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I remember reading a few years ago that some states were struggling to find, let's call them, "alternative methods" to use on death row inmates, as there have been instances where their current methods have proven to be ineffective and found to be "inhumane" as they can sometimes just prolong a painful death.
These guys might have found their niche...?
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"Police in Switzerland made multiple arrests after a woman reportedly ended her life using a so-called suicide pod, in apparently the first case of its kind."
Had to laugh at the double meaning of "in apparently the first case of its kind."
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Octopuses recorded hunting with fish — and punching those that don't cooperate[^]
Quote: Octopuses don’t always hunt alone — but their partners aren’t who you’d expect.
A new study shows that some members of the species Octopus cyanea maraud around the seafloor in hunting groups with fish, which sometimes include several fish species at once.
The research, published in the journal Nature on Monday, even suggests that the famously intelligent animals organized the hunting groups’ decisions, including what they should prey upon.
What’s more, the researchers witnessed the cephalopod species — often called the big blue or day octopus — punching companion fish, apparently to keep them on task and contributing to the collective effort.
Octopuses have often been thought to avoid other members of their species and prowl solo using camouflage. But the study suggests that some octopuses have surprisingly rich social lives — a finding that opens a new window into the marvels of undersea life. It’s an indication that at least one octopus species has characteristics and markers of intelligence that scientists once considered common only in vertebrates.
“I think sociality, or at least attention to social information, is way more deep-rooted in the evolutionary tree than we might think,” said Eduardo Sampaio, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the lead author of the research.
“We are very similar to these animals,” he added. “In terms of sentience, they are at a very close level or closer than we think toward us.”
To understand the inner details of octopus lives, researchers dived for about a month at a reef off the coast of Eilat, Israel, and tracked 13 octopuses for a total of 120 hours using several cameras. The team followed the octopuses for 13 hunts, during which they observed groups of between two and 10 fish working with each octopus.
These hunting groups typically included several species of reef fish, such as grouper and goatfish. The octopuses did not appear to lead the groups, but they did punch at fish to enforce social order — most often at blacktip groupers.
“The ones that get more punched are the main exploiters of the group. These are the ambush predators, the ones that don’t move, don’t look for prey,” Sampaio said.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
And my IoT UI/User Experience library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/uix
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Ooh, he connected with a left and another left and a right and a right and a right and a right and a final left.
I’ve given up trying to be calm. However, I am open to feeling slightly less agitated.
I’m begging you for the benefit of everyone, don’t be STUPID.
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There are all sorts of unusual animal behaviors.
There is a fish and shrimp that live together. One on one and they react together as one.
I have seen three shows now with instances of different primates making and using medicine.
Primates that plan ahead by harvesting nuts, then preparing them, then going back later to harvest.
Ravens that steal from other ravens are more suspicious of other ravens than those that don't steal.
Polar bears actively hunting baby whales.
Unusual partnerships in the primate kingdom between different individuals which have no obvious beneficial outcome and as such can be best described as friendship.
Toucans hunting and eating bats.
Pelicans eating other birds. Groups actively doing this behavior rather than a one off.
There is a vulture species that eats primarily bones.
Let us say gender fluid albatrosses raising their young in cooperation.
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most interesting. thanx
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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To add to the discussion: Ravens are surprisingly intelligent. They can solve complex problems.
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Given that we now have 4 potential setters, do we want to set up a rota to start next Monday. The identified setters are Peter_in_2780, pkfox, OriginalGriff, and me. I'm happy to pick up any of the weeks, so who wants to do week 1, week 2, week 3 or week 4? I'll take whichever one isn't chosen.
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I think you should Pete and use your recent clue as a starter - I was nowhere on that
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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I have a couple of suggestions.
I'd prefer a one-day-a-week rotation for a couple of reasons. First, I have an ongoing issue with Thursdays - a long standing commitment around the regular CCC time.
Also, I think it is easier on all of us to dream up one a week rather than 5 in one block.
Given one reason stated for the rota idea was that some potential players are put off by the WSO urgency of setting, how about we leave Friday for a volunteer other than Pete, Pete, Pete or Paul? This could be a winner from earlier in the week, or just a regular or irregular player. I'm sure there are some more out there that could contribute if relieved of the time pressure.
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Good points there Peter I would struggle to compose five in a row
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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So we have Peter, Peter, Peter, and Paul. Nothing confusing about that at all.
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No Pete
regards
Pete
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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I was recently pondering this and recalled the best team I once worked with.
We were headed by an outgoing salesman-type The team included a fellow who specialized in low level hacking, A chemist who knew Excelinside and out, and I handled all the technical/engineering and artificial intelligence stuff.
He would call a meeting to announce that we had a new project.
We would inevitably say
"
"Are you crazy, we can't do that!"
He would reply: " too bad, we have a contract, so figure it out!"
Then we would put our heads together and figure it out and did it.
He knew just enough to be dangerous, but he had assembled a group that could work miracles and we did.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr.PhD P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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Not sure if this is meant to be a question, but going off the question mark in the title... And this isn't you you, but the colloquial you...
First and foremost, from the worker side a good team starts at the hiring process. After giving probably close to a 100 interviews (never counted), you gotta be able to sniff out talent from fluff.
You need someone technically skilled or honest enough about their shortcomings and willing to learn. And, you need peeps that vibe with you. Throw ego and being argumentative out the door. Nobody with an inflated ego has ever been talented... nobody. Sometimes you'll get your way, sometimes you won't. Part of being in a team.
Oh, and whatever you do, do not hire devs that go sit in the corner and refuse to talk to anyone when an issue arises. They need to go find a solo gig in a small company that's going nowhere. Conversely, the dev should also be able to figure stuff out. It's a balance.
Equally as important from the managerial side, also throw ego out the door. You're nothing without the workers... remember that. You also need someone skilled (structure, soft skills, methodologies, etc.) and honest. A good manager needs to be a leader and not a boss. He/she creates a vibe that inspires and tries to keep things fun as much as possible. They also need enough courage to talk to the business frankly.
As I'm sure all of us know, finding this perfect match is very difficult.
And above all else, if the workers have to stay late because poop hit the fan... get them a lap dance. Ok ok, I kid... maybe...
Jeremy Falcon
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I never had experience with a programming team.
That said I did inherit a team at my first job as a new graduate from Pharmacy School.
They all lived in the small neighborhood known as Perry Heights.
These 7 women had 141 years seniority at this store and new more about customer service
than I could have ever learned at any school.
What kept them at the store for all those years?
The owner who I mowed his lawn as a kid was honest and knew every employee.
He owned 12 pharmacies in Canton, Ohio
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Right on man, we're still people at the end of the day. Quick side note, a programming team is like any relationship. A great one will enhance your life. A bad one will worsen it.
Jeremy Falcon
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what makes a good team?
Simple answer IMO:
A good team leader that keeps it a team.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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Dr.Walt Fair, PE wrote: "Are you crazy, we can't do that!"
I appreciate this story and can relate to the overzealous salesman-type. The one I worked with wound up doing a stint in prison, but well before that he sold software and owned/co-owned at least half-a-dozen companies.
Anyhow, I believe a good team is the combination of a visionary leader and talented people who can put up with them.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
"Hope is contagious"
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See link in my signature.
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The summary for Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) deprecation - Windows IT Pro Blog reads:
WSUS remains operational but is no longer investing in new features.
As far as I'm concerned, this doesn't change anything. And frankly, MS could have made this announcement 10 years ago, it wouldn't have made any difference either. WSUS today looks and feels and performs exactly the same as it did 10 years ago. It hasn't improved. It hasn't gotten any worse either. It's a known quantity.
The role will still be in Windows Server 2025, and the blog entry points out "we are preserving current functionality and will continue to publish updates through the WSUS channel".
In other words, if you have WSUS today, it'll continue working. Since the role is still in Server 2025, I'm betting they're still going to be publishing updates through that mechanism at least until Server 2025 itself goes out of extended support (in 2035). If there's anything to worry about, it's whether the next version of Server after that includes the role or not. Until then? This is a non-event, IMO.
But the resulting discussion somehow degenerated into how MS is trying to get everyone to manage their patching through Azure, and that some related features on Azure in the past have (already) been deprecated, and the end goal is to get people to subscribe to some service costing $5/server/month.
People are freaking out about that and coming up with all sorts of scenarios like it's a big conspiracy, but in the end none of that is a WSUS issue. MS can start charging for Azure services all it wants, WSUS isn't going away. Besides, people have already built viable alternatives. Today you could script pretty much everything WSUS does, within a few hours.
You commit to cloud provider services, you're giving up control, then you're at their mercy, and then they can start charging you for those services. But this announcement doesn't say, or even suggest, WSUS is gonna get broken soon and people won't have a choice but to move to Azure. Of course MS would love that. But the blog entry makes it clear WSUS isn't going away.
So Azure is, and remains, a different problem. Those Azure complaints are completely valid, but they belong in another discussion altogether.
If you're using WSUS today, does this announcement worry you?
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This is yet another example of Microsoft's desire to move everything from on-premise to cloud.
WSUS has always had huge problems with database fragmentation, to the point that I wrote a PS script combined with a SQL Server database defragmentation script I pulled off a Technet blog over a decade ago to keep my WSUS servers healthy and responsive.
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For sure WSUS has always had its own set of problems, but as mentioned, by now it's a known quantity, in terms of what to expect and what to do about it. I've come across scripts myself that do the sort of thing you brought up, and wrote a few more of my own.
If those are such big problems for people that they'd rather rely on MS to keep evolving patch management, then that's why these on-going services are pay-for. But people can't claim any of this came without their own warnings.
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Explain
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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