Ireland uses a variant of ranked choice voting. In essence, voters get a list of candidates for their voting district, and rank as many of them as they want in order of preference. When votes are counted, the candidate with the lowest votes is eliminated, and votes of those who ranked the candidate first are distributed to their second choice. Rinse and repeat until only as many candidates remain as there are open seats in the constituency.

There is still some inertia, especially in rural areas (“my dad always voted for this candidate, so I’ll vote for his son”), but the system still lends itself to more informed voting. From what I’ve seen in other countries, on average Ireland does a better job at electing more reasonable candidates than the US or EU countries.

You know how many bike stands could be built for that money? Dozens!

Deciding on the school for my master’s. Had two choices: the no. 1 school in the US at that time, or an up-and-coming pgogram. The top school would have set me back about 200k in debt, but I was virtually guaranteed a job with a starting salary of 150k+, and a career path to the C-suite. The other school would give me a free ride, but it was anyone’s guess where’d I end up. I picked the free ride, and ended with a dead-end job for 40k. That was 20 years ago. Since then, that job gave me the push to leave the US, settle elsewhere, find a wife, start a family, and have an exciting new job with career progression. The choice, when I was deciding, couldn’t have been more clearly defined, and for years I kept thinking what if I picked the top school. Not anymore…

Where’s the “four slices per freezer bag and keep in the freezer” option? Or am I just too good for this chart?

20C and sunny today, possibly the best beach day of the summer around here. And the local Starbucks had a sign up, saying that yhey ran out of pumpkin spice…

Two years ago, I quit FB for six months. Then I checked my feed, and counted six friends’ updates and zero group posts in the first 100 items. 94% of posts were ads or “suggested” content. So, I closed FB and never went back again. Whatsap statuses is where I find my friends’ updates these days.

World of Xeen? Such a fun concept, combining the two games. I’ve been trying to run the mod that lets you play 6, 7 and 8 within the same game, but my current PC can’t handle it.

And before that, Swords of Xeen, as MM 5.5. But other unofficial spinoffs, in particular the King’s Bounty series, weren’t half bad, either.

I call this “The curse of Might and Magic”. This franchise was established by Jon Van Caneghem who founded New World Computing. The company later got into financial trouble and was absorbed by 3DO. Over time (mainly due to the commercial failure of its console, which came after the acquisition of the M&M property), 3DO started slipping into the hole. It dissolved, and in its fire sale, Ubi purchased the rights to Might and Magic. The rest, as they say, is history…

Mint is the best way to make a good idea for your foot feeling like a baby shark.

The picture doesn’t do justice to the evil that is sharting. Especially in the middle of a long run.

Removing public amenities is just the first step. The next step is to erect fencing around public parks and other spots where people like to enjoy themselves. Source: living in Dublin “the city centre is for working and shopping only” Ireland.

I always respond that in that case, “jpeg” should be pronounced “jfeg”.

"No pain, no gain. "

As someone who’s been running for over 30 years and working ou for 20, if there is pain, there is injury. When there is injury, you take a break and regress. People may say that muscle pain or stiff muscles are a sign of a good workout, not an injury. However, even with those your risk of injury is much higher, and you’ll eventually hurt yourself. “No pain” should be one of the outcomes of smart exercise, not an admonishment for not working hard enough.

If you insist on pronouncing “gif” as “gif” instead of “jif”, you should pronounce “jpeg” as “jfeg”.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Tapiooooca!

Sorry; you are right. I never saw that reader with any other authors, so it’s not something that’s really stuck in my memory.

Sorry; the automod here seems to have removed a naughty word in the URL. Linking directly to the picture.

Bring back memories of tthe removed dog. It never fails to make me smile…

The Hyperion books by Dan Simmons. Hyperion has full cast, the rest doesn’t, but still very high quality narration.

Honourable mentions:

• Alastair Reynolds and John Lee collaborations. Lee has the perfect voice and tone for Reynolds’ precise (and somewhat aloof) language.
• Neil Gaiman books. Gaiman does his own narration, and I can’t imagine his books without his voice.

Dishonourable mention:

• John Scalzi, read by Will Wright. Wright reads as if every line in Scalzi’s works was hillarious. Scalzi is a very funny writer, but his books have somber set pieces, and Wright ruins the immersion there.