Thursday Overnight Open Thread - December 18, 2025 [Doof]

Joyce Bealer (U.S.), 3rd Place Landscape Photographer of the Year

Howdy Hordelings! Thanks for stopping by the Thursday ONT.
Happy Hannukah to those who are celebrating.
Coming up on the shortest daylight day of the year.
Two weeks to get your 2025 charitable donations in.
OK - enough preambling. Let's step inside, shall we?!?

More images from the same article as the lead photo

Wondrous Winners of the 12th International Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards

Definitely check out the whole thing. Some amazing photos!

ONT News Corner - Things You May Have Missed

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Were Hunter Biden's whereabouts know?

Trucker returns to find trailer loaded with $16 million worth of cocaine at truck stop

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Was our Wednesday ONT host responsible for this?

Photographer Discovers Thousands of Dinosaur Footprints in National Park

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Well played, skunk. Using a decoy to get your real mark!

Man Dies of Rabies After Receiving Kidney from Organ Donor Scratched by a Skunk

In what the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) called “an extremely rare event,” an adult Michigan man became infected with rabies following a kidney transplant. According to a CDC report, the man received a left kidney from a deceased donor in Idaho in December 2024. The procedure went perfectly, and the patient made a full recovery, but just over five weeks later, he started experiencing worrying symptoms.

The unnamed kidney recipient first started experiencing tremors, leg weakness, confusion, and urinary incontinence, but things only got worse. Within days, he was hospitalized with fever, difficulty swallowing, signs of hydrophobia, and autonomic nervous system dysfunction. He soon had to be mechanically ventilated because he couldn’t breathe by himself, and died a week into his hospitalization.

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Having visited Zion National Park recently, I can attest to crowd sizes and shuttle bus congestion. This might be a good way to address those things.

Former NPS Superintendent Responds To Controversial Entry Rule At Arches And Zion National Parks: "The Time Has Come"

America's national parks are becoming increasingly popular, with over 330 million visits recorded in 2024 alone. As more travelers head outdoors, the National Park Service (NPS) has been experimenting with different entry and reservation systems to manage growing crowds.

That's what federal and state officials discussed recently during a meeting hosted by Utah's Public Lands Coordinating Council. At this meeting, officials revisited the idea of implementing timed entry systems at Zion and Arches National Parks to manage congestion during peak travel seasons.

While state leaders have expressed hesitation about expanding timed entry—particularly at Zion—a former NPS superintendent argues that some form of reservation system is becoming unavoidable as park crowds continue to surge.

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She's handling this better than I think I would have

In case you need context, Video of the incident is here.

The nasty shopper issued an apology. Sincere? You decide.

I'm aware of the "No math on the blog" rule. Rules must sometimes be broken!

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Physics / weights and measures are math adjacent. Apparently they worked differently back in the stone ages.

One week until Christmas. Have you watched many Christmas movies yet? You're probably aware of the "Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?" debate. But how about "Is Home Alone a Christian movie?"

Annual reminder that Home Alone is a Christian movie.

Watch this scene very carefully, where Kevin is drawn to the beauty and warmth of the church.

As he walks inside to "O Holy Night", he hears the words "Fall on your knees, Oh hear the angel voices!"

A sanctuary candle passes across the foreground, indicating that Christ is present inside the church.

Kevin then has an encounter with a Christ figure: Old Man Marley. Kevin makes a confession to him, then shakes his hand and we see a bandage on Marley's hand.

It's never explained why his hand is wounded, but earlier in the movie we saw that his hand was actually pierced ALL THE WAY THROUGH — like the nails driven through Christ's hands on the cross.

At the end of the movie, Kevin cannot save himself from the burglars, and so Marley appears again to rescue him.

Home Alone is a Christian movie.

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This guy agrees

Thoughts on this??

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Semi-related. From a few weeks ago. Aaron Rodgers got banged up during a game against the Bills.

DJ Doof - Guess The Theme

Difficulty level 4 out of 5

What's the common thread / common meaning / common leitmotif? Other than they're all songs from prog rock bands.

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posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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