Potential confusion combining != with or

[perfringo]

buran explanation backed-up with Python docs (already referenced earlier):

Operations and built-in functions that have a Boolean result always return 0 or False for false and 1 or True for true, unless otherwise stated. (Important exception: the Boolean operations or and and always return one of their operands.)

This behaviour enables writing 'clever' code like:

>>> lst = [1, 2, 3]
>>> for i in lst:
...     print(i % 2 and 'odd' or 'even')
... 
odd
even
odd