Tech News

• Sony seems to be learning, slowly: Fairgame$, set to be the company's next computer game mega-flop (Sony earlier released Concord, which cost $400 million to make and earned $0) has been quietly strangled. (WCCFTech)
  
  A huge loss of all the news channels who were looking forward to making fun of this one.
  
  
  
• SD Express is a new standard for mini storage. (Liliputing)
  
  Slightly larger than micro SD, it supports PCI Express 4.0 x2 for transfer rates up to 3.7GB per second. Launch devices have capacities up to 2TB.
  
  Both of which used to be a lot.

Saturday Night Jokes and Other Funnies

Paddy and Mick flew to Canada on a hunting trip. They chartered a small plane to take them into the Rockies for week hunting moose.

They managed to bag six. As they were loading the plane to return, the pilot said the plane could take only four moose.

The two lads objected strongly. "Last year we shot six. The pilot let us take them all and he had the same plane as yours."

Reluctantly, the pilot gave in and all six were loaded. The plane took off. However, while attempting to cross some mountain even on full power, the little plane couldn't handle the load and went down.

Somehow, surrounded by the moose bodies, Paddy and Mick survived the crash.

After climbing out of the wreckage, Paddy asked Mick, "Any idea where we are?"

Mick replied, "I think we're pretty close to where we crashed last year!"

Club ONT Dazzle Camo

Tactical judgement impaired. Much like the college years. Or a Swalwell honey trap. Wonder if this would work on the AWFL's

Wilkinson knew the Royal Navy couldn't use traditional camouflage to their advantage. The giant ships with massive amounts of smoke pouring from their stacks would be difficult to conceal.

So, Wilkinson proposed that the Navy utilize a different type of camouflage — one meant not to conceal but to confuse. Dazzle camouflage utilized zebra stripes, bold patterns, and vivid colors to make it difficult for German U-boats to determine the speed and course of battleships. Without knowing exactly which way the vessels were headed, the U-boats couldn't calculate where to launch their torpedoes.

Pretty good photography at this link

Drink of the Night

Summer Sunset Cocktail

Why You’ll Love It

Just 4 ingredients. Make this refreshing cocktail with vodka, orange juice, grenadine, and lime-flavored seltzer water. The lime slice and maraschino cherry garnish are optional, but highly encouraged.

It looks just like a summer sunset. Skip the cocktail shaker. Pour the ingredients directly into the glass to create the gorgeous gradient.

-----

Ingredients
Ice
2 ounces orange juice
1 ounce vodka
1/2 ounce genadine
3 ounces cold lime-flavored seltzer water
Lime slice, for garnish (optional)
1 maraschino cherry with stem, for garnish (optional)

Instructions
Fill a highball or Collins glass halfway with ice. Add 2 ounces orange juice and 1 ounce vodka, and stir to combine. Slowly pour 1/2 ounce grenadine into the center of the glass, letting it settle on the bottom. Do not stir. Top with 3 ounces cold lime-flavored seltzer water. Garnish with a lime slice and a maraschino cherry.

***

Not the drink of the night. But caption worthy. Nothing says classy like loudly ordering this at the bar.

Club ONT Feelgood Story Department

Club ONT History Department

Too soon?

Club ONT Department of Medicine

Gunfighter's Surgeon - Part 1

Dr. George Emery Goodfellow, who would come to be known as the “Gunfighter’s surgeon,” fully embodied what it meant to be a surgeon in the Wild Wild West. As was common for life in the frontier, improvisation was the theme of the day and, in that vein, Goodfellow challenged himself to perform previously unreported operative interventions in his efforts to save his patients. The Gunfighter’s surgeon also doubled as the coroner, using his gift for scientific inquiry in his post-mortem observations. His inquisitive nature also led him to reinvent a fundamental urologic procedure, the prostatectomy. No catalogue of the American Southwest would be complete without detailing his life and contributions.

***

Notorious for its “shoot for the guts” approach to resolving disputes, the colorful activities of the Tombstone residents provided Goodfellow with ample opportunity to study the consequences of being one of the “festive or obstreperous citizens (who) delighted themselves with toys such as the 44 or 45-calibre Colt revolver and the 45-60 and 44-40 Winchester rifles and Carbines.”

Gunfighter's Surgeon - Part 2

While he left the bravado of gunfights behind him, George Goodfellow brought the same pioneering spirit to defining himself and a surgical field that was in its infancy – urology - and centered his work on prostatic disease, which was in the lime-light of the surgical theater. Goodfellow’s most significant contribution to urology—the perineal prostatectomy—was reported to be performed by him upon his arrival in Tucson on October 13, 1891 (likely at St. Mary’s Hospital) almost 13 years prior to his formal publications claiming credit for performing a pure perineal prostatectomy, the first so far as known to me, deliberately devised and carried out.

I don't think the Gunfighter's Surgeon could help this 'bro with his bromide problem.

Hospital put a psych hold on him which likely saved his life.

Genius takes the advice of AI for a salt substitute.

He also shared that, after reading about the negative effects that sodium chloride, or table salt, has on one's health, he was surprised that he could only find literature related to reducing sodium from one's diet. Inspired by his history of studying nutrition in college, he decided to conduct a personal experiment to eliminate chloride from his diet. For 3 months, he had replaced sodium chloride with sodium bromide obtained from the internet after consultation with ChatGPT, in which he had read that chloride can be swapped with bromide, though likely for other purposes, such as cleaning.

Club ONT Window Shopping Department

Did you know that Bring a Trailer hosts military vehicles? Did you know that tanks have been listed? In fact, a 1982 Soviet T-54 was recently sold for a little over $221,000. I would like to think that a Moron bought it to make a big entrance at the Texas MoMe.

Club ONT Department of Phobias

Whatcha got?

[Disco says: This one hit my X feed today while working on the Club. Now I'm looking for a duck!]

Club ONT Department of Parental Care

Club ONT Music

Guitar awesomeness

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Bonus music - Remembering "The King" on the anniversary of his death (Aug 16, 1977)

Remember this from El Rushbo's radio program?

That, of course, is a parody of The Elvis song "In The Ghetto"

Cartman did it better

This spirit of Elvis lives on here at Club ONT. Please raise one in his honor. Thank you. Thank you very much!

Top 10ish Comments of the Week. Or thereabout...

Club ONT brought to you by International relations:

Club ONT is officially in back to school mode. Please prepare backpacks with standard essentials for Club ONT patrons in need and drop them off in the bin near the door. Your favorite adopted Moron would appreciate a Sony Walkman, a Speak n Spell, a 64 crayon set for coloring, graph paper and a protractor, a bottle of Hoppes 9, and a battery powered rotary phone. Some Morons could use a map to help them get out of the barrel too.

Onto the next the musical topic.

Opinions, as in noses, everybody (except for a leper) has one. From Long Bow vs. Crossbow and Chevrolet vs. Ford, Mary Ann vs. Ginger will this be another AoSHQ dispute?

Who is the greatest song writer and/or song writing team in history?

Off the top of my head I would have to nominate Bob Dylan. However stats say that Paul McCartney holds the Guinness World Record for the most successful songwriter of all time.

Although both artists have music in my collection. Dylan far outnumbers McCartney by quite a large number.

I enjoy humorous, off beat, comical, satirical lyrics. Probably the best of all time is the Late Great Frank Zappa.

Even President Trump appreciates Frank Zappa.

There are a number of other clever lyricists out there at the moment. One of them is the talented Chuck Prophet. He has an interesting outlook. Something about the following lyrics: "When she went her way and I went mine. All these memories like dirty dishes. Stacked up in the sink of time."

The previous song mentioned the Talking Heads. We really do need more Judys and Bobs.

"Damn that television, what a bad picture"
"Don't get upset, it's not a major disaster"
"There's nothing on tonight, " he said, "I don't know what's the matter"
"Nothing's ever on, " she said, "so I don't know why you bother"
We've heard this little scene, we've heard it many times
People fighting over little things and wasting precious time
They might be better off, I think, the way it seems to me
Making up their own shows, which might be better than TV
Judy's in the bedroom, inventing situations
Bob is on the street today, scouting up locations
They've enlisted all their family
They've enlisted all their friends
It helped save their relationship
And made it work again

At first blush one would think this is your typical guy lost gal love song. Great melody and some darn funny lyrics about his loss by the Old 97's.
[Verse 1]

And the hole in the screen
Is barely big enough for you
And not near enough for me to go
And the whole damn complicated
Situation could've been avoided
If I'd only shut the window

[Chorus]
And I may be leaving myself open
To a murder or a heart attack
But I'm leaving the back door open
'Til you come back, 'til you come back
And I may be moving myself closer
To a real untimely end
But I'm leaving the back door open
'Til you come home again, you come home again

You can't have a discussion about songwriting without mentioning Warren Zevon. He wrote a fabulous love song while dying of lung cancer.

Shadows are fallin' and I'm runnin' out of breath
Keep me in your heart for a while
If I leave you it doesn't mean I love you any less
Keep me in your heart for a while
When you get up in the mornin' and you see that crazy sun
Keep me in your heart for a while
There's a train leavin' nightly called "When All is Said and Done"
Keep me in your heart for a while

But also displayed a gruesome sense of humor at times.

I lay my head on the railroad tracks
And wait for the Double E
The railroad don't run no more
Poor, poor pitiful me

No throwing 8 tracks, cassettes and/or reels of tape if you are not in agreement with your host and/or fellow commenters. If you are all good little boys and girls maybe you can head out to Club ONT later on.

Pissing, moaning, complaining, bitching and all other forms and matter of dissatisfaction can be taken up directly with Ace or CBD or someone who may care.

What are you hobbying?

As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. All (legal) hobbying is welcome. However, politics, current events and religious debates can live in threads elsewhere. Pants are optional. Puns are welcome and encouraged.

Play nice. Don't be a troll and do not feed the trolls.

I had a different theme for this week but put it on hold for now when I stumbled onto this video:

A lot of hobbying involves building new things, but what about giving old things new life? What could be more fun than restoring an old Tonka fire truck. The first five minutes are solely disassembly. The simple fire truck has 84 pieces.

After watching, the sheer breadth of skills involved impressed me. The more I watched videos like this, the more it struck me how many individual skills are utilized to make restorations work. In some cases, the need is stripping and repainting metal. In other cases, it is re-manufacturing fasteners or missing parts.

One noteworthy aspect that stuck out to me on this one: a process called "retrobrighting" submerged yellowed plastic material in hydrogen peroxide and hit it with UV lights for several days. The process restored the yellowed plastic to its original bright white color. May be old news to everyone else, but news to me.

With that introduction, let's talk about small scale restorations. We'll leave restorations of houses, structures and vehicles for another thread. I'm thinking tools, household goods, toys, and furniture.

An item is only original once, so there is always peril in "restoring" something to make it "better than new." Some old is earned patina and character, but some old just needs to be cleaned and fixed.

I had no idea that restoration videos were such a big thing on the interwebs. As you might imagine, the worse starting condition, the more dramatic the transformation and end result. The fire truck above has 7.7 million views. Disappointingly, so many videos have been infected by the clickbait disease and/or people trying to make money from repairs and reselling. (Furniture videos especially: "YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE THE TRANSFORMATION!! I WAS ABLE TO REPAINT THIS SIDE TABLE AND MAKE A HUGE PROFIT!!!") I've tried to pick a few for this thread that have an interesting subject and inoffensive commentary (or no commentary where possible).

With so many scale modelers among the Horde, seemed appropriate to start with an X-wing restoration. This one also includes a retrobrighting process to address yellow plastic.

Have you gone back and overhauled models you built previously?

There are others on the interwebs, but here's a Matchbox car restoration. This one caught my eye because of the shark nose Ferrari F1 subject car. It also caught my eye because of the small-scale home zinc-plating process shown.

A 1911 restoration - complete with test fire at the end? Sure!

This video of a sewing machine restoration has over 26 million views. Amazing. Can you imagine the person that made this 1864 Singer seeing it now?

Wonder how this safe got to this state, but the restoration journey is very satisfying. This is one for those that enjoy metal work.

Some people are into restoring arcade video games. More power to them. Personally, I try to avoid anything with that much wiring and electronics.

I had thoughts of doing a stained glass theme for a Hobby Thread, but thought it might be too narrow. True?

Top photo:

I love seeing how things are made. Same goes for hobbying projects. Tankascribe sent the eclipse photo at the top along with work in process photos and notes. Not enough room to include all of it here but it took 10 hours so we can make some space for a glimpse of the origin story.

Before we get into the painting process, here's a closer look at the sun part of the painting so you can appreciate the layering and colors. I don't know if tankascribe would agree, but this is a painting that got more impressive the closer I looked.

How did it start?

I had a ready-primed canvas long narrow canvas. Used a circle template to plop down a circle for the eclipsed sun (carefully off center but within the area of interest), with another larger one around it to approximate the corona, then just started to paint.

Roughed in the Texas landscape at the bottom, with the Llano river bordered by the trees and farther hills on the opposite side. Roughed in the "sunrise" colors on the left and right with more clouds above it. Got a lot of orangish primer to cover up with more overcast and clouds, but it was a good start.

This is how it evolved:

Mixed up a lot of mid-tone grey and used that to cover up all of the orange primer. Of course the entire thing immediately got duller, without having the orange/blue complements playing off each other and the primer is still shining up through some of it, making those areas look warmer.

"False sunrise" colors during the eclipse go in the exact opposite order than they would normally. Normally, the closer in towards the sun you go on the horizon, the warmer and more yellow the color becomes. As you move away from the sun it goes orange and into red, then cool red and purples. But in this case, because the sun itself was blocked out and the light on the horizon was what was leaking around the moon's shadow, the light is brighter and warmer the farther away from the
shadow band you go.

Spent an hour working on the sun's corona, getting that to shine brighter and making it more uneven. Started also working on giving the moon more dimension.

Next up was working the sky holes and clouds. Darkening up things, working to get that impression of the very dark shadow running right up the sky. Making the sky between clouds go from the regular light warm blues into cooler ultramarine and then the very dark Prussian blue traveling inward and upward. Then the clouds which will have the greatest contrast and range of values up around the eclipsed sun, becoming even softer and less distinct traveling downwards to the horizon.

Worked on extending the dark shadow band down the sky, a lot more
work over the top edge and down along the right side of the sky. Thought there should be more, brighter sunrise color over on the right side so put some of that in, being careful to edge it upwards a ways so the thing isn't totally symmetrical, which would be boring. Placed some bluish-green lighter cloud in the sunrise areas down by the horizon, and was quietly proud that I mixed up that color and matched it perfectly to that in the photos.

Got out the T-square and trued up the horizon line, which had gotten squiggly. Put some edge-lighting on some of the clouds around the sky hole where the eclipsed
sun appears.

The band of clouds down the dark shadow band were all too close in value - when squinting my eyes, it just turned into one dark blur down there. So spent time adding some good darks in some places and lighting edges of clouds in others.

Tried to make everything have more blue the farther down the sky you go, while warming up the clouds up near the sun. Interjected more color into the false "sunrises" on either side of the shadow band. Pulled the corona out farther to give it three prongs instead of just two.

Final touches: Got more values going in the clouds in the lower third, making them a bit more highlighted but careful to use more blue in everything so they recede. Did some more cloudy detail work up around the sun making them more warm and rosy. Did a bit of highlighting on the line of trees along the river bank, lightened the distant hills just a touch more, and added a little more warm color to the water at either edge to reflect the "sunrises" in the sky above. Done!

Final result at the top.

Remember this painting when someone asks "How much detail can you put in clouds? How long can it really take to paint clouds?" It takes about 10 hours and involves a lot of color shading and highlights. I thought this level of detail would be interesting to the painters among the Horde.

Thank you for sharing! Well done tankascribe!

Remember - the Hobby Thread mailbox is always open if you would like to share your own hobbying projects.

Not a word of commentary and over 15 million views in 7 months. Amazing.

Same guy. Over 5 million views of a guy building a small hut out of pallets with no power tools.

This is more of a commercial endeavor than a pure hobby, but you'll understand why it got included.

Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did a telescopes and night sky photography theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.

Both were linked in the comments, but both deserve a place in the content. Beckoning Chasm lunar photo:

Martini Farmer lunar photo:

Random follow up from last week, courtesy of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum:

Q: Can astronauts burp in space? A: Not really - at least not the kind of burping we do here on Earth.

In space, astronauts are in a constant state of freefall, so gravity doesn't help separate gases from everything else in their stomachs. This means that the gases don't naturally stay near the top of the stomach, while the heavier liquids and solids settle to the bottom. Without the affect of gravity, the gases, foods, and liquids stay floating together. So if an astronaut tries to burp in space, a little bit of everything comes up (solids, liquids, and gases). Basically, burping in space means throwing up a little.

You're welcome.

Notable comments from last week:

And a big bright gold star to Ben Had for this gem:

Words of wisdom:

"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).

Would TRex include a mystery click behind the top photo in a Hobby Thread? Maybe... If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, hijack the thread for your hobbying as you see fit. We will feature a different theme next time. What are you hobbying? We love showing off Horde hobbying. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.

Are Maine Coon Cats really that big?

There is some interesting information in this video. Apparently, Maine Coon Cats are not exactly like other cats.

Maine Coon Cats are not as big as a gorilla.

Logically which animal could take on a full grown male Gorilla? pic.twitter.com/zApL6kCMTA

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) August 15, 2025

Maine Coon Cats are not as big as a full-grown lion.

Logically which animal could take on a full grown male lion? pic.twitter.com/2lTM8mUUS4

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) August 11, 2025

Personal story:

I once took photos of a lion (perhaps a juvenile - its mane was not as dark or majestic as the one on the lion above - in a hotel room, with his trainer. The lion's mane had a waxy feel. He had come up the fire escape of the hotel for photos.

The next night, he bit one of my friends in a college show. He had been okay in rehearsal, but reacted badly to the wig she wore for the final production.

He left her with part of her scalp peeled back, but it was repaired. She still has lion tooth marks on her forehead. Lions are wild animals.

This is Ollie. He's a three year old dachshund and the photo accurately reflects his attitude towards life.

Have a super week!

DJ Jazzy Mel

I love Ollie! Your description is delightful.

This is Kroger. We had to buy a new dog bed from Chewy. As you can see it was a big hit. He pretty much planted himself there for the rest of the evening with his bear.

NR Pax

Kroger is loved! And he loves his bear!

Good Day K.T. and Fellow Pet Morons, We had a big event at the house a few days ago, Chicks A & B took their first flight. This is a major milestone and has triggered changes in their living arrangements and feeding.

They have been moved into a proper bird cage now so they can learn how to balance and perch. We've also begun the weaning process to slowly get them off of the formula and on to a normal diet. We are using RowdyBush Crumble as a starter food and they are eating it, but we will continue to offer them formula twice a day. I expect in a few days to a week they will start refusing the formula all together.

Chicks C & D are both doing well and starting to flap their wings, but they don't have all their flight feathers yet, so their first flight is at least a week or more away.

Today pictures are of A & B. I don't know if you can see, but their plumage is just so pristine at this point. One image has A getting ready to launch himself for a fly about, and there is one of them looking at us. The last picture is from a previous post of these same 2 babies about 8 weeks ago. Nature never ceases to amaze me.

Regards,
David

What a difference in 8 weeks!

Hello,

I just saw a most unusual sight.

I found a deer resting in the shade in my backyard.

I live in a semi-rural community and my house is only a few blocks from several patches of woods that are home to deer. It's not too unusual to see them roaming my neighborhood at night.

I've lived here for 13 years and this is the first time I've seen a deer chilling out in my backyard on a hot summer day. Pretty cool.

Thought you'd enjoy this.

Best regards,

"Perfessor" Squirrel

Fun! Deer in the perfect spot for photos!

Thank you for sharing your pets and animal photos and stories with us today.

If you would like to send pet and/or animal stories, links, etc. for the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, the address is:

petmorons at protonmail dot com

Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.

Until next Saturday, have a great week!

If you start feeling nostalgic, here a link to last week's Pet Thread, the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, August 9

I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

And from Biden's Dog in Jerusalem:

Agapanthus flowers, commonly known as African lilies or Lily of the Nile.

Blue flowers are a treasure in summer. This looks like one of the more compact, prolific varieties of agapanthus. Love it.

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

From By-Tor:

Made the mistake of taking a nibble on one of my 2 million Scoville units Ghost Peppers. Instant pain and ten minutes of regret. It not a “sneaks up on you” heat; it’s instant full blown heat. Not sure what I’m going to do with them, actually. This summer heat here in SoCal seems to suit them, though.

This is NOT something that I would try. I have heard stories of guys doing challenges with extremely hot peppers, keeping ice cream on hand for themselves without informing "the mark" that eating ice cream after such a challenge is a good idea.

I also read a tip from J.L. Hudson, Seedsman on how to use these extremely hot peppers once. As I recall, he used one pepper in this class to flavor a bathtub full of sauce, which he canned. Or something like that.

Any other tips for By-Tor?

Here's a much milder pepper I grew years ago with marigold plants. The first flush of marigold flowers was about over in this photo. The peppers changed color from green to yellow to orange to red. Attractive and quite tasty, with heat in the range of an Anaheim pepper. The plant was bred to stay short, so it could be left in flower beds. Don't remember its name.

Zucchini and Tomato Casserole

• 4 medium zucchini, cubed
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill weed or 1.5 teaspoons dried dill
• ground black pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon margarine, melted
• 2 large tomatoes, sliced
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil leaves
• 3/4 cup grated Romano cheese (feel free to substitute to your tastes)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 2-quart casserole dish.

2. Place zucchini in a pot fitted with a steamer basket over boiling water. Steam 5 minutes, or until tender but firm. Transfer to the casserole dish. Mix the dill, pepper, and margarine, and stir into the casserole dish, evenly coating zucchini. Layer tomato slices over zucchini, and sprinkle with basil and Romano cheese.

3. Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until bubbly and golden brown.

Notes: You could mix some green pepper or chile and onion slices with the zucchini and maybe substitute a pinch of oregano for the dill for a nice variation.

If you want to peel the tomatoes, you could pay attention to whether or not the tomatoes you grow are easy to peel without blanching, like the great, early Cosmonaut Volkov, (Plants with Stories) or Sweet Tangerine. There are others.

We are starting to get tomato reports from The Horde, and it's time for a reminder that some information on different varieties is more reliable than other information. The story about Cosmonaut Volkov being chosen over 300 different varieties in honor of a cosmonaut who was killed in an accident is probably legit.

Last week, there was an exchange of legitimate information about the variety 'Black Strawberry' in the comments:

34 I recommend Black Strawberry for its prolific fruiting and long-lasting tomatoes, especially for sauce. Posted by: Miley, okravangelist at August 09, 2025 02:40 PM

Never heard of it. Gonna have to order some seeds. Thanks. Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at August 09, 2025 02:52 PM

I had never heard of it, either, so I decided to look it up, and this was a quote from the first source I found, a lengthy article which seemed full of other malarkey, too. Everything You Wanted to Know About Black Strawberry Tomatoes:

Black strawberry tomatoes have been around for centuries and were first discovered by Italian farmers in the 18th century. The tomato variety was so named due to its unique dark-purple hue that resembles a large strawberry. They are grown in clusters of climbing plants, making them an ideal choice for home gardening and greenhouses.

The flavor of black strawberry tomatoes is more intense than traditional red tomatoes. They are also known to be very juicy and have a hint of sweetness, making them popular among chefs and cooks alike. We often find black strawberry tomatoes in farmers’ markets during the summer or in grocery stores sold as organic produce.

The story about the 18th Century Italian Farmers was just make up out of whole cloth. This is an anthocyanin (blue) tomato. They are a class of tomatoes which has only appeared on the market recently.

From Victory Seeds, a good source of tomato history:

60 days, indeterminate. A very early cherry tomato with high levels of anthocyanins. The colors vary widely depending on the sunlight shining directly on the fruit. More sun means darker colors, resulting in fruit ranging from strawberry to purple to nearly black. Very sweet flavored 2 ounce fruit. Derived from a cross between 'Bosque Blue' and 'Strawberry Tiger' tomatoes.

There is a slideshow of photos at the link. Their appearance varies a lot.

Rare Seeds (Baker Creek) has details on characteristics of the fruit, plus reviews.

Fantastic, sugar-sweet tomato flavor, that is fruity, with a hint of grape and plum flavors. If you relish the experience of digging into a bowl of high-quality cocktail tomatoes, then the Black Strawberry is your tomato. This 2-ounce fruit is marbled in purple, pink, green, and gold. This extremely productive and early variety is an obvious choice for gardeners and market farmers who want rugged, early-producing plants but do not want to sacrifice eating quality. This variety produces much diversity in color, and some plants may produce grape-shaped fruit. One of the best-tasting tomatoes we have tried!

Some of the variation in these tomatoes may come from throw-backs in individual plants to the parent varieties, because this variety was only bred recently.

You can find more information by looking up its parent tomatoes.

Ah, Nature

I’d like to announce I’m back on this app but since I don’t pay for premium, it will be seen by 4 people. Anyway to those 4 people, I captured something amazing this month 🐻 pic.twitter.com/f9ke1oU2NO

— Kris Luckenbach (@KrisLuckPhoto) July 21, 2025

Flowers enticing bears!

Sunflower Season is in Session

Mrs. Leggy's sunflowers are a tradition here:

Hi KT! I thought I would send some pictures of the sunflowers I grew this year. In past years, I grew sunflowers that turned into dinner-plate sized seed heads. Unfortunately, the neighborhood squirrels were murder on these flowers, knocking them over in their quest to get the seeds. What a mess! This year I chose an heirloom variety (see package). 6-8 feet tall with multiple flowers in a variety of colors. Rather than one large flower, I get to enjoy many more smaller flowers. The bees and goldfinches really love them!

The big pot of flowers is a tribute to my mom. She always planted petunias and marigolds. They are the easiest flowers to grow-sunlight, water and a little fertilizer and they grow like crazy. I cut them back from time to time and they continue to bloom all summer

Thanks for giving us the garden thread. It's a peaceful place to visit every Saturday!

Mrs. Leggy

I love those sunflowers, and the pot of flowers in honor of your mother is dreamy!

Gardens of The Horde

This spring, Hrothgar sent us a photo of Rhododendrons "Bee Blooming"

And Azaleas (Fading Fast)

But I can't tell they're fading. They're beautiful!

Anything new happening in your garden? We have an aggressive gopher.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:

Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.

Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, August 9

Any thoughts or questions?

I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

AI and Copyrights

Sam Altman (born April 22, 1985, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.) is an American entrepreneur who was president of the start-up accelerator Y Combinator from 2014 to 2019 and chief executive officer (CEO) of the artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI beginning in 2019. He has been compared to tech visionaries, including Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, and is known for his belief that artificial general intelligence (AGI) will be able to do anything that humans can.

But Sam is starting with things that humans have done. And often copyrighted.

Last week in this space, we noted that government entities in Canada were going way overboard in "land acknowledgements" at the start of public meetings. These acknowldements are theoretically directed toward the descendants of various indigenous groups, but are not very useful to them. Although one recent court ruling concerning aboriginal property rights in Richmond, Canada could be.

Here's an interesting view on intellectual property.

I think Sam Altman should have to recite "intellectual property acknowledgements" every time he speaks in public

— Walter Kirn (@walterkirn) August 12, 2025

ARS TECHNICA via Instapundit, AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified:

AI industry groups are urging an appeals court to block what they say is the largest copyright class action ever certified. They've warned that a single lawsuit raised by three authors over Anthropic's AI training now threatens to "financially ruin" the entire AI industry if up to 7 million claimants end up joining the litigation and forcing a settlement.

I guess we're not finished with this issue. Perhaps we should get some clarity sooner than later.

More New Thoughts

New(?) thinking from the NYT

Checking in on the New York Times. https://t.co/rAq2AwBgcb pic.twitter.com/HSbIiAsL4Y

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 15, 2025

Someone actually changing their thinking:

Confession: I actually used to be part of the “blacker than black, ‘cause I’m black, y’all…” crowd.

First time I watched “Blazing Saddles,” I hated it. I thought it was racist. I remember watching it with some fraternity brothers and damn near causing a scene because they were all laughing while I was pissed they could laugh at something so racist.

Post college, rookie cop, newly into my right-leaning, conservative awakening, I had a girlfriend who wanted to do a movie night. She said she wanted to watch her favorite comedy, “Blazing Saddles.” After asking if we could watch something else and her being dead set on wanting to watch it, I gave it a new shot. I was prepared to be mad, though, just in case.

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard in my life.

Point is, to everyone who still views the world through a racial lens, there’s a whole world out there that you could enjoy if you simply take off those lenses. It’s holding you back and you don’t even realize it.

12 Fun Facts about Blazing Saddles

Original Trailer

Weekend

The Week In Pictures: Democrats All-In For Crime Edition

Yesterday was V-J Day, and Powerline posted a piece by Bill Campenni:

Today — August 15 — marks the 80th anniversary of the surrender of Japan. Actually, it was August 15 in Japan, but more accurately August 14 on this side of the Date Line. And yet today I can find little notice or commemoration of this date. It was probably the zenith of American power and patriotism, which has been an exponentially decreasing quotient ever since.

There is a personal component to this day. I was five-year-old visiting relatives in suburban New Jersey and my mom decided to take me over to the City to see a Giants game at the Polo Grounds. (We were Yankee fans, but they were out of town that day.)

On the subway segment to the Jersey PATH trains after the game, mom decided to stop at a now long-defunct Childs restaurant in mid-town for a quick supper. So we get off at the Times Square subway stop and come up to the street to be greeted by probably a million, give or take another half million, people yelling and dancing and celebrating. It was a terrifying scene for a runty little five-year-old. I asked mom what was going on and she read off the moving electric news sign on the Times building “The War is over! The War is over!”

When you see that historic photo of the million(s) jammed into Times Square on V-J Day, yep, that’s me right there. No, not that sailor guy – that little speck over by the copy of the Statue of Liberty at the far end.

Even for a little kid, the importance of that moment was not lost. . .

Today, a scan of the media shows nearly none of the that historic day will be remembered or solemnly celebrated.

Few will have the joy that I was so lucky to experience on that wonderful day in 1945.

It was “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful” and “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and “Over There” in one glorious medley. You should have been there.

A very interesting thread on what Japan is like since V-J day.

Music

God Bless America

Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Last week's thread, August 9, Getting respect for the past wrong in Canada

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

AoSHQ Weekly Prayer List

Please submit any prayer requests to me, “Annie’s Stew” at apaslo atsign hotmail dot com. Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks unless we receive an update.

Prayer Requests:

7/9 - Teresa in Fort Worth asks for prayers for her niece Amanda, and her husband Barkley. They are at Vanderbilt Hospital, where Amanda seems to be rejecting her second heart transplant. She is only 40 years old, and has been having heart issues for 20 years. She had her first heart transplant 4 years ago, and things are not looking good.
8/2 Update – Amanda isn’t out of the woods yet, but her condition is improving each day.

7/11 – JR requested prayers for the families of those killed in Gaza.
8/2 – JR asked for prayers for the starving children in Gaza.

7/11 – Screaming in digital asked for prayers for her mother. Mom is still recovering from a UTI plus 3 falls within the last couple of days. During the day, there is some improvement. But once she starts sundowning, she is terrified and clings to whatever she can hold onto. She only weighs about 105-110, and isn’t eating much, but it is hard to move her when she is like that. If she doesn’t improve her mobility and cooperate/help with transfers to and from the wheelchair, etc., and consistently feed herself, she won’t be able to stay at the assisted living facility.
7/19 Update – Screaming in digital’s mother passed away.

7/11 – Matthew Kant Cipher requested prayers for Layne, a family friend who is also his son’s FIL. He was diagnosed with bladder cancer and is awaiting further test results to determine whether they treat with chemo or remove his bladder. As of now, it appears to be contained. Please pray that he and his family are blessed with God’s love and grace through this time of trial.
8/13 Update – Layne has had some good news. His PET scan indicated that the cancer hasn’t spread beyond his bladder. Also, it seems to be a less aggressive form of cancer than originally diagnosed. The Horde prayers are blessing him greatly and are immensely appreciated. Please keep them coming!

7/18 – Tecumseh Tea had a heart attack and needs prayers.
7/23 Update – Tecumseh Tea had a Type 2 heart attack, which is considered mild. She sends prayers of thanks for that! The angiogram showed a healthy heart, with little plaque and clean arteries, so no stent was needed. They did find a myocardial bridge, which is a congenital defect. The goal is to keep BP 140/70 with a pulse of less than 60, but so far they have not been able to meet that goal. She can’t get a cardiologist appointment until 8/22, so the GP is helping, but so far they have not been able to get the right BP meds. Please pray for a sooner visit, and the right meds that work for her, and answers.

7/19 – Huerfano asked for prayers for a rapid and full recovery for brother R, who had hernia surgery. He cannot see his grandsons until he has recovered. He misses them, and they miss him.

7/19 – Farmer Bob posted an update. He is doing well. He is competing in 5Ks and triathalons, and sends his thanks for the prayers. His ex-wife has “gone off the deep end” (or just remains so), with weird lies and accusations. She could use a prayer or two.

7/19 – Tonypete asked for prayers for Cheri and Gretchen, church ladies of his acquaintance. Cheri had a medical incident while driving and veered off the road and struck a number of pedestrians, sending 3 or 4 to the hospital. Gretchen and her husband were passengers in the car and her husband had a heart attack after the accident and died. Cheri is just sick about it and has kind of snapped. Gretchen has lost her best friend of 65 years.

7/19 – H asked for prayers for Brandon, a homeless man in San Marcos, TX, who has a broken ankle and has to seek care for that injury, specifically prayers that he would see God providing for him. He is asking for God to help him advocate for his care.

7/23 – D sent an update on his wife Susan, as they deal with cancer. The last few weeks have been a roller coaster. They cannot operate on the cancer, because it has spread too much. They have started chemo and hope to get it to shrink. Susan’s gallbladder is inflamed, but they cannot remove it, due to the chemo, and her blood sugar is having issues. Thanks to everyone for their prayers; Susan has pulled through all of this and is looking great as they keep praying to the Lord.

7/26 – Stateless asked for prayers for his neighbors. The nice lady across the street lost her husband of 30 years about 3 months ago. And a different neighbor lost his beloved wife of 34 years in July.

7/26 – Fenelon Spoke requested prayers for J, a dear lady who attends her church. J has been going downhill since she had a heart procedure several months ago and now cannot speak. She may have dementia and is living in an assisted living facility.

7/26 – Coelacanth sent his thanks for prayers for his son. He has come a _very_ long way but could still use more prayers as he deals with vax and black mold injuries. Also, Coelacanth cut his left hand pretty badly and severed two tendons. He will be on light duty at work for 6+ weeks. Prayers are appreciated.

7/26 - Brother Tim was discharged from the cancer rehab facility and has returned to his routine of living out of hotel rooms, while working on better housing prospects. He is praising God for all the blessings and mercies!
7/30 Update – Brother Tim found out that the cancerous mass impinged on a blood vessel. He needs a full body scan to make sure it has not spread. He is relieved that he only needs radiation and not chemo to make sure the original cancer stays gone. He’s also out of PTO. He said that sometimes it feels like 2025 will be the death of him – possibly literally.

8/1 – Jmel requested prayers for her husband, whose father just passed away after fighting cancer for two years.

8/2 – “Perfessor” Squirrel asked for prayers. His job seems to be in dire jeopardy.

8/2 – Teresa in Fort Worth received the good news that her cancerous tumors continue to shrink. She had some not-so-good news, that she has 2 pulmonary emboli, and has been put on a blood thinner, which should dissolve the clots and prevent any new ones.
8/4 Update – The oncological surgeon said everything is looking great. After her next CT scan, they will be planning surgery to remove the tumors. The largest tumor is showing signs of calcification, which means that it is dying.

8/2 – FenelonSpoke requested prayers for P. She was to have an experimental but successful heart procedure which the surgeon thinks will help her arrythmia, pain, and fatigue, but insurance will not pay for it. Prayer that rough places are made smooth for her to have this procedure.

8/4 – Moki posted that s/he could use some prayers. A daughter has gone AWOL, claiming that they don’t love her.
8/9 Update – Moki reported that her daughter has come home.

8/4 – Inogame asked for continued prayers. Baby #5 continues to grow, and the genetic test came back clean. Prayers for mom and baby (daughter #4), and also dad and son are appreciated.

8/13 – MkY sent an update on his wife Judy’s battle with cancer. Her immunotherapy is scheduled for every 3 weeks. Six weeks ago, she had a cold and had to skip it, and it was the best she had felt in a year. So they skipped the last one, too. She is scheduled for it again on 8/14. She’s not hurting. She is sleeping. She’s not healthy, but she’s got stage 4 cancer! September is the next CT scan, and they will find out if the immunotherapy is making enough of an impact to continue. They are very grateful for the prayers.

8/13 – MkY would appreciate prayers for Butch and Harry, who have worked with him for 20 years. Both have recently been diagnosed with cancer. Butch has liver cancer and Harry has cancer in his larynx.

For submission guidelines and other relevant info, please contact Annie's Stew, who is managing the prayer list. You can contact her at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. If you see a prayer request posted in a thread comment, feel free to copy and paste it and e-mail it to Annie's Stew. She tries to keep up with the requests in the threads, but she's not here all of the time, so she may not see it unless you e-mail it to her. Please note: Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks or so unless we receive an update.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.

Tech News

• GitHub now supports BMP and TIFF file attachments. (GitHub)
  
  And they're working on WebP. At this rate you can expect it in 15 to 20 years.
  
  
  
• Is Proton - as in ProtonMail and ProtonVPN - leaving Switzerland? (TechRadar)
  
  Very probably. The country, once a safe haven for secure data, has become significantly less so.
  
  
  

Fido Friday: A classic

Gen Z is not OK

Expectations

Fun fact: Did you know that soccer is the most popular sport in the world?

UK today

Does this sound good?

That's what they call a gimmie

If not fren, why fren shaped?

How to treat a man or a woman

Twister

Those bastards!

A line

How to pee at mach speed

Best best man

Fandom fights

Scary as shit: Black ice

Canada

New map

Preoccupied with 19, 19,1985

That'll help

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by good advice:

Oregon has a tradition: The Squishing of the Squash.

Below, a woman laments having wasted her time and money pursuing a worthless gender studies degree, and in fact regrets having gone to college at all, as all they "taught" her was how to be pessimistic, fragile, ineffectual, and mentally toxic.

She notes that she was under-confident coming into college, and was attracted to the gender cult's promise that their demonic religion would "empower" her. She now realizes that college is supposed to be about learning things so that you can pursue a productive career, not to "empower" people who have at this point achieved almost nothing and thus should not be taught to feel "empowered" over nothing.

She says the gender cult taught her a "theory of everything" in which "everything is bad" and there is "no hope."

If you want to skip the guy's commentary-- which I would, it's not new news -- skip to 4:58.

A former NPR "reporter" decided she would defend yet another illegal alien killer. The monster drove drunk with a BAC three times the legal limit and slammed into another car, killing a mother and her 11 year old daughter.

He was so drunk he was speeding the wrong way down a one-way street.

And he had a prior history of DUIs, for which he was not deported.

This former NPR "reporter" wants to emphasize that, prior to the double manslaughter, and excepting all of his previous DUIs, his driving record is "largely clean."

It was a Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Family Annihilation.

She was attacked for this monstrous claim, and eventually deleted her twitter account.

The entire premise of the Left's George Floyd-era argument was, in fact, "white people bad," and it is a sign of weakness, rather than strength, that the left-wing CNN panelists are now pretending that they never made that argument at all. Good, @JillianMichaels. https://t.co/FmLODARVER

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) August 14, 2025

And this Guest of Last Resort also claimed that cleaning the woke sermons out of the Smithsonian is "whitewashing slavery" and saying slavery is good.

The surprisingly based Jillian Michaels rejected this. Abby Philips, naturally, claimed if every exhibit in the Smithsonian isn't anti-white/anti-male propaganda, you're saying slavery is good.

BTW, Jillian Michaels used to be the trainer on The Biggest Loser. She's a lesbian and used to be pretty leftwing, but I think covid and transgenders in women's sports radicalized her to the right and now she's based.

And most of them were party hacks:

106 people turned out, most of them employees of Newsom.

Newsom chummed the waters with more assassin-bait. They'll keep trying until they get their dead president.