Random Links Thread

[Tank]

so don't run at dinner time.

[Redondo]

Woman discovers plant she's been watering for two years is actually plastic

Plastic plants need love, too. They don’t, however, need water.

There’s something great about buying a plant, taking care of it and actually having it survive for more than a week or two. So, imagine the shock that one woman must have felt when she realized that a plant she had been caring for and watering for two years was actually made out of plastic.

Caelie Wilkes shared her story on her Facebook page, where she wrote, “I’ve had this beautiful succulent for about two years now. I was so proud of this plant. It was full, beautiful coloring, just an overall perfect plant. I had it up in my kitchen window. I had a watering plan for it, if someone else tried to water my succulent I would get so defensive because I just wanted to keep good care of it. I absolutely loved my succulent.”

Unfortunately, when she decided to transplant the plant to a new vase, she made a shocking discovery.

“I go to pull it from the original plastic container it was purchased with to learn this plant was fake,” she wrote. “I put so much love into this plant! I washed its leaves. Tried my hardest to keep it looking its best, and it’s completely plastic! How did I not know this? I pull it from the container it’s sitting on Styrofoam with sand glued to the top!”

Wilkes, a stay-at-home mom, shared photos of the plant, which does look to be real from the top. Once pulled from the container, however, it’s clearly not alive.

“I feel like these last two years have been a lie," Wilkes concluded.

 

Wow, can anyone really be that naive?

[T.G.]

4 hours ago, Redondo said:

Wow, can anyone really be that stupid?

 

[Redondo]

Bride’s face when her brother shows up with a llama as wedding guest goes viral: Not 'thrilled'

A silly 2015 exchange between two siblings led to an event that has since gone viral: a wedding in which the unamused bride was forced to welcome a very dapper llama as a guest.

Five years ago, Mendl Weinstock was driving with his sister, Riva, to Indiana from their home in Ohio. During the drive, Riva was allegedly discussing her wedding “like it was tomorrow,” Mendl wrote in a post on Reddit, “even though she wasn’t dating anyone.”

The discussion eventually led Mendl to issue an ultimatum: “If you make me come to this wedding, I’m bringing a llama." According to Mendl, Riva “got very upset” at the idea, before eventually becoming so exasperated at the back-and-forth that she acquiesced and told Mendl he could bring a llama to her wedding — which, again, she had not yet planned, to a man she had not yet met.

Fast forward to October 2019, and Riva was happily engaged, planning her March 2020 nuptials.

However, Mendl had been planning for the big day as well.

“Literally, I called him to tell him I was engaged and his response was, ‘Great, I’m calling the llama farm now,’” Riva said, Unilad reported. “Probably not even an hour later, I got a text that said his llama rental was confirmed.”

As the wedding day was approaching, Mendl contacted his friend for help on how to make a suit jacket and shirt for the llama to wear. The friend, in turn, turned to Reddit for the answer.

“I've been hired to make a tuxedo for a llama and I don't have it's [sic] measurements. I'm also assuming the llama is male,” the original post read.

Fortunately — or perhaps, unfortunately, if you ask the bride — Mendl's friend was able to make the llama’s suit jacket. After it was all said and done, the cost of the llama rental and custom-made outfit

“I promised him that I would take one picture. I said, ‘I will not stand next to the llama, I will not touch the llama, but I will take one picture,’” the bride said.

Riva said once she took the picture, she went back inside and was not having “any more of it.” The llama, Shocky, was not allowed inside the venue.

Despite Riva's exasperated face in the one photo she posed for — and her own admission that she wasn't “thrilled” by the llamas’ presence — she later said her expression was an accurate representation of “pretty much my face constantly when I look at my brother.”

The bride’s face aside, Mendl said the wedding guests, including Shocky, all had a great time at the wedding taking pictures.

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/brides-face-brother-llama-wedding-guest-viral

[Redondo]

Once Riva took her one photo with the animal, she went back inside. However, guests continued taking pictures with Shocky outside.

[Redondo]

The Brazilian-built Courier ended production in 2013.

New Ford COO Jim Farley has told dealers that a compact unibody pickup is coming to showrooms in 2021 with a starting price under $20,000, according to Automotive News. Ford’s least expensive vehicle for the 2020 model year is the subcompact EcoSport SUV, while the Ranger pickup starts at $25,605. Ford has not publically confirmed the report.

Automobile magazine reported two years ago that such a model was in the works and would be manufactured at Ford’s Hermosillo, Mexico, plant where Ford has confirmed it will begin producing the Transit Connect minivan in 2021.

Details on the new pickup have not been revealed, but it is understood to be similar in concept to the Ford Fiesta-based Courier that was last built in Brazil in 2013. Ford recently applied for a U.S. trademark on the Courier name, according to Car and Driver, and a camouflaged vehicle suspected of being a prototype for the vehicle has been spotted at a Ford development facility in Michigan.

https://www.foxnews.com/auto/ford-compact-pickup-2021

[Blarg]

The gardeners of America look forward to buying these used 10 years from now to haul mowers when their 50 year old Toyotas and Datsuns wear out. 

[Redondo]

CNN personality, ex-Florida gov candidate found in room with meth: cops

https://www.foxnews.com/us/andrew-gillum-inebriated-miami-beach-hotel-room-meth

[Redondo]

Pig sparks farm fire in England after eating, defecating battery-powered pedometer

Firefighters in England were called to “save the bacon” Saturday after a pig sparked a fire in its pen by swallowing a pedometer which then combusted “after nature had taken its course,” officials said.

Fire crews responded to the 800-square-foot (75 square meters) blaze at four pig pens on a farm near Bramham, Leeds, around 1:30 p.m., the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said.

“Should be an oink not a tweet,” the service wrote on Twitter. “A hose reel was used to extinguish the fire and save the bacon.”

Firefighters believed that copper from the pedometer’s batteries reacted with the pig’s excrement and dry hay to ignite the fire.

The pedometers, gadgets that measure the number of steps its wearer takes, were worn by the pigs to prove they were free-range, the fire service said.

No animals or humans were hurt in the fire.

[Redondo]

Sacramento constructing $5.6M tiny home community for homeless

A Sacramento church is transforming its sanctuary and land to help tackle the mounting homelessness crisis in the California capital.

St. Paul Church of God is leasing a plot of land to the city to house 24 tiny cabin-like structures, each for two people, between the ages of 18 to 24 years old, according to the local news.

“Our community is very special, and we have a lot of homeless here, just like everybody has them," Pastor Larry Joyner told KCRA, "but we’re willing to help ours."

There will be trailers on site for bathrooms, showers, and community space for counseling and social services inside the church building, where meals will be provided.

Residents' reactions are mixed.

One mother of four said she just doesn't know if it's a good idea with children and a school down the street, but others say if it helps them get on their feet, it's a good idea.

The $5.6 million project, approved by the Sacramento City Council with funding from the state, is the first part of the city's five-point homeless plan.

City leaders hope to have the cabins ready for move-in next month in response to the call from Gov. Gavin Newsom's 100-day challenge. The Democratic governor has been slammed by President Trump for his poor handling of the homeless population.

Trump has said if Newsom doesn't fix the problem, the federal government will get involved.

Californians have complained about homeless people defecating and urinating in public, needles on the sidewalk, and regular break-ins and theft.

Elizabeth Novak told Fox News she had to move her salon after it became unsafe.

"There were three break-ins, but there have been a lot more before that and syringes; people in tents on my front courtyard and I’m not allowed to ask them to move -- I didn’t feel safe, in general, there," Novak said.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/sacramento-california-homeless-house-church-land

 

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by Redondo

[Lou]

3 hours ago, Redondo said:

Sacramento constructing $5.6M tiny home community

Welcome back, nate! 

[Redondo]

 

[Redondo]

Why Americans are rehanging Christmas lights

 

[gotbeer]

In other words.  People are getting bored out of their minds being stuck with the family 24/7.

[Blarg]

Looks like a good way to single out the quarantined homes. 

[Redondo]

4 hours ago, Blarg said:

Looks like a good way to single out the quarantined homes. 

Lol

[gotbeer]

On 3/20/2020 at 7:58 AM, Blarg said:

Looks like a good way to single out the quarantined homes. 

I think I might have a neighbor that's been quarantined since 1985.

[Redondo]

This May 8, 2018 photo released by the Brazilian Environmental and Renewable Natural Resources Institute (Ibama) shows an illegally deforested area on Pirititi indigenous lands as Ibama agents inspect Roraima state in Brazil's Amazon basin. (Felipe Werneck/Ibama via AP)

 

Amazon rainforest could reach 'point of no return' and vanish in 50 years, experts say

A shocking new study suggests that the Amazon rainforest could reach the "point of no return" and disappear within 50 years.

The research, published in Nature Communications, notes that the Amazon and other large ecosystems like it could become "a savannah-type ecosystem with a mix of trees and grass within 50 years."

“Unfortunately, what our paper reveals is that humanity needs to prepare for changes far sooner than expected,” said the study's co-author, Dr. Simon Willcock, in a statement.

Wilcox and the other researchers used real-world data to come up with their conclusion, citing the instances such as the recent fires in both the Amazon and Australia.

More than 40,000 fires occured during the summer of 2019, resulting in the destruction of more than 2.24 million acres, resulting in widespread pollution and destruction.

In November, Fox News reported that deforestation, which played a major part in the fires, hit an 11-year high.

“These rapid changes to the world’s largest and most iconic ecosystems would impact the benefits which they provide us with, including everything from food and materials, to the oxygen and water we need for life,” Wilcox added.

While the pace of the potential change is breathtaking, it's possible that other ecosystems, which contain species that interact with others, take longer to collapse. The experts cited elephants as a "key stone" species that has a "disproportionately large impact on the landscape – pushing over trees, but also dispersing seeds over large distances."

If there were a loss of a such species, it would "lead to a rapid and dramatic change in the landscape within our lifetime," according to the statement.

“We intuitively knew that big systems would collapse more slowly than small ones – due to the time it takes for impacts to diffuse across large distances," the study's co-author, John Dearing, added. "But what was unexpected was the finding that big systems collapse much faster than you might expect – even the largest on Earth only taking possibly a few decades.”

https://www.foxnews.com/science/amazon-rainforest-point-of-no-return-vanish-in-50-years

[Redondo]

New Hampshire hiker survives 200-foot fall while descending Mount Washington

A New Hampshire woman was rescued with the help of a railway train after surviving a 200-foot fall while descending Mount Washington on Sunday afternoon.

Ashley Furness, 35, had been hiking with another companion when she slipped and fell near the Cog Railway tracks on the west side of the mountain. She struck several rocks during the fall, which likely saved her life, according to New Hampshire Fish and Game.

"It was these rocks that ultimately saved her from plunging into the ravine, a fall that would have likely proven fatal," the department said in a press release on Monday. "Her companion was able to descend to her position, place a call for help, and keep her warm with a space blanket until rescuers arrived."

The initial 911 call at 4 p.m. relayed how Furness had fallen while descending along the railroad tracks and suffered unknown injuries. Twin Mountain Fire & EMS mobilized its all-terrain vehicle, while Conservation Officers manned snowmobiles to get as close as they could to the victim.

They could only get so far due to the lack of snow and bare spots on the mountain, requiring them to hike the rest of the way up. She was badly hurt and unable to walk. Because of the steep terrain and icy conditions, Fish and Game requested the utilization of the Cog Railway and personnel agreed to get a train ready for her rescue.

"The temperature was in the teens and the wind was starting to blow which made it feel even colder," said Fish and Game Region One Lieutenant Mark Ober.

Due to her injuries and lack of mobility, a rescue belay was set up in the meantime with "ropes, a litter, and other essential gear" that was utilized to get her from the side of the ravine up to the tracks.

Rescuers were able to hoist her up to a location next to the tracks until a train arrived around 10:15 p.m.

Furness was placed on the train that arrived at a base station located two miles down the mountain around 11:00 p.m. An ambulance then transported her to Littleton Regional Hospital for treatment.

"I can’t thank Wayne Presby and his Cog Railway staff enough for assisting in this life-saving rescue,” Ober added. “Without the use of the train, we were looking at a potentially all-night rescue scenario which would have included calling in several dozen additional rescuers and technical rope teams just to get the injured hiker down the mountain safely."

[Redondo]

The Mile

The basic concept of the mile originated in Roman times. The Romans used a unit of distance called the mille passum, which literally translated into "a thousand paces." Since each pace was considered to be five Roman feet—which were a bit shorter than our modern feet—the mile ended up being 5,000 Roman feet, or roughly 4,850 of our modern feet.

If the mile originated with 5,000 Roman feet, how did we end up with a mile that is 5,280 feet? Blame the furlong. The furlong wasn't always just an arcane unit of measure that horseracing fans gabbed about; it once had significance as the length of the furrow a team of oxen could plow in a day. In 1592, Parliament set about determining the length of the mile and decided that each one should be made up of eight furlongs. Since a furlong was 660 feet, we ended up with a 5,280-foot mile.

The Nautical Mile

So if the statute mile is the result of Roman influences and plowing oxen, where did the nautical mile get its start? Strap on your high school geometry helmet for this one. Each nautical mile originally referred to one minute of arc along a meridian around the Earth. Think of a meridian around the Earth as being made up of 360 degrees, and each of those degrees consists of 60 minutes of arc. Each of these minutes of arc is then 1/21,600th of the distance around the earth. Thus, a nautical mile is 6,076 feet.

The Acre

Like the mile, the acre owes its existence to the concept of the furlong. Remember that a furlong was considered to be the length of a furrow a team of oxen could plow in one day without resting. An acre—which gets its name from an Old English word meaning "open field"—was originally the amount of land that a single farmer with a single ox could plow in one day. Over time, the old Saxon inhabitants of England established that this area was equivalent to a long, thin strip of land one furlong in length and one chain—an old unit of length equivalent to 66 feet—wide. That's how we ended up with an acre that's equivalent to 43,560 square feet.

The Foot

As the name implies, scholars think that the foot was actually based on the length of the human foot. The Romans had a unit of measure called a pes that was made up of twelve smaller units called unciae. The Roman pes was a smidge shorter than our foot—it came in at around 11.6 inches—and similar Old English units based on the length of people's feet were also a bit shorter than our 12-inch foot. The 12-inch foot didn't become a common unit of measurement until the reign of Henry I of England during the early 12th century, which has led some scholars to believe it was standardized to correspond to the 12-inch foot of the king.

The Gallon

The gallon we use for our liquids comes from the Roman word galeta, which meant "a pailful." There have been a number of very different gallon units over the years, but the gallon we use in the United States is probably based on what was once known as the "wine gallon" or Queen Anne's gallon, which was named for the reigning monarch when it was standardized in 1707. The wine gallon corresponded to a vessel that was designed to hold exactly eight troy pounds of wine.

The Pound

Like several other units, the pound has Roman roots. It's descended from a roman unit called the libra. That explains the "lb" abbreviation for the pound, and the word "pound" itself comes from the Latin pondo, for "weight." The avoirdupois pounds we use today have been around since the early 14th century, when English merchants invented the measurement in order to sell goods by weight rather than volume. They based their new unit of measure as being equivalent to 7000 grains, an existing unit, and then divided each 7000-grain avoirdupois pound into 16 ounces.

Horsepower

Early 18th-century steam engine entrepreneurs needed a way to express how powerful their machines were, and the industrious James Watt hit on a funny idea for comparing engines to horses. Watt studied horses and found that the average harnessed equine worker could lift 550 pounds at a clip of roughly one foot per second, which equated to 33,000 foot-pounds of work per minute.

Not all scholars believe that Watt arrived at his measurement so scientifically, though. One common story claims that Watt actually did his early tests with ponies, not horses. He found that ponies could do 22,000 foot-pounds of work per minute and figured that horses were half again stronger than ponies, so he got the ballpark figure of 33,000 foot-pounds of work per minute.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-are-there-5-280-feet-in-a-mile?utm_source=pocket-newtab

[gotbeer]

@Redondo The Nautical Mile is false.  Everyone knows the Earth is flat.

[Redondo]

5 hours ago, gotbeer said:

@Redondo The Nautical Mile is false.  Everyone knows the Earth is flat.

It's crazy that there are some who still hang onto that belief.

[Redondo]

Harlem Globetrotters legend Fred 'Curly' Neal dies at 77

Harlem Globetrotters legend Fred "Curly" Neal died Wednesday at his home in Houston, Texas.

Former Globetrotters owner Mannie Jackson confirmed his death to The Undefeated. From 1963-85, Neal played in more than 6,000 games across 97 countries, according to the team's website.

Before the Internet and cable television really existed, Neal and the Globetrotters introduced the sport of basketball to millions of sports fan across the globe. Curly was known for his impressive shooting, ball-handling skills, his smile and iconic bald head.

Neal wore No. 22 while playing 22 seasons for the red, white and blue.

“We have lost one of the most genuine human beings the world has ever known,” said Globetrotters general manager Jeff Munn in a statement. “His basketball skill was unrivaled by most, and his warm heart and huge smile brought joy to families worldwide. He always made time for his many fans and inspired millions.”

Neal's No. 22 jersey was retired by the Globetrotters in 2008. He was just the fifth Globetrotter to have his jersey number retired, joining Wilt Chamberlain, Marques Haynes, Meadowlark Lemon and Goose Tatum.

 

[gotbeer]

NASA DATA SHOWS SOMETHING LEAKING OUT OF URANUS

 

[Tank]

8 hours ago, Redondo said:

Harlem Globetrotters legend Fred 'Curly' Neal dies at 77

Harlem Globetrotters legend Fred "Curly" Neal died Wednesday at his home in Houston, Texas.

Former Globetrotters owner Mannie Jackson confirmed his death to The Undefeated. From 1963-85, Neal played in more than 6,000 games across 97 countries, according to the team's website.

Before the Internet and cable television really existed, Neal and the Globetrotters introduced the sport of basketball to millions of sports fan across the globe. Curly was known for his impressive shooting, ball-handling skills, his smile and iconic bald head.

Neal wore No. 22 while playing 22 seasons for the red, white and blue.

“We have lost one of the most genuine human beings the world has ever known,” said Globetrotters general manager Jeff Munn in a statement. “His basketball skill was unrivaled by most, and his warm heart and huge smile brought joy to families worldwide. He always made time for his many fans and inspired millions.”

Neal's No. 22 jersey was retired by the Globetrotters in 2008. He was just the fifth Globetrotter to have his jersey number retired, joining Wilt Chamberlain, Marques Haynes, Meadowlark Lemon and Goose Tatum.

 

sad. curly Neal and Meadowlark Lemon were amazing to watch. Loved them and their schtick. Got to see them a couple of times at the Forum.