Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - February 12, 2025 [TRex]

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

This is the Wednesday night ONT.

Looking for a perfect Valentine's Day present? The ONT has you covered.

In exchange for a $10 donation, the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee will send you a digital card of your choice. The "Dating or Dumping" promotion offers either a video of an adorable red panda munching on a grape or a stinky video of an elephant poop hitting the pile.

The elephant poop cards might be appropriate for a wide range of people. The zoo has suggestions:

Maybe it's your annoying neighbor, overbearing mother-in-law, your ex, or that coworker who still gives you nightmares. This Valentine's, let an elephant do the talking and name a turd after a turd.

May not be the best Valentine's Day present in history, but seems like a solid number 2.

Because we can:

Well done, Kansas farmers:

This is not the food thread or the pet thread, but it fits in the ONT:

Truth:

JCPenny made hand tools? Knew they distributed tools under the Penncraft brand, but never knew that they sold tools with JCPenny branding. Apparently stopped in the mid 1980s. Who knew?

Yes, that is the International Space Station transiting across the face of the moon. Wow.

Full credit to Andrew McCarthy on X (@AJamesMcCarthy)

Updated map of future store locations in the middle east:

Come on Germany. You are better than this.

TRex sentences all of you to a week's worth of Rammstein concerts.

SpaceX launches and landings have become common. But it was not always so. Looks at the dates on this video of crashes and failures on the road to success.

Make eating beaver great again. From Minnesota: MN senator wants to make it legal to eat beavers again

Eating nuisance beavers was legal until the law was changed in 2024 as part of the environment omnibus bill.

The change was questioned by Senator Steve Green (R-Fosston) who couldn't understand it. Senator Foung Hawj (DFL-Saint Paul) indicated there were concerns about the potential for disease or parasite contraction from eating a rodent and a lack of research on the safety of eating beavers.

"I'm still not sure why it's in [the bill]," said Sen. Green. "I can tell you that even though I personally don't go out and trap beavers to eat them, I have eaten them. It is pretty good, but it is a rodent and I have a hard time getting past that. But I do know a lot of people that do consume beaver and I think it's a little problematic that we're making it a crime."

Responding to questions on how to enforce the law, Senator Hawj said lawmakers would leave it up to residents and the "honor system."

It's worth noting the ban strangely only appears to apply to nuisance beavers. Beavers trapped otherwise are still fair game.

[O]n the Senate floor last year, Senator Justin Eichorn (R-Grand Rapids) mentioned that beavers are referred to as "nature's chicken nuggets."

News you can use. If you find a 525 pound bear under your house, that bear is likely too fat to tranquilize. What do you do? In Altadena, California:

They went to Stater Bros. and bought some rotisserie chicken and sardines and tomato sauce, apples and peanut butter, all kinds of stuff. They made a feast for him.

The food worked like a charm and within minutes of placing the trap, the bear emerged from underneath the house and walked in and triggered the trap door.

The bear was tagged and later released into the forest.

Sing it Toby:

Did not originally intend for this to be a recurring theme, but here we are. Why is this something that warrants a world record?

Another recent one was the longest beard and mustache for a female. Congrats? I guess?

2,189 Miles, 40 Days, and 3 Showers: How Tara Dower Destroyed the Appalachian Trail Speed Record

Good for you and congratulations, but speed really is not the point of the Appalachian Trail, is it?

While navigating notoriously difficult sections on rocky terrain with a total vertical gain of 465,000 feet, Dower ran and hiked an average of 54 miles each day with consistent support from her mom, Debby Komlo, and friend Megan Wilmarth, in addition to volunteers who paced her through different sections.

Her days began with a 3 a.m. alarm (usually from a tent close to the trail) followed by a quick breakfast. After taping blisters and sores on her feet, she set off in the dark around 3:30 a.m. For the next 17 hours or so, Dower only stopped for a couple of short breaks for meals, 90-second "dirt naps," and pacers rotating in and out until 8:30-9:30 p.m.

Impressive, but if she wanted an easier way to set a record of some sort, she could have tried frisbee golf. Not sure about the beard thing though...

Blondie for a big ONT finish:

Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Are you lurking? Come out and play. TRex is not currently subject to any Temporary Restraining Orders.

posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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