Wednesday Night ONT - July 15, 2026 [TRex]

How do you do, fellow kids? Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans. The bar is open and freshly re-stocked. Free refills!

Welcome to the Wednesday night ONT which means another edition of random overnight fun and games. Pull up a chair and join the fun. Good will offerings of amusing puns are encouraged. Pants are discouraged due to the heat. Be nice to your fellow commenters and AoS contributors. If you're here for an argument, please go through the second door on the right and then close the door behind you. This is a Tucker, Candace, Megyn, and Bill Kristol free zone. Please.

Will reading the content protect you from Taco Bell lettuce explosive diarrhea? Couldn't hurt, right? The ONT is not a miracle worker, so keep your expectations low.

Science News

SpaceX Starship Flight 13 is scheduled for July 16. Launch window opens at 6:45pm ET. Excellent Flight 12 recap film:

Horde Shopping Update

I know what you're thinking. "Last week, you told us about the impending auction of Gus, one of the largest and most complete T-Rex skeletons ever found. What happened with that auction?" Glad you asked.

The auction estimate was $20 to $30 million, but Gus sold for over $50 million to an undisclosed buyer.

A Tyrannosaurus rex fossil billed as one of the world's largest and most complete specimens sold for a record $50.1 million Tuesday.

Sotheby's said the 67-million-year-old fossil, nicknamed "Gus," is now the most expensive set of dinosaur bones ever auctioned off, besting the almost $45 million price tag for a nearly complete stegosaurus sold by the same New York auction house in 2024. The previous record holder had been a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton nicknamed "Stan" that sold for nearly $32 million in 2020.

The auction house said the mystery winner outbid six other prospective buyers during Tuesday's 10-minute bidding battle.

If the buyer is among the Horde, please send me a note. Your secret will be safe with me.

Kills Bugs Fast

Ace of Spades does not endorse any specific provider of mosquito killing drones and I cannot vouch for this company but anyone working to rid us of the flying blood suckers has my attention: Tornyol

Tornyol combines ultrasonic sonar and intelligent control algorithms in a 40-gram drone to eradicate all the mosquitoes in your space.

Tornyol uses ultrasonic sonar and autonomous guidance algorithms to locate and grind mosquitoes in its propellers.

A single Tornyol unit should be able to protect areas up to 5 acres.

If one is good, why not a swarm of skeeter killers? I'd be interested to see the result after roaming around my backyard for an hour.

Of course, there is always the old fashioned way...

ONT Wayback Machine

You may know Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear but did you know that he once hosted Robot Wars, the British television series that preceded BattleBots?

The voice and delivery is unmistakably classic Clarkson. On another level, a 1998 television show featuring fighting robots might have been prescient...

Where are the Iron Maiden fans?

ABBA now owns half of Iron Maiden? Kind of.

Iron Maiden Sells Music Catalog, Name, Image and Likeness Rights to Pophouse

Pophouse Entertainment, the investment firm co-founded by ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus, has announced a partnership with legendary British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, acquiring a stake in the publishing and master music rights, and the name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights. Billboard reports that Pophouse has acquired a 50% "stake" in the assets.

The deal includes rights to the band's iconic mascot, the ghoulish character "Eddie."

However, for the sake of context, Pophouse paid upward of $300 million for a similar deal with Kiss, although the percentage was unclear.

The partnership, which has been structured and developed over the last year between Pophouse and the band's co-manager, Andy Taylor, "will enable Iron Maiden to pursue new creative ventures that connect with existing fans as well as bringing their extensive catalogue to new audiences," according to the announcement.

Does this mean Iron Maiden concerts will continue for perpetuity with a holographic Bruce Dickinson singing Fear of the Dark with a holographic Eddie?

Ontario Public Service Announcement

Ontario police: Do not bring grenades to police stations

Police in Ontario are reminding residents not to bring explosives to police stations after an unexploded World War II grenade was turned in at an Ottawa station.

The Ontario Provincial Police said a resident brought the grenade to the OPP Detachment in Ottawa on Friday.

"The OPP would like to remind the public that if you find such items, please do not transport them to your local police station," OPP East Region wrote on social media. "This could obviously prove extremely dangerous to the person bringing the item and others around."

Officials recommended residents instead leave any explosives where they are found and report the location to authorities.

Of course, Ontario appears to be on fire at the moment, so maybe grenades have dropped down the priority list since Friday.

Niche YouTube Channel of the Week

Tonight's feature is a YouTube channel called The Baseball Bat Bros. The channel does nothing other than test, review and compare bats. That is it.

Does price matter for wood bats? How does an illegally corked bat work? Do different shape handles matter? Does the cheapest bat sold at Walmart work? If you're into baseball bats, they have it. Nothing else.

His channel has over 1.2 million subscribers.

I know what you're thinking. Have over 5 million people really watched a ten minute video testing eleven wiffleball bats? Yes.

I'm including solely out of awe that someone can establish a successful YouTube channel that does nothing other than test and compare baseball bats. This is exactly the kind of niche narrowcasting that is only enabled by the interweb and platforms like YT. The videos are short, simple and digestible with no artificial drama. No highly polished graphics or editing. No clickbait.

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

Did you know that IKEA operates a hotel in Sweden? It is the only one that exists. Anyway, correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com where it will be promptly filed. Are you lurking ????

posted by Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

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