Weekend Open Thread
It looks like people can provide their pictures to a website. A motivation for doing this? To see what they would look like as royalty, a warrior, or as someone in an ideal setting. However, there is a good chance that by providing their picture to an AI image generator, they are contributing to that AI’s data bank. When someone else decides to prompt AI to create an image, the faces of the people portrayed in the newly created image may reflect that of those who contributed their actual pictures in the above scenario. Enjoy your weekend!
Category: Open thread
First!
A Kong of Rats to you CW. On station monitoring the webz. The key is hidden in Lois’s lingerie drawer. Soon as I get back to Fire Base Magnolia I’ll play catch up.
YAY CW!!
Fucking work and having to do weird international travel + leave is a PAIN IN THE ASS!!
Oh well, I’m here and accounted for ang grumpy as usual;.
Now it appears that Kum-Load-AHHH :-O is the nominee and the convention isn’t even here yet. I guess FUCK the RULEZ.
It will be a wonder if DJT and JDV will be fairely elected or we’re devolve into a 3rd world deeper shithole.
Wait and see I guess.
Cheers Fuckers...ALMOST enough to make me want to drink again, but not really. No, that’s not going to happen unless I’m in front of a firing squad or something.
1776 today and that’s not just a good year to start a Republic.
Stop your bitching. Last September was sent on a work related trip to the UK to explore new markets for outdated and overpriced Red Hat Software and to see if he could locate a mortal coil for a 1980’s vintage Jaguar. During that trip, he scored the highly coveted and rarely awarded First Comment for the Weekend Open Thread.
ARE YOU SURE THAT said outdated Red Hat Software hasn’t slowed your computer down to where you can’t get a first on the WOT?
Magic 8-Ball, will Hack Stone be unburdened by what has been in order to secure the First Comment for the Weekend Open Thread of August 2, 2024?
Magic 8-Ball says …
Denied yet again …
Sucks being Hack. Always a prison bridesmaid, never a prison bride.
Isn’t that a good thing?
Apparently Hack has not been unburdened. Commissoner Wretched sabotaged Hack by having Hack’s boss IM just as the WOT dropped.
Sneaky of me, wasn’t it?
It’s a burden that Hack will have to bear.
You will continue to be burdened by what is not.
I think your Magic 8-ball is due for a depot-level rebuild.
Sent it to All Points Logistics to be calibrated.
Oh no, they will use “I can’t believe it’s not KY” for lubricating your 8 ball.
It will never return because Phil Monkress will steal it.
Oh, wise and all seeing Magic 8 Ball….
Is Phil Monkress (CEO of All-Points Logistics) still a turd?
Whaddaya know?? I made it! I think I’ve gotten used to the rather haphazard way of dropping the WOT, so maybe just maybe I can get a few more always-earned, never-given FIRSTs into place. In return for a week on the throne I pledge all the best from all larders of the kingdom, including the “good stuff,” and a dose of trivia to go with it. Enjoy!
DID YOU KNOW…?
Did an American soldier serve in both the Civil War and World War I?
By Commissioner Wretched
didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com
Copyright © 2024
Would you look at that! It’s August already!
The year has been zipping along rather quickly, hasn’t it? (Except in those places where it hasn’t, and we all know where those were.)
Scientists tell us that the older we get, the faster time seems to move. By my age (I’ll be 66 next month), it’s going along at near light-speed.
Slow down, already! I want to enjoy what time I do have left!
Oh, well. Time and tide wait for no man, but trivia is always at hand. So enjoy this week’s selection before the time zips past!
Did you know …
… you have a better chance of being hit by lightning than of getting a royal flush in a game of five-card draw poker? The odds of getting hit by lightning are one in 15,300. But you have a one in 649,740 chance of drawing a royal flush in the game of five-card draw poker. (Winning the Lottery has odds that make a royal flush look easy, though.)
… attendees at a musical concert actually produced a seismic event? On the nights of July 22 and 23, 2023, dancing attendees at Seattle, Washington concerts featuring singer Taylor Swift (born 1989) – along with the booming sound system used – caused seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake. One attendee said she could actually feel the ground shaking beneath her feet at the concert. (So that’s why her fans are called Swifties!!)
… as of this writing, the planet Saturn has the most satellites? In 2023, astronomers cited the discovery of almost 60 new satellites of the giant ringed planet, bringing the total number of moons to 146. Jupiter is second with 95 moons. (I think we here on Earth do just fine with the one we’ve got.)
… “unfriending” someone on Facebook can be more than just a traumatic experience? In fact, at least five people have been murdered by people they unfriended on the social media site. (It’s supposed to be “unfriending,” not “unaliving.”)
… the creator of the Peanuts comic strip once explained why he did not put adults into the strip? Charles Schulz (1922-2000) once said he didn’t like to put adults directly into the strip because they wouldn’t work with the “human” behaviors of Snoopy and Woodstock. Schulz felt adults in the strip would bring back reality. When adults were in the strip, they were either shown as only their legs or blurred faces in the distance, or with the well-loved “Blah blah blah” when they spoke. (Blah blah blah, blah blah.)
… one American soldier served in both the Civil War and World War I? Peter Conover Hains (1840-1921) was supposed to be a West Point graduate in the Class of 1862, but with the Civil War having started the previous year, his class was graduated a year early. Hains served with distinction during the war for the Union and had been brevetted to the rank of lieutenant colonel by the end of the conflict, with a regular rank of captain. Hains remained in the Army after the war, and in 1898, when the Spanish-American War began, he was a brigadier general. He reached mandatory retirement age in 1904, and in recognition of his 40 years of service was promoted to major general on the retired list in 1916. With the U.S. entrance into World War I the following year, Hains was recalled to active duty, heading the Eastern Department of the Army Corps of Engineers. Hains died at 81 in 1921, having spent his entire adult life in the military. (If anybody ever deserved a “Thank you for your service,” it has to be General Hains.)
… male mosquitoes do not bite humans? Only the females do, and then only to use the nutrients in blood to make the eggs they lay to reproduce. Male mosquitoes drink flower nectar. (There has to be a good joke in there somewhere!)
… a rumor holds that a King of England was given a lethal dose of morphine by his physician? On January 20, 1936, King George V of the United Kingdom (1865-1936) died as a result of septicemia from chronic bronchitis. A story is still told, however, that His Majesty’s physician, Lord Dawson (Bertrand E. Dawson, 1864-1945), administered a lethal dose of morphine and cocaine to speed up the King’s death. The reason was so that his death could be announced in the morning edition of The London Times, rather than in “less appropriate evening journals.” (First, do no harm, unless you want it in the evening paper.)
The amazing thing that right up until his death, King George’s inner circle were telling the press how mentally and physically fit he was, running circles around his staff when it came to attending to matters at hand.
and the report is repeated years later in the colonies?
For those who need a refresher on General Hains. https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=151292
… an April Fool’s joke ended up honoring a murderer? In 1971, Texas legislator Tom Moore, Jr. (1918-2017) introduced a resolution in the Texas Legislature honoring Albert DeSalvo (1931-1973), a serial killer known as the “Boston Strangler.” The resolution, placed on April 1, was intended as an April Fool’s joke … but no one paid any attention to what it said, and it passed the legislature. Moore then withdrew it and said he’d only offered it to prove the point that nobody was bothering to read the bills. (That’ll teach ‘em!)
… the average person spends a total of three years of their lifetime on the toilet? (I wouldn’t touch that line with a forklift.)
… for more than 100 years, maps showed an island that does not exist? Even today, you can find maps of the South Pacific Ocean that claim the existence of “Sandy Island,” a bit of land about the size of Manhattan, off the coast of Australia. It was supposedly discovered in 1774 by Captain James Cook (1728-1779) and began to appear on maps in the early 1900s. However, when a team of Australians set out in 2012 to finally and officially map the island, they discovered something amazing – it wasn’t there. Speculation has it that Cook actually spotted a floating area of volcanic stone and gas called a “pumice raft.” (Brigadoon comes to mind.)
Now … you know!
Odds of being hit by lightning 15,30:1 IN YOUR LIFETIME. In any given year well over a million to one, believe I read on any day over 16,000,000 to one. Still better odds than the big (Powerball and Mega millions) prizes.
There is a football stadium in Sao Paolo in which spectator stomping during an international match drove the whole thing centimeters into the ground, and took a decade to repair, according to a friend as we drove by it.
Another fine job on the Trivia Post, CW…or as some may refer to it as a History Lesson Post. We Thank ye, Good Sir. Do mention me to Lois.
How about this one a currently living WWII Veteran is the son of a Civil War Veteran.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/wwii-veteran-only-living-son-194819833.html
Now that is fascinating, Mike! Thanks so much!
From the for what it’s worth file. Time flying was explained to me this way: when one is one year old a day is one 365th of one’s life. When one is an old fart one day is 365 x number of years of one’s life. A length of time seems shorter the more times they’re experienced. So for the baby a day is 1/365th of life; for the sexagenarian one day is at least 1/21,900th of life. Does that make sense?
I can contribute this to educate the AI:
Where’s the link to add photos to the generator. Hack Stone is dying to know what he would like if he worked for a successful software company that could afford a mailbox door.
Open Thread!
Well, I just came in from outside.
Twenty-some as I once again award myself another Honorary First.
((((OVER)))))
Epstein did not kill himself.
Those on his list remain at large while they sic their minions on those who pursue the truth.
Not first, don’t care.
At Casa de Sparky for the weekend, gonna see Metallica. No, I will not buy you a shirt.
Enter the sandman.
It would be a killer show if tool was opening for them.
I know at least some of the shows this tour have Five Finger Death Punch.. wouldn’t mind catching that show..
The night we are going to see them it’s Ice Nine Kills and Five Finger Death Punch. Last night was Pantera and Mammoth WVH.
Bit of marketing on their part, whatever songs they played last night will NOT be played Sunday. That’s what they’ve been doing the whole tour. I’m sure there will be some songs I will miss not seeing them play, but for what they charged, can’t afford both shows.
Damn! can’t go wrong with either of those lineups! Both FFDP and Ice Nice put on great shows.. Still never seen Metallica, but suffice to say I’m jealous!
Late again. At least I’m consistent.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
FIRST THIRTY FIRST
Here and not even close to first
Hope you all have your popcorn ready
It’s going to be a long weekend
Even a blind squirrel finds an eggcorn every now and then.
Eggcorn – Wikipedia
At least it sounds professional now.
Would that be the Driftwood of Jacksonville NC? Do they pay you in crumpled $1 bills?
PINO Sleepy Joe wanders around lost, and gets on to a random plane. Kamala & the secret service agents left befuddled. What is he doing?
(1) Kate Hyde on X: “Maybe he was using the bathroom! https://t.co/CF2F4hATdJ” / X
Chicoms or somebody is going to attack shortly. That’s how the world is. Just sayin’.
Sadly, I do believe you’re correct… it’ll either be before the election, or in the chaos after when the dems try to pretend they didn’t steal it…
Present. ish.
The world is weird. Cheering a adult-age male battering a woman? The Olympics started in the cesspool and just went down from there it seems.
I know – the ladies’ gymnastic teams are outstanding, the men’s are actually starting to do something, and some older Turkish dude who is letting pistol shooting help him deal with divorce really made a splash. And a heck of a lot of funny memes.
Got an good report from the cardiologist – he didn’t find anything wrong with my heart so it’s back to life as normal.
God bless you all. Pray for the USA
It started when we let pro athletes into Olympic competition. Had to be about the medal count.
The Prolympics.
Aerosmith in the news…..
https://people.com/aerosmith-retires-from-touring-steven-tyler-vocal-injury-8689884
You can only hit the dream on high notes for so long.
Hack Stone saw Chuck Berry in 2008. He was around 82 at the time. When you owe the IRS a shitload of money, you better pay up. Unless you are Al Sharpton or Hunter Biden.
Just recently saw Chicago and Earth Wind and Fire, both of which had what appeared to be at least some original members still playing trumpets and other wind instruments. Neither band hit any sour/off key notes that I heard.
A lot of these “oldie” bands are now franchises. Surviving members split up, and they decide that this side of the band will use the name East of the Mississippi, the other members of the band will tour west of the Mississippi, and as long as they don’t stray over the line, things are cool. Then you have the guy who swept the studio during the bands third album recording setting up his version of the band and touring the smaller venues. Back around the turn of the century, “Foreigner” was touring, which consisted of the drummer. No idea if it was even the original drummer or a later fill in. Hack saw an advertisement on Facebook for a Righteous Brothers tour, despite Bobby Hatfield being dead for 21years.
Little River Band is touring, no original members.
I remember them dudes.
Wikipedia does a pretty good job keeping up with the band member swaps. If you are ever curious you can check them to see the history.
No disrespect to Trump intended, but this is some funny shiz.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/uvdg3V1j5y1D1PAA/?mibextid=LvJtn9
Hack Stone is spending his Saturday morning in the Emergency Room with Rosetta, and someone in the waiting area is on the phone discussing what seems to be military business. Then he said the dreaded words, “current status”. Hack Stone hates “current status. All status is current. Twenty plus years ago, Hack was on an exercise with 7th Comm Battalion, and one of the Lieutenants said “current status”. Hack told the Lieutenant that by definition, all status is current. To which he replied “You can have old status.” Then Hack said “That would be history, sir.” And don’t get Hack started on “latest update”.
I was thinking about that when I was at the ATM machine yesterday. It was a very unique thought. I pondered the whole concept over my dinner of jumbo shrimp and non-alcohol beer.
Mmmm, jumbo shrimp. Mentioned just in time for a late lunch.
How about some Buffalo Shrimp?
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/245595/crispy-buffalo-shrimp/
More redundanter.
Went to my uncle’s funeral today, he was a retired PJ/ Enlisted Commando plank holder. anybody know about this school in his younger photo?
You can talk about them, but you can’t talk without them.
Gotta do some research on him, he retired from 10th SFG at Fort Devens and was involved in the Bay of Pigs.
It is a course for ground radio operators. Every Army Special Forces ODA had a commo NCO to run the Angry 109.
He would not have retired from the 10th group at Devens if he served in the Air Force at that time. All SF commo NCO’s went to the Army Special Forces commo course to learn to operate the AN/GRC-109, which was a radio system only used by Army SF units and spook outfits behind enemy lines. It was inherited from the OSS.
10 SFG reserves, 27 years total I believe.
Other puzzle pieces.
The 58th Tactical Missile Group is a USAF unit that was based at Osan Air Base in Korea in the early 1960’s.
There was no reserve unit of the 10th SFG, it was an active-duty Army unit. There was supposedly a company of the 12th SFG which was an Army Reserve unit based there.
11th Group was the reserve group married up with 10th. We did an exercise in Norway many years ago, and when we came out of the field, we had a couple of days off to see the sights. Every time someone chatted up a girl and it came out that they were in the Army, the girl would ask to see an ID card. As soon as the ID came out, a wall of ice came down. The 10th Group Advon had spent their time telling the natives that in response to the AIDS crisis, the Army had issued all the HIV positive soldiers pink ID cards.
What a great psyop story. And it had the desired effect. When I was in the 509th in Germany, I was a planning/liaison officer for a NATO airborne op in Norway. Seemed like most of the population under 30 was in the military. I met a Norwegian Army Sgt. who was assigned to our team. She became my girlfriend and lived with me in Germany for several months before my tour ended with orders to the Viet of the Nam.
I went through the Q in the mid-80’s, and they were still teaching the 109. Apparently it was still in cached war-stocks in Europe at the time.
Although our primary radio was the AN/PRC-74, we were required to use the 109’s because the 74’s ran on batteries. When we infil’d into Germany for the Flintlock exercise in 1973, each ODA had to carry the 109 set, as well as a 74 set. I had to pack that hand crank generator that weighed 34 lbs in my ruck. I forget who had the misfortune of packing the seat for the generator. The rationale was that we needed the 109’s in case we could not get batteries successfully resupplied in the UW environment.
The class depicted is an Air Force commo course for ground radio operators. In order for your uncle to have retired from the 10th SFG at Ft. Devens, he would have had to have changed service branch to the Army, completed the SF Qualification Course, the SF Commo course, and been assigned to the 10th. He had to have retired after 1967, as the group minus one battalion did not move from Germany to Devens until 1968. I served in it at Devens from 1971 to 1974.
I will do a FOIA/DD214 for fun. But yes, he started in the AF and ended in the Army reserves. The stories of him and my aunt poaching deer in the training area (BRAGG) were hilarious.
Phil Monkress (CEO of All-Points Logistics) takes it in the ass….willingly.
I guess the message here is you’re just going to have to suck up your personnel shortages.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/group-commander-faulted-b-1-crash-relieved/
Good news!
A Google search on the False Commander “Phony” Phil Monkress (CEO of All-Points Logistics) now shows his shitbaggery at 27 from the top as opposed to 35!
Keep it up!