The post Cats in History: Mayor Stubbs by Dr. Lauren Demos DVM (Veterinarian) appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com.

Hi, I’m Dr. Lauren! Read my introduction to learn more about me and my two adventurous cats, Pancake and Tiller.

Somedays, I watch cats and wonder, what would it be like to live their life of relative leisure? Sleep, eat, repeat. Seems pretty good to me.

Obviously, not all cats live like this, but in general, they aren’t doing too bad. A dear friend of mine (Dougie’s mom, from a few articles back) and I were discussing this topic the other day: maybe cats have gotten this all figured out- we work for them, clean their litter box, feed them, and even buy them numerous toys and beds to sleep on.

But what about cats that go the other way around, and enter the world of humans? Many of these cats aren’t well known, so I hope to take a few articles and write about some of these fascinating felines from history.

Meet Mayor Stubbs

Enter, Stubbs. Or should I say, Mayor Stubbs? Found in a box with three other kittens, and the only one without a tail, Stubbs was so named.

Mr. Stubbs is a local legend to many Alaskans. Voted Mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska, Mayor Stubbs had the dubious honor of being both a political figure, and a cat.

So why did a cat get elected Mayor of this remote, yet gorgeous beautiful Alaskan town? I can’t really say I ever found out for certain. Certainly, he was a boon to this tourist-driven town, the gateway to visiting Denali, but what was it, specifically, that saw him rise to political power?

Apocryphally, Stubbs became Mayor after a write in ballot campaign was begun when none of the human candidates were deemed appropriate. Whether that was true or not, no longer remains the point. Stubbs remained the town Mayor until his death at almost 20 years of age. And he persisted in spite of dog attacks, being shot (not in the line of political duty) and falling into the deep fryer at his local pub (it was off). I met him once, he was a true charmer. (Basically he didn’t care, and sat on the bar looking completely unexcited, for which, sadly, I can’t say the same- I even bought his t-shirt).

But, regardless, it shows what extent cats can play in our lives, and our history. Especially in Alaska, land of the Midnight Sun and a truly one of the few true wild west spots left on earth. Politically, it’s a bit unpredictable. I mean, who knows what you can see from your kitchen window? Maybe the next cat, planning their political run.

Featured image credit: Mayor Stubbs by Jenni Konrad, Wikimedia, licensed under CC Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

The post Cats in History: Mayor Stubbs by Dr. Lauren Demos DVM (Veterinarian) appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com.

You know what really pisses me off? When some lifeless, faceless corporation uses the whole “we’re like a family” thing to sell their sense of “culture” to prospective employees. Listen, like most people I know, I saw this as an open invitation to verbally abuse, gaslight, mistreat, and humiliate my way into the kind of working environment that I’m allegedly supposed to be emulating.

But apparently if you berate Linda from accounting for her obvious alcoholism and poke fun at her weight in an effort to “make her feel at home,” you get called to HR before you can even make Derek cry at the holiday potluck when you passive-aggressively suggest that his buffalo chicken dip is a carbon copy of the version that you saw on Allrecipes so everybody knows he’s a fucking fraud whose incapable of thinking for himself.

I don’t get it. If this workplace really had the family environment it’s boasting, then how come every time I lock myself in the bathroom and say “This time I’m really going to fucking do it” after every single perceived slight from my peers or management, I’m given a pamphlet about the benefits of our employee mental health assistance program? Since when is any self-respecting authority figure supposed to be interested in my well-being?

Maybe I’m old fashioned, but team-building exercises, like most family outings, are supposed to involve bringing up that time a certain someone peed themselves on the haunted hayride because nobody took their request for a bathroom break seriously. And now you’re telling me that not only are bathroom breaks encouraged, but actually mandatory every 90 minutes? Casual humiliation about traumatic events that become core memories of resentment is supposed to be a part of the process, and if I can’t get my jabs in, then what’s the point of even returning to the office?

Instead, I keep hearing this bullshit about “a healthy collaborative environment where you feel comfortable in your own skin,” which makes absolutely no sense. If you really want me to feel like I belong here, then promise me you’ll take me out for ice cream after the company softball game, and leave me standing in the rain for 3 hours because your old college friend is in town and you forgot to pick me up.

The post Opinion: If This Office is Truly Like a Family, How Come I Get Called into HR Every Time I Verbally Abuse Someone appeared first on The Hard Times.

The post Diddy: ‘I Will Beat These Charges Senseless’ appeared first on The Onion.

TOKYO — In the wake of Nintendo officially filing a patent infringement lawsuit against them, Palworld developer Pocketpair has announced that they have hired lawyers identical to Nintendo’s but with guns.

“Nintendo’s lawyers may be an institution in the gaming world but our lawyers are the exact same but with guns which makes them better and cooler,” said Pocketpair President Hiroshi Takeshita in an official statement. “The simple fact of the matter is that Nintendo’s lawyers have had diminishing returns for a while now. They’re the same lawyers they’ve been for over a decade with no meaningful changes. In some aspects they’ve even gotten worse. Our lawyers on the other hand are fresh, new and exciting. They have guns. Isn’t that such a cool way for lawyers to innovate?”

Benjamin Cassidy, a gaming YouTuber with an expertise in law was quick to weigh in on social media.

“Well there is no doubt in my mind that Nintendo does have a credible case. I mean anyone with eyes can see that many of Palworld’s designs are direct lifts of Pokémon,” posted Cassidy to Twitter. “Having said that, Pocketpairs lawyers have guns and that’s just so cool and funny. I mean lawyers with guns. Come on. So I think there’s a real chance that the court just won’t care what Nintendo’s lawyers have to say since they’ll be so taken aback by the comedy factor of lawyers with guns.”

Despite how equipping their lawyers with firearms may make them look, Takeshita assures that his company is innocent of any infringement and their lawyers will be able to defeat Nintendo’s.

“There was no stealing taking place at all. We used AI and the prompt was clear. Make Pokémon like creatures. So it couldn’t have been stolen and even if they were too similar, Pals have guns which makes them different and that’s what our lawyers will argue and they will argue better than Nintendo’s because they have guns. Nintendo’s lawyers will not be prepared for our firepower. They have spent the last few years doing nothing but suing fans so they won’t be prepared to face lawyers that are completely identical to them but are better because as I said before, they have guns.”

At press time, Nintendo responded, claiming guns or no they will come after Pocketpair with the same fury with which they go after 17-year olds who make fan games.

The post Pocketpair Hires Identical Lawyers with Guns appeared first on Hard Drive.

When your desktop or laptop or tablet does not have a large storage or your work involves a lot of large files, external hard drives are life savers. However sometimes they’re just too bulky and heavy to carry around, especially if you work outside or move around a lot. Also, if you’re like me, most likely all the files are just dumped there and you rely on the search button to look for what you need. But you probably don’t need most of the files that are stored there and yet you’re still constantly carrying that big hard drive around.

Designer: Junho Han

The idea for the Folder external hard disk is to have something that is not just all about storage but a more efficient way to carry around your files. It is meant to not have all your files in just one bulky device but to separate them into projects or folders so you can be more efficient in finding and storing your files especially if you’re working on several projects at once. Not much details are indicated in the concept page but you can see in some of the product renders that there’s a 1TB marking although I’m not sure if a tiny item like that can hold that much storage.

The hard drive itself is shaped like a tiny folder that you can hold in the palm of your hand. That’s why it’s hard to imagine how 1TB can fit into that in real life. But the design is pretty cute and if you have several folders hard drives, it’s like you also have several non-digital folders to organize everything into projects. The hard drive circuit board is inserted in a slot under the folder and there’s a USB-C port also so you can connect it to your device.

As a concept, it’s interesting and nice-looking. It’s like carrying around a USB-drive only bigger than the flash disk but definitely smaller than the bulky hard drives. Let’s see if can actually work as an actual product.

The post Folder-shaped hard drive concept is a more organized way to store files first appeared on Yanko Design.

Dear [CHILD NAME],

I’m sorry. I really am. I have a job. And I raise you. And neither of those two things is as time-consuming or difficult as creating space on my iPhone.

I have iCloud Sync, but somehow, that’s designed so that if I delete a photo or video from my phone, it deletes from the cloud. It’s less of a digital storage solution and more of a digital data prison.

I have Google Photos, but my Google Drive is out of stock. I don’t know why. And I can’t bear to figure it out. (I deleted a ton of old emails last year. It took forever to do and accomplished nothing.)

I have Dropbox. I think that’s just file storage. I don’t think I can sync my photos and videos automatically. My god, I can’t try to figure that out right now.

This is what I’m up against.

I have tried. I have. I pay every single month of my adult life for the privilege of having iCloud, Google Drive, and Dropbox storage that I can’t use to make my phone a device that can take a single photo or video of your [MONUMENTAL LIFE STAGE OR ACHIEVEMENT GONE FOREVER TO THE WHIMS OF MEMORY].

By the way, is “digital storage” the “climate change” of the future? Is it the existential problem that feels too big to handle, so it becomes a public crisis that drags on slowly and then quickly, and then it envelops you?

No? It’s still climate change? For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about that too.

I will keep trying. I will sync. I will cloud. I will keep the app open because, apparently, I have a lot of photos to back up, and the backup will pause when the app is closed. This is extortion. I love you.

With—I want to say humiliation, but I’m honestly too depressed about what a slog this basic have-a-phone-that-can-easily-use-all-the-unused-digital-storage-that-I-pay-for thing is that I’m too tired and annoyed to feel shame, so let’s just say instead…

With complete and utter resignation,
[THE TITLE YOU USE TO REFER TO YOURSELF AS A PARENT THAT YOU’RE OBVIOUSLY NOT EARNING RIGHT NOW]