@movq@www.uninformativ.de I always put it in the drawer of my desk cabinet when I’m done. That’s part of my quitting time ceremony each day. :-)

I wonder if KISS sets are still a thing. I loved making them a very long time ago.

I seem to have way more ideas for things I want to write when I’m out and about than when I’ve got some time to write at the end of the day. I think this has been going on for months with multiple thoughts I’ve had.

Time to go to sleep, hoping I do get any given how how it is here right now…

Marci – Pass Time
Marci is out August 5th. Video filmed + edited by Marta Cikojevic.
Continue reading… ⌘ Read more

In reply to: A simple mess

This is also something people keep getting wrong about Markdown as originally presented. Markdown isn’t a format. It’s a convenience tool that helps you write some of the boringest and commonest parts of HTML easier, and you can easily drop into more wonky HTML at any time.

Yes yes yes yes yes yes! ⌘ Read more

My connecting train was cancelled, so I decided to go for a night walk with a bit of a detour. It was absolutely worth it, saw a rabbit in front of me crossing the road and the clear sky in the forest made the stars pop nicely. Also super quiet once I left the city and the overgrown paths in the woods were incredibly dark. It was very, very hard to even make out the way. Luckily, I’ve walked it many, many times, so anticipating turns was doneable. Quite an adventure! Took me about 1:15 hours to reach home about 15 minutes ago. So I won’t make it to today’s call, sorry mates. I’ll hopefully sleep like a rock in a few minutes.

“Linux Sucks 2022” is now free for all to watch!
“Lunduke’s enthusiasm is infectious!”, “I laughed so many times” ⌘ Read more

I’m excited for the travel I’m going to be doing over the next few days, but the downside is that I’m not going to have much time to sleep.

All the scripts on my Gemini capsule (except chess) have now been rewritten using Python and storing data in a SQLite database. This is the first time I’ve ever worked with database in a “production” environment, and I’m inordinately excited.

Spent the afternoon updating my tilde and now it is time to unwind with some meditation and a book!

Don’t worry, @prologic@twtxt.net. :-) Except for one other I couldn’t do that with all my other hiking mates. Not even close. To complicate things even further, there were some rougher spots and all the inclines would slow down progress substantially. At least one hour on top, probably even two.

To be fair, when I started all the hiking a few years back, my endurance was really low, too. I couldn’t have done that back then in this time. I went out for half an hour to an hour, then I was whacked. Nothing comes from nothing.

My mate and I spontaneously decided to go for a longer tour today in 29°C heat. We ended up hiking 23 km in 4:30 hours. I had two liters of mineral water in my backpack and we bought a bottle of cherry limonade each on the way in. In the end we opted for pear limo at the same self-service fridge. What a great invention these small vending machines and self-service huts are! In Germany shops are closed on Sundays, so we would have needed to find an open restaurant (plenty didn’t survive Corona) with some detours.

It was my first time on that particular terrain. We went through some beautiful and quaint forest paths with scenic views. I forgot to put my SD card back into my camera, so no photos until my mate will send me his.

Now my feet a cooling off in a bucket of cold water. Superb.

@will@twtxt.net Oh, that huge sucker! Erie has the area of an average federal state here. You could put our biggest lake 48 times into Erie, areawise. Volume, however, only 10 times to fill it up. Truly mindblowing.

Yesterday, we had a heavy thunderstorm in the evening. At first it wasn’t too bad, just thunder in the distance and then a few drops of rain for at most five minutes. That was it. Alright, I thought, it’s over, let me call a mate and walk to the dairy farm. The heavy clouds looked awesome, a bit threatening but mostly harmless and just beautiful. We decided on a small detour to the home made ice cream vending machine and got ourselves some expensive, but very yummy pineapple/mint, yoghurt and raspberry/basil tubs. Mint was super strong, had to eat three spoons of some other flavors to actually taste it. A few spoons in and then the thunder rolled in from nowhere. So we quickly headed for the dairy farm while eating our ice creams. Half way there the sky floodgates opened and we took cover under a tree at the local playground. A minute later we decided to climb up the slide tower, because it had a proper roof. A tiny bit of hail cam down, but nothing serious.

About 15-20 minutes the rain stopped and the thunder and lighning rolled past. So we continued our journey and I finally filled my two one liter bottles successfully. Every now and then it drizzled a little bit through the forest. We reached our homes and a couple minutes later rain hit again. Thunder and lighning went crazy. The sky lit up every few seconds and this continued through half of the night.

Right after I hung up to meet my mate, another mate called and reported a few villages north of us they experienced hail sized a bit under golf balls. But he luckily managed to get the car in the underground carpark in time.

Today, it rained the whole morning. This was great since the temperatures stayed below 20°C, so my walk was a real joy. It’s going to get close to 30°C tomorrow, though, gnarf, örks, bwäh. :-(

My June ‘22 in Review
And now June and thus half of the year is over, how fast time flies, blazing fast! Time for a little review. ⌘ Read more

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warns Nato of China’s rising assertiveness
New Zealand has in recent years tried not to antagonise China, its largest trading partner, at times choosing not to co-sign statements from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance criticising Beijing. ⌘ Read more

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology gets approval for Guangzhou campus, in time for handover anniversary
The HKUST Guangzhou campus aims to open its doors to students in September this year. ⌘ Read more

Nato leaders say China is a ‘systemic challenge to Euro-Atlantic security’
For the first time, the Western military alliance singles out China by name in its strategy document, which had not been updated for 12 years. ⌘ Read more

Seoul ranked world’s second-best city for studying abroad, while Hong Kong climbs 3 spots to 12th place in annual QS report
South Korean capital comes in at second place for the first time in global list ranking 140 cities, while London takes top spot. ⌘ Read more

China tells UN expansion of Nato, or a Nato-like body, into the Asia-Pacific will stir up conflict
Beijing is concerned US is building an Asian version of Nato as Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea join the Nato meeting for the first time. ⌘ Read more

China’s easing of zero-Covid restraints set to release stocks into bull-market territory for first time in three years
A change in quarantine rules comes as the CSI 300 Index is within about 2 per cent of bull-market status, but opinions differ over how heavily Beijing’s zero-Covid policy still weighs on the market ⌘ Read more

Police in China arrest twin sisters who used each other’s passports more than 30 times to travel the world
Police in northern China arrested twin sisters under suspicion of swapping passports to visit various countries to skirt visa rules. ⌘ Read more

Amid heatwaves and floods, time is running out for rich nations to fulfil climate pledges and avert catastrophe
The current pledges of financial and policy support are nowhere near enough to meet the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. Instead of protecting carbon-emitting industries, the world needs economic diversification and green jobs for a just, sustainable transition. ⌘ Read more

China, Nato and how the Ukraine war is spilling over into the Asia-Pacific
Indo-Pacific partners are joining the bloc’s summit for the first time as the US seeks to counter China’s influence. ⌘ Read more

Singapore man who preyed on disabled children jailed for record 45 years in ‘exceptionally sickening’ case
Prosecutors said the man committed his crimes over the span of 16 years, including from 2005 to 2018 when he worked as a part-time tutor to ‘gain access to a ready pool of children’ – many of whom were disabled. ⌘ Read more

Priced out of Hong Kong, young home buyers look to Greater Bay Area for space and value
Twenty-five years after the handover, home ownership in Hong Kong is further out of reach than ever for first-time buyers, some of whom are finding value in Dongguan and other cities in the Pearl River Delta. ⌘ Read more

How an expanded BRICS could lead the world instead of the waning West
Adding new members to BRICS would fragment the world on a scale not seen since the Cold War and amplify the new era of ‘vertical globalisation’. The US would not be at the centre of geopolitics for the first time since World War II, and even France may switch sides. ⌘ Read more

US man shoots Subway worker dead over ‘too much mayo on sandwich’
The gunman argued with two female staff before opening fire, killing one and injuring the other; the wounded woman’s 5-year-old son was at the restaurant at the time. ⌘ Read more

Russian missiles hit crowded shopping centre in Ukraine, Zelensky says
More than 1,000 people were in the shopping centre at the time of the attack, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. ;It is impossible to even imagine the number of victims’, he said. ⌘ Read more

❤️ 🎶: As time goes by [From “Reply 1988 (Original Television Soundtrack), Pt. 9”] by Kihyun

Ukraine war: Russia defaults on foreign debt for first time since 1918
The default was the culmination of ever-tougher Western sanctions that shut down Russia’s payment routes to overseas creditors. ⌘ Read more

School in China ditches sleeping on desks at nap time for health reasons and lets students set up their own tents to sleep in
A school in China, concerned by the health impacts of students sleeping with heads on desks, tried something different — now its ‘sleep lying down project’ is winning praise nationally. ⌘ Read more

Why this 25-year-old is not leaving Hong Kong
To those who assert that Hong Kong is dead, that it’s high time to leave, I say: this is my home and I’m not going anywhere. ⌘ Read more

The Chinese fact checkers taking on the Covid infodemic – a rumour at a time
Journalist Wei Xing started up China Fact Check two years ago to push back against the flood of misinformation about the coronavirus. ⌘ Read more

In reply to: Oatmeal - That one time when Buffy the Vampire Slayer maybe saved my life?

After giving my brain bleed time to heal the neurosurgeon called me back in to hospital; the plan was to reassess, attempt to fix it using the minimally invasive technique that they tried once before, and if that didn’t work, do something a bit more squidgy dir … ⌘ Read more

FBI seizes Basquiat paintings from Florida exhibition amid doubts over authenticity
The FBI seized the paintings with a warrant based on ‘false information related to the alleged prior ownership of the paintings,’ The New York Times reported. ⌘ Read more

China jobs: facing lean times, small businesses dial back summer hiring
For years, Chinese manufacturers worried about labour shortages over summer months when production is typically at its peak, but it is a different story in 2022, industry insiders say. ⌘ Read more

Lab6, the zine about itself, just released Issue 3! It’s a PDF/Gemini/HTML/TeX/x86 polyglot this time. Great stuff! https://lab6.com/3

Ukraine war highlights G7’s role as geopolitical linchpin
Despite criticism from some quarters that it should stick to economics, the G7 has often been at its best during turbulent times. The grouping’s long-standing engagement with security issues and the uncertainty in Ukraine suggest its geopolitical role will only continue to grow. ⌘ Read more

‘See you next year’: China’s ‘King of gaokao’ fails to get marks for dream university after sitting the entrance exam for 26th time
A man in China who shot to fame after repeatedly sitting the country’s university entrance exam has failed to get the score he wanted for the 26th time — but plans to try again next year. ⌘ Read more

CityU Research Cited in US Budget FY2023
[Sponsored Article]

Strategic planning is regarded as a popular management approach adopted by public, private and non-profit organisations today to set priorities and steer future development. It helps define the mission of the organisation and establish realistic goals and objectives consistent with that mission in a defined time frame for implementation within the organisation’s capacity. … ⌘ Read more

Hong Kong must not cling to governance structures of the past
These trying times call for a clear-eyed review of the governmental structures and procedures underlying one ‘country, two systems’. Hong Kong needs a bolder institutional reform agenda, one placing the people’s interests above bureaucracy and adherence to an obsolete status quo. ⌘ Read more

Bill Cosby to appeal civil ruling on US$500,000 teenage sex assault case
A civil trial heard how Cosby was said to have plied Judy Huth with alcohol and taken her to Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion where he molested Huth, who was 16 at the time, in the 1970s. ⌘ Read more

Incoming leader John Lee working on strategy to reopen Hong Kong border with mainland China, may reduce quarantine for arrivals
John Lee concedes scrapping curbs may take time to achieve but says his administration can set interim goals towards that end. ⌘ Read more

Saudi crown prince visits Türkiye for first time since Jamal Khashoggi murder
An analyst called it ‘one of the most significant visits to Ankara by a foreign leader in almost a decade’, as the two major rivals seek to revive ties. ⌘ Read more

Uneasy times for Hongkongers making their home in mainland China
Rising Chinese nationalism and distrust after the city’s social unrest have left some Hong Kong people with an identity crisis. ⌘ Read more

Coronavirus: Hong Kong tour group heads to Japan for the first time in more than 2 years after Tokyo eases Covid rules
Ten travellers join seven-day trip organised by EGL Tours, which had previously pushed back the departure date from June 11 to June 15 and then to Wednesday. ⌘ Read more

Thousands flock to Stonehenge for summer solstice, the longest day of the year
Druids, pagans and other revellers greeted the 4.49am sunrise at the ancient stone circle in southern England, for the first time since the pandemic began. ⌘ Read more

Wealth gap between Hong Kong’s crazy rich, miserably poor widens since handover
Top 10 per cent earn 40 times more than bottom 10 per cent who are struggling to make ends meet. ⌘ Read more