Random Thoughts Thread

[swampfrog]

A little girl is with her biological mother!!

Let’s send an alert to every phone in Utah and surrounding states at 3:30 AM.

(Haven’t they studied Swampfrog’s data?! The kid is just fine statistically speaking.)

Someday over lunch, I would enjoy hashing this out. The data I quoted and similar is provided to the CPS and other government agencies to help inform policy and understand risk vectors. The report was hundreds of pages long and included risk factors of many types. Family structure is one vector that shows statistical relevance.

Population data is not very useful in the handling of specific cases because any individual is a combination of multiple risk vectors, but happy to play along and take the bait anyway. We'll just ignore for the moment that the court had already removed custody from the biological mother so we're not dealing with potential risk vectors, we're dealing with already assessed risk. The child was in the care of the biological uncle, which is curious, why do the courts prefer biological relatives for custody? (Which is a serious question which I'd like to see justified.) The courts really shouldn't manifest a preference should they? The lowest risk family structure is not biological parent, it is married biological parents. This isn't a moral statement. Somewhere there is likely information regarding the current family structure of the biological mother, but I couldn't find it. I'm guessing single mother, given the absence of any mention of father participation, which is a higher risk structure.

[wapiti]

The dragons curse

So one day there was a boy named Randy and a girl named Silvia they did not believe in dragons one day they both went to a party there where hamburgers hot dogs it was the best while Randy and Silvia where eating there hamburgers there was an old man he was telling people about the curse of the dragon then Randy and Silvia interrupted and said pfff dragons aren't even real shh said the old man the dragon

[BigFatMeanie]

The dragons curse

So one day there was a boy named Randy and a girl named Silvia they did not believe in dragons one day they both went to a party there where hamburgers hot dogs it was the best while Randy and Silvia where eating there hamburgers there was an old man he was telling people about the curse of the dragon then Randy and Silvia interrupted and said pfff dragons aren't even real shh said the old man the dragon

This here is a quality random thought

[YOhio]

I clicked on some listicle promoted on Twitter about the best sandwich in each state. I wanted to see what Utah had to offer outside of the rise and fall of Gandolfo's in the early aughts. After clicking through 40+ states it was clear that some states had awesome sandwiches (Illinois/Italian Beef, Pennsylvania/Philly Cheese, Texas/Brisket, SoCarolina/Pulled Pork, California/French Dip) and others just didn't (North Dakota/Sloppy Joe comes to mind). So I get to Utah and they had the fried halibut sandwich with fry sauce from Arctic Circle. Ugh. So embarrassing.

[Scott R Nelson]

I clicked on some listicle promoted on Twitter about the best sandwich in each state.
[...]
After clicking through 40+ states...

Those click-bait links that are so common on the online news and magazine sites are always a disappointment and rarely well thought out. They're designed to make money from showing lots of ads on lots of pages that nobody actually looks at, but somebody actually spends money on. Just avoid the temptation to click on any of those.

[Clark Addison]

I clicked on some listicle promoted on Twitter about the best sandwich in each state. I wanted to see what Utah had to offer outside of the rise and fall of Gandolfo's in the early aughts. After clicking through 40+ states it was clear that some states had awesome sandwiches (Illinois/Italian Beef, Pennsylvania/Philly Cheese, Texas/Brisket, SoCarolina/Pulled Pork, California/French Dip) and others just didn't (North Dakota/Sloppy Joe comes to mind). So I get to Utah and they had the fried halibut sandwich with fry sauce from Arctic Circle. Ugh. So embarrassing.

What happened to Gandolfo's?

[Donuthole]

What happened to Gandolfo's?

They are still around, I believe, but only with a couple of locations. They did the Krispy Kreme thing and expanded way too quickly at the first hint of popularity/success. They’ve been contracting ever since, it seems.

[BigFatMeanie]

They are still around, I believe, but only with a couple of locations. They did the Krispy Kreme thing and expanded way too quickly at the first hint of popularity/success. They’ve been contracting ever since, it seems.

I believe most of their expansion, especially outside of Utah, was franchised.

EDIT: In fact, you can become a franchisee. You only need between $300 to $600K. https://gandolfosdeli.com/franchise-info/

[Pelado]

I woke up around 5 am last night. The rainstorm that had started the night before was still hard at work. That led my thoughts to the first couple seasons of the show Alone, in which contestants were dropped, alone, on Vancouver Island. Whichever contestant lasted the longest was the winner.

Hearing and seeing the downpour, I couldn't get back to sleep, being consumed with the idea of building a wilderness shelter with an indoor fireplace. I watched several videos, trying to determine which would be the best method.

Some use a teepee-style shelter with an opening up top for smoke. This allows for a simple fire ring near the middle of the shelter, but exposes the shelter to rain/snow.

One guy made a long bed of stones next to a large rock and made a lean-to next to it. He then builds a fire over the stones. The fire extends the length of his body, the large stone reflects heat toward his lean-to, and even after the fire dies off in the night, the rocks continue to radiate heat, keeping him warm. This is a relatively simple setup, does not require any ventilation, and may not require a lot of effort. Possible downsides to this arrangement include the exposure to wind, precipitation, and critters.

The solution I liked best requires the most effort. It requires making a fireplace of stones and/or mud/clay on the side of a wooden/mud shelter with a chimney that carries the smoke away from the shelter. It could even have a flat stone over the top of the fireplace inside the shelter that could be used as a cooking surface. That would allow the shelter to be closed and insulated from the elements while still enjoying the warmth of the fire.

How likely am I to ever build any of these shelters? Pretty unlikely.

[Bo Diddley]

How likely am I to ever build any of these shelters? Pretty unlikely.

To be honest, this sounds kind of fun.

[Pelado]

To be honest, this sounds kind of fun.

Good thing you started with tbh, otherwise I would have thought you were lying.

[Scott R Nelson]

I keep noticing that people who pronounce "often" with a hard T (off-ten vs off-en) tend to say the word more often than those who pronounce it correctly like "soften".

[Pelado]

I keep noticing that people who pronounce "often" with a hard T (off-ten vs off-en) tend to say the word more often than those who pronounce it correctly like "soften".

Don't you pronounce soften with a hard T?

[Uncle Ted]

WTF... Isn't a little soon for getting the fireworks out Utah Valley?

42 homes evacuated, an estimated 1,000 acres burned in 'Traverse Fire' near Lehi

42 homes and 100 people were evacuated due to a fire that started late Saturday night above Lehi.


Homes in the Traverse Mountain area were evacuated around 12:30 a.m. on Sunday. Those within a 1/4 mile radius from Vialetto Way and Annuvolato Way, those on Spring View Lane, and the Autumn Hills area were ordered to evacuate to Skyridge High School and told to wait there in their vehicles.


The blaze, dubbed the "Traverse Fire," was originally estimated at 150-200 acres and spread quickly due to wind. Newer figures for the blaze put it closer to 1,000 acres burned.
[...]

https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-...ens-lehi-homes

[chrisrenrut]

I don’t think I have ever seen a movie or tv fight when one of the two people fighting has a knife, the person with the knife has won the fight.

Maybe this belongs in the knife thread. If you get in a fight, don’t pull out your knife. If Hollywood is to be believed, the odds are against you.