Mildly Interesting

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Since 2017!

Before someone asks why there isn't insane inflation from banks printing an infinite amount of money for themselves, the Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the US dollar. In order to be allowed to print HKD, banks must have an equivalent amount of USD on deposit.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-67180162

All the McD*nalds in my area have been upgraded with order kiosks. Regardless of all the controversy around self-checkout, and minimum wage, and automation taking our jobs, I personally love them. I can take my sweet time composing my order, I can see the full selection (such as it is), I can see pictures and prices clearly without having to strain my eyes to read 12pt font on the tableau, and I don't have to shout at the cashier to be understood or struggle to hear back. I really believe this is the right way forward.

My only complaint so far has been that the order kiosks only accept card. There is actually a way to pay by cash that the machine never lets you know about - you have to press "cancel" on the keypad when it asks to insert card, and then the screen gives you an order number to give to the human cashier (each store still has one register open) so you can pay in cash. So I still have to wait on line, but at least my order selection is locked in, I can have exact change ready, and there isn't usually a line anyway anymore.

I know all yall Europeans are proud about your nearly total transition to cashless economy or whatever, and you like to boast how not a single euro banknote has graced the inside of your wallet in months. However I personally like cash, and I genuinely believe that a cash payment system is a necessary element of a liberal democracy and secure society. So at least understand my pleasant surprise when I saw these reverse-ATM cashboxes at this restaurant. They work and were being actively used too! (It spat out my dollar coins though, those bastards!) I hope they find their way into more places.

The solar eclipse through eclipse glasses

Found this salamander on my back patio in the pouring rain.

I'm currently (re)reading Moorcock's The War Hound and the World's Pain. Short synopsis - an educated, cynical, apostate and unapologetically brutal mercenary in the Middle Ages is recruited by Lucifer to recover the Holy Grail, nominally so that Lucifer can wheedle his way back into God's good graces.

He's told to start by finding and talking to a hermit named Philander Groot, which he does. He turns out to be something other than a stereotypical hermit.

"You don’t look like a hermit.” Sedenko put his hand on the hilt of his sabre and strode forward to inspect the apparition.

“Sir, I assure you that I am, indeed, a hermit.” Groot became polite. He was distant.

“We heard you were a holy man,” Sedenko continued.

“I cannot be held responsible for what others hear or say, sir.” Groot drew himself up. He was somewhat shorter than Sedenko, who was no giant. “I am the same Philander Groot for whom you were looking. Take me or leave me, sir. This is all there is.”

“We had not thought to find a dandy,” said I, by way of apologizing for Sedenko’s frankness. “We imagined someone in homespun cloth. The usual sort of garb.”

“It is not my way to fulfill the expectation of my fellow creatures. I am Groot." (emphasis mine)

Granted that there's no seeming connection between any of that and Marvel Comics, and no similarity between the characters, that simple declaration "I am Groot." really leaped out at me as at least an odd coincidence.