Monday Overnight Open Thread - April 13, 2026 [scampydog]

Drake Observatory. Link goes to Wikipedia.

The main dome of the observatory houses an 8.25 inch refracting telescope, on a German equatorial mount. The ashes of the astronomer Daniel Walter Morehouse, and those of his wife Myrtle, are interred within the wall of the observatory rotunda.

Observatory sits in the middle of Waveland Golf Course, Des Moines, IA. Got a few good pictures of it over the weekend (and one golf ball a bit closer than I'd have liked).

Happy Monday. Hope you all tried to behave over the weekend. Misanthropic Humanitarian took the evening off, and I've been thawed out from my cryogenic ONT retirement freeze. Please adjust your expectations accordingly.

Not about Pope Leo and his stance on immigration, climate change, etc. It's about a guy and a cool craft.

In the world of art and talent, some choose butter.

“I get some pretty random commission requests, but when the National Catholic Educational Association contacted me about doing a live butter sculpture during their conference this year, I was interested,” Kulzer said. “After working out the logistics of keeping the butter cool, they decided they wanted a bust of Pope Leo and another butter block carved into their logo.”

Scampywife knows Gerry Kulzer, the sculptor. He is kind enough to share some butter with us on occasion - which is damned good. Here is some additional reading - light history of his journey and work.

What’s it like sculpting something that you know will somehow be used and eventually destroyed?

All pottery is meant to be used. So use it. Drink out of it. Eat off the plate. Use that pottery. It’s the same with the butter here, I think. It’s butter. Let’s use it. Take that and use it for what it’s meant for.

It is April 13. For those who have not yet completed their taxes: Are you in a committed relationship with TurboTax? May you have the best of luck with your internet connection, the missing forms that were ‘right there,’ and your race against time.

Remember, a good accountant can find humor in depreciation.

Looks like people are running behind this year. And/or less tax filers. 2026 returns filed (so far). Link goes to irs.gov. Total returns e-filed through 4/8/2010 were 78.4M, with $61.4B in direct deposit refunds. As of 4/3/2026 98M returns have been e-filed, with $242.8B in direct deposit refunds.

Each year the IRS provides weekly cumulative statistics for returns filed, returns processed and refunds issued during the filing season and then at certain points after the filing season. The statistics compare totals as of Friday compared with the corresponding Friday in the prior year.

Forbes crunched some numbers. Seems the public has, "Where is my money at" on their brains.

While filing activity has been slower, taxpayer engagement has surged. IRS.gov has recorded 435,926,000 visits so far this season, a sharp 58% increase over the same period last year. Taxpayers appear to be checking their refund status more frequently or seeking clarity on tax law changes thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).

It's all about the arms. Nanotyrannus: The Tyrannosaur Dwarf Tyrant.

Perhaps the most anatomically decisive feature is the forelimb. Nanotyrannus possesses arms and hands that are absolutely longer than those of T. rex, not just longer in proportion to body size. This distinction is critical: as animals grow, limb bones lengthen—they do not shorten.

The hands appear more functional than the famously reduced arms of T. rex, suggesting a greater role in prey handling or stabilization. While still small relative to body size, the forelimbs of Nanotyrannus fit a predator that retained more versatility in its front limbs.

A full-size replica would fit nicely in a yard next to the full size T-Rex.

Unexpected / stood out. Was in the Charlotte airport on Easter Sunday, dodging Bloody Marys and Screwdrivers while housing a glazed cinnamon donut, when over the intercom came an announcement for a 10:30 a.m. Catholic Mass in the airport. Looked around for reactions and either everyone was deaf or the easily offended were not around. They repeated the announcement two more times before I boarded my flight - and for a moment, Gate A39 felt almost like holy ground.

In that spirit, let’s take a look at some interesting churches and chapels.

Skull Chapel - Kaplica Czaszek - Poland That is a lot of empty eye sockets looking your direction.

Within the modest-looking St. Batholomew's Church (also called the Kaplica Czaszek) are the skulls and bones of over 3,000 people, decorating the ceiling and walls, and arranged in various patterns—mostly in a repeating crossed bones Jolly Roger-style—with another 21,000 skeletons stuffed in the church crypt below. Collected by Czech priest Vaclav Tomasek and J. Langer, the local gravedigger, it took the pair some 18 years, from 1776 to 1794, to collect, clean, and arrange as many as 24,000 human skeletons that pack the church. While the majority of the skeletons are stacked in a 16-foot-deep crypt beneath the church, the rest are beautifully displayed in what Tomasek saw as a "sanctuary of silence."

Now we are talking! Church in Belgrade with chandeliers made out of bullet casings, swords, rifles, and cannon parts.

Some interesting churches in North America.

Let's do some springtime music.

Versatility in job skills.

pic.twitter.com/i2e9VDlt6X

— Rothmus 🏴 (@Rothmus) April 9, 2026

Weird jobs.

I don't even know where to begin with this. I am imagining the chaos of the Horde with the Professional Fortune Cookie Writer job. And that is queuer - please note the additional vowel.

Hit the link - there are some pop ups, but it's worth a skim.

4. Dog food taster 12. Iceberg mover 17. Professional queuer 18. Fortune cookie writer

May as well...let's hear your best fortune cookie writing efforts in the comments.

Moderately amusing news

Sheep invade German grocery store. There's a political affiliation joke in here somewhere. Video at the link.

He said he wasn’t entirely sure how they broke from the rest of the flock, but he speculated the group was distracted by acorns on the ground and eventually wandered in the vicinity of the store before spotting someone carrying a tote that resembled one of their feed bags and following them inside.

Golfed with a guy over the weekend that took a Waymo taxi while in Phoenix. Not this one, however.

A Phoenix business owner captured a scary scene involving a Waymo driving on a light rail track with a passenger inside.

Fake Maple Syrup. Scandal. Canada, of course.

Enquête purchased five cans of Bourdeau's syrup at random from different stores and from different batches and took them to the provincial laboratory responsible for testing and assuring quality control for maple syrup in Quebec, le centre ACER, for analysis.

The results were unequivocal.

All five cans, each labelled pure maple syrup, contained at least 50 per cent cane sugar.

This ONT was brought to you by your Airbnb hosts: Tim Walz, Gavin Newsom, and Justin Trudeau.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:58 PM

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