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  August 12, 2026. Sun and Moon. OK, the 'moon' is just lens flare, but this photo taken at the 'maximum' in Ottawa doesn't show any real eclipse effect. We were at the Costco at the time. We also dropped off some electronics recycling and also discovered that the minimum fee at the local landfill is $91, which is rather more than I want to pay just to unload a box of picture frames. #SDDaily

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  August 14, 2026. Bretzler Farms. Scene from my bike ride today. Our economy around here depends on dairy farms, and I very much hope the industry is not traded away in a futile bid to appease the U.S. government. #SDDaily

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  #cycling

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  August 15, 2026. Gravel Grind. Today I set myself the objective of cycling with the wind 45 km south to the St. Lawrence River and then coming back the hard way, following gravel back roads as much as possible, and to maybe add enough extra distance to make it a metric century - 100 km - ride. It was a beautiful day and the plan went like clockwork, 101 km total, and I crushed the gravel. :) #SDDaily

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  #SilentSunday

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  August 16, 2026. Crow. For this week's hike we went to Petrie Island to inspect the frogs and the turtles and whatever birds we could find. It was mostly overcast today but warm. #SDDaily

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  Today's music: Maria Schneider & Frankfurt Radio Big Band - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79hXRF2RkIo

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  What I've Been Doing Over The Summer https://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2026/08/what-ive-been-doing-over-summer.html

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  August 17, 2026. Tractors. A display promoting an effort to set a plowing record in nearby St. Albert. A typical day - OLDaily plus cycling. #SDDaily

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  August 18, 2026. Goldenrod. This is the scene outside my basement window. Good thing I like goldenrod. Shopping day today, which means a trip to the city and no cycling. Watched the ball game in the evening. #SDDaily

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  August 19, 2026. Larose Forest. Made this a longer cycling day today as I did a loop that took me through the heart of Larose Forest. Nice day, except for some rain, but that didn't even slow me down. #SDDaily

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  Looking https://divine.video/video/6b3a2625c6598477bbd6be75b5a3c090f1967c4e7cd9a9a4cd6535484fe2d516

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  Better no deal than a bad deal. We are not a U.S. colony.

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  Back home again.

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  "Every era’s turnaround began the same way: some unmeasurable number of people, each acting alone, declined to sell — and then made the single most subversive move available to a member of a collapsing civilization. They found the people who could not be bought." https://thegrimhistorian.substack.com/p/has-america-crossed-the-asshole-threshold

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  July 23, 2026. Home again. Back after a long travel day in which a lot of things did not work the way they should. A case of summer travel? Luggage will follow, but at least my bike box arrived - beaten and ragged and sent to the wrong belt. Sore and tired - not just sleepy but body tired. It's good, though. It's what adventure feels like, and what am I without adventure? #SDDaily

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  Enjoy a collection of 364 photos from my trip to Iceland: https://www.flickr.com/photos/stephen_downes/albums/72177720334825867

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  It has taken a while but I have now been able to upload the video recording of my keynote in Ecuador, Technology, Diversity and Human Connection: https://www.downes.ca/presentation/605

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  #SilentSunday

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  July 24, 2026. First day back. This is the basement floor. It's my first day back after a long time on the road. I got my photos uploaded to Flickr, which is plenty for one day. So tired. #SDDaily

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  July 25, 2026. Grass, as seen from the basement window. Today's accomplishment was to upload a video. We also went to Costco. Also got some OLDaily posts done. Still not very ambitious. #SDDaily

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  Dragonfly #DailyPhoto #Photography 2026365 July 26, 2026. We went for a hike in Larose Forest west today; I haven't been there in the summer for quite a while. Listened to the ball game, though that was just disappointing. https://ift.tt/1Tf3Vjs

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  Finally watching 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' (in Technicolor)

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  July 27, 2026. Jeff Banister and the Lenses. Scene from a shelf in my home office, where I spent most of the day puttering. I'm still in trip recovery mode, but beginning to do stuff again. #SDDaily

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  July 28, 2026. Baseball. When I was pushing through the cold and the rain over the last month I was dreaming about sitting in the stands on a sultry summer evening watching a ball game. Tonight we went for an Ottawa Titans doubleheader. First game was a dog but the second was a 1-0 thriller. #SDDaily

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  @jokaydia This is just a visualization of 'headless browser' functions that have existed for a while. I used a 'headless' version of Chromium in a Python script to automate posting of my newsletter into LinkedIn. They're useful in cases where APIs are too awkward (or too secure), or where (as with LinkedIn or Twitter) they don't exist. AIs have been able to activate headless browser functions every since they could use Python. So: annoying, but not new

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  @jwcph > "If loss of a tool = loss of your skill & knowledge, then that tool isn't an asset, it's a liability." So, dump trucks are a liability?

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  April 21, 2026. Nuthatch. I've spent the last couple of days resting to relieve a sore oblique. This means I've been working on my CList software. Meanwhile, enjoy this nurhatch. #SDDaily #bird #photography

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  Welp... I'm home from my last day at the office (spent mostly packing books) and now I'm officially retired. It's on to the Next Thing, whatever that turns out to be...

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  March 28, 2026. Grackle. This bird and a dozen of it's colleagues descended in the bird feeder today, cleaning it out. A sure sign of spring.