What else are they lying about?

 

Small things 26 Jan

• Calgary: It always feels intensely like spring on the last day of winter, and intensely like winter on the first day of spring.
• Were they not a little worried they might jinx themselves when they named it a ‘miss’ile?
• "If man is to survive, he will learn to take a delight in the essential differences between cultures.
• To learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life's exciting variety, not something to fear."  ~Gene Roddenberry (creator of Star Trek)
• Have you ever accidentally farted in front of people. You know, the kind that sounds like a balloon animal asking a question?
• Autoexec.bat and config.sys. If you know what those are, you’re probably old. And nerdy. But old.
• “I went to a record store, they said they specialized in hard-to-find records. Nothing was alphabetized.”  ~Mitch Hedberg
• Men sure liked to bare their chests in the 1970s. Go ahead - Google it, I’ll wait.
• Mental note: Actual notes work better than mental notes.
• The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them.
• If you’ve never had butter chicken before, please note that the name does not in any way describe what it’s like to eat it. It would more aptly be named Hell chicken. Fire in the hole. The chicken that burns twice.
• The next time you’re out driving, think about this. Those other people driving their cars and trucks, living their own lives, are all the lead characters in their own worlds, but just extras in ours.

“I order a club sandwich all the time. And I'm not even a member. I don't know how I get away with it. 

A:"I like my sandwiches with three pieces of bread." 

B: "So do I." 

A: "Let's form a club then." 

B: "Okay, but we're gonna need more stipulations." 

A: "Yes we do." 

B: "OK... instead of cutting it once, let's cut it again." 

A: "Yeah, four triangles." 

B: "And we will position them in a circle. And in the middle we will dump chips." 

A: "Or potato salad." 

B: "Ok." 

A: "Let me ask you a question, how do you feel about frilly toothpicks?" 

B: "I'm for 'em!" 

A: "Well, this club is formed. Spread the news on menus nationwide." 

C: "I like my sandwiches with alfalfa sprouts." 

B: "Well you're not in the fucking club!" 

~Mitch Hedberg

Table for 26

 

Boots on the ground

Steve Boots does a splendid job putting the blame for Alebrta’s grid woes where it belongs.

The relevant part is from 1:35 to 6:47.

Also this video from the beginning to 2:06.

Ouch

 

EV winter horror!

Disclaimer: I did not cover any topics that are not winter related.

If all you did was watch / read / listen to the mainstream news and give time to your biased anti-EV friends, you’d conclude that owning an EV in winter and especially in deep freezes like we experienced in January 2024 make EVs completely impractical. If I was just as loose with my facts, I could make ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles sound just as bad. Let us compare the doomsday statements with facts and argue why ICE isn’t that much better.

One. EVs lose a lot of their range when it’s really cold. This is true. If your EV can get 400 km on a full charge in summer, you may get as little as 250 km in a deep freeze.

ICE vehicles lose range in a deep freeze too. Not as much, but they are not immune to the effects of cold on how much fuel you burn for a given distance.

Counterpoint: It doesn’t matter as much when an EV loses range because overnight you’re typically plugging the EV into a charger to refill the battery. So as long as your daily use is less than the reduced range, you won’t care.

Two. EVs get stranded in snow. It happens.

ICE vehicles get stranded in snow too. You won’t need to look very hard to find many examples of this.

Counterpoint: It’s not about the motive power. It’s about the weather conditions, the driver’s skill and the tires they have. All season tires should not be used in snow or deep cold. Period.

Three. It takes a long time to warm up an EV. Not just the cabin, but the battery too. If the battery is too cold, you lose performance and recharge speed.

It takes a long time to warm up an ICE vehicle too. So much so, that many people resort to starting their vehicle and letting it idle for many minutes. Others plug in their block heater to keep the engine somewhat warm. Some ICE vehicles don’t start at all.

Counterpoint: If you are already plugging the EV in for a charge, you can also warm the cabin at the same time. The EV’s app makes it possible to warm up the interior and the battery long before you get in and drive. If you intend to charge at a public charger, by navigating to a charger using the vehicle’s nav ability, the EV is smart enough to know to start warming the battery in preparation for a recharge. Also, if an EV’s battery is more than 15% full, you will have no issue at all starting the vehicle and driving away, right away. And there’s no fuel line to freeze.

Four. I know a lot of people who ran out of charge before they could get to a charger. Some had 2 or 3 percent charge and on arrival at a charger, the spots were all full. Their EV ran out of charge.

This can just as easily happen to an ICE vehicle. You’ve never seen someone run out of gas?

Counterpoint: These are all examples of poor planning and/or people not knowing enough about their vehicle. I have watched hundreds of EV owners’ YouTube videos and not once did they run out of charge before getting to a charge spot. In fact, every EV owner on YouTube is aghast at the situation that happened and was widely reported in Chicago, because these were all avoidable situations. You never wait until you’re down to below 5% charge to start looking for a charge spot. You never arrive at a charge spot without first preconditioning the battery, or you suffer slow charge rate until the battery warms up.

People need to understand that yes, owning an EV takes a lot of adjustment. But you have to understand that many EVs, save for Tesla, have only been on the market for under 5 years and their manufacturers are still trying to figure this new technology out. ICE vehicles have been around and evolved for over 100 years.

Here’s a real EV owner using common sense

If you don’t have the time time to watch, here’s what an owner’s test determined about getting stuck in traffic for an hour:

Warm, road trip car with a warm battery: 2-3kWh used. You'd last for days in the traffic jam.

Dead cold car with a cold battery: 8kWh used. You’d still last at least 8 hours in a traffic jam on a full charge.

CN commuter train to Deux Montagnes

This is the train that connected my hometown of Deux Montagnes (Two Mountains) to downtown Montreal back in the day. 

This pic from 1966.

Things I learned lately 26 Jan

• 82% of all vehicles sold in Norway in 2023 were electric. Norway aims to become the first nation to end the sale of gasoline and diesel cars by 2025. Norway has 8,000 DC fast charging stations, or 1 station per 100 EVs. In 2022, Canada had 1,200.
• The journalistic fiasco that resulted from the Chicago electric vehicle deep freeze proved something for me. Too many EV owners don’t actually know how their vehicles work. And because of that, any EV naysayer is going to jump all over that crap when things go wrong.
• The news is trying to tell us that EV sales are falling. Not true. EV sales by certain brands in very specific places are dropping, yes. But the share of EV new sales continues to grow, even while many models of ICE cars and trucks languish on lots. In BC, more than one in four new registrations are EVs. In Quebec, that number is over one in five. Nationally, we’re at 13% of all new registrations.
• The Breakfast Club. Their ages today: Judd Nelson - 64; Molly Ringwald - 55; Emilio Estevez - 61; Anthony Michael Hall - 55; Ally Sheedy - 61
• As of 2023, there are approximately 400 billion LEGO bricks on Earth.
• Your local vet probably won't tell you to stop getting breeds like pugs and bulldogs, but deep inside, they likely want to urge dog lovers to think twice about buying these pure breeds. The reason is that the features people love about them so much, their cute faces, squished noses, and double-curled tails, are genetic defects. Having these anatomical features actually causes them pain and suffering such as difficulty breathing and eating which could lead to more serious conditions like overheating or cardiovascular stress. The British Veterinary Association has issued several statements expressing their concern over the popularity of these breeds, and they urge people to reconsider a different breed or a crossbreed instead.

Self doubt

 

Small things 20 Jan

• When your spouse tells you about something bad you did in their dream, as if it’s somehow your fault and you’re going to apologize.
• Whenever the barber is done cutting my hair and shows the back holding the little mirror, I want to say ridiculous things like, “Sensible.” “You missed a spot.” “I don’t look like Jon Hamm tho.” “That’s looking like a 25% discount to me.” “Never leave me.”
• Black Friday. Basically a mosh pit with prizes.
• I’m old enough now that birthdays don’t really mean that much to me anym… CARROT CAKE!? Damn right it’s my birthday.
• I don’t get chocolate advertising. Who still needs convincing to buy chocolate?
• Penguins produce an oil that helps their feathers retain heat. In other words, the oily bird gets the warm.
• I went to the silly goose convention, and they knew all you guys!
• My neighbour’s water bill is quite high. I got them a get well soon card. [dad joke]
• The older I get, the more I comprehend the concept of separate bedrooms for sleeping.
• If white people are so great, why would they need an organization to protect their greatness?
• Am I the only one who is disenchanted when people only seem to look at the down side of everything?
• I’m looking forward to the non-judgment day.
• How many of you have diagnosed a CPU that is, rather than on one chip, spread out across many integrated circuits on multiple riser boards that plug into a motherboard like an expansion card? [I raise my hand]

Canadian gangs

 

Do you get the feeling you’re infected?

If you suspect you may be infected with malware, you could run the built-in Windows Defender app. If you think Defender has been compromised, is out of date and updates might be getting blocked by malware, you can always hire a bigger gun.

Incidentally, if you do suspect major malware on a PC, you should disconnect it from the internet and any unnecessary devices right away. Then you can find and install Microsoft’s Safety Scanner using a separate PC and save the executable on a thumb drive to copy it to the suspect PC. Then just run it. The copy of Microsoft Safety Scanner that you download is only valid for 10 days, because you’ll always need a new version anytime you need this type of deep scan.

If you'd like to try one by another brand, most antivirus brands have a stand-alone, on-demand, no install app you can get. I hear good things about Sophos Scan & Clean.

Rainscaping

 

Snow place like home

Some of the snow plows in Calgary have names. You can even see them on the road conditions map.

A sampling:

YYC Plowers

The Plowtypus

Fast & The Flurrious

Sled Zepplin

Snow Angel

Monsieur Neige

L'echasse-neige

Road Zamboni

Brinestone Plowboy

Pickle

Plow Patrol

Sir Snows-a-lot

Princess Sleighia

Oh Snow You Didn't

Blizzard Blaster

Plowy McPlowface

Double Trouble Shovel

Darth Blader

Marshmallow

Snowy McSnowface

Snow Job Too Small

Snow Monster

Snow Place Like Home

Frostbite

Beluga

Bob

Chippy

Sprinkles

Frosty the Snowplow

Too soon?

 

Things I learned lately 20 Jan

• Good luck paying cash for a new vehicle at a dealership. Considering the commissions dealerships get from finance companies for getting a buyer to sign on for a car loan, you might even find that a dealer won’t sell you a vehicle unless you finance it.
• The Ontario company (OPG) that is developing small modular nuclear reactors (SMR) in Darlington, is going to determine feasibility of using SMR in Alberta. Hopefully the answer is yes, because once they are green lit, an SMR could be built and online within 5 years.
• The slip and slide is as old as I am! (1961)
• Lead was added to paint to accelerate drying, increase durability, maintain a fresh appearance, and resist moisture that causes corrosion. Canada was one of the first countries to restrict lead-based paints.
• When Chinese labourers built the US transcontinental railway from the western side in the 19th century, they brought a traditional pain relief oil with them made from Chinese water snakes. Snake oil was an intriguing idea, and Clark Stanley saw an opportunity. He bottled his own snake oil liniment and sold it for decades. The medicine was eventually analyzed and found to consist of mineral oil, beef suet, red pepper, and turpentine. Not only was it ineffective, there were no snakes involved at all! That's how the term "snake oil" came to be used for anything fake or deceptive.
• In 1907, a few social commentators saw newly introduced stuffed teddy bears as ominous. They feared that some girls’ preference for soft stuffed animals over humanlike dolls would become all-consuming, replacing the female urge to nurture babies, and eventually lead to childless marriages. In 1907, the Rev. Michael G. Esper of Michigan warned his congregation that “the fad for supplanting the good old dolls of our childhood with the horrible monstrosity known as the teddy bear” would lead to falling birthrates.

A Louer

 

Small things 12 Jan

• I wish all people with cats a very pleasant ‘can I see them?’.
• If we had started marijuana legalization only in Vancouver, would the twinning of the entire Trans Canada highway have been finished by now?
• Remember when you got a gentle, soothing x-ray if you sat close to the TV set?
• The price of regular gasoline reached a high of 99.9 cents per litre in Calgary for the first time in August 2005.
• Dumb guy wants to know if tectonic plates are microwave and dishwasher safe.
• Don’t look at my emotional support bag of Doritos. It’s mine.
• Have people noticed yet that the Washington Monument looks absolutely nothing like George Washington?
• Let’s hide the GST in the listed price of all goods and services. What it says on the tag or shelf is the price, period.
• If a poison is past its expiry date, does it become useless?
• Fireflies. They don’t bite. They don’t sting. They’re not scary looking. They make light. We need more insects like that.
• May the bridges you burn light my way forward.
• Modern pickup line: “Are you http? ‘Cause I’m all :// without you.”

I think the book’s title should be ‘How NOT to look at a painting’

 

The south shore leg of REM in Montreal

As I have blogged about already, here, here, and here, Montreal is updating its suburban commuter rail system with the new REM lines, which bring the service more inline with the efficiency and frequency of Montreal’s famous Metro subway.

Although the lines heading north and west out of the downtown core are still being built, the leg heading across the river to the south shore is complete and people seem impressed.

Here’s a video of the ride.

At about 8 minutes in, the train begins to cross the new Samuel de Champlain bridge.

My rollmachine is not deluxe

 

Karl has a substack

Substack is a site that allows writers and creators to host content for free if they want, but with the ability to also offer paid subscriptions.

That’s where my content is heading. But I also plan to up the game, so there will be lots of great stuff to read and in some cases in a longer form.

I don’t know yet how this will impact this blog, but it may end up only being used to publish content not worthy of charging for. Time will tell.

In the meantime, my substack can be found here: https://karlplesz.substack.com/

You do have to subscribe, but for now, it’s all free.

Bobson Dugnutt

 

Things I learned lately 12 Jan

• GM intends to discontinue Apple CarPlay and Android Auto because it’s ‘buggy’ and would lead to drivers using their phones instead making it all very unsafe. They are going to build their own phone mirroring software. Here’s the thing - neither software seems ‘buggy’ in any other brand of vehicle.
• There are more people in China who use the KFC China app (430 million) than there are people in the US. KFC is doing better in China than even McDonalds. KFC offers unique items in China, such as a Shrimp Burger; Rice Congee (a type of rice porridge); Egg Tarts; Soy Sauce Chicken; and Matcha Ice Cream.
  
  
  
• Aldi was the fastest growing grocery store in the US in 2022. Their business model is to stock far fewer products. Typical supermarkets carry over 30,000 products, whereas Aldi only carries 1,650 products. They consequently have a much smaller footprint.
• One of the biggest untruths about electric vehicles: They catch fire more than ICE vehicle. The facts indicate otherwise: There are 3,475 fires per 100,000 vehicles sold for Hybrids. There are 1,530 fires per 100,000 vehicles sold for ICE vehicles. There are 25 per 100,000 vehicles sold for BEVs. There have been 201,969 units of the Bolt EV, Bolt EUV, and Ampera E sold around the world. There have been 25 confirmed fires.
• Darius McCollum was arrested 32 times for impersonating a transit worker. He commandeered hundreds of buses and subway trains over the course of 30 years, staying on route and schedule without being paid. He attended Union meetings, even though he wasn't a member.
• The first McDonald's Drive Thru opened in Sierra Vista, Arizona on January 24,1975. It was done to reverse a decline in sales, because soldiers had to follow the rule of staying in their vehicles when wearing fatigues (uniforms), when off base. The soldiers at Fort Huachuca Army Base got to enjoy McDonald’s without getting out of their car.
• Aubrey QC, just south of Montreal, is almost exactly halfway between the equator and the geographic north pole.

3 peppers

 

Small things 5 Jan

• 2023. The year it rained on New Year’s Eve in Calgary. Bizarre.
• I think I may have come up with a way to explain AI chat to older people. AI chat is basically a digitized version of the character Cliff Claven from the TV show Cheers. He’ll baffle you with his seemingly infinite knowledge, but you can never be 100% sure whether he’s full of crap or not.
• Most of the time when people are telling you a story about their life, all they want you to do is listen.
• Toyota is recalling the 1993 Camry due to the fact that their owners really should have bought something new by now.
• People on Facebook Marketplace are like, "Gorgeous couch! We've had it for 11 yrs, but it is in really good shape for its age. Corners look like a scratching post. Only missing 1 cushion. Our cat once gave birth on it, but the smell is mostly gone. Paid $2500, selling for $1000. You keep whatever change has fallen into it."
• I am not against riches. I am against riches through the demise of others.
• “The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so they believe they are clever as he.”  ~Karl Kraus
• "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."  ~Isaac Asimov
• Beef jerky is just a cow raisin.
• Using your turn signal is not sacrificing your privacy.

Found this in poutinecrimes subreddit LOL

 

The biggest comeback in Habs’ history

I remember this game so well. Once the score was 5-0 for the Rangers, I knew there was no way even though there was still 34 minutes of game time, but I kept the game on in the background and started other tasks. Then the first roar of the crowd, and I was like, “Hmm, at least they’re not totally giving up.” After the second roar, I was back in. What a game.

They had never come back from a 5-0 deficit before.

L'il friend

 

40,000 km CX-5 review

In 2022, we bought a new Mazda CX-5 GT AWD, non-turbo. From order date to delivery date took 3 months, but toward the end of the wait period, we opted to choose a different colour to get it faster, as the colour we originally picked was not being made in quantity in the plant at Hiroshima. We used it as our second vehicle for 5 months, then it became our only vehicle. After putting 43,000 km on it in 18 months, I thought it was time to give it an honest review.

Why the CX-5? I did want to buy the CX-30, which is a bit smaller, but it didn’t have power passenger seat controls. That was a deal breaker for my spouse. After we test drove the CX-5, she gave me the green light to buy.

Why not the Turbo model? After test driving the non-turbo variant, I was convinced that I didn’t need it. Also, it’s one less thing to go wrong. The icing on the cake is that the vehicle runs on regular gas. That’s a huge money saver right there. After 40k, I don’t regret the choice.

The good

I like being able to operate the car without taking the key out of my pocket - that’s a first for me. I like how it rides. The suspension is not too harsh. Apple Carplay! It’s so nice to see navigation maps without having to put the phone on a mount. Radar cruise control! That removes a lot of stress on road trips. Ventilated seats! A sweaty back is now a thing of the past. Heated steering wheel! No more frozen fingers on my winter drives to work. Heads up display! So much useful information in my line of sight. Did I mention it only needs regular gas? Maintenance costs are much lower than my previous vehicle. Cylinder deactivation! If the power requirements allow it, the engine can be instantly switched to a mode where only 2 cylinders are firing. Downhill, it can stop all 4 from firing. This is how it gets good gas mileage.

The whining

I wish it had wireless Apple Car Play. Having to use a cable is a bit lame. It’s good to have a TPMS system so you’re aware when tire inflation isn’t optimum, but could Mazda at least include an information display showing actual tire pressure? It’s not like the sensors don’t provide that information. The entertainment system was experiencing random reboots, but after a software update, which I asked for, it seems to be fixed. Maintenance intervals are much shorter than my last vehicle - 8,000 km. That’s potentially every 2 months when we are doing a lot of travelling. I think the car would get even better mileage if it had an 8 speed transmission rather than 6 speed. I miss paddle shifters, but I can use the sport shifter if I need to. My last car parked itself. I really enjoyed that feature. My CX-5 doesn’t even have parking sensors. That would be helpful and it shouldn’t only be available on the highest trim levels. I’ve been relying on the auto door lock feature since taking ownership. It’s finicky though. If the passenger door is the last to close, it doesn’t always lock. If I walk away from the car too fast, not staying close until I hear the first beep, it doesn’t lock. Thankfully, the MyMazda app lets me know, but if I ever let that subscription run out (which I might, because it’s not cheap to renew), I would have to retrain myself to use the fob to lock the doors every time to be sure. The Mazda Connect service should be free IMHO. I miss the panoramic moonroof my previous vehicle had. A regular sized moonroof is almost redundant.

Muse

 

This will be one of my band’s album covers.

The album title will be 'Muse'.

Things I learned lately 5 Jan

• The new PWHL (Women’s Pro Hockey) made an interesting rule adjustment. If while killing a penalty your team scores a shorthanded goal, the penalty with the least amount of time remaining will automatically end. Also, teams will be awarded 3 points for a regulation win, 2 points for an overtime or shootout win, 1 point for an overtime or shootout loss, and 0 points for a regulation loss.
• Aside from the agreements with many TV and streaming services / networks, all PWHL games will be streamed on the league's YouTube channel and available outside of Canada. Take that NHL…
• You won’t be able to buy physical media at Best Buy anymore. DVD, CD, all gone.
• Tesla delivered 1.8 million electric vehicles globally in 2023. BYD, a competitor from China, delivered 1.6 million EVs and 1.4 million hybrid vehicles. Notably, BYD sells their cheapest EVs (the Seagull) in China for the equivalent of CAD$15,225.
• JAC Motors, a Volkswagen-backed Chinese automaker, is set to launch the first mass-produced electric vehicle (EV) with a sodium-ion battery through its new Yiwei brand. Sodium-ion battery tech has a lower density than lithium-ion, but its lower costs, more abundant source material and superior cold-weather performance could help accelerate EV adoption.
• Sunset in Saskatchewan on the winter solstice varies from as late as 5:00-5:30 pm in the southwest corner to as early as 3:30-4:00 pm in the northeast corner of the province.
• Both Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are two of the oldest fathers on record, fathering children at the ages of 83 and 79 respectively.