Asides

Blog update: now with dark mode

Sigh. I have once again tried and failed to use the WordPress Block Editor, and humbly went back to good old Twenty Fifteen. I’m sure it’s really good for people who primarily need to make a website. But it doesn’t seem so well-suited to, you know, a blog, where dynamic content is front and centre and the theme is supposed to adapt to it, not the other way round. It is just a reflection of how people use WordPress nowadays, I guess. Continue reading Blog update: now with dark mode

Dracula Needs Bicycles

(Header image from this 1897 Scientific American story.)

Okay, I’ve been thinking about this, and you know what Dracula needs more of? BICYCLES.

The 1880s-1890s brought us the bicycle as we know it – double-triangle frame, inflatable tires, rear freewheel, etc. Bikes were increasingly comfortable, convenient, and easy to use – notably, for women as much as men. Even women’s fashion adapted – even if you weren’t one for the controversial “bloomers”, you could get skirts made with extra folds in the back for comfortable pedalling. There was even a bit of a bicycle bubble as manufacturers rushed to cash in on the craze (and then when the economy took a downturn many went broke, had to merge with other businesses, etc.).

1896-97 (when Dracula was published) was the height of the 1890s bicycle craze. Bikes were dirt cheap and everywhere. (I’m imagining them scattered around like those rentable scooters.)

In this part of the novel, when the gang are navigating London trying to find where Dracula’s stashed all his dirt boxes, at least some of them should be bicycling. The very sporty Arthur, at least, should be able to ride a bike (and he probably owns some fancy expensive ones). Part of the plot should hinge on Dracula needing to quickly get somewhere during the day (when he can’t transform into a bat, etc.) but he has to take a cab and there’s traffic but a couple of the gang are on bicycles and can quickly detour and make it to a place before Dracula does. Or he thinks he’ll get away free and clear but they biked so they show up way sooner than he expected. Or he’s trying to pursue them by day but he doesn’t know how to ride a bike because why would he.

I think bicycles would really be a great addition to Dracula‘s famous juxtaposition of modern technology and myths from time immemorial, and help make the setting feel distinctly 1890s.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

(Originally posted Oct. 2, 2025.)

CBC MP3 stream URLs down

Another update on the CBC radio stream URLs: as various people have kindly let me know, the MP3 links are down, probably for good. The M3U8 links still work, and most modern apps and devices should be able to handle them. However, I’m afraid legacy users are out of luck. Update, July 30: the MP3 links are back!

I’ve also moved the repo to Codeberg; however, the changes should be automatically mirrored on Github.

For more details, see the main blog post.

Update: CBC Radio stream URLs

I’ve updated my post on CBC Radio stream URLs after someone found links to MP3 versions of the streams. I’ve put together a second playlist which will work for older applications like Winamp that don’t support HLS. Yes, there are multiple people out there still using Winamp. I guess it really does whip the llama’s ass.

Update: Pinecone Spiders

Summer spidering season is well underway, and I’m no longer turning over pinecones in search of spiders. But I just stumbled across this 2016 blog post by Rod Crawford (of Seattle, WA’s Burke Museum) about Laurel Ramseyer’s research! Since 2008 she’s been sampling fallen pinecones for spiders—apparently a niche unexplored till now. This turned up the first record of the jumping spider Pseudoeuophrys lanigera in North America and has also proved useful for tracking the range of the crab spider Ozyptila praticola.

In 2015, Ramseyer and Crawford wrote a paper summarizing their findings about the pinecone-dwelling spiders of Washington State. A lot of mesh-web weavers (family Dictynidae), ground spiders (Gnaphosidae), sheet-web weavers and dwarf spiders (Linyphiidae), and cobweb spiders (Theridiidae). A lot different from all the running crab spiders (Philodromus) in my lakeside pinecones. They also mention finding a lot of Euryopis, a spider I’ve failed to find at all in my area despite seeing their distinctive tufty egg sacs all the time. Maybe that’s where I should be looking.

Time to do some reading and up my pinecone game…

Does Anyone Else Have a Bad Feeling About This?

Okay, so. Top bureaucrats who have stepped down this term:

A number of city councillors have also announced they’re not running for re-election:

I mean, like…does anyone get the sense they’re not running to something so much as running from something? 🤔🤔🤔

One possibility is that, after years of budget cuts and “kicking the can down the road”, the City has run out of road. And if MLTT revenue flattens or falls, which it’s bound to do eventually, we’d be well and truly fucked. As successive City Managers have said, there is no “gravy” left at City Hall. Serious cuts would have to involve mass layoffs, and the unions representing City staff would fight back. It could get unpleasant.

Or they’ve all realized that, deep down, Toronto is a potential NYC with ambitions of becoming, like…Akron, Ohio, and any forward-thinking bureaucrat or politician can make a bigger impact elsewhere.

Or some oracle has revealed to the elect that a massive sinkhole is going to swallow up Hellmouth is going to open up under City Hall some time in the next four years, but she’s not quite sure when, and everyone’s just decided to play it safe.

Or it could just be coincidence. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’m just being a bit paranoid, right?

Subscribers & Toronto Election Stuff

So, some of the people who give me money are running for City Council in the upcoming election. Someone asked me about this yesterday and I’ve thought about it a bit, and I think it would be inappropriate for candidates to keep donating to me during the election period. (And obviously afterwards as well, if they win.)

I’ll be going through Patreon and Paypal to check who is running and message them individually, but this is just a heads up.

I’m grateful for everyone’s support, and wish candidates luck in the campaign ahead!

Sidebar: Right Vs. Left

You often hear very tiresome people saying “I’m a social liberal and a fiscal conservative” as if it meant anything. In reality neither “social” nor “fiscal” issues are useful in telling left from right—especially not at City Hall, where “fiscal conservatives” have consistently championed pouring billions of dollars into an ever-shrinking subway plan. And saying that a “real progressive” wouldn’t be racist or sexist is as laughable as saying that “real Christians” aren’t homophobic, “real feminists” aren’t transphobic, etc., as well-intended as it is.

Nevertheless, I do think there is a way to meaningfully distinguish right- and left-wing politics. This is the framework I use when I talk about the political spectrum at City Hall. (That is, when I’m not talking in D&D terms.) Continue reading Sidebar: Right Vs. Left