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comment by lm
lm  ·  2402 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: August 30, 2017

Birds

One of our chickens has started laying! Her eggs look exactly like the decoy eggs; fortunately, the decoy eggs are really light (because they were cheap on eBay) so we can easily tell the difference.

I like to imagine her walking into one of the laying boxes, looking at a decoy, thinking, "Oh, ok, I think I can make one like that" and then popping out an egg.

There's some critter that's been trying to dig its way into the coop, so I bought a game camera to determine whether I need traps or target practice.

Books

This summer I wrote a lab manual for the class I developed. Starting this school year, incoming CS students are required to take that class, which means that come next semester there are going to be about 200 students in the lab!

So, this semester I'm editing that lab book so we can get it printed, probably just through the university printing service. The plan is for the book to be very affordable (say, $20ish). In my opinion, charging more than $100 for a textbook is immoral, and if you want to charge more than $50 you'd better have a damn good reason to.

On that note, fuck you Pearson, there's no reason an introductory discrete math textbook should cost $300 new. It seems like almost every 'innovation' in education/'educational technology' is just some new way for a company to extract rent from college students. How you can charge students $20/semester to send radio signals inside a classroom is beyond me.

I recently bought a new copy of Category Theory in Context for $25! If you want to argue that textbooks have a small market...let me tell you, category theory textbooks have a market of about 5 people. If they can make a $25 book on category theory work, I guarantee you can figure out how to sell a discrete math textbook at an affordable price.





lil  ·  2401 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I just dropped my class's coursebook at the printer. It will be 250 or more pages and I will charge cost of printing: $20 or so.

ButterflyEffect  ·  2402 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Important question. What is your criteria for calling something a critter.

user-inactivated  ·  2402 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Not lm, but the definition I run by is, if it's small enough to stuff into a backpack but wild enough you'd think twice about handling it, it's a critter. ;)

lm  ·  2401 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Typically I'd go by this definition, but I fear this critter might actually be a coyote...

user-inactivated  ·  2401 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Aww. Shoot. I have a soft spot in my heart for coyotes, but I do understand that they can cause problems. Good luck man.

lm  ·  2401 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah, I'm not a fan of killing wildlife at all but I want my little birds to be happy and safe.

user-inactivated  ·  2401 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Totally understandable. It's a long shot, but maybe you could call the local game warden and see if they can refer you to someone who can trap and remove it?

lm  ·  2401 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I will definitely do that, but I live in the country so I don't have high hopes...and I really don't want them to just drop it on the other side of the woods behind my house!

user-inactivated  ·  2401 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah. Dumping it on the other side of the woods wouldn't do any good, because it'd just find its way back no problem. Usually when they're trapped and removed, they're relocated to a forest preserve or something.

We have coyotes around here in the city and surrounding suburbs, but they don't cause too many problems. Every now and again the sheriff/police/park rangers will put out notices reminding us to keep lids on our trash, stay with our pets when we let them out at night, not interact with them, etc. I think it tends to work, cause I watch the local news almost every morning, and I don't think I've ever seen a report about an aggressive coyote encounter. If we had one, they'd probably jump all over that, cause they report on some of the most inane stuff.

Urban Coyote

_refugee_  ·  2401 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I like this.

WanderingEng  ·  2401 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Is there a size threshold on the small end? Does a critter require two hands? I feel like a squirrel isn't a critter but a skunk is.

ButterflyEffect  ·  2401 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I don't know about that one. Ever seen a squirrel inside a house? Definitely critter like. rd95, what's your opinion.

user-inactivated  ·  2401 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Some weasels are both smaller and more vicious than squirrels. Either way, I'd consider both too wild to handle with my hands. :)

lm  ·  2401 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'd count mice as critters, and frogs and skinks as well. Probably also bugs?