Cost of solar panels over time

 

Small things 28 Apr

• Oh look! GM is killing another electric car. [slow clap](They’re cancelling the Bolt in favour of SUVs)
• Are you afraid of AI? It helps to remember that autocorrect is a form of AI. There, see? It doesn’t seem so bad now, does it?
• I wonder how many customers of flanker mobile brands such as Fido, Koodo and Virgin realize that they do not get 5G service at all.
• I'm old enough to remember dial-up but young enough to rage-quit any website that takes longer than 5 seconds to load.
• Netflix era kids will never know the high stakes adrenaline of running to the bathroom or fridge during a commercial break, with the beckoning call of a sibling screaming "It's ONNNNNN" to send you running to get back in time.
• Just remember, without his cookies, he’s just a monster.
• Van Camp’s. Bush’s. B&M. Serious Bean Co. Brands that only make baked beans.
• If Satan punishes bad people in hell, doesn’t that make him a good person?
• No, it’s not true that they check if the Pope is dead by hitting him in the head three times with a silver hammer. It’s a myth.
• I’m going to start a club dedicated to removing ham from club sandwiches.

wikipedia: please. please just give me a dollar. i'm begging you give me something

me: [trying to look up the hamburglar's full name] shut up!

God: a colour is named after you!

Salmon: no way! really? is it silvery blue like my scales?

God: uh—

Salmon: wait, why is it pink?

God: …

Salmon: WHY IS IT PINK?

Pair of 'em

 

I wrote two more books!

A couple of years ago I told the story about how I got my first book published back in April 2021: 

https://whitenois.blogspot.com/2021/04/i-wrote-book.html

But I’ve written two more books since then and I figured it was time to update my thoughts on the whole process.

People may be curious about whether it’s a better idea to go through a regular publisher or to self-publish. It really depends on your expectations. If you go through a traditional publisher, they may not be as excited about your book as you are. They are under no obligations to even try to sell your book if they don’t think it’s worth their effort. They might want a re-write. Even if they do pick it up, they might want to sell it a certain way that you’re not thrilled about, but you may not have the final say. Of course, I’m telling this from the perspective of an unknown or unproven author. Once a publisher does decide to publish and promote, you have a leg up on the self-publishing option, because they can put their considerable editing and marketing tools into motion. This could help with how much you end up earning for your book, because you’ll get more money if sales are good, unless they offer you a lump sum settlement up front regardless of how much the book sells. If that’s the route you take, trust me, you’ll never get as much money as they think the book will earn them. You may get a better designed book cover because they have the resources to create one. Will you like it? Maybe. Ultimately, they are in control. So you’d best be happy with what they’re offering and how they choose to market your book.

Self-publishing gives you all the control and all the responsibility. Not only do you need to write the content, you also need to design the covers. You need to find your own editor. You need to figure out whose platform you will distribute through, and there are a few options. You can even select them all, although this will potentially get you less royalties with each of them than if you go exclusive with one platform, like KDP. Are you only interested in selling as an ebook? Easy. Do you also want to sell a physical copy? Now you have to properly format your transcript to fit the size of the physical book you choose. This is easier said than done. Bleed and margins and gutters and headers, oh my! Then you become the promotion team, because you’re on your own. You can pay extra to have the platform promote the book for you, but this is not a guarantee that more eyeballs will actually discover or buy the book. So it’s best to assemble your own crew of promoters and this is also a painful experience, because most of your friends don’t really care that much about your new book. No, not really. But - you’re in control. You get to put it out there and try to get eyeballs to notice.

Another thing I found is helpful is ensuring that your readers leave feedback in the marketplace they bought from. Books with no reviews and an averaged score of 3 stars isn't going to persuade many potential buyers compared to a dozen or more reviews and an average score of 4 stars or higher. And don't worry about the odd bad review. Your material isn't going to please everyone.

You have to ask yourself, is it worth better marketing to maybe earn a bigger return, or is it better to take full control and try to get a bigger audience yourself, and a piece of every sale? Are you going to make a lot of money from it? Probably not. A decent amount of money? Not likely. Enough to have made it worthwhile? It’s doubtful. So just do it for the joy of being able to write and create something and hope that it connects with people. My two latest books are about my 6-month tour in Alert Nunavut in 1989/1990 (The fox, the wolf and the zoo) and the story of my military career (Signal path). If you buy them, you’ll make me very happy. No seriously, just go buy them already.

https://www.amazon.ca/Fox-Wolf-Zoo-winter-Nunavut-ebook/dp/B09QTX3VYT/
https://www.amazon.ca/Signal-path-Karl-Plesz-ebook/dp/B0BP9M8DC9/

What's in that bag?

Hang on.

There were 2 people at the start of this hike…

 

Honky Chateau 50th anniversary edition

Elton John released an anniversary edition of the sublime album Honky Chateau, with all songs remastered. 

But the best part for me is the inclusion of studio demos. Take a listen to the studio demo versions of Rocket Man and Honky Cat (or L’honky Chat as he calls it in the take they recorded). The sound is much less processed and much more organic than the final releases, and Honky Cat even features a much louder mix of the banjo channel, which is absolutely perfect. Treat yourself to this edition everywhere good music is streamed or sold.

I can’t explain why, but this put me in stitches

 

Things I learned lately 28 Apr

• Donald Trump, on a campaign stop in Florida recently, in a pizza place, asked his supporters there, “Does anybody want a piece that I’ve eaten?”
• A&W started in 1919 as a root beer stand in Lodi, California. The first Canadian A&W opened in Winnipeg in 1956.
• We don’t see a caboose at the back end of a freight train anymore because technology has made it so that the dangers the crew had to watch for and the tasks the crew had to do were no longer required. Now the last car has an end of train (EOT) device that checks air brake pressure and train speed, so the crew at the front know when all the slack is taken up. 
• The precursor to the Eurythmics was The Tourists, of which both Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox were members. They did a pretty good cover of ‘I only want to be with you’.
• ‘Monk mode’ is used to refer to the attempt to cut yourself off from distractions, like social media. It’s supposed to make you more productive and prevents dopamine addiction. However, there is no evidence for this.
• In a study, AI tools helped IT support workers with only 2 months of experience match the performance of workers with 6 months or more of experience. 
• The pool tables in Michael Jackson's Beat It video have no pockets. That’s what they use for carom billiards.
• There is a tiny peninsula on the north coast of Morocco (Penon de Velez de la Gomera) that is part of Spain.
• San Marino is a small country surrounded on all sides by Italy.

Human shoes

 

Small things 21 Apr

• “One doesn’t have to operate with great malice to do great harm. The absence of empathy and understanding are sufficient.” ~Charles M Blow
• “An owl was removed from a college library in Georgia. And this is annoying - now it’s saying ‘whom’.” ~Seth Meyers
• Never challenge cyber security experts to debunk a conspiracy theory for a lot of money. Because they will. And then you’ll pay.
• The burgers I eat are plant-based. Meat processing plant.
• I saw a headline on a city-centric website that I imagined would have looked pretty daring 20 years ago, “10 best places to cure the munchies when you’re high in Calgary.”
• The history of marathons: a guy in ancient Greece dies after running 26 miles and we honour him by running 26 (or more) miles without dying. Also, the Olympics is basically the world’s biggest ‘I’m better than you’ contest. Except now with an added ‘Russia, you’re not invited.’
• A pirate asking if anyone wants to take his shift at work: “Who want me arrrrrrs?” (Say it in your head)
• Captain America’s suit only has one star. So in fact, he’s Captain Puerto Rico.

Divided by a common language

Americans,

I have news to report.

I have done the ‘math’, 

you are one letter short.

you could borrow the one

from the end of ‘sports’.

~ Brian Bilston

Dad about to embarrass his daughter

 

Selected haikus

how dare you suggest

i have a short attention

spanish omelette

play Bonopoly

like Monopoly but where

the streets have no name

playoffs twenty three

any canadian team

except toronto

sorry officer

the path i drive is simply

avoiding potholes

What's he singing?

 

I'll start us off: Stairway to heaven / Hey St Peter / Highway to hell / Losing my religion

Things I learned lately 21 Apr

• Bad actors are leveraging the excitement about AI chat tools to offer legit looking Facebook ads offering free downloads of AI tools. DON’T. It’s malware of the worst kind. If you want to use AI, just register on the legit sites themselves. Also, I have become aware of mobile apps that charge a subscription for access to AI tools. These are not only potentially dangerous, they are charging money for something that is free. I can even generate AI images and I don’t pay a dime.
• Beer (with more than 2.25% alcohol) wasn’t legal in Iceland until 1989.
• The average salary in Iceland is USD$3600 per month.
• Parents can only choose from a list of authorized names to name their new baby in Iceland.
• Iceland's first parliament, the Althing (Icelandic: Alþingi), was established in Thingvellir National Park in 930 AD.
• Iceland is the first country in the world to make it illegal to pay men more than what they pay women for the same work.
• All Icelanders also speak English and many speak Danish.
• Ants cannot survive in Iceland.
• Iceland is the only country in NATO with no army.
• Iceland has ubiquitous Wi-Fi coverage.
• Selective breeding has increased cannabis potency over the years, from 4% THC in 1995, to 14% THC in 2019.
• Spain has the highest cannabis usage in the EU.
• There are actually 2 chemically different forms of THC, delta 9 (most common) and delta 8. Delta 8 THC has a milder effect, is less intense and more relaxing and doesn’t tend to produce anxiety or paranoia.

Echoes

 

Small things 15 Apr

• Lindsay Graham has been begging Fox News viewers to give anything they can to help finance Donald Trump’s legal fees. Umm, I thought the guy was a billionaire. Also, why does he want them to send the money to lindsaygraham dot com? Donald has his own website.
• If all vehicles made loud random branch cracking noises, would we never have to worry about hitting deer ever again? (Because they’d just run in the opposite direction)
• I’ll eat a Hawaiian pizza just to annoy people. I'll even pay for it.
• “AI is derivative by design and creative by chance.” ~Kirby Ferguson (author: Everything is a remix)
• I love how Windows update puts the icon for Edge back on your desktop. Every. Time.
• Sometimes the most important decision you make on a particular day is whether you’ll keep that cardboard box or not.
• When someone says, “Don’t be sad” and you’re like “It doesn’t work like that.”
• When your password’s so strong even you can’t guess it.
• A hipster got mad that his photo was used in an article about how all hipsters look alike. Then he figured out that it wasn’t actually him in the photo.
• We should probably stop putting people who are preparing for the rapture in charge of anything.
• They’re called ‘heated seats’ because ‘rear defroster’ was already taken.
• Have you ever noticed that trying to pull a pretzel out of a bag with broken pieces is a lot like playing 'barrel of monkeys'?
• The manual transmission preservation society’s motto: “Get your shift together”
• I am a wooden spoon survivor.
• Science doesn’t care what you believe.

Tony in pencil

 

No more clinic trips

So check this out. You go on the website, create an account and link it to your health card. Then you can log in any time during normal clinic hours and you get connected to a doctor or a nurse practitioner within minutes. Once connected you can have a video conference, a call or just text and tell them what you need or want to look into. If they need a photo of something, you just send that to them. If they need to refer you to a specialist, they do it right then and there. If a prescription needs to be written, they send it both to you electronically and to the pharmacy of your choice. They even have their own pharmacy if you choose that option. If you use their pharmacy, they deliver the prescription to your door. Everything they deal with is on file so that even if you are 'seen' the next time by another person, they have your history right in front of them.

The best part - it's free.

No, sorry, it's not. This service exists, but it sure as hell isn't provided by AHS (Alberta Health Services). It's a subscription or pay-as-you-go service provided by Maple. Some workplaces cover the cost, if you're lucky.

My question is, why can't we just get a service like this for free, provided by AHS? I've been looking for a new family doctor ever since mine left the province and I've had no luck at all. Something like Maple would fulfill my needs perfectly.

Canadian sight seeing

 

Things I learned lately 15 Apr

• Prague heats over 250,000 homes using waste heat from power plants.
• Of the 100 top 10 movie hits from each year 2012 to 2021, 92 of them were either sequels, remakes, or adaptations. 
• 
  
• Aalborg in Denmark uses waste heat from a crematorium to heat some nearby homes.
• Cologne Germany uses waste heat from sewage water to heat schools.
• An Amazon data centre in Ireland heats parts of Dublin.
• Dark Side of the Moon has charted on Billboard’s Top 200 for 977 total (but not consecutive) weeks and counting. The consecutive week count is 741, from 1973 to 1988.
• Data farms like those owned by Facebook, Google, and Microsoft could supply heat for many homes. Norway now requires data centres to share their waste heat into the local infrastructure.
• Some US Navy ships have their own Starbucks coffee shop.
• During the Great Depression, when movie theatres lost a lot of business, theatres offered dish night once a week to lure customers back. On dish night, a movie ticket also got you a plate or cup or bowl to take home.
• Quicksand is nothing like how it’s described in movies. It can be dangerous, but there are tricks to free yourself.
• Canola was originally a trademark name of the Rapeseed Association of Canada, and the name was a condensation of "Can" from Canada and "OLA " meaning "Oil, low acid".
• You can drive from Alaska all the way to Panama, but you can’t cross the road-less 60 mile Darien Gap separating southern Panama from Columbia. It is one of the most dangerous places in the world.
• About 75% of all resumes submitted by people applying for a job are being analyzed and ranked by an algorithm. The old advice about dressing up your resume to make it stand out is now obsolete. The algorithm will decide if it is ever seen by human eyes.

Can we? Yes. Should we? No.

 

...the ice cream machine is broken

 

Speed brakes

 

The Astley paradox

 

Shrunken memory

 

Doggo would like a word

 

Inigo's guide to networking success

 

We do zone out sometimes

 

Parrot everything

 

Meatballs and kabobs

Here are two really good, informative videos about how different food was appropriated from one country to another to another around the world. For example, the pizza we eat does not resemble the plain original that peasants from southern Italy used to eat.

Wait until you hear who was behind British fried fish… And donairs aren’t Canadian!

These are by Canadian YouTuber J.J. McCullough

Could chicken fried steak just be American schnitzel?

Never Keurig drunk

 

Small things 7 Apr

Me: Sorry I’m late, I broke down on the way to work.

Boss: Is your car OK now?

Me: Car?

Boss:

Me:

Muhammad Ali: float like a butterfly

jellyfish: done

Muhammad Ali: sting like a bee

jellyfish: I am nailing this

Bruce Lee: empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water

jellyfish: I could not be anymore mindless or like water

– “Are you a private eye?”

That’s what the blue neon sign out front says.

– “It’s argon. Neon glows orange.”

[Voiceover] Right then, I knew she was trouble.

– “Can I speak to Mr Robertson please?”

Receptionist: Sure, just one moment.

Mr Robertson: Hello. Mr Robertson speaking.

– “Hi Dad. We asked Mom if we could make a tree fort, and she said ‘you can ask your father when he gets home’.

Mr Robertson: Why are you calling me at work?

– “Because my friend has to go home at supper time and we need a decision now.”

Me: Oh man, 9 hours of sleep. 

Back: Yeah, but you did it wrong LOL.

Rage against the printer?

 

I’ll take a pass

Donner Pass that is…

Would you like a sense of how much snow northern California got this winter?

Check it out.

Hey Calgary! Imagine getting this much snow?

Montreal Pool Room

Been here a few times.

They made amazing all dressed ‘steamies’ (steamed hot dogs) and delectable home-made fries.

Things I learned lately 7 Apr

• On April 1st 1991, Rod Stewart was performing at Wembley Stadium when he decided to call his then wife, Rachel Hunter, out onto the stage so he could serenade her with his song "You're In My Heart (The Final Acclaim)". Rachel had other ideas though, and sent Sir Elton John out on stage dressed in drag, for Rod to serenade, which he did.
  
  
  
• We’re sending a Canadian astronaut to the moon! Well, around the moon anyway.
• It’s been 50 years since the first ‘cell phone’ call. The phone itself was not available to buy.
• When tested against professional benchmarks like the bar exam, ChatGPT-4 scored within the top 10% of human test takers.
• The lab development version of ChatGPT-4 demonstrated that if it was given a task that required a human to complete (like a captcha), it was able to enlist a service like TaskRabbit to hire a human to do it.
• Microsoft is adding an AI assistant to its Microsoft 365 apps this year and what it will be able to do for us seems pretty wild. For example, in Excel, Copilot could analyze all the data in a spreadsheet and then be ready to answer any question you have about the data without you having to figure out a formula, function or chart.
• Our civilization produces a lot of waste heat. Like the accumulation of CO2, it affects our climate, but on a slower scale. Using more existing ‘free energy’ such as wind and solar reduces the amount of waste heat we produce, buying us a lot more time. Geothermal and nuclear production generates a lot of waste heat and we need to find ways to reduce it. 
• The people of Paris voted to ban rented electric scooters.

Jogging

 

Small things 1 Apr

• Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album is 50 years old this year.
  
  
  
• You may have heard that some parents in America lost their minds when they found out their kids had been exposed to the nude statue of David through school. I guess they haven't seen the nude pics these kids share with each other on Snapchat yet, huh?
• If they can find space in a Hudsons Bay store for a Zellers store, I’d like to know what items they had to get rid of to get all that space? Like, do they stop stocking Hudsons Bay blankets? Overpriced chocolate? Clothing from 3 seasons in the future?
• I'm going to work on being less condescending. (Condescending means to talk down to people)
• If Facebook can decide what ads I should be seeing, why can’t the streaming services just know what I want to watch next?
• OK, so it’s an app. Both you and your spouse put it on your phone. You both open it and swipe left or right on restaurants that are within a radius that you both agree on in advance. Whatever place you both agree to first is where you’re going out for dinner. We can call it Chicken Tinder.
• Can werewolves eat chocolate?
• I dare you to Google image search ‘cat faces on bees’

[Neil deGrasse Tyson at a Train concert] JUPITER IS A GAS GIANT YOU CAN'T HAVE DROPS OF IT

[fighting off security] MORE LIKE DROPS OF STUPIDER

Not nosey

 

4 Day Week Campaign

The companies that participated in the pilot project didn’t all volunteer without resistance. Most people thought that the idea was insane. But researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University and Boston College had a theory that needed to be tested.

70 firms in the UK participated in a trial, where for six months starting in June 2022, more than 3,300 employees have worked 80% of their usual hours, with no reduction in their pay, but they still have to deliver 100% of their usual work. So far, 95% of companies surveyed by 4 Day Week Global say their productivity levels have either stayed the same or improved, and 86% say they are likely to make the shorter work week permanent.

The trial is also having an unexpected domino effect, as clients of companies adopting the 4 day work week are cheering for the trial’s success, so that they can go to their HR people and demand the same kind of work schedule. Some companies in the trial found that productivity was up 35% and that staff said they were feeling healthier and happier, compared to before the trial. And as you could imagine, potential hires are scrambling to join these companies.

What is interesting is that even with evidence to suggest that a 4 day work week is feasible, these companies’ boards are  still skeptical about the new schedule, but that’s to be expected, as it flies in the face of traditional business thinking.

Choke holds

 

Things I learned lately 1 Apr

• If lately you came across a photo of the Pope wearing a white puffy coat, I have news for you. It was an AI generated fake.
• The expected lifespan of an electric vehicle’s battery pack is 12 to 15 years. But once these packs reach their end of life, they can still be repaired, refurbished, remanufactured, repurposed, or  recycled. 
• Genesis’ last studio album did not include Phil Collins. 1997’s ‘Calling all stations’ was recorded without Phil on the drums. They never recorded another song after that.
• Kiss tried to make a concept album in 1981 titled, ‘Music from The Elder’. It was so badly received that they didn’t even bother touring it. Kiss, Pink Floyd you are not.
• In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, approached Yahoo to sell Google to them for $1 million. Yahoo refused the offer. In 1999, Yahoo buys Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion, betting on online radio. Also in 1999, Yahoo buys Geocities for $3.6 billion. In 2002, Google was much more valuable. Yahoo approached Larry and Sergey to buy Google for $3 billion, but Google wanted $5 billion. Yahoo refused the offer again. Also in 2002, Yahoo's broadcast services (remember Broadcast.com?) were shut down. Yahoo tried to acquire Facebook in 2006 for $1.1 billion. Facebook agreed to the deal, and they were ready to be acquired. Yahoo lowered their offer to $800 million. Mark Zuckerberg refused and cancelled the deal. In 2008, Microsoft approached Yahoo to buy it for $44.6 billion. Yahoo rejected it. Microsoft wanted to create a synergy with Yahoo to compete with Google, a rising player in the tech business. Geocities closed down in 2009. In 2017, Verizon bought Yahoo for $4.5 billion.