Around The Bend

The Year I Bought Every Family In Town, A New Car
By Meanderer​

I don’t like to “toot my own horn”….but….the year 2014 was coming to a close. It had been a good year and as I thought about our little town, I had the idea that since most of the folks had old cars or none at all, I would do something about it.

Then and there I promised myself that I would park a new car in front of every house! Now as I said our town is very small, and the townsfolk are a quiet bunch. They are quite happy, just to be here! Truth be told, they don't drive much to speak of, and the little train still comes through town on occasion, so just maybe this idea would perk up the whole town.

So, one cold December day, eight years ago, I headed out to buy 12 new cars. The very first place I stopped at had what I wanted. A twelve pack of metal die-cast cars. A real variety of colors and styles....something for everyone! They were a bargain too...it is only modesty that keeps me from disclosing the total sticker price!

Well, when I got them back to town, first thing I had to do was to collect and dispose of the old cars, and very carefully divvy up the new "wheels" in a way that would be pleasing to all. After I had finished, I stood back and I found out that I had been right...It did perk up the whole town. Well it will be eight years since then, and I have not heard a word of complaint...or thanks for that matter, but the act was meant to be anonymous after all. They all still have low mileage, and their new car shine...especially when the tree lights are turned on!

Oh, and I almost forgot...I had a little left in the kitty...enough to buy a new school bus for the town's little school! All in all, the Christmas of 2014 was one of the Town's best! .....and Oprah had nothing to do with it!


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This morning I read my daily devotional, with my coffee and blueberry yogurt. It was written by Billy Graham and titled "My ticket to the King's Wedding Feast":

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Billy​

"One day Christ will be King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There is an hour in God's time when Christ will return to this world...."

"Every king has a coronation. The Bible speaks of the marriage supper of the Lamb which will be the coronation of Jesus Christ. What a sight that will be! All of us who have acknowledged him as King here will be there in that Day. My reservation is made. My seat is being saved at the marriage supper of the Lamb (see Revelation 19:9). My ticket is in my heart. It is paid for by the blood of Christ upon the cross. The only thing that it cost me was my sins. I glad;y renounce them and pay allegiance to the King of kings before whom some day I shall stand to give an account of my stewardship on earth."

"Yes, I give my allegiance to Christ as Savior and Lord. I will work for him, and I will give everything I have. I will suffer for him. And some day I will have the privilege of reigning with him in Glory. Do you know Christ? Is he King of your heart? Does the Kingdom of Christ dwell in your heart? It can, if you will open your heart and let him in today."
 
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Being Bored Can Be Good for You—If You Do It Right.
iu

"If you’re waiting for brilliance to strike, try getting bored first. That’s the takeaway of a study published recently in the journal Academy of Management Discoveries, which found that boredom can spark individual productivity and creativity."

"At its core, boredom is “a search for neural stimulation that isn’t satisfied,” Mann says. “If we can’t find that, our mind will create it.” As demonstrated by the new study and plenty others before it, boredom can enable creativity and problem-solving by allowing the mind to wander and daydream. “There’s no other way of getting that stimulation, so you have to go into your head,” Mann says. You may be surprised by what you come up with when you do."
(Read More)
 
Gary O' said:
'Twas

Love the first minutes of that movie

Especially when Jack Elam traps that pesky fly with the barrel of his gun
(wonder how many takes that took)
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@Gary O'
Q:
"This may sound like a bit of an odd question, but I was wondering how the opening scene in Once Upon A Time in The West was made and more specifically, how they made the fly do what it did. It must not have been easy to get a fly to fly to his beard and stay there despite all of his attempts to get rid of it. So how did they make this fly do this?"

A:
"The scene with Jack Elam and the fly was first attempted by placing a fake fly on the actor's face. When that didn't work, better results were achieved by smearing honey or jam on Elam's beard to attract flies kept in a jar just out of view and released one at a time."
 
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How to Tell If You’re Chatting with a Bot
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"Artificial intelligence (AI) is invading every aspect of our lives. So much is ruled by algorithms you could make the case that the robot uprising has already occurred and we lost, and lost badly. Robots decide what song plays next, robots recommend TV shows, and robots are even getting pretty good at writing and creating music. Most of us are fine with that. AI tends to automate tasks we want automated, like the aforementioned streaming recommendations, and on some level we’re all aware of these bots in our lives, so our interactions with them are more or less voluntary. But there’s another way that AI is invading our lives, and we’re not usually even aware of it: Conversational AI. From chatbots to Tinder bots (yes, really), bots are pretending to be human and having conversations with us—often without identifying themselves."

"Luckily, conversational AI hasn’t yet reached perfection, and it’s possible to detect a bot—though that may change soon enough as technology advances. For the time being, if you want to know if you’re dealing with a bot, there are a few strategies that should reveal the truth." READ MORE
 
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Robots in a Bookshop Cafe
Karen B. Jones - March 2, 2018

"Here’s a silly picture of robots reading in a bookshop cafe. I liked the idea of something so digital-age as a robot doing something so analog as reading from a paper book."

"It was fun to design all the different kinds of robots. I almost drew it with all sorts of movie/TV robots instead. You know, brainbots, cybermen, C-3PO, Wall-E, etc. But I think I had more fun making up my own."

"Not sure if you can tell at this resolution, but this cafe serves oil, batteries, memory sticks, CD’s, and the odd bit of hardware as robot snacks."

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Captain Kirk's "New" Cloaking Device (2013)
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"If you're a fan of Star Trek, you'll recall that original series episode where Captain James T. Kirk steals a cloaking device from the Romulans to hide his ship from danger. We'll today in the 21st. Century if Captain Kirk needed a cloaking device the US Navy can now simply issue him one. Seriously? All joking aside, yes! And that's exactly what happened this month. Yes that's right!"
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"The US Navy gave Captain Kirk a cloaking device. That is Captain James A. Kirk of the United States Navy. He has been given command of the first DDG-1000 Class Destroyer with stealth capability, the USS Zumwalt."
 

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