benjhm

Hello...
Originally english, moja żona mówi po polsku, mes enfants apprends le français à l'école, en een beetje nederlands. 我学到的最有趣的语言是中文 . я выучил много песен на русском языке, pero para cantar la lengua más alegre es el espanõl, е o mais divertido de se ouvir é o português. Anyway music 🎶 is a universal language, το ίδιο και τα μαθηματικά. But I spent too many years juggling java, until most recently learning scala. Now a citizen of nowhere, wondering what's next? I'd like to discuss future world pathways with people in Africa, or maybe India.

I recall finding Lidepla easy to read (a few years ago ) , like the principle of balance of roots.

每个人，无论是西方人，南方人， 北方人， 还是东方人， 都应该学习多种语言，不那么困难，n'est-ce pas ?

Highly recommend to watch this - very well made, also as a personal drama, how dreams are made and broken.

#1 would bias towards bigger countries. Migration flows are often shown as a circle plot - but not so easy to read as a map, and lose spatial relations.

(even newer here, hence a belated reply).
My interactive climate model SWIM now written in scala3 (originally java), uses loads of enums for real-world things, for example gases in the atmosphere, landuse biomes, sources of electricity, economic sectors, scenario definitions, stabilisation/equity algorithm options, etc. Such enums help map over irregular data structures, connect with user-adjustable choosers, etc.. So I waited for scala3 before embarking on this project - and am very happy with the language.

Recently I experiment applying enums also to region-definitions, but anticipating over 1000 of these, fear that the neater code may compromise efficiency (bearing in mind, this all works in scala.js - client side). From such experience, could elaborate (maybe elsewhere ...?) some ways Scala3 enums might still be improved.

Following from that - suppose we had that to/from flow data, how could we plot it in an elegant way ? And could imagine more dimensions - for example relative weight of factors influencing choice of where to study?

This over-construction bubble has to pop, preferably sooner than later, as chinese cement and steel production contributes a mega share of global greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, pity for individuals who paid up-front for unfinished appartments, hope they find a way to coordinate.

Some people hardly ever used big-tech social media (preferred web1.0, making own sites), now start in the fediverse as it gains critical mass. A few specific transition issues: Appreciated complex boolean search in tweetdeck (abandoned since payable), look forward to similar functionality in Mastodon 4.2beta. Dropped FB after CA-brexit scandal, but now live in francophone community where FB still dominates interactions. Our schools mandate kids to use google's networks. Kids seeking better options for music videos.
Wider question - most people on fediverse in europe or north america - how do we reach rest of the world ?

The inconsistent solidarity during wartime sends a strange message. Beyond that, european politicians claim to be concerned about inflation and cost of living, yet they block a cheap source of grain, as well as spending millions to destroy french wine, and subsidise exporting chicken to africa - it doesn't make sense to me. Is this really an efficient way to buy a few votes ? I suppose it may be partly brinkmanship regarding who should pay to develop infrastructure to facilitate transit - for example extending the Ukrainian-gauge railway beyond Katowice, make another to the port of Gdansk, and later make standard gauge railways into central Ukraine. It could be done, build rather than ban.

Being concerned about such potential "side-effects" and distractions, I wrote this review of Climate Engineering 27 years ago. Since then although the discussion grew, typical conclusions haven't changed so much. Meanwhile the bigger experiment we push on the whole atmosphere-ocean system continues ...

Pity COPs are always late autumn - they don't have to be - I remember COP2 in July, COP6b in June, and iirc COP1 was April, people/systems just drift later. Imagine such discussions under open skies? Looking on the bright side of original topic - bumper year for grapes and pumpkins here.