And I’m not referring to mechanical ones on my car.

Really, the news is filled with so many horrors every day, that when you think you’ve seen it all, something worse comes down the pike.

… then I must be winning an awful lot of games I don’t even know about!

“Oct–” means “eight,” so October is naturally the tenth month.

If we can’t get easy things like that right — and keep Pluto as a planet — what hope do we have with the hard things?

Naaaaaaah.

Additional Random Thought:

Instead of worrying about my car tracking where I go, I’m going to start tracking where it goes.

Anyone got any fire ant stories?

Well, were they?

These ‘crazy ants’ love to munch on cellphones and TVs. Are they headed your way?
the news tribune | 6 Dec 2016 | Ben Guarino

Although the insects are so named for their swarming maneuvers, the term is equally apt for the damage they inflict on the human psyche. For reasons not fully understood, the ants are found in large numbers near electrical equipment and wall sockets. Cellphones and television sets have succumbed to the ant swarms, and the insects damaged electronics in a Houston-area industrial park…

Like the infamous fire ant, the crazy ant is a South American native that made its way to the Lone Star state. The animals do not coexist peacefully. The crazy ant – despite its less painful venom – has a chemical upper hand, scientists discovered in 2014. The crazy ants secrete a substance that neutralizes the fire ant acid, and are thus able to overwhelm the enemy ants….

& When does an Open Thread become too serious for a light humor site?

Yesterdame: Self-explanatory.

Internnet:  Also self-explanatory.

Esshole:  Description of several countries.  Might get by censors.

Acendemic:  Peculiar to institutions of higher learing and impossible to eradicate.

Svelteschmertz: German term for the feeling of dissatisfaction with, or weariness of, well-toned people.

Apparently Trump’s got an ace, but Antifa has a Joker to play:

If Congress does not find a way to vote that bill [the SAVE Act] out to Mr. Trump’s desk before they recess for the rest of the summer in late July, Mr. Trump will invoke an executive order under the National Emergencies Act (NEA) — Public Law 94-412; codified at 50 U.S.C. §§ 1601–1651 — requiring the fifty states to employ all the same provisions that are in the SAVE America Act for the 2026 midterm elections. Under the NEA, the federal courts cannot be used to fight or strike down the executive order; it can only be stopped by a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate.

If that is the course that this takes, you can expect Antifa and the Democratic-Socialist foot-soldiers to take to the streets this fall in a violently-amplified episode of “No Kings” demonstrations — because fair and honest elections with citizens-only voting will mean the end of the Democratic Party, and they know it. Last night’s move by President Trump is only the opening bid of a quickening game against the Deep State, and their partners-in-sedition. The game is gonna get rough now.

— “Acceleration”

substack Kunstler.com | 7/17/2026 | James Howard Kuntsler

New camera guidelines for female athletics coverage
BBC News | June 15, 2026 | Jane Dougall

New guidelines have been released advising broadcasters on how to use more respectful camera angles when covering live female athletics events.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has worked with female athletes to develop the guidelines, which aims to avoid sexualising the action with unnecessary camera angles.

I can’t think of any camera angle that would avoid sexualizing a woman.

I can’t think of any liberal I would pay attention to when it comes to judging what is a “respectful” or an “unnecessary” camera angle.

A pretty good quote about A.I.:

It has no loves. It does not know courage, shame, mercy, sin, or worship. It can regurgitate “writing” about these things, but it cannot live them. It can compose a prayer without praying and a sermon without fear of God. It can say “I understand,” but, in truth, there is no “I” and no understanding.

— Chronicles | 6/26/26 | Benjamin Osborne, “What Would C.S. Lewis Have Thought of AI?”

Come to think of it, kind of reminiscent of a similar scene in Good Will Hunting.  Or Terminator.  So maybe A.I. is a sort of a blend of the two.  (With a little Eyes Wide Shut thrown in for good measure.)