My current touring bike is a Trek Checkpointcustomized for my good self. And I love it.
IF I was to upgrade, it would be to the somewhat more expensive Priority 600x.
In fact, my guru — Ryan Duzer — switched from a Checkpoint to the Priority. That’s Ryan in the photo.
One of the designers, some call this bike the Duzer Cruiser.
I think I’d prefer the no maintenance belt drive pinion system. And the nearly unbreakable Gates Carbon Drive. AND the suspension looks pretty good on this tough bike.
The supply chain problems of pandemic is over. You can get a 600x stock in the USA, as I post, within 5 days.
Atypicap Capsule Hostel is the first capsule establishment in the Canary Islands.
I’ve stayed in a few airport Capsule hotels — but this is the best hostel version I’ve ever seen. ALL hostels should offer these capsules. Singles and doubles.
Cost for my single in 2022 was $26.15 / night (25.24 EU).
Shared leisure areas, kitchen, bathrooms for individual use, and a Chill-Out Terrace on the roof with bar service.
Electronic door-opening and closing with card. Lockers.
Equipped with USB connections and Bluetooth, air ventilation, 26-inch screen with headphone connection where you can download the multimedia content on your device (mobile, tablet or laptop), wifi, a 15x12x12 cm safe, adjustable led lights for reading, luminous alarm clock, vanity mirror, digital thermometer, power outlet, cloth hangers, smoke detector, and ‘do not disturb’ option.
Karmod Prefabricated Building Technologies is a leading Turkish company founded in 1986 and has since been running projects in more than 100 countries around the world.
In the near future we’ll have more refugees, not fewer. And they’ll be more desperate.
Afraid to return home. Willing to risk death to escape.
Of course each nation should have a system for handling claims for asylum. But only a small percentage will be granted entry. As populations are getting older, many nations — starting with Japan — need MORE young people to migrate.
BEST of many bad options for refugees not chosen for asylum is to stay on the border. Months. Perhaps years.
There are about 700 refugee camps worldwide, as I post.
Who should pay?
I’d first look to organizations like the Gates Foundation. And to other billionaires who have far more money than they could ever spend.
Life in camp should be minimal. But safe. Police. Schools. Clean water. Medical facilities.
Transportation home should be offered.
If possible, there should be opportunities to work and volunteer.
Some will be under age-18. They should have special protection as should anyone with physical or mental challenges.
Venezuela — 4.6 million refugees, asylum-seekers, and migrants
Afghanistan — 2.7 million refugees and asylum seekers
South Sudan — 2.4 million refugees and asylum-seekers
Myanmar – 1.2 million refugees and asylum-seekers
Trump and his political ilk around the world don’t want to help refugees. Instead, they use the problem to anger people — hoping to motivate them to vote for right wing political parties.
That’s much easier than motivating regular people to HELP refugees.
By Mark Bergen, a technology reporter at Bloomberg.
Published Sept 2022.
The biggest surprise was learning that YouTube’s algorithm actually kept most of Trump’s BIG LIE from getting promoted in early 2021. They were ready.
YouTube did a surprisingly good job of not promoting vaccine misinformation, as well.
You can find that stuff on YouTube, for sure. But it’s not being massively promoted for money.
As FREE enterprise, YouTube is FREE to post and promote whatever they want.
I’ve removed monetization from all my videos and websites.
If you eliminate ads and ad-driven algorithms, most social media problems disappear.
Google is a great search engine but I find YouTube to be quite lousy at listing either popular, quality, or related videos. Search for any topic you know well. Disappointing.
I spend a couple of hours most days on YouTube. No ads as I pay CAD$12 / month for YouTube Premium.
YouTube was super disorganized right from the start.
After Google bought the video site and made it #1, problems evolved as millions of “creators” devised hacks to make money off the site.
Despite all its growth and success, YouTube has been widely criticized.
YouTube released a mobile app known as YouTube Kids in 2015, designed to provide an experience optimized for children. …
YouTube removed public display of dislike counts on videos in November 2021, claiming the reason for the removal was, based on its internal research, that users often used the dislike feature as a form of cyberbullying and brigading. …
On October 9, 2006, Google announced that it had acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock. It would have been Google or Yahoo. Google was willing to pay more.
FOX was also interested, but Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation had wasted $580m buying Myspace in 2005. They eventually sold MySpace for $35m.
YouTube had $19.8 billion in revenue in 2020. I send YouTube CAD $12 every month for YouTube Premium. Ad free videos. My music subscription. And a few other perks.
One of my most popular videos is from the early days. 😀 Low resolution. No editing. #bad
Though I have an Audible account (12 books / year) I spend far more time on the Libby app. I’m coming up to 500 audio books borrowed, so far.
I can read 2-3 books a week at 150% normal speed.
Once I put a popular book on “HOLD” — wait time does seem to be increasing. So I recently added a second library to the app. Now I can put up to 60 books on hold: 30 for each library.
The magnetic phone clamp is the best feature. The one thing that makes it better FOR ME than competitors like the Zhiyun Smooth Q4. I hate balancing phones on a gimbal. With the OM 4 and 5 you don’t need to.
Rather than pay for a replacement magnetic phone clamp (CAD $35), it was smarter to simply buy the upgraded OM 5 (CAD $149) which includes the phone clamp. I can use the same phone and clamp on either gimbal.
I do feel the OM 5 is slightly better:
NEW built-in extension rod for “selfies”
lighter and more compact — but at the expense of much shorter battery life
ActiveTrack 4.0 and gesture control does seem more reliable. An important feature for me.
In “selfie” camera mode, it smoothly tracks your face by default
The MAIN downside is a shorter battery life than the OM 4. Only about 6 hours.
I used iPhone 13 on the OM 5 shooting in portrait orientation to keep the footage as SMOOTH as possible. I’d intended to upload it VERTICAL to Instagram and Facebook. Facebook worked. Instagram wouldn’t upload over multiple attempts.
Rick McCharles 