Bag of Randomness for Friday, March 25, 2022

  • I thought I’ve seen every Michael Jordan photo there is, but this is the first I’ve seen of this one. It’s an amazing one, look at how high he is and he has to protect himself from hitting the backboard.
  • I haven’t watched a lot of March Madness, but the basketball looked like it is a brighter orange.
  • Sometimes a random thought will run across my mind and just stop me down. That happened yesterday, when, for some reason, it occurred to me it may be a normal thing for college students to write an entire paper on their mobile phone. Then, I thought about how I would utilize a smart phone in college. Like, if I got somewhere early and had 15-minutes to kill, would I take advantage of the technology on my phone and get some homework or studying done?
  • I helped a fellow parent yesterday by watching her child after school, taking him to soccer practice with my son, and then to his home. When I dropped him off and visited their lovely home, I became profoundly sad, but tried to not show it on the outside. Maybe it was jealousy or envy, I’m not sure. But everything seemed perfect for them, a complete family unit in a nice house. It made me mourn what I had and what was unexpectedly taken from me. At least I tried to enjoy and cherish it while it lasted. When you lose your parents early in life, as well as your best friend, you tend to take things in more so than the average person. The mother was visiting her father in the hospital, who had a heart procedure. I shared how my father had an unexpected heart ailment three days before I graduated high school, and thanks to a pacemaker, I got four borrowed years. And, in those four years, I tried to soak in and take advantage of every moment possible. It then reminded me about last Father’s Day. Initially, my ex wasn’t going to allow me to see our children that day until I begged and she gave in and allowed me to have breakfast with them before she took them to her parent’s house. She tried to reason that I didn’t get to visit my father on every Father’s Day, so I shouldn’t be making a big deal about not being able to see my kids on that day. That really bothered me because I came home from college for every Father’s Day. She never met my father and had no idea if I spend every one of those special days with him or not.
  • Paralyzed Man Speaks First Words with Brain Implant, ‘I Want a Beer’
  • Microplastics found in human blood for first time
    • Microplastic pollution has been detected in human blood for the first time, with scientists finding the tiny particles in almost 80% of the people tested.The discovery shows the particles can travel around the body and may lodge in organs. The impact on health is as yet unknown. But researchers are concerned as microplastics cause damage to human cells in the laboratory and air pollution particles are already known to enter the body and cause millions of early deaths a year.
  • This is some amazing footage which happened in our area, and this guy is indebted to his friend for life. It happened in 2014, first written about in April 2020, and the first I’ve seen of it was yesterday. The professional skydiver wearing the helmet camera that recorded the footage didn’t post it because the jumper involved didn’t want his family to see what kind of danger he’d been in.  You’ll see a skydiver get knocked out by a another one who collides with him at the 0:50 mark, and another friend pulls a Point Break maneuver and pulls his unconscious friend’s chute open at the 1:09 mark, saving his life. Here’s an article about it. Here’s another writeup and a video from another perspective.
    • The save: The hit obviously had knocked him unconscious. I immediately go to my back and start to drive at the jumper who who was hit. He was in a flat spin on his back. The only thought I remember having was “Get there.” I then transition to my belly, and use all the surface area I could to fly over to him. I stop his spin, and tried to roll him over to his belly to no avail. (Apparently roll overs are easier when they’re awake.) At 5,000 feet I make the decision to pull his reserve. My logic behind the decision of pulling his reserve, rather than his main, is that the reserve is designed to open and land more docile than a typical main parachute. If he fell all the way until his AAD fired —he would be under a reserve anyway, but with 4,000 less feet of altitude to regain consciousness. I then got down to the ground as fast as I could, so that I could notify someone to call 911.The aftermath:The KO’d jumper regained consciousness under his reserve, and somehow flew a text book student pattern. He landed like a sack of potatoes in the main landing area. The other jumper landed safely in the main as well. Everyone walked away that day. Some with a bruised ego, some with a bruised face.

  • Florida: Mission Everglades has a unique interactive experience with their animals. Here’s an old YouTube clip about it.
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Bag of Randomness for Thursday, March 24, 2022

  • Nice timing – Yesterday, the observatory in Flagstaff, AZ I took the kids to last week was mentioned in DaughterGeeding’s science class.
  • This divorce has taken a toll on our children’s innocence and adolescence. I wish there was a better way I could co-parent with their mother, but she’s more into the state pushed brand of parallel parenting in which parents never cross paths on anything. It’s like that Geico commercial, it’s all about “Staying in your lane, bro.”
  • How to Tell Which Emails Quietly Track You
    • A tracking pixel, embedded somewhere in the email, is how most people monitor whether an email gets opened. Once the tiny, hidden single-pixel image is loaded, it reports back to base. Their use across emails is now up to “endemic” levels according to some experts. Tracking pixels can report the times and dates their associated email was opened, as well as the location of the device used, and the email client involved. That’s a lot of data to feed back to a third-party that you might not know much about.
  • This 3D billboard is pretty cool. Here’s what it looks like from other angles. And yes, I agree that we should see a Back to the Future II Jaws reference.

 

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Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, March 23, 2022

https://twitter.com/ScotPilie_Wx/status/1506447111658868753

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Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, March 22, 2022

  • I felt like a stud taking my kids to the batting cages the other morning and having a few series of at-bats for myself. The next morning, I felt like a 94-year-old arthritic man. I think that was the first time I’ve visited the batting cage since my spinal fusion.
  • That was an interesting storm that went through Texas yesterday. I can’t recall ever seeing a storm system so slim, long, and cover so much of our state at once. All those transplants from California and Illinois just experienced their first Texas thunder storm and tornado warning. But hey, we freak out when we feel a minor earthquake or get some snow.
  • When I took the kids to the Grand Canyon last week for spring break, I planned for the dogs to be boarded. However, even though they were up to date on their rabies shots, the facility required two additional. In a pinch, I called an old neighbor to see if he could help me out. Without hesitation, he said he’d take care of it. I also had a doctor’s appointment yesterday, which left me unable to drive myself home, and he was kind enough to drive through that crazy storm to pick me up and take me home. I tried to give him a hundred dollars for each day he watched the dogs. He drove across town three times a day to let them out and feed them, and he paid me something similar went he and his family went on vacation years ago to care after his black lab. As much as I tried, he refused to take the money, saying it just felt good to know he was just able to do a nice thing and help a friend out.
  • I recently read a pleasant story about Lou Gehrig’s wife nursing him as his youthful body succumbed to that devastating disease later named after him. It made me think of an older couple at my church. The wife is suffering from a debilitating disease, yet her husband is always by her side. Both instances reminded me of a conversation I once had with my ex in which I told her that should something like that happen to me, I have a feeling she’d be so overwhelmed she leave me. She was aghast. I guess I was more right than I thought. She wouldn’t even go to a single marital counseling session to keep our family together. Well, she certainly wouldn’t have the fortitude to care for an ailing spouse. I suppose I dodged a bullet, especially if I end up withering away from a debilitating disease. The fear of going at it alone is outweighs the fear of her possibly leaving when the going gets rough.
  • I’m still surprised about ESPN’s John Clayton’s death.
  • Maybe it was snowing, and he needed to get to Cancun, but I didn’t know as passengers, senators get special treatment – Police ‘asked to assist’ after Cruz clashes with Montana airport staff
    • “One of our Public Safety Officers was in the ticket lobby and was asked to assist with a frustrated passenger at the United ticket counter (which is not unusual),” Humphrey told Daily Mail. “Once travel options were explained to the passenger, he was rebooked and departed Bozeman later that evening. Our PSO didn’t realize he was dealing with Senator Ted Cruz until after the fact.”
  • According to Bloomberg’s Steven Dennis, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who has been in political office since 1959, will be 89 on Election Day this year and is seeking another 6-year term. Fun fact: Grassley has been in political office for more than a quarter of the time since the Declaration of Independence.
  • Jim Caviezel Emulates ‘Braveheart’ Speech to Cheering Crowd at QAnon Convention
  • It sounds like Sarah Palin may run for public office again. I always get a kick out of my Alaskan friend, who always spells the former governor’s name “Sara”. She says Palin doesn’t deserve her whole name spelled out because she didn’t serve her whole term by stepping down early.
  • I thought this show has been off the year for decades – ‘Maury’ To End After Three Decades: NBCUniversal Confirms Host’s “Bittersweet” Retirement

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