No geese

 

Do they think the geese can read?

Or would obey if they could?

Impressive self-driving

If you want to get a sense of how far the Tesla full self-driving beta software v11.4.7.2 has come, check out this real world video taken by a 2019 Tesla Model 3 long range owner. He’s right, the car is now capable of doing things it couldn’t do confidently (or at all) a mere 2 or 3 years ago.

This is because the neural net supercomputer network training this software learns from every instance when a driver takes over the car because the self-driving software messed up. Bear in mind, you still have to watch the drive just in case, but the reduction in full-time concentration and stress while letting the car do its thing is reported by all to be game changing.

Love the camera angles too. You get to see the left side mirror view to get a sense of what’s going on behind the driver side of the car as he's driving.

No like spicy

 

Name that song - multiple vocalists

There’s a well-known song from the 1970s where the first two lines are sung by one vocalist, the next two lines are sung by a second vocalist, and the rest of the song is sung by the main artist.

Can you guess the song?

Seaward

 

Things I learned lately 10 Nov

• The domestic vehicle market is in trouble. Chrysler, Dodge, Ram and Jeep have way more inventory on average than any other brand in the industry and they don’t seem to be able to move it. They tried to increase their MSRPs to move into a higher grade of vehicle and it has backfired because their traditional customer base doesn’t have that kind of money or credit.
• Buenos Aires had a subway before Barcelona, Moscow and Tokyo.
• If you want to try instant coffee, there’s more available than just the mass market domestic brands. Davidoff, Monogram, Maxim, Kroning Gold, Rosso…
• A 1975 Playboy poll ranked Karen Carpenter as the world's best drummer.
• Data seems to indicate that Gen Z falls for more internet scams than Boomers.
• 56% of Japan’s 125 million people live in the 3 metro areas of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.
• Some Japanese traffic lights are red, yellow and blue.
• The Salar de Unuyi salt flats in Bolivia, at over 10,000 square kilometres, is 100 times bigger than the Bonneville salt flats in Utah.
• Switzerland consumes more chocolate per capita than any other country.
• Lake Maracaibo gets a lot of lightning. 140-160 nights every year, you’ll see an average of 28 lightning strikes per minute. These spectacles can last up to 10 hours.
• The Artist Formerly Known as Prince guest starred on an episode (S2E1) of Muppets Tonight on 13 September 1997.
• 5 of the top 10 best selling albums worldwide were recorded in the 1970s. Dark side of the moon; Grease; Led Zeppelin IV; Rumours; Saturday night fever.
• An EV is 19 times LESS likely to catch fire than a gasoline powered vehicle.
• A Tesla model 3 weighs just a bit more than a BMW X1.

Coffee prescription

 

Small things 3 Nov

• If your workplace runs out of parking spots, I’d say it means they have enough people. Time to move on.
• The mantra of every workplace: “We do this not because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy.”
• All those times I ate great food and had nowhere to post it because the internet didn’t exist yet…..
• Dear Coca Cola: Stop adding new flavours. There’s nothing wrong with regular Coke. Nothing.
• I have a few gender-neutral bathrooms at my house.
• Am I replaceable? You bet. But it will be a serious downgrade.
• Seen online: “Embrace failure. Be terrified about regret.”
• “A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.” ~unknown
• In modern society, “I think, therefore I am” has morphed into “I believe, therefore I am right.”
• I love using a measuring cup for water. I’m like, you're still clean bud. You get to skip the wash. Go right back to the cabinet dude.
• Remember when we cared what time it was before we called someone in another area code?
• Pro tip: Keep cake moist by eating it all as soon as possible.
• Sometimes when I’m getting ready for bed, I think man, this is around the time I used to get ready to go for a night out…
• How to upset a Canadian: Claim that Americans invented poutine and that Canadians ruined it with cheese curds instead of mozza.
• In the era of the newest in smartphone camera technology, it amazes me that we still get offered yearly school photos. Family portrait studios are long gone.
• I want to go into a Starbucks and order a drink, telling them my name is Bueller. Then leave knowing hilarity will ensue.

R2tea2

 

Transport trucks of the future - battery or hydrogen?

We can now have a serious debate on whether the transport trucks of the near future should be pure battery electric or run on hydrogen fuel cells or hydrogen engines.

German broadcaster Deutsche Welle put out a great video giving us the facts as they stand today.

Crocodile tears

 

Waste of my money

As you probably know, Alberta spent a significant amount of money, public money, on advertising in other provinces in a campaign called “Tell the feds”. The campaign suggests "When Ottawa's proposed electricity regulations make electricity unreliable, the things you rely on won't work when needed. Your hot water. Computer. Washer and dryer. Electric car. TV. Lights. Mobile phone. Stove. Your heat in –30 C weather.".

I’ve been monitoring the response to these claims in this ad campaign in the news, on FB and Reddit and from other provincial governments, and I have to say, they’re not buying it. Quebec, who isn’t officially targeted by the ads, but know about them anyway, are laughing their asses off. The kind of greening the federal government is proposing is pretty much already a ‘fait accompli’ in Quebec and umm, while they do get the odd blackout, it isn’t because of how the electricity is generated and everything to do with how it is distributed. Remember the ice storms of 1998? By the way, the reason Quebec isn’t a target of the ads is because Alberta themselves said that it wouldn’t be affected negatively by any further greening of the grid. That speaks volumes all by itself.

Ontario meanwhile has made significant moves to green its grid, converting coal plants to natural gas plants and they are building more nuclear capacity, including building the first series of advanced small modular reactors (SMR). So if the people of Ontario aren’t laughing their asses off, the folks running the grid definitely are.

BC is like, “What are you even talking about right now?”, especially since they are almost as green as Quebec. The maritime provinces are basically saying “Just shut up already.”

So I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that was $8 million well spent. Just remember, this is coming from the brain trust that suggested that utility grade mass battery storage isn’t feasible, using data from over 10 years ago.

Here’s a little nugget for you to chew on. Alberta’s electric utilities are allowed to (and do) leave generating capacity turned off every day as a way of manipulating the supply and demand curve to maintain high electricity prices to maintain a profit. They even admitted as much. As I write this post, I counted, live from the ets.aeso.ca website, 28 gas generating sources turned off, 4 hydro sources turned off, 6 wind generating farms offline (not from lack of wind), and there are 7 energy battery storage stations waiting to bring standby capacity online. We are even buying electricity from BC and Montana at this moment while selling some to Saskatchewan. From a total capacity point of view, we are (at this moment) only putting online HALF of our generating capacity. Half! Oh but the coal plants are going full steam.

It’s embarrassing to live in Alberta these days.

Fill 'er up!

 

Things I learned lately 3 Nov

• The Habs’ Cole Caufield is the quickest player to score 6 OT goals in NHL History. Cole scored his 6th on 26 Oct 2023 in the Canadiens win against the Blue Jackets in just his 130th NHL game. The previous record holder was Brayden Point who scored his 6th OT winner in his 190th game.
• You no longer need to avoid Windows 11 if you’ve been informed that your hardware doesn’t meet the requirements. You can download an ISO file from Microsoft and install it without issue.
• Parmigiano-Reggiano makers are putting edible microchips smaller than a grain of salt into the rind of their 90-pound cheese wheels to monitor aging and combat counterfeiters. So in a way, ‘Big Parma’ is putting microchips into people.
• Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the birth of Facebook, or as it was known then, the facebook.
• The city of Hamilton ON banned outdoor stadium hosted music concerts after Pink Floyd’s show at Ivor Wynne in 1975.
• Low-key: A term that expresses a subtle or moderate degree of something, such as interest, emotion, or opinion. For example, "I low-key like this song. It might grow on me"
• The song "Great gig in the sky" from Pink Floyd’s Dark side of the moon album was used in a Dole banana TV commercial featuring the tag line, “If you feel it, peel it.” 
• The part of DJ Ruby Rod in the movie The Fifth Element was originally offered to Prince. But he declined due to scheduling conflicts. The part went to Chris Tucker, but Jamie Foxx was in the running too.
• China has a thriving EV market with their own brands. As an example, the BYD Seagull has a range of 330 km, has a 75 hp electric motor and can reach 130 km/h speed for a very affordable $12,335.
• Over 90% of first time EV buyers have no intention of buying another ICE vehicle again.

Do not pet the fart squirrels

 

Small things 27 Oct

• You know how you’ll take a photo of your spouse and they’ll be like “Delete that right now.”? Did it work like that when all we did was make paintings of other people? Did the painter spend days or even weeks painting the Madame only for her to say, “No, I’m sorry, you have to delete that. That is NOT going up on our great wall.”?
• Every once in a while I’ll see a cab that is really banged up and I think, “There’s no way I’d get in that car…”
• The other day a bee accidentally made it into an open window in our car and unwittingly hitched a ride to our place. He kept trying to get out through the closed back door window and I finally coaxed it into just flying out the open door. I felt so bad for it because it was now in a strange neighbourhood really far from where it had been earlier, and our local bees don’t treat dumb bees with a lot of respect.
• Interviewer: “So, tell me a little about yourself.” Bob: “I’d rather not. I kinda need this job.”
• British websites use biscuits.
• At my next job I’m going to tell the interviewer that I was once head of operations at Canada 3000. Who are they gonna call?
• Someone should invent a mirror to place on the back of the car, so that if the person behind has their high beams on, it will reflect right into their eyes.
• I believe that the most commonly asked question in a marriage is “What do you feel like for dinner?”
• The war on drugs didn’t succeed. Neither has the war on terror.
• When I heard Taylor Tomlinson basically say that homophobia is just a sign that a person hasn’t gotten all their software updates yet. Nice.
• It’s time to teach the zipper merge to teens in school, then in 5 years make it the law.
• I’m not saying he’s a technophobe, but if he got on the information superhighway, he’d be roadkill by the next exit.
• It’s a requirement for vehicles to be road-worthy, but not for roads to be vehicle-worthy.
• I prefer macaroons to macarons.

Pencil ends

 

There will come a time when people won’t know what this is a picture of.

Songs turning 50 in 2023

Carly Simon "You're So Vain"

Stevie Wonder "Superstition"

Elton John "Bennie & The Jets"

The Edgar Winter Group "Frankenstein"

Paul McCartney & Wings "Jet"

George Harrison "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)"

Stories "Brother Louie"

Marvin Gaye “Let’s Get It On”

Helen Reddy "Delta Dawn"

Grand Funk "We're an American Band"

Cher "Half-Breed"

The Rolling Stones "Angie"

Gladys Knight & the Pips "Midnight Train to Georgia"

Pink Floyd “Money”

The Doobie Brothers “Long Train Runnin’”

Led Zeppelin “The Rain Song”

The Eagles “Desperado”

Joe Walsh “Rocky Mountain Way”

Steely Dan “My Old School”

Golden Earring “Radar Love”

Genesis “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)”

Hall and Oates “She’s Gone”

That's what sea said

 

Halloween candy in order of popularity

By Ian Hunter [with additional comment by me]

1. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups - These are the Halloween treats that always get snatched up first. Oftentimes, they don’t even make it to kids’ trick-or-treat bags because parents intercept them first. That’s the true sign of a legitimate Halloween candy banger. [I would rather keep these than give them away]

2. Skittles - Make no apologies if Skittles suddenly disappear from someone’s trick-or-treat bag. In the currency of Halloween candy, Skittles are like gold. “Taste the rainbow” and taste no regret because they’re damn delicious. [Not a fan. You can have ‘em all]

3. Crispy Crunch - Fun fact: unresolved resentment between siblings often stems from which child got the most Crispy Crunch bars as a kid. [I love these]

4. Peanut M&Ms - A very rare instance where the sequel is much better than the original. Peanut M&Ms are like the Terminator 2 of Halloween candy; it makes you wonder why plain M&Ms even exist. [I agree. Plain M&Ms are not relevant]

5. Kit Kat - Don’t be a savage. Just eat the Kit Kat bar one stick at a time and nobody gets hurt. 

6. Starburst - The number of calories you burn trying to unwrap these things justifies the calories you’ll consume afterward.

7. Snickers - Snickers are good, but they land outside the Top 5 because “fun-size” Snickers have shrunk down to microscopic size. Next year, they’ll be handed out in pill form.

8. Coffee Crisp - If this is in your Top 10 list, you’re officially old. See you at the curling club, folks. [I guess I’m old, ‘cause they’re in my top 3]

9. Mars Bar - There’s nothing sexy about a Mars bar, but it’s a reliable Halloween candy staple. These things will never let you down.

10. Sour Patch Kids - Don’t act like you’ve never dumped the leftover sugar into your mouth. Your dentist will detest these things, but that’s why you schedule your check-up after December.

11. Oh Henry! - Who’s Henry? Who cares! Just keep bringing us more chocolate.

12. Rockets - In the US, they’re called “Smarties.” It’s never been so satisfying to eat sugar-flavoured chalk.

13. Swedish Berries - A seriously solid gummy option to round out your treat bag.

14. Twix - The only Halloween candy that gets separated from its paternal twin for the enjoyment of others.

15. Wunderbar - Also known as “for God’s sake one of the messiest chocolate bars ever.” Luckily, the sugar high is worth the mess. [Worth the sugar crash. I keep more of these to myself]

16. Caramilk - The Caramilk secret is your siblings already stole these out of your candy bag.

17. Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme - Until people start handing out straight-up sleeves of Oreos, this is the next best thing.

18. Tootsie Rolls - Who hasn’t unrolled half a dozen of these things and pretended like it was a wad of tobacco? Or is that just me? [I can’t lose this visual. But seriously, they be good]

19. Tootsie Pops - It’s just like the poor, lonely sucker, but there’s a payoff at the end in the form of a Tootsie Roll in the middle.

20. Jolly Ranchers - After cracking into a few of these, it’s as if you can feel a cavity being born while your teeth spontaneously combust. Jolly Ranchers are almost worth the potential pain of dental work.

21. Fuzzy Peaches - The closest thing you’ll find resembling an actual fruit on this list. And there’s no fruit in fuzzy peaches.

22. Aero - Aero gets style points for the bubbles, but deductions for filling a chocolate bar with even more air. For shame, Nestle.

23. Hershey’s Milk Chocolate - This is one of the last pieces of chocolate you eat. It’s well-rounded and reliable, but there’s nothing exciting about straight-up Hershey’s chocolate.

24. Mr. Big - Mr. Big would be like if the Kit Kat wafer took performance-enhancing drugs and you covered that with chocolate. It doesn’t look pretty, but it’s an adequate chocolate fix if you need one.

25. M&Ms - Why would you ever eat a plain M&M if there’s a peanut-covered one around? Plain M&Ms are so pedestrian. [Indeed]

26. Smarties - Smarties were way better before they stopped using artificial colour. Every time I have one now, all I taste is vegetable-flavoured food colouring.

27. Halloween Molasses Kisses - Some people love these things… often parents and grandparents. There’s a reason why they mostly just sell these at Bulk Barn and nowhere else. [Again with the stereotyping. But - guilty]

28. Twizzlers - Yes, they taste like plastic, but when you’re this far down the candy bag, you just suspend disbelief and keep on chewing. [My wife loves ‘em and she can have ‘em]

29. Suckers - In the end, there will only be cockroaches and leftover suckers from Halloween.

30. Candy Corn - Rumour has it prisoners of war are offered Candy Corn and even they are like, “No, thanks.”

Werewolves come out

 

Things I learned lately 27 Oct

• The Panama canal is running low on freshwater because of drought conditions, and had to tell ships to carry less cargo through the canal to run with a lower draft limit (less hull underwater).
• Most stars in the Milky Way average 5 light years (LY) apart from one another. Our closest neighbour is Proxima Centauri, about 4.25 LY away.
• Chile has a bigger wine export market than the US. Australia has a bigger wine export market than Chile.
• McDonalds prices in 1979: Big Mac or Quarter pounder with cheese = $0.95; hamburger = $0.40; fries = $0.35 / $0.50; sundae = $0.50; hot apple pie = $0.30
• Cheugy: A term that describes something or someone that is out of date, uncool, or trying too hard to be trendy. For example, "That shirt is so cheugy, it looks like something from 2010."
• The Dirty Mac was a name given by John Lennon to a temporary supergroup he organised in December 1968 that featured Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Mitch Mitchell and himself (as "Winston Leg-Thigh"). The band assembled for a one-off performance on the Rolling Stones' TV special titled “The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus”. The Dirty Mac played Lennon's Beatles composition "Yer Blues" and "Whole Lotta Yoko", an extended blues improvisation in which they were joined by Yoko Ono and violinist Ivry Gitlis. The TV special, which included appearances by the Rolling Stones, the Who and Jethro Tull, among others, did not air as originally planned and was not released officially until October 1996. Yer Blues on YouTube. 
• The opening guitar lick in the Eagles’ song ‘Life in the fast lane’ was something Joe Walsh used to warm up with to limber up on the guitar.

Robot bones

 

Small things 20 Oct

• OK, I’m confused. I can still buy Halloween candy, but I can only buy Christmas decorations now?
• Any day now, goodbye pumpkin spice season, hello peppermint bark season.
• It always amazes me when I don’t go to a particular restaurant for years, and when I finally go back, they still remember my exact order.
• We’re at the point of inflation where we look at the grocery receipt and think, “Damn, I could go out for a meal for this much.” Then you go out for a meal and think, “WTH! $27 for a plate of chicken fingers and fries!?”
• #1 on to-do list if elected PM: No more homeless military veterans.
• Do you know what I love most about asking ChatGPT for a recipe? Not having to wait for it to finish with its back story about its childhood or their mom.
• I follow the McDonald's diet. Yeah, every time I get a craving for ice cream I just go to McDonalds.
• If you keep a diary, just fill it with lies. Go nuts with exaggerations too. When you die and others discover your diary, it will be hilarious.
• Sometimes being an adult sucks. When you buy new running shoes, nobody ever asks to see you how fast you can run in them.
• Why does the doctor knock before coming into the examination room? Are they practising the possibility of doing house calls?
• Most group chats birth a smaller group chat without the annoying people. If you think your group isn’t like that, I have some bad news.
• If you search Google images for corgi shorts by accident instead of cargo shorts, you won’t be disappointed.
• You wanna know how to hold a strike? Or organize a protest? Go visit Paris. They have that shit down to an art.

I truly miss this show

 

Using force to protect one’s property in Canada

In Canada, the use of force to defend oneself or one's property is allowed, but it is subject to specific legal requirements and limitations. Section 34 of the Criminal Code of Canada outlines the conditions under which individuals may use force in self-defense or to protect their property.

According to the law, an individual may use force to defend themselves or their property if they believe, on reasonable grounds, that force is being used or threatened against them or their property. The force used must be proportional to the threat faced, and deadly force should only be used as a last resort.

Additionally, the law requires individuals to retreat, if possible, before using force to defend their property. The use of force is only permitted if there is no reasonable means of retreating or if the individual believes that doing so would result in death or serious bodily harm.

It's essential to note that the use of force in defense of property is subject to scrutiny, and individuals who use excessive force or fail to meet the legal requirements may be charged with a criminal offense. Ultimately, the legal system will evaluate each case on its merits to determine if the use of force was justified.

So, in Canada, you can’t just shoot a trespasser because they came on your property. And don’t look like you. Not even if they appear to be stealing something. Oh, unless you’re a white farmer in Saskatchewan.

Now that is a mural

 Fabian Bane Florin

Where dat?

Alright any Montrealais who read my blog.

Where would you be if this was your view from the counter?

Yes, that’s a Lester’s hot dog, all dressed.

Why is this not called a hippopottoman?

 

Things I learned lately 20 Oct

• Michael McKeen, actor from This is Spinal Tap, Better Call Saul and Best in Show among so many others, was Lenny Kosnowski of ‘Lenny & Squiggy’ on the Laverne & Shirley TV show.
• ChatGPT is no longer limited to only knowing what has transpired up to September 2021.
• This northern city is spending $100 million on cycling infrastructure. Copenhagen? Oslo? Nope. Edmonton.
• Netflix’s next big thing is branded retail stores. I’m as puzzled as you are.
• San Diego is at about the same longitude (E-W) as Rogers Pass in BC. It’s further east than Revelstoke.
• West St Paul is actually due south of St Paul MN.
• The band Three Dog Night had songs written for them by Harry Nilsson, Steve Winwood, Randy Newman, Laura Nyro, Paul Williams, and Gary Wright.
• The Aleutian Island Chain in Alaska extends further west than the islands of Hawaii.
• There is a very large telescope operated by the Europeans and it’s called (wait for it) the Very Large Telescope or VLT.  It’s actually four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror that measures 8.2 meters in diameter. These optical telescopes, named Antu, Kueyen, Melipal, and Yepun, are generally used separately but can be combined to achieve a very high angular resolution.
• It’s not even the electric vehicles Tesla has designed and built that are revolutionary. It’s their factories, which have taken manufacturing to another level. But speaking of their vehicles, Tesla has managed to get 400,000 of their cars testing self-driving in real time, with their Dojo neural net evaluating every time a driver has taken over the driving to determine what else the car needs to learn. All the while doing it without expensive sensors and pre-programmed road maps. Tesla’s cars ‘see’ the world around them using just an array of cameras. Their FSD beta has driven over 500 million miles unaided by humans.