Don't park like an asshole

Forward this image to any acquaintances of yours who think it's o.k. to infringe on the broad space next to a handicapped parking spot. 

Photo cropped for size from the original here.

The Bowling Green Massacre Victims Fund

The image above is a screencap.  You can access a live "donate" button and reveal the creators of the spoof here (safe to click).

A tip of the blogging cap to reader Stan Banos for sending the link.

Why cartoon characters wear gloves

YouTube link.

Aleppo

Evocative.  Res ipsa loquitur.

Photo credit Mohammed Al-Khatieb/AFP/Getty Images, via The Huffington Post.

More ransomware horror stories

From The Telegraph:

"Computer hackers seized control of the electronic keycard system of a luxury Austrian hotel, releasing it only after a £1,300 ransom was paid... It was the fourth time the 111-year hotel, where suites cost as much as £233 a night, had been targeted by hackers...

“We are planning at the next room refurbishment for old-fashioned door locks with real keys,” said Brandstaetter. “Just like 111 years ago at the time of our great grandfathers.”

Keep this in mind as you install smart appliances and home features.  And this via BoingBoing:

The libraries of St Louis, Missouri have been crippled by a ransomware attack that has shut down the public terminals the library provides to the poor and vulnerable of St Louis, as well as the systems used to process book and material lending (the catalog is on a separate, uninfected system)... According to the library, the criminals managed to infect a centralized computer server, destroying the staff's email system as well.

Scum.

Pretty in Pink (1986)

YouTube link.

YouTube link.

Just a quick shout-out to a movie that I rewatched the other night.  Pretty in Pink is a movie that didn't receive prominent rewards when it was released, but it has an enduring quality because of top-notch performances by young actors and a spot-on portrayal of teen angst and high-school social stresses.  Best of all it presents a strong young girl having a positive and meaningful relationship with her father - something not often addressed in modern movies. 

Hard to believe this was released 30 years ago.  I've embedded the computer scene because I thought some of you might be impressed/amused by the technology.  The lower embed is the standard trailer.

Some feral animals choose to run on an exercise wheel

Researchers in the Netherlands placed a running wheel in wild settings and monitored its use.

"If wheel running is indeed caused by captive housing, wild mice are not expected to use a running wheel in nature. This however, to our knowledge, has never been tested. Here, we show that when running wheels are placed in nature, they are frequently used by wild mice, also when no extrinsic reward is provided. Bout lengths of running wheel behaviour in the wild match those for captive mice...

Over a period of over 3 years, we have analysed more than 12 000 video fragments in which wheel movement was detected, out of more than 200 000 recordings made when animals visited the recording site...

Some animals seem to use the wheel unintentionally, but mice and some shrews, rats and frogs were seen to leave the wheel and then enter it again within minutes in order to continue wheel running...

Further details at Proc Roy Soc B.

"Puer aeternus" ("man-child")

Puer aeternus..., Latin for "eternal boy", in mythology, is a child-god who is forever young. In psychology, it is an older person whose emotional life has remained at an adolescent level. The puer typically leads a provisional life, due to the fear of being caught in a situation from which it might not be possible to escape. He covets independence and freedom, opposes boundaries and limits, and tends to find any restriction intolerable...

Like all archetypes, the puer is bi-polar, exhibiting both a "positive" and a "negative" aspect. The "positive" side of the puer appears as... newness, potential for growth, hope for the future... The "negative" side is the child-man who refuses to grow up and meet the challenges of life face on, waiting instead for his ship to come in and solve all his problems.

I thought it worthwhile to briefly define "man-child" since the term is becoming more commonly used in reports about current events.

E.T. was a vegetable

Or a fruit perhaps.  On the "animal/vegetable/mineral" scale he was designated a "vegetable."

"E.T. and his extra-terrestrial brethren are not animal or mineral but vegetable. This idea of E.T. being a plant of some kind led the team designing him – headed up by the Oscar-winning Carlo Rambaldi – to create “plant-like” glowing hearts, first seen here, en masse."

Lots of other tidbits about the movie here, but I heard this fact on No Such Thing As A Fish.

Image via.

"Oxymoron" is an oxymoron

"First attested in the 17th century, noun use of 5th century Latin oxymōrum ‎(adj), neut. nom. form of oxymōrus ‎(adj), from Ancient Greek ὀξύμωρος ‎(oksúmōros), compound of ὀξύς ‎(oksús, “sharp, keen, pointed”) (English oxy-, as in oxygen) + μωρός ‎(mōrós, “dull, stupid, folly”) (English moron ‎(“stupid person”)). Literally “sharp-dull”, "keen-stupid" or "pointed folly" – itself an oxymoron, hence autological.

Compare sophomore ‎(literally “wise fool”).

Historically, an oxymoron was "a paradox with a point", where the contradiction seems absurd at first glance, and yet is deliberate, its purpose being to underscore a point or to draw attention to a concealed point. The modern usage of oxymoron as a synonym for the simpler contradiction in terms is considered incorrect by some speakers and writers, and is perhaps best avoided in certain contexts."

More at Wikipedia.  Heard on a podcast of No Such Thing As A Fish.

Divertimento #122

The archaic term for mustard seed is eye of newt." Often misunderstood for an actual eye of a newt, this name has been popularly associated with witchcraft ever since it was mentioned as an ingredient to a witch's brew in Macbeth."

"Only three known species go through menopause: killer whales, short-finned pilot whales, and humans."

"What movie changes the plot if you add a random 'R' somewhere in the title?"  Some clever suggestions. ("A Fish Called Rwanda," "The Best Years of Our Livers," "Winter's Boner," "Fright Club," "Pulp Friction," and others are  in the list)

How to get rid of unwanted electronic devices (where to sell them, donate them, recycle them).

"Coal supporters are pushing a bill [in Wyoming] that would bar utilities from using the state's abundant wind power to provide electricity within the state."

Regarding the media enablers of the Trump election: "Les Moonves, the executive chairman and CEO of CBS, said, as reported by the Hollywood Reporter about Trump’s candidacy: “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” He added: “Donald’s place in this election is a good thing. . . . Man, who would have expected the ride we’re all having right now? . . . The money’s rolling in and this is fun. . . . I’ve never seen anything like this, and this going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It’s a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going.”

"A startup called Ambrosia will fill your veins with the blood of young people and empty your pockets of $8,000."

"Hygge is a Danish word (say HUE-gah) for a particular atmosphere grounded in the joys of simple pleasures."

"...when GOP candidates are looking for big donors to back them, they have options... If you don’t get Sheldon Adelson, you can go to the Koch brothers, and so on. In Michigan, the DeVos family is a class of donor all by themselves.” (see the chart here).

LifeProTip: "If you want to browse a site that requires login (e.g. WSJ) copy/paste the link to https://archive.org/web/ to read."

"The world’s eight richest billionaires control the same wealth... as the poorest half of the globe’s population."

"After a police chase in 1956, in which he crashed his motorcycle, [Robert Craig] Knievel was taken to jail on a charge of reckless driving.  When the night jailer came around to check roll call, he noted Robert Knievel in one cell and William Knofel in another.  Knofel was well known as “Awful Knofel”... so Knievel began to be referred to as Evel Knievel..."

How to gut a small fish with chopsticks (video).

"Genderless Nipples posts up-close pictures of people's nipples, making it unclear if they belong to men and women. This clever strategy completely bamboozles Instagram's algorithm for n00dz detection..."

Some gas pumps have mute buttons (not labeled), so you can turn off annoying videos.

"Asgard is now the name of a large clan of microbes. Its members, which are named after Norse gods like Odin, Thor, Loki, and Heimdall, are found all over the world. Many of them are rare and no one has actually seen them under a microscope. But thanks to their DNA, we know they exist. And we know that they are singularly important to us, because they may well be the group from which we evolved."

Massive alligator seen in Florida, crossing the path of a nature preserve.

The top 20 home inspection photos of 2016.

"This is the Broomway, allegedly “the deadliest” path in Britain, and certainly the unearthliest path I have ever walked. The Broomway is thought to have killed more than 100 people over the centuries; it seems likely that there were other victims whose fates went unrecorded. Sixty-six of its dead are buried in the little Foulness churchyard; the other bodies were not recovered."

If you've ever daydreamed of becoming a lighthouse keeper.

"...an estimated 1 in 4 Alabamans are functionally illiterate, meaning they're unable to manage daily living and employment tasks that require reading skills beyond a basic level."

LifeProTip: "In Gmail settings you can turn on "Enable undo send" which allows you to cancel sending an email for up to 30 seconds after you've sent it."

A quick laugh for anyone dealing with burdensome college debt.

"An unusual case of self-inflicted cesarean section with maternal and child survival is presented. No similar event was found in an Internet literature search. Because of a lack of medical assistance and a history of fetal death in utero, a 40-year-old multiparous woman unable to deliver herself alone vaginally sliced her abdomen and uterus and delivered her child..."

Prince may have died of a Fentanyl overdose.

A recent study suggests that black bears are NOT attracted to the smell of menstrual blood.

The best uses of color in movies (video, 13 minutes)

The blog Not Exactly Rocket Science is ending after 10 years.  Ed Yong will now write for The Atlantic.

The usefulness of infrared cameras for home inspections.  Interesting and revealing.

Continuing the debate about seat belts on school buses.

Google Maps has added images of amenities in hotels.

"An unidentified fisherman in the Philippines kept a giant pearl that might just be the biggest ever under his bed for the last 10 years." (image at the link) "The fisherman's find, which weighs 34 kg, is estimated to be worth US$100 million."

A flash mob in Minneapolis says goodbye to Mary Tyler Moore (with video of mass beret-tossing) (caution: earworm).

"The Food and Drug Administration urged parents Friday to not use Hyland's homeopathic teething products containing belladonna, commonly known as deadly nightshade."

gif: how a person with OCD folds their socks.

gif: a cow catching snowflakes on its tongue.

gif: athletic street dance.

gif: hockey player high-sticks himself.

gif: straight stick moving through a curved slot.

gif: cats use advanced mathematics to calculate their jumps.

gif: clever dog costume.

gif: this is described as a "standard daycare trick" for putting on a winter parka.

gif: backyard luge course.

gif: innovative first-grade physical education class.

gif: man being chased by a Tasmanian Devil.

The images in this linkdump come from a gallery of "antique book patterns from front or end papers. Spanning from 1890-1930," compiled by the Bergen Public Library.  (more examples at the link)

It's perfectly ok to feed candy to cows

In the news this past week was a report that a truck spilled hundreds of thousands of Skittles on a rural road in Wisconsin, and that before the accident occurred the candy was destined to be used as cattle feed.

Today a report in the Wisconsin State Journal explains that such practice is perfectly o.k.:

As a dairy farmer and a dairy cattle nutritionist, Laura Daniels felt she had to speak up after a report that went viral focused on why mislabeled Skittles that had spilled from a truck on a Wisconsin country road 12 days ago were heading to a dairy farm to be used as animal feed...

“As a parent I understand the concern for sugar, it’s just that ruminant animals are totally different than humans. The same logic can’t be applied.”..

In addition to Skittles and gummy candy, farmers also might feed cows human treats like Kool-Aid powder, potato chips, molasses and baked goods like cookies, just to mention a few, O’Netty said.

In the past when corn prices were high, farmers used the candy and sugary foods as a substitute, but today they are used mostly as a supplement, said Randy Shaver, a professor and dairy nutritionist at UW-Madison and UW Extension. Sugary foods typically account for about 2 percent of a cow’s diet, he said...

The Skittle spill was discovered by a Dodge County sheriff’s deputy on a road south of Beaver Dam on Jan. 18. The Sheriff’s Office said the candies, which were missing the “S,” fell off a truck en route to a farm it did not name.

The candies were discarded because they were not completed due to a power outage at the Illinois factory, according to Mars Inc. spokeswoman Michelle Green. Such products that don’t pass muster are sold to a third party that can sell it for animal feed, Green said...

Daniels’ farm used gummy candies from a Minnesota supplier as energy supplements until about four years ago. Most of them were miscolored gummy sharks and gummy worms or a gummy bear that was missing a leg, Daniels said.

“They say you can’t put them in the containers and send them to stores because the children would get upset,” she said. “But I have to laugh at that because what’s the first thing kids do when they get a gummy bear? They bite off the heads and the legs.”

Much more at the Wisconsin State Journal.  Quite interesting.

Selectively limiting immigration

Much has been made of Trump's assertion that he would give favorable consideration to Christians from Muslim countries.  This point deserves emphasis:

The executive action, "Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States," targets seven nations: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Trump has no business interests in those countries.

And this:

One other thing they have in common, as NPR's Greg Myre writes: "No Muslim extremist from any of these places has carried out a fatal attack in the U.S. in more than two decades."

The 19 terrorists in the Sept. 11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates, Myre points out. They are among the Muslim-majority countries not affected by Trump's immigration freeze, but where Trump does business.

He has significant commercial interests in Turkey and Azerbaijan, is developing properties in Indonesia and Dubai, and has formed companies in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. His daughter Ivanka said in 2015 that the company was looking at "multiple opportunities in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Saudi Arabia — the four areas where we are seeing the most interest."

More at NPR.

It's hard to win a race when you fall down

YouTube link. 

Especially at the start of the bell lap.

This event was part of the 2008 Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championships.

This young woman's performance reminds me of "Alexis Conquers the Hurdles," which is the most inspirational sports video I've posted.

Reposted because I had to find a new video to replace the old one, which had undergone linkrot.

Also found an interview with her memories of that race.

Introducing the Curonians

YouTube link.

All of this totally new to me (despite a decent education).  Readers in too much of a hurry to spend time on a video may choose instead to browse this article at Latvian History:

The four Latvian tribes differed from each other in many ways. The Semigallians are said to be mightiest Latvian warriors. That could be true because Semigallians resisted to crusader invasion longer than others did. The Latgalian kings were the richest rulers of Latvian tribes. The wooden fortress and city of Jersika was a large and proud center in Latgale. The last ruler of Jersika Visvaldis is one of the legendary ancient kings of Latvia.  But the Curonians are seen as the great sailors and raiders.

Or this post about the Curonians versus the Crusaders.

A tip of my blogging cap to reader Alexsejs for providing the links.