I Don't Know Where To Put This, But...

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

68-year-old Illinois school district teacher Vera Liddell has been sentenced to 9 years in prison for stealing $1.5 million worth of chicken wings.

It was to support a gambling habit. Chris Jones of the Chiefs has offered to pay the restitution to try to keep her out of jail.

[WuDrWu]

Man, if I could fund my FanDuel account with wings............

[pinstripers]

Former Lions first-rounder Gosder Cherilus arrested for urinating on plane passenger

[shock]

Former Lions first-rounder Gosder Cherilus arrested for urinating on plane passenger

Some people are into that. It’s known as the “R. Kelly”.

[SubGod22]

3D printed homes taking another step forward in Maine

The World's Largest 3D Printer Is Building Cozy Homes from Wood

At the University of Maine, one of the world’s largest 3D printers is using sawdust from the state’s lumber industry to 3D print cozy wooden cabins.

It’s part of a move towards making 3D printing faster and more sustainable in a state where the housing shortage that has metastasized in most states around the country is dire.

It’s thought that 80,000 new homes will be needed over the next 5 years to keep pace with demand, and though it takes years for building codes to be changed, the technicians at the Advanced Structures & Composites Center (ASCC) at the Univ. of Maine hope their new toy can help address this need.

Guinness World Records certified the machine at ASCC as the world’s largest prototype polymer 3D printer, capable of creating a 600 square foot house 96 feet in length, 36 feet in width, and 18 feet tall entirely out of bio-based material at a rate of 500 pounds per hour.

In 2022, it could print the walls, floors, and roof of the house in just 96 hours, but the ACSS has been refining the design with the hope of doubling the printing speed and getting it down to a 48-hour timeline.

“When they’re doing concrete, they’re only printing the walls,” Habib Dagher, the executive director of ACSS told CNN. “The approach we’ve taken is quite different from what you’ve seen, and you’ve been reading about for years.”

Indeed, GNN has reported on a fair number of 3D printing projects, but most if not all involve printing only the walls. One fantastical exception is an Italian firm that is 3D-printing domed, beehive-like, modular concept homes inspired by the Great Enclosure in Zimbabwe.

There's a 30 second time-lapse video in the article.

[SubGod22]

The World's Oldest Human Gives Us the Best Advice, Before She Dies at 117 Years

“Order, tranquility, contact with nature, emotional stability, no worries, no regrets;” might these be a string of virtues that the Stoics strove to obtain in Classical Greece and Rome?

No, not quite. They were entries in the list of all the things that have contributed to Maria Branyas Morera’s long life of 117 years of age, along with “good connection with family and friends, lots of positivity, and staying away from toxic people.”

The (how about this for a word) ondecagenarian was the oldest person alive until she passed away at her nursing home in Catalonia, Spain on August 19th, having lived to meet 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

Unlike many alive today, Morera saw the advent of mass communication as a positive, because it allowed her to keep in touch with people located across distances she long ago lost the ability to cover, and also share her knowledge with the world.

With the help of her daughter, she was particularly fond of taking to Twitter, now X, to share her pearls of wisdom grown over a long and prosperous life.

In many cases, these involve how she managed to live so long, which certainly never involved not taking risks or avoiding danger. Born in San Francisco, USA to immigrants from Catalonia who came over on a boat, she was 8 years old when she returned with her mother to her ancestral home where she lived ever after.

Her father died of tuberculosis contracted on the voyage to America, but his daughter survived the crossing in reverse via the Azores as a way to avoid the guns of the First World War. She survived the Spanish Civil War, the Spanish Flu, both World Wars, and briefly became the world’s oldest COVID-19 survivor when she contracted the virus at 113 years old.

On the first day of 2023, she tweeted: “Life is not eternal for anyone… At my age, a new year is a gift, a humble celebration, a new adventure, a beautiful journey, a moment of happiness. Let’s enjoy life together.”

I wish there was more on her. She sounds like an interesting woman with more pearls of wisdom to be shared.

On August 20th, her family tweeted that she had passed away in her sleep, adding that she told them shortly before her death: “I don’t know when, but very soon this long journey will come to an end. Death will find me worn down from having lived so much, but I want it to find me smiling, free, and satisfied.”

I could only wish I was half this content.

[SubGod22]

Postcard Finally Arrives in Swansea 121 Years After it Was First Sent - Quest to Find Descendants Begins

This postcard was slipped into a mailbox, or perhaps was supposed to be, over 100 years ago, but has only just arrived.

Dated to 1903, the Christmas-themed postcard had the address for the Swansea Building Society’s Cradock Street branch, which still exists today, and the staff there hope to find the relatives of Miss Lydia Davis, to whom it was supposed to be mailed.

According to the BBC, Ewart, the sender, was expressing to “L” his regrets that he can’t “pick up” a “pair” of an unspecified thing.

With 10 shillings “in pocket money, not counting the train fare,” he continues, “I am doing alright”.

He ends the note by urging Lydia to “remember me to (Mssrs) Gilbert and John, with love to all.”

When asked about the tardy delivery, the Royal Mail said with surprising seriousness that “when an item is in our system, we are under obligation to deliver it to the correct address.”

[SubGod22]

Interesting way to enjoy Alaska

Plan a Trip to Alaska and Stay in These Classic Airplanes Converted into Luxury Accommodations (LOOK)

A flying instructor in Alaska, has taken on a second gig as manager of an “airplane amusement park” complete with luxury accommodations built out of old, decommissioned aircraft.

John Kotwicki says there’s little red tape interfering with getting old airplanes up to his flight school and converting them into Airbnbs to use as a base to explore southern Alaska’s incredible natural scenery.

He’s in the process of converting a third aircraft, while also building a cabin into the top of a runway control tower for unparalleled stargazing, a frisbee golf course, volleyball court, and authentic aircraft hanger to display the parts ripped out of the old airplanes.

Kotwicki runs the pilot school FLY8MA, but never wanted to go into commercial aviation because of how “boring” it was, remarking that driving for Uber is more exciting because you can talk to the passengers.

It was after a trip to the south-central area of Alaska that he fell in love with the state’s wilderness and wanted to move that way. His plan was to develop his own runway and facilities for flying, but it quickly became so much more, as he had to add cottages for the students, and then cottages for the tourists who came via word of mouth from the students to experience the remote southern Alaska terrain.

“And then, like, let’s one up that,” Kotwicki told CNN. “It would be cool if we got an old airplane to turn into a house. Let’s make it really nice and put a Jacuzzi on the wing and a barbecue grill. Let’s get two more and have three of them.”

He's put in a lot of work and I'm sure it's beautiful country. There are some pretty nice pics of the interiors and they look very good.

[SubGod22]

Elon Musk's Starlink to Provide Free Emergency Phone Coverage in Wilderness Areas Worldwide

The satellite internet service Starlink is seeking approval to facilitate 911 calls from wilderness areas to help improve search and rescue efforts and reduce deaths.

Elon Musk’s satellite constellation has served a variety of publicized uses, like giving Ukraine the ability to communicate during wartime. The most recent is a Starlink and T-Mobile partnership seeking FCC regulatory approval for a direct-to-cellular service that would allow those deep in the mountains and forests to reach emergency services.

“SpaceX Starlink will provide emergency services access for mobile phones for people in distress for free,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

“This applies worldwide, subject to approval by country governments. Can’t have a situation where someone dies because they forgot, or were unable to pay for it.”

Direct-to-cellular functions would have a greater scope than just emergencies. Speaking about their application to the FCC, the chairwoman of the regulatory agency referred to it as the beginning of the “Single-network future” which she described as one in which the user “won’t need to think about what network, where, and what services are available; connections will just work everywhere, all the time.”

According to Newsweek, Musk’s proposed service aims to close mobile “dead zones” by providing extra coverage from space using T-Mobile’s PCS G Block spectrum. Wilderness areas, correctly, don’t contain terrestrial towers, but Musk’s satellites could offer service to these vast spaces if a lost hiker, explorer, or sportsman needed them.

[SubGod22]

This is just a cool little story that has what may be a sweet family film now attached to it and it co-stars the one and only Jean Reno.

True Story of Penguin's Annual Return to See the Man Who Saved it From Oil Spill is Now a Feature Film (See Trailer)

Released to a delighted movie audience, My Pengiun Friend tells the story of a man and his long-lasting friendship with a Megallanic penguin.

But before the silver screen bore witness to the tale, it arose first on the news—in Brazil, where a retired stonemason named João Pereira de Souza discovered a penguin covered in oil from a recent spill on Proveta Beach in Rio de Janeiro state.

Taking the penguin home, João found the bird exhausted and depleted from his bout swimming through the oil spill. He nursed the penguin back to health, with plenty of soapy scrubbing and fish treats, naming it ‘Dindim’ after the toddler-speak of his son trying to say the Portuguese word for penguin (pinguim) when he was growing up.

After Dindim recovered his pomp, João released him on an island near Proveta Beach and went home; only to find that Dindim had followed him back, and remained on his lawn waiting to be let inside.

He finally left of his own accord in February of 2012. What happened then, and continued happening for years, is an annual visit following the fishing season where penguins remain at sea for months slurping squadrons of fish. Dindim would always come back to Proveta to see João, rather than travel off to a lovely summer island with his kin.

Every February he would leave, only to return in June—again and again for eight years.

Brazilian director David Schurmann embellished the story for My Pengiun Friend, at times going beyond the facts of the original story. (See the trailer below…)

“It’s lovely, lively, and guaranteed to get kids interested in the wild world around them,” writes Kate Erbland at the Indie Wire. “All the better if that also includes some outside research into what really happened with João and Dindim.”

The trailer is in the link.

[WstateU]

This is just a cool little story that has what may be a sweet family film now attached to it and it co-stars the one and only Jean Reno.

True Story of Penguin's Annual Return to See the Man Who Saved it From Oil Spill is Now a Feature Film (See Trailer)



The trailer is in the link.

[WstateU]

Time to go back to the cob... those were the days my friends.

Alicia Silverstone says toilet paper carries 'risk of cancer.' What's the truth about PFAS? (msn.com)

[SubGod22]

She's lucky she's pretty

[Kung Wu]

Time to go back to the cob... those were the days my friends.

Alicia Silverstone says toilet paper carries 'risk of cancer.' What's the truth about PFAS? (msn.com)

Actually I get allergies a couple times a year and I use toilet paper to blow my nose instead of tissue paper, and the TP sheds like crazy. When I blow my nose I inhale and if the toilet paper is close I know I am breathing that crap in. I have wondered if I am breathing in nasty chemicals. So this article is helpful - I should be a lot more careful.

[Kung Wu]

There was some weird happening at 135th and Maple. Wife and I pulled up to red light heading east bound on Maple, and a Sherrif and WPD car come whipping in and closed down north bound 135th. We get a green light so we head east, and then a BUNCH of cops pull into the intersection behind us. Then another cop comes blaring down Maple west bound followed by fire trucks. We were at 119th for about 10 to 15 minutes before we went back west and this time there was a car upside down on Maple where we were 10 minutes prior.

High speed car chase or something?