Classic kid reaction at the science center

Last year, we visited the franklin institute in Philadelphia. Fun and interactive place.

We watch a demo by a museum worker about liquid nitrogen. The kids were enthused and the persons patter was good.

One young boy (maybe about 10) was more thrilled than the rest. He was excited by it and kept shouting things back when she'd talk.

Toward the end she told everyone she had something we could all take home. The kid yells out "she's giving us liquid nitrogen!" And I can hear him telling his friends that he was planning to have fun at home.

The show ends and she tells us that we are going to take home nitrogen - and before she can finish he gives her a "see I told you!"

...and then she tells us to take a deep breath. We now have nitrogen in our lungs that we take home.

The kid stands up, points, and, at the top of his lungs, yells "she lied!"

Silence for a moment and then laughter among the adults.

I talked with the experimenter and had a good laugh. She has a good story to tell!

My silly Starbucks story

I got an offer that if I made a purchase using my rewards account, I would get a free drink to use within 7 days.

I made the purchase ... but never got the drink. So I contacted customer support.

They advised me that I did get it, but that it wouldn't appear under rewards in the app, but rather on the card. I follow the directions and find it. Great.

Now I also get an instruction that the cashier has to enter a code at the time of purchase. Fine.

I go to use the award, tell the cashier, and....she redeems stars that I have on my account.

Well, it is what it is. I still have the other award. But I decide to reach out to customer service to let them know that it's hard to find and harder to use.

The person I contacted was very nice and apologized, and returned the stars. And I still had the award. Sweet.

I go to use the award again today. I explain it to the cashier, and she nods and says she's got this. And...proceeds to remove stars.

Ugh. I'm like "wait..." but it's too late. Stars are gone. So I explain it again, she apologizes and calls over who I assume is the manager. He tells me it was a mistake, and proceeds to refund me the cost of the drink to my card, which is more or less the equivalent of the stars, I guess.

Then he starts a new order and manages to enter the code and it works! Yay. He then tells the barista to only make one of them, not two.

But she's already made the first one, and thus only sees one and proceeds to make it.

So on this trip I have two drinks. They tell me to keep the other one, which isn't a bad play.

And in all, my free drink based on purchase resulted in 3 drinks and 125 stars converting to $5 in cash on my account.

So uhhhh. Yeah. #winning I guess.

#MakeAmericaSmartAgain rational proof that flat earth is bollocks

Suck it.

Dumb comment of the day

Trump (or one of surrogates) said that we need to teach "both sides of science" in school.

Huh?

I'm pretty sure there's only one side. The other point of view is called bull shit.

NYTimes: One More Time, With Big Data: Measles Vaccine Doesn’t Cause Autism

If there was any doubt whatsoever. 

A 10-year look at more than 600,000 children comes at a time when anti-vaccine suspicion is on the rise again.

Read More...



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Short. Sweet. To the point. That's the beauty Dave's iPhone. 

Anti-vaxers' adult son gets measles; now, he has this message for the world - CNN

A message to anti-vaxxers: gent bent

This is real. And serious.

And a message to the stupid folks who say "hey we got antibiotics"... get a clue.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/07/health/measles-josh-nerius/index.html

U.S. Cyber Command operation disrupted Internet access of Russian troll factory on day of 2018 midterms - The Washington Post

*this*

It goes to show how sophisticated Russian hacking is. And reminds us that we were hacked in 2016 which would seem to indicate the guy in the Oval Office is unelected.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-cyber-command-operation-disrupted-internet-access-of-russian-troll-factory-on-day-of-2018-midterms/2019/02/26/1827fc9e-36d6-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html