samhexum

Do you feel like having Asian today? BTW, I just finished an egg roll & some lo mein.

Pretty cheeky. A British man tried to sneak a samosa into jail by hiding it between his buttocks, police said in a recent report. West Midlands Police said discovering the fried pastry was one of the most unusual incidents of 2020, Birmingham Live reported. “We’ve had a few odd incidents,” Inspector Manj Ahir told the website. “One that sticks in my mind was a man found with a samosa secreted between his buttocks during a search.” The hungry detainee apparently acted out of fear that he wouldn’t be able to get any decent food after being arrested. “He said he wanted to sneak it into the cell as a snack as he’d didn’t think the food was up to much,” Ahir said. The cop quipped: “He’d obviously not read our positive Tripadvisor reviews!”

https://cl.phncdn.com/gif/10245192.gif https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OGC.9a3bb96a2f25ab6b3b86ac41df18ce40&pid=1.7&rurl=https%3A%2F%2F7chan.org%2Fmen%2Fsrc%2F137324072845.gif&ehk=%2FLo3xvqOraF4X8ASuBxUCg https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lcuCdcX4T3E/UYKFzXa21lI/AAAAAAAASNk/1Tzcg2aiIp4/s280/Jock+Strap,+Men+In+Jockstraps,+Bulge,+Jocks,+Fit,+Homoerotic,+.gif https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BAIYwtl71ys/Vo2qMr89jXI/AAAAAAABCNI/eOOMC-ZKVzI/s640/tumblr_nj0zbuATOz1trjuw2o1_400.gif https://33.media.tumblr.com/15629c0e873f27eb016a0b7cab525b37/tumblr_nnxojhTg2N1s2rr2eo1_400.gif

The local ABC affiliate has a meteorologist named Amy Freeze.

I may be the only one, but I'm still enjoying it, though I still don't see the potential for an ongoing series.

A weary UK doctor walked out of the hospital where he spent New Year’s Eve treating COVID-19 patients and into a crowd of maskless protesters shouting “COVID is a hoax.” “I’m disgusted but mostly heartbroken,” Matthew Lee tweeted along with video he shot of the hundreds of protesters outside London’s St Thomas’s Hospital. “I wish people could see the amount of COVID-19 and death in hospitals, and the sacrifices that health care workers make. This week alone has been so tough. Their ignorance is hurting others. I really wish people would keep themselves safe.” The UK is recording a huge surge of coronavirus cases as a highly contagious variant of the deadly bug rips through the population. On New Year’s Eve, Londoners were warned not to party in groups outside, and indoor events that mixed groups from different households were banned, The Independent reported. Lee’s post took off, getting shared and retweeted more than 24,000 times. TV personality Piers Morgan was one who took notice, tweeting that he was “seething” about Lee’s video. “If it’s a hoax, let’s take all these imbeciles inside the covid ward without PPE. See how brave they feel when confronted with the reality of people choking to death. Lee, a Hong Kong native who makes videos about his life in medicine, was overwhelmed by the response. “Thank you all for your support!” he tweeted on New Year’s Day. “Covid doesn’t discriminate and we’re all in this together.”

When the first sign of intelligent life first visits us from space, it won’t be a giant saucer hovering over New York. More likely, it will be an alien civilization’s trash. Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard’s Department of Astronomy, believes he’s already found some of that garbage. In his upcoming book, “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), out Jan. 26, the professor lays out a compelling case for why an object that recently wandered into our solar system was not just another rock but actually a piece of alien technology. The object in question traveled toward our solar system from the direction of Vega, a nearby star 25 light-years away, and intercepted our solar system’s orbital plane on Sept. 6, 2017. On Sept. 9, its trajectory brought it closest to the sun. At the end of September, it blasted at about 58,900 miles per hour past Venus’ orbital distance, and then, on Oct. 7, it shot past Earth’s before “moving swiftly toward the constellation Pegasus and the blackness beyond,” Loeb writes in the book. The object was first spotted by an observatory in Hawaii containing the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) — the highest definition telescope on earth. The space object was dubbed ‘Oumuamua (pronounced “oh moo ah moo ah”), which is Hawaiian for — roughly — “scout.” As space travelers go, it was relatively small at just about 100 yards long, but it was a big deal in the scientific community. For starters, it was the first interstellar object ever detected inside our solar system. Judging from the object’s trajectory, astronomers concluded it was not bound by the sun’s gravity — which suggested it was just traveling through. No crisp photos could be taken, but astronomers were able to train their telescopes on the object for 11 days, collecting reams of other data. At first, scientists thought it was an ordinary comet. But Loeb said that assumption ran the risk of allowing “the familiar to define what we might discover.” “What would happen if a caveman saw a cellphone?” he asked. “He’s seen rocks all his life, and he would have thought it was just a shiny rock.” Loeb soon opened his mind to another possibility: It was not a comet but discarded tech from an alien civilization. A number of unusual properties about the object helped Loeb make this conclusion. First were ‘Oumuamua’s dimensions. Astronomers looked at the way the object reflected sunlight. Its brightness varied tenfold every eight hours, suggesting that was the amount of time it took for it to complete a full rotation. Scientists concluded the object was at least five to ten times longer than it was wide — sort of like the shape of a cigar. No naturally occurring space body we’ve ever seen has looked like it — or even close. “This would make ‘Oumuamua’s geometry more extreme by at least a few times in aspect ratio — or its width to its height — than the most extreme asteroids or comets that we have ever seen,” Loeb writes in his book. What’s more, ‘Oumuamua was unusually bright. It was at least “ten times more reflective than typical solar system [stony] asteroids or comets,” the author writes. He likens its surface to that of shiny metal. But the anomaly that really pushed Loeb toward his E.T. hypothesis was the way ‘Oumuamua moved. “The excess push away from the sun — that was the thing that broke the camel’s back,” he said. Using physics, scientists can calculate the exact path an object should take and what speed it should travel due to the gravitational force exerted by the sun. The sun’s pull will speed up an object massively as it gets closer, then kick it out the other side, only for the object to slow considerably as it gets farther away. But ‘Oumuamua didn’t follow this calculated trajectory. The object, in fact, accelerated “slightly, but to a highly statistically significant extent,” Loeb writes, as it moved away from the sun. In other words, it was clearly being pushed by a force besides the sun’s gravity alone. At first the explanation seemed simple. Comets show a similar acceleration, because as they approach the sun, their surface is warmed, releasing once-frozen gases, which act like a rocket engine. Those released materials, however, form a comet’s distinctive tail. Scientists looked carefully for that tail or any sign of gases or dust that might propel ‘Oumuamua and came up empty. Loeb calculated that with these and other anomalies, the chances that ‘Oumuamua was some random comet was around one in a quadrillion, leading him to his blockbuster hypothesis. But what was it exactly? One possibility, weirdly enough, could be found in technology we already have here on earth. Some 400 years ago, astronomer Johannes Kepler observed comet tails blowing in what looked like a solar breeze and wondered if that same force could propel rocket ships through space like the wind pushes boats through water. It was a smart idea that scientists now use to develop light sails for probes. Thin, reflective sheeting is unfurled in space to capture the particles streaming off the sun, propelling a ship at great speeds through the empty void. Alternatively, powerful lasers from earth could be aimed at the sail to make it go even faster. Loeb, who is involved in a light-sail project to send a tiny, unmanned craft to a nearby star, said if we earthlings have thought of this idea, then why couldn’t aliens? He and a colleague crunched the numbers and hypothesized that ‘Oumuamua was not actually cigar-shaped but possibly a disk less than a millimeter thick, with sail-like proportions that would account for its unusual acceleration as it moved away from the sun. As to its purpose, Loeb isn’t entirely sure. He speculated it could be “space junk” that once served as a kind of space navigation buoy used by a long-ago civilization. “The only way to look for [alien civilizations] is to look for their trash, like investigative journalists who look through celebrities’ trash,” Loeb said. Of course, not everyone in the scientific community agrees with his theory. In July 2019, the ‘Oumuamua Team of the International Space Science Institute published an article in Nature Astronomy concluding, “We find no compelling evidence to favor an alien explanation for ‘Oumuamua.” Loeb admits his theories have raised astronomers’ eyebrows, but he is resolute about his findings. “Some people do not want to discuss the possibility that there are other civilizations out there,” he told The Post. “They believe we are special and unique. I think it’s a prejudice that should be abandoned.” Loeb said the skeptics are bending over backwards to assign natural origins to the object and that the explanations they’ve given to explain its weird properties don’t stand up to scrutiny. For example, some scientists have suggested that ‘Oumuamua’s acceleration was caused by frozen hydrogen on its surface turning to gas and driving it like a comet, and that hydrogen would have been invisible to Earth’s infrared cameras, which is why we didn’t detect it. But Loeb and a colleague published a paper showing that “a hydrogen iceberg traveling through interstellar space would evaporate long before it reached our solar system.” Whatever the truth, the stakes are high. The acceptance that an alien race has made contact — even through its trash — would trigger a serious search for more trash, leading us to scour the moon and Mars, for example, for debris that might have crash-landed thousands or millions of years ago. And if more evidence is found, we earthlings would have to start building tools to help us grapple with extraterrestrials, such as space treaties and academic fields like astro-linguistics and astro-economics. But, perhaps more important, any further discoveries could redefine our place in the universe. “It would put us in perspective,” Loeb said. “If we are not alone, are we the smartest kids on the block? If there was a species that eliminated itself through war or changing the climate, we can get our act together and behave better. Instead, we are wasting a lot of resources on Earth fighting each other and other negative things that are a big waste.” Since ‘Oumuamua’s appearance, a second interstellar object known as 2I/Borisov was spotted entering the solar system by a Crimean telescope in 2019. But that turned out to be a plain old comet. Until recently, our instruments have not been sensitive enough to pick up these kinds of visitors. But Loeb said technology will soon make it possible to locate more space travelers, and the only way the mystery of ‘Oumuamua will be settled is if a similar object is spotted and more thoroughly investigated with a probe. He said his book “should motivate people to collect more data on the next object that looks weird.” “If we find another and we take a photo and it looks like a light sail, I don’t think anyone will argue with that.”

You just like it because, thanks to Jared, you can never be the biggest perv there.

1. Standing in front of the open refrigerator (or freezer) door, waiting for something scrumptious to appear. 2. Sitting on the terlet, hoping to eliminate the something scrumptious without too much effort or clean up. 3. Laying in bed all night unable to fall asleep and thinking about what scrumptious thing I might eat later on.

Visit this offer and print your coupon and enjoy free hash-browns at Waffle House. Coupon expires 1/31/2021. https://mailchi.mp/wafflehouse.com/a-scattered-smothered-and-covered-new-year-b7rg1qggzz To print, you can either screenshot the coupon and print, OR RIGHT CLICK→SAVE IMAGE→PRINT, OR chose FILE→PRINT.

A Céline Dion superfan in the UK got drunk and legally changed his name to hers — then promptly forgot about it. But it’s all coming back to him now. The 30-year-old Céline Dion — né Thomas Dodd — told The Post that he came up with the idea while boozing it up and watching a TV concert by the 52-year-old Canadian crooner on Christmas Eve — because he loves her. “She [is] my go-to person I listen to when I need cheering up,” he told The Post via Twitter. He said he spent much of the pandemic watching concerts while at home, including one by Dion over the holiday that was accompanied by a magnum of Champagne given to him by a friend. “That’ll probably explain a lot!” he said. While enjoying the show, he plunked down 89 pounds (about $122) and officially took her name via an online application. However, the details are a bit fuzzy. “I honestly, hand on heart, don’t remember doing it!” he said. “I remember watching the concert and remember getting rather tipsy.” Days later, he came home from work as a hospitality manager in Staffordshire, England, to find an envelope with documentation waiting for him. “I wasn’t aware I had done it until I found that envelope in my post,” he explained. “Initially, I had to sit down as I couldn’t believe it — so I then checked my bank which confirmed it all.” And why stop there? “Once it sunk in, I signed it straightaway as I bloody love her!” he said. He shared images of his “change of name deed” on Twitter — yes, he did update his social media name to reflect the side-splitting switch — which includes his old signature, plus a new one in a box marked “MR CELINE DION.” “Things have been pretty crazy over here since this morning” when his story took off Friday morning and garnered worldwide media attention. “I currently have paparazzi camped outside,” he said, adding a laughing-while-crying emoji. And, he noted, his “inbox is full of Celine Dion fans asking me to record them a video message!” He does, however, see one potential issue on the horizon. “I’ve just moved into a small village and haven’t spoken to many people,” he said. “It’ll cause quite a stir when I tell them my new name.” However, one person who initially was not amused by the change was his mom. “My mother wasn’t best pleased at first, but now she sees the funny side!” he said. “My friends have said they are not surprised! It was only a few week back I hired an Elsa [from ‘Frozen’] tribute to perform on my driveway for me when I was drunk because I was bored! Anything is possible!” He added that rather than revert to his birth name, at least for now his name change will go on — “As it stands – I’m keeping it!” he said — though he added that everything “depends [on] how difficult it makes my life!” In the meantime, he said he is hoping to get a chance to eventually talk with or meet his namesake — whom he last saw in concert in 2019 — and is working with a UK radio station to see if that can happen. But the power of love could be overwhelming for the nouveau Dion if that does. “You might think I’m joking. I’ll need to be put on oxygen!” he said. “Just thinking about [it] is making my heart race and my eyes water. It would honestly mean the world and more.” The original Dion’s representatives didn’t immediately reply when The Post reached out for comment Friday.

Japan hoping wooden satellites will solve the problem of space junk Japanese researchers are working on satellite technology that would use wood components to eliminate excess space junk, allowing objects to burn up upon reentry to Earth’s atmosphere, according to a new report. Sumitomo Forestry, a 400-year-old Japanese woodworking company, is partnering with Kyoto University to develop the technology, the BBC reported Tuesday. NASA estimated more than a decade ago that 95% of manmade objects in orbit were space junk. They come from defunct satellites, discarded rocket stages and other discarded mission materials. Most of it is relatively small, according to the European Space Agency. Out of 128 million pieces of debris in orbit, only about 34,000 objects are larger than 10 cm. But when larger objects collide, they produce many, many smaller ones. And they can travel more than 20,000 mph, making even tiny particles dangerous. There are also about 2,800 functioning satellites in orbit, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, which maintains a satellite database. Governments and space-faring companies have plans to launch thousands more in the future. Experts are concerned that too much junk in orbit could complicate future launches, possibly narrowing the window of flightpaths. Larger objects that fall out of orbit are also dangerous for life on the ground Space junk threatens satellites and could be potentially lethal to astronauts. Some launches from countries less concerned about safety protocols can send huge chunks of material hurtling back down to Earth. In May, a Chinese rocket core rained down in pieces over West Africa. If its reentry had been minutes earlier, it could have slammed into New York City. Wooden satellites would break up completely, rather than slamming back to the surface or leaving tiny metallic particles that could pierce spacesuits, solar panels or shuttles in the future. “We are very concerned with the fact that all the satellites which re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere burn and create tiny alumina particles which will float in the upper atmosphere for many years,” Kyoto University professor and Japanese astronaut Takao Doi told the BBC. “Eventually it will affect the environment of the Earth.” In October, two pieces of junk nearly collided 615 miles above the Earth. One was an inoperable Russian satellite launched in 1989 and the other a Chinese rocket stage from 2009. The objects passed within 39 feet of one another in a near miss, but a crash could have broken them into thousands of pieces then posed risks for more collisions with other objects.

Auguste Rodin (12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He is known for such sculptures as The Thinker, The Kiss, The Burghers of Calais, and The Gates of Hell.

ORIGINAL: EXCELLENT COVER: AWFUL COVER: How unimpressive. But of course anything Elaine Paige has ever done since CHESS is bound to be a let-down. So are they gonna mangle Lonely Boy and the MAD ABOUT YOU theme, too? (all written by Andrew Gold) I could’ve sworn Johnny Mathis was dead. Are they sure it was him recording? How come Jason Bateman’s father in law gets next to last billing on the cover? Never mind... I just realized they alphabetized by FIRST name. How is it possible an album of duets was recorded and Tony Bennett was not involved? I assume Idina Menzel was asked to do this before her Geico commercial ran… I couldn’t believe how annoying a Broadway star’s voice could be… so grating.

Dear Abby: I’m an American man who was adopted as an infant. Several years ago, I found my birth parents. They are not from America. My mother came here to give birth and left. Sometime later she married my father and had more children. I’m in touch with the entire family, but mainly my birth parents. My biological siblings are jealous of my success in life and make it plain they don’t approve of much that I do. They also make sure I know I’m not REALLY part of the family because we didn’t grow up together (although we are, by blood, 100% siblings). I deal with this the best I can, but now I’m getting flak from them because of my political views. (They saw a photo of me at a political fundraiser.) When my sister turned 40 this year, I sent her a card, a Facebook post and a text message. I turned 50 at the same time and heard not a word from her. Although my siblings are not Americans, they feel the need to trash our country, our government and our way of life. I’m tempted to cut ties with them. There is little respect coming my way, and I think I’ve had enough. I value your opinion, which is why I am writing to you now. BTW: I had an amazing set of (now deceased) parents and wonderful siblings growing up. I just wish I had a better relationship with my biological family. – Disappointed And Excluded Dear Disappointed: Your family is the family that raised and nurtured you. I, too, am sorry you don’t have a better relationship with these jealous, judgmental people. You are related by blood – nothing more trashes our government. That means Trump. They sound like sane, rational people to me. They do not have the every right to criticize your political views or your lifestyle, andy more than you have the no right to criticize theirs. (And I doubt know you would.) Because you are neither respected nor included, you have every right to back off and head in a different, more positive direction. not REALLY part of the family, Frankly, I suspect you they will feel better as soon as you do disappear from their lives. Dear Abby: I’m a 26-year-old male in a long-distance relationship with my girlfriend, who is 18. I love her to the moon and back, but I feel like she only stays with me because I can buy her things. She gets upset with me when I don’t get them for her. She says I value my mother and others before her. I love her so much, and I want to marry her. I’m a minister at a church. She thinks she should take priority before my bills and taking care of my mother, who can barely walk. What do I do? – Uneasy In New Jersey Dear Uneasy IDIOT: From what you have written, it appears you are involved with an 18-year-old self-involved gold digger who does seem to be with you only because of what you give her. She hasn’t yet learned (1) That a gift should be voluntary and appreciated, rather than extorted, and (2) the way a man treats his mother is the way he will treat his wife, and (3) that a 26 year old minister who thinks an 18 year old can have a serious long-distance relationship is an IDIOT. Since you asked my advice, here it is: Close your wallet and ditch this “girl.” DEAR ABBY: I have a question about etiquette. My son is getting married soon. In a conversation with the bride-to-be, I asked if she had chosen a florist and was told that her mom will be making all the wedding flowers out of natural materials. Abby, I hate silk, i.e. “plastic” flowers! Would I be creating a huge problem if I offered to purchase my own wrist corsage from a florist, or should I keep quiet and deal with ugly fake “flowers” with my beautiful dress? Or, can I remove the fake corsage directly after photos are taken? — OFFENDED MOM OF THE GROOM DEAR OFFENDED MOM: The proper thing to do is keep your opinion to yourself and go along with the plans your soon-to-be daughter-in-law and her mother have made. Wear the corsage and your sweetest smile for the wedding photos. After that it shouldn’t cause a problem if you QUIETLY remove it. FUTURE ROYAL PAIN IN YOUR DAUGHTER IN LAW’S ASS: While of course the bride’s wedding day is all about you, try to fake caring about her (and your son’s?) wishes. It’ll at least postpone her finding out how selfish and petty you are. DEAR ABBY: My best friend of nine years, “Sierra,” and my boyfriend of two years, “Jaden,” strongly dislike each other. They were both at a cookout I had for my birthday, and Sierra kept making passive-aggressive comments to and about him. At one point, she criticized something controversial that he said, and when he tried to engage her in conversation about it, she ignored him and pretended he didn’t exist. Jaden then launched into a series of verbal attacks against her, and although I attempted to get him to drop it, I was unsuccessful. Sierra ended up leaving, telling me she needed to take a break from our friendship. She has since unfollowed me on social media, leaving me with the impression that our friendship is over because of the argument between her and my boyfriend. I know Jaden was more at fault, and we have discussed the situation at length, but Sierra isn’t willing to talk to me about it. They’ve never had an interaction like this, ever. She’s never liked him, and I know she will never move past this. If Jaden and I were to break up, I don’t know if I could bring myself to resolve things with Sierra because I feel like she was unwilling to preserve our friendship. Should I accept her reaction and behavior and move past this? — BETRAYED AND CONFUSED DEAR BETRAYED: You have no choice but to accept Sierra’s reaction. Not knowing what Jaden said that was controversial, I can’t offer an opinion about what generated the argument. If she preferred not to engage with him further, it was her privilege. For Jaden to have pursued and verbally attacked your friend was abusive, and she did the right thing by leaving. Sierra appears to have a strong sense of self-esteem, and I doubt there is anything you could say to her to convince her to subject herself to Jaden’s presence again. She’s intelligent enough to know that until your romance with him has run its course, remaining out of the line of fire is the best course of action. If Jaden becomes history, give her a call. I’m pretty sure you two can clear the air then. How am I supposed to give you helpful advice if you don’t tell me how good Jaden is in bed, and how much money he has?

MAKING IT TO 7 WEEKS!

Didn't even make it to seven ????

EAT HEALTHIER!