MaxRedline

Built Ford Tough

This pickup truck was struck by lightning while cruising down a Louisiana highway yesterday. The driver escaped without injury; the truck itself, not so much.

Recycling

Schmidt brewery in Saint Paul, Minnesota has been repurposed: the place quit brewing beer in 2002, and it is now "Urban Organics", an aquaponics center on a massive scale.

Aquaponics combines hydroponics—growing plants without soil in a water-based mineral solution—with aquaculture, otherwise known as fish farming. Poop-laden wastewater from the fish is pumped into the plant beds, where roots suck up the nutrients and help purify the sullied water before it’s recirculated back to the aquaculture tanks.

16,000 pounds of greens are harvested every week, and the tanks hold 100,000 rainbow trout and 100,000 arctic char. Once they’re full grown, they expect to reap about 7,000 pounds of fish each week, cycling in new fry to replace the harvested adults.

And there's another interesting recycler: Duedilatte. They take curdled milk, and in a multi-step process, turn it into fiber, which they then use to make fabric. They sell t-shirts made from milk for around $50.

 

Trump Beets Eastern Oregon

VALE – Major federal legislation signed by President Donald Trump Friday includes help for local beet farmers by overturning a federal restriction on truck weights and sizes. The new provision – part of a $1.3 billion spending package approved by Congress Thursday – allows heavier and longer trucks on 55 miles of in Malheur County.

The initiative was a bipartisan effort between Oregon and Idaho federal lawmakers. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, and Oregon Democratic senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley joined with Idaho Republican senators Jim Risch and Mike Crapo to push the new legislation. The legislation puts area beet growers on a level playing field with their Idaho counterparts, where heavier and longer trucks are already allowed.

That means county beet growers can ship more beets faster to the Amalgamated Sugar plant in Nampa.

Sugar beets are crucial to Malheur County’s agriculture economy and nearly all of them end up at the plant in Nampa.

News to me; I didn't realize that Malheur had an agricultural economy, apart from cattle. Mainly, it always seemed to me to revolve around hunting antelope, and bird-watcher tourism. I had no idea that they grow tons of sugar beets out there, and I've been there many times.

 

Well, They Were Promised An Epic Cruise...

A video posted to YouTube shows the moment the vast Norwegian Epic cruise ship destroyed two mooring points on a pier as it maneuvered into the Port of San Juan, Puerto Rico on February 12. The incident followed sustained power loss by the Norwegian Epic during its current journey, Cruise Law News reported, causing it to divert on a go-slow to Puerto Rico.

Assuming they get things working again, they might make at least one of the stops on the itinerary. But the passengers are entitled to 50% off their next cruise, so there's that.

 

Stranger Than Fiction

DENVER (CBS4)– A bang to the head changed a Colorado man’s life by revealing a hidden talent. Doctors say concert performer Derek Amato is one of the few people in the world to have experienced the rare phenomena called Acquired Savant Syndrome.

He took a dive into a pool, hit his head, and suddenly became a concert pianist. He had never played a piano before.

And he still can't read music.

 

Oh, Crap

And other stuff too:

Those folks throw one heck of a party!

 

Woodstock Generation

50 years later:

As attitudes towards cannabis shift, the fastest-growing group of users is over 50 – and marijuana’s popularity among seniors is beginning to change the American experience of old age. A 2016 study found that in states with access to medical marijuana, those using Medicare part D – a benefit primarily for seniors – received fewer prescriptions for other drugs to treat depression, anxiety, pain, and other chronic issues.

A study published last year in in the Journal of the American Medical Association found opioid prescriptions for Medicare part D recipients dropped 14% after a state legalized medical marijuana – a hopeful sign amid the opioids crisis.

Meanwhile, dispensaries in California and elsewhere cater to older clientele with discounts and shuttle buses.

That conjures up some really odd images: short buses pulling up to peoples' homes, loading them and their walkers in, and hauling them down to the pot-shop....

 

Always Thought There Was Something A Bit off

ThisIsTrue.Inc
PO Box 666
Ridgway CO 81432
USA

666? Why is that number familiar...?

 

Food & Health

Vegans, as it happens, take twice as many sick days off work than normal people do. And:

The survey of 1,000 office workers by lozenge overlords Fisherman’s Friend found that vegans are also three times more likely to take a trip to their GP, compared with the average UK adult.

They may not be healthy, but they sure feel good about themselves.

On the other hand, if it was legal to hunt them, flamingo is reputedly tasty:

Ancient Romans, the first on record as having dined on the birds, ate both the body and the tongue. Apicius, a famous Roman cookbook that dates back to the first few centuries A.D., lists a flamingo recipe in which its meat would be boiled with dill, vinegar, leek, coriander and a fruit syrup and served with a sauce made from vinegar, boiled wine, cooking liquor, starch, pepper, cumin, coriander, asafoetida, mint, rue, and dates. “The same recipe can be used for parrot,” the entry concluded.

This is not to be confused with flamenco, as you'd be in for a whole lot of trouble if you boiled a dancer as described above.

And then, there are the cannibal bunnies:

Your fluffy pet bunny's cousin is actually a carnivore—and a cannibal, new photographs reveal for the first time.

Snowshoe hares in Canada’s Yukon Territory eat meat to supplement their diets during long winters in one of the coldest places on Earth.

It's emerged that while largely herbivorous during summers, they become meat-eating scavengers in winter.

 

Straight Out Of "Star Wars"

Hyundai calls its new car concept "Elevate". The legs retract into the vehicle so that it can just roll down the roads like most cars. But when obstacles are encountered, the legs can be deployed so it can just walk right through. Stuck in snow? No problem.

Mechanics are going to love this thing.