Flâneur is a French term popularized in the nineteenth-century for a type of urban male “stroller”, stereotypically of Paris. What a delightful word!

Microblogging v1.3.0 for Pelican released! Posts should now sort as expected. Thanks @ashwinvis. on PyPI #Microblogging #Pelican Plugins #Releases #Python

Summary plugin for Pelican v1.3.0 released! Now keeps internal link indicators (like {filename}) from leaking into summaries. on PyPI #Summary (Pelican) #Pelican Plugins #Releases #Python

CommonMark Pelican reader v2.0.1! Should stop complaining about intra-document links (e.g. #target) on PyPI #CommonMark Reader #Pelican Plugins #Releases #Python

New level of "business casual" unlocked: the bank teller today was wearing a hoodie and a baseball cap!

I’ve been intrigued by the term métis for some time. At the root, the word is French for “mixed”, as in “mixed race”. About twenty years ago, I was in France and actually overhead the word used “in the wild” in this sense in a conversation on the bus; the reference was to an arab teenager who had a black girlfriend.

In the Canadian context though, the word (especially when capitalized) has acquired a tighter meaning: the families of European trappers and their Indian brides, typically French and Cree respectively, born in the fur trade era, and their decendants.

The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life.

— Paul Morphy (?)

It’s been 6 years, but my genealogy website has finally been updated!

Socks possess the mysterious power, like cats, of vanishing; unlike cats, they don’t get hungry and come back.

— Gwern Branwen, on Socks

I would love to know what the actual blocker to immediate global rollout [of robot cars] is.

— Matt Webb

In a word, snow.

I can’t help but feel it telling that all of the self-driving car trials take place in sunny places like LA and Phoenix. Snow, as I see it, creates two large obstacles for self-driving cars: the snow can physically obscure the road, and the snow (and ice) will differentially change the road surface friction.