Weekend Open thread

… Thomas Edison’s first invention was a vote-counting machine? The prolific inventor (1847-1931) patented his Electrographic Vote Recorder in 1869, thinking it would speed up the voting process. He especially wanted it used in Congress, where instead of shouting “yea” or “nay,” Congressmen could flip a switch and have their vote tallied. Politicians were not too pleased with the idea, though, as they felt overall it would leave them little room to make last-minute deals or even filibuster bills they didn’t like. The device went unused in the halls of Congress, which was a blow to the young Edison’s hopes. (Proving once and for all … the opposite of Progress is Congress.)

… the most expensive manuscript ever sold was a notebook? In 1994, Microsoft founder Bill Gates (born 1955) purchased the Codex Leicester, a notebook of scientific musings and drawings by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Gates paid the highest price adjusted for inflation ever for a manuscript, some $60 million in today’s dollars. (If you can’t read da Vinci’s handwriting, though, it’s just an expensive book of pretty pictures.)

… a clown’s act led to a massive tragedy? On May 2, 1845, a bridge spanning the River Bure at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, collapsed under the weight of a large crowd of people. Officials said 79 people died, most of them children. But what were all those people doing on the bridge? Watching a circus act, which was taking place on the river below. A clown named Arthur Nelson (1816-1860) was “sailing” up the river in a washtub, which was supposedly being pulled by four geese. That was the effect, anyway; the tub was actually attached to a rowboat by an underwater line. While the hundreds of people were on the bridge watching the silly stunt, the bridge collapsed, sending the crowd into the seven-foot-deep river. (Thanks to Mason for the tip!)

… the African Rock Python can survive without eating for two years? (But brother, when they do get hungry, you’d better hide.)

… a jellybean was created especially for a President? The Jelly Belly™ company supplied gourmet jellybeans to Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), the 40th President of the United States. In his honor, the company created Blueberry Jelly Bellies. (And then Reagan said red jellybeans were illegal and we’d begin bombing in five minutes.)

… one of the greatest speeches by a man who would become President is lost to history? In 1856, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) delivered an anti-slavery speech in Bloomington, Illinois. The speech so captivated listeners that reporters tasked with transcribing it instead listened in awe, not writing down what was said. (Talk about holding your audience’s attention!)

… you may know someone who practices umbilicanism? If you do, you know someone who – for whatever reason – engages in the philosophical practice of staring at their own navel. (A navel – er, novel idea, eh?)

… the phrase “cold war” came from a novelist? Used from 1945 to 1991 to describe the state of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, the phrase was written for the first time in that context by novelist George Orwell (born Eric Blair, 1903-1950). It appeared in an essay titled “You and the Atom Bomb,” written following the use of atomic bombs against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States during World War II.

Report of Survey is gonna be interesting on that! Oh, Present!

That will buff right out.

Yeah, that’s gonna take more than a new boresight.

Spent the major part of the day at the ER for something they couldn’t figure out. I thought it was a heart attack, but it was a blood pressure crash, like to damn near 0/0. Bad day.

AWW MAN, I can already picture it: “HEY Stevens, our gun got hit by a train, you’re gonna fill out a 2404 on it when it gets here to the motor pool!”

“Drudge report”.

Is that considered a reliable source?

Yes, it’s sarcasm.

Garbage.
I don’t care how much anti Trump shit you post, I will vote for him.
My vote is set in stone.
This is not 2016.
Trump is a known quality.

By definition, an open thread has no topic.
And Drudge is an amalgamator, not a news source… just providing links to steer the gullible audience to what they want them to read. That site lost all credibility around 2019.

Also on this day, 39 orbits ‘go:

On 13 September 1985, Maj. Wilbert D. “Doug” Pearson, flying the “Celestial Eagle” F-15A 76-0084 launched an ASM-135 ASAT about 320 kilometres (200 mi) west of Vandenberg Air Force Base and destroyed the Solwind P78-1 satellite flying at an altitude of 555 kilometres (345 mi). Prior to the launch, the F-15 — flying at Mach 1.22 — executed a 3.8 g0 (37 m/s2) zoom climb at an angle of 65 degrees. The ASM-135 ASAT was automatically launched at 11,600 metres (38,100 ft) while the F-15 was flying at Mach 0.934 (992.2 km/h; 616.5 mph).The 14 kilograms (30 lb) MHV collided with the 910 kilograms (2,000 lb) Solwind P78-1 satellite at closing velocity of 24,000 kilometres per hour (15,000 mph; 6.7 km/s).

Much kvetching was had by hippies everywhere over this Greatest Duckhunt Ever!

Rent-a-crowd.

Well, I’ll be a Monkey’s Uncle, I just found out that if I hit the little circle on the upper left under my name, it gives me the date and time that I commented. Amazing

Ain’t this timeline grand?