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Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
Woman decided to turn left in front of my car. Was doing 60 clicks and I fortunately was able to scrub off enough speed and hit her car on the front fender rather than t-boning her. Could've been bad, she had her kids in the back.
Still made a complete mess of the front of my car.
I liked that car too, it was reliable and only had 130,000km on it.
Oh well, this too shall pass.
5
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
I slowed down enough in those two seconds that my airbag didn't deploy. So, I probably wasn't going over 20km/h at impact. But even at that speed, the car ended up a write-off.
Now comes the fun part of finding a used car to replace it. To be honest, I'm getting tired of driving, and want to be doing much less of it these days. I've noticed a definite decline in safe and courteous driving behaviour over the last few years. But I will need to replace my own two-ton polluting-spewing death machine for the immediate time-being at least.
Ebike? Its not for everyone but in my case the ease of parking and the ability to navigate right up to the door of wherever I need to get to, means I use it for 95% of my driving. I am also blessed with being in a city that has focused on bike paths for its citizens to choose alternative transportation options.
@how Maybe eventually. I do renovation/construction work out the the 'burbs, so I pretty much need a car for the time being.
My father-in-law has moved in with us, and were looking for a place with a walk-out basement that he can live in and we'll take the upper floor and share the main floor. It would be nice if we find something somewhere that's somewhat walkable to amenities and hopefully a job within walking distance. I'd be more than happy to rid our household of one of our cars.
Re: bike infrastructure, Edmonton is working on it, but we have a long way to go.
I've noticed a definite decline in safe and courteous driving behaviour over the last few years.
When I moved from Australia to Aotearoa (NZ), the thing which shocked me the most when driving (well apart from the really old cars still on the road) was the Kiwi habit of tailgating . Especially when you're already doing the speed limit, they would come up right behind you and sit on your tail in an intimidating stance ...
It's so calming just watching the waves/thoughts come ,say their piece, then depart.
2
federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
@Jeroen said:
My stepfather was taken to the hospital by ambulance this morning after suffering a stomach bleed overnight…
Excuse my absence, and my asking... How are things?
2
federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
edited January 17
I have disabled both my Facebook and my WhatsApp accounts. Instagram is also gone, but I rarely used it anyway.
Goodbye, Zuckerberg, and thanks for all the fish.
3
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
Federica said:
Excuse my absence, and my asking... How are things?
Well… I have detailed my stepfathers last days here:
It’s been quite a tough year. Lots of to’ing and fro’ing to hospitals, but at least my mother is stable and can eat and drink again, even if she still suffers from reduced hearing, eyesight, balance and the lack of one vocal cord. She is managing, and with the two of us we are ok in cooking and cleaning and caring for each other.
5
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
Into paying for a year’s subscription for all the courses for €78 which seems fair, given there was a 40% New Year’s Discount, and there are multiple courses I’d like to try besides the bread making. There is a course for vegetarian cooking by a Michelin Starred chef, and so on.
A single course costs €59 (with discount) and is still only for a year’s access.
0
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
I thought I’d talk about the Dutch prime minister, Schoof. Basically after the election there was no one party in control - this is normal in Dutch politics - and the four parties who together had a majority couldn’t agree on who should be prime minister. Each party thought that the leader of the other party wouldn’t be suitable. So together they put a senior civil servant in charge as a compromise candidate. So the prime minister of the country is a man who no-one voted for, but he seems to be doing a fair job.
Yes, that is one of the quirks of parliamentary democracy.
It doesn't happen often here in Canada, but we have had prime ministers and provincial premiers and cabinet ministers that don't have a seat in the legislature. It's usually a temporary measure, and they are 'expected' to run in a by-election or general election soon after to hold a seat.
With Trudeau's resignation, we may have an unelected prime minister for a short term until an election is called if an non-MP like Mark Carney wins the Liberal Party leadership race.
I'm just watching Al Jazeera live...The great march north...thousands of Palestinian civilians making their way back to what's left of their homes in northern Gaza Palestine...
Even though it should be a time of celebration, it's quite a sad sight to see thousands upon thousands of civilians, old, young, men, women and children making their was back to their ruined homes, to search for the remains of family members buried under the rubble.
Just been to my first "Meat free Monday" meal at our local Sustainability Centre . They hold one every month with people from different ethnic backgrounds cooking meals. This one was special, it was a Lebanese meal, and the money raised was going to the charity Medical Aid for Palestine which operates in both Palestine and Lebanon ..There was a young Palestinian woman there whom I had met before when she came over to the Island last year for our local rally and hikoi. She entertained the dinners with Lebanese and Palestinian songs plus she spoke of the humanitarian crises in both Gaza and Lebanon..
This is a video I posted a while back of her singing at one of the rallies in the city where a young Vietnamese woman had all her hair cut off to raise money for a Palestinian charity.
The words to the song roughly translated into English
"And you, the brave ones, where are you from? Where is Palestine? The spear strikes with the return of beauty. Palestine, and you, the brave ones, where are you from? We are your youth, Palestine. Palestine, we were not created to live in humiliation, We were created to live in freedom. Hand in hand, we stand together for our land, We won't give up our land. Palestine, Arab from 100% to 100%."
Such a beautiful voice...
1
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
edited February 3
This announcement is not useless, but otherwise fits the thread!
Tiny copper ‘nano-flowers’ have been attached to an artificial leaf to produce clean fuels and chemicals that are the backbone of modern energy and manufacturing.
They convert CO2, water and glycerol (an organic waste product) into various complex hydrocarbons, using just solar power. Very cool science!
4
JeroenLuminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlandsVeteran
Apparently Elon Musk cheats at video games — he pays other people to play his accounts in among others Path of Exile 2 and pretends he is a global elite player without having the skills or knowledge to back up that claim. Very revealing for one of the worlds richest and most powerful men to feel the need to boast in this way.
You could argue that money and power have corrupted him, and that he would have been better off getting out of the business owning game after making his first billion dollars. It makes me wonder why so many billionaires just keep on earning money? What is the point? Doesn’t he realise that you only earn money so that you get back your time…
Well today is Waitangi Day (the signing of the treaty of Waitangi between Maori and the Crown)... Later I might go to the Waitangi day celebrations at the local Marae
Looked all over for them, including a walk out the the mailbox kicking snowbanks (the last place I knew I had them). Checked a bunch of places in the house, and my jacket pocket multiple times.
Eventually found them in a basket where I never put them, I just happened to do so today for some reason.
Looked all over for them, including a walk out the the mailbox kicking snowbanks (the last place I knew I had them). Checked a bunch of places in the house, and my jacket pocket multiple times.
Eventually found them in a basket where I never put them, I just happened to do so today for some reason.
My seniors moment with keys a couple of days ago......
Lost 1/2 of my house/ bike/ car and snooker club keys 2 days ago. There were 9 keys on a large looped bright green shoelace that were very easy to see and easy to manipulate. When not in use, they live at home in a drawer near the front door. Yesterday when I got back to my doorstep from a busy day, and went to open my front door, I found that half my keys were missing from that shoelace. I automatically went through all the places in my mind in my day where I'd taken out my keys for my bike lock and might have dropped them. That amounted to about 12 places far flung from each other on different ends of my city. My mind raced at the thought of the hours backtracking in the dark on what seemed like a very slim chance at finding them. At the end of my driveway as I was setting off on my search I decided to turn around to check out the key drawer inside, and as unlikely as that seemed and there were the missing keys. No idea how they could have slid off a still-tied shoelace string but there were all the missing keys.
Now while awfully grateful to find them, it's hard to think of just how many times in that day I took out my keys and used them while not noticing that half of them were missing.
3
personDon't believe everything you thinkThe liminal spaceVeteran
I figured out a trick so I wouldn't forget where I put my wallet when on vacation. I put it in a special pouch of its own on my suitcase. One minor hitch in the plan, I forgot I put it in a special pouch. I thought I probably left it at an In and Out for half a day...
Had another tropical storm late last night/early hours of the morning...It came down in buckets and today the weather turns on the heat... sunny, hot and humid...So I did some clothes washing and tided up the deck...then went window shopping at one of the local op shops...
It's going to be another muggy night, which is to be expected for the months of February and March...
Canadians reacting to Trump's offer to make us American.
All of a sudden, most of our stores are now switching over to clearly listing what products for sale are Canadian and what are American. The Canadian products have all been moved up to eye level, with the American products being moved down to floor level. Easy free phone apps are now available to instantly scan any bar code to check where a product comes from.
I am surprised at how quickly Trump has managed to motivate so many of my neighbors into becoming politically selective in their buying habits.
It will be... interesting, to see how things pan out. Our supply chains are very tightly connected.
I was already trying to buy as many Canadian products as I could before this. I remember back in the eighties when the general feeling in Alberta was all rah-rah-rah for the Free Trade Agreement. It was before I was eligible to vote, but I kinda thought at the time it might not be a good idea to entwine our economies even further than they were.
@Walker
Folks here are also including Gas stations in their Canadian verses American Shopping choices, which I hadn't considered. Petro Canada / Husky / Irving / Ultra Mar / Canadian Tire / Pioneer / Co-op / Supersave being the Canadian options.
Shell is Dutch.
With Chevron, Esso & Mobil being the boycotted American choices.
Baby steps.
It's the land sharks we have to be careful of, they will take an arm or a leg if you go near them...
The land shark usually inhabits urban areas, where it preys mainly upon young women, although it has also been known to attack bespectacled marine biologists and crusty sea captains. This is a very clever fish that is capable of disguising its voice and ringing doorbells.
Hello NB friends
Yeah, this probably doesn't really belong in this thread or even follow acceptable NB guidelines but perhaps the moderators here will give it some timeful grace.
Recently, some neighbors of mine (through the Rainbow Coalition), heard about someone who escaped Afghan Taliban imprisonment and made it over the border into a neighboring country. That neighboring country is now implementing a program of forcibly deporting any refugees found within their borders back to their country of origin. For this refugee it would be a death sentence.
8 of us have decided to band together to raise the funds for a Federal Canadian sponsorship program to give this person Canadian refugee status into Canada.
Any contribution towards this endeavor would be appreciated.
For more details see https://my.charitableimpact.com/groups/rainbow-afghanistan-to-victoria-refugee-sponsorship-group
Comments
Totalled my car today.
Woman decided to turn left in front of my car. Was doing 60 clicks and I fortunately was able to scrub off enough speed and hit her car on the front fender rather than t-boning her. Could've been bad, she had her kids in the back.
Still made a complete mess of the front of my car.
I liked that car too, it was reliable and only had 130,000km on it.
Oh well, this too shall pass.
Oh dear! Was anyone hurt? It sounds dangerous…
No injuries, thankfully.
I slowed down enough in those two seconds that my airbag didn't deploy. So, I probably wasn't going over 20km/h at impact. But even at that speed, the car ended up a write-off.
Now comes the fun part of finding a used car to replace it. To be honest, I'm getting tired of driving, and want to be doing much less of it these days. I've noticed a definite decline in safe and courteous driving behaviour over the last few years. But I will need to replace my own two-ton polluting-spewing death machine for the immediate time-being at least.
Ebike? Its not for everyone but in my case the ease of parking and the ability to navigate right up to the door of wherever I need to get to, means I use it for 95% of my driving. I am also blessed with being in a city that has focused on bike paths for its citizens to choose alternative transportation options.
@how Maybe eventually. I do renovation/construction work out the the 'burbs, so I pretty much need a car for the time being.
My father-in-law has moved in with us, and were looking for a place with a walk-out basement that he can live in and we'll take the upper floor and share the main floor. It would be nice if we find something somewhere that's somewhat walkable to amenities and hopefully a job within walking distance. I'd be more than happy to rid our household of one of our cars.
Re: bike infrastructure, Edmonton is working on it, but we have a long way to go.
When I moved from Australia to Aotearoa (NZ), the thing which shocked me the most when driving (well apart from the really old cars still on the road) was the Kiwi habit of tailgating . Especially when you're already doing the speed limit, they would come up right behind you and sit on your tail in an intimidating stance ...
Kiwis would fit right in here. Tailgating isn't a bug in the system, as it were, it's a feature!
Went for a skinny dip two days in a row...
It's so calming just watching the waves/thoughts come ,say their piece, then depart.
Excuse my absence, and my asking... How are things?
I have disabled both my Facebook and my WhatsApp accounts. Instagram is also gone, but I rarely used it anyway.
Goodbye, Zuckerberg, and thanks for all the fish.
Well… I have detailed my stepfathers last days here:
https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/27287/difficult-moments
And I have talked about my mothers health difficulties the following year here:
https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/27603/more-difficult-moments
It’s been quite a tough year. Lots of to’ing and fro’ing to hospitals, but at least my mother is stable and can eat and drink again, even if she still suffers from reduced hearing, eyesight, balance and the lack of one vocal cord. She is managing, and with the two of us we are ok in cooking and cleaning and caring for each other.
I was tempted by this…
https://www.bbcmaestro.com/courses/richard-bertinet/bread-making/trailer
Into paying for a year’s subscription for all the courses for €78 which seems fair, given there was a 40% New Year’s Discount, and there are multiple courses I’d like to try besides the bread making. There is a course for vegetarian cooking by a Michelin Starred chef, and so on.
A single course costs €59 (with discount) and is still only for a year’s access.
I thought I’d talk about the Dutch prime minister, Schoof. Basically after the election there was no one party in control - this is normal in Dutch politics - and the four parties who together had a majority couldn’t agree on who should be prime minister. Each party thought that the leader of the other party wouldn’t be suitable. So together they put a senior civil servant in charge as a compromise candidate. So the prime minister of the country is a man who no-one voted for, but he seems to be doing a fair job.
Yes, that is one of the quirks of parliamentary democracy.
It doesn't happen often here in Canada, but we have had prime ministers and provincial premiers and cabinet ministers that don't have a seat in the legislature. It's usually a temporary measure, and they are 'expected' to run in a by-election or general election soon after to hold a seat.
With Trudeau's resignation, we may have an unelected prime minister for a short term until an election is called if an non-MP like Mark Carney wins the Liberal Party leadership race.
I'm just watching Al Jazeera live...The great march north...thousands of Palestinian civilians making their way back to what's left of their homes in northern Gaza Palestine...
Even though it should be a time of celebration, it's quite a sad sight to see thousands upon thousands of civilians, old, young, men, women and children making their was back to their ruined homes, to search for the remains of family members buried under the rubble.
Just been to my first "Meat free Monday" meal at our local Sustainability Centre . They hold one every month with people from different ethnic backgrounds cooking meals. This one was special, it was a Lebanese meal, and the money raised was going to the charity Medical Aid for Palestine which operates in both Palestine and Lebanon ..There was a young Palestinian woman there whom I had met before when she came over to the Island last year for our local rally and hikoi. She entertained the dinners with Lebanese and Palestinian songs plus she spoke of the humanitarian crises in both Gaza and Lebanon..
This is a video I posted a while back of her singing at one of the rallies in the city where a young Vietnamese woman had all her hair cut off to raise money for a Palestinian charity.
The words to the song roughly translated into English
"And you, the brave ones, where are you from? Where is Palestine? The spear strikes with the return of beauty. Palestine, and you, the brave ones, where are you from? We are your youth, Palestine. Palestine, we were not created to live in humiliation, We were created to live in freedom. Hand in hand, we stand together for our land, We won't give up our land. Palestine, Arab from 100% to 100%."
Such a beautiful voice...
This announcement is not useless, but otherwise fits the thread!
https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/tiny-copper-flowers-bloom-on-artificial-leaves-for-clean-fuel-production
Tiny copper ‘nano-flowers’ have been attached to an artificial leaf to produce clean fuels and chemicals that are the backbone of modern energy and manufacturing.
They convert CO2, water and glycerol (an organic waste product) into various complex hydrocarbons, using just solar power. Very cool science!
Apparently Elon Musk cheats at video games — he pays other people to play his accounts in among others Path of Exile 2 and pretends he is a global elite player without having the skills or knowledge to back up that claim. Very revealing for one of the worlds richest and most powerful men to feel the need to boast in this way.
You could argue that money and power have corrupted him, and that he would have been better off getting out of the business owning game after making his first billion dollars. It makes me wonder why so many billionaires just keep on earning money? What is the point? Doesn’t he realise that you only earn money so that you get back your time…
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/02/03/elon-musk-cheats-at-video-games
With money comes power. No bottom to that pit.
my dog gave me some sage advice:
Don't eat a bee.
Well today is Waitangi Day (the signing of the treaty of Waitangi between Maori and the Crown)... Later I might go to the Waitangi day celebrations at the local Marae
Lost my keys today.
Looked all over for them, including a walk out the the mailbox kicking snowbanks (the last place I knew I had them). Checked a bunch of places in the house, and my jacket pocket multiple times.
Eventually found them in a basket where I never put them, I just happened to do so today for some reason.
lol
Hmm senior moment perhaps ?
......Welcome to the club
I'll qualify for 55+ senior discounts in a couple of years.
Yep, I'm getting there.
Me too, I’m going to be 53 this year.
My seniors moment with keys a couple of days ago......
Lost 1/2 of my house/ bike/ car and snooker club keys 2 days ago. There were 9 keys on a large looped bright green shoelace that were very easy to see and easy to manipulate. When not in use, they live at home in a drawer near the front door. Yesterday when I got back to my doorstep from a busy day, and went to open my front door, I found that half my keys were missing from that shoelace. I automatically went through all the places in my mind in my day where I'd taken out my keys for my bike lock and might have dropped them. That amounted to about 12 places far flung from each other on different ends of my city. My mind raced at the thought of the hours backtracking in the dark on what seemed like a very slim chance at finding them. At the end of my driveway as I was setting off on my search I decided to turn around to check out the key drawer inside, and as unlikely as that seemed and there were the missing keys. No idea how they could have slid off a still-tied shoelace string but there were all the missing keys.
Now while awfully grateful to find them, it's hard to think of just how many times in that day I took out my keys and used them while not noticing that half of them were missing.
I figured out a trick so I wouldn't forget where I put my wallet when on vacation. I put it in a special pouch of its own on my suitcase. One minor hitch in the plan, I forgot I put it in a special pouch. I thought I probably left it at an In and Out for half a day...
Super-safe hiding place. So safe even you forget where you've put something.
I've done it too.
While talking on their mobile phone, does anyone else sometimes go looking for it?
Pretty sure I have $200 cash hidden somewhere in my home.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JncsrRSy46c
Harrison Ford in his old age is really funny.
Had a little bit of drizzle earlier this evening.
Snowstorm in Japan last week.
Oof.
Wow!
You gotta love Hokkaido, Japans northern island.
Or build a really big snowman!
"The first indicator of idiocy is the complete lack of shame! "
~Freud~
Hmm, does anyone come to mind ?
Had another tropical storm late last night/early hours of the morning...It came down in buckets and today the weather turns on the heat... sunny, hot and humid...So I did some clothes washing and tided up the deck...then went window shopping at one of the local op shops...
It's going to be another muggy night, which is to be expected for the months of February and March...
Think I might listen to some Björk Guðmundsdóttir...
https://goldensufi.org/in-conversation-bjork-and-llewellyn-vaughan-lee/
Canadians reacting to Trump's offer to make us American.
All of a sudden, most of our stores are now switching over to clearly listing what products for sale are Canadian and what are American. The Canadian products have all been moved up to eye level, with the American products being moved down to floor level. Easy free phone apps are now available to instantly scan any bar code to check where a product comes from.
I am surprised at how quickly Trump has managed to motivate so many of my neighbors into becoming politically selective in their buying habits.
It will be... interesting, to see how things pan out. Our supply chains are very tightly connected.
I was already trying to buy as many Canadian products as I could before this. I remember back in the eighties when the general feeling in Alberta was all rah-rah-rah for the Free Trade Agreement. It was before I was eligible to vote, but I kinda thought at the time it might not be a good idea to entwine our economies even further than they were.
@Walker
Folks here are also including Gas stations in their Canadian verses American Shopping choices, which I hadn't considered. Petro Canada / Husky / Irving / Ultra Mar / Canadian Tire / Pioneer / Co-op / Supersave being the Canadian options.
Shell is Dutch.
With Chevron, Esso & Mobil being the boycotted American choices.
Baby steps.
Just been eating a Sangha Biscuit. Apparently they are “enrobed” … with Dark Belgian chocolate…
In 'Quick links' I really like the 'Best of section'
Here is one I created using the fediverse fediwall...
https://fediwall.social/?tags=buddhist&hide=nsfw,bots
Had a skinny dip this morning...first in a while...
The ocean felt like lukewarm bathwater...
Except for the sharks!
It's the land sharks we have to be careful of, they will take an arm or a leg if you go near them...
I am off to the Wild Wild West - eh - World Wild Web
https://fyr.io/post/world_wild_web
Sharks? (Rock Salmon) Yum! - oops ... still not vegan
Hello NB friends
Yeah, this probably doesn't really belong in this thread or even follow acceptable NB guidelines but perhaps the moderators here will give it some timeful grace.
Recently, some neighbors of mine (through the Rainbow Coalition), heard about someone who escaped Afghan Taliban imprisonment and made it over the border into a neighboring country. That neighboring country is now implementing a program of forcibly deporting any refugees found within their borders back to their country of origin. For this refugee it would be a death sentence.
8 of us have decided to band together to raise the funds for a Federal Canadian sponsorship program to give this person Canadian refugee status into Canada.
Any contribution towards this endeavor would be appreciated.
For more details see
https://my.charitableimpact.com/groups/rainbow-afghanistan-to-victoria-refugee-sponsorship-group
Cheers all.
Howard Mitchell