Man. Now I'm wishing they made phones too.

I worry about what this legislation could mean for medium-sized cities like where I live that are only now starting to put in bike infrastructure. It is underutilized at this point, but that's because it is still incomplete.

You have, for example, a wonderful off-road trail that is 90% complete connecting the suburbs to downtown, but there is one section where you have to cross a bridge with no bike lanes or anything. Until that part gets done, few people will use the rest of it. But if they decide to take a lane away from cars on the bridge, the province could argue that no one uses the trail in the first place and shoot it down. Uuugh!

I was recently in Montreal and omg it's cycling heaven! Bikes outnumber cars in many places and vehicle congestion seems less in spite of this. Also, drivers seem more cautious in general in the downtown core, even on roads where there are no cycle tracks. It's a bit like the college campus effect I guess? When you have a high density of non-automotive road usage, the cars tend to slow down and be more patient. They're moving slower but there is still a steady flow of traffic. Not a lot of gridlock.

If you haven't been there yet, OneZoom is fun to explore. I am continually surprised by what I find there going down some random branch.

But the mining, milling, and production of nuclear fuel, as well as the construction and decommissioning of nuclear plants, emit greenhouse gases at levels ranging from 10 to 130 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour of power — lower than fossil fuels but higher than wind and hydroelectricity (and roughly on par with solar).

That's interesting. The article they link gives a bit more detail:

These energy intensities translate into greenhouse gas intensities for LWR and HWR of between 10 and 130 g CO2-e/kWhel, with an average of 65 g CO2-e/kWhel.

While these greenhouse gases are expectedly lower than those of fossil technologies (typically 600–1200 g CO2-e/kWhel), they are higher than reported figures for wind turbines and hydroelectricity (around 15–25 g CO2-e/kWhel) and in the order of, or slightly lower than, solar photovoltaic or solar thermal power (around 90 g CO2-e/kWhel).

The wide range for nuclear apparently comes from difficulties in estimating the carbon footprint of mining/processing the uranium, but that nuclear is sort of in the middle of the pack in carbon footprint relative to renewables in spite of the fueling costs is good to know.

I suppose these sort of numbers may change dramatically in years to come. Take solar. A lot of focus seems to be on the efficiency of panels, which would almost certainly lower the carbon cost per unit of energy as it improves, but a breakthrough in panel longevity would also do that in an amortized emissions sort of way.

My most common use case is probably looking up stuff that may or may not be in a dict.

if (val := dct.get(key)) is not None:
    # do stuff with val

I guess that's pretty similar to what you were doing?

Sometimes I also use it in some crazy list comprehension thing when I get backed into a corner, though it's hard to think of an example off the top of my head? It usually happens when I'm in a rush and desperate to get something working, but it has an uncanny way of being just the thing you need at that point.

Looks gorgeous! Thanks. You've got me exploring what there is to explore. :)

Wow that looks so involved! Will definitely look into this.

Any recommendations on games using this engine? I've been playing Java Edition again lately but am always open something new.

What cities should not be doing, however, is taking away lanes of traffic on our most congested roads

This is so wrong-headed I can't believe I'm reading it. Taking lanes away from private automobiles is precisely what you want to do where there is congestion if you want more people to be able to use the road.

That's pretty sad when you have to pirate a game just to make it playable. I probably shouldn't admit to having cracked games in the past for this reason. Yarrr!

This is actually the first I've heard of Denuvo, but if Wikipedia's page on it is any indication, it sounds pretty awful! Anyway, I've checked the dealbreaker box on the survey.

If I'm not mistaken, coal mining itself is a major methane emitter. I wonder if they account for that in this comparison?

Yeah, I think the current situation is they have to burn a certain amount of fuel to refine the bitumen, and then of course the oil itself is eventually burned by the end user. So it's a carbon emissions double whammy. Not a good look. But if nuclear steps in to handle the refining part, they may be able to sell more oil by trading on a "clean" image? Or something. I have trouble getting into that mind set.

it may look to replace the role of fossil fuels in its electricity grid with another controversial energy source — nuclear

I wouldn't be so sure about the "replace" part. Refining oil sands is an energy-intensive process. Couldn't the nuclear power wind up going to that? I thought they were even advocating for this.

We donated a guitar to a high school music program. Honestly, I don't know anyone who owns exactly one guitar. You either have none or several. Do you really need them all? How about taking your old student model and letting a beginner play on it? I get it. It's that sentimental first instrument you ever picked up. But you're not playing it anymore, and instruments like to be played. It deserves a happier life than sitting at the back of your closet.

I guess the central premise of capitalism is that while every society has its haves and have nots, capitalism is supposed to encourage the haves to invest in the economy rather than hoarding their wealth. In return, they stand to get even wealthier, but a stronger economy ought to generate more employment and generally improve the lives of commoners as well.

Unfortunately, in a never-ending quest to make wealth-generation more efficient and streamlined, employment is being eliminated through automation, outsourcing, etc. and the system is eating itself out from the inside. I doubt it can persist much longer, but what will replace it remains unclear. I pray that it will be something sensible that ensures everyone has their basic needs met and can still find rewarding pursuits in life. But there are so many ways it could go very wrong, and that includes staying on the current course.

A ok. Thanks for the clarification.

I had to look up who was mayor during the pandemic. Bill de Blasio. I just remember seeing an overhead view on CNN and thinking "Is that an honest to god mass grave in NYC?!?" That's a hell of a legacy.

That's very interesting. Thanks for the write-up. Reminds me a bit of the premier of Ontario where I am. Started life as a petty drug dealer before getting into right-wing politics, and quickly fell out of popularity cutting services and tearing down wind turbines across the province. But with his career on the rocks, the pandemic suddenly hit. That was basically his 9/11 and people rallied behind him. Never mind that his previous cuts to healthcare had exacerbated the crisis. But he's back to his douchebag ways now.

Any New Yorkers here? I'm interested in your perspective on Giuliani. I only have a cursory knowledge of him. He first came to my attention when he made headlines busting some crime family as a DA way back when. Then he was in the news a lot as the mayor of NYC during 9/11. He seemed pretty respected at the time? I dunno. And next thing you know, he resurfaces as an enforcer for the Trump administration, winding up getting disbarred and generally shunned by society. I guess I'm curious as to whether he was always a scumbag or grew into the role?