Bag of Randomness for Thursday, August 20, 2020

Yesterday was the first day of school for BoyGeeding and DaughterGeeding. Even for online learning, they have to abide by the dress code rules of at least wearing the top of their uniforms.

Last week I had to take the kids up to school for a meet the teacher event. It was a well-organized event with assigned meeting times. We arrived on time, in the middle of a 107° afternoon. Outside was the assistant headmaster controlling the flow of traffic of parents and students entering the building and keeping six feet apart. But I question the man’s sanity as he was wearing a sweater vest. I mean, I understand wearing a tie and being professional, but dude, it’s August in Texas and you are working outside. And get this, he’s from Canada, you’d think he’d melt like a popsicle.

Speaking of Popsicles, CBS Sunday Morning had a segment on the history of the frozen treat. It was invented by Frank Epperson who patented it in 1924. He called it ‘Ep-sicle’. ‘Ep’ for Epperson and ‘sicle’ because it looked like an icicle.

But his four-year-old son George came up with a catchier name: “He ran up and he put his arms around his father’s leg and he said, ‘Pop, pop, can I have a ‘sicle? I want a popsicle!'”

I thought the background used for Kamala Harris’ speech was pretty cool looking. And when she referenced poll workers, I turned to WifeGeeding and said, “Poll workers should not be confused with pole workers.”

Boredoom is the perfect term for the crushing mix of boredom and anxiety in 2020

It’s defined by a 2009 Urban Dictionary entry as “doomed by boredom.” But I think we can all agree that’s not our current fate. A more recent entry from March 30, 2020 (near the start of the coronavirus era) defines the term as “the intense feeling of boredom resulting from sheltering in place during an emergency.” Closer. But in my mind, boredoom is simply the state of feeling numb and restless while things around you seem hopeless. And if that doesn’t scream “2020,” then I don’t know what does.

The Guardian has an article about a study that found Facebook funneling readers towards COVID misinformation.

Researchers Were Able to Duplicate Keys from the Sounds They Make in Locks

Researchers have demonstrated that they can make a working 3D-printed copy of a key just by listening to how the key sounds when inserted into a lock. And you don’t need a fancy mic — a smartphone or smart doorbell will do nicely if you can get it close enough to the lock.

The inventor will probably go on to create Skynet.

Robots can now store energy like humans in ‘fat reserves’ after battery breakthrough – Zinc batteries that integrate with robot’s structure ‘do double duty of storing charge and protecting the robot’s organs,’ researchers say

The perspective or scale of objects this video is interesting. These logs are huge, but they look like toothpicks and the humans look like ants.

Do not allow them to take away your power.

https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1296199761146642432

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Bag of Randomness for Wednesday, August 19, 2020

For reasons unknown to the whole family except for WifeGeeding, during the middle of supper, she decided to take out her prosthetic-eye and place it on top of the watermelon. We all thought it was pretty out of place but pretty funny. She finished dinner eye-less, which is probably something you can’t write about your wife. And yes, that’s a smiley face on it, it’s not visible when it’s in her ocular cavity. Usually, she has her initials in that place, but her ocularist opted for a smiley face last time.

I could do without ever seeing another Uber Eats commercial again. I hope to never hear Return of the Mack ever again.

I haven’t spent much time researching it, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo of President Trump with his sleeves rolled up. He prefers to wear a polo type shirt in those type of situations.

This sentence took me a little while to process: An Alabama man who calls himself a witch has been charged with kidnapping the toddler son of a missing Georgia woman, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

This sentence also took me a little while to process: An Arkansas farmer disguised himself as a woman to sneak into a cemetery and deface the grave of his longtime nemesis with animal carcasses, police say

Lego piece falls out of New Zealand boy’s nose after being stuck for two years – Sameer Anwar’s parents thought the lost piece of Lego was long gone – until their son took a great big sniff of a plate of cupcakes

Yet another story which reminds me of The Simpsons episode in which homer stuck a crayon in his nose when he was a kid.

I wonder if Jaws is her favorite movie.

Michigan governor caught on hot mic: ‘It’s shark week mother f******’

Just a new form of window shopping?

Berlin brothels reopen after lockdown, but no sex allowed

To save you a click, massages are allowed.

I’m reminded of a certain Wheel of Fortune segment on a South Park episode.

Charlotte Hornets suspend radio announcer who tweeted N-word instead of ‘Nuggets’

Don’t watch this, I repeat, do not watch this YouTube clip if you are easily offended, marginally offended, know nothing about South Park, or do not like South Park humor.

Budweiser wants to be Utah’s official state beer, suggests can with Delicate Arch and LDS temple

How the US government built a top-secret iPod right under Steve Jobs’ nose –
Only four people at Apple knew about the project at the time

For a period of time starting in 2005, Apple allowed two US government contractors to work in its offices to develop a custom version of the iPod — but exactly what that iPod would do was a mystery, and remains so today, as shared in this fascinating story by former iPod engineer David Shayer that you should go read.

This Historic House For Sale In Missouri Comes With Its Very Own Jail

Listed for $350,000, the 2,465-square-foot home has two bedrooms, two baths and — what’s this about picture #30? — a secret prison.

According to House of Brokers Realty, hidden away inside 203 E. Morrison is the former Howard County jailhouse, originally established in 1875. It’s equipped with nine cells, a booking room and a toilet.

“The cell door lock throws appear to be operational,” reads the ominous caption of the property listing.

America Has Two Feet. It’s About to Lose One of Them. – For decades, U.S. metrologists have juggled two conflicting measurements for the foot. Henceforth, only one shall rule.

How big is a foot? In the United States, that depends on which of the two official foot measurements you are talking about. If it comes as a surprise that there are two feet, how about this: One of those feet is about to go away.

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Bag of Randomness for Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Random childhood memory – Watching the television glitch right when mom would turn the vacuum cleaner on.

I read this on the internet so I guess it must be true, but in the English language, “dreamt” is the only word that ends with “mt”.

I mentioned I bought an ice-maker as a birthday present for WifeGeeding. It’s the kind which makes that small nugget ice, like the kind you get at Sonic. For the last three Mondays, I’ve been putting that ice in our Ninja blender and been making margaritas for her. I’ve been playing the part of a 1950s housewife. As soon as WifeGeeding makes it in the garage, I greet her with the margarita and take her purse and bookbag and carry them inside.

If I’m looking to buy a product but know nothing about how to go about it, I like to go to Wirecutter from the New York Times. Unlike Consumer Reports, Wirecutter is free and provides basically the same service. I’m currently looking for a UPS system, basically, a battery backup to keep my PC running as well as my modem and Wi-Fi router in the event of a power outage. I know nothing about how to buy one and don’t have an idea on how to compare one feature to another, but Wirecutter does all that and then provides recommendations, breaking them down from their preferred, runner-up, upgrade, and budget picks. They also go into detail on how they did their testing, care and maintenance, looking at the competitors, and cite their sources. I promise I’m not being paid for this, I just wanted to share a service I really liked. The last time I used it was when I went looking for that nugget ice-maker for WifeGeeding.

Air Force One Was Nearly Hit by a Small Drone Sunday, Witnesses Say

President Donald Trump’s jet was nearly hit by what appeared to be a small drone as it approached an air base near Washington Sunday night, according to several people aboard Air Force One.

The device, which was yellow and black and shaped like a cross, was off the right side of the plane. It was seen by several passengers on the jet, shortly before it touched down at 5:54 p.m. at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

My money is on either Joe Exotic or Bill Cosby.

A Minnesota man sold the 1957 Chevy pickup he drove for 44 years for $75, the same price he paid decades ago. – Bob Sportal of Prinsburg handed over the key last month to the grandson of the man he bought the truck from

Back in June, 60 Minutes had a story on how college campuses are planning to open for the fall semester with regards to COVID-19. Most of the segment focused on North Carolina who wanted to set an example on how on-campus classes would work during this pandemic. For example, they stated two dormitories will be set aside to quarantine students, they would be looking for clusters, requiring masks, and starting the semester early so it ends by Thanksgiving. All of that came to mind yesterday when I saw this headline – UNC-Chapel Hill reverses plans for in-person classes after 130 students test positive for Covid-19

This story reminded me of a story I saw either on WFAA or CBS11 on twin brother football players who have committed to play ball at Oklahoma State. One of them stated they chose OSU because of the high concern of safety they have on their players in regards to COVID-19. That boggled my mind considering their head coach had to apologize for these comments back in April.

“In my opinion, if we have to bring our players back, test ‘em. They’re in good shape, they’re all 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 years old, they’re healthy. A lot of them can fight it off with their natural body, the antibodies and build that they have. There’s some people that are asymptomatic.

“If that’s true, then yeah, we sequester ‘em. And people say, ‘That’s crazy.’ No, it’s not crazy, because we need to continue to budget and run money through the state of Oklahoma.”

I continue to firmly believe that supporters of President Trump only do so because he easily upsets and riles up the opposition. They love what he says, factual or not, and don’t care what he does, it doesn’t matter if it harms the country or not, they will embrace him. That in itself doesn’t bother me, what bothers me are elected representatives in his party who won’t hold him accountable and encourage his behavior. Thankfully the Lincoln Project is trying to do something about it. Since they are members of the GOP I disagree with them a lot politically, but I sure do respect and honor them. At least their hearts are in the right place.

I only had a general idea of who Jeffery Epstein was and his illegal activities with underaged girls, and got a kick out of all the social media theories about him and his “suicide”. But it wasn’t until I watched the first episode of the Netflix documentary on him on how crazy, demented, and powerful he was. Holy cow!

This man with missing fingers made a prosthetic quarter-inch impact driver.

This is a prosthetic device I designed and fabricated in conjunction with my DIY prosthetic socket series of videos. It is a Milwaukee 1/4″ impact driver that I modified and mounted onto a partial hand prosthetic socket.

Harrison Ford deep-faked into Solo: A Star Wars Story

 

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Bag of Randomness for Monday, August 17, 2020

15-years-ago this past Saturday I made my first post to this website.

Have you ever heard of the PEADs – presidential emergency action documents? I haven’t either, but when somebody like the venerable Ted Koppel does a story on them, I pay attention. Believe it or not, it gives the president the power to suspend the Constitution. I know that sounds like the script to some Hollywood movie, but don’t be surprised if you hear about them in the near future. Consider this, back in March, President Trump stated, “I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about.” This must have been what he was referring to.

“They originated in the Eisenhower administration as part of an effort to try to plan for a potential Soviet nuclear attack,” Goitein said. “But since then, they’ve expanded to address other types of emergencies as well. No presidential emergency action document has even been released, or even leaked. Not even Congress has access to them, which is really pretty extraordinary when you consider that even the most highly-classified covert military and intelligence operations have to be reported to at least eight Members of Congress, the ‘Gang of Eight.'”

“Congress is not aware of these documents, and from public sources we know that at least in the past these documents have purported to do things that are not permitted by the Constitution – things like martial law and the suspension of habeas corpus and the roundup and detention of people not suspected of any crime.”

“Congress is not aware of these documents, and from public sources we know that at least in the past these documents have purported to do things that are not permitted by the Constitution – things like martial law and the suspension of habeas corpus and the roundup and detention of people not suspected of any crime.”

If I had a Mount Rushmore for people I find most interesting, Bob Ballard would have to be in consideration.

Speaking of Mount Rushmore, WifeGeeding moved into a new classroom. The previous teacher left at the very top of one of the walls single-hung portraits of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Donald Trump. WifeGeeding never touched them because there were too high up and never bothered to get a ladder or request any help in moving or rearranging them. Actually, to her, it was one of those things she never thought twice about and just left it. But, I jovially mocked her with the somewhat recent news of Trump looking into adding his face to the monument, some parents may think it’s her subtle way of living a MAGA lifestyle.

This happened yesterday, the First Lady doesn’t want to hold hands going down the ramp.

At first, I thought online learning got a whole lot more interesting but then found out it’s a male teacher and I lost all interest in the story.

San Jose teacher suspended after appearing topless in online class

Teen’s lemonade stand robbed at gunpoint over $30

This story is a bit of an oxymoron – Indicted former Ohio House Speaker will remain on ethics panel

This is an interesting drill out of Cowboys training camp.

This twitter account has been posting old random at-bats and I’ve been loving it.

I always loved Steve Carlton’s pitching style. I don’t watch a lot of baseball but it seems like modern-day pitchers don’t have a unique or signature style, they all look the same.

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