Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - February 5, 2025 [TRex]

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

This is the Wednesday night ONT.

Notices: As of this writing, TRex has not been placed on administrative leave or been offered a buyout by Ace Enterprises. No USAiD funding was used in the creation of this ONT. Subscriptions to the Wednesday ONT "Pro" editions are available at $10,000 per person. Bulk orders only. Contact the management for details.

Did you notice that Elon Musk's Twitter/X bio now reads "White House Tech Support"?

Musical knowledge:

"Whiskey in the Jar," a song about a notorious Irish highwayman Patrick Fleming who was hanged in 1650, has become one of Ireland's most beloved songs, a true rebel air that stirs the passions.

Fleming was no hero. He murdered, robbed, and maimed rich and poor alike, including women and children before being hunted down. He made a legendary escape from his death cell by scrambling up a chimney but was eventually recaptured. In death, he acquired a heroic air and many poems were written about him.

Historian Alan Lomax says songs of highwaymen attacking the agents of the crown were very popular with Irish and British peasants.

The folk of 17th century Britain liked and admired their local highwaymen, and in Ireland (or Scotland) where the gentlemen of the roads robbed English landlords, they were regarded as national patriots. Such feelings inspired this rollicking ballad. The history of Irelands beloved "Whiskey in the Jar"

The song first gained wide exposure when the Dubliners, an Irish folk band, performed it internationally as a signature song, and recorded it on three albums in the 1960s.

What It Takes To Get This Photo

This is not the food thread, but...

TRex knows you and knows what you are thinking. "Funny, but what is the answer?" Turns out that someone actually did the experiment:

Damn right:

Another business closes in a blue city: The Blue Man Group ends a 34 year run in New York.

Is this really a good idea?

Ozzy Osbourne will reunite with all of the original members of Black Sabbath for the first time in 20 years, in a gig that will be his last and that's being billed as the "greatest" heavy metal show ever, promoters said Wednesday.

The band, one of the most influential of all heavy metal bands, will headline "The Back to the Beginning" show on July 5 at Villa Park, home of the Aston Villa Football Club in Birmingham, England.

Follow up: on the auction of the 1954 Mercedes-Benz W 196 R Stromlinienwagen from the Indianapolis Speedway Museum collection.

Sold for €51,155,000 after buyer's premium.

TRex is a sucker for videos showing how things are made. This one is from Porsche, showing assembly of two different models.

Porsche built a top flight race car in 1999 but pulled the plug as part of the budget implications of the company's pivot to SUVs. The design and engineering team was permitted one private shakedown run with the single car that was built. The car was put away and became the stuff of legend, known only through a handful of fuzzy photos passed around the interweb. Porsche refused to acknowledge the car or show the car for years.

Over time, the car gradually emerged from the shadows. Porsche undertook an effort to get the car running for its 25 year anniversary. It is a true unicorn. Here is LMP2000 (internal code 9R3):

For no reason other than because we can:

To put and end to the relentless questions "TRex, where and when are the World Stone Skimming championships held?" Every September, Easdale Island in Scotland is the place to be.

Apparently the place is a pile of slate which means lots of flat round rocks which are perfect for skipping across the water.

In other breaking news, Scotland has no intention to ban cats, despite online rumors.

The concerns were prompted by media coverage of a report for the Scottish government by the independent Scottish Animal Welfare Commission, which published its recommendations on responsible domestic cat ownership last Monday.

Among its proposals, which included encouraging vaccination and neutering, the report also suggested that consideration be given to "containing" cat ownership in certain rural areas that were also home to red-listed bird species. It is estimated that domestic cats kill 27 million birds in the UK each year.

Wait a minute. A commission in Scotland produced a report on "responsible domestic cat ownership?" Yep. 56 pages worth. You will be relieved to know that the report currently does not "recommend making it compulsory to neuter all owned cats." But "[t]his option will be kept under review by SAWC, in order to take into account of future research into alternatives to surgical castration, such as chemical implants."

Like every other good online conspiracy theory, this one looks more true than false.

Did not originally intend for this to be a recurring theme, but here we are:

Eat what you want, but why is eating metal a thing for the Guinness Book of World Records?

Speaking of metal, live Metallica with Whisky in the Jar for a big ONT finish:

Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Are you lurking? Come out and play. TRex loves it when a plan comes together.

posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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