Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - October 15, 2025 [TRex]

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

Welcome to the Wednesday night ONT which means another random assortment of interweb debris. Pull up a chair and sit a spell. Be nice to your fellow commenters and AoS contributors.

Best wishes to those in transit to the TX MoMe X. The concentration of Morons in one place will likely cause the earth to wobble on its axis. Prepare accordingly. Special thanks to all who labor to make it happen.

[Top photo: Cackle Hatchery, Lebanon, Missouri]

This is not AI. This is not fake.

Last Sunday evening, ESPN2 and ESPNews were showing the 2024 Microsoft Excel World Championship Finals. With the depth and breadth of worldwide sport from which to populate programming, the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" went with Excel spreadsheets from December 2024. We're a long way from the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

Hemingway famously said "there are only three sports: bull fighting, motor sport and mountaineering. The rest are merely games." There is no record of his views of competitive spreadsheeting, but Excel is not bull fighting, motor sport or mountaineering.

For the record, TRex appreciates the power users of pivot tables. Excel ninjas are to be appreciated. This not a knock on them. It is a knock on ESPN.

But since you have read this far, you are undoubtedly curious to know more.

It was down to the final 30 seconds at the Microsoft Excel World Championships in Las Vegas, and the crowd was going wild.

Canada's Michael Jarman was in the lead, his eyes fixed on the scoreboard, desperately hoping nobody would come up from behind and snatch victory from his grasp.

When the clock ran out, Jarman leapt from his computer and threw his hands up in celebration, as the spectators in the HyperX Arena erupted in cheers.

This year's final battle involved using Excel to track stats in a simulated game of World of Warcraft (WoW), a long-running and wildly popular online video game featuring fantastical creatures like dragons, elves and orcs.

"I mean, I'm not a WoW player myself, but it was pretty cool," Jarman said. "We were given an eight-page instruction manual before going on stage to read, so we had some idea of what was going on."

To add a competitive edge the player with the lowest score is eliminated every five minutes, alluded to in the chorus of the event's epic rock theme song: "It's the Excel World Championship / Who's going to win? / It's the Excel World Championship / Who's going in the spreadsheet bin?" Link

We live in strange times.

I can't figure out if I should add this to my worry list or not.

Swarm reveals growing weak spot in Earth's magnetic field

Using 11 years of magnetic field measurements from the European Space Agency's Swarm satellite constellation, scientists have discovered that the weak region in Earth's magnetic field over the South Atlantic - known as the South Atlantic Anomaly - has expanded by an area nearly half the size of continental Europe since 2014.

However, since Swarm has been in orbit the magnetic field over Siberia has strengthened while it has weakened over Canada. The Canadian strong field region has shrunk by 0.65% of Earth's surface area, which is almost the size of India, while the Siberian region has grown by 0.42% of Earth's surface area, which is comparable to the size of Greenland.

This shift, which is caused by complex processes going on in Earth's turbulent core, is associated with the northern magnetic pole moving towards Siberia in recent years. This shift is important for navigation, which is affected by the dance between these two areas of strong magnetic field.

NASA will say goodbye to the International Space Station in 2030 - and welcome in the age of commercial space stations

In 2030, the International Space Station will be deorbited: driven into a remote area of the Pacific Ocean.

Sounds like Point Nemo is about to get a new resident.

Almost that time of year...

Pumpkin investing:

Duck Tales

Rubber ducks pop up in Canonsburg, taking over several blocks of the borough

People who live in Canonsburg woke up on Monday surrounded by an unusual flock of rubber ducks.

The Canonsburg United Presbyterian Church shared photos of the rubber ducks on their Facebook page, saying it was a fun start to the week and they were delightfully surprised to see the ducks show up in the town.

Canonsburg Borough Manager Angela Senay said the ducks suddenly showed up and brought smiles, laughter, and silliness to the community.

"While we can't say for sure who started this "fowl play," we can say it's a feather-ruffling reminder that joy can come in the smallest (and squeakiest) of packages," Senay said.

Update:

Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop shares behind-the-scenes video of viral rubber duck stunt

Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop, the Canonsburg-based candy store responsible for placing thousands of rubber ducks around Canonsburg, has shared a behind-the-scenes video showing how workers pulled off the viral campaign.

"Canonsburg got completely... ducked!" the shop wrote via social media.

The video shows workers secretly placing these ducks around town during the early morning hours. Ducks appeared on benches, storefront displays, and even pedestrian push buttons.

That mystery began with about 2,000 small ducks on Sept. 29. A few days later, 2,000 medium ducks appeared. Then, 600 larger ducks soon followed.

It all culminated last week with nearly a dozen 14-foot-tall ducks on rooftops throughout Canonsburg.

The Pittsburgh police scanner keeps giving. Thank you people of Pittsburgh!

Broken Peach for the big ONT finish (with a Halloween theme):

The Wednesday ONT acknowledges the heroic and historic efforts of President Biden and his team who built the framework for this ONT during his administration. TRex appreciates the opportunity to come in at the last minute and get it across the finish line. Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Reports of lost large scale dinos looking for homes are also welcome. Are you lurking ?? Thank you for your attention to this matter.

posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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