progressdeveloper

We're in our condo now - we spent three nights with our friends in Bucerias, about 15k north of PV, and now we're more or less adjacent to PV proper, nearish the airport. Which doesn't sound that great, but it is. We're on the top floor of an 8 story building looking out over a huge and eerily empty beach. There is a smallish but lovely and most importantly pretty much deserted pool, which is all we need. I went out running this morning, which is much more pleasant here than in Bucerias because the streets and sidewalks are all in Canada-level condition. Whereas in Bucerias the sidewalks are frequently in a state of disrepair that would invite endless lawsuits back home. Similarly, on the way here, we passed through some nearly African slum looking housing that got steadily less prominent as we got closer to the beach. This is something I always wonder about. I suspect my soon-to-be-future-co-father-in-law would say: "we" have a relatively well run economic / ...

We're on Westjet enroute to Puerto Vallarta; I am pretty sure this is the first time I have ever bought onboard wifi, $22 for the whole flight (which is 4.5 hours). It is a bit slow but seems very stable. YVR was very quiet on a Sunday morning and it's been an unusually pleasant experience so far. We are spending three nights staying with friends who have been in a community north of PV for the past month; then we switch to our own condo just off the beach and very near downtown PV. I have zero touristic aspirations for this trip. I am mostly happy to escape the Vancouver weather, which, after a terrific summer, has been HORRIFYING. I am also hoping to catchup with The Economist (I'm 2.5 issues behind), The Atlantic (2 issues behind) and 100 Años de Soledad (4 gruelling chapters to go!) ---- I also found out that it's totally possible to run from YVR terminal. I think of airports as being extremely pedestrian hostile, but actually, there is a both a bike and pedestrian ...

One of my favorite internet finds of late: https://10minutemail.com. It is a free service that exists solely to provide throwaway email accounts - they last 10 minutes only. During those 10 minutes you can receive emails as normal, which is super handy for signing up for things without getting put on spam lists. Works great!

Looks like a comedy, but so is not: Super poignant and overall well done. 10/10 would recommend.

This is a graph of total worldwide government debt vs. GDP. There are three peaks: the first in the mid-1800's after the Napoleonic wars; the second after WW2; and the third, now - when there are no wars on that sort of scale. Given nobody* accepts tax increases or services cuts, the only semi-feasible way that this can end is ever higher inflation - potentially to Argentina levels (which have come down hugely - to 2% per month; still insanely high by most other countries' standards). *Interestingly, the accompanying article names Canada as the one and only country that ever successfully reduced debt to any significant extent, other than thru inflation - thanks to one Stephen Harper. That is ancient history at this point, of course. Sources disagree but it looks like overall Canada is somewhere worse than Planet Earth but better than USA on this metric.

I really like Pips; it's a NYT puzzle in the same vein as Wordle except it is entirely about logic (not words). There are three difficulty levels. I always get the first 2, but I often give up on Hard. Today, I am a bit sick, so I spent an hour looking at Hard and finally gave up. So I asked AI: Gemini: gave a solution that totally confused the number of tiles and was so far off track I didn't try to correct it. ChatGPT: Gemini: So, a triple failure. I am absolutely convinced of the usefullness of AI (I'm hugely doubtful that it's a net win for society, but that's another story). I don't mean to parade around an example of AI failing as a reason not to use it. Not at all. But it is interesting. As for Pips: I seriously have to wonder if NYT screwed this one up. It just doesn't seem possible.

Sam and I attended to "moving of the new pedestrian bridge" in Burnaby last night at around 1 AM. This bridge was built in the north side of Highway 1, right beside Burnaby Lake, which is where we watched from. The goal was to swing it into position crossing Highway 1, which was - almost unbelievably, I don't think I have ever heard of such a thing! - completely closed from 8 PM unti 6 AM. Total cost; $21M. There were dozens of heavy equipment trucks and maybe 100 workers on site, almost all of whom were basically watching, as far as we could tell. They heavy lifting, pun intended, was done by two of these machines, the cost of which which must be incredible. One was attached to each end of the bridge and they inched along at about .001 KPH to move it into place. The guy on the right of this picture was driving it from a remote control. The 96 wheels swung 90 degrees to achieve the required motion. This project also required pouring and compacting an unbelievable volume o...

TIL that: a) the French version of O Canada has different lyrics - same tune. Eg., it is not a translation. Here is Wikipedia's translation of the French back to English: O Canada! Land of our ancestors Glorious deeds circle your brow For your arm knows how to wield the sword Your arm knows how to carry the cross; Your history is an epic Of brilliant deeds And your valour steeped in faith 𝄆 Will protect our homes and our rights. 𝄇 b) Both versions have three more verses which are "rarely sung". The second verse in English: O Canada! Where pines and maples grow. Great prairies spread and lordly rivers flow. How dear to us thy broad domain, From East to Western sea. Thou land of hope for all who toil! Thou True North, strong and free! I have to say - and I think many people agree - as awful as the US is, it's national anthem is great, very uplifting and bursting with unmerited pride, in a "bombs exploding, isn't that great!" sort of way.

This Weekend Economist was about mercenaries - specifically one Eric Prince, head of a famous American mercenary outfit. I really like episodes like this that give me a little bit of insight into a world that I had never really thought about. I thought: mercenaries basically meant Russian or Latino. Actually: there are several American mercenary outfits and they are, to an extent, like a normal company with presidents and offices and respectable sounding names like "Dyncorp" and "Blackwater group". They call themselves "private military contractors". I assume there are European equivalents. I thought: mercenaries were people that were equally comfortable defending the downtrodden against disctators as they would be torturing them in support of dictators, as long as they were being paid for it. Actually: nothing in this podcast really changed that belief, however, the interviewee did point out that one can easily imagine reasonable situations where mercenar...