Alex Baker’s Photographic Memory

Alex Baker, an 11-year-old boy with autism, has a photographic memory that allows him to reproduce a skyline or aerial cityscape after visiting a city, or seeing it in a book, just once. His perspective sketches include London, Paris, New York, and many other cities.

“I took Alex to London when he was five and we were only there for the day, but he came home and drew all the London Underground system in detail,” said his mother, Laura Jackson.

Amazing.

[Images and story from here, more here.]

Really?

I received 10 unordered face masks from the Association of the United States Navy (AUSN) today. They’re promotional, and include a request for donations.

Made in China.

FASHION MASK
Executive Standard FZ/IT 73049-2014
Safety Class B ( it’s can contact with skin directly)
Fashion dust protection, sun protection thermal mask (not medical mask)
Attention This product can be used with multiple times, washable;
No protection against toxic gases
Effect: please use with caution for skin allergy

Typos are as they appear on the package.

Should I burn them?


Update: Here’s the response from AUSN:

Sir,
I apologize for the packaging. In response to our COVID-19 survey which showed that the majority of our members were in need of PPE gear. We had hired a veteran owned company in Illinois to do the production and distribution of the masks. It was not until we received the tracking numbers once they were mailed to our membership that we realized they were not coming from the USA. They do in fact have the ability to insert a N95 filter which would increase the level of protection if desired further protection against the virus.
Thank for your understanding.

Great Big Blobs

NASA scientists are studying planet magnetic fields and revisited raw data collected by Voyager 2 over three decades ago. They found that

Voyager 2 spotted a massive magnetic bubble pulling gas out of Uranus’ atmosphere.

https://www.space.com/uranus-gas-blob-voyager-2-discovery.html

Such loop-like plasmoids are typically formed as a spinning planet flings bits of its atmosphere to space. “Centrifugal forces take over, and the plasmoid pinches off.”

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/details.php?article_id=119

Uranus pinches off big blobs and flings them.

“They warned me that the home was wallpapered in beer cans…and I thought to myself, ‘Well, I wonder where in the world they found beer can wallpaper.'”

“No, ma’am. Beer cans.
Every room is covered in beer cans.”

 

And there’s a bonus offer!

[Found here via here.]


Fun Facts to Know and Tell:
Heineken® was once sold in glass masonry units. Story here.

This Is Not A Noose.

Story (kinda) here. Terrence K. Williams’ response is worth the watch:

7 December 1941 – Pearl Harbor

Always Remember: The declaration of war was issued AFTER the attack.


This film is interesting.


That’s my late dad’s stamp that he put on most correspondence.

Bonk Bonk On The Head Hot Links


Must read. These never-ending kangaroo court house proceedings are dangerous to our country, no matter what political party you align with. If every future election can be negated by one political party via majority fiat, we’re done for.


True.

Nice catch.

Bonk bonk on the head.

On taking out the head of ISIS.

Now about this LTC Alex Vindman

Testing Hohner Harps. This lady is good.

Climate 101: Step 1. Calibrate The Oral Thermometers.

This is good news. The boy was singled out and smeared for doing the right thing, ie., NOTHING.

Drugs, zombies & tent cities. The source of the problem dates to 1963. Look it up.


From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago.


[Top image from here, and yeah, I altered it a tad.]

Hurricane Dorian should have been named The Balrog.

Live report warnings here:

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT5+shtml/301754.shtml

Up to Cat 5 as of this posting.

Everyone Knows It’s Windy Hot Links

Volleysoccer.

Good day to go fishing.

No racism here. Nope. None at all.

No Twitter bias here. Nope. None at all.

No Google bias here. Nope. None at all.

Tom Waits’ 20 favorite albums (as of March 2005).

Ken Nordine’s “Colors” was the basis for an artistic game using paint.

Democrat Senator Dick Durbin blames Republicans for Chicago’s horrific gun violence, but there’s just one little problem. Chicago’s last Republican Mayor was William Hale Thompson (who served from 1927-1931). James Woods begins his reply with “Dear Nimrod.”

16-1/2 minutes of “celebrities” gossiping about ex-SNL cast member Norm Macdonald.

Why are “celebrities” gossiping about ex-SNL cast member Norm Macdonald?

You guessed it. Frank Stallone.

Ernie Kucera (1920-2007)

Ernie Kucera at the Starlight Ballroom in 1992 – his band’s 50th Anniversary.

From the You Get What You Pay For Department: In construction, you can only pick two of the following three:
(A) Low-cost, (B) High quality and (C) Fast completion. Brad Pitt’s well-meaning charitable foundation chose A and C, and the houses are falling apart after less than a decade.

From the Bad Acting Department: Weather reporter can barely stand up to the winds of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Florence while other pedestrians were immune. Reminds me of the classic Today Show blowzit.

A private message to The Weather Channel.

[Top image culled from the absurd The Weather Channel video.]