Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - January 7, 2026 [Apollo Rex]

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

Welcome to the Wednesday night ONT which means another edition of random overnight fun and games. Pull up a chair and sit a spell. Good will offerings of amusing puns are happily accepted. Pants are optional. Be nice to your fellow commenters and AoS contributors.

Results of the Official 2025 Wednesday ONT Prediction Challenge

Did the predicting moose out front already tell ya the winners?

Thank you for those who participated. The challenge had two parts - financial data and events. The financial predictions attracted 19 participants. The event predictions attracted 37 participants.

Financial metrics: cost of gasoline, S&P 500, dollar to Euro exchange rate, 2x4 lumber, Ford F-150 MSRP, Bitcoin, share price of Smith & Wesson, Home Depot and Tesla.

The winner of the financial metrics challenge is: Publius Redux. Blaster was a very close second place and Pennsyltucky was close behind in third.

The rest of the rankings:
Dave H
Grateful
Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan (ARiK)
Gouverneur Morris
pookysgirl
no one of any consequence
Luca I
Mikeski
PaleRider
lin-duh
tankdemon
Jimmy Doolittle
scampydog
SPinRH_F-16
jimmy mcnulty
Methos

The ten event predictions included elimination of Daylight time, departures of Supreme Court justice, Iran's Khamanei, and Canada's Trudeau, declassification of JFK files, Epstein client list, and Diddy client list, SpaceX Starship launches, defunding of NPR and PBS, and RFK remaining in office at HHS.

The clear winner of the event prediction challenge is PaleRider who guessed ALL ten correctly. Impressive. Nobody else was close. Several guessed seven but nobody guessed eight or nine.

The rest of the rankings:
Dr Claw - 7
Dirk Manly - 7
Methos - 7
Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan (ARiK) - 7
Durak Kazyol - 7
SPinRH_F-16 - 7
no one of any consequence - 7
Luca I - 7
SanFranpsycho - 6
scampydog - 6
Mikeski - 6
MammaB - 6
Jimmy Doolittle - 6
Clovis Sangrail - 6
Gouverneur Morris - 6
Lin-duh - 5
AOP - 5
gilbar - 5
Moonbeam - 5
Iris - 5
Pennsyltucky - 5
blaster - 5
Lola - 5
Puddlegum - 5
Nemo- 5
Publius Redux - 5
Dave H - 5
Grateful - 5
deplorable Ian Galt - 4
Sal - 4
pookysgirl - 4
tankdemon - 4
BourbonChicken - 4
jimmy mcnulty - 4
Piper - 3
ScaryMary - 3

Congratulations!! Well done!

Winners can pick up their prizes on Saturday in the form of drink tickets in Club ONT.

Should we do a 2026 prediction challenge?

Variations on a theme:

Headline from 2014:

The Sean O'Casey Bridge is operated via remote control - but officials apparently lost the device in an office move. It's now operational again...

Dublin's Sean O'Casey Bridge, which has been unable to open to shipping for the past four years, was finally re-opened in the past few weeks after experts created a new remote control for the structure.

Spanning the Liffey between the IFSC and City Quay, it's designed to swing apart to allow sail-craft upriver as far as the Talbot Memorial Bridge.

The design includes two 44-metre-long arms, capable of swinging open when required. That operation is controlled by a hand-held remote device - that device went missing some years ago, meaning openings were no longer possible.

Speaking to this website, Financial Advisor to the Authority John Crawley confirmed that it was once again possible to open the structure to shipping, following an engineering review. A lack of funding meant the process couldn't happen until recently, he said.

As part of the overhaul, work has been carried out on the bridge itself, and contractors were tasked with "reprogramming an opening device," Crawley said.

"Its not like a Sky box remote control. You have to make sure that it's a secure system, so there are layers of security."

An Irish-based firm carried out the reprogramming, and that aspect of the work cost around €1,800, Crawley said.

Easy to laugh, but who among us hasn't lost a remote control to something we own?

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

And for the grand finale...

The Harlem Globetrotters played their first game on this date in 1927. Sweet Georgia Brown in their honor for the big ONT finish.

Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Are you lurking ?? Thank you for your attention to this matter.

posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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