Did a public education event today. We have a short section of subway track on site for training (not connected to the actual subway), and as a comment on the importance of paying attention to your environment, I left a (plastic) training dummy bridging the second and (dead) third rail.

I would like to thank everyone who nominated me for Fat Bear 2025, and congratulate Chuck, who won, fair and square, despite his diet of fresh salmon being far lower in fat than my diet of "whatever looks good at WaWa".

Me: I'm thinking our Electronic Overlords are getting way too much access to my personal life. Also me: Hey, if I print 30mm risers for my couch legs, the robotic vacuum can just cruise right under my couch instead of slamming it's face into it repeatedly!

A very wise man once told me: This won't hurt a bit. Until I sober up, anyway.

Simple pleasures: Telling someone that you've never met an adult "straight" man so eager to angrily describe things as "g*y" and people as "f****ts" and are they getting enough sunlight in their closet... and watch the full-blown panic ensue.

If I win that bajillion-dollar PowerBall, I'm not going to say anything, but there will be signs. Like the one in my now-empty office saying "So long, suckers!"

Currently enjoying "Everything's on Fire But I'm Fine" by @asdecemberfalls.bsky.social and thinking it's an amazingly apt title for the times we find ourself in.

TFW when you ask for a to-go box for something you are never going to touch again, because someone clearly spent some time on it, delivered by attentive wait staff who is clearly trying hard to sell it, because you don't want to say you only like the western version.

DC's occupying army is apparently getting armed starting Monday. In other news, DC law enforcement had been directed to not enforce DC's gun laws. Place your bets now on how long it takes someone to forget their rifle in the shitter and one of DC's enterprising youth picks it up and walks away...

"I'm trying to eat better", I said. "I'll have the salad", I said.

If you don't know what I'm doing, or why I'm doing it, perhaps you shouldn't be providing unsolicited direction on how to do it.

Thought for the day: "Fashionably late" is nifty, unless you're talking about an early and really cheap happy hour.

Spotted by the Dupont Circle Krispy Kreme. #SandwichGuy @katestarbird.bsky.social

I wonder how many of these bad bois I can carry before it becomes evidence of intent to cause unrest...

Is there a go-fund-me? If not for legal costs, at least for a replacement sandwich?

Just saying. 🤷

I’ve been meaning to make this shirt, and there’s no time like the present.(aka ICE’s budget just ballooned) It has three simple phrases in Spanish that you can say to someone who’s being harassed by ICE. Wear it to educate those around you. DM me the translation if you want another language.

Firefighter Dave sez: If you gather up the cardboard tubes after your home fireworks display and put them in a garage can, please leave that garbage can outside and well away from your house/car until morning. Because there's a non-zero chance of it catching fire, and it's far less exciting outside.

Someone called LLMs “digital mansplaining”.

Firefighter Dave is apparently not supposed to put one of those "Student Driver - Please Be Patient" stickers on the fire engine, even when doing driver training with the probies.

My local diner put up a sign on the door, "Bathrooms for costumers only". They're nice folks and don't speak great English, so I explained and we had a little laugh. Today there was a new sign (different font, with a border), but it still says Costumers Only. Waiting for the anime convention... :)

Gonna be about 100 this coming week. Do I know any (US citizen) runners game for making eye-contact and suddenly taking off running if they see the Gestapo in their poorly-fitting ballistic vests and gaiters? Bonus points for every one who pukes from heat exhaustion...

Summary of the significant evidence that the B-2s currently airborne are a strike package heading directly for Iran: 1. Immediate refuelling after departing from Whiteman Air Force Base indicates that the aircraft are carry close to their maximum payload.

Firefighter Dave sez: If you're buying a gas mask to wear while buying soup, soup for your family, some tips. 1. Don't buy cold-war-era Soviet surplus masks for anything other than a costume. (They weren't great when they were new, and they had a storage design life of 10ish years.)

Absolute dumbest thing I've seen online so far on this site is probably the people who think they can escalate to direct physical confrontation with LAPD and LAPD somehow will refrain from escalating far further, far faster.

Firefighter Dave sees a lot of folks talking about IFAKs. As someone who gets recurring training on these... What they are: The name "Individual First Aid Kit" is a misnomer. They aren't first aid kits, they are, very specifically, "I got shot" kits. They contain supplies to deal with major trauma.

Firefighter Dave sez: If you're just out there, minding your own business, getting soup for your family or something, and come into contact with chemical weapons intended for riot control, flush with water. Lots of water. Wash your face before flushing your eyes.

Reminder to my non-local peeps who are heading to downtown DC over the next few weeks: 1. Metro is your friend. (Parking is going to be scarce and/or expensive) 2. Bring water. Bring sunscreen (if you're outside during daylight hours). Do not bring anything the popo may consider a weapon.

I subscribe to the @newyorker.com, I was part of ACT UP, I knew Larry Kramer well and know Tony Fauci too. Daniel Immerwahr's piece on RFKJr, features this and other passages that need a reponse. 1/

It is, I think, time to start unfollowing people who repost every single post in a thread, resulting in the posts being backwards and unconnected.

It's weird to be dismantling old furniture that was never meant to be permanent but somehow made it through a couple moves and a couple decades.

Pope Leo's first sermon and, uh, his using the phrase "be ever more fully a city set upon a hill" and cf'ing it to Rev 21:10 instead of any of the others before saying "many baptized Christians" are "living in a state of practical atheism" is. Well. Shots fired! www.npr.org/2025/05/09/g...

DOD announces plans to significantly increase spending on software procurement to "improve security", probably at least in part by switching from COTS to bespoke development. AI will doubtlessly be involved. www.theregister.com/2025/05/06/u...

BREAKING: jury awards massive $167 million in punitive damages against spyware company NSO Group. Precedent-setting win against notorious #Pegasus spyware maker. Very consequential for victims to see this. Congratulations to #WhatsApp on sticking this case through since 2019. Some thoughts 1/

Thought for the day: If you want people to have more kids, perhaps policy decisions that make housing, healthcare, education, childcare, retirement, and employment more expensive and more uncertain may not be the way to accomplish that.

For folks who like to repost everything in a thread: Remember, if you go through the thread, reposting top to bottom, people who follow you are going to see it bottom to top, and if it's long, they're going to give up quickly. Would be nice if Bluesky preserved thread ordering on reposts, but no.

We're staff medical for a b-boy contest tonight... I guess we're straddling the line between the breaking and the broken.

Happy Orange Monday, y'all. May the odds be in your 401(k)'s favor.

Thought for the day: Retailers price items based (in part) on how much is going to cost to restock that item. They're pricing in tariffs that haven't hit yet because they're going to have to pay it to restock their inventory. This isn't price gouging as long as markup matches tariff.

As I hear people talking about protesting in DC, two bits of local wisdom: 1. There is effectively no parking downtown. Use Metro or a commuter train or take a bus or bring your bike (or just get a hotel you can walk from). 2. Bathrooms on the National mall are also kinda limited.

Apparently, "relax, I haven't bitten anyone in almost 36 hours" is not the reassurance people seek in response to the question "Is this bar stool taken?"

Thought for the day: If you can see through your "tall Diet and Dewers", you probably shouldn't drive home.

Whole Paycheck is playing the un-blanked version of "Money For Nothing", guess the anti-DEI policy has gone in...

If you're heading into DC for the cherry blossoms, please keep in mind that neither parking nor public bathrooms are likely to be convenient.

Food Stamps: Myth Vs. Fact theonion.com/food-st...

Firefighter(/EMT) Dave would like to remind people that he is a more qualified medical expert than our current secretary of HHS, and the kids you love need the MMR vaccine. High-dose Vit A is great for messing up your liver, but it's worthless against measles.

It's St. Patrick's Day, the day when Americans of Irish ancestry must choose between the bar playing Dropkick Murphy's "Shipping up to Baahston" on repeat, or the one playing U2. (Meanwhile, the actual residents of Ireland are like "oh, didn't even _try_ to blame this one on us.")

Am I the only one wondering why nobody is running with the obvious "Tariffs on Irish whiskey for St. Patrick's Day" headline?

I can think of no possible way in which this could have negative consequences going forward. apnews.com/article/nati...

Firefighter Dave's tips for urban protesters: Screwing up traffic for government and business is part of the game. Screwing up traffic for hospitals is psychopathy. Please check your march route.