This doesn't qualify as "science news", because it's still just a speculation, but quite an interesting one:

Supernovas may have played a role in two of Earth’s largest mass extinctions, study suggests | CNN

4/20 has come and gone and I got this freebie pillow from the club. I like it.

From the "It's About Time!" Department. The Lone Star State has introduced a bill ("The Furries Act") directed toward public schools that will "stop students from “using a litter box for the passing of stool, urine, or other human byproducts.” It also bans dressing up like an animal (such as by wearing tails, collars, ears or leashes) in schools, and bars hissing, meowing and other animal-like tendencies. It also prohibits “surgical” interventions that would make a student appear more animal-like. 

It's too bad that the Texas legislature only meets every second year. Imagine what they could accomplish if they met annually.

This is a school, not a pet sitting service!

Some people love dressing up their little puppies, but uniforms are the answer for education of our youth.

The uniform makes the man. 

And I also can assume TX has done away with Star Wars stuff, and all cosplay, right?  (Or just in schools?)

Prime Pug, I see...

I play a couple of word game apps on my phone. They don't keep stats, so it's just a casual way to play a game (anagram based). They have a sprinkling of ads that you must opt in to watch (you get a trivial "prize" that works into your game if you watch the ad.)

Recently, the ads have been dominated by a game called Royal Match and its sequel, Royal Kingdom. I didn't think much about it until recently when they started recruiting big names to star in their ads. The most recent is Jimmy Fallon. Not only does Fallon have an app-based ad, they are also running high-production ads during Fallon's late night show. The app has been wildly successful, one of the top grossing apps for a few years. 

I don't recall a push like this for an phone-based video game. And one that is already on fire? 

Lisa Kudrow and Courtney Cox! I love it. I really love the LaBron James, it's awesome. These are some great ads 

https://youtu.be/AR4PWsNxMtM?si=8XZ5LdhWtwkOyHF4 

This is pretty cool....

https://apnews.com/article/harvard-magna-carta-rare-copy-97754aee08aaab65a36e49bedebd5992

Buzz they obviously projected earnings and took a calculated risk to turn mils into bils, always striving for that next candy crush. 

I watched a pre-code comedy with Zasu Pitts, who I just love, in "The meanest gal in town". It puts anything out there now to shame. "Are you going to run away and leave me? I am, if my legs will hold up."

That pre-code stuff was on the right track...shame on Hays and those self-righteous SOB's back in '34...took them three decades to free the market back up.

There is an amazing instrument that was invented by Ben Franklin featured in this performance on David Letterman. Nail Young's After the Gold Rush with three girl singers.

https://youtu.be/o2XcBL6kWn8?si=f8GP8xnqKclOzAYT

Every single person who ever worked at SNL had anxiety 

https://youtu.be/k94SUJ8UMKk?si=in4fMrTVRSj98rCl 

I was thinking about this freecell site, the use of external aids, and whether or not other online games make it clear that "your brain only" is the only mode they accept. It's a mixed bag.

One of my favorite word games has a tournament every weekend lasts until about 10 PM on Sunday. You can join on Friday night, any time on Saturday, or before noon on Sunday. You are placed in a tourney based on when you joined. Then, you race to accumulate as many points as possible by finding anagrams. You are fed a fixed number of letters, you enter words  made from those letters until you match the app's set of words, and then you get a new set of letters. The transition between sets of letters takes about 15 seconds and is an impediment to your speed. I generally finish in the top three when I compete. It's annoying when I witness players making progress at a speed that is impossible based on the unavoidalbe 15 second transition between sets of letters. They have found a way around the reset, and it's really frustrating. The app developers have made it clear that they don't care. 

In sharp contrast is the NY Times Sudoku. If you solve the daily puzzles in "brain only" mode, they will record your streak and give you an average solution time. However, they also provide aids in solving the puzzles, such as immediate notification if you put a number where it doesn't belong. They also provide the abiliy to use "auto-candidate" mode. When you toggle into normal candidate mode, you can make notes in the squares in the form of numbers you can enter. Auto-candidate will instantly fill in those numbers that are possible -- you can then add or remove numbers as you progress with your solution. Any aid that is considered outside the realm of "brain only" will kill your streak, and a correct solution to the puzzle will not count toward your average solution. Being a sub-par sudoku solver, I use the aids on their hardest puzzles and accept that my efforts will go uncompiled. "Thems is the rules."

I have accepted the fact that this site allows the use of external aids. Part of the acceptance is that I only play freecell games outside the realm of streaks, Elo, etc. And, I'm okay with that because "Thems is the rules." (I will confess that the bragging by those who use external aids is irritating. I try to avoid those threads.)

A final note on personal philosophy concerning the play of the game: Cheating is possible in literally every game, but "cheating" may not involve breaking written rules. Using Sudoku from NYT as an example, the app developer has made it clear that using hints of any kind will kill your streak. I could get past that by having a second account or solving the puzzle off-line on a piece of paper, and then enter my final answers once it's done. 

Doing such a thing would be totally dishonest. There are no explicit rules against such a thing, but the app developer's intent is totally clear. 

There are direct parallels to playing freecell here. If you complete a game offline using any means at all (solver, cards, etc), you have moved outside the intent of the developer of this game. If you actually lose a game using the external aid and you don't report it as a loss, I'm sorry, but that is pure dishonesty and you are cheating this game. Period. 

EXACTLY.  That's what I've been saying here for years.  Just because something isn't "illegal" doesn't make it not "wrong".  History is replete with humans, either collectively or individually, taking advantage of others.  I won't in any way trivialize other well-known, much worse examples by comparing them to cheating in sodoku, or a card game.  But the motivation, which is to artificially lift oneself above others via whatever means one can 'get away with', is the same.  It's a darkness in the human heart - and "greed" and "selfishness" are two of its names.

Don't say "Lance Armstrong" in France unless you're ready to get screamed at.

Racers take to the track during a preliminary heat of the T-Rex World Championship Races in Auburn, Washington, on Sunday, June 29. 

Miss Macao:

The 20-minute flight that became the world’s first airplane hijacking | CNN

Rather than hijack TN’s thread and post about ancient rhino DNA, I will run with my tangent here:

Dino DNA is the actual name of an indie band. The creative talent behind the band is a cofounder of the label Jurassic Pop. The label put out albums by a lot of emerging artists from Chicago, Indy, Bloomington (IN), and elsewhere. They also produced releases by some big names in Indie. 

Both founding members moved from Indiana and the label eventually stopped taking new music. At their height, they sold more albums than top ten grossing jazz artists combined — which is not a great comment on the state of jazz. 

The United States seems to be gleefully skipping down a path of eroded personal rights, disregard for the Constitution, and government officials using federal funds to enrich themselves. Governments always suffer from corruption, but the traditional checks and balances have been destroyed. 

This trend is great if you're among those in charge, but that doesn't last long. I really hope the Americans eventually emerge from their collective comas and take action to right the ship. 

*reads board guidelines (from top of discussion page)

Our discussion board is just a fun and games discussion board. If you want to discuss weightier stuff we suggest you go to one of the many big sites that support such things. For example, you can use reddit.com and just find the appropriate sub-reddit and fire away. If you want to specifically engage users here, you can do a short post on our discussion board with a link to the reddit topic and a very short description. Any further comments of a more serious nature (religion, politics, general controversial topics, rudeness, threats, etc.) will be removed.

A cosmic wreath, courtesy of the Webb telescope:

I truly believe that NASA could fund their space program by selling beautiful images. 

Ted Kaczynski (aka Unabomber) made a ripple in the news recently. His activities that led to his arrest were well known prior to his arrest in 1996. 

He was educated at Harvard (BA in mathematics) and University of Michigan (MA and PhD in mathematics). He worked at University of Michigan and Berkeley. He resigned his position as assistant professor in 1969, moved in briefly with his parents, and disappeared into Montana in 1971. The label "Unabomber" was first UNABOM -- university and airline bomber. Kasczynski was not recognized as the name behind the bombings until 1996. The Unabomber was known, but Ted Kaczynski was completely unknown to the public. Since that time, he has been the subject of a flood of movies, books, etc. 

I could be mistaken, but I do believe that John Stewart had a message for Paramount last night on the Daily Show. 

A subtle message, to be sure. 

I am concerned about my coffee intact. I am considering cutting back by somewhere between 50% and 1000%. 

Peanut butter and confectioners sugar on pancakes 😋 

This is pretty cool........I think?

https://apnews.com/video/south-africa-starts-injecting-rhino-horns-with-radioactive-material-to-curb-poaching-49c29b292f36456992ecf9365089303f

History marches on, but it may not be the history you thought you knew:

"The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History this month removed a label referring ... two impeachments, a move museum officials said was part of a review of the institution’s content for bias.

"The temporary label was added in 2021 to an exhibition about the American presidency. The label also included information about the impeachments of former Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, as well as about former President Richard M. Nixon, who faced possible impeachment before resigning from office.

"The removal of the label, which was reported earlier by The Washington Post, came after the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents, which governs the institution, recently committed to reviewing its content under pressure from the <current> administration. <The administration> has called for a more positive framing of the country’s history in Smithsonian museums, and tried to fire the director of the National Portrait Gallery, accusing her of being political."

Two fewer impeachments in the current Smithsonian record

I was gonna post that myself last night, but decided it wouldn't 'pass muster' here.  "Unbelievable" is an understatement.  Up is down; black is white; etc....

Date: Fri Jul 18 12:00:52 2025
User: outskirts
Message:

*reads board guidelines (from top of discussion page)

Our discussion board is just a fun and games discussion board. If you want to discuss weightier stuff we suggest you go to one of the many big sites that support such things. For example, you can use reddit.com and just find the appropriate sub-reddit and fire away. If you want to specifically engage users here, you can do a short post on our discussion board with a link to the reddit topic and a very short description. Any further comments of a more serious nature (religion, politics, general controversial topics, rudeness, threats, etc.) will be removed.

I have noticed that in many buildings, there are fire hoses ensconced in wall cavities, with a glass shield, on which it says, "In case of fire, break glass".  Just sayin' - just a "random post". 

You can break the glass when there is no fire, but why?

I guess different peeps perceive different dangers differently?

Continuing tiresomely to push a political discussion on here only shows great disrespect for the site owner, and perhaps a deep seated need that can't be fulfilled IRL.

The trolls have proven themselves, beyond any doubt. 

Unintentional irony is frequently divided into three categories with important differences:

Situational/Cosmic Irony — The actions that occur are the opposite of what was intended.

Historical Irony — Time passes and exposes two events that juxtaposed look ironic (e.g., gunpowder was discovered by alchemists looking for an elixir of immortality).

Irony of Fate — Irony that stems from the conflict between human intention and reality. 

(attribution)

Disrupting discussions to call other posters "trolls" is situational irony. 

Inconsistency refers to self contradiction between a person's actions or statements. Inconsistency can be intentional or unintentional. It might stem from a lack of self-awareness, changing circumstances, or a genuine struggle to live up to one's ideals.

The last sentence of the definition carries an important point: inconsistency may not be intentional but simply an indication of a character fault. So, for example, constantly criticizing some people for posting under different names but ignoring this behavior in others is a symptom of inconsistency, probably due to a lack of self awareness. Such behavior does not make the offending party a bad person but simply flawed. 

I hate ironying.

I am of two minds for such things: 

a) Cleaning and pressing my trench coat can bring a level of surprise. No one expects a sharply dressed dude to blow a police whistle while exposing the secrets of the universe. 

b) Going full grubby with a grimy coat, beat up hat, and tussled hair makes your targets nervous from the outset. Those moments of dread before the big reveal carry a special level of gratification.  

As I recall, Mother, your favorite approach was a hybrid: dressed to the nines with an insane display of wild gray hair. At the moment when onlookers become too curious to look away, you give them more than they expected. Always the consummate artist!

irony: objecting strongly to using cards to play a card game

Superirony: It's a card game specifically meant to be played by one person, alone, by himself 

.......until Denny created this wonderful COMPETITIVE site.

Well, it really isn’t irony. “Competitive solitaire” is an oxymoron. 

And, the game continues to be played by a single person, alone. 

The cards are simulated/animated, enabling faster play and eliminating things like retracing moves or losing a game that is not recorded as a loss. 

".....losing a game that is not recorded as a loss." seems quite oxymoronic, no?  What irony!

I inadvertantly left some highly sensitive documents in the output tray of the Freecell printer. They are no longer there. If you find these documents, please do not read them, do not let others see them, and PLEASE do not leak them to the press. 

(And don't ask me who/what "Bela" is. I have no clue. I can, however, tell you the significance of Rosebud.)