Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - January 1, 2025 [TRex]

"Its tough to make predictions, especially about the future." Yogi Berra

Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the overnight variety.

This is the Wednesday night ONT.

This is the official Ace of Spades ONT 2025 Prediction Challenge.

Two quizzes are below. Look into your crystal ball and respond to one or both. One asks for predictions of numbers, prices, or amounts at the end of 2025. (The objective is to get closest, so over or under are OK. No Price is Right rules.) The other asks whether an event will or will not happen in 2025. If you are going to participate in one or both, please attempt all the questions. TRex is not going to dig through comments to pick out single question guesses.

TRex will keep track of submissions and judge them accordingly. The best will receive accolades in January 2026. Scoring and tie breakers will be determined by opaque, arbitrary and otherwise discretionary means. Yes, this means that participants must wait an entire YEAR for results, but think of the bragging rights! Remember: predictions are not what you WANT the result to be but rather what you think the result WILL be. Even if you have no idea, make some guesses and play along. It costs you nothing.

AoSHQ etiquette frowns on posting comments on old threads. Post here within 24 hours or send an email to the address below by Friday, January 3, 2025 at 6pm Eastern Time.

Predict what numbers these will be as of December 31, 2025 (numerical response):

1) Price of 9mm ammo per round (as determined by daily average best price on Black Basin, currently $0.13).

2) National average price per gallon of regular gasoline (as determined by AAA, currently $3.043)

3) S&P 500 level (as determined by S&P, Dec 31 2024 close was 5881.63)

4) Euro to Dollar Exchange Rate (midmarket rate at 4pm ET as determined by XE.com, currently 1.0356)

5) Price of a single 2X4X8 premium grade piece of lumber (reference is the price at the Home Depot nearest to TRex home, currently $3.85 each)

6) Starting MSRP price of the most base level Ford F150 pick up truck (as shown on Ford build configuration website, currently $38,710)

7) Price of Bitcoin in USD at 4pm ET on Dec 31 (as shown on Coinbase website, 93,444.11 was price on Dec 31, 2024)

8 ) Price of a share of Smith & Wesson stock at market close (Dec 31 2024 price was 10.11)

9) Price of a share of Telsa stock at market close (Dec 31 2024 price was 403.84)

10) Price of a share of Home Depot stock at market close (Dec 31 2024 price was 388.99)

Predict whether these events will happen by the end of 2025 (Yes or No response):

1) A federal decision to eliminate Daylight Savings Time and make Standard Time permanent is made (but not necessarily implemented yet).

2) At least one currently sitting US Supreme Court justice leaves the bench (not just announced but actually steps down).

3) Iran supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leaves offices (by any means: death, retirement, coup, etc.) or announces he is stepping down.

4) Justin Trudeau steps down as Prime Minister of Canada (actually leaves office).

5) Substantially all of the JFK assassination files are declassified and files are released or in process of being released.

6) Most of the Epstein client list is released.

7) Most of the Diddy list is released.

8 ) SpaceX makes more than 18 Starship launches (defined as launches that clear the tower regardless of eventual success or failure).

9) A decision to remove federal funding for either NPR or PBS is made through legislation or through executive action (but not necessarily implemented yet).

10) RFK is confirmed as head of HHS and remains in office.

Submissions should look like this (random responses below for illustration purposes, not actual predictions):

1) Yes
2) No
3) No
4) Yes
5) Yes
6) No
7) No
8 ) Yes
9) Yes
10) Yes

Good luck!

Some choose to focus on Pasadena on the first day of the year for the Rose Parade or Rose Bow game. Those are nice, but the main events are clearly are the B2 flyovers (since this is a smart military blog). The Air Force brings two B2s from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. The visit to Pasadena serves as a training exercise.

Typically, one bird flies over the parade and the other flies over the game. Before each, both circle above the Angeles National Forest just north of Los Angles and (mostly) out of sight. If you know where to look or you venture into the mountains, you get the rare sight of two B2s circulating together at low altitude in a racetrack pattern. For 2025, the Spirit of Missouri (callsign SPIRIT 25) did the parade and the Spirit of Nebraska (callsign SPIRIT22) did the game.

Photographer Mark Holtzman has made a specialty of getting shots above the festivities looking down. His Twitter handle is @westcoastaerial.

P'Nut, is that you? If you believe in squirrel reincarnation:

A photographer has described his shock after coming across a rare albino squirrel while getting ready for a golf lesson.

Albino squirrels are a one in 100,000 genetic occurrence and some reports claim there are about 50 in the United Kingdom.

The incredibly rare squirrel, which is a colour variant the Eastern Gray Squirrel, was photographed by a golfer on a golf course in between Colchester and Maldon.

In case you missed it: Oldest living survivor of Pearl Harbor attack dies at 105

Upton was the last remaining survivor of the USS Utah. After Uptons death, just 15 survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack are alive.

Trailcam photos taken before the last AoSHQ Staff meeting:

The Red Hot Chili Pipers provide a Celtic rock take on Auld Lang Syne:

PIPERS, not PEPPERS.

For those country music fans among the Horde (no, this is not a sad sappy song):

Molly Hatchet for the big ONT finish:

Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Are you lurking? Come out and play. TRex confidently predicts that "Imagine" by John Lennon will never be played on an ONT hosted by TRex.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:55 PM

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