Random randomness

[LordMortis]

When they made it impossibly difficulty to change the headlights on cars, I said nothing...

Oh, you want to change the headlight? No problem, first you have to take off the fender...

Headlight, no. Tail Light, sort of. I have to get in to the housing which requires removing the interior of the trunk with special plastic rivet removers. So I broke them. They you need a really short ratchet wrench with a really deep socket that is hard to fit on a bolt that you have to go on to youtube to figure out the size of. It was same in PITA with a different nut size on my 98 as it is in my 2009.

If you know what you're doing it's about 10 minutes. If you don't and don't have a Chilton's, it's a whole lot of google and youtubing prep work and it's a few extra bucks that the auto/hardware store to replace a bulb.

I got lucky with recharging my AC. The earlier models of the Focus, right up until early 2009 required you to remove the render to charge the AC. The finally moved the pipe and inlet on that pipe to above the radiator with my model. <whew> This summer could have really sucked it, bad.

Stuff that used to be repaired no longer is. Most times its cheaper to buy a new one. Other times theres just no one who fixes stuff any longer around. Id love to have my 3 space heaters fixed but it would cost more than new ones. Same with a AC or a microwave.

When I replaced my furnace last year my old man was annoyed I paid to put a new coil and collection pan for my air conditioning. He said "They rust. It's water. You weld it together and move on." I have no skills for recognizing what to do much less patching together a function of a furnace or a torch or gas to run a torch or sheet metal and welding rods of different metals... My skills for living are... lacking.

[Paingod]

My skills for living are... lacking specialized.

I've come to accept that I may not make a good boiler technician or car mechanic. I'm okay with not having devoted a portion of my life to learning these skills well enough to perform them myself.

I expect there will be a demand for computer techs and gamers in the coming apocalypse, and I'm safe in my knowledge that a barter/trade community will appreciate the skills I bring to the table.

[Isgrimnur]

When all that's working are binary loadlifters, you're all set.

[LordMortis]

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/low_ ... rder_.html

[Isgrimnur]

I am Scooter dancing to Marketing's Gonzo.

[LordMortis]

Somewhere in the late 90s I went from Grover to Bert with a serious case of Pepe envy.

[Kraken]

When I was a kid I (briefly) wanted to be a tinker -- open a shop to fix everything from toasters to electronics. "Small appliance repair" was still a thing as late as the '60s, although it was already dying as everything gradually became disposable by then.

[dbt1949]

Before "retiring" my job was repairing electronic equipment. I come from an age where just about everything you owned could be fixed. I learned to become a jack of all trades. Something I came to regret as sometimes when everybody I knew would bring things for me to repair from time to time.
Even now I'm the "computer guy" on the mountain even tho I don't know 1/10 as much as most of you all. But then you have to consider where I live.
When I lived in New Orleans I repaired digital test equipment and by the time I left in '87 I could see the handwriting on the walls. (Never found out what asshole was doing it either). Anyrate more and more new equipment was requiring less and less maintenance.
Even now I have to repair a hole in the living room floor my wife helped create. It won't be pretty but it'll work.

[Holman]

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/low_ ... rder_.html

I require full alignments.

[disarm]

Typically you void the warranty by opening the case. I find it hard to believe that the company was cool with you tooling around in there as long as you didn't break anything.

Which is not a criticism of you. I'd absolutely void the warranty and fix it myself, most of the time.

Actually, this really isn't true thanks to the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. A manufacturer real can't forbid you from making your own reissue on a device, or having an 'unauthorized’ person make repairs, but they threaten it all the time. The unfortunate truth is that most people either believe the threat, or they lack the legal and financial means to fight a make manufacturer if they refuse to honor their warranty.

[tjg_marantz]

http://www.themodernman.com/dating/how- ... hones.html

I thought I'd found Matrix. Jesus fuck that's cringe worthy.

[dbt1949]

Marco

[Jaymann]

Polo

[Max Peck]

Pollos

[LawBeefaroni]

Scusami. Scusami! Sono Marco Polo!




(It never struck me until I actually wrote "scusami" how fake that seems)

[dbt1949]

I wonder how many llamas he saw during his journeys.

[Jaymann]

At least Judd Hirsch is still getting work.

[LawBeefaroni]

At least Judd Hirsch is still getting work.

Holy crap!

[AWS260]

Clowns trying to lure children into woods, locals in South Carolina say

One resident told police she was walking to her home on 21 August in the early hours, when she saw a large clown with a "blinking nose" standing under a lamp post near a rubbish bin, local news channel WYFF4 has reported.

She said the clown waved at her, but did not speak or come near her.

Another woman told investigators that her son told her that he saw several clowns in the woods "whispering and making strange noises".

[Brian]

Did they look like these guys?

[stessier]

I live in that area (I mean the city, not the forest in question) and I'm skeptical. The reports have all been from kids or people who call emergency but refuse to leave identifying information. I believe caution is warranted, but suspect it's all just a prank. People dressed as clowns are going to stand out and the area is not near a clown college or circus.

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, something about the story does seem funny.

[Isgrimnur]

Police have released an APB for twelve suspects, last seen in a yellow Smart Car.

[Blackhawk]

All that, and the thing that strikes me as the weirdest is that they live in an apartment complex with a curfew.

[Isgrimnur]

The correct term is "halfway house".

On a more serious note, the city has a curfew for downtown. Seems odd that the complex would have their own.

[Rip]

People allow themselves to be held to a curfew as a standard non-emergency practice?

Land of The Free
*disclaimer* Freedom is subject to numerous restrictions and only available 6AM-10PM daily.


:smh

[stessier]

The correct term is "halfway house".

On a more serious note, the city has a curfew for downtown. Seems odd that the complex would have their own.

The complex is not at all near downtown - and is not nice or in a good area. And the downtown curfew is for kids 18 and under for Friday/Saturday/night before a holiday unless they are with a guardian.

[Isgrimnur]

Tasmanian devil resistance found to face cancer:

A genetic study of Tasmanian devils has uncovered signs that the animals are rapidly evolving to defend themselves against an infectious face cancer.

One of just three known transmissible cancers, this tumour has wiped out 80% of wild devils in the past 20 years.

Researchers looked at samples from 294 animals, in three different areas, before and after the disease arrived.

Two small sections of the devil genome appear to be changing very fast - and contain possible cancer-fighting genes.

The team, made up of US, UK and Australian scientists, described their findings in the journal Nature Communications.

They say the results offer much-needed hope that the species, which is unique to Tasmania, could survive the disease.
...
Only two other infectious cancers are known to science. A similar tumour is shared between the genitals of dogs when they mate, and has traversed the globe since it originated 11,000 years ago; another was discovered in 2015 affecting clams on the US west coast.

[Paingod]

Only two other infectious cancers are known to science....

Does HPV not count? I mean, you get infected with it and have a much larger chance of getting certain cancers. Do some of these animals get the "infection" but not the cancer - or is this actual cancer cells that slough off and merge with a new host, spreading that way? Bears more reading into.

Huh, well I'll be...

The tumor cells are themselves the infectious agents, and the tumors that form are not genetically related to the host

[Isgrimnur]

These are direct transmission of cancer cells.

Canine transmissible venereal tumor

The tumor cells are themselves the infectious agents, and the tumors that form are not genetically related to the host dog. Although the genome of a CTVT is derived from a canid (probably a dog, wolf or coyote), it is now essentially living as a unicellular, asexually reproducing (but sexually transmitted) pathogen.

[LawBeefaroni]

Only two other infectious cancers are known to science....

Does HPV not count? I mean, you get infected with it and have a much larger chance of getting certain cancers. Do some of these animals get the "infection" but not the cancer - or is this actual cancer cells that slough off and merge with a new host, spreading that way? Bears more reading into.

HPV doesn't count. They're talking about cancer cells that are transmissible.

FWIW, the article left out the Syrian hamster as the 4th known type.

[Isgrimnur]

Looks like the Syrian hamster one isn't directly transmissible.

Contagious reticulum cell sarcoma of the Syrian hamster can be transmitted from one Syrian hamster to another by means of the bite of the mosquito Aedes aegypti.

The Syrians just can't catch a break.

[Paingod]

FWIW, the article left out the Syrian hamster as the 4th known type.

Has anyone alerted Richard Gere?

[LawBeefaroni]

Looks like the Syrian hamster one isn't directly transmissible.

Contagious reticulum cell sarcoma of the Syrian hamster can be transmitted from one Syrian hamster to another by means of the bite of the mosquito Aedes aegypti.

The Syrians just can't catch a break.

It may be, but hamsters just don't bite each other that much.

[Daehawk]

Is it me or does Barbara Palvin look like Lara Croft?

[Daehawk]

Gene Wilders death got me thinking about Willy Wonka again. Ive never seen the movie even though its supposed to be so great. The main reason is I thought I knew the story. I thought it was about a cooky chocolate factory owner who lured and used children in his chocolate to make them taste so good. Sorta Soylent Green like. I just now read the plot and geez its not that at all. Wonka really is a kind hearted person. I should have known Gene would not play him otherwise but thought Depp and the rest had. Strange of me.

[TheMix]

Strange of me.

QFT

[Kraken]

Saw it once. Didn't like it. It's a children's movie from when I wasn't a child.

[KKBlue]

Once again catching up on my reading. Very sorry not to have chimed in during the Seasme Street stuff BUT please know the smile and happiness was great!
Actually helped me achieve sleep and woke up to finish reading this AM.
Sunny Days!

[Paingod]

It's a children's movie from when I wasn't a child.

That's really my issue with a lot of older kids movies. I find Charlie to be kind of a whiny prick and close-up scenes of his face all screwed up in confusion make me want to hit him with an Oompa-Loompa. I'm going against the tide and will say I enjoyed the newer version more, which had a much more likable Charlie and more exaggerated "bad kids" that came across as caricatures instead of horrendously gross children.