This was a different store (didn’t happen to take a pic of the exact rat poison in question), but similar vibe: https://imgur.com/a/hMitwfd

Also including this since it’s just the weirdest mouse trap packaging I’ve ever seen: https://imgur.com/a/xBJZw5p

It’s honestly a miracle I was there for nine days and didn’t get myself poisoned even once

I once found myself in the rat poison isle of a Lawson in Tokyo a couple years ago thinking they were all tasty snacks. Wasn’t until I noticed the tiny little icon in the corner I figured out it wasn’t junk food I was looking at. Packaging design is very cultural, and being less than fluent in a foreign place can have some wild outcomes if you’re not careful…

Commuter rail is hilarious for this. All the same people that were in orderly lines, holding doors open, giving seats to older or disabled people, and saying “oh you go first” for the last hour spend thirty seconds back in the “safety” of their white SUV and they’re acting like absolute animals to all the same strangers.

Ah lovely, another grey egg shaped “luxury” electric EV. Groundbreaking. This one has some nationalism attached to it too.

These won’t really solve any problem, other than in the best case scenario keeping some people employed in southern Ontario. If we actually want to increase our independence or even become climate leaders this isn’t how to do it.

Toyota Alphard van, ideally the Vellfire version because it looks even cooler.

Minivans are seen as lame and boring in the US/CA markets, because that’s all we had for a generation. Dodge caravans, windstars, uplanders, siennas, ugh. All boring, blob-like, uninspiring, uncomfy, and profoundly uncool. Luxury was only for Mercedes sedans and hulking Escalade SUVs.

But JDM vans absolutely rule. Doilies on the headrests. Pop-out footrests. Recliners. Curtains. More speakers than you can count. Cool body lines. Leather and wood absolutely everywhere. It’s like a limo you can park anywhere but still shag in.

But alas they’re exceptionally rare in North America, and difficult to import unless you go for a very old one. Maybe someday I’ll import one if I have the time and money for a silly van…

I moved several years worth of emails off their platform and closed my subscription on Friday. Enough is enough. I’m not giving this guy another dime. I specifically pointed to andy88’s behaviour in the “why are you cancelling” dialogue. I feel for the good people who work at that company and don’t support this, but we all have choices to make.

Yeah, real “efficiency” would come from standardizing tools and procedures, getting rid of “shadow IT”, making annual budget requests more flexible (ie if we don’t use it this year we won’t get it next year), and empowering the workers to make more decisions and initiatives without involving committees, managers, etc.

They are not doing that. It’s not about efficiency, it’s a libertarian crusade to strip out anything valuable from the public sector and leave what’s left to rot.

If you’re shooting a moving object in low light, you can try to pull off a really cool panning shot. Keep the shutter speed fairly low (1/30-1/60 ish), then follow the moving vehicle while you hit the shutter.

For example, these are some I’ve taken over the last year. Takes a bit of time & effort to lock in the settings, but it’s a really neat effect! https://pixelfed.social/p/nbailey/576775592075641491 https://pixelfed.social/p/nbailey/714577089789421630

I donate about $5/month to a bunch of nonprofits that I benefit from.

• Debian project
• openbsd project
• wikimedia foundation
• EFF
• Internet Archive

My career wouldn’t exist without these folks, so it’s the least I can do.

My grandfather had a stroke at 81. He did not in fact become an asshole, he just got a little slower and spent less time working on his old truck. This is 100% on fetterman for having shitty opinions and being bitterly dug in. I don’t think it’s fair to all the wonderful people affected by strokes to give him that out.

Terry Fox, Red Green, Bob & Doug, an angry goose, literally anybody other than that guy.

I choose not to think about it or include it in my mental threat model, the same way I choose to not worry about thermonuclear warheads.

If there’s some exploitable backdoor and Intel gets owned, we’re all boned and there’s nothing we can really do about it. I don’t have anti-ballistic-missile systems, and I also don’t have the capability to make an entire hardware/firmware/os from scratch.

So instead focus on the things you can control and are more likely to happen. Don’t plan for doomsday, plan for every day.

Can’t upvote this enough. It’s not the consumers, it’s the dealers calling the shots. Some examples:

Looking for a Corolla hybrid: no dealer had one, and all of them said it could be 18 months or more before one would be available

Looking for a RAV4 suv: we have 8 on the lot take your pick

Looking for a Mazda 3 hatchback: the only one in the colour you want is a six hour drive away and no we can’t transfer it here

Looking for a CX5 suv: we have literally a million of them

In both examples the cars cost almost the same amount to build. They have the same drivetrain, engine, transmission, etc. But since the “suv” or “crossover” is taller and bigger they can charge 20-30% more, earning them more commission and dealer fees, so that’s what they order from the manufacturer. Unless you have months to wait, you take what you get.

It’s not perfect, but the new (2019+) mazda system is very nice. It’s all controlled by buttons and dials, zero requirement to ever touch a screen. It all feels quite thoughtfully done, especially when you compare it to fords or teslas with a big dumb laggy iPad stuck to the dash.

Local options are always better. The Mexican joint sells you a massive breakfast burrito for $6. Nepalese takeout will feed you for days for $16. Hot dog truck will fill you up with delicious processed meat for $4.

Subway? Subpar lunch made out of cardboard and ground up yoga mats for almost $20.

GOAT vehicle. It’s purely functional in pristine egg form. Bulletproof drivetrain. Comfy as hell, even by today’s standards. If one ever comes up on autotrader in good condition I’m buying one.

So the reality is a bit more complicated than “big sparse country”. Freight railroads don’t really care about population density, just distance and operating margins. It comes down to who owns the rails and their motivations.

A big capital investment like electrification is actually extremely profitable long term. Over 30-40 years it would save a class 1 railroad about 25% of their operating expenses for fuel and maintenance (diesel-electric units are complex high maintenance systems compared to big-ass AC motors). Even when factoring in debt servicing over that period it’s still a large overall win.

The problem is that a big investment like that isn’t attractive to CN or CPKC, because they’re mainly concerned with positive quarterly reports. It’s the same reason our tracks are so shabby, it’s not that they can’t afford to it’s that their motivation is to move freight for the absolute lowest cost, speed and reliability be damned.

In Europe & Asia the infrastructure is commonly owned by a state corporation, and they’re generally more willing to take on big projects like that so they can get more revenue from the train operators themselves. More passengers and higher speed = more tax revenue. The incentives are just different in that situation

Another fun fact… if you were to add up the bonuses, dividends, buybacks, and dumb vanity projects (CN Tower) in the past half-century, they’ve already blown through more than double what it would cost to electrify and upgrade the most serviced trackage in the country. Instead we made some old guys obscenely wealthy.

If we play our cards right, they might open for 2028 in LA…

I feel like “weird” misses the mark. It’s quite hurtful to people who are outside the norm and proud of it.

“Creepy” is a way better description of those guys.

It sort of does make sense, since it’s how trains work so well! A single locomotive can haul dozens of carriages way more efficiently than putting a single small motor on each carriage. It also has way less aerodynamic losses since the trailer is right in the slipstream for the truck!