content/blog/2022-10-05-CLRG-cheating-opinion.md

@@ -1,44 +0,0 @@
----
-title: My Take on CLRG's Cheating Scandal
-date: 2022-10-05
----
-
-This was originally part of my 
-[technical analysis / explainer](2022-10-04-CLRG-cheating.html)
-post,
-but I've moved it here because it's just opinion.
-
----
-
-Trees grow up *and* down. The part of the tree you can see is only half of the
-organism: for every meter of Siberian Elm tree I can cut down, there's a meter
-of Siberian Elm tree I need to dig out, and digging is way more work than
-cutting.
-
-I suspect that this racket is deep-rooted and widespread. I imagine the most
-likely outcome will be a lot of social media posts, some funny T shirts, a few
-resignations, maybe some people getting banned from events, and that's about it.
-The only adjudicator this document proves is corrupt is the whisleblower who
-sent in the screen shots. Even people named in these messages stand a decent
-chance of escaping consequences, if they play their cards right.
-
-Don't forget that you need a lot of certified adjudicators for things to run at
-their current scale. They can't just fire everybody and start over: they need
-their current instructors to train up new ones. And if this document is
-representative, half of their current instructor pool is already compromised.
-There's no way to ensure this scheme won't be a part of the new adjudicator
-training.
-
-Somebody is going to have to deliver a candid presentation to the board, or
-whatever they have, about the reality here. The corruption is probably so deep
-that they won't be able to take any significant action without destroying the
-whole organization. And this is just going to embolden the bad actors.
-
-After time passes, the presure from some of these intense and monied parents
-I've met will resume, and everything will be back to the way it was before.
-Sure, there will be some casting changes, but the system that's been built up
-for years--possibly decades--is going to persist long after the furore dies
-down.
-
-We may, however, see a renewed interest in some of the smaller Irish Dance
-organizations like CRN, who already seems to be making some moves.

content/blog/2023-01-06-iceland.md

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-title: Iceland trip
-date: 2023-01-06
----
-
-We went to Iceland for two weeks over the winter break.
-I couldn't think of anything I wanted to write in this blog about it,
-but someone on somethingawful just asked me for some tips,
-and my reply seems kinda interesting,
-so here it is:
-
----
-
-> Hey, really random, but saw you mention in the EV thread you just got back
-> from Iceland, got any winter travel tips? I'm going in a few weeks, and I
-> think pretty much everything I've read is focused on visiting in the summer.
-
-I overpacked because I wasn't sure what to expect, but I didn't overpack by
-much. I brought:
-
-* A pair of insulated water-resistant pants (lined with fleece I think, sort of
-  like ski pants). Wore them everywhere.
-* Two pairs of wool socks
-* Waterproof boots: mine were Danner, my wife had Sorel
-* two long-sleeved wool t-shirts
-* two wool sweaters
-* A waterproof parka with a hood
-* A wool hat
-* Warm waterproof gloves with the thing so you can still use the phone
-  touchscreen (this was so great to have)
-
-I had planned to buy one of those Icelandic wool sweaters when I landed, which I
-did, so I could have done without the second sweater I brought. The Icelandic
-one was crazy warm: I found myself stripping off the coat and sometimes the
-sweater while driving, to prevent overheating.
-
-We only did little walks, like a short one to take a photo of Sólheimjökull, a
-little one through Þingvellir. And lots of walking through snow in Reykjavik and
-other rural places we stayed. The stuff we packed was totally adequate. I did
-use the coat's hood way more than I thought I would, and was glad to have it. El
-Cheapo crampons like YakTrax would have been a good idea for Þingvellir if we'd
-wanted to go further, but once we saw the sign saying "if you get stuck past
-here in the winter, we won't come help you", we turned around and found another
-less-icy path. We weren't prepared for glacier climbing on a nature trail.
-
-We traveled with another family, who had the smart idea to buy food at the
-grocery store and prepare meals. That saved us a ton of money and I would highly
-recommend doing it. Eating out was incredibly expensive. Groceries were also
-expensive but more manageable.
-
-For driving, just know your limits. They have these pullouts on the roads,
-marked with a sign and an indication of how long the pullout is. If you are even
-idly considering turning around, take the pullout and have a nice calm think
-through that. I wound up seeing one, thinking "hmm, maybe I should turn around",
-and then doing a K-turn on the freaking highway during a whiteout blizzard.
-Nothing bad happened, thank goodness, but it could have gone very badly for me,
-and I wished I had just taken a couple pullouts to discuss with my wife whether
-we wanted to keep going. So take those pullouts.
-
-Snow on the road is unlike anything I've ever witnessed in the Rocky Mountains,
-and when they say "difficult driving conditions" in safetravel.is, pay
-attention. It's not "if you're from California you'll have a hard time with
-this", it's "if you're from any other country". We quickly learned to respect
-their suggestions.
-
-Lastly, the N1 fuel pumps wanted a PIN on my credit card, which I didn't have. I
-think I could have used an ATM card, but instead we just asked the other family
-to buy fuel for us, and we paid them back when we got home. Maybe bring an ATM
-card and know the PIN! There were other gas stations where I could use Google
-Pay on my phone, or Visa's tap-pay thing, with no problems. And inside the N1, I
-could also use Google Pay. It was really just the pumps at the N1 stations.
-Incidentally, you should pop into an N1 if you pass by one. It's a real trip.
-You can even plan to have a meal there: I saw hot bars, salad bars, frozen
-yogurt bars, nice custom sandwich things...
-
-Overall the trip was great! We especially liked the westernfjörd area. The
-south, near Sólheimjökull, was super touristy and I wouldn't go there on a
-subsequent trip. I'm glad we got to go, and I hope you have a great time!

content/blog/2023-01-07-yurt.md

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----
-date: 2023-01-07
-title: The Yurt
----
-
-One day,
-back in the late 1990s,
-I discovered that the content filter appliance at work
-had blocked woozle.org
-for hosting porn.
-
-Because I worked in the group that ran that filter,
-I looked into what triggered this block.
-I was pretty sure I didn't have any porn.
-
-The offending image was called `yurt.png`.
-It was a cartoon drawing of a yurt.
-I told the filter it was a "false positive":
-it wasn't actually porn.
-That got the entire site unblocked.
-
-I don't know why I put that image on my web server,
-but the yurt has stayed on woozle.org ever since.
-
-![A cartoon yurt](/assets/images/yurt.png)

content/blog/2023-01-12-drwho-S04E15-highlanders.md

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----
-date: 2023-01-12
-tags:
-- drwho
-title: 'Doctor Who S04E15: Dr Who goes to Scotland'
----
-
-I skipped some episodes in the last year.
-I think there were Cybermen.
-There were definitely Daleks.
-
-## S04E15: The Highlanders (1)
-
-Okay I guess they're in Scotland.
-This is another one of those episodes where all they could recover was 
-a few still frames and the audio,
-so this episode is basically a slideshow.
-
-I'm finding it difficult to care about this,
-although this new doctor has a funny hat,
-which is cute.
-
-A lot of people are grunting in Scottish.
-And there are bagpipes.
-
-Did I mention I'm finding it difficult to care?
-I may be about to decide to skip all the Earth episodes.
-And yet I'm somehow halfway through the episode already.
-
-The plot so far appears to be that the English and Scottish are fighting.
-Some dudes named Grey and Perkins appear to be trying to do something nefarious.
-
-I guess one of the new companions is named Polly.
-She's going to throw a rock at the British in an attempt to stop a hanging.
-Oh, are they hanging the other companion?
-I think the Doctor is pretending to be some official or other again.
-Grey and Perkins show up and stop the hanging,
-looks like they're scavenging prisoners.
-The doctor cites some law to Grey, a Lawyer, and manages to not be hanged.
-
-The women (Polly and a Scottish woman)
-are in a cave now.
-
-I stopped paying attention.
-The women were saying it was dark.
-Then somebody screamed,
-and credits rolled.
-I guess we're still in the "women screaming" era that Susan started.
-
-I am trying really hard but I just don't care.
-I'm sorry.
-I have a lot of things I could be doing with my time right now,
-and almost all of them are more interesting than this.
-

content/blog/2023-03-07-trains.md

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----
-title: Trains
-date: 2023-03-07
----
-
-This year I am trying to spend less time on airplanes,
-as part of a global movement motivated by carbon emissions concerns.
-
-Amtrak, the US national passenger rail company
-(the *only* national passenge rail company in the US),
-is in a really sad state right now.
-They keep getting their budget cut,
-and freight companies have found several innovative ways
-to save money at the expense of safety and passenger rail quality.
-So rail exists in the US, technically,
-but it is not generally considered a desirable way to go.
-Maybe that will change as people seek non-airplane methods of travel.
-
-The place where I work will let me take rail,
-but they won't reimburse more than the equivalent flight.
-This has never been a problem for me:
-flying has always come in more expensive than train.
-
-On this upcoming trip, I have to stay overnight in Chicago,
-because there is only one train per day on each line.
-Even though the train is $315 less than the cheapest flight,
-I am not allowed to apply any of that toward lodging reimbursement.
-
-If you assume people are going to take the option that
-lines up closest to their personal economic interest,
-that's 2 points against the train,
-both of which carry an outsized societal burden.
-
-Point 1: Time
--------------
-
-My time is worth something to me,
-and taking 4 additional days for a work trip kinda sucks.
-A lot of people will stop considering rail travel based just on this point.
-There's a way to fix this,
-by upgrading tracks so that passenger trains can go much faster,
-and by finally addressing how the mega-long freight trains can't yeild to the passenger trains,
-because there aren't stretches of side track long enough for them to do so.
-(People who would know assure me that the freight companies are well aware of what they're doing to passenger rail)
-
-This fix requires two things: a country willing to spend lots of money on passenger rail,
-and the political will to do something that will make freight companies really upset.
-I'm not seeing that the country is excited about any kind of infrastructure spending,
-much less passenger rail.
-And I'm definitely not seeing a country that wants to hurt any kind of commerce.
-But maybe if more scientists are inconvenienced by rail,
-the winds can shift.
-
-
-Point 2: Money
---------------
-
-Even though it costs fewer dollars for me to take the train,
-my company is not set up to handle this.
-The result is that I have to pay out of pocket for the hotel stays,
-and I will not get reimbursed.
-
-If taking over 3 times longer wasn't enough to dissuade people,
-telling them it will also cost them $400 that won't be reimbursed
-is going to make rail travel look like a bad decision.
-
-The fix for this is easier:
-my company needs to figure out a way to consider that the train is saving them money,
-and allow me to spend some of that savings on the required hotel.
-I've started trying to see what I can do to make that happen.
-It may take a few years, and depends on senior management caring,
-but I think it has a higher chance of happening.
-
-If enough places figure out how to stope penalizing people for taking the cheaper option,
-maybe there will be sufficient public interest in point 1 for something to happen there.
-

content/blog/2023-03-14-universal-date-format.md

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----
-title: Universal Date Format
-date: 2023-03-14
----
-
-YYYY🌍MM🌙DD 
-
-If we use this, we won't have to re-do date formats again when we colonize another planet.
-
-Posting here to bolster any future claim that I thought of this first.