Yes, I would trust Snopes over a random image any day. The "shot-for-shot" story is cute, simple, and easy to understand. But it also isn't true, and doesn't sound true. In addition to what Snopes said, there are two more factors I'd like to pitch in. I'm not an expert on the Wild West, but I've read several books on the history of it, train robberies and stage-coach robberies, and how you would survive then (i.e. how much things would cost, where to stay, what to see, what to wear etc.) So, for a start, the Wild West lasted roughly from 1865 to 1900. That's right - only 35 years. Cowboys played an essential role in the ranching industry by driving cattle across the open range in the mid-19th century, but the invention of barbed wire fencing, the increased privatization of land, and the growth of the railroad brought an end to the cowboys' way of life. Not all cowboys were the "blond, blue-eyed" cliche that we've seen in the movies, either - and not all of them went after Native Americans. The term "cowboy" simply applied to any man who worked on a ranch, herding cows. This was a seasonal job. The movies are right in portraying cowboys as tough. You had to be tough. And yes, some cowboys spent their nights drinking, gambling, and womanizing. Many of them became sheriffs; the most famous are Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Wild Bill Hickok (who died with the famous "Aces and Eights" hand, aka "Dead Man's Hand"), Pat Garrett, Virgil Earp etc. This is all true. But not all cowboys became sheriffs, and not all of them had guns. Many of them were happy to drive cattle. Many of them were immigrants, some German, or Jewish, or black, etc. (Bass Reeves is one of the most fascinating, being the first black deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi, in what was then known as Indian Territory (now Oklahoma)). As for the price of ammunition and drink ... yes, both were cheap, compared to today. (Almost anything was, of course). But the whiskey you would get would be different everywhere, depending on how it was brewed and what it was adulterated with, to add flavour. There was no quality control and no price controls, so it's not as if you could walk into any saloon, ask for a shot of whiskey, and be sure to only pay 12 cents, anywhere, any time, during the whole 35-year period. Here's a fascinating Quora thread about this: Why was whiskey the preferred drink of the Wild West?
Thanks for checking! I usually do, but neglected to this time. The shot of whiskey actually had a greater value than a cartridge - 25 cents to 2 1/2 cents And -
Today I learned how the city of Phoenix got its name. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/07/phoenix-climate-drought-republican-politics/678494/?utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20240616&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=The+Atlantic+Daily
Today I learned that Nvidia, a computer chip maker at the center of the artificial intelligence boom, overtook Microsoft and Apple to become the world’s most valuable public company. Nvidia is worth $3.34 trillion, Microsoft $3.31 trillion, and Apple $3.29 trillion Nvidia pushes out Apple, Microsoft to become world’s most valuable company
Along those lines, I just read https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-will-fucking-piledrive-you-if-you-mention-ai-again/
Some CEOs could be replaced by ChatGPT and no-one could tell the difference. Company stock might even go up a notch.
Holy moly, that was funny. Not sure what the author is so surprised about, though. People are indefatigably stupid and will believe anything.
Today I learned that the original name for tanks was landships. They were developed in secret during WWI and were often concealed as, and referred to as water tanks, or tanks and so the name stuck. If I could ask Winston Churchill one question, I’d ask him what it was like meeting Doctor Who. If I could ask him two questions I’d also ask him how he felt about the name change. He was the founder of the ‘Landship Committee’ and was responsible for the original name, so I wonder if he was a bit salty about it. Supposedly he could become very petulant. I don’t think I’ll ask him the Doctor Who question now. He would not respond well. Extra facts: The first working tank was called ‘Little Willie’ as a snub to Kaiser Wilhelm. And while the Landship Committee was stuffed with the best military experts and engineers available, no substantial progress was made until they started working with an agricultural firm, William Foster & Co. of Lincoln.
That explains the MAGA crowd and the Darwin Awards, among others. Another fun fact: the landship includes not only civilian vehicles, but also (in military terms) siege towers, i.e. these things. They were used for a really long time, from Late Bronze Age ancient Egypt up to the early Renaissance. That means late 12th-century BC up until roughly 1400-1500 AD, or approximately 2,600 to 2,700 years. They became obsolete with the invention of large cannons, but didn't quite fade away, and (with modifications) continued to be used during the 1500s, especially in Eastern Europe. There are also modern-day parallels to the old-fashioned siege towers.
The Latin word Sonis, sound, and sonnyboy are the origin of the name for one of the world's most readily known companies. SONY
Today I learned that, following a 25-yearlong study, Dr. David Mccone, of Harvard University, contends that up to 99% of an individual’s success in life is determined by the people they associate with – their reference group. The Reference Group Effect: A Pivotal Element in Unveiling Life's Success I can say without a doubt that my reference group definitely has raised and continues to raise me up.
Today I learned that, if pushed, Paul McCartney would name "Here, There and Everywhere" as his favourite Beatles song.
Google Docs has a character limit. I was trying to keep three "seasons" worth of scripts located on a single document for ease of access, just so I wouldn't have to keep going onto different documents to make sure that things lined up correctly and I hit the limit in the middle of my work. I had to split it up into three different documents. On the plus side, at least now I don't have to wait about three minutes for the entire document to load. Also, I've noticed that I'd often get the, "Offline Editing Disabled. Either reload or go back online." Message so I'm hopeful that a smaller document will fix that.
Yeah, generally the bigger something gets on Google Docs the balkier it becomes. Better to work with smaller files when possible.
Why work on Google Docs at all? *curious* Why not save your documents on your hard-drive, like everyone always does (or did)?
For a few months now I’ve planned to do the research and find the writing program that works best for me, but really, since it was sufficient for all purposes, I’ve mostly been using Google Docs. I do most of my writing at my desktop but it’s very handy being able to dip into the docs on the phone and change /add as the thought strikes at work or traveling. Today at work (at an appropriate break) I’ve dipped in once already as a solution to a paragraph came to me. And I’ve never lost any work to Google Docs so it’s earned some good feelings there. I’m sure there are other programs that can work just as well, but this is working for me right now so I’ve not felt the need to go elsewhere. Admittedly though, this is exactly what I was saying when I was the last person in my friend group to get a smartphone. Edit: But it’s good to know some of its limitation.
Google Docs has about the best spellchecker I've ever seen. The main reason to use it that I'm aware of is if you want to share your writing with other people. You can invite people in either simply as readers, allow them to make suggestions that are clearly marked for you to see, or as co-writers with full editing capabilities. That allows people to work together as a team on projects if necessary, without needing to be in the same room. My main use is so I can let other people see my writing now and then. Also so I have online backups of my work in case some catastrophe destroys my computer and hard drives, and possibly even my printed paper versions. A fire or flood could do that. If I'm writing something in Docs I'll download a copy each day to an in-progress backups folder, and when I finish a draft I'll dump all the smaller backups.
Putting three seasons worth of scripts in a single document strikes me as a problem if you need a single script. Personally I would create a folder for the show and subfolders for each season, and the season Bible.
I feel like this is good advise for all platforms. I separate all of my novel chapters into individual files because I can navigate them much faster. The corruption of one chapter won't affect another, so that's an added bonus. But the biggest advantage is stopping yourself from potentially being sidetracked by other chapters. You just focus on one at a time. Backups can take care of the corruption thing but sometimes people cut corners on that end. I know I have. My backup system has been broken for a while now and I haven't gotten around to fixing it. I really should before something really catastrophic happens. It's best to keep multiple local copies in different devices, and one somewhere in an online storage service, ideally multiple ones.
The question is, is Google trustworthy? :-\ I mean, the internet is pretty shit when it comes to protecting individuals. Are you willing to trust Google with your writing? :-\ Personally, if I want to share something with other people, I use email and LibreOffice. LibreOffice does everything that Office does, but it's also more intuitive and has more tools. (I've never used Google Docs, but Word and LibreOffice Writer have the ability for you to make comments on people's writing - i.e. you select what strikes you, use the "Comment" option under the "Insert" menu, and write your comments on the side. The other person then has the option to reply to your comments, delete them, track them etc.) Does Google Docs have that option? As for backups -- Again, is Google trustworthy? :-\ I've always made backups of data with hardware that I can remove and keep in a secure location (e.g. an extra hard drive that I can plug in with a USB cable, or more recently, simply a USB key that's big enough). That's always worked for me. *shrug*
From what I've heard, google are not the trustable. People have lost their work on GDocs, which isn't very good. So I only share via a document file, which is a bit more analog, but I don't lose my files.
