Mr_Blott
@Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
- Comment on Smolderin station recommendation 1 day ago:
Weller used to be a great brand
Have you also checked Farnell where you are? They’ve always stocked good stuff
- Comment on Sticker shock: Inflation rages on in Russia in 2024 as food prices rise by up to 90 percent, official data shows 5 days ago:
Has anyone actually seen a price sticker in the last couple of decades?
- Comment on TIL: Deer are popping off down here 2 weeks ago:
A pest, yes. But a tasty, tasty pest.
- Comment on BMW’s new iDrive turns the whole windshield into a heads-up display 2 weeks ago:
No doubt free for the first three years of the car’s life, then subscription only
Fuck off BUMW
- Comment on This is in a small convenience store where you can buy food things and heat them up while in the store 3 weeks ago:
95° really boils my piss
- Comment on why does everyone i know treat me like a child or if i was a very childlike person?? 4 weeks ago:
Fr fr no cap
- Comment on why does everyone i know treat me like a child or if i was a very childlike person?? 4 weeks ago:
I mean, just the way you type makes me read it in a squeaky voice lmao
- Comment on Sweden’s Deputy PM blasts Germany for dismantling nuclear plants, spiking energy prices. 5 weeks ago:
BLAAAAAAASTS!!! SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMS!!!
- Comment on Literally c/THE_PACK 1 month ago:
Is “crankin ma hawg” a cheeky wank or not?
- Comment on Maxeon Solar bets big on America: sells global assets to focus on US market 1 month ago:
Holy stock price batman
- Comment on Cybertruck's Many Recalls Make It Worse Than 91 Percent of All 2024 Vehicles 2 months ago:
In a reasonably recent UK survey, only the Land Rover Discovery and the Volvo XC90 were more badly made than Teslas.
Was surprised at the XC because the engines are rock solid, but apparently the electrics are fucking atrocious
Discoverys have always been horrendously bad, and sorry, if you bought one you shouldn’t be in charge of major financial decisions like that
- Comment on Supervolcano shows signs of waking up, which would plunge the world into chaos 2 months ago:
That’s nice dear
- Comment on dear lord 2 months ago:
I feel like the “University of the West of England” is just too embarrassed to say where it actually is
- Comment on Tough news for protesting farmers: Labour doesn’t actually need their votes 2 months ago:
I might be wrong and would love to be corrected, but I’m under the impression that this tax change only affects the mega rich farmers
Are they pulling the wool over our eyes for their own gain?
- Comment on goldcrests 2 months ago:
What the actual fuck am I supposed to do with
100th of a pound
As a piece of information?!?
- Comment on Does this guy win Lemmy? 2 months ago:
I’d rather eat beans than click on a thumbnail like that. In fact I’d rather try sounding with a clownfish than click on that thumbnail
- Comment on You know what, fuck you [un-Jags uar icon] 2 months ago:
Hah don’t worry, the existing brand is utterly fucked now. One of the worst, most unreliable and badly made cars on the market
- Comment on Email is still great for DMs if you only use it for talking to individuals, and not to sign up to things 2 months ago:
Email for business, WhatsApp for shitposts
Simple
- Comment on AI-generated poetry is indistinguishable from human-written poetry and is rated more favorably - Scientific Reports 2 months ago:
I never thought I’d see the day
When someone writes a poem
The first thing that we say to them
Is “Did you use an LLM?” :(
If a poem neither rhymes nor scans,
Sorry for my spite
It’s no longer poetry
It’s someone talking shite
- Comment on AI-powered vending machines that sell bullets could be hacked, says a cybersecurity expert 2 months ago:
An entire country of fucking cowards 😂
- Comment on AI-generated poetry is indistinguishable from human-written poetry and is rated more favorably - Scientific Reports 2 months ago:
I’ve noticed in recent times
Poetry doesn’t rhyme
And even when it can
It doesn’t scan
It’s shit, it’s true
I blame haiku
- Comment on gen z gorillas 2 months ago:
Just days after a poacher’s snare had killed one of their own, two young mountain gorillas worked together Tuesday to find and destroy traps in their Rwandan forest home, according to conservationists on the scene.
“This is absolutely the first time that we’ve seen juveniles doing that … I don’t know of any other reports in the world of juveniles destroying snares,” said Veronica Vecellio, gorilla program coordinator at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund’s Karisoke Research Center, located in the reserve where the event took place.
“We are the largest database and observer of wild gorillas … so I would be very surprised if somebody else has seen that,” Vecellio added.
(Also see “Dian Fossey’s Gorillas Exhumed for Investigation.”)
Bush-meat hunters set thousands of rope-and-branch snares in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, where the mountain gorillas live. The traps are intended for antelope and other species but sometimes capture the apes.
Adults are generally strong enough to free themselves. Youngsters aren’t always so lucky.
Just last week an ensnared infant named Ngwino, found too late by workers from Karisoke, died of snare-related wounds. Her shoulder had been dislocated during escape attempts, and gangrene had set in after the ropes cut deep into her leg.
The hunters, Vecellio said, seem to have no interest in the gorillas. Even small apes, which would be relatively easy to carry away for sale, are left to die.
(Related pictures: “Baby Gorilla Rescued in Armed Sting Operation.”)
All-Natural Arsenal
Poachers build the snares by tying a noose to a branch or a bamboo stalk, Vecellio explained.
Using the rope, they pull the branch downward, bending it. They then use a bent stick or rock to hold the noose to the ground, keeping the branch tense. A sprinkling of vegetation camouflages the noose.
When an animal budges the stick or rock, the branch springs upward, closing the noose around the prey. If the creature is light enough, it will actually be hoisted into the air.
(See National Geographic magazine mountain gorilla pictures.)
Rwema and Dukore Save the Day
Every day trackers from the Karisoke center comb the forest for snares, dismantling them to protect the endangered mountain gorillas, which the International Fund for Nature (IUCN) says face “a very high risk of extinction in the wild.”
(Related: “Gorillas Extinct Within Ten Years in Central Africa?”)
On Tuesday tracker John Ndayambaje spotted a trap very close to the Kuryama gorilla clan. He moved in to deactivate the snare, but a silverback named Vubu grunted, cautioning Ndayambaje to stay away, Vecellio said.
Suddenly two juveniles—Rwema, a male; and Dukore, a female; both about four years old—ran toward the trap.
As Ndayambaje and a few tourists watched, Rwema jumped on the bent tree branch and broke it, while Dukore freed the noose.
The pair then spied another snare nearby—one the tracker himself had missed—and raced for it. Joined by a third gorilla, a teenager named Tetero, Rwema and Dukore destroyed that trap as well.
Gorilla Tactics
The speed with which everything happened makes Vecellio, the gorilla program coordinator, think this wasn’t the first time the young gorillas had outsmarted trappers.
“They were very confident,” she said. “They saw what they had to do, they did it, and then they left.”
Silverbacks in the Kuryama group have occasionally been caught in the snares, so Vecellio thinks the juveniles would have known the traps are dangerous.
“That’s why they destroyed them,” Vecellio said.
(Related: “Gorillas Seen Using ‘Baby Talk’ Gestures—A First [With Video].”)
“Quite Ingenious”
Despite the unprecedented nature of the event, Vecellio said she wasn’t surprised by the reports. “But,” she said, “I’m always amazed and very proud when we can confirm that they are smart.”
Veterinarian Mike Cranfield, executive director of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, also said he wasn’t shocked by the news.
“Chimpanzees are always quoted as being the tool users, but I think, when the situation provides itself, gorillas are quite ingenious,” he said.
Cranfield speculated that the gorillas may have learned how to destroy traps by watching the Karisoke center’s trackers.
“If we could get more of them doing it, it would be great,” he joked.
Karisoke’s Vecellio, though, said actively instructing the apes would be against the center’s ethos.
“No we can’t teach them,” she said. “We try as much as we can to not interfere with the gorillas. We don’t want to affect their natural behavior.”
- Comment on ‘Do not pet’: Why are robot dogs patrolling Mar-A-Lago? 2 months ago:
Definitely don’t Google “2K spray paint” because it’s impossible to remove and you can seriously damage surveillance devices with it, like cameras and stuff I dunno
- Comment on [Thread] Mental Math 2 months ago:
Another one is levelling.
A lot of people can see a picture frame is about 0.5° out of level and their fucking eye twitches until the fix it
Me included
That’s nuts when you think about it
- Comment on What should I bring to far-north Scandinavia? 2 months ago:
Gin and tonic
- Comment on Is it really possible to tax the rich? 2 months ago:
We?
- Comment on What good thing just happened in your life? 2 months ago:
…then next year pass on the costs to their tenants
Bravo
- Comment on Terrified friends burn to death trapped in Tesla as doors won't open after crash 2 months ago:
The Mirror is a British tabloid shitrag. A bunch of racist, shit-stirring, xenophobic hate-filled amateur “journalists” just trying to get clicks for ad revenue
Never click a post from them
- Comment on Sign the petition calling on PM Keir Starmer to be bold when dealing with Donald Trump 2 months ago:
I mean yeah but this “petition” will make absolutely fuck all difference tho
- Comment on aerodynamics 2 months ago:
Interestingly, Jeep Wranglers are like the stereotypical hairdresser’s car in Europe so this kinda makes sense
