The Oiler’s aren’t doing great right now but their games are exciting. Case in point, this play from Connor McDavid is one you have to see to believe:
And then they had a stunning comeback at the end of the third:
The Poppy Problem
It’s the year 2025 and an improved design of Canada’s iconic Remembrance Day poppy is nowhere to be seen. As a country are we really never going to improve on the straight pin through plastic into chest configuration? Something as simple as a safety pin MUST be possible, but I also think a magnet backing would be a game changer.
Yt-dlp GUI
With the help of many YouTube tutorials 1 I created a macOS app that is a GUI for YT-DLP. It lets you save videos2 from the Internet to be viewed later. It’s like a VCR for the digital age.
It’s my first attempt so I don’t know if I’ve set up the Git repository correctly but I think this how one does it: YTDLPDownloader on GitHub.
- Especially Paul Hudson’s 100 Days of SwiftUI[↩]
- Download formats include: .mp4, .mp3, or .m4a[↩]
Team Canada’s New Jerseys
Team Canada revealed the new team jerseys today:
Which forces me to ask, are we the baddies?
One commenter on the post nailed it when they pointed out just how close the designers came to getting it right. He even photoshopped in how it should have looked:
Home Run Balls
These photos are of John Bains, a Toronto Blue Jays fan, and his son Matthew, who caught back-to-back home runs during Game 7 of the World Series.
The father and son were attending Game 7 when they each caught separate home run balls hit by Los Angeles Dodgers Miguel Rojas and Will Smith.
The first home run, caught by the father, John, was a 387-foot blast from Rojas that tied the game.
The second, a home run hit by Smith, was caught by his son, Matthew.
While watching the game, I thought Bains threw Rojas’ ball back because that’s what it looked like on screen, but apparently he threw a decoy which was waiting in his pocket. The real one never left his hand.
From a report by Darren Rovell:
“I had a feeling I might have had to do it,” Bains said.
Bains said he had a regular major-league ball in his right pocket, and that’s the one he threw back.
“It wasn’t even a World Series ball,” he said, laughing.
He said Matthew also did the same thing, and the two Blue Jays fans are now in possession of the two pieces of history. MLB will not authenticate baseballs that leave the field of play, unless they are specially marked.
He says he’s leaning toward keeping the balls as a keepsake but when asked what price might change his mind he was quick to say:
“I’d take $1 million for the Rojas ball and $1.5 million for the Smith ball,” he said. “They were both game-changing baseballs.”
They will certainly be life-changing balls when he sells them and it sounds like the price he’s asking isn’t totally out to lunch:
Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam ball from the 2024 World Series sold last year at SCP Auctions for $1.56 million. It’s the third-highest price paid for a baseball behind Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run ball from the 2024 season ($4.39 million at Goldin Auctions) and Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball ($3.05 million at Guernsey’s in 1999).
(via cllct)
The Silent Crowd
I could have used this advice last month when I was running for the local public school board: Sam Harris on public speaking. He shares some of his own hang-ups getting into public speaking and how to get over your fear.
Needless to say, I am not a born performer. Nor am I naturally comfortable standing in front of a group of friends or strangers to deliver a message. However, I have always been someone who had things he wanted to say. This marriage of fear and desire is an unhappy one—and many people are stuck in it.
At the end of my senior year in high school, I learned that I was to be the class valedictorian. I declined the honor. And I managed to get into my thirties without directly confronting my fear of public speaking. At the age of thirty-three, I enrolled in graduate school, where I gave a few scientific presentations while lurking in the shadows of PowerPoint. Still, it seemed that I might be able to skirt my problem with a little luck—until I began to feel as though a large pit had opened in the center of my life, and I was circling the edge. It was becoming professionally and psychologically impossible to turn away.
The reckoning finally came when I published my first book, The End of Faith. Suddenly, I was thirty-seven and faced with the prospect of a book tour. I briefly considered avoiding all public appearances and becoming a man of mystery. Had I done so, I would still be fairly mysterious, and you probably wouldn’t be reading these words.
It’s crazy to me that Sam Harris ever felt nervous speaking in front of an audience. When I was asked to create a two minute campaign video that was to be done without teleprompter or notes, I was terrified. I still feel embarrassed about how stilted I sounded.
Tesla in the Age of Musk Partisanship
Progressives are much more likely to buy electric cars than conservatives, I’ve always thought it’s because they are more concerned about the environment and climate change and want to use renewable energy sources. It follows that, at least until about 2020, most people buying Teslas were left leaning. But then, Musk became a vocal supporter of Republicans.
As this was happening, you might have been wondering, how will this affect Tesla’s bottom line? I sure did.
One could’ve imagined that perhaps Tesla had fully saturated the Democratic market and Musk’s hard right turn would win Republican sales…
But that doesn’t appear to be the case: “The Musk Partisan Effect on Tesla Sales” is a report out of Yale by Kenneth Gillingham, Matthew Kotchen, James Levinsohn and Barry Nalebuff that, using science, explains the effect Musk’s right wing politics has had on its business:
Using county-level, monthly data on new vehicle registrations, we leverage how changes in vehicle sales over time diverge across counties with differing shares of Democratic and Republican voters. Without the Musk partisan effect, Tesla sales between October 2022 and April 2025 would have been 67-83% higher, equivalent to 1-1.26 million more vehicles. Musk’s partisan activities also increased the sales of other automakers’ electric and hybrid vehicles 17-22% because of substitution, and undermined California’s progress in meeting its zero-emissions vehicle target.
A million lost vehicle sales! All because of the perception that owning such a vehicle might reflect that you support the CEO’s politics.
Now, of course it’s not Tesla owners’ fault and yet some have been placing stickers to cover their perceived ostracism.
Apple Earnings Q4 – 2025
Last week Apple announced results and business updates for the quarter ended September 27, 2025.
Some great commentary from Jason Snell:
Thursday was one of those “doing donuts” days. Not only did Apple announce an all-time record for revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter, which also wrapped up an all-time record for Apple revenue in a fiscal year, and it wasn’t even close. And to top it all off, Cook dropped the mother of all forms of “guidance,” which is what you call it when companies publicly predict their next-quarter results three months in advance: “We expect the December quarter’s revenue to be the best ever for the company and the best ever for iPhone.”
Can Tim Cook dunk? I’m imagining him dunking. It was one of those days.
Recall MLA Nathan Neudorf
In the 2023 provincial election, the Lethbridge East Riding had a very close result with Nathan Neudorf ultimately remaining MLA. 1
With what happened in the Legislature the other day, the passing of Bill 2 without debate… Neudorf needs to be held accountable. He voted for this attack on our freedoms. He needs to be recalled.
Update: It appears I’m not the only one that feels this way: https://operationtotalrecall.ca
Update 2: Instead of just complaining, I’m going to do something about it.
- Neudorf only won by 636 votes.[↩]
Alberta Uses Notwithstanding Clause to Attack Constitutional Rights and Freedoms
I watched the livestream yesterday as the UCP ruling party voted to take away our constitutionally protected right to collective bargaining and the freedom to gather and strike. I’m livid.
The Alberta Teachers’ Association president, Jason Schilling, shared his thoughts in a news scrum yesterday:
https://youtu.be/Hy1YKLrbGuQ?si=iEeVKSbVv5uwgnKQ
Now that they’ve taken this unprecedented step, what rights will they take away next?
It looks like the Alberta Federation of Labour is preparing a response. If the teachers can’t strike then the unions that are still allowed to strike will take up that mantle. This fight is not over and it looks like it’s going to be ugly.