berlin Airlift.
The Soviets refused to remove two of their radio towers blocking the approach, so French General Jean Ganeval simply ordered them blown up. Soviet General Alexander Kotikiv was furious: "How could you do such a thing?"
Ganeval replied "With dynamite."
#history #Berlin #airports #humour

2025-12-28 12:18:49 UTC

Little acts of resistance matter. For example, if your team, community group, etc is staying in touch through a Facebook group, ask (politely) if it would be possible to switch to an e-mail list instead. There's a good chance no one has ever even raised the point before.
The more groups move off Facebook, the fewer people will feel "stuck" there, and the less tempting it will be for other groups to stay.
#Facebook #socialMedia

2025-11-22 12:41:26 UTC

#Denmark - please learn from our shameful past here in Canada. You're perpetuating your humanitarian crimes against Indigenous people by not returning the Greenlandic children you abducted from their parents. Your psychologists who are still glibly defending this nonsensical "parenting test" should lose their license to practice.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1wlw2qj113o
#Greenland #IndigenousRights

2025-11-11 12:37:27 UTC

U.S. government secretly cancels foreign journalist's visa in the middle of a visit.
ICE then arrests journalist for being in the country on an expired visa.
After suffering two weeks of ICE incarceration, journalist agrees to "voluntarily" leave the country.
Our southern neighbour is becoming a rogue state, like North Korea or Russia. And they wonder why Canadian tourists aren't coming any more. 😢
#SamiHamdi #USpolitics #ICE

2025-11-02 17:24:26 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…s67t I spent many years looking for one for OurAirports, with no success. I can get METARs, TAFs, and NOTAMs, but not arrivals/departures.

2025-06-05 14:50:26 UTC

🍿 Watching the U.S. far right go from defining itself as Russia-phobes to defining itself as Russia-philes has been one of the more interesting experiences of my six decades on this planet. It's a more-complete pirouette than any ballet dancer could pull off.
More importantly, it shows that there never was any political principle behind all the Red scares and McCarthyism. They just needed an enemy to excuse their own abuses of power, and they've picked new ones now.
#USpoli #politics #Russia

2025-05-25 22:18:33 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…gqp6 What about middle-aged cishet white guys who always have something to say?
Don't forget US!!! 😉

2025-04-30 21:31:28 UTC

The accessible garden is turned over, composted, raked, staked, and ready for May!
#Ottawa #gardening #zone5
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/114/429/037/831/154/031/original/f21d9d6191f9537b.jpeg

2025-04-22 22:07:00 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…60cs I made it only about 1/3 of the way through watching the musical Hamilton, but it drove me crazy, all the braying about "liberty" by Patriot supporters on a British-controlled Manhattan Island that (in real life) was packed with Black refugees from the other side of Patriot lines.
For a musical with a mostly non-white cast, it was an egregious case of whitewashing history (presenting enslaver George Washington as a positive, heroic figure was just the cherry on top).

2025-04-11 21:16:05 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…nz9s wrote
Another LinkedIn influencer explaining that if you write using em-dashes, he'll ignore you because you obviously used AI.
Seriously? This is a thing? I've been using en-dashes and em-dashes correctly since the 1980s.
On the other hand, being ignored by a LinkedIn "influencer" does seem like a benefit, so maybe I'll just stay quiet about it.
#AI #LinkedIn

2025-04-08 10:50:41 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…s9xg And that's good news that the #deextinction advocates are full of 💩, because if they weren't , it would be catastrophic.
Imagine the ecological harm of introducing the woolly mammoths into the fragile Arctic ecosystem (for example). Species would be invasive over time as well as space.

2025-04-04 21:02:44 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…fynq Yeah, they shot it at the end of the day, after most of the crew had gone home.

2025-04-03 01:46:59 UTC

Why senior management is never wrong.
2022: We need an AI strategy!
2023: Company spends millions licensing and integrating with AI.
2024: Nobody in the company wants to use the AI.
2025: AI use is now mandatory.
✅ KPI met: 99% of employees are using AI.
#AI #management

2025-04-01 12:24:38 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…7wld Very true. Also, Internet jokes are pretty lame excuses for April Fool's pranks, so I guess it balances out (unlike the bucket of water I placed above your partly-open door … wait, did I type that out loud?).

2025-04-01 01:39:16 UTC

The tradition I learned, growing up in Canada, is that all April Fool's jokes have to happen before noon on 1 April — if you try one in the afternoon, you're the fool (I was surprised the first time I learned that rule doesn't apply in other countries).
Also, 1 April is the start of a new government budget year, so the joke's on us anyway. 🙂 🇨🇦
#aprilFoolsDay #Canada

2025-03-17 20:31:23 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…0g46 It looked great until
so you can spin it up on your own server using an S3-compatible storage service
(Out of the Google Docs frying pan and into the Amazon Web Services fire. 😔 )

2025-03-12 12:50:07 UTC

It's wild reading 1930s novels and seeing how reliable rail travel once was in the UK.
"The ship leaves Liverpool for Spain at 7:00 pm."
"There's a train that gets in at 6:25."
"That will allow more than enough time for the five of us to arrive at the station with all our steamer trunks, arrange taxis, and get onboard."
😳
#rail #trains #novels #1930s

2025-02-23 12:59:05 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…hved #GenAI does have an apparent personality trait; unfortunately, that trait is sycophancy.
Through complex word association, it acts like a billionaire's f**t-catcher, figuring out what you want to hear and then spoon-feeding it back to you.
Can you get rich? Be cured? Play guitar like Segovia? Are you smarter/sexier/more important than anyone else? The answer is YES! 🙄
#AI
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/114/053/304/377/913/322/original/6ada8779439292fe.jpg

2025-02-12 16:49:30 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…fle4 As someone who started studying Noam Chomsky's Generative Grammar in the 1980s, I find the technology fascinating.
However, I find the way it's being trained, rolled out and monetized abhorrent, so I think in the end we agree.
It's like a dangerous virus that shouldn't have left the lab.

2025-02-07 17:41:14 UTC

The way to counter toxic nationalism abroad isn't by ramping up our own here in Canada. Instead, let's focus on patience, kindness, and supporting and protecting people in need, no matter where they live.
Despite the different flags and passports, we're all just humans riding a little blue dot around the sun. 🌎
#kindness #Canada

2025-02-05 12:01:45 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…args So you don't want just a raw Linux server or VM where you can install and run a webapp; you're looking for a hosted CMS (WordPress or similar)?

2025-01-24 11:35:32 UTC

You're not helpless. Change comes from millions of small local actions, including yours.
For example, you can influence moving your community discussions off Facebook, whether they're neighbourhood "Buy Nothing" groups, announcements for your kid's sports teams, or monthly open-mic music nights.
When people want to participate in something they care about, they shouldn't be forced to use a toxic website as a condition of entry.
#community #activism #Meta #hope

2025-01-10 14:48:36 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…kvnh There are also those of us who deliberately got in trouble at school.

2025-01-05 12:38:16 UTC

I appreciate this act of kindness towards a former colleague, but I wish those politicians would remember that they have to power to move everyone out of shelters.
#shelter #homelessness #ONpoli
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/113/775/757/515/114/655/original/a150f39767f57587.png

2025-01-01 23:25:04 UTC

Immature spoiled billionaires and loud narcissistic populist politicians thrive on the same thing: constant attention.
When you post about how stupid the latest thing one of them said or did is, you're helping them.
Cut off the attention, and it's like cutting off their PR oxygen: it's a highly-effective resistance strategy.

2024-12-27 11:51:15 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…3dw7 Exactly!
And even at the present, why would senior devs want to stick around spending 10× as long tracking down and fixing absurd bugs in AI-generated "code" as it would take them to write the code themselves?
At least the time taken to mentor junior developers pays off in future senior developers.
#AI #genAI #programming

2024-12-23 12:23:43 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…args … and gardening! Don't forget gardening. A question about tomato seedlings will often generate more replies than a question about Linux. The gardeners in the fedi are a force to be reckoned with.

2024-12-21 14:43:18 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…args I know what you mean. I made in interactive circular slide rule on this page entirely with hand-written bare Javascript, SVG, and HTML5, and it was 1) easy and 2) a lot of fun.
https://cardboard-computer.org/

2024-12-15 01:55:43 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…args Search engine quality has definitely declined, even before they started including "AI summaries" in the results. For example, Google no longer limits itself to literal matches when I enclose something in quotation marks.
@nprofile…snsa @nprofile…mqrg

2024-12-07 01:47:31 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…qgtr I sometimes remind myself that private news outlets have always been primarily platforms for delivering readers to advertisers; journalistic integrity was important to the journalists and the public, but just window dressing to the bean counters.
Google, Meta, TikTok, etc how to deliver readers to advertisers at massive scale, without needing to pay any journalists. It's still the same old core business, but they do it with more ruthless efficiency and less public benefit. 😢

2024-12-06 20:00:54 UTC

I'm dismayed at the number of fedizens who suddenly pivoted 180° to encouraging and celebrating gun violence over the past few days.
How can we claim we're any better than the right-wing gun wackos if we start agreeing with them that shooting people is the answer to a social issue, as long as we approve the choice of victim?
Let's be better than that.
#nonViolence #socialJustice

2024-11-29 20:37:46 UTC

Loaves fresh from the oven: rustic white and whole-wheat molasses.
#bread #baking #food
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/113/568/153/011/329/597/original/8d138083fd7fbc1b.jpeg

2024-11-22 16:36:45 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…wuyc I respect that others feel differently, but I'd be OK if politicians, celebrities, etc didn't come here into the fedi. I'm here because want people to talk with me, not at me.

2024-11-15 21:15:15 UTC

- reply

@nprofile…5wev quoted
"Caution: Do not feel defeated if you cannot name every gull you see"
"Susan"
"Frank"
"Muhammad"
"Beverley"
"Aisha"
I don't see the problem. I can go on naming gulls all day.

2024-11-13 15:55:00 UTC

- reply

@npub1dts…6798 Yeah, Ottawa (and Regina, and Québec, and Minnesota) are well south of Helsinki in latitude, but we don't have the climate influence of the Gulf Stream into the Baltic and Gulf of Bothnia to warm us up.
At just north of 60, though, Helsinki can still hang on to bragging rights for least/most sun at the solstices. 🙂 Our long, dark nights in the winter are not as bad as theirs.
@npub1chx…uyvk

2024-11-12 22:29:08 UTC

- reply

@npub1dts…6798 I don't know -- it would be nice to travel somewhere warm like Helsinki when it gets cold here in Ottawa.

2024-11-07 17:49:07 UTC

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
J.R.R. Tolkein, author of Fellowship of the Rings, veteran of the trenches in WW1, and civilian air raid warden during the Blitz in WW2.
#history #hope #resistance #literature #LordOfTheRings

2024-08-26 01:54:16 UTC

- reply

@npub1mmf…eknq Yep. The genuine allies stuck by Capital Pride and the pink-washers fled. At least now it's easier to tell who's who.

2024-08-18 00:49:21 UTC

Our new grandpuppy Ellie (9 weeks old).
#dogsOfMastodon #pets
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/112/980/262/220/085/561/original/8b9cfb7db16bf2ee.jpeg

2024-07-31 22:33:21 UTC

Baby bell pepper.
#gardening #Ottawa
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/112/883/475/160/355/509/original/a10cc22b37270e37.jpeg

2024-07-30 20:15:15 UTC

- reply

@npub1v5a…5yax Thanks! What's the best way to fix that?

2024-07-30 19:32:24 UTC

My tomato plants have some leaves turning yellow and spotted (all ones without blossoms or fruit). I assume it's from a nitrogen deficiency, since they've grown so fast in the excessive heat and rain.
I've pruned off the yellowing branches to take some of the burden off the plants (which are still fruiting well). Will a generous helping of manure compost be enough to help, or do I need to give up on organic this season and buy some synthetic tomato fertiliser?
#gardening #tomatoes

2024-07-28 15:36:11 UTC

OK, I would swear this zucchini wasn't there at all when I checked two days ago.
#gardening #Ottawa #zucchini
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/112/864/845/325/247/752/original/67f64c0bb9ac6201.jpg

2024-07-25 21:21:28 UTC

My first marigold has finally blossomed (started from seed in April).
#gardening #flowers #Bloomscrolling
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/112/849/213/979/950/269/original/234d0e8b82e39b04.jpeg

2024-07-24 16:15:48 UTC

For a quick soul cleanse, nothing beats a walk through the garden.
#gardening #ottawa
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/112/842/343/056/666/427/original/ccba8e8fdd2e3fcf.mp4

2024-07-22 20:18:12 UTC

- reply

@npub16yk…gh74 Much of Canada is on unceded Indigenous land, and we settlers are starting (belatedly) to acknowledge that.

2024-07-20 13:46:56 UTC

- reply

@npub1j8q…ma30 Very true! 🙂
Or to paraphrase, the fediverse is the world's biggest community of people who love computers deeply enough to be terrified of the way some people and corporations weaponise them.

2024-07-15 16:00:58 UTC

- reply

@npub1a72…ze5k Great! My cucumbers did so badly last year that I haven't even tried this year.
For many other vine plants, I use cages and/or stakes, which let me get them off the ground sooner.

2024-07-10 20:07:14 UTC

- reply

@npub1c49…wavy I see your fountain pens, and raise you SLIDE RULE PICS!

2024-07-05 16:13:25 UTC

Focusing on percentage change is a popular way to BS people with numbers.
For example, if a company barely breaks even one year ($1 profit), then nets $140 profit the next year, that's a 14,000% increase in profit!
(but it means nothing)
#numeracy #numbers #business

2024-07-03 00:17:49 UTC

Shared by my mom (source unknown).
#gardening #tomatoes
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/112/719/675/255/710/800/original/d472543719520009.png

2024-07-02 02:20:57 UTC

This year's new, accessible garden is really delivering the produce. The extra-wide aisles (3 ft/0.9 m, enough for a wheelchair or walker) help with air and light as well, and because every part is reachable from a kneeling bench, it's easy to plant, trim, and control weeds.
3,000 lb (1,360 kg) of new soil helped as well, of course.
#gardening #Ottawa #accessibility
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/112/714/487/842/716/098/original/93511841eefcef7f.jpeg

2024-06-25 01:28:44 UTC

- reply

@npub1vgs…4tgk Up here, Canada Geese aren't afraid of people (or dogs, or bicycles, or cars…) — they go wherever they want, and we just have to wait until they're out of the way.

2024-06-04 17:40:11 UTC

- reply

@npub18lj…80hq My drawing, but not my original idea.
#projectManagement #work
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/112/559/560/509/855/135/original/24a7d356c7ca737c.png

2024-05-22 16:56:09 UTC

- reply

@npub18lj…80hq Yes, that's the sign of a healthy relationship. When one person is always giving and the other is always taking, it's not a good situation.

2024-05-17 13:53:18 UTC

The zucchini seedling bent over and almost snapped its stem a month ago — it's held together only by the tiniest of threads — but it has kept growing and growing and growing.
I've done a little bit of plant surgery on it, removing some leaves and branches to lighten it, and setting up a kind-of splint to hold the broken part steady.
Let's see if it can actually flower and fruit.
#gardening
https://cdn.mastdn.ca/media_attachments/files/112/456/744/725/839/018/original/05407a11ab3704a4.jpeg

2024-05-07 22:10:05 UTC

I am really enjoying my new accessible garden.
I was nervous about giving up that much growing space, but even though I'm no longer using a wheelchair or walker, having the 3ft (0.9m) wide aisles and no plant more than a 2ft (0.6m) reach from the edge of a raised cedar frame is making gardening a joy.
The easier it is, the more of it I'll do. And if a friend shows up in a wheelchair or walker, they can visit any part of it to harvest their own food.
#gardening #accessibility #Ottawa

2024-05-01 01:10:50 UTC

- reply

@npub1y3m…r6lg Are you sure about that? I think you can even take a broken tomato branch, put it in water, and grow a new root system, so perhaps they'd do better than you think (but also, I'm still a gardening newbie).

2024-04-30 17:30:07 UTC

#TIL that squirrels avoid rosemary (at least the squirrels we have around here).
I put 4 rosemary seedlings into the corner of one of my new garden frames, and the squirrels who've been digging holes all over my new dirt and compost stay at least 1 ft (0.3m) away.
I just saw a new one poke its head over the frame near the rosemary, back up, and climb up on the other side instead.
#gardening #Ottawa

2024-04-27 19:31:51 UTC

OK, #Linux people, this is your big day:
ADVICE SOLICITED!
How do I configure audio so that it doesn't automatically switches to my portable HDMI monitor when I plug it into my laptop?
(Ubuntu, Gnome)
p.s. I have 30+ years' experience with Linux, so no need to explain the basics: I'm just too lazy to look up this particular quirk. 🙂
#lazyWeb #Ubuntu #audio

2024-03-26 11:52:59 UTC

- reply

@npub16kg…hh7t I'd be fine with paying a lot more for #chocolate if the extra money was going to the workers and growers.

2023-08-27 22:13:15 UTC

- reply

@npub1ddp…2tax @npub1xl5…rqkr @npub1zdp…vqv8 Science and technology are human constructs, just like religion, so of course people use them all to get what they want.

2023-08-27 19:44:59 UTC

- reply

@npub1ddp…2tax @npub1zdp…vqv8 Religions are neutral in themselves, like politics and science — it's how people deploy them that causes all the good or evil (they all have the potential for both).

2023-08-27 12:09:52 UTC

- reply

@npub1zdp…vqv8 "Cult" in the original/historical sense of a group of people worshipping someone (e.g. the Cult of Dionysus) but not, as you say, in the modern sense that includes collective living, psychological manipulation and physical coercion (e.g. the Branch Davidian cult at Waco).

2023-08-20 12:07:01 UTC

Did you know that there's also a men's World Cup of soccer? We need a separate event because male players get injured so easily.
Fortunately, they usually get up and recover quickly when the ref doesn't award a penalty kick.
#WorldCup #Soccer #Football

2023-08-08 14:42:41 UTC

- reply

@npub1gl8…q5y9 That's too much Canadian in one picture. You just need to make the beer Alexander Keith's for the Internet to shut down. 🇨🇦

2023-08-06 20:06:46 UTC

- reply

@npub1h2n…nx0j Just so. There is significantly higher income inequality in the U.S., and if you're part of the 10% (or so), you'll earn a lot — with all the caveats we've discussed earlier.

2023-08-06 15:22:34 UTC

- reply

@npub1h2n…nx0j And I think you might be giving journalists too much credit for statistical literacy; some of them are talking about specific fields, but many/most of them just look at the mean.

2023-08-06 15:21:50 UTC

- reply

@npub1h2n…nx0j That's very true, but it doesn't apply to most of the population, only to a privileged few (to which I belong, FWIW; I could have earned much more in the U.S., but I didn't want to raise kids there).

2023-08-06 15:13:16 UTC

False: Americans earn more than Canadians.
Mean (average) income in the U.S. was $73,370 in 2021, compared to $52,960 in Canada (73% as much).
However, median income in the U.S. (PPP) was USD $19,306 in 2021, compared to $18,652 in Canada (97% as much).
Mean income in the U.S. is likely distorted by a few uber-rich people; for pretty-much everyone, incomes are essentially identical between the two countries.
https://www.worlddata.info/average-income.php
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/median-income-by-country
#income #stats #Canada #USA

2023-08-05 22:28:23 UTC

- reply

@npub1trd…ussx APfest or (better) FediFest.

2023-08-03 20:04:01 UTC

- reply

@npub1zdp…vqv8 I haven't been to NYC since before the pandemic. Did things get bad at drug stores during it?

2023-07-17 18:27:47 UTC

- reply

@npub1vyt…mgjn I'm glad for you, because that's what you wanted or needed. Many others need to gain weight (for medical or other reasons), so I personally try to talk about weight change, in either direction (I've had to do both in the past couple of years, in different phases of my medical journey).