Octopus Overlords

You would think McDonald's couldn't possibly lose their trademark on their Big Mac in Europe.

You'd be wrong.

Here's a pretty big point taken from the ruling inside a Twitter thread.

Trying to birth a 3rd arm?

In a new case study, Irish doctors report the baffling case of a 33-year-old man who injected his own semen intravenously for a year and a half, a self-developed “cure” intended to treat his chronic back pain. It does not appear to have worked.

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Thu Jan 17, 2019 2:53 pm Trying to birth a 3rd arm?

In a new case study, Irish doctors report the baffling case of a 33-year-old man who injected his own semen intravenously for a year and a half, a self-developed “cure” intended to treat his chronic back pain. It does not appear to have worked.

You forgot the money shot...er quote...

the doctors at Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Ireland wrote in the case study, titled “‘Semenly’Harmless Back Pain: An Unusual Presentation of a Subcutaneous Abscess,” published in the Irish Medical Journal

Thats just not a reproductive use of his time and resources.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Thu Jan 17, 2019 5:00 pm Thats just not a reproductive use of his time and resources.

I was just reading an article on Borderline Personality Disorder and it surprised me that it seemed so much like me.
I don't know if I need to fix it or not. I seem to be satisfied being the way I am.
I'm not depressed I just don't seem to care much about anything.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 18, 2019 3:34 pm I was just reading an article on Borderline Personality Disorder and it surprised me that it seemed so much like me.
I don't know if I need to fix it or not. I seem to be satisfied being the way I am.
I'm not depressed I just don't seem to care much about anything.

The key to knowing is self monitoring.

First question: How many human heads do you have in jars in the basement (or ramshackle outbuilding for those living in Hogeye)?

If the answer is "I don't bother to keep count" then you might have a problem.

Don't be silly. Of course I know how many.

Sister brought me up a nice infrared heater. Maybe Ill stay warmer for less money now.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat Jan 19, 2019 5:19 pm Sister brought me up a nice infrared heater. Maybe Ill stay warmer for less money now.

Just had this recommended to me (our new bedroom is the attic). Let us know how it works out!

Holman wrote: ↑Sat Jan 19, 2019 5:31 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sat Jan 19, 2019 5:19 pm Sister brought me up a nice infrared heater. Maybe Ill stay warmer for less money now.

Just had this recommended to me (our new bedroom is the attic). Let us know how it works out!

I will try to remember to do that.

For some reason I did not post in this thread until page 14. Wed Oct 28 2009.

I posted .....I watch Imagination Movers. ...........I dont even know what that is. Think a cartoon.

9 years and a few months until I lost my wife.

Ok nope not a cartoon. Time.

I wish Netflix and Hulu and others had a random options. Just pic the section like movies or tv and then random and it play random things from that area. Id set it to tv and let it play for the noise. I don't want to pick something.

Netflix Max was a thing that did that. It didn't stick around.

Netflix Roulette

Woman brags on dating app to her match about poaching deer using illegal methods. Turns out her match was a game warden.

-----

Speaking of personal heaters... I bought an OPOLAR oscillating personal heater with 2 fixed and 1 variable setting, up to 1500W. It's a fun little heater that I can adjust so it doesn't overheat the room. At only $23 or so on Amazon, it's almost perfect.

Most of you have no idea what Olga bread is, so this isn't worthy of its own thread but RIP Olga. You were a one of a kind, my introduction to souvlaki and none have done better since.

Olga Loizon? I couldn't just let it go without looking. Long filled life it seems . Wont matter to those who were close but even I can see from the outside looking in she had an amazing life and run. 92. If only my wife had gotten near that.

I seem to recall a restaurant called Olga's when I was in Ann Arbor nearly 30 years ago, so I'll assume it's the same place. I think I even ate there once or twice.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Mon Jan 21, 2019 10:34 pm Olga Loizon?

Yes, though I never knew her as such.

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2019 11:34 am I seem to recall a restaurant called Olga's when I was in Ann Arbor nearly 30 years ago, so I'll assume it's the same place. I think I even ate there once or twice.

One of them yes. And while the AA Olga's wasn't the first or flagship restaurant, it was my first, and also it was also my first experience at the Ann Arbor art fair, where in I didn't buy any street art but I did buy a bunch of records from the record store that used to be on Liberty and State for $1.99 apiece. They had a bunch of Tom Petty and Alice Cooper and it felt like my preteen wallet let loose from my parents for a few moments was sitting on gold mine.

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2019 11:34 am I seem to recall a restaurant called Olga's when I was in Ann Arbor nearly 30 years ago, so I'll assume it's the same place. I think I even ate there once or twice.

We had one in East Lansing, too, in 1978 or 79. IIRC, they sold sandwich wraps before anybody knew what those were.

I may eventually catch LordMortis, but I won't beat him to 60k posts.

60k, wow. That feels like my age. Not so big when you think someone who has a lot more important things to do has 36,000+ tweets since 2009.

You all sure post a lot.

The last pretender to the throne of France dies on the anniversary of the beheading of Louis XVI.

Oh man, I need this released now. I guess some NSF Evil Anti-Elvis language is in the trailer.

Kraken wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:58 pm

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2019 11:34 am I seem to recall a restaurant called Olga's when I was in Ann Arbor nearly 30 years ago, so I'll assume it's the same place. I think I even ate there once or twice.

We had one in East Lansing, too, in 1978 or 79. IIRC, they sold sandwich wraps before anybody knew what those were.

There's been one at Woodland Mall forever and a couple others have come and gone throughout the city.

I quit eating there when I was in culinary school and got access to read Health Department inspection notes. Olga's at Woodland had the lowest food safety score in the history of GR restaurant inspections. They were forcibly closed for a month at one point to clean up their act.

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2019 11:34 am I seem to recall a restaurant called Olga's when I was in Ann Arbor nearly 30 years ago, so I'll assume it's the same place. I think I even ate there once or twice.

I recall an Olga's on State Street. I want to say State and Washington? I lived at Lawrence and N. Thayer at the time.

I remember eating an omelette there in grad school in 1992. My friend John (a fellow grad student but also a townie, having grown up in Ann Arbor) followed me in.

He waited until I got my food and sat down, then fixed me with a clear-eyed stare: "What you're doing is wrong," he said.

He was correct.

Ugh, suddenly the heater isn't working in the car. It is effing freezing waiting for the kids. If whatever it is affects the AC, too, that'll be a bigger problem when the weather warms, because the windows don't roll down. In the summer it will be too hot to be in the car at all.

CNBC

Sweethearts, the conversation heart candy, is missing from shelves this Valentine's season after its original producer went out of business last year.

Even though consumers might think chocolate when it comes to buying a Valentine's gift for a loved one, Candystore.com reported that conversation hearts were the most popular candy for the holiday in 2018. The popularity of the candy didn't keep its original producer, New England Confectionary Company, also known as Necco, from going out of business in July.

Round Hill Investments bought Necco in an auction but sold its Necco wafer brand and Sweethearts to Spangler Candy Company several months later. Spangler's best-known candy is its Dum Dum lollipops.

The candy company acquired the brands in September and did not have the time to produce the conversation hearts for this Valentine's Day.
...
The company is planning to relaunch Sweethearts in time for next year's Valentine's season. Necco wafers will be re-introduced sometime this year.

No more Necco wafers?

What will teachers buy when they can't find chalk?

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:49 pm Ugh, suddenly the heater isn't working in the car. It is effing freezing waiting for the kids. If whatever it is affects the AC, too, that'll be a bigger problem when the weather warms, because the windows don't roll down. In the summer it will be too hot to be in the car at all.

Check the coolant level of the radiator. When the coolant is low the heater will not do anything but blow cold air.

It isn't blowing anything. Not even on the highest setting.

Might be no power to the motor (like a blown fuse). Or worst case, the blower motor itself died.

Just got word that the transmission controller/computer in our 2004 Volvo (99,000 miles) is on the fritz.

They hoped it might just be a problem with the connections, but now it looks like the controller and the transmission itself have some corrosion inside. Repair estimate (there are some other issues too, including a fuel pump) is "$4,000 to $6,000." This would be the fourth in a series of basically biennial repairs to this car, most of them $1,000-$2,000.

At what point do you just give up on a car? And what do you do when you so? I've never before traded in a car as part of a purchase, so I don't know how much it might help. We probably can't afford a new car right now.

(Context: my in-laws have recently moved in with us, bringing with them their low-mileage high-quality Subaru, so we are not without transportation. We also live right on three useful and relevant bus lines.)

I give up on a car when its repair and maintenance costs approach the level of a new car payment, or when it becomes chronically unreliable. A $6,000 repair bill is $500 a month for a year, or 20% of the value of a new $30,000 car...that's a trigger point. In fact, with a bill that big I'd seriously consider selling it for scrap or donating it rather than repairing it.

I've always traded in our cars when buying a new one. Conventional wisdom says that you can get more money selling it directly yourself. That's probably true. But I don't think the difference is dramatic, and the convenience is certainly worth something. I've always been able to negotiate a price equal to or above my secret bottom-line number.

If you do trade, negotiate that separately from your new car price, and do it after those negotiations. I don't want the salesman to know how much money I have at my disposal.

Also, when you do pay off a car, continue making at least partial car payments into your savings account every month. That way you'll be able to cover repairs and build up a down payment for the next car while your monthly budget barely even notices what you're doing. If you'd been paying $200-300 a month for the 10+ years that your Volvo was paid for, you'd have a pretty nice chunk of change to take shopping. I was able to put $17,000 down on my Miata, plus $4,500 in trade for my rusty old Miata; with that much down, the monthly payment on the new car wasn't a whole lot more than I was already paying into savings.

Thanks! Yeah, we're working on the math.

We've been a one-car family all along, and now we've combined with my in-laws (also a one-car family). It seems that our Volvo has decided to die at the very moment we would have become a two-car combined household.

But do we need to be that?

We're now a household of four adults and two teens with one very reliable young Subaru. We might be able to just ditch the decrepit Volvo and intentionally pare down our car usage.

Considerations:

1) My MIL drives seldom but occasionally. FIL is beyond driving.
2) Wife and kids routinely take a city bus to work and school.
3) I take the bus to one of my jobs (TTh) and drive to the other (MWF). Driving MWF facilitates afternoon car errands on the way home.
4) Trips that call for a car are grocery shopping (two or three days a week), other large purchases (IKEA, etc), medical and other appointments, and social/cultural engagements. Having just one car still takes care of these.

So a six-person/one-car household really only encounters a problem when everyone is trying to go somewhere together, e.g. a movie, a restaurant, a play downtown. The Subaru can fit everyone in a pinch, but it's uncomfortable. (I guess this is where station wagons and SUV's came from.)

Of course my FIL's dementia means that he won't be attending a large number of cultural events, so the very-crowded-car scenario might be pretty rare. (He likes restaurants, but many of our favorites are close enough that the crowded car is just a short hop.) And destinations downtown can be handled by bus, since the single most convenient Center City line runs right past our house.

I think we might get rid of the Volvo without replacing it.

One thing seems clear to me: Putting $6k into a 15-year-old car is not wise.

We coulda-shoulda just gone down to one car when I got rid of my first Miata. Neither of us drives to work, and both of our cars just sit idle 95% of the time. It would have been the wise decision. But...reasons.

Found 2 quotes online..

"A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way." - Mark Twain

"In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a Congress." - John Adams

CNN

A regular serving of fried chicken or fish is associated with a higher risk of death from any cause except cancer, according to a new study done in postmenopausal women in the United States.

Women who enjoyed fried chicken once or more per day had a 13% higher risk of death from any cause compared with women who did not eat any fried food, according to the study, published Wednesday in the medical journal BMJ.

Women eating a daily portion of fried fish or shellfish saw a 7% greater risk of death.

I don't even think I'd eat chocolate daily... Fried chicken? That's some serious love there.