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Our Route to Fredericton We were through the no-hassle U.S. Border Control and back in Lubec, Maine with less than a 5-minute wait. We were so close to Eastport, Maine, we decided to take a little sidetrip. It’s the easternmost ‘city’ in the USA… versus easternmost town or point, a very important distinction. Eastport is the epitome of ‘Downeast Maine’. Why Downeast, you ask? In the days of old, ‘downeast’ …

Did you know that Moleskine notebooks have their own ISBN? I used to run a bookshop in a tweeting vending machine called Machine Supply. It was the smallest member of the Booksellers Association (I had a sticker on the glass and everything) and I partnered with a great book wholesaler. So the book business relies on wholesalers. They buy the books from the publishers and bookshops buy the books from …

Clinton Walker introduces his addition to the 33 1/3 Oceania series: Soundtrack from Saturday Night Fever. He told us more about where his obsession with the Bee Gees began and why Saturday Night Fever should be considered one of the great disco albums. By Clinton WalkerIt helps to be a bit obsessed. And I’ve been quite obsessed with the Bee Gees, their manager Robert Stigwood and their collective great opus …

When proofreading dies, I'll become a gravedigger. And this, I'll do it for Him and for me and for her. When I die, I hope I'll have completed my to-do list (I believe such a thing exists). When I die, I hope I'll go to Heaven; cuz' currently I'm in earthly Purgatory!

Despite better judgement I decided to code a basic HTML parser. Not the full HTML spec but enough to create a tree of nodes and attributes. I’ve already written a streamable XML parser that has been working for my podcast web app.Parsing (most) HTML isn’t as complicated as it sounds. Look for a less-than sign < and see if a valid tag like <div> follows. If that node is a …

“The good troubleshooter is cost conscious, and aware that down time and equipment replacement are factors of serious concern to the Haigh Company.” Haigh Company Employee Handbook By the Book, The Worlds of Frank Herbert, 1971

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Here’s Part 2 of our deep dive into benzene contamination in your products. In Part 1, we talked about whether the experiments were “realistic” (no), and whether the cancer risk was described accurately (also no). This time, we’ll be discussing the wider issues around the private lab behind these findings, Valisure. This is adapted from the video version (which works ... Read more Source

Most of these photos were taken on a training run with coach Mary on the 24th Sept. But they are a part of the bigger picture which is to do a bit more serious running. Even going out without a camera! (Someone must have had a camera here though!?) And focussing on the training. I don't always enjoy the training aspect but I'm always glad I did it. You can …

Without getting into too many details, the last year has been tough for me. As a mental health public speaker, I have resolved to be honest about my mental health challenges, in an effort to encourage people to not be ashamed of their illness. As I began writing this, the sale of my former house was about to close and my family had already settled safely into our new home. …

Greetings! Will it ever stop raining? I hope so, because I’m riding in the PMC Unpaved this weekend in the Berkshires. If you see a rider with pink handlebar tape on a black gravel bike, that’s me—riding for a good friend. It’s not too late to join this year’s campaign, and I’d be grateful, as would the many who will benefit from your generosity. ICYMI – new Bellwether work on …

Across the country, beekeepers are experiencing the first unpleasant withdrawal symptoms of going 'cold turkey' ... the start of the not beekeeping season. After the hustle and bustle of the late summer honey harvest, followed by feeding and treating, there's suddenly nothing to do.Well, perhaps not nothing, but certainly very little compared to the height of the season which was just a few short weeks ago.Suddenly weekends appear a lot …

Last week I walked into work to a brand-new Veritas spokeshave sitting on my bench. Chris had ordered several for students and kindly ordered an extra for me. (I’m spoiled, I know.) Grateful, I took a picture of my new tool and posted it to my social media account, not thinking much of it. The following day I received a comment: “Would you mind posting a video of how you …

Last year, in Scooter Saga Part IV: How to buy a new scooter in Taiwan, I wrote:In Taiwan, you must hold a driver’s license before buying a vehicle. For this reason, many elderly people—who are unlicensed because they didn’t learn to read and write—drive scooters that are registered in their children’s names. “Watch out for grandpa” is a phrase I’ve heard many times, for good reason.Fortunately, I got my license …