[QUOTE=chalsall;483318]but their [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RIuQkn5_sA"]ad left me rolling on the floor laughing[/URL][/QUOTE]
"like my birthday, or my parents' marriage" hahaha...

[QUOTE=LaurV;483340]"like my birthday, or my parents' marriage" hahaha...[/QUOTE]Erm, I heard "Like my birth did with my parents marriage". :confused:

Evolution in action?
 

Apparently the latest stupid viral challenge is to [URL="http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article207645134.html"]snort a condom up your nose, and then extract it from your mouth[/URL], and post it on YouStupidIdiot.

Why don't the youth of today just go back to the classics. Such as Russian roulette?

Edit: This isn't an April Fool's joke. This is actually happening.

Up the nose and out through the mouth is the easier direction. I have hear someone regale a crowd with a tale of spaghetti that went the other way and protruded from both places at once.

[QUOTE=chalsall;483974]Apparently the latest stupid viral challenge is to [URL="http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article207645134.html"]snort a condom up your nose, and then extract it from your mouth[/URL], and post it on YouStupidIdiot.[/QUOTE]I've seen it done with snakes. Small ones. In through one nostril, and out through the mouth. His eyes were watering when it was over, so I expect it wasn't a pleasant experience for him. And probably a terrifying experience for the snake.

So, what were the best April Fools pranks this year?

One vote for [URL="https://www.cnet.com/news/telsa-goes-bankrupt-in-elon-musk-april-fools-day-gag/"]Tesla bankwuptcy[/URL]!

[QUOTE=Batalov;483998]So, what were the best April Fools pranks this year?

One vote for [URL="https://www.cnet.com/news/telsa-goes-bankrupt-in-elon-musk-april-fools-day-gag/"]Tesla bankwuptcy[/URL]![/QUOTE]

In ref. to the ever-PR-hungry and own-ego-stroking Mr. Musk, ITYM "wankbuptcy." The best April Fools joke for me was that TSLA was down 5% today and, based on their wildly bubblicious (even after a 1/3 haircut from its recent highs) valuation compared to their dismal production rate and #fail of their much-ballyhooed #disruptive [url=https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/04/tesla-encounters-material-world.html]super-duper-automated production process[/url], may very well face having this "prank" prove more prescient than funny.

[url]https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Lit-Motors-Reviews-E826846.htm[/url]

[QUOTE=chalsall;483974]Apparently the latest stupid viral challenge is to [URL="http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article207645134.html"]snort a condom up your nose, and then extract it from your mouth[/URL], and post it on YouStupidIdiot.

Why don't the youth of today just go back to the classics. Such as Russian roulette?

Edit: This isn't an April Fool's joke. This is actually happening.[/QUOTE]
Uh.....We have a friend who has entertained us by stretching a condom over his head, until it covers his nose, and maybe mouth, and then inflating it with his breath. :yzzyx:

Guess what's having its 10th anniversary right now? Technically, it's the 10th anniversary of when this meme was at its peak.

Enjoy. Or not.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ[/url]

[QUOTE=retina;483342]Erm, I heard "Like my birth did with my parents marriage". :confused:[/QUOTE]
ROFL! :grin:
Edit: (Delayed reaction.)

When websites ask you to reset your password,"no" needs to be accepted as a viable answer.

Human Prime Number Generator
 

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHEaYbDWyQE[/url]

[QUOTE=petrw1;485646][url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHEaYbDWyQE[/url][/QUOTE]
I don't see what the April Fool is.

The video title is accurate. And nobody is being forced to watch the whole video.

If he only said a few prime numbers and then looped them, then I could see the joke. But this is just a quirky video with an accurate title.

Edit: maybe the April Fool is that there isn't one?

[QUOTE=jasong;486050]I don't see what the April Fool is.

The video title is accurate. And nobody is being forced to watch the whole video.

If he only said a few prime numbers and then looped them, then I could see the joke. But this is just a quirky video with an accurate title.

Edit: maybe the April Fool is that there isn't one?[/QUOTE]Nobody said it was an April fool.

[url]https://www.thehopepage.org/[/url]

This website uses some of your computer's processing power to automatically generate funds for UNICEF Australia.

UNICEF works in some of the world's toughest places to save children, protect their rights, and help them fulfil their potential.

Source: [url]https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/unicef-cryptocurrency-fundraising-child-refugees-digital-bitcoin-monero-a8332726.html[/url]

[QUOTE=retina;486054]Nobody said it was an April fool.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I guess that's the April Fool, that it'll start discussions like this, where people are confused about what's going on.

[url]https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/8p5xlj/hi_all_i_am_a_man_who_ate_a_portion_of_his_own/[/url]

[QUOTE=retina;489353]A see a lot of USAans that mistake the USA as the only free country in the world. Which naturally leads to mistakenly assuming that anyone that disparages the USA is attacking "their" freedoms. There are 92 free countries on the planet, democratic free countries. USA is one of them.[/QUOTE]
The term "leader of the free world" doesn't make any claim of exclusivity. It merely bespeaks the obvious fact that the USA is the largest and most powerful free country in the world. With [i]Il Duce[/i] in the White House, and House and Senate Republicans unwilling to exercise their role as a check on him, though, the status of the USA as a free country is now very much in question.

It may reasonably be argued that the USA was the only free county at the time of its birth, but that status was sullied by the institution of slavery. It may be for that reason that Abraham Lincoln spoke of "a new birth of freedom" in his Gettysburg Address. He had already committed the Union to the abolition of slavery.

Some people [i]do[/i] disparage the US because they think our freedoms are bad (immoral, chaotic, or what have you).

Others have problems with US government policies, the pronouncements of our politicians, or the perceived boorishness, ignorance, violence, attachment to firearms etc of US-ers. Equating criticism or disparagement on that sort of grounds, with attacking our freedoms, is IMO mistaken.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;489357]The term "leader of the free world" doesn't make any claim of exclusivity.[/QUOTE]In a way it does. It suggests a single free world, and it's leader. If you want to remove the connotations then it can be reworded as "The leader of one of the 92 free countries".

I you want to assume that there is such a thing as "the free world", which I guess would be the collection of all 92 free countries, then there are at least 92 separate leaders, not one leader. So maybe it could be reworded as "the leaders of the free world".

Either way the original wording is, at best, confusing, and at worst insincere and condescending.

:tu:

[url]https://imgur.com/gallery/MZMGceK[/url]

[QUOTE=retina;489359]In a way it does. It suggests a single free world, and it's leader.[/quote]
"It" referring to the description of the US President as "leader of the free world."
[quote]Either way the original wording is, at best, confusing, and at worst insincere and condescending.[/QUOTE]
I don't presume to judge the sincerity of the OP.

The phrase "leader of the free world," as well as the modern usage of the term "free world," originated during the Cold War. Since the Cold War ended a generation ago, I suppose the phrase may be viewed as obsolete or archaic, and perhaps confusing, since it at least implicitly refers to a situation that no longer exists. If [i]Il Duce[/i] and his enablers aren't checked soon, of course, the term "free world" may not mean much anyhow.

Meanwhile, some commentators have tried to drop the mantle on Angela Merkel or Emmanuel Macron, apparently believing [i]Il Duce[/i] to be unworthy of it.

Re. leader of the free world:

o Slavery was legal in all 13 original colonies and a crucial pillar of the economics of most of them in 1776. Moreover there are plausible arguments to be made that the *real* reason for the U.S. revolutionary war had less to do with "freedom" than it did with the economic interests of wealthy landowners in the colonies.

o Any reasonable U.S. claim to being a "free country", much less self-anointed leader of some kind of global collection of such, definitively evaporated in the wake of 9/11. See my (as soon as I finish this one) posting in "All your data are belong to us" for the latest examples of how far the police-state project has come, and where its heading.

[QUOTE=retina;489359]"The leader of one of the 92 free countries".
[/QUOTE]
That is wrong, you forget some country which is only 73% free, it has to be "The leader of one of the 92.73 free countries... :leaving:

[QUOTE=LaurV;489413]That is wrong, you forget some country which is only 73% free, it has to be "The leader of one of the 92.73 free countries... :leaving:[/QUOTE]Is that like being only a little bit pregnant?

[size=1]Actually the USA has the largest prison population, by percentage, of all countries, free or not. One wonders just how free it really is. Statistics can be awesome sometimes. :devil:[/size]

[QUOTE=retina;489423]Is that like being only a little bit pregnant?

[SIZE=1][U]Actually the USA has the largest prison population, by percentage, of all countries, free or not. One wonders just how free it really is.[/U] Statistics can be awesome sometimes. :devil:[/SIZE][/QUOTE]
Thank you for bringing up the question of "freedom." The US not only has massive incarceration, but even more massive surveillance.

[QUOTE=retina;489423]Actually the USA has the largest prison population, by percentage, of all countries, free or not. One wonders just how free it really is. Statistics can be awesome sometimes. :devil:[/QUOTE]
Not only highest percentage, but highest actual number of inmates as well. I'm sure the following has nothing -- nothing at all -- to do with this situation.

An [url=https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/]April 2016 [b]Harper's[/b] article[/url] by Dan Baum has the following fruits of a 1994 interview with John Ehrlichman:
[quote]In 1994, John Ehrlichman, the Watergate co-conspirator, unlocked for me one of the great mysteries of modern American history: How did the United States entangle itself in a policy of drug prohibition that has yielded so much misery and so few good results?

[snip]

I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky questions that he impatiently waved away. “You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”[/quote]

Re. Nixon kicking off the War On Drugs - note the great irony: Perhaps the best claim the U.S. had to being something resembling its founding myths was in the wake of the successes of the civil rights era, mid-to-late 60s. Nixon wasted no time in undoing those gains by other means, and none of his successors made any credible effort to reverse said reversal, typically quite the opposite. And again this stuff is bipartisan - Reagan (recall Nancy's "just say no" advice to ghetto kids?) was a staunch supporter or the carceral state, and Bill Clinton's now infamous [url=https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/04/11/bill-clinton-black-lives-and-the-myths-of-the-1994-crime-bill]1994 crime bill[/url] (which both Clintons campaigned hard for - WJC via stuff like his personally overseeing an execution of a mentally impaired black man in his home state of Arkansas and then bragging about how it proved his tough-on-crime bona fides; HRC via speeches, one of which included her characteriation of young black men as 'superpredators' - and these 2 claim to be 'liberal', lol) was a further big step in the wrong direction. Obama, as is his wont, speechified a lot about doing the right thing, but his actions were decidely in the opposite direction; in fact he dramatically accelerated the rise of [url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/obama-police-militarization_n_3566478.html]militarized policing[/url] and the crime-by-the-state known as civil asset forfeiture (which is now a larger form of theft than all other put together) on multiple fronts. No idea what the Trump administration's numbers are in these regards, but I'd be shocked if they did anything other than continue/exacerbate the status quo.

[b]Edit:[/b] Re. last sentence of above, well that didn't take long - a Twofer! More inmates and sends a strong warning message to wannabe illegal entrants (again, not that Obama's record re. deportation of same was any better, it was merely under less-overtly-hostile cover):

[url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-prisons-exclusive/exclusive-u-s-sending-1600-immigration-detainees-to-federal-prisons-idUSKCN1J32W1]Exclusive: U.S. sending 1,600 immigration detainees to federal prisons[/url] | Reuters

Saw this bumper sticker today:

Love People
Cook them. tasty food!

I wonder who added the period.

[QUOTE=rogue;489653]I wonder who added the period.[/QUOTE]

Possibly the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serve_Man_(The_Twilight_Zone)]Kanamits[/url]?

[QUOTE=rogue;489653]Love People
Cook them. tasty food![/QUOTE][url]https://jalopnik.com/5724684/virginia-dmv-revokes-worlds-greatest-license-plate[/url]

[QUOTE=rogue;489653]Saw this bumper sticker today:

Love People
Cook them. tasty food!

I wonder who added the period.[/QUOTE]
[url=https://www.penzeys.com/shop/fun-stuff/]Penzey's[/url] offers gift cards (but not bumper stickers, as far as I could see) with the slogan "Love People. Cook them tasty food" (no period after "them").

Bumper stickers as you describe are available from [url=https://www.zazzle.com/love_people_cook_them_tasty_food_bumper_sticker-128392887910086769]Zazzle[/url].

If you could communicate to your pets, or even wild animals, a simple fact or facts, what would you tell them?

I think the most obvious thing would be to teach animals how to cross roads. It'd be awesome if we could put up signs to tell them how to get across safely.

I also have a little dog that likes to come in and lie on my bed. I'd teach him two things. The first thing is that he's allowed to be near my pillow, it's the licking of the pillow that makes me unhappy with him. And the second thing would be that cat poop shouldn't be considered a food item and he needs to stop eating it.

This garbage is happening in the United States of America. These cops are horrible.
(for the record, stoning is Old Testament, it's been sin since Jesus first sent the Holy Spirit)

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOL_ommK3qg[/url]

Jasong, please keep the religion in the Soap Box. Your ongoing attempt to inject your beliefs into seemingly every single thread in which you post are starining the patience of the mods. To put it in terms you should appreciate: banishment is also a 'biblical' punishment.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;491456]Jasong, please keep the religion in the Soap Box. Your ongoing attempt to inject your beliefs into seemingly every single thread in which you post are [B]starining[/B] the patience of the mods. To put it in terms you should appreciate: banishment is also a 'biblical' punishment.[/QUOTE]
Nothing worse than "starined" mods. :smile: I feel a bit starined, myself, by the biblical drumbeat. I can appreciate the anthropological background to this highly derivative collection of legends common in the region, in the times leading up to the beginning of the Common Era. There were a few messianic figures, some of whom even were claimed to have Virgin Birth in their resumes.

I am really into creation mythologies from many places. Check out the Popol Vuh, Maya Creation Myth. (See PDF) Some of it is stirring, some of it amusing. It is certainly colorful. But don't think that I am going to take up propitiating the Nine Lords of the Underworld, or other deities in these stories. These legendary exploits represent a part of the minds of the people who dreamed them up. [U]That is where "supernatural" events take place. [/U]

The world is replete with such tales. I read them to better understand humanity, and, I hope, myself. I don't plan on taking up a belief system based on them.

In other news that 'starins' belief:

[url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-florida-crime/florida-man-with-no-arms-charged-with-stabbing-man-with-scissors-idUSKBN1K131O]Florida man with no arms charged with stabbing man with scissors[/url] | Reuters

[QUOTE=ewmayer;491647]In other news that 'starins' belief:

[url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-florida-crime/florida-man-with-no-arms-charged-with-stabbing-man-with-scissors-idUSKBN1K131O]Florida man with no arms charged with stabbing man with scissors[/url] | Reuters[/QUOTE]
Even more incredibly, it's not an isolated incident. According to this [url=http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/homeless-south-beach-artist-with-no-arms-jonathan-crenshaw-charged-with-stabbing-tourist-10516219]Miami New Times article[/url],[quote]Court records show Crenshaw has repeatedly clashed with police and has been charged with violent crimes in the past. He's been charged at least four times since 2010 with battery on police, firefighters, and city code inspectors. In 2011, he was caught on-camera trashing a hotel lobby.
Most recently, he was convicted of felony battery on a police officer in 2014 and sentenced to 180 days in jail.[/quote]

Legal question: In the latest incident Crenshaw clearly used the scissors as a weapon. But how could a prosecutor reasonably charge him with an armed felony?

[Quickly ducks out back door of the theater, as the rotting produce begins its descent.]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;491761]Legal question: In the latest incident Crenshaw clearly used the scissors as a weapon. But how could a prosecutor reasonably charge him with an armed felony?

[Quickly ducks out back door of the theater, as the rotting produce begins its descent.][/QUOTE]
Anything used to penetrate someone's body is a de facto weapon. I carry around screwdrivers of various sizes at work. The larger ones could stand in for a rapier in terms of reaching vital organs. Any of them would produce an ugly and very painful wound wherever inserted, even if the site was not immediately lethal.
EDIT: Consider the effects of having a long #3 Phillips screwdriver jammed into one's buttock or thigh muscles.
EDIT2: Of course, puncturing the femoral artery would probably produce all of the above, plus rapid bleed out.

[QUOTE=kladner;491765]Anything used to penetrate someone's body is a de facto weapon.[/QUOTE]

Does that include my penis?

[QUOTE=kladner;491765]Consider the effects of having a long #3 Phillips screwdriver jammed into one's buttock or thigh muscles.[/QUOTE]

As a Canadian I prefer a Robertson. Less likely to strip....

(Sorry. I know you're being serious, but I just couldn't hold myself back from the obvious joke.)

[QUOTE=chalsall;491766]Does that include my penis?



As a Canadian I prefer a Robertson. Less likely to strip....

(Sorry. I know you're being serious, but I just couldn't hold myself back from the obvious joke.)[/QUOTE]
I am amused by your rejoinder. Without Googling, I don't know what 'Robertson' is, though I suspect that it might be what we call 'star' at work.This is only process of elimination. For us Yanks, male hex tools are called Allen wrench, or hex key. :smile:

[QUOTE=kladner;491765]Anything used to penetrate someone's body is a de facto weapon...[/QUOTE]

My [] remark was intended as a tip-off, but you still missed it. Here's a hint in spoiler form:

[spoiler]'armed felony'[/spoiler]

[QUOTE=kladner;491767]For us Yanks, male hex tools are called Allen wrench, or hex key. :smile:[/QUOTE]

Close, but no cigar... :smile: A "[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._L._Robertson"]Robertson[/URL]" screw head is square. Much like a hex, but different.

The advantage of both over a "Phillips" is the screw tends to stay attached to the driver. The Robertson is superior over the hex because there's less chance of stripping when torque is applied.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;491769]My [] remark was intended as a tip-off, but you still missed it. Here's a hint in spoiler form:

[spoiler]'armed felony'[/spoiler][/QUOTE]
I am habitually obtuse and literal in many situations. I only now recognized the "armed" quip. Further deponent sayeth not. :smile:

[QUOTE=ewmayer;491761]Legal question: In the latest incident Crenshaw clearly used the scissors as a weapon. But how could a prosecutor reasonably charge him with an armed felony?

[Quickly ducks out back door of the theater, as the rotting produce begins its descent.][/QUOTE]

Too bad [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Pays_to_Be_Ignorant]It Pays to be Ignorant[/url] isn't running any more. You'd be perfect!

Never mind the rotten produce. As you yourself said a few posts back, [url=http://www.mersenneforum.org/showpost.php?p=491456&postcount=3237]here[/url],[quote]To put it in terms you should appreciate: banishment is also a 'biblical' punishment.[/quote]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;491761]Legal question: In the latest incident Crenshaw clearly used the scissors as a weapon. But how could a prosecutor reasonably charge him with an armed felony?

[Quickly ducks out back door of the theater, as the rotting produce begins its descent.][/QUOTE]
It was miraculous. During the event, he did have arms, considering the plurality of scissors...

In the military, you might get PTSD,

But gamers get WASD.

Also, with all the SD cards out there, what about a PT SD card. Or a WA SD card for gamers.

[url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-facial-recognition/amazons-face-id-tool-mismatched-28-members-of-congress-to-mugshots-aclu-idUSKBN1KG1K7]Amazon's face ID tool mismatched 28 members of Congress to mugshots: ACLU[/url] | Reuters

We only *wish* the "police suspects" were true, since our dear Congresscritters have gone to such great lengths to place themselves above many of the laws (e.g. insider trading) they have placed on the rest of us.

On top of the world (Everest, May 2016)
 

I found this on another website. It's [STRIKE]probably[/STRIKE] almost certainly photoshopped, but it does make you go "Hmmmm..."

[QUOTE=The Carnivore;492722]I found this on another website. It's [STRIKE]probably[/STRIKE] almost certainly photoshopped, but it does make you go "Hmmmm..."[/QUOTE]Link to original image:
[url]http://static.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/20160607summit01_tzr-780x500.jpg[/url]

Rule 32. If it can be said, it can be said with a picture.
There were real life people who did do the same - [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyoQemNClE8"]without[/URL] photoshop.

[QUOTE=Batalov;492743]Rule 32. If it can be said, it can be said with a picture.
There were real life people who did do the same - [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyoQemNClE8"]without[/URL] photoshop.[/QUOTE]

Knowing Trump supporters, he probably left that trash on the mountain after filming another video showing that the ice on the mountain proves the global warming is fake.

[QUOTE=Batalov;492743]Rule 32. If it can be said, it can be said with a picture.
There were real life people who did do the same - [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyoQemNClE8"]without[/URL] photoshop.[/QUOTE]

Here is a great recent example - no number of words would ever suffice to 'say' this one:

[url]https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/00-78_christina-sautter-dalmatian-pelican_a0_6123_3_0.jpg[/url]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;492785]Here is a great recent example - no number of words would ever suffice to 'say' this one:

[url]https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/00-78_christina-sautter-dalmatian-pelican_a0_6123_3_0.jpg[/url][/QUOTE]That is amazing. :tu:

[QUOTE=ewmayer;492785]Here is a great recent example - no number of words would ever suffice to 'say' this one:
[/QUOTE]
It is pretty.

But the logic argument was in the opposite direction.
No one claimed that "Rule 32-inverse: If there is a picture, it can be said with a number of words" is true.

That's a thing that make you go "Hmmmm..."

[QUOTE=retina;492786]That is amazing. :tu:[/QUOTE]

Ain't it though? And we can at least use words to capture the aerodynamic aspects of the imminent landing: At the exact moment of touchdown ... thrust reversers (wings, esp. the splayed-to-maximize-drag leading-edge 'finger' feathers) in full-on mode and landing gear down, wing angle of attack at maximum flyable, i.e. just shy of triggering a full-on stall and the attendant catastrophic loss of lift.

(Apparently pelicans typically do an ungainly faceplant immediately after a water landing, but we elect to omit that from our coverage. :)

[QUOTE=ewmayer;492856]Ain't it though? And we can at least use words to capture the aerodynamic aspects of the imminent landing: At the exact moment of touchdown ... thrust reversers (wings, esp. the splayed-to-maximize-drag leading-edge 'finger' feathers) in full-on mode and landing gear down, wing angle of attack at maximum flyable, i.e. just shy of triggering a full-on stall and the attendant catastrophic loss of lift.[/QUOTE]That in no way does it justice. I think you'd need many many thousands of words for that.

[size=1]And perhaps even the only "real" way to describe it in the way it deserves would be to simply read off the colour values for each pixel. Anything else would likely lose too much information.[/size]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;492856]Ain't it though? And we can at least use words to capture the aerodynamic aspects of the imminent landing: At the exact moment of touchdown ... thrust reversers (wings, esp. the splayed-to-maximize-drag leading-edge 'finger' feathers) in full-on mode and landing gear down, wing angle of attack at maximum flyable, i.e. just shy of triggering a full-on stall and the attendant catastrophic loss of lift.

(Apparently pelicans typically do an ungainly faceplant immediately after a water landing, but we elect to omit that from our coverage. :)[/QUOTE]
I have seen footage of such landings. The first examples I found, of American White Pelicans, show them gliding in smoothly.
[YOUTUBE]7qgf-y0gj7A[/YOUTUBE]
White pelicans fish on the surface, often in groups, where they engage in fish-herding.
[YOUTUBE]ygsGaTQyNAo[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]xzTpOL9KpQA[/YOUTUBE]
Of course, brown pelicans do the face-plant, from altitude, for a living. I envy your living close to where such birds can be seen. Brown pelicans were some of my constant delights on the Texas Gulf Coast. Turn down the volume. Muzak warning.
[YOUTUBE]krrQjPZOCoY[/YOUTUBE]

[QUOTE=retina;492857]That in no way does it justice. I think you'd need many many thousands of words for that.[/QUOTE]

Alas I was limited by the design of the FAA landing incident report form. Those folks just don't seem to do 'poetry in motion'. :)

[QUOTE=ewmayer;492785]Here is a great recent example - no number of words would ever suffice to 'say' this one:

[url]https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/00-78_christina-sautter-dalmatian-pelican_a0_6123_3_0.jpg[/url][/QUOTE]

Perhaps not, but it brings to mind the following:[quote]A remarkable bird is the pelican,
His beak holds more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Enough food for a week -
But I'm damned if I know how the helican.[/quote] -- Dixon Lanier Merritt (1879 – 1972)

Also, a notion advocated by photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, [url=http://truecenterpublishing.com/photopsy/decisive_moment.htm]The Decisive Moment[/url].

I have heard the landings of some of the larger flying birds described as being like "a controlled crash."

Thanks for the limerick and link, Kurt! Changing gears, just sent this to an Aussie pal:

Subject: Useful mnemonic for remembering Oz city names

...for us durn furriners:

SHMAP-DB

This encodes both the names of the major metropolises and their approximate geography - start with Sydney in the SE and proceed CCW round the coastline, including a brief cross-channel excursion to Tasmania, the first letters of the cities collate into the mouth-friendly and fairly memorable acronym above. Recalling Alice Springs in the middle of that spoked wheel and Canberra at 3 o'clock are bonuses.

I suspect geography-bee champs make heavy use of this sort of thing ... one other one I use to recall the major parts of the Japanese island chain is the Tolkien-meets-library-shushing-sounding ORKSHH [Okinawa, which is the largest of the Ryukyu islands, then Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu, Hokkaido], proceeding from south to north.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;493020]SHMAP-DB

This encodes both the names of the major metropolises and their approximate geography - start with Sydney in the SE and proceed CCW round the coastline ...[/QUOTE]CCW? Are you sure? Your map must be different from mine.

Edit: Oh wait. You are viewing the world from the inside. Got it. :tu:

[QUOTE=retina;493022]CCW? Are you sure? Your map must be different from mine.

Edit: Oh wait. You are viewing the world from the inside. Got it. :tu:[/QUOTE]

It's well-known that they hang their clocks upside-down in Oz, less well-known is that they also have their clocks face the wall, like truant children. Might explain the stereotype of Aussies never being on time for anything. :)

Just a curiosity with regards to Pelicans. I lived back in 2013 near the International airport of Rio de Janeiro on the Guanabara bay, that was our elected place for a run and one day we saw thousands and thousands of pelicans cutting through the approach runway of the airport. It was so amazing! My regret was not having with me a camera to take evidence but for security reasons I couldn't have one with me.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;493036]It's well-known that they hang their clocks upside-down in Oz, less well-known is that they also have their clocks face the wall, like truant children. Might explain the stereotype of Aussies never being on time for anything. :)[/QUOTE]
The clocks deserve to be facing the wall. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, they run counterclockwise -- backwards.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;493051]The clocks deserve to be facing the wall. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, they run counterclockwise -- backwards.[/QUOTE]

Blaming the Coriolis effect was my fallback position. :)

[url=www.latimes.com/local/la-me-abcarian-hostage-20180803-story.html]The tender, terrifying truth about what happened inside the Trader Joe's hostage siege[/url] LA Times

[URL="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-45145522"]This is absolutely wonderful.[/URL]

Where else in the world can you be busted for taking your pig for a walk without a leash but not if has one?

[QUOTE=xilman;493599][URL="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-45145522"]This is absolutely wonderful.[/URL]

Where else in the world can you be busted for taking your pig for a walk without a leash but not if has one?[/QUOTE]

I suspect that if the guy hadn't been making a pest of himself, he probably would have gotten off with a warning like "leash your pig," if the police had come by at all. As it was,
[quote]Police responded to reports the defendant, of no fixed address, was shouting abuse at members of the public at about 10:10 BST.[/quote]

I did a Google search for

"stray livestock" laws

and immediately got hits for Texas, Delaware, and Alabama.

The Delaware law looked pretty similar to the UK law.

One of the problems with stray livestock is collisions with motor vehicles. Full-size livestock would be more of a problem for the motor vehicle.

For the case in point, under the law cited, the penalty is [quote]a fine not exceeding £20 for a first offence and £50 for a second or subsequent offence[/quote] but there is also a provision for expenses incurred by impoundment. In this case,
[quote]The RSPCA, which is currently looking after the female piglet, said the animal was "only a week old and so will require hand-rearing".[/quote]

So, the guy might get a hefty bill from the RSPCA.

Hey, that pig ain't livestock, it's a "therapy animal", or something.

Hey that can't happen too often -->

[QUOTE=Batalov;493629]Hey that can't happen too often -->[/QUOTE]

And you spoiled it by mentioning it! But now you are one hella super-smooth dude, Serge. :)

[QUOTE=ewmayer;493627]Hey, that pig ain't livestock, it's a "therapy animal", or something.[/QUOTE]The law does not admit of any exception based on how the animal is used (my emphasis):[quote]If [b][i]any[/i][/b] horses, cattle, sheep, goats or swine are at any time found straying or lying on or at the side of a highway their keeper is guilty of an offence; but this subsection does not apply in relation to a part of a highway passing over any common, waste or unenclosed ground.[/quote]So the only exception is for certain types of ground through which the highway may pass.

Besides, the guy already pleaded Guilty.

Karen Lloyd: This deep-sea mystery is changing our understanding of life

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbgB2TaYhio[/url]

[size=1]I think some of my minions are related to these creatures; so lazy.[/size]

Obama nation, abomination. And Trump Pence without the second p is trumpence, which means the superior voice of God.

And yet, Obama seems like a good guy, and Trump acts like someone who was never disciplined properly at any age.

So the question is, how do you properly calculate the odds that someone would find meaning in a totally accidental situation?

If this gets enough posts, feel free to make a new thread. I just thought it was something interesting.

So, if you will see a label "chocolate cake" on a cat's litter box, which are you going to believe - the words or the actual object inside? Then why are you juggling not even words but even more meaningless things like 'given names'?

Always question authority. Question words. Question language. Think for yourself.

[YOUTUBE]mfqRPfhxUdc[/YOUTUBE]

[QUOTE=Batalov;494174]So, if you will see a label "chocolate cake" on a cat's litter box, which are you going to believe - the words or the actual object inside? Then why are you juggling not even words but even more meaningless things like 'given names'?

Always question authority. Question words. Question language. Think for yourself.
[/QUOTE]
Word mashups are great fun. However, like the "chocolate cake" label on a cat box, they don't mean "sh!t."

Serge, I have come to see your current avatar as representing a cluster or migraine headache. I have had the former. The hand to the temple was a frequent gesture. Pressure on just the right spots could relieve some of the pain, at least momentarily.

So I'm doing a change of address at my online banking site, and in the personal-info window I see that even the Date of Birth field has an "update" widget next to it. Lending a possible literal new meaning to the expression "born yesterday".

My mother changed her birthday. It happens!


She says that while for many years she was celebrating it on 6/30 (and so it was recorded in her papers), in the 1990s she learned from her mother that her parents wrote her into June to get an extra set of bread ration cards. The year was 1944 and arguably it made sense at the time (as the story goes, the family was getting the whole set of cards monthly). Anyway, since she learned that factoid, she started marking her birthdays on 7/01. Dunno if she went as far as to change her legal papers.

Happy birthday two, to you...
 

President George Washington "had two birthdays," due to the British Empire adopting the Gregorian calendar. As the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington%27s_Birthday]the Wikipedia page on George Washington[/url] describes it,[quote]George Washington was born on February 11, 1731 (Old Style) at his parents' Pope's Creek Estate near Colonial Beach in Westmoreland County, Virginia. At the time, the entire British Empire, including its North American possessions, was on the Julian calendar; the Empire, not being bound to the Catholic Church, had not yet adopted the modern Gregorian calendar that Catholic countries had adopted in 1582. Consequently, by the 1730s, the Julian calendar used by Britain and the Colonies was eleven days behind the Gregorian, due to leap year differences. Furthermore, the British civil year began on March 25 rather than January 1, so that dates in February (such as this one) 'belonged' to the preceding year. (See Dual dating). In 1752, The British Empire switched to the Gregorian calendar; since then, Americans born prior to 1752, including Washington, have typically had their birthdays recognized under what their birthday would have been under the Gregorian calendar ("New Style" dates). Since, during the 1700s, February 11 under the Julian calendar would fall as February 22 on the Gregorian, Washington's birthday has been generally recognized as February 22, 1732.[/quote]

More recently, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia is called either the October Revolution or the November Revolution, depending on the calendar of reference. And it seems that some branches of the Eastern Orthodox Church still use the Julian Calendar for the dates of some holidays such as Easter. Hmm, talk about having two birthdays...

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;494372]Hmm, talk about having two birthdays...[/QUOTE]

I like that idea - one for having one's cake and the second for "eating it, too."

Not much eating to be had in 1944 or in [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_2042"]2044[/URL], in Moscow, that is.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;494398][QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;494372]Hmm, talk about having two birthdays...[/quote]I like that idea - one for having one's cake and the second for "eating it, too."[/QUOTE]The "Hmm" thought was that although Jesus's birth is celebrated as Christmas, Easter might be viewed as a "second birthday," it being the day that Jesus rose from the dead, and was thus "reborn." I can't recall anything in the Gospels about Jesus eating anything after being crucified. However, I am no expert on the Bible.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;494492]I can't recall anything in the Gospels about Jesus eating anything after being crucified. However, I am no expert on the Bible.[/QUOTE]He did. There is one direct account and two where it might be inferred.

[QUOTE]Luke 24:42-43 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them.
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]Luke 24:30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]John 21:12-13 Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.
[/QUOTE]

A certain forumite will be interested in this: [url]https://www.reddit.com/r/CHICubs/comments/99gd8c/for_every_home_run_by_daniel_murphy_until_the_end/[/url]



(I'll return to active duty shortly!)

[QUOTE=Dubslow;494506]A certain forumite will be interested in this: [URL]https://www.reddit.com/r/CHICubs/comments/99gd8c/for_every_home_run_by_daniel_murphy_until_the_end/[/URL]



(I'll return to active duty shortly!)[/QUOTE]
Nice to see the Center getting positive attention in diverse places. Thanks for posting, Bill. :tu:

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;494495]He did. There is one direct account and two where it might be inferred.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the references, Uncwilly! So maybe not 'cake' in any modern confectionary sense, but arguably 'cakelike foods'.

Can't resist - getting back to the first birthday in the manger:
[i]
Brian's Mum: Wot's 'myrrh', then?

Magus: It is a balm.

Brian's Mum: A bomb? Well, what're bringin' it in 'ere for?[/i]

[URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/28/the-i-before-e-except-after-c-rule-is-a-giant-lie/?utm_term=.71cdb5bd8107"]The ‘i before e, except after c’ rule is a giant lie[/URL]

Of course most of us already knew that. If I drank coffee, [URL="https://www.amazon.com/MyCozyCups-Before-Weird-Mug-Literature/dp/B079ZYZVBM"]this[/URL] would be a nice cup to have.

Dream estate site on market
 

$1 B for 157 mountaintop acres. 360 degree views from Malibu to the San Gabriel Mountains. Look down on Warren Beatty and Sylvester Stallone.
[url]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-30/-1-billion-property-for-sale-atop-beverly-hills[/url]

[QUOTE=kladner;494600]$1 B for 157 mountaintop acres. [/QUOTE]
only $146.23 per square foot...

[QUOTE=science_man_88;494601]only $146.23 per square foot...[/QUOTE]
LOL!

[QUOTE=science_man_88;494601]only $146.23 per square foot...[/QUOTE]

Interestingly, cost per square foot is often used in purchasing land, as well as building a building in many parts of the world.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard "you can't build that for less than US$ 500 a square foot" I'd be rich! :wink:

[QUOTE=rogue;494576][URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/28/the-i-before-e-except-after-c-rule-is-a-giant-lie/?utm_term=.71cdb5bd8107"]The ‘i before e, except after c’ rule is a giant lie[/URL][/QUOTE]

Yeah. It's kinda weird...

[QUOTE=rogue;494576][URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/28/the-i-before-e-except-after-c-rule-is-a-giant-lie/?utm_term=.71cdb5bd8107"]The ‘i before e, except after c’ rule is a giant lie[/URL]

Of course most of us already knew that. If I drank coffee, [URL="https://www.amazon.com/MyCozyCups-Before-Weird-Mug-Literature/dp/B079ZYZVBM"]this[/URL] would be a nice cup to have.[/QUOTE]From an email today:[QUOTE=J. Woods]At his leisure sipping a protein shake, the deceitful, atheist Sheik raised the beige veil of his daughter, feigning interest, as the incoming freight piled to the ceiling.[/QUOTE]:max:

The version I was taught has [I]i before e except after c [b]when the sound is ee[/b][/I].

[I]Sheila: seize weird Keith[/I] is a grammatically correct sentence formed entirely from exceptions.