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.

Small things 29 Dec

• Apparently, Geddy and Alex are considering touring again. They’ll have to find a drummer first. Dave Grohl is the top contender. That’s the rumour I’m starting right now.
• My entry for the worst dad joke of 2023: “He wasn’t a straight A student, he was a gay B student.”
• Women are like strawberries. Sometimes they are in the grocery store.
• In the 1990s, computers would scream (dial-up modem sound) every time you connected to the internet. That was foreshadowing.
• If you suffered in life and want other people to suffer as you did because you turned out fine, you did not in fact turn out fine.
• I asked Google to give me the chemical formula for nitrogen oxide and it said ‘no’. Of all the nerve.

When you compliment somebody on a personal possession of theirs and they respond by explaining how they acquired said item at a significant discount, are they:

• Trying to show off their shopping skills?
• Trying to downplay their ownership of an expensive item?
• Hoping you ask how they managed to pull that off?
• Rubbing it in knowing you’ll have to pay full price if you want one?
• Attempting to portray a certain ethnic stereotype?

Skittles against The One

 

“Without delay”

Did you know that the border between East and West Germany opened, and consequently resulted in the dismantling of the wall, not because of Reagan’s challenge to Gorbachev, but because of a mistake made at a press conference?

Watch the fascinating tale here.

Oh man, this band was so great

 

The 80s were insane.

Your phone has an amazing chip inside

That’s right. It contains a 3-axis IMU (inertial measurement unit) consisting of 3 gyroscopes and 3 accelerometers. And it’s small. 

But this guy on YouTube does a fantastic job showing you how they work. 

Thanks to this amazing technology, your phone knows its orientation and where it is in space all the time.

Yo ho ho ho

 

Things I learned lately 29 Dec

• Film historian Jeremy Arnold has declared that Die Hard is indeed a Christmas movie. Pfft. Of course it is. How can it not be?
• Glace cherries and maraschino cherries are not the same thing.
• William Phelps Eno (June 3, 1858 – December 3, 1945) was an American businessman responsible for many of the earliest innovations in road safety and traffic control. He is sometimes known as the "Father of traffic safety", despite never having learned to drive a car himself. Among the innovations credited to Eno are traffic regulations, the stop sign, the pedestrian crosswalk, the traffic circle, the one-way street, the taxi stand, and pedestrian safety islands.
• The first recorded use of a smiley on the internet came in 1982, when computer scientist Scott Fahlman proposed the use of :-) and :-( to distinguish between jokes and serious posts online. This was a response to a post on the Carnegie Mellon University bulletin board, where a student joked that there was a mercury spill in the physics department’s elevator. Other students missed context for the joke and thought a spill actually occurred. The smileys were slowly adopted throughout Carnegie Mellon and later to the broader internet.
• The mild bell pepper didn’t exist before the 1920s. It was developed in Szeged, Hungary.
• The top 3 countries that get the most average amount of sleep per night are The Netherlands, New Zealand, and France.
• The Chinese checkers game was invented in Germany.
• The flags of Bhutan and Wales are the only flags to contain dragons.
• Cyprus doesn’t have a national anthem.
• Damascus, the capital of Syria, is considered the oldest capital city, believed to exist since 9000 BC.

Love trek

 

Small things 22 Dec

• Shout out to all those people who have won the battle against past addictions. 
• I literally watched a Calgary city bus drive the wrong way down a street with a median, stop and try to back up to somewhere where they could cross back over to the right side. I wonder if they still have their job?
• In IT, there’s nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.
• You don’t want to mess with the sheep that give us steel wool.
• Whenever a car waits for me to cross the crosswalk in a parking lot, I wave and mouth 'thank you' and rush across as fast as I can because I want them to think, wow what an 11/10 pedestrian.
• Since I quit smoking in 1999, I’ve saved almost $60,000 on cigarettes.
• Sometimes I wonder if the real reason people keep all of their emails is in the hope that eventually they’ll have so many messages that their inbox will be full and any additional messages will bounce. Like that’s how you win at email or something.
• Dear stores with self checkouts: Please stop letting me scan one item then forcing me to enter my membership number before I can continue. Ask for it up front or wait until I’m done scanning.
• Dear stores with membership cards: If I’m paying with a credit card, don’t you already have that linked to my membership number? Of course you do, stop pretending you don’t. So stop asking me for my membership number when you already know what it is.
• Self checkout hack: If you brought your own bags, just have your first bag ready, scan your first item and place it in the bag as you’re setting it down on the scale. It skips all the ‘I brought my own bags’ nonsense.

Mmm garlic

 

Rude dog

 

Hot Wheels on a water slide?

Remember Hot Wheels? There was only so much you could do with them because you needed the proper track. But what if you used a bigger, wider, longer track that could accommodate several cars at once? Like, hmm, oh I don’t know. A waterslide.

Yeah. The end result is even better than you can imagine. Especially if you can somehow manage to get a camera to follow the cars down the slide while recording.

This has got to be the most fun video I’ve seen in a while.

Mom's secret weapon

Back in the day, you didn’t fool around in the back seat.

Because mom could do a 180 and beat the daylights out of you.

This will mean something to some folks out there

 

It is to you I give this tune

Nice, gentle solo rendition of The Rain Song performed by Chiara Kilchling.

Choose

 

This close