Yep. Really what would interest me in Morocco would be some warmth in winter, but in reality it’s just as cold and damp as the rest of the Med, with even less of a culture of indoor heating and even worse insulated houses! Just spent a not-very-pleasant week in Tangier for these reasons. Same deal everywhere north of Agadir and obviously far worse in the mountains. Time to build that train line to Agadir! But Tangier was otherwise quite a pleasant surprise so I plan to go back at a more comfortable time of year.

Thus proving the almost total arbitrariness of defining Europe as a “continent” but here we are.

Yeah, all surely true and it’s always the solution given and it’s even the greenest one. But I just don’t think this is a real solution for normies, who tend to buy computers new (to the extent that they even buy them any more). And in this respect I’m like them, personally.

Not leaving Tangier or even getting on the bike for exactly the reasons you mention! Very nice city, though.

Hmm. Having trouble parsing your negatives but I think you’re saying “expensive”.

What bothers me is that a decade ago there were loads of Linux-compatible budget netbooks on sale at every big-box retailer, whereas there seems to be nothing today under 500 bucks/euro except Chromebooks, and nothing at all with a smallish screen except mega-expensive ultrabooks. It’s becoming a problem.

Great job. As I see it the real problem is that low-end Wintel laptops seem to be going away, replaced first by Chromebooks and soon probably by Android laptop edition, which presumably will have the non-Intel architecture and weird blobs and locked bootloader of any smartphone. Or is this too pessimistic?

Indeed, I haven’t heard of bike theft on trains either. Problem is, if the thief can pull it off, it makes the perfect crime. As the victim you’re basically screwed the moment the doors close and the train starts to move. This is why I never let my eyes off luggage or bikes when on a train. Even more so on a bus.

Is it like a shopping trolley where you get the coin back at the end?

Yes.

Is it like a shopping trolley where you get the coin back at the end?

You turn the key and out comes the key! Like coin-operated lockers in train stations. Better not lose the key!

Agreed about the hangers. It’s always a mess, they only really suit skinny racing bikes. And everyone else needs to babysit their bike if only to stop it rolling away.

This time with the lock I actually went and sat in a normal seat elsewhere for once! I’m sold.

Les ponts bâtis, c’était la règle dans toutes les grandes villes européennes sur des fleuves. La grande nouveauté du Pont neuf était surtout son aspect “chauve”, il me semble.

Never understood why the arian particle can’t just be dropped. Same deal for the horribly unwieldy (but genuinely useful) authoritarianism, whose French equivalent is the more elegant autoritarisme.

English is an ugly messy language. There, I said it.

I’ve been using it for a few years

undergoing a significant rewrite for the 0.4 release

I plan to try it when it’s ready. Some time next century at this rate.

Telling random strangers to get help is not “conducive to that end” either, IMHO.

Fascinant, merci.

Le monde semble être en train de se diviser en deux camps technologiques : le camp du futur, soit le tout-électrique chinois, et une arrière-garde nihiliste menée par les USA et déterminée à poursuivre la fête fossile jusqu’à la fin. Qui sera moche.

The election is in a few months. That will be the moment of danger for Orbán.

California’s (i.e. the USA’s) inability to complete the most basic high-speed rail project is making it the laughing stock of the developed world.

Japan managed this in 1964. France in 1981. And China has indeed built literally tens of thousands of kilometers of line in an astonishing fast period, and yes, mostly in the last 15 years.

So, on the contrary, this cartoon is directionally right in every way.

So you’re saying that (you think the data says) most people here are not blanket-downvoting anything that gives them marginally bad vibes, and that the damage is being done by a busy few? Interesting if true. I too basically never downvote, on the principle that it’s toxic and hostile and just not something that has a polite equivalent in person. I had assumed I was a massive outlier.

Quelle complexité baroque. Surtout avec les fastidieux 2 tours à la française. Tout ça pourrait facilement se faire en un coup avec un système de vote préférentiel.

All decent advice. Here’s a thought experiment.

Start a discussion, debate, or ponder about [etc]

By the same token it would be bad to stop such a discussion, right? Right.

Make new communities if you don’t see one that fits

Therefore it would be bad to *destroy" such communities, right? Indeed.

Upvote the things you like

So, it would be bad to downvote the things you - personally, subjectively - don’t like - right? It wouldn’t? Why so?

Don’t downvote other people’s good-faith opinions. It’s petty, it’s juvenile, it’s toxic. Even if you don’t see it that way. It’s precisely what will discourage the participation we all want to see.

Personally I’m inclined to think the best response is indeed silence, but it’s a valid point nonetheless. The US president is a bully, and bullies often back down when they get pushback. And some of these latest accusations really are the most outrageous hypocrisy coming from a political movement that literally tries to steal elections.