Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - January 14, 2026 [TRex]

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.

Lots of lists in this one, so buckle up!

[Top photo: No knowledge other than the bike is an Indian Four. I just like the photo.]

The Official 2026 Wednesday ONT Prediction Challenge

Feeling confident about telling the future? The Official 2025 Wednesday ONT Prediction Challenge seemed to work out well, so let's do it again.

Same format as before with two segments. One for financial metrics and one for events. You choose whether to pick one or participate in one or both.

Post your guesses in the comments tonight or submit your answers to me via email (moronhobbies at protonmail dot com).

Financial metrics - levels as of Dec 31, 2026 (provide a number for each:
- S&P 500 (currently 6926.6)
- Price of Silver (per ounce) (currently 93.185)
- Bitcoin (USD 96,654.94 today)
- 9mm ammo (per blackbasin) ($0.20 per round today)
- Average nationwide cost for a regular grade gallon of gas ($2.840 per AAA today)
- Average cost for a gallon of regular grade gas in California ($4.21 per AAA today)
- Lowest price for a one-way adult flight from Denver to Orlando on Southwest Airlines if you buy 2 weeks in advance ($159 today)
- Total TSA airport passenger volume for 2026 (2025 number is 88,614,614)
- Median price for a 2 bedroom apartment in Austin (per latest Zumper data available) ($2,000 today)
- Price of Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (750ml on Total Wine website with location set to Knoxville, TN) ($34.99 today)
- TSLA stock price ($439.14 today)
- Brent Crude Oil (65.06 per barrel today)

Will the following events take place by the end of 2026? Yes or no.
- Tim Walz indicted?
- Agreement to bring Greenland under US control in some form (such as a territory)?
- Regime change in Cuba?
- Another Government budget shutdown?
- More than six SpaceX Starship launches
- SpaceX IPO announced (direct to public market, not through another company)?
- Russia/Ukraine cease fire agreement?
- Jerome Powell leaves as Fed Chair before his term ends in May 2026?
- Democratic control of the House after mid-term elections?
- More than 14 earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 globally?
- At least one Supreme Court Justice leaves the bench or announces their intent to step down?
- Over the past four winter Olympic games, the US has averaged about 28 medals. Will the US win more than average in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics?

Winners get their pick of items from the Club ONT lost and found box and the admiration of the Horde.

Best wishes!

Horde shopping - not new, but still worth a giggle. Ace Hardware in Midland, Michigan. The bakery next door partners with the hardware store to sell pastries.

U-Haul Growth Index: Texas Back on Top as No. 1 Growth State of 2025

Texas and Florida lead the list of in-migration states on the U-Haul Growth Index analyzing one-way customer transactions during 2025, while California ranks last with the greatest out-migration number for the sixth consecutive year.

Texas reclaims the title of No. 1 U-Haul growth state for the seventh time in 10 years. It climbs one spot from its previous ranking behind South Carolina, which slides four spots after being the leading growth state for 2024.

Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee follow Texas as prime destinations. It's the same top five from 2024 and 2023, although in a different order.

The top 10 also includes Washington, Arizona, Idaho, Alabama and Georgia.

Top 15:
1. TEXAS
2. FLORIDA
3. NORTH CAROLINA
4. TENNESSEE
5. SOUTH CAROLINA
6. WASHINGTON
7. ARIZONA
8. IDAHO
9. ALABAMA
10. GEORGIA
11. OREGON
12. MONTANA
13. ARKANSAS
14. OKLAHOMA
15. MAINE

Bottom 15:
36. VIRGINIA
37. KANSAS
38. NORTH DAKOTA
39. NEBRASKA
40. RHODE ISLAND
41. MICHIGAN
42. CONNECTICUT
43. OHIO
44. PENNSYLVANIA
45. MARYLAND
46. MASSACHUSETTS
47. NEW YORK
48. NEW JERSEY
49. ILLINOIS
50. CALIFORNIA

RIP

Never heard this tradition before:

Weekly commenter stats for week of 01-13-2026

AoSHQ Commenter Statistics:
Number of posts: 91
Number of comments: 29155
Number of unique hashes: 1934

Top 10 commenters:
1 [755 comments] 'whig' [107.26 posts/day]
2 [495 comments] 'rickb223 '
3 [486 comments] 'Boss Moss'
4 [471 comments] 'TheJamesMadison, barreling through the action thrills with Wolfgang Petersen'
5 [451 comments] 'man'
6 [437 comments] 'Axeman'
7 [399 comments] 'Aetius451AD work phone'
8 [391 comments] 'I used to have a different nic'
9 [320 comments] '18-1'
10 [305 comments] 'Nordic Interiors'

Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [300 names] 'Nordic Interiors' [42.62 unique names/day]
2 [148 names] 'Fuck the Constitution, right?'
3 [116 names] 'Quarter Twenty '
4 [50 names] 'Duncanthrax'
5 [48 names] 'Count de Monet'
6 [43 names] 'Genial late Nite bartender Miklos'
7 [40 names] 'fd'
8 [39 names] 'Intercepted Reddit Transmissions brought by the Intrepid AoS Liaison'
9 [39 names] 'The Grateful - Acta Non Verba'
10 [35 names] 'pookysgirl, fighting Lil Pooky for control of the laptop'

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

April Wine for the big ONT finish.

Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Are you lurking ?? Airspace over the ONT is temporarily restricted. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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