Monday Overnight Open Thread - May 5, 2025 [Doof]

Hola, los Hordelingos! Gracias por visitar el ONT de esta noche. Por favor, compartan muchos comentarios.

Other Mexico Content

Nothing to do with today's date. Mexico related, nonetheless.

Perpetually-Smiling Endangered Amphibian Now Thrives in Artificial Wetlands in Mexico City

In Mexico, a captive-breeding program for one of the world’s most endangered amphibians has successfully released 18 individuals into suitable habitat.

The scientists behind the project found that all 18 survived after being recaptured, and even gained weight and made friends with each other, offering hope that if enough habitat can be found, this wild and weird amphibian will take care of itself.

South America has many native and charismatic species who became endangered from poaching and habitat loss, but the axolotl suffered from a different history.

It was likely already endangered over 300 years ago, when the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs concluded and the lakes which underfed the area now called Mexico City were drained by the conquerors.

Those semi-underground lakes were the secret refuges of this bizarre salamander, which today is considered Critically-Endangered by the IUCN. That’s a slight exaggeration, though, because as one of the most fascinating species on Earth, the axolotl is found in aquariums around the world by the tens of thousands.

Like the octopus or platypus, there’s just nothing quite like the axolotl—perhaps why the Aztecs, who nonetheless ate them regularly, considered them the offspring of the fire god.

***

Mexico City is a megalopolis, and the murky waters of the five ancient and sacred spring-fed lakes where the axolotl live have a long road to recovery themselves. The scientists have showed though that if time is taken to provide even just a little help—they installed natural water filters in the artificial quarry wetland to clean the water—this little, perpetually-smiling fire god can continue on.

“If we can restore this [wetland] habitat and restore the axolotl’s population in a city of more than 20 million people,” Dr. Zambrano said BBC, “I feel that we have hope for humanity.”

Read the whole thing. Personally, I'm not convinced we need to try to save every species from extinction. But I guess as long as we're not causing adverse situations for humans in the process (hello, delta smelt), it is worth trying.

Speaking of Underground Bodies of Water

Courtesy of Hordeling neverenoughcaffeine, who was "reading a novel by Jill Patton Walsh and part of the plot involves the hidden rivers of London"

The lost rivers that lie beneath London

Dozens of rivers and canals were buried beneath London's streets more than a century ago. How do they look today? To find traces of them you'll need to have a good ear, know where to look and visit some unlikely places.

Among the congested traffic of central London's St Pancras Road, around the corner from the glass and steel skyscrapers of the Euston Road, it is hard to imagine a river once ran through grassy fields.

But outside St Pancras Old Church is a plaque showing a sketch of people in that exact spot bathing on the banks of the Fleet in 1827. The river is one of many in London that was converted into a sewer as the capital's population grew.

Today, in many parts of the city you could be standing within inches of one of its lost rivers and not even realise it.

"Wherever you live, not far from your doorstep, you can probably track down a hidden river you never would have guessed would be there," says Alex Werner, head of history collections at the Museum of London.

"It's a shame so many rivers were buried - today they would enhance the landscape," says Paul Talling, who has written a book on London's lost rivers. "But at the time it was necessary - in pre-Victorian times, they were used as open sewers."

Definitely read the whole thing! Lots more information at the link. Also plenty of photos.

London's lost rivers

River Fleet - Became polluted as Smithfield butchers threw remains of dead animals into the river, and was eventually incorporated into the sewer system

River Tyburn - Flowing through Regents Park under Buckingham Palace, the river was once reputed to have some of London's best salmon fishing

River Walbrook - Its name is thought to derive from the fact the river ran under the Roman London Wall

River Westbourne - Remains of the river flow through a pipe running above Sloane Square Tube station

River Effra - Banks of the Oval cricket ground were built with earth excavated during the enclosing of the river

Thanks, neverenoughcaffeine!

Another Crappy Story

Last night's feature on The "Delco Pooper" got ya wanting more?

The ONT has ya covered!

Fast-Food Restaurant Inspires Poop Jokes with Bizarre-Looking Menu Item

Dico’s, a popular Chinese fast food restaurant chain, has been attracting a lot of attention because of its newest menu item, charred-looking chicken strips that don’t have the most appetizing appearance.

Since 2015, Dico’s has been celebrating ‘Krispy Day’ by adding one or two crispy items to its menu, but this year, their newest additions have been attracting more attention than usual, mostly because of their unusual look. The “Black Gold Pepper Crispy Pork” became available at Dico’s restaurants across China at the end of last month, and it has been going viral on social media ever since. Not only do the crispy strips look charred, but their shape has been drawing comparisons to human poop and inspiring hundreds of funny comments online. Although the company has clarified that the meat is covered in a special “black gold coating” that causes it to turn black when deep-fried, most people are still not very tempted to try the new menu item.

***

“I can’t even poop something that looks this good,” one person commented.

“It’s a bit dry, you should drink more water,” someone else joked.

What say you, Hordelings - do you like when I dump these kinds of stories on you?

Drink more water, you say?

Well, you don’t see this every day.

A coyote was spotted on the ROOF of a Hollywood Hills hair salon drinking water from a puddle.

The owner of the hair salon wrote, “It was just another wild day.” pic.twitter.com/DjUsN0xDpD

— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) May 4, 2025

I suppose chasing roadrunners does leave one parched.

DJ Doof - Born on This Date Edition

1959 - English singer-songwriter and musician Ian McCulloch, best known as the frontman for the rock group Echo & the Bunnymen

Bonus Bunnymen -
The Back of Love
Clay (semi deep cut)

Also 1959 - American guitarist and songwriter Steve Stevens. Often referred to as "the fingers of rock", he is best known for being Billy Idol's guitarist. Stevens also performed the lead guitar work on 'Top Gun Anthem'

1948 - Bill Ward, drummer with English rock band Black Sabbath

Lots of other great tunes featuring the guys featured above. What are your favorites?

Weekly commenter stats for week of 5-4-2025

Top 10 commenters:
1 [595 comments] 'Sponge - F*ck Cancer' [84.51 posts/day]
2 [463 comments] 'Bulg'
3 [456 comments] 'TheJamesMadison, smashy-smashy with Godzilla'
4 [438 comments] 'Christopher R Taylor'
5 [320 comments] '...'
6 [315 comments] 'whig'
7 [307 comments] 'Boss Moss'
8 [285 comments] 'Oldcat'
9 [271 comments] 'Sebastian Melmoth'
10 [271 comments] 'Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ '

Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [192 names] 'Miklos recalls this' [27.27 unique names/day]
2 [174 names] 'Freak Out 1966'
3 [149 names] 'Ciampino - in New York City'
4 [118 names] 'Quarter Twenty '
5 [83 names] 'Didn't you get the neo-feudalism memo?'
6 [44 names] 'Stuff Chris Plante sez '
7 [40 names] 'Lindsey Graham, Closeted Homosexual'
8 [39 names] 'Duncanthrax'
9 [36 names] 'sith samurai'
10 [34 names] 'Sponge - F*ck Cancer'

Tonight's ONT brought to you by your Saturday Club ONT hosts??

1st runner-up mystery click

2nd runner-up mystery click

posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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