Password Puzzle

It is said that passwords are used to protect us,though with the nightmares everyone has experienced when it comes to both inventing an acceptable password,then remembering it seems more like they are being used to drive people over the edge. Then there are the questions that are supposed to help a person recall the password which in my experience have been less than helpful. This is where Jet Blue decided to be cute and have customers list their favorite child. People were immediately up in arms saying things like no one has a favorite child,or wanting to know if their pets counted. I've got to hand it to Jet Blue,they kept a sense of humor through the onslaught and managed to get some free advertising out of the debacle.
I'm going to be taking a few days off so stay tuned for my return!

Cue the Eerie Music

Everyone has an autopilot function where certain tasks are performed without thought,but scientists have been studying not only how the autopilot feature works but if it is capable of doing more. This led them to experiments with the Quija board. First participants were asked to answer questions to the best of their ability and they scored around 50%. Next they were given partners, blindfolded and told to let the planchette move freely to reveal answers to the questions. The partners did not put their hands on the planchette. The subjects then answered the same questions at a rate of 65%. It is believed that this subconscious part of the mind is also the same part that controls the autopilot actions but it is difficult to study as that part of the brain is hard to access. Pretty cool huh?

Dog Drive

In a quiet neighborhood in Florida neighbors noticed a car driving in circles in reverse and after an hour called the police. The driver turned out to be a black lab whose owner had left the car running and the dog managed to put the car in gear. I have no idea where the owner went or why they didn't appear on the scene but we are talking Florida so that is an explanation in itself. The police were finally able to enter a code for the door and stop the car. The dog did a fairly good job since the only damage was to a mailbox and some garbage cans. I'm assuming the car was an automatic since I doubt the dog used a clutch and wonder how it managed to get the car into reverse? Doesn't reverse have a feature called reverse lockout to keep from accidentally shifting into reverse? Oh well,the dog was uninjured.

Tacos Save!

An Arizona man credits a taco for saving his life. He was driving along minding his own business with his window rolled up because he didn't want the wind to blow the taco's ingredients around when suddenly his window exploded. He thought a rock had hit his window but when he pulled over he heard shots so he wisely drove on and later pulled over to call the police. While he was waiting for the police he noticed the slug from the shot on his dashboard. In other taco related saves a man in Oregon survived 5 days in the snow with only Taco Bell sauce to eat. Another taco save occurred in Florida when a man got up to get more sauce and a car drove through the wall and hit the table he had been sitting at. So everyone get out there and eat tacos for the health of it!

In the Eye of the Beholder

It is amusing to hear where people's minds wander to when they are in church. Such is the case with a woman who couldn't believe what she thought she was seeing in a stained glass window. One would think that both the artist who designed the window and whoever was in charge or ordering/accepting the window would have been more stringent in their examination of the finished product. When the woman asked the question "exactly what is Mary holding" there were several guesses and then another person added a picture asking what John the Baptist was up to? I guess we all know now what people think about in church!
 

Weighty Matter

Today's post almost sounds like the start of a joke,but it's not. A bar in Dubai is having a promotion in an effort to draw in more women...the more they weigh the more free drinks they receive. The Fusion Club is running this special through the end of the year,for every pound a woman weighs she will get a $0.12 drink credit,meaning a woman weighing 150 lbs will receive about $18.50 worth of free drinks. There is a scale available to weigh on but the bartenders also accept the women's word for what they weigh. The promotion motto is "It's good to gain weight." There must be a lot of thin women in Dubai,that or they're trying to get the women to gain weight for some nefarious purpose.

All Thumbs

A 20 year old Massachusetts man claimed his 15 minutes of fame after revealing his 5 inch long thumb online. He has no idea why his thumb is out of proportion with the rest of his digits but says he has never lost a thumb war and he also embraces the fact that it makes him different. His giant thumb reminded me of the Tim Robbins book "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" where a woman character has a ginormous thumb which she uses to hitchhike though if I recall correctly her thumb also featured and enhanced diameter. I wonder if this young man has considered the places he could go with his thumb?

Fun With Faith

Since it's Sunday I decided some quotes about faith would be just the ticket.
The alleged short-cut to knowledge,which is faith,is only a short circuit destroying the mind. Ayn Rand
Faith means not wanting to know what is true. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzche
Faith is one of the world's great evils,comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate. Richard Dawkins
I admire the serene assurance of those who have religious faith. It is wonderful to observe the calm confidence of a Christian with four aces. Mark Twain
I've never understood how God could expect his creatures to pick the one true religion by faith-it strikes me as a sloppy way to run a universe. Robert A. Heinlein
Skepticism is the highest of duties,and blind faith the one unpardonable sin. T. H. Huxley
Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too? Douglas Adams

Got a Snootful

Feral hogs in Tuscany,Italy have become a problem. Their population is around 2 million and they are decimating crops,but they also helped police on a recent drug bust. The cops had tapped the phones of a suspected drug ring and finally hit pay dirt when they heard them complaining about the wild hogs eating around $22,000 of their cocaine. The police were unable to determine the exact amount since they had no idea how much the hogs had eaten. Now that they have a nose for coke they probably wouldn't be trainable to sniff out truffles which go for around $10,000 a pound,both more profitable and more legal than cocaine.

The Old Switcheroo

Mikhail Galin had planned to fly with his cat Viktor from Moscow to Vladivostok but when it came time to check into the flight Viktor was over the airlines weight limit of 17.6 lbs. Viktor and his carrier's combined weight was 22lbs,so Mikhail canceled their flight. Mikhail then hatched a plan to get a look a like cat to weigh in then switch that cat for Viktor. The plan went off without a hitch that is until Mikhail had to post about the success on social media. The airline kicked Mikhail out of their loyalty program and stripped him of his frequent flyer miles. I have a couple of questions about this whole affair,where was Viktor stashed and what happened to the look a like cat once they checked in? Not to mention airlines now monitor social media to see if people brag about cheating their airline? Plus if Russian airline rules are the same as the US any pets (other than service animals) must remain in their carriers for the duration of the flight.

It's a...Gas!

Maybe I'm just an old fuddy duddy but it seems like the gender reveal train is off the tracks. When it comes to the point where things are accidentally getting lit on fire,not to mention all those pieces of balloons further mucking up the flora and fauna that people need to be exercising some judgement. That's why I found this comedians gender reveal humorous as it reveals how far out this idea has gone. It is even unknown whether or not this woman is even pregnant but farting out a puff of color for a gender reveal is a hard act to follow. Of course doctors had to warn against putting anything in body cavities,but they wouldn't be doing their jobs if they didn't.

A Little Tail

Mac's Mission in Missouri rescues special case dogs who have been abused,injured or have birth defects. They recently rescued a puppy and an older dog who had been left on their own in the cold. The puppy had an injured foot and a tail growing on its forehead,so they appropriately named him Narwhal. After examining and x-raying the puppy they determined  the tail wasn't attached to anything internally so unfortunately it doesn't wag but that also means there is no reason to remove the tail. Other than the unicorn like accessory he is a regular active, happy puppy and once he's ready for adoption there will be plenty of potential parents. Unlike the kitten with two faces this little guy will not have an uphill battle and should live a normal life.

A Really Crappy Drink

A South African couple learned from a safari park ranger about the elephants digestive system and how out of all the fruits,flowers and assorted foliage they ate only less than a third of it is digested. Armed with that knowledge they decided to collect elephant waste and make it into gin. It takes about five large bags of elephant dung (which they collect by hand) to make 3,000-4,000 bottles of gin. First the dung is dried and crumbled then washed to rid it of dirt and sand. The flavor which is described as "wooded,almost spicy,earthy" varies with the season and where the dung is collected from. They named the gin Indlovu which means elephant in Zulu. It sells for around $32 per bottle and is a popular item with tourists.

Flowering Her Nest

A patriotic pigeon in Australia's capital city of Canberra has been pilfering poppies from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where people leave them to honor the veterans. The pigeon may have some artistic tendencies because not only did she choose flowers to build her nest she located the red nest below a stained glass window. Then again she may have birdie dementia since instinct should tell her to not attract attention to her nest. It also seems odd that she would use  only the poppies since without other materials the nest will be in bad shape once the flowers wilt and may not be able to hold the eggs. It is still a nice gesture on the bird's part.