Archive for July 24th, 2026

Oh, no. Not this s–t again.

Friday, July 24th, 2026

I was considering using that title for the previous post, but I figured in the end (ha!) I’d probably only have one chance to use the GoT reference. And I can use it here, too, because this is one of my peeves that I am petting.

It is estimated that over 90% of the ocean’s whale populations were decimated through the practice of commercial whaling, which was a major engine of the American economy in the 19th century, as captured in books like “Moby Dick,” the 1851 masterpiece by New York native Herman Melville.

The word “decimate” means “reduce by ten percent”, or “to select by lot and kill every tenth man of a military unit.” Now, personally, I am willing to cut folks a little bit of slack: if one our of every nine, or one out of every eleven, is killed, I’m okay with referring to that as “decimation” or “decimating”. As long as it is close to ten percent, I’m okay.

But the phrase “over 90% of the ocean’s whale populations were decimated” is just ridiculous. It has no meaning. It is nonsense.

Does the NYPost even have editors any more? I think the answer to that is “no”.

Posted in Mammals, Wordplay | No Comments »

Game Of Thrones.

Friday, July 24th, 2026

Previously on WCD.

Throne, co-founded by University of Texas graduate Scott Hickle, has developed a device that clips onto a toilet and tracks gut health, hydration and prostate health using a camera, microphone and artificial intelligence.

Yep. Another potty cam.

“I certainly didn’t think I was going to grow up to build toilet cameras for a living,” Hickle said.

I bet his parents (who the article mentions are both doctors) are proud.

“There’s a microphone here and we can turn the sound of your pee stream into a chart of your urinary flow rate and the peak urinary flow rate,” Hickle said.
The team even developed a special robot that simulates peeing to develop the microphone.

Robot Or Not?

The app shows data for:

“You can see every session throughout the day. So I’ve gone four times,” Hickle said while demonstrating the app.

Did. Not. Need. To. Know. That.

User data is also given extra security. The website promises “bank-level encryption”.

Well, that’s completely meaningless.

Throne’s device costs $400 and requires a $6-per-month subscription that the company says helps pay for its AI models.

So the hardware is cheaper than the Kohler Dekoda, and the subscription is $1 a month cheaper (though the Dekoda is only $70 if you pay for a full year). There’s no mention in the article, however, if the subscription covers multiple Thrones or just one Throne per subscription. There’s also no discussion of multi-user capability.

Other than that, I’d repeat the same things I said about the Dekoda: I get that there are some people with health conditions that might find this useful, though I question whether it would be $400 plus an ongoing $72 a year useful. I also get that “gut health” seems to be the next big health advance, though it seems to me that “gut health” has been a thing for a while, and what do we have to show for it?

And, once again, here’s your hydration chart.

Posted in Geek, Stupid, Urine | No Comments »