The One Big Beautiful Bill funded the majority of ICE through the shutdown - some civilian support positions were affected, but enforcement activity stayed pretty much the same. The reduction in coverage is far more likely due to both Noem and Bovino being kicked out of their jobs, taking their high-confrontation tactics with them. Homan is doing the same work, just in a quieter, less confrontational manner.

They’ve always had funding. The more recent budget funds then through 2028.

The number of MAGAts - Loomer, Carlson, Rogan, etc - trying to set themselves up for redemption arcs is disgusting.

They’re going to “overpay” you, then ask you to send them the money back (or sometimes but something for them). But eventually their check bounces, while you’re out whatever money/items you sent them.

You also need to start being more careful, because the scammers sell and trade lists of people who have fallen victim, or almost fallen victim, to their scam. Because if you’ve (almost) fallen for one scam, you’re more likely to fall for a second one.

Back in the 80s, my uncle paid some company to convert the 8mm to VHS; they overlaid some music over the video, I didn’t remember what. I borrowed the tape sometime around 2002 and converted it to DVD.

Around the same time, my mom had a bunch of reel-to-reel and audio cassette recordings she asked me to convert to CD, which I did. One of the audio tapes was from a family reunion in the mid-70s, where they’d played the same home movies and everyone was discussing them. So I converted the tape and then synced the audio to the video; you can play either one the music or commentary track.

There’s one thing I meant to do back then that I didn’t have the energy to deal with, which was to provide a transcription of the audio, so people would know who’s voice was who’s. Voice-to-text should make that fairly easy now. I think there’s too much over-talking to do a decent set of labeled subtitles, but I might be able to swing something.

Re: your VHS results: if it’s not at the front of the tape when you start working on it, then fast-forward it to the end and then let it rewind; that’ll give you a better tension on the tape. Depending on the tape, it’s quality and it’s condition, how it was stored (temperature/humidity and whether it was on it’s end or on it’s side), and when they thought it had been played last, I might try fast-forwarding and rewinding it anyway, as doing that would reset the tension and make sure that the tape wasn’t sticking to itself when I was playing it and reducing the risk of the tape getting eaten. The trade-off was that doing that could pull some of the magnetized bits off the tape, increasing drop-outs. Whenever I started playing a tape, I was always recording the output, regardless of whether the video had started or the tracking was off, just in case the tape got eaten.

If your tape does get eaten, you can try to iron out some of the wrinkles to get it to play through that section; or just rotate the spindles past the wrinkled bit and resume converting. If a tape gets eaten, I’d clean the heads on your vcr, just in case any debris got in there, and I’d clean it after any particularly dirty tapes (stored poorly, or lots of drop-outs) as well. (If it’s a vcr from a thrift store or something, I’d clean it anyway, and make sure the that the first tapes I played were commercial tapes I didn’t care about in case there were issues with it.)

If the spindles on the tape get jammed, you can unshell the tape and spindles and re-shell them into a new case - I have some old VHS movies I keep on hand for just these situations.

If you’re using a standalone DVD recorder, given the option, use the RCA connections instead of coax for a better picture. If you’re getting unstable brightness or color, try hooking up your cables to the front input instead of the rear inputs; sometimes those recorders pick up DRM-style signals on old tapes and interferes with the recording, except they assumed the front inputs would be used for camcorders and often put less DRM detection on those ports. If you still get unstable brightness or color and think that’s wrong, see if you can find something called a video stabilizer or signal enhancer - that’s what the copyright busters used to be called, and they also helped sharpen the image a bit too.

If you’re having issues with tracking, there are vcrs that let you do manual tracking adjustments, and you might want to see if you can find one. Many of my old Sony vcrs had that ability, and I really liked that. My old Sony vcrs also had the ability to move back and forward frame by frame, which was also nice: I could start the tape, get the tracking nice and settled, then back up to the first frame of the recording and start converting from there, thus avoiding the whole “tracking” notice on the screen without missing any of the recording.

I dunno, I’m kinda babbling, sorry. Are there specific issues you were having with your tapes, or just “this was a cheap tape recorded over multiple times, the recording I want to save was made at EP, it was stored on its side on a hot and humid environment and I’m lucky I managed to get anything off it”?

I’ve inherited a lot of photos, and also a bunch of negatives. I’ve gone and thrown out many vacation photos that weren’t relevant or unique: if I need a photo of the pyramids, I’m fairly confident I can find one, lol. But I kept the one of my mom in front of the pyramids.

I’m in the process of scanning and organizing everything. Once I’m done, I’m planning on putting together five photo albums, all nicely labeled and organized. The first one’s for me, of the people I loved or events I found special. Then one of each of the other albums for my nieces and nephews. There may be a handful of photos I copy and put in each album, but most of the pictures will be unique.

Also enclosed in the albums will be a family tree, and whatever biographical bits of information I can put together of our various relatives. And a DVD with digital copies of all the photos and negatives I scanned in, so everyone will have access to a full set of photos, as well as a subset of the originals. I also have some digitized 8mm home movies from the 1940s and 50s, with my grandparents in the 1970s narrating who the various people are, so I’ll probably include a copy of that.

Honestly, I’m not sure how my nieces and nephews will feel about the albums, but it’s the best connection I can give them to some of their roots and where their people came from. What they do with their albums afterward is up to them; I’ll have honored the people in my past and provided what I can to the people in my future.

What is someone doing with expired plates?

Decorate the inside of their barn with them!

I’ve had a farm share for a number of years, and have eaten a number of different types of potatoes, including two different blue ones.

This is less “Today I Learned”, and more “News”.

I “solved” this problem by losing my original OralB (non-IO) and being forced to replace it with an OralB IO, then finding my original OralB. I keep one in the upstairs bathroom and one in the downstairs, and now I can use either type, lol!

A “foreign entity” has hired gunmen to shoot at synagogues in Toronto, Secretary of State for Combatting Crime Ruby Sahota said in the House of Commons on Wednesday. Ms. Sahota made the remark in an exchange about the government’s lawful-access bill, which would require electronic service providers, such as internet companies, to provide police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service with surveillance and monitoring capabilities. Ms. Sahota said the shooters behind the recent incidents “were paid-for hires, hired by a foreign entity.” She argued that passing the bill would mean fewer victims of such crimes.

While I don’t deny such a network could exist, it’s terribly convenient that this claim (a) makes local shooters into “misled youths” falling prey to evil foreigners, and that (b) defeating this claimed network requires an expansion of government surveillance capabilities.

The Superman fan wiki says

Pink Kryptonite is a type of Kryptonite that seemingly turns Kryptonians more feminine or queer. This type of Kryptonite only made one appearance in comics and was used as a satire of the plots of Silver Age comic stories featuring some strange new form of Kryptonite.

In an animated short, True Colors, from the animated series Justice League Action, its effect was changed to switch the gender of the Kryptonian under its effects, due to the more family-friendly nature of the show.

So, boo :(

I don’t know if it’ll help, but there was this reddit post [sorry for the hellsite link] last year that listed a bunch of smaller, more specific/niche job search boards.

Private trackers?

You’re fine to share this; thank you for finding it for those who are interested!

You’re absolutely fine to spread it. I’m just happy that people liked it enough to remember and share it :)

Speech-to-text AI prompt, with someone slurring “Iran”?

There should be an oversized vehicle parking area in the most inconvenient section of the garage, and if your vehicle is too big, you have to go park there.

Ridiculous Fishing

“As of December 10, 2025, the Android version is no longer downloadable from the Google Play store.”

:(

I used to play the web version of Bee Sort. Unfortunately, I got stuck on level 371 and the web version doesn’t have the option to skip a level. Does the app version have that option?