The Strength Of Ace Of Spades Is The ONT, And The ONT Is The Strength Of Ace Of Spades

Welcome back my friends, to the ONT! We've made some technological improvements. Not with the servers, but in the server room.

A Death In The Family

The Queen passed away today. As an American, the concept of a Monarchy is foreign to me, but the British are our cousins, and they have suffered a grievous loss. Queen Elizabeth II was a monumental figure. The longest serving monarch in UK history, she was as constant as the northern star, and provided a moral compass throughout her reign, from the post war rebuilding, through the cold war, the tabloidazation of the British press, familial scandals and into the internet age. On the occasion of her Silver Jubilee, she said the following:

"When I was 21, I pledged my life to the service of our people and I asked for God's help to make good that vow. Although that vow was made in my salad days, when I was green in judgement, I do not regret, or retract, one word of it.

I'd say she succeded.

As I mentioned, I'm an American. I can NOT hear this song without hearing the words to My Country 'Tis Of Thee, either in my head or, if I'm alone, out loud. That's how I learned it as a child, and that's how it stuck. Today, in Her Majesty's honor, I'm sticking to the original.

God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the Queen!

How could I not? She did it for us:

Godspeed, Your Majesty

Speaking Of The UK

This may be the single most terrifying headline that I've ever encountered:

Spiders blamed after broken siren played creepy nursery rhymes randomly at night to UK townsfolk

It happened in Ipswich.

A tormented mother living in Bramford Road with her two young children has been woken on an almost nightly basis by a tinny, distant rendition of 'It's Raining, It's Pouring'. She said the threatening undertone of the song had left her frightened and questioning whether she was imagining things. After months of torment, she finally reported the unusual complaint to Ipswich Borough Council.

There's video at the link. Craziest part is, the recording was being used by an industrial property as a deterrent against thieves. It was set to play over the loudspeakers if someone tripped the motion detectors. I want to know what creepy genius thought that one up! It would scare the crap out of me! In any event, they had the volume up enough so that it was audible outside the grounds of their property, and the motion detectors were so sensitive that spiders walking by tripped the alarm.

A Smart Military Blog

The Five Worst Light Machine Guns

Anyone care to guess #1? Oh come on, you know. The Chauchat! From the fact that it was manufactured by a bicycle maker with very loose tolerances to the open-sided semi-circular magazine, the Chauchat is always #1 on lists like these. I would love to have one, but only as a collector's item, certainly not as a usable weapon.

Related: The Worst Small Arms of World War II

It's The Sun's Fault

Scientists Uncover a Surprising Connection Between Appetite and Sun Exposure

This is interesting, but we all know it's completely impossible because men and women are exactly the same.

According to recent research from Tel Aviv University, exposure to the sun makes men more hungry but not women. The research, which was conducted using lab models, reveals how the metabolic mechanism is activated differently in men and women. According to the researchers, sun exposure in males of both animal species and humans triggers a protein called p53 to repair any DNA damage that may have been done to the skin as a result of the exposure.

Ghrelin, a hormone that increases hunger, is produced by the body in response to the activation of p53. The hormone estrogen prevents the interaction of p53 with ghrelin in females, which prevents the urge to eat after exposure to the sun.

I'm not fat, I'm just well tanned! Maybe this explains why there are so many skinny little fembois running around.

Best Channel On YouTube

The History Guy

I'm really not one who gets caught up on Youtube and spends hours watching videos, but if I was, I'd spend a lot of time here. This guy covers everything, from Barbecue to Rudyard Kipling to many, many military topics like Tank Battles of the Dominican Civil War. Be warned: If you are the Youtube type, it's easy to get lost in his channel and not realize it until the light from the dawn's sun breaks through your window.

I got distracted and watched the linked episode on Kipling in the middle of writing the ONT. I did not know that the happiest years of his life, where he wrote some of his most famous works like The Jungle Book and Just So Stories, were spent in Brattleboro, Vt. Boy, the quality of writing out of that place has sure gone downhill.

A Look At The Future

Colorado Residents Locked Out of Their Thermostats on a Hot Day

Temperatures climbed into the 90s Tuesday, which is why Tony Talarico tried to crank up the air conditioning in his partner’s Arvada home.

“I mean, it was 90 out, and it was right during the peak period,” Talarico said. “It was hot.”
That’s when he saw a message on the thermostat stating the temperature was locked due to an “energy emergency.”
“Normally, when we see a message like that, we’re able to override it,” Talarico said. “In this case, we weren’t. So, our thermostat was locked in at 78 or 79.”
On social media, dozens of Xcel customers complained of similar experiences — some reporting home temperatures as high as 88 degrees.

Despite chuckling in Texan at a Coloradan's idea of a “hot” day, this article underscores an alarming trend in the modern world. People are surprisingly willing to give up control of their life and possession of their goods for convenience or for a small emolument. I tell my son all the time that he doesn't “own” any of the games he buys on services like Steam, but he doesn't get it. Those Kindle books you “own” aren't yours either, nor are all of the features of that nice new BMW. We're relinquishing control over our lives to a third party, and exchanging tangible goods for subscription services that are only provided at the whim of the provider. And what do you call people who do not control their world or own their goods, but instead are granted access to them at the behest of a more powerful entity? I'll give you a hint. Back in the 80s I was a pretty big Star Trek nerd. I read all of the books, and in one of them, it might have been The Final Reflection by John M Ford, it is revealed that the deadliest insult to a Klingon is (something, I never got so far into it that I wanted to “learn” Klingon words). The word translated as “willing slave”.

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by priorities:

(Pretty sure this is based on a true story)

posted by WeirdDave at 10:00 PM

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