Monday Overnight Open Thread (5/14/18 )

Quote I

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”― Albert Einstein

Quote II

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quote III

“The difference between genius and stupidity is: genius has its limits.” ― Alexandre Dumas fils

Chris Christie is betting on legalized gambling to fill state coffers.

If you read the Bible, you know that many miracles happened in the Middle East. I can hear a TV Preacher saying "Praise Jesus". Today was no different.

As a moth is drawn to the flame. George Zimmerman is drawn to trouble.

Fifty-five calls, 67 text messages, 36 voicemails and 27 emails in just nine days. That’s what to expect from George Zimmerman if you get on his bad side, according to a Seminole County sheriff’s report obtained by Oxygen.com.

Zimmerman, who was cleared of murder charges for the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin, now faces a misdemeanor stalking charge for allegedly harassing and threatening Dennis Albert Warren, a private investigator, in Seminole County, Florida.

Warren told police he initially contacted Zimmerman in September 2017 to ask if he would participate in a TV documentary about Martin’s death. The film, "Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story," is executive produced by Jay-Z and will air in July.

Zimmerman became incensed, apparently because Warren had visited Zimmerman’s uncle in his home.

“He’s well on his way to the inside of a gator as well. 10-4?” Zimmerman texted to one of the film’s producers in reference to Warren, according to the sheriff's report.

Ahhh the enlightened Europeans of Copenhagen have a public bike system. It's all fun and games until someone hacks into the system.

An unidentified hacker has breached Bycyklen —Copenhagen's city bikes network— and deleted the organization's entire database, disabling the public's access to bicycles over the weekend.

The hack took place on the night between Friday, May 4, and Saturday, May 5, the organization said on its website.

Bycyklen described the hack as "rather primitive," alluding it may have been carried out "by a person with a great deal of knowledge of its IT infrastructure."

One more straw is loaded onto the camel's taxpayer's back. When does the back break?

An audible gasp went out in the breakout room I was in at last month’s pension event cosponsored by The Civic Federation and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. That was when a speaker from the Chicago Fed proposed levying, across the state and in addition to current property taxes, a special property assessment they estimate would be about 1% of actual property value each year for 30 years.

Evidently, that wasn’t reality-shock enough. This week the Chicago Fed published that proposal formally. It’s linked here.

It surely ranks among the most blatantly inhumane and foolish ideas we’ve seen yet.

Homeowners with houses worth $250,000 would pay an additional $2,500 per year in property taxes, those with homes worth $500,000 would pay an additional $5,000, and those with homes worth $1 million would pay an additional $10,000

"Ever Wondered What The 10 Most Cited Sources on Wikipedia Are?" here they are.

Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification, 2,830,341 citations
Prediction of Hydrophobic (Lipophilic) Properties of Small Organic Molecules Using Fragment Methods: An Analysis of AlogP and CLogP Methods, 21,350 citations
The status, quality, and expansion of the NIH full-length cDNA project: the Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC), 20,247 citations
The de Vaucouleurs Atlas of Galaxies, 19,068 citations
The Complete New General Catalogue and Index Catalogues of Nebulae and Star Clusters by J. L. E. Dryer, 19,060 citations
Galaxies and How to Observe Them, 19,058 citations
A Concise History of Romania, 15,597 citations
Catalog of Fishes California Academy of Sciences, 11,980 citations
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, 10,651 citations
National and religious composition of the population of Croatia, 1880–1991: By settlements, 8,230 citations

May 14,1998, American singer and actor Frank Sinatra died at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles aged 82, after suffering a heart attack. Sinatra had his first hit in 1940, working in the Swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1953 film 'From Here to Eternity'. He went on to score over 25 Top 40 singles including the 1966 No.1 'Strangers In The Night'. His 1969 single 'My Way', re-entered the UK charts eight times and spent a total of 165 weeks on the UK chart. via thisdayinmusic.com

May 14, 1979, Born on this day, Dan Auerbach, American guitarist and vocalist for The Black Keys who had the 2014 US No.1 album Turn Blue. via thisdayinmusic.com

Hawaiian residents get more bad news. Scientists warn of new fissures. The volcanic dangers are not over.

Nearly 2,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate, and officials say they may force the evacuation of thousands more. Some residents, however, like Scott Wiggers, who lives in Leilani Estates, have refused to leave. Wiggers' home is just 2 miles from one of the fissures.

"I woke up at about 1 a.m. I heard a roar — and this is 2 miles away — a roar, like a jet engine. I go out, and look out the window, and I see the sky glowing red. I'm seeing this fissure, right before my eyes, open up. A cinder cone being created, and lava spewing in the air, a hundred feet. Where I was standing, and I was standing about 50 yards from that, I could feel the warmth. It was probably 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Then I went down there again, after I got some of my buddies out of bed, and we were standing a little closer, and just the sound, the experience, the ground was shaking."

Money, sex and death. Sometimes it just goes hand in hand.

Jeffrey Dampier was an average guy. He grew up on Chicago’s West Side and worked as a security guard until he won a staggering $20 million in the Illinois state lottery in 1996. After coming into that kind of money, Dampier’s life changed pretty abruptly.

You mean there was going to be an investigation? Ask the Genius Award Winner. h/tredc1c4 IRL

A Germany-based cavalry scout was convicted Wednesday of destruction of government property and making a false official statement for his role in a botched Humvee air drop that destroyed three of the vehicles during an April 2016 training exercise.

A judge found Sgt. John Skipper, who was in charge of verifying that the parachutes were properly rigged, had intentionally cut their straps, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, according to a 7th Army release.

“Skipper was sentenced to a reduction in grade to E-1 and a Bad Conduct Discharge by a court-martial panel consisting of enlisted soldiers and officers,” the release said.

Quota for the month met? Or just a good old fashioned Tonight's Feel Good Story of The Day.

A woman in Richmond, VA, was pulled over for her brake light but she didn't get a ticket, instead she got it fixed on the spot and saved a lot of money in the process.

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by The Dangers of Not Applying Oneself.

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posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:03 PM

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