Random Thoughts Thread

[trinacriabob]

II was sad to see this news, but it was to be expected.  The S.S. United States will not be having a traditional retirement home, as most beloved and historical ocean liners do.

Instead, she will be moving to the Florida Panhandle, where they will sink her to create the world's largest underwater artificial reef.  There will be a visitor center and museum in Destin, from which she will be offshore.

For being 990 feet long, she doesn't weigh as much as that length would suggest.  She has a very low profile, which accentuates her oversized and rounded funnels.  This might have also helped her capacity for speed.  Converted into miles per hour, the S.S. United States once sped across the Atlantic at about 41 mph to make the crossing in 3 days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes.  That is insanely fast, so, the ship is the very last to earn the Blue Riband, with no other ocean liner winning it since.

I guess it's good that it isn't being scrapped.  However, this artificial reef solution is what penciled out.  She was the greatest of American ocean liners and had a designation as a historical place ... plus, I can't go visit a sunken ship.

So, a sad Philadelphia turned out on the banks of the Delaware River to see the ship sail out after being moored there for about 30 years.

[Robert Hall]

It was a sad remnant of a bygone era.   I'm amazed the Queen Mary is still afloat..stayed there several times in the last decade, took the tour...so much rust and decay. 

[A Horse With No Name]

20 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

One of the "perks" of being American

Like roller derby, but with no skating ability required 

Ohio is essentially three big cities that start with the letter C and the remaining 90 percent is a giant rural meth lab. No human on earth can intelligently disagree with this sentiment. 

20 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

One of the "perks" of being American

Like roller derby, but with no skating ability required 

Ohio is essentially three big cities that start with the letter C and the remaining 90 percent is a giant rural meth lab. No human on earth can intelligently disagree with this sentiment. 

20 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

One of the "perks" of being American

Like roller derby, but with no skating ability required 

Ohio is essentially three big cities that start with the letter C and the remaining 90 percent is a giant rural meth lab. No human on earth can intelligently disagree with this sentiment. 

[A Horse With No Name]

20 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

One of the "perks" of being American

Like roller derby, but with no skating ability required 

Ohio is essentially three big cities that start with the letter C and the remaining 90 percent is a giant rural meth lab. No human on earth can intelligently disagree with this sentiment. 

20 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

One of the "perks" of being American

Like roller derby, but with no skating ability required 

Ohio is essentially three cities that are large and start with the letter C, the remaining 90 percent is a giant rural meth lab. This fits our state perfectly. 

I have no idea why this posts five times without my ability to delete four of them. 

I guess I really wanted you to know about the meth addicts of Ohio!

[A Horse With No Name]

16 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

II was sad to see this news, but it was to be expected.  The S.S. United States will not be having a traditional retirement home, as most beloved and historical ocean liners do.

Instead, she will be moving to the Florida Panhandle, where they will sink her to create the world's largest underwater artificial reef.  There will be a visitor center and museum in Destin, from which she will be offshore.

For being 990 feet long, she doesn't weigh as much as that length would suggest.  She has a very low profile, which accentuates her oversized and rounded funnels.  This might have also helped her capacity for speed.  Converted into miles per hour, the S.S. United States once sped across the Atlantic at about 41 mph to make the crossing in 3 days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes.  That is insanely fast, so, the ship is the very last to earn the Blue Riband, with no other ocean liner winning it since.

I guess it's good that it isn't being scrapped.  However, this artificial reef solution is what penciled out.  She was the greatest of American ocean liners and had a designation as a historical place ... plus, I can't go visit a sunken ship.

So, a sad Philadelphia turned out on the banks of the Delaware River to see the ship sail out after being moored there for about 30 years.

Its the best use of this, by far. restoring it is impractical. Just like the 60's and 70's land yachts that end up in demo derbies...

[A Horse With No Name]

 

And on the positive side...

 

Neat short clip...

 

And deep thinking for this morning, with apologies to the Greeks among us...

 

[A Horse With No Name]

Watch this video, there are some great American women but none of us here is married to a "traditional" American woman who has "traditional" (by this, I mean part of the toxic current American culture) values. 

Toxicity runs so deep in American modern society, and it goes way beyond politics....

 

[A Horse With No Name]

Instead of deporting aliens, we should give them their citizenship if they kill 5 child predators. We could call the program "Alien Vs. Predator..."

[A Horse With No Name]

I agree with Drew, from a political standpoint, no, from a nature standpoint, yes. Thinking Belize or Costa Rica might be a better use of my time and money than Florida. 

[Robert Hall]

49 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

I agree with Drew, from a political standpoint, no, from a nature standpoint, yes. Thinking Belize or Costa Rica might be a better use of my time and money than Florida. 

I still like the Keys..at least the 1985 version I grew up in....  I still think Big Pine Key would be a great place to spend the winters..  my sister has been looking into Puerto Rico as a winter getaway for next year...Myrtle Beach was too cold and snowy this year.  She just drove back to CLE a couple days ago, straight through in about 10 hrs. 

1 hour ago, A Horse With No Name said:

 

Ohio is essentially three big cities that start with the letter C and the remaining 90 percent is a giant rural meth lab. No human on earth can intelligently disagree with this sentiment. 

Sad but true.. as a native Ohioan I have no desire to live in the rural areas I grew up in.  Too many rednecks and MAGAts.   But there is a lot of great scenery and state parks in rural Ohio. 

Edited yesterday at 05:02 PM by Robert Hall

[A Horse With No Name]

1 hour ago, Robert Hall said:

I still like the Keys..at least the 1985 version I grew up in....  I still think Big Pine Key would be a great place to spend the winters..  my sister has been looking into Puerto Rico as a winter getaway for next year...Myrtle Beach was too cold and snowy this year.  She just drove back to CLE a couple days ago, straight through in about 10 hrs. 

Sad but true.. as a native Ohioan I have no desire to live in the rural areas I grew up in.  Too many rednecks and MAGAts.   But there is a lot of great scenery and state parks in rural Ohio. 

It has been an amazing state for me to raise a family in. Despite my cynicism, I really like it here in a lot of ways. 

 

[trinacriabob]

8 hours ago, Robert Hall said:

It was a sad remnant of a bygone era.   I'm amazed the Queen Mary is still afloat..stayed there several times in the last decade, took the tour...so much rust and decay. 

The City of LB had a big decision to make:  let her go or pay for structural and aesthetic repairs.  It's a hotel, a renowned brunch, a tour destination, and people get married and have proms there.  All that stuff.  What would it look like without the QM there? I believe it's staying. In less than 3 years, it will have been there 60 years.  It IS Long Beach through and through.

[trinacriabob]

4 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

I agree with Drew, from a political standpoint, no, from a nature standpoint, yes. Thinking Belize or Costa Rica might be a better use of my time and money than Florida. 

Florida has always appealed to me on some level.  The first time I went, I sat by the window and the plane flew down the coast over Lauderdale and Miami Beach to land.  I had never seen turquoise water like that.  I have relatives there, none of whom I like.  I love the food options.  I like the colorful and diverse people from everywhere who live in the urban areas.  I then came to learn that driving between Miami and Marco Island or Tampa to Orlando is not easy on the eyes.

I know Costa Rica, Panama, etc. are relocation destinations.  Also high on the list is Uruguay, which I've been to twice, and it has South America's highest literacy rate and a milder climate at that lower parallel.  It's also beautiful.

Montevideo, the capital ... very manageable and it used to be extremely safe, but now it's a little less safe

Punta del Este, their famous beach report ... incredible, avoid December 15 through February, because it's high season and half of Buenos Aires has moved in

[oldshurst442]

8 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

And deep thinking for this morning, with apologies to the Greeks among us...

All good.

Im just happy there are still some people intrigued about Ancient Greece to still want to talk about Greece's history.  Im also sad that even when people KNOW about Greek history, they do NOT learn ANYTHING about it and are doomed to repeat all the crap that that era's people had to endure. An expression that was coined in the beginnings of the last century only for the world to witness a war to end all wars not even a decade after that expression was coined.  Evils happened again (1933-1945)  and ironically today's peoples, as in folk of 2025, are still dumb, deaf and blind and have learned nothing and are in the wake of repeating  what EVERYTHING that happened to Socrates in Athens a couple of thousands of years ago, to the  greed of WW1 and the evils of 1933-1945 SIMULTANEOULSY...

And the WARNING signs are all WRITTEN in the HISTORY books... ALL THERE for us to learn and AVOID and become better with our civilizations.   

What a vicious circle of shyte we humans like to throw ourselves to.  

[A Horse With No Name]

17 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

Florida has always appealed to me on some level.  The first time I went, I sat by the window and the plane flew down the coast over Lauderdale and Miami Beach to land.  I had never seen turquoise water like that.  I have relatives there, none of whom I like.  I love the food options.  I like the colorful and diverse people from everywhere who live in the urban areas.  I then came to learn that driving between Miami and Marco Island or Tampa to Orlando is not easy on the eyes.

I know Costa Rica, Panama, etc. are relocation destinations.  Also high on the list is Uruguay, which I've been to twice, and it has South America's highest literacy rate and a milder climate at that lower parallel.  It's also beautiful.

Montevideo, the capital ... very manageable and it used to be extremely safe, but now it's a little less safe

Punta del Este, their famous beach report ... incredible, avoid December 15 through February, because it's high season and half of Buenos Aires has moved in

This is my thinking...

The stupidity of MAGA America is mind numbing. 

 

 

I love this Chrysler

 

[A Horse With No Name]

Last one for a bit, Pennsylvania Steam power had such a unique look...

 

[A Horse With No Name]

Sad end for a proud car...

 

[A Horse With No Name]

In a country of 350 million people, anything can happen...

 

[G. David Felt]

@oldshurst442 This is so true

 Billionaire predicts 'regime shift' after Trump policies prove to be 'negative for the economy'

The whole AI thing is so over blown right now and these conversations are so funny considering they are talking with a limited built AI bot.

Controversial author publishes shocking AI conversation with ChatGPT

This follows the history of the investing they have done and every time he sells stocks, 134 Billion worth and sits on cash, the year after the sales, 2025 the markets go down double digits. I totally expect this year to be an ugly mess on wallstreet.

Warren Buffett amasses more cash and sells more stock, but doesn't explain why in annual letter

This is so true, medicare advantage costs the governement more since it is privatized insurance versus regular medicare. If they kill off the private sectore offering, they would save a tone of money.

UnitedHealth Medicare Advantage bombshell exposes $83 billion in government waste

This is just the start of an ugly year.

US stock market crashes in its worst day since 2024

[A Horse With No Name]

31 minutes ago, G. David Felt said:

@oldshurst442 This is so true

 Billionaire predicts 'regime shift' after Trump policies prove to be 'negative for the economy'

The whole AI thing is so over blown right now and these conversations are so funny considering they are talking with a limited built AI bot.

Controversial author publishes shocking AI conversation with ChatGPT

This follows the history of the investing they have done and every time he sells stocks, 134 Billion worth and sits on cash, the year after the sales, 2025 the markets go down double digits. I totally expect this year to be an ugly mess on wallstreet.

Warren Buffett amasses more cash and sells more stock, but doesn't explain why in annual letter

This is so true, medicare advantage costs the governement more since it is privatized insurance versus regular medicare. If they kill off the private sectore offering, they would save a tone of money.

UnitedHealth Medicare Advantage bombshell exposes $83 billion in government waste

This is just the start of an ugly year.

US stock market crashes in its worst day since 2024

It is not a good day in many ways. 

[A Horse With No Name]

 

This Buick looks muy bueno. 

 

[G. David Felt]

2 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

It is not a good day in many ways. 

Seems to be a common thread. Just way too funny what workers saw.
Hijacked TV screens show government workers gross video of Trump worshipping Musk: reports