I got a new coat, and I'm quite pleased with it. But the lining is actually blue, not silver.

Sri Lanka survived as a constitutional democracy (though the problem is recurrent).

Also, the Ethiopia-Eritrea peace in the OP was enabled by US diplomacy. Unglamorous bureaucrats FTW.

1 CFR should put that on the list too right after the Thai cave rescue (#&) because other than Ethiopia and Eritrea, DPRK and ROK, and the HIV news from Malawi, it's pretty slim pickings.

At least Slim Pickens didn't live to see this.

ECOWAS defending democracy in Gambia (may yet turn ugly).

Oops, meant (#7) above.

Activism and political engagement are far stronger and far more progressive than any other time in my lifetime.

That's a silver living for people who were already active and engaged. I'd like things to go back to the point where they are not horrible enough that I feel bad if I'm not active and engaged.

FFS people this is pathetic. None of you can scrape up any good news, out of all your scattered geekeries? (Except Stanley, he really stepped up.)

California passed SB 100, which is... not nothing, I hope? no matter how far short it falls.

What did that do?

Commits the state to a zero-carbon grid by 2045: https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/on-to-the-governors-desk-what-100-clean-energy-means-for-california#gs.fy90wWU

That's good thinking. Wait long enough for most of Florida to sink beneath the waves before stopping with the carbon.

12: It doesn't look like nothing. Does this instrument have enough power to overrule the NIMBY opposition to the rooftop PV, desert solar and/or nuclear plants the goal would require? And does it prevent the importation of dirty power from other states? And Florida honestly who needs it.

Anyway, I didn't understand the assignment.

NASA, I guess. But they can move.

I'm thinking of buying putties. I suspect the thought of buying them might be better than actually buying them since even when I'm hiking I haven't really had too much trouble with the bottom of my trousers needing protection.

On topic because they're kind of a lining.

The NIMBYism is a devil whose details will have to be fought over the next 25 years, I suppose. On the second point, others can correct me but I don't think California is likely to start importing out-of-state power when there's so much mountain and desert between the population centers and the state lines.

17, 18: Do you mean puttees? Will you wear them with your plus fours?

Either spelling is acceptable. I was thinking of wearing for hiking instead of gaiters because gaiters seem annoying to put on.

Surely you mean puttees.

19: Upon actually reading your link, SB100 does indeed forbid imports. (From the Western grid. So I guess you'll end up importing fracked power from Texas.)

Like a wall, but for power.

22: The place I was looking at spelled them 'putties'. Wikipedia says either works.

Merriam-Webster says puttee. No alternatives. And they never even administered India.

Also, Wikipedia is based in Florida. Draw your own conclusions.

Wikipedia is the encyclopedia anybody can edit, which means native Hindi speakers can edit it, which means it isn't limited to the spellings of colonialists.

I'd forgotten about "puttee" having a meaning other than "that which is putted."

Which is why you have golf balls around your ankles.

We were genuinely scared here in California that voters, with suburban drivers predominating, would pass Prop 6 and undermine the small advance we had made in funding transportation with fuel taxes. That would have been a huge setback, making legislators afraid of progressive revenue reforms for years to come. So it was great that Prop 6 was voted down by a solid 55% of the electorate.

Somebody should really try to increase the gas tax now while gas is cheap.

But cheap gas is paying for Wall.

12. Just in time for it to be too late to matter. /golfclap

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You know in Kill Bill I there's an extreme close-up of a mosquito sinking its proboscis into the arm of comatose Uma Thurman? I just looked away from that very shot to find, I kid you not, a mosquito sinking its proboscis into my arm.
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And now I have squished it.

I'm going to kill Mossy.

Silver lining: the combination of mass inequality and entitled young people* seems to be making YIMBY a thing that's actually happening IRL. Minneapolis banning single family housing is genuinely big and astonishing news, and it's not inconceivable that, within a few years, it will become a genuine trend.

*this is me snarking about the fact that YIMBY is IME dominated by college grads who are outraged that they can't find places affordable to people like themselves, while hand-waving at actually-poor people, blithely proclaiming that the policies that benefit the former will surely benefit the latter. Ultimately it's a good thing, but you can't throw a cat at a crowd of YIMBYs without hitting people who insist that upzoning is 100% of the solution to affordable housing, which it isn't.

21: IMO gaiters are fine, I would find puttees way more annoying. Ireland is damp and boggy, especially the part of it where I go hillwalking most often, and the gaiters help to keep water and muck from getting into my boots. If you are hiking in a dryer landscape they may not be so essential.

39: agreed. Gaiters for wet weather, and just tuck your trousers into your socks for drier weather. Puttees sound excessively annoying not least because (based on stories from my ancestors about their military experience) they tend to come unwrapped if you don't do them right.
Or follow my father's example and wear breeches and knee-length stockings. Though, as period romance fans will know, you have to have the calves for it.