fian

Awk predates Excel (and therefore LibreOffice), so the original point was that...there was no GUI spreadsheet application to use instead.

32-bit Excel used to have a limit of around 65 000 rows. 64 bit Excel is just over 1 000 000 rows. Both of these limits are commonly exceeded.

Excel requires all the data to be in memory. Awk processes line by line so requires less memory.

Awk scripts can easily be incorporated in a chain of other commands.

Version comparison is easier with Awk scripts as they are text based not binary (xls) or compressed XML (xlsx) files.

Awk can be combined with sed, uniq, sort and other tools as one-liners or in shell scripts for fast and powerful data analysis or transformation. These tools are available by default on my Unix-like operating systems.

Nowadays though, scripting languages like Perl (inspired by Awk), Python or Ruby might be used instead of Awk.

Awk has been a handy tool for me professionally a number of times when I had large amounts of textual data to analyse. I have used it many times to transform data to pass to Oil and Gas engineers who were unable to handle the raw data in Excel.

This made me wonder what alcoholic beverages the vodka belt countries drank before the arrival of the potato from South America in the late 1500's.

Seems it was mostly beer and mead:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2e1rav/what_...

Interesting that the introduction of a single plant could have such an impact on cultural norms.

The researchers are in Australia, where we have abundant coastal land that is not suitable for agriculture. Indeed there are many salt lake systems already being used for large scale salt production via sea water evaporation (https://www.riotinto.com/australia/dampier-salt-4644.aspx).

Should this type of technology scale out, some of these salt production operations might also be able to produce desalinated water either for domestic or industrial use (in the case it is still too brackish for drinking).

50 km/hr

50 km/s is over mach 145 :)

I don't know the details of the "wet" chemistry step described, but I imagine it would be possible to extract CO2 from the atmosphere and transform it over many step to eventually get to the required precursors.

The practical reality is that each transformation step has imperfect yeilds and I would guess that the equipment required to do the molecule by molecule transformation in the last step would require significant energy to run.

So to attempt to this today, you would end up producing more CO2 into the atmosphere than you removed.

Sadly at least one of the major parties in Australia seems to want to emulate the US healthcare system here:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2019/jul/27...

Body odor can be greatly affected by the foods you eat:

https://www.allure.com/story/diet-body-odor-causes

https://nutritionfacts.org/2014/08/19/how-eggs-can-impact-bo...

I learned about the effect of eggs when I tried a high protein, low carb diet where I ate 2 fried or scrambled eggs every morning. Within 3 days of starting the diet I developed an unpleasant fishy body odor, especially in my armpits. Normally I would eat 2 eggs once a week, at which level I did not develop the fishy smell. Even washing my armpits with soap did not eliminate the odor. I stopped eating eggs daily and within a couple of days the odor cleared again.

Similarly, I do a 10-12 day self supported pack hike most years. For lunch on these hikes I typically eat some form of processed meat (cacciatore sausage, salami etc) with processed cheese and dry biscuits. On these hikes I can usually swim or bathe in fresh water a few times each day without using any soap. I notice a slow increase in body odor, again mostly from my armpits over the course of the hike. I suspect the body odor may be caused by the garlic from the sausage. The other foods I eat are things I eat regularly without issue. Unlike with the eggs, this odor goes away with the first hot, soapy shower when I get back to civilisation.

Note that in the past I have had girlfriends comment that I had very low body odor compared to other guys they had dated.

So I suspect that successfully switching to a no or very low soap hygiene routine might be challenging for people whose diet and genetics mean they excrete odorous, non-water soluble compounds.

The marine classification societies:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_society

have been developing standards and rules for cybersecurity of ships for a few years now. For example:

https://marine-offshore.bureauveritas.com/needs/cyber-safety...

Nice! However, your last sentence contains "x" which was supposed to be removed from the alphabet in Year 1.

Hmmm based on the above list, you might also enjoy Up and Atom:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSIvk78tK2TiviLQn4fSHaw

Conflict with other non-nomadic groups they come in contact with. The Romany might be a modern take on nomadic people. They don't tend to be welcomed when they arrive at/near a town.

Seconded, and the follow up articles:

https://developer.ibm.com/tutorials/l-awk2/ https://developer.ibm.com/tutorials/l-awk3/

These were mentioned but not linked to in the previous form of the article/blog, had a quick look at the newer version you linked to and that may still be the case.

A lot of the Awk info I had found prior to stumbling on these articles was focused on command line one-liners. So the sections on defining Awk scripts as files and multiline records were a great help to me.

Do you mean a compost tumbler? Something like:

https://www.gardeners.com/buy/extra-large-compost-tumbler/36...

These are easy enough to hand crank and you don't need to tumble them a great deal each time.

Maybe if you had a hobby farm and many such tumblers, adding some sort of pedal drive you could temporarily attach to each tumbler might make sense.

While not strictly one meal, many Parisians have a similar approach.

A very light breakfast - jokingly a coffee and a cigarette but may include a croissant.

Lunch is large, may involve multiple dishes/courses over an hour. After lunch is "coffee" which may take another hour (essentially to allow proper digestion before trying to concentrate on work again).

The evening meal is often light. Many people have a snack with drinks while catching up with friends at a brasserie.

Having spent three months working in Paris, I adopted the above pattern (minus the cigarettes). I gained no weight while there, despite eating delightful pastries for breakfast and not doing the 200-300kms per week of cycling I normally would do at home.

Was the message specifically about seeking asylum after traveling to Australia by boat?

Australia does accept Iranian refugees (and refugees from other countries) if they travel to Australia legally (ie by plane, with a visa etc).

There is a strong public dislike of refugees coming illegally by boat, largely due to political fear mongering over safety (many drownings) and potential for terrorists to enter Australia.

Have a look at the statistics section of:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asylum_in_Australia#Statistics

The steep climb in asylum seekers arriving by boat after about 2008 was the main starting point for the current political stance against "boat people".

The rest of your points re over reach of government control is alarming to many Australians. However, as these laws don't have a direct impact on most Australians (yet), there is general apathy by the public.

There are many small marsupials (mammals) in Australia that are predated on by feral and domestic cats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cats_in_Australia

We have a cat that was rescued from a neglectful neighbour. We were shocked one night when it turned up at our back door with a live pet rabbit is had nabbed from a house a few doors away. Thankfully the cat mostly has since caught non-native mice and grasshoppers since (that we are aware of).

The best conservation efforts at restoring native animal populations in Australia have been achieved through cat and fox proof fencing followed by trapping, baiting and shooting programs:

https://www.australianwildlife.org/sanctuaries/mt-gibson/

To understand why the US breeds are different to other countries, have a read of:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/future-of-foo...

It describes a competition to breed large breasted chickens in the US, post WW2. The downside to that larger breasts is a decrease in flavour.

People can definitely be allergic to meat (animal protein):

https://allergyfacts.org.au/allergy-anaphylaxis/food-allerge...

https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/ConditionsAndTrea...

Memory also degrades with age. Many people in their 80's and 90's start experiencing memory loss. My 85 year old father sometimes forgets the route to drive to the shopping center he has been driving to for decades. Relying on elderly people to remember a keycode or operate a smartphone is not a good strategy.

I suspect there is a certain amount of muscle memory involved in using keys. I don't even think "which key do I need" when locking/unlocking my doors, my hands automatically select the correct key.

Multiple columns don't work well for vertical scrolling. They should work fine if you horizontally scroll to see more columns (for example to the right for writing in English).

This would allow more content to be displayed for users with larger screens without overly penalizing users who could only view one column at a time.

The challenge would be to convert the normal vertical scroll to a horizontal scroll in an intuitive way (ie not too jarring for the user).

I used to cycle commute everyday and would vary the route from 12-60kms. Where I live is very hot in summer and wet in winter. So a shower was needed when I arrived at work. I preferred to not carry a backpack or have a pannier on my bike, so every fortnight I would drive to work and drop off work clothes for the next couple of weeks.

This also meant I would go out for lunch each day as I didn't want to carry food with me on my commute. The cost savings of riding to work vs driving and paying for parking meant I was ahead. If I took public transport and brought lunch from home it would have worked out slightly cheaper but taken 30mins longer each way.

Sure I could have carried lunch with me on my cycle commute but and saved more money, but then I would have enjoyed the ride less. I figure I would still be ahead compared to people who don't cycle and pay for gym classes/memberships.

Such as slightly damp wood (think portable jobsite saw for framers or finish carpenters) or aluminium (yep, you can easily cut aluminium with most wood working tools).

I generally agree with you.

Wood often has hidden stresses within its structure. An apparently straight length of wood can cup/bow/curl quite markedly when cut. So you can't always know if a particular rip cut will result in the wood binding between the fence and blade leading to kick back.

On the price difference point, I have a portable Dewalt table saw that cost about AUD$1100 with a stand. Saw Stop didn't have a portable version when I purchased. Now that they do have a portable version, it is about AUD$2000, roughly twice the price of similar models from other manufacturers (at least here in Australia). That's quite a price difference for hobbyists and home gamers who aren't deriving an income from the tool.

Domesticated echidnas would be great. They could help keep ant populations in check.

I had a 3 month battle trying to keep meat (protein eating) ants out of my house last year. I eventually caved and had a professional pest controller spray a barrier around the perimeter of my house.

6 months later and the first signs of ant repopulation are starting to appear. I dislike having to use strong poisons as they are indiscriminate and we need to have healthy insect populations as part of the ecology (plant pollination, breakdown of dead organic matter etc).

One or two echidnas might have been able to deal with my ant problem in a few days. Maybe an echidna hire service (Uber for echnidnas?) could work.

Plus they are just plain cool animals to see walking around.

I'm similar:

left: write, throw, pool cue, scissors, tennis, kick (soccer, AFL), shoot (archery, gun)

right: cricket, baseball

squash, knife/fork - somewhat ambidextrous. In squash I serve left handed but sometimes throw my racquet to my right hand mid point when the ball swaps sides (I'm not a good player - just social).

My right arm is definitely stronger than my left but less precise. I wonder if this is an artifact of living in a right-hand centric world. There are many things that are subtly biased to right handed use.

I am also right eye dominant which means I would theoretically be better off throwing and shooting right handed (better aim) but my body naturally coordinates these actions better as left handed. I guess I want the precision of coordination over the benefit of more accurate depth perception in aiming.

Field hockey (ie not ice hockey) sticks are only available in the right handed configuration for safety reasons:

https://www.livestrong.com/article/368589-why-are-all-field-...

Pedestrians and cyclists can be killed or seriously injured in a collision:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cycle-safety...

A pedestrian was killed by a cyclist in my city (Perth, Western Australia) on a shared (bikes and pedestrians) path some years ago.

The argument that broken bones are the worst outcome of a cyclist-pedestrian collision is incorrect.

Apart from human error ("failed to look properly"), the second most common factor in car-cyclist collisions is whether the cyclist is entering or crossing the roadway:

https://www.rospa.com/rospaweb/docs/advice-services/road-saf...

In other words road crossings and riding past driveways across the sidewalk increase the risk of car-cyclist collisions considerably. As a commuting and recreational cyclist, my personal experience aligns with this strongly. Most of my close calls with cars have happened when I have been riding on a designated cycle path (separate from the road) and had to cross or enter a road.

So riding on a sidewalk that contains numerous road crossings or driveways can increase the risk of a collision for the cyclist.

In Perth we have a network of "shared paths" for use by cyclists and pedestrians. These are wide paths with a center line marking (ie they are for bidirectional use, convention is to keep left) and are separate from the roadway. Until very recently, adult cyclists were not permitted to use other sidewalks/footpaths unless they were accompanying a child cycling.

On these shared paths pedestrians always have right of way (even if they are on the wrong side of the center line). If a cyclist hits a pedestrian, the cyclist is considered to be at fault.

Why?

Well these paths are often through public parks or along scenic sections of the coast or river bank. As such they are popular places for families to take their children and to walk their dogs. Young children and dogs have no concept of "keeping left" and may do unpredictable things. As cyclists are the faster moving path users, it is their responsibility (by law) to enure they can safely pass pedestrians. Cyclists must have a warning device (bell or horn) to warn they are approaching and if it is unsafe to pass must slow down or stop until they can pass safely. Dog owners are required to keep their dogs under control (I think they may be required to use a lead by law, though many don't).

Most other sidewalks here are not designed for mixed use by cyclists and pedestrians. They may not be wide enough, have no designated center line marking, may be in front of retail or food outlets (increased pedestrian traffic with added unpredictable stopping/direction change) or have numerous driveways and road crossings.

Children, the elderly and dogs are common users of sidewalks. Children and dogs often make unpredictable moves on paths. The elderly are generally less agile (unable to take evasive action to prevent a collision), have diminished sight and hearing and are at high risk of serious injury in a fall or collision.

As a regular cyclist, I choose to ride on the road over the sidewalk as it is more efficient and safer for me and others (even though I have been hit by cars a few times). Where possible I will use a shared path, but often elect not to as they are too heavy in pedestrian traffic (coastal paths) or have numerous road crossings.

The time-lag for the health problems to appear allows current management to take the risk and extract extra profit (and bonuses). That the company may be liable for health care costs of employees or is sued after current management have moved on or retired is an externality for them personally.

Some possible equivalents from cycling:

Riding technical trails on a MTB. Without regular practice you lose a lot of pace.

Street or park BMX tricks (tail whips, flairs, flips, grinds etc). These require skill plus confidence. Without regular practice the confidence won't be there to attempt them.

Copenhagen has a different cycling culture to other places. Where I live more people commute on road (racing) bikes and will shower when they arrive at work. This is because it is very hot in summer and you can't avoid getting sweaty, while in winter it is often raining and you get covered in sand that is caught in the road spray.

Many of the cycle commuters in my city also join group rides (peletons) on the weekends. So it is very common to have cycle commuters riding above 30km/hr on both shared paths (pedestrians, cyclists, scooters, dogs etc) and on the roads.

Electric assist bikes are becoming more common here, as they allow people to commute without needing to shower in summer. Legally they are restricted to a 250W motor and are also supposed to lose electric assist above 25km/hr. I routinely pass people riding these bikes when doing a training ride.

There are also quite a few people importing e-bikes and motor kits that have much more powerful motors and no speed restrictions enabled. When I am riding hard (40+ km/hr, >300W depending on wind direction) on an aero-road bike and get passed by a guy sitting upright on a mountain bike who is barely pedaling - his bike has to have a 500W or higher motor.

I would like to see the current regulations we have retained riding on shared paths, but I would also like to see the unrestricted electric bikes added as a new class for road use. A e-bike with a 500-1000W motor is easily faster than most cyclists. With modern disk brakes, stopping at speed and in the wet is less of a problem (c.f. rim brakes). The battery required also makes it easy to mandate powerful LED headlights and tail lights. Adding indicators wouldn't be hard either.