Today I Learned

[xoxoxoBruce]

Pay attention to Glinda because plumbers are going to start becoming scarce in 10 years.

[Glinda]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Pay attention to Glinda because plumbers are going to start becoming scarce in 10 years.

Dude, they're scarce right now! Why do you think I did it myself!?


Ok, not really, I've done this before. I like being able to do little fix-it jobs myself. This new flusher was really easy to install (much easier than the previous, junky, malfunctioning flusher), and when in doubt, there's always YouTube DIY videos.

But beyond all this, I'm not willing to pay $60 just to get some bozo to show up for a little home repair project I can do myself.

[xoxoxoBruce]

$60? Would he come in the house or just tell you what to do in the driveway?

My buddy(the plumber) was at his sister's house when she had a heavily advertised outfit come and as promised in the ads he put on his disposable booties over his shoes. But while he was there he made a half dozen trips out to his truck... with the booties on.

[Glinda]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

$60? Would he come in the house or just tell you what to do in the driveway?

That's the going rate out here - $60 minimum charge, whether they fix your plumbing problem or not. "Additional charges may apply."

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

My buddy(the plumber) was at his sister's house when she had a heavily advertised outfit come and as promised in the ads he put on his disposable booties over his shoes. But while he was there he made a half dozen trips out to his truck... with the booties on.

I guess that's better than them never putting the booties on to begin with. I had a guy out here last week to figure out why my internet connection had suddenly died. He wore his big dirty clunky boots into the house every time he came in from his truck. Turns out someone at HQ mixed up my service request order with someone else's and somehow managed to switch our phone numbers. Of COURSE my internet service suddenly disappeared - I'd been given a completely different phone number/account that didn't get internet from that provider.

Repair guy had to go back to the office THREE TIMES to get Eric the Imbecile at HQ to straighten everything out. Tracked crud in on his boots every damned time he came in the house. At least it wasn't raining.

*smh*

[xoxoxoBruce]

Actually those booties will pick up/track in, more shit than a boot will.

[Griff]

I learned that fresh-water sponges exist.

[fargon]

Very Cool^^^

[Gravdigr]

The surgeon woke up early because he had to perform surgery that morning. He went to take his shower, no water. He placed an emergency call to a plumber who assured him that he would be there and have the situation rectified in plenty of time for the doc to make his surgery.

The plumber came and went to work, and was finished in 20 minutes. He presented the doc with a bill for $400.

The doc said "My God, man, I'm a doctor and even I don't make that kind of money!"

The plumber responded "Yeah, when I was a doctor, I didn't make that kind of money either."

[Gravdigr]

TIL that if you're googling for a wallpaper image, and specify a size, you get a small image on the side of your screen. Click 'view image' to see the full size image, and you don't get that, you get a much smaller image. It's goddamned tiny as a matter of fact. And, no, it wasn't a tile-able image.

Why in God's name allow me to specify an exact size when that mean's absolutely nothing?

It's strange to see Google working at making themselves less relevant.

Oh, and when I went to the site to see the picture, it's bigger than I asked for.

So fuck me today, I reckon.

[Gravdigr]

Today I learned about The Pittsburgh Left.



How I got there.

[Diaphone Jim]

Aside from not being able to understand the sweety's voice and not being able to figure out the pictures, that was a pretty good video.
When I learned to drive in LA in the '50's, that fast left turn was common. I mastered it.
I have not seen it in at least 40 years.
But it is another reason why self-driving cars are a pipedream, especially in Pittsburgh.

[xoxoxoBruce]

So I wait, even flash my lights and they don't move because they're not paying attention.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I learned that story bouncing around the net about seeing a plastic bag at the bottom of the Marianas Trench is bullshit.

But it wasn’t their achievements that had caught the world’s imagination. Instead, every headline was about the revelation that Vescovo had filmed a plastic bag at the bottom. Vescovo and the crew were livid. It wasn’t even true. Vescovo had filmed something plastic in the Java Trench – they don’t know what it was – and a press release had mixed it up with Mariana Trench. Soon the mistake echoed around the world. “That fucking plastic bag,” said Jamieson. “It wasn’t even the right trench!”

link

[Griff]

I learned that recent scholarship considers the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin spiriting away +- 130 children to be essentially true. It is a story of emigration rather than rats, pedophilia, plague, or magic. It seems lands in the East had been depopulated by the Mongols and young people in over-populated Germant sought a better life in Transylvania etc...

[Griff]

Slime mold is smart?

https://www.sciencefriday.com/segmen...s-slime-molds/

Despite having no brain or neurons and being just one giant goopy cell, these slime molds keep defying our expectations. They can solve mazes, recreate the Tokyo railway network (animation below), learn, and even anticipate events. They can make rational and irrational choices that mirror our own. Not to mention they’re visually stunning too.